The Runic Guide
A player-friendly reference for every system that powers Azora — rarity, perks, gems, tiers, arcane stations, structures, and the bosses that guard them.
ᚠ What is Azora?
Azora is an RPG progression system for Minecraft servers. It adds rarity-based equipment, perks, socketed gems, arcane workstations, structures, bosses, and altered creatures across the Overworld, Nether, and End.
ᚢ The interlocking systems
Rarity
Every eligible item can roll one of five rarities. Rarity controls stat ranges, perk count, and socket count.
Perks
Item abilities with category and rarity restrictions. The catalog contains 99 entries.
Gems & Sockets
25 gem IDs: 24 with tiers I–III, plus the single-tier Socket Core that adds capacity.
Tiers
Persistent, milestone-based progression. Effective armor tier affects defensive scaling.
ᚦ How progression feels
- Start: Equip vanilla gear (counts as Common).
- Loot: Find rarity items in chests, from mobs, or by awakening ordinary gear at the Arcane Chisel.
- Customise: Use the Arcane Chisel to remove, upgrade, or inscribe perks. Socket gems in an anvil.
- Explore: Discover towers, ships, and other structures with dedicated loot and bosses.
- Climb: Defeat bosses and wear higher-rarity armor to raise your tier and unlock scaling.
ᚠ Crafting & Stations
Arcane workstations let you manipulate rarity, perks, enchantments, and gems. Three stations matter: the Arcane Chisel, the Arcane Library, and the Arcane Decomposition Table.
ᚢ Arcane Chisel
Place the resulting Arcane Chisel and right-click it. Deposit equipment that already has a rarity to gain Resonance. Use Resonance to remove, upgrade, or inscribe eligible perks.
- Ordinary equipment without rarity cannot be deposited.
- Confirming a deposit consumes the deposited equipment.
- Storage is per player, default cap 100,000 Resonance.
Resonance per deposited item
| Rarity | Resonance |
|---|---|
| Common | 2 |
| Uncommon | 4 |
| Rare | 8 |
| Epic | 16 |
| Mythic | 64 |
Default costs: Remove perk 250 · Upgrade 750 · Inscribe 2,000. Category, rarity, existing perks, and level/cap checks still apply.
The Awaken Item option uses XP levels and optional dust to give eligible non-rarity equipment Azora properties. It is not a menu for choosing any rarity — the weighted pool determines the outcome.
ᚦ Arcane Library
Place the crafted barrel facing horizontally and build a wall of 5 bookshelves in the same vertical plane as the barrel (normal or chiseled bookshelves by default). Right-click to open.
- Deposit enchanted books with exactly one enchantment.
- Points are stored separately per enchantment: a level L book contributes
L × (L + 1) / 2points (I = 1, II = 3, V = 15, X = 55). - Default total capacity: 3,000 points.
- Maximum withdrawal level defaults to 10, but single-level enchantments remain capped at 1.
- Left-click to withdraw the highest affordable level; right-click to select a level.
- Libraries are public by default; the owner manages access.
- Apply library books with equipment in the left anvil input and the library book in the right; compatibility and enchantment conflicts still apply.
ᚨ Arcane Decomposition Table
This is a world-built structure, not a crafting-grid recipe: place a Respawn Anchor directly on top of a Barrel.
Right-click either block to interact. Insert up to 16 gems of the same ID and tier, then start decomposition. Collect the resulting dust through the table's barrel/storage interface.
ᚠ Loot & Rarities
How rarity is rolled, where loot comes from, and how awakening works.
ᚢ The five rarities
Common
RarityBaseline. Vanilla gear counts as Common by default.
Uncommon
RaritySlightly stronger stat ranges and slightly wider perk ranges.
Rare
RarityMid-tier. Broader perk and socket ranges.
Epic
RarityHigh-tier. Strong stat ranges and more perks.
Mythic
RarityTop tier. Highest stat ranges, perk and socket potential.
