Setup Hardcore Apocalypse

Hardcore Apocalypse

For experienced players who want the world to be hostile from the first minute. Waves come day and night from day 0, torches no longer protect anything, hordes are frequent, zombies get strong fast, and from the second week they break walls, build steps, climb on each other, and hunt your animals.

Back up the world first. Read Before You Start if this is your first guide.

Commands

Run these in order:

/za preset hardcore
/za scaling extrazombies 4
/za breaking on
/za breaking startday 10
/za breaking events on
/za placing on
/za placing startday 15
/za placing events on
/za towering on
/za towering startday 20
/za towering events on
/za hunt on

• preset hardcore sets fast, large waves, light-ignoring spawns, frequent hordes and blood moons, and quick scaling.
• scaling extrazombies 4 adds up to 4 zombies to every wave, events included, as zombies reach full strength.
• breaking, placing, and towering start on days 10, 15, and 20. With events on, each one also works during hordes and blood moons before its start day, so the first sieges arrive early.
• hunt on lets zombies hunt animals, eat the meat, and grow tougher.

Config File

Edit with the server stopped:

# [dayspawning]
enableDaySpawning = true
enableDaytimeSpawning = true
daySpawnInterval = 80
daySpawnChance = 0.75
zombiesPerSpawn = 3
maxDayZombiesPerPlayer = 80
spawnRange = 30
minSpawnDistance = 12
spawnAttemptsPerZombie = 10
requireOpenSkyForOverworldSpawns = true
daylightSpawnStartDay = 0
maxBlockLightForSpawning = -1
# [variants]
enableZombieVariants = true
babyZombieChance = 0.08
# [nightspawning]
enableNightBoost = true
nightSpawnMultiplier = 2.0
maxNightZombiesPerPlayer = 0
# [horde]
enableHordeEvents = true
hordeStartsAtDusk = true
hordeIntervalDays = 3
hordeStartChance = 0.75
hordeDurationMinutes = 12
hordeSpawnMultiplier = 4.0
hordeZombiesPerSpawn = 8
eventSpawnInterval = 15
# [bloodmoon]
enableBloodMoon = true
bloodMoonChance = 0.25
bloodMoonStartDay = 0
bloodMoonSpawnMultiplier = 6.0
bloodMoonZombiesPerSpawn = 6
# [scaling]
enableDifficultyScaling = true
scalingStartDay = 1
maxScalingDay = 40
maxExtraZombiesPerWave = 4
maxSpeedBoost = 0.3
maxHealthBoost = 16
maxArmorChance = 0.45
maxWeaponChance = 0.35
# [blockbreaking]
enableZombieBlockBreaking = true
zombieBlockBreakingStartDay = 10
zombieBlockBreakingDuringEvents = true
# [blockplacing]
enableZombieBlockPlacing = true
zombieBlockPlacingStartDay = 15
zombieBlockPlacingDuringEvents = true
# [towering]
enableZombieTowering = true
zombieToweringStartDay = 20
zombieToweringDuringEvents = true
# [animalhunting]
enableAnimalHunting = true

What To Expect

• Waves: every 4 seconds each player has a 75% chance of 3 zombies by day. At night the chance doubles and caps at 100%, so a wave comes every check. Up to 80 zombie-class mobs gather around each player.
• No light protection: waves can spawn next to torches. Walls, doors, and height protect you; light does not.
• Hordes: every 3rd day (3, 6, 9, ...) has a 75% chance of a horde at dusk that lasts 12 minutes, through the whole night. Waves are checked every 0.75 seconds with 8 zombies each, plus the extra zombies from scaling.
• Blood moons: 25% of nights, from the first night. Waves are six times as likely, with 6 zombies each.
• Difficulty: from day 1 to day 40, zombies gain up to 30% speed and 16 health (8 hearts), and up to 45% wear armor and 35% carry a weapon, with diamond tiers common late.
• Sieges: on horde and blood moon nights from the start, then all the time from days 10 (breaking), 15 (placing), and 20 (towering). Zombies break blocks up to wooden-door hardness, place up to 8 cobblestone blocks each, and stack on each other to reach raised targets. Chests, machines, lights, and stone-type blocks are still protected.
• Animals: zombies hunt farm animals, eat the meat, and gain up to 10 extra hearts (20 on Hard). Fully fed zombies become leaders that call reinforcements and break doors.
• Dying: spawns near a player who just died are halved for 30 seconds, so a respawn is survivable.

Tuning

To make it...	Run
Let torches protect bases again	/za spawn maxlight 0
Break stone and ores too	/za breaking toolblocks on, then /za breaking hardness 50
Break chests and machines too	/za breaking containers on
Spawn in caves and under roofs	/za spawn sky off (with maxlight -1, that includes inside buildings, lit or not)
Reach full strength sooner	/za scaling maxday 25
Make every 3rd day a horde	/za events chance 1
Stop zombie gear from dropping	/za gear dropchance 0
Remove the mercy after death	/za spawn cooldown off
Spawn custom waves in the Nether	/za spawn nether on
Ease off a little at night	/za spawn nightmax 50
Ease off a lot	/za preset standard (keeps the siege and hunting settings)

Variant chances (huskChance, drownedChance, zombieVillagerChance in [variants]) and per-variant stats (/za attributes set <key> <value>, see Commands) can make special zombies scarier. Change one thing at a time and test with your real player count.

Undo

/za preset standard restores the normal wave, event, and scaling balance. Then turn the extras off:

/za scaling extrazombies 0
/za breaking off
/za placing off
/za towering off
/za hunt off