Explorer's Eve - Wither Storm Modpack

From start to finish, everything in this update is related. There aren't as many new features as in prior updates, but everything's been inspected to make sure that no interesting feature from any of the mods used here is left by the wayside. Additionally, or perhaps even more importantly, the true final battle is now better than ever before!

Added YUNG's Better Jungle Temples.
Added YUNG's Better End Island.
Updated Forge to 45.2.0.
Updated Cracker's Wither Storm to 3.3.1.
Updated Aether to beta.6.3.
Updated Aether: Lost Content to 1.1.7.
Updated Deep Aether to 1.0.8 and added Aeroblender and Terrablender as dependencies.
Updated Nullscape to 1.2.2.
Updated FallingTree to 3.13.0.
Removed Rubidium. Please install the Rubidium-Aether Chunk Fix fork from Modrinth if you need better performance.

Remade the last phase of the true final battle to be something truly epic. Thanks to Quillver for providing the music!
Added a new boss, the Nameless Sorcerer, as an optional post-Wither Storm fight to make building a Withered Beacon easier.
Added a hint system for certain tricky bosses to display tips above the action bar on how to fight them.
Added the challenge toggle menu, accessed through the guide menu. This menu features optional custom challenges:
-Silent Storm, which makes the Wither Storm silent and disables its bossbar when underground.
-Diggy Diggy Hole, which makes the Wither Storm dig much more frequently.
-Incuritis, which makes Wither Sickness permanent.
-Draconic Temperament, which prevents the Wither Storm from getting distracted and makes its chases trigger more often but last for less time.
Added several one-time music tracks for when the Storm reaches phase 4, entering the Overworld, and defeating the Wither Storm.
Added a warning that appears when summoning multiple Wither Storms at once.
Removed Daydream mode and Nightmare mode. They were underused, unbalanced, and mostly uninteresting.
Removed the ability to toggle the pack's custom music to fix several issues. If you don't like it, please mute the Record slider instead.
Removed the warning about Rubidium's 1.19.4 biome blend bug.

Added five new Explorer's Treasures:
-The Diamond Minotaur Axe, found in the Labyrinth Vault. It's now used instead of the Warped Axe to craft the Mazebreaker.
-The Uncrafting Table, also found in the Labyrinth Vault. Some recipes are blacklisted for balance.
-Neptune Gloves, found in the Warped Garden.
-The Monstrous Helm, craftable after defeating two Netherite Monstrosities.
-The Ice Sword, dropped by the Starlit Crusher.
Removed the Gauntlet of Guard due to it being bad and also causing serious bugs.
The Totem of Undying and Charm of Life II are tagged as Explorer's Treasures, making a total of 50 for the True Explorer advancement.
The Warped Axe no longer teleports the player unless it hits an entity.
Basic loading functions now run automatically on reload. /trigger Reload is now only for players.
Certain config settings can't be overridden by the player to prevent them from breaking the pack.
The Tainted Gem now states which dimension it was last attuned in to clarify how it works a little better.
Changed how custom music triggers work slightly for a better experience.
Added some more guide lines for when the Wither Storm is resummoned.
Many enchanted books can be crafted using the Withered Beacon.
Nerfed the true final battle in several ways to make it flow smoother.
Made it easier to find items if the true final battle ends in failure.
The Gravitite Ring can now be crafted at the Mechanical Fusion Anvil.

The player no longer spawns exactly inside the rundown house.
CWSM's new rundown houses spawn in different Twilight Forest biomes.
Removed amethyst, gravel, and most flint from the Twilight Forest.
Made skeletons much less common in the Twilight Forest.
Leather is a bit more common in the Twilight Forest.
Arctic Fur is a little more common, and it's also found from the Alpha Yeti and Aurora Palace.
Liveroot blocks drop some golden amber in addition to liveroot.
Druid huts and foundations can have damaged leather armor inside.
The Spyglass can sometimes be found in Hedge Maze chests.
The Golden Dart Shooter can now appear druid hut basements.
Golden darts can now appear in hollow hills.
Steeleaf can appear in medium and large hollow hills.
Nerfed hollow hill ore stalactites.
Ender pearls are a bit rarer in Lich towers.
Moved the Labyrinth's Echo Shard and Power Gloves from the vault to the Minoshroom's treasure chest.
Dark Tower generic boxes are somewhat less good, while key boxes are generally better.
Made Coruscant Panels a little bit more common in Dark Tower key boxes.
Monsters can now spawn in the Dark Forest Center.
Sources of Echo Shards now only yield one instead of several.

