The Twilight Forest is a Minecraft mod that adds a whole new dimension, a dark forest world under a permanent twilight sky that you reach through a portal made from a pool of water and a 
Diamond. It’s built around a chain of bosses, each one sitting in its own structure and each one unlocking the next part of the world when it goes down.
That chain is the part people get stuck on, as the dimension actively stops you going into areas you haven’t earned yet. This guide goes through how to build the portal, the order the bosses need to be fought in, how each fight works and what every boss drops, so you always know where to head next.
How to Get to the Twilight Forest
Getting there is cheap, as the portal only costs one Diamond and a bit of landscaping. The pool has to be built properly though, and that’s where most first attempts go wrong, so it’s worth following the steps below rather than just throwing a Diamond into any old pond.
Dig a pool of water
At least four water blocks
Dig a hole in Grass or Dirt and fill it with water, with at least four water blocks in the pool. A two by two square is the usual shape, and the water needs to sit on solid blocks, so don’t build it over a gap or on top of another pool of water.
Ring it with plants
Every edge block needs one
Every Grass or Dirt block around the edge of the pool needs a plant sitting on top of it. Flowers are the usual choice, but Tall Grass, Ferns, Saplings, Mushrooms, Sugar Cane and even crops all count, so you can use whatever you have lying around. If one edge block is missing its plant, the portal won’t form.
Throw a Diamond in
Stand back for the lightning
Drop a Diamond into the water and lightning strikes the pool, turning it into the portal. The lightning can set nearby grass and trees on fire, so don’t build it right next to your house. Jump in and you’ll arrive in the Twilight Forest next to a matching return portal, which works without needing a second Diamond.
The dimension is dark and the trees are huge, so bring torches, food and decent armor for the first trip. You can only build a portal in the Overworld by default, so the one pool is your way in and out, and it’s worth setting up a small base next to the return portal before heading off to look for bosses.
Twilight Forest Boss Order
The Twilight Forest is locked in stages, and each boss you beat opens the next area. If you walk into a region you haven’t unlocked yet, the dimension punishes you for it with an effect that gets worse the longer you stay, so fighting the bosses in the right order is the whole game.
| Boss | Structure | Region | Health | Opens Up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naga | Naga Courtyard | Twilight Forest | 120 | The Lich |
| Lich | Lich Tower | Twilight Forest | 100 | Swamp, Snowy Forest, Dark Forest |
| Minoshroom | Labyrinth | Swamp | 120 | Fire Swamp (after eating Meef Stroganoff) |
| Hydra | Hydra Lair | Fire Swamp | 360 | Part of the Highlands |
| Knight Phantoms | Knight Stronghold | Dark Forest | 35 each (6) | Dark Tower |
| Ur-Ghast | Dark Tower | Dark Forest Center | 250 | Part of the Highlands |
| Alpha Yeti | Yeti Cave | Snowy Forest | 200 | Glacier |
| Snow Queen | Aurora Palace | Glacier | 200 | Part of the Highlands |
After the Lich the path splits into three branches, which you can do in any order. The Swamp leads to the Minoshroom and then the Hydra, the Dark Forest leads to the Knight Phantoms and then the Ur-Ghast, and the Snowy Forest leads to the Alpha Yeti and then the Snow Queen. The Highlands only open once the Hydra, the Ur-Ghast and the Snow Queen are all dead.
What Happens if You Skip Ahead
Each locked region has its own punishment. The Swamp gives you Hunger that keeps stacking, the Dark Forest gives you Darkness, the Snowy Forest and the Glacier freeze you, and the Fire Swamp sets you on fire. The Highlands and the Final Castle area hurt you with acid rain, which does actual damage rather than just an effect.
These all stop the moment you’ve beaten the boss that unlocks the area, and in most cases you don’t even have to land the kill yourself. Holding that boss’s trophy or one of its drops also counts, which is handy on a server where a friend got the last hit.
Finding the Structures
The easiest way to find every boss is the Magic Map. Craft a 
Magic Map Focus from a 
Raven Feather, 
Torchberries and 
Glowstone Dust, surround it with eight 
Paper to make a blank Magic Map, and using it draws the area around you with the boss structures marked on it. Ravens drop the feathers and Torchberries grow on the plants hanging in caves.
The map covers a big area, so one or two of them is usually enough to plan your route from your portal. If a structure isn’t on it, walk to the edge of what it shows and make another one, as the bosses are spread fairly evenly around the dimension.
Naga
The Naga is the first boss, a huge green serpent that lives in the Naga Courtyard, a walled garden of hedges and stone that’s usually one of the first structures you’ll find. It has 120 health and hits for a fair bit, but it’s the easiest fight in the mod, and it’s the one you need to do before anything else.
