The Best Minecraft Mods That Make The Game a Lot More Fun
Long time players of Minecraft know that in itself, it’s a very basic game. The open-world, block-based sandbox game only has so much you can do before it becomes a chore game after game. You build your first dirt hut, and then it folds out into a nice mansion, or a secure fortress. However you play, though, it does inevitably get stale. That’s when you know you need to enhance your gaming experience. The best way to do this?
Mods.
Mods are additions, changes, or modifications to the base Minecraft game. They add new worlds, new monsters, new food items, and sometimes, even new ways to play. Mods are a great way to breathe new life into the daily grind that we all know and love.
Mods are cool. How do I install them?
Mods can’t just be added to the vanilla game, sad to say. You need something called a Mod Loader. One such mod loader is Minecraft Forge, which allows you to quickly and easily install mods. First, grab the latest version of Forge here, and then run the .exe when it’s finished downloading. This will put the right libraries into your .minecraft folder (located in your super secret %appdata% roaming folder.). Then, boot up Minecraft and change the profile to that version of Forge.
Then hit play.
You may have noticed you haven’t actually loaded any mods. This is because you need to run Forge at least once to get the configurations and libraries and .dlls all sorted out. This will also make the super important “mods” folder in your .minecraft, which is where you’re going to stick your downloaded mods. Unfortunately, Forge has only been updated to 1.12.2, so you don’t get all the cool things that come with the latest Minecraft update. Yet.
Need mods? This list will give you my personal recommendation for the top 15 mods you need to try right now!
15. Metamorph
This sheep looks unassuming, but it holds numerous weapons with which to fight.
Creator’s YouTube Channel Here!
Do you wish you could be something you’re not, like a sheep, or a bird? Now you can, with the Metamorph mod! This mod allows you to turn into the very mobs you end up killing every day, and use them to your advantage. Metamorph allows you to morph into a new mob (scroll through the list using ‘[“ and ‘]”, and select morph with “enter”)
Why is this so cool? For one, you get the health and abilities of the mob your essentially cosplaying. Want to be a squid? Enjoy a life of complete underwater breathing. Like to fly? Be a bat or a bird and the sky is yours. You also get to be enemies too! Zombies and skeletons, creepers, even the Ender Dragon!
However, all morphs have weaknesses. If you’re a skeleton caught in the sunlight, prepare to be burned. Pressing your action button (default “V”) allows you to use your mobs ability, but if you’re a creeper morph, you can see how this might end badly.
14. Just Enough Items
Everything that you need, right in front of you.
Just Enough Items, or JEI, is a complete recipe mod for survival or creative mode. Simply load this mod in, and you will never forget how to make those complex machines ever again (looking at you, hoppers, dispensers, and beacons). JEI is ideal for new Minecrafters, or those of us with way too many mods on our machines.
JEI supports most mods and their recipes, making it a great tool for mods where the recipes aren’t very clear. Because JEI simply looks for item recipes, it is compatible with mods that add new items. This mod is a great reference tool, and because it’s a client-side mod, should be able to be used on servers without issue.
13. Pam’s HarvestCraft
Make sandwiches, jams, fritatas and more with Pam's HarvestCraft!
Pam’s HarvestCraft turns Minecraft into a viable farming simulator, with the addition of 60 crops, and over 1400 food and items. This is a huge mod, but it is so necessary if you don’t want to eat steak and pork chops for dinner every evening. However, with these new foods, there comes a price: farming is tedious, and in a lot of cases, you’re not going to know what to do with all of the wheat, rye, and asparagus you’ve just harvested.
Once you’re done farming, you can get to the cooking aspect of the mod.Having the ability to make sandwiches and cakes and juices gives more depth to a rather tiresome chore, and if you want to pretend you’re a lone farmer in a hostile world, this mod is an absolute must. It’s also fun to wander through the world and pick up literally everything you come across.
12. Mr Crayfish’s Furniture Mod
Make your house a home with lots of cool looking furniture
A dirt house is a great first residence, but soon enough, you may need to move out. Perhaps you want to start your homestead, or create a mansion to lord over the small village you’ve mercilessly ransacked. Well, no house is complete without furniture. Sure, you could make some stairs and place them around in vague furniture shapes, but no, that’s not good enough.
Mr. Crayfish’s Furniture mod is like IKEA in block form - you have beds, curtains, lights, fans, kitchen utilities, sinks, and even a toilet (pro tip, press default “G” for some hilarious fun).Everything you need is here to make your house a home.
All of the appliances are functional, and can be used to perform such tasks as repairing tools and armor (you do have to make laundry soap to make this work). The oven cooks food, the bed sets your spawn, and there’s even a computer to spend those emeralds you get doing chores for the villagers.
