Created by Swedish developer Markus “Notch” Persson, the sandbox epic Minecraft has become a staple of modern gaming habits since its release back in 2011.
A decade later and people continue to explore in Minecraft.
Of course, the healthy Minecraft community online and on YouTube has helped keep the game relevant. But even that wouldn’t have flourished without mods that add an enormous amount of replayability and content.
Even now, countless modders continue developing Minecraft into the best looking, most enjoyable game it can be. And shaping it to suit their preferences.
To help you get to know the very best mods for this great title I’ve put together a thorough list ranking my favorites that any Minecraft player should try at least once.
Minecraft gives you the power to reshape the world around you, but some people want even more…
Power and change is the name of the game with Apotheosis, a mod that overhauls the enchantment system to expand your limits as a fledgling wizard.
It adds several potions and new enchantments that’ll give you the edge in sticky situations, and introduce some new challenges to put them to good use.
Expect something new in almost every aspect of the game.
It even adds an Altar of the Sea for you to recycle botched enchanted items.
Not only is Steve far from athletic, but the mountainous areas and near-vertical caves in the game are rich with chasms to cross and other perilous terrains.
Enter the Rope Bridge mod. This makes exploring the world easier by letting you fabricate hookshot-like items capable of instantaneously building a bridge or a ladder to help you get where you need to go.
Just make sure to carry enough materials for your entire expedition, or you might end up stranded on some cliff.
Sometimes, it’s the randomness in life that keeps things interesting.
Being procedurally generated, Minecraft is pretty random, but what if you want surprises to have a bit more of an impact?
Chance Cubes is a mod that drops a bunch of dice-looking blocks all over the world. Break them open and you’ll get a random reward… or something terrible might happen. From instantaneously building a mansion around you to summoning a horde of hungry zombies, everything is possible.
And if you’re too lazy to go exploring, you can always just make the blocks at home and set them off in your backyard.
The vanilla Minecraft experience is a pretty content-rich endeavor, with thousands of recipes to fabricate, bosses to slay and resources to obtain.
It’s easy to see why someone would feel like adding a complete overhaul on top of that would be too much.
An ideal option would be Quark, a fully-modular mod that aims to slightly improve the vanilla experience.
It focuses on small, seamless improvements, like being able to make buttons and pressure plates out of more materials. Or the possibility to compress some resources into block-form like you would diamonds or silver bars.
Having to run back to where you died to get your items is always stressful. Not only do you need to actually remember your former location, but there’s no guarantee the items will actually be there when you get there.
The Gravestone Mod aims to ease your worries by dropping a gravestone wherever someone dies, name-tagged and all.
Break it and you’ll find every single item they were holding when they met their untimely end.
It’s a must-have for combat-heavy multiplayer servers.
It was amazing when they added dog-taming to the game, giving players the chance to diminish the deafening sound of isolation when exploring their single-player worlds.
But time has passed and modern Minecraft players want more out of their cuboid canine friends. Doggy Talents scratches that itch by adding a new leveling system for dogs and overhauling the dog-raising experience.
You’ll play fetch with your dog, dye their collar your favorite color, and watch them grow into perfectly-trained good boys.
If you’re one of those people who’d rather spend their time enjoying the hum of machinery rather than playing with a puppy, then Immersive Engineering is the mod for you.
Guided by a retro-futuristic aesthetic similar to BioShock, this mod expands what an engineer could get away with building in Minecraft.
An example of new possibilities is building an excavator to pull ore from the earth for you, or a rock crusher to pulverize some materials.
It also adds powerlines and other elements that make tech feel much more realistic.
Chests are good enough to store excess ore and old pieces of armor. But do your everyday tools and precious resources really belong piled on top of each other in a wooden box?
Storage Drawers solves this conundrum by adding a wealth of new containers and furniture like, well, drawers.
They’re meant to be faster than sorting through chests, and also solve some issues like chests needing space above to function correctly.
You can also display your frequently used items on your walls thanks to special hangers, which makes finding them easier and more stylish.
Logic-defying trees have been a staple of Minecraft for a long time. We love them!
