Maximizing Minecraft Efficiency: How to Keep a Chunk Loaded

Are you a Minecraft player looking to maximize your gameplay experience? Understanding chunk loading is crucial for efficient resource production, mob farming, and overall smoother gameplay.

In this article, we will explore what chunk loading is, why it’s important, methods for keeping a chunk loaded, setting up chunk loading, benefits, and limitations.

Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player, this guide will help you enhance your Minecraft world. Let’s dive in!

What Is Chunk Loading in Minecraft?

A chunk in Minecraft is the name of the standard 16×16 block that makes up the twelve million square meters of the fictional cubic world created by Markus “Notch” Persson. Chunk loading in Minecraft simply means the game generates the block in memory or renders it in the game map screen for player usage (storage or flow of items, movement etc.) even though the player is not currently in the vicinity of the specific block.

Why Is Chunk Loading Important?

Chunk loading is important in Minecraft because it allows areas to remain active and keep functioning in the game when the player is not in the vicinity. Necessary for everything from maintaining the growth of crops, to timing redstone repeaters, to the background functioning of automatic farms, mob farms, and sorted storage systems. The constant processing of the chunk loads when the player is away allows the player to return to fully functional automated systems and maps and still enjoy AFK resource farms.

Methods for Keeping a Chunk Loaded

There are three methods for keeping a chunk loaded in Minecraft Java Edition, all of which fall under three categories according to the game controls. The simplest way of keeping a chunk loaded is to use the functionality of the game’s Singleplayer Settings or the Operator Commands. Player’s activity in a chunk, when they have the Minimum Requirement for Activity control activated during the session or if they are active in the same chunk, will also keep it loaded temporarily.

In Minecraft Bedrock Edition, a chunk can be kept loaded by using player activity to keep the game session alive by going to the Home Screen or Leave Game option instead of closing the app.

Using Redstone Circuits

The essential component of any redstone system used to keep chunks activated is the Redstone Block. This block activates a system for several seconds, then deactivates and enters an off state, which allows the rest of the mechanism to reset itself. One use is to periodically trigger a TNT Big Duper in order to blast open Cobblestone towers, Mob Grinders to farm for a Mob’s drops, or when killing Nether Serpents. From a block-activated pickaxe system to a passive Treasure Hoard mechanism, options are endless. The below video by K1 Inc. Tech Community gives a good example of how to keep a chunk loaded in Minecraft Java Edition using Redstone Circuits. YouTube code KHGS6tdzOqo.

Using Hoppers

If hoppers are placed underneath the chunk loader, all dropped items or minecarts that pass around are picked up by the hopper and dropped into a chest. Feeding hoppers may not be ideal if one has an already complex redstone mechanism as a chunk loader.

If one wants to connect a hopper there might be interference with other mechanisms. In addition, hoppers and chests can fill up and overflow if not closely monitored, leading to wasteful item destruction.

There is not much emphasis in the game on minimizing wasted time on repetitive jobs, but hoppers are much less efficient than the loading minecart or an active redstone signal. The cost of the hopper is about double of the minecart with the unload chest, which means if wanting to keep a chunk loaded indefinitely, a hopper chest system is not heated. There is no difference in hopper storage and chest storage. However, chest storage in a hopper system is often overfilled since hoppers bring unspecified numbers of items. Early on in the game players might be tempted to use hoppers to maintain small system efficiency, but there are in fact very few cases where one needs to keep a system running every day indefinitely and a hopper is not a good solution.

Using Minecarts

The second method on how to keep multiple chunks loaded in Minecraft is using a system of minecarts with the same ender chest that carries items between the two regions. The system is set up such that one chunk with minecarts and an ender chest is activated and kept loaded by the player(s) by using one of the methods in the previous sections. This then allows the second chunk when it gets the items from the ender chest to load.

This system requires a player to log in every 13-15 minutes after making a delivery of items to the chest to allow the unloading and reloading of the minecart that regularly transfers the ender chest and items in and out of the region. The minimum energy usage in this system is achieved with a cep (cycles per entity procession) processor of 7.5 ms per entity process.

This method requires not only sufficient energy for the player logins to the farm region but also a continuously powered mechanism that moves ender chests or supply-packed minecarts in and out of the region.

Using Spawn Chunks

Spawn chunks are named so because they are the chunks to which the game world spawns entities and mobs only when chunks are initially loaded. After that, they behave like player-loaded chunks. The reason they remain loaded is that Minecraft itself is located in the spawn chunks. They are always kept in memory to ensure your world is correctly generated even when you are far away from the spawn. These are four reasons to use spawn chunks in Minecraft.

How to Set Up Chunk Loading?

