Experience

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This article is about the experience system. For the command, see Commands/experience. For the in-person interactive event, see Minecraft Experience.
Experience Orb
Experience Orb Value 3-6.png: Infobox image for Experience Orb the entity in Minecraft
Health points

5HP♥♥♥[1]

Hitbox size

In Java Edition:
Height: 0.5 blocks
Width: 0.5 blocks
In Bedrock Edition:
Height: 0.25 blocks
Width: 0.25 blocks

The XP bar is beneath the health and hunger indicators in Java Edition, and in Bedrock Edition only while using classic UI.

Experience (EXP or XP for short) can be gained from defeating mobs or performing many kinds of other actions. Experience has no direct effect on the player character, but it can be used to enhance their equipment through enchanting, or by using an anvil to repair, rename, or combine enchantments on equipment. Most sources of experience are produced in the form of experience orbs. In Java Edition, experience gained affects the player's score on the death screen.

Experience orbs also recover durability on items with Mending that are being worn or are in-hand.

Sources[edit | edit source]

Experience can be gained from several different sources. Most sources drop experience in the form of orbs, which can be claimed by any player, while a few methods directly award the player experience upon completing the action.

  • From killing most mobs, which drop experience orbs along with any other items.
    • A mob does not drop experience orbs unless it dies within five seconds (100 game ticks) of an attack registered as a player hit (including tamed wolves, player thrown fireballs, and TNT). This allows gaining experience orbs from, say, knocking a monster off a cliff, lighting a mob on fire, etc. (fetching the orbs might be another question). The player can also try to "claim" a burning monster by hitting or shooting it once—even if the blow doesn't kill it, if the mob dies within 5 seconds, it drops experience orbs.
    • Deaths of zombified piglins always register as kills by the player they are targeting, regardless of whether that player ever touched that zombified piglin.[2]
    • Mobs killed by TNT activated by a player using flint and steel or a flaming arrow drop XP as usual; however, mobs killed by TNT that was activated by fire, redstone, or an explosion that wasn't player activated does not drop any experience orbs.
    • Mobs drop a random number of experience orbs, which can have different values. However, the total value always remains within the values given below, regardless of difficulty setting.
    • Hostile mobs give more experience orbs than passive ones. Baby animals, bats, golems, and villagers give no experience orbs at all. The ender dragon gives experience orbs totaling 12,000 XP the first time a player kills it—12 times more than anything else in the game—and 500 XP in subsequent defeats.
      • Some hostile mobs spawn with weapons, or can spawn with weapons and/or armor. These mobs give an extra 1–3 points (randomly) per piece of equipment that they spawned with if the piece is not dropped. Equipment picked up after spawning doesn't count.
    • Mining a monster spawner block gives 15–43 points of experience orbs.
    • Mining a naturally-generated creaking heart drops 20-24 experience.
    • While they do not drop experience orbs normally, baby mobs as well as mobs killed by non-player means are accepted by the sculk catalyst, allowing for experience orbs to be obtained in a more indirect way.
  • From mining any ore that drops a resource, rather than raw metals or themselves. The experience orbs are produced along with the mineral item(s). If a Silk Touch pickaxe is used to mine the ore block, the experience is not dropped, but the block can later be placed and mined normally to release the mineral and the experience.
    • The ore still produces orbs if destroyed by an explosion, whether or not it was caused by player activated TNT.
  • From mining sculk, sculk sensors, sculk shriekers, and sculk catalysts. If a Silk Touch tool is used to mine it, the experience is not dropped, but it can later be placed and mined normally to release the experience.
  • From smelting any of various items.
    • Smelting any ore yields some experience, but normally only nether gold ore and ancient debris are worthwhile. For all other ores, mining them is better.
    • Moderate amounts are gained by smelting/cooking other materials: food, clay balls or blocks, cactus, wood logs, sand, or cobblestone, cactus giving the most.‌[JE only]
    • The smelted material must be taken from the furnace through its GUI window. If the player uses a hopper to unload the furnace, it is possible to retrieve all experience produced by the furnace by smelting an extra item and taking it from the GUI. Breaking the furnace drops all stored experience as collectable experience orbs.
  • From breeding animals.
    • Orbs are produced where the parents are, along with the baby animal. Breaking eggs does not give experience.
  • From fishing.
    • The experience is awarded directly upon reeling in the fish, even if the fish itself is not picked up.
  • From trading with villagers.
  • A bottle o' enchanting releases orbs when broken.
  • From the /experience command.
  • From disenchanting items in a grindstone.
  • From completing a challenge advancement.‌[JE only]