But that doesn’t mean we can’t improve them.
Dynamic Trees fleshes-out the tree-growing mechanics of the game, making our leafy friends develop gradually rather than just going from sapling to tree instantly after applying bonemeal.
They’ll need sun, fertile ground, and time.
These tweaks not only make trees look better, but makes the forests of Minecraft much different and more realistic.
OpenBlocks doesn’t have a specific mission statement – it just adds whatever blocks and tools the mod’s creators think would work in Minecraft, and they have pretty good taste.
You’ll find transport solutions like gliders and elevators, useful items like sleeping bags, and all-new machinery to bottle XP.
This mod adds so many random things, it’s a bit difficult to explain, but take my word for it. You’ll like what OpenBlocks has to offer.
Much like OpenBlocks, Reliquary adds many small items with a big impact.
This vast collection of magical items and blocks will turn your Minecraft into the world of medieval stories where heroes are forged by dangerous adventures and empowered by ancient relics.
They range from helpful QoL improvements like the Coin of Fortune, which helps you easily collect loot and XP, to mystical treasures like the Infernal Chalice… which not only carries lava but lets you walk through the magma unscathed as long as you hold it in your inventory.
Minecraft’s main single-player mode is called “Survival Mode”, but other than keeping yourself fed and not falling down a ravine and fracturing your legs, there’s not really much to worry about.
For a more immersive survival experience, Tough as Nails further develops these mechanics to include thirst, body temperature management, and more.
It also adds everything you’ll need to keep these in check, like campfires to keep yourself warm during the night. And even a canteen to carry purified water and keep hydrated.
For me, Survival Mode is best played exploring. Going from mountain to mountain, forest to forest, finding ruins, resources, and eventually, a beautiful locale that’s perfect for building my Minecraft retirement home.
Doomlike Dungeons makes the whole experience a little bit more interesting by scattering dungeons throughout the world, designed to resemble levels from old-timey 2D FPS games like the original Doom.
From frigid castles to massive hell vaults, you never know what palace of evil you’ll run into after the next corner.
In a very similar vein as the previous entry lies Roguelike Dungeons, which does the same but without the old-timey RPG aesthetic.
You’ll find these structures hidden throughout the Overworld, and their monster-ridden procedurally-generated layout will provide new challenges to overcome each time.
They’re often filled to the brim with loot.
So you’ll want to keep braving these sprawling lairs to acquire the best equipment and resources for your journey.
While the base game is full of endgame activities to pursue once you’ve mined your fair share, decked yourself up in diamond gear, and enchanted the hell out of everything, the grindy mid-game in your quest to slay the Ender Dragon can get pretty boring.
Tiny Progressions addresses the issue by adding many blocks and items to flesh-out this part of the single-player experience.
It provides low-level automation options like cobblestone generators, growth crystals to increase crop growth, and quite a bit more.
This mod makes the climb to the top much more interesting.
And keeps you looking forward to the next thing you’ll unlock.
An essential for anyone trying to build extensive urban areas, and other things for multiplayer servers, is WorldEdit.
This is an in-game map editor that lets you landscape terrain, copy structures, and generally streamline large building projects.
It also lets people share their own schematic packs online. So you’ll be able to download other people’s creations and port them to your own Minecraft.
It’s a must-have for anyone serious about designing worlds.
If rather than having mystical creatures you’d rather be the one with magical abilities, I’d recommend trying Astral Sorcery.
This is a mod that’ll let you harness the powers of starlight and constellations to cast great magic.
Everything in this mod is super-detailed.
It includes a complex gem-polishing system for use in crafting, items that’ll help you find caves underground and even spells to create dark areas where monsters can spawn.
Find shrines from ancient civilizations and learn the secret of their magic as you go through each chapter of your magical self-development journey.
I love mods that add complexity to the game’s world generation. It makes exploring and gathering resources a much more interesting and rewarding experience.
Additional Structures introduces over 150 new structures both big and small that you’ll find scattered around the world.
It’ll even add some stuff to The End!
