A guy made a video 6 or so years ago with a handy Wither Killer based on very specific spots at the top of the Nether where you could build a Wither on a piston, pop his head into the bedrock, and kill him at your leisure. It was great if you had a lot of skulls and were just looking for beacons and didn't feel like going through the trouble of all the fights. Anyway, the top of the Nether generated identically for every Minecraft world in the past, and I decided to build one of these in 1.14 and the easiest spot to get to, X:0, Z:-31, no longer has the right characteristics. So, if this hack still exists, it could take forever to find another spot as there weren't a lot of them on a per area basis.
Do you mean that the shape of the bedrock has changed or that it doesn't work anyway?
I don't think I could find it but I think that I read somewhere that the Wither had changed in some way so it couldn't be trapped that way any more.
According to the theory, every minecraft world had the same block layout for the bedrock in the nether for many years, across many updates. So, this particular 3x3 flat layout, with an air block over the top of the middle block, one of many, which was located at X:0, Z:-31, spawned at that spot in every seed, and you could make a wither killer there. I haven't tried to build one in years because the server kept the same game running for 7-8 or so years and I built one 5-6 or so years ago. At some point this must have changed but it was true for years. The guy that made the video ran some kind of program that listed a considerable number of these locations, but I don't know if the hack still exists.
The change to bedrock likely happened in 1.13 due to all of the changes to the world generation code; I checked one of my 1.6.4 worlds and the aforementioned location was as described (a 3x3 area of bedrock with the ability to remove the center block above it).
That said, I found a website which is for 1.13+, which says that the closest location is 32, 1, apparently still the same for every seed:
It seems to have changed again between 1.13 and 1.14.2
But -8 / 123 / 27 works for me in 1.14.2
--
Whoops! Sorry, that should have been -8 / 123 / 37 !
(tested in 2 different worlds just to be certain.)
--
I don't know about the air/netherrack above the middle, that block is bedrock in my spot but it seemed to work anyway.
There was a non bedrock block diagonally next to the block the Whither gets its head stuck in, what function is it supposed to have?
--
The video on the page that TheMasterCaver linked to doesn't seem to mention a space above the bedrock blocks.
--
Actually, to be perfectly honest, my spot isn't a 3X3 square, it has one corner missing, but the 2 layers of bedrock below that corner have it fenced off so I was assuming it didn't matter.
It worked when I tested it but I thought I should mention it in case you don't want to risk it.
There's always just one corner missing isn't there?
Or just one block of bedrock in the way.
But I found a perfect 3X3 with room to build the wither under it.
-29 / 123 / -26
It still doesn't have air or netherrack above the middle but I'm beginning to think that's a misunderstanding of something, it doesn't seem to matter.
--
Be careful though, there's a very deep cavern underneath, with the ceiling at Y=121
--
-27 / 124 / -20 also has a perfect 3X3 ceiling though it has a bedrock block under the center which means that most of the wither is inside bedrock, I was still able to hit it and I got the Nether Star.
If you want a twofer, -29 /124 / -20 is another spot with a corner missing from the ceiling but blocked by a bedrock block under it. It's actually pretty hard to finish the second wither, the arm that's closest to the first kept getting blasted off before I could place the head.
(Oh, I guess I shouldn't have waited until the first one started blasting.)
--
I found another perfect spot.
-10 / 122 / -16
(Still bedrock above the center of the ceiling though.)
--
Another:
10 / 124 / 3
And near it there's another "good enough" one, with one of the 3X3 blocks missing but with a bedrock block under the missing one, this one has the netherrack block above the withers head as requested:
A perfectly flat 3X3 bedrock ceiling with a netherrack block above the center.
The netherrack can even be removed in survival mode to give you air there, just dig up 2 blocks into the ceiling at -3 / 122 / -121, pillar up and mine 3 blocks back towards the south.
There's always just one corner missing isn't there?
Or just one block of bedrock in the way.
But I found a perfect 3X3 with room to build the wither under it.
-29 / 123 / -26
It still doesn't have air or netherrack above the middle but I'm beginning to think that's a misunderstanding of something, it doesn't seem to matter.
--
Be careful though, there's a very deep cavern underneath, with the ceiling at Y=121
--
-27 / 124 / -20 also has a perfect 3X3 ceiling though it has a bedrock block under the center which means that most of the wither is inside bedrock, I was still able to hit it and I got the Nether Star.