Gathering experience points increases the player's experience level by gradually filling a bar on the bottom of the screen until a new level is achieved when the bar is full. When the player dies, they drop experience orbs worth 7 * current level experience points, up to a maximum of 100 points (enough to reach approximately 7.5 levels), and all of the other experience vanishes. If the gamerule keepInventory is set to true, the experience is kept even if the player dies.

Experience orbs[edit | edit source]

Most experience sources drop experience in the form of experience orbs, which can then be claimed by any player.

Experience orbs fade between green and yellow colors and float or glide toward the player up to a distance of 7.25 blocks (calculated from the center of player's feet and the center of the experience orb), speeding up as they get nearer to the player. Experience orbs pulled toward a player are slowed by cobwebs. Experience orbs can also be pulled around or away from the player by running water currents.

When collected, experience orbs make a bell-like sound for a split second. Unlike resources, experience points are picked up gradually: no matter how many orbs are in the range of the player, they are added to the player's experience one at a time (10 orbs/second). In extreme cases, this can result in the player being followed by a swarm of orbs for many seconds. If an experience orb isn't collected within 5 minutes of its appearance, it disappears.

Orb sizes[edit | edit source]

Experience orbs vary in value. The general worth of an orb is reflected by its size, with eleven possible sizes corresponding to specific values. The three smallest sizes are the most commonly encountered, as the majority of experience dropped by mobs and blocks is less than ten. Dense experience orbs with values 17 or higher have orange "eyes" or "cores", and are less frequently encountered, most commonly from defeating the ender dragon, wither and other players, disenchanting objects on a grindstone, breaking spawners, and collecting items from high-traffic furnaces. For performance improvement, experience orbs of the same value can merge into a single entity, but they do not create a higher value orb.

Orb Minimum value Maximum value
1*[3] 2
3 6
7 16
17 36
37 72
73 148
149 306
307 616
617 1236
1237 2476
2477 32767

Dropping orbs[edit | edit source]

Naturally spawned orbs always have an integer value of 1–11, 17, 37, 73, 149, 307, 617, 1237, or 2477. Fishing, breeding, and trading drop a single orb with a random value in the appropriate range. Breaking blocks, killing mobs and players, smelting items, and bottles o' enchanting calculate their total experience amount and then split it into the base values of orbs by size (1, 3, 7, 17, 37, 73, 149, 307, 617, 1237, and 2477).

Higher values are chosen first, so, for example, a total value of 1000 would be dropped as orbs with values 617, 307, 73, and 3. While the first ender dragon in a world drops 12,000 experience, it is dropped in 10 waves of 1000 and one of 2000, so no orbs of value 2477 are dropped. Such orbs can exist in the world via furnaces that have had a lot of traffic.

Like items, experience orbs float when on water. Experience orbs can be destroyed by fire, lava, explosions, and cacti, and can trigger pressure plates and tripwires. Experience orbs can also stop minecarts.

In Bedrock Edition, although mob drops spawn the instant the final blow is dealt to the mob, experience orbs do not appear until the mob entity disappears and the smoke appears. In Java Edition, experience orbs appear in the same spatial and temporal location as loot when an entity is killed.

Negative orbs[edit | edit source]

Orbs with negative values can be created using the /summon command, either using values below 0 or above 32767 due to 16-bit integer overflow. They use the smallest texture of experience orb.

Negative orbs behave differently from positive orbs, namely that they do not deduct experience when collected by the player.

