Desertification title text

Thanks for 30k downloads !! The new (Neo)Forge versions now requires Kotlin For Forge

Adds an "infectious" desert to your world. I had this idea for quite a while (before the infection mod trend) and finally did it. I took desertification as an inspiration (if the name wasn't clear enough).

This desert can also partially cleanse some infections. I made this feature compatible with Fungal Infection: Spore and Sculk Horde among others This is also the first mod that I publish. Also note that it is just a personal project of mine, nothing too big. While being pretty stable, this mod is still in Beta; do not use it on worlds you value without backups.

The spread will not occur automatically (can be configured); you can either start it by breaking the hourglass structure found in the desert (or the cursed crystal structure found plain and forest biomes) or by giving yourself a Desert Sand block from your creative inventory and placing a few of them.

I made the mod so, contrary to most infection mods, you can live and thrive in the desert if you want (with some precautions, of course)

A desert at sunrise

About the (Neo)Forge version

The (Neo)Forge version use Sinytra Connector to run the fabric version on Forge. It is currently (September 2025) the only versions of my mod that can interact with other infection mods

This version also requires Kotlin For Forge

Since the page is pretty long here is a list of the following sections in order :

Videos
Features and blocks
- Mechanics
- Blocks
- Items
- Entities
- Nameless Altar
- Enchantments
Customization through datapacks
Compatibilities (and troubleshooting)
Tips
Details
Permissions
Credits and more

▶️ Videos

Here are some videos made by content creators on my mod, they may of course not be fully up to date.

Desertification FULL Showcase! - By Karat Feng

Version 0.37, before the hypercharged and hellbound sand roses

Notes :

The wand of grass consume saplings from the inventory
The enchanted cone can also be used to brew resistance potions
The vitalizer will also check nearby blocks randomly, so it should catch the desert before it can reach it
The glass shards effect does more damage if the entity is moving/spriting
I will probably reduce the barrel cactus’s hitbox
I was able to reproduce the abundance ritual crash and will release a patched version (0.37.1) to fix it
I was not able to reproduce the Nameless Construct/Pillager crash

This Mod Will Turn your world into the driest desert! - By Karat Feng

Version 0.36.1

Notes :

This is not a full review of the mod
The lag is mainly caused by the increased random tick speed

Minecraft but it's North Africa Desertification - By SoupMaster

Version : 0.28, before the sandstorm, altar and nameless constructs

Notes :

A problem with the sandblaster recipe was encountered in this video, it has been fixed
The recipes for the jam and guertoufa infusion looked buggy, it has been fixed on (Neo)Forge (on Fabric you can craft them too but the water bottle will be replaced by a uncraftable potion, but you can use a water bottle)
The barrel cactus fruits grows on barrel cactus given enough time
Sand roses can be obtained by breaking an overcharged sand rose without silk touch (or by scavenging suspicious sand left behind by a sandstorm, but they didn't exist back then)
Jujubiers grown from saplings should normally be able to grow fruits (given some time) too
Player variant of sandy diamond blocks (used in recipes) can also be crafted with 1 diamond, 1 amethyst block and 2 weathered sandstone

Minecraft Mod Review: Desertification - By TheOneBeyond

Version : 0.32, before the nameless construct

Notes :

You need 2 layers of clay at the bottom of the lake to make an oasis
The rituals plans are either dropped from husks in the desert or sometimes are inside suspicious sand left behind by wind gusts
The salt pond is a bit annoying because you have to make sure the salt block it will propagate to is surrounded by blocks
The scorpion attacks Alex’s mobs and Born In Chaos’s flies
You can make echo shard by sandblasting a shrieker
Since I added a new mob in 0.33, some recipes have changed

ℹ️ Features and blocks

This list may not be completely exhaustive. Some behavior can be configured from the mod's config screen (requires MidnightLib; the config screen has 3 tabs). The biome change is disabled by default

<details open=""> <summary>Click to expand</summary>

Mechanics

Oasis: created by having water on top of 2 layers clay blocks (the bottom clay layer can be terracotta); prevents the blocks next to it from drying, needs to be at least 4 blocks in surface (and no deeper than 3 blocks)

Cleansing: as said above, this mod can partially cleanse other mod's infections. Mainly the block infection

Biome change (disabled by default) : if enabled, the desertification will change the current biome to a desert, it will be reverted when there is no longer desert sand around

Generated desert sand in desert biomes (disabled by default) : if this config is enabled, lumps of desert sand will be generated in deserts, making the infection start automatically.

Long-distance desert random tick (can be disabled) : the desert will force-load up to 2 chunks per world and random tick them to allow itself to advance towards the nearest player to a desert, even if they are far away.

