I've captured my first ocean monument and drained the interior. I've set the top up with a glass dome and I'm just finishing up clearing out the whole thing so I just have one big open space inside except the very top floor. My plan is to use it as a kind of ocean forward base. At first I was thinking I'd drain another monument and use that as my guardian farm, but I like the idea of just being able to AFK in my ocean base to farm guardians.
Obviously to preserve it as an actual ocean base, I don't want to drain the outside. I also don't want to spoil the look of the monument by building huge structures over or around it. I was thinking of using a design based on something Wattles made (basically two vertical cylinders with a diameter of 18 - see here for a screenshot of how it looks from above) as I think these would look good with the base. But in the video the whole area around the monument is drained. I understand if I didn't drain the exterior my rates would be vastly decreased, but I'm wondering if they'd still be acceptable.
Has anyone tried doing something similar to this? Not necessarily the same design but a guardian farm a) without draining the water outside the monument and b ) without making big ugly platforms/tanks etc. that spoil the look of the monument? If so, how did it go? If necessary I could use most of the interior for the farm and just use the top floor for my base, but really I'd prefer to keep most of the interior space too and do something more like in the screenshot. I don't need loads of sea lanterns out of this but if I could get a few stacks while AFKing overnight that would be awesome.
I think I've somewhat answered my own question. I built an area of water 10x10 and 4 high inside my monument and left it for about 5-10 minutes. About 11 guardians spawned (they keep moving so it's hard to count). Presumably if they're killed off pretty quickly that wouldn't be too bad. Obviously nothing compared to a completely drained monument but I have no problem leaving the game running while I sleep so it doesn't need to have great rates. If anyone is interested I'll report back on rates if I do end up building something.
I'd still be interested if anyone else has any experience of this though.
The ones I found were just big ugly structures over the monument.
But I did make a modified version of the screenshot above (slightly smaller, and I've only done one of the cylinders). I ran it for 8.5 hours overnight, but at some point Chrome somehow popped up over Minecraft and paused the game, so I have no idea how long the farm actually worked for. But I still got enough prismarine crystals to make 272 sea lanterns, plus enough cooked cod to give the 5,000 a light snack.
I'm pretty happy with that - my monument still looks good, I didn't spend a day draining the outside, and the prismarine crystals are coming in faster than I'm going to use them.
I considered not draining the area surrounding my ocean monument, but eventually decided to do so because I wanted to be able to walk around the entire thing and have a beautiful entrance area with a stairway up to the ground floor. I now have a paved (with prism and polished diorite slabs) entrance and am planning on planting some trees there. The bottom half of my monument was unfortunately buried in rock to a great extent and it had to be completely mined free. I couldn’t have done it if the surrounding area hadn’t been drained. Before starting the draining process I placed a conduit on the roof which helped immensely (especially for draining the inside). I don’t have a beacon like Wattles did.
I also built one of the cylinders from Wattle’s video exactly according to plan. It gives me more resources than I will ever need, so I won’t bother with the second tower. Part of the cylinder extends to the lower level underneath the monument’s bottom prism floor, and as mentioned above I had to mine out this whole area. I am considering replacing all the sand walls that are encasing the monument with glass to preserve the look of the ocean around the monument. This needs some planning, however, and I’m not sure it is worth the effort.
Wattles mentioned in his video that he would be decorating the cylinder to make it look more appealing, and I hope he does in a future video because I am not a talented decorator when left to my own devices.
One interesting fact is that guardians keep spawning in the 3x3 water box surrounding the conduit on the roof. They don’t bother me or significantly reduce the spawn rate in the cylinder, but you can see their tails sticking out when you go by and it looks funny.
EDIT: I am uploading a screenshot of my entry area. All the paved area under the monument was originally buried in stone. On the right you can see the bottom of the guardian farm.
I considered not draining the area surrounding my ocean monument, but eventually decided to do so because I wanted to be able to walk around the entire thing and have a beautiful entrance area with a stairway up to the ground floor. I now have a paved (with prism and polished diorite slabs) entrance and am planning on planting some trees there. The bottom half of my monument was unfortunately buried in rock to a great extent and it had to be completely mined free. I couldn’t have done it if the surrounding area hadn’t been drained. Before starting the draining process I placed a conduit on the roof which helped immensely (especially for draining the inside). I don’t have a beacon like Wattles did.
