Tutorials/Monster spawner traps

Monster spawner traps are a type of mob farm that uses a Monster Spawner. 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 goals of these traps are to keep the player safe and to allow the mobs to spawn.

Finding the dungeon
Dungeons are found when exploring caves and Abandoned Mine Shaft. They appear to spawn in random places, but almost always underground. Third-Party programs/mods/texture packs, such as a map viewer, can help the player locate a dungeon.

Mob Spawners can be neutralized by placing torches to light up any dark areas around the spawner, with the exception of blaze spawners. As of Version 1.8.1, there are four types of mobs that can spawn broken into two categories, tall mobs (skeleton and zombie) and spiders (standard and cave spider). The 1.9 prerelease has Blaze spawners in Nether Fortresses which can be trapped for Blaze Rods.

Also in the 1.9 prerelease, a Silverfish spawner can be found in the portal room of a Stronghold. However, since Silverfish do not drop anything and are bothersome enemies, it is better to destroy the spawner than to trap it. The most dangerous spawners to take on are those for skeletons, due to their long range capability. As such it is advisable to plan ahead before assualting one of these spawners.

Killing Mechanism
Any standard mob grinder can be connected to a dungeon. However, the purpose of this device is for players who are currently low on materials and can't yet build something larger.

Drowning Traps
Drowning traps employ water to drown the hostile mobs. Mobs float in water and items drop, which allows easy separation. In this example, the dungeon is a 5x5 zombie spawner.
 * Capture the spawner and place water in one of the corners. The opposite corner should have one dry block.
 * Dig a small hole in the dry corner. This is where the items will drop and a water channel is recommended.
 * Place two signs in the corners and one in the hole. Water considers signs to be solid blocks.
 * When water is placed in the corner, it will be held in place, even though it will look like it is flowing backwards.
 * Place glass panes (any block works, but this is a cheap material and allows easy access while filling up the drowning chamber).
 * Fill the chamber with water to the ceiling.
 * Close up the chamber.
 * Place a collection stream below the drowning chamber. Remove the torches and close up the dungeon walls.

Take out the torches and enclose the dungeon. This was designed for tall mobs, but can be modified for spiders by making the drowning chamber larger. Use signs to hold up water.

Cactus Traps
The following cactus trap is designed for spiders. It has a chance of destroying the items, but this is an inherent issue with cacti.


 * Dig the main channel. The spider spawner is left in the wall forcing spiders to spawn on the small dry patch.
 * Dig two blocks down and one block in just before the cacti. These two holes will hold the collection water sources.
 * Place three ladders on the far side of the collection output. Place one on either piece of sand. Place the two water sources in the holes.
 * Place the main water in the two openings. The block between them makes the water flow towards the gap in the cacti, slightly improving the collection rate of string.
 * Cover the entire trap and remove all lights.

Blaze Traps
Since it is difficult to obtain Ice to melt in the Nether for a drowning trap, this trap takes advantage of Blazes' weakness to snowballs. To create this trap, one must disable the Blaze Spawner and fence a Snow Golem into a nook in a wall. Within this nook, one must craft a Snow Golem. Once the spawner is re-enabled, the Snow Golem will shoot snowballs at the Blaze until it dies. Alternately, one may create a redstone mechanism that brings out Glowstone to prevent the Blazes from spawning until the mechanism is switched. Fenced access to a Snow Golem's nook can allow the player to construct a new one should the Blaze defeat it.

A Note on Lava
Lava can quickly kill mobs and can be suspended on either a ladder or a sign. To suspend the lava, create a 3-long channel then put a sign or ladder on the last block. Lava spreads three blocks away from the source, so the last section of the lava will be left suspended on the sign or ladder.

Lava generates light, which can lower the spawn rate in the dungeon unless placed far away.

Here is a video example of how to make a dungeon trap using a lava grinder.

Other
Traps that use unusual methods, 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.

Multiple spawners of the same species
To maintain maximum efficiency a trap must take on an increased complexity in keeping mobs separated or moving quickly when dealing with multiple spawners of the same species. Minecraft first checks within the 17 wide by 17 long by 9 high area with the spawner in the center (or 8x8x4 radius from the spawner) for mobs of the same species as the spawner. If there are fewer than 6 mobs of the same species in the checking zone, it will spawn a mob within half the distance of the checking radius. This means that with two spawners of the same species near to each other, there will be a zone that mobs will count for both spawners and severely impact the spawn rates. It would be a wise idea to work out where these checking zones overlap and ensure that mobs being funneled to the trap do not enter that zone and/or leave the overlapped / checking area as quickly as possible to maintain peak monster spawner output.

Tutoriels/Exploiter les générateurs de monstre