Hollow Steve adds a ten-phase horror campaign to Minecraft.

The first days are quiet but not normal. You may hear footsteps with nobody nearby, notice something watching from the darkness, or find that sleeping is no longer safe. When the hunt begins, Hollow Steve becomes a persistent boss that grows stronger after every defeat.

Escaping through a portal will not save you. The same hunt continues through the Overworld, Nether, End, and compatible modded dimensions.

👁️ From Watching to Hunting

The campaign begins when the mod is first installed in a world. Old world age and /time set cannot skip its progression.

• The Watch: distant appearances, footsteps, whispers, strange sounds, particles, Darkness, and other anomalies.
• The Hunt: Hollow Steve begins selecting and pursuing real targets.
• The Progression: every victory advances the campaign to the next phase.
• The Final Hunt: phase 10 becomes a three-stage enraged boss fight.
• New Game+: restart the campaign after victory with stronger health, damage, and speed scaling.

Hunts begin on Day 3 by default and can be configured from Day 1 to Day 30.

⚔️ Hollow Steve

Hollow Steve does more than run directly at the nearest player.

• Tracks players using sight and sound.
• Remembers the last position where a target was seen or heard.
• Hears sprinting, block breaking, block interaction, and item use.
• Selects multiplayer targets based on distance, threat, and damage dealt.
• Chases players on land.
• Swims and fights underwater without drowning.
• Leaps diagonally toward players within jump range.
• Uses warned teleportation when a target is far away or the pursuit becomes stuck.
• Follows targets between dimensions without resetting the encounter.
• Opens doors, trapdoors, and fence gates in later phases.
• Breaks selected light sources when enabled.
• Breaks shelter blocks when enabled.
• Can destroy boats and minecarts during later phases.
• Uses dedicated animations for idle, walking, chasing, attacking, taking damage, swimming, jumping, spawning, vanishing, and dying.

Hollow Steve does not receive a player's live location without seeing or hearing them.

🌌 Cross-Dimension Hunts

Changing dimension does not create another boss or reset the fight.

The active Hollow Steve disappears from the previous dimension and returns near its target in the destination dimension. Its phase, health percentage, rage stage, and target are preserved.

If no safe position is available, the encounter is canceled and retried later instead of placing Hollow Steve inside blocks or outside the playable world.

🛏️ Sleep Is Not Safe

Hollow Steve can interrupt sleep.

When a valid sleep attempt is made:

• Sleeping is canceled.
• One of ten random messages may appear.
• Darkness may be applied.
• A Creeper may appear near the bed.
• Repeated bed interaction is rate-limited.

Daytime, occupied beds, and dimensions where beds normally explode retain their vanilla behavior.

The sleep trap, Creeper, messages, effects, and cooldown can all be configured or disabled.

🎁 Personal Rewards

Defeating Hollow Steve gives every eligible player their own reward package.

Rewards are locked to the receiving player, so multiplayer loot cannot be stolen or claimed by only one person. A recovery system protects tracked rewards that are destroyed, unsafe, near the void, too far away, or left in another loaded dimension.

Progression rewards include:

• Totems of Undying
• Healing, Swiftness, Strength, Regeneration, Night Vision, and Fire Resistance potions
• Golden Apples and Enchanted Golden Apples
• Milk Buckets
• Shields and arrows
• An enchanted bow
• Strong enchanted Netherite armor
• A Netherite Sword with Sharpness V, Unbreaking III, and Mending

Each reward is intended to prepare players for the next and more difficult phase.

🏆 Final Victory Reward

After defeating phase 10, every eligible player receives:

• 5 stacks of Diamond Blocks
• 6 stacks of Netherite Blocks
• 2 stacks of Iron Blocks
• 4 stacks of Enchanted Golden Apples
• 3 Totems of Undying
• 1 Nether Star
• 4 Potions of Strong Healing
• 2 Potions of Night Vision

The final victory also awards the Alone Again challenge advancement and unlocks New Game+.

🌐 Multiplayer

Hollow Steve supports singleplayer, LAN, dedicated servers, and modpacks.

Only one real progression encounter is active across the server by default. Players in separate locations or dimensions cannot create duplicate bosses, skip phases, or duplicate shared progression.

