Updated August 6, 2026 Updated to overhaul list entries.
Vanilla Minecraft stands the test of time without mods installed, but its huge modding community has conjured up loads of custom content that takes the game from strength to strength. Modding these days is pretty simple thanks to one-click installs, and most are completely free, opening up endless experimentation. From massive modpacks full of addons to horror mods that'll have you hearing things in the dead of night, there's something out there for everyone.
Our ultimate list of the best Minecraft mods lets you reshape the sandbox to your own whims, making Mojang's epic a greater crafting game than it already is. We've been curating our mod collection for quite some time, so you'll find everything from essential mods to those a little more niche, and newer Minecraft mods currently stealing the spotlight.
We've stayed away from mods built using AI tools, so you don't need to worry about your computer being infected with potentially malicious files.
Here are the best Minecraft mods right now:
Best Minecraft modpacks
Quark
If you know vanilla Minecraft inside and out and want loads of new content in one easy to install download, look no further than Quark. It's a massive mod - essentially a modpack in its own right - that expands upon features already in the default experience.
Take the Feeding Trough object, which removes any need for players to feed their animals to cause them to breed. This useful bit of automation means you can spend time doing other things you prefer, like building with the mod's new Japanese and Industrial blocks.
If playing with others or taking screenshots of a build or cool Minecraft seed is more your vibe, Quark adds its own advanced camera mode with filters, overlays, and borders that completely replaces your HUD when equipped.
Blocks and creative features aren't all you'll find here, though, as you've got a chance to come across an all-new underground biome: Glimmering Weald. Full of cascading waterfalls of lava and the new turquoise Glow Shroom blocks, it even includes unique music as you explore, transporting you to an otherworldly plane with slick choral synths right out of a 90s RPG.
With over 100 additions, this mod has even more to uncover, from the brand new trowel tool, the toretoise (an underground, ore-growing mob), and a system to place blocks under others without needing to see its bottom face. With Quark, you're getting something that you won't want to be without.
Download Quark here.
Liminal Industries
In Liminal Industries, the rolling hills of Minecraft's cozy forest biomes are swapped out for the eerie backrooms - an endless maze of office-like walls. Turning the game into a giant escape room, you can only break free from it by building up your own factory using scraps from old, wooden office parts that you come across. The sheer size of the backrooms is daunting enough, making it easy to get lost, but things heat up when you happen across the monsters lurking in the darkness. Yes, you'll need to fight them, but it's worth it - you'll get rewarded with really valuable loot when you do.
This modpack is for more experienced Minecraft players due to its technical factory-building elements, which may cause less knowledgeable players to reach for a wiki, as you'll be building train tracks to help you transport goods across the endlessly generating beige halls and upgrading your factory. Liminal Industries may be built in Minecraft, but the core gameplay loop couldn't be further from the base game. Surviving in this strange space is only half the battle… the other half is trying to work out how to escape.
Download Liminal Industries here.
Vampires Strike Back
Who said Minecraft has to be a cozy crafter? What about a roguelike with vampires? In Nekomaster1000's Vampires Strike Back, you'll step into the shoes of a creature of the night and explore a world that feels right out of Castlevania or Devil May Cry. If they were built entirely out of voxels.
As with Liminal Industries, the modpack drops you in an experience completely separate from the base game of Minecraft, with randomised gear and a choice of four different characters: Vampire, Hunter, Werewolf, and Wanderer. Each of these serve as different playstyles or characters, even of which have their own unique traits. As a Vampire, you'll be able to steal health from slain enemies while also needing to manage the fact that you lose hunger faster in the sun.
Equipped with a set of bat wings for gliding around, you'll grow stronger the more that you kill. But the more you do, the more you'll try to be stopped by increasingly difficult enemies. And all of this sits on top of your ultimate goal: to reawaken your slumbering lord.
Hunters, on the other hand, are outcasts with no supernatural abilities that seek to hunt down the vampires of the world. While you'll have no magic here, you're stronger, can dodge faster, and will spawn into the game with a hunter's whip and another random weapon. If you fancy a spot of lycanthrophy, werewolves can run up walls while howling and scratching their way through the enemies of the world. But if you venture into a village, you'll end up triggering raids that'll try to thwart you. You are a beast, after all.
