Options for automatic Wither-killing?

[Ieldra]

I am finding myself in need of (at least) a stack of Nether Stars... and (rather unsurprisingly) I'm disinclined to fight 64 Withers by hand.

I know how to contain the Wither, and I have several ideas about auto-spawning it. About automatic killing, not so much. And there is the additional difficulty of protecting any machinery devised to kill and spawn it while it's alive.

So how would I go about auto-killing a Wither? The idea I'm considering atm is to use a small room lined with diamond spikes - which (at least I hope so) aren't machines so I may be able to ward them. However, that still leaves the problem of protecting my spawning equipment from the explosions, or alternatively to teleport the Wither into the killing zone instantly after spawning it...

While I'm at it, I may as well ask if there exists any machinery immune to Wither explosions.

 

[RJS]

Not sure about immune machinery.

Practicalities adds a Multiblock Wither farm that produces nether stars in exchange for soul sand and skulls. It' not overly cheap.
I believe Draconic Evolution's mob grinder can kill the wither.
There's also the top-tier shock panel from expanded redstone, which one-shots the wither, not sure on the range though.

 

[Ieldra]

Not sure about immune machinery.
Practicalities adds a Multiblock Wither farm that produces nether stars in exchange for soul sand and skulls. It' not overly cheap.
I believe Draconic Evolution's mob grinder can kill the wither.
There's also the top-tier shock panel from expanded redstone, which one-shots the wither, not sure on the range though.

Hmm... of those I only have Draconic Evolution in my pack, and I heard Reika nerfed the Shock Panel.

How do people protect their spawning machinery from Wither explosions?

 

[Cpt_gloval]

Draconic mob grinder will kill through a layer of reinforced obsidian or dark iron bars, both from ender io. If you place an ender io vacuum chest 5 blocks away from the wither kill point it will not get destroyed by the wither and will collect all drops.

Build a 16 block shaft to the above kill box of dark iron bars and spawn the wither there. He will sink down the shaft to be dispatched.

How are you spawning the wither? I'm trying to set up a steve's factory manager to do it but it is refusing to place heads.

 

[asb3pe]

I wish someone would show me how to kill just one Wither. By hand of course, not with automation. I've never killed one, no ever. Never had a Nether Star either, obviously. LOL

I did finally try to fight the thing in the Regrowth 3rd party modpack, but I failed miserably and that was pretty much where I quit playing that pack. Without killing a Wither I couldn't progress the quests. I build an obsidian "jail" to spawn it in, but it just blasted right thru the roof and there went all my hard-work and my big plans.

Any tips appreciated (money preferred, but words would be acceptable as well LOL).

 

[RJS]

I wish someone would show me how to kill just one Wither. By hand of course, not with automation. I've never killed one, no ever. Never had a Nether Star either, obviously. LOL

I did finally try to fight the thing in the Regrowth 3rd party modpack, but I failed miserably and that was pretty much where I quit playing that pack. Without killing a Wither I couldn't progress the quests. I build an obsidian "jail" to spawn it in, but it just blasted right thru the roof and there went all my hard-work and my big plans.

Any tips appreciated (money preferred, but words would be acceptable as well LOL).

My advice? If you lack any sort of flight, spawn it near bedrock, with as much solid stuff between it and the sky as possible. It'll still go upwards, but more slowly, giving you time to whale on it. Get yourself some strength, health and regen pots and you'll be fine.

 

[Cpt_gloval]

Yes, plain obsidian box will require 4-5 layers per side to ensure he doesn't get away. Smite V on your sword. Regen 2 and strength 2 potions. Wither is easy-ish. Take a bucket or 2 of milk also for after, unless you enjoy your Steve jerking around for a while after a big fight.

 

[Ieldra]

Draconic mob grinder will kill through a layer of reinforced obsidian or dark iron bars, both from ender io. If you place an ender io vacuum chest 5 blocks away from the wither kill point it will not get destroyed by the wither and will collect all drops.

