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Resources / Mods / Adaptive Survival

Adaptive Survival

A Minecraft mod that scales mob difficulty based on progression. Look forward to fighting a wither skeleton with netherite gear! Watch out for cows who will…

ModsFree26.x
by abfielder · listed from Modrinth
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Direct download from Modrinth · 8 downloads

Adaptive Survival screenshot 1

What it does

Adaptive Survival is a mod made by abfielder. A Minecraft mod that scales mob difficulty based on progression. Look forward to fighting a wither skeleton with netherite gear! Watch out for cows who will…

It supports Minecraft 26.x. It has been downloaded 8 times on Modrinth. The last update came out on Sep 18, 2026.

Supported versions

26.x

Release history

The newest is 1.0.1, released on Sep 18, 2026. It is made for Minecraft 26.3. It runs on Fabric. The download is 105 KB.

VersionReleasedMinecraftType
1.0.1Sep 18, 202626.3Release
Description from the author on Modrinth

Adaptive Survival

Minecraft needs to be more challenging, adaptive survival makes Minecraft mobs scale with you. As you hit in game milestones the mobs will hit harder, have higher health and move fast.

Oh and the cows will protect themselves! (So will the sheep and pigs).

There are currently 8 tiers, it doesn't matter which order they are completed in.

Features

Eight tiers of difficult.
Mobs gain health, strength, speed and better gear as they level up.
The deeper underground you go the stronger the mobs are.
Higher tier skele's and pillagers also carry melee weapons if you get too close.
Creepers and spiders speed up as the difficult incrases.
Cows, Pigs and Sheep defend their buddies when attacked.
Tier-increase notifications and built in commands.

Difficulty increases when the world completes these milestones:

Kill a configurable number of mobs
Wear at least one piece of iron armour
Enter the Nether
Obtain Ancient Debris
Defeat the Ender Dragon
Obtain an Elytra
Wear a full set of netherite armour
Reach a configurable world day

By default, the first milestone requires 10 mob kills and the final milestone occurs on day 1000.

Configuration

Launch the game or server once with the mod installed. Adaptive Survival will generate:

config/progressivedifficulty.json

Stop the game or server before editing the file, then restart it to apply your changes. There is currently no in-game config screen or reload command.

The configuration file lets you adjust:

Required mob kills and final world-day milestone
Health and damage multipliers for tiers 0–8
Underground depth thresholds and bonuses
Nether and End dimension bonuses
Equipment and armour chances
Enchantment chances and power
Equipment drop chance
Tier 8 netherite chance
Skeleton and pillager melee behaviour
Creeper and spider speed progression
Livestock retaliation range and duration
Cow, pig, and sheep damage, speed, and knockback
Whether baby animals retaliate

Values ending in Chance use decimals between 0.0 and 1.0. For example, 0.25 means a 25% chance.

Tier-based arrays contain nine values ordered from Tier 0 through Tier 8:

"healthMultipliers": [ 1.0, 1.05, 1.075, 1.10, 1.15, 1.25, 1.35, 1.50, 1.80 ]

A multiplier of 1.0 leaves the original value unchanged, while 1.5 increases it by 50%. Major feature groups can be disabled using their corresponding enabled setting.

Commands

/pdifficulty status — displays the current tier and milestone progress
/pdifficulty inspect — inspects the nearest hostile mob within 16 blocks
/pdifficulty settier — manually sets the tier for testing; operator only
/pdifficulty reset — resets world progression; operator only

Written by abfielder. Read it with pictures on Modrinth.

How to install Adaptive Survival

  1. This mod is needed on both the server and every player who joins.

  2. Install Fabric for Minecraft 26.x.

  3. Add the mods it needs: Fabric API.

  4. Download the .jar file from Modrinth and put it in the mods folder of your .minecraft directory.

  5. Start Minecraft with the Fabric profile.

  6. Easier: in Prism Launcher or the Modrinth App, search for Adaptive Survival in your instance's mods and click Install. It adds the loader and the mods it needs for you.

Full guide: How to install Minecraft mods

Compatibility

Minecraft versions
26.x
Runs on
Fabric
Where it runs
Client and server
Edition
Java
Needs
Fabric API
License
Free to use
Price
Free
Upkeep
Actively updated (Nov 15, 2026)

Adaptive Survival compared with similar ones Compare all alternatives

ResourceDownloadsVersionsLast updatePrice
Adaptive Survivalthe one you looked at826.xSep 18, 2026Free
Crate DelightAxperty4M1.19 – 26.xSep 16, 2026Free
L2 Hostilitylcy0x12.9M1.20 – 1.21Mar 26, 2026Free
The LevelingHorizzon2531.21 – 26.x11 days agoFree

Questions

Does Adaptive Survival work on Minecraft 26.x?

Yes. Adaptive Survival supports Minecraft 26.x. All supported versions: 26.x.

Is Adaptive Survival free?

Yes. Adaptive Survival is free to download from Modrinth.

Is Adaptive Survival client-side or server-side?

Both. The server and every player need Adaptive Survival installed.

Does Adaptive Survival need anything else?

Yes: Fabric API. Install it before Adaptive Survival.

Is Adaptive Survival still updated?

Yes. The last update came out in the past day.

What are the best alternatives to Adaptive Survival?

The closest ones are Crate Delight, L2 Hostility and The Leveling. Compare all alternatives

Alternatives to Adaptive Survival

L2 HostilityMods · 1.20 – 1.21

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The LevelingMods · 1.21 – 26.x

Level up individual weapons and armor through combat with configurable progression, damage scaling, and broken gear.

Free253 downloads
SurvivalityMods · 1.20

Makes Minecraft's progression slower and adds a "Little" more difficulty to the game

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Mister's dreamsMods · 26.x

A new dimension with two biomes, a new mob, new advancements, new materials and some new gear.

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Mob Invasion TDMods · 1.20 – 1.21

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