Monster Heads¶
Monster skulls are the counterpart to civilization. Where civilization blocks push monsters away, skulls invite them back — on your terms.
Three Mechanisms¶
Monster heads operate through three distinct systems, each activating at a different scale:
1. Spawn Gate Bypass¶
Place a monster skull and it creates a 48×48×16 block zone (3×3×1 voxel chunks) around itself where civilization protection is completely bypassed. Mobs can spawn freely inside this zone regardless of the civilization score.
This is a local, unconditional override — the skull punches straight through the spawn gate.
2. Distant Spawn Redirection¶
Beyond the local bypass zone, skulls exert a range-bounded attraction effect. When a hostile mob attempts to spawn outside the local skull zone, the mod may suppress that spawn based on:
- Distance — The closer the spawn is to a skull, the less likely it is to be suppressed. Spawns very close to a skull are never suppressed.
- Head count in range — More skulls within the active attraction window increase suppression strength. Scaling is logarithmic, so returns diminish as count grows.
- Max radius — Attraction only operates within a configurable horizontal radius (default 128 blocks). Skulls outside this radius do not contribute.
The net effect: eligible distant spawns are probabilistically cancelled, concentrating mob spawns near your skulls. This is what makes skulls useful for mob farms — you don't need to light up caves or build in the sky. Just place skulls where you want the mobs.
3. Mob Conversion¶
When 3 or more skulls are clustered in the same voxel chunk area, they begin converting spawned mobs into matching types:
| Skulls in area | Conversion chance |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | No conversion (local bypass only) |
| 3 | ~12.5% |
| 5 | ~37.5% |
| 7 | ~62.5% |
| 10+ | 100% |
Conversion picks a random type from the skulls present. Place 3 skeleton skulls and some spawns will convert to skeletons. Mix skeleton and zombie skulls for a blend. The more skulls, the stronger the conversion.
Dimension Restrictions
Some skull types are restricted to specific dimensions. By default, Wither Skeleton Skulls and Piglin Heads only function in the Nether — all three mechanisms (bypass, redirection, and conversion) are inactive outside their designated dimensions. In non-matching dimensions, restricted skulls are purely decorative.
Modpack authors can customize which dimensions each skull type operates in via the "dimensions" field in datapack JSON — see Data-Driven Registries.
Skull Types¶
Head types are data-driven. The default registry ships with all vanilla skull types:
| Skull | Attracts | Converts | Active Dimensions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skeleton Skull | Skeleton | Yes | All |
| Zombie Head | Zombie | Yes | All |
| Creeper Head | Creeper | Yes | All |
| Piglin Head | Piglin | Yes | Nether only |
| Wither Skeleton Skull | Wither Skeleton | Yes | Nether only |
Dimension-restricted skulls are purely decorative outside their designated dimensions — bypass, redirection, and conversion are all inactive.
Custom skull types added by other mods via SkullBlock subclasses are automatically compatible. Head types can be configured, disabled, or extended via datapacks — see Data-Driven Registries.
In-Game Configuration¶
Head attraction parameters are adjustable via the in-game GUI under the "Mob Head Attraction" subcategory (requires Mod Menu + Cloth Config):
| Setting | Type | Range/Default | What it controls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mob Head System | Toggle | on (default) | Master switch for all head gameplay effects. When off, bypass zones, spawn attraction, detector zone display, and flee AI awareness are disabled — skulls become purely decorative (data is still tracked) |
| Attraction Strength | Slider | 1–10, default 5 | How strongly skulls suppress distant spawns |
| Attraction Range | Slider | 48–160 blocks, default 128 | Maximum horizontal radius for redirection |
Advanced: civil.properties
Raw parameters can also be edited in config/civil.properties, but this is intended for advanced users only. If things break, delete civil.properties and restart — the mod will regenerate it with defaults.