How to get a creeper head with trident

Creeper farming is one of the most reliable methods of obtaining large amounts of gunpowder, aside from farming ghasts and witches. You can either burn them using campfires or kill them with a Looting III sword which multiplies the drop rates significantly.

Charged creeper farming is a variant of creeper farming which produces charged creepers for later detonation to obtain a mob head. As charged creepers are only created when a creeper is struck by lightning, charged creeper farms can be difficult to build. The simplest design is the 'creeper field' design, where creepers are kept in cells below the ground in a flat area.

Farm designs[]

Creeper only farm[]

When trapdoors are placed on a 2 block high ceiling, it lowers the height to 1 13⁄16 blocks high. This is tall enough to allow creepers to spawn, but short enough to prevent other mobs such as zombies and skeletons. In Bedrock Edition, this mechanic may not work. Be aware some Creeper farms can also spawn Spiders. This is easily avoided by removing 3-by-3 areas in the farm. For example, carpet can be placed with 2 blocks between them to block spiders with a minimal loss of spawn area for the creepers.

You can make a creeper farm by placing a spawning platform in an ocean to maximize spawning rates. Make a 2 block wall and the roof has to be trapdoors. Place cats in boats in the end of the farm to scare the creepers away and it will direct the creepers to the other end in which you will have a water stream guiding the creepers to a kill mechanism which can be manual, with campfires, magma blocks....

Another way to get the creepers to move into a killing zone it to place a snow golem at one end. These snow golems must be at least 3 blocks away from all creepers otherwise the creepers explode, killing the golems. Snow golems are the only creature that players can create that naturally attack creepers.

Java design[]

Chapman's design[]

This design requires 2 cats. It's a fairly simple build and despite its small size, it produces around 700 gunpowder per hour which is enough in the early game. The build layout is in the form of an hourglass, and to make sure only creepers spawn, trapdoors are placed on the roof as creepers are slightly smaller than zombies and skeletons. An AFK platform is built high-up in the sky to increase pack-spawning. To improve the rates further, it is recommended to light up the nearby areas and caves. The farm is also expandable by digging underground. Creepers are killed using campfires or lava but it's recommended to use campfires as gunpowder can be burned in lava.

Namiature's design[]

This design is best used on the cold ocean biome, although it can be used on land, albeit with a bit of spawn proofing to boost the rates. Namiature's design is almost similar to Gnembon's creeper farm, but instead of using a redstone timer to push the creepers away, the creepers are transported to the killing chamber by using cats. Also, instead of using glass pillars, carpets are used to increase the rates further. The creepers are killed by using magma blocks in an X-shaped pattern and the top of the farm is covered with slabs to allow pack spawning. The AFK platform is 127 blocks from the ocean level, with a 21 block bridge made out of glass protruding towards the farm. At the 21st block is where the AFK platform is situated. According to the creator, this is too boost the rates further. The farm itself is fairly expandable, requiring more building blocks, cats, trapdoors, glass and slabs. More layers meant better rates for this farm and is one of the best to build.

SB737 would later modify this design by making a water chamber pushing the creepers towards a nether portal. In the nether, a glass tube is built around the portal, with creepers falling to the killing chamber. SB737 would then kill them after some time, with 5 minutes of AFKing from his 11-layer farm producing over 10 stacks of gunpowder (the Looting III is also applied which amplified the rates). This is also a good source of XP to mend your equipment.

Bedrock design[]

Charged creeper farms[]

This farm works with a general mob farm attached to a filter to obtain only the creepers. It then gives each creeper its own 'cell.' The system detects when lightning strikes a cell and then moves the charged creeper into a separate area.

This type of farm is very expensive to build and is not recommended unless you have a lot of time and resources. It is probably better to create a creeper only farm and use a channeling trident to charge the creepers. The mob filter however may be interesting for platforms which do not have reliable creeper only farms.

Charged creepers are necessary to obtain mob heads (except for wither skeletons'). Charged creeper farming is one way to create charged creepers. Since the introduction of Channeling tridents, these methods have mostly become obsolete. However, they may still be useful in some editions.

In order for a creeper to become charged, lightning must strike within a 4x4 area of it. Charged creepers despawn just like regular creepers, so it may be prudent to nametag any creepers that you wish to keep for an extended period of time.

Channeling trident[]

You can use a trident with the Channeling enchantment to summon lightning during a thunderstorm. Simply create a collection area for a Creeper farm that is small enough that the creepers will be within 4 blocks of the lightning strike. Then, wait for a thunderstorm and throw a channeling trident at one of the creepers. Note that the creepers must be exposed to the sky for the Channeling enchantment to work. It is recommended to have the Loyalty enchantment on the trident to allow for easy retrieval.

Creeper field[]

Creeper fields are one of the simplest charged creeper farm designs. They consist of a flat field with 'cells' dug into ground containing creepers. This kind of farm is easiest to create on flat surroundings. Once built, the farm can be set up to supply mob heads with minimal effort. This can be achieved by placing trapdoors underneath the cells leading to a 'detonation chamber,' a room for blowing up other mobs with the charged creepers to obtain heads.

It is possible to make this type of farm more efficient by surrounding the creeper with other mobs. If there is an entity within a 3x3 area of the lightning strike, the lighting will strike at that entity instead. Manipulating lightning like this is known as "lightning farming." For more information, see lightning mechanics.

Minecart storage[]

Since Java Edition 1.16, mobs that are riders of other entities do not despawn. This includes passengers of boats and minecarts, which means a mob is both prevented from despawning and removed from the mob cap when caught in a boat or a minecart. A possible application of this is to create charged creeper farms without the use of name tags.

To operate, the farm requires a creeper-only farm connected to a storage system. As creepers spawn, they are put into minecarts, which prevents them from despawning and removes them from the mob cap. These creepers are then stored, and when a thunderstorm hits, these creepers will be unloaded (because minecarts will be destroyed by the lightning) in a tight area, and the player can throw a Channeling trident at an armor stand with sky access, and the lightning will charge all creepers in the process. These charged creepers are now loaded in minecarts again, and can now be stored until further notice. A nearby regular mob farm that produces zombies, skeletons and creepers can now be connected to the charged creeper storage, enabling mob head farming.

How do you get a charged creeper with a trident?

What are the chances of getting a creeper head?