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Mob Spawning in Vanilla is relegated to a few basic techniques, mostly dealing with dark rooms and fancy tricks to limit where things can spawn.
Modded, however, often takes a much more... direct approach. So let's cover some of our options in this pack.
In Vanilla it is considered the worst sacrilege to break a Spawner. Doubly so when Apotheosis is involved. With Apotheosis, it becomes possible to move Vanilla Spawners, augment them, and even change their spawn type.
To move a Spawner, simply break it with most any Silk Touch enchanted tool. Even an Ars Nouveau Extract spell will suffice. Do not, however, expect a Mining Gadget, RF Tools Builder, or a Digital Miner to pick them up.
It should be noted here that Mekanism's Cardboard Boxes also permit moving Spawners by default. So this can be a very cheap way to collect a few during early exploration.
Augmenting Spawners is as simple as right clicking the block with a given item. To see what items can be used as augments, check Uses on a Spawner in JEI. Of particular note are Redstone Comparators, which make the Spawner only run when a Redstone signal is applied.
As for changing the spawn type, Apotheosis adds the Capturing enchant, which gives a chance to receive a Spawn Egg when a mob is killed. This permits the use of the Vanilla mechanic of setting the spawn type: simply right-click the Spawner with the egg.
Industrial Foregoing actually introduces two methods of spawning mobs that ultimately go hand in hand. The first, and most basic is Mechanical Dirt.
Mechanical Dirt takes in FE and Liquid Meat and will randomly spawn any mobs that would normally spawn in the area. This can be handy for forcing rare mobs to appear, such as Blitz or Basalz in their respective biomes. Spawn conditions must still be met, however, so keep it in the dark.
Obtaining the Liquid Meat then becomes the goal to fulfill. Thankfully, Industrial Foregoing makes that rather simple with a Mob Slaughter Factory. This is a net positive operation, meaning that a Mechanical Dirt and Mob Slaughter Factory combo produce more Meat than is consumed. Meaning this can be used to run another Mechanical Dirt where the mobs are killed with a Mob Crusher.
The Mob Crusher then produces mob drops as if the mob were killed by a player, as well as Essence. This in return can be used to run Industrial Foregoing's second mob Spawner: The Mob Duplicator.
The Mob Duplicator is an old standby that makes a return in modern modded Minecraft. It will forcibly spawn any mob that can be captured in a Mob Imprisonment Tool. Simply right click a mob with one to capture it and then insert the item into the machine to begin.
For a mod with a focus on automation and logistics, it's no surprise that PneumaticCraft has a few tricks up it's sleeve in this matter.
For a simple method of automated Spawning, PneumaticCraft has the Spawner Agitator which may be placed on any Vanilla Style Spawner (even those modified by Apotheosis) to cause it to continue spawning with no player present.
In addition to this, however, PneumaticCraft recently added a new toy to it's arsenal of automation centric tools: The Pressurized Spawner.
This is a programmable Spawner that runs on Compressed Air and little else. Given enough air, it can run remarkably fast.
Programming it involves creating filled Spawner Cores. Pure cores can be extracted directly from Vanilla Spawners by way of the Spawner Extractor where the type of core will be determined by the type of the Spawner itself. Alternatively they can be filled in a Vacuum Trap. An empty Core is inserted into the Trap and any nearby mobs are sucked in. It takes a fair number of mobs to fill the trap, but it also allows for the creation of mixed Spawner Cores. Perhaps a nice combo Blaze/Witch/Wither Skeleton/Iron Golem Spawner would suit your needs?
RF Tools Utility provides it's own unique twist on Mob Spawning which uses some form of matter to reconstruct each mob.
This consists of a few parts. First, the Spawner block itself, above which the mobs will ultimately appear. This needs power and a filled Syringe.
Filled Syringes are obtained quite simply, just punch a mob with a Syringe until it shows that it's full. Do be careful with small animals, as they are likely to die from this procedure if they don't receive prompt medical attention.
Once the Syringe is in place, some extra information is displayed in the Spawner which indicates the matter required to spawn this entity. It generally consists of something related to the mob, some substrate material like dirt or gravel, and some living material. Most raw meat and plants count for this.
Getting this matter into the Spawner requires another block, the Matter Beamer. Place these down around the Spawner. Position doesn't matter much as they can link up from up to eight blocks away. Right-Click the Matter Beamer with a Smart Wrench and then Right-Click the Spawner to link it. Supply power, a Redstone signal, and the items indicated in the Spawner to begin sending the material. Item's can be piped in.
More Beamers can be used, but they can also be sped up by Infusing them with Dimensional Shards in a Machine Infuser.
Warning: The Spawner can hold a lot of matter and that matter is lost if ever the Syringe is removed. So be careful how you supply it. It may be advisable to only send items in exact batches, for instance. Consider an Immersive Engineering Item Batcher for that.
Nature's Aura similarly has it's own take on Mob Spawning, and this one doesn't always require the player to have found the mob in the first place. Trouble finding a Parrot friend? Summon one from thin air!
