Plague Rats

Quickstart

1. Install the .mcaddon and apply both the Behavior Pack and Resource Pack to your world.
2. Rats spawn naturally at dawn in groups — you will see the action-bar warning "Day X: a plague rat horde is coming!" each morning.
3. To spawn one immediately for testing, find the Plague Rat Spawn Egg in the Creative inventory and place it anywhere.
4. Approach a rat to provoke it — it will bite, giving you Poison, Weakness, and Hunger effects. The action bar will read "You were bitten by a plague rat! Find safety and food."
5. Kill the rat to collect loot and any food it stole from your storage.

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Overview

Plague Rats introduces a hostile rat mob that actively raids your base. Rats spawn in the world naturally and surge in dawn hordes every in-game day. They bite players to spread debilitating effects, loot food from your chests and barrels, and chew through wooden blocks. Surviving long-term requires rethinking base design and defending your storage.

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What It Adds

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Abilities And Mechanics

Bite & Plague Effects

When a Plague Rat successfully attacks you, it inflicts three status effects simultaneously:

• Poison (10 seconds)
• Weakness (18 seconds)
• Hunger II (18 seconds)

An action-bar message alerts you immediately. Rats are immune to all three of these effects, as well as Infested.

Dawn Hordes

Once per in-game day, at dawn, a horde of Plague Rats spawns around each player. The action bar displays a red warning: "Day X: a plague rat horde is coming!" Hordes spawn 12–22 blocks away from you in all directions.

Food Theft

Rats actively search nearby chests, trapped chests, and barrels that appear to be inside a player-built structure (detected by surrounding wood blocks, a bed, and a roof nearby). When a rat steals food, its name tag updates to show how many items it has taken — e.g., "Plague Rat (stole 3 food)". Kill that rat to recover the stolen food as drops.

Wood Chewing

Rats will chew through and destroy wooden blocks they encounter, including:

• All wood planks (oak, spruce, birch, jungle, acacia, dark oak, mangrove, cherry, bamboo)
• Logs, bamboo, and Nether wood variants (crimson and warped)

Stone, metal, and other non-wood materials are unaffected.

Natural Spawning

Rats spawn naturally on the surface (on grass, dirt, podzol, and all plank variants) in groups of 4–9, using the monster population pool. Up to 12 can be present on the surface at a time.

Stats

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Progression And Strategy

Early game — survive the first horde. Keep food topped up and have a weapon ready at dawn. The combined Weakness and Hunger from a single bite can spiral quickly if you're swarmed.

Protect your storage. Rats target chests, trapped chests, and barrels inside structures. Use non-wood containers where possible, or keep storage in rooms without wooden walls — rats detect wood to identify "houses." Iron doors and stone construction reduce the risk of infiltration.

Reinforce your builds. Replace or reduce exposed wooden walls, floors, and logs with stone, cobblestone, brick, or other non-wood blocks. Rats will chew through wood to reach the interior of your base, so a fully wooden house is especially vulnerable.

Farm and recover. Rats drop Rotten Flesh and Bones, making them a renewable source of early-game materials. Use the Spawn Egg in Creative to set up a controlled farm or test your base's defenses before a real horde arrives.

Scale with the days. Hordes occur every single dawn, so pressure increases as days accumulate. Prioritize reinforced storage and reliable food sources to stay ahead of the daily raids.