Nameless altar : see dedicated section below

Salt desert: created where there was water in swamps and rivers biomes (because swamps alone where too rare). Contains salt ponds that produce salt crystals

Sandstorms and wind gust : See the entities section bellow

Flash floods (can be disabled): during a thunderstorm some holes in the desert might suddenly be flooded, the flood block itself is pretty hard to get out of (for players and mobs alike) and will disappear when the weather goes back to clear. The flood will only break replacable or water-sensitive blocks. See also the flood totem bellow

Flowers barriers (configurable): a flower barrier will block the desert as long as there is no natural overcharged sand rose in a 75-block radius. They can be made by placing at the surface a contiguous line of desert flowers (the plant) under trees leaves (the tree's trunk need to be on the protected side)

Sand colors (configurable): there is 3 variants of sand (white, orange (added by the mod) and red). When breaking a sand diamond block the mod will :

Check if there are nearby sand, if so pick the same color
If the player is holding a dye offhand, pick this color (unless it is not in the allowed sand color list)
Pick a random sand in the sand color list (all 3 by default but can be configured) Orange sand can have a little more minor compat issues with other mods

Desert size checks: some features (like sandstorms and some mobs spawns among other things) are only enabled if the surrounding desert is some defined size or bigger, it checks that, in each cardinal direction offset by the size, the top solid block is any of desert sand/sand slab/weathered sandstone/salt block or dead log

Blocks

Desert flowers: spawn when it rains and bloom afterward, used in recipes

Jujubier: spiky tree that makes jujube, which can be made into cakes. The leaves can also be harvested with a shear in a dispenser

Desert sand: mod's main block, propagate the desert, spawn plants; and wind gust. Convert zombies to husks and burn your feet in the day if you don't have boots

Dry dirt: a block of dried dirt that is created by the desert sand and serve as a gradient. Can only spread to dirt like block and up to 24 block away from desert sand (if a block isn't dryable by the dry dirt you will have to wait until the desert sand arrives). Also, the dry dirt can be removed by using bonemeal on it while next to dirt/grass blocks.

Sand remains: a block that appears on some solid blocks near desert sand and in a trail of a wind gust. Can be removed by right-clicking on it with a brush

Dead log: created when the desert kills a tree, spreads to nearby logs, and slowly decays

Weathered sandstone: kinda inspired by NieR Automata's desert zone, generate when desert sand is on top of granite (except in rivers), prevent sand accumulation on it

Weathered sandstone slabs, stairs and walls : decorative blocks crafted from weathered sandstone

Weathered sandstone formation

Dead branch : decorative block created when leaves are near a dead log

Salt blocks and deserts: created in swamps and rivers biomes where there was water (can be disabled), kill slimes & water mobs and break plants, snow and ice. Can also damage wounded entities

Salt pond : rarely appear in salt deserts; they grow salt crystals if exposed to the sky, and the block above has air on its sides. Can be taken via silk touch and be propagated by throwing an enchanted sand rose, lapis & salt crystals in it (requires a top exposed salt block next to it, the sand rose will not be consumed)

Salt crystals: grow on salt ponds, can be used to damage undead/infected mobs, craft more salt blocks, or be converted to Spelunkery's / Mekanism's salt

Sandy diamond block: place desert sand around when broken and gives you some diamonds, found in hourglasses and cursed crystal structures. A decorative version used for recipes can also be crafted

Sandblaster : inflicts heavy damage to entities and armor; can polish/strip blocks in front of it; powered by redstone; does less damage to undead mobs

Vitalizer : remove the desert when there is an infected block nearby, requires a tree in a 3 block radius (leaves) to function. Can be boosted by an enchanted sand rose on top of it. Place a gold block 1 or 2 blocks bellow to switch remove dunes mode

Quartz Catalyst: Spawn rarely inside weathered sandstone. Will increase the max heigh of it by 2, allow hangover blocks and formation on more blocks. Will also boost near Nameless Constructs by giving the absorption and fire resistance on spawn (and bonus drops). Nameless Constructs that are out of fight will also slowly regenerate near it and be notified when another Construct dies.

Can be picked up with silk touch. If player-placed, it will also need a redstone signal to activate (and will not require silk touch).

It will also place enriched quart crystal on quartz ores in nearby chunks (it will "suck up" the quartz ores and give your more quartz and XP when broken (work with arrows too))

Chunk Loading Extender: if powered by redstone and an overcharged sand rose on top of it, will double its neighboring chunks' loading distance. Need to be loaded in again on world restart.

Nameless altar core: crafted with a netherite scrap or ingot (if you don't have scraps), used a core to the Nameless Altar (see Nameless Altar section bellow for more info)

Flood totem: can create a flash flood around itself when raining/thundering (if the area is an enclosed 1-block hole). A redstone signal will block this and made the totem actually remove flood blocks around itself and prevent floods

Ethereal bridge core : create a bridge when powered by restone. The bridge's length will be determined by the signal's strength. Can be boosted by placing an enchanted sand rose next to it (will add 16 blocks to the bridge's range).

Ethereal bridge core and blocks

Orange sand and sandstone: orange variants of sand and sandstone, can be crafted with 1 sand and 1 red sand. Use block color provider to tint the sandstone's texture (so compatible with textures packs).

