Guardian Farm — Prismarine & Sea Lanterns on DonutSMP
Ocean Monuments are treasure troves. A Guardian farm turns one into a factory producing Prismarine Shards, Prismarine Crystals, Fish, and massive XP — one of the best all-around farms in the game.
Materials Needed
- • Lots of building blocks
- • Sponges (from Elder Guardians)
- • Conduit (helpful for building)
- • Water Breathing potions
- • Slime blocks or TNT
- • Redstone for kill system
- • Hoppers and chests
- • Depth Strider boots
- • Respiration III helmet
1. Why an Ocean Monument?
Guardians only spawn near Ocean Monuments. Within the monument's bounding box and 58-block radius, Guardians spawn at extremely high rates in water.
A proper farm drains or clears the water to control where Guardians spawn and funnel them to a kill chamber. The investment is huge, but the output is the highest of any hostile mob farm.
2. Defeating the Elder Guardians
Each monument has 3 Elder Guardians that apply Mining Fatigue. You must kill all 3 before building efficiently: - One in the top room - Two in the wing rooms
Bring Milk Buckets to remove Mining Fatigue temporarily. Use a strong sword (Sharpness V) and eat Golden Apples during the fight. TNT can also kill them without mining.
3. Draining the Monument
The traditional approach: drain all water within the monument's spawning range.
**Sponge Method** (fastest): Use Sponges from Elder Guardian drops to absorb water section by section. Build walls to section off areas, then sponge each section dry.
**Sand/Gravel Method** (no sponges): Fill water with sand column by column, then remove the sand. Very slow but requires no special items.
This is the most time-consuming part — plan multiple sessions.
4. Spawning and Kill System
With the area drained, Guardians still spawn in any water inside the bounding box. Create controlled spawning chambers:
1. Build water pools at specific locations inside the drained area 2. Guardians spawn in the water 3. Water flows push them to a central point 4. Bubble columns (Soul Sand under water) shoot them upward 5. They drop from a height into a kill chamber
Or use nether portals to teleport Guardians to an Overworld kill chamber for easier collection.
5. Estimated Returns
A fully operational Guardian farm produces: - **Prismarine Shards**: Hundreds per hour → Sea Lanterns, Prismarine blocks - **Prismarine Crystals**: Hundreds per hour → Sea Lanterns - **Raw Cod/Fish**: Hundreds per hour → food or cat breeding - **XP**: One of the highest XP-per-hour rates in the game
The investment is massive, but this single farm provides almost unlimited building materials and light sources.
