A linear walkthrough — install Tribulation, understand how leveling and scaling work, survive the death rubber-band, and decide whether to flip on the hardcore mechanics.
Tribulation is a Fabric mod for Minecraft 1.21.1 with zero external dependencies beyond Fabric API. You'll need:
mods/ folder.mods/ — on both the server and every client..minecraft/config/tribulation.json with default values.Already using a mob-scaling mod? Remove it first. Tribulation provides a unified, formula-driven scaling system, and stacking two scaling mods produces unpredictable stat inflation.
Mod Menu and Cloth Config are optional — install both for an in-game settings screen. See the full config reference for every available setting.
Tribulation's difficulty is driven by a per-player difficulty level from 0 to 250. It is not your XP level — it advances purely with playtime, one level roughly every hour of being in the world.
The mod introduces itself as you play: a toast pops the moment you join to confirm it's installed, and your first level-up spells out the core loop — your difficulty rises the longer you survive, and mobs near you grow stronger with it.
The higher your level, the stronger the mobs that spawn near you. But your level is only one of four scaling axes that combine per stat:
| Axis | Trigger | Caps at |
|---|---|---|
| Time | Your difficulty level (≈1/hour, max 250) | per-mob (e.g. +250% HP) |
| Distance | Past 1000 blocks from world spawn | +150% |
| Height | Deviation from Y=62 (up or down) | +50% |
| Moon | Overworld nights, peaking at the full moon | +10% |
The four factors stack per attribute and then clamp to a global stat cap, so mobs never scale to infinity. A deep cave 2000 blocks from spawn at high level is dramatically more dangerous than the surface near your bed — by design.
Cross level thresholds of 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 and mobs also unlock tier-gated abilities — zombies that break doors, skeletons that fire flaming arrows, creepers that spawn charged.
A compact level badge sits in the top-left of your HUD by default. It's icon-only — the icon's tint tells you your tier (white → yellow → orange → red → crimson as you climb), and the thin bar underneath fills toward your next level. When you level up, the badge flashes gold and settles into the new tier color.
The badge follows the rfizzle overhaul-suite convention, so it stacks cleanly with HUDs from Meridian, Mercantile, and other suite mods. Move it to any corner or hide it entirely via the HUD client config.
Crossing a tier threshold is marked as a moment of its own: an advancement toast pops and a short sting plays just for you. A chat line names one ability the mobs around you have newly unlocked, and — the very first time you cross a tier — a one-time hint points you at the Peek Tier Detail panel (bound to Left Alt by default; rebind it in Options → Controls → Tribulation). Hold it to see exactly what nearby mobs can do at your tier. The whole tier ladder, plus milestones like surviving with a Soulbound item or felling a Tier-5 mob, lives in the Tribulation tab of the advancements screen — see features → Advancements.
For an exact number, tier, and time-to-next, run:
/tribulation infoServer operators can inspect any player and even break down the exact scaling math at a position with /tribulation debug <player>. See the commands reference.
Tribulation's baseline death penalty is forgiving on purpose. When you die, you lose 2 difficulty levels (configurable). You're told when it happens — an actionbar message on respawn shows the drop ("Your trials ease — difficulty level 87 → 85") and the HUD level badge plays a cool-blue flash. Dying repeatedly naturally pulls your difficulty back down, while a long survival streak pushes the ceiling higher — a self-balancing rubber-band rather than a punishment.
Want to dial the heat down deliberately? Once you're past level 25, scaled mobs occasionally drop Shatter Shards (0.5% chance). Consume one to cut your level by 5 — at the cost of a few seconds of Slowness, Mining Fatigue, and Weakness. They're also the crafting ingredient for Heart Fragments below.
Want the opposite — deadlier mobs, Tier 5, and the richer XP and loot now instead of after 250 hours? Craft an Ascendant Shard: a Nether Star ringed by 4 Shatter Shards. Consuming one raises your level by 25 (up to the maximum). The raised difficulty is the whole cost, so there's no debuff by default — though remember Death Relief still bleeds 2 levels back on every death.
All of this is tunable. Don't want death relief at all? Set deathRelief.enabled to false. Want shards more common? Raise shards.dropChance. Prefer a bigger jump per Ascendant Shard? Raise ascension.raisePower. See features → Death & Penalties.
Two of Tribulation's harshest mechanics are off by default. Flip them on only when you want death to carry lasting weight.
Each death permanently removes 2 half-hearts from your maximum health, down to a floor of 1 heart. To claw health back, craft a Heart Fragment from 4 Shatter Shards + 1 Golden Apple — each fragment restores 2 half-hearts. Enable it with:
"hardcoreHearts": { "enabled": true }On death, your entire inventory is destroyed — except items carrying the tribulation:soulbound enchantment. You can't protect everything, so every Soulbound slot becomes a real decision. Enable it with:
"soulInventory": { "enabled": true }Both honor the vanilla keepInventory gamerule when configured, and operators have admin commands to restore hearts or audit soulbound items. Apply changes live with /tribulation reload.
Every number is editable in tribulation.json. A few common starting points:
general.levelUpTicks (e.g. 36000 = 1 level per 30 min).statCaps values, or a specific mob's healthCap/damageCap in the scaling map.distanceScaling.enabled or heightScaling.enabled to false.mobToggles to false.abilities (e.g. zombieDoorBreaking) to false.After editing, run /tribulation reload — no restart needed. Out-of-range values are clamped automatically.