What are the top Minecraft mods to install right now? While vanilla Minecraft is amazing all on its own, its modding community has shipped a colossal amount of custom content over the years. The sheer volume of free Minecraft mods allows for endless possibilities, from massive texture packs to scary mods that introduce stalker enemies.
Before we begin, we must point out that we've stayed away from recent Minecraft mods built using AI tools, so you don't need to worry about your computer being infected with potentially malicious files. Our ultimate list of Minecraft mods takes your game to another level, letting you reshape the sandbox game to your exact specifications. We've been curating our mod collection for quite some time, and it includes essential mods for everyone alongside new Minecraft mods stealing the spotlight.
Here are the best Minecraft mods right now:
Minecraft modpacks
Quark
For most experienced players, Quark is practically essential to any Minecraft playthrough. Quark is a huge modpack with a variety of features that significantly improve the base game across practically every aspect. From small quality-of-life tweaks that show exactly how much health items provide, to major changes like adding new biomes, mobs, and blocks, Quark offers everything you could want in one pack.
All the Mods 10
With around 480 mods included, All the Mods 10 features some of the best Minecraft mods around. There are automation mods, shaders, resource packs, and plenty of other world, optimization, and vanilla mods. If you aren't sure what you want and are sick of scrolling through thousands of mods, All the Mods takes out a lot of the work.
Liminal Industries
Trapped inside the backrooms, a seemingly endless maze of office-like walls, Liminal Industries is essentially a giant escape room that you can only break free from by building a factory using the scraps from old, wooden office parts. The sheer size of the backrooms is daunting enough making it easy to get lost, but things really begin to heat up when you discover some of the monsters lurking in the darkness.
This modpack is definitely for more experienced Minecraft players due to its technical factory-building elements, which may force less knowledgeable players to reach for a wiki. 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 what you need to do to escape.
Minecraft world mods
Botania
If you're wildly enthusiastic about magic and nature, then don't sleep on the Botania Minecraft mod. Using the power of the earth, you can grow new mystical flowers and magical devices that can be used for automation. In comparison to other automation mods like Immersive Engineering, Botania is more natural, so if you prefer dirt to metal, this is the engineering mod for you.
Aquaculture 2
If you love a bit of peaceful fishing in Minecraft but are tired of pulling up the same salmon and cod, then give Aquaculture 2 a try. This Minecraft mod adds over 30 new fish, the ability to fish while swimming, new fishing rods, bobbins, and bait. There's also an incredible new treasure loot table for fishing, which includes the mod's own Neptunium tools and armor.
Cobblemon
As the latest Pokemon x Minecraft mod, Cobblemon has crafted new models for each Pokemon using Minecraft's pixelated style, so these cute critters look more like actual Minecraft mobs. The world itself is fairly similar to Pixelmon, with the usual Minecraft world generation only slightly altered by a few new textures, including apricorns growing on normal vanilla Minecraft trees.
Alex's Mobs
We know from the now-defunct Minecraft mob vote that players are always clamoring for additional animals, monsters, and humanoids to be added to vanilla Minecraft. Well, you don't need to wait for the next big Minecraft update with Alex's Mobs' 84 new animals. This mix of realistic and fictional creatures includes kangaroos, tigers, and a bone serpent - each has a unique mechanic and drops.
Mystical Oak Tree
While we're at it, here's another one from the maker of Supplementaries - Mystical Oak Tree. We couldn't resist including this mini-mod, where you can interact with a wise old talking oak. Keep your eyes peeled for an oak tree with a face in any of the overworld biomes, and interact with the tree to hear jokes, facts, and more. Be careful not to talk to them during the day, as they don't take it well to be woken from their sleep.
Ars Nouveau
The massive magical Ars Nouveau mod brings an incredible array of new features to Minecraft, allowing you to perform rituals to invoke weather patterns, craft your own spells to aid your survival, and even summon magical mobs to use in automation.
