Tested and working: Spider mob spawn experience farm

After watching (and testing) multiple Mob spawner and experience farm how-tos on youtube, Dowsy's tutorial is a winner!

And my version, in a Multiplayer server, following Dowsy's instructions exactly;

The dungeon surrounding the spawner is 9x9 (dig 4 blocks out in all 4 directions) and 3 blocks high (one block on both top and bottom of spawner).

The project will require:

• 1 Spider mob spawner
• 1 Lever
• 1 Button (of any material)
• 6 Redstone torches
• 10 Sticky Pistons
• 12 Glass Panes
• 15 Glass
• 18 signs
• 20 Repeaters
• 22 Buckets of water (though you don't need that many actual Buckets)
• 63 Redstone

And a whole lot of digging!

I will note that, as Dowsy explains in his video, the spiders can hit you when you step down in the corner to get the loot but it's not serious if you make sure you keep your food level max.

The only downside that I can find to using Dowsy's method is that it takes a lot of Redstone and Sticky Pistons, which may not be available to many in Survival mode or in a Survival server, but otherwise, this is, by far, the best XP farm technique I've seen used!

Mineshafter; how to sign up pictorial

Go to Mineshafter.info.

This is what you will see.

Click on 'Login'.

A window will pop up that looks like this.

If you don't have a Persona account, this is the place and time to make one. You'll need your email, a password, and answer a few questions. You'll have to go to your email and confirm your account. 

After creating or signing into Persona, close all Persona tabs and go back to Mineshafter.info.

Click on 'Login' again and sign in to Persona.

You may have to refresh Mineshafter.info and log into Persona several times before it works. Don't give up if it doesn't work the first time! It takes a few times of refreshing to get the sites to recognize the union of your new Persona account to the Mineshafter authentication.


When you have successfully logged into Mineshafter.info with your Persona, you will see your email in the corner where 'Login' used to be.

Mouse-over your email and click on 'Settings'.

(You will see here that it shows my username. This is where your email will be displayed the first time.)




This is the page you should see when you go to 'Settings'. If all the words don't make sense, just ignore it.
Now click on 'Change'.

Enter the username that you want and the password. This is what you are going to use when you sign into the game.

Go to 'Downloads' from the menu at the top.

Right click on 'Mineshafter proxy' and choose 'Save target as' or 'Save link as'.


Put the .jar file to a place where you can find it easily, like your desktop.

Click on and run the file.


The installation is automatic, so you won't have to do any thing more.

Now you can log in with your new Mineshafter account (the username and password you created earlier) and play!