The Altar of Birthing uses a bit of Aura, some items related to the mob in question, and a Spirit of Birthing to summon each mob. Spirits of Birthing themselves are acquired simply by breeding passive animals such as cows and sheep in an area rich in Aura. All that's required to summon the mob is to throw everything down somewhere on the Altar's multiblock structure and wait for the pretty flashing to end.
For some mobs such as Blaze, the process requires items that are only obtained from the mob itself. In these cases the Altar will require a little bit of clever farming to ensure enough items are received to continue the process. A good looting based mob grinder should suffice.
Botania doesn't offer much in terms of mob spawning as it largely relies on vanilla mechanics to fuel that need. It does have a few tools to help, however.
First and foremost, the Life Imbuer, which allows a Vanilla Mob Spawner to run with no player nearby. This does require Mana from a Mana Spreader, however.
Then there's the Cocoon of Caprice. Place one of these down and wait a bit and you'll end up with a random baby animal. This can be a great way to find uncommon critters like Rabbits and Foxes.
Dropping Emeralds or Chorus Fruit on them before they hatch will also influence them to spawn Villagers or Shulkers, respectively. Great way to fuel a Shulk Me Not.
Additionally, hatching them in water will result in certain aquatic creatures such as Puffer Fish or even Dolphins.
While Ars Nouveau doesn't really offer a Mob Spawner, per se, it is worth mentioning one aspect anyway.
Recall that in Vanilla Lightning can convert certain creatures. Pigs to Pigmen and Villagers to Witches, for instance. Well, Ars Nouveau does allow summoning Lightning bolts and this process can even be automated with a Spell Turret. So it would be possible to build yourself a nice Witch farm, for instance, that uses a standard Vanilla Villager Breeder to supply the villagers for transformation.
Stick 'em with the pointy end, or so they say. But why does it have to be me doing the sticking?
Well, it doesn't!
Below we'll discuss some of the options in the pack for automatically killing mobs.
For a quick and easy way to kill mobs, the Pedestals mod offers the Auto Attacker Pedestal Upgrade. Simply place it on a pedestal and stand back. It will periodically damage everything in the area. It also very considerately picks up the drops to send them elsewhere. This one is covered in more detail our Rosa Arcana Automation section, so feel free to check it out there.
Dark Utilities is a mod practically dedicated to simplifying mob farms. It's vector plates can quickly displace mobs and it has a variety of Traps to damage them. For a simple farm, just move mobs onto a Player Trap with Vector Plates. The Filters can also be a great way of separating mobs first to simplify handling them.
Farming plants isn't the only aim of Industrial Foregoing. Animals and mobs alike are on the table here.
In the case of Industrial Foregoing, there's the Mob Slaughter Factory and the Mob Crusher. Now, it should be noted that while the Slaughter Factory doesn't produce any drops, it is still vital for progression in the mod as it is the only source for Liquid Meat and Pink Slime.
Mob Crusher
The Mob Crusher, on the other hand, will provide mob drops as if the mob were killed by a player. It produces Essence, which has it's own uses, but this can be toggled off to enable a Looting mode for the Crusher. The level of Looting is random, but hey, free extra drops, right?
It's also worth noting that the Mob Crusher will not harm baby animals. Handy to know for a passive animal farm.
For those who are more conscious of the performance issues surrounding mob farms, the Mob Crusher is one of the better choices for a few reasons. First, the mobs aren't damaged, they're simply removed. Second, the items and XP never drop in the world. They're generated within the machine's inventory for each mob it kills.
For a mod dealing with flying drones and mini guns, it's no surprise that PneumaticCraft offers a few options for killing things.
Available quite early on, Guard Drones can be used to patrol a 31x31x31 area, killing any hostile mobs it encounters. It doesn't do a lot of damage on it's own, but it can wield any melee weapon to increase it's damage. It will equip itself with whatever items it finds in the inventory it is deployed on.
Mobs will fight back, however, and the drone can end up taking damage or even dying. Armor Upgrades and Life Upgrades help reduce incoming damage and regenerate lost health.
Of course, keeping away from mobs in the first place is even better. Craft a Minigun Upgrade and install it in the drone instead to give it some ranged oomf. Just be sure to keep the chest it was deployed on supplied with ammo and place a Charging Station with a Dispenser Upgrade installed nearby so the drone can come recharge.
Similarly, Miniguns can be placed as fixed turrets and can be set with different filters for what to target. These don't use air, but they're also slower to shoot than an upgraded Guard Drone.
To go along with both of these, there are Collection Drones which will scan a large area for item drops, pick them up, and deliver them to the inventory it was deployed on.
Smart Drones are the next evolution of automated killing in PneumaticCraft. These must be programmed in a Programmer but are far more flexible than their basic cousins. For instance one could be programmed to pick up a highly enchanted sword and kill mobs in an area until the sword is in need of repair. At this point it could drop of the sword for repair at a Pedestals XP Anvil, pick it up once more and continue the slaughter. Another one could be programmed to collect items and XP orbs, dropping those off into your storage system.
