Monster Spawner

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A monster spawner is a type of spawner found in a variety of structures. It constantly summons instances of the mob displayed within it as long as a player is in range and the light levels are correct for that mob type to spawn nearby. It only drops experience orbs when broken, and cannot be moved from where it is found.

Monster spawners cannot be obtained in Survival, even with Silk Touch.

A monster spawner can be obtained in Creative mode by taking it from Creative inventory, by using the /give command, or by using pick block. It is initially empty and inert, but can be configured to spawn a desired mob by using a spawn egg on the placed block.

A /setblock, /clone or /fill command can also be used to obtain a monster spawner.

If broken with a pickaxe, a monster spawner drops 15-43 experience. When mined with anything else, it drops nothing.

Monster spawners can generate naturally in the following places:

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Monster rooms

One in the center of the monster room spawning one of the following mobs with the indicated frequency: zombie (50%), skeleton (25%), or spider (25%).

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Mineshafts

Any number of cave spider monster spawners, densely surrounded by cobwebs, scattered throughout.

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Woodland mansions

Optionally one spider monster spawner, densely surrounded by cobwebs, in a rarely generated secret room on the 2nd or 3rd floor. It is sometimes visible through the windows from outside.

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Strongholds

One silverfish monster spawner in the end portal room.

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Nether fortresses

One or two blaze monster spawners on fenced platforms with full-block "stairs" leading up to them. Normally two are generated per fortress, but there can be fewer.

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Bastion remnants

One magma cube monster spawner hanging from an iron chain underneath a bridge in treasure rooms.

A monster spawner spawns mobs in an (at most) 9×3×9 volume (see § Mechanics) around it when the player is within 16 blocks. Suitable spawning locations for the block's mob type are provided in or around the spawning volume. The monster spawner attempts to spawn four mobs around it, then waits from 10 to 39.95 seconds before attempting to spawn more.

In Peaceful difficulty, monster spawners still activate but do not spawn monsters, including zombie horses and camel husks in Java Edition.

Monster spawners are transparent, but they behave like leaves in that they diffuse sky light coming from directly above.

A monster spawner activates when a player (that's not in Spectator mode) comes within a spherical radius of 16 blocks from the center point of the block; i.e. 15.5 blocks from the monster spawner itself. The player's presence is determined by coordinates at their foot level, meaning that a player standing exactly 15.5 blocks below the spawner doesn't activate it, even though their head is in range. In Java Edition an active monster spawner attempts to spawn mobs within a 4-block horizontal and 1-block vertical range; that is, in a 9×3×9 volume centered on the monster spawner. In Bedrock Edition, the horizontal spawning range is 4 blocks taxicab distance, creating spawning volume extending 4 blocks in each cardinal horizontal direction from the sides of the monster spawner; its horizontal cross-section is therefore diamond-shaped. Mobs can spawn anywhere in this range that is suitable, with mobs more likely to spawn closer to the monster spawner than farther away.

While mobs are spawned at fractional x and z-coordinates (i.e. not aligned to blocks), they are spawned at an integer y-coordinate. Horizontally, a mob can spawn with its center point anywhere within range, but vertically, mobs spawn with their legs at either the same layer as the monster spawner block, one block above it, or one block below it. (Note that when there are other blocks slightly intersecting the mob's hitbox, they can sometimes glitch further away - often up - but this does not make it a true spawning point.)

A monster spawner attempts to spawn 4 mobs at randomly chosen points within the spawning volume, then waits anywhere from 200 to 799 ticks (10 to 39.95 seconds) before spawning again. As it waits, the mob model inside the block spins faster and faster. Except for the normal solid-block spawning requirement, all the remaining ones must be met (not in a solid block, correct light level, etc.), so the monster spawner often produces fewer than 4 mobs. When it does spawn, more flame particles temporarily appear around it, and puffs of smoke are emitted from the spawned mobs in Java Edition or the northwest corner of the spawner in Bedrock Edition. If the monster spawner fails to spawn any mobs because it did not pick any suitable locations, it repeats this process every tick until it succeeds. It starts the next wait cycle only after successfully spawning at least one mob.