To set up chunk loading in Minecraft, leave either a Player or Forced loader, whichever is appropriate, at the border of the loading chunk. To fine-tune the location, items in Java Edition default to no-interaction at 2 chunks from the player (32 blocks in any direction), but fluids continue flowing. In Bedrock Edition, there is no defined area of item interaction.

Using Commands

Minecraft players can keep a chunk loaded by using commands called Command Blocks. Command Blocks are similar to redstone, except that they require the purchase by a player of the fake currency called Redstone Flux (RF). The chunk loading command syntax of this fake currency is in the form /cb load pay VALUE. The amount of RF that must be used is shown in the game when the inventory is opened. There is a chunk loading mod for FTB, but for others, you need an RF loader.

Using Mods

Minecraft mods are modifications to the game that alter the mechanics in various ways. A number of mods exist that add the ability to keep loaded chunks, and while many famous mods still have yet to be updated for the March 2022 `Caves & Cliffs` update, there are some newer mods that have been developed to assist with loading chunks.

MultiWorld: Allows for easier control of chunk loading.

Cookielab: Has several incredibly useful features, including keeping chunks loaded.

Just search their names in the Minecraft mod site, CurseForge.

What Are the Benefits of Chunk Loading?

The benefits of chunk loading include maintaining the operation of machines, providing remote farms with sunlight and access to animals, increasing block processing speed, and maintaining quarry pile heights. Machine operation: Many items that constantly consume power, suchjson as pumps and power storage, may be fully functional in one loaded chunk and non-functional if in an unloaded area. Machine operation within such a chunk will ensure it remains operational.

Time-versus-functionality: Constant or periodic chunk loading maintains base function even when the player is far away. This includes functionality for things which would normally not be available from afar, such as a building which draws power from other interconnected machines that are neighboring.

Remote farming, expanding your minecraft world, and giving friends access to farms: If the chunk with a farm is active, crops located there will grow uninterrupted even if players are miles away from the area, or if a series of farms extend out of the usual spawn areas, meaning partial or absolute loads of the chunks in between.

Increasing block processing speed: Automatic looms, automated ore smelters, and many other items which process blocks as they pass through require the block to move fast. This ensures all functions occur before the block is within the next chunk at the border of the prior one.

Quarry pile height maintenance: Among other uses, quarry machines that are constantly kept running can help maintain a high roof of quarried stone or other blocks in a strip mine setting. Playing with chunk loading on and fully loaded areas can help clear uninterrupted space over extensive regions.

Continuous Resource Production

Keeping a chunk loaded in Minecraft is useful for continuous resource production. The following activities are the primary things you can do to maintain production benefits per chunk. To keep your chunk loaded, you can demonstrate these activities to your viewers by using the command /forceload.

1. Continuous Resource Production: Every time a crop in your farm grows, the game internally determines a random number between 0 and 15. The plant will only grow if the number is less than the growth speed value of the plant (0 to 15). Therefore, doing long-term loads on your chunks implies that your plant will have more opportunities to grow by giving the plants more chances to roll lower numbers. For every tick beyond the initial update speed, your game has another chance for your crops and trees to grow.

   Mobs will also continue to spawn in your mob farm if the chunk is unloaded/cannot be armed if it is within spawn range of the player.

   Pistons will continue to harvest farms, will continue to pressurize a furnace/smelter with unprocessed materials, and spawners will spawn mobs infinitely if the chunk is loaded at the time of the kill.

2. Enchanting: Whether you are collecting blaze rods to open the door to the other side and figure out what to do with your enchantment table, harvesting crops for experience or creating dark rooms for mob farming, everything you do to receive more XP or bookshelves for the purpose of obtaining efficient enchantments can be helped by block-loading.

   Therefore, long-term chunk loading (via map utility or command), or simply standing idle in your farm for hours, will guarantee plenty of experience as well as a need for better enchantments.

3. Crafting: Obtaining so many of the items you’re bound to need to build anything in Minecraft can require a lot of waiting for plants to grow and refining the materials into more useful items.

   Optimally, you could wait until you need an item to refine it or gather it, but loading your chunk may allow for helpful batch-processing that removes some of the idle state of farming and manual refining.

Efficient Mob Farming

Unlike other passive mobs who do not need chunks to be loaded to breed, mobiles need to be in loaded chunks to keep spawning. By using mob farms to passively spawn and accumulate mobs in a loaded chunk while not actively playing and not in need of farming other resources, you can retain your loaded chunks to maintain a mob surplus, and also to benefit from the mob drops that they drop on death while in the mob farm.

Smooth Gameplay

Keeping a chunk loaded in Minecraft allows a player to maintain smooth gameplay in a different location than the Overworld they are currently in. This can be useful for players who need to impede mob generation for performance, or for those who are using particular game mechanics for large automated builds, redstone devices, and other systems. GeorgiaBoffGamer shows an example of how to use the F3 mode to understand the impact of chunks on FPS.

