Megan Miller - Minecrafter Engineer: Awesome Mob Grinders and Farms: Contraptions for Getting the Loot

Copyright 2019 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.

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Cover and interior art by Megan Miller

Cover design by Michael Short

Book design by Megan Miller

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-3765-5

Printed in China

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

SOMETIMES IN MINECRAFT YOU NEED STUFF. Lots of stuff. Lots of zombie flesh to trade with villagers, lots of villagers to trade with, or lots of XP to make the most OP enchanted sword. Now you can engineer a solution! The mob farms in this book will help you get the loot, from gun powder to blaze rods. Some of the farms use redstone but are not terribly difficult, so you should be able to complete each farm on your path to world domination!

The farms in this book work for the 1.12.2 version of Minecraft Java Edition. Several are adapted from farms created or modified by expert redstoners and Minecrafters such as Etho, Tango Tek, Avomance, and impulseSV, who are also some of my favorite YouTubers! If you like to learn while watching videos, I recommend them.

Along with step-by-step screens from Minecraft, this guide also includes technical drawings and diagrams to help show where blocks go. Engineers use technical drawings, schematics, and blueprints to specify exactly where mechanisms are placed and how they are built.

Dont forget to share your own Minecraft engineering accomplishments with me online. If you build any of these farms or other custom engineering designs, Id love to see them! You, or a family member, can tweet me at @meganfmiller to showcase your work.

Protect Your Builds

PROTECT ANY BUILDS YOU MAKE THAT INCLUDE REDSTONE, BECAUSE MOST REDSTONE ELEMENTS (SUCH AS REPEATERS, REDSTONE DUST, AND MORE) WILL BREAK AND FLOAT AWAY WHEN THEY ARE TOUCHED BY FLOWING WATER. AN ACCIDENTAL PLACEMENT OF WATER CAN WIPE OUT YOUR BUILD. WHEN YOU DO BUILD A CONTAINING STRUCTURE FOR YOUR FARMS TO PROTECT REDSTONE, MAKE SURE TO LEAVE SPACE BETWEEN YOUR REDSTONE ELEMENTS AND THE STRUCTURE. THIS STEP HELPS PREVENT PLACING BLOCKS THAT COULD INTERFERE WITH A REDSTONE SIGNAL. THE EXTRA SPACE WILL ALSO ALLOW YOU TO MOVE AROUND THE BUILD IF YOU NEED TO CHECK OR FIX SOMETHING LATER.

ALSO, REMEMBER TO LIGHT UP YOUR BUILDS AS YOU GO. A CREEPER IS JUST AS INTERESTED IN BLOWING UP REDSTONE AS IT IS IN DEMOLISHING YOUR BASE.

CHAPTER 1

ALL-PURPOSE, NO-REDSTONE MOB FARM

YOU CAN MAKE THIS CLASSIC MOB-GRINDING farm soon after you start your world. Youll just need plenty of cobble, wood, and enough iron for a couple of buckets and four hoppers. Its not a pretty farm, but it will get you bones, zombie flesh, gunpowder, arrows, and other loot from skeletons, zombies, and creepers.

Planning Mob Grinders

This farm takes advantage of several key features of mobs and mob spawning rules.

Hostile mobs treat open trapdoors as if they are solid blocks to walk on.

Hostile mobs can be easily pushed by water flows.

Overworld hostile mobs spawn at light level 7 and below.

Hostile mobs spawn 24 blocks to 240 blocks away from a player but despawn instantly if they are more than 128 blocks away from a player. This means the mob-spawning area around a player is a doughnut shape from 24 to 128 blocks away. In addition, mobs despawn gradually if they are farther than 32 blocks away from a player.

Fall damage is 1 heart of damage for each block fallen after 3 blocks. That means a fall of 23 blocks causes 20 hearts of damage, and will kill skeletons, zombies, and creepers.

The mob cap is the maximum number of mobs allowed in a world. In a single-player world, the default mob cap for hostile mobs is 70. That means it is very important when you build a mob farm that doesnt use a spawner to ensure mobs are spawning only in your farm, and not in nearby caves or forests. Around any mob farm that is limited by the mob cap, you will want to prevent other spawns within a radius of 128 blocks from where you, the player, are located.

This mob farm is made efficient by placing it about 150 blocks above ground. It places the location you stand in to activate spawning too far away from any other surfaces that mobs could spawn in, so theyll only be spawning in your farm. If you place the farm over a Deep Ocean biome, in which the water is at least 20 blocks deep, you can build it 20 blocks closer to water level.

Well build this farm on land. If you are building over Deep Ocean, make the funnel leading up to the spawning platforms 20 blocks shorter. To build on ocean, use a lily pad directly on the water surface. Then you can place your first block above the lily pad.

Be a Smart Engineer

AS WITH ALL OF THE BUILDS IN THIS BOOK, THE STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR THE FINAL STRUCTURE, AND DONT INCLUDE TIPS FOR SECURING AREAS, LIGHTING ROOFS, AND OTHER SURFACES TO PREVENT SPAWNING OUTSIDE THE FARM, OR PLACING TEMPORARY LADDERS OR STAIRS THAT ASSIST THE BUILDER IN SURVIVAL MODE.

Step by Step

Build any type of a pillar 127 blocks tall, along with ladders to climb up. I am using several different types of block, but you can use cobblestone for this entire farm.

At the top of the pillar, build a platform 8 blocks long and 4 wide, extending away from the pillar. This is the platform that you will stand on when activating the farm above.