![Cobblemon: Synchro Machine [Morph Play as a Pokémon]](/_next/image?url=%2Fapi%2Fproxy-image%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fcdn.modrinth.com%252Fdata%252Fvfc8281v%252Fd6c804e3170471aa940b60f9c5a81d961bc5c1b6.png&w=256&q=75)
Cobblemon: Synchro Machine [Morph Play as a Pokémon]
Allows you to take on the appearance of any pokemon
Cobblemon Synchro Machine
Become the Pokémon. In survival. In multiplayer.
The Synchro Machine lets you merge with any Cobblemon Pokémon — inheriting its model, stats, moves, ability, and held-item effects. No battles required. Every morph is fully visible to other players in real time, with the mod's own custom UI and Cobblemon's real move sounds and particle effects.
How It Works
Craft or obtain the Synchro Machine item and open the team screen (G). Load Pokémon from your Cobblemon party into team slots, then select an active slot to morph. Model, animations, sounds, and stat passives apply immediately. Switch slots to change form on the fly.
Prefer to start your whole adventure as a Pokémon? Enable Start as a Pokémon at world creation (see below) and skip the item entirely.
Features at a Glance
- Full-body morph using Cobblemon's own renderer
- HP, armor, movement speed, flight, and water breathing from real stats
- 4-move combat with PP management and speed-scaled cooldowns
- Cobblemon's real per-move sounds and particle effects play on your morph
- 100+ ability effects — passive auras, contact triggers, damage multipliers
- Off-hand held items (Choice Band, Life Orb, Eviolite, and 20+ more)
- Transform into any Pokémon, mob, or player (species-dependent)
- Mega Evolution via Mega Showdown integration
- In-world move effects — dashes, block-breaking, explosions, teleports
- Fully redesigned, custom-textured UI — team screen, move HUD, emote wheel, and in-game config screen
- "Start as a Pokémon" — optional world-creation mode with a configurable starter roster
- In-menu healing — heal/revive your team with Cobblemon medicines, or sleep to fully rest
- In-game config screen from the pause menu
- Cosmetics, emote wheel, and swing animations
- Wild-Pokémon reactions — wild Pokémon flee from your morph, and defeating them grants it EXP
- Rival/counterpart species reactions between morphed players
- Custom, data-driven lore entries for the team screen
- Full survival multiplayer support
A Note on the UI
Every Synchro interface is now drawn with the mod's own textures rather than borrowing Cobblemon's — the team screen, the move HUD, the move-swap picker, the emote wheel, the evolution/confirm dialogs, and a new in-game config screen all share a consistent, hand-made look. Hover states, cooldown sweeps, type badges, and HP bars are image-based and fully restyle-able.
Keybinds
All bindings are rebindable in the vanilla Controls menu under the Cobblemon Synchro Machine category. (The config screen itself isn't a keybind — open it from the pause menu via the Synchro Machine icon.)
| Key (default) | Action |
|---|---|
| G | Open the Synchro team screen (server validates requireItem before opening) |
| Z / X / C / V | Fire move slots 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 while morphed |
| H | Toggle the move HUD overlay |
| Y | Transform into the entity in your crosshair, or revert if already transformed |
| Y (detransform) | Dedicated revert-only bind — never triggers a new transform |
| B | Toggle morph visibility: hide Pokémon form ↔ restore last active form (no stat change) |
| J | Hold to open the emote wheel; release over an option to apply it |
| U | Equip held item as a cosmetic on the model; empty hand removes the current cosmetic |
Note: Transform (Y) and Detransform (Y) share the same default key but are registered as separate bindings so you can rebind them independently.
Stats & Passives
The server reads your Pokémon's actual stats every second and writes them as real Minecraft attributes.
Expand
Flight — Species flagged as capable of flying in Cobblemon's behaviour data grant Creative-mode flight. Switching to a non-flying Pokémon removes it immediately and cancels active flight. Flight can be disabled, or limited by a stamina timer, in the config.
Water Breathing — Aquatic species receive a permanent Water Breathing status effect, refreshed every second.
