Getting started
My world doesn't look grey and foggy.
Make a new world. The grey sky, murky water and dark clouds are part of world data, so worlds made with older versions keep their old sky. With a shader pack on, the pack draws the sky and fog itself; use the "-StaticHollow" copy of Photon, Insanity or Hysteria.
I updated, but there are no deep oceans or new biomes.
The oceans two thousand blocks deep and the Hollow's own country (1.62.0) only come in new worlds. A world made before keeps the land it has; everything else in 1.62 comes to old worlds too. (1.63's new Dead Water is the same: a world that has already been out there keeps the sea it has seen, and only the sea it hasn't is new.)
Where is the Forsaken Altar?
500 to 1000 blocks from the world spawn, on open, flat, dry ground: never underground, in water or on a mountainside. Follow the blue smoke from its soul campfire. The ruin rises when you come within about 90 blocks. With cheats: /locate structure statichollow:forsaken_altar. Since 1.63.2 you can also craft a Forsaken Altar Compass (a compass, a candle and a bone).
Nothing is hunting me.
The creepypastas only come once the altar is awake: right-click it with an empty hand. They hunt mostly in the dark.
Where's the church that isn't on any map?
The cathedral is 500 to 1000 blocks from spawn, roughly the opposite way from the altar. It isn't there until you come within about 90 blocks. With cheats: /locate structure statichollow:cathedral. See the cathedral.
I killed one but didn't get its head.
The first kill of each creature always drops its head, but only if a player killed it (your arrows count). After that it's 10%, plus 5% per level of Looting. Since 1.60.0 you can wear any head: its own kind notice you from only half as far off.
Playing
The Underneath never comes up under my bed.
Only once the altar is awake, about four times in ten that you lie down, and always the next time after you've heard it breathing. Never in Creative or on Peaceful.
The creatures can't hurt me.
You're in Creative. Hostile creepypastas can't hurt you there. Test in Survival.
The green rift didn't open.
It opens three days after the Gardener dies, by the world's clock (nights you sleep through count), and you need to be within about 80 blocks of his flower. With cheats: /statichollow bloom open.
I lost a reactor part (or the Device).
There's only one of each. Lose one and it goes back where you found it (the Rear Assembly a minute later); the Device goes back to where you last set it down once nobody has had it for a minute. Any copy crumbles in your hands.
The Bloom ate me. Am I dead?
Not yet. Since 1.38 you go down alive into its stomach. Hack at the stomach wall ten times and it throws you back up.
I died of the Flesh and lost everything.
You didn't. What got up where you fell is you, as one of the infected, wearing your armour and carrying everything you had. Kill it and you get it all back. It never despawns.
Where are the guns?
The Mended guns are Fabric only, through Timeless and Classics Guns: Zero (TaCZ), which the Fabric modpacks install. Special forces infected sometimes drop theirs. Without TaCZ, and on Forge, nothing drops.
My Mended gun stopped firing.
The Mended guns are the Bloom's flesh. Once the Bloom is dead, every one off its blight rots over ten minutes and then jams for good. Its tooltip says how far gone it is.
Where did the Omni go?
The Watcher took it back into its realm, "for the future". The gun is gone for good, and so is the Ray Gun's recipe. You'll see its heart again in chapter six.
There's something on the back of my neck.
A Parasite. Crouch or get hit to tear it off within four seconds. If it gets in, cut it out with a Surgical Kit or burn it out before it's three quarters grown. See the Parasite.
The animals (and villagers, and golems) are twitching and going violet.
That's the outbreak (1.48.0). Once the Bloom is dead, anything can carry a parasite: two days for an ordinary creature, three for the big ones, and then it turns and hunts everything that isn't one of them. A Surgical Kit cuts one out of anything before it turns. Burn a turned one when you kill it, or the parasites in it come out. See the turned.
There's a heap of violet flesh where something died.
Biomass. It isn't dead: a minute or two later, with anyone about, it gets up as one of the parasite's pure forms. Burn it (fire or lava against it) and nothing gets up.
I can't get into the End.
After the Null Static Zone signs off, the Watcher shuts it: anyone who goes through an End portal in Survival is sent straight back to their bed or the world's spawn ("The way's shut. He shut it."). It opens again for everyone once someone carries the Last Voice into it, the one thing left when the Chorus, whole, dies in the Warm Heart. See chapter five.
Where does chapter six start?
In the End, once the seal's broken: out past the obsidian you arrive on, a causeway of black seal-stone runs east to an island with a Door on it, full of static. Walk into it. See the Door at the End of the World. If the Door isn't there, update: before 1.60.1 only a Last Voice from that world's own Chorus would open the seal, and since 1.60.2 the Door is never buried in end stone.
Why does the Ender Dragon look like that?
Since 1.61.1 it's always the Infested Ender Dragon, from the first time anyone goes to the End: violet veins, blisters, spurs, tendrils, its back split open between its wings, and half again the health. It still fights as the dragon does, but over you it rains its brood down, lobs spore bombs and lashes its tendrils. Killed, it bursts.
