Which blocks prevent mob spawning in Minecraft?

Several kinds of entities are programmed to spawn inside a Minecraft world. They can range from passive farm animals you can tame to hostile creatures that attack on sight. Moreover, while some spawn in a specific biome or area at a certain time, others can be found all over the map. That being said, certain blocks have the ability to stop mobs from spawning, regardless of whether they are passive, neutral, or hostile in nature.

This article will highlight all Minecraft blocks that can prevent mob spawning in the game.

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Types of blocks that stop mobs from spawning in Minecraft

Partial blocks

No mob can spawn on partial blocks (Image via Mojang Studios)

Minecraft runs a check for certain specific conditions before spawning a creature. One of those conditions is whether there is any full solid opaque block for them to spawn on. If there are no complete solid cube blocks to be found, the game will not place a mob in the world.

Hence, half-blocks like slabs, stairs, farmland, dirt paths, and even carpets can be placed on any block to stop mobs from generating there. This way, players can control where they want these creatures to spawn.

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Transparent blocks

Transparent blocks prevent mobs from spawning (Image via Mojang Studios)

Minecraft needs a block to be opaque to spawn a creature on it. Hence, if a block is a complete cube but transparent, the game will not generate a creature on it. There are several non-opaque blocks like glass and leaves that can be placed to stop mob spawning in the game.

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Light-emitting blocks

Light-emitting blocks can stop hostile mobs from spawning (Image via Mojang Studios)

Light-emitting blocks can affect hostile mob spawns in Minecraft. When players head into dark caves, they will usually find a lot of enemies in them. This is mainly because their spawning mechanic depends heavily on the light level of a block. In the Overworld, hostile mobs will only spawn if the light level of a block is zero.

Hence, players can place light-emitting blocks like torches, lanterns, sea lanterns, sea pickles, etc to illuminate surrounding blocks and increase their light level.

This trick also applies to hostile mobs in the Nether. However, players need to place more light blocks there since most Nether mobs start spawning if the light level drops below 11.

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Check out other Minecraft mob spawning articles:

• How to fix mobs not spawning in Minecraft
• How the moon affects mob spawning in Minecraft
• How does mob despawning work in Minecraft?