Minecraft: Build an Automatic Turtle Farm – Scutes for Helmets and Potions

Turtles are a wonderful addition to your Minecraft world. Just like in the real world, they are fascinating creatures that can primarily be found on beaches. On land, they are slow, but in water, they move really fast! You can breed them and let them live their peaceful lives, but they also drop important items that might be useful to you. Today, we will take a closer look at these mechanics.

Minecraft Turtles: Everything You Need to Know

Unlike other mobs, turtles have different mechanics that we want to explain to you first. If you understand these, you can use them for an automatic farm.

Finding Turtles in Minecraft: Best Biomes and Tips

You can find turtles in beach biomes. Excluded from this are the cold biomes and stony beaches, as turtles prefer sandy environments. The green animals are not that hard to find if you are looking for them. They usually gather in larger groups on the beach and rarely leave a certain radius around it. If you encounter a group of turtles, some of them will be small baby turtles.

To get small turtles yourself, you can feed two adults with seagrass and breed them like all other animals. Simply use shears underwater and collect enough seagrass. Unlike regular mobs, turtles must lay eggs and hatch them. It is important that they stay at their home beach because they will only lay and hatch eggs there. However, you can break and transport the eggs with “Silk Touch”. The turtle’s home is where it is born (or where it spawns when the world loads).

Note: Turtle eggs are very fragile, so don’t jump on them, or they will break. All undead mobs, especially zombies, specifically seek out the eggs to destroy them.

What Items Do Turtles Drop in Minecraft?

Another very interesting mechanic is the growth of turtles. Just like in real life, they need to adjust to their shells and shed them when they are too small. This also works in Minecraft! When a baby turtle grows, it drops a turtle scute. And this is the item we need!

With five scutes, you can craft the unique item, the turtle shell. This is a replacement for your helmet and perfect for underwater work. It gives you the “Water Breathing” effect, allowing you to hold your breath for 10 seconds longer. Additionally, you see much better underwater with it. Regular enchantments and armor trims work as usual.

With the turtle shell, you can also brew a cool potion called “Potion of the Turtle Master”. This potion makes you 15% slower but reduces damage by a whole 20%. The stronger the potion, the more extreme the effects.

Other drops when a turtle dies include seagrass and bowls. But you can neglect these as you will find seagrass much faster in the ocean.

How to Build an Automatic Turtle Farm in Minecraft: Step-by-Step

There are various designs for an automatic turtle farm, but we’ll look at one that works flawlessly! It’s important that your turtles want to breed at the location of your farm; otherwise, it won’t work. As mentioned earlier, turtles only lay their eggs where their home is. So, break the appropriate eggs with “Silk Touch” and bring them to the location of your farm. You can then breed the turtles with seagrass so that you have 6-8 animals.

Building Materials

• Building blocks
• Sand
• Hopper + Chest
• Fence
• Turtles (+ Eggs)
• Chains
• Light source

Building a Minecraft Turtle Farm: Detailed Instructions

First, find a suitable beach for your farm. It should also be the turtles’ home, so it doesn’t hurt to hatch and breed them there first. Then, dig a hole measuring 9x9 and 3 blocks deep.

In the center of the hole, create a small shaft that is also 3 blocks deep. Then, dig a small passage with stairs outside the farm. At the bottom of the hole in the center, place the hopper and the chest. If sand falls on your head, don’t worry; just replace the blocks with your building blocks.

Next, we build the bottom layer of the farm. Place a 4x4 field of building blocks with one block of space between each. When the baby turtles grow, they will suffocate here. Place a water bucket in each corner, which will direct the items to the hopper in the center.

One level above, we add a temporary layer of building blocks. Then, place stone blocks in a checkerboard pattern on top. In the free spaces, place chains that must all stand vertically. These suggest a path to the baby turtles, but they still fall down due to their size. We need to remove the blocks under the chains to create these holes.

The farm itself is basically done! Surround it with blocks of your choice; we chose fences. In the middle above the farm, place a light source to prevent monsters from spawning and breaking the eggs or attacking the babies.

Finally, you need to fill your farm with turtles. Use the ones you bred nearby. Help either with eggs you’ve collected yourself or seagrass to get the farm started. It may take a while since the eggs hatch primarily at night, but soon you should have a collection of seagrass and scutes!

Conclusion: Why a Turtle Farm in Minecraft is Essential

Turtles are truly fascinating creatures that bring many unique mechanics with them in Minecraft. They lay eggs that need to be hatched. And when the turtles grow, they drop valuable items! Use these for a helmet to breathe and see better underwater. Secure valuable turtle scutes for maximum protection on your own server. Rent your Minecraft server and build a sustainable turtle farm! Our showcased farm is easy to build, and if you understand the mechanics behind the creatures, it should be no problem for you.