They deduct durability from a tool enchanted with Mending, provided the tool is already damaged prior to collection of the orbs.[4]

Experience amounts by source[edit | edit source]

Source [hide]Experience
Killing animals
Fox[BE only], Strider[JE only] 1–2
Armadillo, Axolotl, Bee, Camel, Cat, Chicken, Cod, Cow, Dolphin, Donkey, Fox[JE only], Frog, Glow Squid, Goat, Hoglin[BE only], Horse, Llama, Mooshroom, Ocelot, Panda, Parrot, Pig, Polar Bear, Pufferfish, Rabbit, Salmon, Sheep, Skeleton Horse, Sniffer, Squid, Strider[BE only], Trader Llama, Tropical Fish, Turtle, Wolf, Zombie Horse 1–3
Chicken (spawned as a jockey) 10
Killing monsters
Baby Piglin 1‌[BE only]
Endermite 3
Magma Cube and Slime 4 (large)
2 (medium)
1 (small)
Bogged, Cave Spider, Creeper, Drowned, Enderman, Giant, Ghast, Hoglin[JE only], Husk, Illusioner, Phantom, Piglin, Pillager, Shulker, Silverfish, Skeleton, Spider, Stray, Vex, Vindicator, Warden, Witch, Wither Skeleton, Zombie, Zombie Villager,Zoglin, Zombified Piglin 5 + 1–3 (per equipment)
Blaze, Breeze, Elder Guardian, Evoker, Guardian 10
Baby Drowned, Baby Husk, Baby Zombie, Baby Zombie Villager, Baby Zombified Piglin 12 + 1–3 (per equipment)
Ravager, Piglin Brute 20 + 1–3 (per equipment)
Wither 50
Entity dying (no requirement for player involvement)
Player 7 per level, up to 100
Ender Dragon 12,000 (500 if respawned with end crystals)
Mining blocks
Nether Gold Ore 0–1
Coal Ore 0–2
Sculk 1
Redstone Ore 1–5
Lapis Lazuli Ore, Nether Quartz Ore 2–5
Diamond Ore, Emerald Ore 3–7
Sculk Sensor, Sculk Shrieker, Sculk Catalyst 5
Creaking Heart (naturally generated) 20-24
Monster Spawner 15–43
Smelting/Cooking
Ancient Debris 2
Cactus[JE only][5], Diamond Ore, Emerald Ore, Gold Ore, Nether Gold Ore 1
Copper Ore, Iron Ore, Raw Iron, Raw Gold, Raw Copper, Redstone Ore 0.7[note 1]
Clay, Potato, Raw Beef, Raw Chicken, Raw Cod,
Raw Mutton, Raw Porkchop, Raw Rabbit, Raw Salmon
0.35[note 1]
Clay Ball 0.3[note 1]
Lapis Lazuli Ore, Nether Quartz Ore, Cactus[BE only] 0.2[note 1]
Wet Sponge, Wood 0.15[note 1]
Chorus Fruit, Coal Ore, Cobblestone, Stone
Stained Terracotta, Netherrack, Sand, Stone Bricks, Basalt
Iron Sword, Golden Sword,
Iron Pickaxe, Iron Axe, Iron Shovel, Iron Hoe,
Golden Pickaxe, Golden Axe, Golden Shovel, Golden Hoe,
Iron Helmet, Iron Chestplate, Iron Leggings, Iron Boots,
Golden Helmet, Golden Chestplate, Golden Leggings, Golden Boots,
Chainmail Helmet, Chainmail Chestplate, Chainmail Leggings, Chainmail Boots,
Iron Horse Armor, Golden Horse Armor, Kelp, Sea Pickle
0.1[note 1]
Completing Challenges[Java Edition only]
ItemSprite wind-charge.png: Sprite image for wind-charge in Minecraft Blowback 40
ItemSprite fire-charge.png: Sprite image for fire-charge in Minecraft Return to Sender, ItemSprite shulker-shell.png: Sprite image for shulker-shell in Minecraft Great View From Up Here, ItemSprite arrow.png: Sprite image for arrow in Minecraft Sniper Duel, BlockSprite target.png: Sprite image for target in Minecraft Bullseye, ItemSprite raw-cod.png: Sprite image for raw-cod in Minecraft A Complete Catalogue, ItemSprite mace.png: Sprite image for mace in Minecraft Over-Overkill, ItemSprite bone.png: Sprite image for bone in Minecraft The Whole Pack 50
ItemSprite crossbow.png: Sprite image for crossbow in Minecraft Two Birds, One Arrow 65
ItemSprite crossbow.png: Sprite image for crossbow in Minecraft Arbalistic 85
ItemSprite empty-map.png: Sprite image for empty-map in Minecraft Subspace Bubble, ItemSprite ghast-tear.png: Sprite image for ghast-tear in Minecraft Uneasy Alliance, ItemSprite netherite-chestplate.png: Sprite image for netherite-chestplate in Minecraft Cover Me in Debris, ItemSprite milk-bucket.png: Sprite image for milk-bucket in Minecraft A Furious Cocktail, BlockSprite ominous-banner.png: Sprite image for ominous-banner in Minecraft Hero of the Village, ItemSprite diamond-sword.png: Sprite image for diamond-sword in Minecraft Monsters Hunted, ItemSprite golden-carrot.png: Sprite image for golden-carrot in Minecraft Two by Two, ItemSprite apple.png: Sprite image for apple in Minecraft A Balanced Diet, ItemSprite netherite-hoe.png: Sprite image for netherite-hoe in Minecraft Serious Dedication 100
ItemSprite silence-armor-trim.png: Sprite image for silence-armor-trim in Minecraft Smithing with Style 150
ItemSprite netherite-boots.png: Sprite image for netherite-boots in Minecraft Hot Tourist Destinations, ItemSprite diamond-boots.png: Sprite image for diamond-boots in Minecraft Adventuring Time 500
ItemSprite bucket.png: Sprite image for bucket in Minecraft How Did We Get Here? 1,000
Other
Bottle o' Enchanting 3–11
Trading with villagers 3–6 (8–11 if the villagers are willing to breed; not working since 1.14)
Breeding animals 1–7
Catching Fish 1–6

