HANDS-ON TUTORIAL · MINDUSTRY

Universal Modder.
Try your first mod.

Use the Universal Modder workflow to change a homing turret in a free game.

Free game Source included Tested on Mac

Install Universal Modder Download example ZIP

ZIP + source · v0.1.0 · Mindustry 160.7

REAL GAMEPLAY30-second arena

STRAIGHT1 / 25

HOMING24 / 25

Hits in a fixed test arena · Mac only
Silent capture, sampled at ~1.5 fps

Try the example in 3 steps.

Prebuilt mod · no agent needed to play.

01
Get Mindustry
Choose Download Now, then No thanks, just take me to the downloads. Donation is optional.
Get the free game
02
Add the mod ZIP
In game: Mods → Open Folder. Quit, copy the ZIP there, then relaunch. Keep it zipped.
Use the download above.
03
Press F8
Watch left: straight, right: homing. Compare the hit counts. Some Macs need Fn + F8.
F8 Restart F9 Exit

Back up existing saves and exit your world first. Single player only.

USE UNIVERSAL MODDER

Change one value with your agent.

Ask for slower missile turning. Then compare in-game.

homingPower

0.080.02

Your experiment · result not yet tested

Universal Modder prompt & edit instructions

Set up Universal Modder for your coding agent. Playing the supplied mod needs neither; agent usage may cost money.

Use Universal Modder's mod-any-game workflow to inspect my official Mindustry 160.7 desktop installation. I want a local, single-player homing-missile turret.

1. Search the toolkit knowledge base and run um scan on my actual game path. Prefer Mindustry's official JSON mod API. Do not decompile or patch the game.
2. Back up my game data with um backup. Work on an isolated lab profile. Never overwrite my campaign saves.
3. Use the ModLab Homing Lab source ZIP as the starting point. Preserve the baseline turret. Change only homingPower in content/blocks/homing.json from 0.08 to 0.02. Keep damage, speed, range, reload, lifetime and splash unchanged.
4. Package mod.json at the ZIP root, copy the ZIP into the mods folder while the game is closed, restart, and run the lab. Capture the actual trajectories and real event counts. Explain differences and failures without promising a hit rate.
5. Disable the mod and restart to confirm recovery. Provide the ZIP, the one-value diff, exact versions and observed results. Do not claim another operating system was tested.

No paid assets, API keys, purchases, online servers or anti-cheat changes are needed. Ask before any new spending. My agent's existing usage charges may still apply.

Manual edit: in content/blocks/homing.json, change only homingPower from 0.08 to 0.02. Keep baseline.json unchanged. Re-zip with mod.json at the root. Replace the old ZIP while the game is closed, then restart.

Installation help & undo

Lab missing?: Enable the mod and restart. The ZIP must have mod.json at its root. Use the main-menu “ModLab Homing Lab [F8]” entry if the shortcut does not work.
File picker stuck?: Import Mod → Import File did not open a picker on our Mac. The Open Folder method above was verified. Do not install both an extracted folder and the same ZIP.
No shots or different counts?: The lab supplies copper automatically. Check game version and mod errors; restart and compare several runs. Timestep and target position can affect hits.
Undo the mod: Press F9, disable or remove ModLab Homing Lab in Mods, then restart. The menu entry disappears. Keep campaign saves separate; worlds using custom blocks may need the mod to load.

Mindustry ZIP checks, loading questions and recovery →

What we tested

In the recorded 30-second run: straight 1/25 hits, homing 24/25. A clean ZIP installation reproduced the same counts.

Environment: Mindustry 160.7 · ModLab 0.1.0. macOS 15.7 · Apple M1 Max · bundled Java 25.0.1. Reviewed 2026-10-09.
Controlled comparison: Fixed aim, scripted moving targets, identical speed, damage, lifetime and reload. Guidance changes from 0 to 0.08; colors label the lanes. This demonstrates steering, not normal-play damage.
Verified: Clean-profile ZIP installation, arena run, F9 exit, disabling the mod and restarting. No other OS, multiplayer or independent learner test.
Video: Real gameplay sampled at about 1.5 fps, silent. The MP4 repeats frames for playback; download the mod for full motion.
Universal Modder’s role: Codex used its knowledge-base search, scan and backup tools, then Mindustry’s official JSON and scripting APIs. No ready-made Mindustry case was present in the pinned knowledge base; the generic Java scan missed the mod route. Source review was required.

Download verification record (JSON) ↗

Source, parameters & file integrity

Original code and geometric sprites: MIT licensed. No game binaries or extracted assets are included. The lab does not save a campaign or replace an active world; modlab-last-run.json is a local result log.

homingPower: 0 vs 0.08 — rate of direction change.
homingRange / delay: 200 world units (25 tiles) / 8 simulation ticks.
speed / lifetime: 2.7 / 105 ticks — travel speed and time available.

ZIP SHA-256: 4048d28855e299342e2b9123c8b751bb1a09a0ad1909b717fadd639781850b3a

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Universal Modder.Try your first mod.

Try the example in 3 steps.

Get Mindustry

Add the mod ZIP

Press F8

Change one value with your agent.

Universal Modder.
Try your first mod.