Talk:Monster Spawner

THe range for a spawner to start spinning and to create mobs/locate your presence is at 13 blocks, monster spawners can work in the day as long as there is no light and pig spawners just need sufficent light.

Light?
Has anyone tested whether mobs will spawn during the day? Or underwater? I can't seem to find an answer, although I dont think they do during the day (even if there is no light around the spawner).


 * I'm pretty sure they spawn during the day; after all, mobs can spawn anywhere in darkness, even during the day. Why not around mob spawners? Though to be honest, I'm pretty sure many people's mob farms work during the day, if they keep the spawner enclosed in darkness. - JC 00:01, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

I can try and test a few of these things. I post the results here soon. --WallShadow 23:55, 5 October 2010 (UTC) Update 1: I have tested a few things,(note: all of these tests were done with artifical mob spawners(mob spawners i placed using hax), the results might be different for natural mob spawners, as artifical mob spawners can only spawn pigs). 1. mob spawners do work in full daylight 2. mob spawners can ONLY spawn mobs on land. the mob spawner may not spawn mobs into water, on water, or on air(i mean with nothing under it). if a mob spawner is in water, it will only spawn mobs if there is a patch of land near by. 3. artifical mob spawners can still spawn mobs even if you completely surround it with torchs, Im guessing that it works with artifical mob spawners because pigs can spawn both in light and dark, while hostile mobs can only spawn in dark areas. Although thats just my opinion, feel free to state any other possibilities. 4. im guessing by the tests that the spawn radius is about 3-4 blocks away, but im not sure, it is just my educated guess.

This info has been proudly brought to you by the Institute of Redstone, where world domination is our goal! --WallShadow 00:17, 6 October 2010 (UTC)


 * While I appreciate you taking the time to do tests, I'm afraid they were in vain, as friendly mob spawners do behave differently to regular mob spawners, and thus most your information does not apply.
 * 1. Dungeon spawners do not work in daylight. That's why surrounding them with torches stops them.
 * 2. Dungeon spawners do not need land. Pigs only spawn on grass, that's why hacked spawners need grass.
 * 3. AFAIK, Pig spawners will only spawn pigs when properly lit, but I'm not sure.
 * 4. I think the spawn radius is about 5 blocks. That's why dungeons are that size.
 * So, yeah... That's what I gotta say about the issue. Noroom 01:42, 7 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Noroom, I just made a pig spawner+grinder+collection method and in my testing, it seems it really does not matter at all whether the spawner itself is lit, but the grass tile in which the pig spawns is lit properly for pigs to spawn. I could be wrong, but that's what I saw, as I put a wall in between the spawner and the grassy tile, and the spawner was not lit.  I will need to do some more extensive testing.  Also, I am a bit glad they only spawn on grassy tiles so it is easier to control the flow of pigs, but also hard because when you want to make an underground spawner, you need grass.  99seconds 01:14, 7 December 2010 (CST)


 * I have done extensive tests with both a zombie spawner and a spider spawner in Beta SSP and no amount of torchlight, including torches placed directly next to the spawner, prevented mobs from spawning. Additionally, the zombie spawner was conveniently close to the surface so I opened the ceiling to sunlight and I can confirm that no zombies were generated when the spawner was exposed to daylight. I have updated this wiki to reflect my findings. --KADC 10:41, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

I undid Caseysquad's new edit stating that torches prevent mob spawners from generating monsters as this point is currently under dispute both above and under Beta discussion below. --KADC 01:33, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

I got a spawner and a spawnerGUI using a hack and mods and it works fine if I enclose my room with wood. (Creeper, spider, skeleton, and zombie spawner.) Vultraz 15:16, 7 February 2011 (UTC) Also, pigs can actually spawn from a hacked spawner on any non-liquid material if the material is at light level 7 or above, I believe (not confirmed yet, but I have seen pigs spawn on cobblestone in my collection machine.)

BM: I found a spider monster spawner near the surface and opened it to said surface. It did not spawn anything when it was daytime, proving that direct sunlight will disable spider monster spawners. If any of what I have said changes, please contact my immidiately as I have a farm of the spiders and would like to be aware of that fact if it comes to light (No pun intended) -Blocking Mars (BM) 7/22/2011

Empty spawner
I had discovered this dungeon earlierand looted it's chests, but after returning to loot the mossy cobblestone I noticed the Mob Spawner was empty. After a few minutes it did spawn a spider like it did before, but there is no warning. Is this common? External Image Link - AARST
 * probably a bug.--Kizzycocoa 09:02, 11 September 2010 (CDT)
 * That happened to me too. Megadog 23:07, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I got this also, but with a zombie spawner as well as as a spider one. I think it might have to do with fancy/fast graphics. Jaeil 22:38, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

The monster spawner works like regular spawning, i.e. It won't activate unless the user is near it. I don't know how close you have to be for it to start working, but my guess is that it's the same distance as regular spawning. Once the player is close enough the spawner starts generating mobs. Since it only spawns periodically, there is going to be a delay before the mobs start appearing. When you first break into a dungeon, the spawner has been "running" for a while, which is why it's usually full of mobs, but if you run right to it, it may not have had enough time to start spawning yet.

