Adaptive Mobs

Adaptive Mobs is a behavioral AI mod for Minecraft Fabric that makes hostile mobs learn and adapt to your combat style. Instead of buffing stats, mobs change their tactics based on how you fight, making combat feel fresh and challenging without being unfair.

The goal is emergent, dynamic gameplay where mobs feel intelligent. If you always use a shield, zombies will learn to strafe around it. If you kite with a bow, skeletons will close the distance faster. Every player gets a unique combat experience based on their habits.

Key Features

• Combat pattern tracking - The mod monitors your melee vs ranged ratio, shield usage, jump-crit frequency, movement patterns, weapon preferences, and environmental kills.
• Per-player profiles - Each player has their own combat profile that persists across sessions. Mobs adapt to YOU specifically.
• Rolling behavior decay - Old habits are gradually forgotten, so changing your playstyle will eventually reset mob adaptations.
• Subtle behavioral changes - Mobs adjust timing, movement, and target selection—NOT damage or health.
• 12 adaptive mob types - Zombie, Skeleton, Creeper, Spider, Enderman, Witch, Pillager, Vindicator, Blaze, Ghast, Phantom, and Guardian.
• Pack tactics - Mobs coordinate in groups, assigning roles like Tank, Flanker, Distractor, and Support based on your combat style.
• Location-based difficulty - Mobs adapt more intensely based on depth, dimension, biome, distance from spawn, time of day, and moon phase.
• Visual/audio feedback - See and hear when mobs adapt with vanilla particles and sounds.
• Player commands - View your combat profile, stats, and control mod behavior in-game.
• Multiplayer-safe - Profiles are per-player, so mob adaptations work correctly on servers.
• Fully configurable - Enable/disable per mob type, adjust adaptation strength, learning speed, difficulty scaling, and more.

How It Works

Combat Pattern Tracking

The mod tracks several aspects of how you fight:

Player Combat Profiles

Each player maintains a rolling profile of their last 100 combat actions. The profile includes:

• Action weights - How frequently each combat action is used
• Calculated ratios - Melee/ranged preference, shield reliance, etc.
• Movement pattern - Dominant movement style (aggressive, kiting, circle-strafe)

Profiles persist between sessions and gradually decay over time, allowing adaptations to reset if you change your playstyle.

Adaptation Thresholds

Mobs only adapt when your behavior exceeds certain thresholds:

Mob-Specific Adaptations

Zombies

Skeletons

Creepers

Spiders

Endermen

Witches

Pillagers

Vindicators

Blazes

Ghasts

Phantoms

Guardians

Balance Philosophy

The mod follows strict balance rules:

• No stat changes - Mobs never gain extra damage, health, or armor
• Behavioral only - All adaptations are movement, timing, or target selection changes
• Subtle adjustments - Speed increases are capped at 10-20% maximum
• Reversible - Changing your playstyle will gradually reset adaptations
• Explainable - Every adaptation has a clear cause-and-effect relationship

Pack Tactics

When multiple mobs are near a player, they can coordinate their attacks through the Pack Tactics system. Mobs are assigned roles based on your combat profile:

Pack tactics activate when 3+ hostile mobs are within 16 blocks of a player. The coordination radius and minimum mob count are configurable.

Player Commands

The mod provides several commands for players:

All commands require no permissions for players. Operators can use /am reset <player> to reset another player's profile.

Visual & Audio Feedback

When mobs adapt to your combat style, you'll see and hear it:

Visual Feedback (Particles)

Audio Feedback (Sounds)

Feedback can be disabled in the config if you prefer a more subtle experience.

Location-Based Difficulty Scaling

Mobs adapt more intensely based on where you are:

All scaling factors are configurable and can be disabled independently.

Configuration

Config file location: .minecraft/config/adaptive-mobs.json

The config file is created automatically on first launch:

{
  "enabled": true,
  "zombieAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "skeletonAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "creeperAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "spiderAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "endermanAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "witchAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "pillagerAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "vindicatorAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "blazeAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "ghastAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "phantomAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "guardianAdaptationEnabled": true,
  "adaptationStrength": 1.0,
  "learningSpeed": 0.1,
  "decayRate": 0.005,
  "profileHistorySize": 100,
  "minActionsForAdaptation": 10,
  "meleeThreshold": 0.6,
  "rangedThreshold": 0.6,
  "shieldThreshold": 0.4,
  "jumpCritThreshold": 0.3,
  "environmentalKillThreshold": 0.2,
  "maxAdaptationLevel": 3,
  "adaptationCooldownTicks": 100,
  "packTacticsEnabled": true,
  "packTacticsMinMobs": 3,
  "packTacticsRadius": 16.0,
  "visualFeedbackEnabled": true,
  "audioFeedbackEnabled": true,
  "depthScalingEnabled": true,
  "dimensionScalingEnabled": true,
  "biomeScalingEnabled": true,
  "distanceScalingEnabled": true,
  "timeScalingEnabled": true,
  "moonPhaseScalingEnabled": true
}

Config Options Explained

Mob Toggles

Core Settings

Thresholds

Pack Tactics

Feedback

Location Scaling

Multiplayer Compatibility

This mod is server-side but works on both singleplayer and multiplayer:

• Works on singleplayer
• Works on dedicated servers (requires mod on server)
• Works on LAN worlds
• Per-player profiles maintained separately
• Mobs adapt to whoever they're targeting
• Does NOT work client-only (requires server installation)

Player combat profiles are stored server-side and persist between sessions.

Technical Details

Tracked Combat Actions

• MELEE_ATTACK - Sword, axe, or unarmed attack
• RANGED_ATTACK - Bow, crossbow, or trident throw
• SHIELD_BLOCK - Successful shield block
• JUMP_CRIT - Critical hit while falling
• ENVIRONMENTAL_KILL - Mob death from fall, lava, fire, drown, cactus
• STRAFE_LEFT / STRAFE_RIGHT - Lateral movement during combat
• BACK_PEDAL - Moving backward while fighting
• RUSH_FORWARD - Moving toward target aggressively
• CIRCLE_STRAFE - Circular movement pattern
• HIT_AND_RUN - Attack followed by retreat

Advanced Combat Analysis

The mod also tracks more nuanced combat behaviors:

Movement Pattern Detection

The mod analyzes your recent combat movements to identify patterns:

Installation

1. Install Fabric Loader (0.15.6 or newer) for Minecraft 1.20.1.
2. Install Fabric API (0.92.0+1.20.1 or newer).
3. Download the mod JAR file.
4. Place the JAR into your .minecraft/mods folder (or server mods folder).
5. Launch Minecraft with the Fabric profile.

Building from Source

Clone the repository and run the Gradle build:

git clone https://github.com/AaravVishal1/Adaptive-Mobs
cd adaptive-mobs
./gradlew build

The compiled JAR will be in build/libs/.

For development, you can run the client directly:

./gradlew runClient

Or run a dedicated server:

./gradlew runServer

Requirements

Troubleshooting

Mobs aren't adapting

1. Make sure the mod is enabled in the config (enabled: true).
2. Check that the specific mob type is enabled (e.g., zombieAdaptationEnabled: true).
3. Verify you have enough combat actions recorded (minActionsForAdaptation default is 10).
4. Check your combat ratios meet the thresholds (e.g., 60% melee for melee adaptations).
5. Use /am stats to view your current combat profile and verify actions are being tracked.

Adaptations feel too strong

• Reduce adaptationStrength in the config (e.g., 0.5 for half intensity).
• Increase decayRate for faster forgetting of old patterns.
• Disable location scaling options (depthScalingEnabled, dimensionScalingEnabled, etc.).

Adaptations aren't resetting

• Increase decayRate for faster behavior decay.
• Reduce profileHistorySize for shorter memory.
• Use /am reset to manually clear your combat profile.
• Change your combat style consistently for several minutes.

Pack tactics too difficult

• Set packTacticsEnabled to false to disable group coordination.
• Increase packTacticsMinMobs to require more mobs for coordination.
• Reduce packTacticsRadius to limit coordination range.

Too many particles/sounds

• Set visualFeedbackEnabled to false to disable particles.
• Set audioFeedbackEnabled to false to disable sounds.

Performance issues

• Increase adaptationCooldownTicks to reduce how often mobs check for adaptations.
• Disable adaptations for mob types you don't want (set *AdaptationEnabled to false).
• Disable pack tactics if you have many mobs (set packTacticsEnabled to false).
• Disable location scaling for small performance gains.

Data Storage

Player combat profiles are stored in:

• Config: .minecraft/config/adaptive-mobs.json
• Profiles: .minecraft/config/adaptive-mobs-profiles.json

Profiles are saved when players disconnect and when the server stops.