Build a 16 block shaft to the above kill box of dark iron bars and spawn the wither there. He will sink down the shaft to be dispatched.

How are you spawning the wither? I'm trying to set up a steve's factory manager to do it but it is refusing to place heads.

I think I'll try the Draconic Evolution mob grinder

As for spawning it, I'll have to experiment. What I'd like to use is AE2 formation planes, but that would mean I'd have to build the Wither trap near my base, and I don't know if that works with the skeleton heads. Maybe I'll have to use autonomous activators and block placers.

 

[Ieldra]

I wish someone would show me how to kill just one Wither. By hand of course, not with automation. I've never killed one, no ever. Never had a Nether Star either, obviously. LOL

I did finally try to fight the thing in the Regrowth 3rd party modpack, but I failed miserably and that was pretty much where I quit playing that pack. Without killing a Wither I couldn't progress the quests. I build an obsidian "jail" to spawn it in, but it just blasted right thru the roof and there went all my hard-work and my big plans.

Any tips appreciated (money preferred, but words would be acceptable as well LOL).

My first manual Wither kill in my current world had me wearing a tier 5 armored Jetpack from Simply Jetpacks, Blood Magic Bound Armor for the rest of the armor slots, and a TiC Manyullyn sword with a Looting upgrade and two Sharpness upgrades. The fight was out in the open and pretty straightforward, I only took three hearts of damage in the fight. I think I drank a regen II potion before the fight, but I don't recall, and I brought some milk but didn't use it during the fight, only after.

So, the Wither was easy. Thaumcraft's Crimson Knights, however, were a different story....

 

[Cpt_gloval]

Jabba barrel bspaced to one in the nether at a wither skelly farm.

 

[GreenZombie]

I wish someone would show me how to kill just one Wither. By hand of course, not with automation. I've never killed one, no ever. Never had a Nether Star either, obviously. LOL

I did finally try to fight the thing in the Regrowth 3rd party modpack, but I failed miserably and that was pretty much where I quit playing that pack. Without killing a Wither I couldn't progress the quests. I build an obsidian "jail" to spawn it in, but it just blasted right thru the roof and there went all my hard-work and my big plans.

Any tips appreciated (money preferred, but words would be acceptable as well LOL).

Go someplace where there is a lot of stone without caves. Carve a long 1 wide 2 high tunnel. 30 meters should be good. At the end make a room just big enough to build the wither.

Have a suit of diamond equivalent armor with protection IV on 3 pieces and blast protection Iv on the other.

Have a potion of regen. You will be afflicted by wither that will kill you without a source of regen.

A diamond equivalent sword with sharpness v. And a bow with power v.

Put the wither together and retreat into the corridor to wait for it to spawn.

When it does spawn start firing at its feet with the bow, backing down the corridor as necessary.

It will quickly reach 50% health and become immune to ranged damage.

Now move closer and engage it with the sword. Quaff the potion about now if you take damage or are withered. You should have a sense from the first half of the fight how quickly it can destroy terrain so be careful not to get close enough to fall into the room with it. It blows up terrain each time it's hit so time your swings so you can stay safe.

It should still be dead within 20 seconds or so. Collect the nether star and make a thaumcraft warding focus. With that you can make a cage to kill it in for further stars.

 

[Daniel_USA]

The best thing to do is get a Draconic Evolution Grinder (since it can be powered with fuel that a furnace can use). Then get a bucket of water and have it pour over a 5x4x1 area. you can then build a cage out of glass if you want to. The water will absorb the explosion and the Grinder will kill it almost instantly. Therefore you can make it in your base without it blowing up everything and don't have to waste your time making reinforced obsidian or septuple compressed cobble.

You can use Steve's Factory Manager or autonomous activators to build your wither. Even any block placer, dispenser, or Turtle from computercraft.

 

[epidemia78]

Now that Ive discovered the MFR laser drill kill method, I probably wont ever do it any other way. Just build a room at bedrock level and set up a wither deploying contraption about 20 blocks above so he drops down. Place the laser on the ceiling up there too, doesnt even need power. You will need to blast proof the bottom ten blocks or so of course. Preventing the laser from destroying the items can be tricky though, being equipped with a magnet did the job for me but extra utilities nodes with world interaction upgrades can do it too.

