Building Underground/Mountains and stopping drifters from spawning?

[tibbers]

Hi! I'm very confused as to why no one can build into Mountains like with Dwarven Cities, maybe I'm doing it all wrong? What can be done to stop drifters from spawning in my mountain home or underground base?

[Echo Weaver]

1 hour ago, tibbers said:

Hi! I'm very confused as to why no one can build into Mountains like with Dwarven Cities, maybe I'm doing it all wrong? What can be done to stop drifters from spawning in my mountain home or underground base?

What are you using to light it up? Drifters only spawn below a certain light level. However, since torches burn out after about 2 days, keeping an area permanently lit is a challenge. You can use oil lamps early on, but they're very dim. Lanterns are much better when you have candles and (quartz) glass.

During temporal storms, I don't believe even light will do it for you. If you want to wait out temporal storms, you should probably build a small bunker just high enough to stand up in (2 blocks interior height). Drifters probably will spawn inside your larger base, but temporal storm drifters flicker and usually despawn after not terribly long.

[LadyWYT]

2 hours ago, tibbers said:

Hi! I'm very confused as to why no one can build into Mountains like with Dwarven Cities, maybe I'm doing it all wrong? What can be done to stop drifters from spawning in my mountain home or underground base?

As @Echo Weaver noted, lighting your base is incredibly important, as bright light will keep most things from spawning save for what spawns during temporal storms. It's also important not to dig too far down, as the deeper you go the faster you'll lose temporal stability.

I'll also note that if you have the cave-in mechanic enabled, you'll need to reinforce the ceiling to ensure it doesn't collapse. I believe it's only enabled by default in the Wilderness Survival mode, so if you're not playing that mode then you shouldn't have to worry about this unless you changed it yourself.

Of course, the easiest way to go about building underground/into a mountain without monsters spawning is to simply play Homo Sapiens. This mode does disable all the lore stuff, but that also means no monsters spawning at all.

[tibbers]

So I built into a mountain once and it was above sea level and drifters spawned in, so I dug out a 12x12 sunlight that lit the entire main room and drifters still spawned in.

I'll give lanterns a try on my new playthrough. I still think you cannot build in mountains or caves, even "above ground" like mountains surely are.

I want an Erebor.

[Bumber]

On 12/13/2024 at 3:36 AM, tibbers said:

So I built into a mountain once and it was above sea level and drifters spawned in, so I dug out a 12x12 sunlight that lit the entire main room and drifters still spawned in.

I'll give lanterns a try on my new playthrough. I still think you cannot build in mountains or caves, even "above ground" like mountains surely are.

I want an Erebor.

Sunlight isn't good enough. Needs to be artificial light.

My base is inside a mountain and I hang lanterns from my greenhouse ceiling. (You need glass a few blocks above crops for the greenhouse effect, but it's also okay to put a second layer of glass at the top of the mountain so you don't fall in while messing with windmills. You can remove the effect in summer just by breaking pieces of the lower ceiling.) Livestock also need sufficient light of any kind or they'll despawn.

A torch in a holder on a wall seems fine to drifter proof any 5x5 room, which can also be used to light a firepit, etc.

Edited December 15, 2024 by Bumber