The death animation, rebuilt

The final hit cracks the mob with thin lines of light, then the body breaks into pieces that fly, tumble, bounce on the ground and fade out.

No more red tip-over and white smoke. Drops, XP and the server's logic stay exactly the same: only what you see changes.

Every mob breaks into its own skin

The shards are cut from the mob as the game draws it: same model, same texture, armour and held items included. A creeper breaks into green pieces, a skeleton into bone, an enderman into black glass.

Mobs from other mods work too, with their own textures.

Light, even next to a mob farm

A budget caps how many deaths can shatter at once and how many pieces are in the air. Deaths far away, or past the budget, fall back to a short quiet fade.

By default only the mobs you kill shatter, so a farm grinding on its own does not fill the screen.

Pick what shatters

Choose a style for everything, or a different one per group: undead, arthropods, animals, water mobs, nether, end. Switch off single mobs or whole mods. Custom colours take hex values.

Bosses keep their own death by default, and so do mobs from mods that give them a custom death animation.

Reduce motion: no flying pieces, just a soft fade in the style's colour.

Shatter

The default. Cracks of light, then shards of the mob's own skin that tumble, bounce and fade.

Halloween

The body darkens with a glowing orange rim, swells, and bursts into a swarm of bats that flutter away.

Winter

The mob freezes solid, cracks like a frozen pond and falls apart into icy pieces and a puff of snow.

Retro Arcade

The mob explodes into big pixels of its own skin and a "+100" pops up, like an old arcade cabinet.

For modpack makers

✔ Free to include in any modpack, including monetized ones. No need to ask.
✔ Client-side only: nothing on the server. Works on any server, in single player and on Realms. Safe to leave in a server pack: it does nothing there.
✔ No required libraries (Fabric API only on Fabric).
✔ Nothing loud on by default: no sounds, no screen shake, no camera moves.
✔ Bosses, and mobs with their own death animation (GeckoLib and others), are left alone by default.
✔ Have Ragdollified or Mob Dismemberment installed? Kill Shatter steps aside and lets them handle the death.

Ship your defaults in config/killshatter.properties (every key is commented):

style=shatter
onlyMyKills=true
maxEffects=12
maxDistance=48
group.animals=off
mob.minecraft:villager=off
mod.alexsmobs=winter
colors.halloween.rim=#FF8A1F

Everything is also in the in-game settings: Mods > Kill Shatter > Config, or /killshatter.

Tested in game

Forge 1.20.1 (47.4) · NeoForge 1.21.1 · Fabric 26.3 · Fabric 26.2 · NeoForge 26.2.
Every file was opened in game and passed the same 79-check test run before release.

Works with

Modded mobs shatter with their own textures; mods with their own death effects keep them.

Multiplayer

Each player sees the style they picked. By default you see your own kills shatter; turn on Other players' kills to see theirs too.

Damage Numbers

Floating damage numbers on every hit, with a punchy pop for crits.

Loot Beams

Valuable drops glow with a soft beam coloured by value, so you never lose loot again.

Boss Bars

Every boss bar gets its own animated frame, a damage trail, cracks and a shattering death.

Boss Intros

Cinematic boss titles: black bars slide in and the boss name comes up in big letters, with a victory card when you win.

Immersive Screens

Every screen of the game in a theme, with small animations: Halloween, Hologram, Winter, Space and Retro Arcade.