The Advanced Strategy Guide to Minecraft: Mob Farms, Traps, and Defense

In this chapter, Stephen O’Brien shows you how to guide your strategy in Minecraft’s Advanced Survival mode. It’s incredibly satisfying when you play, as you’ll quickly amass a fortune by farming mobs and collecting resources such as edible items, iron, armor, weapons, arrows, string, and gunpowder. Take control of the mayhem in Minecraft by building a mob farm to gather skeletons, creepers, spiders, and zombies, equivalent to a factory.

This passage is from the preliminary version of the book and may not reflect the ultimate edition of this content.

From the publication 

The focus is increasingly shifting towards hostile entities in the game, particularly the farms of Mob (see Figure 4.1). To survive and engage in combat, you will need to grow crops quickly, gather resources that provide countless long-range arrows, and even go crazy with TNT. It will make a huge difference in giving you the necessary resources. However, playing Survival mode can be incredibly satisfying, especially when you know how to put together a mob farm. You can gather edible occasional items, iron armor, weapons, and more from skeletons, creepers, spiders, and zombies. In fact, you can amass resources such as arrows, string, and gunpowder from the mob farm quickly. It’s like having a factory equivalent for chaos control. Have you ever fancied earning an unlimited number of experience points by using enchanting? Instead of just running around the countryside slaughtering hostile mobs to get a few measly items.

Figure 4.1 Crowds assembled at the foundation of a mob farm, prepared to be assaulted from an underground passage.

Evil Mob Farms

Mob farms consist of two components: spawning and grinding.

The spawner is typically a darkened room designed to encourage mobs to spawn and spring into existence, which then wander and be driven to a central point that feeds into the grinder. Large-scale mob farms can spawn hundreds of mobs per minute, allowing you to quickly accrue experience points by killing them with a single blow, as they can be killed with enough damage that falls through or outright kills the mobs.

Spawning Mob Mayhem

When it comes to keeping your mind focused, it is essential to carefully plan and utilize your resources, especially the simplest spawner, as survival in the game demands it.

  • In order to run the farm, you will have to be in close proximity to it, within a range of 240×240 blocks, as creatures only appear when the player is nearby. In this case, I will concentrate on the standard actions, but there are methods to regulate the appearance of mobs with modifications.
  • It can be difficult to see exactly what is happening inside a spawner unless you switch to spectator mode by typing in the command /gamemode spectator and enable cheats. On platforms that use glass, only opaque blocks can spawn mobs.
  • Hostile mobs will spawn only in areas with a light level of 7 or lower, and their spawn rate increases as the environment gets darker. You can check the light level by turning on the debug screen. On a PC, press F3; on a Mac, press fn+F3.
  • Slime spawners can be quite random, as they only spawn in certain chunks and very rarely. They also spawn in swamp biomes at levels 69 to 51, although they only spawn below bedrock at levels 40 and below.
  • For a genuine survival experience, it is advisable to avoid it, but you can also utilize Spectator mode, if desired, to explore the underground terrain. The most feasible option is to only leave your own mob farm as the sole invalid mob spawn location by illuminating the caves. Without first taking the time to light up the caves, a mob farm situated in an area filled with caves will not be as successful as one in an area with fewer dark underground spots. However, this represents the maximum number of hostile mobs that can spawn within the entire vertical section of the world, with up to 79 mobs potentially spawning in a single area under optimal conditions.
  • If you spawn closer to blocks 24, you won’t have the problem of mobs not spawning around. Therefore, you can wait at ground level for the drops and the next section describes building a mob farm in the sky, which will provide more flexibility.
  • Blocking your spawner or grinder with spiders can obstruct narrow passages, which can prevent spiders from spawning. To avoid this, it is recommended to separate the spawning floor with elevated blocks, ensuring that no flat area exceeds a size of 2×2. However, if you intentionally want spiders to spawn and have designed the spawner accordingly, blocking 1×1-wide channels may pose problems caused by the spiders.
  • Let me demonstrate the initial example: There is a wide range of variations on the concept, although similar to almost anything constructed in Minecraft, the spawner designs can be categorized into a few general groups. You have the option to increase the brightness using torches to prevent the spawner from releasing enemies while you construct and then decrease the brightness to activate it. Keeping them in place and constructing a mob grinder around them can facilitate the creation of a farm specifically designed for the type of creature generated by that spawner. While they cannot be crafted, mob spawners are found in dungeons, abandoned mineshafts, and the Nether region.
  • This is the most efficient way to wash mobs in the central 2×2 hole using streams of water, as it consumes the least amount of resources. Water can be sourced either from dispensers filled with water buckets controlled by redstone or from a permanent water source block. The only exception is Endermen, who can teleport when touched by water, allowing all hostile mobs from the Overworld to spawn in the two-block high spawning area.
  • This method allows for the spawning of Endermen on a platform filled with crisscrossed corridors, triggered by trip wires that push off mobs using pistons. The platform is designed with three-block-high pistons.
  • Let’s begin with the mob farm and then construct some grinders.

