Why can't I get Zombie Pigmen to spawn?

Question

I have spent the last several days making a Zombie Pigman Grinder/Gold Farm. this is on Minecraft SMP, and so this took a while. Now it is built, and I cannot get any Zombie pigmen to spawn for the life of me. I have waited at the base/ collection area of the trap for 10 minutes - and none spawned. Here are some screenshots of the trap:

This is the base of the trap, where the Zombie pigmen fall, and I can collect the gold nuggets here.

Looking up at the top of the trap. Basic working principle is that the pigmen spawn up there in the spawning area and walk onto the open gates as if they were solid blocks, then fall 30 blocks to their death.

Spawning Area, from the right side.

Spawning area, from the left side.

I know that they are spawning because there are a lot outside. I'm playing on the server 50.56.92.111, on Normal difficulty. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me solve my problem!

Asked by William

Answer

The answer you are looking for is hidden inside you own question: "there are a lot outside". The game randomly checks places to put mobs and since the outside is much larger than your trap, most of the zombie pigmen spawn there. The mob limit is exhausted pretty much instantly and the game doesn't spawn any more, unless some of the existing mobs de-spawn or get killed.

You will get zombie pigmen to spawn in your trap eventually, but you may have to wait hours for just a few spawns. You need to prevent spawning outside your trap to improve rates of your trap. This is very difficult to do in the nether, since you can't use light or water to prevent spawning. That is why you don't see zombie pigmen traps, building one is a monumental project. Notice for example here a huge area is covered with half-slabs to prevent spawning.

The spawnable area is +/- 8 chunks from each chunk where there is a player (minus the chunks on the edges of that area). If a single player is online, mobs spawn in 240x240 blocks area centered on the player chunk, that is roughly +/- 120 blocks from the player.

Answered by Kcats

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How Do Hostile Mobs Spawn in Minecraft?

Question

So I found a village near where I originally spawned and I expanded on it. I thought I could keep it safe by building a 3-4 block high wall around the village, unfortunately this didn't help (now all my villagers are dead!). I still find mobs inside the city walls and inside of the university I built. The university has a basement, and although I usually keep the door to it closed I'll still find the occasional spider, zombie, skeleton warrior or even creepers.

So my question is how do mobs spawn? Does the presence or absence of light make any difference? Are other factors involved?

Asked by BrotherJack

Answer

Yes, the light level makes a difference. In fact, it's probably the single most important factor for hostile mob spawning.

Hostile mobs won't spawn in any area that is above light level 7. Torches produce a light level of 14, and that light level decreases by one for every block (along an axis) out. Therefore, any place that is more than 7 blocks away from a torch could spawn a hostile mob. There are other methods of discouraging hostile mobs from spawning, but keeping a well lit area is key.

Answered by MBraedley

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How Do Hostle Mobs Spawn in Minecraft?

Question

So I found a village near where I originally spawned and I expanded on it. I thought I could keep it safe by building a 3-4 block high wall around the village, unfortunately this didn't help (now all my villagers are dead!). I still find mobs inside the city walls and inside of the university I built. The university has a basement, and although I usually keep the door to it closed I'll still find the occasional spider, zombie, skeleton warrior or even creepers.

So my question is how do mobs spawn? Does the presence or absence of light make any difference? Are other factors involved?

Asked by BrotherJack

Answer

Yes, the light level makes a difference. In fact, it's probably the single most important factor for hostile mob spawning.

Hostile mobs won't spawn in any area that is above light level 7. Torches produce a light level of 14, and that light level decreases by one for every block (along an axis) out. Therefore, any place that is more than 7 blocks away from a torch could spawn a hostile mob. There are other methods of discouraging hostile mobs from spawning, but keeping a well lit area is key.

Answered by MBraedley

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Why are there mobs on my balcony?

Question

I have a sweet ravine balcony, that I've lit up, and partially fenced off. It's not connected to anywhere that mobs could spawn yet, come night zombies are at my door creepers are lounging around and spiders are crawling around! I didn't invite them!

Is there any reason for these mobs to spawn here when it's well lit?

