Tough As Nails Mod Guide: Temperature, Thirst, Survival Systems & All Items
Tough As Nails adds two new survival meters to Minecraft: body temperature and thirst. Every biome you enter, every fire you stand near, and every sip of water you take now has real consequences. Managing warmth in frozen peaks, cooling down in desert badlands, and keeping hydrated with safe water are the defining challenges of every playthrough with this mod installed.
Overview
Tough As Nails adds a Body Temperature meter and a Thirst bar to the survival experience. Both are displayed alongside your hunger bar, and both can kill you if ignored. The mod is designed to make every biome feel distinct and every journey feel like a real survival challenge, not just a walk through colorful scenery.
Temperature is influenced by the biome you are in, the time of day, weather, your altitude, nearby fire or ice blocks, and what armor you are wearing. Thirst drains as you move and work, and requires you to find, collect, and sometimes purify water to stay alive. Together these two systems encourage you to prepare before venturing into hostile environments rather than reacting after the fact.
All items and recipes added by this mod are available in the Items and Recipes tabs above. This guide covers how each system works and how to progress from early-game improvisation to mid-game automation and late-game temperature mastery.
Getting Started
First Steps with Tough As Nails
- 1
Check Your Temperature Immediately
When you first spawn, you receive the Climate Clemency status effect, which temporarily neutralizes your body temperature for 5 minutes (6000 ticks). This grace period exists so you can get your bearings. Look at your status effects in the inventory screen to see it active. Use this time to scout your biome and start gathering materials before temperature begins affecting you.
- 2
Find Water Quickly
Your thirst bar starts at 20 (full) and drains as you move and sprint. Right-click any water source block with a Glass Bottle to fill it. The type of water depends on your biome: most biomes give a regular Water Bottle (3 thirst, 25% poison chance), while Swamp, Mangrove Swamp, and Mushroom Fields water yields a Dirty Water Bottle (1 thirst, 10% poison chance, always sickening). Avoid swamp water early on.
- 3
Craft a Canteen as Soon as You Have Leather
Four Leather pieces in a 2x2 square crafts an Empty Leather Canteen. Right-click a water source to fill it, which creates a Leather Dirty Water Canteen, Leather Water Canteen, or Leather Purified Water Canteen depending on the biome. Canteens hold multiple drinks worth of water and are reusable, unlike Glass Bottles. A Leather Canteen has 5 durability (uses) before it breaks, so upgrade as soon as possible.
- 4
Build a Rain Collector Early
The Rain Collector is crafted from Planks and String and placed outdoors. It passively fills with rainwater during rain and snow events, producing up to 3 fill levels. Use a Glass Bottle on a filled Rain Collector to receive a Purified Water Bottle, the cleanest free water source in the early game. Place it on your base roof and check it after rain to build a stockpile of safe drinking water.
- 5
Dress for Your Climate
If you spawn in a cold biome (Taiga, Snowy Plains, Ice Spikes), craft Wool Armor using the Crafting Table as soon as you have Wool. Each piece of Wool Armor is a heating armor piece, shifting your effective temperature upward. If you are in a hot biome (Desert, Badlands, Jungle), prioritize Leaf Armor from leaves to shift your temperature cooler. Neither set provides meaningful protection, but they are crucial for temperature survival in their respective environments.
The Temperature System
Body Temperature has five levels: Icy, Cold, Neutral, Warm, and Hot. Neutral is safe. The further you drift toward either extreme, the more danger you face. At the Icy extreme you suffer hypothermia, and at the Hot extreme you suffer hyperthermia, both of which deal 1 damage every 2 seconds once fully active. A temperature gauge in the top-left area of the HUD shows your current level.
The primary source of your base temperature is the biome you are standing in. The mod categorizes every vanilla biome into one of five temperature bands. Standing outdoors above the surface level locks you to that biome's band, while going underground (below the surface heightmap) returns your environmental temperature to Neutral regardless of biome.
