... or is there a lot of other things dictating spawns?
Of course, we know of some obvious things that do (lihzahrd/dungeon background, standing in water...) but doing a lot of testing, I've found irregularities that i can't seem to find mentioned elsewhere. There doesn't seem to exist any super-thread regarding what-mob-spawns-where under all conditions in 1.3, so lets make it! (if it already does, please point me to it while kindly not laughing).
It seems to me that there are some heavy prioritization regarding what mobs the game decides to spawn, other than the surfaces they spawn on.
I'm currently trying to build a farm that can farm EVERY possible enemy in the game (save for the two variations of spiders and event enemies), and on my test world I've found this:
Above ground spawning:
The surfaces tested are: Grass, jungle grass, mushroom grass, snow, sand, ebonsand, crimsand, pearlsand.
This seem to enable all possible mob spawns for this layer (correct me if I'm wrong).
Using the setup in fig. 1, all surfaces work like a charm. Biome blocks for increased spawning and key farming can be added without interfering with spawns.
Bellow ground spawning:
The surfaces tested are: Stone, jungle grass, mushroom grass, marble, granite, sandstone, ebonsandstone, pink ice, purple ice, red ice.
This seem to enable all possible mob spawns for this layer (based on banners and drops (I know that two variations of ghouls are not in this)).
(NOTE: the marble layer in this picture is in fact marble "bricks" and not natural blocks. In testing this is not the case. Also, in testing I've been using a lot of different configurations - adding layers, removing layers etc. This is just one of them.)
In this setup, there are a number of problems.
1. Biome issues - By changing the biome the player stands in (to increase spawns and able keys to drop), the mobs that spawn seem to change to (unlike the above ground farm). By creating a jungle biome, for example, regular bats cease to spawn and only jungle bat variant spawns, regardless of surface to spawn on. Why is this?
2. Stronger surfaces - some surfaces (marble and granite) seems to take priority over other regarding spawn even if they are actuated. In fig. 2, granite mobs will spawn for all surfaces except jungle grass and mushroom grass. It seems that the granite blocks being in the 2x3 spawning rectangle for the mobs disables the spawning of granite mobs, but otherwise greatly overwrites the regular spawning for that surface. This seems very wierd. Does anyone have more info on this?
3. The sandstone surfaces need sandstone background wall in order to correctly spawn underground desert mobs. This wall needs to be behind the blocks, not above as in fig. 2. It seems though that any variation of sandstone wall (pure, corrupt, crimson or hallow) is good enough and doesn't affect the spawn variations (different Lamias for example). Is this intended/correct?
4. Trying to include spider nest spawning in this setup is not a good idea. By just having a spider wall in the proximity (how many tiles?) seems to make almost all spawns into spiders.
Special spawning:
Known special spawning cases: Sky, meteorite, underworld, spider nest, dungeon, lihzahrd, ocean, weather spawns
1. Sky - harpies and wyverns spawn naturally. Seems that other mobs can spawn based on surfaces (needs to be confirmed). Meteorite can not overwrite this biome.
2. Meteorite - overwrites most other biome spawns. (more testing needed?)
3. Underworld - spawns underworld enemies. Can co-exist with jungle spawning and can be overwritten by meteorite (according to wiki).
4. Spider nest - dictated by spider walls. Overwrites regular spawns nearly every time.
5. Dungeon - spawning requires dungeon surface as well as dungeon background wall (behind the player and the mobs). The three different variants of the latter dictates which mobs spawn.
6. Lihzahrd - spawning requires lihzahrd surface as well as lihzahrd background wall (behind the player).
7. Ocean - ocean mobs only spawn in water, and only aggro on player if player is in water.
8. Weather spawns - some mobs only spawn during certain weather conditions, such as Moon phases och heavy rain.
NOTE: is marble and granite supposed to be in this category?
Any information regarding above questions or other stuff regarding surfaces, biomes and spawning would be very much appreciated!
I will be doing more testing regarding this, trying to answer the questions above and those that may pop up.
Of course, we know of some obvious things that do (lihzahrd/dungeon background, standing in water...) but doing a lot of testing, I've found irregularities that i can't seem to find mentioned elsewhere. There doesn't seem to exist any super-thread regarding what-mob-spawns-where under all conditions in 1.3, so lets make it! (if it already does, please point me to it while kindly not laughing).
It seems to me that there are some heavy prioritization regarding what mobs the game decides to spawn, other than the surfaces they spawn on.
I'm currently trying to build a farm that can farm EVERY possible enemy in the game (save for the two variations of spiders and event enemies), and on my test world I've found this:
Above ground spawning:
The surfaces tested are: Grass, jungle grass, mushroom grass, snow, sand, ebonsand, crimsand, pearlsand.
This seem to enable all possible mob spawns for this layer (correct me if I'm wrong).
Using the setup in fig. 1, all surfaces work like a charm. Biome blocks for increased spawning and key farming can be added without interfering with spawns.
Bellow ground spawning:
The surfaces tested are: Stone, jungle grass, mushroom grass, marble, granite, sandstone, ebonsandstone, pink ice, purple ice, red ice.
This seem to enable all possible mob spawns for this layer (based on banners and drops (I know that two variations of ghouls are not in this)).
In this setup, there are a number of problems.
1. Biome issues - By changing the biome the player stands in (to increase spawns and able keys to drop), the mobs that spawn seem to change to (unlike the above ground farm). By creating a jungle biome, for example, regular bats cease to spawn and only jungle bat variant spawns, regardless of surface to spawn on. Why is this?
2. Stronger surfaces - some surfaces (marble and granite) seems to take priority over other regarding spawn even if they are actuated. In fig. 2, granite mobs will spawn for all surfaces except jungle grass and mushroom grass. It seems that the granite blocks being in the 2x3 spawning rectangle for the mobs disables the spawning of granite mobs, but otherwise greatly overwrites the regular spawning for that surface. This seems very wierd. Does anyone have more info on this?
3. The sandstone surfaces need sandstone background wall in order to correctly spawn underground desert mobs. This wall needs to be behind the blocks, not above as in fig. 2. It seems though that any variation of sandstone wall (pure, corrupt, crimson or hallow) is good enough and doesn't affect the spawn variations (different Lamias for example). Is this intended/correct?
4. Trying to include spider nest spawning in this setup is not a good idea. By just having a spider wall in the proximity (how many tiles?) seems to make almost all spawns into spiders.
Special spawning:
Known special spawning cases: Sky, meteorite, underworld, spider nest, dungeon, lihzahrd, ocean, weather spawns
1. Sky - harpies and wyverns spawn naturally. Seems that other mobs can spawn based on surfaces (needs to be confirmed). Meteorite can not overwrite this biome.
2. Meteorite - overwrites most other biome spawns. (more testing needed?)
3. Underworld - spawns underworld enemies. Can co-exist with jungle spawning and can be overwritten by meteorite (according to wiki).
4. Spider nest - dictated by spider walls. Overwrites regular spawns nearly every time.
5. Dungeon - spawning requires dungeon surface as well as dungeon background wall (behind the player and the mobs). The three different variants of the latter dictates which mobs spawn.
6. Lihzahrd - spawning requires lihzahrd surface as well as lihzahrd background wall (behind the player).
7. Ocean - ocean mobs only spawn in water, and only aggro on player if player is in water.
8. Weather spawns - some mobs only spawn during certain weather conditions, such as Moon phases och heavy rain.
NOTE: is marble and granite supposed to be in this category?
Any information regarding above questions or other stuff regarding surfaces, biomes and spawning would be very much appreciated!
I will be doing more testing regarding this, trying to answer the questions above and those that may pop up.
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