You Can’t Pick up Spawners in Minecraft, but Here Is the Alternative

Running into a spawner in the wilderness while exploring can be a sign of good luck, as spawners are incredibly valuable if you plan on making a mob farm. However, the problem arises when you attempt to break the block, and it disappears into nothing. This is one of the most common problems newbies will face in Minecraft. So is there a way around this issue, and is it possible to pick up spawners in the first place?

Editor’s Note: This post was updated in October 2023 and it reflects the most up-to-date state of the game.

Spawners are fairly common in Minecraft but it’s impossible to pick them up

Once in a while, while exploring underground you will encounter an unusual block that spawns a certain type of mob in the vicinity. Spawners usually generate inside monster rooms, mineshafts, woodland mansions, strongholds, nether fortresses, and bastion remnants, and as you can see those locations aren’t exactly convenient for you to maintain a mob farm especially if you’re primary house is on the other end of the map.

This is why players are often searching for a way to pick up a spawner whole and put it somewhere, in a more convenient location.

This is not possible, even if you’re using a silk touch the spawner will not drop and you will not be able to pick up like you would most other blocks in the game. Even breaking a spawner with a pickaxe won’t generate anything save for a few drops of experience. This presents a problem, but there are still ways to get your hand on a monster spawner and planet it wherever you want. Here’s how it is done.

Acquiring spawner through creative mode

The easiest way to acquire a spawner is through creative mode. In creative mode, you can acquire any type of spawner imaginable for both aggressive and passive mobs by combining an empty spawner with a spawn egg. Here’s how it’s done:

1. Locate the spawner in your inventory and place it on the ground.
2. Locate a specific spawn egg that you would like to use on a spawner and interact with the placed spawner.
3. Use /gamemode command to revert back to survival mode.

This is by far the easiest way to obtain a spawner and create your very own mob farm, although most players would consider this cheating.

Acquiring spawner through commands

If you don’t want to change your game mode to creative to get spawner you can always get one through console commands.

1. Open console by pressing “T.”
2. Type /give @p Minecraft:spawner 1
3. Repeat the “give command” to give yourself a spawn egg of any type of mob that spawners support.
4. Create your spawner by combining the spawner block and an egg.

Getting spawner through mods

There are also plenty of data packs that make the game far more interesting, or easier. In this case, Craftable Spawners and Spawn Eggs allow you to create monster spawners and monster spawn eggs by combining various items you find around the world. For example, to create a chicken spawner you should combine 2x redstone, 6x chains, and 1x chicken egg.

Both eggs and spawners are created at the crafting table.

Have an alternative way to get spawners? Let us know in the comments below!

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