While the planning and gathering of materials took seven years of in-game play time, the actual building of the gold farm took around eight months of non-stop building. ElRichMC claims to have placed – by hand – more than 100,000 wither skeleton skulls, and says the gold farm has the largest density of portals ever created, yielding 1,000 gold blocks per hour.
ElRichMC started playing Minecraft in 2011 when the official release hadn’t even launched yet. He started making YouTube content in 2012, introducing the Spanish-speaking community to the concept of technical Minecraft pioneered by EthosLab. His personal Minecraft world turned 9 years old this year, and he’s logged about 11,000 hours in it.
We were lucky enough to get to ask him a few questions about this ambitious project.
What was the inspiration behind the build?
“Organic builds in Minecraft are amongst the most difficult to get right. My world was missing one of these. I’ve made industrial looking areas, terraforming, and even cozy Nordic huts, but nothing alive. Furthermore, I love mimics in videogames. If your title has a nice mimic in it, it’s an instant buy for me. When I thought about a mimic gold farm, I knew I had a winning design.”
What’s your favorite part about this build?
“I’m pretty proud of how expressive the monster is. Stare him in the eye for just one second and you will sense its vicious, hostile and nearly uncontrollable nature. Good thing it’s sealed within some magical golden chains…”
Did you encounter any challenges while working on this project?
“The biggest challenge was burnout. Not only is the build composed of more than 600,000 blocks, but I also had to gather huge amounts of hard-to-get resources. I built two other smaller gold farms, and to get the 100,000 Wither Skeleton Skulls needed I manually mined several million Netherrack blocks around a Nether Fortress.”
What was your goal in creating this build?
"Enchanted Apples were my objective since the beginning. I wanted to have more than anyone else and feed on them from now on. There’s still much more to come in the series, and I’ll be enjoying these golden, healthy fruits while I build new projects. As a side result, I’m happy to have an opportunity to surprise technical players with quite the complex machine, and casual players with a big and showy build.”
Any other fun facts you’d like to share?
"Not long after finishing the gold farm, a huge thunderstorm started in the world. I took lots and lots of pictures, as the scenery was just perfect for such an ominous build. So lucky! Also, there was a critical moment when 12,000 Zombie Pigmen got stuck. That was funny! But I guess my PC doesn’t agree...”
What’s next for you?
"I’m already at work in the Fan’s Mausoleum. This is a purely architectonic build that I started years ago. It serves to celebrate the members of my community who follow the series. Each day I’m getting closer to finishing it, but there are still many rooms, adventures and good moments waiting ahead. I’m going slow and steady, but I’m confident I’m not far from completing this iconic place.”
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