Excavator

The printer's opposite: it breaks the blocks near you that a build wants gone, with the fastest tool you carry.

Where a build wants air, or another block, the excavator breaks what stands there, around you and on its own. It is the printer's opposite: it digs from the top down with the fastest tool you carry, and uses the printer's speed and reach.

The excavator breaks blocks for you. Many servers count that as cheating. Check the rules of the server before you use it. It is off by default.

Turn it on #

In the Building tab of the Settings, under Excavator (automation), turn on Excavator.
Or give Toggle Excavator a key in the game's Controls screen. It has none by default, so a stray press cannot start it. Pressing it shows Excavator ON or Excavator OFF.

What it leaves #

It never breaks:

The block you stand on, land on or step onto.
A block next to lava, or one water would run into.
A block that holds up sand, gravel or another block that stays.
A chest or other container with items in it. That is left to you.
Ores, with Leave ores on, the default, so you can mine them yourself with Fortune.
Spawners, budding amethyst, vaults, suspicious sand and gravel, infested blocks, eggs and bee nests, with Leave blocks you can't get back on, the default.
Ice that needs Silk Touch, and blocks that need a tool you do not carry.

Above the hotbar it says what it left and why, for example Excavator left 3 ores.

Water and lava #

Water and lava the build wants gone are cleared too:

Empty buckets you carry take what they can clear for good: a small pocket, the edge of one, and any lava.
With Soak up water with sponges on, a dry sponge you carry goes into the water and takes many blocks of it at once, then the wet sponge is broken. Never where water the build wants, a waterlogged block or water outside the build is in the sponge's reach. Dry the wet sponges in a furnace.
With Fill liquids with junk blocks on, the water or lava is filled with a block you carry and have plenty of, such as cobblestone or dirt, and broken out again once nothing flows back. Junk blocks says which.

When none of these can clear it, it says so: carry empty buckets, or turn on sponges or junk blocks.

Settings #

Excavator default Off: Turns it on.
Leave ores default On: Leaves ores for you to mine.
Leave blocks you can't get back default On: Leaves spawners, budding amethyst, vaults and the like.
Soak up water with sponges default Off: Clears water with dry sponges you carry.
Fill liquids with junk blocks default Off: Fills water and lava with junk blocks, then breaks them.
Junk blocks default Cobblestone, cobbled deepslate, dirt, netherrack, stone: What it fills liquids with. The first one you carry is used.

On servers #

A server with VoxelSprout Policy can turn the excavator off. The status panel then says Excavator: off on server. See The printer on different servers.

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