Players have been interested in crafting elevators in Minecraft since the Alpha version when Redstone first appeared. Since then, new mechanics have made it possible to make working automatic water lifters are, without Redstone, the fastest way to go up!
How to Make a Minecraft Water Elevator
There are several essential blocks you will need to make a fully functional and safe elevator, but the most crucial are Soul Sand and Magma Blocks. The Soul Sand creates bubbles in your water elevator that take you up, and the Magma Block creates bubbles. in your water elevator that takes you down.
In the guide below, we've covered how to use these blocks to create a single elevator that lets you go up or down. However, you don't need to follow the template we created. Be creative with your lift! The only essential direction you will have to follow is that you have to use the soul sand to go up and the magma block to go down.
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Step One: Build the Walls
You can use any type of block to build the walls of your elevator. We used glass for ours to make the process easier to visualize.
In the image above you will see the basic template to design your walls. Place a ring around an empty two-by-two block section and build! Make your elevator as tall as you want, just make every wall the same height. We built our blocks 30 tall, but you can build yours up to building height, if you wish!
Second step: make the base
There are two parts to this step. First, you need to create an arch on one side of the elevator that's two blocks high by two blocks wide.
Once you've done that, place panels on the outside of the arch as shown in the image above. These panels are used to hold the water that you will place in the third step. You will need four signs in total.
The other part of this step requires you to place the magma blocks and soul sand. Continue to use the image above for how to do this. At the very bottom of the water elevator, place two Soul Sand blocks on one side and two Magma blocks on the other.
This will allow seamless transfer between elevator up or down. However, you can separate these two sections if you want to make your elevator a little cleaner.
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Third step: place the water
You need a lot of water source blocks for this step. With the magma blocks and soul sand placed, grab two buckets of water. Place one on one of the four blocks at the base and place the other bucket of water on the block in the opposite corner. This will create an infinite supply of water from which you can collect water for the next level.
From there, you need to repeat the above step on each level of your water lift. The reason for this is that the bubbles created by Soul Sand and Magma blocks only work on Water Source blocks, not running water.
At each level of the elevator, fill your bucket with the water source on the lower level, which will then be filled from the two water sources next to it. Do as you did before and place another water source in the opposite corner from the one you just placed. You will now have another level of water. Repeat this process until you reach the top of your lift.
Once you've done all of this, you'll have a basic (and efficient!) working water lift! You can modify the blocks around it to make the elevator elegant or sophisticated. However, you still need to have the Magma Blocks and Soul Sand at the bottom of the elevator.
Step 4: Add multiple floors (optional)
If you want to add more floors to your base, you can easily modify this elevator accordingly. Make a two-by-two hole where you want the level to be and place signs outside the elevator like you did on the ground floor. As you ascend or descend, exit where you exited this floor. It's an easy way to access a specific floor of your base!
Want to see how to make productive farms? Check out our guides on how to make an automatic mushroom farm and how to make an automatic pumpkin/melon farm!
