Very Hard Difficulty

Very Hard Difficulty

Adds a vanilla-style "Very Hard" difficulty to the world creation menu — no commands needed. It slots right next to Peaceful / Easy / Normal / Hard, exactly like an official Mojang difficulty would.

Pick Very Hard (or Hard) in the difficulty selector and the world gets harder instantly. Every change reverts the moment you switch back — nothing is permanently baked into your world.

Features

Survival is unforgiving

• Shields absorb 80% of incoming damage instead of 100% — 20% always leaks through.
• Heavy hits break your guard — a strong attack puts your shield on a 5-second cooldown.
• Hunger drains 1.5× faster.
• Health regeneration costs more on your hunger bar.
• Armor wears out 20% faster.

Mobs fight smarter

• Zombie hordes — zombies call nearby allies when they spot you.
• Zombies climb — they can climb ladders and vines to reach you.
• Skeletons aim predictively — they lead their shots.
• Tipped arrows — some skeletons fire tipped arrows that inflict effects.
• Creeper shockwave — a nearby creeper blast leaves you Nauseous and Blind for 4 seconds.
• Endermen flank you — they teleport behind you more aggressively.
• Phantoms are relentless — they can knock the shield out of your hands, and they spawn sooner (after 2 days without sleep instead of 3).

Harsher world

• Fall damage debuff — hard landings apply Slowness II for 10 seconds.
  • Freezing biomes hurt more — Slowness and steady freeze damage, unless you're near a heat source or wearing full leather armor.
  • The Nether is hostile — continuous Weakness in the Nether, unless you're under Resistance.

10 Vanilla-Style Advancements

| Is This Even Fair?
| Parry This!
| Sniper Neutralized
| World War Z
| Watch the Ladder!
| Shellshocked
| You Thought You Were Safe?
| True Survivalist
| Grave Walker
| God of Pain

Supported versions

Minecraft Java 1.20.1,1.20.5-1.20.6, 1.21.1, 26.1, 26.2, 26.3
| 1.20.1 | 17+
| 1.20.5 – 1.20.6 | 21+
| 1.21.1 | 21+
| 26.1 | 25+
| 26.2 | 25+
| 26.3+ | 25+

Requirements

• Fabric Loader 0.19.0 or newer — mandatory. Older loaders cannot load this mod at all, on any Minecraft version.
• Fabric API — required.
• Java 17 / 21 / 25 depending on the version, see the table above.

> Not supported: 1.20.2 – 1.20.4 and 1.21.2 – 1.21.11. Those lines changed internals the mod depends on, so there is no working jar for them yet.

Works in singleplayer and on dedicated servers.

Installation

1. Install Fabric Loader for your Minecraft version.
2. Put Fabric API and the matching Very Hard Difficulty jar in your mods folder.
3. Launch and select "Very Hard" when creating a world.

FAQ

Is this like other hardcore mods?
No — it's built to feel like an official Mojang difficulty. No new blocks or items.

Will it break my world?
No. Changes apply only while active and revert instantly.

Can I turn features off?
Yes — every feature has its own toggle in config/very_hard_config.json.

Why doesn't Very Hard just make mobs hit harder than Hard?
Because it is Hard underneath — vanilla damage, hunger and raid rules all run at Hard level, and the mod layers its own changes on top. That keeps it feeling like a real difficulty instead of a damage multiplier.

Issues & Feedback

Report bugs on the issue tracker — please include your Minecraft version and the jar filename.

Made by kazufuji04. Licensed under MIT.