The five rarity IDs are COMMON UNCOMMON RARE EPIC MYTHIC. Rarity controls generation ranges and base stat rolls. Perks, sockets, installed gems, and vanilla enchantments remain separate properties.
ᚦ Loot sources
| Source | How to get it |
|---|---|
| Vanilla container loot | Found in generated chests across the Overworld, Nether, and End. |
| Azora structure containers | Found in towers, ships, bases, and other Azora structures. |
| Hostile mob drops | Rarely dropped by player-killed hostile mobs (if enabled). |
| Awakening | Created at the Arcane Chisel from ordinary equipment. |
Changing probabilities affects future rolls only. It does not refill previously looted chests or reroll existing items.
Default mob-drop chances (if enabled)
- Overworld: 1.5% · allowed rarities Common–Rare
- Nether: 0.8% · allowed rarities Uncommon–Epic
- End: 0.4% · allowed rarities Rare–Mythic
Ordinary mob drops default to player-attributed hostile kills, excluding spawner/trial-spawner mobs.
ᚨ Weights are relative
For an eligible weighted pool, chance = weight ÷ sum of eligible weights. A weight of 30 is not automatically 30%. Different sources use different pools and restrictions, so a rarity weight is not a universal drop-rate table for every source.
Profiles also specify item counts, eligible materials, fallback injection when no suitable gear is present, enchantment ranges, and per-rarity perk/socket ranges.
ᚱ Rarity statistics
Each rarity defines its own stat ranges, perk ranges, socket ranges, and level bonus. Damage, attack speed, armor, toughness, and knockback resistance all have separate ranges. Higher rarities generally offer better stat rolls, more perks, and more sockets — but the exact values are rolled per item, so no two Mythic swords are necessarily identical.
Some items can roll jackpot stat bonuses that push individual stats above the normal range. These are rare and always worth checking for.
ᚲ Awakening
Use Awaken Item at the Arcane Chisel with eligible equipment that does not already have a rarity. Arcane Dust is optional; it changes the cost and the weighted rarity pool — it does not let you choose a specific rarity.
| Catalyst | XP levels | Common weight | Uncommon weight | Rare weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| None | 30 | 80 | 20 | 1 |
| Crude Dust | 20 | 65 | 30 | 5 |
| Refined Dust | 12 | 25 | 60 | 15 |
| Pure Dust | 6 | 0 | 45 | 55 |
The first row totals 101, so its Rare chance is 1/101, not exactly 1%. Awakening does not produce Epic or Mythic items. Output limits separately constrain perks, perk level, and sockets for the selected rarity.
ᚠ Perks
Item abilities with category and rarity restrictions — the heart of build customisation.
ᚢ What are perks?
Perks are item abilities that have equipment-category and rarity restrictions, configurable levels, and ability-specific triggers. Their trigger may be passive equipment use, an attack, mining, movement, blocking, or sneaking — read the entry's in-game description and settings together.
Use the Arcane Chisel to edit perks. Loot generation has its own category limits and retry budget, so a maximum perk count is not a promise that every item receives that many compatible perks.
The following 99 entries come directly from the registry. Descriptions reproduce the player-facing text with formatting removed; placeholders represent values filled by the game. These are existing ability IDs, not a way to script arbitrary new abilities.
ᚦ Catalog (excerpt)
The full catalog contains 99 entries. Below is a representative excerpt showing the format: ID | Minimum rarity | Maximum level | Categories.
