Last issue, we talked about online servers and how to access them. If you gave online a try, you may have noticed that people were playing Minecraft in new ways. While the base Minecraft experience is about exploration and creating, you may have come across servers with special weapons, new game modes, and other custom content. This is done through what’s called ‘modding’, where you add onto or edit the game files in order to add new content.

Unfortunately, making a mod is quite tricky! If you’re not a coding genius, you may want to stay away from the idea of making your own mods. However, downloading and installing other people’s mods is much easier. This allows you to extend your Minecraft experience without having to learn any coding.

You can find great Minecraft mods over at Planet Minecraft, Minecraft Forum’s mod section, and Minecraft Mods. However, if you visit those sites, you may feel a little overwhelmed at the choice you have available to you. There are item mods, aesthetic mods, world mods, monster mods…the choices are practically endless! It’s a good idea to ask yourself what you want to mod, and find mods that are related to that.

When you play Minecraft, did you enjoy exploring the world around you? If so, look for mods that add new places to go. The Space Age mod is about making a rocket ship and going to the moon, so you’re bound to have great exploration there. There are also mods that add new realms and dimensions for you to check out.

If you’re into combat, look up the many different weapons and attack methods you can add on. Some mods will give you new armaments to fight with, while others can add devastating magic and high-tech weaponry.

Enjoy farming? There’s plenty of crop and animal mods out there that will expand your farming realms even further. If you’d like your farm to look the part too, there’s plenty of mods that add fences and gates to make your farm look beautiful.

Of course, you may be an inventor at heart, at which point you’ll want mods that add extra machinery to the game. While redstone can be a lot of fun to play with, there are mods out there that can implement steam and electricity into the game for even more advanced technology.

If it’s too much of a hassle to download the mods, install them, and get them all working nicely together, you might want to consider a modpack instead. Modpacks are essentially a big bundle of mods that are pre-constructed for the best experience. They’re usually based around a specific theme, so you know exactly what you’re getting with your download.

One of the better modpack websites out there is Curse Forge, which features a lot of them. They’re all sorted into different categories, so you can quickly pick out the area you want to focus on and check out the mod packs. People looking for a fight may have a good time with the Adventure-based modpacks, while those who want to build fantastic machines will have a good time with the Tech modpacks. These all install nicely using the Curse client, so you don’t have too much of a headache setting them up!

Once you’ve played with mods a little bit, you may feel interested in making your own mods. Even though they’re quite tricky to do, coding a mod for Minecraft can be a fun way to learn about creating game elements. After all, all the main game is already made for you! In order to code for Minecraft mods, you’ll have to learn the Java language, and read tutorials to get an idea on what you need to do to code a mod.

Of course, always be careful with where you download mods! Because of Minecraft’s popularity, a lot of people online upload virus-infected files in hopes that players will download them. Only download from trusted mod websites, and find mods that are well-rated and popular to ensure the mods you’re getting does what they say they do!

Learn More

How to install Minecraft Mods

https://en.softonic.com/articles/the-easiest-way-to-install-minecraft-mods

Twenty best Minecraft Mods

https://www.pcgamesn.com/minecraft/twenty-best-minecraft-mods

Coding Minecraft Mods

https://bedrockminer.jimdo.com/modding-tutorials/