Dangercarts: Dangerous Minecarts
I don't know my version or loader
Dangercarts: Dangerous Minecarts
If a hunk of iron speeding down some tracks hits you, you'd expect some damage; however, you can stop minecarts going any speed with your body without any repercussions. This is especially weird if you enabled the Minecart Improvements experiment, in which Minecarts can go super fast.
With this data pack, minecarts now deal damage and knockback based on their speed! If you get killed by one, the death message will appropriately say that you got "smashed by a fast minecart".
Damage and knockback are dealt to all entities that can take it, which has an added bonus of killing or knocking off mobs from your rails, making your minecart not stop as often.
How does it work?
The data pack works by spawning an invisible slime named "a fast minecart" in front of the minecart when it should hit entities. Damage is then applied based on the speed of the Minecart as if it were a mace attack by our favourite invisible slime, a fast minecart.
Note: This datapack does not work in peaceful difficulty.
Configuration
You can set the speed threshold (in blocks per second) and damage values (in half hearts) for each speed using the following commands. You can set damage to 40 for a sure instant kill.
| Setting | Command |
|---|---|
| set_low_threshold | /function dangercarts:config/set_low_threshold {value: <newvalue>} |
| set_medium_threshold | /function dangercarts:config/set_medium_threshold {value: <newvalue>} |
| set_high_threshold | /function dangercarts:config/set_high_threshold {value: <newvalue>} |
| set_low_damage | /function dangercarts:config/set_low_damage {value: <newvalue>} |
| set_medium_damage | /function dangercarts:config/set_medium_damage {value: <newvalue>} |
| set_high_damage | /function dangercarts:config/set_high_damage {value: <newvalue>} |
Presets
You can also use the following commands to set the values to some presets:
Default
/function dangercarts:config/preset_default
| Setting | High | Medium | Low |
|---|---|---|---|
| threshold | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| damage | 7 | 4 | 2 |
Improved Minecarts Experiment with minecartMaxSpeed set to 22+
/function dangercarts:config/preset_improved_minecarts
| Setting | High | Medium | Low |
|---|---|---|---|
| threshold | 21 | 15 | 10 |
| damage | 40 | 12 | 6 |
Important Notes
- The datapack needs slimes to be able to spawn. This means that it will not work in peaceful difficulty.
- Damage is applied on top of the small damage dealt by the slime used to knockback entities.
- It seems like the maximum speed of a minecart is 47 blocks per second, even if you set it higher using
gamerule minecartMaxSpeedusing the new Minecart Improvements experiment.
Uninstalling
To uninstall the datapack, run the following command:
/function dangercarts:uninstall
This will remove all the scoreboard objectives and data storage used by the datapack. After running this command, you should disable or remove the datapack using /datapack disable or manually removing it from the datapacks folder before restarting the world/server.
Reporting an issue / Contributing
Please report issues and contribute to the project on the Github page.
Credits
This data pack is an adaptation of Deadly Minecarts to make it work with versions 1.21.x, and with a few improvements sprinkled in. It also uses a square root function developed by NOPENAME.
- Edition: Minecraft Java
- File type: .jar
- Minecraft versions listed: 1.21.1, 1.21.2, 1.21.3
- How to install: Install the matching mod loader (Forge, Fabric or NeoForge) for your Minecraft version. → Download the .jar. → Put it in the .minecraft/mods folder and launch that loader profile.
- Where to get it: Opens on Modrinth — not every file is mirrored on our own servers.
Install steps are the general flow for this file type — see the MC Java Mods guides for the full walkthrough.
- Downloads as Dangercarts_61.6+1.21.4.zip
- Download size: 58 KB
- Download link checked 8 Sept 2026 — working
These come from our own check of the pack file, not from the source page.