Asked by Pureferret

Answer

Mobs cannot spawn in a well lit area, but only a single square is enough to allow spawning. The light level must be 8 or higher to prevent spawning, meaning no cube can be more than 7 steps from a torch. You have to count vertical steps too, so a torch two squares off the floor can only be five horizontal steps from any floor square.

In addition, spiders can climb up walls, and thus are harder to keep out than other mobs. But the fact that you have creepers and zombies as well indicates that you have a lighting issue. Creeps can also fall down from heights farther than they would choose to walk; if the cliff above your balcony can spawn mobs, you may wish to light it or fence it to prevent mobs from pushing each other off the edge and falling to your balcony.

After you posted the screenshots, I made this graphic, illustrating some of the squares that have insufficient light. The green dot means that area is light level 8 or higher (within 7 cubes of a torch). A red dot indicates it is light level 7 or lower, and mobs can spawn there. As you can see, there is a large splotch of darkness on the right side of your balcony, where it is widest. Add a few more torches and everything should be fine. I did miscount a bit when creating the graphic: the leftmost two red dots should be green, as they are 7 cubes from the torch that is just out of sight on the bottom left. This leaves 5 squares visible in the image that are below light level 8.

Answered by Myrddin Emrys

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How can I stop monsters invading my mine/tunnels?

Question

I have been playing Terraria for a few hours now, and have a reasonable sized mine underneath my house. It is well lit and I have never had any monsters spawn inside or even near me while in there - however when I am descending into my mine I often find zombies dropping down and landing on my head..

One thing that was suggested is that they are spawning in side tunnels off from my main shaft, but I don't have any!

Answer

Chances are they are spawning above you in the mine. Any kind of wall (stone or wood) except dirt will stop monsters spawning. I believe the walls are what stop monsters spawning unlike Minecraft's light level system.

If you've just dug straight into the earth, use the hammer to remove the dirt walls and replace with stone.

The other option is there is a blood moon on and the zombies broke through your house.

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How do you make an effective Minecraft mob trap?

Question

Alright, so what's the best way to go about making a good mob trap in Minecraft? Here are some traits I'd like to have in the trap:

1. Easy to build.

   Although I have (or can easily obtain) whatever materials needed for a mob trap, I'd prefer it to be simple, as I have a talent for melting myself in lava, falling down extremely deep pits, and other unfortunate accidents.

2. Completely reliable.

   Preferably, once I build this trap, I'd like it to be mob-proof, with no chance of 3 spiders clogging the trap for an hour. Additionally (although this isn't quite so important), it would be nice for there to be an escape route, in case I accidentally fall into the trap myself.

3. Good item-gathering.

   Self-explanatory. I want the trap to gather all of the items (losing string I don't care about, but I want to collect all the useful drops like gunpowder and arrows), and deposit them via water/whatever method works at a nice drop-off point outside the trap.

So, given these three preferred qualities, what would be some good traps for me to build?

Answer

I highly recommend Etho's excellent subterranean spawning pads with a water-based mobevator for moving mobs to the surface. An ammended tutorial for the mob-spawner and transporter can be found here.

The video doesn't include a mob-killing mechanism but there are multiple examples on his youtube channel. Personally I prefer transporting them a bit to the side of the mobevator, then leading them up a 2x2x4 tube of water with signs creating a gap one tile up from the ground. The mobs swim to the top and drown in the enclosed 2x2x2 cube of water, while their drops fall through the gap and into the bottom 2x2x1 water stream that you can channel wherever you want to.

[Edit: I forgot to address your requirements.]

Easy to build? It requires nothing but pickaxes and a bucket. Glass makes it easier to construct but isn't necessary.

Completely reliable? I have never seen a clog, ever, nor has it ever failed to kill a mob.

Good item-gathering? 100% recovered drops, no lava or cacti to destroy them and you can channel them to a single tile anywhere you want with the output water stream.

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Bukkit plugin to control which mobs spawn?

Question

I'd like mobs to spawn on my server: just skeletons and zombies though. I don't want those meddling creepers putting pockmarks in our architecture.

Is there a (current and up-to-date) server-side Bukkit plugin to control which mobs can spawn, and which cannot?

