Overview
A spawner is the cage-like block at the heart of every dungeon, mineshaft and stronghold mob room, and it produces mobs of one fixed type indefinitely as long as its conditions are met. It attempts a spawn every few seconds within a 9x3x9 volume centred on itself, needs a player within 16 blocks to be active, respects the light and space rules for the mob it holds, and stops if six or more of that mob are already nearby. That set of rules is the entire design space for spawner farms: light the surrounding area so mobs only appear in the cage's volume, keep the player exactly 16 blocks away, and pipe the output somewhere they can be killed. Crucially, a spawner cannot be moved. Silk Touch does not work on it, mining destroys it, and there is no recipe, so a farm has to be built around wherever the spawner happens to generate — which is why spawner locations are worth writing down. Zombie, skeleton, spider, cave spider, silverfish and blaze spawners all generate naturally, and blaze spawners in nether fortresses are the only practical source of blaze rods.
Building a mob farm that runs without a dark room — experience, gunpowder, bones, arrows, string and, from a blaze spawner, the rods that every brewing stand and eye of ender needs.
In Minecraft 1.21.4, Monster Spawner is a functional block. Expect to wait: its hardness of 5 is well above average. Mine it with a wooden pickaxe or better, or you get no drop at all.
It is not used in any crafting recipe.
How to get it
Spawners cannot be crafted or collected. They generate in dungeons around Y 0 to Y 50, in mineshafts as cave spider spawners, in strongholds as silverfish spawners, and in nether fortresses as blaze spawners.
Tips
- Light the room around the spawner so mobs only appear inside its 9x3x9 volume and not on your floor.
- It only runs with a player within 16 blocks, so build the kill chamber and the waiting spot at that distance.
- It stops spawning once 6 of its mob type are nearby, so the farm must move them away continuously.
- Silk Touch does not collect a spawner — build around it or lose it entirely.
How long it takes to break
At a hardness of 5, Monster Spawner takes 25 seconds to punch out and 0.85 seconds with a netherite-tier tool of the correct class.
Iron takes 1.3 seconds against diamond's 0.95, so the upgrade worth making for this block is the one to diamond.
Below wooden the block breaks and simply vanishes. Bring the right tier or leave it in the ground.
Each Efficiency level adds level² + 1 to the tool's speed, so a level V tool clears this about 3.4 times faster than an unenchanted one.
| Tool | No enchantment | Efficiency III | Efficiency V |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand * | 25 s | 25 s | 25 s |
| Wooden | 3.8 s | 0.65 s | 0.3 s |
| Stone | 1.9 s | 0.55 s | 0.25 s |
| Iron | 1.3 s | 0.5 s | 0.25 s |
| Diamond | 0.95 s | 0.45 s | 0.25 s |
| Netherite | 0.85 s | 0.4 s | 0.25 s |
| Golden | 0.65 s | 0.35 s | 0.2 s |
Properties
Blast resistance on Monster Spawner is 5, so an explosion nearby will usually take it out. It lets light pass and gives off no light. Stack size is 64 — the standard full stack. It does not renew, so the world's supply is fixed. The block is tagged for pickaxes, and only that class gets the speed bonus; everything else mines at bare-hand rate.
- Transparent
- Yes
- Required tool
- Wooden Pickaxe
- Renewable
- No
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you get Monster Spawner in Minecraft?
Monster Spawner generates naturally in the world and does not drop anything without Silk Touch.
What tool do you need to break Monster Spawner?
Wooden Pickaxe or better is required; anything weaker destroys the block without dropping it.
Is Monster Spawner blast resistant?
Monster Spawner has a blast resistance of 5, so an explosion nearby will destroy it.
How many Monster Spawner fit in one stack?
Monster Spawner stacks to 64, which puts 3,456 of them in a double chest.
Is Monster Spawner renewable?
No. Every Monster Spawner in a world is finite — there is no way to produce more of it, so anything you spend is gone for good.
How long does Monster Spawner take to break?
The correct netherite tool clears it in 0.85 seconds. Bare hands take 25.
