YUNG's Better Strongholds guide for All the Mods 10 2.12

YUNG's Better Strongholds is a complete redesign of Minecraft's strongholds. Instead of the familiar vanilla layout, you get far more complex and exciting structures that still stay true to vanilla themes, so they feel like an upgrade rather than something out of place.^[1]

What you'll find inside

• Over 15 different rooms to explore.^[1]
• Various types of tunnels and hallways connecting everything together.^[1]
• Staircases, traps, and even hidden areas, so it pays to explore carefully and keep your eyes open.^[1]

The mod is designed to be fully compatible with other worldgen mods, including the rest of the YUNG's structure mods, which means it can sit alongside other structure overhauls without fighting them.^[1]

This pack ships version 1.21.1-NeoForge-5.1.2 of the mod, and it has been part of the pack since its 1.0 release or earlier.^[2]

Unverified The available sources don't describe what loot these strongholds contain, whether the pack changes any of the mod's settings, or how strongholds fit into this pack's wider progression, so those details are left out here.

This mod doesn't add a tech tree or a crafting chain. It's a worldgen mod that completely redesigns vanilla strongholds, making them much more complex and exciting while still staying true to vanilla themes. Getting started is about knowing what you're walking into, not about what to craft first.^[1]

Unverified No crafting recipes or quests for this mod were found in this pack's data, so there's no first item to make and no questline to follow.

What to expect underground

A stronghold here is much more than a few corridors and a portal room. You'll find over 15 different rooms, various types of tunnels and hallways, staircases, traps, and even hidden areas. Take your time, watch your step, and check the walls for secret spots.^[1]

Finding a stronghold

Eyes of Ender still point you to these strongholds. If strongholds from Repurposed Structures are also enabled, your Eye of Ender leads to whichever stronghold is closest, so the one you reach might be a Repurposed Structures stronghold instead of a Better Stronghold.^[1]

Unverified Whether Repurposed Structures is installed in this pack, and whether its strongholds are enabled, could not be confirmed.

Things that can vary

The mod has an option that lets small noodle caves slightly destroy strongholds, while large caverns leave them untouched. If this option is on, you might see a stronghold with a chunk carved out or find an unexpected way in through a cave.^[3]

The mod also has settings for how often lanterns and torches spawn throughout the stronghold, which affects how dark the halls are when you arrive.^[3]

Unverified The values this pack uses for the structure ruin, lantern rate and torch rate settings could not be confirmed. Bring your own light source just in case.

First thing to know: this mod has no machines, multiblocks, power, fluids or automation. It's a worldgen mod that completely redesigns vanilla strongholds, making them more complex while keeping the vanilla feel. Its 'mechanics' are how those strongholds get built and decorated, and this pack controls a lot of that through config files.^[1]

What a stronghold is made of

Each stronghold is assembled from over 15 different rooms, several types of tunnels and hallways, staircases, traps and even hidden areas. So when you find one, take your time and look around, because not everything is on the obvious path.^[1]

Cave damage and lighting

The mod has a structure ruin option that lets small noodle caves slightly break into strongholds. Large caverns won't affect them, so a stronghold can't get swallowed by a huge cave system.^[3]

Lighting is also configurable. One setting controls how often lanterns spawn throughout the stronghold and another controls how often torches spawn.^[3]

Unverified The sources don't show whether structure ruin is turned on in this pack, or what the lantern and torch spawn rates are set to.

Armor stands

Armor stands pick their gear from two sets of pools, common and rare, with a separate pool for each armor slot. Every pool lists items with a chance value, and every pool has Air set as its default item. In this pack the pools look like this:^[4]

• Common helmets: Chainmail Helmet and Iron Helmet at 0.3 each, Leather Helmet at 0.1, and a Carved Pumpkin at 0.01.^[4]
• Common chestplates, leggings and boots follow the same pattern: chainmail and iron pieces at 0.3 each and leather at 0.1, for example Iron Chestplate, Chainmail Leggings and Leather Boots.^[4]
• Rare pools each have one diamond piece at 0.3: Diamond Helmet, Diamond Chestplate, Diamond Leggings and Diamond Boots.^[4]
• The rare helmet pool also includes a Carved Pumpkin at 0.2, which is far higher than its 0.01 in the common helmet pool.^[4]

Item frames

Item frames work the same way, with two pools: armoury items and storage items. Both pools have Air set as their default item.^[5]

• Armoury: Bow, Shield, Iron Sword and Iron Axe at 0.1 each. Arrow, Name Tag, Golden Sword, Golden Axe, Stone Sword and Stone Axe at 0.05 each.^[5]
• Storage: Map and Paper at 0.25 each. Cake, Compass, Flint, Lead and Slime Ball at 0.05 each.^[5]
• Storage also has seeds at 0.025 each (Wheat Seeds, Beetroot Seeds, Melon Seeds and Pumpkin Seeds) and a Rabbit Foot at 0.01.^[5]

