Minecraft has been on the market for ten years now, and in that decade the game has gained a lot of hardcore fans. What manages to keep gaming communities alive for more than a decade is mods. Mods allow you to add user built customizations and tweaks to the game. Before all you veterans get offended, please bear with me for a minute. There are still newer players from the younger generations getting started with Minecraft, who may not know everything about mods. This article will run through the best Minecraft mods to install in 2020.
Best Minecraft Mods you can Install in 2020
OPTIFINE
If you aren’t pleased with the existing visual performance of the game then Optifine is the mod you need to install. Optifine basically allows your game to render HD textures and the results are a stunning Minecraft experience. The base game simply can’t compete with the improved textures. The benefits of this mod don’t end here. Optifine further optimizes the performance of the game to ensure that it runs smoother. The mod further allows you to adjust all these settings to your heart’s content as well. Just be warned however the mod will definitely need a powerful PC to run. The mod is available for download on the download section of the official website. Optifine is definitely one of the best Minecraft mods you should install as soon as possible.
If you don’t have a powerful PC, it’s no reason to worry. There’s another mod that you can install to get a better Minecraft experience.
FASTCRAFT Minecraft Mod
Fastcraft is a mod in a similar vein to Optifine. However, Fastcraft optimizes game performance for lower-end PCs. It helps improve FPS drastically and can also aid in maximizing graphical performance. Unlike optifine however, there isn’t any option to configure the settings of the Mod. The mod isn’t just for lower end PCs however you’re better off installing Optifine on the higher end models. If you decided to play Minecraft on an ancient device, then Fastcraft should be the first mod you download.
JourneyMap
The no map aesthetic that the Vanilla version of the game can get tiring after a bit. JourneyMap does what many gamers feel should be a part of the Vanilla game and adds maps to the game. These Maps aren’t just there to let you get an overview of where to go. The maps are fully interactive and allow you to place markers. Furthermore, another interesting feature is the Minimap that can show up on the side. The Minimap can be incredibly useful for dungeons and creative playthroughs.
Another mod that easily tries to fix something that was missing from the vanilla game. Other mods add maps as well that have similar features but a different UI. JourneyMap is however one of the most amazing Minecraft mods that you should download and try out. The popularity of the mod can also give you an indicator towards how compatible the mod is.
NOTENOUGHITEMS
The NotEnoughItems mod is one of the most popular Minecraft mods out there. If you’ve been an avid follower of the Minecraft community you may have seen the evolution of this Minecraft mod. This Mod successfully addresses one major feature that was missing from the vanilla game. It allows you to view crafting recipes. This mod saves you a lot of trouble by allowing you to see recipes. To view, the recipe for any item simply hover over it and press the R key. Pressing the key will reveal all the different ways the recipe can be crafted. Saving you the trouble of having to note recipes or going to various online forums to check them out.
The mod just doesn’t end here however, because the mod has been developing for so long it has an entire host of the features. These include an efficient inventory management and search system. The inventory management system also filters out your items in various categories. The mod is easily one of the best Minecraft mods out there and is an absolute must-have.
WAILA Minecraft Mod
Waila or What am I looking at is a mod that you may not need if you’re just starting out modding your game. If however, you have a ton of mods installed this mod can be a lot of help. The mod conclusively shows you whatever you’re looking at and can save a lot of trouble. The best part of the mod is that the information box is unobtrusive. The information box pops up on the top of your screen once you hover over an object. The box contains the name of the object, what is used to make the object, and what mod the object belongs to.
PAM’S HARVEST CRAFT
Pam’s Harvest Craft is a mod that adds to an already existing component of the game. It introduces 250+ new foods that are consumable in the game. The mod uses already existing vanilla textures and items in the game. It creates the 250+ new food items by merely creating new recipes. It’s a feature that helps add a bit more realism to your game. You will consume a whole host of different food items now and the mod is also a lot of fun.
