Farm ALL the Things – Squid Farm!

Hey guys!

I’ve decided to start a series on the blog detailing how one would go about farming various mobs in Minecraft. Aikar has recently stopped ruining the economy, so I figure it is my responsibility to step in and help him out! (Kidding, of course.) What better creature to start farming with than the derpiest of them all, the Squid! This series will be ongoing, with installments whenever I have time. I have no plans for a set order, so let me know on the forums if there is something you really want to see. Alright, now for the tutorial.

Choosing an Area and Prep

The efficiency of a squid farm is affected by the surrounding area. Remember, the number of entities in an area is capped. The spawn rate of every type of mob farm in Minecraft directly corresponds to the nearby area, and for more mobs to be spawned inside the trap, there must be fewer spawns outside. To accomplish this, the outlying area must be conditioned using transparent blocks, liquids, or partial blocks, such as slabs and stairs. Squid have a few extra requirements than other mobs; they only spawn in water between levels 45 and 63. Taking into account all this information, you are looking for the following criteria in choosing a place to build a squid farm:

• Flat (ish) land
• No oceans or rivers within ~80 blocks
• A ground level near y 60
• As always, far away from griefers

Slabbing land within an 80 block radius is recommended, but not absolutely necessary. Simply illuminating the nearby area using torches works fine. However, it is very important to make sure that no water blocks are left outside intended spawning area, as this will greatly reduce the efficiency of the farm.

Materials You will need:

• 400 hoppers (about 6 and a half stacks)
• About 320 signs (about 20 stacks)
• Water buckets
• Pickaxe (ideally enchanted with Unbreaking 3 Efficiency 5)
• Shovel (ideally enchanted with Unbreaking 3 Efficiency 5)
• A building block of your choice (recommended Cobblestone or Stone)
• Several stacks of torches
• Lots of food
• *Recommended* Max level beacon
• Patience

Building

This is the long section. You have been warned.

Once you have located an area to build this farm, begin by digging a hole 20 block x 20 block hole down to level 45. I strongly recommend using a Haste 2 beacon and an Efficiency 5 pick if you have them; they make this process decidedly less mind-numbing.

Next, choose any corner and place a block of your choice. Place another block one block over and two blocks up, like this:

Continue this pattern until you run out of space. Your spawner should now look like this:

Place signs on all sides of the blocks in the pattern you just placed, excluding the top and bottom. You should begin to notice that the signs occupy 2 x 2 spaces. Every block on the bottom level of your hole should either be taken up by a sign or a block. Don’t worry too much over this right now; it will become more apparent if you missed a spot in a later step, and easier to fix.

Next, extrude the pattern of blocks on the bottom into pillars reaching up to level 63. Do not place any more signs though. Your grinder should now look like this:

This next step is a bit tricky. You want to place a water source block in each space between the pillars, but ONLY on level 63. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. The squids you spawn will not be forced down unless only the top layer contains source blocks, preventing your farm from working. I recommend placing dirt or another expendable block on layer 62, adding water on top, then removing the dirt.  Your farm should now look like this:

Alright, now for some work in the depths of your farm. This is the part where you find out how effectively you covered layer 45 with signs. Dig 14 blocks below level 45, down to level 31 if I mathed correctly, and make sure no water is leaking through the layer of signs. If there is, patch it up. While you are building this section, disregard the raining squid.

On level 14, you will be using your 400 hoppers. Find a location on any outside edge of the hole to place your collection chest. This can be moved to wherever you want, but will require more hoppers. Lead from the chest into the hole, and continue along one edge of the hole. Your hoppers should look like this:

Lead lines of hoppers into each of the hoppers on this side. MAKE SURE they all eventually drain to your collection chest; with all this work, you deserve every single ink sac. When the entire bottom is covered, it should look like this (bottom view):

 

And  you are done! The finished product! Feel free to decorate or embellish as much as you want.

This farm yields 8.5-9 stacks of ink sacs in 10 minutes at medium-high efficiency in Vanilla, I have not yet tested specifically on EMC. That translates to around a double chest in an hour. Enjoy your abundance of ink sacs!

Thank you for sticking with me through this long  post, and I hope you enjoy murdering huge quantities of squid 🙂

Let me know what kind of mob trap tutorial you want to see next by leaving me a profile post on the forums or sending  me a private message.

-bemvino87

*This design is a modified, optimized version of the JL2579’s version. A link to his video tutorial can be found here.