Ore blocks

Strongholds can include ore blocks chosen from an ore pool. In this pack the default block is Coal Ore. Coal Ore, Iron Ore and Gold Ore are at 0.2 each, Lapis Ore and redstone ore are at 0.15, and Diamond Ore and Emerald Ore are at 0.05.^[6]

Rare blocks

There's also a rare block pool, and it's full of storage blocks. In this pack its default block is Iron Block. Iron Block, Gold Block and Quartz Block are at 0.3 each, and Diamond Block is at 0.1.^[7]

Unverified The sources don't say exactly how these chance values are rolled, when the default item or block gets used instead, or which rooms use which pools.

Other structure mods

The mod is designed to work with other worldgen mods, including YUNG's Better Mineshafts, YUNG's Better Dungeons, YUNG's Extras, YUNG's Bridges, Better End and End Remastered. If Repurposed Structures strongholds are also enabled, Eyes of Ender lead you to whichever stronghold is closest, whether it's a Repurposed Structures one or a Better Stronghold.^[1]

YUNG's Better Strongholds keeps its settings in a handful of JSON files under config/betterstrongholds/neoforge-1_21/, and in this pack they're all about what fills the decorative bits of a stronghold: the ore in the mining rooms, the rare blocks in the vault-style rooms, the armour on armour stands, and the items hanging in item frames. Each entry is a chance value, and each file has a fallback that's used when nothing rolls.^[4][5][6][7]

Ore chances

In ores.json the pack gives coal, iron and gold the best odds at 0.2 each, lapis and unlit redstone sit at 0.15, and diamond and emerald are the rare pulls at 0.05 each. If nothing else rolls, the block placed is plain coal ore, so a stronghold mining area will always look like it's worth swinging a pickaxe at.^[6]

• Coal, iron and gold ore: 0.2 each.^[6]
• Lapis ore and unlit redstone ore: 0.15 each.^[6]
• Diamond and emerald ore: 0.05 each.^[6]
• Fallback block when nothing rolls: coal ore.^[6]

Rare blocks

rareblocks.json is the one to look at if you're hunting treasure rooms. The pack sets gold, iron and quartz blocks to 0.3 each and diamond blocks to 0.1, with iron block as the fallback. Bumping blockChances.entries.minecraft:diamond_block is the single quickest way to make strongholds feel richer, or drop it if you think free diamond blocks skip too much of the early game.^[7]

Armour stands

armorstands.json splits into common and rare sets. For common helmets, chestplates, leggings and boots, chainmail and iron each sit at 0.3 and leather at 0.1, so most stands you pass will be wearing something usable. Rare stands go straight to diamond, with Diamond Helmet, Diamond Chestplate, Diamond Leggings and Diamond Boots each at 0.3. Every slot's fallback is air, which is why you'll find plenty of half-dressed or completely bare stands.^[4]

Item frames

itemframes.json covers two room types. Armoury frames lean on Bow, Iron Sword, Iron Axe and Shield at 0.1 each, with stone and gold gear, arrows and name tags at 0.05. Storage frames are heaviest on Paper and Map at 0.25 each, then cake, compass, flint, lead and slime balls at 0.05, the four seed types at 0.025, and a rabbit's foot at just 0.01. As with the armour stands, the fallback is air, so empty frames are expected.^[5]

Unverified These files only list chance entries and fallbacks, so anything about when edits take effect (for example whether already-generated strongholds are affected) isn't something the pack's config files confirm.

All the Mods 10 2.12 ships YUNG's Better Strongholds 1.21.1-NeoForge-5.1.2. The mod has been in the pack since All the Mods 10 1.0 or earlier. I don't have any pack changelog entries for this mod, so everything below comes from the mod's own changelogs.^[2]

5.1.2

This is the version your pack uses. It lowered the minimum version requirements so the mod works on both 1.21 and 1.21.1.^[2][8]

5.1.0: the port to 1.21.1

This release ported the mod to 1.21.1. These are the changes the mod's changelog lists:^[9]

• Added an optional ruin processor with a config option. The changelog says it is disabled by default. That is the mod's own default, and nothing I have shows whether the pack changes it.^[9]
• Moved all the other existing config options to structure rule processors.^[9]
• Removed End Remastered's End Gate from the vanilla advancement.^[9]
• Replaced the waterlog processor with a new liquid_settings option in the structure json.^[9]
• Now uses the new Enhanced Terrain Adaptation from YUNG's API to guarantee the stronghold is buried.^[9]
• Removed an unused config entry in the structure json, updated the config readmes and updated all structure NBT files.^[9]