Tribulation — Difficulty Overhaul
Survive what comes next.
Also on Modrinth
and GitHub Releases.
Visit the website for the full feature
list, config reference, and command guide.
Tribulation is a difficulty overhaul for Minecraft 1.21.1 (Fabric). It
transforms Minecraft's flat difficulty curve into an escalating gauntlet: the
longer you play, the further you explore, and the deeper you dig — the harder
the world fights back. Every system is formula-driven, fully configurable,
and persists across server restarts.
An overhaul, not a content pack. No custom mobs, no new dimensions — vanilla mobs,
vanilla mechanics, sharpened. Zero external dependencies beyond Fabric API.
At a glance
- Minecraft 1.21.1, Fabric loader (0.16.10+), Fabric API required.
- Required on the server; install client-side too for the level badge HUD.
- Every system is individually toggleable through Mod Menu / Cloth Config
or
config/tribulation.json — hot-reload with /tribulation reload.
- MIT licensed.
Features
Four-Axis Mob Scaling
Mob stats are computed from four independent factors the moment a mob
spawns:
| Axis |
How It Works |
Cap |
| Time |
Your cumulative playtime advances a per-player difficulty level (0–250). Higher level = stronger mobs near you. ~1 level per hour of play. |
Level 250 |
| Distance |
Beyond 1,000 blocks from world spawn, mobs gain bonus health, damage, armor, and toughness. The frontier is dangerous. |
+150% |
| Height |
Deviation from sea level (Y=62) in either direction adds threat. Deep caves and tall mountains are deadlier. |
+50% |
| Moon Phase |
On Overworld nights, a triangle curve peaks at the full moon and tapers to zero at the new moon — the same coordinates feel different week to week. |
+10% |
All four axes stack. On top of them, a flat per-dimension level offset keeps
the Nether (+25) and End (+40) scarier than the late-game Overworld, lifting
both mob stats and ability tiers. 21 vanilla mob types have individually tuned
scaling rates and caps — zombies don't scale the same as skeletons or
creepers. Modded hostile mobs are automatically supported with conservative
fallback scaling (configurable per-namespace or per-entity).
In multiplayer, choose which player level drives a nearby mob — the
nearest, the average, or the maximum of the players in range.
Tier-Gated Mob Abilities
At 5 level thresholds (50/100/150/200/250), mobs unlock new behaviors that
change how you fight them:
- Tier 1 (50) — Zombies call reinforcements, creepers fuse in 0.75s,
hoglins shrug off knockback
- Tier 2 (100) — Skeletons trade bows for swords, spiders snare you in
webs, drowned carry tridents, piglins pick up crossbows
- Tier 3 (150) — Zombies break doors, spiders trample crops, wither
skeletons sprint, zoglins walk through fire
- Tier 4 (200) — Skeleton arrows burn, husks inflict Hunger II,
vindicators resist damage, wither skeleton blades gain Fire Aspect
- Tier 5 (250) — Zombies sprint, 25% of creepers spawn charged, spiders
leap, zombified piglins aggro from far away
Every individual ability can be toggled in the config.
Tier-Driven Equipment
Mobs spawn with armor and weapons that scale with their tier — leather and
gold at low tiers shifting toward iron, diamond, and netherite at the top,
with tier-capped Protection/Sharpness/Power enchantments. A clear threat
signal before you even engage.
Special Zombie Variants
Zombie-family mobs (Zombie, Husk, Drowned, Zombified Piglin) can roll one of
two variants on top of normal scaling:
- Big Zombie (10%) — 1.3× size, +10 health, +2 damage, 0.7× speed. A
lumbering tank.
- Speed Zombie (10%) — 1.3× movement speed, −10 health. Closes gaps fast.
Special Skeleton Variants
Skeleton-family mobs (Skeleton, Stray, Bogged) can roll one of two variants on
top of normal scaling:
- Deadeye Skeleton (10%) — faster bow draw, −10 health. A glass-cannon
archer.
- Brute Skeleton (10%) — +10 health, 0.5 knockback resistance, 1.3× size,
slower bow draw. A heavy, hard-to-stagger archer.
Boss Scaling
The Ender Dragon, Wither, Elder Guardian, and anything tagged c:bosses scale
with a separate, gentler formula — health and damage only, capped at +300%. No
sudden one-shots; endgame bosses just stay relevant.
Raid & Patrol Scaling
Vanilla's own escalation system scales with you, driven by the tier of the
targeted players — while bells, Hero of the Village, and the raid bar all
behave normally.
- Bigger patrols — a pillager patrol captain adds extra members as your
tier climbs, each spawned through the normal scaling path with
tier-appropriate stats, armor, and weapons.
- Extra raid waves — raids targeting high-tier players run additional
waves on top of the vanilla count.
Death Penalty Systems
All penalties are independently toggleable. Mix and match the stakes you
want:
- Death Relief — lose 2 levels on death (rubber-band mechanic,
cooldown-gated)
- Shatter Shards — rare drops (0.5%) that lower your level by 5, at the
cost of 10s of Slowness, Mining Fatigue, and Weakness
- Hardcore Hearts (opt-in) — permanently lose max health per death;
restore with craftable Heart Fragments
- Soul Inventory (opt-in) — items are destroyed on death unless they
carry the Soulbound enchantment
A popped Totem of Undying can optionally interact with these penalties via
the totems config: have a totem pop still apply the Death Relief level loss
(countsAsDeathRelief), or shield you from the Hardcore Hearts loss
(protectsHearts).
Rewards Scale Too
- Bonus XP — scaled mobs drop up to 2× base XP, proportional to their
scaling factor
- Extra loot (opt-in) — a chance to duplicate a drop, scaling with mob
difficulty
Level Badge HUD
A compact, icon-only badge shows your current tier at a glance — tinted
white through yellow, orange, and red to dark crimson across tiers, with a
thin progress bar toward your next level. Flashes gold on level-up. Anchor
to any screen corner; stacks cleanly with HUDs from the other Concord suite
mods.
Difficulty Statistics
Six custom statistics track your difficulty milestones — highest level
reached, levels lost to death relief, Shatter Shards used, half-hearts lost,
half-hearts restored, and Tier-5 mobs killed. They live alongside vanilla's
counters in the Statistics → Custom screen, so progress persists across
sessions.
Commands
Player commands: /tribulation info, /tribulation hearts. Operator
commands cover level set/reset, hot-reload, and the debug/inspect
scaling-breakdown tools. Full reference:
tribulation.rfizzle.com/commands.html
Optional integrations
Tribulation detects and integrates with these mods when present. None are
bundled — install whichever you already use.
For mod developers: a stable, read-only API
(com.rfizzle.tribulation.api) exposes player level/tier, mob scaling
state, and a level-change event — see the
developer docs.
Requirements
- Minecraft 1.21.1
- Fabric Loader 0.16.10+
- Fabric API
- Java 21+
- Works on dedicated servers and singleplayer
Installation
- Install Fabric Loader for 1.21.1.
- Drop Fabric API into your
mods/
folder.
- Download Tribulation and place it into
mods/ as well — on both server
and client.
- (Optional) Add Mod Menu and Cloth Config for the in-game settings
screen.
Config generates at config/tribulation.json on first launch.
Links
Companion mods
Tribulation is part of Concord — a
modular collection of system overhauls. Install any, combine all:
License & credits
Licensed under the MIT License.
© 2025-2026 rfizzle. Tribulation is not affiliated with Mojang Studios or
Microsoft.