One of the cool things about it is that the soul sand blocks the light from the laser and it slowly reappears when the wither forms and floats down, creating a dramatic effect.

 

[Cpt_gloval]

You can use Steve's Factory Manager or autonomous activators to build your wither.

How, I tried for about an hour to do this. Can get the soul sand to place but SFM will not place the skulls.

 

[DriftinFool]

Ender IO Killer Joes are blast proof, so they can be used. Only other machine I know of is Draconic Evolution grinder. It instantly kills the wither.

 

[Ieldra]

Well....my Nether Star farm utilizing a Draconic Evolution mob grinder works perfectly. I can kill Withers as fast as I can spawn them. I've had the spawn on a ProjectRed timer - one Nether Star every ten seconds, and I think I might even shorten it further, spawning the next Wither before the previous one is fully built and killed. I built the containment tower from Chisel Grimstone and EnderIO Dark Iron grates and warded all the solid blocks, so that even if something goes wrong, the Wither can't escape. Loot collection is done by the classic flowing water method, funneling all the loot into a three-block-deep hole to be collected by a vacuum hopper.

I had a problem with placing the heads. It turns out that sometimes an Autonomous Activator only starts working at the end of a Redstone pulse rather than with the signal. Not always though. Very odd. I wonder if there's an alternative method to place the heads. On the upside, I can get away with not providing any power to the AAs (they are made to need power since TE 4, but apparently a Redstone pulse still makes them act - once). Does anyone know of any other method to place those heads? Just curious, since the AA work as intended.

I'm now thinking of implementing Nether Stars as a power source. Soul sand I can get from Magical Crops, but how do I get a renewable supply of Wither Skeleton skulls? The MFR mob essense system has apparently been rebalanced so that the number of mobs you need to kill in order to maintain an "exact type" spawn is ridiculous (my 17x17 Cursed Earth mobtrap can't keep up), and the EnderIO spawner has no "exact type" option. I might end up turning normal skeletons into the Wither variety using Ex Nihilo's witch water, but that always seemed a little cheaty to me on a non-skyblock map, so I'm looking for other alternatives first. Any suggestions?

 

[Inaeo]

Doesn't a skeleton spawner in the Nether spawn mostly Wither Skeleton? A small cursed earth farm there could solve your problem either way. Also, in 1.6.4, Magical Crops could grow wither skulls. Can they not any more?

 

[Ieldra]

Doesn't a skeleton spawner in the Nether spawn mostly Wither Skeleton? A small cursed earth farm there could solve your problem either way. Also, in 1.6.4, Magical Crops could grow wither skulls. Can they not any more?

Magical Crops can grow Wither Skulls? I admit that I didn't think to look for such a strange possibility. As for spawning in the Nether, I checked with an MFR spawner in the Nether, and Wither Skeletons were still extremely rare.

 

[Inaeo]

It used to be four skulls and four of the highest tier essence. May be worth a look.

My plan was to move a skeleton spawner with a diamond dolly into a Nether Fortress. Throw some cursed earth around it and see what happens.

 

[Wraith]

... but how do I get a renewable supply of Wither Skeleton skulls?

I use an Auto-Spawner with a Wither Skeleton (Exact Copy) in a Re-Usable Safari Net. If you have a cow / essence berry farm then you should have plenty of Mob Essence to keep it running. I store mine in a Bedrockian Drum which holds 67m essence and it's a great way to "use up" all that cobble that most of us have laying around.

Just set the spawner about 5 blocks above a floor set with Diamond spikes, with a vacuum chest near by. You don't get as many skulls as you would if you're using a Tinkers Construct sword, (mine has 20% beheading) but if you're automating it, you should be able to get a reasonable supply realtively quickly. Alternatively to spikes, you can just use Ender IO's Joe to kill them. He collects XP as well.