# Sculk Echo 1.0.1 — The Echo Returns *I'm sorry I was gone for two months.* Real life has a way of pulling modders away from their projects. After 1.0.0 released and the mod went public, I stepped back — and came back to find **200 downloads** on a mod I hadn't touched in 60 days. That kind of quiet loyalty from players I've never met is the reason this update exists. Thank you for staying. The echo is back. This is a **performance and quality-of-life patch**, built from the feedback you left in the comments and the bugs you reported. No new mobs, no new dimensions — just making what's already here run smoother, look cleaner, and respect your hardware. ## 🚀 Performance Overhaul The Echo Pulse (V) is now **3-4× faster** on mid-range systems: - **Frustum culling** — points outside the camera's field of view are dropped before they reach the GPU. What you can't see no longer costs you FPS. - **Distance-based LOD** — blocks within 10m paint with 9 points, 10-20m with 4 points, beyond 20m with 1. The eye can't tell the difference; the GPU loves it. - **Faster signal limiting** — replaced full-list shuffle with direct sub-array selection when capping points per pulse. - **Backface culling** — faces turned away from the pulse source are no longer painted. No more wasting vertices on the insides of blocks. Expect **45-70 FPS during pulse** on an i5-12400 / RTX 4060 setup, up from 15-20 in 1.0.0. ## 🛠️ Quality of Life - **`/sculkecho fog off`** — disables the infection fog for screenshots, streams and cinematic footage. Use `/sculkecho fog on` to restore it. - **Removed the vignette** — the infection fog no longer crushes your field of view into a tight circle. The birch-teal tint remains to signal corruption, but your peripheral vision is yours again. Less suffocating, still unsettling. ## 🐛 Bug Fixes - **Fixed** the Sculk Soul projectile crashing on render (missing vertex attributes in NeoForge 1.21.1's new buffer format). The soul now flies as a rotating teal star-cross instead of taking the game down with it. - **Fixed** Reflector and Reflector Blueprint items rendering as magenta-pink fallback textures. They now show their proper assets — the teal lens module and the diagonal-folded parchment schematic. - **Fixed** the sculk potion recipe failing to parse in 1.21.1's new ingredient format. Shapeless crafting works again. - **Fixed** the reflector blueprint loot modifier failing to load due to a renamed condition (`minecraft:alternative` → `minecraft:any_of`). Blueprints now drop correctly from ancient cities, trial chambers, woodland mansions and buried treasure. ## 🎨 Assets - New textures for the **Reflector** (teal lens module with copper contacts) and **Reflector Blueprint** (diagonal-folded parchment with the lens schematic drawn in sculk-teal ink). ## 🔮 What's Next Work on **1.1.0 "Symbiosis"** has begun — the infection will become part of the player, unlocking a second path through the mod: - **Hive Favor** — a new resource earned by standing on sculk and converting mobs. - **Sculk Soul** — cast a fragment of yourself to possess a distant creature. - **Summoning** — call the converted to fight by your side. - **Stages 6-10** — the path of Acceptance, where the disease stops being a curse and starts being a voice. Two paths diverge. The Ward says *no*. The Hive says *yes*. Choose carefully. *The echo is louder now. The frame rate is higher. The infection continues.*

# Sculk Echo 1.0.0 — The Epidemic Is Complete *A survival-horror progression mod built around two senses you never had: echolocation and infection. The sculk does not kill. The sculk recruits.* ## The Story of the Mod Sculk Echo started as a question: what if the Deep Dark wasn't a one-time encounter but a **condition** the world catches? - **0.x (Early access)** — The first sonar pulses. A single Warden-inspired sense that painted caves in color-coded points. The echo was born. - **1.0-beta** — Infection appeared. A five-stage disease tracked on a HUD, spreading through melee, arrows and explosions. The Warden became a symptom, not a boss. - **1.2.0-beta** — The Sculk Merchant walked into the Deep Dark. A villager who accepted the sculk, offering random stock and a one-shard reroll. The first counter-play emerged. - **1.3.0-beta "End Echoes"** — The epidemic crossed dimensions. The Whisperer jammed the sonar. Shulkers shot infection bullets. Witches drank shards. The Sporeling burrowed behind your