Max HP — The Pokémon's HP stat is added on top of vanilla 20 HP, capped at +80 HP.
| Pokémon HP | Bonus HP | Total HP (hearts) |
|---|---|---|
| 45 (Magikarp) | +4.5 | 24.5 (12.25♥) |
| 75 (average) | +7.5 | 27.5 (13.75♥) |
| 100 | +10 | 30 (15♥) |
| 255 (Blissey) | +25.5 | 45.5 (22.75♥) |
Armor & Toughness — Defense → armor points (cap 20); Sp. Defense → armor toughness (cap 8). Held items like Eviolite and Assault Vest multiply these values.
Movement Speed — Derived from species behaviour data and the Speed stat using a square-root curve. Choice Scarf (×1.5) and Iron Ball (×0.5) apply an additional multiplier. Set useAdjustedMovementSpeed = false to use vanilla walk speed instead.
Incoming Damage Scaling — Optionally scales damage taken by the species' bulk, clamped between configurable min/max multipliers, so tankier Pokémon feel tankier.
Ambient Cries — Your Pokémon plays its ambient sound once per minute, audible to all nearby players (toggleable).
Party Sync — Optionally mirrors EXP and levels gained while morphed back onto the matching Pokémon in your Cobblemon party.
4-Move Combat
Keys Z / X / C / V (all rebindable) map to your four move slots. Physical moves draw from Attack; special moves from Sp. Atk.
Each move use plays the species cry, an attack animation on the model, and Cobblemon's own per-move sound effect and particle visual on your morph — so a Flamethrower looks and sounds like Flamethrower.
PP is consumed on every use. Restore it by sleeping in a bed, via saturation ≥ 6 (restores +1 PP every 30 seconds), or with /synchro restorepp.
Move cooldown scales with the Pokémon's Speed stat — faster Pokémon fire moves more frequently (baseline 1 second at Speed 75; floor 0.5 s; ceiling 5 s).
Expand
Damage Formula
base = clamp(1, 40, (power / 50) × (attack / 100))
damage = base × attackBoost × abilityMult × itemMult × moveDamageMultiplier
The moveDamageMultiplier config (default 3.0) is the primary balance dial. Stat-boosting moves (Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, Shell Smash, etc.) stack an internal attack multiplier up to ×4.
Move Effects in the World
| Category | Examples | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Dash moves | Quick Attack, Aqua Jet, Bullet Punch, Aerial Ace, Flare Blitz | Launches the player up to 10 blocks; collides with and damages the first entity hit |
| Block-breaking | Drill Run, Dig, Rock Blast, Bulldoze, Hyper Beam, Heat Wave | Breaks a shaped block pattern in the look direction (configurable) |
| Explosion moves | Self-Destruct, Explosion, Mind Blown | Real world explosions; player is immune to their own blast (configurable) |
| Teleport moves | Teleport, Phantom Force, Shadow Force, Abyss Dive | Raycast teleport up to 64 blocks; damaging variants strike the nearest entity on arrival |
| Terrain moves | Grassy Terrain, Leaf Storm, Petal Blizzard, Seed Flare | Applies bone meal in an area around the player |
| Healing moves | Recover, Roost, Moonlight, Healing Wish, Lunar Dance | Restores 50% or 100% max HP |
Move HUD
Press H to toggle the HUD overlay. When visible, it displays a vertical column of four move tiles anchored to the bottom-right corner of the screen, drawn with the mod's own UI textures.
Each tile shows:
- The move's type icon and name
- Current PP in color-coded text: white when full, orange at ≤ 25%, red at 0
- A cooldown sweep — a textured overlay that drains as the cooldown expires, with all text and the type icon rendered on top of it so they stay readable
- A glow highlight when the move is ready (no cooldown, PP remaining)
Empty move slots use a distinct dimmed tile. A brief status line below the grid displays the remaining cooldown in seconds when a move is on cooldown.
Team Screen
Open with G (subject to requireItem). The screen is a fully custom redesign drawn with the mod's own textures.
