When I started playing Minecraft in survival mode with my kids on our Xbox 360, I knew there would be tough challenges to face. But I also knew that tackling these challenges together would be a lot of fun. So we loaded up our inventories with weapons and supplies, put on our strongest armor, and set out to destroy some monsters. Continue reading to learn how to defeat a monster spawner on Minecraft.
Individual monsters aren’t too hard to fight, especially if you explore in a careful and systematic way, lighting your path as you go and blocking off auxiliary tunnels that could leave you trapped between enemies. Monster spawners, however, are another story on Minecraft.
What is a monster spawner?
Monster spawners are blocks that create new monsters. They look like little, lighted cages with a storm of tiny monsters swirling inside them. Each spawner creates a specific type of monster. Spawners are usually found deep in mines, sometimes in abandoned mineshafts or near strongholds.
How do you destroy a spawner?
A spawner is relatively easy to destroy. You simply hit it repeatedly with a pick axe. The stronger your pick axe, the faster you can destroy the spawner. But getting within reach of the spawner is the hard part because until it is destroyed, it continuously spawns monster after monster, and these must be killed in order to get up close.
Some monsters are easier than others
One of the first Minecraft monster spawners my kids and I fought was a skeleton spawner. We made a full frontal attack, diving in together headlong down a tunnel of doom. After some of us died, we tried a different approach, digging a tunnel around a curve next to the spawner and attacking from the flank. That worked much better.
Unfortunately, when we came up against a cave spider spawner, none of the techniques we’d tried previously worked at all. Every time we made a bit of progress toward the spawner, we’d either die or the cave spiders would drive us back.
How we defeated the cave spiders on Minecraft
Finally, after much trial and error, we figured out a perfect way to defeat the cave spiders and reach the spawner. We used fences to create a barrier between the spiders and ourselves. The spiders couldn’t reach us through the fence panels, but we could strike them with our swords.
Once we cleared the spiders away from a section of fence, we’d quickly advance our panels forward just a block or two and rebuild the wall, always maintaining a ceiling of dirt overhead, so the cave spiders couldn’t drop down on top of us. Moving our wall of fence panels forward one space at a time was tedious, but it allowed us to slow progress toward the spawner and eventually destroy it with relative ease.
Defeating a monster spawner in Minecraft requires a few steps, but it can be done with some strategy and preparation. But with the right approach, you can overcome any challenge the game throws your way!