Indev? Infdev? Alpha?
Is this on Indev? Infdev? Alpha? Blha303 11:04, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Alpha SuperLlama 21:32, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

2 spawners?
is it very common to find 2 mob spawners in the same cave and having them in an adjacent room?
 * No. Noroom 20:21, 11 October 2010 (CDT)


 * It's certainly not common, but I found two like this last week. If I didn't already have a zombie and a skeleton spawner "set up" to harvest feathers and arrows I'd have loved to have kept these two for the convenience, and if they weren't located under a lake I would have kept them anyway and made them into daylight "traps" since they were both very close to the surface. --KADC 10:55, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Halloween Update
I´ve had a mobspawner almost at the bottom of the map witch was "disarmed" by placing torches around it. But now after the update it doesn´t seem to help how many torches I put in the room, it still keeps spawning mobs. Anyone know if it´s possible to stop a mobspawner at the bottom of a map anymore?

btw playing Alpha -It seems to be that, at a certain depth, light of level 14 just does not do anything anymore. So yeah, try my solution of dumping lava in from the ceiling. It may not stop spawning (not sure yet), but it will kill the mobs before they become a nuisance-Icalasari 22:04, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

Also, about the Halloween update, has it been confirmed that Ghasts and Zombie Pigmen can be spawned? 99seconds 23:10, 17 November 2010 (UTC)


 * YES, Zombie Pigmen and Ghasts CAN be edited to spawn by a mob spawner, even on Earth. -F1racer101 23:30, 17 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Hacked Ghast spawners exist, so it is definitely possible. However, Ghasts being a Nether-exclusive mob, I doubt that a dungeon in the real world would spawn Ghasts.  Same for the zomb pigmen. Jaeil 17:32, 17 November 2010 (CST)

Nope, zombiepigs ar not a nether-exclusive mob. They CAN spawn when a pig get hit by a lightning bolt.

Activation Area
I had noticed that spawners seem not to function if you are a certain distance away from them. There did not seem to be any information about this on the page, so I did a test. It seem that a spawner will only work if it is within 16 squares of you. I have only tested this horizontally. slothen42 15:54 November 08, 2010 (UTC)


 * Just to make sure we're on the same page, this is SSP you're talking about, correct? Noroom 10:56, 9 November 2010 (UTC)


 * That is exactly what I mean. I have not tested this in SMP, as the SMP server I play on is currently set to nether and spawners seem not to work in the nether. slothen42 16:54 November 10, 2010 (UTC)


 * I have a spawner trap set up with a water current conveying the drops to me, the collection spot is ~20 blocks away, and when i'm standing there, nothing drops... when i then walk to the mob spawner it starts spawning mobs... Bnm12 06:31, 21 November 2010 (CST)

...


 * I have done extensive tests with both a zombie spawner and a spider spawner in Beta SSP and I can confirm slothen42's findings that the spawner activates when the player is withing 16 blocks of the spawner horizontally. Unfortunately I never thought to test the range vertically. --KADC 10:49, 15 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I did even more extensive testing on 1.0 (SMP). The spawning area is a 31 block sphere around the spawner.  This is 15 blocks in any direction with the spawner at the center (the spawner makes the 16th block).  Note that the vertical distances appear larger when you are below the spawner due to the height of the player.  Standing directly below the spawner there can actually be 17 blocks distance from it because your head will be in the spawning area.  This affects all vertical distances in the sphere below the spawner.  I updated the Spawning Behavior section to reflect this information. --Globster8 19:14, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

Hitpoints
Can the Mob Spawners be destroyed? Drenay 07:45, 17 November 2010 (CST)


 * Yes. Takes 'bout 20 seconds. Jaeil 17:32, 17 November 2010 (CST)

Slimes and Ghasts
can someone test slime/ghast spawners in their appropriate enviroments? slimes can't be tested, yes. but ghasts could, if used in Hell. slimes could if another additional parameter was set. a "size" perameter.--Kizzycocoa 13:37, 20 November 2010 (CST)


 * Just found out that Ghasts can spawn, even outside the Nether. --Fifteen (talk 19:55, 20 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah. If you want a video, look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ngGBMRePs :3 --Scykei 19:42, 20 November 2010 (CST)

Pig Spawners and Mob Cap
I've tested out a mob spawner using an inventory editor, which results in spawning a large number of pigs. But, I also recall that there is a limit to the number of mobs that can be on the map at once, with separate counts for hostile and passive mobs. But do pigs spawned by a mob spawner count against the cap for passive mobs? Or are they, being created by a spawner rather than at random, not affected by the normal limit? I do hope they are subject to the normal limit for passive mobs, as the room I put that mob spawner in would have space for a lag-inducingly high number of pigs. --Valos 17:21, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Mob Spawner Enemies VS Natural Spawn Enemies
I came across a dungeon/cavern today which contained a Skeleton Mob Spawner.

As I was fighting off the 4 skeletons in there, a fifth skeleton came out from the Cavern and began shooting at the Skeletons spawned by the spawner. (Which made it much easier, as the spawned skeletons were too busy fighting off the cavern skelly to notice me.)

Is this a bug, or is it meant to happen?

--Buggyman 04:38, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

When Skeletons shoot, sometimes they accidentally hit another mob. in this case, the skeleton. When that skeleton got hit by the other skeleton it turned hostile against it. All mobs do this. for instance, when a skelton hits a creeper, the creeper will chase the skeleton from then on, as the skeleton will protect itself.