If you want a twofer, -29 /124 / -20 is another spot with a corner missing from the ceiling but blocked by a bedrock block under it. It's actually pretty hard to finish the second wither, the arm that's closest to the first kept getting blasted off before I could place the head.
(Oh, I guess I shouldn't have waited until the first one started blasting.)
--
I found another perfect spot.
-10 / 122 / -16
(Still bedrock above the center of the ceiling though.)
--
Another:
10 / 124 / 3
And near it there's another "good enough" one, with one of the 3X3 blocks missing but with a bedrock block under the missing one, this one has the netherrack block above the withers head as requested:
14 / 123 / 5
--
-33 / 123 / -28
In the original video, I remember him actually coming in from the side to knock out that netherrack block above the middle bedrock block but it's possible that's not necessary. As I'm assuming this new world I'm playing on will get a 5+ year run like the last one, once I've got a good spot it will be a long time before I have to build another one. I typically build both a wither killing chamber, and a wither battlefield. The battle field is not much more than a field at the top of the nether with an obsidian pad below the spawning spot, and double thick walls and floors that have to be repaired after every battle. But sometimes you just need to get a couple of beacons for a new base and the killing chamber comes in handy.
One thing I've noticed is the spawn rate for withers doesn't seem to be as good as it was in 1.13. I heavily modify a nether fortress by building vast flat planes between and around the pathways with nether brick, which increases the spawn area for the withers. You also get a lot more blazes and skeletons, but that's just extra EXP to mine. In 1.13 it seems I could pick up 10-12 skulls in a few hours of mob mining at the fortress, and I piddled around most of last night to get 3. I also noticed the ZP's aren't nearly as numerous as they were in that last fortress. I used to have to constantly work to avoid hitting one while killing the rest of the mobs and there aren't nearly as many messing up the killing field.
A perfectly flat 3X3 bedrock ceiling with a netherrack block above the center.
The netherrack can even be removed in survival mode to give you air there, just dig up 2 blocks into the ceiling at -3 / 122 / -121, pillar up and mine 3 blocks back towards the south.
Though I'm sure I can find something similar on YouTube.
The video TheMasterCaver linked to didn't mention anything about anything above the ceiling.
That guy also said that not only is the piston not needed any more he advised against using it because of some glitch with pistons, though that may well have been fixed by now, that was a pretty old video as well.
In case you missed it while you were posting I did find a spot with the netherrack above which can be removed, and no missing bedrock. (It can actually be removed from 2 directions.)
I found an earlier video by the same guy, Panda4994, using a piston, and there he does say you need air above the ceiling though he doesn't say why.
He also says that it makes no difference if some of the 9 ceiling blocks are in the layer below the rest.
I think that was the original and I do recall that it wasn't a problem if one of the 9 were missing. I just looked at the new video and didn't realize you could spawn the wither sideways. That makes it a lot easier and you don't have to worry about a glitch with the piston although I've never had that happen.
A perfectly flat 3X3 bedrock ceiling with a netherrack block above the center.
The netherrack can even be removed in survival mode to give you air there, just dig up 2 blocks into the ceiling at -3 / 122 / -121, pillar up and mine 3 blocks back towards the south.
I tested the -3,-118 spot last night and it worked perfectly. I didn't bother with deleting the netherrack block over the middle and had no problems with it. I'm curious, did you dig around in survival to find it, run a program, or switch to creative and somehow remove all the netherrack to make it easier to find?
I used creative and dug around being careful to not break the bedrock (and trying to replace it in the right place when I did).
I considered using a command block to remove the netherrack but didn't get around to it.
I've been playing 6-7-8 years, can't even remember, and I've never tried creative, but I figured there had to be easier ways to do this stuff than digging in survival.
I've been playing 6-7-8 years, can't even remember, and I've never tried creative, but I figured there had to be easier ways to do this stuff than digging in survival.
