Moonblight

The moon decides what comes for you tonight.

Mobs get levels, so the next zombie you meet might be a pushover, or a monster with fifty hearts. And when the moon is full or new, stranger things start to spawn: giant zombies, floating swords you can't see the body of, and undead riders charging at you on horseback.

You need LuaCord. This plugin is written in Lua, and LuaCord is the plugin that lets Lua plugins run on your server. Install LuaCord first, then add this one.

What changes after dark

Picture a normal night. Zombies, skeletons, spiders and creepers come out of the dark like always, except every one of them has a level from 1 to 5. Most are plain level 1s. Some are level 3, with iron armor and a colored name. And now and then you meet a level 5: netherite armor, five times the health, fifty hearts.

Now add the moon.

• Full moon: some zombies grow into giants, four times bigger.
• New moon: some spawns turn into shadow blades: you can't see the mob, only a sword floating through the dark, straight at you.
• Both nights: undead riders show up on zombie and skeleton horses, and a few horses wander in with no rider.

Every chance and number can be changed in the config.

Leveled mobs

When a mob spawns on its own, its level is rolled. Most are level 1, and legendary ones are rare.

• Level 1, Common (60 out of every 100 mobs): normal health, no gear added.
• Level 2, Uncommon (25 out of 100): 1.5 times the health, chainmail armor and a stone sword.
• Level 3, Rare (10 out of 100): double the health, iron armor and an iron sword.
• Level 4, Epic (4 out of 100): triple the health, enchanted diamond armor and sword.
• Level 5, Legendary (1 out of 100): five times the health, strongly enchanted netherite armor and sword.

A normal zombie has 10 hearts, so a level 5 zombie has 50.

These mobs get levels: zombie, husk, drowned, skeleton, stray, spider, cave spider and creeper. Each has its own twist:

• Skeletons and strays carry enchanted bows. From level 2 they hit harder, from level 4 their arrows set you on fire, and at level 5 they knock you back.
• Drowned at level 2 and up pick up a trident that gets stronger with each level.
• Creepers can be charged (the big blast). It's a 1 in 4 chance at level 3, 1 in 2 at level 4, and always at level 5.
• Spiders and cave spiders at level 3 and up can drop a cobweb on your feet when they hit you. It melts away after a few seconds.

From level 3, a mob shows a colored name above its head, like Rare Zombie [Lv3], so you know what you're about to fight. Higher levels also give more XP, and sometimes drop a bonus item such as a gold ingot, a diamond or a netherite scrap. Their armor and weapons do not drop by default, so nobody farms free netherite.

Full moon: giant zombies

On a full moon night, about 3 out of every 100 zombies that spawn grow into a giant.

A giant is a normal zombie made four times bigger. It is always level 3, 4 or 5, which means 30 to 50 hearts and hits that hurt, and it wears armor to match. It still moves and fights like a zombie, just much bigger. No more than 3 giants can be alive in a world at once.

New moon: shadow blades

On a new moon night, about 6 out of every 100 spawns are swapped for a shadow blade.

A shadow blade is an invisible vex (the small flying mob from woodland mansions) holding a sword. You can't see its body, only a blade floating through the dark, coming for you. The sword tells you how strong it is: wooden for level 1, up to netherite for level 5. Vexes can pass through walls, so a blade can come at you from anywhere.

Players within 32 blocks get a short darkness effect and hear a cave sound when one appears. A blade has a small chance to drop an Echo Shard. Up to 8 can be alive in a world at once.

Moon nights: riders and loose horses

On both full moon and new moon nights:

• About 1 in 10 zombies and skeletons spawn riding a horse: a zombie horse for zombies, a skeleton horse for skeletons. The horse gets the rider's level, so higher levels mean a faster, tougher horse that jumps higher. If the rider dies, the horse disappears too. Up to 6 of these horses can exist in a world.
• About 4 in 100 zombie and skeleton spawns also bring a horse with no rider. Up to 4 of these can exist in a world.

Normal nights have neither, unless you change that in the config.

How it works

• The plugin watches the mobs the game spawns on its own, the moment they appear.
• For each one, it rolls a level using the odds above, then sets its health, armor, weapon and name.
• Then it checks the moon. The game counts days, and every 8th day is a full moon, with the new moon halfway between. If it is night in the overworld and the moon matches, the mob may be turned into a giant, swapped for a shadow blade, or given a horse, using the chances above.
• A giant is a normal zombie made bigger. A shadow blade is a vex made invisible with a sword in its hand. A rider's horse is created a moment after the rider, and then the rider climbs on.
• A small timer runs once a second to show the dusk title, remove old cobwebs, and keep count of the special mobs so the limits are respected.
• Everything is remembered on the mob itself, so a giant is still a giant after a restart.

When do the moons come?

A full moon comes every 8 Minecraft days, which is about 2 hours and 40 minutes of real time, and the new moon arrives exactly halfway between. The special mobs only appear at night in the overworld, and a title appears at dusk to warn everyone ("The Full Moon rises").

If everyone sleeps through the night, the night is skipped and so are its mobs. If you change the time with commands, the moon may jump to a different phase.

Why am I not seeing anything?

The special mobs are rare on purpose, and they only come from natural spawns: the mobs the game spawns on its own.

To see everything quickly, use the test commands below. For example, /moonblight spawn giant 5 puts a level 5 giant right in front of you, no waiting for the moon. Or turn the chances up in the config, for example chance: 0.5.

Install

1. Install LuaCord and start the server once.
2. Put this plugin's file in your plugins folder.
3. Restart the server. You should see [Moonblight] Enabled. in the console.

Commands

You need the permission moonblight.admin, which ops have by default. Tab completion works.

• /moonblight status shows the moon phase, which event is active, and how many special mobs are alive.
• /moonblight phase 0 forces a full moon, /moonblight phase 4 forces a new moon, and /moonblight phase auto goes back to normal.
• /moonblight spawn <type> [level] spawns a mob at the level you pick. Types: giant, blade, rider, zombie, husk, drowned, skeleton, stray, spider, cave_spider, creeper, zombie_horse, skeleton_horse.

Settings

Everything is in plugins/Moonblight/config.yml. It's split into sections (moon events, levels, gear, giants, shadow blades, horses, spiders and creepers), with a short note wherever a setting needs one. Restart the server after editing.

A few useful changes:

giant:
  enabled: false        # turn giants off completely
  chance: 0.03          # 0.03 means 3 in 100 zombies; 0 means never

blade:
  chance: 0.06          # how often a new moon spawn becomes a shadow blade

cavalry:
  moon_nights_only: false   # riders can appear on any night

gear:
  drop_chance: 0.0      # raise it if you want mobs to drop their armor and weapons

messages:
  notify_ops: true      # ops see startup notices in chat; set false to turn that off

Chances run from 0 (never) to 1 (always). The numbers that ship with the plugin are starting points, so change them until the nights feel right for your server.

Good to know

• Only natural spawns are affected. Mobs from spawners, spawn eggs, commands and other plugins stay as they are.
• The limits (like 3 giants) count per world, not per player.