BetterWarden
Make Wardens what Mojang intended: feared, avoided, and impossible to farm.

✅ What is BetterWarden?
BetterWarden is a production-ready Paper plugin that transforms the Warden into a true apex threat:

• Wardens are meant to be avoided, not killed. BetterWarden enforces that design.
• Anti-farm / anti-cheese systems invalidate common “warden farm” setups.
• Vibration + occlusion stealth makes movement and actions matter (wool muffling supported).
• Boss-bar presentation turns every Warden encounter into a cinematic boss moment.
• Never-stuck jumpscare teleports prevent trapping, boxing, or pathing abuse.
• Optional scent system adds a new stealth layer (configurable, server-owner controlled).

✨ Key Features

️ Anti-Farm / Anti-Cheese Engine
BetterWarden actively detects and breaks common Warden farm patterns:

• Entity cramming farms (dense mob stacks) are neutralized and punished.
• Vehicle trapping (boats/minecarts) is blocked and force-ejected.
• Boxing / hole traps (1x1 pits, cages) trigger escape logic and/or jumpscare reposition.
• Environmental cheese (suffocation, drowning, void, lava, etc.) can be cancelled per your config.
• AFK lure chambers can be detected and escalated (optional “curse” behavior).

️ Vibration + Stealth (Acoustic Occlusion Engine)
Wardens are blind — BetterWarden makes your world “sound-aware”:

• Configurable noise weights for movement/actions (walk/sprint/jump/land, break/place, interact, eat, etc.)
• Occlusion ray sampling: muffling blocks reduce/stop detection (supports wool-tag muffling).
• Decoy gameplay: projectiles (snowballs/arrows) can draw attention with cooldown controls.
• Anger is driven using Paper’s Warden anger controls for a consistent “vanilla-feeling” chase escalation.

️ Optional Smell System (Unique Mechanic)
Enable an additional stealth layer:

• Players emit “scent” over time (sprinting/combat increases it).
• Flower-based scent masking (configurable) can temporarily reduce scent detection.
• Fully optional and tunable: radius, duration, strength, allowed items.

Functionally Unkillable (Configurable)
Two server-owner modes:

• IMMORTAL: damage is cancelled (with optional admin bypass permission).
• SOFT-IMMORTAL: damage allowed, but:
  • per-hit damage caps
  • combat floor healing
  • “burrow escape” on death (despawn + cinematic effects + optional re-emerge)

Boss Bar for Every Warden

• Configurable range, title, update rate, and colors by Warden state.
• Display health progress and/or anger/threat progression.
• MiniMessage supported when available (fallback to legacy formatting otherwise).

⚡ Never Stuck: Jumpscare Reposition
If a Warden is trapped or can’t path correctly:

• Plays warning cues (heartbeat/shriek-style ramp).
• Teleports to a validated safe location near the target player.
• Optional “behind player” bias for true jumpscare moments.
• Applies a short arrival effect (Darkness/Slowness, particles, sound).

⚙️ Commands & Permissions

• /betterwarden reload — Reload config without restarting.
  
  Permission: betterwarden.admin​
• /betterwarden info — Show plugin status and active managed wardens.
  
  Permission: betterwarden.admin​
• /betterwarden debug <on|off> — Per-player debug output (noise/anger/anti-farm/unstuck).
  
  Permission: betterwarden.admin​
• /betterwarden test spawn — Spawn a managed Warden for testing.
  
  Permission: betterwarden.admin​
• /betterwarden toggle <world> — Enable/disable BetterWarden per-world (writes config).
  
  Permission: betterwarden.admin​

Admin Damage Bypass
If you run IMMORTAL mode and want staff to be able to kill Wardens:


Configuration
Everything is configurable in:

Highlights

• Per-world enable/disable (whitelist/blacklist)
• Immortality mode selection + admin bypass
• Attributes (max health, speed, follow range, knockback resistance, attack scaling)
• Regen rules (idle/combat + sculk-fed bonus)
• Anti-farm toggles and punish settings
• Vibration weights + occlusion sampling + muffling blocks/tags + decoy cooldown
• Optional smell system + flower scent masking
• Bossbar styling and state colors
• Unstuck & jumpscare teleport validation settings
• Sounds/particles toggles + volume/pitch

Compatibility

• Server: Paper (recommended)
• Minecraft: 1.19+ (tested target: 1.20–1.21.x)
• Java: 17+
• Dependencies: None required

Installation

1. Drop BetterWarden.jar into your server’s /plugins folder.
2. Restart the server to generate config.
3. Edit plugins/BetterWarden/config.yml to your taste.
4. Use /betterwarden reload to apply changes.

Notes

• BetterWarden is intentionally designed to discourage farming and force avoidance.
• If you want a “boss you can grind,” this plugin is not meant for that gameplay loop.
• All punishments and effects are configurable; you control the intensity.