6 Mod List

🧩 Essential

Mods that are either essential or just a good idea to have in any modpack.

Better Mods Button (client-side) - Better location for the "Mods" button
Catalogue (client-side) - Improved, prettier mod list
Configured (client-side) - Improved configuration menu
Controlling (client-side) - Improved controls menu with search
Default Options (client-side) - Provides default config options and keybinds on first launch
Just Enough Items - Look up recipes and uses for items

⏱ Optimization / Fixes

Mods that optimize performance of the game or fix issues.

Alternate Current - Redstone re-implementation that improves performance
Clumps - Experience orbs merge to reduce lag and pickup time
FastSuite - Improves recipe performance
Feature NBT Deadlock Be Gone - Fixes freeze during worlgen
FerriteCore - Reduces memory usage
Lazy DataFixerUpper - Delays initialization of "DataFixerUpper" until needed
Radium Reforged - Various optimizations
Rubidium (client-side, recommended) - Graphical performance improvements
spark (server-side, recommended) - Performance profiler
Starlight - Rewritten lighting engine for improved performance

🔩 Utility / Tweaks

Mods that add mechanics or make small changes without adding game content.

Carry On - Allows picking up blocks (like chests) and entities to relocate them
Chicken Drop Feathers - Chickens naturally drop feathers every now and then
Easy Magic - Enchantment table improvements and balance changes
GoProne - Allows going prone / crawling using a keybind
KubeJS - Programmatically adjust things (such as recipes) using JavaScript
- KubeJS Botania
- KubeJS Create
- KubeJS Immersive Engineering
- KubeJS Thermal
- LootJS
Multi Mine - Block mining progress persists and can be shared between players
Tax Free Levels - Fixes experience costs to not punish you when having more levels

🏷 Information

Mods that display additional information about items, or your surroundings on tooltips, your HUD or in-world.

AppleSkin - Display nutrition information of foods and player's hunger bar
Chat Heads (client-side) - Display player heads next to players' chat messages
Detail Armor Bar (client-side) - Display more information about equipped armor in armor bar
Jade - Display information about blocks / entities looked at
- Jade Addons - More mod support for Jade
JEI Integration (client-side) - Shows additional information in item tooltip (durability, enchantability)
More Overlays Updated (client-side) - Find dark spots where mobs can spawn and highlight searched items
Neko's Enchanted Books (client-side) - Unique textures for enchanted books
Pick Up Notifier (client-side) - Shows a log of items and experience picked up
Toast Control (client-side) - Disables all tutorial and advancement toasts
Xaero's Minimap - Display minimap and supports creating waypoints
Xaero's World Map - Stores and display a map of the whole world

🧮 Inventory Management

Mods that make dealing with inventories more straight-forward.

Better Recipe Book (client-side) - Usability improvements to the Vanilla recipe book
Inventory Essential - Simple ways to move single / all items around
Inventory Hotswap (client-side) - Switch out hotbar items for another from your inventory quickly

🖥 Visual

Mods that improve visual aspects of the game.

Distant Horizons (side-side, optional) - See further in your world with far chunks rendered at lower detail
Ears (client-side) - Customize your skin with ears, snouts, muzzles, horns, wings, ...
Loot Beams (client-side, recommended) - Shows loot beams on dropped items
No More Night Vision Flashing! (client-side) - Removes flashing effect when night vision is running out

🔊 Sound

Mods that improve the auditory experience of the game.

Presence Footsteps (client-side, recommended) - Improved footstep sounds
Simple Voice Chat - Proximity voice chat with many features
Sound Physics Remastered (client-side, optional) - Provides realistic sound attenuation, reverberation, and absorption

🧺 Various Content

Mods of any size that add game content without fitting into another category, or covering multiple.

Comforts - Sleeping bags that don't set your spawn and hammocks that skip day
Eccentric Tome - Book for storing other guide books
Nature's Compass - Compass that can point you to specific biomes
Quark - Various content and gameplay improvements
- Quark Oddities - Item pipes and totem of holding (captures items on death)
  - Curios Quark Oddities Backpack - Quark backpacks equippable in back slot
Storage Drawers - Compact and aesthetic storage solution
- Drawers Tooltip - Shows what's contained in a drawer after picking it up
Supplementaries - Various content and decoration
Time in a Bottle - Accumulate time, then use it to speed up blocks
TorchMaster - Blocks that control mob spawning

🍏 Food / Farming

Mods that deal with foods or farming related activities.