back. - **1.4.0-beta "Trials & Tribulations"** — The Trials answered the call. Breezes fired wind charges of infection. Evokers became death-bringers. The frozen north received its apex predator. Piglins traded gold for the sculk. Sixteen corrupted mobs, three dimensions, one disease. - **1.0.0** — Reflectors arrived. Sixteen colors to tune your sense. A glitch phase that feels like surgery. Face culling cleaned the vision. The mod left beta. Two years of pulses. One complete epidemic. ## The Echo Sense - **Echo Pulse (V)** — a sonar wave that paints the world in point-clouds. Every block answers in the color of its material: stone in grays, ores in their gems, sculk in its teal. - **Echo Shot** — a directed burst that reveals caves and mobs through walls, with cooldown. - **Color Masks** — filter which material colors your sonar answers to. - **Face Culling** — the pulse only paints faces you can actually see: no wasted points on hidden geometry or back-faces, cleaner picture, better FPS. - **Echo Stimulator** — the device that makes it all possible. Crafted, carried, irreplaceable. ## The Infection - Five stages from first contact to full possession, tracked on a dedicated HUD. - Stage 5: the sculk takes the wheel — possession episodes with their own vision. - The epidemic spreads through melee, arrows, explosions, potions, shulker bullets and witch vials. - **Sculk Ward** — the only answer: an enchanted book that makes you a ghost to the infection. Infected mobs refuse to target you. Sold by one merchant only, 14–18 shards, 1 in stock. ## The Infected — 16 mobs and 1 merchant - **Overworld:** Zombie, Skeleton, Creeper (block-safe conversion burst), Cow, Sheep, Spider, Chicken (lays sculk eggs), Witch (infection vials, drinks shards to heal). - **Deep Dark:** Sculk Merchant — a villager who accepted the sculk. Random rolling stock, "New goods: 1 shard" button, permanently glowing cape. - **The End:** The Whisperer (sonar-jamming enderman), Sculk Shulker (+3 infection bullets, seeds sculk on blocks), Sculk Mite (burrows and resurfaces behind you). - **Trial Chambers:** Sculk Breeze — infection wind charges, seeds sculk where it lands. - **Illagers:** Sculk Evoker — death conversion cloud, totem and shard drops. - **Frozen North:** Sculk Polar Bear — the apex predator, claimed. - **Nether:** Sculk Piglin & Piglin Brute — they traded gold for the sculk. ## Reflectors — tune your sense - 16 color reflectors, one per dye. A reflector **amplifies its color**: with a red reflector installed, every red-material block sings pure red in your sonar while the rest keep their voices. - **Blueprints are rare:** 0.5% chance in ancient cities, trial chamber rewards, woodland mansions and buried treasure — or a 15%-chance rare stock at the Sculk Merchant. - **Crafting burns the blueprint:** stimulator + blueprint + 2 redstone + 2 prismarine shards. The stimulator survives the operation; the blueprint does not. One blueprint = one reflector, forever. - **Installation is surgery.** For two minutes your body rejects the implant: vision closes in from the edges with sculk-teal glitching, the HUD dot flickers between white and the new color, and your sonar misfires 30% of the time. Then it stabilizes — and the color is yours. ## Alchemy & Economy - **Sculk Potion** — brew a splash potion with an echo shard (or craft shapeless); on landing it blooms into a patchy sculk crust like a mini-catalyst. Direct hits convert mobs. - **Sculk Egg** — thrown or laid by infected chickens; summons a random infected mob in a burst of souls. - **Advancement: Universal Friendship** — complete a trade with the Sculk Merchant. ## Technical - Works on client and server; sense is client-side, epidemic is server-side. - Requires NeoForge for Minecraft 1.21.1. - 1.0.0 exits beta after four pre-release versions and two years of development. *The sculk does not kill. The sculk recruits. Now it recruits in sixteen colors.