From Snowmen up in the mountains to abandoned campsites, you’re sure to bump into many interesting finds on your next expedition.
Plus it’s easy to set up and compatible with most biome generation mods.
Another great mod that’ll add interesting structures to find on your travels is Waystones.
This will introduce large monolithic structures to your world to function as Fast Travel stations once activated.
You’ll also be able to build these waystones yourself wherever you need them, and there are items like the Warp Scroll which will teleport you back to any of the waystones from anywhere.
Not only will this streamline transportation between bases and the like for single-player, but it’s a fine tool to have for large multiplayer servers.
He shoots arrows like an Olympian, is a skilled fencer, practices magic, and has two green thumbs. The one thing he doesn’t do efficiently is moving.
Specifically, moving up anything higher than a block is completely out of the question. So you’re forced to destroy the landscape to climb anything.
Luckily the Advanced Hook Launcher mod can lend you a hand… or rather, a hook.
In fact, it adds several different hooks and launchers to pair up to suit your hook-shooting needs. Not only can you use them to climb like you’re Batman, but also to pull items, mobs, and other players toward you.
Whether you’re playing alone or running a multiplayer server, you’re sure to benefit from a way to manage your huge resource stockpiles efficiently.
Refined Storage offers you a network-based mass storage system, which means you’ll be able to access all of your resources from any node connected to the network. You have to build it first, of course.
It also adds an auto-crafting mechanic and other such amenities that can massively improve your quality of life when it comes to managing your resources.
Minecraft’s vanilla furniture options can seem considerably lacking by some standards, so modders have been working on their own additions from day one.
While originally focused solely on bookshelves, Bibliocraft has since expanded considerably, adding on displays like weapon cases, armor racks, and potion shelves that are both convenient and easy on the eye.
Creator Nuchaz is currently working hard on releasing an update for MC 1.14, so if you’re running that version, you might want to keep an eye on this one.
If you’re one of those kids that got straight A’s on anything science-related, Applied Energistics 2 has a lot in store for you.
It’s a mod about energy and matter, which introduces some robust automation tools, useful distribution mechanisms, and other blocks and items that rely on manipulating the transformation of energy to function.
Some people like magic in their Minecraft. But science is where it’s really at.
Fishing in games such as Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley has always been one of my favorite activities.
So I’m obviously all for mods upping the Minecraft fishing experience.
Aquaculture 2 does just that by adding over 30 new fish species that spawn depending on the biome, and some new rods with new features like equipping hooks and bait.
Keep fishing and you may hook something more than delicious sea creatures.
Neptune’s bounty lies in the bottom of the sea, waiting to be found along with his weapons and armor.
Once you’ve gotten familiar with the ins and outs of vanilla Minecraft, you may want to add a little bit of extra depth to the game’s mechanics. It keeps things interesting!
Extra Utilities does just that: opening the doors to machinery like water pumps, complex piping, and lots of new automation possibilities.
This mod adds a whole lot of things.
Which makes it hard to boil it all down to a brief description. But I’m sure you’ll enjoy every minute you pour into getting to know Extra Utilities, just give it a whirl and see what you think!
Has grass ever come between your weapon and landing a vital blow against an enemy?
Given it’s a block like every other, tall grass will take a hit before breaking, shielding whoever is on the other side and making it impossible to fight fairly in heavy-grass areas.
For anyone running a multiplayer server focused on combat, Swing Through Grass is an essential mod that allows you to… well, swing through the grass without hitting it.
Keeping yourself fed and avoiding damage are the two main aspects of survival in Minecraft, maybe the only ones, so it’s in your best interest to as much detailed information about them as you can.
AppleSkin helps you in adding visual cues for hidden systems governing hunger in the game, such as saturation.
It also adds nutritional information to each food item.
Which you can check out on a tooltip when running your mouse over them on your inventory. Neat!
What determines the development of a society is often the sophistication of their technology. And Mekanism is the mod your Minecraft community needs to stay at the vanguard.
Once installed, many complex machines will now be a possibility.
Want to fly around in a jetpack? Got it.