Biome Temperature Categories
| Hot | Desert, Badlands (all variants), Nether Wastes, Crimson Forest, Warped Forest, Basalt Deltas |
| Warm | Jungle, Bamboo Jungle, Sparse Jungle, Savanna (all variants), Mangrove Swamp, Lush Caves, Warm Ocean, Mushroom Fields, Soul Sand Valley |
| Neutral | Most common Overworld biomes by vanilla temperature (Plains, Forest, Birch Forest, Rivers, Meadows, etc.) |
| Cold | Taiga (all variants), Windswept Hills (all variants), The End (all sub-biomes), Deep Dark, Cold Ocean, Deep Cold Ocean |
| Icy | Snowy Plains, Snowy Taiga, Ice Spikes, Snowy Slopes, Grove, Jagged Peaks, Frozen Peaks, Snowy Beach, Frozen River, Frozen Ocean, Deep Frozen Ocean |
Environmental Modifiers
Several real-time conditions shift your temperature on top of the biome baseline. Being on fire pushes your temperature up by 2 levels, while standing in Powder Snow pushes it down by 2 levels. Rain and standing in water both shift your temperature down by 1 level, and this wet status lingers for 40 ticks after you leave the water. Being outdoors at night further reduces temperature by 1 level in most biomes, or 2 levels in hot biomes.
Altitude also matters. Being above Y=160 shifts your temperature down by 1, while being below Y=-32 shifts it up by 1. This means mountain peaks are dangerous in cold biomes, and deep caverns can actually warm you up in frozen biomes.
Proximity Block Modifiers
Standing within 8 blocks of Heating Blocks or Cooling Blocks adjusts your temperature by 1 level. Heating Blocks include Fire, Campfire, Lantern, Lava, Magma Block, and Lava Cauldron. Cooling Blocks include Soul Fire, Soul Campfire, Soul Lantern, Packed Ice, Blue Ice, and Powder Snow Cauldron. The mod compares how many heating vs. cooling blocks are nearby: whichever type has more wins the influence.
This creates practical survival strategies. Placing a Campfire in your cold-biome shelter shifts your indoor temperature warmer. Surrounding a desert base with Packed Ice or Blue Ice blocks helps counter the HOT biome. Holding a Lava Bucket in your hand also counts as a heating held item, offering a portable warmth source when exploring frozen peaks.
When fully at the Hot temperature extreme without Fire Resistance, your hyperthermia ticks accumulate over 140 ticks (7 seconds). Once full, you take 1 damage (half a heart) every 2 seconds. The damage also slows your movement speed, scaling with how hyperthermic you are. Fire Resistance cancels all hyperthermia damage, making Potions of Fire Resistance a vital item in hot biomes.
Temperature Armor: Leaf & Wool Sets
Tough As Nails adds two dedicated armor sets for managing temperature. Both sets provide only 1 armor point per piece (4 total if wearing the full set), comparable to a very weak leather variant. Their value is entirely in their temperature effects, not combat protection.
The individual pieces of Leaf Armor are: Leaf Veil (helmet), Leaf Poncho (chestplate), Leaf Pants (leggings), and Leaf Greaves (boots). The Wool Armor pieces are: Wool Hood (helmet), Wool Parka (chestplate), Wool Pants (leggings), and Wool Boots. These names appear in your inventory, in Climatologist trades, and in the Enchanting Table.
Temperature Armor Comparison
| Leaf Armor | Wool Armor | |
|---|---|---|
| Effect | Cooling (each piece) | Heating (each piece) |
| Armor Points | 1 per piece (4 full set) | 1 per piece (4 full set) |
| Durability | 5 uses per piece | 5 uses per piece |
| Dyeable | No | Yes (any dye) |
| Best For | Hot/Warm biomes | Cold/Icy biomes |
| Crafted From | Leaves (any type) | Wool |
The armor system works by counting how many cooling pieces vs. heating pieces you are wearing. Every two pieces of the same type shift your temperature by 1 level. A full four-piece set of Leaf Armor shifts you 2 levels cooler, and a full Wool Armor set shifts you 2 levels warmer. This means you can mix pieces from both sets for a neutral adjustment, or mix temperature armor with vanilla armor to balance protection and climate control.