Layout: a 3-column panel — left column (Pokémon model, name, level, type badges, held-item slot, Evolve button), center column (tabbed content), right column (6-slot team panel + Close button).
Team Panel (right column)
Each occupied slot shows the Pokémon's name, level, and an HP bar.
- Left-click an occupied slot to switch the active morph to that Pokémon
- Right-click an occupied slot to open a small action menu — Heal / Revive (see Healing) and Remove
- When loaded from your party in replace mode, clicking a slot replaces it with the incoming Pokémon
Content Tabs (center column)
The center panel has three tabs:
| Tab | Icon | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| Info | Info icon | Dex number, Species, Type(s), Original Trainer, Nature, Ability + ability description, and any custom lore |
| Moves | Moves icon | 4 move tiles showing type, name, power, accuracy, and PP. Click a tile to open the move-swap picker — a level-gated list (your level-up moves up to the current level, plus TMs that unlock as you level, scaled by move power). Click a move to slot it. |
| Stats | Stats icon | Hexagonal stat chart with four sub-tabs: Stats (base stats), IVs (0–31), EVs (0–252), Other (see below) |
Other sub-tab (under Stats): shows a Friendship bar (current / 255) and additional metadata. Friendship accumulates while morphed and affects certain evolutions.
Held-Item Slot
The left column displays a 16×16 icon slot below the Pokémon model showing whatever item is in your off-hand. This is a visual indicator only; equip the item in your off-hand in your inventory to activate its effects.
Healing
No more permanent damage — two ways to patch your team up:
- Items: Right-click a Pokémon in the team screen and choose Heal (or Revive if it's fainted). The mod lists the matching Cobblemon medicines in your inventory — Potion, Super/Hyper/Max Potion, Full Restore, Revive, Max Revive — and applies the one you pick, consuming it.
- Rest: Sleep through the night in a bed to fully heal and revive your entire team at once.
Party-slot HP bars make it easy to see at a glance who needs healing.
Start as a Pokémon
An optional way to begin a world already merged with a Pokémon — no item required.
Enable it from the Create New World screen (a Synchro Machine toggle in the corner) or with the synchroStartAsPokemon game rule. When enabled, each new player is shown a starter selection screen on first join: every first-stage ("baby"/base) Pokémon at level 5, with gender selection where the species supports it. Choose one and you spawn already morphed into it, with a level-appropriate moveset.
The starter roster is fully configurable (generated from the Cobblemon species registry by default), and the Synchro Machine item is automatically made optional in this mode.
Abilities
Over 100 abilities are implemented across four hook points: passive tick (every second), on-hit-received, on-hit-dealt, and damage multiplier.
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Contact-on-Defend — triggers when an entity hits the morphed player
| Ability | Effect on attacker |
|---|---|
| Flame Body | 30% chance to set attacker on fire |
| Poison Point | 30% chance to poison attacker |
| Static | 30% chance to apply heavy Slowness |
| Rough Skin / Iron Barbs | Deals 1/8 of attacker's max HP |
| Effect Spore | 30% chance: burn, Slowness, or Blindness |
| Cursed Body | 30% chance to apply Nausea |
| Gooey / Tangling Hair | Applies Slowness |
| Aftermath | Deals 1/4 of attacker's max HP on KO |
| Synchronize | Shares active Poison / fire / Slowness with attacker |
| Perish Body | Wither III on both player and attacker |
Contact-on-Attack — triggers after the player deals damage
| Ability | Effect |
|---|---|
| Moxie / Chilling Neigh / Grim Neigh / Beast Boost / Battle Bond / Soul-Heart | Brief Strength boost after a KO |