    Building a Water-Based Mob Farm

    I recommend building in Creative mode in a superflat world to test your skills, as there is a constant risk of falling off precarious perches when building in Survival mode. We are going to take advantage of the height by creating a fall grinder and building in the air. The simplest design uses four canals of water connected by eight blocks of length, with a 2×2 hole in the middle of the platform.

  • The first stage will look like what’s shown in Figure 4.2. Start with a pillar 19 blocks high (see the note “Mob Fall Damage” for more information on why I’m not using the usual 22 blocks) and then build channels out from the pillar for the water flow that extend every direction for eight blocks. Each channel should be two blocks wide so that spiders can be successfully swept down to the center drop. You can use any material as long as it’s opaque generally speaking, that’s any of the standard building materials except glass. Now block off the outside of each channel to contain the water and pour a total of eight water buckets against those blocks. [Figure 2 to be

    Figure 4.2 Water channels will sweep hostile mobs to their doom.

  • Lay an extra layer of cobblestone along the top of each channel, creating a watercourse that is two blocks deep so the mobs can’t jump out after they’ve fallen in. Then connect that layer with a series of blocks along its circumference, as shown in Figure 4.3. [Figure 3 is yet

    Figure 4.3 Adding to the mob farm’s frame.

  • Add three high blocks around the edge of Figure 4.4, then fill each of the four large spaces to create spawning areas on the floor.
  • Finally, fill in the entire roof at the third level of the external wall, providing a spawning space two blocks high. Place some torches on top to prevent rooftop spawns that would sap from the total possible spawns, and feel free to remove the original support column (see Figure 4.5). Wait for daylight, or type /time set day, and you’ll start to see a constant stream of falling mobs after 20 or so seconds.

    Figure 4.5 The finished farm: a mob spawner floating in the sky.

  • Grinding Mobs and Collecting Drops

    Now that we have a mob spawner, it’s time to automate the grinding of the mobs and the collection of their drops.

    There are multiple methods to handle the mobs in a so-called grinder.

  • You can quickly accumulate experience points, so you need to be prepared to survive a few quite powerful mobs with just one punch. Additionally, you can also set the height just right to ensure that the drops are collected automatically and lead into a chest using hoppers. Alternatively, I will show you how you can drop them later. If they carry any goods, they’ll instantly die and splat on the ground, ensuring that they drop from a sufficient height – Fatal Drop-falls.
  • Gather the liquid droplets in a container and storage container. Rinse them down the stream towards a narrow strip of molten rock supported at a level above the ground so that the molten rock eliminates the hostile creature without damaging its possessions. Molten rock edges.
  • Suffocation – Utilize pistons to forcefully move solid blocks onto the creatures, causing them to be deprived of oxygen and
  • Drowning—Employ water to trap the organisms in an area lacking air pockets, leading to their death and the liberation of their belongings.
  • I’ll demonstrate methods to construct each of the four.