| ID | Min rarity | Max level | Categories |
|---|---|---|---|
| lava_walk | Uncommon | 3 | BOOTS |
| step_high | Uncommon | 5 | BOOTS |
| aqua_gills | Rare | 3 | HELMET |
| area_miner | Common | 25 | PICKAXE, SHOVEL |
| auto_feed | Epic | 1 | HELMET |
| chest_elytra | Mythic | 1 | CHESTPLATE |
| berserker_haste | Common | 3 | SWORD, AXE |
| executors_bounty | Rare | 1 | SWORD |
| flight_boots | Mythic | 1 | BOOTS |
| soulbound | Uncommon | 1 | Many categories |
| flame_touch | Uncommon | 1 | PICKAXE, SHOVEL, AXE |
| crit_axe | Common | 3 | AXE |
| lifesteal_absorb | Common | 4 | SWORD, AXE, TRIDENT, MACE, POLEARM |
| reflect_projectiles | Common | 1 | SHIELD |
| gravity_crush | Rare | 1 | MACE |
| quiver_mastery | Epic | 3 | BOW |
| pegasus_mount | Mythic | 1 | HORSE_ARMOR |
…and 82 more entries covering every equipment category, from helmets to horse armor, bows to maces.
ᚨ Managing perks
- Remove: 250 Resonance at the Arcane Chisel.
- Upgrade: 750 Resonance (raises perk level, subject to caps).
- Inscribe: 2,000 Resonance (adds a new eligible perk).
Compatible category, rarity, existing perks, and level/cap checks still apply. Do not confuse these inscription limits with the separate generation limits that determine what rolls on a freshly dropped item.
ᚠ Gems
Socketable effects that refine your equipment — 25 gem IDs across three tiers.
ᚢ Core mechanics
Gems provide effects when socketed into suitable equipment and used in the relevant context. Inserting a gem does not mean its effect applies to every equipment slot or attack type — runtime conditions still matter.
There are 25 configured gem IDs: 24 with tiers I–III, plus the single-tier Socket Core.
- Socket a gem: Combine equipment and a gem in an anvil to fill the first empty socket.
- Upgrade a gem: Combine two gems of the same ID/tier to upgrade one tier.
- Anvil costs: 3 levels to socket, 5 to upgrade. Amethyst can discount supported operations.
- Removal: An ordinary stonecutter removes and destroys the first installed gem, leaving an empty socket — take the edited equipment back from the input slot.
Socket Core adds capacity rather than installing an ordinary effect gem. The maximum number of sockets is 5.
ᚦ Effect caps
Effects have global bonus caps (PvP 25%, PvE 200%) and defensive reduction caps (PvP 60%, PvE 80%). Individual effects also have their own conditions and limits. This does not imply every gem effect is a damage bonus or shares one cap.
ᚨ Gem catalog (selected examples)
Descriptions below are the bundled English text with formatting removed. Braced values are supplied from the tier's settings.
| Gem ID | Effect | Tier I | Tier II | Tier III |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ruby | More damage during the night. | +5% night damage | +10% | +15% |
| onyx | Execute weakened enemies. | +10% damage if target ≤30% HP | +20% / ≤35% | +30% / ≤40% |
| amber | Consecutive hits increase damage; resets if you take too long. | +3% per stack (max 5) | +5% per stack (max 6) | +7% per stack (max 7) |
| garnet | Extra damage against armored targets. | +0.8% per armor point (cap 40%) | +1.2% (cap 60%) | +1.6% (cap 80%) |
| jade | You resist better when wounded. | -10% damage if HP ≤50% | -15% / ≤60% | -20% / ≤70% |
| sapphire | Elemental resistance (Fire/Explosion). | -8% | -12% | -16% |
| hematite | Reduces damage from critical hits received. | -20% crit damage | -35% | -50% |
| aquamarine | Running consumes less hunger. | -10% sprint hunger | -20% | -30% |
| peridot | Safer landings; stomp PvE damage. | -15% fall damage · 3m / 2 dmg | -25% · 4m / 4 dmg | -35% · 5m / 6 dmg |
| quartz | Precise miner: chance for double ore drops. | 5% double drop | 10% | 15% |
…plus 14 more gems, including the Socket Core.
Default cosmetic bases are randomized pottery sherds. Choosing a single material makes equivalent new gems easier to stack; metadata still needs to match. See the Resource Pack for textures and fallback appearances.
