“Not even the sky is safe now.”

Has the sky felt a little empty whenever you fly with an elytra? This mod adds a new hostile mob that lives in the sky: the cloud rider. The cloud rider mercilessly bombards its victims with lightning bolts, posing a challenge for late-game players. Prepare yourself with fully enchanted gear...there can only be one ruler of the skies!

This mod requires GeckoLib (1.19.3 version, 1.19.4 version), and it only works with Forge. ~~Versions 1.20 and 1.20.1 are currently a work in progress.~~ Actually I dunno about that, I may not continue this project anymore, sorry.

Trailer:

All details regarding the cloud rider:

Cloud Rider

Details:

Health: 35 (17.5 hearts)

Behavior: Hostile (Overworld), Passive (End)

Damage:

White:
Uncharged: 2.5 (easy), 3 (normal), 4.5 (hard)
Charged: 15 (easy), 18 (normal), 27 (hard)
Gray:
Uncharged: 3 (easy), 4 (normal), 6 (hard)
Charged: 15 (easy), 18 (normal), 27 (hard)

Height: 1.8 blocks

Width: 0.6 blocks

Description:

A cloud rider is a ranged hostile mob that resides among the clouds in the Overworld. It attacks by rapidly bombarding its targets with lightning bolt projectiles.

Spawning:

Cloud riders naturally spawn in the Overworld from y-levels 188 to 196 at any time of the day and at any biome other than the mushroom fields. Only 3 can spawn within 128 blocks of a player. One spawning attempt is made every 20 ticks, and the attempt fails if the spawning location is obstructed by solid blocks or the player is less than 48 blocks away.

During a thunderstorm, cloud riders spawn as the stronger, gray variants.

Drops:

A cloud rider drops one cloud steed (of its respective color) and 10 experience points when killed by a player or tamed wolf. All drops float in the air.

Behavior:

Cloud riders float in the air, periodically making giggling noises. When not attacking, cloud riders fly to y-level 192 in the Overworld and y-level 100 in the End if not already there.

With a range of sight being 32 blocks, cloud riders attack players as well as anything that flies and/or has wings—which includes bees, parrots, chickens, bats, ender dragons, ghasts, and phantoms. Reaching speeds of up to 45 m/s, cloud riders close in on their targets within 16 blocks but do not back away if the targets get closer. However, cloud riders will not go any lower than y-level 112 in the Overworld and y-level 70 in the End.

When attacking, cloud riders swing their arms wildly and hurl lightning bolt projectiles at a rapid rate of four times per second. After attacking for 7 seconds, cloud riders charge for 3 seconds and release a projectile that deals massive damage. A cooldown of 1 second occurs, and then they resume attacking normally.

During a thunderstorm, a white cloud rider transforms into the gray variant, whose uncharged projectiles do 33.333% more damage. A gray cloud rider cannot naturally transform back.

When a player rides a cloud steed, cloud riders become neutral towards it.

When attacked by any mob besides other cloud riders, a cloud rider will retaliate. If it is farther than 32 blocks, it will still retaliate with a single shot.

Cloud riders are instantly vaporized by exposure to the Nether, (vanilla) lightning, and lava.

The player can mop up cloud riders with a sponge—that is, if they are not attacking the player. The sponge becomes a misty sponge (or foggy sponge if it contains a gray cloud rider), and the player can place it on the world to summon the cloud rider, which will no longer despawn. In the process, the sponge reverts back to normal.

Lightning Bolt Projectile:

Lightning bolt projectiles are projectiles fired by cloud riders and can move at 50 m/s.

For each tick, uncharged projectiles have a 1/6 chance of following the target’s current position. Charged projectiles will always home in on the target, making them practically unavoidable.

When a lightning bolt projectile hits a conductible/wet entity or block, an area of electricity is created that deals 3 damage every 0.5 seconds and slows down entity movement speed to 3 m/s (or 20 m/s if that entity is using an elytra). The area of effect cloud lasts for 3 seconds. A charged lightning bolt projectile will create an area of electricity regardless of what it hits.

