Second Wind!

Second Wind! is a Vanilla+ NeoForge mod that replaces instant death with a final chance to survive.

Instead of dying immediately, players enter a downed state where they can crawl to safety, wait for help, or fight their way back up with a clutch kill.

This mod is obviously directly inspired by the Borderlands games' "Crippled"/"Fight For Your Life" states.

• Survive lethal damage through a final downed state
• Crawl, wait for help, or secure a kill to revive yourself
• Revive teammates before they bleed out
• Punish repeated downs with shorter survival windows
• Configure cooldowns, penalties, revive rules, and damage behavior
• Cinematic HUD effects, revive flashes, and screen distortion
• Fully multiplayer compatible

Main Features

Last Stand

When Second Wind triggers, players are downed instead of dying instantly.

Downed players are forced into a low-mobility state with a visible countdown timer. They can still look around, crawl, and attempt to survive before their timer expires.

By default:

• Players enter a forced crawling/swimming pose
• Healing and eating are blocked while downed
• Incoming damage can shorten the remaining timer
• Repeated downs become increasingly dangerous

The default base downed timer is 10 seconds, but nearly every part of the system is configurable.

Fight Back Up

A downed player is not helpless.

Players can revive themselves by securing a valid kill before their timer runs out, creating high-risk comeback moments during combat.

By default:

• Hostile mobs count
• Player kills count
• Passive mob kills do not count
• Pet kills for the owner do not count

Neutral mobs can still count if they are actively targeting the downed player.

Successful revives grant:

• Restored health
• Temporary regeneration
• Brief post-revive invulnerability

Multiplayer Revives

Teammates can pull each other back from the brink.

Players can revive downed allies by holding interaction nearby, creating tense rescue moments during boss fights, PvP encounters, caves, or large multiplayer battles.

Revives can optionally:

• Be interrupted by damage
• Require close range
• Use configurable channel times
• Trigger custom visual and sound effects

Default revive settings:

Setting Default Revive Channel Time 2.0 seconds Revive Distance 2.5 blocks Damage Interrupts Revive true

Repeat Downs

Repeated downs become more dangerous.

Every successful downed state can shorten the next survival window until the penalty resets, discouraging reckless play during extended fights.

Servers can configure:

• Minimum timer limits
• Penalty scaling
• Cooldown reset behavior
• Sleep/day-based recovery
• Damage interaction rules

Cooldowns

Second Wind does not have to be permanently available.

The mod supports multiple cooldown systems:

Mode Description NONE No cooldown TIMED Real-time cooldown MC_DAY Resets once per Minecraft day ON_SLEEP Resets after sleeping

Default behavior uses a 300 second cooldown.

Client Feedback & Effects

Second Wind! includes dedicated client-side feedback to make downed states feel intense and readable.

Features include:

• Last-stand HUD timer bar
• Crosshair revive progress display
• Revive flash effect
• Optional vignette and desaturation effects
• Bloom-style screen effects
• Optional sound cues
• Default R keybind to give up while downed

Shader-style post-processing effects are powered through Lodestone.

Commands

Requires operator permission level 2.

/secondwind revive /secondwind revive <player> /secondwind down /secondwind down <player>

/secondwind revive revives all currently downed players when no target is supplied.

/secondwind down forcibly downs all eligible players when no target is supplied.

Advancements

The mod currently ships with a dedicated advancement tab and six follow-up advancements.

Advancement Type Criteria Second Wind Task (Root) Join the world Fight Back Up Goal Kill a valid target while downed to revive yourself Medic! Task Revive another player Not Today Task Be revived by another player FINISH HIM! Goal Kill a player while they are downed Change of Heart Goal Down a player, then revive them before their downed state ends Just in Time Challenge Revive with 0.1 seconds or less remaining Advancement Type Criteria Hidden Second Wind Task (Root) Join the world No Fight Back Up Goal Kill a valid target while downed to revive yourself No Medic! Task Revive another player No Not Today Task Be revived by another player No FINISH HIM! Goal Kill a player while they are downed No Change of Heart Goal Down a player, then revive them before their downed state ends No Just in Time Challenge Revive with 0.1 seconds or less remaining No

Configuration

Main config file:

• Singleplayer/client: config/secondwind-common.toml
• Dedicated server: <server root>/config/secondwind-common.toml

Config categories include:

• secondWind
• secondWind.multiplayerRevive
• secondWind.killRules
• secondWind.clientFeedback

Notable defaults:

Setting Default downedTimerSeconds 10 minimumDownedTimerSeconds 3 timerPenaltyPerDown 2 blockHealingWhileDowned true blockEatingWhileDowned true cooldownMode TIMED cooldownDurationSeconds 300 multiplayerRevive true allowPlayerKills true allowPassiveKills false

There is also an in-game NeoForge config screen on the client.

Compatibility

• Built for NeoForge 1.21.1
• Targets Java 21
• Designed for multiplayer and singleplayer
• Highly configurable for servers and modpacks
• Eventually, will skip straight to 26.1/whatever the newest standard will be for modding.

Second Wind only triggers on supported lethal damage sources. Generic kill commands, invulnerability-bypassing damage, and void damage do not trigger it by default unless explicitly enabled in config.

Version and Loaders

• NeoForge 1.21.1 - active development
• Forge - not planned anytime soon, don't ask please :)
• Fabric - possible future port, not anytime soon
• Older Minecraft versions - not planned

Modpacks

You may use this mod in modpacks, videos, servers, and other projects. A link back to the Modrinth page is appreciated.

Credits

Created by me :D

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Feel free to use this mod in modpacks, videos, etc. Just provide a link back to this page if possible :)

Looking to port the mod to your favourite loader/version outside of my scope? Feel free to, and let me know so I can add a sub-section to direct users to it!

For any general queries/unlisted questions, DM me on Twitter (@prodbyjvn) / Discord (ijvn).