World Eater in Minecraft: Everything you need to know

"World Eater" is a term some Minecraft fans may not be familiar with, but it's one worth noting.

At its core, a World Eater is a complex contraption that can destroy large segments of a world at once through the use of redstone blocks, slime/honey blocks, and TNT blocks.

When properly built, a system of pistons, observers, and sticky blocks can duplicate TNT blocks and activate them before dropping them to the ground. Each layer of terrain will be blown up by the TNT and progressively work its way down to the bedrock layer.

World Eaters are considerably difficult to build but are magnificent ways to clear entire swaths of a world and open them up for building or landscaping projects.

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How does a World Eater work in Minecraft?

A large section of land that was destroyed through the use of a World Eater (Image via ilmango/YouTube)

Popularized by Minecraft YouTuber ilmango, who is a masterful redstone engineer, World Eaters are an effective way to clear land without the use of editing tools or Creative Mode. They are constructed in a crane-like shape, with three arms reaching out over the earth.

Two of these arms remain stationary, while the other moves left and right between them. As the third arm (often called the swiper) moves, it replicates and drops live TNT into the area below, destroying countless blocks with detonations.

Once the swiper has made a successful pass, it will drop down one level and continue dropping TNT. This ensures that the TNT doesn't detonate in midair and the World Eater continues to bore down into the underground layers of the world.

When built effectively, a World Eater can burrow all the way down to the bedrock layer in the five bottom-most layers of a standard world.

It is important to note that these Minecraft devices are considered bannable on some servers due to the massive number of blocks interacting and being duplicated.

Using a World Eater in multiplayer can occasionally cause substantial lag if the server doesn't have the RAM to facilitate it. This is worth considering before creating one outside of single-player.

Creating a World Eater outside of Minecraft's Creative Mode is an incredibly resource-heavy undertaking. This is due to the sheer number of observers, glass, terracotta, redstone, sticky piston, and slime/honey blocks needed to construct one.

Creating just one sweeper calls for dozens of blocks working in unison, and World Eaters require entire rows of sweepers to destroy a sizable area in a world.

Interestingly enough, World Eaters can even be used to clear other Minecraft dimensions, such as the Nether. When used in this way, a World Eater can be an effective way to uncover large quantities of ancient debris, a rare material used to create Netherite weapons in Minecraft.

However, before a player begins building a World Eater, it's highly advised to find an online tutorial to do so. These machines are considerably complex and won't be quick to grasp.

Accomplished redstone engineers may have an easier time constructing a World Eater. Otherwise, it's best to look to the Minecraft community for examples of how to build one. Those who fail to follow the build blueprint block by block can end up with explosive calamities or other unintended consequences.