How Mob Spawners Work

Quick answer

• Spawners only work when you're within about 16 blocks.
• Each cycle tries to spawn 4 mobs, then waits 10 to 40 seconds.
• A torch next to a zombie, skeleton or spider spawner turns it off.

Spawners are cages with a tiny spinning mob inside. You can shut them down, or build an XP farm around them.

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Where to find each one

How they work

• Active when a player is within about 16 blocks.
• On Java, mobs appear in a 9×9 area, 3 blocks tall, around the spawner.
• If 6 or more of its mob are nearby, it pauses.

Turning one off

• Zombie, skeleton, spider: one torch on any side or the top.
• Blaze and silverfish: need a lot more light, about light level 12 all around.
• Magma cubes: fill the spawning area with solid blocks.

Breaking or farming

Breaking a spawner gives 15 to 43 XP, but you never get the block, even with Silk Touch. Most players keep it and build a mob farm around it for steady XP.

Cheat sheet

• Active within about 16 blocks
• 4 mobs per try, 10 to 40 seconds apart
• Torch turns off dark-spawning mobs
• Can't be picked up, even with Silk Touch