Hardcore survival for Minecraft · 1.21+

Waterborne

A hardcore thirst system tied to waterborne parasites. Dirty water quenches your thirst — but it can infect you. Purify water and craft cures to survive.

⬇ Download (free)Installation

1.4Version

1.21+Minecraft

NoneRequired deps

ES·EN·FR·ZHLanguages

💧

ThirstDrops as you run & sweat

🦠

ParasitesDirty water infects you

💊

CuresCraft the right remedy

🚰

Purified waterSafe to drink

📋

Status GUISee cures & recipes

A complete biological survival loop

💧

Thirst systemThirst drains over time, faster when sprinting or in hot biomes. Low thirst gives debuffs; empty deals damage.

🦠

8 parasitesSome from drinking dirty water, some from swimming. Each drains thirst, hunger or health with symptoms. Diseases have a duration and severity — you can resist and recover.

💊

4 craftable curesEach remedy treats a group of parasites and has its own crafting recipe. A broad-spectrum cures anything. Eaten with the normal animation, even heads.

🚰

Purify waterCraft Purified Water — safe, never infects. The bridge between thirst and parasites.

📋

Status & recipe GUIs/wb status shows your thirst and parasites; click a parasite to see the cure's crafting recipe.

📊

BossBar / ActionBarPick how the thirst bar shows — BossBar (no conflicts), ActionBar or none + placeholders.

🧩

PlaceholderAPIThirst, percent, bar and parasite count for your own scoreboard or HUD.

⚙️

Fully configurableEvery rate, biome, effect, parasite and cure is editable. Add your own parasites and remedies.

🌍

4 languagesEnglish, Spanish, French and Chinese — every message editable.

✅

No required dependencies. Waterborne runs on its own. PlaceholderAPI is optional and activates automatically. Vault is not needed.

Installation

Get Waterborne running in a minute — it needs no other plugin.

Steps

Download Waterborne.jar and drop it into your server's plugins/ folder.
Restart the server (Java 21 required for 1.21+).
(Optional) Install PlaceholderAPI if you want placeholders in a scoreboard or HUD.
Edit config.yml and run /waterborne reload.

ℹ️

Player data (thirst & parasites) is stored in data.yml. Language files are generated on first start in lang/.

Thirst

Every player has a thirst bar (0–100 by default). It drains over time and you must drink to refill it.

Behaviour	How it works
Draining	Loses a base amount each interval — more when sprinting or in a hot biome (desert, nether…).
Low thirst	Below configurable thresholds you get effects (slowness, weakness, hunger…).
Empty (0)	You take damage until you drink.
Respawn	Thirst resets to full on respawn (configurable).
Display	BossBar (default), ActionBar or none. Toggle per-player with `/wb hud`.

💧

Creative/Spectator players and anyone with waterborne.bypass are not affected. Worlds and game modes are configurable.

Water & drinking

Water is the core of the plugin: it saves you from thirst, but dirty water can infect you.

Source	How to drink	Clean?
Water block / ocean / cauldron	Right-click with an empty hand	Dirty (configurable)
Water bottle	Right-click holding it (returns an empty bottle)	Dirty (configurable)
Purified Water	Right-click holding it	Always safe

Purified water (the safe option)

Purified Water never infects you. Craft it from a water bottle + an ingredient (coal by default). Dirty biomes (swamp, jungle, river…) multiply the infection risk.

# default purification recipe (config.yml)
purification:
  recipe:
    enabled: true
    ingredient: COAL     # water bottle + coal → Purified Water

🚰

Get one instantly for testing: /wb give purified.

Your own drinks

Add any item as a drink that restores thirst. Hold the item and run /wb additem <thirst> [dirty] [id] — juices, sodas, resource-pack items, anything. It is saved to drinks.yml with its exact look, and you get a ready copy. Right-click it to drink.

# hold a custom "Mango Juice" item, then:
/wb additem 30            # restores 30 thirst, safe (no parasites)
/wb additem 20 true       # counts as dirty water — can infect

Want it craftable? Open drinks.yml, set recipe.enabled: true and list the ingredients (a shapeless recipe) — exactly like the cures. Then /wb reload.

Parasites

8 parasites are included. Drinking dirty water can give the water-borne ones; swimming in dirty biomes gives the aquatic ones. Each one drains something and adds symptoms. Diseases have a duration and a severity: your body fights them over time and non-fatal ones only weaken you — you die only from those marked fatal.

Parasite	Caught by	Main effect
Giardia	Drinking	Drains thirst hard + hunger
Amebiasis	Drinking	Drains thirst + damage + nausea
Cryptosporidium	Drinking	Drains thirst + hunger + nausea
Tapeworm	Drinking	Drains hunger + weakness
Hookworm	Drinking	Weakness + mining fatigue + light damage
Guinea worm	Drinking	Slowness + light damage
Leech	Swimming	Drains health
Schistosoma	Swimming	Drains health hard + weakness · can be fatal

📋

/wb status shows your parasites, symptoms, which cure treats them and the recipe. Admins: /wb parasite infect|cure|list <player> [type].