--Rbanh 01:14, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right place, but when my friend tried to place a monster spawner in our server (op'd in monster spawner), it failed to spawn anything. Is there some condition preventing it? Anyone know? --Xanthyx

Beta 1.2
It appears player-placed Monster Spawners are spawning Cows every now and again since the update. Can anyone else confirm this? SteveZombie 11:42, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't know if that's happening, but I can no longer find Spawners using the rapid-F trick-- Only Torches, natural fire, and the Skybox show up. Ariamaki 01:33, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Prevent Mob Spawners from spawning Mobs in Beta
Talk:Monster Spawner

I've read that in Beta Mobs spawn although there are torches around it, I can confirm this. But in the aricle it says As of Beta or possibly earlier, surrounding a spawner with torches does not prevent monsters from spawning. With the exception of sunlight as noted below, the only way to prevent a Monster Spawner block from spawning monsters is to destroy it. and when I placed a block on a mob spawn the skeletton inside just kept turning around in the spawner, but didn't actually spawn. So this is wrong. If someone confirms this I'll edit that into the article. T4b 21:47, 15 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I've tested this on a skeleton grinder of mine. 2 deaths and a lot of damage later, I can confirm that torchlight still prevents mobs from spawning out of a mob spawner, and moreover, simply surrounding the spawner with torches on all sides prevents spawning.  Considering that neither Notch nor any other page of the wiki, including the updates page, has stated otherwise, I shall take the liberty of removing the bullet point in question. Troagador 22:43, 15 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Two of us (myself and T4b above) have confirmed that torch light, including surrounding the mob spawner with torches, does not prevent mobs from spawning. From my own experience torch light has never been a reliable way of preventing mobs from spawning despite claims to the contrary, but whatever may have changed from update to update, I can confirm that as of right this moment in Beta 1.2 SSP no amount of torchlight prevents mobs from spawning as I am watching them spawn in torchlight as I am writing this.


 * I cannot explain why they are not spawning for you, Troagador, but I am looking at them spawning for me and T4b has confirmed the same. Even if this is a random bug, clearly torchlight is not a consistent way to prevent mobs from spawning. --KADC 03:07, 16 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I should have been less hasty with my editing. It would seem that this concept requird further exploration.  In the mean time, feel free to replace the missing bullet point with whatever you discern to be best - something along the lines of torchlight not being sufficient in all circumstances. Troagador 16:29, 16 January 2011 (UTC)


 * In Notch's (Jan 14) blog entry he notes that he "fixed a whole pile of lighting bugs" which may or may not affect mob spawners, but since some changes (biomes for example) only take place in newly generated chunks, and since I destroyed my nearby spider spawner testing Dyon's claim that destroying spawners with a pick axe gives a spawner block which can be placed to produce pigs (see below) I'm going to experiment with the next dungeon I find in a new chuck to see if I can notice any changes in spawner behaviour before I make any new edits with regard to light affecting mob spawners. --KADC 01:02, 17 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I wonder if we should move this conversation to Light? rather than start new headings every time there is a new major Minecraft revision or should we create a major talk heading for Beta and add new subheadings for all Beta talk? --KADC 01:02, 17 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm getting that surrounding with torches isn't enough, torchlight is still effective, so surroudning it with torches and having maybe one or two more can prevent spawning. I can definetely confirm that enough torch light still prevents mob spawn in a dungeon. Troagador 01:24, 21 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I've got it sussed now. I blackened out a spider trap and found that whilst the surrounding the spawner and adjusting the light level acting on it didn't prevent spawning, it can if it makes the dungeon as a whole bright enough.  By partitioning the dungeon into two sides, a light and dark half, with the spawner fully surrounded by torches, it's possible to have spiders spawning in one half of the dungeon but not the other, so essentially the spawning is the same, but the ability to nullify a spawner by surrounding it has been removed.  Can anyone confirm that torchlight still nullifies monster spawner spawns so that we can get this straightened out - I don't really want to edit anything here just based on my results. Troagador 01:43, 21 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm not seeing this behaviour at all - I've just surrounded a zombie spawner with four torches and it's not spawned a thing since. If you're seeing mobs spawn around a lit spawner, is it possible there is still a dark area nearby, or maybe even another dungeon in the vicinity? I'm pretty sure that if four torches alone weren't enough to stop a spawner, then the forums and other communities would have been full of posts saying so. --DannyF1966 16:42, 24 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Since mob spawners generate mobs within a 4 block radius it would be impossible for another spawner to be responsible for mobs appearing next to another spawner unless it was inside the same dungeon. Further, torchlight at brightness 14 minus 1 per block means the corners a dungeon with the spawner surrounded by torches are light level 9 which is still 2 levels higher than the maximum level of 7 required for hostile mobs to form so there cannot be a "dark area" inside an unmodified dungeon. Although sunlight stops mob spawners from spawning (my near-surface zombie spawner exposed to the sky doesn't spawn during the day and no-one has posted anything to the contrary) it still spawns at night with six torches inside the dungeon walls which absolutely has no dark areas.


