🧟‍♂️ Undead Riders

Undead Riders is a Fabric mod for Minecraft that adds naturally spawning undead horsemen to the overworld surface. Six types in total, each tied to a fitting biome. Fully configurable and difficulty-scaled.

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✨ Features

• 🐴 Zombie Horseman — Zombie on a Zombie Horse. All biomes except Desert. Night only.
• 🏜️ Husk Horseman — Husk on a Zombie Horse. Desert only. Night only.
• 💀 Skeleton Horseman — Skeleton on a Skeleton Horse. All biomes except Desert/Swamp/Frozen. Night only.
• ☀️ Parched Horseman — Parched on a Skeleton Horse. Desert only. Day and night.
• 🌿 Bogged Horseman — Bogged on a Skeleton Horse. Swamp and Mangrove Swamp only. Night only.
• ❄️ Stray Horseman — Stray on a Skeleton Horse. All frozen biomes. Night only.
• 🐗 Zombified Piglin Rider — Zombified Piglin on a Zoglin. Crimson Forest, Nether Wastes, and Bastion Remnants.
• 💀 Nether Skeleton Horseman — Skeleton on a Skeleton Horse. Soul Sand Valley only.
• 🎁 Saddle drop — Horses only spawn with a saddle at a low configurable rate (default 15% zombie, 30% skeleton). Saddles are looting-aware: Looting III gives ~20% drop chance. Players must hunt at night for saddled horses!
• 🔥 Optional Skeleton Horse sunlight burn — Skeleton Horses can be configured to burn in sunlight. A separate option can make saddled Skeleton Horses protected from that sunlight burn. Vanilla Skeleton Horse traps and their triggered horsemen are always excluded.
• 🛡️ Horse armor — ZombieHorses have a configurable chance to wear armor (default 30%).
• 🔑 Tameable Skeleton Horses — After killing the rider, Skeleton Horses can immediately be saddled and ridden.
• 🛡️ Shield on Hard — Zombie and Husk riders have a 40% chance to carry a shield.
• 👶 Rare baby variants — Supported riders can rarely spawn as baby variants, using the same biome rules as their adult versions.
• 🏹 Enchanted bow on Hard — Skeleton, Parched and Stray riders have a 30% chance for a Power I–III bow.
• ⚠️ Unarmed on Easy — Zombie and Husk riders have a 25% chance to spawn without a weapon.
• ⚔️ Difficulty-scaled weapons — Zombie/Husk riders carry tier-appropriate weapons including spears introduced in modern Minecraft versions.
• 🔀 Independent toggles — Each type can be enabled/disabled separately.
• ⚙️ Fully configurable — Spawn rates, saddle/armor chances, distances, timing, and more.
• 🧭 Optional Open Parties and Claims support — When OPAC is installed, Undead Riders respects claimed chunks where hostile natural spawning is disabled.
• 🖥️ Optional Mod Menu support — On clients with Mod Menu and Cloth Config installed, the config can also be edited through an in-game screen.
• 🔄 Live reload — /undeadriders reload applies config changes without a restart.
• 📋 Info command — /undeadriders info shows the current status of all types in-game.
• 🚫 Non-interfering — Never touches vanilla's spawn system.

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📊 Difficulty Scaling

Zombie / Husk Horseman — horse armor

Difficulty	Option A	Option B	Option C
Easy	Leather Horse Armor	Copper Horse Armor	Iron Horse Armor
Normal	Copper Horse Armor	Iron Horse Armor	Gold Horse Armor
Hard	Iron Horse Armor	Gold Horse Armor	Diamond Horse Armor

Armor only spawns at the configured probability (zombieHorseArmorChance, default 60%).

Zombie / Husk Horseman — rider weapon

Difficulty	Options (1 chosen at random)
Easy	25% chance: no weapon. Otherwise: Stone Sword, Stone Axe, Stone Spear, Wooden Sword, Wooden Axe, Wooden Spear, Wooden Shovel, Stone Shovel
Normal	Copper Sword, Copper Axe, Copper Spear, Iron Sword, Iron Axe, Iron Spear, Golden Sword, Golden Axe, Golden Spear, Iron/Copper/Golden Shovel
Hard	Iron Sword, Iron Axe, Iron Spear, Diamond Sword, Diamond Axe, Diamond Spear, Diamond Shovel

Drop chance: 5%. On Hard: 40% chance of a shield in offhand (no drop).

Skeleton / Parched / Stray Horseman

Rider equipment handled by vanilla's finalizeSpawn(). On Hard: 30% chance for a Power I–III enchanted bow (drop chance 10%).