For something that's a little bit Minecraft and a little bit vampirey, you'll feel right at home with Wanderer. This removes the story entirely and adds back in the familiar functionality for blocks to drop items when they're mined. Oh, and you also get a cool hood.
Download Vampires Strike Back here.
RLCraft
RLCraft is one of the most popular mods of all time with over 29 million downloads at the time of writing, and it's not hard to see why: It's designed to be very hardcore and realistic. Mod author Shivaxi specifically mentions that you're going to die a lot, so that's worth keeping in mind before loading this one up. It also adds a RPG flavor to Mojang's crafter, with over 340 quests to take up when building, crafting, and surviving gets a bit stale (if it ever does).
Fantasy is another of its big themes. As you explore, you'll come across randomized ruins, structures, and dungeons to venture into to see what secrets you can uncover. There's new underground biomes to visit, abilities locked behind progression, and aggressive and passive mobs to find like ice and fire dragons. It's basically Skyrim.
If you're a devil for the details, there's a completely redone sound engine and item physics overhaul to experience, too. What's more, survival mode lovers will find a thirst bar and temperature and heat to manage, as well as healing from food being entirely removed. You won't even get wood in the typical Minecraftian way.
With RLCraft installed, you'll need to be on your toes as soon as you start a game, with everything the mod has to offer being cruelly thrown at you at once. Make sure you're prepared.
Download RLCraft here.
Best Minecraft world mods
Botania
At its core, Botania is an engineering mod. But in comparison to other automation mods like Immersive Engineering, this mod focuses entirely on nature. So if you prefer touching grass to cold hard steel and are wildly enthusiastic about magic, this is the mod for you. Using the power of the earth, known as Mana, you can grow new mystical flowers or craft magical devices for automation. There are even functional items to make your life easier as you're out gathering, like the flower pouch that lets you store one stack of the 16 flowers without taking up any precious inventory space.
It's also quite an easy mod to get into - the mystical flowers are abundant, so you won't be relentlessly searching for hours just to get started. What's more, whether you fancy playing Minecraft as close to vanilla as possible or enjoy beefing your game up with as many mods as your system can handle, the mod author states that it should work well regardless.
Everything Botania offers isn't unlocked right from the start, which keeps it from feeling overwhelming and adds a sense of progression. But perhaps the most interesting part is the craftable Lexica Botania, which acts as your guide to everything you need to know, keeping you immersed in the game without needing to tab out to a wiki in order to learn its systems.
And what would a botanical-themed mod be without potions? You can craft loads of these, as well as brews and trinkets, providing effects like stopping mobs spawning around you in a large radius or granting you invisibility. In Botania, a huge amount of 'Mysticalcraft' awaits you. All you need to do is pick some flowers.
Download Botania at CurseForge or Modrinth.
Aquaculture 2
If you love how peaceful fishing is but pulling up the same old salmon and cod has gotten stale, give Aquaculture 2 a try. This Minecraft mod adds over 30 new fish to catch from carp to tuna (which also can be done while swimming), four new fishing rods, tackle boxes, customizable bobbers, and bait. Unique hooks provide different effects when casting, like the Note Hook that plays a sound just before a catch is due. There's also an incredible new treasure loot table for fishing, including the mod's green-hued Neptunium tools and armor fit for the Roman god of the sea.
But to do all of that fishing, you'll need worms, and Aquaculture 2 provides with the new worm farm block. Practically identical to how the composter works, once placed and filled with dirt, vegetables, or leaves, those resources will turn into worms so you can spend more time getting back to doing what you love.
That's not all though, because each type of biome you come across - including those downloaded from other mods - will house different fish across its bodies of water. A bit hungry after all that fishing? Seafood you've caught can also be turned into fish fillets, which depend on the quantity or your catch of the day's weight.
And speaking of catch of the day, if you're particularly proud of a prized fish you've reeled in, you can display them on the walls of your home with a mount like your very own Billy Bass. Just without all the annoying singing.
Download Aquaculture 2 at CurseForge or Modrinth.
Cobblemon
Ever felt the itch to catch your own voxel version of Squirtle? What about Igglybuff? With Cobblemon, you can do just that. Over 700 Pokemon across generations one to nine have received their very own pixelated version to collect in your Pokedex, transforming Minecraft into your very own not-so-Nintendo haven. And as it's not a modpack, it complements the survival crafter's main gameplay loop without entirely erasing it.
