Raids & Barriers¶
A colony with low reputation draws monster raids at night. The barrier is a buildable block that defends against them.
Raids¶
At nightfall, a colony whose reputation is below Neutral can be raided. The chance scales with how low it sits:
| Reputation tier | Raid chance per night |
|---|---|
| Wary | 15% |
| Passive-Aggressive | 30% |
| Hostile | 50% |
There's a cooldown of 3 in-game days between raids on a colony, and only
one raid runs at a time. Raise reputation above Neutral and raids stop. You
can also switch reputation raids off entirely with the enableRaids
config option.
A raid spawns Tensura monsters at the edge of your colony's territory. They march in and attack citizens, and your guards engage them. Like a MineColonies siege, a raid is a single host: killed raiders aren't replaced, but stragglers that wander off are, and you win once about 90% of the host is dead — no need to chase the last one or two. The raid bar shows how much is left. Winning raises reputation. If the night ends first, the survivors withdraw. A raid carries over intact across a save-and-reload.
Difficulty¶
Raid difficulty is set by your colony's strength (mostly the total EP of your citizens, plus its size and development), not by reputation — reputation only decides whether a raid fires. Stronger colonies face tougher waves, drawn to roughly match and slightly exceed the colony's strength, in three levels:
- Level 1 — hound dogs, direwolves.
- Level 2 — giant ants, black spiders, evil centipedes.
- Level 3 — knight spiders, blade tigers, evil centipedes.
Faction Events¶
Beyond ordinary raids, an angered faction can send a scripted lore event. The one currently in the game is the Orc Disaster: if you provoke the Moderate Harlequin Alliance (by killing its marked bosses), Clayman can march a horde led by Geld, the Orc Disaster on a colony. Killing the lead boss breaks the horde. (More lore events are planned — see the Roadmap.)
Citizens That Fight Back¶
When a raid hits, your guards engage as normal and ordinary citizens flee and hide the MineColonies way. But a strong Tensura-race citizen (roughly 10,000 EP or more, and not already a guard) does something extra: it transforms into its full Tensura monster body on the spot and fights the raiders with its skills, then changes back when the raid ends. The swap happens in place, with no magicule cost, roster, or summoning circle.
To stop citizens transforming mid-raid, switch it off with the
enableDefenseSwap config option.
The Barrier¶
The barrier is a Barrier Core block you place that projects a protective sphere while it holds magicule fuel. The sphere sinks partway into the ground. Where it is centred depends on where you place the core:
- Inside your colony's claimed area: the sphere is centred on your town hall, wherever in the claim the core block sits.
- Outside any colony: the sphere is centred on the core block itself.
Placing more than one core inside the same colony does not create separate barriers — all the cores merge into one barrier around the town hall. The strongest core (highest tier) sets the panel strength and the top of the size range, every core's fuel tank pools together, and each extra core lets you make the barrier bigger (see below). Right-clicking any core in the colony opens the same menu, showing the same fuel, size and layers — there is one barrier per colony, not one per block, and it is shared by everyone who can use it. Note that the core block only projects the field. If it sits far from the town hall it can end up outside its own sphere, unprotected.
Size¶
You choose how big the barrier is, between a minimum of 8 blocks and a maximum your colony has to earn. The maximum is the strongest core's tier radius, plus a bonus for every OTHER core in the colony based on that core's tier:
| Extra core | Adds |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | +2 blocks |
| Tier 2 | +4 blocks |
| Tier 3 | +6 blocks |
| Tier 4 | +8 blocks |
So one tier-4 core alone tops out at 60. Add four more tier-4 cores and it reaches 92. There is a hard ceiling of 128 whatever you build.
Set it in the core menu with the FIELD SIZE row: - and + move it 4
blocks at a time, MIN and MAX jump to the ends of the range, and the bar
shows where you are within it. A smaller field costs less fuel. A larger one
costs more and gives attackers more wall to break.
If you lose a core the range narrows and the barrier shrinks to fit — but your chosen size is remembered, so rebuilding the core puts it back where you had it.