Sand roses and related

Sand rose : block & material that is dropped by overcharged sand roses or can be found is suspicious sand left behind by a sandstorm

Overcharged sand rose: rarely created when a wind gust stops next to weathered sandstone on a sand slab (and there isn't one nearby (45 blocks), can be disabled in the config). It will create a wall of glazed sand around itself and zap nearby players and mobs. The natural variant can be placed in creative while sneaking

The zap cap also bounces off to nearby mobs, causing them to be angered at the first mob. Husks and creepers will not be zapped. Drops sand roses when mined without silk touch, if mined with it, will drop itself.

The dropped overcharged sand rose will not zap non-hostile entities nor create a wall of glazed sand or enhance the desert's speed (unless placed on a redstone block).

Hypercharged sand rose: when a natural overcharged sand rose is left enough time with the right conditions (another sand rose nearby, no hypercharged or enchanted sand rose near), it will evolve into a hypercharged sand rose (same block with different states). This is indicated by overcharged crystals block appearing on top of it (they are removed after and replaced with the same block on the ground). The player-placed variant can be made by placing an overcharged sand rose in an overcharged crystal.

It will create another barrier further away and increase the height of the existing one. It will also start forming pillars of overcharged crystals that will prevent the rose from being broken while nearby.

It will also start creating these pillar towards the nearest overcharged sand rose to improve its crystal's floating block numbers and shockwave fire rate (it will allow it to progress to the hellbound stage).

Can sometimes summon a hypercharged shockwave that will target players or nearby mobs (if natural), or nearby infected and hostile mobs (if player placed, although it will also happily target infected if natural and no suitable players are nearby). These will loosely track their target and launch them into the air upon exploding (no block damage, except to 1 by 1 block towers).

Finally, it will summon overcharged wind gusts in the direction of the nearest player/infected (depending on if it is player-placed). The fire rate is increased if 4 or more overcharged crystals are nearby.

Overcharged crystal: produced by hypercharged sand roses, these will produce floating block of crystals block if near an over/hypercharged sand rose, these will last for 1 day and fall when a player (or an infected) walks under it, creating a cloud of glass shards.

The block's appearance can also be customized by placing a tinted glass and desired block on top of the overcharged crystal.

If player placed (or if the hypercharged sand rose is) the block will only fall on some hostile mobs.

If natural and originating from a natural hypercharged sand rose, it will break plants and leaves in a 40-block radius. It will also extend the zap and shockwave distance for the hypercharged sand rose if nearby.

If broken and natural, it will trigger the nearest hypercharged sand rose to summon an hypercharged shockwave that will target the offending player.

When receiving power from its Hypercharged/Hellbound sand rose it will try to charge the block 2 blocks above itself (energy containers of tech mods, except the basic containers, controlled by tags). Hellbound sand roses gives way more power. The container will also blow up if already fully or near-fully charged. (should already work in 1.21.1. Will work in 1.20.1 starting with the 0.42.1 version)

Hellbound sand rose: an 'evolution' of the hypercharged sand rose, reached when it digs all the way to bedrock.

Features :

Is invulnerable until its Hell Anchor in the nether hasn't been destroyed (which itself is invulnerable while its hellbound sand rose has 5 or more overcharged crystals near it)
Inflicts the Persistent Fire debuff on every entity around it (prevents fire from extinguish with time only)
Starts random fires around itself
Floating blocks around it now start fires when they fall
Boost its Overcharged Crystals' range
Creates an infinite lava pool near bedrock (where it made contact)

Hell anchor: spawned in the Nether by a hellbound sand rose. Will prevent it from being broken and will also be protected while its Hellbound sand rose has 5 or more overcharged crystals near it.

Gives the persistent fire effect to entities around it. Will also weaken Piglins and strengthens zombie Piglins. Can also place temporary lava cascades and magma block in chunks around itself.

The broken variant (obtained after breaking a normal one) can be activated by redstone to give persistent fire to entities in a 32-block radius

Enchanted sand rose: crafted with sand roses, can be used as a material. Prevent sand accumulation in a 45 block radius. Can also boost sandblasters, vitalizers and overcharged desert rose when on them (for the overcharged rose it needs to be 2 blocks above). Prevents overcharged sand roses from spawning and sand deposit in a 45-block radius. Increase the wand of grass range when held offhand

Sand roses

Fishhook barrel cactus : can slow you down while making you take damage (it works on mobs too). Make fruits can be harvested by interacting with it or using a shear in a dispenser

Desert flowers: grow during the rain and bloom afterward. Useful for getting desert flowers and for flowers barriers. Can be taken with shears, need a water source next to it to not dry out.

Welwitschia mirabilis: can appear after floods, will grow leaves over time. It will only start making cones during a rain or if it has water is next to it.

Other plants: mainly used for dyes or ambiance (Guertoufa can be used for an infusion). The spread of all desert plants can be stopped by placing sandstone or smooth sandstone 2 blocks bellow it.

