Project Zarya

ЗАРЯ (Zarya, “Dawn”)

Soviet military technology for Minecraft: modular missiles, nuclear weapons, an orbital strike platform, helicopters, armored vehicles and air defense, all with big, cinematic explosions.

I made Zarya for multiplayer PvP and PvE alongside Fungal Infection: Spore. When the fungus takes over the world, you need more than swords.

Requires Mekanism and Mekanism Generators. Zarya uses their materials, energy and machines and builds its war industry on top.

🚀 Build your own missiles

Design missiles piece by piece at the assembly station: warhead, engine, hull, fins, guidance and modules. There are four classes, from small tactical rockets to strategic missiles that cross the map.

• Warheads:
  • High-explosive.
  • Thermobaric: an airburst that leaves a rain of fire.
  • Cryogenic.
  • Cluster.
  • Mine-laying.
  • Strategic nuclear: flash, mushroom cloud, burnt wasteland and a radioactive crater.
• Launchers: launch pads, underground silos, a reinforced silo for strategic missiles, and multiple launchers that fire salvos at several targets.
• Real flight: a vertical boost, a ballistic arc and smoke trails visible from kilometers away. Missiles can fail, get intercepted or be fooled by decoys.

☢️ Atomic program

Nuclear power is not free. You earn it:

1. Enrich Mekanism uranium in a centrifuge cascade.
2. Make "ТВЭЛ" (TVEL, fuel rods) and load them into the "РБМК" (RBMK) reactor, a graphite core with control rods.
3. Keep the reactor stable. Hold its power in the green band to breed plutonium, and fight xenon poisoning and steam voids. If things go wrong, press "АЗ-5" (AZ-5, emergency shutdown). Get it really wrong and the reactor explodes. You get loud warnings first, though.
4. Reprocess the irradiated rods into a plutonium core for the Tier V bomb, a device you place by hand and arm through a tense sequence. Anyone can try to defuse it… by cutting the right wire.

The reactor also powers your base. Radiation is Mekanism’s, so bring a DP-5 radiometer and the "ОЗК" (OZK) protective suit with its GP-5 gas mask.

🛰️ Orbital weapon "ЗАРЯ"

Launch a platform into orbit, load it with tungsten rods, and strike anywhere from the "ПУЛЬТ" (pult, control console):

• Its railgun fires the rod down at hypersonic speed.
• Everyone below sees it coming: a red dot that turns orange, then white-hot, with a plasma trail and a growing roar.
• The impact digs a crater down to bedrock, with no radiation.
• Bring the return capsule home with the "ПОИСК-К" (poisk-K, search-K) tracker.

🛡️ Air defense

• Radar with encrypted frequency chips, so other players can’t track your base.
• AK-630, a close-in turret that tells friend from foe and also shoots down artillery shells.
• Over a dozen interceptor types, including the redirector, which captures an enemy missile and sends it back.
• Laser defense that recognizes allied launchers, the "КУПОЛ" (kupol, dome) force field, jammers, decoys and an alert antenna.

🚁 Vehicles

• Helicopters, all three with interior cockpits, step-by-step startup, fuel and armor:
  • "ПЕЛИКАН" (pelikan, pelican): transport.
  • "КОНДОР" (kondor, condor): heavy transport with door gunners.
  • "ВОРОН" (voron, raven): attack helicopter with a 30 mm cannon, rockets and a TV turret camera for the gunner.
• Bomber "КОРШУН" (korshun, kite): a single-seat bomber with its own HUD and 36 bombs.
• Ground vehicles built at the vehicle table:
  • Chassis: 4×4, 6×6, 8×8 or tracked.
  • Engines, and armor up to reactive plates and cage armor.
  • Weapons, from machine guns to tank guns, the "ГРОЗА" (groza, storm) rocket battery, AA guns and a railgun.
  • Extras: smoke, a Trophy active protection system, electronic warfare and a mine plow.
• Remote-controlled:
  • A bomber drone.
  • The kamikaze cart "ЖУК" (zhuk, beetle).
  • The jet "СТРИЖ" (strizh, swift), with Hellfire missiles and flares.

💥 Artillery and infantry

• D-30 howitzer and a mortar with firing tables, plus the "АРК-1" (ARK-1) counter-battery radar that finds where enemy shells come from.
• RPG-18, RShG-2, a disposable Stinger that locks on to aircraft, and a portable railgun.
• "ОГНЕМЁТ" (ognemyot, flamethrower) and "КРИОМЁТ" (kriomyot, cryo-thrower).
• Grenades, C4, an explosive vest with a detonator, and the "МЁРТВАЯ РУКА" (myortvaya ruka, dead hand), a ring that takes revenge if you die.

🗺️ Explore the ruins of the USSR

• Military sites: checkpoints, bunkers, missile wrecks, minefields and abandoned convoys.
• The secret complex "Почтовый ящик 7" (P.O. Box 7), with strange experiments, a laboratory and an AK-630 that still guards its post. Warning signs are written in your language.
• Ruined villages and Soviet buildings, plus hidden places like dugouts, a well with a radio room and the mysterious "Объект 0" (Object 0).
• "ПУСТОТА" (pustota, void): portals to temporary mining worlds.
• A recycler with minigames, plenty of decorative blocks and grim scenery.

🍄 Made for Fungal Infection: Spore

• Cryogenic weapons freeze the fungus, slow its spread and deal extra damage to its creatures.
• The radar warns you when an infected zone grows near your base.
• Some structures can generate already infected.

That’s how my friends and I play it: all-out war against the infection.

Development

Zarya was programmed with the help of Claude, the language model by Anthropic. Claude wrote the code, 3D models, textures, sounds and translations. I designed the mechanics, decided every detail, tested every version and reported the bugs. It’s a project made by a player for his own modpack, now shared with the community.

Status: Beta for Minecraft Forge 1.20.1. No config options: everything runs at full power. It may contain bugs; reports are welcome!