There are several ways to do this; one is to use a mapping utility like Minutor to scan for suitable locations, as shown below (the original closest location
matching the original definition, with the center marked):
Another way is to write a program that will search for suitable locations, which is very easy to do; for example, this is the code needed to generate the bedrock pattern, only slightly modified from the original code (for 1.6.4):
// Represents chunk data (originally a 16 * 16 * 128 byte array in 1.6.4); optimized to only need
// to be 5 blocks deep instead of 128. Ideally a much larger array covering the search area to avoid
// issues with chunk borders (in this case loop through each chunk in area and calculate proper starting
// offset for each chunk).
boolean[] chunkData = new boolean[16 * 16 * 5];
// Sets seed for chunk
this.hellRNG.setSeed((long)chunkX * 341873128712L + (long)chunkZ * 132897987541L);
for (int x = 0; x < 16; ++x)
{
for (int z = 0; z < 16; ++z)
{
// Not needed but left in to ensure that the RNG sequence remains the same
this.hellRNG.nextDouble();
this.hellRNG.nextDouble();
this.hellRNG.nextDouble();
for (int y = 127; y >= 0; --y)
{
// This is the part that actually places bedrock, indicated by true values.
// Note that random call for bottom bedrock is required to maintain sequence
if (y >= 127 - this.hellRNG.nextInt(5) || y <= this.hellRNG.nextInt(5))
{
// Limited to y=123 or above, subtracting 123 from y to get y-index
// (y=123 = 0, y=127 = 4)
if (y >= 123) chunkData[(z * 16 + x) * 5 + y - 123] = true;
}
}
}
}
There are several ways to do this; one is to use a mapping utility like Minutor to scan for suitable locations, as shown below (the original closest location
matching the original definition, with the center marked):
Another way is to write a program that will search for suitable locations, which is very easy to do; for example, this is the code needed to generate the bedrock pattern, only slightly modified from the original code (for 1.6.4):
// Represents chunk data (originally a 16 * 16 * 128 byte array in 1.6.4); optimized to only need
// to be 5 blocks deep instead of 128. Ideally a much larger array covering the search area to avoid
// issues with chunk borders (in this case loop through each chunk in area and calculate proper starting
// offset for each chunk).
boolean[] chunkData = new boolean[16 * 16 * 5];
// Sets seed for chunk
this.hellRNG.setSeed((long)chunkX * 341873128712L + (long)chunkZ * 132897987541L);
for (int x = 0; x < 16; ++x)
{
for (int z = 0; z < 16; ++z)
{
// Not needed but left in to ensure that the RNG sequence remains the same
this.hellRNG.nextDouble();
this.hellRNG.nextDouble();
this.hellRNG.nextDouble();
for (int y = 127; y >= 0; --y)
{
// This is the part that actually places bedrock, indicated by true values.
// Note that random call for bottom bedrock is required to maintain sequence
if (y >= 127 - this.hellRNG.nextInt(5) || y <= this.hellRNG.nextInt(5))
{
// Limited to y=123 or above, subtracting 123 from y to get y-index
// (y=123 = 0, y=127 = 4)
if (y >= 123) chunkData[(z * 16 + x) * 5 + y - 123] = true;
}
}
}
}
I've used the typical utilities like Admist and Chunkbase but I never got this deep in the woods to mess around with modding and command lines. I even downloaded one of your worlds many years ago when I was in a caving mood and doing a lot of single player but never actually got everything to work. Typically there's usually a lot of people that live and breathe both the playing and modding/programming end of the game that somebody on the forums can find this stuff a hundred times faster than I can. The last time I got into any real programming was just a few years back with an introductory course on Fortran with punch cards. Anytime I need some kind of actual programmed utility for something I'll call my son that has a minor in computer science.
Another way is to write a program that will search for suitable locations, which is very easy to do; for example, this is the code needed to generate the bedrock pattern, only slightly modified from the original code (for 1.6.4):
// Represents chunk data (originally a 16 * 16 * 128 byte array in 1.6.4); optimized to only need
// to be 5 blocks deep instead of 128. Ideally a much larger array covering the search area to avoid
// issues with chunk borders (in this case loop through each chunk in area and calculate proper starting
// offset for each chunk).
boolean[] chunkData = new boolean[16 * 16 * 5];
// Sets seed for chunk
this.hellRNG.setSeed((long)chunkX * 341873128712L + (long)chunkZ * 132897987541L);
for (int x = 0; x < 16; ++x)
{
for (int z = 0; z < 16; ++z)
{
// Not needed but left in to ensure that the RNG sequence remains the same
this.hellRNG.nextDouble();
this.hellRNG.nextDouble();
this.hellRNG.nextDouble();
for (int y = 127; y >= 0; --y)
{
// This is the part that actually places bedrock, indicated by true values.