11. Biomes O’ Plenty
Chart your way across the open ocean, and find lands both strange and familiar.
This is a beast of a mod, adding numerous new and exciting biomes for you to explore, each with their own blocks, decorations, and mobs to fight. No longer will you have to go through endless deserts, plains, and hills just to find an exciting biome to build your base; Biomes O’ Plenty has gorgeous vistas and deep forests, towering trees and blooming bushes.
But why download this mod? First of all, why wouldn’t you? Secondly, it offers many new places to explore, and if you’re the type to wander around the world, never staying in one place long like some kind of blocky lone ranger, this is a great mod to get some beautiful screenshots for your desktop background.
When generating your world, make sure that you set your initial world settings to “Biomes O’ Plenty” world type, because otherwise the new biomes won’t load, and you’ll be wandering around in vanilla biomes wondering if this entire article was just leading you on.
10. Doomlike dungeons
Do you like loot, mining, and dying? You'll love this mod!
If you like danger, loot, and wandering underground for hours on end, then Doomlike Dungeons is the mod for you. What does it add? Dungeons that resemble the old DOOM levels. You have narrow corridors, lava, monsters around every corner.. The only thing you don’t have is your BFG, which, let’s be honest, would really help clearing out the creepers from a distance.
Doomlike Dungeons creates labyrinthine dungeons underground, and are virtually indistinguishable from regular caves with a few exceptions. If you find doorways, narrow hallways, and hear the sound of Blazes, you have probably stumbled upon one of these dungeons. Have no fear! Simply take up your sword and charge in screaming! After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
The dungeons are hard to find as they’re underground, and chances are you aren’t going to see one right away. However, if you’re really impatient, you can use the command /dldspawn to force a dungeon to spawn somewhere beneath you. Then, it’s just a matter of digging straight down into the depths until you hear an unusual number of mobs beneath you.
9. Embers
Spend even more time underground in this magical mod
Magic meets the Industrial Revolution in Embers. This mod adds a unique twist to crafting, with some super fun additions. To get started, locate the little golem huts around the world. You only need to defeat one to craft this mod’s codex. From there, you need to build a quarry down at the bedrock layer - this is where the ever valuable Ember Shards are. You will need these to power your eventual weapons. And those weapons are as cool as fire is hot.
You can craft a staff, a ray gun, and a hammer to name a few. Embers also implements some form of magic, so if you really want to get into this mod in a big way, that’s most certainly something to explore. The armor looks neat, and while it isn’t the strongest, it does help complete your magical overlord look.
Coupled with mods such as Metamorph (which is how I love to play) you can fly above those pesky monsters and explode them with a fireball from a safe distance. Need to hunt the Ender Dragon? Equip the ray gun and turn into a parrot. Then destroy the Ender Dragon as normal, collect the morph, and now you’re invincible. No, this isn’t cheating what are you on about? Perfectly legit.
8. V0id’s Smart Backpacks
Hoarders will love this fabulous mod, allowing them to carry even more!
V0id’s Smart Backpacks is a very well made backpack mod. If you’ve ever found yourself down in the caves, and have run out of space due to the stacks on stacks of cobblestone you’ve accrued, then you know how valuable a backpack is. You can easily store all of your tools, ores, stone, and interesting finds in your backpack, and then, once you have the materials, you can upgrade it to get a bigger space.
It’s one of the better backpack mods out there; wear it with armor, upgrade, color, and adventure without worry. The only issue is that it does not drop as a block on death, so if you fall into lava, that is tough cookies for you.
Of course, you can rectify this with an in-game gamerule command, but where’s the fun in that? Smart Backpacks includes modules that not only make it so your backpack stays equipped on death, but there are a boatload of other modules as well (smelting, sorting, and stacking to name a few). All in all, a very useful mod with additions that are desperately needed in the base game. C’mon Mojang, give us vanilla backpacks!
7. Chisels and Bits
Big blocks not enough for you? Use bits and make your creations really stand out
Do you wish you could have better looking fountains? Outer wall paneling for your house? Detailed statues depicting your most epic conquests? Chisels and Bits is a mod that allows you to literally chisel away at a block to get the desired shape. It can be tedious, at times, but Chisels and Bits is the mod to go to when you want the ultimate customization over your builds.
It comes with a few tools to get started; chisels to carve out bits, and a diamond saw to hack your blocks into halves, quarters, eighths, and so on. With this mod, you can create large scale structures, or fine tune your chair furniture (unless you download a furniture mod like the one mentioned above).
Overall, this is a fabulous mod for the creative Minecrafters, as it provides more freedom to do. Just be warned that bits are not indestructible, so either play on peaceful or guard your work well. After that, prepare to spend hours perfecting your creations, and ultimately forget what it was you were trying to make in the first place.