 * If there is a lack of discussion in the forums it is likely due to most players using the safest method of emptying chests via making a hole in the wall behind them and staying outside the dungeon and destroying spawners from directly underneath them. To everyone except those of us willing to take the time to experiment in order to maintain the accuracy of this Wiki this is probably a non-issue.


 * Ideally, if Notch would tell us what the behaviour of spawners is supposed to be we could put this question to rest and know that their unpredictable behaviour is due to unaddressed programming issues, but until then some of us are not seeing torches prevent spawners from generating mobs and those of you who able to stop them with torches need to accept that this isn't the case for everyone. --KADC 18:04, 24 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Dungeonexperiment.png

Hey people, I have something by way of evidence documenting my findings. It's a mob spawner split into two sections, a light and dark one. The only light in the room is provided by the eight torches surrounding the spawner diagonally and adjacantly, and all the spiders have spawned in the darker half, with the brighter area as safe as ever. I can be sure this is not a coincidence becuase there were no spawns when the dungeon was fully lit by torchlight. Troagador 22:05, 26 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Normally mobs can't spawn within 24 blocks of the player so the spiders had to have been generated by the spawner, so you did an excellent job of showing that surrounding a spawner with torches doesn't prevent it from spawning, meaning that is is the light level, not the position of torches that is the issue.


 * Unfortunately I was just at an old dungeon (I haven't found one generated in a post Beta chunk yet) with six torches in it and spiders are quite happily spawning away inside. By my calculations there is no block inside with a light level under 11 yet spiders are still spawning. (I'll get some glass to cover it with so I can make a screen shot like yours.)


 * Back at my "barbeque" dungeon, which is a zombie spawner exposed to the sky, it's still generating zombies at night despite 4 torches (minimum light level 10 anywhere inside) but no mobs are generated after sunrise.


 * I don't know if it's a revision issue or what, and T4b didn't specify if it was an old dungeon or a new one, but my spider dungeon would have been generated just prior to Beta and the zombie dungeon would have been generated possibly around October though I didn't find it until December. --KADC 23:21, 26 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I finally found a new dungeon in a new chunk last night, and after I placed two torches on the inside wall near two corners of the dungeon the spiders stopped spawning. Removing one torch caused spiders to start spawning again, but curiously, they did not appear in the dark spot at the opposite corner which would have been below illumination 7, they appeared directly next to the spawner where the light level would have been 10 at the lowest. Replacing the torch, thus raising light everywhere inside the dungeon above level 7, stopped the spiders from spawning again. This tells us that, per Troagador's experiment above, it is not light around the spawner but rather raising the light level everywhere inside the spawning radius that prevents spawning.


 * I then revisited two previous dungeons with torches in the same place as this new dungeon, plus many more, and they are still generating spiders and zombies respectively regardless of torch placement.


 * Since the only changes that don't affect everything in the game universally are biomes, I'm curious if spawning behaviour is different from biome to biome. However, I accept that light does stop mobs from spawning inside dungeons at this point and that my old dungeons are using "old code" that must make them immune to torchlight. I'll return Troagador's previous edit to the wiki page. --KADC 20:09, 30 January 2011 (UTC)


 * This is a mystery. The dungeon in the picture is a post beta one, and was generated before the biomes update was added.  I'll do some more experimenting with a post-biome, pre-beta dungeon, and see if I can find a post-beta one as well.  The idea about biomes is a pretty cool one.  Troagador 22:17, 31 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I just found a new dungeon with a spider spawner and after I placed torches inside the dungeon walls and destroyed the spiders, five or six more spiders were generated. No more were spawned after I killed those however.


 * Someone posted in the trivia that sometimes a mob will instantly appear when a block is destroyed in a place that would allow a mob to spawn and I wonder if spawners have a cache, though I've never noticed this happening before. --KADC 11:33, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Have you tried covering the entire floor with torches yet? Vultraz 15:09, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

I see no evidence to suggest that you can actually disable a monster spawner by placing a single torch on top of it in 1.8. If no one can confirm this works, I suggest the wiki be updated to reflect that. Slayorious 4:04, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

Pick Up Destroyed Mob Spawner
Dyon made an edit stating that he or she was able to pick up a mob spawner destroyed with a pick axe and when placed on grass it spawned a pig. Upon reading this I destroyed a spider spawner with a pick axe in Beta 1.2 SSP and no spawner block was produced. With respect to Dyon, I undid his or her edit. Could Dyon please state which version he or she is playing and if it is modded or not?

If someone else can duplicate this in an unmodified version of Minecraft this should be added as a note that it is sometimes possible to pick up a mob spawner, but it should not be changed to being always possible at this time (unless it shows up in Notch's notes, obviously). --KADC 10:02, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Just attempted with a clean version and a diamond pickaxe. Still, it doesn't give back the spawner as a resource --Master7432


 * Using a diamond pickaxe in SMP harvests the spawner, although it may be a plugin on our server. Still turns out as a piggy one when placed. I'll hop over to SSP and try now. Ordona 00:38, 17 April 2011 (UTC)
 * After trying 4 times with a diamond pick in SSP, the spawner was not harvested once. Ordona 00:44, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

I blew a mob spawner in a dungeon up with a creeper.It has to be directly next to it.A version 5.1_01 glitch maybe? –The preceding unsigned comment was added by Grantcop2 (Talk 11:29, 22 April 2011. Please sign your posts with

