Better Combat
Better Combat (by Daedelus) replaces vanilla’s single “click and pray” swing with a real melee system borrowed from Minecraft Dungeons: every weapon gets its own attack animation, timing, and combo — hitting consecutively performs a combo, and holding the attack button (enabled on this server via isHoldToAttackEnabled) keeps you swinging continuously instead of spam-clicking. It also adds directional/two-handed weapon handling, a reworked sweeping-edge mechanic, and a Feint keybind. The in-game Quest Book flags exactly this under “New Combat Mechanics”: “Each weapon has its own attack animation and time… Consecutive attacks will perform combos… You can hold the attack button to keep attacking continuously.”
The server’s bettercombat/server.json5 has real tuning behind that description: upswing (windup before damage lands) is set to 0.5× weapon cooldown for fast-paced attack initiation; attacks are capped to a 2-tick minimum interval; movement speed is halved (0.5) while attacking, applied smoothly; combos reset after idling for 3.0× the weapon’s cooldown; dual-wielding gets a +20% attack-speed bonus but no damage bonus in either hand. Vanilla sweeping is disabled in favor of Better Combat’s own “reworked sweeping,” which weakens a swing’s damage the more targets it cleaves (up to 4 extra targets, capped at a 50% penalty) — the Sweeping Edge enchantment restores up to half of that penalty at max level. A large fallback_compatibility.json regex table auto-assigns weapon movesets (claymore, halberd, glaive, katana, rapier, twin-blade, spear, mace, etc.) to any weapon whose item ID matches a pattern, which is how every third-party weapon mod in the pack — Marium’s Soulslike Weaponry, Simply Swords, Archers (RPG Series)‘s spears — gets a fitting attack animation without needing explicit support.
Player-vs-entity relations are also config-driven: players, villagers, iron golems, and guard-villagers are set NEUTRAL (only hit if you’re aiming at them), while passive and hostile mobs default to HOSTILE (hit by any swing in range). This is the mod underpinning literally every melee fight in the pack.
Anticipated questions
Do I still have to spam-click to attack?
No. Holding the attack button is enabled on this server (isHoldToAttackEnabled), so you keep swinging continuously instead of spam-clicking. Each weapon has its own animation and timing, and hitting consecutively performs combos.
How do combos work, and do they expire?
Consecutive attacks chain into a combo. The combo resets after you idle for 3.0× the weapon’s cooldown. Note that attacking also halves your movement speed (applied smoothly) and there’s a 2-tick minimum interval between hits.
How does the reworked sweeping attack work? Vanilla sweeping is disabled. Better Combat’s version weakens a swing’s damage the more targets it cleaves — up to 4 extra targets, capped at a 50% penalty. The Sweeping Edge enchantment restores up to half of that penalty at max level.
Is dual-wielding worth it?
Dual-wielding grants a +20% attack-speed bonus, but no damage bonus in either hand.
How do weapons from other mods get proper animations?
A large fallback_compatibility.json regex table auto-assigns movesets (claymore, halberd, glaive, katana, rapier, twin-blade, spear, mace, etc.) to any weapon whose item ID matches a pattern — which is how Marium’s Soulslike Weaponry, Simply Swords, and other pack weapons get fitting animations without explicit support.
Will I accidentally hit friends and villagers?
No. Players, villagers, iron golems, and guard-villagers are set NEUTRAL — you only hit them if you’re aiming at them. Passive and hostile mobs default to HOSTILE (hit by any swing in range). See Combat & Stats.