6. Vampirism
Enjoy solitude as a Vampire, until your Hunter friends decide your time is up.
Vampires are dreaded creatures of the night, but did you know that you can play as one in Minecraft? The Vampirism Mod allows you to not only turn into a vampire, but also possess the abilities of one.. Turn into a bat! Suck blood! Fizzle in the daylight! It’s all yours!
Vampires not your thing? How about vampire hunters? Equip your stake and go out hunting for thoses despicable creatures, saving your village and becoming a hero.
Or just create the cool weapons and slaughter for fun, I don’t judge.
This mod has been adding things little by little, such as new weapons, workbenches, and items to further your plans to create a million little vampires, or exterminate the existing covens throughout the world. There’s a certain finesse to the game, and not everything is spelt out for you which makes it hard to progress at times, but it is well worth it.
Vampirism has its own wiki, so if you ever get lost, there are more than enough resources to get you going in the right direction. This mod has crafting, items, and a new biome that allows you to hunt for bigger and stronger vampires. Which you will need inevitably to advance to the next tier of your chosen profession.
5. Aether II
Fabulous lands and blocks for you to uncover.
The Aether II mod adds a brand new dimension to Minecraft - the Aether. What essentially amounts to heavenly islands makes for a great new biome to run around in and explore. There are new NPC’s with unique dialogue, custom art and story, and all new mobs to play with or slay at your leisure. Structures in the Aether are all hand-crafted to fit with the biome, and the work the dev put in shows.
The Aether II is a sequel of sorts to the original Aether mod, so players familiar with Aether may see some similarities with Aether II. New players will enjoy crafting new items, such as weapons and armors, from the new ores and wood that can be found high in the sky.
4. Xaero’s Minimap
Prone to dying? Need to remember a location? This minimap is for you
If you ever find yourself lost, and aren’t sure which way to return home (because, as we all know, compasses are only good for your original spawn point), Xaero’s minimap is a must have. Not only do you have the ability to reference a small squarish minimap in the corner of your screen, but this mod also gives you the capability to make waypoints, log your death points, and explore without fear of getting lost.
Honestly, even if you don’t play with mods all that much, this is a must have for the avid adventurer. We all have come across that one really cool thing that we swear we’ll get back to, only to forget the coordinates three days later. No more! Download the minimap. Thank me later.
3. IndustrialCraft 2
The best mod there is for advanced machines and unintended griefing potential.
Have you ever wanted to automate things, such as sorting items into chests, or cooking food in a furnace? Have you ever wanted to build a nuclear reactor? And then inevitably have it explode because you have no idea how to set it up? Do you want to take Minecraft to the extreme?
Of course you do! That’s why this mod is here!
Industrial Craft 2 is for Minecrafters who have nothing else to do in the base game, and want to tinker with tubes, pipes, wires, and solar panels to create the ultimate fortress. Build a quarry to do your mining for you, or, as mentioned above, build a nuclear reactor and have energy for years without fail.
There’s a bit of a steep learning curve with this mod, but it’s so worth it to see your machines come together and work as intended. Great for servers too, as you can all work together to create the ultimate SUPER LAB.
2. Cooking For Blockheads
A functional kitchen? In MY Minecraft? Oh yeah!
This is, in essence, a kitchen mod. Cooking for Blockheads makes it very easy to see and create the recipes present in Minecraft, as well as those accessible through other mods, by crafting a recipe book. It adds a dimension of roleplaying to Minecraft’s cooking mechanic, and it’s great for when you can’t seem to remember how many eggs and sugars goes into a cake.
This mod is entirely compatible with Pam’s HarvestCraft, and works quite well with it. Since HarvestCraft adds not only a boatload of new raw ingredients, but also hundreds of new recipes, it can be hard to keep track of it all. Cooking for Blockheads makes it simple to let out your inner chef.
1. TreeChopper
Deforestation: The Mod.
Trees. Every Minecrafter’s first obstacle. You punch a tree, get a single block of wood. But don’t you wish it was easier than getting a tree block by block? Thankfully, this mod exists for the latest Forge version. Simply equip your axe of choice and chop a block of wood to make it rain resources.
The bigger the tree is, the longer it takes to chop down, and the durability of your axe depletes as though you had individually cut down each block of wood, but the speed boost for cutting down trees in this manner is absolutely worth running through two or three diamond axes.
Mods make everything more awesome!
So there you have it; 15 Minecraft Mods that make everything more awesome. Whether you’re looking to spruce up your living space, or you want new and more fantastical worlds to explore. Or you just like chopping down trees like a crazed lumberjack (guilty), there is a mod for everyone to spice up their Minecraft playing.
This list was in no particular order, but they are all mods that have offered hours of fun for many different players. Just make sure that you have the right version of Forge installed, and it is correct in your launcher.