    The problem illustrates Figure 4.6, which depicts a cluster of items that will disappear if they are not collected within a five-minute timeframe. It is advised to collect these drops to prevent them from falling. However, please note that if you venture far away, there is a chance that the memory from unloaded chunks may persist and cause items to despawn.

    Figure 4.6 Collecting items automatically offers a secure method to guarantee they do not disappear.

    Hoppers, whether stationary or attached to a minecart, can sweep up dropped items, so there are two ways to organize the collection:.

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  • Standard hopper—Arrange hoppers under the kill zone of your mob farm, each feeding into the next like a line of pipes until the dropped items finally make it to a chest. Start by placing the chest; then Shift-click to arrange the hopper pipelines, building out from the chest, with each hopper feeding into the one adjacent. You’ll need a substantial grid of hoppers, similar to that shown in Figure 4.7, which makes this a very costly setup on Survival because each hopper requires five iron ingots and one chest. If iron is in short supply, but you do have the six gold ingots required to create a set of powered rails, consider the next solution instead.

    Figure 4.7 Hopping to it with a hopper grid to funnel drops from the kill zone into a chest.

  • Minecart with hopper—Set up a snaking rail line such as the one shown in Figure 4.8 using a minecart with hopper to scoop fallen items off the track. This works best if you have arranged the fall so that all mobs die when they hit the ground, because surviving mobs will block the movement of the minecart. Alternatively, use the lava blade to slice and dice the mobs so that you can be certain only items drop to the track. Although not shown, you can of course easily add a minecart unloading station (see Chapter 3, “Mining and Ore Generators,”) to this layout at one end, so that the hopper is periodically emptied. You can use another hopper to transfer the contents to a chest, or directly into another minecart with a chest that will haul everything back to base.

    Figure 4.8 A single minecart with hopper and a snaking track can replace the hopper grid and is much less costly in resources.

  • Creating a blade of lava requires careful construction, as shown in Figure 4.9, where the end result under the mob farm is perched, demonstrating the feeling of being cautious due to the previous experience of being burned twice and the ongoing dealing with lava.

  • Start with a two-block-wide water channel, eight blocks long, as shown in Figure 4.10, with walls two blocks high to provide sufficient height for passage of the mobs. In practice, you can get by with a channel not quite so long, but you may find some mobs glitching through, in particular witches whose high health may help them survive the initial lava burn. You should position the channel so that the four blocks of water starting at the source are positioned directly under the 2×2 exit from the mob farm.

    Figure 4.9 The lava blade is a simple, effective mob grinder.

    Figure 4.10 The water channel feeds mobs to the lava blade.

  • Referring to Figure 4.11, extend the walls of the channel a further four blocks, and place two signs or ladder segments immediately after the water flow ends. These will hold up the lava, creating the “blade” effect. It’s optional to have the second wall block on top of these sign blocks, hence the gap you can see in the walls. The lava needs to be positioned one block higher than the water, so also lay a further six blocks in the base of the lava channel as shown. (Note: I’ve also dug a 2×1 hole two blocks deep beneath the signs and positioned a chest. A couple of hoppers on top can feed all the drops into the chest, showing what will be a very compact version of a collection system.)

    Figure 4.11 Finish the lava side of the blade design with a raised channel and signs or ladders to hold up the end of the lava flow.

  • Spill two buckets of lava at the far end of the lava channel so they flow toward the middle. You can see the final result in Figure 4.12 and the lava blade in action in Figure 4.13. If you’ve added the chest and hoppers, just dig an access tunnel in from the side to get to the chest’s contents. In Creative mode, use the spawn eggs from the inventory window to add mobs to the grinder—strictly for testing purposes of course.

    Figure 4.12 The final grinder. You may be able to spot the two hoppers at the end of the water channel, under the lava, that will direct any drops into the chest.

