7 best tiny Minecraft builds

Large Minecraft builds are inarguably the most popular kind. There are many social media posts of people showing off builds consisting of thousands of blocks. While these larger builds are impressive, small ones take just as much creativity due to the inherent limitations found in building at such a scale. These builds are also more approachable, as they cost fewer resources.

Listed below are seven examples of great tiny builds, along with what makes them such fantastic ideas for survival projects.

Note: This list is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of the writer

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7 of the best small-scale builds for Minecraft 1.21

1) Basic iron farm

The inside of a small iron farm (Image via Mojang)

Iron farms are among Minecraft's best resource farms. Larger iron farms can be large and imposing, but there are some smaller starter designs that can fit within a single chunk.

These are incredible farms to build, as iron is one of the most useful materials in survival. It's used to make decent armor and gear for the mid-game and shields, hoppers, and rails for the end-game.

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2) Microbase

An example of a microbase (Image via Mojang)

As previously mentioned, large builds, such as fully featured Minecraft mega bases, are all the rage.

However, a different route to take that's just as interesting is to see just how small of a base can be made while still having all of the survival essentials. This is also a great excuse to learn redstone machines, such as block swappers, which are handy for making bases as small as possible.

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3) Cow crusher

A small survival cow crusher (Image via Mojang)

Cow crushers are amazing survival farms. They take advantage of entity cramming, a game rule that says entities will take huge damage if there's too many of them in a small space to run. This causes new cows to die as they grow up, dropping steak and leather into a collection system.

Cow crushers are also quite small, at least in terms of useful Minecraft farms. They can be set up early on in a world and only occupy a handful of blocks at most. They take up more airspace than they do physical space.

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4) Melon/pumpkin farmer

An example of a tiny melon and pumpkin farm (Image via Eyecraftmc/YouTube)

Of all of the different crops available to grow in Minecraft farms, pumpkins and melons are among the best. They make for decent food options in the early game and are amazing items to trade with villagers to fuel a large-scale trading empire.

Smaller automated melon and pumpkin farms take up next to no space in a Minecraft survival base, allowing them to fit into tiny starter bases.

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5) Custom Nether portal

1.16 Nether Portal Designs byu/Marloe10 inMinecraftbuilds

Nether portals used to have a single, standard size. However, with the 1.7.2 Minecraft update, Nether portals were able to be made in many different shapes and sizes. This opened up the potential for highly detailed custom portals.

These builds are great as they take up little space, and they also give players a unique opportunity to blend dimensions together. Combining overworld and Nether materials isn't super common, making this a nice change of pace.

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6) Armor station

An armor equipping station in a Nether base (Image via Mojang)

Armor stations are amazing small-scale builds for bases found in dangerous biomes or on one of Minecraft's best servers. They are dispenser systems that can automatically equip players with armor. This means that players are able to return to the fight much faster than normal to get revenge on the person or mob that sent them back to spawn.

What's more, these systems can be upgraded slightly to also hit players with any of Minecraft's best potions. For example, a Nether base might hit passing players with fire resistance potions. This makes them even more useful for their tiny footprint.

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7) Player launcher

A simple, and tiny, wind charge player launcher (Image via Mojang)

Player launchers are systems designed to take advantage of game mechanics to send players flying. There are many different designs out there. Some use slime blocks and pistons to push players, while others use explosions or wind charges for their lift.

These devices can also be made incredibly small. Take newer 1.21 wind charge player launchers, for example. They can be set up using nothing more than a pressure plate and two dispensers, resulting in a remarkably small 1x3 footprint.