Mobs brain upgrades
by Magy
With Mobs brain upgrades installed, several vanilla mobs change how they fight, so zombies, spiders, endermen, skeletons and creepers act more deliberately against players.
What it does
Each change applies only to specific mobs. Zombies break blocks that stand in a player's way and place blocks beneath a player who climbs a pillar or high platform. Spiders fire webs at players who stay beyond their normal reach, slowing them down. Endermen try to avoid fighting a player who stands under a ceiling less than two blocks high, and skeletons back away from a player who comes too close and try to dodge incoming arrows.
The mod also adds a chance for creepers to become Stalkers, and two stalking methods, Normal Stalkers and Reverse Stalkers, are included. Creepers exploding against walls is a separate behavior that is disabled by default. Every behavior can be turned on or off in the config file, which lets a server owner tune how hard the mobs are without changing their stats. The author describes the goal as making mobs smarter and more challenging, not as a stat boost.
Installation needs Forge for Minecraft 1.20.1. Servers that run it need every player to install it too. Files cover 1.20.1 only, and the latest is 1.1.4, released on 2024-11-24. The code is under the MIT License, and the project is not open source.
Key features
Block-breaking zombies
Zombies break blocks in the way of a player instead of only walking toward them.
Block-placing zombies
Zombies place blocks under a player on a pillar or high platform, cutting off the climb.
Web-shooting spiders
Spiders shoot webs at players who keep their distance, slowing them down before they close in.
Stalker creepers
Creepers have a chance to become Stalkers, with Normal and Reverse stalking methods available.
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Who it’s for: Server owners who want harder mob behavior without raising mob stats, and players who want that behavior in single-player. Every behavior can be switched off, so the set of enabled changes can be matched to the server.
How it compares
Mobs can think is also a Forge mod for 1.20.1 under the MIT License, but it is not open source and runs on client and server. Spiders make webs focuses on spider webs alone and shares the same version and environment. RUTHLESS changes mob behavior too, under All rights reserved, while FasterZombies is server-side only and only changes zombie speed, so players join it without installing anything.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobs brain upgrades | Forge | 1.20.1 | Client and server | 2024-11-24 |
| Mobs can think | Forge | 1.20.1 | Client and server | 2026-07-02 |
| Spiders make webs | Forge | 1.20.1 | Client and server | 2024-09-01 |
| RUTHLESS | Forge | 1.20.1 | Client and server | 2026-02-22 |
| FasterZombies | Forge | 1.20.1 | Server-side only | 2025-07-10 |
Questions
Does Mobs brain upgrades need to be installed on both sides?
Which Minecraft version does Mobs brain upgrades support?
Can the behaviors be disabled?
In the catalog
Mobs brain upgrades is one of 11,058 Mobs mods on ModsFinder, and one of 6,527 Mobs mods for Forge. 34,764 mods support Minecraft 1.20.1.
More from Magy
Similar mods
What the author says
This mod adds some extra behaviors for mobs that make them smarter, the goal is to increase the difficulty of the game by making entities stand more of a chance against the player rather than simply increasing stats. This mod is highly configurable and allows to disable / enable nearly all features as well as extend…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/mobs-brain-upgrades
- Owner
- Magy
- Published
- 2024-02-25
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2024-11-24
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15