Minecraft has some of the most diverse and interactive mobs in any video game. They range from dragons to villagers with jobs. Moreover, killing most of these mobs gives us interesting loot and experience points. But that’s only if you have a way to spawn and target these mobs. Fortunately, Minecraft mob spawners are the only solution you need for that. For those unaware, mob spawners are rare cage-like blocks that spawn mobs endlessly. So, if you know where to find a mob spawner for a particular mob, you can get an unlimited supply of that mob. This unlocks an endless array of opportunities, including automatic farms, easy loot, and better Minecraft adventure maps. With that said, it’s time to stop beating around the bush and dive into the world of Minecraft mob spawners!
Minecraft Mob Spawners: Explained (2022)
We are covering a variety of in-game mechanics related to Minecraft Mob spawners in this guide. They have some differences in Minecraft Java and Bedrock editions. Make sure to go through that section before trying it in-game.
What are Spawners in Minecraft?
Spawners are in-game blocks in Minecraft that can spawn almost any in-game mob under the right circumstances. Visually, spawners are cage-like blocks with a fire burning within them. They also have a rotating miniature mob inside that cage structure, indicating the mob that the particular spawn spawns. If the spawner isn’t attached to any mob, it just looks like a regular cage.
Not to forget, because the spawners commonly spawn hostile mobs, they are called monster spawners in the Bedrock edition. However, things are a little limited in survival mode, where you can only get the following mob spawners naturally:
- Pig
- Spider
- Cave Spider
- Silverfish
- Magma Cube
- Blaze
- Skeleton
- Zombie
Moreover, these spawners can’t be picked up or moved even with a silk touch pickaxe, piston, or even a sticky piston. If you want to use one in your base or farm, you have to build the structure around it.
Where to Find Mob Spawners
If you are in the creative mode, you can get spawners using the “/give” command and with your creative inventory too if you are on the Bedrock edition. By default, the spawner will be empty in Bedrock and will have a Pig on the Java edition. Irrespective of that, you can simply use a spawn egg on the spawner to assign any particular mob to it.
On the other hand, if you are playing in survival game mode, you can find spawners in the following places:
- Strongholds with silverfish spawners
- Dungeons with a zombie, spider, and skeleton spawners
- Mineshafts with cave spider spanwers
- Woodland mansions with spider spawners
- Bastion remnants with magma cube spawners
- Nether fortresses with blaze spawners
How to Get Custom Spawners in Survival Minecraft
If the variety of Minecraft mob spawners feels limited in the survival mode, you can get custom spawners using this command:
/setblock ~ ~-1 ~ spawner{SpawnData:{entity:{id:wolf}},Delay:299} replace
This command converts the block right below your feet into a custom Minecraft mob spawner. You can replace the “wolf” in the command with any in-game mob. But unfortunately, it only works on the Java edition with Minecraft 1.18 or later. If you are on the Bedrock edition, you have to use the “/give” command or creative inventory to get yourself spawn eggs and a monster spawner.
Use Spawners in Minecraft Farms
As you might expect, most Minecraft players use spawners to create mob farms. These farms work as a source of unlimited experience orbs and mob loots. To create them, you need to fulfill the following criterion:
- Spawning requirements for the mob
- A way to kill mobs
- An item collection system
To collect loot from dead mobs, you can set up a hopper or water flow. You can even use Allay to build automatic farms and make sorting easier. As for the killing part, the best Minecraft sword enchantments are more than capable here.
Spawning Requirements
A Minecraft mob spawner only works if a player is within 16 blocks of its radius. If the requirements are met, it can spawn mobs within 4 blocks in every open direction on the Bedrock edition. Meanwhile, it spawns mobs within 4 blocks horizontally and 1 block of vertical range on the Java edition.
The spawner aims to spawn 4 mobs randomly around every 40 seconds. But it skips each cycle if there are already 6 or more mobs around the spawner. Moving on to the individual mobs, these are the spawner requirements for each of them:
Mob Required Area Failure rate Pig X=8.9, Y=2.9, Z=8.9 2.5% Cave Spider X=8.7, Y=2.5, Z=8.7 1.5% Silverfish X=8.3, Y=2.7, Z=8.3 0.3% Zombie X=8.6, Y=3.8, Z=8.6 1.1% Skeleton X=8.6, Y=3.8, Z=8.6 1.1% Blaze X=8.6, Y=3.8, Z=8.6 1.1% Spider X=9.4, Y=2.9, Z=9.4 6.1% Magma Cube X=10, Y=4, Z=10 Unknown
How to Disable a Mob Spawner
If you don’t want to use a spawner right away, you can temporarily disable it. This doesn’t destroy the spawner but only makes it non-functional until the restrictions are removed. Almost all natural mobs spawner require dark conditions within the spawn range to function properly. Keeping that in mind, you can disable a spawner by:
- Placing a torch on all sides and top of the spawner is enough to disable most Minecraft spawners.
- However, to disable a blaze or silverfish spawner, a level 12 of light is required. You can get that by placing grids of torches around the spawner or laying blocks around it with a light level of 15.
- Lastly, you can also place solid blocks around the spawner completely filling the spawn area to disable it. This is a foolproof way to disable spawners even if they are not affected by light.
Try out Minecraft Mob Spawners Right Now
Just like that, you know everything you need to know about mob spawners in Minecraft. You can now use this guide to make farms, reset spawners and generate custom spawners in Minecraft. Once your spawners are set, you can use them to level up the best Minecraft house ideas. Still, you won’t be able to move them from their natural spawn location. But you can use a Nether portal to make traveling a bit faster across the area. With the right route set, you can place spawners in every Minecraft biome to get custom mobs in each area. Even with all these features, setting up a spawner is not an easy task. So, using the best Minecraft mods might give you an easy way out. Having said that, which new mob spawner do you want to see in Minecraft 1.19? Tell us in the comments!
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