The Fight
The Naga slithers around the courtyard and charges at you, with its long body trailing along behind it. Keep moving so you’re not pinned against a wall, and hit its head when it comes at you, as the head is the part that takes the damage, and circling the courtyard gives you room to line up the next swing.
Iron armor and a Diamond Sword are plenty for this one, and a few Golden Apples cover you if a charge catches you badly. It’s a good boss to learn the mod on before the Lich, which asks a lot more of you, and the scales it drops make armor that helps in the fights after it.
Drops and Naga Scale Armor
The Naga drops everything straight onto the ground where it dies, its scales and its trophy. The scales are the drop you’ll want more of, as the full armor set needs more scales than one Naga usually gives you, so count them before you leave.
Naga Drops
Naga Scale 
Naga Trophy The Naga Scales are the reason to fight it, as they make the 
Naga Scale Tunic and 
Naga Scale Leggings. The tunic takes eight scales and the leggings take seven, so one Naga might not give you enough for both, and you may need to find a second courtyard for the rest.
Both pieces come enchanted when you craft them, the Tunic with Fire Protection and the Leggings with Protection. Hang on to the Naga Trophy as well, as you’ll want a trophy later to open the Knight Stronghold, and the Naga’s is the one you’ll miss the least.
Lich
The Lich is the second boss, a skeletal wizard at the top of the Lich Tower, which you’ll spot as a tall stone tower in the forest biomes. It only has 100 health, but it’s the fight that stops a lot of players, because it can’t be hurt the normal way at the start, and it has three different phases.
Phase One: Shields and Clones
The Lich starts the fight with six shields spinning around it, and normal hits just bounce off them. Only magic damage breaks a shield, so you’ll either want Splash Potions of Harming or to hit its own bolts back at it, the same way you’d return a Ghast’s fireball. Each bolt that lands knocks one shield off.
It also makes up to two shadow clones of itself that throw bolts too, and the clones can’t be hurt at all. Fight from a corner if you can, so all the bolts come at you from one direction and are easier to hit back, and don’t waste time swinging at the clones, as only the real Lich loses shields.
Phase Two and Three
Once the shields are gone, the Lich switches to its Zombie Scepter and starts summoning minions, a few at a time, until it’s summoned nine of them. Kill the minions as they come, as they’re the only thing standing between you and the last phase, and it gets a lot easier from here.
In the final phase the Lich comes at you in melee, and this is where you can finally just hit it with a sword. It doesn’t have any shields left to hide behind at this point, so stay close, keep swinging and watch your health, as its melee hits are the ones that hurt now.
Lich Drops
The Lich drops its loot on the ground where it dies, and there’s more of it than any other early boss. The part that matters is the scepter, as you only get one of the four each kill and which one you get is picked at random.
Lich Drops
Scepter of Life Draining 
Scepter of Fortification 
Golden Sword 
Ender Pearl 
Bone 
Lich Trophy The Lich drops one of its four scepters at random, along with some Gold gear, Ender Pearls and Bones. The Scepter of Life Draining and the Scepter of Fortification are the most useful of the four, as one steals health from mobs and the other gives you a set of shields of your own.
Minoshroom and the Labyrinth
Beating the Lich opens up the Swamp, and the Labyrinth sits underneath it. It’s a big underground maze full of Minotaurs, Maze Slimes and spawners, and the Minoshroom waits in a room somewhere inside. It has 120 health and a ground slam attack, but the fight itself is simple once you’ve actually found it.
Getting Through the Labyrinth
The Maze Map is the tool for this, made from a Maze Map Focus surrounded by eight Paper, and it maps the corridors around you as you walk. A Night Vision potion helps a lot as well, as the maze is dark and it’s easy to miss a turning or walk straight into a spawner room.
The boss room has fences around the middle, which gives you a bit of cover from its charge. Players often just shoot it with a Bow from behind the fences, as it can’t easily get to you, and it’ll go down without much of a fight that way.
Minoshroom Drops
You don’t have to hunt around the floor for the Minoshroom’s loot, as it’s put into a Mangrove Chest right where the boss dies. That keeps it safe from the Labyrinth’s other mobs while you finish off the room and catch your breath.
Minoshroom Drops
Meef Stroganoff 
Diamond Minotaur Axe 
Minoshroom Trophy When it dies, its loot goes into a chest on the spot, with a Diamond Minotaur Axe and some Meef Stroganoff. Eat one of the Stroganoff, as eating it is what unlocks the Fire Swamp for you, and you won’t be able to go after the Hydra until you have. Keep the spares, as it’s a good food too.
Hydra
The Hydra lives in the Hydra Lair in the Fire Swamp, and with 360 health it’s the biggest boss in the mod. It starts the fight with three heads and can grow more as the fight goes on, and each head bites, breathes fire and spits fireballs at you from across its lair.
