Direct answer

Dynamic Activation of Brain (DAB) changes how often selected entity brain logic runs as distance from the nearest player grows. It is not the same as Entity Activation Range, mob cap, despawning or asynchronous mob spawning.

How to check it

  1. Open pufferfish.yml for your exact build and record dab.enabled, start-distance, max-tick-freq, activation-dist-mod and blacklisted-entities.
  2. Reproduce performance load with players near and far from mobs, including a sensitive farm or trading hall.
  3. Measure AI-related tick cost and verify that mob behavior changes are not mistaken for a spawn-rate issue.

What to change

A representative configuration layout (not a universal recommended preset) is:

dab:
  enabled: true
  start-distance: 12
  max-tick-freq: 20
  activation-dist-mod: 8
  blacklisted-entities: []

If a farm stops targeting, first compare with DAB disabled on a test copy, then consider raising activation-dist-mod, lowering the maximum interval or excluding only the affected entity.

Compatibility and safety

Pufferfish Host documents older DAB parameters and affected brain logic; entity coverage and defaults can change with version. The original 1.21.1 Pufferfish issue tracker also reports mobs freezing under DAB, so test behavior explicitly.

Software and version notes

The Pufferfish Host knowledgebase is historical configuration documentation. Check current pufferfish.yml and the changelog of your exact Pufferfish build before applying example values.

Verify the result

Compare farm yield, movement, AI responsiveness and profiling under the same conditions; keep the last known good pufferfish.yml ready to restore.

References