
Proximity Arrows
Makes bows fire the arrow physically closest to them in your inventory, and makes buff-arrows harmless to allies!
About this Mod
🏹 Proximity Arrows
A lightweight, server-sided Fabric mod that completely overhauls archery combat by making arrow selection intuitive and buffing your allies safe.
In Vanilla Minecraft, managing different types of arrows is a nightmare. The game blindly prioritizes arrows in your offhand, and then searches your inventory from top left to bottom right. If you want to switch between harming arrows and healing arrows, you have to frantically drag items around your inventory mid-combat or use your hotbar and rely on off-hand swapping, sacrificing precious hotbar space.
Proximity Arrows solves this with two massive QoL changes:
✨ Features
1. 🎯 No More Hotbar Micro-Management
Your bow will now automatically fire the arrow stack that is physically closest to it in your inventory grid.
- Keep a stack of damage arrows next to your main bow.
- Keep a stack of healing arrows next to your secondary support bow (or realistically, any tipped arrows really)
- The mod calculates the 2D distance between the bow's slot and the arrow's slot, bypassing the clunky vanilla top left priority. (Note: The offhand slot is still checked first for convenience and it just feels like it makes sense).
2. 🛡️ True Support Archery (Zero-Damage Buffs)
Ever tried to heal a friend with an arrow of instant health, only to accidentally kill them with the physical arrow damage? Say no more.
- Arrows with beneficial potion effects (Healing, Regeneration, Swiftness, Night Vision, etc.) will no longer deal damage or knockback.
- The arrow safely applies its magical effect and disappears without causing the target to flinch or panic.
- This works automatically on Players, Pets, Villagers, and all Living Entities!
🔌 Seamless Compatibility & Custom Tags
This mod dynamically checks if a potion effect is classified as "beneficial" by the game engine, meaning it automatically works with custom potions added by other mods! (Yet to be tested)
For custom modded arrows that don't use standard potion effects (like the vanilla Spectral Arrow, which is included by default), server admins and modpack makers can easily add any item to the zero-damage list using the built-in Item Tag:
#proximityarrows:harmless_arrows
📥 Installation
- Requires: Fabric Loader and the Fabric API
- Server-Sided: You only need to install this on the server! Vanilla clients can connect and benefit from the smart arrow selection and harmless buffs without needing the mod installed on their end. (It also works perfectly in Singleplayer).
Available Versions
How to Install Proximity Arrows on Your Server
Order Server
Order a Minecraft Java server with at least 3 GB RAM (4 GB recommended).
Set fabric Loader
In the panel under "Egg", select the fabric loader and matching Minecraft version (1.21.11).
Install Mod
Open the mod browser in the dashboard and search for "Proximity Arrows". Click "Install" – done! Alternatively, upload the .jar via SFTP to the /mods folder.
Compatibility
Mod Loaders
Minecraft Versions
1.21.11, 1.21.10, 1.21.9 (+8 more)
Server-side
✓ RequiredRecommended RAM
4 GB(min. 3 GB)Frequently Asked Questions
Proximity Arrows server crashes on startup – what to do?
Most common cause: wrong fabric version or insufficient RAM. Check the server log (latest.log) for "OutOfMemoryError" or "Mixin" errors. With Mado Hosting: ensure at least 3 GB RAM is allocated and the loader matches the mod version (1.21.11). You can switch loaders with one click in the panel.
Is Proximity Arrows compatible with fabric?
Proximity Arrows officially supports fabric for Minecraft 1.21.11, 1.21.10, 1.21.9. The Mado dashboard automatically detects incompatible loader combinations.
Server lagging with Proximity Arrows – how to optimize performance?
Recommended RAM: 4 GB (per 8 players). Use /spark profiler to check if Proximity Arrows consumes the most tick time. Common fixes: reduce server view-distance to 8-10, install "performant" or "starlight" as supplementary mods on Forge. With Mado Hosting, your server runs on NVMe SSDs with dedicated CPU cores for minimal latency.
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