Better Phantoms

Better Phantoms removes phantoms from the Overworld and reworks them into a proper End threat, where they belong.

Phantoms no longer spawn naturally in the Overworld
Insomnia no longer causes phantom attacks
Phantoms are now part of the End ecosystem
Dragon fight waves trigger as crystals are destroyed
Final crystal destruction triggers a short frenzy phase
Post-dragon End has natural phantom spawning
Slightly reduced phantom health to keep fights threatening but not tedious
End Cities are more dangerous, with more aggressive phantom packs patrolling in 2 layers (low and high)
Phantom Membranes still drop and can repair Elytra (reduced efficiency)
Fully configurable

Details

Phantoms have always felt more annoying than interesting. This mod removes them from the Overworld entirely, so there is no more sleep-punishment phantom spam at night. Instead, they are reintroduced in the End with a clear role.

During the Ender Dragon fight, phantoms do not appear immediately. As you destroy crystals, small wave groups begin spawning above the arena, circling before committing to attacks. When the final crystal is destroyed, active fight phantoms enter a short frenzy, creating a clear late-fight pressure spike without turning the fight into chaos.

After the dragon is defeated, phantoms become a natural part of End exploration. They patrol alone or in small groups at high altitude above the islands and use a custom targeting model that looks for players exposed to open sky below them, then commit to repeated attack passes. Their horizontal aggro range is intentionally low, so player movement and positioning matter.

Near End Cities, phantoms are more aggressive and appear in packs, turning city looting into a much riskier aerial encounter. You still have a counterplay - being under solid overhead cover (blocks above you) breaks their attack path and gives you a chance to reset.

Phantoms still drop membranes, and membranes can still repair Elytra in an anvil, but at reduced efficiency. This keeps them useful without making Elytra upkeep trivial, while still giving players a more reliable way to farm them in the End.

Configurable settings (betterphantoms-common.toml)

Disable Overworld phantom spawning (disableOverworldPhantomSpawning, true/false)
Disable insomnia phantom spawning (disableInsomniaPhantomSpawning, true/false)
Enable dragon fight crystal-triggered phantom waves (enableDragonFightPhantomWaves, true/false)
Minimum phantoms per crystal wave (phantomsPerCrystalWaveMin, default 2, range 0-32)
Maximum phantoms per crystal wave (phantomsPerCrystalWaveMax, default 3, range 0-32)
Max active dragon-fight phantoms (activeFightPhantomCap, default 10, range 1-64)
Final-crystal frenzy duration in seconds (frenzyDurationSeconds, default 12, range 1-120)
Enable natural End phantom spawning after dragon defeat (enableNaturalEndSpawningAfterDragonDeath, true/false)
General End spawn weight (generalEndSpawnWeight, default 12, range 0-200)
End City spawn density multiplier (endCitySpawnDensityMultiplier, default 1.6, range 0.0-10.0)
Preferred high patrol altitude (highPatrolAltitude, default 96, range 16-320)
End City dive speed bonus (endCityDiveSpeedBonus, default 0.12, range 0.0-2.0)
End phantom health multiplier (phantomHealthMultiplier, default 0.60, range 0.5-1.0)
Dragon fight phantom health multiplier (dragonFightPhantomHealthMultiplier, default 0.40, range 0.25-1.0)
Elytra repair effectiveness from Phantom Membrane (elytraRepairEffectiveness, default 0.6, range 0.1-1.0)

Better Phantoms is designed to make phantoms feel like they belong somewhere, while making the End feel more alive and dangerous, with a consistent way to farm Phantom Membranes.

If you have suggestions, please leave a comment.

Compatibility Note: This mod has not been fully tested with mods that heavily modify the End dimension or Dragon fight. If you find compatibility issues, report them and I will look into adding support.