I have a zombie spawner in one of my cave systems and I'd like to create a trap for it. However, I'm not sure how to do it or whether it should be worth it. So I have a few questions about how zombies work.
I already tried building a trap using lava at floor level, but the zombies wouldn't walk into it. What hazards will zombies walk into?
The Gamepedia page for iron ingots says that zombies have an 8.5% change of dropping an ingot, but the zombie page says that iron ingots from zombies are a rare drop that only occurs 2.5% of the time and only if a player kills them. So how often do zombies drop iron ingots and do players have to kill them for them to drop?
The Gamepedia page for spawning says that that spawning block and the block above must be non-liquid for a mob to spawn. However, many of the mob spawner traps I've seen use flowing water. Can a zombie spawn in flowing water?
This isn't really related to the spawner, but what is zombies' behavior while not chasing a player and specifically is there a chance for them to climb up ladders?
The Zombie's AI will attempt to avoid any hazards. Also lava at floor level is not a productive means of killing them since their drops will be destroyed. Usually with spawners people will either dig a big hole underneath, causing the mob to die from fall damage, or use flowing water to guide them into a trap or player killing chamber.
I don't really understand the odds that well, but yes, you can only get "rare drops" by killing the mob yourself. Now in practice what people like to do is "soften" the mobs up, lowering their health down so that they only take one or two hits to kill. In theory this can be accomplished through precise fall damage or crushers. One thing that complicates matters is the fact that zombies (and skeletons) can randomly spawn with armor, sometimes even enchanted armor, which changes how much damage they take from these softening methods.
Spawning works a little differently with spawners: Mobs will spawn in any surrounding air blocks so long as the light levels are low enough, even if that means spawning in mid-air.
The zombie AI doesn't really understand ladders. The reason it "follows you up" is simply that AI is telling it to "move forward", with the ladder automatically converting that forward motion into upward motion. Technically it is possible for the zombie (and other mobs) to just randomly walk into a ladder and start going up. You can avoid zombies (and other mobs) going up ladders completely by leaving off the bottom one and jumping when you want to go up yourself.
Pro-tip: Put a couple blocks directly above the spawner to ensure that mobs don't spawn on it and stay there.
Most people dig out the floor of the spawner and place water blocks there. You can use flowing water to push the zombies into a single location. From there, most people will create a water elevator that lifts the mobs up 22-23 blocks and then drop them down. Mobs will automatically jump if they are in water, so if you have a pattern of water and air/sign blocks you can get them to float up without suffocating them. The point of the drop is that it lowers their health to 1 to 2 health, allowing you to hit them with a sword for exp and drops. There are other designs where people use potions of healing or tnt to kill the zombies.
To be quite honest with you, trying to farm Iron using Zombies is horribly inefficient.
If you set up a standard Iron Golem farm1 (you don't really need Iron Titan grade stuff if you are the only one using it) you will get 5-10 times the amount of Iron that you get from Zombies2, and you won't have to deal with Rotten Flesh, tools, armor, etc. that clog up your chests.
1Standard means it does not require spawn chunks and it has only one layer;
2This is assuming you get ~100 Zombies per hour from a spawner (so 8 IPH/ingots per hour) AND your Iron farm produces the standard 40 IPH that most do;
EDIT: FYI, you can create an Iron farm that does beyond 40 IPH, but I think they are a little too complex for your needs.
To add to the above responses. Baby zombies are an additional problem with zombie spawner traps if you use a water elevator. There are methods to deal with it, but if you don't they will clog up the works and cause issues. Most people just put some lava at the bottom that they get pushed into and burn up.
Remove the floor about three blocks down. Then remove one more layer, Replace that last layer with hoppers. Proceed to put water above the hoppers then a row of signs and then lava. Make a Hopper pipe, that leads to a chest.
The chance of iron ingots from a zombie is way lower than anything mentioned here - it is only 1/3 of 2.5% or 0.83% or one in 120 zombies, since they have a 1/3 chance each of dropping iron, carrots, or potatoes and the probability of a rare drop is 2.5% - making it that much less practical as a method of getting iron, even when considering that the actual spawn rate of a mob spawner is up to 576 mobs per hour (4 mobs every 25 seconds on average), which gives only 5 iron per hour, 10-11 if Looting is used. By comparison, I average around 200 iron per hour of caving, so even a basic iron farm is 5 times slower, if enabling you to do other things. I believe the 8.5% that the Wiki states in some parts is due to confusion with the drop chances of armor and weapons, which is indeed 8.5% (see under "equipped items" in above link).