The following mobs and similar entities do not drop experience when killed:

  1. Jump up to: a b c d e f For fractional values, first multiply this value by the number of smelted items removed from the furnace, then award the player the whole-number part, and if there is a fractional part remaining, this represents the chance of an additional experience point.
    • For example, when smelting 1 coal ore and removing the coal, the value is 0.1, so this grants a 10% chance of getting 1 experience point.
    • Or, when smelting 64 cobblestone and removing all 64 stone, the value is 0.1 * 64 = 6.4, so this grants 6 experience points, plus a 40% chance of getting 1 additional experience point.

Leveling up[edit | edit source]

Level Experience
Total Diff.
1 7 7
2 16 9
3 27 11
4 40 13
5 55 15
6 72 17
7 91 19
8 112 21
9 135 23
10 160 25
11 187 27
12 216 29
13 247 31
14 280 33
15 315 35
16 352 37
17 394 42
18 441 47
19 493 52
20 550 57
21 612 62
22 679 67
23 751 72
24 828 77
25 910 82
26 997 87
27 1089 92
28 1186 97
29 1288 102
30 1395 107
31 1507 112
32 1628 121
33 1758 130
34 1897 139
35 2045 148
36 2202 157
37 2368 166
38 2543 175
39 2727 184
40 2920 193
41 3122 202
42 3333 211
43 3553 220
44 3782 229
45 4020 238
46 4267 247
47 4523 256
48 4788 265
49 5062 274
50 5345 283
51 5637 292
52 5938 301
53 6248 310
54 6567 319
55 6895 328
56 7232 336
57 7578 345
58 7933 354
59 8297 363
60 8670 372
61 9052 381
62 9443 390
63 9843 399
64 10252 409

The formulas for figuring out how many experience orbs needed to get to the next level are as follows:

Experience required =
2 × current_level + 7 (for levels 0–15)
5 × current_level – 38 (for levels 16–30)
9 × current_level – 158 (for levels 31+)

One can determine how much experience has been collected to reach a level using the equations:

Total experience =
level2 + 6 × level (at levels 0–16)
2.5 × level2 – 40.5 × level + 360 (at levels 17–31)
4.5 × level2 – 162.5 × level + 2220 (at levels 32+)

Likewise, to get the number of levels from the total experience value, one can utilize the following inverse equations:

Total Levels =
At levels 0-16 (totals 0 to 352): total+93
At levels 17–31 (totals 353 to 1507): 8110+25(total783940)
At levels 32+ (totals 1508+): 32518+29(total5421572)

Useful numbers[edit | edit source]

