Spent hours building your own mob farm after watching a youtube tutorial? And now it doesn’t even work? Well, I can feel how bummed you are right now cause I’ve been there. But don’t start throwing blames on that youtube guy yet.
There could be numerous reasons why your mob farm isn’t working in Minecraft. Here’s what might’ve gone wrong and how you can fix it.
The light level is too high
Have you checked the light level inside your mob farm? If there’s too much light passing through, no mobs would ever spawn! No matter how well you built the farm. The light level must be 7 or less if you want it to work because the mobs stop spawning when the light level reaches 8.
To check the light level, you can press F3; this will show you the fair value of the clocks around you. If it’s above 7, place some blocks to stop any light rays from coming in to decrease the light level inside your farm. And be careful while you’re in there adjusting the light level, some mobs may not like it.
You’re not at the right distance from the farm
Another possible reason why your mob farm isn’t working is that either you’re too far or too close to the farm. If you want your farm to spawn mobs efficiently, you need to be at least 24 blocks away from it. And don’t go further than 128 blocks in a circular radius in Java edition and 56 blocks in Bedrock edition. The mobs would despawn if you move further away. I’d suggest keeping a distance of 24-32 blocks from the farm. This way you’re far enough to let the mobs spawn and close enough to keep them alive.
Here’s a graphic representation of how spawning and despawning work in Minecraft.
Faulty settings
If your mob spawning setting is set to false, I wouldn’t be surprised if your mob farm didn’t work. You can check this setting by typing /gamerule doMobspawning in the chatbox and if it returns as False, you can switch it to True by typing /gamerule doMobspawning true.
The area around the farm is not spawn proofed
Worked out the light level? Set the settings right? Built the farm at the perfect distance? But still, your farm’s not generating any mobs? Well, it could be because the vicinity around your farm is not spawn-proofed. As I told you before, mobs only spawn in a dark area. So if there are any dark caves or ravines in a 128-block radius of your farm, the mobs may spawn in those places instead of your farm. To fix this problem, you just have to light up all of these dark spaces in the 128 block and you’re golden.
Wrong game difficulty
You might’ve overlooked this but your game difficulty decides the fate of your mob grinder; whether it’ll work or not. If you’ve set the game difficulty to peaceful mode, no mobs are EVER going to spawn. So make sure to stay at least an easy or normal difficulty level for effective mob grinding.
A flawed spawning platform
All of your in-building the mob farm will go down the drain if you messed up your spawning platform. Now two things could go wrong with your platform; one is unsuitable spawning space and the other is use of non-spawnable material. Most mobs need a 2-block high space to spawn and some mobs like spiders require a 3×3 block. So make sure that your spawning platform has enough room to grind mobs efficiently. And also avoid using any non-spawnable blocks while building your platform like glass or slabs. You can go with cobblestone, it works fine!
Version difference
Various game versions like Java and Bedrock editions have different mob spawning mechanisms and they can also be changed with updates. So you need to make sure that your farm design is compatible with your game version. Otherwise, your farm won’t work! No matter how well you built it.
Unfavorable locations
Choosing the right spot for building your farm is very crucial as it can greatly impact your farm’s efficiency. I’ve seen most players make the mistake of building the farm too close to their house or on top of caves and ravines. This results in a spawn cap because of the limited mob capacity (each player in Minecraft can only have no more than 70 mobs around them and this applies to every mob in the 128-block radius) hurting your farm’s grinding capability.
So I’d recommend building your farm either high up in the sky or far into the sea to avoid this spawn cap. You can easily find many videos on youtube for such farm designs.
Final thoughts
So these were the most common issues that might’ve jinxed your farm. I hope you found the problem with your farm and were able to fix it. But have you tried everything and still no luck? Well, you may need to redesign your farm all over. Or you can always give me the specifics about your farm in the comments below and we’ll work it out. Alright?
Muhammad Allayhan, a gaming and PC hardware virtuoso, breathes life into pixelated worlds. A legendary overclocker, he unlocks hidden power in gaming rigs. Navigating from 8-bit realms to today’s masterpieces, Muhammad’s words immerse readers in an ever-evolving digital odyssey. Join him as he reveals the secrets of gaming’s cutting edge.
