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Description
Primal Progression
You can't punch trees any more.
Primal Progression rebuilds the first hours of survival from the ground up. Before you can fell a single tree you need to scavenge sticks and flint, knap a knife, peel bark, lash together crude tools, and crack open stone for pebbles. Every step is small, makes sense, and fits in your 2×2 inventory grid, so the early game becomes a short survival journey instead of a thirty-second formality.
The road to your first log
| Step | What to do | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Break leaves by hand | Sticks (a much better chance than vanilla) |
| 2 | Dig gravel | Flint (about one in four gravel blocks) |
| 3 | Combine flint and a stick | Flint Knife |
| 4 | Right-click a standing tree with the knife | Bark, and the log is stripped |
| 5 | Cut grass and ferns with the knife | Plant Fibre, and 3 fibre twist into Twine |
| 6 | Bind flint and bark to a stick | Bark Pickaxe and Bark Shovel |
| 7 | Find a Stone Geode and crack it with the bark pickaxe | Pebbles (and sometimes flint) |
| 8 | Lash pebbles to a stick with twine | Pebble Axe, Pebble Pickaxe and Pebble Shovel |
| 9 | Chop a tree with the Pebble Axe | Logs, at last |
| 10 | Mine stone with the Pebble Pickaxe | Cobblestone, and on to the Stone Age |
Stone Geodes
Stone Geodes are small knots of loose rock that grow on every face of exposed stone: cave floors, walls and ceilings, cliff faces, overhangs and mountainsides. They're your only early source of pebbles. Your fists can't break anything useful out of them; a bark pickaxe (or any better pickaxe) can.
They generate on stone, deepslate, granite, diorite, andesite, tuff, sandstone and similar rock.
Recipes
Everything up to the pebble tools is crafted in the 2×2 inventory grid. You won't need a crafting table until you've chopped your first log.
Flint Knife Bark Pickaxe Bark Shovel Twine (shapeless)
. F F F F B Fibre ×3
S . B S S .
Pebble Pickaxe Pebble Axe Pebble Shovel Fire Drill Cobblestone
P P P T P T S T P P
T S P S . S S . P P
F = Flint S = Stick B = Bark P = Pebble T = Twine
Recipes unlock in the recipe book as soon as you pick up their ingredients.
A harder, more grounded survival
- No punching trees. Logs drop nothing unless broken with an axe, and they break very slowly without one.
- No wooden pickaxe, axe or shovel. Wood can't cut wood or quarry stone; pebble tools take their place. The wooden sword and hoe remain.
- Bound stone tools. The stone pickaxe, axe, shovel and hoe need twine to lash the head to the handle.
- Fire takes work. Campfires are crafted unlit. Light them with a Fire Drill (two sticks and twine). It only catches about a third of the time, so keep drilling. Flint and steel still works. Fire drills also light candles.
- Digging by hand is slow. Dirt, sand, gravel and other loose blocks dig at half speed without a shovel.
- Punching hurts. Hitting logs or stone with a bare fist can cost you half a heart.
- Food poisoning. Raw meat and fish can leave you with Hunger, and sometimes Nausea. Cook your food.
- Helpful hints. A short message above your hotbar explains why something won't drop yet and what you need instead.
- A guided advancement tab. The Primal Progression tab walks you through every step, from your first stick to your first stone pickaxe.
Items and blocks
| Name | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Material | Bark | Peeled from standing logs with a flint knife |
| Material | Pebble | From stone geodes; 4 pebbles pack into cobblestone |
| Material | Plant Fibre | From grass and ferns |
| Material | Twine | Binding for pebble tools, stone tools and the fire drill |
| Tool | Flint Knife | Peels bark, gathers fibre, works as a light weapon |
| Tool | Bark Pickaxe | Cracks stone geodes; can't quarry stone |
| Tool | Bark Shovel | Digs dirt, sand and gravel without the bare-hand slowdown |
| Tool | Pebble Pickaxe | Mines stone and coal (wood tier) |
| Tool | Pebble Axe | Your first tool that can chop logs |
| Tool | Pebble Shovel | Sturdier digging |
| Tool | Fire Drill | Lights campfires and candles, with patience |
| Block | Stone Geode | Grows on exposed stone; breaks into pebbles |
Configuration
Every number can be adjusted, either from the in-game config screen (Mods → Primal Progression → Config) or in config/primalprogression-synced.toml. Settings are synced from the server to players.
You can change:
- whether logs need an axe, and how slowly they break without one
- bark per log and the bonus bark chance
- stick, flint, pebble and plant fibre drop chances
- bare-hand digging speed and the chance of hurting your fist
- food poisoning chance
- fire drill success chance
- whether the action-bar hints are shown
Behaviour is tag-driven as well, so datapacks can decide which logs need an axe, which stone grows geodes, which plants give fibre, which tools crack geodes, and more.
Compatibility
- Minecraft 26.3 with NeoForge 26.3.0.37-beta or newer.
- Install it on both the client and the server.
- Stone geodes only generate in new chunks. Start a new world, or explore new terrain in an existing one.
- Bark peeling works with modded wood that follows the usual
stripped_naming. - Modded pickaxes that are tagged as pickaxes can crack stone geodes too.
FAQ
I'm stuck at the start. Where do I begin? Break leaves by hand for sticks and dig gravel for flint. Open the Primal Progression advancement tab for step-by-step guidance.
I can't find any stone geodes. Look anywhere stone is exposed to air: cave entrances, ravines, cliffs, mountains and riverbanks with exposed rock. They grow on floors, walls and ceilings alike.
My campfire won't light. Crafted campfires start unlit. Use a fire drill on them and keep trying, or use flint and steel.
Can I make it easier or harder? Yes. Every chance and speed is in the config, and the behaviour is controlled by tags that a datapack can change.
Early Survival Enhanced Team
