Progressive Bosses
by Insane96
Progressive Bosses changes how the Wither and the Ender Dragon fight in Minecraft, making both bosses harder to defeat and adding new abilities to each.
What it does
Boss encounters scale with the players around them. The difficulty adapts to how many players are near the boss, so a fight in a crowd is tougher than one played alone. The Wither Ender Dragon can summon stronger versions of itself, and the Wither Charging Dragon, respawning crystals, caged crystals and tower-based crystal placement change how the fight plays out. Acidball skulls fly faster, and dodging them is harder.
The Elder Guardian fight is also made harder, and it carries a reward that makes the extra challenge worthwhile. The mod is aimed at players who want bosses that stay dangerous in later stages of a world. It requires Area Effect Clouds 3D and InsaneLib on Forge and NeoForge, and it runs on client and server, so both the server and every player need it. Files are published for Forge and NeoForge across 5 release versions, 1.18.2 – 1.20.1, and the code is open source under the MIT License.
Key features
Harder Ender Dragon
The Ender Dragon fight is made harder, with stronger dragon variants and changed crystal behavior.
Wither changes
The Wither gains new abilities, and its Charging Dragon form and minions add to the fight.
Caged crystals
Cages spawn around some end crystals, and some crystals appear inside towers, so healing them takes more effort.
Harder Elder Guardian
The Elder Guardian fight is harder and comes with an actual reward for the player who wins it.
Adaptive difficulty
Boss difficulty adapts based on the number of players around the boss.
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Requirements
Dependencies declared by the latest file for each loader.
Required 2
Use cases
Who it’s for: Players and server owners who want the Wither, Ender Dragon and Elder Guardian to stay dangerous after the first defeat. The mod suits survival worlds that have already finished the standard bosses.
Questions
Does Progressive Bosses need Area Effect Clouds 3D?
Does Progressive Bosses have to be installed on the server?
Which loaders does Progressive Bosses support?
In the catalog
Progressive Bosses 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 Insane96
Similar mods
What the author says
For the Fabric port, check [\[Fabric\] Progressive Bosses]( (note this is not affiliated with me, please report issues to the developer) This mod makes Wither and Ender Dragon harder by letting you summon a stronger version of them. Also makes the Elder Guardian's fight harder.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/progressive-bosses
- Owner
- Insane96
- Published
- 2022-12-06
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-03-07
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15