⚔️ Solo Mining 2.0.0

The biggest update so far: custom monsters and rulers, twelve landscapes instead of a single valley, gate gear, events, secrets and a Hunter Rank. The full guide is in the 📖 Wiki.

⚠️ New required dependency: GeckoLib (models and animations of the monsters), needed on client and server.

👹 Custom Monsters & Rulers

• 29 custom monsters in Minecraft style, four per area:
  • 🪨 Deep Cave: Cave Crawler, Crystal Golem, Tunnel Miner, Burrow Worm
  • ❄️ Ice Wasteland: Frost Ripper, Frost Yeti, Frost Wraith, Glacier Beetle
  • 🏜️ Sand Temple: Dune Scorpion, Tomb Mummy, Jackal Guard, Desert Cobra
  • 🌋 Volcanic Depths: Ember Salamander, Cinder Imp, Lava Hound, Ash Elemental
  • 🌿 Overgrown Ruin: Thorn Brute, Spore Shambler, Vine Lasher, Moss Stag
  • 🌌 Abyssal Void: Void Stalker, Sculk Hound, Void Mantis, Void Leech
  • plus the Bog Toad and Magma Crab in two areas each, the Riftling everywhere, the Shadow Knight from rank B and the Treasure Goblin
• Every monster has its own on-hit effect (poison, freezing, knock-up, darkness, tongue pull …), and eight of them also attack from range (rocks, ice, venom, spores, embers, void).
• 👑 Twelve Rulers instead of buffed vanilla mobs, two per area, one per gate: Brood Queen & Deep Wyrm, Frost Colossus & Frost Queen, Sand Pharaoh & Sand Sphinx, Magma Tyrant & Lava Giant, Elder Treant & Thorn Witch, Void Lord & Abyss Eye. Their name appears as a title when they arrive.
• 💥 Every ruler has its own signature attack, e.g. a charge with an ember trail, an ice shard nova, an eruption beneath the player, a sand vortex or calling its own royal guard.
• Elite guardians are now enlarged area monsters with a glowing ring.
• Glowing eyes and veins in the dark, particle trails, own sounds – and instead of tipping over, monsters crumble into particles when they die.

🌄 Landscapes

Twelve landscapes, two per area, each with its own biome (sky, fog, colours, music, ambient particles), vanilla trees and rock layers – for example Pine Forest and Autumn Woods in the Deep Cave, or Sea of Dunes and Red Canyon in the Sand Temple. Every zone has its own landmark.

🎁 Rewards

• 🛡️ Gate Gear: six sets of four armor pieces and a blade, one per ruler. Stats between diamond and netherite, a set bonus against the dangers of its area, and the ruler's on-hit effect on the blade. Found in the boss chest of its area from rank C.
• 📜 Extra loot via config (solomining_loot.json): enchanted books (Mending from rank A), potions, armor trim templates, the netherite upgrade from rank S and more – chance, chest, rank, area and gate type freely configurable.
• 💰 Jackpot Gate (3 %): double loot in the boss chest.

🗺️ More in the Valley

• 🔍 Secrets: hidden vault under a hatch, mimics, buried treasure (brush), the Treasure Goblin, caves with monsters and a cave guardian, invisible traps.
• ⛩️ Event zones: Trial Shrine (three waves, then a blessing), Ambush, and three seal stones that must glow at the same time.
• 🎲 Gate modifiers from rank C (Haste, Armored, Giants, Lurkers, Explosive, Swarm, Gold Rush …).
• 🔴 Red Gate: no way out until the ruler falls. You can give up by typing /solomining exit twice within 10 seconds.
• 🚨 Gate breaches: an ignored gate starts letting monsters out after half its time.

✨ Visuals

• 💡 Light beams in the rank colour over every open gate (can be turned off: gateLightBeams).
• ❤️ Boss bar in the info box: name and health bar in the area's colour, with marks at 50 % and 25 % where the next phase begins.
• 🏛️ Themed waiting room: floor, rim, rock base and plants already show where you are going.
• Monsters joining the fight rise out of the ground; all ranged attackers have a throw animation.
• Slopes with irregular rock layers and more ambient particles (fireflies, leaves, ash, petals).
• Gate blades have their own shapes and every set its own colours – nothing looks like vanilla gold, diamond or copper anymore. Catalyst, tracker, exit crystal and Hunter Coin are redrawn, and currency icons no longer look like vanilla items.

🏅 Progress & Comfort

• 🎖️ Hunter Rank E to S with /solomining stats; higher ranks unlock offers at the trader, and the trader tells you what is new.
• 🤫 Five hidden advancements.
• 🎯 No more searching at the end: the last monsters glow, and an arrow in the action bar points to the nearest one.
• 📊 Run summary after the ruler: time, monsters, deaths, secrets, Hunter points.
• 📝 All config files are commented – every option is explained directly in the file.

🛠️ For Server Owners & Mod Developers

• 🔌 New Portal API (com.mki.solomining.api.SoloMiningApi): open gates at a fixed position with rank, type, landscape, ruler, access and expiry; list and close gates. The same is available for command blocks and data packs as /solomining spawnat <pos> [rank] [type] [landscape] [ruler].
• 🧪 Test commands for operators (/solomining test …): gate with a fixed landscape and rank, skip straight to the ruler, set the ruler's health, monster gallery, gear and items into your inventory.

🐛 Fixes

• Fixed getting stuck in a gate after logging out: /solomining exit now always brings you out of the gate world.
• Fixed the client crash while loading on Minecraft 26.3.
• No more lag spike while the valley is built (previously up to 360 ms in one tick).
• Lanterns, moss carpets, amethyst and azaleas no longer drop as items in the waiting room after re-entering.
• No more flickering faces on the monsters.
• 1.21.1: the gate portal surfaces now render correctly.

📦 Versions & Notes

• ✅ Available for Minecraft 1.21.1, 26.1.2, 26.2 and 26.3 – each for Fabric, Forge and NeoForge. Forge 26.3 is new!
• ⚠️ GeckoLib is required: GeckoLib 4 (4.8.4+) on 1.21.1, GeckoLib 5 (5.5.x) on 26.x. On Fabric 1.21.1 you also need Fabric Loader 0.17 or newer.
• On 1.21.1 each landscape shows at most one kind of ambient particle, and a few newer plants are replaced by older ones. Gameplay is identical.
• PartyLink and Loyal Companions are not yet available for Minecraft 26.3, so on 26.3 gates run without party detection and without the companion damage cap – just like without those mods. Nothing changes on other versions.
• Existing config files stay valid; on first start they get the explanations and the new options. solomining_loot.json is created new.