Armor Trims can also influence temperature. Trims marked as Cooling Trims count as one cooling piece and Heating Trims count as one heating piece when applied, letting you tune temperature on vanilla armor without sacrificing protection stats.
Temperature Tools: Thermometer & Temperature Gauge
The Thermometer is a handheld tool crafted from Copper Ingots and Redstone. It does not directly change your temperature, but reading it gives you the precise current temperature level at your location. This is useful for scouting a biome before committing to crossing it, or diagnosing why your Thermoregulator setup is not behaving as expected.
The Temperature Gauge is a decorative wall-mounted block crafted from Glass, Quartz, a Thermometer, and Brick Slabs. It displays the ambient temperature level of the area as a visual readout, useful for monitoring the conditions inside a Thermoregulator-heated or cooled room without opening an inventory.
Thermometer & Temperature Gauge
The Thermoregulator
The Thermoregulator is the cornerstone of mid-game temperature control. Crafted from Smooth Stone, Iron Ingots, and a Thermometer in a cross pattern, it is a block-entity machine with two internal fuel slots: one for cooling fuel and one for heating fuel. When fueled, it emits temperature-modifying effects throughout an enclosed area of up to 16 blocks.
Each fuel item grants 1600 ticks (80 seconds) of active heating or cooling. The Thermoregulator detects players within 20 blocks and registers itself as a nearby temperature source. If a cooling Thermoregulator is active in your base, it shifts your effective temperature down by 2 levels, which is enough to make a desert base comfortably neutral. A heating Thermoregulator similarly shifts temperature up by 2 levels.
If both cooling and heating fuel are loaded simultaneously, the Thermoregulator enters Neutralizing mode, which forces the temperature in its area to Neutral regardless of the biome. This is the most powerful option for extreme environments like the Nether or Ice Spikes. The Thermoregulator emits particles indicating its current mode: blue for cooling, orange for heating, and white for neutralizing.
Thermoregulator
Thermoregulator Fuels
| Cooling Fuel | Ice Cream, Ice, Packed Ice, Blue Ice, Snowball, Snow, Snow Block, Powder Snow Bucket, Breeze Rod, Wind Charge |
| Heating Fuel | Charc-O's, Coal, Charcoal, Coal Block, Blaze Rod, Blaze Powder, Magma Block, Magma Cream, Fire Charge, Lava Bucket |
| Burn Duration | 1600 ticks (80 seconds) per fuel item |
| Effect Range | 16-block flood-fill area from the facing direction |
| Player Detection | Informs players within 20 blocks |
| Redstone | Disabled by Redstone signal (for automation) |
The Thermoregulator uses a flood-fill algorithm starting from the block it faces. Enclose your base with solid walls and place the Thermoregulator facing inward through an opening. The more enclosed the room, the further the fill can reach from the entrance, maximizing coverage. Open outdoor areas with no walls will barely hold temperature at all. Press F3 + 7 to toggle the temperature fill visualizer and see exactly which blocks the Thermoregulator is currently affecting.
Temperature Enchantments
Two enchantments added by Tough As Nails deal directly with temperature and thirst management. Both have a maximum level of 1 and can be obtained through an Enchanting Table or Anvil.
Thermal Tuning applies to Chestplates and completely neutralizes the player's body temperature regardless of the environmental temperature. This is the ultimate temperature solution: a Chestplate with Thermal Tuning makes the wearer permanently neutral, eliminating the need for Thermoregulators, armor mixing, or fire avoidance. It is rare and expensive to obtain but trivializes temperature once acquired.
