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Bat Membranes

by Vanilla Tweaks

Bats drop a membrane item when killed, giving them an actual use. Bat membranes can be used to craft slow falling potions.

Overview

Bat Membranes gives the long-useless bat a reason to exist by adding a membrane to its death drops. The new item slots into recipes that normally call for phantom membrane, including slow falling potions, so you can craft them without farming phantoms overnight. The drop is appended to the bat loot table, leaving the rest of bat behaviour and the mob spawn rules unchanged. For caving-heavy players it turns a common nuisance into a small reward.

It suits survival players who explore caves often and want a daytime-friendly alternative to phantom farming for membrane crafting. It comes from Vanilla Tweaks, sits in the Loot category, and is rated a simple, drop-in pack to run. Everything happens through vanilla data pack functions, so no mod loader such as Fabric or Forge is required to use it on Minecraft 1.20 through 1.21.4.

Category
Loot
Complexity
Simple
Install Method
World & Server
Popularity
Popular

Features

How It Works

Under the hood, Bat Membranes relies on plain data pack mechanics rather than any client mod. Here is what happens in-game once it is loaded:

  1. 1Adds a membrane entry to the bat entity loot table so kills can yield it.
  2. 2The dropped membrane is accepted in recipes that otherwise consume phantom membrane.
  3. 3Only the loot table changes, so bat spawning and flight behaviour stay vanilla.
  4. 4Killing bats encountered while caving becomes a passive source of slow falling ingredients.

Supported Versions

1.201.20.11.20.41.211.21.4

Compatibility

Compatible with most data packs.

  • Conflicts with other packs that overwrite the bat loot table, because only one drop table can apply.
  • Pairs well with mob-drop packs that target different entities, leaving the bat table free for this pack.
  • Compatible with potion and recipe packs unless they redefine the same slow falling recipe.

Bat Membranes is a pure data pack and does not ship a resource pack, so it changes server-side behaviour without altering textures, models or sounds on the client.

Tags

batsdropspotionsslow falling

How to Install

Bat Membranes installs as a standard Java Edition data pack and runs on both singleplayer worlds and multiplayer servers. Recent 1.21 releases bumped the data pack format, so keep the pack's pack.mcmeta in step with your server version.

  1. 1.Download the Bat Membranes pack as a .zip and keep it zipped.
  2. 2.Open the target world folder — a singleplayer save under .minecraft/saves, or the world folder on your server.
  3. 3.Drop the .zip into that world's datapacks folder, creating the folder if it does not exist.
  4. 4.Load the world (or run /reload if it is already open) and run /datapack list to confirm it is enabled.

The pack is built for Minecraft 1.20 through 1.21.4, so it loads on vanilla Java without Fabric, Forge or any other mod loader. Install it and the new drop applies to any bat killed afterward, since loot tables only affect future kills not past ones.

View full install guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Minecraft versions are supported by this pack?

Java Edition 1.20, 1.20.1, 1.20.4, 1.21, and 1.21.4 are supported.

Do I need mods to use Bat Membranes?

No. It is a vanilla data pack that works server-side with no mods or resource pack.

What do bats drop with this pack?

Bats drop a membrane item when killed, giving the otherwise useless mob a practical purpose.

Can I use bat membranes for slow falling potions?

Yes. The membrane can be used to craft slow falling potions as a phantom membrane alternative.

Is this a replacement for phantom farming?

It offers an alternative source of membrane so you do not have to farm phantoms for it.

Does it change how bats spawn?

No. Only the loot table is modified, so bat spawning and behaviour remain vanilla.

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