You're deep in a cavern. Torches are flickering. Suddenly, that distinctive clack-clack of skeleton bones echoes off the cobblestone, and you realize you've hit the jackpot: a dungeon. Your first instinct might be to break the mossy box with a pickaxe, but stop. Just don't. If you’re asking how do you make a minecraft spawner, the answer is both simpler and more frustrating than most new players realize.
Here is the cold, hard reality: you can’t actually "craft" a monster spawner in survival mode. There is no crafting table recipe involving iron bars and nether stars. You won't find a blueprint in an ancient city. In the vanilla game, these blocks are essentially "world-gen" artifacts. They are gifts from the map generator, and once you break them without the right plan, they are gone forever.
But that doesn't mean you're stuck.
Most people asking this question aren't actually looking for a crafting recipe; they’re looking for a way to get infinite XP and loot. They want the functionality of a spawner. Whether you're playing on Bedrock, Java, or a weirdly modded server, "making" a spawner is really about engineering the environment around an existing cage or building a "natural" spawning dark room from scratch. It’s about understanding the internal logic of the game's code—the tick rates, the light levels, and the proximity checks that govern how entities pop into existence.
The "False" Spawner: Creative Mode and Commands
If you’re in Creative mode or have cheats enabled, the rules change completely. You don’t have to go hunting. You can literally just grab one.
To get a spawner in your inventory in Java Edition, you'll need to use the slash command: /give @p minecraft:spawner. Once you place it, it defaults to a Pig Spawner. To change it, you just right-click the cage while holding a spawn egg of the mob you want. It’s that easy. Bedrock Edition follows a similar logic, though the inventory UI sometimes lets you pick them directly from the creative menu depending on the specific patch version you're running.
But let’s be honest. If you're playing survival, that feels like cheating. It ruins the stakes. The real challenge is taking a found object and turning it into a factory.
Finding the Foundation: Where Spawners Hide
Since you can't craft them, you have to find them. This is the "exploration" phase of how do you make a minecraft spawner work for you. Dungeons are the most common source, usually found buried in the dirt or stone layers of the Overworld. They are small, square rooms made of cobblestone and mossy cobblestone. You’ll usually find either Skeletons, Zombies, or Spiders inside.
If you're feeling brave, head to a Nether Fortress. There, you’ll find the holy grail of mid-game leveling: the Blaze spawner. These are unique because they sit out in the open on balconies. Unlike Overworld spawners, you can't just light these up with a single torch and call it a day; Blazes require a much higher light level to suppress.
Then there are the abandoned mineshafts. These contain Cave Spider spawners, which are notoriously annoying. They are surrounded by cobwebs and the mobs are small enough to slip through half-block gaps. Most players avoid these because the poison effect is a massive headache, but if you want efficient string or eyes, they are worth the effort.
How Do You Make a Minecraft Spawner Farm?
Once you've located a cage, the "making" part begins. You are building a machine. The mechanics are precise. A spawner checks an area of 9x9x9 blocks around itself. If there are too many mobs of its own kind already in that zone, it stops working. This is why "pro" players always build drop chutes or water elevators. You need to move the mobs away from the cage immediately so the cage thinks the area is empty and spawns more.
The Basic Room Setup
Dig out the area. You want four blocks of empty space on every side of the spawner and at least two blocks above and below.
- The Floor: Dig it down three blocks below the spawner.
- The Water: Place water buckets in the corners so the flow pushes everything toward a central hole.
- The Drop: Dig a deep shaft. For most mobs, a 22-block drop will leave them with half a heart of health. One punch, and they're dead.
- The Kill Chamber: Use slabs at the bottom so you can hit their feet, but they can't see you to shoot back.
It’s a simple loop. Spawn. Flush. Fall. Die. Collect.
Light Levels Matter (The 2026 Update)
In older versions of the game, you needed total darkness. Since the 1.18 "Caves & Cliffs" update, the rules for natural spawning changed to require a light level of 0. However, monster spawners (the cages) are slightly different. They can often still function at light level 7 or lower. If you’re trying to disable one temporarily while you build, don’t just put one torch on top. Put a torch on every side.
The "Zero-Cage" Solution: Dark Room Grinders
What if you can't find a dungeon? You can still "make" a spawner by building a giant dark box high in the sky. This exploits the game's natural spawning algorithm. By building a platform 128 blocks above the ground, you force the game to spawn every possible monster inside your box because there’s nowhere else for them to go.
This is the classic "cobblestone tower" you see on every survival server. It uses trapdoors over water canals. Mobs see trapdoors as solid blocks, try to walk across them, and tumble into the water. This is arguably more efficient than a single dungeon spawner because it generates a mix of Creepers, Gunpowder, and Bones all at once.
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Common Mistakes and Misconceptions
People often think Silk Touch works on spawners. It doesn't.
If you hit a spawner with a Silk Touch pickaxe, it just breaks. You get a little bit of XP and a lot of regret. There was a time in the very early beta versions of the game where this was possible, and some specific "technical" mods re-enable it, but in standard Minecraft? No. Once a spawner is placed, it stays there. If you want a farm at your base, you have to build your base at the farm.
Another mistake is "proximity idling." A spawner cage only activates when a player is within 16 blocks. If you build a massive, beautiful castle 20 blocks away and spend all your time there, your farm will produce absolutely nothing. You have to stay close. Many players build "AFK spots" exactly 10 blocks away to ensure the cage stays spinning while they go grab a snack.
Advanced Tactics: The Trial Chambers
With the recent additions of Trial Chambers, "making" a spawner experience has changed. Trial Spawners are a different beast. They spit out rewards like emeralds and keys after you defeat a wave of enemies, and then they go on a cooldown. You can't farm these the same way you farm a traditional dungeon. They are designed for combat challenges, not infinite loot loops.
If you are looking for the absolute peak of efficiency, you're looking for "stacking" raid farms or complex "Ender Dragon" pearl farms, but those aren't really spawners in the traditional sense. They are manipulations of game events.
Moving Forward with Your Farm
To get started, don't overthink it. Find a basic zombie dungeon. Bring some buckets of water, a stack of torches, and a few signs.
- Clear a 9x9 room centered on the cage.
- Lower the floor so the water can move the mobs away from the "check zone."
- Build a soul sand elevator if you want to bring the mobs up to a convenient killing height.
- Use Hoppers and Chests to automate the loot collection.
The beauty of Minecraft is that you aren't just playing a game; you're debugging a world. You're taking a fixed object—the spawner—and building a logic gate around it. Once you have your first double-chest full of bones and arrows, you'll never go back to hunting monsters manually in the woods at night. It’s about working smarter, not harder, in the blocky wilderness.