So are you tired of playing vanilla Minecraft over and over again, or do you maybe want to spice up gameplay on a server you’re hosting with your friends? Whichever one of these is your case, I’ll present to you some of the best Minecraft mods you can find out there – I divided them all into 7 categories so you can navigate through this article easily.
There’s everything for anyone and should satisfy your curiosity, at least for a little bit. Because these mods are worth downloading and there’s a high possibility you haven’t heard of, not a lot, but let’s say plenty of them.
If you want to install mods into Minecraft you’ll need to download and install Forge into the game.
Categories:
Vanilla+
If you don’t want to modify your game too much but rather want some light additions that’ll retain the vanilla feeling of Minecraft, then take a look at this selection of mods.
MoreVanillaTools
MoreVanillaTools will help you put a lot of materials you may have in bulk to use, such as redstone or quartz. It’s not a heavy mod and it adds a huge variety of different weapons and tools you can easily create at almost any point in the game. And it’s really fun to see stuff like the emerald sword and obsidian pickaxe.
Vanilla Cookbook
Minecraft food can sometimes be really bland and not really that exciting to make or find. But this mod adds over 80 new dishes, 8 new cakes, pancakes, brownies, and all other sorts of sweet delights you can easily make in the game. The foods are well done and some are done in a very creative way.
VanillaTweaks
VanillaTweaks is one of those mods that doesn’t add much to the game but it secures some really important quality-of-life features that can completely change some aspects of the game, and in a good way. You can configure a lot of the settings and set them to your liking – it makes your vanilla experience fully customizable.
MoreVanillaArmor
Just like the MoreVanillaTools, the MoreVanillaArmor Minecraft mod will add a big variety of new armors you can make out of the vanilla materials you’re already too familiar with. Instead of being limited to only a few armor choices and being forced to wear netherite or diamond armor for maximum protection, now you’ll be able to add even more flavor to your wardrobe.
CoFH: Vanilla+ Tools
While this mod doesn’t add a ton of interesting things like the last few, CoFH: Vanilla+ Tools adds hammers, sickles, and various different types of shears, fishing rods, bows, and shields to the game. This mod feels like vanilla Minecraft but with just a few extra recipes, and some of these tools are nifty to have during a playthrough.
Vanilla+ Biomes
A lot of biome mods add tons of items and blocks that alter the original Minecraft vanilla experience or may cause additional lag to low-end PCs. That’s why this mod focuses on only using the vanilla blocks and items for over 50 new biomes that make the default biome generation way more fun to explore and venture through.
Geophilic
If you’ve taken a look at the Vanilla+ Biomes mod (the one right above) and feel like over 50 new biomes is maybe too much for you, well, take a look at this! Geophilic improves the vanilla biomes with small but significant tweaks here and there that were inspired by what was supposed to end up in the Wild Update. It won’t alter the vanilla experience too much – rather it’s a well done addition to the game.
Weapons
Everyone loves more weapons and more ways to kill other players and mobs. They’re one of the things that makes Minecraft fun and worth playing, so if you’re looking to get armed with some great mods (and weapons too), take a look at this selection.
MrCrayfish’s Gun Mod
MrCrayfish’s Minecraft mods are always one of the best you can find on the internet, but I really didn’t know he even had a gun until recently. Unlike some gun mods, this one is pretty simple and it adds nine unique weapons that you can fully customize and add attachments to make them better.
Tinkers Construct
Tinkers Construct has to be probably one of the most well known Minecraft mods, but for those who don’t know, it’s one of the best that exists out there. The reason why it’s the best is that it allows you to create and modify so many different weapons and tools through smelting metals, making all sorts of alloys, and assembling the parts into whatever you want. I’d say it’s a must have in a playthrough, because once you get the hang of it it’s the most fun thing in the world to experiment with.
Flan’s Mod: Reloaded
Everyone who has been into Minecraft mods since the early days has definitely heard of Flan’s Mod, probably one of the most famous gun mods out there. Now it’s available again, rebuilt from scratch, with tons of guns, magazines, bullets, attachments, parts, NPCs, and workbenches that make the gun customization experience much more enjoyable than some of the other gun mods that exist out there.
Spartan Weaponry
Are you yearning for some traditional medieval weapons? If you are then that’s perfect because Spartan Weaponry adds more than enough weapons like rapiers, warhammers, halberds, cestus, and other interesting stuff that can be made with the traditional basic Minecraft materials. It’s nice to have a huge variety of weapons because they all have their special quirks and benefits.
Marium’s Soulslike Weaponry
I personally love the Soulsborne series and I’m sure most people who play Minecraft are able to agree with me. That’s why I wanted to put Marium’s Soulslike Weaponry mod on this list as a great weapons mod because it adds plenty of really epic weapons that completely change how the game is essentially played. With over 40 legendary weapons and even new bosses you can fight – Minecraft’s endgame is significantly expanded.
