Minecraft is a game with so many moving parts that you will want to explore many different structures that you can create in your world. For those looking to quickly get to different floors in their buildings, there are several ways to make an elevator go up and down quickly.
This guide focuses on a set of elevators that use water to push you up and down. Don’t worry you won’t drown inside as the method we use will create air bubbles for you as you ascend and descend. No one wants to continuously go up and down stairs all day, so here’s how to create easy water lifts in your Minecraft seed.
Once this is done, you can go as high as you want the elevator to go; it totally depends on you. Place the door in the space at two heights so that the water does not escape to the outside.
After making the foundation for your elevator, go up and add water to make it flow from top to bottom. However, you’ll quickly notice that this method requires every water block to be a source block. However, just letting it flow, the water blocks other than the ones on top aren’t source blocks, so it can’t move up or down.
Building an elevator in Minecraft
For this tutorial we will create a bubble elevator. This is one of the simplest elevator layouts possible in Minecraft. Players only need sand and soul water to build a working elevator. Soul Sand Blocks are exclusive to the Nether Realm and can be commonly found in Soul Sand Fortresses and Valleys.
For those who don’t know, when a block of soul sand is underwater, it creates an updraft of bubbles. Using this column of bubbles, players can travel vertically quickly, just like an elevator. Follow these steps to set up your elevator in Minecraft:
Elevator Switch
With the lowest observation block to your right, a regular diagonal piston with its face pointing toward you, as seen in the image below. Leave the space in front of the observer block with the plunger touching its corner. Behind this piston place a stone block, there should be a row of space behind this stone block and the back wall.
Create a stone block stair shape from the back stone block of the previously placed piston. You can see the exact location of the blocks below. A set of 3 stone blocks will create this type of stair. Leave a gap above the highest block of the stairs and place another stone block on the ground. To create a space in the middle, you must first place a block, and then remove it later. This new block will be placed at ground level.
Water Mechanics
Water is a non-solid block in Minecraft that mobs and players can walk through.
Upon entering the water, a bubble bar will appear above your hunger bar. It is your oxygen and it will steadily decrease the longer you stay in the water. Once depleted, you will start taking damage until you respawn.
