Grottoceratops
Grottoceratops are common large neutral mobs found in the Primordial Caves. They frequently feed on various kinds of vegetation, being able to turn Curly Ferns into Fiddleheads by grazing on them.
Cave Compendium Entry
"Grottoceratops are large, herbivorous dinosaurs that seem to think only ever of eating more plants. These voracious reptiles will gladly ignore almost anything else in their way, as long as it does noy [sic] attack them first. Grottoceratops is [sic] the only source of Fiddleheads, which appear after they pick up and eat a Curly Fern. If attacked, they will defend themselves by using their large horn to fling attackers in the air, or by swinging their spiked tail into their target. Grottoceratops can be bred with a Tree Star, and will lay a single egg afterwards. When slain, Grottoceratops can drop a Dinosaur Chop and some of its Tough Hide."
- - Dr. Prof. Alexander Caverns, PhD.
Spawning
Grottoceratops can spawn anywhere in the Primordial Caves in groups of 2-4.
Drops
On death
| Item | Roll Chance | Quantity (Default) | Quantity (Looting I) | Quantity (Looting II) | Quantity (Looting III) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dinosaur Chop [1] |
100% | 1-2 | 1-4 | 1-6 | 1-8 |
 Tough Hide |
100% | 0-2 | 0-3 | 0-4 | 0-5 |
- Dropped as Cooked Dinosaur Chop if on fire when killed.
Behavior
Grottoceratops will aimlessly wander around, occasionally grunting or raising their heads upwards to bellow. Due to their size, they take 90% less knockback and can step up one full block without having to jump. Similarly to horses, Grottoceratops will passively regenerate health.
After a minimum of 10 seconds, Grottoceratops will seek out and eat any Curly Ferns, Tree Stars, or Pewen Pines within a 6-block radius. Upon eating a plant, they will cause it to disappear and heal themselves by 5
, chewing on fronds while doing so - if they eat a Curly Fern, they may rarely turn it into a Fiddlehead.
Grottoceratops will follow any player that holds out Tree Stars within a 6-block radius.
Should the player or another mob hit a Grottoceratops, it and all other Grottoceratops within a 32-block radius will retaliate against them; a Grottoceratops that was hit will remain hostile until its target dies or exits their detection range, while the rest will reset to a neutral state after 30 seconds. Upon reaching a target, a Grottoceratops will thrust its horn upwards at them or turn around to swing its tail at them; both of these attacks will launch targets backwards if they are airborne. In addition to this, any player or mob that tramples a Grottoceratops' egg by standing or jumping on it will provoke all Grottoceratops within a 32-block radius for 30 seconds - interestingly enough, however, breaking the egg via mining it will not trigger this reaction.
As dinosaurs, Grottoceratops are able to stand on dinosaur eggs without trampling them.
Breeding
Two Grottoceratops can be bred with Tree Stars. After breeding, one of the Grottoceratops will seek out dirt and start vigorously digging at it for a few seconds before laying an egg and replacing the dirt block under it with a Fern Thatch. Similarly to turtle eggs, Grottoceratops eggs will drop as an item when mined using any tool enchanted with Silk Touch, otherwise breaking and not dropping anything - as well as this, they can be trampled. If on any block except ice, amber, or Amber Monoliths, they will crack every so often, hatching into Grottoceratops hatchlings upon cracking 3 times - this process usually takes 8-10 days, but will take 4-5 if the eggs are on a Fern Thatch. It takes 1 day for a Grottoceratops hatchling to reach adulthood.
After breeding once, Grottoceratops will be unable to breed again for 5 minutes.
Easter Eggs
Dancing
Grottoceratops will dance if they are within 5 blocks of a jukebox playing music - they will continue to dance as long as the music disc remains in the jukebox and the music is still ongoing. While dancing, they will stay in place, seemingly not reacting to players or other mobs - however, they will still attack targets that approach them if provoked.
Amber Curiosity
Using an Amber Curiosity on a Grottoceratops causes it to have a special "retro" texture with green skin, a light green underbelly, 2 pairs of small, vermilion, elliptical markings on its frill, white horns, frill hornlets, and tail spikes, white eyes with black pupils, a smaller, dark green beak, dark green claws, flat, deep green scutes on its back in place of osteoderms, light green bumps on its back and flanks, and deep green stripes on its hips. This is a reference to the forest Triceratops from Fossils and Archaeology, a popular dinosaur mod that first released in July 2011 and received continuous updates over the next year. After its initial death, a revival mod was first released in February 2013, and continues to be updated today - Alexthe666, the main coder of Alex's Caves, had previously worked on this revival for 4 years, technically making it one of his older coding projects.
Tectonic Shard
Using a Tectonic Shard on a Grottoceratops causes it to have a special "eruption" texture with gold-colored skin, a white underbelly, a pair of large, deep red eyespots on its frill, a black beak, horns, facial and posterior scutes, tail spikes, and claws, red eye markings, pointier frill hornlets and osteoderms, and a larger, more branching nasal horn.
History
| 1.0.0 | Introduced. |
| 1.1.0 | Now uses a multithreaded pathfinding system for better TPS usage. Now has a new texture variant unlocked via Tectonic Shards. |
| 1.1.2 | Fixed a bug where it would randomly teleport while moving. |
| 1.1.4 | Now resets to a neutral state after 30 seconds instead of 1 second when provoked by any means other than direct damage. |
Trivia
- Grottoceratops are classified as "cave creatures" - they are functionally very similar to creatures, but can only spawn underground.
- Grottoceratops are one of the few mobs in the mod to be animated with inverse kinematics - their legs will shift upwards or downwards to appear as if they are always touching a block.
Gallery
A herd of Grottoceratops in the Primordial Caves.
The Amber Curiosity skin for the Grottoceratops.
The Tectonic Shard skin for the Grottoceratops.
| Magnetic Caves | |
|---|---|
| Primordial Caves | |
| Toxic Caves | |
| Abyssal Chasm | |
| Forlorn Hollows | |