MC Dungeons Weapons
I was always upset about how the content we can see in Minecraft Dungeons would most likely not make it into the main game, at least not anytime soon, until I saw this series of mods. MC Dungeons Weapons adds the weapons from Minecraft Dungeons straight into the normal version of Minecraft – the creator of this mod also made mods that integrate Minecraft Dungeons Armors, Artifacts, and Enchanting.
Epic Knights: Shields, Armor and Weapons
People definitely used to be more chivalrous back in the day. So that’s why chivalry will be brought back into your Minecraft world as soon as you try out the Epic Knights mod, which adds really well done shields, accurate knight swords, and armor that are perfect for any medieval setting. In my opinion, this mod would go really well with a medieval texture pack and some RPG-like world generation.
Performance
Minecraft is quite an unoptimized game that definitely needs a modification to run well if you’re using a weaker PC. So feel free to take a look at some of the mods that’ll make your game run better in several ways.
OptiFine
OptiFine is one of the most well known Minecraft mods so I doubt it needs a concrete explanation. But for those who don’t know, OptiFine is a Minecraft mod (and a version you can install) that’ll optimize your game and severely increase your FPS. You usually don’t need to configure the setting for it to run properly, but you can play around and easily tweak some stuff to see whatever floats your boat the best.
ModernFix
ModernFix is one of those performance mods you must have if you want to run multiple high-demanding mods at once or a modpack. ModernFix in most of the modpacks will launch the game as twice as fast when it’s installed, and apparently, it can even run modpacks like All The Mods 8 with just 3GB of allocated memory, and maybe even less. It’ll really help you out, and if you’re curious about the mod’s code you can find it on GitHub as ModernFix is open-source.
Chunk Pregenerator
Chunk Pregenator is a great mod because it can preemptively generate chunks which makes world generation much more bearable and easier to do. You can use this mod both in singleplayer and multiplayer – if loading chunks is something you have a problem with in general then you should use this mod.
RPG
I love RPG games, and in my opinion they’re the best video game genre out there. So why not integrate it with Minecraft?
RpgDifficulty
If you reached the Minecraft endgame and started to think how mobs have become more of a nuisance than a hard challenge, I’d suggest you download RpgDifficulty. What this mod does is it increases the difficulty of mobs over time, which means the more you progress the harder it’ll be for you to fight enemies. It’ll add more difficulty to the game if that’s something you’re searching for.
Pickable Health Orbs
Pickable Health Orbs is a useful mod that’s compatible with the majority of modpacks and mods that add into the game health orbs which are dropped by certain entities. They’ll heal the player or give him other potion effects, and do it in a fun RPG-like style that has a nice rewarding feel to it.
Iron’s Spells ‘n Spellbooks
Do you want to be a wizard or a witch? Well, now your wish can be fulfilled with the Iron’s Spells ‘n Spellboks mod which brings a classic spellcasting RPG experience right into your Minecraft world. It adds over 80 spells you can upgrade, 11 wizard armor sets plenty of new randomly generated structures, new enemies, and even a boss fight.
Traveler’s Titles
There isn’t much to say about Traveler’s Titles other than that the mod creates a unique RPG feeling with just a simple feature of displaying a biome title whenever you enter a new one. It supports all modded biomes and the text is completely customizable so you can set it up according to your own liking.
Waystones
Fast traveling is one of God’s biggest blessings. The Waystones mod makes sure you can experience that same blessing in Minecraft as well like in any other RPG game – you can craft your own waystones or even find some scattered throughout your Minecraft world. It’s perfect for traveling across long distances in basically a second, especially if you’re playing in multiplayer.
Ice and Fire: Dragons
What would be an RPG world without dragons and other similar mythical beings? Ice and Fire: Dragons doesn’t only add dragons, but it also features pixies, gorgons, cyclopes, sirens, trolls, hydras, etc. It adds so much great content that can be easily combined with most of the mods on this list, which would honestly make an unforgettable Minecraft experience.
Dimensions
If you’re looking to create a modpack or find a fun mod that adds more dimensions to the game, you should check out the following dimension mods down below because they’re one of the most fun you can find.
Dimensional Doors
Dimensional Doors is one of the scariest mods I ever played in Minecraft. It’s a really old mod that most of old Minecraft players vividly remember, because of the horrors that these extra-dimensional pocket dungeons brought to them after accidentally dwelling into the deepest depths it has to offer.
The Aether
Aether is also such a classic and nostalgic mod that it’s impossible not to include it on a list like this. Before learning how to put mods into the game I feel like the majority of people have tried building an aether portal in vanilla Minecraft just to be bummed out because it obviously didn’t work. This mystical air dimension should in my opinion be added to the game, but that’s most likely never going to happen.
Blue Skies
Blue Skies is one of the dimension mods that really gives out the classic RPG game vibes, just because of the beautiful simplicity this mod contains. It’s full of new content, and places to explore and generally something I’d mix together with some of the RPG mods I mentioned earlier in this article.
The Twilight Forest
The Twilight Forest is also one of the classic Minecraft mods which I’m pretty sure everyone’s already aware of. The amount of stuff the Twilight Forest dimension has to offer is amazing, and my favorite thing about the mod is how old it actually is – and that authenticity really reminds me of how Minecraft used to feel back in the good ol’ days.