Multiplayer difficulty scales using nearby players who can actually be hunted.

• Survival and Adventure players can become Hunt targets.
• Creative players receive configurable horror events, apparitions, and rewards but are not attacked.
• Spectators are not attacked and may receive rewards when enabled.
• Dead, disconnected, Creative, and Spectator players do not increase Hunt difficulty.
• If a target becomes invalid, Hollow Steve can select another eligible player or safely end the encounter.

Every eligible online player can receive a personal reward package, even when they are in another dimension.

🚪 World Interaction

Depending on its phase and configuration, Hollow Steve can:

• Open doors, trapdoors, and fence gates.
• Break torches, lanterns, and selected light sources.
• Break shelter blocks around hiding players.
• Damage boats and minecarts.
• Pressure players hiding above or below him.

World interaction respects mobGriefing by default. Blocks containing stored data, such as chests and modded machines, are protected unless the server configuration explicitly allows otherwise.

Modded blocks and vehicles are excluded from destructive behavior by default.

🛡️ Modpack Friendly

Hollow Steve is designed for use in modpacks and dedicated servers.

• One progression state is shared across the server.
• Duplicate encounters and rewards are prevented.
• Hearing clues and block scans have strict limits.
• Sleep traps use cooldowns to prevent spam.
• Spawn and teleport searches are bounded.
• Distant chunks are not force-loaded.
• Block entities are protected by default.
• mobGriefing and mob-spawning rules are respected.
• Temporary runtime data is cleared when the server stops.
• Invalid configuration values are restricted to safe ranges.
• Existing configuration files receive newly added options automatically.

For servers using land claims or protected bases, disabling block and light breaking is recommended if the protection mod does not intercept direct block changes.

⚙️ Configuration

The server configuration is created at:

config/hollowsteve.json

Most major systems can be adjusted or disabled:

• Hunt start day and spawn frequency
• Cross-dimension hunting
• Horror anomalies and apparitions
• Creative-player horror effects
• Sleep traps
• Hearing ranges and memory
• Target selection and multiplayer scaling
• Jumping, stalking, chasing, and teleportation
• Health, damage, and movement speed
• Reward distribution and recovery
• Doors, lights, shelters, and vehicles
• Block and mob griefing behavior
• Boss bar
• Final advancement
• New Game+

Reload the configuration without restarting:

/hollowsteve reloadconfig

🧰 Commands

Operator commands include:

• /hollowsteve status
• /hollowsteve reloadconfig
• /hollowsteve summon
• /hollowsteve apparition
• /hollowsteve soundtest
• /hollowsteve setkills <0-10>
• /hollowsteve reset
• /hollowsteve newgameplus

📥 Installation

Download the Hollow Steve file made for your Minecraft version and mod loader.

Install the mod on both the client and server. Hollow Steve includes custom entities, models, textures, sounds, animations, and rendering, so it is not server-only.

Required dependencies:

• Fabric: Fabric Loader, Fabric API, and GeckoLib
• Forge: Forge and GeckoLib
• NeoForge: NeoForge and GeckoLib

Always use the dependency versions listed on the selected file page. Do not install a Fabric build on Forge or NeoForge, or use a build made for another Minecraft version.

⚠️ Content Warning

Horror and photosensitivity warning: Hollow Steve contains stalking, sudden appearances, loud sounds, whispers, heartbeats, Darkness effects, interrupted sleep, Creepers, screen-darkening options, smoke, portal particles, and jumpscare-like sequences.

Most major horror effects can be adjusted or disabled.

📜 License

All Rights Reserved Hollow Steve by Zynwro.

You may:

• Download and play the mod.
• Include the original unmodified mod in public or private modpacks.
• Record, stream, screenshot, or publish gameplay.

You may not:

• Reupload the mod as a standalone file without permission.
• Claim ownership or authorship.
• Sell or sublicense the mod.
• Modify and redistribute the mod without permission.
• Reuse its source code, sounds, textures, models, animations, or other assets without permission.

When practical, modpacks should credit Hollow Steve by zynwro and link to an official Modrinth or CurseForge project page.