The chance of iron ingots from a zombie is way lower than anything mentioned here - it is only 1/3 of 2.5% or 0.83% or one in 120 zombies, since they have a 1/3 chance each of dropping iron, carrots, or potatoes and the probability of a rare drop is 2.5% - making it that much less practical as a method of getting iron, even when considering that the actual spawn rate of a mob spawner is up to 576 mobs per hour (4 mobs every 25 seconds on average), which gives only 5 iron per hour, 10-11 if Looting is used. By comparison, I average around 200 iron per hour of caving, so even a basic iron farm is 5 times slower, if enabling you to do other things. I believe the 8.5% that the Wiki states in some parts is due to confusion with the drop chances of armor and weapons, which is indeed 8.5% (see under "equipped items" in above link).
Not everybody likes to spend a ton of time mining in caves; hence why I suggested an Iron farm, since you can keep it running while you are doing other things nearby. Besides, you can always build more Iron farms or better ones if you need a greater supply.
Not everybody likes to spend a ton of time mining in caves; hence why I suggested an Iron farm, since you can keep it running while you are doing other things nearby. Besides, you can always build more Iron farms or better ones if you need a greater supply.
Well, actually, that is just what I said about an iron farm; "a basic iron farm is 5 times slower, if enabling you to do other things [while it runs]"; I was just making a comparison to other ways of getting iron (and really, who needs so much iron that a few hours of caving is too much? Plus you can get other resources which are not as easy to farm, if at all; so much for a diamond farm).
Well, actually, that is just what I said about an iron farm; "a basic iron farm is 5 times slower, if enabling you to do other things [while it runs]"; I was just making a comparison to other ways of getting iron (and really, who needs so much iron that a few hours of caving is too much? Plus you can get other resources which are not as easy to farm, if at all; so much for a diamond farm).
Points for me for not reading the entire post from start to finish! Sorry!
(And if you wonder who needs so much Iron, you obviously have not seen Mumbo Jumbo's builds.)
If you are looking for a simple way to kill zombies from the spawner and collect their loot they drop, this is the video I used to make a trap for both zombies and skeletons.
It's worked really well for me so far
As for the rare drops with the iron ingots, i have found that when i attack the zombies myself, i will sometimes get an iron ingot.
But other than that, i really can't help in that department, sorry D:
Mine 23 blocks below it and then when they fall, go and give them a single punch. They'll die.
Yes but the ones that spawn in the layer above the spawner will die from the fall, better to dig 21 or 22 levels even though some might take more than one punch especially if they are wearing armor. Spawners spawn mobs on three layers, the same layer as the spawner and the one above and the one above.
Thanks everyone. I ended up going with flanigomik's design. It works pretty well, though currently not the 30 levels in ten minutes that was advertised. Gets a decent few iron ingots, carrots, and potatoes too.
I have a zombie spawner in one of my cave systems and I'd like to create a trap for it. However, I'm not sure how to do it or whether it should be worth it. So I have a few questions about how zombies work.
I already tried building a trap using lava at floor level, but the zombies wouldn't walk into it. What hazards will zombies walk into?
The Gamepedia page for iron ingots says that zombies have an 8.5% change of dropping an ingot, but the zombie page says that iron ingots from zombies are a rare drop that only occurs 2.5% of the time and only if a player kills them. So how often do zombies drop iron ingots and do players have to kill them for them to drop?
The Gamepedia page for spawning says that that spawning block and the block above must be non-liquid for a mob to spawn. However, many of the mob spawner traps I've seen use flowing water. Can a zombie spawn in flowing water?
This isn't really related to the spawner, but what is zombies' behavior while not chasing a player and specifically is there a chance for them to climb up ladders?
Thanks!
The Zombie's AI will attempt to avoid any hazards. Also lava at floor level is not a productive means of killing them since their drops will be destroyed. Usually with spawners people will either dig a big hole underneath, causing the mob to die from fall damage, or use flowing water to guide them into a trap or player killing chamber.
I don't really understand the odds that well, but yes, you can only get "rare drops" by killing the mob yourself. Now in practice what people like to do is "soften" the mobs up, lowering their health down so that they only take one or two hits to kill. In theory this can be accomplished through precise fall damage or crushers. One thing that complicates matters is the fact that zombies (and skeletons) can randomly spawn with armor, sometimes even enchanted armor, which changes how much damage they take from these softening methods.
Spawning works a little differently with spawners: Mobs will spawn in any surrounding air blocks so long as the light levels are low enough, even if that means spawning in mid-air.
The zombie AI doesn't really understand ladders. The reason it "follows you up" is simply that AI is telling it to "move forward", with the ladder automatically converting that forward motion into upward motion. Technically it is possible for the zombie (and other mobs) to just randomly walk into a ladder and start going up. You can avoid zombies (and other mobs) going up ladders completely by leaving off the bottom one and jumping when you want to go up yourself.