Tinkers' Construct
In Tinkers' Construct, one of the best tool mods around, slime is an essential resource. There's new slime, there are slime islands, and you can use them all to create smelteries and manufacture a range of new items, tools, and gear.
RLCraft
Still one of the most popular Minecraft mods of all time, RLCraft plays into the world's love of fantasy with dragons, fairies, and more added to your Minecraft world. In addition to the range of terrifying and adorable new mobs, RLCraft features new biomes, new auto-generated structures like towers and dungeons, and an all-new survival experience.
Twilight Forest
This gorgeous mod adds a new portal and an entirely new dimension: the Twilight Forest. You'll need to play as normal until you've gathered the materials to build the portal above, but then you can completely overhaul your Minecraft experience with new dungeons, mythical creatures, and so much more.
MCA Reborn
Replacing the identical villagers of old, MCA Reborn introduces you to uniquely named villagers, like Samantha above, but the changes don't stop at appearance. As you interact with these new villagers, you build a relationship with them, ask them to follow you, carry out tasks for you, and even, once you've nurtured that relationship enough, ask them to marry you. Expanding on the original Minecraft Comes Alive, MCA Reborn takes inspiration from the likes of The Sims, giving your villagers moods and personalities that define your relationships with them.
Better Archeology
Expanding the Minecraft archeology mechanic, Better Archeology adds several new fossils to discover, and there are entirely new structures to scope out. The Temple of Light and the Catacombs add a certain Lara Croft element to Minecraft, tasking you with uncovering the secrets and hidden items within the walls of these spooky areas.
The archeology table, which you can see above, is required to unlock the secrets of unknown artifacts. Brush away the dirt, and you can find a unique new enchantment, including tunneling, which allows you to dig two blocks at a time. There's so much more to find in Better Archeology, so we recommend you just dig in.
BetterEnd
The BetterEnd mod from BetterX overhauls The End into a spectacularly beautiful world with an incredible 24 biomes, new mobs, and stunning new flora. The End is an entire game within a game with this mod, and you'll lose hours exploring the glittering new environment.
Better MC
The maker's vision of what Minecraft should have been, Better MC adds multiple bosses, mobs, crops, items, dimensions, quests, and more to give you the comprehensive Minecraft experience you never knew you needed. Minecraft will never be the same again once you've tried Better MC.
Serene Seasons
While you can get from winter to summer in Minecraft by traveling between a Snowy Taiga and a Desert biome, the Serene Seasons mod brings seasonal changes to biomes, including amended crop growth and weather patterns. Biomes that aren't usually snowy will see snowfall with Serene Seasons turned on, and you'll see brown and orange leaves throughout autumn.
Minecraft horror mods
From the Fog
Do you ever wish the Herobrine myth were real? In case you're unaware, this myth is about a creepy NPC that stalks you as you roam the world at night, with its bright white eyes peering out at you from behind trees. From the Fog is a terrifying Minecraft mod that brings Herobrine to life, alongside zombie Herobrine and sculk Herobrine.
Weeping Angels
If you've ever seen the incredible Doctor Who episode that inspired this mod, then you'll know exactly what you're in for. The Weeping Angels mod introduces the new Weeping Angel mob, a stony statue that looks harmless enough all the time you're looking at it. Turn your back, though, and the once-static entities turn deadly.
Cave Dweller
Most Minecraft horror mods simply add new and terrifying mobs to freak you out as you play. Of those, Cave Dweller is among the best. Adding another deadly creature to the survival game's cave system might not seem like much when you're used to skeletons and zombies, but this is something else entirely.
The Cave Dweller is a dark creature that's difficult to see hiding in the shadows and can follow you down corridors as if appearing from nowhere. And if that weren't enough, there are new scary sounds to accompany it. This Cave Dweller mod is the original, but it's so popular that there are plenty of spin-offs and extended versions to try, too.
