Meet the Summoner: A New Illager Threat in Minecraft
If you have spent any time exploring the blocky world of Minecraft, you know Illagers are never up to anything good. The Summoner mod introduces a fresh face to this hostile family, and as the name suggests, he brings more than just a crossbow to the fight. This mob specializes in conjuring minions, turning a simple encounter into a chaotic battle. The mod is still in beta, so expect ongoing polish, but the core mechanics already deliver a unique twist on combat and pet collection.
How the Summoner Behaves
Summoners spawn naturally in the world, though they are a bit rarer than standard hostile mobs. They share the Illager’s hatred for players, villagers, and iron golems, attacking on sight. When combat starts, the Summoner channels a green protective shield, becoming completely invulnerable for a few seconds while he calls forth a group of mobs to fight for him. These summoned creatures last only 500 ticks (about 25 seconds) before they automatically die, and the Summoner will keep summoning new waves on a cooldown. If you manage to take down the Summoner, his minions will stick around until their timer expires, but they drop no loot. The real prize is the Summoner Orb he always leaves behind, sometimes accompanied by a few emeralds.
The Summoner Orb: Your Portable Army
The Summoner Orb is the heart of the mod’s player-driven mechanics. Every Summoner drops one, and it allows you to capture the spirit of almost any mob you slay. While holding an orb in your inventory, each kill has a chance to trap the mob’s essence. The odds scale with the mob’s maximum health: a creature with 20 health, for example, has a 1 in 20 chance of being captured. In creative mode, you can simply right-click any mob with an orb to instantly capture it.
Once a spirit is stored, right-clicking with the orb summons that mob as your loyal follower. The creature will follow you and attack whatever you target. If you need it to stay put, shift-right-click to command it to hold position. Summoning costs durability from the orb, which has limited uses but can be repaired with an ender pearl. Right-clicking the follower with the orb makes it retreat safely back into the item. Followers automatically vanish when their 2000-tick timer runs out, or if they die in battle. If you ever regret your capture, simply place the orb in a crafting grid to reset its contents and try again.
Facing the Summoner Boss
For a real challenge, right-click a regular Summoner with an Eye of Ender. This triggers a mini-boss fight that escalates quickly. The Summoner Boss becomes invulnerable and unleashes five waves of enemies against you. Only after you survive all waves does his shield drop, giving you a chance to strike back. Be warned: if you die during the encounter, the boss may despawn, so come prepared. Defeating him rewards multiple emeralds, normal Summoner Orbs, a chance at a Totem of Undying, and the coveted Enhanced Summoner Orb.
This upgraded orb works just like the standard version but with significantly higher durability and, most importantly, any mob summoned from it has no time limit. That means you can keep a permanent pet until it falls in combat. Building an army of permanent, custom followers suddenly becomes a very real goal.
Installation and Setup Made Simple
Because The Summoner relies on the MultiMob library, getting both mods installed correctly is key. If you prefer a hassle-free experience, the foxygame.net launcher streamlines the process—its built-in mod browser lets you search for The Summoner and MultiMob, then install both with a single click, all from the main menu. This modern launcher keeps everything organized and automatically handles dependencies, so you can jump straight into capturing spirits without digging through folders.
Configuration and Customization
The mod’s config menu is accessible in-game through the mod options screen. You can toggle a client-side overlay for your summons, blacklist specific mobs from being captured, and enable Edit Mode for deeper tinkering. Summoner spawn rates are adjustable via MultiMob’s own settings.
Edit Mode: Designing Your Own Summon Groups
Edit Mode is where creative server admins can truly reshape the mod. When active, capturing a mob in creative mode with a Summoner Orb generates an NBT file in the config/thesummoner/summongroups folder. These files contain all the data needed to recreate that exact mob. By placing these NBT files into specially named folders, you define custom summon groups and boss waves.
- Create a folder named
group1_3to make the first summon group with a weight of 3. Higher weight means the group is more likely to be chosen. - Add NBT files for each mob you want in that group inside the folder.
- For boss waves, use folders like
bossgroup1,bossgroup2, etc., and place the NBT files for each wave’s enemies inside. Waves are played in order, so no weights are needed.
Note that adding custom groups will overwrite the default ones. Always test your setup by spawning a Summoner and an iron golem to see if everything works. The game logs errors if your folder structure is off, so keep an eye on the console.
Known Quirks and What’s Coming Next
As a beta mod, The Summoner has a few rough edges. Currently, an orb is not directly linked to its summon, so if a follower dies, the game picks a random orb from your inventory to consume. Player death can also cause a time-limited summon to be lost permanently. The developer is aware of these issues and plans to introduce a friendly Summoner villager profession that sells pre-filled orbs, the ability to imbue swords with a “Bane” effect for double damage against specific mobs, healing options for summons, and plenty of balance adjustments.
Why This Mod Stands Out
The Summoner manages to blend an engaging combat encounter with a pet-capturing system that feels rewarding and strategic. The boss fight adds a layer of difficulty that encourages preparation, while the Edit Mode opens the door for modpack creators to integrate custom mobs seamlessly. Whether you are hunting for a permanent creeper companion or designing a server-wide gauntlet of custom Illager waves, this mod delivers a fresh layer of depth to your Minecraft adventures. Just remember to keep an Eye of Ender handy—you never know when you will want to turn a simple Summoner into a true test of skill.