Chest Thief

Your chests are being robbed. The thief doesn’t vanish — it takes your loot to a real underground dungeon you can raid to get it back.
On a multiplayer server, everyone’s loot ends up in the same place — and whoever gets there first takes everything.

Your base is a target.
A thief spawns near player chests, steals at night, and disappears. The more you own,
the more often it comes. Secure your base — or go on the offensive.

Find the dungeon.
Stolen items accumulate in a criminal base somewhere in your world, packed with loot
from every chest in the area. A Wandering Trader sells a map. Fight through the guards
and take it all — including what was stolen from your neighbours.

Run your own operation.
Kill the guards, mine their chest with a Silk Touch tool, and bring it home. Thieves
will start delivering stolen goods to you instead. On a multiplayer server, nobody
needs to know it’s there.

Use the thief as a spy.
Put a lead on a captured Chest Thief and it will walk you toward the nearest chest it
can find — a dungeon, a hidden cache, or another player’s base they thought was secret.

Compatibility

| | |
|—|—|
| Fabric API | Required |
| Cloth Config | Optional — in-game config screen |
| Xaero’s Minimap | Optional — waypoints for located bases |

Configuration

Config files live in your Minecraft config/ folder. They are created automatically on
first launch. New fields added by mod updates appear automatically with sensible defaults
— no manual migration needed. All values can also be changed via the Cloth Config
in-game screen.

chest_thief_config.json

Spawning

| Field | Default | Description |
|—|—|—|
| spawnWeight | 20 | How common the thief is. Cows are 8 — higher means more frequent |
| spawnMinGroup | 1 | Minimum group size when spawning |
| spawnMaxGroup | 2 | Maximum group size when spawning |
| spawnMinNearbyChests | 2 | Minimum chests within detection range before a thief may spawn |
| spawnBiomes | (most overworld biomes) | List of biome IDs the thief spawns in |

Stealing

| Field | Default | Description |
|—|—|—|
| chestDetectionRadius | 100 | How far (blocks) the thief scans for chests |
| chestDetectionMaxVerticalDist | 16 | Max vertical distance to a chest. Low values exclude buried dungeons |
| chestInteractionIntervalTicks | 60 | Ticks between steal attempts (20 = 1 second) |
| maxCarrySlots | 5 | How many item stacks the thief can carry before leaving |
| stealOnlyListedItems | false | If true, only items in chest_thief_values.json can be stolen |

Combat

| Field | Default | Description |
|—|—|—|
| panicChance | 0.4 | Chance (0–1) the thief flees and drops an item when attacked |
| panicDurationTicks | 200 | How long the thief sprints away in panic (200 = 10 seconds) |
| berserkDurationTicks | 300 | Duration of berserk mode (300 = 15 seconds) |
| berserkSpeedMultiplier | 1.5 | Speed multiplier during berserk (+50 % over base speed) |
| berserkFollowRange | 50.0 | Block radius the thief tracks targets during berserk |

Stealth

| Field | Default | Description |
|—|—|—|
| nightSpeedBonus | 0.12 | Flat speed added at night on top of base movement speed |
| stealthChance | 0.85 | Chance (0–1) to go invisible when the cooldown expires |
| stealthMinTicks | 60 | Minimum duration of each invisible period (60 = 3 seconds) |
| stealthMaxTicks | 140 | Maximum duration of each invisible period (140 = 7 seconds) |
| stealthCooldownMinTicks | 200 | Minimum pause between invisible periods (200 = 10 seconds) |
| stealthCooldownMaxTicks | 400 | Maximum pause between invisible periods (400 = 20 seconds) |

Departure

| Field | Default | Description |
|—|—|—|
| departDelayTicks | 400 | Ticks the thief waits with a full inventory before leaving (400 = 20 seconds) |
| departDurationTicks | 600 | Ticks the thief walks away before despawning — your last window to intercept |
| maxAgeTicks | 48000 | Maximum thief lifetime before it departs regardless (48000 = 2 Minecraft days) |
| leavingSoundEnabled | true | Whether the thief plays a smug sound while departing |
| leavingSoundMinTicks | 80 | Minimum interval between departure sounds (80 = 4 seconds) |
| leavingSoundMaxTicks | 160 | Maximum interval between departure sounds (160 = 8 seconds) |
| leaveDurationTicks | 200 | How long the thief walks away from a chest when its inventory is full |

chest_thief_values.json

A map of item ID → priority value. The thief always steals the highest-priority item
it finds in a chest.

  {                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
    "minecraft:nether_star": 1000,                                                 
    "minecraft:elytra": 900,
    "minecraft:diamond": 500,
    "minecraft:iron_ingot": 200                                                                                                                                                                                                    
  }

Items not in the list get priority 1 and can still be stolen — the list only controls
what gets taken first. Set stealOnlyListedItems: true in chest_thief_config.json
to restrict stealing to listed items only.

Default priorities (highest to lowest): Nether Star, Elytra, Enchanted Golden Apple,
Totem of Undying, Beacon, Netherite gear, Diamond gear, Gold, Iron, Ender Pearl, and more.

syndicate_config.json

World generation

| Field | Default | Description |
|—|—|—|
| baseSpacingChunks | 32 | Grid cell size in chunks. Larger = rarer bases |
| baseSeparationChunks | 12 | Minimum distance from cell edge to base centre |

Guards

| Field | Default | Description |
|—|—|—|
| guardArrowDamage | 2.3 | Base arrow damage (vanilla skeleton = 2.0) |
| guardsPerItem | 0.5 | Guards spawned per item in the base (rounded down) |
| minGuards | 4 | Minimum guards regardless of loot count |
| maxGuards | 16 | Maximum guards regardless of loot count |
| guardRespawnIntervalTicks | 6000 | Ticks between respawn checks (6000 = 5 minutes) |
| guardRespawnPlayerBuffer | 8 | Buffer (blocks) around the base AABB that blocks respawn |

Loot

| Field | Default | Description |
|—|—|—|
| starterLootTotal | 10 | Items placed in the base at world generation |
| starterValuableCount | 3 | How many of those are mid-tier valuables; the rest is filler |
| raidThreshold | 0.3 | Base is considered raided when loot drops below 30 % of peak |
| lootDeliveryRadius | 1000000 | Max distance (blocks) a thief travels to deliver loot |

Discovery

| Field | Default | Description |
|—|—|—|
| mapTraderChance | 0.5 | Chance (0–1) a Wandering Trader sells a map to the nearest base |
| createXaeroWaypoints | false | Add a waypoint in Xaero’s Minimap when a base is located |