How to Make a Water Elevator in Minecraft. A Step-by-Step Guide.

Featured Image credit: Mojang.

You have built a giant tower to look out over your Minecraftian kingdom but have no easy way to get to the top. Perhaps a winding staircase or a hundred ladders could work, but why not try something different?

Something more exhilarating and can shoot you to the top of the tower in seconds? 

If you want to spice up your builds, why not try to build a Minecraft water elevator?

There are several advantages to water elevators:

• They are easy to make.
• They are an effective way to transport you and resources upwards and downwards quickly. 
• They are much cheaper to build than other complex means of transportation, which is important, especially when playing survival mode.

Keep reading to learn how to make your own water elevator that will make all your friends jealous of your building skills.

Also, check out this thorough guide on more ways to move items up, down, and horizontally in Minecraft.

Minecraft Water Elevators. Going up or going down?

First, you will need to gather basic materials for building your water elevator.

Notice that there are two types of water elevators: an upward elevator and a downward elevator, and they’re slightly different.

So if you want to create a proper water elevator design that can transport stuff in both directions, you need to build a set of elevators; a single elevator will only transport you up or down.

I’ll cover how to build both below.

The elevator shaft can be built out of any material, and the height of the elevator is totally up to you; just make sure you gather enough to build as tall of a tower as needed.

I recommend using glass as your main building block since it looks cool when you see the bubble column inside.

Materials needed

Besides your chosen building blocks, you will need:

• 1 Soul Sand Block (for the upward elevator)
• 1 Magma Block (for the downward elevator)
• 1 Water Bucket
• Lots of Kelp

Once you have gathered the necessary ingredients and chosen your water elevator site, you are ready to begin building! 

How to make an Upward Water Elevator in Minecraft

When building your water elevator, the first part of the elevator you build will be the upward shaft using glass blocks.

The upward current will shoot you at high speeds and launch you out of the top like a cannon. 

If you are worried about fall damage, place slime blocks around the water elevator’s top to prevent damage.

Steps to Building the Upward Water Elevator:

Here’s how to build a working water elevator that goes up in a few steps.

1. Create a 3×3 shaft.

The first step is to create a 3×3 enclosed space. The height of your elevator is up to you.

The middle 1×1 portion of the elevator should be hollow. This is where the water will go.

2. Place a door in the bottom 2×1 opening.

The next step is to place a door in the bottom 2×1 opening to keep the flowing water from escaping.

3. Break the block at the bottom of the elevator in the 1×1 section and replace it with a block of soul sand.

At ground level, break the bottom-most block beneath the shaft and replace it with a block of soul sand.

4. Pour water into the shaft from the top.

Use your water bucket to pour water into the top empty space of the 1×1 shaft.

The flowing water block will immediately trickle down to the shaft’s bottom.

5. Place kelp blocks from bottom to top

Going to the bottom of the shaft, begin placing kelp blocks till you reach the top of your elevator. This will turn every standing water block into source blocks and give you the upwards bubble effect you need.

6. Break the kelp from the bottom up

Now, break the kelp from the bottom up.

If you did this correctly, you should see air bubbles moving upwards through the water column.

7. Enter your elevator

Now, enter the bubble elevator at the bottom and watch as the upward bubbles shoot you to the top!

How to make a Downward Water Elevator in Minecraft

What goes up must come down. So once you have completed the upward shaft of the elevator, you need a way to get down.

That is where the second half, the downward shaft, comes in. It is identical to the upward elevator, except you replace the soul sand with a magma block to create downward bubbles.

While just as easy to create as the upward shaft, you do need to keep one thing in mind: you can not place kelp on the magma block used at the bottom.

So for the downward elevator, the last step is placing the magma block, unlike with the upward elevator where you had to place the soul sand block before you poured in a block of water.

Steps to Building the Downward Elevator:

Here’s how to build a working water elevator that goes down in a few steps.

1. Create a 3×3 shaft

As was the case with the upwards elevator, the first thing you need to do is to create a 3×3 shaft to your desired elevator height.

Again, the middle 1×1 portion of the elevator should be hollow. This is where the water will go.

2. Place a door in the bottom 2×1 opening

Place a door in the bottom 2×1 opening to keep the water from escaping.

3. Pour your water bucket into the top of the 1×1 shaft.

Now empty the bucket of water into the top block of the 1×1 shaft.

4. Place kelp blocks from bottom to top.

Going to the bottom of the shaft, begin placing kelp blocks till you reach the top.

5. Break the kelp blocks from bottom to top

Break the kelp from the bottom up, creating standing water blocks all the way up.

6. Place a magma block in the ground below the shaft

Replace the bottom block of the 1×1 shaft with a single block of magma.

If this was done correctly, water bubbles should go downwards towards the magma cube.

7. Enter the elevator at the top

Now simply walk into the elevator from the top and enjoy your quick descent.

Water Elevator Uses

Once you have created your water elevator, there are two primary uses for a water elevator: player transportation and resource transportation.

However, you can also use it in complicated mob farms. 

Player Transportation

The primary reason for any water elevator is to transport Minecraft players upward easily and quickly.

For Minecraft players who enjoy building tall houses or towers or have a quarry mine, a water elevator is an excellent choice for moving up and down between different stories of their buildings without using ladders or stairs.

Item Transportation

The second most common usage of water elevators is transporting items upwards at a rapid speed. While you can not shoot the resources you send upwards into hoppers, this can be extremely useful in a multiplayer world.

For example, you could have someone down in the mines who send resources to the surface world for another person to collect from the top of the elevator. And then, the people on the surface can send tools and food down into the mines using the downward shaft. 

The options are only limited by your imagination! 

You might like this article too about water flow and what else you can use water for in Minecraft.

Complex Mob Farms

Another way water elevators can be used is to create mob farms. By implementing a water elevator into your design, you can launch mobs straight up to be killed in whatever manner you have created. 

But, of course, you’d never use it for such as nefarious purpose, would you?

Conclusion

Water elevators are a cheap and easy way to transport you and items up and down in Minecraft.

Even though they can take some time to build, you will be grateful you did so in the long run. 

If you enjoyed this article, check out my other Minecraft guides! Until next time, happy mining! 

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FAQ

Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions and troubleshooting about water elevators.

Q: Why isn’t my water elevator working? 

A: The most common reason for a water elevator not working is the water is not all source blocks. Fill your elevator with kelp a second time and break it. That should solve the issue. 

Q: Will Soul Soil work?

A: No, it has to be soul sand; otherwise, the upward shaft of the elevator will not work.