Don’t want to mine anymore? Let the automated Digital Miner do it.
It even introduces a robot follower called Robit!
It really is an elevated experience in comparison with the primitive vanilla Minecraft, and you’ll have a rough time ever going back.
Magic-related mods are a dime a dozen in the Minecraft modding community.
But few achieve the level of popularity as Botania, a wizardry mod featuring “natural magic” as its core concept.
It features pleasing visuals and very minimalist effects which keeps the game from feeling stuffy. Even during the most complex rituals.
All the information you need to start raising magical flowers and crafting nature-powered devices is found in-game in the Lexica Botanica, the mod’s companion literature which you can consult at any given time.
Many mods offer to enrich the biodiversity of your game, but few have the prestige and community backing of Animania, which replaces and improves all passive animals in Minecraft.
Not only does the mod add a great variety of extra breeds for existing species, but plenty of new animals altogether.
Animal AI is also tweaked so they’ll spawn in diverse locations and act differently.
Among my favorite features of the game are the many horned sheep breeds – which look plain bad-ass – and the possibility of choosing whether to farm Angus cows for their meat, or good-old stereotypical Holsteins for their milk.
The vanilla world generator has so many variables and possible outcomes.
It’d be impossible to run out of new worlds to explore.
That said, sometimes we’re looking for a big change that’ll guarantee a new experience, and tweaking the world generator is often the way to go.
Open Terrain Generator is a fully customizable mod that lets you design worlds with rather specific parameters. Anything from cave worlds to floating islands is possible, all with new challenges to overcome and novel creative possibilities.
Even if you’re not the type to spend a couple of hours designing their world with great detail, you can download pre-made worldpacks by other users.
There are even some uploaded by the devs themselves!
If you thought we’d run out of magical mods, you underestimate humanity’s desire to escape their boring, physically limited existence.
Thaumcraft introduces the concept of Thaumaturgy, which enables you to work “miracles”… or in other words, do magic.
Just craft a wand and you’ll be well on your way to discovering the secrets of Essentia, the primordial energy found within all objects, and using it to reshape the world around you.
When it comes to player housing mods in other open-world games such as Fallout 4 or Skyrim, a nice amount of meaningless décor and clutter is what makes a space feel like a home.
With Decocraft you can now bring the same level of detail to your Minecraft constructions, making your home comfier and your structures flashier overall.
It’s got over 3,000 entirely new decorations ranging from shiny ornamental armor displays to eating utensils and everything in-between. Give it a look and see what you think.
Some of the most essential mods for any self-respecting miners are also among the simplest.
HWYLA is a fork of the classic What Am I Looking At (or WAILA), a UI improvement that adds a discreet tooltip at the top of the screen with extra information about any block you’re looking at.
This way you don’t have to work in the dark whenever you encounter an unusual block.
Well Biome Bundle is nothing more than a World Pack for that mod, adding a bunch of custom biomes and structures to be spawned as the world is generated.
It’s one of the most widely-used biome-related mods, adding over 400 original biomes and structures for the system to generate.
This includes new dungeons and ruins for the player to explore (and loot).
From red canyon areas to the blue seas of the Caribbean, Biome Bundle will add a lot of variety to the landscapes you’ll run into while exploring the world of Minecraft.
Another great option for biome generation is Traverse, a mod focused on adding landscapes that are fun to explore.
It introduces 17 entirely new and diverse biomes ranging from humid jungles to arid highlands, or something a bit less hostile such as a snowy forest.
The reason I value Traverse a bit more than Biome Bundle is that developer ProspectorDev continues working on it constantly to keep it functional as Minecraft moves forward and releases new updates.
If what you’re looking for is polishing the vanilla experience to its smoothest, then UI improvements such as Just Enough Items are an absolute must.
It enhances inventory management, and more importantly, provides a much easier way to view your crafting recipes that’s minimalist yet easy-to-use.
All this while maintaining very stable performance.
It’s also incredibly useful for those running several mods that add new items and recipes to the game, as it makes it easy to keep track of everything you can make.