  • To get from level 0 to level 1 requires 7 experience.
  • To get from level 0 to level 30 requires 1395 experience.
  • To get from level 27 to level 30 requires 306 experience.
  • Killing one large slime and all the slimes that split from it yield from 12 to 28 experience, with an average of 19.
  • Killing a slime of the largest size that can be spawned using the /summon command and all slimes that split from it yield 448 to 8128 experience, with an average of 3025.
  • The maximum level required for enchanting is level 30, while the anvil accepts jobs up to level 39 (in creative mode the anvil limit is removed).
  • Level 16 is a quarter of the way to level 30, while level 22 is about halfway there. Level 30 in turn, is halfway to level 39.
  • Killing the ender dragon the first time gives approximately 68 XP levels. The ender dragon actually drops 10 waves of orbs worth a total of 1,000 experience points per wave, and another worth a total of 2,000. Taken separately, the smaller waves could take a player from zero to level 26, while the big wave would take a player from zero to level 34. The largest orb dropped has a value of 1237 experience points, and can take a player from zero to level 28 all by itself.
  • The maximum XP-level that players can get legitimately in Bedrock edition is 24,791.[6]
  • The maximum XP that players can get legitimately is 238,609,312, and at this level the experience bar disappears, because reaching the next level would require more XP than the 32-bit integer limit (2,147,483,647, which is 231 - 1). However, it is possible to reach level 2,147,483,647 using commands. In this case, the experience bar may disappear and reappear.[7]

Score[edit | edit source]

"Score" redirects here. For the similar mechanic controlled by commands, see Scoreboard.
This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.
 
Example of the score in Hardcore mode.

The score is the number of experience the player has collected since their last death. This number is the total experience the player has collected, rather than the amount of experience they had upon death. When the player dies, the score is displayed on the death screen.

Sounds[edit | edit source]

Java Edition:
Experience orbs do not use entity-dependent sound events.

[hide]Sounds
SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
​Experience gainedPlayersWhen a player collects an experience orbentity.experience_orb.pickupsubtitles.entity.experience_orb.pickup0.10.55-1.2516
​Player dingsPlayersWhen a player levels up to a multiple of 5 [sound 1]entity.player.levelupsubtitles.entity.player.levelup0.75 [sound 2]1.016
  1. And more than five seconds have passed since the last time this sound played
  2. Is 0.75 for all levels over 30, and is level30×0.75When below 30

Bedrock Edition:

[hide]Sounds
SoundSourceDescriptionResource locationVolumePitch
PlayersWhen a player collects an experience orbrandom.orb[check the code]0.55-1.25 [check the code]
PlayersWhen a player reaches a level multiple of 5random.levelup1.01.0

Data values[edit | edit source]

ID[edit | edit source]

Java Edition:

NameIdentifier[hide]Translation key
EntitySprite experience-orb.png: Sprite image for experience-orb in Minecraft Experience Orbexperience_orbentity.minecraft.experience_orb

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID [hide]Translation key
EntitySprite experience-orb.png: Sprite image for experience-orb in Minecraft Experience Orbxp_orb69entity.xp_orb.name

Entity data[edit | edit source]

Experience orbs have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Java Edition:

Main article: Entity format
  • [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Entity data
    • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template[show]
    • [Short] Age: The number of ticks the XP orb has been "untouched". After 6000 ticks (5 minutes) the orb despawns.
    • [Int] Count: The remaining number of times that the orb can be picked up. When the orb is picked up, the value decreases by 1. When multiple orbs are merged, their values are added up to result orb. When the value reaches 0, the orb is depleted.
    • [Short] Health: The health of XP orbs. XP orbs take damage from fire, lava, falling anvils, and explosions. The orb is destroyed when its health reaches 0.
    • [Short] Value: The amount of experience the orb gives when picked up.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Video[edit | edit source]

History[edit | edit source]

This section is missing information about: Add the initial pickup sound (was similar to picking up items), and when was this changed?.
 
Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.
[hide]Java Edition Classic
0.24_SURVIVAL_TESTA precursor to the experience system was the point system added in this version.
[hide]Java Edition Indev
February 17, 2010XP levels are mentioned by Notch.
[hide]Java Edition Beta
June 11, 2011In an image of the new lighting system, a small spherical shape can be seen on the left side of the screen. The orb was yellow due to a warm light from a torch.
June 12, 2011Notch claimed the previous image had an error and posted a new one, this time, without a yellow sphere.
June 14, 2011In a later tweet, Notch showed a picture of a Beta 1.7 change-list. Although it was completely blurred out and was, at first, thought of as a joke,[8] Notch later stated that one of the pictures with the new lighting system and the change list had a secret in them.
One place that people discussed it was on the Minecraft Forums, where it was discovered that the tabs at the top of the change list that were partly covered, could be decoded based on the two-pixel tall pattern available in the image.[9]
After a user named "tmcaffeine" successfully decoded it, the tabs read: ExperienceOrb.java, changelist.txt, Level.java, Tile.java, HugeMushroomTile.java, HugeMushroomFeature.java, and RandomLevelSource(cut).[10]
1.8Pre-releaseExperience was originally revealed by Jeb during an interview with Minecraft Forum.[11] Jeb released a picture of the 1.8 GUI list, which shows the experience bar, among other things.
[verify] Added experience.
There is currently no measurable benefit for gaining experience orbs and levels.
Pre-release 2 Experience orbs no longer render as translucent.[12]
[hide]Java Edition
1.0.0Beta 1.9 PrereleaseFor this version only, as a test, experience is gained when the player is jumping. However, experience still does not do anything.
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2Removed the ability of gaining experience when jumping.
The amount of experience orbs dropped by a player on death is now limited.[is this the correct version?]
The score the player gains now appears correctly on "Game over!" screen. Each experience orb is worth one Score Point.
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4The ability to spend experience levels for enchanting items has been added.
The experience level number is now shown, and each level is harder to get to than the previous one.
Beta Sound UpdateExperience orbs used to make a lower pitch of the collecting items sound, but now Experience orbs make a twinkling sound when collected.
1.2.112w04aAdded bottles o' enchanting, an item that the player can gain experience from.
12w05aThe need for experience when enchanting in creative mode has been removed. Due to this, bottles o' enchanting are now useful only in adventure maps.
Experience requirements have been changed, in this update.
1.3.112w22aPlayers can now get experience from mining, breaking mob spawners and smelting in a furnace. A very large amount of experience can be collected while mining, sometimes into the hundreds of levels.
Coal, lapis lazuli, redstone, diamond and emerald ore now give players experience points.
Iron and gold ore now instead give experience when they are smelted.
The cost to gain each level has been made constant, at 17 experience points per level.
Only level 30 is required to get the maximum level of enchanting.
12w23aXP levels now cost 17 experience orbs each until level 16, after which the cost per level grows linearly, and the total XP grows quadratically (incorrectly stated "exponentially" by Mojang). However, it is easier to get to 30 levels than it was before 12w22a.
1.4.212w38aLeveling up now makes a twinkly bell sound, similar to, but longer than the experience orb sound.
12w39aExperience levels can now be used in commands by typing, for example, @a[lm=4,l=7], choosing everyone between 4 and 7 levels inclusive. This is normally used in a command block.
12w41aAdded anvils, which allows for the repairing and combining of items, at the cost of experience levels.
The level-up sound from collecting experience now plays every 5 levels, and is shortened from to .
1.6.113w21aExperience levels no longer appear in creative mode. Previously, experience would be hidden, but experience levels would show.
1.814w02aThe changes to the enchanting system mean that leveling up now requires more experience.
The texture of experience orbs has been changed.
1.915w46aExperience is now collected at the feet, meaning that if a large amount of experience is collected, it no longer blocks the player's view.[13]
1.1318w19aExperience orbs now float up in water.[14]
1.1519w39aExperience orbs now appear translucent again.
19w41aExperience orbs no longer appear translucent.
19w46aExperience orbs now appear immediately when a mob is killed (similar to loot), instead of when its corpse disappears.
The rendering of experience orbs has been changed. They have become translucent again.
1.1720w45aExperience orbs now sometimes merge when in large quantities.
Experience orbs no longer follow dead players.
1.21.424w45aExperience orbs are now bouncy when falling from a height.[15]
[hide]Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.12.1build 1 Added experience.
build 8Experience orbs now burn in fire or lava.
[hide]Pocket Edition
1.1.0alpha 1.1.0.0The entity ID of experience orbs has been changed from xporb to xp_orb.
[hide]Bedrock Edition
1.14.0beta 1.14.0.1The amount of experience dropped by animals now matches Java Edition.
1.16.100beta 1.16.100.51Experience orbs now float up in water.[16]
[hide]Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360Xbox OnePS3PS4PS VitaWii USwitch
TU7CU11.001.001.00Patch 11.0.1 Added experience.
Experience is collectable from smelting and/or mining ores, breeding and killing mobs.
TU141.04Added anvils, which allows for the repairing and combining of items, at the cost of experience levels.
TU19CU71.121.121.12Experience levels no longer appear in creative mode. Previously, experience would be hidden, but experience levels would show.[is this the correct version?]
[hide]New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0 Added experience.
1.1.06Experience is now collectable from smelting and/or mining ores, as well as trading.
  • Before Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2, the score on the death screen always read &e0.
    • This was caused by an error with coloring the text. In Java Edition Classic (including the Survival Test versions that featured the original score system), the '&' character was used to color text, so '&e0' would produce '0' in bright yellow. This was later changed to instead use the '§' character for colored text, but because the death screen hadn't been updated with this, the raw formatting code was shown.
An example of the excessive amount of experience orbs dropped upon death in Beta 1.8, causing extreme performance drops.

