Scavenger Mobs

Ever noticed how zombies can pick up items but rarely do anything useful with them? Scavenger Mobs fixes that by giving hostile mobs the intelligence to actively seek out and equip better gear.

When you drop a diamond sword near a zombie, it won't just ignore it - the zombie will walk over, compare it against whatever rusty iron sword it's currently holding, and make the upgrade. The same goes for armor, and the comparison isn't just surface level. Mobs evaluate enchantments, durability, and material tier before deciding whether an item is worth picking up. That Sharpness V netherite sword you accidentally dropped? Yeah, the zombie wants it, and it knows exactly why.

Different mobs have different priorities. Skeletons obsess over bows, heavily weighing enchantments like Power and Flame when deciding whether to swap. Wither skeletons prefer melee weapons instead. Pillagers and vindicators will grab shields and crossbows to bolster their raids, while evokers just want something to hide behind. Drowned seek out tridents alongside the usual zombie fare.

Piglins get special treatment. When a piglin picks up any piece of gold equipment, it becomes temporarily friendly - not because you're wearing gold, but because you've essentially bribed it with a shiny new toy. This pacification lasts 30 seconds by default, giving you a window to pass through or set up a more permanent arrangement.

When a mob equips something new, it drops whatever it was previously holding. This creates interesting battlefield dynamics where gear changes hands multiple times during a fight, and you might find a zombie wearing your fallen friend's entire loadout.

Mobs that pick up gear won't run off with it. Any mob that picks something up becomes persistent and never despawns while holding it, and the items it picked up are guaranteed to drop when it dies, whatever killed it (Curse of Vanishing still applies, as in vanilla). Both behaviors can be turned off in the config.

Modded Mobs & Datapacks

Any mob can be taught to scavenge, from the config or with entity type tags in a datapack. Pick the behavior profile that fits:

Example data/scavengermobs/tags/entity_types/zombie_like.json:

{
  "replace": false,
  "values": ["examplemod:cave_zombie", "#examplemod:undead"]
}

Mobs added this way always scavenge, regardless of the Mob Toggles. Mobs that extend a vanilla zombie, skeleton, illager or piglin are picked up automatically.

Item Blacklist

Items listed in itemBlacklist (config) or in the scavengermobs:blacklist item tag (datapack) are never picked up by any mob.

Configuration

All settings are found in scavengermobs-common.toml:

[General Settings]
# Range in blocks that mobs search for items (1.0 to 32.0)
scavengeRange = 8.0

# Ticks between scavenge attempts, 20 ticks = 1 second (10 to 200)
scavengeCooldown = 40

# Chance per cooldown to attempt scavenging (0.0 to 1.0)
scavengeChance = 0.5

[Mob Toggles]
zombiesScavenge = true
skeletonsScavenge = true
illagersScavenge = true
piglinsScavenge = true
witherSkeletonsScavenge = true
drownedScavenge = true
husksScavenge = true
straysScavenge = true

[Piglin Settings]
# Piglins become friendly when picking up gold gear
piglinsPacifyGold = true

# Duration of friendliness in ticks (100 to 6000)
piglinPacifyDuration = 600

[Pickup Safety]
# Mobs that pick up gear never despawn
persistentOnPickup = true

# Mobs always drop the gear they picked up when they die
guaranteedDrops = true

[Custom Mobs]
# Entity ids or #entity_type_tags for each behavior profile (all default to empty)
zombieLike = []
skeletonLike = []
witherSkeletonLike = []
pillagerLike = []
vindicatorLike = []
illagerLike = []
piglinLike = []

[Item Blacklist]
# Item ids or #item_tags that mobs never pick up
# Example: ["minecraft:golden_sword", "#forge:tools/axes"]
itemBlacklist = []