How to farm dripstone in Minecraft

Minecraft’s dripstone blocks and pointed dripstone are the stalactites, stalagmites, and stalagnates (I learned a new word!) found in some caves. The pointed dripstone stalactites are useful for farming infinite lava or for defensive purposes. Luckily, there’s a way to farm more.

In this Minecraft dripstone farming guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know to start your own stalactite farm.


How to find dripstone

In order to farm dripstone, you’ll first need to find some dripstone — specifically, dripstone blocks and pointed dripstone. The best place to find dripstone, unsurprisingly, is in the dripstone cave biome.

Dripstone caves generate underground (starting from about level 0 down to -64) — you’ll know you’re at the right depth when you go from mostly stone to mostly deepslate. Because of Minecraft’s biome generation rules, they also tend to generate inland away from water and ocean biomes.

You’ll rarely find small patches of dripstone in canyons (ravines) or, even more rarely, in any other cave type.


Dripstone farming

To start dripstone farming, you’ll need (at least) 1 dripstone block, 1 pointed dripstone, and 1 water bucket.

An example of a dripstone farm.
Image: Microsoft/Mojang via Polygon

Place the dripstone block a few blocks above the ground (we like three for space saving purposes, but you can place it up to seven blocks high). Place the water on top of the dripstone block and the pointed dripstone under the dripstone block. You’ll see the water dripping along the pointed dripstone stalactite.

And that’s it. Now all you need is a lot of patience. There is a roughly 1% chance that the pointed dripstone will grow every time it’s updated with a random tick (about 50 seconds, give or take). That means you’ll get a new block of pointed dripstone every five in-game days or so (about an hour and a half in the real world).

Make sure to harvest only the second pointed dripstone block down and any stalagmites that form on the ground underneath. That leaves the original one to continue growing.


How to use dripstone

First, pointed dripstone can be used to craft dripstone blocks (4 pointed dripstone). That means you’ll be able to (slowly) expand your dripstone farm.

Dripstone stalagmites (pointing up) cause damage to anything that falls on them. That means they could make up the bottom of a tiger pit-style trap. Similarly, falling dripstone damages players and mobs.

Even more useful, though, is that dripstone blocks and dripstone can be used to farm infinite lava by placing lava on top of the dripstone and a cauldron below.

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