Mob Spawner randomly changes to spawn pigs?
I'm not sure whether this was a bug or what it could have been but I found a dungeon no more than 8 layers down in a new world I started right next to where I begun to dig my mines. Strangely enough the moment I cleared out the zombies and lit the room the zombie spawner changed into a pig spawner. I'm guessing this is a bug because I've read up and there doesn't seem to be any information of this being a feature of the game. I actually created a tunnel to bring grass down into the dungeon and covered the floor with grass and it does in fact spawn pigs. I now have an underground dungeon full of really annoying pigs. So perhaps this can happen by a bug? Or perhaps there's a method to making it happen that I didn't realize I met? --WertyRules


 * I'm unclear on what you're describing. Did it spawn pigs before you brought the grass down? Friendly mobs will spawn anywhere there is grass and light, so are you seeing them being generated by the spawner? --KADC 18:58, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
 * You can tell it's spawning pigs if the pigs are spawning when you are looking and making a smoke effect. I want to see a picture of the spawner. And you're sure that it was generated in vanilla minecraft and everything, right? [[File:Tjb0607SigIcon.png]] 21:46, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I forgot I posted this. Well now I'm certain of it. The general trend seems to be light the spawner and it will change to the appearance and function of a pig spawner. Though in the darkness it will work to spawn whatever it originally spawned (skeleton, zombie or spider.) Though if you keep it lit and put grass in the area it will in fact spawn pigs. I watched and they all had the clouds of smoke coming out as they appeared... and... well 40 pigs in a room with no other passive mob is evidence enough. I'm playing on a server through mineshafter though so this might be affecting it but I'm pretty sure it's just a glitch involved with playing on a server because all my offline games don't do this, whether I play through mineshaft or not. WertyRules 06:48, 14 May 2011

I believe this was an error caused by a user created map as u kno, when you hack a spawner in to the game it spawns pigs until modded to spawn something else (there are no youtube videos on this subject and idk how to do it but my sisters boyfriend will teach me soon). So i believe the ingame computer mistaked this particular spawner with a user created one, causing it to spawn pigs. I hope this helps -vortigon10

Easy way to find Spawners
I heard that whenever you hear a specific kind of music, it indictaes a spawner is nearby. Is there anyway to find Spawners easily, like is there a specific kind of block commonly found around Spawners? --CakeEqualsLie 21:38, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

The most noticeable distinction is mossy cobblestone, which appears only in dungeons. Any cobblestone you didn't place will either be a part of a dungeon or a result of a lava and water stream colliding. Listening for sounds of large amounts of the same monster while in caves can lead you to them as well, as it's rare for monsters to spawn in very large groups of one type. -Lucien 21:45, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes in fact it does play rather depressing music that is instantly recognizable, i tend to find dungeons far down in lava lakes below open sea, make sure your bring a bucket and make a big hole cuase removing lava is sometimes nesassary or you can just health hack it :)-vortigon10, and if one of you could tell me how you add a comment and not edit it wud help XD as i litterely just joined so i could help you guys out

Giving a Mob Spawner?
Does anyone know the damage values for each the mob spawners? it would be useful to find this out and post it?
 * I just tested using INVedit to modify the damage values from 0 - 8 and all came out as pig spawns. Andross12 18:40, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Andross, there is no specific damage as it changes depending on where you are hit and its a random number between 2 numbers, i just recomend making diamond armor and hoping you made a good shelter XD-vortigon10
 * He's talking about the Meta value of the block (also known as the damage value), not the damage done by monsters. And to answer the original question, I'm not certain the mob spawned is controlled by a meta/damage value, I came to this page looking for the same answer, but upon looking at the code for the TileEntity responsible for mob spawners, the mob spawned is stored in its own variable, not the meta value. LordFlower

Disabling monster spawners
My own experimentations with this in SSP have failed, so can we get a citation for this (i.e. video)? Darkid 00:58, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Re-That citation: That is what I've done, however mobs still spawn. Can we get a *video* for this?
 * I cannot disable monster spawners like the citation picture shows. Is this really correct? Mila 16:01, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Great, another person against this! One more, and it's definitively off. Darkid 16:18, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Tested, doesn't work. Raswi 21:33, 18 March 2011 (UTC)Raswi

Ok guys the range for a spawner is 15 blocks so you need to keep the area well lit, ther is currently no way to disable spawners, torches only manage to slow down the spawning process, so you can slow it down or you MAY not definetly be able to disable it if you put a torch in each 15 blocks reaching away from it that are not properly lit, as the spawners check this area for a dark spot in order to spawn a mob. Vortigon10 06:54, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Glitch when mobs turned off on multiplayer
I placed a spawner while mobs were turned off on the server. Even after the spawner was destroyed, pigs were generated, but were not vulnerable to any kind of damage (setting on fire, TNT, even lava). Anybody have a solution? I have a feeling this is going to generate major lag. (I am aware of the last note on the article). Magnitetion 05:40, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
 * The pigs are client-side only, disconnecting a reconnecting to the server should make them disappear. IPeer 17:32, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

Creeper Monster Spawner
It says on the wiki that spawners can spawn creepers, although this is definitely possible with hacks, can it occur naturally? Darkid 22:22, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

darkid im afraid the natural spawners arent set to spawn creapers what so ever, the percentage chance is this out of 100% 50%-zombie 25%-spider 25%-skeleton as you can see there is no room left for the creeper, any youtube videos containing creepers, ghats, or giants have been hacked Vortigon10 06:57, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Also darkid if they did have creeper spawners wouldn't the creepers blow up the spawner?

