Drifter Spawn Rules

[Shirelagel]

I'm having a constant problem with Drifters spawning in my cellar. My cellar is 7x7 with oil lamps in each corner and another in the middle. I even put three tables in the middle and made the floor from slabs (the upper half cause I heard that blocks spawns). Seems to be worst when it rains. That said, just had 2 spawn in my workshop which is 8x5 and lit with a lantern in the middle.

I attached a picture. It's symmetrical so everything you see is mirrored on the both sides except the door in.

Clearly I'm not understanding what the actual spawn rules are, because I'm dead certain I'm keeping above a light level of 7 in all areas.

 

Any help of advice is appreciated

[Polraudio Zion]

If you get a mod like VSHUD you can view the light levels and see where mobs can spawn. when you have the mod use ".lightutil lightlevel" and everything red will show you where they can spawn.

[Shirelagel]

Awesome utility, thanks. Sadly, it's not showing any red in my cellar.

lol, my cellar must simply be cursed

[Brandybuck]

From my understanding, drifters can spawn anywhere regardless of light level or proximity to the player. But they won't spawn on half slabs.

[Shirelagel]

But my cellar is all slabs... and well lit for  good measure. (as well lit as can be with it still being a cellar of course)

Really though? Light doesn't affect spawns?

[Streetwind]

It is supposed to, and generally does so just fine. There's a bug in the 1.14 prerelease that makes them spawn in broad daylight though. As for yourcellar, I'm not sure. It's entirely possible that there are other bugs at work. The game is still in alpha, after all.

Also note that using slabs only works if they're creating a half-height surface. Just like in Minecraft, using slabs to make a surface level with full blocks does not prevent creature spawning.

Finally, temporal storms, and having low temporal stability in general, override just about all spawn restrictions. Drifters will pop in right out of thin air no matter where you are and what the conditions around you are. For example, I have hidden in a completely enclosed, fully lit up 2x2 room during a temporal storm before, and had a Drifter spawn inside this room next to me.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Streetwind

[AngryRob]

4 hours ago, Brandybuck said:

From my understanding, drifters can spawn anywhere regardless of light level or proximity to the player. But they won't spawn on half slabs.

Does it matter how the half slab is placed? i use half slab floors, and they are set up so that i can still place blocks on them. So will they work to prevent drifter spawns? I have not weathered a temporal storm yet, so if someone has an answer that would be greatly appreciated. otherwise i will find out, for science..... 

[Sukotto82]

On 10/22/2020 at 2:25 AM, AngryRob said:

Does it matter how the half slab is placed?

 

On 10/22/2020 at 2:18 AM, Streetwind said:

Also note that using slabs only works if they're creating a half-height surface. Just like in Minecraft, using slabs to make a surface level with full blocks does not prevent creature spawning.

that should answer the slab question but I would maybe make all the floor space bottom slabs not top slabs so to reflect what Streetwind said and maybe only use full blocks or top slabs where you want to place an object and hope they don't spawn on/in the object you placed there.

[AngryRob]

On 11/1/2020 at 5:59 PM, Sukotto82 said:

 

that should answer the slab question but I would maybe make all the floor space bottom slabs not top slabs so to reflect what Streetwind said and maybe only use full blocks or top slabs where you want to place an object and hope they don't spawn on/in the object you placed there.

During a temporal storm, i have witnessed them spawning at half height slabs, and at full height slabs. So slabs are debunked as a means to prevent drifter spawns. I am going through and chiseling each block in my panic room now to see if that prevents spawning during the next storm. 

[Domkrats]

Just guess. Maybe there is some cave nearby. Somewhere next to cellar. So they spawn through wall. But just would be my first idea if i experience something like that.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Domkrats

[Streetwind]

6 hours ago, AngryRob said:

During a temporal storm, i have witnessed them spawning at half height slabs, and at full height slabs. So slabs are debunked as a means to prevent drifter spawns.

No, they are not debunked. Temporal storms override common spawn restrictions - they'll spawn in midair in broad daylight if they have to. I already wrote this in my post further up the thread.

To debunk slabs as a viable method, you'd have to get confirmed spawns outside of a temporal storm.

[Sukotto82]

19 hours ago, Streetwind said:

No, they are not debunked. Temporal storms override common spawn restrictions - they'll spawn in midair in broad daylight if they have to. I already wrote this in my post further up the thread.

To debunk slabs as a viable method, you'd have to get confirmed spawns outside of a temporal storm.

yeah temporal storms are odd like that. I was swimming back to my base when a storm hit mid day and they literally just spawned in mid air around me and dropped down. also had some spawn 5 blocks under water while I was sitting on the bottom of a large lake thinking to avoid them that way until it was over they spawn anywhere during a storm from what I can tell.