Answer

WorldGuard (Download) appears to have the ability to prevent certain mobs from spawning
(Control+F -> "block-creature-spawn").

At the time of this writing, it appears to be up to date.

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Do Mobs Despawn in Minecraft 1.8?

Question

I know that mobs are despanwed in earlier versions of the game. I heard that in the new 1.8 update that mobs are no longer despawned or are saved when they are despawned? Is this true? If not is there any thing that suggests that this will be implemented? Thanks.

Answer

From the EntityAnimal class in EntityAnimal.java:

protected boolean canDespawn()
{
    return false;
}

This should apply to all passive mobs. (I checked, they all extend the EntityAnimal class.)

Wolves however are interesting:

protected boolean canDespawn()
{
    return !isWolfTamed();
}

So this means that tamed wolves do not despawn, while wild wolves do despawn.

It seems that slimes and squid will also despawn. Both classes contain this method:

protected void updateEntityActionState()
<snipped>
    despawnEntity();
<snipped>

I didn't see any other references to despawning.

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Can I turn a cow into a mooshroom?

Question

Is there a way to turn a normal cow into a mooshroom?

Answer

No, they spawn in new mushroom biomes. However, the reverse is possible, using shears:

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How can I Keep Cows from Running Away?

Question

I've built a fenced area in Minecraft in which cows, pigs and over wildlife I intend to congregate. Only problem, how can I make them happy? In that they quite often bounce by the fence, wanting to get out. Any recommendations?

Answer

Cows (along with all passive mobs) have no AI other than "wander". They will blissfully stumble head-first into lava if given the chance.

As of 1.6.6, there is no way to encourage Passive Mobs to stick around; even "happy" cows will disappear into the ether if you wander far enough away that the chunk gets unloaded from Memory.

On the other hand, fence-escaping can simply be halted by making the fence taller.

Edit:

As of 1.8, passive mobs no longer despawn. If you fence a cow, sheep, or pig, and keep them safe from wolves / aggressive mobs, they should stay fenced-in indefinitely.

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Minecraft SMP mob statistics

Question

I'm am trying to build a mob farm in Minecraft SMP, but barely any mobs spawn near it. I know there is a limit of 85 hostile mobs for the whole world. But even when I am the only player logged on, I barely see any.

Is there any way that I can get information as to how many mobs are spawned, which types they are, or even where they are?

I am the server owner so I am able to install a mod if needed.

Answer

MobLocator

Due to there not being any plugin that currently does this, I have developed one.
It is called MobLocator and can be download here.

• /mobloc shows the number of each type of mobs that are present in the world.
• /mobloc [mobType] shows the location of the 10 closest mobs of type mobType. (Using euclidean distance). Note, you can use a mobType of all.

Feedback welcome.

Edit: Updated link to version 1.0.6, I forgot squid.

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Where can I find Goblin Scouts?

Question

In Terraria 1.0.6, the Goblin Scout was added — however, he's not part of the Goblin Invasion.

Where might I find this elusive beast?

Answer

There's a chance for the Goblin Scout to appear randomly near the edges of the world. The official wiki says they will not spawn in the middle third, however the Wikia wiki only says they are found most often near the edge with no mention of them being completely unable to spawn in the middle third.

Both these cases are probably anecdotal evidence, so you may have to wait a little longer for more playtesting to determine where it spawns the most. For what it's worth, I was lingering just inside the Dungeon entrance when I had one spawn nearby.

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What's with this skeleton riding a spider?

Question

Look at this

I've found a skeleton riding a spider in my world, could it be a hidden monster ?

It was very bugging jumping up and down from the spider when the spider died quickly from another monster around.

Any explanation ?

Answer

Spider jockeys have been in the game since seecret update 8 of Alpha. They are extremely rare, but not unknown or undiscovered.

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How dangerous are windows?

Question

I'm relatively new to Minecraft. I've built a few shelters on a few worlds, usually with a high level of success. However, I've recently been trying to spruce up these shelters and make them nicer-looking. Part of that is adding windows--both for the nice look and to make it easier to determine the time of day. So far, I've only added windows in rooms away from my bed, since I am not sure about the safety of glass.