Panels And Holes¶
The sphere is divided into 24 panels, each with its own health. Attacks land on the specific panel being hit: that panel fades through three stages and then shatters into a hole — only that panel, while the rest of the sphere stays up. Enemies, their arrows, and their spells pass through an open hole. Intact panels block them and shove enemies straight back. A panel's health depends on the core tier (below).
A broken panel repairs itself: 15 seconds after it was last hit it grows back one stage at a time. Each repair step draws magicule from the core's fuel pool (it costs exactly the health it restores), so a barrier with no fuel can't mend its holes until you refuel.
Tiers (Cumulative)¶
Four Barrier Core tiers. Higher tiers have a larger radius, more fuel capacity, tougher panels, and add an effect on top of the lower tiers'. Each tier's sphere is colour-coded:
| Tier | Max radius | Panel health | Fuel capacity | Effect (cumulative) | Colour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | 10,000 | 100,000 | Wall — blocks hostiles | Blue |
| 2 | 28 | 20,000 | 150,000 | + Heal — Regeneration to non-hostiles inside | Green |
| 3 | 42 | 40,000 | 200,000 | (larger and tougher) | Magenta |
| 4 | 60 | 60,000 | 250,000 | (larger and tougher) | Gold |
A tier's radius is the size the barrier starts at and the top of its range before extra cores are counted. You can always dial it down.
While fueled, a barrier also prevents hostile mobs from spawning inside its footprint — both vanilla monsters and Tensura hostiles, whether from night-time wild spawns, mob spawners, trial spawners, pillager patrols, or reinforcements. Mobs you place on purpose (spawn eggs, commands, dispensers) and your own tamed or summoned creatures are not affected. It also stops enemy arrows, spells, and breath attacks at its panels (these still pass through an open hole). Raid waves never appear inside a fueled barrier either — raiders always show up outside it and have to break through.
Fuel¶
The barrier runs on magicule:
- Right-click with an empty hand to open its menu (move your own magicule in or out, set the layer count, show or hide the walls).
- Right-click with Tensura magic crystals to add fixed amounts (low / medium / high quality add increasing amounts).
The fuel pool is spent on keeping extra layers raised and on repairing broken panels — attacks themselves no longer drain it. At zero fuel the whole barrier drops (with a warning). Refuel and it raises again with every panel restored to full. Each panel's transparency shows its remaining health.
Magicule Storage¶
Magicule Storage blocks (four tiers) extend a barrier's fuel capacity by +25,000 / +75,000 / +150,000 / +300,000 for tiers 1–4. Place them adjacent to a Barrier Core (or chained to one through other storage blocks). Each adds its capacity, and the network updates automatically as you build or break it.
Concentric Layers (Demon Lords / Heroes)¶
A Barrier Core can project up to three concentric spheres, expanding outward. The first layer is available to anyone. Raising it to two or three requires you to be a true Demon Lord or true Hero. Each extra layer costs ongoing magicule upkeep from the fuel pool.
Raising the third layer also grants a buff inside the barrier, depending on which title the raiser holds:
- True Demon Lord: players inside regenerate their own magicule 10% faster.
- True Hero: citizens inside receive Regeneration II and Absorption (extra hearts), on any core tier.
If the raiser loses their title, the extra layers collapse back to one and the buff ends.
Upkeep¶
While it is up, a barrier burns magicule every second: 10 per second for each layer, plus 1 per second for every block of that layer's radius. Outer layers are bigger, so each one costs a little more than the last.
Some examples of what that means for a full tank:
| Setup | Cost | A full tank lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1, default size 16 | 26/s | about an hour |
| Tier 4, default size 60 | 70/s | about an hour |
| Tier 4, shrunk to 8 | 18/s | about four hours |
| Tier 4, at the 128 ceiling | 138/s | about half an hour |
| Tier 4 at 60, three layers | 225/s | about twenty minutes |
Repairing broken panels costs fuel on top of that. If the pool runs dry the barrier falls. Larger fields and extra layers need steady refueling.
The Barrier Core's menu (right-click) shows fuel, lets you move magicule between yourself and the core, sets the field size and the layer count, and toggles whether the walls are visible. Any core in the colony opens the same menu.