After choosing your starter from across the different gens, you'll have the ability to put together your own team and battle with them solo or against players. There's even functionality to evolve them when you choose, as well as switching up their moves, relearning them, or keeping an eye on their stats. Entirely open-source, customization features mean you can also create your own Pokemon to add into the game.
But what would a Minecraft mod be without crafting and building? One of the coolest features here is free movement in battles. With this turned on, you can do most things you'd want to do in vanilla while still in a fight. So if you find yourself getting sidetracked from the heat of the moment and spot a resource you really need, or there's another mob you just have to fight, you're not locked out of doing so then and there.
If you think you can do it in Pokemon, you're very likely able to do it with Cobblemon installed.
Download Cobblemon here.
MCA Reborn
Expanding on the original Minecraft Comes Alive, MCA Reborn takes inspiration from the likes of The Sims and Stardew Valley, giving your villagers moods and personalities that define your relationships with them.
MCA Reborn replaces the identical-looking characters you'd typically find in Minecraft's villages with unique NPCs that have their own names and appearances. But the changes don't stop there: As you interact with them by chatting, telling jokes, and gifting (which you'll need to choose carefully), you'll start to build up relationships. This opens up options for asking them to follow you, carry out tasks, and once you've nurtured that relationship enough, you can even propose to your voxelated beau.
After marriage, you'll be able to start a family, and your little offspring can get to work by doing different chores from farming, to fishing, and harvesting for an added bit of automation. Continuing The Sims-esque nature of the mod, those kids will eventually grow up and start their own lives. There's even a family tree! Oh, and zombies. Yep - if villagers get attacked by zombies, they'll slowly change into the lumbering mob themselves. Unless you gift them a golden apple. An apple a day keeps the doctor away, after all.
But NPCs aren't all that this mod focuses on. There's a whole settlement building system on top so you can add buildings like libraries and graveyards as you work to expand your town. You can completely customize your appearance, too, choosing a feminine or masculine appearance, as well as picking your clothes, voice, hair color, and height. With your character created, if you ever decide to set your sights on royalty, you can do that too, ruling over your settlement in your rightful place: as a monarch.
Download MCA Reborn here.
Better Archeology
Expanding Minecraft's archeology mechanic, Better Archeology adds several new structures to scope out in hopes of uncovering powerful secrets, like the Totem of Torrents for a unique combat move. The mod's new locations, including the Temple of Light, the Mesa Ruins, and the Catacombs, add a certain Tomb Raider element to Minecraft that's perfect for those who get a buzz out of exploration.
While the locations are cool on their own, to really dig into the mod, you'll need the archeology table to unlock the secrets of unknown artifacts. Once you've got it, and with three unlockable brushes that clean faster than the base game version, you'll be able to analyze your findings, combining artifact pieces together to unlock unique enchantments for special effects like tunneling, which allows you to dig two blocks at a time instead of one.
With Better Archeology installed, you'll also be digging up fossils, eventually creating skeletons of mobs like chickens and creepers to put on display. A new Archeologist trader comes along with the mod, too, who you can visit to purchase rare items like Rusty Bombs, Rotten Planks, and emeralds if you're in short supply.
Download Better Archaeology at CurseForge or Modrinth.
Best Minecraft horror mods
From the Fog
Have you ever wished that the Herobrine myth were real? Look no further than From The Fog. The creepypasta this mod is based on is over a decade old, telling the tale of a NPC that stalks you as you roam the world, with its bright white eyes peering out at you from behind trees. With From The Fog installed, seeing the iconic horror tale come to life before your eyes is certainly a sight to behold.
Loading into the game for the first time, you'll be met with a message that dissuades you from going further. Do you dare press on, or is it better to uninstall before it's far too late?
Initially, you won't notice anything untoward about your playthrough, so you may wonder what all the fuss is about. But keep your wits about you, Minecrafter, as you'll soon find the tales are very, very real. Well, as real as this mod makes it, anyway.