Cures

4 remedies are included. Each cures a group of parasites and has its own crafting recipe. Remedies are eaten with the normal eat animation (hold right-click), even heads or other non-food items — the cure applies when you finish eating.

Remedy	Cures	Recipe (shapeless)
Antiprotozoal Tonic	Giardia · Amebiasis · Cryptosporidium	`Fermented Spider Eye` + `Brown Mushroom` + `Sugar`
Deworming Paste	Tapeworm · Hookworm · Guinea worm	`Pumpkin Seeds` + `Fern` + `Glow Berries`
Aquatic Remedy	Leech · Schistosoma	`Kelp` + `Seagrass` + `Fermented Spider Eye`
Broad-spectrum	Any parasite	`Fermented Spider Eye` + `Golden Apple` + `Nether Wart`

💊

Give one for testing: /wb give antiprotozoal_tonic (also deworming_paste, aquatic_remedy, broad_antiparasitic). All cures, what they treat and their recipes are configurable.

Commands

Base command /waterborne — aliases /wb, /thirst, /sed.

Players

Command	What it does
`/wb status`	Open your status GUI (thirst, parasites, cures)
`/wb hud`	Toggle your thirst bar
`/wb help`	Command list
`/wb version`	Plugin version & author

Admin

Command	What it does
`/wb thirst <get\|set\|add> <player> [n]`	Manage a player's thirst
`/wb parasite <infect\|cure\|list> <player> [type]`	Manage parasites
`/wb give <purified\|remedy-key\|drink-id> [player] [n]`	Give purified water, a remedy or a custom drink
`/wb additem <thirst> [dirty] [id]`	Turn the item in your hand into a custom drink
`/wb reload`	Reload config & languages

Permissions

Grant these with LuckPerms or any permissions plugin.

Permission	What it does	Default
waterborne.use	Affected by thirst & parasites (base)	true
waterborne.bypass	Immune to thirst & parasites	false
waterborne.admin	All admin commands (thirst, parasite, give, reload)	op

Placeholders

Requires PlaceholderAPI. Great for a scoreboard or a custom HUD (set display.mode: NONE and render the bar yourself).

%waterborne_thirst%          # current thirst
%waterborne_thirst_max%      # max thirst
%waterborne_thirst_percent%  # thirst %
%waterborne_thirst_bar%      # text bar
%waterborne_parasites%       # number of parasites
%waterborne_infected%        # true / false

Configuration

One clean, commented config.yml. Everything below is editable, and you can add your own parasites and cures.

Section	What it controls
`general`	Enabled worlds & affected game modes
`thirst`	Max, drain rate, hot biomes, effects by threshold, damage at zero
`display`	BOSSBAR / ACTIONBAR / NONE, colors, format
`drinking`	How much each source restores & whether it's dirty
`water · purification`	Dirty biomes, risk multiplier, purified-water recipe
`parasites`	Infection chances, tick rate, clear-on-death, recovery time, severity, the 8 parasites
`cures`	The remedies: what they treat, their item, how they're eaten & recipe

config.yml in detail

Every setting in plugins/Waterborne/config.yml. Keys stay in English (that's how the plugin reads them); the comments follow your language.

🔄

Updating is safe: your config.yml is never overwritten. New options from a new version are added automatically, keeping the settings and comments you already have.

General & storage

language: "es"                # language (file in /lang)

general:
  enabled-worlds: []          # worlds where it runs (empty = all)
  affected-gamemodes: [ SURVIVAL, ADVENTURE ]  # affected game modes

storage:
  save-interval-seconds: 300  # how often data is saved

Thirst & decay

thirst:
  max: 100.0              # max thirst
  start: 100.0            # starting thirst (new / respawn)
  reset-on-respawn: true  # reset on respawn
  decay:
    interval-ticks: 120   # ticks between thirst loss (20 = 1s)
    base: 1.0             # thirst lost per interval
    sprint-extra: 1.0     # extra while sprinting
    hot-biome-extra: 1.5  # extra in a hot biome

Thirst effects & damage

thirst:                     # effects by thirst level (threshold >= current)
  effects:
    '25': [ "slowness:0" ]  # format "effect:amplifier"
    '10': [ "slowness:1", "weakness:0" ]
    '3':  [ "slowness:2", "weakness:1", "hunger:0" ]
  damage-at-zero:
    enabled: true           # damage when thirst hits 0
    amount: 1.0             # half a heart = 1.0

On-screen bar

display:
  mode: BOSSBAR                          # BOSSBAR | ACTIONBAR | NONE
  show-below-percent: 100                # show only below this % (100 = always)
  bossbar:
    title: "<aqua>💧 Sed: %percent%%"  # %percent% %value% %max%
    style: SEGMENTED_10                  # SOLID, SEGMENTED_6/10/12/20
    color-high: BLUE                     # color when thirst is high
    color-medium: YELLOW                 # color when medium
    color-low: RED                       # color when low
    medium-threshold-percent: 50         # medium threshold (%)
    low-threshold-percent: 25            # low threshold (%)

