Progressive Time Difficulty
by Tontoque28
Progressive Time Difficulty raises hostile mob strength as a world ages and as nearby players accumulate playtime, on Forge for 1.20.1.
What it does
The Progressive Time Difficulty mod scales hostile mob difficulty from two inputs: the age of the world and the playtime of players near each mob. Veteran players face harder encounters while newer players on the same server keep a gentler curve at their own pace, because the scaling is not one global spike applied to everyone.
Mobs that reach the highest tiers gain a Soul Eater buff. Its power grows with nearby players, up to a cap of 20, and it boosts damage most and health slightly. Each tier is shown on the mob, so a player can judge the threat before engaging. The Hardcore Mode side of the mod is an anti-cheese mechanic meant for experienced players.
The mod runs on the server alone, so players join with a vanilla Minecraft client and install nothing locally. It is published for Forge only, with the latest file 1.1.7 for 1.20.1, released 2026-05-13. The code is available as a public source link, but the mod is not open source and is licensed as All rights reserved.
Key features
Playtime-based scaling
Difficulty is calculated from the world's age combined with the playtime of players close to each mob.
Soul Eater buff
Mobs given the buff gain damage and health, with the buff rising as more nearby players accumulate playtime, up to 20.
Threat tiers
Tier 1 smoke marks a hardened mob, tier 2 flame a dangerous one and tier 3 soul fire an extreme threat.
Target-only overcharged tag
The overcharged label appears only on mobs actively targeting a player, which keeps the screen less cluttered.
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 difficulty that tracks world age and player time, and players who want that challenge without installing anything themselves.
How it compares
Distant Difficulties is server-side only and Forge-only for 1.20.1 – 1.20.6, under All rights reserved, so its version range overlaps this mod on 1.20.1 alone. Difficulty Tweaker is server-side only, open source under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 only and built for Fabric and Quilt across 1.17 – 1.20.1, so it does not cover Forge. Normal Damage is client and server and open source under the MIT License, with Fabric and Forge files for 1.12.2 – 1.20.2.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressive Time Difficulty | Forge | 1.20.1 | Server-side only | 2026-05-13 |
| Distant Difficulties | Forge | 1.20.1 – 1.20.6 | Server-side only | 2026-04-03 |
| Difficulty Tweaker | Fabric and Quilt | 1.17 – 1.20.1 | Server-side only | 2023-06-27 |
| Normal Damage | Fabric and Forge | 1.12.2 – 1.20.2 | Client and server | 2023-08-09 |
Questions
Does Progressive Time Difficulty need to be installed on the client?
Which loader and game version does the mod support?
Does the Soul Eater buff have a limit?
In the catalog
Progressive Time Difficulty is one of 29,952 Game mechanics mods on ModsFinder, and one of 13,316 Game mechanics mods for Forge. 34,764 mods support Minecraft 1.20.1.
More from Tontoque28
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What the author says
Progressive Time Difficulty transforms the conventional survival experience into a dynamic challenge. Unlike other mods that apply global difficulty spikes, PTD scales based on each user's actual progress. The difficulty is calculated by combining the world's age with the specific playtime of nearby players. This…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/progressive-time-difficulty
- Owner
- Tontoque28
- Published
- 2026-02-20
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-05-13
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15