4 torches aren't enough anymore since 1.5?
For some reason, it sometimes happens (since 1.5, but I´m not sure) that spawner still generates mobs even after I surrounded it with 4 torches, but not that quick as without them. - AIAS-5 01:17, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

They made this update so it only slows down spawners, since a spawners range is 15 blocks in every direction it can still spawn in other rooms, you had better just destroy it Vortigon10 06:17, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

Sarcophagus?
What happens if you surround the spawner with stone blocks? --J-wad 07:39, 9 June 2011 (UTC)


 * That depends how far out from the spawner is solid stone blocks; you would need a solid 9x9x9 cube with the spawner in the exact center to completely prevent it from spawning mobs in that way (this is my understanding based on what the article says of its spawning radius; someone correct me (and the article!) if I'm/it's wrong). All in all, it's far easier just using torches around it. 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 07:51, 9 June 2011 (UTC)


 * On the other hand, if you simply close the spawner off completely with the walls outside the spawn radius, any mobs that spawn will spawn in the box, preventing them from getting out. 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 07:52, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

Dr jones, this occured because although it is peacefull, spawned enemies sometimes get the chance to play there specific sound recording or activate a drop item before they are despawned, it is supposedly rare but has happened to me on several occasions. So while you may sometimes get an arrow out of it, they are no threat whatsoever, as mobs must go through a startup sequence before they can attack you.

Inconsistency regarding acquisition
Under “Bugs”, there is the claim that “As of Beta 1.4, on multiplayer, monster spawners are extremely rarely found inside of dungeon chests.”. Under “Trivia”, there is the claim that “There is no way to legitimately get a monster spawner to place.”.

Is it really a bug that spawners appear(ed) in chests? And do they still do so, or do they no longer as of some version since 1.4? As it stands, the two statements are contradictory.

Hawk777 07:55, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Tick inconsistency
Article Tick declares that the tick concerning redstone mechanics is 1/10 seconds, whereas this article uses the term tick for a 1/20 second period. I think something should be changed, anyone has any ideas on the subject? | TheKax |  Talk   15:44, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

I have also heard in the discussion page for mushroom farming that there is another more complex variety of tick for mushroom spread mechanics. Basilisk 09:22, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

200 ticks at a rate of 20 ticks a second is 10 seconds. Recently I saw a mob spawner take 11 seconds between spawning times. So the calculation is correct. MinecraftFan1 06:48, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

Zombie monster spawner
As of Minecraft 1.8, zombies no longer drop feathers on death. Instead 0-2 pieces of rotten meat/flesh is dropped. The trivia section needs to be updated to reflect the change.

silverfish?
I know that enderman (very rarely) and cave spider (mine shafts) spawners are naturally generated, but are the silverfish spawners as well? Xeoxer 15:24, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

yea, i found one in the stronghold, the endermen entity is outside the cage

no, there are no natural endermen spawners, but thre is one silverfish spawner at the end of each stringhold, where the portal blocks are.

Spawning?
If ther's a slime spawner, size of slime is chosen randomly (small, medium, big), but if it has to spawn sheep, they are always white instead of random wool colour like slimes. Also villagers spawn only in their brown uniform. Why is that? Xeoxer 13:39, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

Collecting a spawner?
I heard that with the "silk touch" enchantment, you can pick up a spawner. Does anybody know if this trick really works?

As of 1.9.4, yes. As of 1.9.5, no.

Creeper spawner.
I shit you not, I was exploring the seed Fire, and I find a floating Island with a big crater under it, on top of it was a wood building with lots of holes, and in the middle, I swear to god, was a spawner, with a creeper spinning in it. I dont think this was a dungeon cause there were no chests. I destroyed the spawner and then made the building into a cool lighthouse, at first I thought it was a new thing, because my computer cant run minecraft, so I dont play as much as I would like, this was at a friends house, I'm sorry, no screenshot I had already destroyed it when I told my friend and he said "Take a screenshot." Its ok if you dont believe me, but if you do, can someone explain what it was? Nano115 00:31, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

Does your friend have mods? --Captain_Clam 01:43, 3 November 2011 (UTC) Here's a world map: If anyone can resize it so it's not giant, please do. Anyway I naver saw any creeper spawner, so it must be a mod. --Captain_Clam 02:15, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

It's from the mod Floating Ruins. Dbptwg 16:49, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Chance of two spawns?
I have stayed in a spider spawner in Minecraft 1.0 and i noticed something. It seems there is a chance (mabye 1 in 5) that two spiders will be spawned instead of one. I have seen it several times. Someone please tell me if anyone else has seen this.

Yes, I've seen this with most spawners, including passive mobs such as cow and chicken spawners (hacked in) =)

Yes, there can be from 1-4 (4 being fairly rare) spawns of any animal from a spawner.

silktouch in 1.0
Will placing a spawner (after obtaining it with silktouch) make it disfunctional? The text only says that the pig-problem is fixed, not how it was fixed.

reply: You may place pig spawners in 1.0+ that you got while silk touch affected them, without any loss of function. Properly designed mob traps however will run up against the passive mob limit.