Water Cleansing applies to Canteens and automatically purifies any water collected with the enchanted Canteen. Instead of filling a Canteen with Dirty Water or normal Water and risking poison, a Water Cleansing Canteen always produces Purified Water, making it the best-in-slot Canteen enchantment for long expeditions.
The Thirst System
Thirst works similarly to the vanilla hunger system. Your Thirst bar has 20 points. Physical activity drains exhaustion, and once exhaustion passes the threshold of 8 points, it depletes Hydration first, then Thirst. Hydration is an invisible buffer that slows Thirst depletion, similar to how Food Saturation works.
When your Thirst bar reaches 0, you take 1 damage (half a heart) every 4 seconds. On Normal difficulty, this stops when you reach 5 hearts. On Hard, it continues until death. Thirst also prevents sprinting and blocks health regeneration by default, which makes it dangerous even before the actual damage phase begins.
The Thirst status effect (different from the bar reaching 0) is a debuff that causes thirst to drain faster than normal. It can be inflicted by consuming certain tainted drinks. The Thirst effect icon looks like a water drop.
Water Sources & Collection
Filling Glass Bottles
Right-clicking a water source block with a Glass Bottle collects water. The water type depends on the biome. In most biomes you receive a Water Bottle (a vanilla Water Potion) that restores 3 thirst and 40% hydration, but carries a 25% chance of inflicting the Thirst effect. In Swamp, Mangrove Swamp, or Mushroom Fields, you receive a Dirty Water Bottle that restores only 1 thirst with 10% hydration.
Rain Collector
Place a Rain Collector outdoors in any biome. It fills during Rain (60% chance per precipitation event) and Snow (30% chance) up to 3 levels. Right-clicking it with a Glass Bottle while it has any water level produces a Purified Water Bottle and decrements the level by 1. The Rain Collector is the most accessible source of purified water in early survival and requires no fuel or ongoing maintenance.
Rain Collector
Canteens
Canteens are the primary portable water storage system. Each tier is crafted from four pieces of the corresponding material. Fill a Canteen by right-clicking a water source block, which converts it into a Dirty Water, Water, or Purified Water Canteen depending on the biome. Drink from it like any consumable. Each drink uses 1 durability, and when the Canteen breaks it becomes an Empty Canteen again.
All canteen tiers restore the same amount of thirst and carry the same hydration levels, but higher tiers have more durability, giving more drinks per canteen before needing to refill. Netherite Canteens upgraded from Diamond Canteens via a Smithing Table offer 25 uses and are also fire resistant, making them the ideal choice for Nether expeditions where both heat and lava are constant hazards.
Canteen Tiers by Durability
| Leather | Copper | Iron | Gold | Diamond | Netherite | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Durability | 5 uses | 6 uses | 7 uses | 10 uses | 15 uses | 25 uses |
| Crafted From | 4 Leather | 4 Copper Ingots | 4 Iron Ingots | 4 Gold Ingots | 4 Diamonds | Diamond Canteen + Smithing |
| Water Thirst | 3 thirst | 3 thirst | 3 thirst | 3 thirst | 3 thirst | 3 thirst |
| Purified Thirst | 5 thirst | 5 thirst | 5 thirst | 5 thirst | 5 thirst | 5 thirst |
Canteen Crafting
The Water Purifier
The Water Purifier is a craftable block that converts Dirty Water Canteens and filled Water Canteens into their Purified variants. Craft it with Glass and Copper Ingots. Place it down and right-click to open its GUI, where you place an unpurified Canteen or Bottle. The machine processes it and outputs a Purified version, which restores 5 thirst and 80% hydration with no poison chance.
Regular Water Potions can also be purified through the Water Purifier into vanilla Potions (without the water label), and this process also works for crafting juices. Once you have the Water Purifier running, you can automate your clean water supply through hoppers or other automation mods, turning dirty swamp water into a full purified supply chain.