Drinking sources

drinking:
  instant: true       # true = one click drinks · false = hold, vanilla style (avoids drinking when opening a door)
  natural:
    enabled: true     # drink straight from a water block
    restore: 15.0     # thirst restored
    dirty: true       # counts as dirty (parasite risk)
    cooldown-ms: 800  # cooldown between sips (ms)
  bottle:
    restore: 40.0     # vanilla water bottle
    dirty: true
  purified:
    restore: 45.0     # purified water (safe, never infects)

Dirty water & purification

water:
  dirty-biomes: [ swamp, river, jungle, ... ]  # biomes with dirtier water
  dirty-biome-risk-multiplier: 2.0  # multiplies risk in those biomes

purification:
  recipe:
    enabled: true                   # Purified Water recipe
    ingredient: COAL                # water bottle + this ingredient
  purified-item:
    stack-size: 16                  # bottles per stack (1-99; vanilla can't stack potions)

Parasites & infection

parasites:
  enabled: true                              # enable parasites
  tick-interval: 100                         # ticks between their actions
  max-per-player: 3                          # max at once per player
  clear-on-death: true                       # cleared on death (false = persist)
  recovery:
    default-duration-seconds: 0              # self-heal fallback (0 = permanent)
  non-fatal-min-health: 2.0                  # non-fatal damage stops here (2 = 1 heart)
  infection:
    drink-dirty-chance: 0.20                 # chance (0-1) when drinking dirty water
    swim-chance: 0.08                        # chance (0-1) swimming in a dirty biome
    drink-types: [ giardia, tapeworm, ... ]  # parasites from DRINKING (by weight)
    swim-types: [ leech, schistosoma ]       # parasites from SWIMMING (by weight)

A parasite (all 8 share this shape)

parasites:                     # all 8 parasites share this shape
  types:
    giardia:
      name: "<#7CFC00>Giardia"
      description: [ "<gray>Protozoo del agua estancada." ]  # text the player sees
      drain-thirst: 4.0        # thirst drained per interval
      drain-hunger: 0          # hunger drained per interval
      damage: 0.0              # damage per interval
      effects: [ "hunger:0" ]  # "effect:amplifier"
      weight: 40               # relative chance to be picked
      duration-seconds: 300    # self-heals after 300 s (0 = permanent)
      fatal: false             # if true, it can kill you

A cure (all remedies share this shape)

cures:                              # each remedy cures certain parasites (right-click)
  antiprotozoal_tonic:
    name: "<#7CFC00>Tónico Antiprotozoario"
    material: FERMENTED_SPIDER_EYE  # item appearance
    treats: [ giardia, amebiasis, cryptosporidium ]  # parasites it cures
    consume: true                   # consumed on use
    eat-normally: true              # eaten with animation (not instant)
    recipe:
      enabled: true                 # crafting recipe
      ingredients: [ FERMENTED_SPIDER_EYE, BROWN_MUSHROOM, SUGAR ]

ℹ️

After editing, run /waterborne reload. New recipes register on start/reload; changing an existing recipe's ingredients needs a restart.

Waterborne / Changelog

Version history

Every release and what changed in it.

v1.4 2026-08-01 Latest

✨Diseases can now heal on their own over time: each parasite has a duration-seconds (0 = permanent, cured only with a remedy).
🔧Language files now auto-update on new versions, just like the config — new messages appear without losing your edits.
🐛Remedies are now eaten with the normal eat animation (hold right-click), not only instantly — this works even for heads and other non-food items.
✨Parasite severity: parasites marked fatal: false can no longer kill you — their damage stops at non-fatal-min-health. Only fatal ones can be lethal.

v1.3 2026-07-26

🐛Custom drinks made from food or potions now work: you eat/drink them normally and they add thirst.
🐛No more glitch where a food drink couldn't be eaten and the thirst bar jumped.
🔧Food drinks now use the normal eat animation (a held click), so they are never accidentally "instant".

v1.2 2026-07-24

✨New command /wb additem: turn any item in your hand into a drink that restores thirst.
✨Custom drinks can have their own crafting recipe (set it in drinks.yml).
🔧/wb give now also gives your custom drinks by their id.

v1.1 2026-07-24

✨Purified water bottles now stack (16 by default, configurable).
🔧The config now updates itself on new versions — new options appear without losing your settings.
🐛Right-clicking a door, chest or button with a bottle in hand no longer drinks it.
✨New option drinking.instant: set it to false to require holding right-click, vanilla style.

v1.0 2026-07-13

No notes for this version.

Waterborne / Discussion

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Waterborne / Reviews

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5.0

★★★★★

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infinity3113 ⭐ Staff🎰 SlotMachine⚔️ ElementalArms🛡️ GuardianStones 05 Aug 2026

★★★★★

buen plugin!