The Chorus keeps healing.
It draws through its cords to its four nerve nodes. Tear the nodes open (they glow; climb the steps round the stalks) and every one makes it easier to hurt. Since 1.53.0 it only mends itself when nobody's near and it hasn't been hurt for half a minute. See the Chorus.
How do I get back to the Hub?
With the Remote, the old television remote the Watcher gives you as you come down from it. Use it to go into the Hub; use it there to go home (or jump off the edge). Its replay portals take you back to any chapter's last fight. See the Hub.
How do I get home from the Dead Water?
Mend the Remote: craft the Broken Remote with a Static Leviathan's Signal Organ and a copper ingot. The leviathans live deep. Then press it to go to the Hub (and in the Hub, home); crouch and press it to come back to the rig. Until then you're stranded: the rig's beds set your spawn but can't be slept in, and if you die without one the sea brings you back to the quarters. See chapter eight.
I finished the Hub before 1.62. How do I get to the Dead Water?
Take the Remote to the Hub and jump off its edge.
I lost the submarine.
The console on the sub bay's catwalk (the clamp) builds another for 16 iron ingots and 8 glass. Its clamp charges it and mends its hull. See the Dead Water.
It won't let me sleep.
Not in the story's other places: the Null Static Zone, the Deep, the Stalls ("Not with them watching."), the Vault, the Other Side or the Hub. The rig's beds set your spawn but you can't sleep in them.
I keep getting thirsty, or freezing.
That's the cold and the thirst (1.62.0). Drink from bottles, a Canteen, the rain or your cupped hands at the water's edge, and boil murky water first. Wear leather in the cold and stand near a fire. To turn either off or soften it, edit config/statichollow-vitals.properties. See cold, thirst and the world.
Where's Minecraft's music?
Since 1.55.0 none of it plays: the mod's own plays in its place, the lullaby of the place you're in or a piece for how far the story has got. Minecraft's Music volume and Music Frequency still work. See the soundtrack.
Can I get rid of the Great Bloom?
Only with /kill (it doesn't come back). Finishing chapter four kills it, but leaves its husk where it stood.
How do I reset the haunting for a world?
Close the world and delete statichollow.properties in its save folder.
Technical
Fabric or Forge?
Both play the same story. Fabric is made for shaders and has the guns, Streams and Essential support. See the comparison.
What's the Dead Channel modpack?
The Fabric modpack as it is on CurseForge. It downloads the mod and its HD and shader packs as their own CurseForge projects. See the Dead Channel modpack.
Can I play with friends?
Yes: on a server, on LAN, or on Fabric with the Essential mod. Everyone needs the same version, and since 1.62 the server also needs Biomes O' Plenty, Serene Seasons, Puddles & Floods and the rest. Forge and Fabric players can't share a server. See Playing with friends.
Do shaders work on Forge?
Through Oculus, which as of October 2026 only goes up to Minecraft 26.2. Shaders will work once it's updated for 26.3. The Fabric version has them now.
How much memory does it need?
8 GB. The modpacks ask CurseForge for it since 1.63.2; if yours doesn't, set it in the modpack's ... menu, Profile Options, Allocated Memory.
The game stutters.
Give it 8 GB of memory, turn off the HD-World pack, and lower Mipmap Levels. With shaders, lower the shadow resolution to 1024. See If it runs slowly.
My mouse, hotbar and inventory stopped working after the Hub.
Before 1.59.1 the Hub's cutscene could leave its invisible picture over your screen when it went straight into the landing. Update, and if it happened to you, close the game once and start it again.
Is Sound Physics Remastered on?
It's in the modpacks but switched off, because since 1.61.1 the mod gives every sound its own echo and muffling. Set enabled=true in config/sound_physics_remastered/soundphysics.properties to use it instead. See every sound, where it is.
A boss's bar stays on my screen.
Fixed in 1.47.2 and 1.53.0: a boss now takes its bar down however it goes (killed, gone or unloaded), and you lose its bar as soon as you stop seeing it. Update.
Are the HD packs made with AI?
The upscaling is. The HD packs are the mod's own textures upscaled to double resolution with an AI upscaler (Real-ESRGAN), then given their original grit back so nothing looks plastic. They're optional.
Cutscenes don't play in the modpack.
Update to 1.47.1 or later. Entity Culling stopped them before (the cutscene's marker is invisible, so it was never ticked).
The game crashed when I used the Relay Core with shaders on.
"Source format is missing element iris_Entity". Fixed in 1.47.1, along with the same crash from the Brood Heart, the Dead Channel Helm and the Static Mail.
A new world hangs on "Preparing for world creation".
Fixed in 1.24.1 and 1.26.1. Since then every build is checked by starting a test world, and one bad file can no longer stop a world. Update.
Does it work with Simple Voice Chat?
Not yet. It's on the README's "not yet" list: creatures replaying things players said.
Why does the inventory look normal?
The inventory, hotbar and font keep the normal Minecraft look for now. The main menu and its buttons are new.