Items

Wand of grass : uses saplings to remove the desert (hold an enchanted sand rose in offhand to increase range), can also give undead/infected wither (if the entity already have wither I, it will increase to level II), can also be used for spreading grass by using bonemeal.

Shift right-click on a block to switch between keep dunes (replace filler sand with dirt, default mode) and remove dunes modes (replace filler sand with air)

Spear of sands : a weapon that can summon a damaging wind gust when an enemy is killed, can be repaired with drywood handles

Sandhaper: another weapon crafted using an enchanted sand rose. When used while not sneaking, it will create a temporary sand wall in front of the user and push mobs away from it. When used while sneaking, it will create a temporary sand pillar and teleport the user in top of it.

Living glass scythe: a weapon that will use living glass shards instead of durability. If, after an attack, the target is at 3 HP or lower, it will deal 3 additional damage. It will also inflict the glass shards effects on nearby mobs when right-clicked (consume living glass shards, some undead may be immune while other will take less damage).

Hypercharged gem: a gem that can be used by right-clicking towards an entity, it will summon an shockwave that will launch the entity and its neighbors in the air. Hitting an entity with it will make a quake that will drag down nearby entity in shovel-mineable blocks. All of these actions will consume an overcharged crystals block and has a cooldown of 40 seconds

Bottomless water bucket: a tool that can be used as an infinite water bucket. It can also remove, water like a bucket, if pointed at it. Finally, you can fill a large area (16 block-radius, always lower or at the position you used it) by using it while sneaking.

Barrel cactus fruit jam : crafted with 2 water bottles (even if it displays as potions in the recipe), 2 barrel cactus fruits, 1 sugar and 1 apple. Cleanse the hunger effect

Guertoufa infusion : crafted with a water bottle (even if it displays as potions in the recipe) and 2 guertoufas. Cleanse the blindness and darkness effects

Dry wand : used for spreading the desert using slat crystal (in survival). Can be used to infect a large area while in creative

Rift knife: a weapon that will partially bypass armor and damage nearby entities of the same type.

Enchanted Welwitschia Cone: an item crafted from welwitschia cones (harvested from the plant), packed welwitschia leaves and a golden apple. Will cure the strongest debuff upon consumption. Can also be used with healing potions to make resistance potions

Rolling essence: allow throwing a rolling cactus projectile in front of you (has a 20% use chance). Can also be used in a dispenser

Entities

Some of the mod's mobs may change their target when low on health to another that they can one-shot (doesn't work when targeting players)

Wind gust : gust of winds that can push entities (expect creative players) around and place sand (normal sand). Can sometimes break some not-full blocks when it stops on them (configurable, does not break block entities (chests, ...) and can be stopped by an enchanted sand rose). May leave suspicious sand behind

Scorpion : small neutral critter that can spawn in the desert, give wither to attacked entities. Will attack if touched but is afraid of players. Hunt silverfish and other flies from Alex's Mobs and Born In Chaos and can be reproduced by using spider eyes

A scorpion

Nameless construct : a blaze-like weathered sandstone construct that can spawn in the desert near natural weathered sandstone at night, will attack players if they get too close, infected and pillagers. Can only do melee damage and has some armor, which will go down as its speed goes up when on low hp. Will drop construct parts when killed. Will give a 1-second weakness when attacking infected/monster entities. Heal up to 2 hearts when killing an entity (if it kill a monster it will also have resistance for 10 seconds). Can be made neutral by placing an enchanted sand rose near it

A nameless construct

Glass skeleton: a variant of the skeleton can spawn anywhere in the desert but more often near overcharged sand roses/glazed sand. It can have either a bow or a melee weapon. It will also burn in the sun but will not take any damage. When damaged for the first time, its attack will increase, and when low on health, it will become immune to projectiles. Drops living glass shards a place temporary glass shards block on death. Sensitive to temperature shocks.

Rolling cactus: a sentient rolling cactus. Neutral by default unless provoked (breaking or having a cactus in hand also counts) or touched by an overcharged wind gust (temporary, can be stopped with enchanted sand roses). Will damage its attacker if it is not using weapons/tools. Convert into a rolling projectile when killed. Can regenerate in water under daylight (can sometimes try to do so if hurt). Drops cacti and rolling essence bits (used to craft rolling essence).

Sentient rift: a strong hostile creature that spawn in large desert on a full or new moon, and will attack players, illagers or infecteds. Will prefer attacking an entity that is related in some way (owner, target, ...) to the previously attacked one (for example if it kills a pillager that was previously targeting a villager, it will attack the villager next). Halve the damage taken unless it is done by an enchanted item. Will also be weaker in sunlight (unless fighting an infected). Drops rifts and misc items. Finally, each kill heals it a little

Sandstorm : can occasionally spawn in large deserts (only when not raining). Will spawn a large amount of wind gusts, damage infected entities and sometimes leave behind suspicious sand with a sand rose in it (6% chance). Can be prevented in a 128-block radius by placing an enchanted sand rose.If they spawn in a 140-block radius of a natural overcharged sand rose, they will propagate the desert more. As entities, they can be managed through commands like summon desert:sandstorm or function desert:clear_sandstorms

Vengeful animal husks: hostile undeads that may spawn upon killing an animal in the spreading desert (higher chances at night, if the mob is burning, has some debuffs, or is a baby). Comes into 3 variants : cow, pig and chicken (the closest variant will be selected for other mobs). The stronger the last hit, the more the husk will have HP (will have fire resistance if the mob was killed with fire).

