Gold is one of many ores you can mine underground in Minecraft. But searching for it there takes time and isn’t always worth the effort. Even in badlands or the Nether—where there’s much more gold ore—you’ll never mine enough by hand. Plus, piglins in the Nether aren’t exactly thrilled when you steal their golden treasures. That’s why a large-scale gold farm is so important—you’ll need it later in the game. Let’s take a closer look at what gold is good for and how to build an advanced gold farm!
Minecraft Gold: What do you need gold for?
Gold ingots or gold nuggets are used in many different recipes. It’s one of the most important resources in the game, especially if you want to dive into advanced mechanics. Unlike iron or diamonds, however, it’s very soft and not ideal for tools. But there are plenty of other use cases—and plenty of reasons to build a large gold farm.
Gold can be used for:
- Decorative blocks (raw gold blocks or blocks of gold)
- Material for bartering with piglins
- Clock to tell time
- Crafting netherite ingots
- Crafting powered rails
- Material for a beacon
- Trading with a cleric villager for emeralds
- Material for armor trims
- Nuggets for golden carrots and glistering melon slices
- Crafting firework stars
Alternative gold sources in Minecraft: Structures and piglins
You can mine gold ore in caves or in the Nether, but those aren’t your only options. You’ll also find gold in many generated structures, from desert pyramids to shipwrecks and even in villager chests. In the Nether, you can discover bastion remnants that contain blocks of gold. Be careful around piglins—they don’t like it when you take their gold.
There’s another source of gold in the Nether: zombified piglins. When they die, they drop ingots and nuggets. Sometimes they also drop golden tools, like their sword or an axe. We’ll use this loot to make gold a renewable resource with our farm.
Materials: Resource list for a large Minecraft gold farm
Building a large gold farm is a bit more involved and requires a lot of resources. Most of them aren’t too hard to gather.
You’ll need:
- Several stacks of magma blocks (depending on the number of spawn platforms)
- Several stacks of glass
- Several stacks of slabs
- Turtle egg(s) (depending on the number of platforms)
- Around 64 trapdoors (also depending on the platforms)
- 6 hoppers + 6 carpets
- 2 chests
- 2 × 64 scaffolding
- Optional: 10 obsidian and flint and steel
We also have a guide for a smaller, less efficient gold farm if this project feels too big (How to Build a Minecraft Gold Farm: Simple Guide & Tips for Endless Gold) . It doesn’t perform as well, but it’s much faster and easier to build. And you don’t have to go onto the Nether roof—you can build it in a regular area (ideally the Nether Wastes).
Step-by-step guide: Build a large Minecraft gold farm
1. Find a Nether Wastes location and get onto the Nether roof
You’ll want to build this farm in the Nether Wastes, where most zombified piglins spawn. The farm itself goes high above the Nether roof. You’ll need to get through the bedrock—an easy way is to throw an ender pearl between the top two layers of bedrock. Build the farm at about Y level 200 or higher to maximize spawns. Use scaffolding to climb up.
To get back down from the roof, you’ll need to break bedrock. We’ve already covered that in our Nether guide if you want more info (Master the Nether: Advanced Player Tips) . Alternatively, you can just build a nether portal on the roof.
2. Spawn platforms with magma blocks and a turtle egg
Start with the magma block platforms for spawns. We recommend Y height 215 and above. You can build multiple platforms, but one or two are plenty. Each is 23 × 23 blocks with a 5 × 5 hole in the center. Use sneak, Frost Walker boots, or Fire Resistance to avoid magma block damage.
Place the turtle egg in the center, on the same level as the platform. Surround it with trapdoors so the zombified piglins can’t reach it. The egg lures them in. Add more trapdoors along the edges of the inner hole so piglins think they can reach the egg. You can build another layer above in the same style.
Place rows of slabs two blocks above the top layer to prevent ghasts from spawning. You can space these rows two blocks apart. Leave the hole above the turtle eggs open.
3. Collection chamber, hoppers, and a safe kill zone
Build the collection chamber about 15 to 20 blocks below so piglins take enough damage to be one-hit with a sword. Make a 5 × 5 glass platform and surround it with glass so nothing else can spawn. Then build a 15-block catwalk in one direction. At the end, place 6 hoppers, a chest, and cover the hoppers with carpets so XP orbs don’t get stuck.
Then block off the hoppers with slabs in a U-shape—one at half height and another above it—with a half-block gap. This lets you still lure the piglins while preventing baby piglins from hitting you.
4. Provoke piglins, loot gold, and farm XP
Your gold farm is now ready. Zombified piglins should spawn, get lured by the turtle egg, and fall into the hole. To make them target you, you need to make them aggressive. Use a projectile, like a bow or a snowball, to tag them. After that, they’ll rush you.
Kill the piglins with a sword, ideally enchanted with Sweeping Edge and Looting. Because they’re not dying to fall damage but to you, this gold farm also doubles as a powerful XP farm. If you enchant a lot, it pays off twice.
Conclusion: A Minecraft gold farm for endless gold and XP
A late-game gold farm is an important way to get gold efficiently and sustainably. Gold ingots are especially useful for bartering, whether with regular piglins or the cleric in a village. The farm itself is fairly straightforward to build—you’ll just need to get onto the Nether roof. High above the bedrock, you’ll get the best spawn rates.
Or rent your own Minecraft server right now and build a gold farm like this together with your friends. Everyone on the server benefits, and you’ll always have an endless source of gold for any situation.
