Pitch Dark Hardcore
by Gentra
Pitch Dark Hardcore is a Forge lighting overhaul that makes unlit areas of the world genuinely black, so players must rely on a small personal light radius to see.
What it does
Pitch Dark Hardcore enforces near-total darkness in places without a light source. Moonless nights and unlit caves become pitch black, and the mod strips away ambient light that vanilla rendering would normally keep. Dark areas also lose their color and shift to grayscale, which the author describes as a way to heighten a sense of dread.
The mod gives the player a personal visibility radius that shows blocks in the immediate vicinity by default. Beyond that radius, a wall of black fog hides everything until a mob or structure enters the circle of light. The mod is client-side only, so only players who install it are affected, and servers can run without it. It is published for Forge only, across the 1.20.1 – 1.20.6 range on six release versions, under All rights reserved, and is not open source. The shader packs listed by the author can override some of its custom lighting effects.
Key features
Enforced pitch-black darkness
Unlit caves and moonless nights are rendered fully black, and high-gamma settings and fullbright cheats have no effect.
Desaturated world
Areas without light lose their color, leaving a grayscale world in dark regions.
Personal visibility radius
A faint internal glow lets the player see blocks within a set radius, 5 blocks by default.
Wall shadows
Outside the visibility radius, impenetrable black fog hides the surroundings until something enters the lit circle.
Configurable darkness
The pitchdark-common.toml file controls the size of the visibility circle, from 0 for total blindness up to 64 blocks, and how much natural ambient light is removed.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
How it compares
Lively Lighting! is a server-side only Forge mod under the MIT License, open source, for 1.20.1, so it changes what servers run but does not darken the client view. True Darkness is a client-side only mod, open source under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 only, covering 1.17.1 – 1.19.3 on Fabric, Forge and Quilt. Better hardcore is not open source, under All rights reserved, and is server required with the client optional, for 1.20.1 on Forge.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitch Dark Hardcore | Forge | 1.20.1 – 1.20.6 | Client-side only | 2026-05-02 |
| Lively Lighting! 🔦 | Forge | 1.20.1 | Server-side only | 2026-07-06 |
| True Darkness | Fabric, Forge and Quilt | 1.17.1 – 1.19.3 | Client-side only | 2022-12-11 |
| Better hardcore | Forge | 1.20.1 | Server required, client optional | 2026-06-05 |
Questions
Does Pitch Dark Hardcore need to be installed on the server?
Which Minecraft versions does Pitch Dark Hardcore support?
Can the darkness be adjusted?
In the catalog
Pitch Dark Hardcore is one of 19,031 Adventure mods on ModsFinder, and one of 10,478 Adventure mods for Forge. 11,154 mods support Minecraft 1.20.6.
More from Gentra
Similar mods
What the author says
Pitch Dark Experience true, unforgiving darkness. Pitch Dark is a hardcore lighting overhaul for Minecraft 1.20.1 Forge, inspired by the classic "True Darkness" mods but with a unique, atmospheric twist. Vanilla Minecraft's nights and caves are often "bright" enough to navigate with your eyes closed—Pitch Dark…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/pitch-dark-hardcore
- Owner
- Gentra
- Published
- 2026-04-24
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-05-02
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15