Slowly but surely, you'll start seeing glimpses of the man, the myth, and the legend as he appears behind corners and vanishes before you can properly make him out. But is he even there, or is your mind just playing tricks on you? The torched buildings, swapped out lighting, punches from behind, and possessed animals that can make manifest seem to imply it's not. There's only one way to find out…
Download From The Fog here.
Cave Dweller
Cave Dweller adds yet another terrifying mob (and unlike Herobrine, quite deadly) to freak you out as you play. When you've already seen your fair share of skeletons and zombies in Minecraft's many caves, you might think you're immune to feeling scared when venturing into the unknown - but this mod is something else entirely.
Feeling right out of cult horror movies like The Descent, the Cave Dweller is a towering entity with dazzling bright eyes that spawns in the Deep Dark, hiding in shadow and following you down corridors as if appearing from nowhere. Think Slenderman but way more stealthy. And toothy.
If that weren't enough, the mod adds plenty of unnerving sounds and bloodcurdling roars to accompany it as you explore cave systems, keeping you constantly on edge and ensuring you won't be sleeping with the light off anytime soon. Cave Dweller's popularity speaks to how well put together it is, with other creators having published countless spin-offs, extended editions, and ports across Minecraft's many versions. This is one mod that you need to experience for yourself.
Download Cave Dweller here.
Verity
If you're familiar with the recently viral YouTube horror sensation Verity and its deceptively smiley face, there is a collection of three mods that are officially supported by series creator ThatMob.
The most popular mod - which surpassed 4.9 million downloads in under a month and continues to climb - is PnTMC's Verity Bedrock Edition. Just as it happens in the YouTube video, when installed, you'll happen across a cardboard box that spawns the yellow ball of sunshine. Featuring soundbites from the series, you can pick Verity up, carry your helper friend along with you, and even put it down. Ask it a math equation, to play you a song, to provide location coordinates, or even for a stack of items. Just expect it to show its angrier side if you decide to throw it into a block of lava.
As time goes on, the possibility of stumbling across something that'll have you wondering if the Cave Dweller has decided to vacate its usual hiding place will become more and more likely. Keep your eyes on your surroundings, friend.
If PnTMC's Bedrock mod isn't for you, check out undertaletalelover's official version instead. If you're a Java user, you'll want to install VarmiteYT's version.
Download Verity here.
Best Minecraft performance mods
Optifine
Optifine is an essential mod as it opens up the ability to use Minecraft shaders, but even without downloading any of those, the mod improves Mojang's world by providing dynamic lighting, support for improved textures and animated terrain, as well as a performance boost that effectively doubles your FPS. As someone who personally plays with a max render distance and graphics settings alongside demanding shaders, it's something I couldn't be without.
It's also deeply configurable, meaning it should suit loads of different system specs without too much of a fuss. You can enable or disable options like weather, the sun and moon, the sky, and stars, while selecting between different graphics options for trees, grass, clouds, and water.
A seemingly small feature of the mod is its 'Natural Textures' option. But once you've noticed it, it's quite hard to imagine the game without it. When enabled, textures placed on the same side of each block will be rotated and flipped to create a more natural-looking texture. So if you're building a structure made up of the same block, it'll look a little less uniform overall - perfect if you love spending time crafting a cozy little house to call your own.
Download Optfine here.
Distant Horizons
If you're like me and really love atmosphere and a sense of scale in games, but also prioritize a stable FPS, Distant Horizons is precisely what you need. When installed, it lets you increase your Minecraft seed's render distance without it tanking your frames.
To achieve this, you won't be getting quite the same view as what you'd get from just upping the in-game distance. Distant Horizons renders the distant landscape with simplified terrain, otherwise known as LODs, functioning similarly to what you'll find in a lot of modern games today. Depending on the distance from your current position, terrain will be rendered at varying qualities - because why does a tree that's hundreds of blocks away need the quality of a tree you're right next to?
So rather than downloading it with the intent of scoping out structures, its main intent is to make your world look that much more beautiful from where you're currently at - instead of the world cutting off into nothingness. For reference, the image above has a standard render distance of 12 chunks, with a mod render distance of 512, with anything past 12 being rendered at the simplified level.
While some may consider this mod quite 'boring' compared to others on this list, the quality of life it provides through its FPS boost makes it pretty much essential to every player. You know, unless your PC is a beast.
Download Distant Horizons at CurseForge or Modrinth.