The Undergarden
If you like cave exploration and everything that’s hidden in the deep depths underground then you should probably check this mod out. With a completely different subterranean world that’s below the bedrock level of the Overworld – the landscapes of this dark realm are creepy yet they make you so curious you never want to stop exploring. It’s one of the most beautiful mods out there.
Building
Building is one of the things Minecraft is best known for and the sheer ability to customize the game so much has brought it so many mods that expand the building aspect of the game to another level.
Chipped
Do you wish to be able to customize blocks in such ways you could never imagine in vanilla Minecraft? With Chipped you’ll be able to do just that and more – you can unleash your creativity on most blocks in the game with this mod and its seven workbenches that make you able to transform various vanilla blocks into their cool chipped versions. This alone unlocks so many different build ideas and opportunities for you to make – it’s unreal!
Macaw’s Bridges
Building bridges in Minecraft can be really annoying, especially if you have a lot of things to connect and a lot of bridges to build. Macaw’s Bridges is a perfect solution to any problem related to making bridges because you can just place already-made neat-looking custom model bridges that are fairly customizable.
Storage Drawers
I love organizing things. For me, making storage rooms is the most annoying thing about a Minecraft playthrough, especially organizing them and figuring out what’s where because I just want to explore and fight stuff! Luckily the Storage Drawers mod makes this much easier and more fun by introducing drawers that you can easily label with items and that are more efficient and practical than regular chests.
MrCrayfish’s Furniture Mod
MrCrayfish’s Furniture Mod is also one of the Minecraft modding classics, considering how old this mod is. But it’s one of the most downloaded Minecraft furniture mods for a reason. It actually has really well made furniture that perfectly fits with the default Minecraft textures as it mostly consists of them or at least similar colors that blend with the aesthetic of Minecraft.
Immersive Engineering
The Immersive Engineering mod is basically a perfect choice for Minecraft engineering fanatics who are tired of redstone and want to switch to something harder and more rewarding like this mod and the technologies it brings into the game.
Create
But if you want something even more complex technology-wise then you should turn to the Create mod – it’s basically a Minecraft mod that makes you able to create all sorts of automated machines and tools to help you with building and automation. It’s insane when you take a deeper look into everything this mod can do – it makes automation so beautiful.
Paintings ++
Are you annoyed by the small roster of paintings that are present in Minecraft? Because if you are I think you’ll love the Paintings ++ mod. Because you can with fairly enough ease import your own custom images into the game to serve as paintings or just use the other ones people have composed and uploaded.
WorldEdit
I think everyone is familiar with WorldEdit because it’s one of the most recognizable mods that exists in Minecraft, and it’s especially useful for those who like building a lot or for those who are just looking to have fun or cause mayhem. With this mod, you can really step over any boundary that’s set on your creativity in Minecraft and practically just build whatever you want.
Misc
And for the end I have some interesting mods which I didn’t categorize into a specific category, rather I decided to put them under miscellaneous in case you’re looking for something a little bit different.
Not Enough Animations
Do you think Minecraft is perhaps not cinematic enough? If that’s what bothers you sometimes when you look at yourself in the game from the third perspective, well, I think I found a solution for you! The Not Enough Animations will give missing animations to your character and make its behavior much more pleasing to look at and natural – you’ll feel like you’re in a Minecraft cinematic video.
Corpse
I hate dying in the game. So naturally, the Corpse mod is one of my favorite mods I always include it in all of my playthroughs because of how practical it is – when you die, your items don’t splatter everywhere but rather remain still in your corpse, which you can go and visit to loot anytime you feel like it without feeling the pressure that your items will disappear.
Skin Layers 3D
I remember when they introduced skin layers into the game but they were not really what I was expecting to see. They still felt 2d and like more could be done about them, but then I found the Skin Layers 3D mod which basically takes skin layers to another level – to how they exactly should look. And the best thing is that this mod is also compatible with Not Enough Animations so you can really spice up how you see yourself and others in Minecraft.
Legendary Tooltips
Now this mod is really cool, especially if you’re trying to view some kind of legendary weapon from another mod – it gives hardcore RPG vibes which I love so much. What Legendary Tooltips does is quite simple but details in cases such as these matter a lot. It completely changes how item tooltips look and makes them much better and cooler.
Traveler’s Backpack
WHEN WILL THEY ADD BACKPACKS TO MINECRAFT???? Probably never, so that’s why this mod exists. These backpacks are done in a very creative way which I like a lot, and not only that they also have tier upgrades and you can wear them with your chestplate on as well. They also look pretty cool.
Nature’s Compass
Are you tired of relentlessly searching for that jungle biome, or for any other spectacular terrain you want to explore? Well, instead of getting straight coordinates of certain biomes in the game, there’s a more legit (and rewarding) way of doing so, and that’s by using Nature’s Compass! It’s not hard to get and you can easily navigate through it, but if you’re maybe specifically looking for a compass that tracks generated structures, you should probably check out Explorer’s Compass.