DECOCRAFT Minecraft Mod
If the vanilla decorations in the game are not up to your standards and you’d like a bit more variety, this is the mod for you. Decocraft allows you much more significant variation in decoration pieces than the vanilla game offers. The decorations look a lot more realistic as well. At the core of the Decocraft mods are three clays, these clays will serve the basis of everything you can craft in the mod. The whole list of items you can craft is too long to list. The recipes are readily available on wikis online, and these will be your best friend through all your decorating adventures.
The mod is regularly updated as well, meaning that improvements to the textures and new designs are always around the corner.
BIBLIOCRAFT
Bibliocraft started as a simple bookshelf mod. Now though, Bibliocraft is one of the most comprehensive storage mods on offer. Another Minecraft mod that tackles a feature missing from the main game, it addresses the lack of storage facilities. The mod adds six aesthetically pleasing blocks that are craftable into different storage facilities. These include a bookshelf, an armor storage rack and a weapons display rack.
Adding the mod will allow you to add a lot to your player home. It will essentially allow you to create weapon displays that you can situate in your private quarters. Furthermore, the mod also features a lot of player interactions such as opening glass cases. The mod also has an author dedicated to continually upgrading and adding newer storage facilities as well.
BOTANIA Mod for Minecraft
On the surface, the Botania mod may merely seem like an aesthetic mod that adds a variety of different flowers to your game. The actual features of the mod, however, go much deeper than that. The mod attempts to use these magical flowers to draw from the Earths energy or Mana. The mod adds a hundred different items to your game that gives you a ton to explore as well. Getting started with the mod can be overwhelming, to address this the mod comes with a craftable guide. The guide can be crafted following instructions from the mods website and will serve as your starting point throughout the mod.
Botania classifies as an automation mod, yet using it is entirely different from other automation mods. The mods automation feels incredibly natural and looks incredibly aesthetically pleasing as well. There’s something magical about watching Mana flow around your base. The mod has high compatibility but is designed to run by itself.
GALACTICRAFT
GalactiCraft Mod is a revolutionary mod that adds a complete new dimension to the Minecraft game. As the name suggests it the mod opens up space exploration. Space exploration in Minecraft is something most players could only dream of when the game launched. Now through the power of mods that is finally possible.
GalactiCraft allows you to craft your spaceship and customize it as well. There are three different levels of space crafts you can access. Each level of spacecraft takes you to a different planet or area. These regions include the moon, Mars and an asteroid belt. Making the rocket is a lengthy process, and all the recipes are available on the download page of the mod. When developing the mod, the developer also left room for further additions to the mod. One such addition is the Galaxy space mod.
The Galaxy space mod adds six rockets and three additional star systems for you to explore. In addition to this, the add-on includes more enemy mobs and boss fights as well. The GalactiCraft Minecraft mod is one of the most popular and must download mods out there. We guarantee that you’ll put several hours into exploring the galaxy in Minecraft.
CHISEL 2
A mod for all of you out there that find the vanilla block textures in the game not artistically pleasing enough. The Chisel 2 Minecraft mod adds more than 60 textures to the basic blocks in the game. These new textures are much more artistic than the vanilla textures in the game. The mod allows you to fulfill all your creative desires and make your game look incredible compared to the vanilla version.
The mod works in an incredibly simple manner; the first step to start your artistic building is crafting a chisel. Crafting the tool is incredibly simple; all you need is wood and some iron. After this you can use the chisel on your basic block to open the chisel menu. The chisel menu allows you to quickly pick the sixty plus textures to make your building experience much better.
CARPENTERS BLOCKS
Building in the game will always have a ceiling because of the blocks. The vanilla version of the game only features cube-shaped blocks. It becomes incredibly annoying using these blocks and trying to make angular structures. Carpenters blocks addresses the problem by adding newer shaped blocks into the game. These blocks include slant blanks and other customs shapes such as beds. Another mod that helps elevate the creative capacity of your game.
The new shapes of the block allow you to create massive complex structures easily. Carpenters blocks make it much easier to create a world that will have people gawking. The mod is also in line with the vanilla textures of the game, ensuring that everything you create seems canon.