I also built one of the cylinders from Wattle’s video exactly according to plan. It gives me more resources than I will ever need, so I won’t bother with the second tower. Part of the cylinder extends to the lower level underneath the monument’s bottom prism floor, and as mentioned above I had to mine out this whole area. I am considering replacing all the sand walls that are encasing the monument with glass to preserve the look of the ocean around the monument. This needs some planning, however, and I’m not sure it is worth the effort.
Wattles mentioned in his video that he would be decorating the cylinder to make it look more appealing, and I hope he does in a future video because I am not a talented decorator when left to my own devices.
One interesting fact is that guardians keep spawning in the 3x3 water box surrounding the conduit on the roof. They don’t bother me or significantly reduce the spawn rate in the cylinder, but you can see their tails sticking out when you go by and it looks funny.
EDIT: I am uploading a screenshot of my entry area. All the paved area under the monument was originally buried in stone. On the right you can see the bottom of the guardian farm.
Very nice. That polished diorite goes nicely with the prismarine.
Is your conduit fully activated with 96 blocks? I had mine at the front of the monument and guardians kept going near it, but fully powered it was killing them. I actually effectively had a mini guardian farm just like that - I always had a load of guardian loot floating on the surface above my conduit.
I still haven't worked out what to do with my monument yet. I covered the arches outside the entrance in glass and drained that part. Then inside the actual monument the whole thing is mined out except the top floor, where I also filled in the dome thing at the very top with glass and knocked out the ceiling so I have a glass done at the top. My nether portal (for quick travel back to my main base) and chests etc. are up there. I might get some coral and do some aquascaping in the surrounding area. I suppose I'll put some pillars on the bottom floor but I like all my spaces to have a purpose, so I need to find a proper use for the rest of the monument. And I need to finish my squid farm so I can use dark prismarine inside the monument with abandon. Maybe I'll move the portal down to the bottom and just use the top room as a kind of viewing area. Also I might bring a cat down there. Any other suggestions are welcome!
Is your conduit fully activated with 96 blocks? I had mine at the front of the monument and guardians kept going near it, but fully powered it was killing them. I actually effectively had a mini guardian farm just like that - I always had a load of guardian loot floating on the surface above my conduit.
Your question caused me to take a close look at my conduit. As it turns out, one of the prismarine rings surrounding it was lopsided and so my conduit was not fully powered! I just fixed it and the conduit immediately attacked and killed the guardians swimming in the 3x3 water block.
I never noticed that I hadn't set up the prismarine rings perfectly because from my perspective the conduit worked fine. In the whole area I was draining I could breathe underwater and I had night vision. I didn't realize that the conduit would attack the guardians so effectively if fully powered, otherwise I would have discovered my mistake earlier. Thank you for helping me fix it!
I like your ideas for your ocean monument. Currently my Nether portal for getting back to my base is on a tiny nearby island, but I should move it into the monument like you did.
I've captured my first ocean monument and drained the interior. I've set the top up with a glass dome and I'm just finishing up clearing out the whole thing so I just have one big open space inside except the very top floor. My plan is to use it as a kind of ocean forward base. At first I was thinking I'd drain another monument and use that as my guardian farm, but I like the idea of just being able to AFK in my ocean base to farm guardians.
Obviously to preserve it as an actual ocean base, I don't want to drain the outside. I also don't want to spoil the look of the monument by building huge structures over or around it. I was thinking of using a design based on something Wattles made (basically two vertical cylinders with a diameter of 18 - see here for a screenshot of how it looks from above) as I think these would look good with the base. But in the video the whole area around the monument is drained. I understand if I didn't drain the exterior my rates would be vastly decreased, but I'm wondering if they'd still be acceptable.
Has anyone tried doing something similar to this? Not necessarily the same design but a guardian farm a) without draining the water outside the monument and b ) without making big ugly platforms/tanks etc. that spoil the look of the monument? If so, how did it go? If necessary I could use most of the interior for the farm and just use the top floor for my base, but really I'd prefer to keep most of the interior space too and do something more like in the screenshot. I don't need loads of sea lanterns out of this but if I could get a few stacks while AFKing overnight that would be awesome.
