GroundZero Companions

Raise, train, breed and explore with your own animal companions!

GroundZero Companions transforms ordinary pets into loyal survival partners with unique abilities, progression systems, equipment, personalities, genetics and interactive activities.

Whether you want a protective German Shepherd, a curious fox, an adventurous cat or a pack-carrying goat, your companions can become an important part of your Minecraft survival experience.

Designed for Minecraft 1.20.1 Forge, the mod supports both singleplayer and multiplayer servers.

Animal Companions

Discover 26 animal breeds and varieties, including:

Dogs: Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, Black Labrador, Pit Bull, German Shepherd, Husky, Rottweiler, Beagle, Border Collie, Dachshund, Dalmatian, Corgi and Mixed Breed.

Cats: Tabby, Black Cat, White Cat, Tuxedo, Calico, Siamese, Maine Coon, Bengal, British Shorthair and Persian.

Other companions: Foxes, Goats and Otters.

Each animal features its own appearance, base attributes, natural spawning preferences and progression options.

Animals can spawn naturally in suitable biomes, with configurable spawn settings.

Taming & Companion Collection

Build trust with wild animals by feeding and interacting with them.

Once an animal trusts you enough, it joins your personal companion collection.

Press P to open the Companion Collection.

From here, you can:

• View and manage your companions.

• Summon or store animals.

• Rename your pets.

• Give commands such as Follow, Stay, Sit and Lie Down.

• Access inventories, skills and training.

• Transfer or trade companions with other players.

• Release companions when needed.

By default, you can have two active companions, with server-configurable limits.

Your companions and their progression are saved between sessions.

Leveling & Skill Trees

Every companion has its own progression system, with a maximum level of 100.

Earn experience by training, exploring, bonding and participating in combat.

Each companion has a skill tree with unlockable abilities and upgrades.

Skills can improve:

• Maximum health and armor.

• Movement speed and damage.

• Knockback resistance.

• Healing and recovery.

• Training efficiency.

• Resource detection.

• Combat abilities and species-specific talents.

Skill points are earned through progression, and skills have level and prerequisite requirements.

You can also respec your companion's skills, subject to the configured cost and cooldown.

Interactive Training

Training is more than clicking a button.

Companions can participate in several activities and minigames, including:

• Memory training.

• Timing challenges.

• Finding exercises.

• Fetch training.

• Recall and staying close.

• Heel training.

• Swimming exercises.

• Jumping challenges.

Your companion performs real activities in the Minecraft world, with experience awarded for completed tasks.

Training rewards are validated by the server to prevent unlimited XP farming.

Useful Survival Abilities

Your animals can help you during exploration and survival.

Fetch: Order your companion to retrieve eligible dropped items.

Find Ores: Send your companion to search nearby loaded terrain for ore deposits.

Find Flora: Search for nearby plants and natural resources.

Come & Stay: Control your companion's movement and positioning.

Combat Support: Certain companions can defend you against hostile creatures and use special abilities.

Resource-finding companions lead you toward detected locations. They do not automatically mine blocks or generate free resources.

Different species offer different strengths, making companion selection meaningful.

Unique Personalities & Special Talents

Companions can develop different personalities, including:

• Loyal

• Silly

• Stubborn

• Curious

• Gentle

• Energetic

These personalities influence their behavior and certain activity bonuses.

Species also have special combat and support talents.

Dogs can specialize in powerful bites, guarding and support. Cats have abilities such as pouncing and comforting their owners. Foxes, goats and otters have their own combat and defensive talents.

These abilities become available through progression and have stamina costs and cooldowns.

Breeding, Genetics & Hybrids

GroundZero Companions includes an advanced breeding and inheritance system.

Raise compatible adult animals, prepare a breeding station and begin breeding once the requirements are met.

Features include:

• Male and female animals.

• Pregnancy and litter management.

• Species-dependent pregnancy durations.

• Inherited physical characteristics.

• Coat colors and patterns.

• Family trees and ancestry records.

• Genetic mutations and rare traits.

• Inherited talents and stat bonuses.

• Prevention of breeding between closely related animals.

Cross-species breeding is supported when enabled in the server configuration.

Create unusual fantasy hybrids by combining different animal species. Offspring can inherit features from both parents, and those traits can continue through future generations.

Hybrids retain their genetic information when stored or traded.

Growing Up

Companions have multiple life stages, from young animals to adults.

Bred offspring progress through newborn, young, adolescent and adult stages.

Animals grow visually as they age, and their size and proportions change over time.

Young animals have different care and activity restrictions, so raising a new companion takes time and attention.

Equipment & Inventory

Equip your companions with useful survival gear.

Available equipment includes:

• Small, medium and large backpacks.

• Protective harnesses and armor.

• Collars.

• Animal-specific equipment.

Backpacks provide additional storage, with default capacities of 6, 12 or 18 slots.

Equipment can improve protection and provide practical bonuses.

Equipped gear is also represented visually on companions.

Items and equipment are preserved when companions are stored or reloaded.

Food, Healing & Care

Keeping your companions healthy is an important part of survival.

The mod adds animal-specific food and care items, including:

• Dog food and premium dog food.

• Cat food, fish treats and catnip.

• Fox, goat and otter food.

• Training and energy treats.

• Healing salves and medical kits.

• Grooming brushes and bathing supplies.

• Food and care items for young animals.

Care for your pets to restore health, stamina, hunger and cleanliness.

Companions that become incapacitated can be stored for recovery rather than permanently lost.

Animal Homes & Breeding Stations

Build dedicated homes for your companions.

Available facilities include dog houses, kennels, cat houses, cat trees and breeding stations.

Different tiers offer different storage capacities and numbers of residents.

Use homes to manage assigned companions, store supplies and support breeding.

Breeding facilities include dedicated interfaces for selecting parents, monitoring pregnancies and reviewing offspring.

Trading & Adoption

Companions can be transferred, gifted or sold to other players.

The trading system includes:

• Player-to-player offers.

• Trade confirmation.

• Configurable prices.

• Optional Vault economy integration.

• Emerald-based transactions when a supported economy is unavailable.

• Persistent companion ownership records.

A traded animal keeps its progression, equipment, inventory, genetics and other saved information.

An optional animal shelter system also allows players to adopt companions through a configurable catalogue.

Custom UI & Configuration

GroundZero Companions features custom interfaces for:

• Companion Collection

• Skill Trees

• Training

• Inventory

• Animal Homes

• Breeding

• Genetics

• Trading

• Adoption

Default keybind: P

The key can be changed in Minecraft's Controls menu.

Server owners can configure many aspects of the mod, including spawning, companion limits, progression, breeding, training, care, equipment, economy and more.

Configuration files are generated automatically under:

config/groundzero-companions/

Installation

Minecraft: 1.20.1
Mod Loader: Forge
Recommended Forge version: 47.3.22
Java: 17

Install the mod on both the client and server when playing multiplayer.

GroundZero Companions is designed as a standalone mod and does not require the full GroundZero server modpack.

Vault economy integration is optional and intended for compatible hybrid server environments.

Start Your Journey

Find your first animal, earn its trust, train it, unlock new abilities and build your own collection of companions.

From loyal dogs and adventurous cats to genetically unique fantasy hybrids, GroundZero Companions brings a new layer of progression, interaction and survival gameplay to Minecraft.

Your world. Your companions. Your adventure.