Every Minecraft player has a tale to tell about a bad encounter with a Creeper. These aggressive, explosive mobs don’t take but a moment to ruin a great expedition or reduce your hours-long build to rubble.
Despite how dangerous they are, they have their uses, too. For instance, killing Creepers is one of the most efficient ways to gather gunpowder in Minecraft.
Now, we’re sure that for most of you, the idea of manually hitting at something that’s prone to blow up in your face probably sounds like a bad idea.
That’s why we’ve put together this guide to show you how you can automate the process using trapdoors and a bit of lava.
What You’ll Need
There are some pretty complex Creeper farm builds online, but the one we’re going to show you here (by YouTuber Dusty Dude) is super simple.
It doesn’t require hard-to-find materials or complex Redstone contraptions.
Here are the materials you’ll need to build it:
| Material | Amount |
| Building blocks (stone, concrete, dirt, etc.) | 5–7 stacks |
| Chest | 4 |
| Hopper | 4 |
| Campfire | 4 |
| Glass | 8 |
| Water Bucket | 4 |
| Trapdoor | 5–7 stacks |
| Carpet | 12 |
Build a Creeper Farm in Minecraft
Step 1. Build the Framework
The first step is to construct the outline for your Creeper Farm. Lay your builder blocks out like in the picture above. This should be two blocks high.
Step 2. Building the Kill Chamber
Dig out the blocks in the center of the structure. You want to go down three blocks.
There should still be four “pillars” in the corners of the hole you dug out. Remove the bottom four corner blocks on one side.
Then, remove the bottom two corner blocks on the other side.
On the side that you removed two corner blocks from, pour out your four Water Buckets along the wall.
This will create a strong water stream that will push the Creepers down an underground waterway into the kill chamber below.
On the opposite wall (where you dug out four corner blocks) start digging straight forward. Keep clearing out blocks until the water stops flowing (roughly 8 blocks long).
At the last block of water, dig one block down. This will cause the stream to restart from that point. Now, extend the stream by digging out blocks until the water stops flowing again.
Once the water no longer flows (for the second time), dig straight down four blocks.
Hop down into the hole you’ve created, then dig out a 5×4 chamber.
Exactly one block from the spot where Creepers will fall into, lay down four Chests.
Place four Hoppers directly behind the Chests. This is where the Creepers will fall.
Place a Campfire in each of the Hoppers.
Creepers will spawn from the upper room, fall into the hole in the center of the structure, and be pushed by the stream of water into this kill chamber where they will be burnt to death.
Lay down some Glass blocks so you can watch the Creepers die in safety.
Now, build a stairway back up to the surface.
This is roughly how far away you wind up after you’ve built the stream, kill chamber and stairway.
Step 3. Laying the Trap(doors)
Now it’s time to finish up the building.
Pull out your Trapdoors and lay them out like in the picture above.
Go to the hole in the center and lay out trapdoors in a rotating pattern. You’ll need to lay some builders blocks in the center to lay down the first trapdoor.
Start from one direction, lay a trapdoor, then hop counter-clockwise to lay down the next. Keep doing this until you have four trapdoors laid out in a rotating pattern.
If you’re having trouble placing trapdoors next to one another, don’t forget to hold Shift when laying your trapdoor.
Holding shift ensures you Place a block instead of Use it (which toggles the opening and closing of the trapdoor).
When you’re done, the trapdoor configuration should look something like this.
Open up these four trapdoors. Then lay down another four trapdoors on top of them.
Open up this second layer of trapdoors. The final pattern should look like the picture above.
Now, pull out your Carpets and lay them down like in the picture above.
The next step is to tame four cats. Find four cats and feed them Salmon to have them follow you. Lead them to your Creeper Farm and push one onto each of the trapdoors on the four main walls.
Make sure the cats are sitting on the trapdoors. Press the Use button on a Cat to toggle its Sit and Walk modes.
Once you have all four Cats in position, your Creeper Farm should look something like this from above.
The next step is to close up the roof with trapdoors. We use trapdoors here because they’re set at just the right height to prevent the spawning of Skeletons and other unwanted mobs. With trapdoors, we can ensure that we only get Creepers.
Optional Step. Build Another Layer
At this point, it’s up to you if you want to close out the construction or build another layer on top of it. The more layers you have, the more Creepers you can kill at once and the more Gunpowder you can gather.
If you want to add another layer, just repeat the upper-level layout as described in the previous section (trapdoor rotating pattern, four cats, carpets, etc.).
Step 4. Don’t Let the Light In
Now it’s time to close out the roof. In order for Creepers to spawn, we have to prevent all light from entering the structure. Grab your builder blocks and start laying them down on top of the trapdoor roof you made earlier. Don’t forget to cover all leaks!
With the Creeper Farm completed, all you have to do next is wait. Eventually, Creepers will start to spawn inside the structure you built. They will encounter the Cats you placed, which will scare them toward the hole in the center.
When they fall into the hole, they’ll land in the water stream you created, which will push them into the kill chamber.
To gather your Gunpowder, head back into your underground room from the stairway you built earlier. You should find tons of Gunpowder in the Chests you placed. Happy farming!