I think I've somewhat answered my own question. I built an area of water 10x10 and 4 high inside my monument and left it for about 5-10 minutes. About 11 guardians spawned (they keep moving so it's hard to count). Presumably if they're killed off pretty quickly that wouldn't be too bad. Obviously nothing compared to a completely drained monument but I have no problem leaving the game running while I sleep so it doesn't need to have great rates. If anyone is interested I'll report back on rates if I do end up building something.
I'd still be interested if anyone else has any experience of this though.
There are no-drain guardian farm designs out there, have you checked those out?
The ones I found were just big ugly structures over the monument.
But I did make a modified version of the screenshot above (slightly smaller, and I've only done one of the cylinders). I ran it for 8.5 hours overnight, but at some point Chrome somehow popped up over Minecraft and paused the game, so I have no idea how long the farm actually worked for. But I still got enough prismarine crystals to make 272 sea lanterns, plus enough cooked cod to give the 5,000 a light snack.
I'm pretty happy with that - my monument still looks good, I didn't spend a day draining the outside, and the prismarine crystals are coming in faster than I'm going to use them.
I considered not draining the area surrounding my ocean monument, but eventually decided to do so because I wanted to be able to walk around the entire thing and have a beautiful entrance area with a stairway up to the ground floor. I now have a paved (with prism and polished diorite slabs) entrance and am planning on planting some trees there. The bottom half of my monument was unfortunately buried in rock to a great extent and it had to be completely mined free. I couldn’t have done it if the surrounding area hadn’t been drained. Before starting the draining process I placed a conduit on the roof which helped immensely (especially for draining the inside). I don’t have a beacon like Wattles did.
I also built one of the cylinders from Wattle’s video exactly according to plan. It gives me more resources than I will ever need, so I won’t bother with the second tower. Part of the cylinder extends to the lower level underneath the monument’s bottom prism floor, and as mentioned above I had to mine out this whole area. I am considering replacing all the sand walls that are encasing the monument with glass to preserve the look of the ocean around the monument. This needs some planning, however, and I’m not sure it is worth the effort.
Wattles mentioned in his video that he would be decorating the cylinder to make it look more appealing, and I hope he does in a future video because I am not a talented decorator when left to my own devices.
One interesting fact is that guardians keep spawning in the 3x3 water box surrounding the conduit on the roof. They don’t bother me or significantly reduce the spawn rate in the cylinder, but you can see their tails sticking out when you go by and it looks funny.
EDIT: I am uploading a screenshot of my entry area. All the paved area under the monument was originally buried in stone. On the right you can see the bottom of the guardian farm.
Very nice. That polished diorite goes nicely with the prismarine.
Is your conduit fully activated with 96 blocks? I had mine at the front of the monument and guardians kept going near it, but fully powered it was killing them. I actually effectively had a mini guardian farm just like that - I always had a load of guardian loot floating on the surface above my conduit.
I still haven't worked out what to do with my monument yet. I covered the arches outside the entrance in glass and drained that part. Then inside the actual monument the whole thing is mined out except the top floor, where I also filled in the dome thing at the very top with glass and knocked out the ceiling so I have a glass done at the top. My nether portal (for quick travel back to my main base) and chests etc. are up there. I might get some coral and do some aquascaping in the surrounding area. I suppose I'll put some pillars on the bottom floor but I like all my spaces to have a purpose, so I need to find a proper use for the rest of the monument. And I need to finish my squid farm so I can use dark prismarine inside the monument with abandon. Maybe I'll move the portal down to the bottom and just use the top room as a kind of viewing area. Also I might bring a cat down there. Any other suggestions are welcome!
Your question caused me to take a close look at my conduit. As it turns out, one of the prismarine rings surrounding it was lopsided and so my conduit was not fully powered! I just fixed it and the conduit immediately attacked and killed the guardians swimming in the 3x3 water block.
I never noticed that I hadn't set up the prismarine rings perfectly because from my perspective the conduit worked fine. In the whole area I was draining I could breathe underwater and I had night vision. I didn't realize that the conduit would attack the guardians so effectively if fully powered, otherwise I would have discovered my mistake earlier. Thank you for helping me fix it!
I like your ideas for your ocean monument. Currently my Nether portal for getting back to my base is on a tiny nearby island, but I should move it into the monument like you did.