Pro-tip: Put a couple blocks directly above the spawner to ensure that mobs don't spawn on it and stay there.
Capture bats and other mobs in a small cage!
Bedrock edition: Using nether quartz to measure light levels
this person has a very good trap design that will work well for you
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Retired StaffMost people dig out the floor of the spawner and place water blocks there. You can use flowing water to push the zombies into a single location. From there, most people will create a water elevator that lifts the mobs up 22-23 blocks and then drop them down. Mobs will automatically jump if they are in water, so if you have a pattern of water and air/sign blocks you can get them to float up without suffocating them. The point of the drop is that it lowers their health to 1 to 2 health, allowing you to hit them with a sword for exp and drops. There are other designs where people use potions of healing or tnt to kill the zombies.
Farewell everyone o/
To be quite honest with you, trying to farm Iron using Zombies is horribly inefficient.
If you set up a standard Iron Golem farm1 (you don't really need Iron Titan grade stuff if you are the only one using it) you will get 5-10 times the amount of Iron that you get from Zombies2, and you won't have to deal with Rotten Flesh, tools, armor, etc. that clog up your chests.
1Standard means it does not require spawn chunks and it has only one layer;
2This is assuming you get ~100 Zombies per hour from a spawner (so 8 IPH/ingots per hour) AND your Iron farm produces the standard 40 IPH that most do;
EDIT: FYI, you can create an Iron farm that does beyond 40 IPH, but I think they are a little too complex for your needs.
Please read THIS before making a suggestion
And support the ability to add paintings and records!
To add to the above responses. Baby zombies are an additional problem with zombie spawner traps if you use a water elevator. There are methods to deal with it, but if you don't they will clog up the works and cause issues. Most people just put some lava at the bottom that they get pushed into and burn up.
by c0yote
I tried it with terrible results. I gave my wife my glasses for a second, a creeper showed up and now my wife is pregnant.
Stupid 3D..
Remove the floor about three blocks down. Then remove one more layer, Replace that last layer with hoppers. Proceed to put water above the hoppers then a row of signs and then lava. Make a Hopper pipe, that leads to a chest.
The chance of iron ingots from a zombie is way lower than anything mentioned here - it is only 1/3 of 2.5% or 0.83% or one in 120 zombies, since they have a 1/3 chance each of dropping iron, carrots, or potatoes and the probability of a rare drop is 2.5% - making it that much less practical as a method of getting iron, even when considering that the actual spawn rate of a mob spawner is up to 576 mobs per hour (4 mobs every 25 seconds on average), which gives only 5 iron per hour, 10-11 if Looting is used. By comparison, I average around 200 iron per hour of caving, so even a basic iron farm is 5 times slower, if enabling you to do other things. I believe the 8.5% that the Wiki states in some parts is due to confusion with the drop chances of armor and weapons, which is indeed 8.5% (see under "equipped items" in above link).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Not everybody likes to spend a ton of time mining in caves; hence why I suggested an Iron farm, since you can keep it running while you are doing other things nearby. Besides, you can always build more Iron farms or better ones if you need a greater supply.
Please read THIS before making a suggestion
And support the ability to add paintings and records!
Well, actually, that is just what I said about an iron farm; "a basic iron farm is 5 times slower, if enabling you to do other things [while it runs]"; I was just making a comparison to other ways of getting iron (and really, who needs so much iron that a few hours of caving is too much? Plus you can get other resources which are not as easy to farm, if at all; so much for a diamond farm).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Points for me for not reading the entire post from start to finish! Sorry!
(And if you wonder who needs so much Iron, you obviously have not seen Mumbo Jumbo's builds.)
Please read THIS before making a suggestion
And support the ability to add paintings and records!
If you are looking for a simple way to kill zombies from the spawner and collect their loot they drop, this is the video I used to make a trap for both zombies and skeletons.
It's worked really well for me so far
As for the rare drops with the iron ingots, i have found that when i attack the zombies myself, i will sometimes get an iron ingot.
But other than that, i really can't help in that department, sorry D:
Mine 23 blocks below it and then when they fall, go and give them a single punch. They'll die.
Yes but the ones that spawn in the layer above the spawner will die from the fall, better to dig 21 or 22 levels even though some might take more than one punch especially if they are wearing armor. Spawners spawn mobs on three layers, the same layer as the spawner and the one above and the one above.
Just testing.
Thanks everyone. I ended up going with flanigomik's design. It works pretty well, though currently not the 30 levels in ten minutes that was advertised. Gets a decent few iron ingots, carrots, and potatoes too.