Overview#
Soul Shards: The Old Ways (SSTOW) is a modern reimagining of the classic Soul Shards mod. It introduces a progression-based system for mob farming, moving away from the luck-based nature of finding vanilla spawners. By crafting a Soul Shard and slaying specific mobs, players can 'bind' the soul of that creature to the shard. As the player continues to hunt that mob type, the shard increases in power through five distinct tiers, eventually allowing for spawners that ignore light levels, work without player proximity, and can be controlled via Redstone.
Getting Started#
To begin your journey into soul manipulation, you must first obtain an Unbound Soul Shard. This is achieved through a specific ritual structure rather than a standard crafting table recipe.
The Ritual Structure
To create a Soul Shard, construct the following 3x3 flat structure on the ground:
- Center: Place one block of Glowstone.
- Sides (Cross): Place four blocks of Netherrack adjacent to the Glowstone.
- Corners: Place four blocks of End Stone in the remaining corner spots.
- Activation: Right-click the central Glowstone block with a Diamond in hand. The structure will be consumed (often turning into End Stone), and you will receive one Unbound Soul Shard.
Note: Some configurations may use Obsidian and Quartz instead of Netherrack and End Stone. Check your local JEI or config if the standard ritual fails.
Soul Shard Tiers#
Soul Shards level up as you kill the mob type they are bound to. The first kill with an Unbound Shard in your hotbar binds it to that entity. Higher tiers provide significant bonuses to spawn speed and environmental requirements.
| Tier | Kills Required | Mobs Spawned | Cooldown | Player Nearby? | Light Check | Dimension Check | Redstone Control |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 - 63 | 0 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | No |
| 1 | 64 | 2 | 20 Seconds | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2 | 128 | 4 | 10 Seconds | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 3 | 256 | 4 | 5 Seconds | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| 4 | 512 | 4 | 5 Seconds | No | Yes | No | No |
| 5 | 1024 | 6 | 2 Seconds | No | No | No | Yes |
- Player Nearby: If 'Yes', a player must be within 16 blocks for the cage to function.
- Light Check: If 'Yes', mobs will only spawn if the light level is appropriate for their natural spawning (e.g., dark for Zombies).
- Dimension Check: If 'Yes', mobs will only spawn in their native dimension (e.g., Blazes only in the Nether).
- Redstone Control: Tier 5 cages can be deactivated by applying a Redstone signal.
Items#
The mod adds several intermediate materials used for crafting the Vile Sword and Soul Cages.
Vile Dust
Obtained by smelting Soul Sand in a furnace. It is the primary component for all soul-related crafting.
Corrupted Essence
Crafted by combining Vile Dust with Glowstone Dust. It serves as a potent fuel and a crafting ingredient for Corrupted Ingots.
Corrupted Ingot
Created by combining Corrupted Essence, Vile Dust, and an Iron Ingot. These ingots are used to build the physical housing for soul shards.
Vile Sword
Crafted with two Corrupted Ingots and a Stick. While its base damage is comparable to an Iron Sword, it possesses a unique property: it grants +1 bonus soul per kill, effectively doubling your leveling speed for shards.
Soul Shard
The core item of the mod. It stores the souls of a specific mob type. You must have the shard in your hotbar or off-hand to collect souls.
Blocks#
Soul Cage
The Soul Cage is the block that actually performs the summoning.
- Crafting: 4 Corrupted Ingots and 4 Iron Bars.
- Usage: Place the cage in the world and right-click it with a bound Soul Shard (Tier 1 or higher). To retrieve the shard, simply break the cage with a pickaxe; both the cage and the shard will drop.
- Mechanics: Mobs spawned from a Soul Cage do not grant souls to shards, preventing infinite self-looping farms. However, they do drop standard loot and experience.
Mechanics#
Soul Stealer Enchantment
This enchantment can be applied to any sword or axe. It significantly increases the number of souls gained per kill:
- Level I: +1 Soul
- Level II: +2 Souls
- Level III: +3 Souls
- Level IV: +4 Souls
- Level V: +5 Souls
When using a Vile Sword with Soul Stealer V, a player can gain up to 7 souls per kill (1 base + 1 Vile Sword bonus + 5 enchantment bonus).
Consuming Vanilla Spawners
If you find a vanilla mob spawner (e.g., a Skeleton spawner in a dungeon), you can right-click it with a Soul Shard already bound to that same mob type. This will destroy the vanilla spawner and instantly add 200 souls to your shard, allowing you to bypass the early-tier grind.
Commands#
Server administrators can use the following commands to manage Soul Shards:
/soulshards set [amount]- Sets the soul count of the shard currently held in the player's hand./soulshards add [amount]- Adds the specified number of souls to the held shard./soulshards list- Displays a list of all internal entity names that can be bound to shards.