LOTSOMOBS
LotsOMobs is a Minecraft mod that adds a variety of new animals to your game. The number of animals added in the mod is higher than 25. Some of the animals included in the mod are lions, dinosaurs, penguins, and a variety of sea creatures as well. The Mod isn’t just a simple aesthetic mod either, it has a lot of interactive features. You can ride a few of the animals the as you could ride horses in the vanilla game. Additionally the animals in the mod each have their own drops as well. The Deer, for example, will drop fur which is a craftable used to make armor. The mod is one of the most popular Minecraft mods out there.
In addition to all the new animals in the mod, new biomes are also introduced giving you more places to explore. These biomes will contain specific animals. Furthermore, the mod also adds cave dwellers and Eskimos to the game as well. The exploratory features of this mod make it a must download.
INSTANT MASSIVE STRUCTURES
The name of this mod holds its purpose. The mod allows you to create grand vistas and structures in the game in a matter of minutes. Merely place a specific block, and a massive structure will appear in front of you. This mod is also functional with all the available game modes as well. The mod allows you to focus on survival mode entirely without having to worry about any building. You can easily set up massive structures and prepare yourself to survive against any mob.
Additionally the mod also allows you to set up grand cities in a matter of minutes. You can even add an entire football stadium with minimal effort. The mod kind of breaks the purpose of the game by allowing you to build massive structures in the game. However, it doesn’t detract from the fact that it’s a lot of fun.
BIOMES O PLENTY
Minecraft isn’t exactly known for its biological diversity, several updates to the vanilla game gave players a few more biomes but not enough to satiate them completely. That’s where Biomes O plenty comes in and ultimately turns the picture around. Biomes O plenty adds 90 unique biomes to the game. These new biomes make your game look incredibly beautiful and also provide you with tons of new locations to explore.
The mod has plenty of features as well that allow players to control the type of biomes they want to add. These features include the ability to include only fantasy biomes or realistic biomes. Additionally, the mod offers a holiday biome feature containing Christmas and Halloween themed biomes as well. The only slight problem with this mod is that you can’t apply it to an existing world in the game. The mod requires you to create a new world and explicitly select the biomes o plenty world. You may have to restart your existing game and start over, but it is definitely going to be worth your while.
TALE OF KINGDOMS
If you’ve played some of the RPG editions of Minecraft, you’ll notice that they aren’t outstanding. Using Minecraft’s existing mechanics this mod turns the game into a full-fledged RPG. You are the member of a guild and have to work your way up to guild master. The mod adds in several RPG features.
Most importantly the mod adds a whole host of NPCs to the game. These NPCs have different sets of personalities and interact with the player entirely differently from regular NPCs. The quests itself are a lot of fun as well and is a mod you can download once you get bored of the vanilla game.
TWILIGHT FOREST
If you’re tired of the vanilla exploration of the game and are looking for an incredibly different adventure download this mod. Twilight forest is one of the best and most popular adventure Minecraft mod. Downloading the mod will add the twilight forest to your Minecraft world. The twilight forest is accessible through a portal that transports you into the twilight realm.
The twilight forest itself is incredibly beautiful with new trees and beautiful vistas that can lull you into a false sense of security. The forest introduces several new enemies and significant boss fights. The boss fights are an incredible highlight of this mod. Each boss fight features its mechanics and varying degrees of difficulty. Additionally, the mod features its unique loot as well with various functions. The mod is one of the best exploration mods out there and is a must download.
MINECRAFT COMES ALIVE
The vanilla version of the Minecraft game can become very lonely. The other characters in the game are mostly lifeless and have no specific player interactions. The Mod Minecraft Comes Alive specifically addresses the lack of liveliness in the game. The Mod adds an entire new system to the game by adding new villagers. These new villagers can be seen with over 250 unique skins and are separated by gender as well.