Blocks that can cause an area of electricity when hit:

Any solid block in water or rain
Block of gold
Light weighted pressure plate
Block of iron
Iron door
Iron bars
Chain
Cauldron
Heavy weighted pressure plate
Hopper
Iron trapdoor
Bell
(Soul) lantern
Regular, chipped, or damaged anvil
Regular, oxidized, weathered, or exposed block of copper
Lightning rod

Entities that can cause an area of electricity when hit:

Any mob, player, or armor stand in water or rain
Any mob, player, or armor stand wearing any pieces of conductible armor, which includes the following:

Iron armor
Chainmail armor
Gold armor

Iron golem

Lightning bolt projectiles do twice the damage towards (elder) guardians, dolphins, squids, cod, pufferfish, salmon, tadpoles, tropical fish, and other cloud riders.

Advancements:

“Where Am I?” — Place a cloud rider in the end by using a misty or foggy sponge.
“Finally, a Worthy Opponent!” — Pit a cloud rider against the ender dragon. The player has to be within 80 blocks of the attacking cloud rider.

Configurations:

The config file can adjust two values:

"Cloud Rider Spawn Cap”: Maximum amount of cloud riders that can spawn per player. Default value is 3.
"Cloud Rider Is Hostile”: Whether or not cloud riders are hostile towards players. If value is set to false, then cloud riders are neutral. Default value is true.

Trivia:

It was considered whether lightning bolt projectiles could create an area of electricity upon hitting netherite armor and blocks (as they are based on the conductible gold), but this feature was deemed too unfair.
A cloud rider’s weakness to extreme heat is a reference to clouds being made of condensed droplets of water, which can vaporize when exposed to a high enough temperature. The mob’s moisture-based composition also explains its capability of being absorbed by a sponge.
The “cloud steed” a cloud rider rides on is actually not part of its body. That being said, it is unknown what the lower half of a cloud rider’s body looks like.
One possible explanation for cloud riders’ passivity towards the player in the End is that they are too distracted by either the ender dragon or the beauty of the End dimension.
The cloud rider’s ambient, hurt, and death sounds were originally placeholder sounds, but they were kept regardless.

Cloud Steed

Details:

Rarity color: Uncommon

Stackable: No

Renewable: Yes

Height: 0.5625 blocks

Width: 1.5 blocks

Flammable: Yes

Description:

A cloud steed is a vehicle entity used for aerial transportation of players.

Obtaining:

A cloud steed is dropped if a cloud rider is killed by a player or tamed wolf or if cloud steed is destroyed.

Without a passenger, a cloud steed can be destroyed by any source of damage. If the steed has a passenger, it does not take any damage but instead transfers the damage to that passenger.

However, certain sources of damage can vaporize a cloud steed regardless if it has a passenger: exposure to the Nether, lightning bolt projectiles, lava, as well as (vanilla) lightning bolts that are not its own.

In item form, cloud steeds are immune to fire and lightning, and they float when dropped by cloud riders and cloud steeds. However, they obey gravity when tossed by players (i.e. pressing Q).

Usage:

Cloud steeds can be used for transportation of players. Cloud riders become neutral towards players riding cloud steeds. A gray cloud steed can be used to attack enemy mobs by striking lightning on them.

A cloud steed floats in the direction its controlling passenger is looking (i.e. when the passenger is pressing the W key). It can go forward, backward, or sideways. If the passenger holds the Space bar, the steed’s vertical movement is cancelled, easing control of horizontal movement.

By simply right-clicking with the item form in hand, a cloud steed is placed at the level of the player’s feet. If the player is flying with an elytra, the player automatically rides the steed.

Behavior:

Cloud steeds can move up to 20 m/s. They can support only one rider at a time. If being ridden, gray variants strike lightning on enemy mobs that are directly below and are on the ground or in water.

The player should beware of using a gray cloud steed because it can cause fires, which is destructive towards trees and wooden structures. However, villagers are unaffected by lightning released from a gray cloud steed (but are still affected by the resulting fire damage).

Cloud steeds can be shot out of dispensers.

Trivia:

Don’t log off while standing on a cloud steed. When you log back in, you’ll find your player avatar falling through it (as the vehicle will not have loaded yet), which can be dangerous if your cloud steed was over lava or the void. This behavior is normal because it also happens with boats. Therefore, make sure you are riding the steed before logging off.

Give this mod a try! Let me know in the comments if you've enjoyed fighting this cloudy fiend!