🔄 Chunk Loaders in Minecraft

Overview:

Creating mob farms in Minecraft can be a challenging task, especially if you're trying to maximize their efficiency. There are countless designs to obtain items, some of which span across different dimensions. Whether you're building an Enderman farm or a skeleton farm, having it always running without players nearby is possible. This involves creating a chunk loader in the Minecraft world, which works both on servers and in single-player. These types of machines will keep various regions active, meaning they always have ticks running within them. This is useful for farming, including growing crops like wheat or potatoes. Setting up a chunk loader can be difficult, as it requires some knowledge of redstone. There are also different designs for these machines, ranging from complicated to simplified. For this reason, we at PixelHost have created this guide to show you how to make a chunk loader in Minecraft, along with offering other options to enhance your farming experience.

🗺️ What is a Chunk Loader?

As the name suggests, chunk loaders continuously load certain regions in the game so that activities always occur. This applies across dimensions, meaning it's not just for the Overworld. Only an area of 3x3 chunks has the ability to process entities, allowing you to maximize mob farming. It is recommended to use Minecraft’s debug mode to reveal these boundaries, which is done by pressing F3 + G on your keyboard. As for creating a chunk loader, it requires redstone and other essential blocks that will keep an item moving between a Nether portal to activate the regions. This process can be tedious to set up, but it's worth the effort, as your farms will always be operational even without players nearby. If you want to start creating your own chunk loader in Minecraft, check the subsections below to get started.

🔨 How to Make a Chunk Loader

Before starting this process, you'll need some required resources. These include 10x Obsidian, 14x Building Blocks, 2x Comparators, 2x Redstone Dust, 4x Droppers, 2x Observers, 2x Hoppers, 1x Flint & Steel, and 2x Levers. Make sure to gather these supplies in your Minecraft world. If you're having trouble obtaining them, consider enabling cheats or becoming a server operator to easily acquire all the necessary materials.

📦 Materials for the Chunk Loader

After that, follow the instructions below to build the chunk loader machine in your world.

🔍 Find the Desired Location for the chunk loader and break 2 blocks in the ground.

🛠️ Build a Portal, then place 1 Dropper facing upwards and another facing the portal.

🔗 Connect 1 Hopper to the first dropper, then place a Comparator behind the dropper.

⚙️ Continue by placing a block behind the comparator, then use redstone dust on top of it.

🔧 Next, place the Observer facing the redstone so it works correctly.

🏗️ Continue covering the hopper with building blocks, so the items fall correctly.

🔥 Light the portal frame, enter the Nether dimension, and check that it’s where you want it.

🌐 Once you’re ready, build the same machine for the second portal.

Note: Levers can be used to stop/start the machine, placed near the redstone dust.

If successful, items will cross dimensions into the droppers to load chunks.

🛠️ Chunk Loader Mods and Plugins

If you don't want to learn everything about redstone engineering to create a chunk loader, consider using mods or plugins. These can make achieving this goal much easier, as it will only require a block or another feature to do it quickly. We encourage you to try the Chunk Loaders mod on CurseForge, which is for Forge and Fabric in many Minecraft versions. There are also other types of mods to choose from, but this one is by far the most popular. As for plugins, we recommend using ChunkLoader on Spigot, which provides you with commands and a menu to set this up quickly. Depending on your Minecraft server or single-player setup, these add-ons will be of great help for farming in the game.

🚨 Common Issues

❌ My Chunk Loader Isn’t Working

Unfortunately, many players may encounter issues with their newly built chunk loader machine in Minecraft. For example, having the Nether portal within two chunks won't work. This means you and others need to view the region boundaries to build the machine in the center. Doing this involves pressing F3 + G on your keyboard, which allows you to correctly view the chunks. Apply this solution in both the Overworld and Nether dimensions, and then check if it worked. If not, make sure your observers, droppers, comparators, and other blocks are set up correctly. Another issue is that the item falling into the Nether is not being picked up by the machine. This means you need to change the design, such as swapping positions for the hopper and dropper. Essentially, you need that dropped item to be in an infinite loop to successfully create a chunk loader in Minecraft.

⚡ The Server is Lagging

While having chunk loaders active in your Minecraft world, there may come a time when the server starts to lag. This tends to happen when there are too many chunk-loading machines, as it consumes more resources. Solving this requires you to optimize the server, which can be done by checking our tutorials for modded or non-modded servers. Alternatively, stopping the machines or some of them can resolve the situation entirely. It’s only recommended to keep a few chunk loaders active in the world to avoid issues with server performance.

Best Regards,

João @PixelHost