The mod doesn’t end here. However, it allows you to develop entire relations with the new villagers in the game. You can ask the villagers to follow you, work alongside you and give them gifts as well. Additionally, there’s a relationship system as well based on interactions. Maintain your communications, and you can eventually marry, starting your own Minecraft family. The mod is a must have to make your game feel much more alive.
PIXELMON Minecraft Mod
What is arguably one of the most exciting Minecraft mods out there, Pixelmon is a game changer. Pixelmon fundamentally transforms Minecraft into an entirely new game. It combines the legendary pokemon quest with Minecraft. If you are a fan of both games than this mod is an absolute must for you to download.
Pixelmon has the same purpose as all the other pokemon games. You start your pokemon career with the aim of becoming the Pokemon champion. Along the way you meet several trainers, gym leaders, and thwart the plan of an evil corporation or two. Additionally Pixelmon features pokemon from all generations. These Pokemon have all been designed beautifully and fit in seamlessly with the overall aesthetic. Furthermore, the mod is being updated continuously as well, and the authors are incredibly ambitious. There is a very high chance that this mod becomes one of the all-time greatest Minecraft mods. It would be a smart idea to download it and experience it now.
AQUACULTURE
The last mod in the list, Aquaculture is a mod that significantly improves one of the already present features in the game. The fishing system in the vanilla game is adequate, but it’s nothing special. Aquaculture completely revamps the fishing system by adding more than thirty new fish to the game. Each fish will have a different weight and different biome where it resides. Furthermore the mod also adds four different tiers of fishing rods as well. It’s the perfect mod for all you fishing enthusiast out there.
The mod also includes several bonus items you can catch aside from fish, these include an incredibly aesthetic armor set as well. Each fish also has its own unique loot. Furthermore the fish can also be used in different recipes to create a dish of food. Additionally certain scales can be used to craft armors. If you’re a fishing enthusiast this mod will have you spending hours trying to catch the biggest fish.
That does it for the best Minecraft mods you can download today, if you still feel downloading all these mods is too much hassle don’t worry there’s another solution for you. This solution is called modpacks. Modpacks are an entire bundle of mods that are typically created by an external user. These include several different mods that create a unique version of the game. Modpacks are incredibly popular because of how easy they are to use. Some of the modpacks that are available for download are exceptional as well. These include;
- FTB Ultimate
A popular part of the FTB series. This particular mudpack is a culmination of several modpacks with the aim of creating the ultimate Minecraft experience.
- Project Ozone 2
Fans of Project Ozone will already have a good idea of what this modpack is all about. It’s an entirely new way of playing Minecraft and features an incredible amount of quests as well.
Other modpacks are all over youtube, and you can see how each of them plays before deciding to download them and trying them out.
How to install mods?
If you are already an expert level modder, it’s okay to completely ignore this part of the article and move forward to the mod list. If you are new to modding do not worry, we’ve got you covered.
The first step is downloading Minecraft Forge. Most Minecraft mods require you to have forge downloaded so it’s better to go ahead and download it beforehand. Once you’ve installed Forge you can move on to the next step. Upon launching Minecraft, you’ll see a new profile by the name of Forge. Select this profile, and you’ll see a mods menu, which means you are ready to install mods now.
Be sure to download your mods from reputable websites such as the Minecraft forum. Minecraftmods.com is also another reputable website you can trust. After downloading the mods, the last step is to copy the file and save the RAR files in the mods directory. The above-mentioned steps are all it takes to download and install Minecraft mods. You are now ready to start modding your Minecraft game. If you’re a complete Noob when it comes to Minecraft mods or are a veteran looking for the best mods, some of the very best mods in the game are coming up.
Conclusion
After looking at some of the best mods hopefully, your modding choices are made much more manageable. Whether you’re just starting with mods or looking for ways to improve your already modded game, this article has a bit of everything.
Always remember that while downloading mods be sure to download from the most reputable websites. Be sure to always back your game up before installing a new mod. Lastly, never be afraid to experiment, and try out new mods. The Minecraft community is going to continue to give and mods are only going to keep to get better, ensuring that Minecraft as a game lives on.