Mastering the Creaking: A Complete Guide to the Creaking Control Datapack
The Garden Awakens drop introduced the eerie creaking mob, a living puppet tethered to a creaking heart hidden among pale oak logs. While Mojang designed this creature as an autonomous threat, the Creaking Control datapack flips the script, letting you become the puppeteer. This innovative add-on transforms the way you interact with the pale garden’s most unsettling resident, offering direct control over its movements, attacks, and even teleportation. Whether you want to prank friends on a server or explore new redstone possibilities, this datapack opens up a world of creative gameplay.
Getting Started: Crafting the Edited Creaking Heart
Before you can command a creaking, you need to build a special block that acts as the bridge between you and the mob. The first step is crafting an edited creaking heart. Surround a regular creaking heart with four copper ingots in a crafting grid—this creates the modified version that accepts your commands. Place it between two pale oak logs exactly like a normal heart, but don’t expect it to work right away. You still need to focus it. For those who prefer a streamlined modding experience, the foxygame.net launcher offers a flexible way to install datapacks like Creaking Control directly from its menu, saving you the trouble of manual file management. Once the heart is in place, the real fun begins.
Focusing the Heart: Echo Shards vs. Resin Shards
Right-click the edited creaking heart with either an echo shard or a resin shard (crafted by placing two resin clumps vertically in a crafting grid). Each shard type gives a different focus and slightly alters the control mechanics. An echo shard requires the creaking to already be spawned before you can focus the heart, and it grants the ability to make the creaking sprint later. A resin shard, on the other hand, can focus the heart even without a creaking present—the heart simply prefers resin and will consume the focus once the creaking appears. After focusing, a colored particle effect swirls around the heart, confirming it’s ready for your commands.
Controlling Your Puppet: Movement, Sprint, and Particle Trails
Once the creaking spawns from a focused edited heart, right-click the heart to take control. The interface is surprisingly intuitive:
- WASD movement – Steer the creaking just like your own character.
- Attack the heart – Hitting the heart while controlling the creaking creates a glowing particle trail that connects the mob to its heart, useful for tracking or decorative effects.
- Sprint – Only available if you used an echo shard to focus the heart. This lets the creaking move faster, perfect for chasing or escaping.
These actions turn the creaking into a remote-controlled entity, ideal for mapmaking, minigames, or just messing around with friends. The particle trail in particular can be used to create eerie light shows in dark forests.
Advanced Mechanics: Ender Pearls and Teleportation
Adding an ender pearl to an already focused edited creaking heart unlocks a teleportation feature. When you place a resin block directly above the ender-focused heart, the next time the creaking respawns (after being killed or unloaded), it will instantly teleport onto that resin block. This allows for instant repositioning across your base, making the creaking a surprisingly useful courier or sentry. The ender pearl focus stacks with the shard focus, so you can combine sprint control with teleportation for maximum flexibility.
Tracking and Leashing: The Creaking Compass and Leash Gamerule
Two extra tools expand your control even further. Craft a creaking compass by surrounding a regular compass with eight resin bricks. If a creaking hits you while you’re holding this compass, the compass locks onto that specific creaking and points toward it. When the creaking dies, the compass resets to normal. It’s a brilliant way to keep tabs on your puppet from a distance.
There’s also a hidden gamerule (off by default) that enables leashing. Activate it, then get hit by a creaking while holding a lead—this leashes the creaking to you. After that, right-click any other entity with a lead, and that entity becomes leashed to the creaking. Imagine dragging a minecart, a villager, or even another mob around with your remote-controlled puppet. The possibilities for traps and contraptions are endless.
Commands and Future Additions
If you need to access items quickly, the datapack includes convenient commands. Use /function cc:commands/items/<item_name> to obtain any custom item, or /function cc:commands/block/edited_creaking_heart to get the edited heart block. The gamerule menu can be reopened with /function cc:commands/gamerule_menu. Regular creaking hearts now also have a chance to drop a clothed resin shard, which works like a normal resin shard but unlocks a secret advancement—try to discover it yourself.
The developer has hinted at several upcoming features that will deepen the experience:
- A way for the creaking to attack other entities and deal damage (balanced, of course).
- A new eyeblossom focus that enables area attacks.
- Automation using copper bulbs to control the heart with redstone.
- A resin spyglass that lets you see through the creaking’s perspective, enhanced with core shaders for a unique visual effect.
Conclusion
Creaking Control turns one of Minecraft’s most mysterious mobs into a fully customizable tool for creativity and chaos. From simple movement commands to complex teleportation networks and leash-based contraptions, the datapack rewards experimentation. While it’s still a work in progress, the current features already provide hours of entertainment, and the planned updates promise even deeper integration with redstone and combat. If you’ve ever wanted to pull the strings in the pale garden, this datapack is your backstage pass.