The Knocker
So, you've got Cave Dweller installed, you've survived another day underground, and you peacefully head back to your home above ground. Doesn't that seem just a tad too simple? Add The Knocker into the mix, a terrifying above-ground mob that knows where you live and isn't afraid to let himself in.
Nyf's Spiders
The Nyf's Spiders mod changes the behavior of Minecraft's eight-legged creatures to make them more realistic. They climb walls and ceilings in a more realistic manner than in the vanilla game, and their pathing has been improved to make them less janky, meaning they can reach you more easily.
Minecraft performance mods
Optifine
You'll likely need Optifine installed before you can run Minecraft shaders, but even on its own, it provides dynamic lighting, improved textures, and a performance boost. Optifine should be fine on most PC setups, but if you're playing on a potato, grab Fastcraft instead. It significantly improves performance on lower-end machines, particularly with many Minecraft mods installed.
Sodium
Sodium is one of the most popular Minecraft optimization mods, downloaded by millions of players to help run the game more smoothly. Essentially, thanks to lots of smart technical stuff in the background, Sodium improves the stability of Minecraft on many PCs, decreasing the number of lag spikes while playing and improving the way traversing your Minecraft world and battling monsters both look and feel.
Distant Horizons
The Distant Horizons mod allows you to up that render distance without majorly affecting your frame rate. Naturally, to do so, it's not quite the same view as what you'd get from just upping the in-game distance, and the distant horizons, if I may, are made up of simplified terrain.
Rather than being used to scope out structures, Distant Horizons just makes your world look that much more beautiful instead of cutting off at a sharp cliff. 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.
Mouse Tweaks
When you're an expert Minecraft player, you should know all the tricks of the trade to get the job done as fast as possible. With the Mouse Tweaks mod, you can add a whole new set of shortcuts to your arsenal with a revamped right-click dragging mechanic, new left-click dragging tricks, and tweaks to the scroll wheel.
Minecraft survival mods
Waystones
With such a massive open world, getting back to where your home base is can sometimes be a giant hassle. However, with the Waystones mod, you can craft Waystones in survival mode and place them to allow travel between them. You can also make Warp Scrolls or Warp Stones to teleport from anywhere. The mod also allows for random generation in the world of these items and global Waystones for Minecraft servers or Minecraft adventure maps.
Traveler's Backpacks
Mojang has now added bundles to the vanilla game, and, while the crafting recipe might be tough to complete, they're an essential addition for adventuring and mining. However, that doesn't mean Tiviacz's cute Traveler's Backpacks aren't still worth playing with instead. This adorable mod not only increases your storage capacity when you're exploring the world, but it does so in style, giving you a choice of cute backpacks to match your environment.
Immersive Engineering
Where other automation mods might have fantastical machines that make extraction and crafting simpler, Immersive Engineering has realistic, resource-intensive machines that look and feel better. Sure, you might have to actually dig ores out of the ground with the massive, multi-block excavator that in itself requires building from scratch, but think how good it's going to feel when it's chugging along.
Supplementaries
The Supplementaries mod is an excellent complementary mod to use alongside vanilla Minecraft and adds many new Redstone items, decorative blocks, and other tools and equipment. If you ever felt like you needed a pulley system or a weather vane that produces a Redstone signal, then Supplementaries has it. To use Supplementaries, you must also install the Moonlight Library mod.
Biomes O'Plenty
If there aren't enough vanilla Minecraft Biomes to keep you busy, Biomes O'Plenty adds masses of new areas across both the Overworld and the Nether: from the Alps to the Wasteland and everything in between. It adds a little more variety to tools, armor, food, and color while also adding a few extra blocks to build with.
Better Caves
After playing Minecraft for hundreds of hours, you'll start to recognize how the game generates the world. Once that illusion has been shattered, things inevitably start to feel boring. That's where Yung's Better Caves mod comes in, providing a new way to reexperience the mystery of exploring caves. You'll find underground lakes, flooded caverns, and lava-filled pools, among other things, in this essential mod.