Biomes O’ Plenty is the single most popular biome generation mod in Minecraft. And it’s been that way for a very long time.
This wonderful mod adds the “Biomes O’Plenty” world type during world generation phase.
If chosen, your new world will include several new biomes both on the Overworld and the Nether.
It may not be a new concept, but the number of custom flowers, trees, and other vegetation to populate these biomes sets this mod apart, and it looks especially wonderful if installed along with the recommended texture packs.
One of the most complex and layered tool mods for Minecraft has to be Tinker Construct, which doesn’t only add a bunch of useful customizable tools, but the means to fabricate them from scratch.
There’s a Part Builder to make modules that you can combine into tools using a Tool Station, and a Smeltery to produce parts from many different materials.
What’s so good about mods like Tinkers Construct is that the challenge involved in getting the tools are enough for it to remain fair and feel organic.
If you’re looking to spice up your single-player creations or give the denizens of your multiplayer server some more freedom to customize their constructions, Chisel mod might be worth a try.
It adds a huge variety of decorative “chiseled” blocks, which are aesthetically diverse versions of the building blocks already present in vanilla.
This contributes to maintaining a decidedly “Minecraft” look rather than changing it fundamentally as some texture packs do.
Some of us just need that little bit of extra locational awareness provided by a mini-map, so Xaero’s Minimap has become a bit of a staple among miners.
Especially in multiplayer servers.
What sets this apart from other mini-maps is the ability to place waypoints and see where other players and entities are in your immediate surroundings, much like you would in a shooter like Call of Duty.
One of the most ambitious city-related mods for Minecraft is Mine Colonies, which doesn’t only enrich the game’s cities’ architecture, but can turn your game into a bit of a city-building simulator the likes of Port Royal or even SimCity.
It includes a wealth of craftables, new structures to place in cities, and other stuff you can manage to guide your colony towards prosperity.
As a citizen of the colony, you’ll get to meet a bunch of NPCs that populate these settlements.
Bakers, miners, and deliverymen are only some of their professions, which they practice in great detail day after day.
But there’s one that stands out as a very complete and cohesive expansion to vanilla Minecraft.
The Twilight Forest opens the doors to a mystical forest of magic, full of dungeons to conquer and boss battles to overcome.
Just build a well surrounded by flowers, drop a diamond and you’re in!
As you play through this mod, you’ll get to marvel at many new mobs like the mythical minotaurs and terrifying mosquito swarms, along with fearsome bosses like the Lich and the Hydra.
Defeat them and you’ll be rewarded with plenty of unique loot.
Another amazing expansion to the base game is Pam’s HarvestCraft, which gives living off the land a renewed appeal by tweaking the way eating and restoration work together.
To stay healthy and fed, you’ll need to eat all kinds of varied foodstuffs.
And Pam’s HarvestCraft provides in the form of 80 new crops, 50 new fruit & item-bearing trees, and plenty of new fish.
You can even keep bees for their honey!
The mod adds some new cooking recipes as well, and you can even make vegan recipes with tofu if you’re so inclined.
While some of us are happy enough with our toaster of a laptop running Minecraft, others would rather have the option to put their pro gaming rigs to work like they’re meant to.
Even in this blocky paradise.
OptiFine is the first mod anyone brave enough to start modding their game should install.
It not only improves Minecraft visually but increases performance and stability too.
It supports HD textures, shaders, and dynamic lights among other things. It’s really ideal if you’re looking for a purely graphical update but want to keep the core Minecraft aesthetic intact.
Navigating the extensive procedurally-generated landscapes of Minecraft can get confusing the more you get away from your starting position.
Even if you’ve got exceptional three-dimensional navigation skills.
JourneyMap is a simple but essential mod that takes care of real-time mapping for you, both in-game and on a browser window.
It includes both mini-map and full-screen functionality, and it’s incredibly easy to set up both for personal use or on a server-wide scale.
It may not be flashy or content-heavy.
But it’s been a key part of Minecraft mod development for a while, and it’s definitely one of the very best user-generated add-ons available for the game to date.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