Best Minecraft survival mods
Waystones
Minecraft has a huge open world to explore, so getting back to where your home base is can be a real hassle. But with the Waystones mod, you unlock the ability to craft waystones in survival mode and open up instantaneous travel between them. They'll also spawn natively out in the open world, which can be useful if you don't have the materials to make your own (they require pretty high end resources to make).
And if you ever find yourself in a bit of a pickle, you can make Return Scrolls, Warp Scrolls, or Share Stones to name a few, each of which opens up different levels of teleportation point a to b. Return Scrolls, for example, sends you to the closest waystone, while Warp Scrolls allow you to travel to any waystones you have active. Share Stones are their own thing altogether, as you can only travel between others you've made, and only those of the same color.
The coolest feature of this mod, though, is that it also works in multiplayer servers, so you and your friends can zip around from place to place if you're out exploring together. Or if you're feeling generous enough to let strangers use your hard-earned teleportation device.
Villages in the world now come with their own waystone, too, making this a perfect survival mode mod, as it's easy to lose track of those important locations you want to keep revisiting.
Download Waystones at CurseForge or Modrinth.
Traveler's Backpacks
While backpacks technically exist in some form through bundles in Minecraft's base game, what's annoying about them is how they still take up an inventory slot. With Traveler's Backpacks installed, you're getting a storage space completely separate from your inventory alongside a whole host of secondary features that makes it a no-brainer install.
With over 45 different backpack appearances to choose from, they're also upgradable across five tiers. Looks and storage space isn't all that this mod offers, though. For the natural explorers out there, its sleeping bag functionality (which can also be upgraded to not reset your spawn point after use) means you can continue seeing the sights and get a nice bit of shut-eye.
There are plenty of these sorts of upgrades to install into your backpack, including a crafting grid right into your pack, a tank that preserves your potions and can be used with a hose, and even a method of directly feeding yourself with it.
On top of all that, specific backpacks have abilities that make choosing your favorite one more important. Take the Spider Backpack, which gives you wall-climbing skills to live out your very own Spider-Man fantasy. Then there's the Dragon Backpack and its strength and regeneration effects, or the egg-spawning Chicken Backpack if you feel like making some Pumpkin Pie for an on-the-go treat.
And if keeping things nicely in order is your cup of tea, Traveler's Backpacks includes sorting, stack, and transfer options to help you do just that.
Download Traveler's Backpack at CurseForge or Modrinth.
Farmer's Delight
Farmer's Delight by vectorwing is a survival mod that has you donning your metaphorical chef's hat and apron to whip up tasty-looking voxel finger foods, desserts, and drinks. While cooking is already a feature of Minecraft's base game, Farmer's Delight fits really nicely into that base game experience and doesn't feel out of place. Perhaps the most important part of this mod is the addition of a brand new knife tool to help you scavenge resources with, which when used provides more items from harvesting or killing mobs. There's also four new workstations: The cooking pot, skillet, stove, and the trusty cutting board.
Each of these stations has a different function, with the likes of the cooking pot giving you an option to cook meals and store a total of 64 servings. The skillet effectively replaces the campfire while speeding up the amount of time it takes to cook, with food taking a mere six seconds to create. If only it were that easy in real life when you get a bit hangry. Stoves can cook up to six items at once while also functioning as a heat source for the cooking pot. And of course, you won't be able to do all of that cheffing without using your trusty cutting board first to break down items into smaller portions - like taking raw beef and chopping it into minced beef.
With all your new tools in hand, you'll be able to create some great meals to eat and restore your hunger with, from hot cocoa to ratatouille. Some recipes also bestow short-term effects on the user, like desserts that give you a speed boost, which makes sense with all that voxelated sugar you'd be consuming.
Download Farmer's Delight at CurseForge or Modrinth.
Minecraft vanilla mods
Journeymap
While there are more tools for finding your way around than ever in Minecraft's basegame, it's incredibly helpful to have a full map at your disposal. It's one of the things that's always frustrated me about the default Minecraft experience, because opening up a map is such a common feature across other open world games these days.
Install Journeymap for your solo or multiplayer server and you'll notice that your map now opens up in real-time as you explore, tracking where you've been to help you find your way. How you prefer to view this map is customizable, too, with options for a full-screen version or as a minimap. There's even a web browser addon if you're someone who likes to play with dual monitors.