I know that unless they are in pursuit mode, non-spider mobs cannot see a player through glass. Spiders are not a problem, because they just congregate and make noise on the roof. The Glass Page on the wiki says that "Spider Jockeys can shoot their arrows through glass and cause damage.[citation needed]"

So, two main questions:

1. Can Spider Jockeys shoot through glass or not? Is this intentional or a bug? Is it something I need to worry about, since they spawn so rarely anyways? (I've only ever seen one)
2. Are there any other perils I need to worry about with regards to using glass as windows or skylights?

Answer

Spider Jockeys are simply Skeletons riding Spiders, and I know for a fact that Skeletons can't shoot their arrows through glass. If they can, it's most likely a very rarely occurring bug – the fact that there's no citation for that point makes it hard for me to believe. It's not something you need to worry about. (Also, there's nothing on the Spider Jockey page about being able to shoot through glass.)

Glass is just as good as any other block when it comes to safety. The only thing you might worry about is if a Creeper were to explode near your windows, the glass would absorb less "blast damage" and more of your house may get destroyed, as glass has a very low blast resistance rating.

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Which technique could I use to increase my resistance to slashing and piercing damage?

Question

In Dungeon of Dredmor, every time I reach dugoen level 4/5 things are getting hard. In particular I have some problems with monsters that cause slashing and/or piercing damage like Pumpkinn and Witchy.

I tried increasing my dodging chance but they hit me anyway 4 times out of 5. Also damage absorption seems to not be enough, and they attack me with 4-8 damage and even more if they crit.

Using a warrior slashing monsters are less dangerous but piercing monsters still hit hard; using a rogue or a mage I have problem with both.

Do you have any suggestions how to fight and survive these type of mobs?

Answer

• Wait for the patch where armor will help
• focus on block if you are heavy armor.
• I believe you can find items that have some resist for it
• Assassination
  • blackjack the monster sometimes so it sleeps instead of attacking
  -
• Vampirism
  • Take some life back with each hit
  • Sparkle to stun
• Astrology has a passive chance on hit to AoE everything around you, sometimes stunning
• staff skills can stun sometimes

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What are the Endermen?

Question

Notch's twitter feed has been talking about something called an Enderman. I can sort of gather that this is a new mob coming in minecraft 1.8, but neither Notch's twitter account or his blog contain anything substantial in the way of explanation.

What (or who) is an Enderman?

Answer

Notch first disclosed the existence of a new mob in development on his Google+ account in a screenshot. He gave no information other than it was "creepy".

The screenshot was immediately enhanced and posted onto Reddit, where a commenter suggested the name "slender man", a popular meme: Notch liked it and decided to use a variation of that name, "Enderman".

After days of speculation and idea generation on Reddit and elsewhere, Notch decided to use some of the more popular ideas to define what the mob did, and described the Endermen's behavior on his Twitter account:

• The Endermen are peaceful. If you look straight at them, they freeze and look at you. When you look away again, they run fast. And teleport. (Source)
• They run TOWARDS you, not away. So if you happen to look at one, do not look away. (Source)
• (they stop being peaceful if you look straight at them) (Source)

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Most efficient way to farm Slimes?

Question

I'm having a hard time finding slimes to kill so that I can make some sticky pistons - I know that they only spawn at the bottom of the map, so I am restricting my search to this area, however I have only gotten 5 slimeballs since I started playing Minecraft!

What is the most efficient way to find, trap, and kill the blighters? Can I make a mob trap for them in the same way that I do for other creatures?

Answer

Any mob trap within 16 blocks of the bottom of the map will catch slimes as well, but you have to be careful to not hurt the slimes too much to get them to split the most. Punching and drowning are the safest ways to ensure that they'll split into more slimes. Also, you want a large room so that bigger slimes will spawn which can then have more splits.

The most important thing besides the depth is that it's in a chunk suitable for slimes. Slimes can only spawn in 10% of the chunks, picked randomly depending on the seed. You can calculate which chunks are suitable with this tool by trunkz though: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/397835-find-slime-spawning-chunks/

They only spawn a tenth as often as other mobs, but they'll also spawn in any light level, so if you're digging for diamonds at bedrock level, you'll usually find quite a few naturally.

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