Graveyard Hordes

The Graveyard Hordes are a night-time event added by The Graveyard. At night, a group of up to 40 undead or illager mobs, led by a patrol leader, can appear in the overworld near a random online player. The event is separate from the Horde Nights event of The Hordes mod.

A horde spawns 34 to 66 blocks away from its target, then walks as a group and attacks what it finds. It is a threat to players who travel at night, and it is rarely a threat to a lit, enclosed base.

Schedule

The overworld has one horde timer. It counts server ticks and, when it reaches zero, it resets to 25,200 ticks, about 21 minutes. This is the default base of 24,000 ticks plus the default 1,200 added ticks. The added value is a fixed amount, not a random range, so checks come every 25,200 ticks.

At each check, nothing happens unless it is night. At night, a 1-in-5 roll decides whether a horde spawns. A check during the day only resets the timer. A check that picks a spectator as its target also ends without a horde. The first check runs on the first server tick, so a horde can appear soon after a server starts at night.

Hordes never spawn in the Nether or the End, because the timer only runs in the overworld.

Horde composition

Each horde is either an undead horde or an illager horde, with equal odds. The choice is made once per horde.

• Undead horde: each member is a Ghoul or a Revenant, chosen individually with equal odds.
• Illager horde: each member is a Corrupted Pillager (2 in 5), a Corrupted Vindicator (2 in 5) or an Acolyte (1 in 5). The two corrupted illagers are described on the Corrupted Illagers page.

The mod's config switches for the Acolyte, Corrupted Pillager and Corrupted Vindicator do not stop them from appearing in hordes. Hordes always use these three types.

The first mob spawned is the patrol leader. The leader chooses where the group goes, and the other members follow it.

Spawn location

• Distance: the horde's centre is 24 to 47 blocks from the target player on each of the X and Z axes, with a random direction on each axis. That places it between about 34 and 66 blocks away horizontally.
• Loaded chunks: the area around the centre must be loaded, or the check ends with no horde.
• Biome: the centre must not be in the vanilla biome tag that excludes patrol spawns.
• Surface: each mob is placed on the highest block that is not leaves, at its own position.
• Walk: the spawner makes up to 40 spawn attempts. After each attempt it moves up to 4 blocks on each axis, so the horde covers a small area.
• Valid spots: each mob needs an empty space with light level 1 or lower, no water in or under that space, and the monster light rules. Attempts that fail are skipped, so a horde is smaller in lit or watery ground. If the leader cannot spawn, no horde appears at all.

Behaviour

The patrol leader chooses a patrol point up to 500 blocks away on each axis and walks toward it. When it nears the point, it chooses another. Members follow the leader. A member with no other horde mobs within 16 blocks stops patrolling and stays where it is.

Members that are not patrolling, or that are more than 128 blocks from every player, can be removed by the game's normal despawning.

Villagers and wandering traders run away from Graveyard hostiles, including horde members, so a horde that passes a village will scatter its villagers.

By default, ghouls, revenants, corrupted pillagers and corrupted vindicators burn in sunlight. Acolytes do not. A horde that is still moving after dawn loses its burning members.

A player who attacks a horde's patrol leader triggers the Walking Dead advancement ("Decimate a graveyard horde, spawning at night").

Fear Nightfall

The pack keeps the horde at the mod's default settings: hordes on, 40 spawn attempts, 24,000 base ticks and 1,200 added ticks. Hordes do not depend on the structures or biomes that the pack reweights. Their frequency is the same in the horror biomes and the others, except that biomes excluded from patrol spawns are skipped. For the structure and biome changes, see The Graveyard.

Tips

• A horde spawns in the dark, so carry a light source on night travel. Lit ground prevents spawns and makes the horde smaller.
• Hordes spawn away from the player, so the group approaches from the outside. Watch the horizon at night.
• Villagers flee horde members, so a village on the horde's path will be disrupted.
• Undead members burn at dawn. A horde that you lead into daylight will thin out.