  • Follow these steps to construct the design beneath the farm mob. Additionally, you can reduce the footprint by placing four more signs between each of them, using the lava blade type, which is the most resource-efficient way.

  • Start by attaching blocks to the underside of the mob farm in the pattern shown in Figure 4.14. I’m using glass for clarity, but you may prefer to use an opaque block so that the grinder helps prevent light seeping into the mob farm from below. Attach the two signs to the inside walls of the blocks. If you are using an opaque block, you can also use ladders instead of signs. (Attaching the grinder to the mob farm can be tricky in Survival—build a sizable platform underneath that hangs off the original pillar so you can build in safety.)

    Figure 4.14 Adding the first layer of the lava grinder to the bottom of the farm. Don’t forget the signs!

  • Now add a second layer of blocks in the shape of a U, with the opening at the end where the lava will be. Figure 4.15 shows the result.

    Figure 4.15 Completing the initial shape for the mob grinder.

  • The base of the farm extends under the first set of signs until it reaches Figure 4.16. From there, three blocks continue until the outlet of the farm, where the base starts and opens. To fill the base at the beginning and opening, six more blocks are placed, creating a downward level one.
  • Finally, move to the opening between the signs and place two buckets of water against the wall at the far end of the funnel so they originate under the farm’s outlet. Then point your crosshairs at one of the side blocks nestled between the upper and lower signs, back at the lava end, and place a lava source block (see Figure 4.17).

    Figure 4.17 Pour water at the far end of the tunnel, and lava at the near end, between the signs.

    You should now have the same grinder as was shown in Figure 4.9.

  • They cannot swim up the water that moves toward the lava where their totems are due to the items dropping above but nonetheless, they will attempt to swim up in the lava. This won’t actually work because they will catch fire and drop down due to the mobs that can catch fire and drop through the outlet grinder. For example, to further reduce the design, they are trying to place a suspended pool of lava under the grinder.

    The farm’s entrance is much further back, with a set of eight full blocks of lava as an obstacle. However, you can solve this by extending the water course, which will even cover the lava. Although this compact design has a slight issue of light leakage from the lava, it still greatly reduces the mob spawn rate. This is the final tip for solving the problem.

    Before we leave mob grinders or start looking at them in the context of defensive traps, I want to show you one more technique that provides a safe way to collect experience points. Going back to the layout of the hopper, dig out a channel of two deep blocks around the hoppers and place two water sources on either side of the chest. These will flow around the 12-hopper grid and meet on the other side, towards a central point shown as Figure 4.18.

    Figure 4.18 Pour water around the hopper to wash away any remaining mobs towards your access point, potentially causing them to stumble.

    Dig a single block out of the wall at the level of the water flow. This will allow you to access a path from above that leads to the block one level below, which leads to the removal of the finishing block. By adding hoppers under the blocks at the end of the stream, you can automatically gather the drops that fall into the water stream. You can also collect drops in the water stream by placing double chests underneath them. The mobs that attack you won’t fall back because they are at the same level as your knees, but you will be able to survive their attacks. Both water streams are already at their limit of eight blocks wide, so if you drop spiders that are large enough to survive, they can’t make it through.

    This is undeniably a swift approach to accomplish it, but it may be considered an unjust method to acquire experience points, as illustrated in Figure 4.19.

    Dastardly Mob Traps

    The cactus is probably the closest thing to a trap tank in Minecraft. While they are primarily designed as a defensive measure, you can also use these other traps as replacements for grinders. They fall into two categories: those that you can corral and kill later for leisure, and those that you can outright kill to keep your base free of hostiles. When it comes to trap mobs, think of them as a defensive measure built around your base, similar to the grinders. There are indeed many cunning designs and numerous ways to build mob traps, as I described earlier with the lava and fall grinders.

