AI Goal Selectors

Goal Selectors are used with the AIGoalSelectors field and determine what mobs want to “do”. Certain custom goals might not work if they're not included in the base AI of the mob you're creating. For example, a zombie won't be able to use the AI goal “EatGrass” because a zombie would never use that goal in the first place. Feel free to experiment to figure out what does and doesn't work!

Note: Certain goals will not work correctly if the world is in peaceful mode.

Example:

SuperMob:
  Type: zombie
  Health: 200
  Display: 'Superb Zombie'
  AIGoalSelectors:
  - clear
  - meleeattack
  - randomstroll

This zombie would attack players, and walk around randomly when not targeting an enemy.

All Mobs

Creatures Only

Animals Only

Creepers Only

Ranged Entities Only

Piglins and Pillagers Only

AI Target Selectors

Target Selectors are used with the AITargetSelectors field and determine what mobs try to target.

If the mob has AITargets but not AIGoal that allows them to act based on their target, they will still be considered to have valid targets chosen according to the AITargets used (so, for instance, a @target targeter can be used and so on)

Example

SuperMob:
  Type: zombie
  Health: 200
  Display: 'Superb Zombie'
  AIGoalSelectors:
  - clear
  - meleeattack
  - randomstroll
  AITargetSelectors:
  - clear
  - players
  - golems

All Creatures

All Creatures (Faction Support)

AI Pathfinding Malus

The AIPathfindingMalus field overrides how the mob's navigation weighs specific path types when calculating paths. Each entry is a path type name followed by a value, separated by a space. The values are applied when the mob spawns and re-applied when it loads.

• A negative value (e.g. -1) makes the path type impassable
• A value of 0 means no penalty
• A positive value makes the path type more expensive to cross, so paths through it are avoided when alternatives exist

Movement goals that pick their own destination (such as randomstroll or the flee goals) only accept candidate positions whose path type malus is exactly 0. A positive malus is enough to make a spot invalid as a destination, even though the mob would still cross it while following a path.

Examples

Let a ground mob wander across ponds. Land mobs default WATER to 8, so goals like randomstroll can never pick a target on water and a mob floating mid-pond will not move at all:

PondWanderer:
  Type: pig
  AIPathfindingMalus:
  - WATER 0
  AIGoalSelectors:
  - clear
  - randomstroll
  - float

Keep a mob from ever pathing into water. A negative malus makes water impassable to its navigation (it can still be knocked or pushed in):

DuneStalker:
  Type: husk
  AIPathfindingMalus:
  - WATER -1

Stop a fire-immune mob from detouring around burning ground. FIRE (fire, magma blocks, lit campfires) defaults to 16, and walkable blocks next to fire or lava default to 8:

CinderBrute:
  Type: zombified_piglin
  AIPathfindingMalus:
  - FIRE 0
  - FIRE_IN_NEIGHBOR 0

Path straight through cactus fields and berry thickets. DAMAGING blocks are impassable by default, so mobs normally route around them. The mob still takes their damage unless it is immune:

BrambleBoar:
  Type: hoglin
  AIPathfindingMalus:
  - DAMAGING 0
  - DAMAGING_IN_NEIGHBOR 0

Let a mob cross minecart tracks. Rails a mob is not already standing on count as UNPASSABLE_RAIL (default -1), which is why mobs refuse to walk over them:

RailRunner:
  Type: zombie
  AIPathfindingMalus:
  - UNPASSABLE_RAIL 0

Treat the tree canopy as walkable ground. Leaf blocks are impassable to pathfinding by default, even though mobs can physically stand on them:

CanopyStalker:
  Type: spider
  AIPathfindingMalus:
  - LEAVES 0

Path Types

Valid names come from the server version's PathType enum. On current versions:

Older server versions use different names for some of these (the SetPathfindingMalus mechanic page has the legacy table). An invalid name logs a config error and the entry is skipped.

The setpathfindingmalus mechanic changes the same values at runtime from skills.