ᚠ Tiers
Persistent progression milestones and the separate effective armor tier.
ᚢ Progression tier vs. effective armor tier
Azora distinguishes persistent progression tier from effective armor tier. Removing armor does not normally erase progression, but it can change your current defensive scaling.
ᚦ Progression milestones
| Tier | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1 | Starting tier. |
| 2 | Equip 3 armor pieces of allowed rarities: Common, Uncommon, or Rare. Mixing is allowed. Vanilla armor counts as Common by default. |
| 3 | Visit the Nether. |
| 4 | Be credited as the killer of a vanilla Wither or Ender Dragon. |
| 5 | Equip 4 Mythic armor pieces. |
These are milestone checks, not a requirement to complete every earlier row in order. Automatic progression only increases.
ᚨ Effective armor tier calculation
Calculated from equipped armor:
- 3 Mythic pieces → 5
- 3 Epic-or-better pieces → 4
- 3 Rare-or-better pieces → 3
- Otherwise: rounded average rarity score of eligible equipped pieces, bounded to 1–5.
This is why the effective defense tier can differ from the progression milestone requiring 4 Mythic pieces.
ᚠ Structures
Bundled structures across the Overworld, Nether, and End — towers, ships, bases, and more.
ᚢ World generation
Azora places structures in eligible Overworld, Nether, and End locations. Generation depends on allowed worlds, enabled candidates, weights, biome/environment filters, spacing, terrain checks, and work budgets. A high candidate weight does not bypass those checks.
- Structures can appear in new chunks and in previously generated chunks.
- Default attempt chances are 0.18 for new chunks and 0.006 for old chunks.
- Structures are at least 200 blocks from spawn and 800 blocks apart.
- Terrain and player-block checks are not a replacement for land-claim protection.
ᚦ Structure roster
| ID | Template | Environment | Weight | Height mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| end_tower | END_TOWER.nbt | THE_END | 8 | END_ISLAND |
| tower_desert | Tower_Desert.nbt | NORMAL | 20 | SURFACE |
| tower_jungle | Tower_Jungle.nbt | NORMAL | 20 | SURFACE |
| tower | Tower.nbt | NORMAL | 20 | SURFACE |
| tower_frost | Tower_Frost.nbt | NORMAL | 20 | SURFACE |
| molino_medieval | molino_medieval.nbt | NORMAL | 10 | SURFACE |
| medieval_tower | medieval_tower.nbt | NORMAL | 16 | SURFACE |
| airship | Airship.nbt | NORMAL | 30 | SURFACE |
| swamp_base | Swamp_base.nbt | NORMAL | 60 | SURFACE |
| ship | ship.nbt | NORMAL | 12 | SURFACE |
| darktower | Darktower.nbt | NETHER | 20 | SURFACE |
| nether_for | Nether_For.nbt | NETHER | 40 | SURFACE |
NORMAL is the Overworld environment name. Keep internal IDs and template filenames exact.
ᚨ Good to know
- Structure templates may replace existing blocks when they generate.
- The ship, swamp base, and Nether fortress have dedicated boss encounters.
- Lootr integration means marked Azora containers are per-player — but not every container in a structure chunk is marked.
ᚠ Bosses & Variants
Deadly encounters with unique kits, and altered forms of ordinary mobs.
ᚢ Boss encounters
Bosses are encounters with their own abilities, scaling, rarity selection, and rewards. Variants are altered forms of selected ordinary mobs. Neither system means every creature is always converted or that all encounters use the same rules.
- Random scheduling defaults to 30–55 minutes. Successful spawning still needs an eligible player/world and a valid placement; this is not a guaranteed world-wide spawn every interval.
- Boss bars, nearby announcements, sounds/beams, phase transitions, and lava-safety behaviour are configurable.
