Better Combat — a mod to improve melee combat in Minecraft

Better Combat — a mod to improve melee combat in Minecraft

In vanilla Minecraft, all weapon types have a meager attack pattern. Better Combat replaces this system: each type gets its own attack animation, hit angle, and reach. The mod doesn't add new items — it reworks the behavior of what already exists, including weapons from other mods. 

Combat animations

Better Combat replaces the point-based hit check with a volumetric collision zone for the weapon. If an enemy is within the swing arc, the hit lands even if you're not looking straight at it. This is especially noticeable in third-person combat.

Each strike leaves a visual trail. Narrow strikes give a short trail, wide swings — a long arc, a thrust — a unique effect. On enchanted weapons the trail glows. 

A strike with a stone sword using the new animation

Combos 

Some weapons have a combo — a series of different strikes that alternate. The first click — one type of animation, the second and third — another, and so on in a loop. For example, swords have a 3-strike combo. If you don't attack for three of the weapon's cooldowns, the series resets and the next strike begins the combo from the start.

Wind-up phase and feint 

Each attack has two phases: the wind-up and the strike itself. Between the click and the moment damage is dealt there's a short interval — 25% of the weapon's full cooldown. During this phase the attack can be canceled, so the cooldown isn't wasted for nothing. This lets you feint: begin a swing and pull back if the enemy has left the zone. During an attack, movement speed drops by half. 

Dual style

With a weapon in each hand the mod attacks alternately: a click — a strike with the main hand, the next click — a strike with the off-hand. Both hands animate separately and deal full damage. The overall attack speed in dual combat increases by 20%.

A demonstration of two-handed combat

Fighting a group of enemies 

The vanilla sweep effect is disabled. In its place — a custom system: a swing can hit several enemies in the strike zone, but each target takes less damage. To deal full damage to all targets at once you need an enchantment. The more enemies in a strike, the bigger the penalty, but after the fourth additional target the damage no longer drops; the maximum penalty is −50%. 

A strike against a group of enemies 

Conveniences 

Holding the attack button automatically strikes in combinations — you don't have to click each strike manually. If there's an enemy nearby and grass or leaves of zero hardness in front, the mod automatically attacks instead of breaking the plant. The crosshair highlights when the enemy is in the strike zone.

The weapon's reach is shown in the item's tooltip in the inventory.

Compatibility with weapons from mods 

If there are weapon mods in the load, Better Combat determines the weapon type from the item's id name. An item with dagger or knife in the name gets a dagger animation, with spear — a spear, with katana — a katana. The list covers over twenty weapon types. Pickaxes are excluded separately: even if the name matches another pattern, pickaxe cancels the determination.

Specific patterns are checked first — double_axe is recognized before plain axe, so a two-handed axe doesn't get the animation of a one-handed one.

Conclusion 

Vanilla strikes miss because of the point-based aiming hitbox, and all weapons look the same in combat. The mod fixes the problems and on top of that adds combos, dual combat, and feints.

Fine-tuning — only manually through JSON files, there is no separate in-game menu.

Compared to other similar mods, Better Combat doesn't add items but reworks combat for everything that already exists. For survival with several weapon mods, it's a good choice.