If 6 or more mobs of a monster spawner's type have their hitbox intersecting a 9×9×9 volume centered on the monster spawner block in Java Edition or a 16×10×16 volume centered on the lower northwest corner of the monster spawner block in Bedrock Edition, the monster spawner "poofs" without creating any mobs and then waits for the next cycle.^{[needs testing in Bedrock Edition]} This is checked before each of the four spawn attempts.

A monster spawner performs a relaxed version of the ordinary spawning check: the general solid block requirement is removed, but the volume (hitbox of the mob) is kept along with some other checks according to mob specifics. As a result, for some types of mobs to spawn in the outer planes of the spawning volume, some planes outside the volume may also need to be free of solid blocks to conform with the mobs' height, width, or other rules governing their individual spawn volumes. Examples:

• For mobs that are two or more blocks tall such as zombies, skeletons, or blazes to spawn in the top y-layer, the layer above must contain only a transparent block such as air, glass, leaves, etc.
• In Java Edition, a turtle monster spawner can spawn turtles only on sand blocks less than 4 blocks above sea level (typically at Y=62). In Bedrock Edition no biome/light/height conditions apply for turtles in monster spawners.
• In Bedrock Edition, some animals require light level ≥7, e.g. chicken, sheep, cow, rabbit. Others ignore the light level condition given in the spawning rules json files, e.g. parrot, turtle. This suggests that some of the early animals have hard-coded requirements when used in monster spawners.

For all of the volumes listed in the table, the horizontal plane is centered on the center of the monster spawner. While the spawning volume for pigs is 8.9×2.9×8.9, the requirement of grass blocks that are necessary for pigs to spawn reduces the actual volume in which they successfully spawn to 8.9×1.0×8.9. Other mobs can spawn in mid-air, ignoring general rules about spawning on solid ground.

The spawn conditions do not include biomes for most mobs. As such, monster spawners can place mobs where they normally wouldn't generate. For example, a mooshroom monster spawner can operate in a plains biome as long as there are mycelium blocks within the spawn area because the mooshroom's spawning code checks only for mycelium. The reason mooshrooms are not actually spawned elsewhere is that the game does not normally try to spawn them in other biomes: only the mushroom field biome has mooshroom on the list of things to spawn.

The way a monster spawner can be disabled depends on the entity it tries to spawn.

For a monster spawner that generates mobs that spawn only in dark conditions (light level = 0), a torch placed on any side or top of the monster spawner is sufficient to disable it for the whole 9×3×9 volume.

For a blaze or silverfish spawner, a light level of 12 is required to prevent spawning. This can be achieved by:

• Laying 9 blocks in the pattern shown on the right using blocks having a luminance value of 15
• Laying a dense 7×7 grid of torches on the monster spawner's Y level
• In Bedrock Edition, placing a light source of level 15 on four surfaces

A monster spawner is also disabled by filling the spawning volume with solid blocks. This is often used to disable magma cube monster spawners, as magma cubes can spawn in any light level. However, since all magma cubes require the space of a large magma cube in order to spawn, a clever placement of as little as 9 solid blocks a layer above the monster spawner (see right image) can completely disable it.

In Java Edition, using commands, monster spawners can be customized:

• They can be made to spawn any kind of entity.
• A single monster spawner can spawn multiple different entities, chosen at random from a list.
• Properties can be set on the spawned entities.
• Various range and timing properties of the monster spawner can be changed.

Detailed technical information about custom monster spawners can be found below.

In Bedrock Edition, monster spawner customization cannot be done in the base game (i.e. without addons/behavior packs).

Monster spawners cannot be pushed by pistons. They also cannot be pushed nor pulled by sticky pistons.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

A monster spawner has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.