Dungeons Enhanced
Minecraft has always been fairly limited in terms of the structures or dungeons you can happen upon in the open-world game. It stands to reason, then, that this could get repetitive. Enter the Dungeons Enhanced mod. This mod adds new dungeons and structures, increasing the total types to 21, and they all fit a medieval or fantasy theme. You'll soon be stumbling upon huge mazes, castles, and even a pyramid.
Better Fortresses
As illustrated by the image above, Yung's Better Fortresses transforms the terrifying Nether by greatly extending its existing fortresses into even bigger, more magnificent structures, spanning multiple floors and featuring castle-like main buildings.
Better Mineshafts
With Yung's Better Mineshafts mod, mineshafts now vary to match their biomes, and a rare mushroom biome can even be found if you explore enough. There are also new places to find valuable loot. On top of the usual minecart chests, find materials at workstations and in cellars.
HarvestCraft
Pam's HarvestCraft brings some serious variation to your Minecraft diet. giving you more to eat than the usual beef and carrots. Pam's HarvestCraft is split into four separate mods: Food Core, Crops, Trees, and Food Extended, resulting in a Minecraft diet that is both lavish and balanced. If you want to make this a necessity rather than just a fun extension to vanilla Minecraft, use it alongside Hunger Overhaul and The Spice of Life, which both punish your poor eating habits.
Minecraft vanilla mods
Hole Filler
Arguably one of the best mods for anyone who hates messy environments, the Hole Filler mod from DannyBoyThomas instantly fills any holes that you have in your world. This is particularly useful after a creeper attack that has left the environment in ruins; now you can throw a Hole Filler into the chasm and immediately repair the damage.
Journeymap
With Journeymap, your map opens up as you explore, and you can view it on a full-screen map and a minimap, both of which are super customizable. While there are more Minecraft tools for finding your way than ever, from the recovery compass to the Lodestone, it's still incredibly helpful to have a full map at your disposal.
Xaero's Minimap
Xaero's Minimap maps your world as you explore, letting you mark waypoints of interest and even warning you when Minecraft mobs sneak up behind you. The resultant minimap can be a unique rotating square or a classic circle, depending on your preferences, and while the minimap is kept as minimal as possible to avoid affecting performance, you can get even more features by adding Xaero's World Map.
Nature's Compass
Nature's Compass and the Explorer's Compass can be used to find any biome you're after. Use the compass to bring up a list of biomes, select the one you want, and follow your compass. Shift-right-click to reset the compass to world spawn, or choose a new biome to change its direction. It's as simple as that and feels a little less like cheating. The Explorer's Compass works in the same way, leading you to structures instead of biomes.
Immersive Portals
It can be pretty scary throwing yourself headfirst into a Minecraft Nether or End Portal without knowing what's on the other side. Thankfully, Immersive Portals changes that by showing you precisely what awaits on the other side.
Better Combat
The Better Combat mod has taken inspiration from Minecraft Dungeons' combat animations, adding some much-needed flair to Steve's fighting skills. With this mod, your Minecraft avatar can now swing, jab, and slice any which way you like. With a range of one-handed, two-handed, and even dual-wielding attack animations included, your fighting style has never looked or felt better.
Better F3
Better F3 doesn't change gameplay, but it changes the incredibly useful F3 interface. If you have trouble parsing the information when it's all the same color (we certainly do), Better F3 adds colored sections. This allows you to better differentiate between all those details and find exactly the information you're looking for.
Peaceful Progression
The jump between creative and survival mode can be daunting, and while you do have access to peaceful difficulty, some elements aren't available in this setting. With xen_42's Peaceful Progression mod, you gain access to several items that require specific hostile mobs without needing to harm anything in the process. It also adds hunger to peaceful difficulty, but the effects are purely cosmetic and will not cause you to lose any health if you can't eat anything.