*

# Sculk Echo 1.4.0-beta — Trials & Tribulations The epidemic leaves the Deep Dark. It learns to fly, to cast, to hunt in frozen silence — and it never stops recruiting. ## New mobs — End Echoes (1.3 content) - **The Whisperer (Infected Enderman)** — teleports in bursts of sculk souls, sometimes leaving sculk blocks behind. Within 16 blocks it jams your Echo Pulse with phantom noise; in echo-vision its silhouette flickers. In darkness only two teal eyes burn. Drops 1–2 echo shards. - **Sculk Shulker** — a living turret with a sculk vortex for a heart. Its bullets inject +3 infection per hit on players and may seed sculk on struck blocks. - **Sculk Mite (Sporeling)** — a fast burrower that vanishes in sparks and resurfaces behind your back. Its death bursts into a conversion cloud (radius 2). - **Sculk Witch** — hurls vials of infection (+2 infection per hit), drinks echo shards to heal when wounded, leaves a conversion puddle and an echo shard on death. In echo-vision she burns with a violet-teal double aura. ## New mobs — Trials & the Frozen North (1.4 content) - **Sculk Breeze** — a corrupted wind elemental. Shoots wind charges that inject +2 infection per hit; seeds sculk beneath itself when it lands. Wrapped in an animated teal vortex; in darkness only glowing eye-dots remain. - **Sculk Evoker** — a corrupted illager captain. On death: a conversion cloud (radius 3, 4 damage), a Totem of Undying and 3 echo shards. The most dangerous mob of the epidemic. - **Sculk Polar Bear** — the apex predator of the frozen north, claimed by the sculk. Ice-like sculk plating on its back, glowing teal eyes, devastating melee. The epidemic now reaches every climate. ## Sculk alchemy & counterplay - **Sculk Potion** — brew a splash potion with an echo shard (brewing stand) or craft it shapeless. On landing it blooms like a mini-catalyst: a patchy sculk crust spreads over the surface (up to 12 blocks). Direct hits convert mobs. - **Sculk Ward enchantment** — an enchanted book sold only by the Sculk Merchant (14–18 shards, 1 in stock). Applied to armor via anvil: while worn, infection cannot grow from any source and infected mobs refuse to target you. You become a ghost in the epidemic. ## Merchant & QoL - Sculk Merchant rolls a **random stock** on spawn: 2 fixed shard trades + 3–4 random offers (diamond, potion, golden apple, sculk catalyst, XP bottles, ender pearls, sculk, netherite scrap) with floating prices. - Button in the trading GUI: **"New goods: 1 shard"** — pay a shard, the merchant reshuffles his stock on the spot. - New advancement: **"Universal Friendship"** — complete a trade with the Sculk Merchant. ## Total: 16 infected mobs Overworld farms and villages, Deep Dark, Trial Chambers, the End and the frozen north — nowhere is safe, everywhere is recruitable. ## Known issues & roadmap - Gradual blindness over in-game days — roadmap. - Infected piglin/brute for full Nether coverage — roadmap (1.5 or 1.0). - Echo Stimulator crafting at the Merchant — roadmap. *The sculk does not kill. The sculk recruits.*

New — The End answers the call - The Whisperer (Infected Enderman) — a tall silhouette cracked with sculk veins. In darkness only two teal eyes burn. It teleports in bursts of sculk souls and sometimes leaves a block of sculk where it jumped. Kills the hunter's best sense: within 16 blocks your Echo Pulse jams with phantom noise (+35% interference), and in echo-vision its silhouette flickers in and out between pulses. Drops 1–2 echo shards. - Sculk Shulker — a living turret with a sculk vortex for a heart. Its bullets deal damage AND inject the disease: +3 infection per hit on a player (watch the HUD bar grow). A bullet that strikes a block may seed a sculk vein on it — the epidemic now spreads across architecture, not just flesh. - Both join the epidemic: they hunt everything that is not yet one of them, never despawn, and can be created by conversion (melee, arrows, creeper cloud, sculk eggs). Merchant & QoL - Sculk Merchant now rolls a random stock on spawn: 2 fixed shard trades plus 3–4 random offers (diamond, potion, golden apple, sculk catalyst, XP bottles, ender pearls, sculk blocks, netherite scrap) with floating prices. - New button in the trading GUI: "New goods: 1 shard" — pay one echo shard and the merchant rustles the sculk and reshuffles his stock on the spot. - New advancement: "Universal Friendship" — complete a trade with the Sculk Merchant. Vanilla villagers don't count: this friendship is earned in the Deep Dark. Fixes - Trading GUI reroll button moved inside the window, next to the inventory label. - Infected Enderman eyes render as a separate additive glow layer (body stays dark). Known issues & roadmap - Sculk Mite (swarming burrower) is drawn but not released yet — next beta. - Gradual blindness over in-game days and Echo Stimulator crafting remain on the roadmap. The sculk does not kill. The sculk recruits. Now it recruits across dimensions.