// Note that random call for bottom bedrock is required to maintain sequence
if (y >= 127 - this.hellRNG.nextInt(5) || y <= this.hellRNG.nextInt(5))
{
// Limited to y=123 or above, subtracting 123 from y to get y-index
// (y=123 = 0, y=127 = 4)
if (y >= 123) chunkData[(z * 16 + x) * 5 + y - 123] = true;
}
}
}
}
Does anyone know where to find the bedrock generation seeds (and generation code, if it's changed) for post-1.3.1 Minecraft?
A guy made a video 6 or so years ago with a handy Wither Killer based on very specific spots at the top of the Nether where you could build a Wither on a piston, pop his head into the bedrock, and kill him at your leisure. It was great if you had a lot of skulls and were just looking for beacons and didn't feel like going through the trouble of all the fights. Anyway, the top of the Nether generated identically for every Minecraft world in the past, and I decided to build one of these in 1.14 and the easiest spot to get to, X:0, Z:-31, no longer has the right characteristics. So, if this hack still exists, it could take forever to find another spot as there weren't a lot of them on a per area basis.
Do you mean that the shape of the bedrock has changed or that it doesn't work anyway?
I don't think I could find it but I think that I read somewhere that the Wither had changed in some way so it couldn't be trapped that way any more.(Obviously that was wrong!)
Just testing.
Yes, I see!
The shape of the Bedrock does seem to have changed sometime between 1.3.1 and 1.14.1
Just testing.
According to the theory, every minecraft world had the same block layout for the bedrock in the nether for many years, across many updates. So, this particular 3x3 flat layout, with an air block over the top of the middle block, one of many, which was located at X:0, Z:-31, spawned at that spot in every seed, and you could make a wither killer there. I haven't tried to build one in years because the server kept the same game running for 7-8 or so years and I built one 5-6 or so years ago. At some point this must have changed but it was true for years. The guy that made the video ran some kind of program that listed a considerable number of these locations, but I don't know if the hack still exists.
The change to bedrock likely happened in 1.13 due to all of the changes to the world generation code; I checked one of my 1.6.4 worlds and the aforementioned location was as described (a 3x3 area of bedrock with the ability to remove the center block above it).
That said, I found a website which is for 1.13+, which says that the closest location is 32, 1, apparently still the same for every seed:
https://wither3x3.net/
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
It seems to have changed again between 1.13 and 1.14.2
But -8 / 123 / 27 works for me in 1.14.2--
Whoops! Sorry, that should have been -8 / 123 / 37 !
(tested in 2 different worlds just to be certain.)
--
I don't know about the air/netherrack above the middle, that block is bedrock in my spot but it seemed to work anyway.
There was a non bedrock block diagonally next to the block the Whither gets its head stuck in, what function is it supposed to have?
--
The video on the page that TheMasterCaver linked to doesn't seem to mention a space above the bedrock blocks.
--
Actually, to be perfectly honest, my spot isn't a 3X3 square, it has one corner missing, but the 2 layers of bedrock below that corner have it fenced off so I was assuming it didn't matter.
It worked when I tested it but I thought I should mention it in case you don't want to risk it.
Just testing.
There's always just one corner missing isn't there?
Or just one block of bedrock in the way.
But I found a perfect 3X3 with room to build the wither under it.
-29 / 123 / -26
It still doesn't have air or netherrack above the middle but I'm beginning to think that's a misunderstanding of something, it doesn't seem to matter.
--
Be careful though, there's a very deep cavern underneath, with the ceiling at Y=121
--
-27 / 124 / -20 also has a perfect 3X3 ceiling though it has a bedrock block under the center which means that most of the wither is inside bedrock, I was still able to hit it and I got the Nether Star.
If you want a twofer, -29 /124 / -20 is another spot with a corner missing from the ceiling but blocked by a bedrock block under it. It's actually pretty hard to finish the second wither, the arm that's closest to the first kept getting blasted off before I could place the head.
(Oh, I guess I shouldn't have waited until the first one started blasting.)
--
I found another perfect spot.
-10 / 122 / -16
(Still bedrock above the center of the ceiling though.)