Water Purifier
Juices & Specialty Drinks
Tough As Nails adds seven craftable Juices, each made by combining a Purified Water Bottle, Sugar, and a specific ingredient in a shapeless crafting recipe. Juices are stackable up to 16 and restore both more thirst and more hydration than standard water, making them worthwhile mid-to-late-game drinks when you have the farming infrastructure to produce them.
Juice Comparison
| Apple Juice | Melon Juice | Cactus Juice | Chorus Fruit Juice | Pumpkin Juice | Glow Berry Juice | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thirst | 8 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 6 |
| Ingredient | Apple | Melon Slice | Cactus | Chorus Fruit | Pumpkin | Glow Berries |
| Poison Chance | None | None | None | None | None | None |
Chorus Fruit Juice is the single best thirst restorer in the mod, granting 10 thirst and 20% hydration in one bottle. Since Chorus Fruit is farmable in The End, players who have progressed to late game can set up a dedicated Chorus Fruit Juice factory for reliable maximum hydration. Cactus Juice provides the highest hydration at 100% per bottle, meaning a single drink fully resets your hydration buffer.
Melon Juice is the practical mid-game workhorse: Melon farms are easy to automate, and Melon Juice restores 7 thirst with 50% hydration per bottle. Pumpkin Juice is similar at 6 thirst with 60% hydration, and Pumpkins are plentiful in most biomes.
Juice Recipes
Temperature Food: Ice Cream & Charc-O's
Two unique food items act as consumable temperature modifiers. Ice Cream is crafted from three Snowballs, Sugar, and a Bowl. Eating it applies the Internal Chill status effect for 60 seconds, which slightly decreases your body temperature for its duration. Critically, Internal Chill cannot push your temperature to the Icy extreme on its own, so it is safe to eat in cold areas without risking hypothermia. Ice Cream is also a valid cooling fuel for the Thermoregulator.
Charc-O's is crafted from three Charcoal, Sugar, and a Bowl. Eating it applies the Internal Warmth status effect for 60 seconds, which slightly raises your body temperature. Like Ice Cream's chill effect, Internal Warmth cannot push you to the Hot extreme on its own. Charc-O's also functions as heating fuel for the Thermoregulator. Both items stack to 16 and return a Bowl when consumed.
Ice Cream & Charc-O's
Status Effects
Tough As Nails adds several new status effects to the game. Climate Clemency is automatically given at world creation and lasts 5 minutes. It locks your body temperature to Neutral regardless of the environment, giving new players time to get established. Server operators can configure it to also apply on respawn.
Ice Resistance is a new potion effect available through the standard brewing system (as a Potion of Ice Resistance). It grants immunity to all hypothermia damage from the Icy temperature extreme. This makes it useful for extended expeditions through frozen biomes without wearing Wool Armor. Potions of Ice Resistance, their Splash, Lingering, and Arrow variants are all obtainable.
Status Effects Reference
| Climate Clemency | Neutralizes body temperature for duration. Granted at world creation (5 min default). |
| Ice Resistance | Immunity to freezing/hypothermia damage. Available from Potions. |
| Internal Warmth | Slight temperature increase. Granted by eating Charc-O's (60 sec). Cannot cause hyperthermia. |
| Internal Chill | Slight temperature decrease. Granted by eating Ice Cream (60 sec). Cannot cause hypothermia. |
| Thirst | Thirst drains faster than normal. Can be inflicted by drinking tainted water. |
The Climatologist Villager
Tough As Nails adds the Climatologist, a new Villager profession. Climatologists generate naturally inside a Climatologist House structure in every vanilla village type: Plains, Snowy, Taiga, Savanna, and Desert variants. They use the Thermoregulator as their job site block, so you can also convert any jobless Villager by placing a Thermoregulator nearby.
