Spawn proofing may seem like a difficult task to some, but it is an essential skill for any new or old Minecraft player. 

Hostile mobs will spawn in and around your builds if there is not a high enough light level or if it is nighttime, meaning there is potential for creepers to appear and explode right in the middle of a newly-finished pyramid, or an armor-clad zombie to sabotage your 100 glittering XP levels you've carefully fished up.

This can all be prevented if you just take the time to implement simple spawn-proofing measures, which can take hardly any time at all!

If you've read the chapter on surviving your first night, you already know two of these numerous beginner-level and advanced-level techniques. 

There are thousands of build ideas and awesome hubs and bases and farms for you to construct, but right when you have that annoying villager trapped in his farm, the baby zombie has to appear in a dark corner, and there go hours of work.

Fortunately, some easy and ingenious ideas can make any dim project so much easier. Here are the basics, and comment down below any additional scenarios that haven't been listed. 

1) Light blocks:

Torches, glowstone, redstone lamps, enchanting tables, glow lichen, sea lamps, end rods, campfires, shroomlight and so many more obvious or surprising and basic blocks will give off just enough light to add a mystical and safe feel to your house. 

Each light block has a corresponding light level. Each surrounding block is one light level less than that main block consequently. 

If you placed a torch in the center of a dark room because the torch has a light level of 14, the immediate blocks horizontally and vertically surrounding the torch would have a light level of 13, the second block to the right is 12, then 11 and so on and so on. As of 1.18 mobs will spawn in a light level of 0 and below. Here's a list of the light blocks from brightest to dimmest: 

Light Level 15/Max Light Level: Beacon, Campfire when lit, Cauldron containing lava, Conduit, End Gateway, End Portal, Fire, Glowstone, Jack o'lantern, Lava, Lantern, Redstone Lamp when lit, Respawn Anchor fully charged, Sea Lantern, Sea Pickle x4 when in water, Shroomlight.

Light Level 14: Torch, Underwater Torch (Bedrock edition only), Glow Berry on vines, End Rod. 

Light Level 13: Blast Furnace when lit, Furnace when lit, Smoker when lit.

Light Level 12: Candle x4 when lit, Sea Pickle x3 when in water.

Light Level 10: Soul Campfire, Soul Lantern, Soul Fire, Soul Torch.

And so on and so on can be found on the Minecraft Fandom Wiki under Light. 

2) Slab and Stairs Trick

Mobs cannot spawn on bottom half slabs and right-side-up stair blocks. This will not work on top half-slans or upside-down stairs, where mobs will still spawn.

3) The Dirt Path

A yellow-colored dirt bath can be made by right-clicking a dirt block with a shovel. Mobs cannot spawn on paths because they are only 15 16ths of a block's normal high. 

4) The Transperent Technique

Blocks such as glass and leaves, which are transparent, are unable to spawn mobs when placed as a floor for your builds. One important exception is scaffolding, which is still spawnable.

5) Carpet Cover

Yep, that's right, mobs cannot spawn in a completely dark room if it's carpeted. It doesn't make sense, but it's an amazing tool to exploit. 

6) Fluids

Any hostile land mob excepting drowned, guardians, and striders will be unable to spawn in/or water and lava fluid blocks. 

7) Bunches of Buttons

Any mob entity, hostile or peaceful, cannot spawn onto a block that has a button placed facing upwards on it. This can be useful for creating nicer-looking but effective spawn proofing along paths or narrow walkways.

8) Capping it Off

For advanced players, you can use the code for mob capping to your advantage. There is a limit of 70 mobs per chunk loaded and spawned at a time per player, meaning a multiplayer world with 100 players would have thousands of mobs able to be loaded at once. This can be exploited for single and multiplayer servers. 

This rule is put in place to stop your world from overflowing with mobs, though it does not affect nametagged mobs which do not count towards the mob cap and do not despawn, withers, shulkers. 

"Therefore if you put more than the mob cap of either of these mobs in the spawn chunks, which are constantly loaded, you prevent mobs from spawning in the world. If those mobs are put on the edges of the spawn chunks, you can move them in and out of the chunk using mine carts, turning it on or off.

Another alternative to the spawn chunks is loading the area with nether portals. This is useful because it allows you to locate the mob switch anywhere in the world." - this excerpt is taken from the Minecraft Wiki under Tutorials/Spawn-proofing

Make sure to spawn proof your base, or you may just have a sticky situation - or should I say explosive, when you're not expecting it!