This powerful block can project a force field into an area that can be configured to act differently for different mobs. For instance, it can be set to allow players to pass, block passive animals, and kill hostile mobs. The field itself can also be configure to different colors and textures, as well as mimic most blocks.
While complex shapes will require placing Shield Templates to fill in the area of the shield, a Shape Card may also be used to quickly set up any of it's default shapes without the need of Shield Templates. If Shield Templates are used they must connect back to the Projector, whereas the shield projected by a shape card can be offset by quite a ways.
Once it has been configured and powered, whack it with a Smart Wrench to set it's configuration.
The damage from this does count as player damage, so all drops will be available. It can even burn excess Dimensional Shards to enable Looting.
With it's system of spells and flexible automation tools, Ars Nouveau can get a surprising number of tasks done with a bit of ingenuity.
Spell Turrets offer a great deal of flexibility when it comes to making a mob farm. Just place the turret, or multiple turrets, facing into the killing chamber and set them up with the spell of your choosing. Every time they get a Redstone pulse, they'll fire, potentially making short work of the mobs.
With a Mana Condenser nearby the dying mobs will even help generate some of the mana needed to cast. Though, realistically you'll likely want some Volcanic Accumulators to help supplement the cost, especially for more expensive spells.
Example Spell
Projectile > Harm > Amplify > Amplify > Amplify > Fortune > Fortune > Fortune > Item Pickup
While costly, the above spell can deal with a Wither Skeleton in 2-3 hits. It gives us a nice Looting effect from the Fortune Spells, and the Item Pickup ensures that the items from the kill end up in any inventory directly adjacent to the Spell Turret.
For a mod dealing with blood as a source of energy, one might expect to see more killing going on. While there is some, it's not quite as useful as other methods.
The Well of Suffering is primarily a method of generating blood or LP for use in other rituals. It works by slowly damaging mobs in it's area of effect and those mobs will eventually die. However, this doesn't count as a player kill, and as a result the mobs don't drop their full loot table or XP. It's effectively as if they've been dropped to their death. So while it can help in getting a rotten flesh or bones, don't expect to build a full mob farm with this.
With it's automation centric design philosophy, Botania has tools for just about everything. When it comes to killing, it has a couple of interesting options.
Simply put, the Bellethorne damages mobs in an area around it at the expense of mana. They work efficiently, only consuming mana when there's something to damage. These do not count as a player kill, however.
A key ingredient to generating mana with a Shulk-Me-Not, the Heisei Dream is somewhat unique in functionality. Rather than killing mobs outright, it forces them to fight each other. As one might expect, these deaths aren't counted as player kills. Though it will trigger special drops such as music discs from Creepers killed by Skeletons.
Mana Spreaders can be converted to many different uses, including turning them into glowy lasers of death. Sadly, this won't result in player kills and therefore it's of limited use in automation. They're still quite fun on a hand held Mana Blaster, though, and equally amusing to launch towards a Tiny Planet to turn the death beam into a spiraling death beam.
These handy little guys can activate a variety of Botania's Rods to perform tasks at the cost of Mana. This includes Rod's of the Unstable Reservoir to rain down magic lasers from the sky. Sadly, this also doesn't count as a player kill, so they're more useful as a fixed defense than for a mob farm.
Astral Sorcery is probably best known for turning you into an unstoppable powerhouse, but it does offer some nifty little tricks with it's starlight beams.
Just pop a Damage Lens on a Crystal Lens and point it in the general direction of mobs for a little mayhem. It does not count as a player kill, but it can still find it's uses in certain farms where that's not important.
Of course, things don't stop there. By building up a Discidia Ritual we can create a massive zone of death and mayhem. This one also doesn't provide player kill drops.
Mekanism? Killing things? Isn't it just factories and processing? Not quite.
You know that laser you've probably used before to start a Fusion Reactor? The one that you've probably also killed yourself in? Yep. Put it to good use killing mobs instead.
By themselves the Lasers deal pretty great damage, slaying most mobs in an instant. But for something a little tougher, like the Wither it can take a few seconds. Not bad, but it gets better. Feed the beams into a Laser Amplifier instead and you've got yourself a device capable of outputting a single lethal beam at the push of a button. Don't forget to set the Max output or it'll drain the entire buffer instantly. With some brief testing, a beam of about 350 kFE is capable of taking down the Wither instantly.
It may seem like a major disadvantage that many of these options don't deal Player damage and therefore don't drop a mobs full loot table. This means no XP, no arrows or armor from Skeletons, no armor from Zombies, and no Blaze Rods from Blaze... But in some farms you may not even want those things. A bone farm that only drops bones means less hassle filtering and voiding other drops. Non Player kills also still result in drops such as Nether Stars, so many of these options are still quite viable for a Wither farm.