I looked at some huge tower mob drops on YouTube that harvested mobs by dropping them from a great height to kill them and harvest their item drops, but that just looked like too much work, so I came up with this really simple monster killer that pushes the mobs into a 2x2 kill room, drowns them, and collects their item drops and brings them to me.
This is a true newbie-class project that uses nothing fancy, just ordinary building blocks and water. The glass section makes it possible to watch the mobs die, and see what they drop. The long trench leading away is so that I can keep a safe distance from Creepers so as not to annoy them. From the end of the trench I can safely wait while their gunpowder is delivered right to me.
Since the kill room is 2x2 by 3 high it is large enough to accommodate spiders too. The only thing it's not effective on is witches, since they are not easily drowned.
This is nothing more than an enclosed dark room containing multiple water conveyor belts that collect the mobs from all over the inside of the building and delivers them to the kill room. With the roof removed the overall plan of the water trenches is visible. Notice that there is a 1-step water "escalator" to lift the mob by one block and drop it into the next trench in line. These escalators also act as the connection points for the side trenches.
The internal layout with roof removed.
Cross section of the kill room.
Here is the cross section of the kill room area. The kill room is 2x2 and 3 blocks high. It is large enough to hold a spider. Water is placed into the two opposite corner blocks of the very top level. From there it falls down to hit the half slab and splits to the left and the right. The right branch joins the inside water conveyor, and the left branch carries the dropped items outside for me to collect.
I removed a block at ground level and dug a 1-block pit to stand in so I can peek inside to see how many mobs are in the room. The only real problem with it is that it gets really overloaded with bats! They can't find a way out so they just stay inside and grow in numbers over time.
This is a true newbie-class project that uses nothing fancy, just ordinary building blocks and water. The glass section makes it possible to watch the mobs die, and see what they drop. The long trench leading away is so that I can keep a safe distance from Creepers so as not to annoy them. From the end of the trench I can safely wait while their gunpowder is delivered right to me.
Since the kill room is 2x2 by 3 high it is large enough to accommodate spiders too. The only thing it's not effective on is witches, since they are not easily drowned.
This is nothing more than an enclosed dark room containing multiple water conveyor belts that collect the mobs from all over the inside of the building and delivers them to the kill room. With the roof removed the overall plan of the water trenches is visible. Notice that there is a 1-step water "escalator" to lift the mob by one block and drop it into the next trench in line. These escalators also act as the connection points for the side trenches.
The internal layout with roof removed.
Cross section of the kill room.
Here is the cross section of the kill room area. The kill room is 2x2 and 3 blocks high. It is large enough to hold a spider. Water is placed into the two opposite corner blocks of the very top level. From there it falls down to hit the half slab and splits to the left and the right. The right branch joins the inside water conveyor, and the left branch carries the dropped items outside for me to collect.
I removed a block at ground level and dug a 1-block pit to stand in so I can peek inside to see how many mobs are in the room. The only real problem with it is that it gets really overloaded with bats! They can't find a way out so they just stay inside and grow in numbers over time.
http://cryptopian.com/minecraft/newbie-mob-farm.html