ModsJava
Hardcore True Darkness
Adds an unremovable True Darkness effect to Minecraft, enforced on both client and server sides for a fully immersive dark experience.
⬇ Download on CurseForgeThe author built this one for Minecraft 1.20.1 on Forge. On other versions it may install and then do nothing.




Hardcore True Darkness
Hardcore True Darkness makes Minecraft’s dark areas truly dark. Nights, caves, shadows, and unlit spaces become much harder to see in, making torches and other light sources important again.
The mod also helps prevent fullbright and gamma-based visibility advantages, creating a more consistent experience for survival worlds, servers, and modpacks.
Features
- Makes caves, nights, shadows, and unlit areas extremely dark
- Helps block fullbright and gamma abuse
- Uses a shader-resistant darkness pass for more reliable darkness
- Supports Oculus shaderpacks
- Blocks unsupported shader loaders, including OptiFine and Iris
- Adds smoother darkness transitions around caves, trees, shadows, and sudden light changes
- Makes torches and other light sources more important
- Designed for hardcore survival, horror, realism, and multiplayer
- Can be included in modpacks
Important
- This mod must be installed on both the server and all connecting clients.
- Servers using Hardcore True Darkness require connecting clients to have the mod installed.
Compatibility
- Currently available for Minecraft 1.20.1 on Forge.
- Requires Java 17.
Verified by MCModsHub
- Ships as hardcore_true_darkness-5.jar — drop this file into the mods folder
- Download size: 50 KB
- Download link checked 27 Aug 2026 — working
These come from our own check of the pack file, not from the source page.