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Modes & Commands

Combat is controlled in two layers:

  • Combat Mode (what role the villager takes): Off / Defend / Aggressive / Flee.
  • Combat Settings (when it triggers + filters + AI toggles).

Modes

Off

  • Villager will not run the Guard combat AI.
  • You can still equip gear, but it won't be actively used for fighting.

Defend

Defend reacts to recent damage events near the villager (and also if the villager itself was hit).

You can enable any of these triggers:

  • Owner attacked: if you (the owner) were damaged, attack the attacker.
  • Owner attacks: if you damage something, attack your target.
  • Entity attacks: if any nearby entity attacks something, attack the attacker (filterable).
  • Entity attacked: if any nearby entity is attacked, react (filterable).

Each trigger has its own Whitelist and Blacklist (entity type IDs like minecraft:zombie).

Notes:

  • Defend only reacts to recent hurt events (roughly the last 2 seconds).
  • Defend will never target the owner or other recruited villagers that share the same owner.

Aggressive

Aggressive mode is proactive: the villager looks for nearby entities and attacks them.

  • You can target by:
  • Aggressive whitelist / blacklist
  • Target aggressive mobs (monster-category mobs)
  • Target passive mobs (creature/ambient/water categories)
  • If all aggressive filters are empty/off, the villager does nothing.

Notes:

  • Blacklist always wins.
  • If the whitelist has entries, only whitelisted entities are allowed after blacklist filtering.
  • A blacklist-only setup means "attack everything in range except these entries".
  • Category toggles are additive: they work even if the whitelist is empty.
  • Aggressive will never target the owner or other recruited villagers that share the same owner.
  • Aggressive scans a 3D box around the villager with inflate(16.0) and picks the nearest valid target.

Flee

Flee makes the villager run away from threats.

  • Threat detection uses the same trigger+filter system as Defend/Flee settings.
  • If the villager gets hit (including a shield-blocked hit), it can immediately exit flee and fall back to its previous combat mode.

Notes:

  • Flee is not meant to be an "eternal panic" mode. If a threat reaches the villager, it will often snap back into combat.

Combat vs movement/manual farming

Villagers can have:

  • A movement/manual-farming activity (Idle/Follow/Patrol/Manual Farming, etc.)
  • A combat mode (Defend/Aggressive/Flee)

When a combat condition happens, combat temporarily takes over. When the fight ends, the villager returns to what it was doing.

Combat settings (per-villager vs global)

You can configure combat behavior in two places:

  • Per-villager Combat Settings: from that villager's UI (owner-only).
  • Global Combat Settings template: a server-wide template you can sync into a villager.

In the Combat Settings screen:

  • Save writes settings.
  • Sync copies the global template into this villager.

Note

Global settings updates require operator permissions.

Where is the global Combat Settings screen?

Use the combat settings keybind (K) to open the global template screen. See: Keybinds & Commands.

Settings tabs

Flee / Defend tabs

  • Toggle triggers (Owner attacked/attacks, Entity attacks/attacked)
  • Configure whitelist/blacklist per trigger

Aggressive tab

  • Configure aggressive whitelist/blacklist
  • Toggle hostile/passive category targeting

AI tab

High-level switches for behavior:

  • Blocking (shield)
  • Eating (auto-heal)
  • Circling (strafing/spacing)
  • Eating tuning (Force hits / Max resets)

See: Combat AI Behavior.