EvoCraft (Java)

EvoCraft — Evolution & Mutation Overhaul
Every creature in your world can evolve. EvoCraft gives passive animals, hostile mobs, and even brand-new species a full genetics system — traits, mutations, breeding, generations, fitness, rarity — built on a foundation that treats no species as special-cased. If a mob supports it, it can climb the same evolutionary ladder.

What's in the mod
Evolution engine: every supported creature carries a profile (species, generation, age, fitness, traits, mutations, lineage). Creatures age, adapt to their environment, and gain evolution points from surviving, fighting, and simply living.
Genetics & breeding: breed two evolved creatures and the offspring inherits from both parents — shared traits pass on reliably, single-parent traits are a coin-flip, and there's a small chance of something new entirely.
Mutations: dozens of named branches across chickens, cows, sheep, pigs, zombies, skeletons, spiders, creepers, endermen, wolves, and the new Rockling — each with real visual changes and gameplay abilities, not just recolors.
Rarity & Alpha/Ancient tiers: rare elite variants with auras, buffs to nearby kin, and unique drops.
The Rockling: a brand-new climbing lizard companion. Tame it, saddle it, ride it up cliffs and trees, and fight alongside it.
Mutation Lab: detect and analyze nearby creatures (wild or tamed) and attempt directed mutations — risky, resource-hungry, and never guaranteed.
Incubator: hatch species-specific eggs that carry a parent's genetics, closing the breeding loop from egg to offspring.
Evolution Scanner & Gene Scanner: point at any creature to read its full genetic profile.
Evolution Codex: an in-game reference book for everything you've discovered.
How to Play
Just play normally. Evolution happens passively — creatures near you gain evolution points from age and survival, hostile mobs gain points from combat. Over time you'll start seeing named mutations appear naturally (an "Iron Chicken," a "Frost Wolf," etc.).
Scan creatures with the Gene Scanner or Evolution Scanner to inspect their traits, mutation, generation, and fitness.
Breed selectively. Pair two creatures with traits you want — matched pairs pass mutations on with very high reliability, so deliberate breeding is the real path to strong lines.
Use the Mutation Lab once you have Genetic Essence and Stabilisers (dropped by evolved creatures) to attempt controlled mutations on a nearby creature — wild or tamed, no taming required for detection.
Tame a Rockling: craft a full set of Sand Armor, then feed a wild Rockling Spider Eyes three times (it'll retreat and return between feedings). Once tamed, saddle it and ride — hold forward against a cliff face or tree to climb. Press C to bite, hold C to tail-whip.
Open the Evolution Codex (key O, or right-click the book) to browse everything you've researched.
Recipes
Gene Scanner

Evolution Scanner

Mutation Lab

Incubator

Rockling Saddle

Sand Armor (Helmet / Chestplate / Leggings / Boots) — crafted like vanilla armor shapes, using Sand in place of ingots. Intentionally cheap; its purpose is Rockling taming, not combat.

Evolution Codex (shapeless): Book + Mutagen + Genetic Essence

Genetic Stabiliser (shapeless, makes 2): 2 Amethyst Shard + 1 Iron Ingot

Diamond / Emerald from Shards: 9 Diamond Shards → 1 Diamond, 9 Emerald Shards → 1 Emerald (crafted like a vanilla block-from-nuggets recipe)

Mutagen, Genetic Essence, Alpha Cores, and Ancient Essence are dropped by mutated, evolved, Alpha, and Ancient creatures respectively — hunt evolved wildlife to fuel your Mutation Lab.

RECIPES :

Gene Scanner :  

· [Glass Pane] · 
[Redstone][Iron Ingot][Redstone]

Evolution Scanner :

 · [Glass Pane] · 
[Redstone][Iron Ingot][Redstone]
 · [Iron Ingot] · 

Mutation Lab :

[Iron Ingot][Glass][Iron Ingot]
[Obsidian][Obsidian][Obsidian]

Incubator :

[Gold Ingot][Glass][Gold Ingot]
[Iron Ingot][Gold Ingot][Iron Ingot]
 · [Iron Ingot] · 

Rockling Saddle :

[Leather][Leather][Leather]
[Leather] · [Leather]
[Iron Ingot] · [Iron Ingot]

THIS IS A ONLY A BETA VERSION EXPECT BUGS BUT I WORKED HARD ON THIS MOD IT TOOK ME 2 MONTHS TO MAKE THIS ENJOY!

ROADMAP :

More Custom Mobs

More Mutations

Custom Ores

More Stations/labs

Bug fixes

More Genes

More tools

More Armor

EvoCraft Update — Penguins, Nether Mining, and Fixes
🐧 New Creature: The Penguin
A fully custom seabird has waddled into the mod — built from scratch with its own model, animations, and behavior. Penguins live in colonies, dive for fish, slide on their bellies, and fully participate in the evolution and mutation systems.

How to tame one:
Penguins aren't tamed with a fixed ritual — it's a gamble. Feed a wild penguin raw fish (Cod, Salmon, or Tropical Fish) and there's a chance it accepts you as its owner. Cod works best. Each fish that doesn't land the tame still builds trust, so your odds climb the more you feed it — up to a cap. Missing a few times isn't bad luck ruining your day; it's the system working as intended.

What they do:

Swim and dive — penguins are amphibious. They'll seek out water on their own to fish, diving down to hunt and surfacing with a catch.
Fish for you — a tamed or wild penguin will periodically dive and bring up raw fish, sometimes rarer finds (nautilus shells, prismarine, even a Heart of the Sea) if it's carrying the right traits.
Slide on ice — walk onto any ice variant and a penguin will belly-slide across it, picking up speed.
Form colonies — get 5 or more penguins together and they become a colony, boosting both breeding and fishing rates for every penguin nearby. This stacks the more you cram in, up to a cap — a proper penguin farm is genuinely worth building.
Breed and lay eggs — feed a pair fish while both are in love mode. They lay eggs that carry their genetics forward, just like every other creature in the mod — hatch them in an Incubator to raise the next generation.
Command a dive — sneak + right-click a tamed penguin near water to send it fishing on demand.
Mutations: Penguins have their own line of 8 mutations — Cryogenic Feathers, Ice Walker (freezes water underfoot as it walks), Conductive Feathers, Thermal Adaptation, Prismatic Feathers, Void Feathers, and the mythic-tier Aurora Feathers, plus a non-exclusive Deep Forager trait. Each has its own look and its own egg variant, so a mutated penguin breeds true.

Find them naturally in snowy beaches, frozen oceans, ice spikes, snowy plains/taiga, and frozen rivers.

⛏️ Mutagen Overhaul: From Nether Mining, Not Just Grinding
Mutagen — the currency behind Mutation Lab work — now has a real supply line instead of being a lucky drop from killing mutated animals.

New ore: Mutagenic Crystal Ore, found throughout the Nether. Glows faintly so it's spottable in a dark cavern.
Mine it (fortune-affected, silk touch works too) for Mutagenic Crystal.
Smelt or blast the crystal into Mutagen — same as any ordinary ore.
Mutated-mob kills still occasionally drop a bit of Mutagen as a bonus, but it's no longer the main way to get it. Go dig.