Minecraft 1.17 snapshot: How to farm mob heads

Minecraft's newest snapshot for 1.17 introduces a way to farm mob heads

Copper is the new craze in this week's Minecraft snapshot, 20w45a, adding in a grand total of 17 unique blocks. One of these blocks that is on many of Minecraft's mob farmers brains, is the lightning rod. Crafted with three copper ingots, of which the ore can be found at the same levels as iron, this rod is capable of diverting any lightning strikes in a 16x4x16 area. This mean a square of 16 blocks on all four sides, with a height of four blocks (including the block level the rod is on).

This article will be based primarily around lightning rods. For a more in-depth look at this snapshot update, please read: Minecraft Snapshot 20w45a

The Mojang team recommends that any Minecraft build made out of combustible materials has a lightning rod near or above the topmost part of the build. This block also has a utility in PVP. The lightning strikes caused by tridents enchanted with channeling will also be directed towards the lightning rod.

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How to turn a mob farm into a head farm in Minecraft

Image via Minecraft

Turning a regular Minecraft mob farm into a head farm is extremely easy, requiring just one transport pipe to bring the creepers on top of the lightning rod, and a thunderstorm. Once this new addition to the farm has been set up, add another pipe for skeletons, zombies, and the other creepers, so it can be placed in an explosion resistant box with the charged creeper.

When charged creepers explode, their damage and explosive radius is 50% more than that of TNT, with the added bonus of causing one mob caught in the blast to drop its head. The mob that drops a head is picked at random from each mob caught in the explosion, but keep in mind that only one head will drop per charged creeper explosion.