Tutorials/Defense

People Involved

 * MinecraftSpyCrab
 * biggysmalls541
 * erik4556

Overview: A Good Defense
Considering the upcoming Adventure Update and the introduction of new creatures, there's a good chance that your base will need defense structures more advanced than just a cobblestone wall. Thus, I propose:

1. All tutorials or mechanisms of defense are brought here.

2. Said articles are organized into chapters

3. Add more defense mechanisms as the game updates or the mind wanders.

By doing this, we can centralize the defenses and make it easier for all players, particularly those new to the game. It will also make updates more manageable as we don't have to scramble all around the wiki.

The best defense measures are those that prevent hostile mobs from spawning entirely or at least prevent hostile mobs from ever getting close to the protected area. As such, integral to all defense systems in Minecraft are:


 * Completeness - all defenses need to completely defend the protected area, so that mobs entering from any side or angle and of any type will not break through


 * Light - a regular system of lighting is needed so that, during the night, hostile mobs will be prevented from spawning within the protected area


 * Sustainability - defenses should work regardless of player input and, ideally, would be able protect an area indefinitely, either by never degrading in the first place (e.g. walls) or by renewing themselves automatically


 * Easy to use - The best defense in the world is useless if it kills the owner. A good defense must be safe and easy to use. If you have to press 2 buttons and destroy a block to activate it, it is too complicated.

Passive Defenses
Passive defences consist of those defences that, without any input or sensory devices, prevent hostile mobs from entering the protected area. The most common example is walls - they do not have to sense a mob coming or sense its position to prevent it from entering a walled off area. The following sections discuss various types of passive defenses, their construction, maintenance, and applicability.

Passive defences generally fall into one or more categories, sorted by their impact on an aggressive force.


 * Delayers slow down the progress of an enemy inwards. A ring of torches is a delayer because it increases the distance mobs must spawn from the structure (and player), thus increasing the time it takes for them to reach the next layer of defence. Soul sand can also slow down mobs.
 * Obstacles are structures that mobs cannot move past without somehow overcoming them. The quintessential obstacle is a wall; a zombie cannot move past a wall without somehow creating a breach or slipping in through an unclosed door.
 * Damagers cause harm to an enemy, in addition to just stopping or slowing them down. They might also do neither, letting the mob through without a reduction in speed, but hitting them for damage as they pass. Currently, damagers either inflict direct hit point damage on a mob, or set them on fire. If additional status effects are added (for example, if the player can create a block which poisons anything that moves over it), these would also fall into this category. A damaging delayer could be a moat of lava; while a damaging obstacle could be a wall of cacti.

It is important to note that each mob type will treat each defence differently; for example, a ring of burning netherrack is a damager to most mobs, but does nothing against zombie pigmen. Likewise, a wall is an obstacle to a creeper, but is a delayer to a spider (and not a very effective one at that).

Walls
Walls are simple vertical barriers and are the most common means of stopping mobs from entering an area. They can be constructed of just about any material, with varying advantages and disadvantages.

These are simple to make, just make sure to:

1) Make them at least 3 blocks high 2) Add an extension around the outside to defend against spiders. 3) Torches should be added to the top or sides of the wall, unless low-visibility is desired (for example, to reduce the chance of other players noticing a camouflaged wall on an SMP server). 4) Ditches or moats can be added on the inside or outside of the wall as an extra barrier.

Materials
Cobblestone and dirt are the most common materials for making walls, due to their abundance as a waste material from mining, and ease of obtaining, respectively. Walls made in desert biomes may also be made of sand or sandstone.

While dirt does not resist explosions well, for most purposes it is suitable. Both dirt and sand walls are frequently used to surround "first night" shelters.

Cobblestone, and the more aesthetically pleasing smooth stone, are the preferred materials for established miners. It has a respectable blast resistance, while being plentiful.

Sandstone is only marginally better than sand, and should be avoided except for aesthetic reasons.

Glass, ice, glass panes and iron bars are useful as they can be seen through, revealing threats on the other side without exposure. These blocks can also be used to view Endermen without attracting their aggression. The drawback is that these blocks are vulnerable to damage by creeper explosions.

The ultimate in wall construction without cheats or ops privileges is obsidian. When constructing, it is faster to position buckets of lava and cool them with water than it is to cool a pool of lava and mine it.

If the player spawns near a desert, it is quite easy to make a wall of cacti, provided the rules for cactus placement are followed. One cactus block will be required on each sand block, which will then grow to be 3 blocks tall, and damaging to mobs which run into it.