Will prioritize attacking the mob's killer and its entity type, they will also attack players, pillagers and infecteds. When killed, they will increase nearby vengeful husks' max life (up to 10 more, also works if an animal is killed). Drops rotten flesh, bone/bone-meal and crystallized tear (that may summon another vengeful husk upon despawning and can break in the player's inventory, inflicting a debuff)

Nameless Altar

A barebones Nameless Altar

The Nameless Altar can be used to perform various rituals that affect the world.

You first need to build an altar and place the core into the weathered sandstone pyramid; you can then activate it by right-clicking the core with a sandshaper.

When the altar is activated, it will begin charging (and produce enchant particles to signify it); after a couple of minutes (or if you shift right-click on it in Creative with a Sandshaper), it will activate itself (the texture will change and ash particles will appear in the doorway).

When the altar is active, you can build different rituals in the 3 by 4 space in the altar's doorway; and then right-click with a sandshaper on the block above the altar's core to execute them.

Here is the list of the different rituals; there are also in-game items (Ritual plans; which can be used in creative to instabuild the ritual) that give you the requirements and blocks of the rituals:

Lightning ritual : will strike every undead and infected in a 80-block radius
Cure ritual : will cleanse any bad effects and give regeneration and absorption to every non-infected entity in a 80-block radius
Light ritual: will place torches on the surface and in caves in a grid pattern in an 80-block radius; will not place a torch if there is already sufficient block lighting.
Glow ritual: will make all entities in an 80-block radius glow for 2 minutes
Poison ritual: will give poison (1:30), instant damage, slowness (3:00) and blindness (3:00) to every hostile entity in a 80-block radius
Abundance ritual: will randomly bonemeal blocks (crops, grass, ...) on the surface in a large area and also halve the breeding time of animals
Freeze ritual: will prevent mobs for moving for 1:30, small mobs will also be encased in temporary ice
Vitalize ritual: will purify a large zone from the desert (the dunes mode will be remove if there are any Wand of Grass in your inventory in remove dunes mode, otherwise the mode is keep dunes)
Sponge duplication ritual: simply duplicate sponges by using some dead horn coral
Sky doom ritual: will target a strong entity in a 64-block radius (the criteria are max HP and if infected). The entity will be then be hit by lightning bolts for 30 seconds. If no entity with more than 40 max HP is found, most of the rituals materials will be given back (and some of the will be given back if the entity has less than 140 max HP)
Magnet ritual: a simple ritual that will attract all items and xp orbs in a 128-block base radius
Desert sand craft ritual: a ritual that will create a desert sand block item
Simple drill ritual: will dig a 128-block deep 2 by 2 hole, need to be offseted to work
Block scan ritual: spawn colored temporary (~10min) markers at the surface to mark for ores. Markers colors :
- Gray : Low-value ores (only if sneaking)
- Green : medium value ores (gold, redstone, lapis)
- Lime : high value ores (diamond, emerald, ancient debris)
- Purple : Loot and important blocks (chests, vaults, portals, ...)
- Blue : block held in offhand when casting the ritual, if any
- Orange : dangerous blocks (tnt, Spore's reconstructed mind and vigil, Sculk Horde's brain node, ...) Was previously known as Wealth ritual
Wealth ritual: attracts ores in nearby chunk (through stones only) towards the ritual's center (form a sort of ring underground it, do not attract all the way through (nor everything) in 1 ritual)
Flattening ritual: will flatten a 32x32 area (+8 per boost) using the median height of the terrain. Needs to be offseted. Will fill with the ground block or cobblestone. Will not touch block-entities

You can also boost the altar's range and effect duration by placing enchanted sand roses on weathered sandstone pillars (if the sand rose is well-placed, it will emit enchanting particles).

You can also make some rituals (not Lightning for example) target specific players (by default positive rituals will target every player while negative ones will not target any players), to do so you will need to hold a renamed piece of paper in your offhand or in the right slot relative to the selected item (required if you are using Better Combat) when you are triggering the ritual. The players names are case-insensitive and are separated by commas, you can start with an ! to target every player in range expect those (note that negative rituals will never target you regardless).

If you are in create you can insta-build a ritual by right-clicking with its plan on the altar core.