New - Infected Creeper — the walking mine of the epidemic. Its fuse is a shrieker's cry; its explosion leaves blocks intact but releases a sculk-cloud (radius 4.5): 6 armor-piercing damage and instant conversion of every caught mob into its infected form. One creeper can turn a village square into a nursery of the sculk. - Infected Cow & Infected Sheep — corrupted livestock joins the epidemic. The sheep wears two-layer sculk-wool (base + fur overlay) that cannot be sheared: scissors spark uselessly against the sculk. No dye variants — the disease has one color. - Sculk Merchant — a villager who accepted the sculk and survived. Trades echo shards for emeralds, diamonds and potions; wears a permanent glowing cape (two-layer texture, vanilla profession robes removed forever). Spawns in Ancient Cities, or when a vanilla villager lingers near a sculk catalyst too long. In echo-vision he glows gold — a lighthouse you can hear. - HUD — infection bar with numeric readout, six stage pips and Echo Shot cooldown indicator (stage 5). Hidden completely at 0 infection and during possession. - Echo Shot cooldown — 2 seconds between shots; the HUD shows the recharge. Fixes - Fixed inverted infection/stage sync: the HUD bar now fills exactly as your infection grows. - Trading GUI with the Sculk Merchant no longer closes instantly. - Infected sheep no longer renders vanilla white wool over its sculk texture. Known issues & roadmap - Echo Stimulator still uses a placeholder texture (vanilla echo shard). - Next: Echo Stimulator crafting at the Merchant, infected chicken for full farm horror, gradual blindness over in-game days. The sculk does not kill. The sculk recruits.

New - Infected mobs: Infected Zombie, Infected Skeleton and Infected Pig — sculk-corrupted variants with hand-painted textures. They glow as teal silhouettes in echo-vision. - The Epidemic: any damage dealt by an infected mob (melee OR arrows) has a 15% chance to convert the victim into its infected counterpart. Species is preserved: a pig rises as a sculk-pig, a skeleton as a sculk-skeleton. Species without an infected form yet (cow, chicken, creeper…) are not converted. - Infected mobs hunt every living entity except their own kind, never despawn by distance and survive on Peaceful difficulty. The infection is patient. - Natural conversion: in the Deep Dark, vanilla zombies near a player may spontaneously turn into infected ones in a burst of sculk souls. The city is waking up. - Immunity command: `/sculkecho immunity [on|off]` — freezes infection gain and stops the Shadow from possessing you. For builders, testers and the faint of heart. Fixes - Fixed a crash when an Infected Pig performed a melee attack (missing attack_damage attribute). - Echo Stimulator now renders as an item (placeholder texture, final art coming). - Added missing entity and item translations (EN / RU). - Infected mobs no longer vanish on Peaceful difficulty or when the player walks away. Known issues & roadmap - Echo Stimulator uses a placeholder texture (vanilla echo shard). - Next betas: infected creeper (sculk-cloud explosion with AoE conversion), more infected species, HUD indicators (infection bar, Echo Shot cooldown), gradual blindness progressing over in-game days. The sculk does not kill. The sculk recruits.

[1.0.1-beta] - Fixed: Echo Pulse no longer responds at 0 infection (echolocation now requires the infection) - Fixed: possession always leaves you blind (infection raised to stage 2 minimum) - Fixed: the sculk screen-closing lasts ~5s and no longer reopens into normal vision