The Fight
Stay close to the body and hit it in melee, as that’s where it’s weakest, and keep moving in a circle when a head starts breathing fire. The fire breath is slow to follow you around, so circling is the easiest way to dodge it, which is also why a small arena makes the fight much harder.
Fire Resistance potions make a big difference here, as the fire breath and the fireballs the heads lob at you will keep setting you alight. Bring plenty of food, as this fight takes a while, and it’s worth bringing a friend if you’re on a server.
Hydra Drops
Like the Minoshroom, the Hydra leaves its loot in a Mangrove Chest on the spot where it dies, which saves you from fishing it out of the swamp. There’s a lot of meat in there, and the Hydra Chop is a good food to carry into the harder fights later on.
Hydra Drops
Hydra Chop 
Fiery Blood 
Hydra Trophy The Hydra’s loot goes into a chest too, with a pile of Hydra Chop and some Fiery Blood. Fiery Blood is what you need for Fiery gear, as a Fiery Vial of it combined with an 
Iron Ingot makes a 
Fiery Ingot, and those go into Fiery tools, armor and the 
Fiery Sword.
The Fiery Pickaxe smelts what you mine as you mine it, so it’s a big upgrade once you have enough Fiery Blood to make one. The Ur-Ghast drops 
Fiery Tears that do the same job, so you’ll get a second supply when you reach the Dark Tower.
Knight Phantoms
The Knight Phantoms live in the Knight Stronghold, which is buried underground in the Dark Forest. It’s full of Goblin Knights and traps, and you can’t get into the boss area until you’ve placed a trophy from one of the earlier bosses on the pedestal inside, which unlocks the vanishing blocks that seal it off.
Opening the Stronghold
Any boss trophy works on the pedestal, so use whichever you care about least, and for most players that’s the Naga Trophy. Once it’s placed, the stronghold opens up and you can work your way down to the Knight Phantoms’ room, which is guarded by more knights along the way.
The Fight
There are six Knight Phantoms, each with 35 health, and they come at you one at a time as each one becomes solid. You have to kill them in that order, so watch for the one that’s actually solid and focus it, rather than swinging at the ghosts that are still circling the room.
On Hard difficulty, the sixth knight carries a 
Knightmetal Shield, so it takes a bit longer. When the last one dies, a chest full of loot appears in the room, which is where all the rewards from this fight come from, as the knights themselves don’t drop anything.
Knight Phantom Chest
Knightmetal Axe 
Phantom Helmet 
Phantom Chestplate 
Knight Phantom Trophy The Phantom Helmet and Phantom Chestplate are some of the best armor in the mod, and they’re never lost when you die. Knightmetal gear is crafted from 
Knightmetal Ingot, which comes from the Armor Shards the Goblin Knights drop, crafted into a cluster and smelted, so the stronghold is worth clearing even after the boss is done.
Ur-Ghast
The Ur-Ghast sits at the very top of the Dark Tower, in the middle of the Dark Forest, and it’s a long climb to get there. It’s a giant Ghast with 250 health, and the tower is full of Carminite Ghastguards, Ghastlings and Carminite Golems, so expect a fight all the way up.
Using the Ghast Traps
The boss room has Ghast Traps around it, and they’re the way to beat the Ur-Ghast. Kill three Carminite Ghastlings near a trap to charge it, then power the trap with 
Redstone, and it pulls the Ur-Ghast down into range where you can hit it with a sword.
Every so often it throws a tantrum and starts crying, and during that time it only takes a tenth of the damage you’d normally do. Take cover while it’s crying rather than wasting hits on it, then get back to the traps once it stops, as that’s when your hits actually count.
Ur-Ghast Drops
The Ur-Ghast drops its loot where it dies, so check the floor of the boss room before you head back down the tower. It’s a long climb up there, and you won’t want to make it a second time just for a couple of forgotten Fiery Tears.
Ur-Ghast Drops
Carminite 
Fiery Tears 
Ur-Ghast Trophy The Ur-Ghast drops Carminite and Fiery Tears, and Fiery Tears work the same way as Fiery Blood for making Fiery Ingots. Carminite powers the tower’s machines, like the Carminite Builder and Reactor, which you can craft yourself once you’ve collected enough of it.
Alpha Yeti
The Alpha Yeti lives in the Yeti Cave in the Snowy Forest, which opens up after the Lich. It has 200 health, and the cave is full of regular Yetis too. The Snowy Forest freezes you if you go in before the Lich is dead, so beat the Lich first and bring plenty of food.
The Fight
You can’t start this fight with arrows, as the Alpha Yeti ignores projectiles until it’s started rampaging, so go in with a sword first. When it rampages it makes ice fall from the ceiling and throws 
Ice Bombs at you, and afterwards it gets tired, which is the moment to get your hits in.