Enchantment Descriptions
For those who need a reminder of what the Minecraft enchantments do at a glance, the Enchantment Descriptions mod gives you the description of any enchanted book in your inventory. This mod also supports modded enchantments and will display these tooltips in over 13 languages.
Carpet
Carpet is a complex peek behind the curtain of your vanilla world, and we wouldn't recommend it to players new to the modding world. However, if you're familiar with some of the more intricate aspects of the game, then you can use the Carpet mod to alter and mess with your own vanilla world, risk-free.
With Carpet installed, you automatically load into any of your existing Minecraft worlds, and nothing has changed. However, you can use Minecraft commands to meddle with things, including fixing bugs, changing mechanics, and utilizing creative tools. Carpet is fully customizable and compatible with vanilla Minecraft, so you can turn commands on and off at will, including all of them at any time, simply reverting to your vanilla world.
Not Enough Animations
When it comes to playing in third-person, not a lot of love and care has been placed into making the animations truly shine. Created by tr7zw, the Not Enough Animations mod fixes this glaring issue by adding in some much-needed animations. Simple things like being able to watch your player model eat and drink, or even read maps, have been addressed. Our personal favorite fix is the change to boat rowing, making it so that the player in the boat isn't sitting there staring into the void.
Physics Mod
Haubna's Physics Mod can be smoothly implemented into a vanilla world without changing much, but the crumbling structure mechanic is a pretty darn cool addition to have. Break a few blocks, and, depending on gravity and the surrounding blocks, the area comes crashing down. This won't deal any damage to you and doesn't impact resource collection.
This isn't the only feature, though, as there are also crumbling mods or ragdoll mods, whichever you prefer, and items no longer float about the ground as they fall to the floor in a more natural way.
Veinminer
Veinminer might be a mod you've seen content creators using, allowing you to mine an entire vein in one go, which makes mining so much faster. Even better, Veinminer is vastly customizable, so you can make sure the settings suit your needs and give yourself the option to mine a single mine or a full vein depending on the situation.
Just Enough Items
If you need an antidote to the pain of alt-tabbing to a wiki while playing Minecraft, then turn to Just Enough Items (or JEI). It lets you look up the recipe for any item through a nifty interface on Minecraft's inventory screen.
The One Probe
The One Probe, or TOP, is a more highly configurable version of Waila and Jade. The others have the UI available at all times, which you might like, but you may also find it a little intrusive. TOP, on the other hand, can be configured to only show what you're looking at when you are holding the probe. This gives you more control over the appearance of the interface. What's more, you can further customize just which information you want to see, including block break progress and mob health.
World Edit
World Edit gives players an easy way of building magnificent creations in Minecraft, with copy, paste, and move features and the ability to switch out one block type for another. Watch the video above from YouTuber Grian to learn more about what you can do using World Edit if you're just getting started.
Presence Footsteps
Mojang is making a concerted effort to improve the overall atmosphere of vanilla Minecraft right now. The 1.21.5 update introduced falling leaves, desert sound effects, and pretty firefly bushes, along with wildflowers and leaf litter. What they haven't yet added, though, are crunchy footsteps as you walk through those leaves or step on the desert's dead bushes.
That's where Presence Footsteps comes in. This mod, based on a mod by Huricaaan, doesn't only add satisfying underfoot sound effects but also includes creaky chests and bubbling magma. A perfect addition to the base game.
How to install Minecraft mods
There are several ways to install Minecraft mods, depending on whether you want to install a management app or implement each mod individually. It might also depend on the mod itself, so check individual mod pages for specific instructions; for example, BetterEnd can only be installed via Fabric.
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 this option is that you can see all your downloaded mods in one place, and group them together into mod packs easily. It's also much easier to run more than one mod at once through a manager.
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, install Minecraft Forge for a handy tool to manage them all. We've also got the best Minecraft seeds to take your new mods for a spin in community worlds. Finally, don't forget to check what's coming in the next Minecraft update to keep up with vanilla's content drops.