Can't Find Any Squid

[MrPlatypus]

I have been looking for some squid in order to obtain some ink sacs for quite a while now and have been unable to find any. Most of the water surrounding my base is swampland or in rivers. Any suggestions on how to find them?
Also, do squids only spawn when a chunk is loaded for the first time or can they respawn?

[BlackCat]

From what I've seen squid need about a 8x8x4 area of water (not source blocks just water blocks) to spawn, and can spawn in any biome except mushroom islands.

And squids will spawn and despawn similarly to hostile mobs (with different spawning restrictions)

[MrPlatypus]

From what I've seen squid need about a 8x8x4 area of water (not source blocks just water blocks) to spawn, and can spawn in any biome except mushroom islands.

And squids will spawn and despawn similarly to hostile mobs (with different spawning restrictions)

Based on that information, would you recommend building a sort of squid farm within the walls of my base? Maybe something that resembles a swimming pool of sorts. Since almost all surrounding water is relatively shallow and appears to be unable to spawn squids, they should spawn relatively frequently, right?

[BlackCat]

I'm not sure what the exact specifications are, but that should work yes.

Have vine traps or the like at the bottom and funnel them down or pave the floor with hoppers.

[Padfoote]

I have a small lake in front of my base that's one deep and I see squid spawn in it all the time. For the best results though I suggest making a pool about four by four, and as a minimum six deep. I have something of the sort in the lake (natural formation so it's a little off of those dimensions) and I manage to fill up three hoppers with ink sacs in an hour or two.

One way to kill the squids is just stick them in water that's one deep, as they start taking damage and die shortly after. Collection becomes a pain, but with enough going through the loss shouldn't matter.

[BlackCat]

Huh? Weird.

I'm not sure then, I might go do some more tests and see what the deal is but I could have sworn they wouldn't spawn in 1 deep water.

[Padfoote]

Huh? Weird.

I'm not sure then, I might go do some more tests and see what the deal is but I could have sworn they wouldn't spawn in 1 deep water.

I think they prefer water that's deeper than one, or it could be they're swimming out of that hole. Either way I find a lot of ink sacs just laying around my lake.

[FlowerChild]

I think they prefer water that's deeper than one, or it could be they're swimming out of that hole. Either way I find a lot of ink sacs just laying around my lake.

Suicidal squid beaching themselves? Awesome :)

[BlackCat]

Yeah it seems like they can't spawn in a 1 deep area, minimum is about 4x4x4.

[MrPlatypus]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll try one of these ideas out and post some pics of how it went. Hopefully we will see lots of chests full of ink sacs.

[Kazuya Mishima]

I'm getting the total opposite outcome you guys are experiencing. I live in a relatively dry plains biome next to a desert so there are not many deep, large pools anywhere. I have never had any squid spawn in any of these ponds. I have tried to increase the depth of the ponds and artificially extend them horizontally and i have constructed an 8x8x7 and it has never generated a single squid. Obviously the bulk of the volume of the pond is NOT source blocks but simply water flowing blocks that are flowing downward vertically.

If I travel far enough there is a relatively deep lake that is composed of all source blocks. This is where I get my ink sacs and plan to eventually devise some automation. It's my observation that source blocks are necessary otherwise I can't explain why my 8x8x7 isn't generating them.

[MrPlatypus]

Your situation sounds very similar to mine. So far I am not having any luck with my 5x5x20 body of water. I think I will try finding a large ocean in my world and try my luck there.

[Kazuya Mishima]

Your situation sounds very similar to mine. So far I am not having any luck with my 5x5x20 body of water. I think I will try finding a large ocean in my world and try my luck there.

Yeah you've done your due diligence with respect to depth. I want to eventually automate squid harvesting but doing so near an ocean would be problematic as your trap simply can't be that big and they have so much area to spawn in. Ultimately though I don't think we can automate with a single source block no matter how many screw pumps we use.

If you're just looking for ink then an ocean would probably be your best bet.

[Padfoote]

One piece of advice with your hunt guys: squid don't seem to like flowing water when they spawn. The pool I have that they spawn in is nothing but source blocks except for an opening on one side.

[MrPlatypus]

Is there a forum rule against indirectly asking FlowerChild whether or not he changed the code so that squids can only spawn in water source blocks? If so then never mind....

[dawnraider]

I skyblock I had a massive waterfall (no idea how deep, but about 60 blocks tall and 15 wide, maybe 10 deep), entirely of flowing water and I got 23 squids in there once. There is only one source in the area, so they did not come from there.

[MrPlatypus]

Well, that information is encouraging. Thanks for the input.

[The Lord of Brick]

Just wiki'd the spawning reqs for squids:

1 or more blocks of water, any light level, spawning block must be between level 46 and 62, inclusive

[Katalliaan]

Brick, BTW changes squid spawns - they require a larger body of water than they do in vMC.

[MrPlatypus]

Just wiki'd the spawning reqs for squids:

1 or more blocks of water, any light level, spawning block must be between level 46 and 62, inclusive

Yeah I saw that myself as well. My question was whether or not FC had changed the spawning requisites. I made my "squid farm" from approximately lvl 60 down to lvl 40 for maximum spawns. However, I haven't seen one squid. Like I said earlier, I think I will just try my luck with an ocean.

Edit: What Katalliaan said.

[Kazuya Mishima]

Version 3.90 Changed the spawning conditions of squid:

"Added spawn restrictions to squid so that they can only spawn in significant bodies of water. This can also be disabled in the config file, but otherwise, no more squid jamming up your mob traps, or finding shallow pools of water containing stranded squid!"

We know that single blocks no longer spawn squid. What we don't know are the dimensions and if they are source blocks or can be any combination of source and flowing. I still take the position that you need a considerable depth of source blocks just from my failure to get anything from my manufactured pond.

[BlackCat]

I did tests and you absolutely can use one source block, you have to extend it out though.

Dunno man, keep on trying, my squid farm works, so I'm sorry I couldn't be more help.

[FlowerChild]

I just looked over the code to verify (it's been awhile since I worked on that), and yes, non-source water is valid for squid spawning.

What my changes affect is the amount of space (in terms of water blocks) around the squid that are required for it to spawn.

[MrPlatypus]

Thank you for the confirmation FlowerChild. Expanding the water seems to be the solution to my problem.

[Kazuya Mishima]

I'm definitely getting squid now as I added an additional layer of depth and widened my artificial pond. I guess it's about 9x9x8 now, not sure which dimensional expansion pushed me past the threshold or if it was all of them. I had all but abandoned the notion of trying to automate with screw pumps. Thanks Flowerchild and Blackcat for proving you can in fact do this.