Special Notes: Fences can be used to make walls that act higher than they really are, since a fence block is treated as 1.5 blocks high if something is trying to jump over it.

Spiders (both the normal and the cave varieties) effectively ignore walls, since they can move vertically. However, the addition of protrusions and overhangs on the wall will prevent the spiders from climbing further.

Moats and Ditches
These obstacles, like walls, present a vertical barrier to incoming (and outgoing) mobs and players. The difference between a moat and a ditch is that a moat usually has some kind of liquid in the bottom; so far, only water and lava are available.

Dry ditches, like walls, should be at least three blocks tall on the inside edge, with an overhang or protrusions to prevent spiders from climbing them. Ditches should be (at least) three blocks wide at their narrowest point in order to prevent spiders from jumping over them. It is recommended that players leave a means of escaping the ditch to the outside (not the inside, which would defeat the purpose of a ditch), in the eventuality that they are knocked into it by injuries, explosions or simple mistakes.

Moats are constructed identically to ditches and are filled with water or lava, depending on whether harming the mobs or obtaining their drops is required. A water-filled moat, while itself harmless to mobs, slows them down and allows them to be easily picked off with a bow and some arrows, after which the player can swim out and pick them up, or have water currents deliver them to a pick-up point.

Moats can also be made so that water currents push mobs away; while this makes the moat ill-suited for drop collection, any mob which lands in it will be directed away from the wall, since mobs do not resist water currents unless they are trying to attack the player.

A lava-filled moat, on the other hand, will kill any mobs in short order by itself, but also destroy any drops. Lava-moats have the additional benefit of producing light, stopping mobs from spawning nearby without torches. However, it can be laborious to collect large quantities of lava, which requires at minimum buckets and the discovery of a sizable source of lava. Structures over a lava moat (bridges, overhanging walls, etc.) should have fences or a raised edge to stop players from falling or being knocked in. Lava should not be used where there are flammable blocks nearby, especially trees, plank blocks or wool (among others).

Another form of ditch, witch is a lot more compact and uses less space is a cobweb ditch. It only has to be one deep and one wide and mobs will get stuck in the cobwebs immobilizing them to be killed when you walk by. The moat can be easily jumped over. This ditch is useful for making a border for your safe area that outside of you do not need to light up. This method is currently unavailable in legit single player but on servers sometimes you can get someone to spawn you in some. Hopefully cobwebs will be made available in a few updates with silk touch (come on notch!)

Fire
Walls and ditches of all types can be enhanced with burning Netherrack. In the case of walls, the base and/or top can be lined with the burning block, so that creatures running into the wall stand in the flames, or creatures that make it over the wall must pass through flames on the way.

A ditch is easily enhanced in the same way, with the row of fire placed either before the ditch, so that burning mobs fall into the ditch and cannot escape (leaving drops to be collected later), or in the base of the ditch itself, where drops may be destroyed by the fire.

Take note that by itself, burning netherrack is not an effective barrier, as mobs with lots of health can simply run through the flames and attack the player before burning to death.

Light
Light, in the form of evenly dispersed source blocks, should not be underestimated. Even without any physical defensive measures, a wide ring of torches will prevent most hostile mobs from spawning, and if the area is large enough, their random wanderings will not take them all the way through to within attack range of the player by the next sunrise. Torches are by far the most commonly used light source for this purpose. Moats of lava, glowstone and jack-o-lanterns can also be used, though the scarcity of glowstone in SSP is a limiting factor, while pumpkins (which,while hard to find initially, can be farmed) are required to make jack-o-lanterns. Lava is sometimes problematic to use because it ignites flammable material within two blocks.

Soulsand
A ring of soulsand can be a highly effective delaying mechanism, useful for keeping mobs within range of an active defence or just away from a structure. A strip three blocks wide is the minimum for an effective delayer.

Soulsand also makes an excellent bottom for a ditch.

Waterfall
Waterfalls are an effective way to protect your doorway as a last line of defense. By using an over hang, a player can run a waterfall down and over the entrance to their home. A one block deep ditch as wide as the waterfall will prevent the water from flowing in unwanted directions. If a creeper, skeleton, or zombie walks into the waterfall, they will be pushed down into the ditch, effectively stopping them. Though the ditch can be made deeper, it is unadvisable since the player may accidentally fall into the ditch themselves. The downward presure of the waterfall will cause the player to swim upwards much more slowly than usual, so one block deep is recommended. To enter their home, a player must jump into the waterfall and keep moving forward. This will deposit the player safely on the other side of the waterfall.