Issues relating to "Monster Spawner" or "Spawner" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

• Monster spawners containing zombies can never spawn a zombie villager.^[3]
• In Java Edition, monster spawners containing zombies have a small chance to spawn a chicken jockey.
• Monster spawners containing zombies or skeletons have a chance for the mob spinning inside to have armor.
• Monster spawners containing spiders have a small chance to spawn a spider jockey.
• In Java Edition, monster spawners containing pillagers have a small chance for the mob spinning inside to be a raid captain.
• In Bedrock Edition, the iron golem inside an iron golem spawner is apparently on very low health, visible by the cracks.
• Monster spawners in mushroom fields, the deep dark or the Void biome can function normally, despite those biomes having no hostile mobs spawn naturally.
• It is possible for an empty monster spawner to generate naturally. If a newer world is loaded in an older version of Minecraft, the monster spawner can lose its block entity data, causing it to enter its default state, which is an empty monster spawner. Alternatively, if a buried treasure chest generates next to a monster spawner, it duplicates the monster spawner without duplicating the NBT tag, resulting in a natural empty monster spawner.^[4] The chest also gets invalid block (monster spawner) data, making it unopenable.
• A monster spawner does not preserve its NBT data when placed in Survival mode.^[5] It requires the player to be in Creative mode and have permission level greater than or equal to 2.

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• 👁 A blaze monster spawner in a nether fortress.
  
  A blaze monster spawner in a nether fortress.
• 👁 Spider monster spawner in a woodland mansion.
  
  Spider monster spawner in a woodland mansion.

• 👁 A monster room, connected to another monster room, with two monster spawners.
  
  A monster room, connected to another monster room, with two monster spawners.
• 👁 A monster spawner edited to spawn zombies wearing enchanted diamond armor.
  
  A monster spawner edited to spawn zombies wearing enchanted diamond armor.
• 👁 Light required to disable a blaze monster spawner.
  
  Light required to disable a blaze monster spawner.
• 👁 A monster spawner that spawns skeletons.
  
  A monster spawner that spawns skeletons.
• 👁 A spider monster spawner that generated on the surface. The monster spawner is located roughly in the middle of the picture, underneath a cobweb.
  
  A spider monster spawner that generated on the surface. The monster spawner is located roughly in the middle of the picture, underneath a cobweb.
• 👁 Chickens spawning from multiple monster spawners.
  
  Chickens spawning from multiple monster spawners.
• 👁 A monster spawner in an older version of Minecraft.
  
  A monster spawner in an older version of Minecraft.
• 👁 Cave spider monster spawner seen from a chamber.
  
  Cave spider monster spawner seen from a chamber.
• 👁 A magma cube monster spawner inside the bastion remnant.
  
  A magma cube monster spawner inside the bastion remnant.
• 👁 A spider monster spawner connected to a mineshaft.
  
  A spider monster spawner connected to a mineshaft.
• 👁 Two blazes spawned near a blaze monster spawner and a wither skeleton.
  
  Two blazes spawned near a blaze monster spawner and a wither skeleton.
• 👁 Pig monster spawners generating when a buried treasure chest spawns inside a monster spawner (Fixed in 1.17 pre-1).
  
  Pig monster spawners generating when a buried treasure chest spawns inside a monster spawner (Fixed in 1.17 pre-1).
• 👁 Amethyst geode with mineshaft and 2 cave spider monster spawners. Check the image for more details, including seed and coordinates.
  
  Amethyst geode with mineshaft and 2 cave spider monster spawners. Check the image for more details, including seed and coordinates.
• 👁 2 cave spider monster spawners next to each other.
  
  2 cave spider monster spawners next to each other.
• 👁 Spider monster spawner generated right next to the village.
  
  Spider monster spawner generated right next to the village.
• 👁 Mineshaft and skeleton monster spawner generated at the bottom of the world.
  
  Mineshaft and skeleton monster spawner generated at the bottom of the world.
• 👁 A close-up view of am iron golem spawner, with visible cracks in the golem.
  
  A close-up view of am iron golem spawner, with visible cracks in the golem.

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  Minecart with Monster Spawner
• 👁 BlockSprite monster-spawner.png: Sprite image for monster-spawner in Minecraft
  Monster spawner traps
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  Trial Spawner

• Block of the Week: Spawner – Minecraft.net on January 13, 2022