Redstone Spawner Shutdown
I noticed that there was a section about redstone shutting down spawners. This is actually in Risugami's mod, Spawner GUI. Is it OK if I remove it? Bobbysq 04:00, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

8x8x3 spawning area
I understand the 3 is for one above, one below, and one on the level of the spawner, but the 8x8 part is what is confusing me. Is it a certain direction that spawns more mobs than others? like if you put a + and center the spawner, then orient yourself so you face north, which quadrant will have the more spawning space and which only has a few? The article fails to mention if it is direction based or random for each spawned. 184.19.11.214 18:15, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

As Etho explains in his Cave Spider/Blaze farms, the spawn area is lopsided. The way to figure out which direction is bigger is by pressing F3 and looking at the coordinates. Find the diagonal direction in which both your X and Z values increment. the spawn area will extend until 3 diagonal blocks away from the spawner in this direction, and 4 blocks away in the opposite.

+X,+Z [x][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] [ ][x][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] [ ][ ][x][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] [ ][ ][ ][S][ ][ ][ ][ ] [ ][ ][ ][ ][x][ ][ ][ ] [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][x][ ][ ] [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][x][ ] [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][x] -X,-Z

Mid-air Spawning


This seems to be a new phenomenon, can anyone confirm if this is new or have I just missed it? This is using 1.0.0 JohnnyAlpha 22:55, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Mid-air Spawning is not new, but only applies to monster spawners. This applies only if the light level in those squares is within the limit normally required for that monster to spawn. Lumifly 15:24, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

OK, thanks JohnnyAlpha 18:03, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Spawning Spawners
You can in fact spawn different spawners, at least with essentials. Just /i 52:7 1 for example. I believe 7 is either creeper or enderman. I am sure the vanilla /give would work too. Just /give playername 52:7 1. Enjoy, and make sure not to accidentally give enderdragons :O 71.142.130.19 06:18, 8 December 2011 (UTC) DaleK

The vanilla command doesn't work.

Enderman Trivia
"There are no Enderman Spawners because they can remove blocks in dungeons." - even if they were still able to move dungeon blocks, is there an actual source for this? Because I'd have thought the reason for there being no Enderman Spawners in dungeons would have more to do with them not spawning hostile... - Tomlough 19:18, 11 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Spiders spawn from monster spawners, but they're not hostile while in sunlight.
 * While this is all speculation (and them moving dungeon blocks might still be a reason), I think the real reason they don't is it doesn't tie into the "storyline", where endermen are from the end, and have travelled to the overworld from the portals in strongholds. – ultradude25 ( T &#124; C ) at 19:25, 11 December 2011 (UTC)


 * I think you misunderstood my point. Firstly the page shouldn't state that that's the reason without a reliable source, but secondly the point of the spawner in the dungeon is to make it a challenge - a bunch of endermen just standing there squeaking doesn't make raiding the dungeon remotely challenging. Likewise, there are no pigman spawners. The spider thing is irrelevant - my point was that surely the reason for there not being Enderman spawners (if any) is that they wouldn't be challenging enough? There are plenty of mobs without spawners.
 * I wasn't trying to debate the reason though, merely the line itself. It's a pointless line that shouldn't be there. - Tomlough 23:36, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

zombie spawner in a mountian!
A few days ago I was playing with the seeds and after awhile I found a mountian with a hole in it, after I came close to it, it had a zombie spawner with a zombie in it trying to get dizzy. Since I was in safety mode, I got started making a hole so the zombies would fall in and die. The seed is "cool". I hope the guys at minecraft won't change the terrian! 208.81.114.115 02:34, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Lighting Blaze spawners?
Considering that the nether is always partially lit, would lighting a blaze spawner up with torches stop them from spawning? I think this is important enough that it should be mentioned. Harishimomo 17:49, 30 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Blazes aren't affected by light. The spawning with Monster spawners depends on the mob they are spawning. For example, A spawner can spawn a pig on grass with a light level of 12, but they can't spawn on stone with a light level of 5. &#124; JSan 14:42, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
 * So you're saying that blazes are the only hostile mob which can't be stopped from spawning with the use of light? Considering how many youtube videos I've seen of people lighting up blaze spawners, I think that should be included. I'll just test it again to be sure
 * A light level of 12 or more will stop a blaze from spawning (lightstone gives of 14 i believe, that means you would have to have 1 every 3 blocks within the spawners range (blazes do not spawn more than 5 blocks in each side, 4 blocks above and 1 block below) <--- don't know what the exact amount of spaces it is, just a rough estimate.