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Biome restrictions

Type	Biomes
Zombie Horseman	All overworld biomes except Desert, Frozen Ocean, Deep Frozen Ocean, Snowy Beach
Husk Horseman	Desert
Skeleton Horseman	All overworld biomes except Desert, Swamp, Mangrove Swamp, and all frozen biomes
Parched Horseman	Desert
Bogged Horseman	Swamp, Mangrove Swamp
Stray Horseman	Ice Spikes, Snowy Plains, Jagged Peaks, Frozen Peaks, Snowy Slopes, Frozen Ocean, Deep Frozen Ocean, Snowy Beach

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⚙️ Configuration

Generated automatically on first launch at:

<game>/config/undeadriders.json

With Mod Menu + Cloth Config API installed, you get a full in-game config screen.

Options

Option	Default	Description
zombieHorsemanEnabled	true	Enable Zombie Horseman
huskHorsemanEnabled	true	Enable Husk Horseman (desert)
skeletonHorsemanEnabled	true	Enable Skeleton Horseman
parchedHorsemanEnabled	true	Enable Parched Horseman (desert)
boggedHorsemanEnabled	true	Enable Bogged Horseman (swamp)
strayHorsemanEnabled	true	Enable Stray Horseman (frozen biomes)
skeletonHorseSunlightBurnEnabled	false	If enabled, Skeleton Horses burn when exposed to sunlight
saddledSkeletonHorsesAvoidSunlightBurn	false	If enabled, saddled Skeleton Horses are protected from the sunlight burn option until the saddle is removed
zombifiedPiglinRiderEnabled	true	Enable Zombified Piglin Rider in Crimson Forest, Nether Wastes, and Bastion Remnants
netherSkeletonHorsemanEnabled	true	Enable Nether Skeleton Horseman in Soul Sand Valley
zombieHorsemanSpawnRate	0.15	Spawn chance per attempt, 0.0–1.0
huskHorsemanSpawnRate	0.15	Spawn chance per attempt, 0.0–1.0
skeletonHorsemanSpawnRate	0.10	Spawn chance per attempt, 0.0–1.0
parchedHorsemanSpawnRate	0.10	Spawn chance per attempt, 0.0–1.0
boggedHorsemanSpawnRate	0.15	Spawn chance per attempt, 0.0–1.0
strayHorsemanSpawnRate	0.10	Spawn chance per attempt, 0.0–1.0
zombifiedPiglinRiderSpawnRate	0.30	Spawn chance per attempt, 0.0–1.0
netherSkeletonHorsemanSpawnRate	0.15	Spawn chance per attempt, 0.0–1.0
babyUndeadRiderChance	0.05	Chance supported undead riders spawn as baby variants. 0.0 = never
zombieHorseSaddleChance	0.15	Chance a ZombieHorse spawns with a saddle. 0.0 = never
skeletonHorseSaddleChance	0.30	Chance a SkeletonHorse spawns with a saddle. 0.0 = never
zombieHorseArmorChance	0.30	Chance a ZombieHorse spawns wearing armor. 0.0 = never
spawnCheckIntervalTicks	400	Ticks between spawn rounds (20 = 1 s)
spawnAttemptsPerPlayer	6	Spawn attempts per player per round
minSpawnDistance	24	Minimum spawn distance from player (blocks)
maxSpawnDistance	64	Maximum spawn distance from player (blocks)
nightOnly	true	Night/thunderstorm only (ignored for Parched)
maxHorsemenPerPlayer	5	Max per type per online player
openPartiesAndClaimsSupport	true	Respect Open Parties and Claims hostile natural spawn protection when OPAC is installed

⚠️ After updating the mod, delete config/undeadriders.json once to regenerate it with any new fields.

Open Parties and Claims compatibility

If Open Parties and Claims is installed and openPartiesAndClaimsSupport is enabled, Undead Riders checks OPAC claim settings before spawning a horseman.

Claims that have hostile natural spawning disabled, for example through OPAC's "Allow Hostile Spawn" setting, will block Undead Riders natural spawns in that claimed area.

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🔄 Commands

Command	Description
/undeadriders reload	Reloads the config from disk without a server restart
/undeadriders info	Shows enabled/disabled status, spawn rates, and current caps in chat
/undeadriders count	Counts loaded mounts in your current dimension, with named pets listed separately
/undeadriders count <type>	Counts only zombie, husk, skeleton, parched, bogged, stray, piglin, or nether_skeleton
/undeadriders highlight on	Enables temporary outlines on unnamed mounts found by your subsequent count commands
/undeadriders highlight off	Disables highlighting and immediately removes your active markings

These commands require gamemaster permission, like reload and info. Highlighting defaults to off, is personal to each admin, and resets on disconnect or server restart. Glowing is visible to all nearby players. Count includes named pets and riderless mounts but excludes vanilla trap horses and unrelated Zoglins.

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🏜️ Test Server

Feel free to join my Minecraft server to test my mods: play.swordfishbe.eu