Chest Thief

Your chests are being robbed. The thief doesn't vanish — it takes your loot to a real underground dungeon you can raid to get it back. On a multiplayer server, everyone's loot ends up in the same place — and whoever gets there first takes everything.

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Your base is a target.
A thief spawns near player chests, steals at night, and disappears. The more you own, the more often it comes. Secure your base — or go on the offensive.

Find the dungeon.
Stolen items accumulate in a criminal base somewhere in your world, packed with loot
from every chest in the area. A Wandering Trader sells a map. Fight through the guards
and take it all — including what was stolen from your neighbours.

Run your own operation.
Kill the guards, mine their chest with a Silk Touch tool, and bring it home. Thieves
will start delivering stolen goods to you instead. On a multiplayer server, nobody
needs to know it's there.

Use the thief as a spy.
Put a lead on a captured Chest Thief and it will walk you toward the nearest chest it can find — a dungeon, a hidden cache, or another player's base they thought was secret.

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Compatibility

Fabric API	Required
Cloth Config	Optional — in-game config screen
Xaero's Minimap	Optional — waypoints for located bases

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Configuration

Config files live in your Minecraft config/ folder. They are created automatically on first launch. New fields added by mod updates appear automatically with sensible defaults — no manual migration needed. All values can also be changed via the Cloth Config
in-game screen.

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chest_thief_config.json

Spawning

Field	Default	Description
spawnWeight	20	How common the thief is. Cows are 8 — higher means more frequent
spawnMinGroup	1	Minimum group size when spawning
spawnMaxGroup	2	Maximum group size when spawning
spawnMinNearbyChests	2	Minimum chests within detection range before a thief may spawn
spawnBiomes	(most overworld biomes)	List of biome IDs the thief spawns in

Stealing

Field	Default	Description
chestDetectionRadius	100	How far (blocks) the thief scans for chests
chestDetectionMaxVerticalDist	16	Max vertical distance to a chest. Low values exclude buried dungeons
chestInteractionIntervalTicks	60	Ticks between steal attempts (20 = 1 second)
maxCarrySlots	5	How many item stacks the thief can carry before leaving
stealOnlyListedItems	false	If true, only items in chest_thief_values.json can be stolen

Combat

Field	Default	Description
panicChance	0.4	Chance (0–1) the thief flees and drops an item when attacked
panicDurationTicks	200	How long the thief sprints away in panic (200 = 10 seconds)
berserkDurationTicks	300	Duration of berserk mode (300 = 15 seconds)
berserkSpeedMultiplier	1.5	Speed multiplier during berserk (+50 % over base speed)
berserkFollowRange	50.0	Block radius the thief tracks targets during berserk

Stealth

Field	Default	Description
nightSpeedBonus	0.12	Flat speed added at night on top of base movement speed
stealthChance	0.85	Chance (0–1) to go invisible when the cooldown expires
stealthMinTicks	60	Minimum duration of each invisible period (60 = 3 seconds)
stealthMaxTicks	140	Maximum duration of each invisible period (140 = 7 seconds)
stealthCooldownMinTicks	200	Minimum pause between invisible periods (200 = 10 seconds)
stealthCooldownMaxTicks	400	Maximum pause between invisible periods (400 = 20 seconds)

Departure

Field	Default	Description
departDelayTicks	400	Ticks the thief waits with a full inventory before leaving (400 = 20 seconds)
departDurationTicks	600	Ticks the thief walks away before despawning — your last window to intercept
maxAgeTicks	48000	Maximum thief lifetime before it departs regardless (48000 = 2 Minecraft days)
leavingSoundEnabled	true	Whether the thief plays a smug sound while departing
leavingSoundMinTicks	80	Minimum interval between departure sounds (80 = 4 seconds)
leavingSoundMaxTicks	160	Maximum interval between departure sounds (160 = 8 seconds)
leaveDurationTicks	200	How long the thief walks away from a chest when its inventory is full

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chest_thief_values.json

A map of item ID → priority value. The thief always steals the highest-priority item
it finds in a chest.

{                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
  "minecraft:nether_star": 1000,                                                 
  "minecraft:elytra": 900,
  "minecraft:diamond": 500,
  "minecraft:iron_ingot": 200                                                                                                                                                                                                    
}

Items not in the list get priority 1 and can still be stolen — the list only controls
what gets taken first. Set stealOnlyListedItems: true in chest_thief_config.json to restrict stealing to listed items only.

Default priorities (highest to lowest): Nether Star, Elytra, Enchanted Golden Apple, Totem of Undying, Beacon, Netherite gear, Diamond gear, Gold, Iron, Ender Pearl, and more.

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syndicate_config.json

World generation

Field	Default	Description
baseSpacingChunks	32	Grid cell size in chunks. Larger = rarer bases
baseSeparationChunks	12	Minimum distance from cell edge to base centre

Guards

Field	Default	Description
guardArrowDamage	2.3	Base arrow damage (vanilla skeleton = 2.0)
guardsPerItem	0.5	Guards spawned per item in the base (rounded down)
minGuards	4	Minimum guards regardless of loot count
maxGuards	16	Maximum guards regardless of loot count
guardRespawnIntervalTicks	6000	Ticks between respawn checks (6000 = 5 minutes)
guardRespawnPlayerBuffer	8	Buffer (blocks) around the base AABB that blocks respawn

Loot

Field	Default	Description
starterLootTotal	10	Items placed in the base at world generation
starterValuableCount	3	How many of those are mid-tier valuables; the rest is filler
raidThreshold	0.3	Base is considered raided when loot drops below 30 % of peak
lootDeliveryRadius	1000000	Max distance (blocks) a thief travels to deliver loot

Discovery

Field	Default	Description
mapTraderChance	0.5	Chance (0–1) a Wandering Trader sells a map to the nearest base
createXaeroWaypoints	false	Add a waypoint in Xaero's Minimap when a base is located