Stay right next to the spawner to spawn?
Hello folks,Im twicacax. Ive been playing minecraft 1.8.1 for a few days and found a skeleton spawner. And I decided to make a trap for that.Which is using the water to drawn'em.Of course, It worked.....if Im standing near my trap.If Im not standing nearby,it wont spawn skeletons.So this kinda,suck.that means I need to stand there for an hour to get a stack of bones and arrows?If Im out for adventures,I get nothing from it.So...is there any solutions that can help solve this problem,or is it just the way it is? Thankyou- (you can also contact me by sending email and messages) Email:twicacax@gmail.com Message:Youtube:twicacax
 * The text says that spawners will only work if you are standing within 16 blocks of it. So you must stay near the spawner to make it spawn. --☺ Sven Kein Schwein ruft mich an! 20:34, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Hostile Mob Spawner spawning friendly mobs
under which conditions will which spawners spawn friendly mobs (i.e. pigs)? Can I turn a dungeon into a farm? --GALAKTOSTalk – ceterum censeo error quasi-connectivitatis pistonis delendam esse. 13:55, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * im pretty sure the page alreaedy said this, but animals can spawn with certain conditions. Even at block level 16, if you have grass and light, pigs can spawn. You dont even need a spawner Harishimomo 18:00, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * To answer the question of Galaktos: Monster Spawner can only be manipulated by using 3rd Party Tools (i.e. Mods). I've never seen animals being spawned by these Monster Spawners under normal "modless" circumstances. --84.175.203.100 18:48, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I asked because mob spawn on grass has according to article and experience become quite rare, making it unreliable as a food source, and because I seemed to recall having read that spawners, when exposed to daylight, would start spawning pigs. I guess that was some while ago... --GALAKTOSTalk – ceterum censeo error quasi-connectivitatis pistonis delendam esse. 19:30, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Monster Spawners will only spawn the type of monster you see spinning inside of it. If you edit a spawner to spawn pigs or edit your inventory and place a spawner (all "placed" spawners default to spawning pigs) it will spawn pigs if there are sufficiently lit grass blocks in range. In short, whatever the spawn conditions are for the mob it is trying to spawn need to be met for it to spawn. 65.50.106.175 21:35, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Creative Spawners
They should really add spawners on creative mode.... I wanted to make machines that require spawning animals/mobs with spawn eggs, but I need a mob spawner to make it work when I'm not working with it.

Diamondcraft 23:13, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Villager Spawners?
So i was using toomanyitems' configuration file to change [ spawner:pig ] to [ spawner:villager ] but i cant seem to get this to work. minecraft will not start with toomanyitems installed and this set to villager at the same time. but i would like to make a npc village spawn npc villagers from a spawner so i don't constantly have to use the spawn eggs. Can someone do some research for me for what the item code/ID for a villager is? P.S. I know what im doing i changed it to [ spawner:skeleton ] once while making a trap. -aaronfranke P.P.S. the brackets are there to tell you that that text is in my toomanyitems.txt file. the spaces between the text and brackets do not exist.-aaronfranke (again)
 * Villager says its network ID is 120, so you could try that. You'll get better responses by posting in the TooManyItems thread on the forum. -- Orthotope 03:56, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Monster Spawner Bug
I was playing Minecraft and I found a Dungeon. when I saw the monster spawner, the little skeleton was completely black (was not a spider) and it spawned entirely black skeletons with missing bows. Once I killed some, my XP stayed the same (didn't change) so i updated some more and the mob was changed to skeleton to spider. -Xenix

Blaze spawner - Extremely low rates
So I followed EthosLab's tutorial on Blaze XP farms (here). I followed everthing ''exactly  and yet i only get about 4 blaze spawning, then thats it, nothing more. The spawner loops properly then just does not spawn blaze. The lighting is completely dark, no light possibly leaking in, the blaze's are kept 10 blocks away from the spawner. What could possibly be happening?'' -Minecraft1337

Trivia Location
I was wondering if the trivia section of this page should be moved down to appear after the gallery section to make a more uniform look with the rest of the pages on the wiki. I can move it if anyone would like, but I wanted to throw the idea out there first. What do you all think? Choolio123 14:33, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Give command
Okay, trying to get the command to work, but failing horribly. How do you work it? Let's say I wanted a wolf. This is what I'm typing in: /give Blahname 52 1 95

Is this correct? It keeps spawning pigs instead. 70.140.63.90 04:06, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Ghast spawners
The pseudocode says a ghast needs a random 1 in 20 chance to spawn. I don't believe this is true with spawners. From seeing challenge maps, they always spawn when it tries to. HotdogPi 04:25, 18 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually it's true, the 1/20 chance affects spawners. But since it makes about 80 spawn attempts per second, you will still get a Ghast pretty quickly. This is why it's rare for more than one Ghast to spawn at once, while other mobs often spawn up to four at a time. Last username 10:20, 18 March 2012 (UTC)


 * But the ghasts only spawn when it is time to (between 10 and 40 seconds). And it should have a 1 in 40 chance of not spawning, and it will spawn 4 on average. This assumes there are 80 attempts when it it time to spawn them, and it has a 1 in 20 chance of spawning. Of course, fewer will spawn because the spawner gets in the way. So, I think it works differently. HotdogPi 22:31, 18 March 2012 (UTC)


 * As long as all the spawns keep failing, it will keep spinning at full speed and trying to spawn every tick (20 times/second). It only resets when it spawns at least one mob or when it detects 6 mobs in range. Spawns failing due to space, light, and other things like the Ghasts's 1/20 chance will not reset the timer. Last username 00:37, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Spider jockeys
Can anyone confirm seeing one in 1.2? From the code, it looks like they should only appear when spiders generate naturally, not from spawners. -- Orthotope 08:14, 19 March 2012 (UTC)