In the Overworld, Echo Shards are only found in Ancient Cities, Ocean Monuments, and Desert, Jungle, and Snowy Temples.
Replaced vanilla Jungle Temples with YUNG's Better Jungle Temples. Loot has been customized.
The Snowy Temple's mining fatigue debuff is cleared when a player reaches the treasure room for the first time.
Enchanted crossbows are more common in Pillager Outposts and Bastions.
Added chainmail armor to more places. Sometimes it's enchanted.
Neptune armor can be smithed by adding a sea lantern to chainmail armor.
Tridents can be found sometimes in underwater ruins.
Ocean monuments are more common.
Reenabled the Warped Garden dungeon. It's rarer than before.
Ruined portals of all kinds can no longer generate near each other. They're also a bit rarer.
Ruined Nether portals in the Nether are more common.
Loot found in places related to Super TNT is more likely to be enchanted.
Burning Ashes have a lore tag to explain their use.
The Soul Prison contains a couple of Ignited Revenants, which each drop a Netherite Scrap and Fiery Blood.
Phantoms can spawn naturally in the Soul Prison.
Updated the End with YUNG's Better End Island. The Wither Storm still won't enter the End until the dragon is taken care of.
Star Flares generate scattered throughout the End, making Blue Skies optional to start the true final battle.
End Cities have more emeralds.
Changed the Redstone Locator's recipe to an Eye of Ender, a redstone block, two iron ingots, and a Nether Star.
Updated the Wither & Harbinger's themes.

Aether accessories now all use the default Curios menu.
The Ice Ring and Ice Pendant now freeze water and lava into frosted ice and unstable obsidian, which decay over time.
Replaced Cataclysm's melting netherrack with Aether's unstable obsidian.
The Zeal Lighter properly fails to work in the Aether.
Ruined Aether portals can now generate in the Overworld and Aether. They've been customized a bit.
Blue berry bushes behave more like sweet berry bushes.
Golden Amber can be harvested by any diamond-strength axe, even ones not from the Aether.
Healing Stones are now crafted using one golden apple, four ambrosium shards, and four holystone.
The Charm of Life II recipe requires a Healing Stone instead of Tainted Dust.
Skyjade ore and Gravitite ore are more common.
Added Lightning Knives to various other dungeon loot tables and made them craftable using Sterling Aerclouds and other materials.
Sterling Aerclouds generate a little more often and much lower down.
Sterling Aerclouds are converted to Chromatic Aerclouds using the Alchemy Table instead of the Altar. This rewards an advancement.
Stratus Ingots are now crafted with Falsite and eight different types of clouds.
Aether's Gold and Silver dungeons now reward more pieces of armor, fewer healing stones, fewer gummy swets, and no Gravitite.
The Gold dungeon now rewards 6 Coruscant Panels instead of 4.
Moved the Gravitite Gloves from the Gold dungeon to the Platinum dungeon.
The Platinum dungeon contains Healing Stones instead of Enchanted Pink Aerclouds.

Raw Charoite is now made using an echo shard, diamonds, raw iron, skyjade, and tainted dust. It's the only way to get a Zeal Lighter or Enchanting Table. Charoite ore still generates in the Everbright and Everdawn, but it's a little bit rarer.
Charoite can be used to transmute lunar and turquoise stone bricks between each other.
Charoite armor increases its wearer's attack speed and knockback.
Removed Tiny Birds from the Everbright and Everdawn. Added Endermen instead.
The Everbright's Frozen Bunker can contain Frost Walker boots.
Everbright cartographer buildings contain maps to Frozen Bunkers.
Keys no longer spawn randomly throughout the Nature and Poison dungeons. Instead, they're scattered on the ground in front of their locked doors. This means that it's no longer mandatory to explore layers after finding the stairs. The Blue Journal has been edited accordingly. Chests that used to hold keys now hold a Coruscant Panel.

The Alpha Yeti drops less fur.
The Minoshroom moves faster, throws its axe more often, and cannot teleport without hitting the player. Its theme has been replaced with Indoor Guardians, and it additionally drops some enchanted Steeleaf gear.
The Hydra sets leaves on fire upon spawning.
The Ur-Ghast can spawn more lightning bolts.
The Valkyrie Queen plays with gravity differently, and her lightning bolt attacks can curve.
The Sun Spirit nullifies fire resistance, but its fire crystals move slower.
The Alchemist and Summoner drop some more emeralds.
The Arachnarch summons a couple of venom spiders to replace some nested spiders.
The Starlit Crusher has a new attack where a line of roots chases the player.
The Ender Dragon's roar is less deafening.
The Ender Guardian breaks the entire first floor on the phase 2 transition instead of just part of it.
The Harbinger deals more damage and has more health.
Ignis now nullifies fire resistance.