Finally, you can also offset the altar's action range by placing amethyst blocks or lit redstone lamps in a cardinal direction relative to the altar's core; these blocks need to be at the same height as the altar's base, be at least 5 blocks away from the core (not counting the Y axis). Each of these blocks will offset the action range by 32 blocks. The end rod particle that appears when you interact with the altar will be offseted to reflect these changes. Barrier and campfire particles will also be displayed at the location of the ritual's center.

Enchantments

Swift sands (boots) : allow you to travel faster when on sand, can be dropped by zombies/skeletons in a large desert. Can also be crafted by throwing 1 lapis block, 1 book and 1 sand rose at an enchanted sand rose near an enchanting table

Electrostatic (chestplate) : inflicts weakness for 25/45 seconds to attackers, can be dropped by zombies/skeletons in a large desert. Can also be crafted by throwing 1 lapis block, 1 book and 1 overcharged sand rose at an enchanted sand rose near an enchanting table

Wound salter (weapons) : deals more damage the more wounded your target is; can be dropped by zombies/skeletons in a large desert. Can also be crafted by throwing 1 lapis block, 1 book and 1 salt crystal at an enchanted sand rose near an enchanting table

Mob drops : some mobs occasionally drop more loot if they spawn in the desert (like raw ore, desert items, ...) (configurable)

</details>

🔧 Customization through datapacks

<details open=""> <summary>Click to expand</summary>

In addition to the config, the mod's behavior can be customized through datapack tags (see the Minecraft wiki if you want to know more about datapacks or tags), here is a list of some of the most important tags :

Blocks :

#desert:allow_sandstone_spread : these blocks will be converted to desert sand, then to sandstone
#desert:can_trigger_vengeful_husk_spawn : blocks that can trigger an vengeful husk to spawn if a animal dies on it (desert sand, ...)
#desert:desert_no_drops : these blocks will be broken without leaving drops (grass, ...)
#desert:desert_remove : these blocks will be broken by the desert
#desert:desert_resist : these block will not be converted/broken by the desert whatsoever
#desert:dryable_auto : any blocks in this tag will be converted into desert sand, sandstone or broken depending on its properties and tags
#desert:dryable_daylight_only : any blocks in this tag will only be dryable under sunlight
#desert:dryable_extended : these blocks will be dried if the infection mode is set to "Sand & infected blocks only" or "Fully enabled"
#desert:dryable_stones_extended : these blocks will be converted to desert sand, then to sandstone if an overcharged sand rose is nearby
#desert:dryable_unstable : these blocks will be converted to desert sand, then the sand will remove itself
#desert:dryable : any blocks in this tag will be converted into desert sand (unless they are in other conversion tags bellow)
#desert:flood_replace : these blocks will be replaced by flash floods
#desert:gust_pass_through: blocks that wind gust will pass through (unless they are full blocks)
#desert:hellbound/chargeable_blocks: blocks that will be charged when an overcharged crystal receive power from its sand rose. The block needs to have (Neo)Forge energy capability. (includes Mekanism, Oritech, Create : Additions and Immersive Engineering)
#desert:no_sand_acc : wind gust will not place sand next to these blocks
#desert:no_sand_on : no sand remains will be placed onto the block (ice,Tinker's smeltery, ...)
#desert:other_mods_uninfectable: blocks that will not be infectable by other infection mods (not all of them) (sand roses, glazed sand, nameless altar core, ...)
#desert:overcharged_crystal_breaks: blocks that will be broken by natural overcharged crystals (plants, ...)
#desert:overcharged_crystal_breaks_leave_bush: blocks that will be broken by natural overcharged crystals and can sometimes leaves a dead bush/ dead coral behind (plants, ...)
#desert:plants_replace : these blocks will be replaced by desert plants
#desert:purify/purify_to_air, #desert:purify/purify_to_dirt and #desert:purify/purify_to_stone : controls blocks that are purified by the wand of grass
#desert:relocatable_plants : blocks in this tags will be moved nearby if possible when submerged by sand
#desert:remove_in_daylight : these blocks will be broken by the desert if under the sunlight
#desert:replace : these blocks will be replaced when filling up holes in the sand
#desert:rituals/... : tags to control the behavior of the wealth, block scan and flattening rituals
#desert:rolling_cactus_break_angers : blocks in this tag will angers nearby rolling cacti in a 64-block area (cactus, ...)
#desert:sandblaster/remove : these blocks will be broken by the sandblaster
#desert:speed/increase : blocks in this tags will be converted faster (coarse dirt, farmland, ...)
#desert:speed/lower and #desert:speed/greatly_lowers : blocks in these tags will take longer to convert (and make surrounding blocks harder to convert)
#desert:to/dead_log : these blocks will be converted to dead log, and dead logs will convert these blocks
#desert:to/dry_grass : these blocks will sometimes be converted to dry grass by dry dirt
#desert:weathered_sandstone_on : if desert sand is on top of one of these blocks it will convert into weathered sandstone

Biomes:

#desert:desert_biomes: 'infected' desert biomes
#desert:desert_blacklist_leaves: biomes that the desert will not infect if there is trees, dry dirt can go a bit in though
#desert:desert_blacklist: biomes that the desert will never infect (deep dark, ...)
#desert:desert_fill_only_extend: biomes where the desert will only fill sand and make dunes, without infecting blocks other than sand. The desert will not dry water if the biome is nearby (ocean, ...)
#desert:desert_fill_only: biomes where the desert will only fill sand and make dunes, without infecting blocks other than sand (beach, ocean, ...)
#desert:salt_desert: biomes that will become salt deserts (rivers, ...)
#desert:no_replace: biomes that the desert will not change if biome change is enabled (caves, ...)
#desert:remove: biomes that the desert remove and not restore if biome change is enabled (other infected biomes)

Entities :

#desert:desert_creatures : contains all the mod's mobs
#desert:explosive : entities that can explode, will prevent overcharged sand roses from targeting them (creepers, ...)
#desert:glass_shards_immune : entities that will not take damage from the glass shards effect (skeletons, golems, ...)
#desert:infected : entities that the mod will consider infected
#desert:kill_extended : entities that will be killed when on desert sand if an overcharged sand rose is nearby
#desert:kill_no_move : entities that will be killed when on desert sand and will not be moved by gusts
#desert:kill : entities that will be killed when on desert sand
#desert:nameless_construct_attacks : entities that the nameless construct will attack (players, infected, pillagers, ...)
#desert:needs_fire_to_kill : entities that the hypercharged sand rose will set on fire with its shockwave (The Flesh That Hates, Clanging Howl, ...)
#desert:no_direct_zap : entities that the overcharged sand rose will not directly target (husk, ...)
#desert:prevents_gust_breaking_blocks : entities that will prevent wind gust from breaking blocks when they are nearby (villagers and pillagers)
#desert:rolling_cactus_targets : entities that will always be attacked by rolling cacti (infected, pillagers, ...)
#desert:salt_kill : entities that will be killed when on a salt block (mostly water related entities)
#desert:sandstorm_damage : entities that will take damage inside a sandstorm (infected by default)
#desert:scorpion_prey : entities that the scorpion will attack (silverfishes, flies, ...)
#desert:sentient_rift_prey : entities that the sentient rift will attack given time (players, villagers, ...)
#desert:vengeful_husks_attacks : entities that will always be targeted by vengeful husks (infected, pillagers, ...)
#desert:vengeful_husks/summons_chicken_husk, #desert:vengeful_husks/summons_pig_husk and #desert:vengeful_husks/summons_cow_husk : animals that may summon the corresponding vengeful husk when killed
#desert:wand_of_grass_wither : entities that will get wither when right-clicked with a wand of grass (infected and undeads)
#desert:wind_gust_no_move : entities that wind gusts will not move (scorpions, nameless constructs)

Items:

#desert:group : items that will group together when on desert sand and no player is nearby (saplings, sticks, ...)
#desert:rolling_cactus_angers : items that will anger rolling cacti when held in hand (cactus, ...)
#desert:wand_of_grass_purify_fuel : items that will be consumed by the wand of grass to purify an area (saplings)

Status effects :

#c:should_not_cure: effects that will not be cured by the enchanted welwitschia cone
#desert:cruel: effects that increases the chances of the mob summoning a vengeful husk on death (if the mob has the effect)
#desert:scorpion_venom_cures: effects removed by the scorpion tail, some of the mod's mobs are also immune to them (also included by default in the #desert:cruel tag)

</details>

↔️ Compatibilities

Mod (in)compatibilities and troubleshooting

<details open=""> <summary>Click to expand</summary>

Infection mods : Fungal Infection: Spore, The Sculk Horde, From Another World, The Flesh That Hates, Prion Infection, Phayriosis Reborn, The eYes Remastered (partial), Moss Overgrowth (partial), Dawn of the flood (partial ?), Ecdysozoa Infection (partial), Clanging Howl (partial, is it an infection mod ?), Necro Rooted (partial), Mi Alliance (partial, basic) ...

Better combat : the spear of sands acts like a spear and the sandshaper like a wand (the rift knife and living glass scythe are compatible too)
Immersive weathering : blocks around desert sand sometimes get converted to their sandy variants, sandy dirt is added near dry dirt, sand pile can sometimes spawn in place of sand remains
Cold Sweat : the desert is hot during the day and cold during the night
Tough as Nails: the desert is hot during the day and cold during the night and the barrel cactus fruit restore thirst
Dynamic Trees : trees are correctly killed by the desert, the desert will place dynamic trees plus cacti instead of normal ones
Pollution of the Realms : the desert is faster when the area is polluted and spawn less plants
Desert Behemoths: Sandworms! : requires the biome change config to be enabled, the worm can spawn in the spreading desert
Farmer's delight: some of the mod's plants can drop straw when broken with a knife
Biomancy & Ars Nouveau: some of the recipes can be made with the Bioforge/Enchanter for more efficiency
Countered's Terrain Slabs: the dirt slabs are converted into dry dirt slab (then sand slab or air), some desert plants can also be placed on Terrain Slabs's slabs
No Man's Land : you can turn red and white desert sand into paths
Flowing Fluids (experimental) : will make sky-exposed water evaporate (expect in oasis)

