Tutorials/Monster spawner traps

Monster spawner traps differ from regular traps. They employ the mob spawners found in dungeons as a source of mobs. The purpose of these traps is to create an infinite source of items which can be gathered in an efficient way from the mobs spawned by the monster spawner. Two general rules for these traps are to keep the player safe and to allow the mobs to spawn. If you have built this kind of trap, you can share the building instructions on this page. Note that you may want to change the difficulty to "Peaceful" to avoid injury or death while building the traps.

Drowning Traps
Drowning traps employ water to drown the hostile mobs (remember that mobs will always try to float, thus making them borderline immune to drowning). The water currents can be used to bring the items to you.

Zombie/Skeleton Drowning trap
This trap is very simple to make and very effective. The zombie/skeleton will fall into a "drowning area" and the items dropped by it will be collected in a central collection point.

To start the construction, first dig three layers down in the dungeon. Next, one layer up from the bottom dig a slot all along the back of the trap. On the opposite side, dig three layers down and one block back from that dig one layer down.

To start the collection room, make sure the trap is five blocks wide; this will allow for a central collection point. Dig a 5x7x3 room, put a glass floor above the spawner to make a place to walk on and to stop mobs from spawning on the floor. Then, build a stairway from the room to the floor above the spawner, then put a glass wall the next block space from the three deep layer. Leave a space filled with a ladder for a temporary access point. Then put water in the slots at the back of the trap and above the 3 deep spaces with a 5x5 square in the bottom room (this will keep the water from flooding the room). Then put water in the four corners of the box. Remove all torches (if any) and fill in the gap in the glass. The trap is done! Now you can get infinite items.

Optional but useful: Put a large chest and an infinite spring of water in the back of the room while building.

Reverse Drowning Trap
From any wall of the dungeon, dig a 2x2 square area, then dig 3 blocks down. Dig a channel out to a collection point for the items. Now dig the hole upwards until you reach one block below the surface or sea level. Place 2 water springs in opposite corners of the roof and swim back down. "Peaceful" difficulty will help to avoid death by drowning since it regenerates your health. For this trap, the monsters wander around until they go through the "door" to the trap. They will then try to swim upwards, but will eventually drown because there is no way out of the water except down, but they always swim up. The dropped items will float back down and be swept to your collection point.

Burning Traps
Burning traps implement lava or fire to burn the mobs to death. Depending on what you use, you must be careful designing this trap because fire and lava will destroy your loot on contact.

Basic grinder and Collection (aka; the "tail" trick)
This is a very basic and useful technique that is usually employed when using a mob-tower style of spawning trap. The basic premise of this trap for the use of a dungeon is to (depending on the mob type) first either damage the mob to a near death level, or kill them from a fall, then use a water current to drag them into a lava "tail". The first method you need to be able to make it so that the mob spawns in a pit around the mob spawner block. This pit doesn't need to be deep, but it needs to be enough to where the mob cannot jump back up. (This depth will vary depending on how deep the dungeon is.) The next step is to make the bottom of the pit a water current that flows from a side of the pit (generally eight blocks outward and two to three blocks wide.) to either another current or a grinder. The grinder is the most difficult contraption to make, depending on your reflexes and the odd nature of lava's physics. You will want to make a 'concentrated' lava flow so that it flows in the length of your water current, but there is a catch. The tail. (For example; your pitfall is twenty blocks deep, has a water current of 3 blocks on a side, leading 8 blocks out, you'd need a 'tail' 3 blocks wide)A tail is created by cutting off the lava's flow of downward momentum by using either signs or ladders. Ladders are generally easier to make and stack, so your next step is to make an elevated spot,about halfway through your current(s) that the grinder will rest on and continue the flow of the drops.. Once you've found your suitable spot where you put your grinder, you will need to place either your ladders or signs at the overhang that the elevation created so that it doesn't block the water flow. Now that you've got the concept, the next part is rather tricky; finding where to put your lava flow. The tail of the lava is a key point to this method; you don't want to burn the drops, you don't want the mob to live, and you don't want to end up being killed yourself, somehow. You will need to place your contained lava flow(s) at a certain number of blocks that will make a 'tail' at the end of the ladder so that the mobs will run into it, burn to death, drop the items, and continue the flow. This will require some patience trial-and-error to create, but the payoff is rather worth the effort. After you've successfully killed a few mobs, make sure that you are still in range of the spawner, and create your collection spot. This is much easily done and illustrated then read. Look for videos on YouTube if you are having difficultly. This method is also used mainly for larger scale mob spawner towers and friendly mob traps, but works all the same for SMP or anything that you require it for.

Cactus Traps
These are the most cost and time effective traps. First, make water flowing to one side of the dungeon. Next, make a hole on that side big enough to house a few, fully-grown cacti. Make sure to make the cacti one block off the ground to lessen the chances of drops getting destroyed (again, remember that mobs will always try to float, thus making them "jump" into the cacti.)

Spider Cactus Trap
This trap works very well on spiders and is very easy to make. First dig two layers down in the spawner room. Then, choose an end that is five blocks wide and dig down four blocks. Dig out a five wide by seven long by three high room. Next, take away two blocks on the side, one block away from the hole above the room, place blocks to make a five by five hole. Then place two cacti one block above the levelled out layer at the spawner by placing another block to support the sand. Make sure that the cacti are each one block away from the wall. Then on the opposite wall put water source blocks all along the back wall. Then put a glass layer above the spawner. This will make sure that spiders can't spawn anywhere but in the trap. In the bottom room, put water source blocks in the holes you dug earlier and in the back corners to make a central collection point. Dig stairs up all the way to the glass roof above the spawner. Now your trap is done.

Optional: Put some glass above the cacti to ensure that the spiders stay at the cacti once there.

Simple Cactus Trap
Also known as a checkerboard trap, this trap involves removing blocks and replacing them with sand in a way that the floor looks like a checkerboard. Then, you place cacti on the sand blocks. Now, whenever mobs spawn, they will constantly be damaged by the cacti.

Cactus Border Trap
Simply dig a 4 deep trench in the edges and corners of the dungeon (put sand in 1 layer now), and make a hole big enough for you to crawl in. Block it off with two block easy to remove (your choice of sand, dirt or cobblestone), but first plant cacti in those edges. Wait for it to grow. This won't work with spiders because they can see you through walls. The skel/zomb will wander into the cactus border, hpefully get killed eventually, and drop loot. Set to peaceful or make temp torches. Collect loot and reset into hole.

Other
Traps that use unusual methods that aren't used that often, such as huge pits, fall into this category.
 * Pit Trap
 * For this method, you must dig a pit that reaches far under the dungeon. Depending on the height (at least 23 blocks), the mob will die on impact, as long as there isn't 2+ blocks of water at the bottom. However, this method takes a long time to make and only works for spawners near or above the surface.


 * Sunlight Trap
 * The sunlight trap is like the pit trap, only in the opposite direction. You dig straight up around the spawner block until you reach the surface to let sunlight in. This will only work with zombie and skeleton spawners, because they burn in sunlight. This trap is easiest to make if the dungeon is close to the surface. Unfortunately, this method is extremely ineffective, as mobs will not spawn in sunlight, even from a spawner.