| Poison Touch | 30% chance to poison the target |
| Corrosion / Toxic Chain | 30% chance to badly poison the target |
| Libero / Protean | Brief Strength burst on each hit |
| Stench | 10% chance to Slow target (flinch proxy) |
| Poison Puppeteer | Confuses poisoned targets with Nausea |
Damage Multipliers — always-on flat
| Ability | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Huge Power / Pure Power | ×2.00 |
| Gorilla Tactics / Dragon's Maw / Rocky Payload / Steelworker / Steely Spirit / Stakeout / Sniper / Hustle | ×1.50 |
| Tough Claws / Transistor / Sheer Force / Battery / Sand Force / Analytic | ×1.30 |
| Neuroforce / Tinted Lens / Parental Bond | ×1.25 |
| Adaptability / Skill Link / Aerilate / Galvanize / Pixilate / Refrigerate / Normalize | ×1.20 |
| Rivalry | ×1.12 |
| Sap Sipper / Victory Star / No Guard | ×1.10 |
| Aura Break | ×0.75 |
Damage Multipliers — move-category conditional
| Ability | Move category | Multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Jaw | Bite / fang moves | ×1.50 |
| Sharpness | Slicing moves | ×1.50 |
| Mega Launcher | Pulse moves | ×1.50 |
| Technician | Low-power moves | ×1.50 |
| Punk Rock | Sound moves | ×1.30 |
| Iron Fist | Punch moves | ×1.20 |
| Reckless | Recoil moves | ×1.20 |
Passive Aura Effects
Weather abilities (Drizzle, Drought, Sand Stream, Snow Warning, Primordial Sea, Desolate Land, Delta Stream) activate a localised weather zone while in combat. Sand Stream applies Wither to all nearby entities with no type filter. Terrain abilities (Electric Surge, Grassy Surge, Misty Surge, Psychic Surge) grant status effects while grounded. Misty Surge also clears all status effects. Intimidate and the four Ruin abilities apply AoE debuffs in a 8–12 block radius.
Speed abilities (Swift Swim, Chlorophyll, Sand Rush, Slush Rush) grant their speed bonus unconditionally — there is no weather check.
Held Items
Put a Cobblemon item in your off-hand — it functions as the Pokémon's held item. The item icon is shown in the held-item slot on the team screen.
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Damage multipliers (applied per move use)
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Choice Band | ×1.5 to physical moves |
| Choice Specs | ×1.5 to special moves |
| Life Orb | ×1.3 to all damaging moves + 10% max HP recoil on hit |
| Muscle Band | ×1.1 to physical moves |
| Wise Glasses | ×1.1 to special moves |
Type-boosting items (×1.2 to matching type)
Charcoal · Mystic Water · Sharp Beak · Soft Sand · Hard Stone · Silver Powder · Spell Tag · Black Belt · Poison Barb · Silk Scarf · Metal Coat · Dragon Fang · Twisted Spoon · Miracle Seed · Magnet · Never-Melt Ice · Fairy Feather
Defense multipliers
| Item | Effect | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Eviolite | ×1.5 Defense, ×1.5 Sp. Def | Pokémon must still have an evolution |
| Assault Vest | ×1.5 Sp. Def | Always |
Speed multipliers
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Choice Scarf | ×1.5 movement speed |
| Iron Ball | ×0.5 movement speed |
Passive tick effects (every second)
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Leftovers | Restores 1/16 max HP |
| Black Sludge | Restores 1/16 max HP (Poison-type) or deals 1/8 max HP damage (others) |
| Sticky Barb | Deals 1/8 max HP damage |
| Flame Orb | Sets holder on fire (enables Guts, Flame Body interactions) |
| Toxic Orb | Applies Wither I (enables Poison Heal) |
On-hit effects
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Shell Bell | Heals 1/8 of damage dealt (min 1 HP) |
| Life Orb | 10% max HP recoil (in addition to the ×1.3 boost) |
Other: Soothe Bell doubles friendship gain · Lucky Egg grants +50% Pokémon EXP while morphed
Transform
Press Y while morphed to copy the entity in your crosshair. Press Y again or use the dedicated detransform keybind to revert.
