Minecraft: How To Make An XP Farm With A Spider Spawner (2024)

You're playing Minecraft and want to enchant a sword, but you only have one level. To gain more experience to level up, you can do a variety of small tasks that will take a long time, or you can create an XP farm from a spider spawner!

Spider spawners will, as the name implies, spawn spiders in an area. The spiders will drop loot in addition to experience, and this can be exploited through an XP farm. With this farm, you can spawn dozens of spiders that will clump together in a small area. Once the spiders are here, all you have to do is swing your sword, kill them, and enjoy the easy XP.

Related: Minecraft: How to Make A Wither Skeleton Farm

Check out this step-by-step guide on how to build an efficient XP farm from a spider spawner, and get to level 30 in no time! This build is compatible with the 1.16 update of Minecraft.

Updated September 2, 2021 by Russ Boswell: Creating an XP farm can be one of the most important things in a player's Minecraft journey. A Minecraft spider spawner farm is a great solution for those needing more experience. XP is used for a multitude of things and it's vitally important to enchanting and creating some of the better items, potions, and armors available in the game. But it's not the only thing players will need to truly excel in Minecraft. This guide has been updated to better show how to make a spider spawner farm, as well as how to grind AFK for materials, should players need an abundance of things for their Minecraft world.

Materials Needed

The materials for building a spider spawner farm are pretty simple:

• 3 slabs
• 3 hoppers
• 3 walls
• 3 chests
• 3 signs
• 3 trapdoors
• buckets of water (you will need to place four separate water sources)

Finding A Spider Spawner

The first step to making a spider spawner farm is finding a spawner. Thankfully, they are pretty easy to find.

Spider spawners can be found in abandoned mineshafts, which will appear underground. These mineshafts will have wooden beams for structural support, and often have a rail track laid. The tunnels will also be very straight, and not appear like natural caves. Spider spawners will appear within these tunnels and are usually surrounded by cobwebs.

If you find a large clump of cobwebs in an abandoned mineshaft, then chances are, a spider spawner is nearby!

Preparing The Area

You've found a spider spawner, and now it's time to prepare the area. To begin, dig out a 9x9 area around the spawner. While creating this room, make sure to light up the area with torches so no spiders spawn while you're working. Place torches on each side of the spawner, as well as along each wall.

Dig 3 blocks below the spawner and 2 blocks above. Overall, the room should be 9x9x6. In the image above, you can easily count the number of blocks around the spawner, with a block marking the center of the floor. The squares going horizontally around the walls of the room are level with the spawner.

Steps to Creating Spider Spawner Farm

Now that you've created the area for the spider spawner, let's create the farm! Follow the steps below to see how to make this farm.

Place 2 water sources in the back corners of the room. The water should flow toward you, leaving the center area dry. Above, you can see what the water should look like. Remove a layer of blocks where the water ends. The water should come right to the edge of the blocks underneath, without flowing off.

Standing underneath the spawner, look away from the water sources. On the wall, dig out a 3x2 opening (the opening should be centered in the room). Dig the tunnel at least 7 blocks deep. This will be the collection area.

In the second row of blocks from the main room, place 3 signs. You will want them to be floating, with no signpost. To do this, just place one against the wall, and then place another sign directly on the side.

From the signs, count 2 blocks and then remove 1 layer of blocks in the tunnel. Here, you will leave a space and then place 3 chests.

In the empty space between the 'step' and chests, place 3 hoppers that connect to the chests. In the image below, you can see the signs, two spaces, a hopper, and then a chest. Place a slab on top of each hopper.

In the space closest to the hoppers, replace the block with 3 fences. Head back into the room and remove the blocks underneath the edges of the water. Now, the water should continue to flow until it reaches the signs.

Remove all the torches and head back to the tunnel. In the area between the slabs and signs, place 2 water sources. They should be placed in the top corners, opposite of the hoppers. When you place it here, water should flow toward the hoppers.

The tunnel is 2 blocks tall, so you will need to lower this to 1 block by placing a layer of blocks directly under the tunnel ceiling. You should not be able to fit through the tunnel now. Extend the blocks out to cover the chests. Underneath the blocks over the chest, add 3 trapdoors.

After you have finished these steps, you are done! Spiders should start spawning pretty quickly. Above, you can see the chests with hoppers connected.

The spiders will spawn in the dark room and be carried into the tunnel, where they will be trapped. The trapdoors above the chests prevent the spiders from hurting you. If you have followed the steps, you should quickly be able to kill groups of spiders without taking any damage.

Collecting XP and Loot

This spider spawner only works if you are nearby, but standing in front of the chests for a few minutes will spawn dozens of spiders. When you kill the spiders, their loot will drop into the chest, and you can collect any fallen XP.

The loot isn't the most important; after a while, you will have a lot of string and spider eyes. Spider eyes are used in a few potions, but you won't need that many. String can be traded with villagers to gain additional XP and emeralds.

You can decorate the collection area any way you want! One great idea is to place a few spare chests, an anvil, and a crafting table. Because this farm requires you to be nearby, try adding an AFK fishing farm near the collection area. With this, you can quickly farm for fish while the spiders spawn. After your done fishing, just head over to the spiders, kill them, and collect the XP.

Grinding Spiders For Materials

While it's very lucrative to use a spider spawn like the one above for XP, players may also want to consider creating a grinder-like setup to obtain quick materials. There are many designs online for grinders and some are more efficient than others but ultimately its up to the player to decide what kind of grinder setup they want. Some may be looking for ultimate efficiency, while others may want something aesthetically pleasing.

There are an array of objects that work well to kill spiders. Using the setup above to funnel spiders into a specific area and then setting "traps" or "other objects that will hurt them," will allow players to AFK farm materials. They can simply place their character nearby the spawner and then leave to do something else. With an adequate grinder, players will be able to collect massive amounts of materials relatively quickly.

Some of the best "traps" to use for grinders are:

• Magma Blocks
• Iron Golems (note that Golems will eventually die and must be replaced. This requires a suitable amount of iron)
• Cacti (note that spiders are small enough to wedge between two cacti and will sometimes sneak away unharmed)

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