[Sukotto82]

I haven't had them spawn ON my character though. so maybe if your sitting in a 1 square whole in the wall or something where your all blocked in maybe they can't spawn in the same place as the character. I have not tested this. I kill them instead of run from them now in hopes of getting Temporal gears for repairing teleporters now that I found one.

[junawood]

8 hours ago, Sukotto82 said:

maybe they can't spawn in the same place as the character

They can. I had one spawn on the one block pillar I was standing on.

[Hastsezini]

1 hour ago, junawood said:

They can. I had one spawn on the one block pillar I was standing on.

I had one spawn above me on the block I was standing on last night. So yes this is all possible.

[Sukotto82]

9 hours ago, junawood said:

They can. I had one spawn on the one block pillar I was standing on.

 

8 hours ago, Hastsezini said:

I had one spawn above me on the block I was standing on last night. So yes this is all possible.

well there goes that idea lol.

[AngryRob]

On 11/3/2020 at 2:57 AM, Streetwind said:

No, they are not debunked. Temporal storms override common spawn restrictions - they'll spawn in midair in broad daylight if they have to. I already wrote this in my post further up the thread.

To debunk slabs as a viable method, you'd have to get confirmed spawns outside of a temporal storm.

So are temporal storms going to be a thing we have to weather, or will the be some sort of shelter we can build? 

[Streetwind]

Sleeping to skip through the storm works. Some people consider it cheating... but then again, if you're playing singleplayer, the only person you can cheat is yourself. So it's up to you to decide what's fair and what's not.

[Hal13]

playing on 1.13.4 now and can confirm they spawn on anything now, in 1.12 they only spawned on full blocks, any other block be it stairs, bottom, top or sideway slabs prevented spawning, like it was said in some tutorials on youtube (btw. any recommendations on english speaking VS-youtubers?).

Now i ready my weapons before descending into my cellar, as half of the time there will be 2-4 drifters down there.

[RedPine]

Necro for posterity: Light levels greater than 8 (9 or higher) prevent hostile spawns, UNLESS it is a temporal storm, in which case they can spawn anywhere.  You can make "half hallways" out of slabs that prevent spawns even in temporal storms, as they cannot spawn "inside" blocks.  I've used this method.

[Thalius]

I have a room I've constructed for temporal storm events, and after several storms I can say with certainty that, at the moment, this works if you want a spawn proof area in all conditions, light or no light, storm or no storm:

Turn all floors you want spawn-proof into chiseled blocks. Drifters simply will not spawn on them at all, ever (at this point in the game at least).

In a storm however, they can spawn in any two block high space in mid air above the chiseled block. (The block of air touching the chiseled floor is protected because of the chiseled surface, but two blocks above that is fair game for spawning in a storm).

Make sure the space from chiseled floor to ceiling is no more than three blocks high.  Place blocks on the ceiling and chisel them back to leave a few layers, rendering the chiseled floor to ceiling height a bit less than three blocks.  This means that above the block of air in contact with the chiseled surface, there is not a full two block area for drifters to spawn in, so they won't, ever.

Congrats, you now have a spawn proof location.

You can take these factors into account to create a spawn proof cellar or other room as well, as long as you don't mind a low ceiling.

~TH~

Edited April 7, 2021 by Thalius

[Nerdlin Geeksly]

On 10/22/2020 at 1:18 AM, Streetwind said:

...temporal storms, and having low temporal stability in general, override just about all spawn restrictions. Drifters will pop in right out of thin air no matter where you are and what the conditions around you are. For example, I have hidden in a completely enclosed, fully lit up 2x2 room during a temporal storm before, and had a Drifter spawn inside this room next to me.

 

This is terrifying, nowhere is safe then; we'd be better off running around outside trying to say away from them.

[Owktree]

I've seen constructs that are pretty safe from them.  Ideal is cutting down of height for them to spawn into and putting stones down on surfaces.  (Or use  something that prevents spawning on that surface.)  I say "pretty safe" because I have seen a drifter spawn inside the area I had, but it has been rare.  Like 2-3 times over at least a dozen temporal storms.

[Maelstrom]

In the 2 years since the last post in this forum spawning has changed dramatically, most notably the rift activity mechanic.  The second best way to spawn proof an area is to light it sufficiently, best done with lanterns as torches provide almost insufficient light level for spawning purposes.  I have a multi-building base that only produces 1 or 2 drifters on apocalyptic levels of activity and none below that.  It only took about 10 lanterns to light the roughly 100 square block base sufficiently.