Climatologists trade at five tiers. Novice sells Ice Cream and Charc-O's for emeralds, making them an excellent early-game source before you have the crafting materials yourself. Apprentice tier covers Ice blocks and Magma Blocks. Journeyman sells individual Wool Armor and Leaf Armor pieces. Expert offers premium pieces including Wool Parkas and Leaf Ponchos. Master tier trades include Powder Snow Buckets, Lava Buckets, and bulk Snowball conversions. At higher tiers they also sell enchanted Canteens and Potions of Ice Resistance.
Mount Temperature Neutralization
Riding certain vehicles completely neutralizes your body temperature. Minecarts and Boats both count as neutralizing mounts, meaning that while you are sitting in one, your temperature is locked to Neutral regardless of the surrounding biome. This is an unexpected but very useful mechanic for boat travel through hot or cold oceans, and for Minecart transit through dangerous temperature zones in a modpack.
Configuration
Tough As Nails stores its settings in two config files: toughasnails/temperature.toml and toughasnails/thirst.toml in the game config folder. Both temperature and thirst can be fully disabled independently if you want only one system active. The config exposes granular timing settings for how quickly temperature changes, how long it takes to reach damage-dealing extremes, and how long heating and cooling effects from food last.
Key thirst options include: thirst_prevent_sprint (default true, disables sprinting at low thirst), thirst_prevent_health_regen (default true, blocks healing), enable_hand_drinking (default false, allows crouching near water to drink without a container), and remove_source_blocks (default false, removes a water block when you fill a canteen from it). Server administrators using this in a modpack can tune these to set the desired difficulty level.
FAQ
Why is my temperature not changing even when I am in a hot biome?
Temperature only affects you when you are outdoors above the surface heightmap, or when specific modifiers like fire, powder snow, or rain apply. If you are underground (below the surface level of the terrain), your ambient temperature resets to Neutral regardless of biome. You may also have the Climate Clemency effect active from world creation, which completely locks your temperature to Neutral. Check your active effects in the inventory screen.
How do I get Purified Water Bottles without a Water Purifier?
Use a Glass Bottle on a filled Rain Collector block. Rain Collectors fill during rain events and produce Purified Water Bottles when you collect from them. This is the main early-game source of purified water before you can craft a Water Purifier. You can also get purified water by collecting from water sources in biomes tagged as purified water biomes, though by default no biomes are configured this way.
Does drinking dirty water always poison me?
Dirty Water Bottles and Dirty Water Canteens always apply the Thirst effect, which causes your thirst bar to drain faster. Regular (unpurified) Water Canteens and Water Potions have a 25% chance of inflicting the Thirst effect. Purified Water Bottles, Purified Water Canteens, and all Juices have no poison chance. The Ominous Bottle has a 100% chance of inflicting Thirst.
What is the best way to survive in the Nether?
The Nether biomes are categorized as HOT, so you will suffer hyperthermia there. Potion of Fire Resistance cancels all hyperthermia damage, making it essential. Wearing Leaf Armor shifts you 2 levels cooler, though it provides no protection from Nether mobs. A Thermoregulator with cooling fuel in your Nether base provides a safe temperature zone to return to. For water, bring Purified Water Canteens from the Overworld since there are no water sources in the Nether to refill from.
How does the Thermoregulator's area fill work?
The Thermoregulator starts filling from the block it is facing and flood-fills through open air, up to 16 blocks deep. It does not go through solid blocks or walls, so it only affects an enclosed room. Particles show the active mode (blue for cooling, orange for heating). The Thermoregulator can be disabled with a Redstone signal, allowing for automation with daylight sensors or other timing circuits.
What happens when I die from temperature?
Death from hyperthermia shows the message 'X overheated to death' in the death log. Death from thirst shows 'X died of thirst.' By default, Climate Clemency is not re-granted on respawn, so you start vulnerable again immediately. This can be changed in the configuration file by enabling climate_clemency_respawning.