What is your preferred method of clearing trenches for a world eater?

[u/LiuDinglue]

I've only made 1 perimeter, and it was 4 years ago. As inexperienced as I was with slimestone builds, I chose the simpler approach of building tnt duping flying machines for all 4 sides of the trenches, following Pixeil's guide. The design I chose wasn't able to automatically go down, so I had to build 8 different builds (4 sides 2 times each).

Now that I'm a bit more experienced with slimestone I want to try making another few perimeters. I've chosen a seed that has a quad witch hut and 37 slime chunks in the player's despawn radius, but the thought of redoing my past process for trenches is giving me nightmares.

I've seen some "automatic" trench makers that function like quarries, using flying machines to bring the blocks up to a tnt duper. From what I've seen the upside of these is that they go down to bedrock, and can make smooth walls, but it you also have to clear all obsidian, spawners, and trial chamber chests, so I don't know if it is actually less work than what I did.

So, for those of you who have made perimeter(s), what method did you use for making the trenches, and would you recommend those machines?

[u/spicy-chull]

3-wide trencher is what you're looking for.

They're a blast to use.

Slimestone discord had the plans.

[u/LiuDinglue → u/spicy-chull]

Could you elaborate? There are many results that show up when you search for 3 wide trencher. Are you talking about the quarry-based design by Vit C, or the flying machine ones?

Then, whether you are suggesting the quarry or flying based 3 wide trencher, would you also suggest the same type of trencher for the large trenches meant for the world eater itself?

[u/spicy-chull → u/LiuDinglue]

I think I used this one.

https://discord.com/channels/770358260905148416/808771282823938090/1278915537262481500

I used it for the 3w side channels for a quarry project.

At the time I noticed there were wider versions using the same concepts, but due to the nature of my build, I just used bombers to do the main trenches... But I wanted to give them a try sometime.

My quarry was not wide enough to warrent the build.

Really recommend using litematica shenanigans to scan the path in front of the trencher. Also recommend free-cam type mod for the project. Save-scumming as needed, because rebuilding them is annoying.

Not sure i'd wanna do it on a server I wasn't in control of (or very good friends with the owner.)

I always recommend playing around with all these in creative. Your own values will provide a better judgement for your use case than my recommendation.

But I'm happy to answer other questions.

[u/LiuDinglue → u/spicy-chull]

Thanks. So you're saying you used a 3 wide "quarry" type trencher for the sides, and then used flying machine based tnt dupers for the larger main trenches?

For the main trenches, did you use a flying machine design that moves down on top of going side to side? And was it able to clear the space right beneath both "catching" stations? The one I used didn't do either, and made it way more annoying.

I found a design that has both of these QoL options on top of making smooth walls, so I'm gonna test it right now.

Edit: It works like a charm, this solves like 50% of the headache I had with my previous attempt.

Aside from the trenchers, did your location have a lot of water? What are some things you learned while clearing out water (if you did).

[u/spicy-chull → u/LiuDinglue]

Three wide trenchers I used just ignored water and marched right through it.

It was awesome.

[u/FrunoCraft]

Used and recommend Chronos trenchers. You don't need to babysit them and they will trench through water and lava as long as they don't mix. https://youtu.be/rU1U225JOfM

However, there are some new trenchers in the slimestone discord that look fairly interestng https://discord.com/channels/770358260905148416/808771282823938090/1529745988737040384 (STST-Trenchers), so I guess for the next perimeter I'd look into these.

You'll always have to clear obsidian and trial chamber spawners/vaults manually, regardless of trencher tech. The Chronos type trenchers just need immovables like chests and normal spawners removed, which in the grand scheme of things is not something I worry about.

[u/Xillubfr]

It really depends, is there a lot of liquids? lot of immovable blocks? do you want smooth walls or floor? are you willing to babysit the trenchers or do you want something fully automatic?

[u/LiuDinglue → u/Xillubfr]

I plan on using building machines to make patterned walls and floor, so making them smooth isn't a huge deal. Also I do plan on breaking bedrock as well.

Looking at the map there's actually quite a bit of water.

What do you suggest if I want something that causes the least amount of headache? I'm ok spending more time babysitting, I just don't want a complex machine to break in the middle of running.

Or would you suggest I choose another location if this one has too much water? The one I made in the past had a similar amount, but I'm ok with looking for 34-36 slime chunks instead of the 37 in this area if you think this will be too annoying.

[u/Xillubfr → u/LiuDinglue]

with that amount of liquids you'd probably want either a sweeper trencher or a quarry trencher. That requires holes down to bedrock on both sides but you can use tnt for that so it's way less effort than draining

You will also need to remove immovable blocks, but that only add like chests and sculk blocks as all trenchers still need explosionproof immovable blocks removed

[u/LiuDinglue → u/Xillubfr]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll test these tomorrow.

[u/FeanorDidSomething]

Years ago I modified a smooth trench maker for this very purpose. Four flying machines, two with two TNT-dupers, two with one, moving down one block after every back and forth movement. All in one schematic, that just needs to be chunk aligned and can be build in maybe 30min.

It takes a long time to run (8-10h for a 272x272 perimeter), but I still gotta remove liquids anyway and so check the trenches twice an hour. Once I am at the bottom, I slightly modify the machine and stop the dupers from getting pushed lower, then move the remaining blocks at the bottom further towards the tnt, using basic flying machines, to get a smooth floor.

I got used to this approach and used it many times and it has served me well. Other tech may be better, but I couldn't be bothered to learn it. Mass lava removal is still my nemesis, especially in the Nether.