Expand | Transform type |Who can do it |What changes | | ------------------------------ |---------------------------------------------------------------------- |----------------------------------------------- | | Full Pokémon swap |Any morphed player (looking at a Pokémon entity) |Model, moves, and stats fully replaced | | Illusion — visual-only Pokémon |Zorua / Zoroark lines only |Looks like the target; own stats and moves kept | | Vanilla mob disguise |Illusion or Transform-capable species (Ditto, Mew, Smeargle, Imposter) |Cosmetic only | | Player skin copy |Illusion or Transform-capable species only |Cosmetic only; exact skin + cape |
Mob and player-skin transforms are gated behind enableMobTransform and enablePlayerSkinTransform (both true by default). Non-eligible species receive an error message and the transform does not proceed.
Visual Features
- Cobblemon move VFX/SFX — each move plays its real Cobblemon particle effect and sound on your morph
- Held-item rendering — Off-hand items appear in the Pokémon model's hand
- Attack swing animation — The Pokémon model plays a swing animation on each move use
- Emote wheel — Hold J to open a radial animation picker; release over an emote to play it
- Cosmetics — Press U with an item in hand to equip it as a cosmetic on the model; empty hand removes it
- Toggle Morph — Press B to hide the Pokémon form and appear as your player character (no stat change)
Emote Wheel Options
The wheel has six segments (one per 60°), rotated to match their position around the center:
| Emote | Pose |
|---|---|
| Sleep | SLEEP pose |
| Battle Ready | battle-standing (battle_idle animation) |
| Float | FLOAT pose (water-type underwater idle) |
| Hover | HOVER pose (flying-type airborne idle) |
| Swim | SWIM pose (water swim) |
| Stop Emote | Clears the active emote and returns to default |
Evolution, Friendship & Mega Evolution
Open the team screen to evolve any slot that has an available evolution. Cobblemon's own evolution requirements (level, item, trade, etc.) are respected. When a single evolution is available the button reads → [Species name]; branching evolutions show Evolve ▾ and open a picker.
Friendship accumulates at +1 per minute while morphed (Soothe Bell doubles this). The current value and a progress bar are visible on the Other sub-tab of the Stats tab in the team screen. High friendship unlocks certain evolutions.
Mega Evolution requires the Mega Showdown mod. Right-click with a compatible Mega Stone to transform, with the full Mega Showdown particle/animation sequence playing on your morph. Stats and passives update immediately, and a configurable timer controls the Mega duration.
Rival & Counterpart Species
When two morphed players come within 24 blocks, species pairs from Pokédex lore react.
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Rivals — both players receive a Strength burst
| Rivals | Lore basis |
|---|---|
| Zangoose ↔ Seviper | Eternal rivals bearing each other's scars |
| Pichu / Pikachu / Raichu ↔ Mimikyu | Mimikyu despises Pikachu's fame |
| Kyogre ↔ Groudon | Ancient primal war over land and sea |
| Tyranitar ↔ Duraludon / Archaludon | Territorial clash in mountain ranges |
| Tinkatink / Tinkatuff / Tinkaton ↔ Rookidee / Corvisquall / Corviknight | Tinkaton hunts Corviknight to steal their steel |
| Cresselia ↔ Darkrai | Natural opposites — sweet dreams vs nightmares |
| Heatmor ↔ Durant | Heatmor preys on Durant colonies |
| Arceus ↔ Giratina | Giratina was banished for its violence |
| Mew ↔ Mewtwo | Mewtwo resents its origin as Mew's clone |
| Reshiram ↔ Zekrom | Split halves of the original dragon |
| Shelmet ↔ Karrablast | They steal each other's armour to evolve |
| Passimian ↔ Oranguru | Opposing forest tribes |
| Sableye ↔ Mawile | Fight over the same gemstone deposits |
| Skrelp / Dragalge ↔ Clauncher / Clawitzer | Territorial ocean rivals |
| Vullaby / Mandibuzz ↔ Rufflet / Braviary | Opposing raptor clans |
| Hitmonchan ↔ Hitmonlee | Rival fighting disciplines |
| Throh ↔ Sawk | Rival martial arts — judo vs karate |
| Scyther / Scizor ↔ Pinsir | Fierce territorial forest rivals |
| Scyther ↔ Heracross | Forest territory competition |
| Gothita / Gothorita / Gothitelle ↔ Solosis / Duosion / Reuniclus | Version-exclusive psychic opposites |
Counterparts — both players receive Regeneration
| Counterparts | Lore basis |
|---|---|
| Plusle ↔ Minun | Supportive duo |
| Volbeat ↔ Illumise | Romantic counterparts |
| Latias ↔ Latios | Eon twins |
| Lunatone ↔ Solrock | Moon and sun in balance |
| Spritzee / Aromatisse ↔ Swirlix / Slurpuff | Sweet-themed X/Y counterparts |
| Petilil / Lilligant ↔ Cottonee / Whimsicott | Flower-themed B/W counterparts |
| Clefairy / Clefable ↔ Jigglypuff / Wigglytuff | Fairy-type icons |
| Ho-Oh ↔ Lugia | Tower guardians of sky and sea |
| Xerneas ↔ Yveltal | Life and destruction in balance |
Multiplayer
The mod must be installed on both the server and every client. The server tracks morph state and broadcasts it; each client uses the mod to render other players' Pokémon models, sounds, and move effects. Active morphs are synced to newly joined players within 40 ticks.
