How to kill sculk shriekers in Minecraft 1.19 update

Introduced in Minecraft's 1.19 update, sculk shriekers are unique blocks found in the deep dark biome. These horrific blocks emit a dreaded shrieking wail when disturbed, inflicting players with the Darkness status effect and potentially summoning the powerful Warden.

To avoid these dastardly blocks, Minecraft players may want to consider destroying them. Doing so keeps them from releasing their piercing screams and denies the Warden one more way to enter the area the player is in forcefully.

Fortunately, breaking a sculk shrieker is a fairly straightforward endeavor. These blocks are not particularly sturdy, especially when a player uses the appropriate tool for the job.

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The best way to break a sculk shrieker in Minecraft 1.19

Multiple sculk shriekers in Minecraft 1.19 (Image via Mojang)

Breaking a sculk shrieker should be relatively easy in Minecraft 1.19. However, there's an art to doing it without upsetting the sculk shrieker itself.

In nearly any instance, players can break a sculk shrieker with a majority of tools or even with their bare hands. However, for maximum breaking speed, players will want to use a hoe. This tool breaks shriekers at the fastest rate compared to other tools.

However, breaking a shrieker without setting it off is another story entirely. There are a few ways to do so, some of which are more helpful than others. Furthermore, each tactic requires different materials on occasion. Some players may want to opt for a certain method based on what is available to them.

Fortunately, the most popular ways to break sculk shriekers won't require too much of players and should be achievable without much fanfare.

Steps to break a sculk shrieker

1. In most situations, sculk shriekers won't activate without stimulus from a nearby sculk sensor. To address this, players will want to disable the sculk sensor in order to prevent the shrieker from receiving any pulse from it.
2. There are two primary ways players can disable a sensor. Specifically, players can either place a wool block or carpet between the sculk sensor and shrieker, or they can waterlog the sculk sensor directly with a water bucket.
3. The carpet method tends to be the safer bet, but waterlogging the sensor is helpful when there is more than one sculk sensor in the area that could potentially set off the shrieker. Otherwise, players will have to sneak to each sensor and surround them with wool blocks or carpet in order to dampen the player's movements.
4. Once the sensors have been disabled, players should be able to safely break the sculk shrieker with a tool of their choice, though a hoe will break the block at the fastest rate.

Without input from sculk sensors, shriekers aren't quite as intimidating as they might seem in Minecraft 1.19.

Sculk shriekers must activate multiple times to summon a Warden. As long as players don't disturb a shrieker four times, they'll be safe. It's also possible to use in-game subtitles to gauge how close the Warden is to being called forth.