History Stages Wiki

History Stages is a progression and gatekeeping mod for Minecraft on Forge, NeoForge, and Fabric. It provides a framework for modpack creators to implement custom progression systems by locking game content behind research stages.

Core Mechanics

History Stages has two progression models that can be combined freely:

• Global Stages: Server-wide "Eras". One unlock applies to every player. This is the only mode that can lock Recipes and Mob Spawns.
• Individual Stages: Per-player, tracked by UUID. Each player has to unlock their own. Good for personal skill paths.

If a piece of content is listed in both types of stage at once, History Stages turns on a Dual-Phase Lock for it automatically (two-step unlock).

→ Full comparison, lock-type matrix, and pitfalls: Global vs Individual Stages.

Content Locking Capabilities

History Stages allows for the restriction of various game elements until specific stages are unlocked:

• Items & Blocks: Prevent usage, equipping, or interaction.
• Recipes: Display a "Locked" overlay in recipe viewers (JEI/EMI) instead of hiding them. Locked items and recipes can optionally be hidden from JEI entirely via hideLockedItemsInJei / hideLockedRecipesInJei.
• Tags & Mods: Lock entire item tags or all items from specific mod IDs.
• NBT Data: Lock items based on specific NBT criteria (e.g., specific enchantments).
• Dimensions: Restrict access to specific dimensions.
• Structures: Prevent players from entering specific structures until the required stage is unlocked. Supports plain structure IDs (e.g. minecraft:stronghold) and structure tags via a # prefix (e.g. #minecraft:village). The mod builds a tight, piece-aware lock zone around each structure with a red force-field overlay, cancels right-clicks, left-clicks, and projectile impacts inside the zone, and can optionally deal periodic damage. Structures can also be capped on how often they're allowed to generate instead of being blocked outright.
• Biomes: Prevent players from surviving in specific biomes until the required stage is unlocked, with the same effect/damage/message toolkit as structure locking.
• Entities: Prevent players from attacking specific mobs (attacklock), block non-combat interactions like breeding or mounting (interactionlock), or prevent mobs from spawning entirely (spawnlock).
• Loot: Remove or replace locked items in chest loot and mob drops.
• Block Interactions: Prevent opening GUIs of locked blocks (e.g., chests, furnaces) and significantly reduce mining speed.

Configuration and Management

Modpack creators can define stages and manage configurations through two methods:

1. In-Game Editor: A graphical interface accessible via the pause menu (requires OP permissions) for creating and modifying stages without editing files directly.
2. JSON Configuration: Manual editing of .json files located in the config/historystages/global/ and config/historystages/individual/ directories. Files can be organized into nested folders for large modpacks — see Folders.

Large modpacks can also expose an interactive Stage Graph to players from the pause menu, visualizing the whole progression tree.

Community & Support

Questions, support, or feedback? Join our Discord server.

Authors

Flix100000, PixlStudios