The Blighted Grove

# The Blighted Grove

**The Blighted Grove** adds a standalone portal fragment dimension to Hytale — a poisoned, dark biome you enter through a craftable portal key. It features inverted sinkhole terrain, toxic poison pools, 8 dead tree variants, ruined Slothian structures, 10 hostile creatures, 2 custom block types, 4 rotating weather effects, and a full 24-hour atmosphere cycle.

No dependencies. No Java plugin. Does not modify vanilla assets.

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*Beyond the portal lies a land where the earth itself weeps poison. The trees stand petrified in silent agony, their bark split by veins of creeping violet. Toxic pools fill the sinkholes where the ground has collapsed inward, glowing faintly beneath a sky that never fully brightens. The Slothians who once tended this grove are long gone — only their crumbling shrines remain, watched over by things that crawl in the fog.*

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## What This Mod Adds

### Portal Fragment Dimension
- A complete standalone dimension accessed via a craftable portal key (1x Iron Bar at an Arcanebench, 45-minute cooldown timer)
- Fully separate from the main world — no vanilla terrain is modified
- Void Invasion enabled within the dimension

### Custom Terrain
- **Inverted sinkhole landscape** — terrain dips downward into craters and depressions instead of rising into hills
- **Poison pools** — the deepest sinkholes fill with Poison_Source fluid, dealing damage on contact
- **Layered geology** — poisoned dirt surfaces give way to volcanic rock and slate in crater walls
- **Base height 110** with sinkholes carving down to Y=80, creating dramatic vertical depth

### Atmosphere & Weather
Four weather types rotate through a 24-hour cycle:
- **Gloom** — default daytime weather with muted purple skies, violet particles, and heavy fog
- **Night** — deep darkness with eerie green firefly-like particles
- **Miasma** — extreme fog (visibility ~320 blocks), the most oppressive weather state
- **Rain** — dark purple-tinted rain with reduced visibility

The sun never reaches full brightness. Even midday feels like dusk. Water is tinted deep violet (#3A0FB8).

### Flora & Trees
- **8 tree variants** using vanilla poisoned, dead, petrified, and burnt prefabs — no two areas look the same
- **Deep trees** — massive Petrified Dead trees (Stage 3 and Stage 5) spawn in the largest sinkholes
- **Ground cover** — dark mosses, withered ferns, and purple flowers carpet the poisoned soil
- **Spider webs** — fern clusters scattered across the landscape in single and double-height formations

### Ruined Structures
Seven structure types spawn across the landscape, overgrown and abandoned:
- Slothian Shrine, Well, Temple, Hunting Lodge, Merchant Stall
- Slothian L-Shaped House
- Slate Ruins (crumbling stone formations)

### Hostile Creatures
- **Daytime** (5:00–19:00): Spiders, Cave Spiders, Void Crawlers, Void Larvae, Rats
- **Nighttime** (19:00–5:00): Void Spectres, Void Eyes, Void Spawn, Bats, Brown Owls
- No peaceful wildlife — reduced spawn density (0.6) keeps encounters dangerous but not overwhelming

### Custom Blocks
- **Blighted Trunk** — dark emerald wood with purple veins, functions as normal wood (fuel, charcoal, crafting)
- **Blighted Leaves** — deep purple leaf blocks with a faint inner glow and wind animation
- Both include custom 16x16 textures and 32x32 inventory icons

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## Installation

1. Download and extract the mod folder to:
   `%APPDATA%\Hytale\UserData\Mods\The Blighted Grove\`
2. In your save's `config.json`, add:
   ```json
   "BlightedGrove:The Blighted Grove": { "Enabled": true }
   ```
3. Craft the portal key at an Arcanebench (1x Iron Bar)
4. Place the key to open the gateway

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## Compatibility

- **Standalone** — no dependencies on other mods
- **Pure asset pack** — no Java plugin required
- **Does not modify any vanilla assets** — safe to use alongside other mods
- **Requires V2 worldgen** — portal fragments auto-enable V2 for their dimension

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## Credits

Created by **LordDionysus**