Sculk Echo 1.0.0 — The Epidemic Is Complete

A survival-horror progression mod built around two senses you never had: echolocation and infection. The sculk does not kill. The sculk recruits.

The Story of the Mod

Sculk Echo started as a question: what if the Deep Dark wasn't a one-time encounter but a condition the world catches?

• 0.x (Early access) — The first sonar pulses. A single Warden-inspired sense that painted caves in color-coded points. The echo was born.
• 1.0-beta — Infection appeared. A five-stage disease tracked on a HUD, spreading through melee, arrows and explosions. The Warden became a symptom, not a boss.
• 1.2.0-beta — The Sculk Merchant walked into the Deep Dark. A villager who accepted the sculk, offering random stock and a one-shard reroll. The first counter-play emerged.
• 1.3.0-beta "End Echoes" — The epidemic crossed dimensions. The Whisperer jammed the sonar. Shulkers shot infection bullets. Witches drank shards. The Sporeling burrowed behind your back.
• 1.4.0-beta "Trials & Tribulations" — The Trials answered the call. Breezes fired wind charges of infection. Evokers became death-bringers. The frozen north received its apex predator. Piglins traded gold for the sculk. Sixteen corrupted mobs, three dimensions, one disease.
• 1.0.0 — Reflectors arrived. Sixteen colors to tune your sense. A glitch phase that feels like surgery. Face culling cleaned the vision. The mod left beta.

Two years of pulses. One complete epidemic.

The Echo Sense

• Echo Pulse (V) — a sonar wave that paints the world in point-clouds. Every block answers in the color of its material: stone in grays, ores in their gems, sculk in its teal.
• Echo Shot — a directed burst that reveals caves and mobs through walls, with cooldown.
• Color Masks — filter which material colors your sonar answers to.
• Face Culling — the pulse only paints faces you can actually see: no wasted points on hidden geometry or back-faces, cleaner picture, better FPS.
• Echo Stimulator — the device that makes it all possible. Crafted, carried, irreplaceable.

The Infection

• Five stages from first contact to full possession, tracked on a dedicated HUD.
• Stage 5: the sculk takes the wheel — possession episodes with their own vision.
• The epidemic spreads through melee, arrows, explosions, potions, shulker bullets and witch vials.
• Sculk Ward — the only answer: an enchanted book that makes you a ghost to the infection. Infected mobs refuse to target you. Sold by one merchant only, 14–18 shards, 1 in stock.

The Infected — 16 mobs and 1 merchant

• Overworld: Zombie, Skeleton, Creeper (block-safe conversion burst), Cow, Sheep, Spider, Chicken (lays sculk eggs), Witch (infection vials, drinks shards to heal).
• Deep Dark: Sculk Merchant — a villager who accepted the sculk. Random rolling stock, "New goods: 1 shard" button, permanently glowing cape.
• The End: The Whisperer (sonar-jamming enderman), Sculk Shulker (+3 infection bullets, seeds sculk on blocks), Sculk Mite (burrows and resurfaces behind you).
• Trial Chambers: Sculk Breeze — infection wind charges, seeds sculk where it lands.
• Illagers: Sculk Evoker — death conversion cloud, totem and shard drops.
• Frozen North: Sculk Polar Bear — the apex predator, claimed.
• Nether: Sculk Piglin & Piglin Brute — they traded gold for the sculk.

Reflectors — tune your sense

• 16 color reflectors, one per dye. A reflector amplifies its color: with a red reflector installed, every red-material block sings pure red in your sonar while the rest keep their voices.
• Blueprints are rare: 0.5% chance in ancient cities, trial chamber rewards, woodland mansions and buried treasure — or a 15%-chance rare stock at the Sculk Merchant.
• Crafting burns the blueprint: stimulator + blueprint + 2 redstone + 2 prismarine shards. The stimulator survives the operation; the blueprint does not. One blueprint = one reflector, forever.
• Installation is surgery. For two minutes your body rejects the implant: vision closes in from the edges with sculk-teal glitching, the HUD dot flickers between white and the new color, and your sonar misfires 30% of the time. Then it stabilizes — and the color is yours.

Alchemy & Economy

• Sculk Potion — brew a splash potion with an echo shard (or craft shapeless); on landing it blooms into a patchy sculk crust like a mini-catalyst. Direct hits convert mobs.
• Sculk Egg — thrown or laid by infected chickens; summons a random infected mob in a burst of souls.
• Advancement: Universal Friendship — complete a trade with the Sculk Merchant.

Technical

• Works on client and server; sense is client-side, epidemic is server-side.
• Requires NeoForge for Minecraft 1.21.1.
• 1.0.0 exits beta after four pre-release versions and two years of development.

The sculk does not kill. The sculk recruits. Now it recruits in sixteen colors.