Uncontroversial opinion: Minecraft isn’t Minecraft without mods. Listen, I’ve got nothing against those of you who go vanilla. I enjoyed the game immensely before I even knew what they were.
But once I discovered mods, there was no going back. Mods make Minecraft endless replayable. They give power to the user, developers who let the imagination run wild and far beyond the original creators of the game. It’s a chance to make up your own and very much unique experience of Minecraft.
These are my favorite mods to download in 2020. Note: I take no responsibility for life taking a backseat once you’ve started with these!
RL Craft
Some YouTubers call this the hardest Minecraft modpack ever. The creator tells users to expect to die many times. It’s not a cakewalk, that’s 100% clear, but it’s definitely worth playing. It’s far from perfect, but Woah, it’s an experience.
The premise is this. The strong survive. Pure and simple. Resources are limited. The environments are harsh and not at all forgiving. Creativity and ingenuity are heavily rewarded. It’s the ultimate adventure and RPG Minecraft experience.
SkyFactory 4 (SF4)
Building factories in the sky. Sounds like a ridiculous concept, but this simple idea morphed into one of the better Minecraft modpacks you can download. Personally, it may very well be my favorite.
You’re alone. A tiny piece of land, a tree for company. You’re surrounded by nothing. The fun starts right from the word Go. Build out your island, increase your items, progress and grow, generate power, find special resources.
You started on a tiny block. You soon build an empire in the sky that seemingly has no end.
CasinoCraft
One of my favorites, bar none. I’ll be upfront. I like a wager, a trip to the casino, trying to kid myself that I have the skills to beat the dealer (spoiler: I don’t). If a game of chance isn’t quite your thing, I still think you may enjoy this mod. It’s been built to mimic exactly what goes on in the real online casinos while instilling the Minecraft identity in everything from traditional table games to slots.
Conjured up just over four years ago, CasinoCraft is head and shoulders above any other mod of this kind. It’s near 200k downloads, it’s still heavily used and popular to this day, and the devs continue to be heavily involved in the project. With 24 unique games on offer, you’ll find one that’s love.
Farming Valley
Critics and (some) fans alike call this the FarmVille of Minecraft. If you ask me, it’s so much more. Farming in the vanilla version of the game is a little stale, and Farming Valley gives the experience a much-needed dosage of oomph.
Farming Valley is actually far more akin to Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, both immensely popular farm simulation role-playing games. You essentially need to run your own farming enterprise, with everything that’s involved in both growing and selling crops: watering and harvesting them, and then selling them on for profit.
It sounds ‘meh,’ but it’s actually a really cool and playable mod pack. If you’ve ever been hit by the FarmVille bug, I don’t need to explain to you how playing a farmer can be oh so incredibly addictive.
FTB Academy
I’ll sign off with a boring, yet very much necessary modpack. Once you’re living the modpack life, you know your way around them in your sleep. When you start, the dizzying array of options can be, well, dizzying.
FTB Academy is one of the best ways to introduce you to this fun but very complicated world. It gives you instructions without having to hit up Google at every turn. It teaches you as you go, giving you the opportunity to play over 300 missions as fun tutorials.
Highly recommended download if modpacks give you that ‘information overload’ feeling.
Pro Tip: Keep Exploring
These are just a handful of mods that are available. It was difficult to trim the list to just a few, so I’ll leave you with this: consider this collection of mods a springboard to discovering a new world.
Keep exploring. Download new mods as they’re released. Engineer your own, if you’re feeling creative. Enhance the experience to its fullest extent. You won’t regret it.