As well as helping you to track the world you're in, the mini-map and full screen version displays mobs located around you within a circular radius, showing whether they're hostile or not in red and grey. This means you're able to plan ahead as you're navigating around, particularly if you're looking for a specific mob or want to avoid creepers (totally understandable). The plotted map is really detailed, too, showing you everything from the topography of the world to the biomes around you or different cave layers.
Waypoints are probably the most useful feature here overall, though, as you can place down a colored beacon of light that shoots up into the sky and gets marked on your map, helping you to find your way back to things you want to revisit.
Download Journeymap at CurseForge or Modrinth.
Immersive Portals
It can be pretty scary throwing yourself headfirst into a Minecraft Nether or End Portal without knowing exactly what's on the other side. Thankfully, Immersive Portals changes that by showing you precisely what awaits once you step through.
The mod lets you create portals that allow you to get really creative with your builds, and the portal itself will scale to fit the size you create precisely. You can even rotate and flip the portals themselves for some really interesting effects, opening up options to break your brain by putting together looping hallways or rooms completely disconnected in space from one another.
Being able to seamlessly travel between one part of the map and another, especially when playing with friends that you can see wandering around while you're on the other side is modding wizardry at its finest. You can even create world wrapping portals, which means that you can have a space repeating in perpetuity.
And if that hasn't convinced you, but you really love building, you don't need this mod for the portals - you need it for the mirrors. Yep, when installed, you can turn rectangular glass into reflective surfaces, rendering what's being refracted back at you for an added bit of realism.
Download Immersive Portals at CurseForge or Modrinth.
Peaceful Progression
If you're like me and are scared off by survival modes in games, you'll want to download Peaceful Progression. Once installed, it gives you the ability to unlock items in peaceful difficulty that would otherwise be restricted - as you need to kill mobs to get them.
This means that you can happily play as a pacifist without it handicapping you in any way, so you can obtain the likes of wither roses, rotten flesh, slime balls, and ghast tears for your crafting needs.
With this mod downloaded, you'll find that peaceful difficulty now also has hunger enabled. But unlike survival mode, it's an entirely cosmetic feature, so you won't be locked out of sprinting or regenerating your health just because you're a bit peckish.
The mod includes new plants and mobs to help you gather resources more peacefully. For example, instead of needing to slay some spiders in order to get string, you can now find flax out in plains biomes. To obtain some ghast tears, that now comes from wisps when you feed them guano.
You'll even find a new musician NPC in villages which can sell you everything from jukeboxes to note blocks, or instead trade your gathered resources like flax by visiting a farmer. New items have been added to make sure you don't need to go out attacking bosses, with Dragon Effigies and Elder Effigies dropping what you'd otherwise get from defeating bosses - though they do have an XP requirement to craft them.
Download Peaceful Progression at CurseForge or Modrinth.
How to install Minecraft mods
There are two main ways of installing Minecraft mods: Using a management app like CurseForge, or bringing everything into the game manually. However, some mods, regardless of where you get them from, will be locked to manual installs only - so check each page for specific instructions.
Mods also require specific frameworks to run, and these can't be combined together. So if the first mod you ever download is listed as 'Fabric', mods that use the 'Fabric' framework are blocked off to you, and vice versa.
To install Minecraft mods using a mod manager:
- Download your chosen mod manager. We recommend Modrinth, Forge, Fabric, or Curseforge.
- Open your chosen launcher, and find and install mods within the app.
- Create separate profiles to load multiple mods at once.
- Load Minecraft through your mod manager.
The benefit to keeping your mods to one manager at a time is that it keeps all your downloads mods in one place, and can easily group them together into your own modpacks.
To install Minecraft mods manually:
- Download your chosen mods using the links above.
- Unzip files, and move unzipped files into your Minecraft mods folder.
- Launch Minecraft.
- If you are unsure where to find your Minecraft folder, type %appdata% into your search bar, and find the folder named .minecraft.
Now that you've got the best Minecraft mods, be sure to take a look at our regularly updated list of the best Minecraft seeds to take your new mods for a spin in. Finally, don't forget to check what's coming in the next Minecraft update, or when we expect the next Minecraft Live.