It can also grab you and throw you across the cave, and while that doesn’t hurt on its own, the fall can. Keep an eye on your health after being thrown, and fight near the middle of the cave rather than near a drop, so the landing doesn’t finish you off.
Alpha Yeti Drops
Alpha Yeti Fur 
Ice Bomb 
Alpha Yeti Trophy Its loot goes into a chest with six Alpha Yeti Fur and six Ice Bombs. The fur makes the Yeti armor set, and holding it unlocks the Glacier, so pick it up before you leave, as that’s what lets you go after the Snow Queen next.
Snow Queen
The Snow Queen lives at the top of the Aurora Palace on the Glacier, and with 200 health she’s the last boss in the Snowy branch. The palace is a tall ice building, and you’ll often need to dig up through the iced over floors to reach her room at the top.
The Fight
The fight runs in phases. First she summons Ice Crystals around herself, then she hovers over you and drops down to crush you, and then she fires an ice beam at you. The beam stops once she’s taken enough damage, so keep hitting her during it rather than just running away.
Watch out for the drop, as it does a lot of damage if she lands right on top of you, so keep moving when she starts hovering overhead. Clear the Ice Crystals quickly in the first phase, as she won’t move on to the next part of the fight until they’re gone.
Snow Queen Drops
Tri-Bow 
Seeker Bow 
Packed Ice 
Snowball 
Snow Queen Trophy Her chest holds either the Tri-Bow or the Seeker Bow, along with Packed Ice and Snowballs. The Tri-Bow fires three arrows at once and the Seeker Bow’s arrows home in on targets, so either one is a big step up from a normal Bow for the rest of the mod.
After the Snow Queen: the Highlands and the Final Castle
Once the Hydra, the Ur-Ghast and the Snow Queen are all dead, the Highlands open up. They’re home to the Troll Caves, and inside them you’ll find the Troll Vaults, where the 
Lamp of Cinders is kept. Holding the lamp is what unlocks the last area, the Thornlands and the Final Plateau.
The Final Castle sits on the Final Plateau, and it’s as far as the Twilight Forest goes right now. There’s no finished final boss inside it in this version, so once you’ve reached the castle you’ve effectively beaten the mod, and everything past that point is just exploring and collecting.
Quest Ram
The Quest Ram is a big sheep that lives in the Quest Grove, a small clearing that only generates in the Enchanted Forest biome. It’s not a boss and it won’t attack you, but it has a quest of its own, and it’s one of the more searched-for things in the mod because it isn’t obvious what it wants.
It wants one block of every color of Wool, all sixteen of them. Right-click it with each color and it’ll take the Wool and show the color on its fleece, and once it has all sixteen it drops its reward, a 
Crumble Horn and a Bundle. The Crumble Horn crumbles the blocks in front of you, which is handy for clearing space.
Tips
Craft a Magic Map as early as you can. Torchberries and Raven Feathers are easy to find, and the map saves you hours of wandering around a dark forest looking for the next tower, especially once you’re past the Lich and have three branches to choose from.
Keep every trophy until you’ve opened the Knight Stronghold, then use the Naga’s on the pedestal. The trophies also count as proof you’ve beaten a boss for the progression checks, so holding one is a good backup if you ever lose track of what’s unlocked.
Bring Fire Resistance for the Hydra and warm food for the Snowy Forest and Glacier, and eat the Meef Stroganoff as soon as the Minoshroom dies. Forgetting that last one is the most common reason players can’t get into the Fire Swamp, even though they’ve beaten the boss.
Charms of Keeping are worth making before the harder fights, as they let you keep items when you die. The first one keeps what’s in your hands, the second keeps your hotbar and the third keeps your whole inventory, which takes a lot of the stress out of the Hydra and the Ur-Ghast.
FAQ
Start with the Naga, then the Lich. After that there are three branches you can do in any order: the Minoshroom then the Hydra, the Knight Phantoms then the Ur-Ghast, and the Alpha Yeti then the Snow Queen. Beating the Hydra, the Ur-Ghast and the Snow Queen opens the Highlands, and the Lamp of Cinders from the Troll Caves opens the Final Castle.
Dig a pool of at least four water blocks in Grass or Dirt, put a plant like a Flower on every edge block around it, then throw a Diamond into the water. Lightning strikes and turns the pool into a portal, and the return portal on the other side works without needing another Diamond.
There isn’t a finished final boss in this version. The Snow Queen, the Hydra and the Ur-Ghast are the last big fights, and after them the Troll Caves and the Final Castle are as far as the story goes. Reaching the Final Castle is effectively the end of the mod’s progression right now.
Find the Quest Ram in a Quest Grove in the Enchanted Forest biome and right-click it with one Wool block of each of the sixteen colors. It shows each color on its fleece as you go, and when it has all sixteen it drops a Crumble Horn and a Bundle as your reward.
