Title card for Dying of the Light modpack. It features aged scrolls decorated with black, dripping eldritch tentacles. It reads "Dying of the Light: a cozy horror modpack featuring a quest-driven storyline, and an emphasis on cozy activities such as fishing and photography."

Dying of the Light is a modpack inspired by the "cozy horror" genre, and games like Dredge and Strange Horticulture.

How can something be both horror and cozy, you ask? Well firstly, it avoids typical horror modpack tactics like jumpscares, excessive enemies/difficulty, and unfair balancing - instead, it focuses on an eerie atmosphere and a general sense of unease. The gameplay focus is not on combat, but rather on survival and following a quest-driven storyline. Additionally, there are several mods added which focus on cozy mechanics like cooking, fishing, and base-building.

Read on to learn more!

The story revolves around confronting the horrific creatures that exist in the world, learning more about them, documenting the process, and eventually helping these creatures to be put to rest. Once each spirit has had their story resolved, they will no longer spawn in the world, leaving things a little more peaceful than they were before.

This modpack enhances the survival aspect of Minecraft by adding mods such as Legendary Survival Overhaul, Burn in the Sun, Sculk Sickness, and Spoiled. These mods work together to challenge you without being overly intrusive and annoying. Each aspect has a balance: you can survive the sun's rays with Fire Resistance. You can avoid food spoilage by using certain preservation techniques such as Ender atmosphere or Salt. You can counteract temperature extremes by using the mod's built-in mechanisms, and so on.

What would a Dredge-inspired modpack be without a Sanity mechanic? Using the Sanity: Descent into Madness mod, players will have to find ways to keep their wits about them, or risk consequences. However, certain elements of the mod have been tweaked and reworked for this modpack, including removing the penalty for getting wet, and decreasing the overall difficulty of the mod - depending on your circumstances, of course. ;)

A custom stat called Insight (inspired by Bloodborne) is also present, and is a key aspect to progression through the story, as well as being a helpful currency. The Old Journal ingame documentation explains both of these mechanics, and more!

Dying of the Light features several mods which add new creatures who need your help - Captain Cornelia and the Mother of the Maze from Aquamirae, Herobrine from End of Herobrine, the Hidebehind from Whisperwoods, the Nameless Hanged from the Graveyard, and the Cave Dweller from Cave Dweller Reimagined. This final creature has been significantly nerfed from his original form, including a less demented model and having his speed and attack damage drastically lowered. Think of him more as a slow reaper to be outmaneuvered, as opposed to a terror you must immediately flee from.

Taking photos is an important aspect of Dying of the Light. With the Exposure mod, you'll be given a camera (enchanted with Soulbound, so you'll never lose it on death). The Camera Obscura, as it's called (inspired by the Fatal Frame series), functions not only as a hobby, but as a source of protection against the hostile world around you. As long as you're able to take a photo with it (which is to say, the camera has usable film with several shots left in it), you can look through the viewfinder of the camera to avoid being aggro'd by most monsters! However, this may not protect you if you are below half health, or going insane, so be sure to take care of yourself!

Again looking to Dredge for inspiration, one of the major activities of this modpack is fishing! It's a deeply beneficial activity, because it not only keeps you topped up on food, but it also regains your sanity the more you do it. The Tide mod adds new rods and new tackle, as well as a lot of new fish to find in various regions of your world! It also enhances the fishing minigame, making it more mindful and challenging (the challenge can be adjusted in the config if you find it hard). Additionally, you can catch special Aberrant Fish, which are freakish mutated versions of existing fish. Catching one of these will increase your Insight, and you can trade them in to the Pursuits tab of quests to receive emeralds.

"Exploration" card for Dying of the Light modpack. It features 3 screenshots: one of the Deep Frozen Ocean showcasing Aquamirae structures; one of a beautiful foggy river surrounded by trees; and one of a deep, dark forest with a skeleton in the foreground and some eerie eyes in the background.

The world of Dying of the Light is enhanced by a number of mods - including Cliff Under a Tree for terrain generation, Bigger Vanilla Trees, Tax Tree Giant, Nyctophobia biomes, and more! Find the remains of deceased explorers for a chance of loot, and watch out for underground earthquakes!

"Base Building" card for Dying of the Light modpack. It features several screenshots of a cozy-yet-spooky home interior.

Although this isn't the primary focus of the modpack, it's important to have someplace comfy and cozy to come home to, so Dying of the Light adds a few building and decoration mods, including Abyssal Decor, Cozy Home, and Thaumon!

Performance:

Dying of the Light is a fairly small modpack, and should require no more than 4gb of RAM to run. Ideally, 4-6gb is best to allocate to the pack.

Multiplayer:

This modpack is designed around a singleplayer experience, but is compatible with small servers for a few friends.

Shaders:

All screenshots were taken with the Insanity shaders, which come included with the modpack. You do not need Optifine in order to use these shaders, thanks to the Oculus mod.

Questions?

If you want to ask questions or just chat about the modpack, please feel free to come join our discord! Just as a warning, I do not have a specific server for Dying of the Light, but I do have a dedicated channel in my Cottage Witch discord, so please pop in and choose the correct option when joining to be given access to the right channel!