Requirements
| Dependency | Required? |
|---|---|
| Minecraft 1.21.1 | Required |
| Fabric or NeoForge | Required |
| Cobblemon | Required |
| Mega Showdown | Optional (Mega Evolution only) |
Configuration
All settings can be changed in-game from the config screen (pause menu → Synchro Machine icon) or by editing config/cobblemon_synchro_machine.json.
Expand | Setting |Default |Description |
| --------------------------- |------- |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| moveDamageMultiplier |3.0 |Global move damage scalar — primary balance dial |
| enableBlockBreakingMoves |true |Allow moves to break blocks in the world |
| enableExplosionMoves |true |Allow Self-Destruct / Explosion to create real explosions |
| enableTransformMove |true |Allow Transform in a move slot to trigger a transform (keybind always works) |
| enableMobTransform |true |Allow eligible species to copy vanilla mob appearances |
| enablePlayerSkinTransform |true |Allow eligible species to copy other players' skins |
| useAdjustedMovementSpeed |true |Derive walk speed from stats; false = vanilla speed for all morphs |
| requireItem |true |Require the Synchro Machine item in inventory to open the team screen |
| requireOwnership |false |Only allow syncing Pokémon the player owns |
| keepSyncedOnRespawn |false |Restore the active morph after death/respawn |
| enableFlight |true |Grant flight to flying-capable species |
| flightStaminaSeconds |0 |Flight stamina limit in seconds (0 = unlimited) |
| enableAmbientCries |true |Play the Pokémon's ambient cry once per minute |
| syncXpToParty |false |Mirror morph EXP/levels onto the matching party Pokémon |
| enableWildPokemonXp |true |Defeating wild Pokémon as a morph grants it EXP |
| enableWildPokemonReaction |true |Wild Pokémon flee from your morph when struck |
| enableIncomingDamageScaling |true |Scale damage taken by the species' bulk |
| incomingDamageScaleMin |0.25 |Minimum incoming-damage multiplier |
| incomingDamageScaleMax |4.0 |Maximum incoming-damage multiplier |
| megaDurationSeconds |30 |How long a Mega Evolution lasts |
| megaCooldownSeconds |60 |Cooldown between Mega Evolutions |
| morphEyeHeightMode |species |Camera eye height: species (Pokémon's own) or player |
| turnBasedBattles |false |(Experimental) Right-click a wild Pokémon while morphed to start a Cobblemon turn-based battle |
Commands
Expand | Command |Description |
| --------------------------------------------- |-------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| /synchro morph <player> <pokemon> |Set a player's active morph |
| /synchro clearmorph <player> |Remove a player's active morph |
| /synchro teach <player> <move> |Teach any move (Showdown ID) to the active morph — bypasses the level gate |
| /synchro restorepp <player> |Restore all PP on the active morph instantly |
| /synchro info <player> |Display morph data for a player |
| /synchro reload |Reload the config without restarting |