    Treacherous Trenches

    You can add this by sweeping them into a blade of lava. You should be able to go about your business without worrying too much and prevent climbing spiders by adding a transparent block on the top of the wall. Additionally, you can make two wide blocks to catch spiders, making trenches around the perimeter of your dwelling. You can burn them up with a river of lava or sweep them away with a flow of water. The humble trench acts as the simplest trap available for zombies, skeletons, and creepers, by making it two blocks deep.

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  • Dig a perimeter trench at least two blocks deep and two blocks wide, although if you need to spill water more than eight blocks around your perimeter, you will need to ensure the water level drops no more than every seven blocks, so the grinder will end up deeper than that shown in Figure 4.20.

    Figure 4.20 A short version of the initial watercourse. You can, of course, extend it as far as you need, around corners and so on.

  • To maintain the lava in place, adopt the same strategy as the one used for the farm, but employ a V-shaped arrangement of signs or ladders. Position the lava one block above the water’s end and, if desired, utilize two lava buckets for a visually pleasing still pool of lava, rather than a continuous flow from one location to another. The farm should be approached in a similar manner.
  • To prevent the mobs from swimming up the burning lava and reaching the top, place any type of block on the top of the lava.
  • Now, as shown in Figure 4.21, dig an outlet trench one block below the lowest part of the V and extend it to the right. If you just plan to pick up drops as you go, it can be any length, but you can also collect the drops in hoppers by placing the hoppers below the level of a very truncated stream. You should be able to make out two hoppers under the water in the figure.

    Figure 4.21 Although guarding the perimeter is always worthwhile, it makes sense to also collect any drops rather than letting them go to waste.

    If lava is in short supply, you can also use water blocks placed in the V pattern, as shown in Figure 4.22, to create a drowning pit. It will take longer for the mobs to expire, but given that an endless supply of water can be created by dropping just two buckets’ worth into the diagonally opposite corners of a 2×2 one-deep hole in the ground, this type of mob trap is incredibly efficient.

    Figure 4.22 Save some trips to the lava pool by using water instead. It’s a little more painful on the ears because the mobs take longer to drown, but it’s just as effective in the long run.

  • Killer Cactus

    In the end, there are at least a few collectibles, with the benefit that the cactus does serve as a very space-efficient grinder. While one wouldn’t wish this upon anyone, the group that is caught in a cactus trap experiences a slow and painful death. However, as a defensive strategy, the cactus works quite well, although it also destroys some of the dropped items, making it inefficient for harvesting in mob farms. This feature makes it one of the simplest components to use in various types of traps. If any mobs or players touch its side, they will immediately suffer half a heart (or one health point) of damage, but it is simple enough to cultivate. The cactus can be quite prickly.

    The mobs are eliminated during the procedure, however, as stated earlier, certain items are accumulated in a hopper located in front of the cactus. Mobs should leap over the upper part to avoid a cactus that is at least two blocks tall. The cactus will rise and fall as it draws mobs towards it, and any mobs that enter the water are depicted in Figure 4.23, illustrating the simplest form of a cactus trap.

    Lava with around spaces three the backfilled I’ve not although. Drops collect to hopper a with trap cactus basic a 4.23 Figure.

    To grow a cactus, you need to ensure that you place it in a position where it receives sufficient sunlight, water, and air. Additionally, the cactus requires a transparent block on all four sides, which can be achieved by using sand.

    Shifting a small requirement necessitates broadening two channels in order to trap spiders. Figure 4.24 depicts the spatial requirements for cacti, which are positioned diagonally to accommodate them.

    Figure 4.24 A spider grinder based on cacti requires a diagonal arrangement.

    One of the many possible designs is a pool measuring 4×4, as illustrated in Figure 4.25. It is equipped with two cacti in the middle, a pair of adjacent hoppers, and four buckets of lava poured into each corner. This setup effectively gathers any unsuspecting mobs towards the center and directs their dropped items into the hoppers. You have the option to either use feeder streams to guide the mobs into the pool or simply let them fall in from above. In the center, the hoppers will collect and sweep the items while the four buckets of lava, two cacti, and two adjacent hoppers ensure that the mobs are contained. Figure 4.25 depicts a pool measuring 4×4, which serves as an example of one of the numerous possible designs.

