Heart of the Hollow

What was built

• Added the Heart of the Hollow boss mob with a boss bar, heavy melee swings, snaring vine pulses, and poison spore clouds.
• Implemented natural cavern spawning (lush caves, dripstone caves, deep dark) plus a spawn egg in the Spawn Eggs tab.
• The boss now brightens its cavern on death by seeding light blocks and can drop glow berries alongside its signature drop.
• Created the Verdant Core item (rare drop) with a short regeneration + resistance burst when consumed.

Usage

• Find the Heart of the Hollow underground in lush, dripstone, or deep dark biomes, or summon it with the Heart of the Hollow Spawn Egg.
• Expect melee and area control attacks: spores inflict poison/slow, vines apply heavy slowness and minor damage.
• Defeating the boss drops Verdant Cores (and occasional glow berries) and lights up the surrounding cavern.
• Use a Verdant Core from your hand to gain a brief defensive surge (consumes the core unless in creative mode).

Notes and implementation details

• Natural spawns use a biome tag and NeoForge biome modifier; spawn placement uses ground rules with standard monster checks.
• On death the boss places invisible light blocks in a small sphere to illuminate the cavern; these persist until broken.
• The boss uses a humanoid renderer with a custom texture and a simple healing tick when idle.
• Loot is data-driven via an entity loot table; spawn restrictions and attributes are registered during mod setup.

Known limitations / future ideas

• No custom animation/model yet; appearance uses a scaled humanoid rig with a bespoke texture.
• No dedicated structure/arena; encounters rely on existing cave generation.
• Light blocks remain after the fight; a future pass could fade them out over time or replace them with decor blocks.
• Additional nature-themed gear recipes using the Verdant Core are not included but can be layered on later.