Matriochka
A Minecraft mod of ten worlds, each sealed inside a block of the one before.
0.5.2 alpha, out now for Minecraft 26.1.2, 26.2 and 26.3 on Fabric. Free and open source.
Ten worlds, one inside the other
Every world is sealed in a block you grow inside the world before it. Open one.
01
World 1
Toxic Jungle
The air poisons you. Water washes it off.
A toxin gauge rises by 1 every second you breathe the jungle air and falls by 2 in water or rain. At 50 you slow down, at 75 you weaken, at 100 it eats your health. A Filter Mask halves the gain, Root Broth halves it again for five minutes, and an Antidote takes 50 off at once.
Open Toxic Jungle
Reflection
Ceiling Walker
Unstable Sphere
Inverted Strider
Broken Mirror
Abyssal Hunter
Blade School
Pressure Jelly
Bell Crab
Trench Eel
Seasonal Creature
Hourglass Elder
Dusk Shade
Child of Minutes
Hour Keeper
Crawling Block
Mimic
Foundation Eater
Earth Hand
Walking Column
Giant Sporeling
Ash Titanid
Colossal Jailer
Titan Ray
Colossus Prowler
The trailer
What you do in Matriochka
Four things, over and over, ten worlds deep.
Open a worldPlant the first Seed, then perform each world's own rite: fire, a key, a storm, darkness, mirrors, the deep. The block that appears holds a world.
Survive its ruleToxic air, rising heat, total darkness, upside-down gravity: each world bends one rule.
Fight what lives thereFifty creatures with their own attacks, and a boss that guards the core of the next world.
Craft what it givesEach world has its station, its armour and its tools, the ones you need for the world below.
How a world opens
One loop, ten times over. Each pass asks you to unlearn the last world.
Wake the GuardianFollow the Scroll's sketch to the Guardian's Sanctuary and beat the Block Guardian. It drops its core, the Matrix Workbench and your first World Soil.
Craft a SeedAt the Matrix Workbench: the last boss's core plus resources from its world. The World 1 Seed asks for the Guardian Core, 16 iron ingots and 16 oak logs.
Plant it on World SoilTill World Soil with a hoe and plant the Seed, with water within four blocks. What you feed it decides whether its world hatches calm or wild.
Enter the blockThe Seed hatches into a World Block. Use it and you shrink inside, onto a Threshold that brings you back out.
Survive its ruleToxin, heat, wind, noise, gravity, pressure: each world changes how you play. Its station turns local resources into the gear that answers the rule.
Beat the boss, take its coreEvery attack is announced, then leaves an opening. Read the pattern, punish the opening, take the core.
Go deeperThe core opens the way into the next world, and every world has its own rite: an Ember Heart near lava, a key in an iron door, a rod in a storm, a lantern in the dark. Ten times, until the last block opens onto something much larger.
Eleven bosses stand in your way
Each one guards the core that opens the next world, warns you before its worst blow, then leaves an opening.
The SurfaceBlock Guardian
Toxic JungleSpore Queen
Giant VeinsAsh Titan
Endless DungeonGrand Jailer
Storm ArchipelagoStorm King
Lightless DeepLight Eater
Upside RealmYour Double
Pressure OceanPressure Leviathan
Hastened SeasonsMaster of Seasons
Restless GroundHeart of the Terrain
The Giant WorkshopThe Unfinished
Fifty creatures, 160 attacks
No two creatures fight alike. Each has its own attacks, drawn from what it is: the rat gnaws, the executioner passes its verdict, the watcher snuffs out the light.
Drag to turn it, scroll or pinch to zoom.
Executioner
Elite. Charges and cages you.
- Health
- 82
- Damage
- 10.1
Attacks
- Headsman's Axe
- A blow at 3.4 blocks, 160% damage.
- Verdict
- Marks the ground under you, and 1.2 s later it strikes there: 160% damage within 2 blocks. Step out of the circle.
- Cleave
- Hits everything in front of it within 4 blocks, 110% damage and thrown back.
- Black Hood
- Lets out a cry that reaches 8 blocks: Blindness 3 s, Slowness II 3 s.
Built to be survived
Death teaches. It does not erase hours of progress.
Doll of Life
A nested doll you wear. When you die, a layer breaks instead and you get back up. It gains layers after Worlds 1, 5 and 8.
Souls and karma
Every item holds a soul. At the Soul Altar, purify it for karma or devour it for power. Karma moves prices, quests and the ending.
Gear classes
Every weapon, tool and armour piece is born with one of six classes. Raise it to level 5 with souls, or gamble on a Chance Doll.
Play as a group
Up to eight players share a group, its worlds and its defeated bosses. Bosses grow tougher with every player who joins the fight.
Talents
Each class has three branches of four talents at the Class Table, bought with souls and Shell Shards and opened as your group goes deeper.
Trials and world events
After an ending, race each world's trial or the Gauntlet of the eleven bosses for the server's board. In the worlds, invasions, surges of the rule and travelling merchants come and go.
Get Matriochka
Install it on the client to play solo, and on both server and clients to play together.
- GitHubVersion 0.5.2, changelog and source
- ModrinthIn review, coming soon
- CurseForgeIn review, coming soon
- Matriochka PackA ready modpack (.mrpack), normal or hard, on every release
- DiscordNews, help and screenshots
Questions
Where do I start?
Read the Artisan's Scroll you spawn with, then find the Guardian's Sanctuary on the Surface and wake the Block Guardian.
My world does not open.
Smoke puffs mean the rite is still waiting: stand close and it tells you what it lacks. The World 1 Seed wants tilled World Soil 0 and water; each other object's description says where it goes and what it waits for.
I died inside a world. Are my things gone?
No. A death chest keeps them where you fell, and a Soul Cradle placed beforehand lets you wake up inside the world.
Does it work on servers?
Yes, with the mod on the server and on every client. Up to eight players share a group, its worlds and its bosses.
Does it work on Lunar Client?
Through Lunar Client's Fabric profile for your version (26.3, 26.2 or 26.1.2), with Fabric API and GeckoLib.
Does it work with Sodium, Iris and minimaps?
Yes. It was checked with Sodium, Iris, Xaero's Minimap and World Map, JourneyMap, VoxelMap and Traveler's Backpack. Xaero's cave view and radar switch off in the Lightless Deep, where they would show what the dark hides.
Is there a modpack?
The Matriochka Pack, a Modrinth .mrpack with the mod, its libraries, Just Enough Items and client performance mods, in a normal and a hard version. It is attached to every GitHub release, with the optional Matriochka HD resource pack.
Which languages does it speak?
English, French, Spanish, German and Brazilian Portuguese: names, interface, quests, the Scroll, the fifty Journal pages, endings and subtitles.
Can I fight a boss again?
Yes. Its altar wakes it again, and it drops its core, soil and souls again.
Ready to shrink?
Minecraft 26.1.2, 26.2 or 26.3, Fabric Loader 0.20 or newer, Fabric API, GeckoLib and Java 25. In English, French, Spanish, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Polish and Simplified Chinese.