The tainted pumpkin (and variants) can be crafted by adding tainted dust to their untainted equivalents.
The tainted Jack o'Lantern extinguishes when placed in the Aether.
The Phasometer's recipes are simpler. The upgrade requires tainted dust.
Reworked progression around the first Withered Symbiont:
-The Withered Symbiont no longer spawns naturally in phase 5.5. Instead, it must be lured out by lighting Super TNT near the Wither Storm. The Wither Storm will absorb the Super TNT and summon the Symbiont to protect iteself.
-When the Withered Symbiont is defeated in this case, it drops a lit Formidibomb alongside the usual tainted dust.
The Withered Symbiont's attacks are enhanced in the rematch, but not during the Command Block battle:
-Fireballs are stronger.
-Evoker fangs linger for a long time.
-Shulker bullets leave effect clouds of strong levitation.
-Arrows inflict random effects.
-Jumps are highly explosive.
The Withered Symbiont moves faster in its first phase.
The Withered Symbiont can now freeze lava and poison.
The Withered Symbiont is no longer affected by levitation.
The Withered Symbiont scatters more tainted dust around upon defeat.
The Withered Symbiont's health scales less in multiplayer.
The Wither Storm's spawn timer is a little faster.
When the Wither Storm spawns, nearby passive mobs are removed to fix targeting issues.
The Wither Storm can shoot flaming skulls in its early phases again, but these skulls do less damage.
Before it gains its first tractor beam, the Wither Storm can charge at the player. It also can break blocks around itself.
The Wither Storm's tractor beams inflict stronger Wither and pull in the player faster. They also drop the player faster, but they still don't inflict fall damage.
The Wither Storm will wander around if all players are in inaccessible dimensions.
The Wither Storm progresses to phase 4.5 when the player collects an Echo Shard. It stays there until after the player leaves the Twilight Forest, however, the exact amount of time differs based on how long the player stays in the Twilight Forest.
The Wither Storm can use more of its attacks upon reaching phase 4.5 instead of 5.
The Wither Storm no longer chases immediately upon reaching phases 5 and 7.
The Wither Storm always begins a fast chase when it first leaves the Twilight Forest.
The Wither Storm evolves to phase 5.25 after enough time has passed, but it won't reach 5.5 until a player finds Super TNT.
The Wither Storm now only gets distracted from killing the player if it's already chasing them quickly.
The Wither Storm can sometimes be heard through Nether portals when it's nearby.
The Wither Storm no longer prioritizes chasing or teleporting to amulet holders.
The Wither Storm no longer slows down during the phase 6 chase.
Improved the Wither Storm's quake attack during the phase 6 chase.
The Wither Storm can now dig during the phase 6 chase if the player tries to hide.
The Wither Storm reacts to the Formidibomb differently in phase 6+.
The Wither Storm upgrades to phase 6.5 when the player collects either a Redstone Heart or six Coruscant Panels, and it evolves to phase 7 when all Command Block parts are gathered.
The Wither Storm is no longer immune to distractions in the End.
The Wither Storm can no longer be distracted by certain dungeons with progression-essential loot.
CWSM's new sickened mobs are incorporated into existing places with other sickened mobs.
Reduced the player's targeting immunity after destroying a Wither Storm's head to the default (40 seconds).
Reworked Super TNT. The Wither Storm stares at it for three minutes, then it wanders randomly for another 15. During this time, it can't summon a Withered Symbiont.
When resummoned, the Wither Storm gains new music, evolves very quickly, and is much more aggressive.

Bows in various places as loot are slightly less powerful.
Drastically reduced the number of arrows found in chests.
Spectral arrows can now be crafted with either glowstone dust or golden amber.
Lodestones are now crafted with Ironwood instead of Netherite.
Nerfed the Cloud Staff to shoot a bit slower.
Lich scepters are more expensive to repair.
Certain items can no longer fall into the void, just in case.
Changed some new CWSM advancements to better fit Explorer's Eve.

Fixed improper structure spawns in the Dark Forest.
Fixed Swift Sneak not properly appearing in Ancient Cities.
Fixed a minor error in the Cloud Staff's description.
Fixed the Lich Tower's treasure boxes not containing much equipment.
Fixed the Snow Queen breaking ice strangely during her fight. It's a bit better now.
Fixed Ocean Monuments somehow still containing panels when they shouldn't.
Fixed the Netherite Monstrosity not facing the player when it spawns.
Fixed the Ender Guardian rarely getting stuck in the Ruined Citadel's upper layers.
Fixed the Sickly Teratoma not working in the Aether.
Fixed the Sickly Teratoma not granting the 'Harbinger of Cataclysmic Fates' advancement.
Fixed the Withered Symbiont not functioning properly when it never sees a player.
Fixed the Nether guide advice message having incorrect formatting.
Fixed some more advancements potentially triggering improperly.
Fixed inventory deletion issues when teleporting between dimensions in Creative mode.
Fixed the Charm of Keeping not working in Creative mode.
Fixed the Wither Storm's tractor beam effects reapplying when they shouldn't.
Fixed the Wither Storm's skulls moving too fast in certain cases in multiplayer.
Fixed the Wither Storm never attacking shortly after a player dies, even if living players are nearby.
Fixed the Wither Storm's phase 7 hint text displaying when it shouldn't.
Fixed the Wither Storm's bowels regeneration mechanic behaving improperly sometimes on logging out.
Fixed a tag lingering sometimes after the true final battle.