    Figure 4.25 A cactus pool with receptacles to gather droplets.

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    At the conclusion, the delivery of items can be accomplished by digging a deep trench that allows water to flow down through the terrain, as shown in Figure 4.26.

    Indispensible Dispensers

    Acquiring a mob farm can quickly provide this resource budget with a piece of redstone and a bow, requiring just seven cobblestone to craft, making it not likely to strain them a lot. The dispenser is a highly malleable key to many types of defensive systems and traps. However, creating each bow may be the most difficult part, as three pieces (the string) need to be collected for each dispenser.

    It is easy to create a wall that can be used for offense or defense, depending on your needs. By running a single strand of redstone behind the dispenser, all of them can be fired at once and lined up with a string. This means that you can easily create a dispenser system where all the dispensers fire at the same level. Instead of having to run a pulse directly into the dispenser, you can prove that having a nearby block running any pulse will feed into the dispenser. This simplifies the wiring compared to using devices like pistons, which require a redstone pulse to fire the dispensers. Although this simplified wiring requires a redstone pulse to fire the dispensers, it is sufficient.

    Dispensers have various applications

  • Arrows—Load a dispenser with arrows and it will fling a veritable fusillade with an almost 100% success rate if the mob is within one to five blocks. Unlike arrows fired by skeletons, you can pick up any arrows that miss their mark and hit the ground or embed themselves in other blocks, the same way you can for arrows you’ve fired yourself. However, you do have to pick them up yourself you can’t flush them down to a collection point with water. Shoot the arrows through a block of lava to turn them into flaming arrows that will set mobs on fire, causing even more damage. Take a look at Figure 4.27. The pressure plates are crafted from stone—don’t use wood because the fired arrows will force the plates on continuously and create a redstone current while the mob is alive. The clock circuit to the right keeps a continuous pulse running that hits the other side of the AND gate so that when the pressure plates are fired, a pulse flows to the dispenser, which shoots arrows through the suspended lava. Allow the lava to flow into a one-block hole below the level of the pressure plates so it doesn’t spread down the tunnel. The stone button beside the clock circuit kicks off the first pulse and can be removed later. You can improve on this design by also adding a piston to the entryway of the corridor to block it off until the mobs have passed on. This will ensure the knock back from the arrows doesn’t simply push them back out of harm’s way.

    Figure 4.27 An automatic flaming arrow dispenser. (Front wall of tunnel removed for clarity.)

  • Create an automated “Farms” system by placing dispensers in front of the source liquid’s outlet, which follows the usual rules of flow for lava or water. The second trigger will suck the block source again and then trigger the first one to place buckets inside the dispenser, producing a cascade of hot burning lava or water, as you probably know from Chapter 2.
  • Interestingly, in Survival mode, you can load a dispenser with a stack of fire charges and fire them off just like arrows. You can also fire charges from behind or under water, as well as from a dispenser located just off the ground. If you have a powder gun and charcoal or coal, you can make blaze powder from defeated Blaze mobs. However, it is worth noting that firing sizzling fireballs is a relatively expensive feature in Survival mode.
  • Minecraft’s mobs of ghasts, skeletons, spiders, and zombies can be generated at will by placing mob spawn eggs in a dispenser and utilizing Creative mode in various ways or when constructing an adventure map. You can initiate a wave of zombie assaults by striking them. Spawn eggs are employed to position mob spawn eggs in a dispenser and generate any of Minecraft’s mobs while constructing an adventure map or using Creative mode in other manners.
  • Wall of flame—I’m going to call this one “the toasty toes,” and it’s one of my favorite traps (see Figure 4.28). Place a flint and steel in an upward-facing dispenser and a pressure plate on an adjacent block, and the dispenser will shoot out flame, setting anything on top on fire. Remember to not use wooden fences near these traps because the fences will also go up in smoke, leaving you wide open. Stick to stone, although fence gates are, fortunately, fireproof. Flint and steel have a durability of 65 uses, so you may need to put several in each dispenser to ensure the longevity of this defense. Just remember to jump over the plate when you’re coming back in—or create a single lane path between two dispensers; in almost all cases the mobs will still hit the plates as they wander around. If the worst happens on ingress, and you do catch on fire, just jump into a pool of water such as that shown in Figure 4.28 to instantly quell the flames.

