PC [Showcase] Simple dungeon grinder

[Mimp]

So... I got bored an revisited my dungeon grinder. I had only found one sniper rifle in the dungeon and gave it away to a friend that is a more dedicated ranged player. Overall it's a simple but quite effective money and item grinder. I've made about 100 platinum off of it in the few hours it took me to fine tune it. I use some late game gear to stay alive but I can go AFK while it runs without much risk of dying. During the build I accidentally learned that like lava, conveyor belts are not valid surfaces for mobs to spawn; which helped inspire the design a bit.

How it works:
All the spawns are blocked initially but when you turn it on the mobs spawn on the only surface they can. They immediately get bombarded by spiky traps and jump into the lava. They'll walk over to the green gate is but just jump against it until they die. I use a stardust dragon to help kill them and the paladins faster. When loot drops the top conveyor belt pulls the loot to the left, lifts it up out of the lava and drops it into the other lava covered belt. That belt brings the loot to the right and up the hill right below you where you can grab it.

Spoiler: Gear I've been using

• Beetle armor set with beetle shell.
• Warding charm of myths.
• Warding work scarf.
• Warding ankh shield.
• Warding celestial stone.
• Warding celestial shell.
• Warding shiny stone.
• Stardust dragon staff.

Spoiler: Steps for use

• Teleport into the chamber via the bottom red wire to the higher of the two right side teleporters or fly in through the opening in the top or left and through the left player above sensor entrance.
• Activate the bewitching table and get cast a couple stardust dragon activations.
• Stand in front of the bewitching table and activate the yellow circuit via the player above sensor. This starts the 1 second timer and starts dropping spiky balls.
• Because all spawns are blocked you need to activate the manual switch to lock down your safe zone and activate the spawning surface.
• Go AFK for a while.
• PROFIT! (Litterally, just use the switches to the right to summon an NPC to sell to and/or eject them if they're not a vendor.)
• If or when necessary, you can shut the machine off to clean up souls or ectoplasm as well as errant drops from no clip mobs. Doing so has the added benefit of bringing any drops that landed on the spawning surface to you.

 

[FairyPrincessSerenity]

Very good design. I've got a version that has a smaller mob-killing chamber and uses Bubbles to contain the lava as opposed to sloped Conveyor Belts.

The mobs are stupid, so I have this door set up down there that they try to run up to in order to open. Problem (for them) is it has actuated blocks on both sides. The actuated blocks on the left allow you to actually attack into the chamber with a weapon. (thanks, one-way walls)

 

[Hundjäger18]

Wouldn't it be easier to have the drops on a single path towards you? Why have them drop behind? Also, @Eternalserenity , please explain the one way walls, I don't see how you can attack.

Another note, maybe it needs more traps to kill the wisp enemies, btw I heard that Gian skulls and cursed skulls spawn on the walls instead of blocks, do you know if it's true?

 

[crawlr]

Why not put two target dummy's in your player chambers and just afk while bouncing on slime mounts? You would be 100% safe to afk then, and you could even let the mobs walk into you since the saddle does additional summon damage.

 

[Hundjäger18]

Oh btw, thanks for the info about the conveyor belts preventing spawning, I've been looking for a way to allow the merchant to spawn on my base without monsters doing it, the merchant usually falls to the lava i have way down, I'll try this.

 

[FairyPrincessSerenity]

Also, @Eternalserenity , please explain the one way walls, I don't see how you can attack.

I still have my old one way wall visual display. Simply turn some sloped blocks (angled like the ones in this picture) inactive and you'll have one-way walls. Place the inactive slopes on the opposite side and make them face the opposite direction if you want the one way wall to face the other way instead.

 

[Mimp]

Wouldn't it be easier to have the drops on a single path towards you? Why have them drop behind?

That was my original design. The problem was for my build I wanted to be quite far from the kill zone, (only because I was recycling another grinder I had in this space before and I'm lazy.) What would happen is the mobs would end up sneaking through from time to time, it annoyed me enough that I changed to the current design and moved the holes in the direction the mobs were less likely to move to.

Another note, maybe it needs more traps to kill the wisp enemies, btw I heard that Gian skulls and cursed skulls spawn on the walls instead of blocks, do you know if it's true?

I had considered putting in a lot more traps and ones with more punch but in the end I just grabbed the ones I had the most of. I don't know about the spawning characteristics of the skulls, sorry.

Why not put two target dummy's in your player chambers and just afk while bouncing on slime mounts?

On a personal level invulnerability is a line I don't like to cross; I like to keep things somewhat sporting. Feel free to use that or a falling engine in your builds though.

 

[Hundjäger18]

That was my original design. The problem was for my build I wanted to be quite far from the kill zone, (only because I was recycling another grinder I had in this space before and I'm lazy.) What would happen is the mobs would end up sneaking through from time to time, it annoyed me enough that I changed to the current design and moved the holes in the direction the mobs were less likely to move to..

You know i was about to suggest a hole of one block to let the drops enter and not the enemies, but then i recalled what ZeroGravitas did with hoiks, some items could be too high for that.

Btw I think conveyor belts preventing spawn only applies on the dungeon, because after testing it my self I found out that it does allow enemies to spawn, that or when you first place it you had lava on top of it already.

 

[crawlr]

Hmm interesting. There is a chance that the converyor belts ARE valid spawn areas and if so they likely read as normal forest biome like a platform does. In this case the game may go to spawn a creature, see the only valid block is a conveyor belt, and then cancel the spawn since it won't spawn a forest biome mob in the dungeon.

I don't know if anyone tested this, but if it's the case we should also be able to block spawns in the dungeon with normal dirt blocks in a similar fashion.

 

[Hundjäger18]

Hmm interesting. There is a chance that the converyor belts ARE valid spawn areas and if so they likely read as normal forest biome like a platform does. In this case the game may go to spawn a creature, see the only valid block is a conveyor belt, and then cancel the spawn since it won't spawn a forest biome mob in the dungeon.

I don't know if anyone tested this, but if it's the case we should also be able to block spawns in the dungeon with normal dirt blocks in a similar fashion.

I already turned my pc off so I can't test, but can anyone check if actuated blocks above a regular block allows spawning? I'm trying to negate spawn of enemies while having a solid block for the traveling merchant to walk.

 

[crawlr]

blocks that are actuated into the background DO NOT stop spawns. The game ignores them and checks the next block under them. Additionally mobs can spawn in front of actuated blocks, they do not count as a background wall.

*Edit changed some wording for clarity*

 

[Hundjäger18]

blocks that are actuated into the background DO NOT stop spawns. The game ignores them and checks the next block under them. Additionally mobs can spawn on top of actuated blocks, they do not count as a background wall.

What do you mean by "on top of actuated blocks" , I thought the spawn would ignore them and go down to the next block, any ideas?

 

[Mimp]

What do you mean by "on top of actuated blocks" , I thought the spawn would ignore them and go down to the next block, any ideas?

"In front of" might have been a better choice of words. A mob can spawn on the normal layer in front of the background layer where your block has been moved. It is possible for it to overlap your blocks unlike some other background walls, (e.g.: housing background wall.)