Combination Defences
Like historical defensive formations, the most secure perimeters are based around multiple concentric systems, and systems used in synergistic combination. A classic example is a moat surrounding a walled compound - creatures which might reach and breach the wall (eg, Endermen) are delayed or killed before they can reach the wall by the moat (water or lava). Any and all of the aforementioned passive defensive measures can be used to make an area secure; the only limit is the amount of time the player is willing to put into it at the expense of other goals and the amount of space and time available.

Creepers
A simple way to protect yourself against Creepers (or any othe 1X1X2 mobs) is a 4 door trap. Place four doors with left hinges around a pressure pad. place a block above the pressure pad to prevent the mob from jumping free.

Adding a waterfall layer around your wall will stop any explosions from damaging your wall.

--          |PP| --

Zombies and Zombie Pigmen
Zombies and Zombie Pigmen are only a threat should you be surrounded by other mobs (and other zombie pigmen) or if you are low on health. Their only way of hurting you are getting up close and personal or breaking doors to allow entry of other mobs. So use arrows... simple stuff. Protecting doors can be done in 3 ways. 1. Placing a column of sand above the door to seal it when it is removed. 2. Placing water next to the bottom of the door. When the door breaks the offending zombie will enter but other mobs will be slowed down. 3. Placing water next to the top of the door and doing the same for lava on the other side. 4. Pistons and pressure plates. 1              2            3         D=door T= Tunnel wall S                                     S=sand W= Water S                                     L= Lava TDT            TDT          WDL TDT            WDT          TDT

Skeletons
Since Skeletons attack from a distance, the best defense is a good offense. If you can get up and personal, the skeleton will not be able to damage you. Of course, when you attack them, they will be pushed backwards. If there are no blocks behind them, they will be able to shoot you again.

Spiders
An easy way to defend against Spiders is a 1*2 tunnel. Spiders cannot pass through it but players (and other 1*2 mobs) can. A clever way to fight them is to dig a one wide two deep ditch. You can simply destroy the underbelly of the spider.

Spider Jockeys
Spider Jockeys combine both range, climbing, a melee attack, and an urge to chase the nearest player no matter how far away they are, the best course of action when you are facing one is to kill it off with arrows before the skeleton notices you and starts shooting.

Slimes
Slimes may spawn above ground during the day. A good above ground defense is a 2 block wide moat of water that will drown them. Slimes can be easily defeated using bow and arrow. Due to their melee only attack, they can also be defeated by sword easily. Small slimes will not hurt you, though they will push you around.

To protect against them if they spawn underground, simply wait and see if any spawn. If they don't, you're fine. If not, try to find where in your mine they are spawning.

Try:

-Blocking cave systems

-Noting and cutting off slime chunks

Remember, slimes spawn in light.

Ghasts
Ghast can not see through glass, so if in the nether with some glass, you could make a glass box around yourself. This is helpfull because you can see when the danger of a Ghast has gone. Building a glass base around your Portal in the Nether is a good idea, because you will be able to see the nether's epic terrain, and still be protected from Ghasts.

Players
Arrow Turrets.

These will give any player trying to grief, or steal from, one of your structures, a nice shock. This turret is fully automatic, and as long as you have the arrows to support it, it will demolish anything in front of it!

They consist of any number of dispensers attached to a rapid pulsar redstone alternater. Simply add a lever to the side of the Pulsar, and switch it on or off at will. (needless to say, loading the dispensers is a must!)

Creepers
Creepers have an explosion nearly as powerful as TNT, so they can easly blow through a wall made of stone, and that opens the door for other uninvited mobs to enter your protected area. The only true WALL that will protect against creepers is a wall made of bedrock or obsidian, the former can only be used: on a multiplayer server with item spawning enabled, with a mod, or via creative mode. Also try filling the wall with water to dissuade endermen.

Zombies and Zombie Pigmen
Zombies and Zombie Pigmen are difficult creatures to face when in a claustrophobic area such as a cave. They can only attack when they are near you which gives you an advantage and a disadvantage, Advantage is that you can take them from a distance and be safe, Disadvantage is when there are multiple of either one and they surround you. This leaves you unable to escape. If building a defensive structure to prioritize against Zombie you should try and stay away from them but in the case that you can't make sure you have an open area inside and out of your defensive structure such a courtyard so that you have alternatives of escape.