    Figure 4.28 Overkill? Nah! Use upturned dispensers kitted out with flint, steel, and pressure plates to create the ultimate mob barbecue.

  • Pulverizing Pistons

    The circuit shown in Figure 4.30 provides a quick and easy way to complete its task, which is to prevent mobs from escaping forward until the glass block is pushed down by the pressure plate, triggering the piston to fire and drop the items it holds. This system requires minimal resources and space, acting as an amplifier by using redstone torches. It is quite useful for preventing suffocation of both players and hostiles (except spiders) as well as dealing with other errant mobs.

    Figure 4.30 A simple mob suffocater utilizing pistons and a pressure plate.

    The chute allows all sensors, daylight detectors, and comparators to drop items into the pit. Additionally, torches and plates can be placed on top of the hoppers to allow for the placement of redstone and other partial-height items. By clicking on the hopper while holding the Shift key, you can position the plate as the top of the hopper. At the end of the water flow, the hopper should be positioned at the same level as the plate, as shown in Figure 4.31. However, we can improve this design by picking up the items or stopping them from despawning until they sit on the pressure plate. The only issue with this design is that it lacks a system for collecting the dropped items.

    Input: Placing a hopper under the pressure plate (as shown in Figure 4.31) enables convenient collection of the mob drops without the need for manually picking them up.By positioning a hopper beneath the pressure plate (as depicted in Figure 4.31), one can conveniently gather the mob loot without having to pick them up manually.

    A slight change in wiring is required to detect the output from the pressure plate, which is set to be in front of the block adjacent to the torch under the block behind the piston. Additionally, the hopper for the chest and iron requires more improvement than the other little requirements.

    The design of the piston makes it impossible to crush mobs that are placed on the same level as the high block because any piston placed on top of them will push them over and scrape them off the plates. There is a glaring issue with this design. Figure 4.32 shows an example of how to override this issue by using a lever placed in one of the redstone torches, but another gate is required for this. One final note: Tripwire is an excellent way to trigger pistons, as it requires a manual override to retract the pistons and permit the collection of dropped items and mobs.

    Figure 4.32 A tripwire and piston design using an AND gate to forcibly retract the pistons, providing access to any dropped items.

    The Bottom Line

    In this chapter, I have provided an overview of various types of traps, grinders, and mob farms in Minecraft. There are numerous ways to improve, combine, and modify these designs to suit your own needs. You will need to meld these ways together, and in many cases, you will need to modify the designs to suit your specific requirements or devious plans. There is no singular best way to create any of these, as it all depends on the ethos of Minecraft.

    Of, if you’re playing on other servers and want to install the Chunks Chicken mod, you can share the game on a LAN and have multiple licenses of Minecraft. However, if you want to allow other players to spawn in their own private areas, you need to keep a polite distance of 24 blocks in any spherical direction from their location. In order to increase the spawning rate on your farm, you need to stay fairly close to it within a square area of 15×15 chunks or 240 blocks per side. It’s important to note that there are no spawning areas within water-filled parts or caves, so it’s easier to have a farm in deep ocean biomes where caves are not as common. Simply blocking them off won’t suffice, as mobs can still spawn in areas with light and underneath the ground. Remember this when planning your mob farm.

    Delving into the use of mob farms and grinders is the ultimate method for acquiring vast quantities of valuable resources. Embrace this approach as it consistently yields rewarding outcomes; you will undoubtedly discover the benefits they offer.

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