Plants compat: plants from some mods (Regions Unexplored, Immersive Weathering, Nature's Spirit, ...) can appear in the desert

Note about shaders: while this mod causes no issues with shaders, some blocks (like desert sand) will not be rendered exactly like vanilla sand (even if they have the same texture), or plants will be shaded. If you really want to fix that you can either edit the shader's block.properties file (which I did for some of the screenshots with Rethinking Voxels) to add the block's id; or maybe, if you are a shader dev, use the block tag support introduced in Iris 1.7 in your shader (although this doesn't seem to be supported by Oculus)

Not fully compatible as-is (see descriptions for fixes)

Terralith: you will probably need to also install Terralith ReStoned for the desert to be able to generate weathered sandstone (since it depends on the presence of granite)

Some resourcepacks that change the sand's texture (not all) : If the Desert Sand/Sand Slab's texture look wrong (weirdly rotated) with some texture pack, you can use this resourcepack to disable the Desert Sand and Sand Slabs's random rotation (is now included with the mod from version 0.42 onwards)

About Essential Mod (1.20.1): the crash is normally fixed in Desertification 0.41.2 and higher (if there is still a crash and you're on (Neo)Forge, try removing Fabric Language Kotlin and check if Kotlin For Forge is up-to-date)

Tips

To protect yourself from the harsh temperatures and sands, you will probably need boots (any type will do).
To prevent the desert from advancing, you can either : build a base in a protected biome (jungle, tundra, …) where the presence of trees will stop the desert, or make a barrier of terracotta/cobblestone that replaces sand, dirt-like and water. You can also build your base IN the desert (a little above ground). Finally, please note that the dry dirt has a limited spread range from the sand, it alone cannot infect a wide zone and will eventually stop without the desert sand. Also, the dry dirt can be removed by using bonemeal on it while next to dirt.
You can also use flowers barriers to block the desert if there is no overcharged sand roses nearby
Trees will slow down the desert (you can also change the mod's config so that they will block the desert regardless of the biome)
Desert flowers spawn when it rains on desert sand and bloom afterward
Barrel cactus can be used as a defense
Enchanted sand roses will prevent sand accumulation and wind gusts' block breaking near itself while also making nameless constructs neutral
The mod has a lot of config options to tweak to your liking (requires MidninghtLib, which should already be installed if you are installing through a launcher)

Barrel cactus

Details

Note that the Modrinth page is still the main page for my mod. I will try to keep the Curseforge version up to date.

The spread is partially limited to an 8-chunk circular radius for any non-spectator player, it is a block random tick limitation of Minecraft (in more recent versions of the mod custom entities will random tick the parts of the desert that are far away from players, but they will not force-load chunks). The wind gusts that appear in the desert tries to random tick blocks that are under them, which helps a little.

You cannot revert a zone exactly 1:1. To revert a zone, you will need to use a wand of grass on the desert sand and have some saplings with you (take note that the item has a cooldown). You can also use vitalizer blocks or vitalization ritual

Permissions

You can create videos/content using my mod
You can integrate my mod into your Modpack (but beware that the mod is still in Beta)
You should give a link back to this page (either the Modrinth or Curseforge one)

Credits and more

Most screenshots use the excellent Lucidium resource pack (which also makes leaves go brown when no longer attached) and (sometimes) the VanillaPlus or Rethinking Voxels shaders.
All the mod's custom textures are made by me using Krita (except the sand remains, the sandy diamond block, pink water, ritual plans and the bottles. I also used the original block's colors for the rolling cactus since it seems I'm bad at color theory).
Some models and mobs where made using Blockbench
Thanks also to the Sinytra Connector Team for their amazing mod that allows fabric mods to run on (Neo)forge
Fabric Language Kotlin
Text logo made with Minecraft Title Generator Blockbench plugin

Thanks for 30k downloads !! The new (Neo)Forge versions now requires Kotlin For Forge

About the (Neo)Forge version

Table of contents

▶️ Videos

Desertification FULL Showcase! - By Karat Feng

Version 0.37, before the hypercharged and hellbound sand roses

This Mod Will Turn your world into the driest desert! - By Karat Feng

Version 0.36.1

Minecraft but it's North Africa Desertification - By SoupMaster

Version : 0.28, before the sandstorm, altar and nameless constructs

Minecraft Mod Review: Desertification - By TheOneBeyond

Version : 0.32, before the nameless construct

ℹ️ Features and blocks

Mechanics

Blocks

Sand roses and related

Items

Entities

Nameless Altar

Enchantments

🔧 Customization through datapacks

↔️ Compatibilities

Not fully compatible as-is (see descriptions for fixes)

Other problems

Tips

Details

Permissions

Credits and more

Desertification (an 'infection' mod)