Spider Jockeys
Create a 1 (Or more) block wide hole in your wall and shoot the spider (Or attack with your sword) and when the spider gets killed shoot the skelly.

Slimes
You may defend against slimes by simply creating a long-ish 1 block wide, 2 block tall corridor as an entrance to a walled of area using: for the sides, dispensers full of arrows on bottom row, and any block that is solid on the top row for the floor, simply cover it in pressure plates. The said slime will travel through the corridor, and every time it lands on a pressure plate, it will be struck by two arrows, and if/when it splits, the process will simply repeat itself. To collect the spoils, simply remove the pressure plates, stroll on through (reloading as you go if needed) and then when you are done, simply replace the pressure plates on the way out. to help prevent mobs entering while you do this, it may be useful to place a door at the entrance/exit in the wall so you may close it when you are in the corridor and open it to begin the executions. This also works for most other mobs that will fit through the corridor.

Ghasts
There is no particularly expensive way to defend agains ghasts. Glass or cobblestone (which Ghasts cannot damage.) will do just fine, but you could use an expensive material like iron blocks, or obsidian. However, while glass panes protect you from being noticed and fired on by Ghasts, they are shattered in the event a stray fireball explodes near the panes. Glass blocks do not shatter even when hit directly. To fully Ghast proof a Nether fort use only glass blocks, iron bars, or nether fences for windows.

Although, Ghasts are easy to kill if you can hit them: two well-charged arrows or hits with an iron sword will take it down.

Endermen
Since Endermen can move blocks, but are hurt by water, make a moat instead of a wall. Also, its better if it flows through a 1x1 block hole in your house so you get the drops.

Players
When in multiplayer, with nothing to help you in combat with other players, it is best to have a /home point. Some servers also make it so that you can toggle PvP on and off inside your house/land, so it would be a good idea to have PvP off in your house, and set a /home point inside, so that if you're ever caught outside with a player in diamond armor, wielding a diamond sword, charging at you... you can just type /home and get out of there! Of course, if you are also wearing diamond armor and also have a diamond sword, you could choose to try and hold off said player. Blocking also helps in these situations.

Mob Defenses
Mob defenses can be effective, when using the right mobs. various mobs you can use are, Iron Golem, Snow Golem, Tamed wolf, or a Tamed ocelot.

All of The Above
A good dose of TNT, however dangerous and lag intesive, will destroy all mobs. Obsidian or self repairing land is useful in an area of little or no use to minimize damage. Most drops will also be destroyed.

You can make mines with TNT and Pressure Plates. It can be useful to place the trap above sand or gravel so that A player will be trapped with the charge and a mob won't be able t wander away.

Chapter 4: Defense on the Move
If stuck out on an expedition, always bring a torch. First, dig a 3x3 hole beneath yourself, then cover the top layer. Second place a bed 1 block away from 2 walls, there you go instant home.

Chapter 5: Tips & Tricks
1. Armor is highly underrated... even leather armor could save your life. Should you be going hunting for Ender Pearls, looking for Strongholds or Underground mines, or just going for a nighttime stroll... armor will be very handy

2. Keep at least two swords, a sword is your main source of defense (and offense) but they can run out in the blink of an eye. Keep a spare, just in case.

3. Mainly for the nether, have a bow and a stack of arrows, to defend yourself from those ghastly Ghasts (though use in the overworld is handy too)

4. A trick that I use is to have one window in your house open with a dispenser facing outwards, stacked with arrows, and a pressure plate directly in front of it outside, so that you can stand at your window at night, to draw a monster's attention, and it will walk onto the pressure plate... activating the dispenser... need I say more? (although you will regularly find raw food and leather underneath.

6. Though many players like to use gold for its color and value, it is unadvisable to use gold in armor or swords. It does not have very good defensive qualities,and is quickly diminished. If you do not have diamond to make armor, then use iron. Its defense for a full suit of armor or a sword is much higher than gold. (if you don't have iron or don't have enough then use wood)

Chapter 6: Troubleshooting
Most problems in your defense will likely stem from a poor light net around your base. Changing the settings to the classic lighting engine can help you find holes in your light pattern.

In the end a good defensive strategy is only as good as the people that run it. Remember a strategy requires discipline. If you plan on running out for a midnight stroll every night, then don't build a defense, it won't make you any safer.