- The troll encounter is enabled with a 4% configured chance and the Bee, Panda, Polar Bear, and Sheep pool.
- Rarity selection also considers progression and dimension restrictions. All three bundled dimension caps are Mythic, but that does not make Mythic equally likely for every player.
- The ship, swamp base, and Nether fortress have dedicated structure-boss sections; their type, ability, and placement settings are independent from random scheduling.
ᚦ Boss ability guide
These summarise implemented kits. Numbers, cooldowns, summons, scaling, and availability depend on encounter state.
| Boss | Kit features |
|---|---|
| Slime | Enlarged form, slam, fang attacks, slime minions. |
| Magma Cube | Enlarged form, slam, ranged-response buff, splitting behaviour. |
| Ghast | Meteor/fireball attacks, wail, vortex pull. |
| Zombie | Grasp attack, phase-two minions. |
| Pillager | Ravager companion, volleys, freezing/slowing attacks, phase-two skeletons. |
| Skeleton | Arrow volleys with configured effects, teleporting, axe minions. |
| Spider | Temporary webs, vanishing, summoned spiders. |
| Steve | Equipment reflection, lightning, healing, temporary climbing blocks. |
| Witch | Low-health regeneration, rabbit curse, hex/ritual attacks, phase-two lightning. |
| Blaze | Shield, flame pulses, charged supernova. |
| Zombified Piglin | Horde summons, fanatic attacks, combat bonuses tied to gold armor/frenzy. |
| Hoglin | Charge, stomp, ranged-damage reduction. |
| Phantom | Dive attack, projectiles, smaller phantom summons. |
| Vindicator | Shield behaviour, bleeding, blink attack, whirlwind. |
| Enderman | Swaps position with an eligible nearby target and briefly blinds them. |
| Wither Skeleton | Nearby Wither aura and a teleporting approach. |
| Shulker | Pull/damage/levitation pulse, bullets, additional blindness at higher rarities. |
| Troll encounter | Charges toward the target and can apply nearby Darkness. |
Structure bosses: The ship encounter uses a Skeleton captain with teleport, slash, and summons; the swamp base uses a leaping/summoning Vindicator. The Nether fortress pool is Wither Skeleton/Magma Cube with its own fireball, leap, and summon settings.
Some abilities have timing or formulas that are fixed and cannot be changed. Enderman, Shulker, and Wither Skeleton behaviour in particular contains hardcoded timing.
ᚨ Facing your shadow: the Steve encounter
The Steve encounter reflects part of the player's equipment: chestplate, leggings, boots, and hand equipment are copied, with a suitable melee-weapon fallback. It uses a classic Steve head rather than reproducing the player's full skin. This supports the lore metaphor of fighting your own shadow without promising a literal duplicate of all player statistics or powers. Its kit includes configurable lightning, healing, and temporary block-climbing behaviour.
ᚱ Mob variants
Allowed spawn reasons default to Natural, Chunk Generation, Patrol, Reinforcements, Spawner, and Spawn Egg. Creative and spectator targeting is ignored by default. Chances below are conditional variant chances, not a percentage of all mobs in the world.
| Variant ID | Behaviour | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| brute_creeper | Melee-attacking creeper variant with configured damage, reach, and knockback. | 14% |
| enderman_warp | Enderman variant with chance-based teleport behaviour and cooldown. | 19% |
| zombie_venom | Zombie variant that applies poison. | 16% |
| phantom_grabber | Phantom variant that grabs/lifts its target using configured heights. | 13% |
| spider_web_trapper | Spider variant that temporarily traps targets with webs. | 7% |
| spider_brood | Spider variant that releases spiderlings on death. | 5% |
| arcane_archer | Archer variant with teleport escapes and slowing arrows. | 8% |
| mummified_leader | Husk leader with minion behaviour; desert restriction enabled by default. | 8% |
| wither_knight | Wither Skeleton variant with vertical knockback and Wither application. | 8% |