Features:
- Complete overhaul of the zombie branch with new AI and mechanics
- Zombies spot the player from much further away and alert nearby zombies when hurt
- Zombies stay in groups and follow each other around
- Short leaps at the player make them more unpredictable and dangerous
- Close-range sprints when a zombie gets near you
- Improved attack range with matching attack visuals
- Zombies move faster at night
- More frequent spawns with better armour and equipment that greatly improve their abilities
- Zombies use shields to partly block hits and flint and steel to set the player on fire
- Drowned can be captured while fishing
- Players killed by a zombie turn into one keeping their name and sometimes their equipment
- Requires the Clockwork library and runs on Forge for Minecraft 1.20.x
Vanilla zombies stop being a threat within the first few nights. Zombies Reworked rebuilds the whole branch around better senses and group behaviour: they notice the player from far greater distances, so they will walk across the map to reach your house, and hurting one gives your location away to every zombie nearby. They also stay in loose groups, following each other around instead of shambling alone, which turns a single encounter into a running fight.
Combat gets the same treatment. Zombies now perform small leaps at the player and break into short sprints at close range, making their approach unpredictable, and their attack reach has been improved with visuals to match. Night is genuinely more dangerous because they move faster after dark, and they spawn more commonly carrying better armour and equipment, which greatly improves their abilities. Smarter item handling completes the picture: a zombie can raise a shield to partially block your attacks, or pull out flint and steel and set you on fire whenever it strikes.
Two extra mechanics push things further into survival horror. Fishing carries a chance to capture a drowned zombie instead of a catch, and any player killed by a zombie can rise again as one, taking their name and sometimes their equipment, so a death leaves a familiar-looking threat wandering the world.
Despite the scope of the changes the mod stays lightweight and does not add much new content, which keeps it friendly to heavy modpack lists. It is also heavily configurable, so apocalyptic modpacks can dial the difficulty up or scale individual features back. It needs the Clockwork library alongside it and targets Forge on Minecraft 1.20.x.
