Talk:Monster Spawner

Radius?
Anyone been able to test the spawn radius of a Mob Spawner? 173.20.67.107 14:18, 31 July 2010 (UTC)
 * it is a fair few blocks. I'd say, about 7 block radius?
 * I've seen instances where I'd dig around the dungeon and create hallways. Sometimes the mobs will spawn in the hallway if no lit properly, proving that a wall won't stop the spawning. Anyone confirm? -- MrMatthew 10/05/10 14:52 PST
 * I cannot confirm this. Are you sure this isn't the effect of monsters spawning in darkness and is completely unrelated to the mob spawner? Noroom 01:42, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
 * It's completely possible, but I haven't seen too many random mobs spawn while underground. I dug the hallway around it, walked out for a bit, and turned around to find a zombie wandering around. Coincidence that it was so close to the spawner? Maybe. Something to test (if possible) though. MrMatthew 15:47, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

I can't confirm it but I'm pretty sure they do spawn outside the dungeon. I dug a pit underneath it, completely closed off the dungeon after placing torches throughout the dungeon and removed all torches in the pit. It didn't take long for two zombies to appear there. Of course the part they spawned in wasn't lit up so it could have been a random spawn but I've never known to spawns to happen with rapid succession and it happened right after I removed the torches. The zombies spawned 5 squares deeper than the spawner and 4 squares off from the side.

...


 * I have done extensive tests with both a zombie spawner and a spider spawner in Beta SSP and with the wall around the spawner at a four block radius, no zombie or spider was ever generated outside of the wall within approximately 16 hours of testing and so I have updated this wiki accordingly. --KADC 10:36, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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)