The experience level costs were heavily revised in snapshot 12w22a and 12w23a, and again in version 1.8. Before these, reaching level 50 (the maximum usable on a single enchantment) required 4625 experience, corresponding to defeating 925 hostile mobs (assuming the "common" ones.) Afterward, considerably less experience is needed to get into higher levels. Higher levels cost more experience than lower ones, but the levels are still easier to get than in 1.2.5. Now, level 30 is the maximum for enchantments, and that cost is equivalent of 279 "common" enemies, less than 1/3 the old price.

A player dropping excessive experience orbs upon death may cause performance degradation in the game.

Values from Java Edition Beta 1.8 to 1.3.1 (12w23a)[show][edit]

Values from Java Edition 1.3.1 to 1.8 (14w02a)[show][edit]

Data history[edit | edit source]

[hide]Java Edition
1.1116w32aThe entity ID of experience orbs has been changed from XPOrb to xp_orb
1.1317w47aNumeric IDs for entities were presumably deprecated in this version.​[more information needed]
pre5The experience orb ID has been changed to experience_orb.

Issues[edit | edit source]

Issues relating to "Experience" or "Orb" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

  • It was mentioned by Jeb in The World of Minecraft that he would have preferred the name "enchantment orbs" even though it is not in the code.[17]
  • If a player kills a mob by firing potions out of a dispenser, no experience is dropped.
  • Using experience on enchanting or repairing does not decrease the score that is shown upon death.
  • If the player gains experience points exceeding 238,609,311, the experience bar and level counter completely disappear from the HUD.[18]
  • The maximum XP that can be gained from the /xp command is 2,147,483,647 levels or 231−1, the largest value representable by a 32-bit signed integer and by Java's int type.
  • The texture file for experience orbs contains an additional five orb sprites that are all identical to the size 3 sprite.
  • The process of dropping orbs by base value prioritizing the highest applicable sizes is an example of the change-making problem. The coin system is the set of base values of orbs by size. It is the set {1, 3, 7, 17, 37, 73, 149, 307, 617, 1237, 2477}. It is not a canonical coin system.

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References[edit | edit source]

  1. Experience orbs cannot be damaged by attacking them.
  2. MC-56653
  3. Any orb whose value is < 3 gets this orb, even if the experience value is negative. See the information below the table for more on negative value treatment.
  4. https://youtube.com/watch?v=k-ip4iRccvE
  5. MC-210211 — Smelting cactus gives too much experience since 1.13
  6. YouTube - Max XP level reached in Minecraft
  7. MC-3266
  8. "And here's a heavily censored changelist for 1.7 so far: http://i.imgur.com/AQXoh.png (does not include Jens's stuff)"@notch (Markus Persson) on X (formerly Twitter), June 12, 2011
  9. http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/379958-secret-information-about-17/
  10. http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/380498-
  11. https://web.archive.org/web/20140620184443/http://www.minecraftforum.net:80/news/192-an-interview-with-jeb/
  12. MC-163034
  13. MC-11519
  14. MC-125550
  15. This was added alongside a fix for a bug that unintentionally made them bouncy several versions earlier. MC-277961
  16. MCPE-64039
  17. The World of Minecraft, Chapter Four, Taste for Adventure, Food Items
  18. MC-79545

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