Heartcore Mode

Heartcore Mode

A roguelike health-penalty game mode for Minecraft. Every death permanently reduces your maximum health. Hunt humanoid mobs for Hearts to recover what was lost, and delve into dungeon structures for rare Ancient Hearts to expand your vitality ceiling up to 40 HP (20 hearts) and craft the protective Life Source Lamp.

What does this mod do?

A dedicated game mode

“Heartcore” is selected directly in the Create New World screen alongside Survival, Hardcore, and Creative. Server administrators can configure it as the world default or hide standard vanilla Survival entirely.

High-stakes death penalty

Every time you die, you permanently lose 1 heart (2.0 max HP). To prevent an unplayable soft-lock, health never drops below a safe minimum floor of 3 hearts (6.0 HP) — you will not suffer an instant game over, but each mistake makes future survival significantly harsher.

Two Tiers of Hearts

Health recovery is split into two distinct tiers: basic survival via hunting mobs, and end-game progression through dungeon exploration.

1. Heart (Standard)

The primary method for recovering from death and restoring your health pool back to the vanilla baseline (20 HP / 10 hearts). Functions as food with the nutritional stats of an apple.

• How to obtain: drops from intelligent and humanoid mobs (tagged under #heartcore:entities_with_heart):
  • Villagers and Wandering Traders
  • Illagers (Pillagers, Vindicators, Evokers, Witches)
  • Piglins and Piglin Brutes
• Drop chance scaling: the drop rate dynamically scales with player stats and enchantments:
  
chance = baseChance * (1 + Luck) * (1 + Looting Level)

  Default baseChance = 1% (0.01). With Looting III and Luck bonuses, the drop rate multiplies significantly.
• Crafting ingredient: required to craft the Life Source Lamp.

2. Ancient Heart

A rare artifact of bygone eras (Epic rarity with an enchanted glint). Always edible, even when your health is full, granting the full defensive suite of an Enchanted Golden Apple: Regeneration II, Absorption IV, Resistance, and Fire Resistance.

• Ceiling expansion: once all lost hearts are restored, consuming an Ancient Heart permanently increases your maximum health ceiling by 1 heart (up to a hard cap of 40 HP / 20 hearts).
• Where to find:
  • Structure & Dungeon Chests: found in Dungeons, Abandoned Mineshafts, Strongholds, Ancient Cities, Nether Fortresses, Bastion Remnants, Woodland Mansions, and End Cities.
  • Missionaries (if Born in Chaos is installed): Missionaries and Missionary Raiders have a 25% base drop chance for an Ancient Heart (also scales with Looting and Luck).

Blocks

Life Source Lamp

A sanctuary beacon crafted on a Crafting Table with 8 Ancient Hearts surrounding a standard Torch.

• Emits full light (Light Level 15).
• Can be placed upright on blocks or suspended from ceilings and chains.
• Radiates a life aura across a 64-block radius: continuously refreshes Regeneration and Absorption on all nearby allied players every 4 seconds.

Configuration (config/heartcore-common.toml)

All gameplay rules, drop rates, and penalties can be customized without editing datapacks:

[gamemode]
# Set Heartcore as the preselected game mode when creating a world
heartcore_default_game_mode = false
# Keep standard Survival available in the world creation menu
show_survival_game_mode = true

[health]
# Health values in HP (2.0 HP = 1 full heart)
starting_player_health = 20.0
minimum_player_health = 6.0
health_decrease_per_death = 2.0
health_increase_per_heart = 2.0

[ceiling]
# Allow expanding past 20 HP with Ancient Hearts
allow_max_health_increase = true
max_health_increase_per_heart = 2.0
absolute_max_player_health = 40.0

[loot]
# Structure loot and mob drop rates
heart_chest_loot = true
heart_chest_chance_multiplier = 1.0
heart_villager_drop_chance = 0.01          # Base drop chance for standard Hearts (1%)
ancient_heart_drop_chance = 0.05
ancient_heart_missionary_drop = true       # Born in Chaos Missionary drop
ancient_heart_missionary_drop_chance = 0.25 # 25% chance for Ancient Heart

[items]
# Extra items that restore lost max health (up to baseline 20 HP)
extra_restoring_items = []
# Extra items that increase max health ceiling beyond 20 HP
extra_ceiling_items = []

[life_source]
# Beacon radius and effect strengths
life_source_enabled = true
life_source_radius = 64.0
life_source_regeneration_amplifier = 0
life_source_absorption_amplifier = 0

Modpack and datapack creators can also use the corresponding item tags:

• #heartcore:restores_max_health — items that recover lost health up to ceiling.
• #heartcore:increases_health_ceiling — items that expand maximum health past 20 HP.

How it works

The mod manipulates health through permanent AttributeModifier instances on minecraft:generic.max_health. Stored directly in player capability/NBT data, it remains fully compatible with external health boosts from Curios accessories, armor attributes, or potions without overriding them (because Mediumcore didn’t handle that at the time, and I had to write a mod: Mediumcore Fix)