Forum: gaming.stackexchange.com
Tags: <minecraft-java-edition>
Title: What is the quickest/easiest way to obtain gunpowder?
Question: I've logged a few hours into Minecraft and so far I've managed to dig a rather wide hole straight to bedrock.  I know that in the game, you can mine much faster than a pickaxe if you have TNT, which requires a fair amount of gunpowder and sand.  Sand is easy to obtain, but what about the gunpowder?  Do I have to run around killing mob after mob at night or is there a quicker way to get it?

Answers:
sents: text: Aside from using server commands, there are only four ways to get gunpowder: Creepers Ghasts Dungeon Chests Witches Of those four, creepers would be the easiest way to reliably (and safely) get gunpowder.
text: Your best bet would be to make a mob farm (also called mob traps or mob spawners).
text: The general idea is to set up a dark room for mobs to spawn in, and have them funneled into an area where they are either easy to kill or die due to the environment or traps.
text: This question covers how to make mob traps, which I also linked above.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/8350/Wipqozn
score: 25
sents: text: The easiest way is to build a mob spawner and just afk overnight.
text: Otherwise yes, I wish you happy creeper hunting.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/8410/Ken
score: 5
sents: text: Assuming you don't want to build a mob farm (which is some type of a large area filled with dark bits where all monsters--including creepers--will naturally spawn and then be funneled to a central area and killed automatically)
text: you need to find a way to hunt creepers easily.
text: My method: Dig a 4x4 pit that is 2 deep.
text: Wait until night.
text: Lure creepers until they fall into the hole.
text: Carefully kill them with a sword from the edge of the hole.
text: This is dangerous, naturally, but I generally don't wear armor and don't go gunpowder-hunting with anything in my pockets that I can't afford to lose.
text: Mobs are a bit smarter now, and sometimes don't like to wander off of cliffs.
text: To encourage them to fall, you can place signs with their backs against the dirt blocks on the inside edge of the pit.
text: Creatures mistake the tops of signs for something they can walk on and fall when they attempt.
text: Many others go out hunting at night with torches, food, dogs, and the best weapons and armor they can get.
text: Many people I respect swear by using TNT to mine quickly.
text: In my experience it's more fun, but not any faster or more efficient (especially after factoring in the time and materials spent in the hunt) unless you've got a mob farm and thus a nigh infinite supply of TNT.
text: I use TNT only when I gather it incidentally, and then primarily for making large pits or flattening things.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/25080/Fnord Prefect
score: 2
sents: text: I think the easiest way is to kill time until a creeper spawns during nighttime, lure it far away from your build if you have one, and kill it as quickly as possible.
text: This is the most efficient, but also most risky way to do it.
text: Another way is to build a high darkroom, a low floor, and a tunnel between them.
text: That way, if any mob spawns, they have a chance of falling through the tunnel, dying, and giving you their drops.
text: Plus, you get other mobs' drops as a bonus.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/27009/techieboy45
score: 2
sents: text: I would advise putting up three rows of dirt blocks in front of a dark cave.
text: You can then dig the middle dirt out so when the mobs spawn there you can kill them with a bow or a sword.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/30560/Matthew
score: 2
sents: text: The quickest way to get gunpowder is to make a mob farm by making a really dark place with water going down a hole with a massive drop into lava with water underneath where you can collect the drops from the bottom.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/31428/Joe
score: 2
sents: text: What I saw from a video is that the best way to get string/arrows/bones/gunpowder is to make a mob trap.
text: To make a mob trap you need to have a sealed, very dark and very high up room with no torches and no doors and you also have to have water flowing into a hole in the middle, the hole has to be deep,
text: at the bottom you have to have a bit built out that's got lava and signs to hold the lava, once you've done that then you build a bit out and put water down so that when a mob/mobs spawn they fall down the hole and the water pushes the mob/mobs towards the lava so the mob/mobs die and the item(s)
text: get pushed towards a point ready for you to pick them up.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/37104/the awesome ninja
score: 2
sents: text: Mob farms are the best.
text: You have to make sure that no light can get into it.
text: If you want it quickly, cheat and use commands.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/37804/fionn
score: 2
sents: text: I've found a quite easy, and reliable method to hunt creepers.
text: This method will on the other hand, require a bit of luck.
text: The way I did it was to go to the nether, and mine quartz till I reached level 30 (It goes insanely fast).
text: After that I enchanted my diamond sword, and got Fortune III on it.
text: When killing creepers with this sword, you will obtain approximately 1-4 gunpowder from each creeper.
text: It is not a dangerous job to melee them with a diamond sword, because they only need 2 hits from it.
text: (Perhaps only just even 1, with sharpness).
text: Just make sure to take 'em out one at a time.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/54955/Faxu
score: 2
sents: text: If you're brave enough to go creeper hunting you will want to follow these instructions: Obtain a well built, well lit, and high up shelter.
text: The best way to get one of these shelters is to build inside a cliff about 36 blocks high.
text: It will most likely have coal and iron,two resources you will need for this to work.
text: Obtain the following: Stone swords About 15 pieces of food About 5 full stacks of dirt/cobblestone
text: And if you pick cobblestone, a iron pickaxe or 2 stone pickaxes.
text: Place in a chest and put a sign over it that says "Creeper Hunting".
text: I forgot.
text: You must have a biome with lots of water!
text: Wait in your shelter until night.
text: If your shelter is well lit as it's supposed to be, there should be NO MOBS except sheep, cows, chickens, and pigs.
text: If there ARE any.
text: Go outside and go underwater.
text: Your house SHOULD be near the edge of the water.
text: Pop up.
text: You should see at least 1 creeper.
text: Now the fun part.
text: Go under the creeper and hit it with your sword.
text: You now have gunpowder!
text: Turn it to peaceful mode and make some TNT.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/43273/Silver Dragon
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
There are several ways to get gunpowder. The easiest way is to kill time until a creeper spawns. You can also make a mob farm or hunt creepers.
There is a number of ways that seem to be successful, with more prominent the creation of mob farms and the hunting of creepers.