--
Another:
10 / 124 / 3
And near it there's another "good enough" one, with one of the 3X3 blocks missing but with a bedrock block under the missing one, this one has the netherrack block above the withers head as requested:
14 / 123 / 5
--
-33 / 123 / -28
-12 / 123 / -78
Just testing.
I finally found exactly what was requested!
-3 / 122 / -118
A perfectly flat 3X3 bedrock ceiling with a netherrack block above the center.
The netherrack can even be removed in survival mode to give you air there, just dig up 2 blocks into the ceiling at -3 / 122 / -121, pillar up and mine 3 blocks back towards the south.
Just testing.
In the original video, I remember him actually coming in from the side to knock out that netherrack block above the middle bedrock block but it's possible that's not necessary. As I'm assuming this new world I'm playing on will get a 5+ year run like the last one, once I've got a good spot it will be a long time before I have to build another one. I typically build both a wither killing chamber, and a wither battlefield. The battle field is not much more than a field at the top of the nether with an obsidian pad below the spawning spot, and double thick walls and floors that have to be repaired after every battle. But sometimes you just need to get a couple of beacons for a new base and the killing chamber comes in handy.
One thing I've noticed is the spawn rate for withers doesn't seem to be as good as it was in 1.13. I heavily modify a nether fortress by building vast flat planes between and around the pathways with nether brick, which increases the spawn area for the withers. You also get a lot more blazes and skeletons, but that's just extra EXP to mine. In 1.13 it seems I could pick up 10-12 skulls in a few hours of mob mining at the fortress, and I piddled around most of last night to get 3. I also noticed the ZP's aren't nearly as numerous as they were in that last fortress. I used to have to constantly work to avoid hitting one while killing the rest of the mobs and there aren't nearly as many messing up the killing field.
I'll have to give this one a shot tonight.
I don't suppose you have a link to that video?
I'm curious about the point of the airblock.
Though I'm sure I can find something similar on YouTube.
The video TheMasterCaver linked to didn't mention anything about anything above the ceiling.
That guy also said that not only is the piston not needed any more he advised against using it because of some glitch with pistons, though that may well have been fixed by now, that was a pretty old video as well.
In case you missed it while you were posting I did find a spot with the netherrack above which can be removed, and no missing bedrock. (It can actually be removed from 2 directions.)
Just testing.
I found an earlier video by the same guy, Panda4994, using a piston, and there he does say you need air above the ceiling though he doesn't say why.
He also says that it makes no difference if some of the 9 ceiling blocks are in the layer below the rest.
Just testing.
I think that was the original and I do recall that it wasn't a problem if one of the 9 were missing. I just looked at the new video and didn't realize you could spawn the wither sideways. That makes it a lot easier and you don't have to worry about a glitch with the piston although I've never had that happen.
I tested the -3,-118 spot last night and it worked perfectly. I didn't bother with deleting the netherrack block over the middle and had no problems with it. I'm curious, did you dig around in survival to find it, run a program, or switch to creative and somehow remove all the netherrack to make it easier to find?
I used creative and dug around being careful to not break the bedrock (and trying to replace it in the right place when I did).
I considered using a command block to remove the netherrack but didn't get around to it.
Just testing.
I've been playing 6-7-8 years, can't even remember, and I've never tried creative, but I figured there had to be easier ways to do this stuff than digging in survival.
There are several ways to do this; one is to use a mapping utility like Minutor to scan for suitable locations, as shown below (the original closest location
matching the original definition, with the center marked):
Another way is to write a program that will search for suitable locations, which is very easy to do; for example, this is the code needed to generate the bedrock pattern, only slightly modified from the original code (for 1.6.4):
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I've used the typical utilities like Admist and Chunkbase but I never got this deep in the woods to mess around with modding and command lines. I even downloaded one of your worlds many years ago when I was in a caving mood and doing a lot of single player but never actually got everything to work. Typically there's usually a lot of people that live and breathe both the playing and modding/programming end of the game that somebody on the forums can find this stuff a hundred times faster than I can. The last time I got into any real programming was just a few years back with an introductory course on Fortran with punch cards. Anytime I need some kind of actual programmed utility for something I'll call my son that has a minor in computer science.
Does anyone know where to find the bedrock generation seeds (and generation code, if it's changed) for post-1.3.1 Minecraft?
I have always built my Wither killer spot under the return portal in the end. That one will probably never change.