# Guide to adding new content to CDDA for first time modders

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/guide-to-adding-new-content-to-cdda-for-first-time-modders/17781>\
**Category:** The Lab\
**Created:** [December 7, 2018, 5:53pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/guide-to-adding-new-content-to-cdda-for-first-time-modders/17781 "2018-12-07T17:53:39Z")\
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**Author:** ![mlangsdorf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mlangsdorf/32/2462_2.png) [@mlangsdorf](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/mlangsdorf)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 2:11am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/guide-to-adding-new-content-to-cdda-for-first-time-modders/17781/19 "2018-12-09T02:11:01Z")

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## Adding New Monsters

You can add new monsters in JSON. I’ve never really done it, so I’m mostly going to point you to the documentation at [https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/doc/JSON\_INFO.md](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/doc/JSON_INFO.md). but I’ll throw in a few more notes.

Monster JSON is stored in data/json/monsters/ and data/json/monsters.json.  
Monster special attacks are stored in data/json/monsterattacks.json, but a lot of monster special attacks are hardcoded in C++ so I believe that file is really sparse.

Monsters have two sets of item\_groups associated with them. First are data/json/monsterdrops/ and data/json/monster\_drops.json, which contain the items that monsters such as zombies drop when they die, and are standard item groups defined by [https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/doc/ITEM\_SPAWN.md](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/doc/ITEM_SPAWN.md). data/json/harvest.json contains information on what you get when you butcher a creature. This file is under very active development right at this moment, and I really have no idea how it works and as far as I know it’s not documented yet. You can look through it and try to figure it out.

monsters also have a monstergroups JSON object, which controls what monsters spawn where in a random function. This is partially documented in doc/MONSTERS.md, so I refer you back to that.

Finally, monsters have factions, which are defined in data/json/monster\_factions.json. These objects are described in [https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/doc/JSON\_INFO.md](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/doc/JSON_INFO.md).

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