However, according to the Minecraft game developers, if the player is not in the affected location, the chunk is unloaded from the memory and the game performance recovers. Therefore one option to maintain smooth in-game performance is to keep the game to a minimum set of proactively required chunks to keep loaded as the player scouts or builds out the explored piece of the map and then upon completing the action moves on.

What Are the Limitations of Chunk Loading?

The major limitation of automatic Minecraft chunk loading is that Mojang Minecraft does not provide a vanilla command to automatically load chunks. They do, however, allow functionality like redstone mechanisms to work in the background so that the game can run commands to keep chunks loaded.

A second limitation is that chunk loading causes increased lag for the game by requiring the chunk to be processed more often even if it is off-loaded so that entities within it function normally. Any game mechanics beyond the simple solutions laid out above that require a chunk to be properly active can result in slower load times for the game. Careful use of chunk entities, machines, and redstone devices should be used to ensure a fluid gameplay experience.

A third, and smaller, block on the use of chunk loading is that it can interfere with some mechanisms in mod-packs. This is more of a bug than a real limitation, but users trying to set up chunk loading, for some versions of Minecraft, experience problems if a mod interacts with them. In those cases, the user should try to isolate which mod is causing the issue by testing them one by one.

Increased Server Load

A chunk load in Minecraft is the processing action that keeps an area around it active even if no player is there. While reducing the server load should be the priority, increasing the server load could be the only solution if the chunk in question is too large. The high server load caused by a bug may be causing the chunk to unload.

Increasing the number of chunks being kept loaded is likely to have the opposite desired effect. It is important to keep the number of chunks being kept loaded to a minimum as Waveframesgame can stress servers and the added server load will not solve the issue. Remember to operate the most necessary systems during periods when players are offline.

Limited Range

The limited range option for keeping a chunk loaded specifically corrects for some issues with World Anchor modifiers by reducing the area loaded inside the World Anchor area. One can always select the whole server to keep loaded at a cost of as much as 10x the smaller selected area.

Using a limited range nether portal gate or a minecart grid system to keep chunks loaded seems to be the most individual local method to do so, and TNT Nuke confirms that anyone using a limited range nether portal gate to keep a chunk loaded is merely creating a cozy teleport zone.

GeoboneTM explains a simple use of nether portals for chunk loading as follows. To keep a chunk loaded using limited range Nether Portal, you need to build both Nether Portals in the two chunks, ensuring that when linked with a particular Gate number (each gate has a large list of destination possibilities, see link), the distance between two nether gates minus the dividing walls. When the player uses one of these doors, the two connected chunks on each end will be loaded as long as you are near to one of the doors no matter where the player is located.

Bob Cambodia added, “a good example of this is a minecart grid which transports minecarts from chunk to chunk and bounces back instead of emptying out.” He did a demonstration of the Java Edition of Minecraft, but the same technique is also used in the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft.

Potential for Glitches

There is a small potential for glitches when using the /forceload command, especially not with the intended original functionality, but, as always, they are promptly patched by Mojang. Although specific examples are hard to come by and we are unable to observe previous patches, we kept a lookout for any unusual maintenance operations in the Chunk Loading section of the Service Status page and have never seen one listed.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Keep a Chunk Loaded in Minecraft?

A chunk is a 16×16 block area in Minecraft that is used to load and render the game world. Keeping a chunk loaded is important for players who want to maintain a specific area or keep certain mechanisms running. Here are some frequently asked questions on how to keep a chunk loaded in Minecraft.

What is the purpose of keeping a chunk loaded in Minecraft?

Keeping a chunk loaded allows players to maintain certain areas, such as farms or redstone mechanisms, without having to physically be present in the game. This is useful for players who want to automate tasks or keep their game world running while they are away.

How can I keep a chunk loaded in Minecraft?

One way to keep a chunk loaded is by using the “/forceload” command. This command allows players to specify which chunks they want to keep loaded. Another way is by placing a “spawn chunk” marker, which designates the chunk as always loaded.

Can I keep multiple chunks loaded at once?

Yes, you can keep multiple chunks loaded at once. You can use the “/forceload” command to specify multiple chunks, or you can place multiple “spawn chunk” markers in different areas. However, keep in mind that keeping too many chunks loaded can cause lag in your game.

Do I need cheats enabled to keep a chunk loaded?

Yes, you will need cheats enabled to use the “/forceload” command to keep a chunk loaded. If you are playing on a server, the server owner may need to enable cheats for this command to work. However, placing a “spawn chunk” marker does not require cheats.

How can I unload a chunk that I no longer want to keep loaded?

To unload a chunk, you can use the “/forceload remove” command. This will remove the chunk from the list of chunks that are being forced to stay loaded. You can also remove a “spawn chunk” marker by breaking the block it is placed on.