How to Tell a Distant Friend Apart from a Real Player

Behavioural Tells

A Distant Friend mimics player actions but never completes them. Real players punch blocks, mine, place, eat, and open inventories. Distant Friends only punch empty air, sneak in place, and wave. If the figure never interacts with the terrain around it, it is almost certainly the mob.

Movement and Reaction Tells

• It never walks toward you. Real players close distance. Distant Friends hold position and let you come to them.
• It despawns instead of fleeing. A real player runs, fights, or logs out. The mob simply stops existing once you get close.
• No name tag, no skin variety you recognise. If you cannot match the skin to anyone on your server, be suspicious.
• It ignores chat. Type in global chat and watch. A real player will usually respond or at least move differently.

Confirming on a Multiplayer Server

Ask in voice chat or Discord whether anyone is standing at those coordinates. If nobody claims the position, you are looking at the mod. On singleplayer the check is trivial, since no other players exist, so any humanoid figure in the distance is the mob by definition.