One of the best things about Minecraft is how much control you have over your experience. If you are tired of puttering around the default Minecraft world, you can switch it up with mods, texture packs, and more. Mods can change the game to feel like a completely different experience.
In this article we have selected the best mods for Minecraft together with the runner ups at the end, so let’s get started:
What are Minecraft Mods?
Minecraft Mods are extra files you can add to the game that change how it is played or displayed. These mods are written by other Minecraft players who wanted to see something new in the game.
On consoles, mods can be purchased from the Microsoft Store for Minecraft Coins. On PC, Minecraft players can install mods for free just by dropping downloaded files in the Minecraft directory.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular Minecraft mods available.
1. Journeymap
The default Minecraft mapping experience leaves a lot to be desired. It’s nice to have an in-game item you can map yourself, but the novelty quickly wears off when your world expands. Journeymap offers a map that is much more akin to the map system you’ll find in most open world games.
You can use Journeymap as a minimap in the game to mark important points of interest or load it in an external web browser on another monitor. It gives you a birdseye view of the whole map of your world as it is generated, chunk by chunk. As you explore the world, new chunks are added to the map automatically. Goodbye combining those pesky paper maps forever!
2. Not Enough Items (NEI)
With the way the crafting system works in Minecraft, you have to remember a lot of recipes to be effective. It’s either that, or keep the wiki open at all times. The Not Enough Items mod solves this by showing you the recipes in-game.
The mod completely changes the inventory screen to show you the recipe for any item, even if you don’t have the components to make it. It solves the problem of needing to alt-tab back to the wiki page or keeping a wiki app on your smartphone.
3. What Am I Looking At
What Am I Looking At (WAILA) is a mod designed to be used by people who use lots of mods in Minecraft. Sometimes when players have lots of mods installed, it can be impossible to tell what items are from which mod. This mod will tell you the mod that originated any block just by pointing your crosshair at it.
WAILA requires Not Enough Items to be installed to use it, so it is like an add-on mod.
4. Decocraft
Minecraft is a great game for creativity, but some of the decoration options are severely lacking. If you like building cities and towns with extensive decorations, you’ll want to install Decocraft immediately. It brings new crafting recipes for chairs, tables, bowls, bottles, stuffed toys, beer kegs, sinks, and many more home items that are missing.
To see everything included in the Decocraft mod, you can check out the mod’s wiki page for a full list of objects. There’s a lot here for creative Minecraft builders who want more detailed worlds.
5. Pam’s Harvestcraft
If you play Minecraft because you love the farming and husbandry aspects of the game, then Pam’s Harvestcraft is the mod for you. This mod adds more crops, more fish, more trees, more fruits, and plenty of new foods to create. Vegans will also love the tofu and vegetarian options the mod brings.
The mod is also interesting to use alongside mods that add more survival elements to Minecraft. Mods like Hunger Overhaul and The Spice of Life require you to eat a varied diet rather than relying on an endless supply of cake or potatoes for food.
6. LotsOMobs
While Minecraft patches continue to overhaul biomes and add new creatures, the default options are still pretty limited. The LotsOMobs mods brings 25 new creatures to the world to make biomes a bit more realistic. You’ll find giraffes and elephants roaming the savannah and penguins and narwhals in arctic biomes.
There’s a newly added dinosaur biome that spawns several species of dinosaur. Also included are two new humans to encounter, including cavemen in the dino biome and Eskimos in arctic biomes.
7. Biomes O’Plenty
This mod changes up the variety of biomes available in Minecraft, with 80 new biomes available to explore. You can choose which biomes are added to the map if the variety is a little too much for you, so there are plenty of customization options available here.
In addition to the biome changes, the mod also adds a few extra tools, armor, food items, and building blocks of new materials.
The mod team behind Biomes O’Plenty is pretty prolific. They’ve created several Minecraft mods geared at creating a more realistic survival experience for players. If that interests you, be sure to check out the Tough as Nails mod, the arrow overhaul mod, and the better foliage mod.
8. BuildCraft
For builders who want to automate their resource gathering to the max, BuildCraft adds several automation options. Automated quarries, auto-crafting tables, and more allows players to create production lines for generating items to support a massive server.
BuildCraft is a very extensible mod that includes a range of options for modders. These add-ons for the mod are available to download from the BuildCraft website. Up-to-date add-ons include Iron Tanks and BC Ore Processing, which produces more ingots per block processed.
Some other outdated add-ons are available for download, but there’s no guarantee they will function correctly in updated versions of Minecraft. You should experiment with these at your own risk.
9. PneumaticCraft: Repressurized
PneumaticCraft adds several blocks to the game that operate using pressurized air to create a new system of operation. Air cannons, programmable drones, and assembly machines can be used to complement the automation tools in BuildCraft.
The mod adds a heat mechanic, with many machines buildable via the mod requiring heat to operate. Liquid fuel types have also been added to power many of the machines available in the mod. The fuel is derived from oil, which is added to the world when the mod is installed.
Because of the extensive changes the mod adds to the game, you’ll need to start a new world when installing PneumaticCraft.
10. Simply Jetpacks
The addition of horses, llamas, and donkeys has made terrain traversal much easier, but nothing beats a jetpack. This mod gives users a jetpack that is powered by redstone for instant bursts of flight. Think of how many times you could have saved yourself from a lava pit death if you had a jetpack. That’s right; you should have installed this mod ages ago.
The mod adds several different jetpacks with new abilities. Some jetpacks can provide extra armor and even negate fall damage.
Runner-Ups
There are so many amazing mods available for Minecraft that it’s hard to choose just the top ten. If you’re looking for more options, be sure to check out these mods:
Hats – Adds over 100 new hats to the game through randomly spawning on mobs in the game.
MineFactory Reloaded – You can turn anything into a factory using this mod. Breed animals or create musical compositions with its automated features.
ThaumCraft – Re-create Harry Potter by adding a magic system to Minecraft. This mod brings wands, additional golems, and new magic tools.
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