Compost Bag - Stores bonemeal, composts items, and can apply bonemeal in-world
Cooking for Blockheads - Kitchen related storage blocks and quick food crafting
Farmer's Delight - More crops, cooking utensils, food and meals with effects
- Copper's Delight - Adds a copper knife
- Corn Delight - Adds corn crop and additional food items
- Farmer's Respite - Adds brewing mechanics as well as tea
- Steel's Delight - Adds a steel knife
- Twilight Delight - Knives from Twilight Forest's materials and more meals
Universal Bone Meal - Bonemeal works on additional blocks

🖼 Decoration / Building

Mods that mostly deal with decoration, or add new building blocks.

Adorn - Decorative furniture blocks
Bedspreads - Apply banners to beds
Decorative Blocks - Various different decorative building blocks
Every Compat - Craft certain modded blocks from additional modded materials

🪖 Equipment

Mods that add new equipment, enchantments or deal with equipment in general.

Air Hop - Boots enchantment for additional mid-air jumps
Allurement - Adds 6 unique enchantments and the ability to enchant horse armor
Archer's Paradox - Various new arrows with different effects
Artifacts - Rare equippable items with unique effects
Backpacked - Customizable, enchantable backpacks for carrying more items
Cosmetic Armor Reworked - Wear a different set of armor that's purely cosmetic
Curio of Undying - Equip totem of undying in your charm slot
Curious Elytra - Equip elytra in your back slot
Ensorcellation - Various additional enchantments
Grappling Hook Mod - Different grappling hooks, upgrades, and enchantments
MrCrayfish's Gun Mod - Unique, customizable and enchantable guns
Slimy Stuff - More uses for slime such as tools and armor
Tetra - Craft modular weapons and tools, then improve them with use
- Tetra Pak - Makes more materials compatible with Tetra
Tinkers' Construct - Customizable tools, smeltery and unique items
Tool's Complement - More tool types and tools made from more materials

🐺 Mobs

Mods that add mobs (both passive and aggressive), modify their behavior or functionality.

Alex's Mobs - Adds lots of mobs, both real and fictional
Creeper Overhaul - Unique creepers for different biomes
Domestication Innovation - Pet related items and enchantments
Guard Villagers - Villages have guards and other defense improving changes
More Axolotl Variants Mod - More flavors of axolotls, some gotten through breeding
More MobGriefing Options - Allows configuring mobGriefing per entity
Untamed Wilds - Expands on exploration with high-quality mobs and world generation
Villager Names - Gives villagers random names

🏭 Technology

Mods that have a technological feel, whether mechanical, electrical or digital.

Applied Energistics 2 - Digital item and fluid storage, auto-crafting and more
- Applied Botanics Addon - Funnel mana digitally and access AE2 network with corporea index
Create - Tools and blocks for building, decoration and aesthetic automation
- Create Confectionery - More Create style food items
- Create Jetpack - Upgrade copper backtank to jetpack, charge items and boost elytra flight
- Create Stuff Additions - Tools, armor and utility items from Create materials
- Create Slice & Dice - Compatibility between Create and Farmer's Delight, automated cutting board and cooking
Immersive Engineering - Electricity based technology mod with nice aesthetics
- Immersive Posts - Variable length IE style posts including additional materials
Little Logistics - Create contraption support for Little Logistics
- Little Contraptions - Tugboats that can follow specific paths, move items and more
Thermal Series - Provides a cohesive experience, expanding the game in a lore-friendly, technological way
- Thermal Expansion - Energy generation and machines to process just about anything
- Thermal Foundation - Adds ores, base materials and various items
- Thermal Innovation - Adds upgradable powered tools, gadgets, and armor
- Thermal Integration - Integration with other mods
TIS-3D - Program computer modules in ASM

🪄 Magic

Mods that focus on Magic or have a magical feel to them.

Ars Nouveau - Craft custom spells and create magical artifacts
- Ars Arsenal - Elemental robes and source steel armor
- Ars Creo - Allows casting spells from Create contraptions
- Ars Elemental - Additions glyphs, tweaks, equipment and mobs
- Ars Instrumentum - More items and other utility functions
- Too Many Glyphs - Adds additional spell glyphs
Botania - Tech and automation disguised as flowery magic mod, with lots of toys
Malum - Dark magic mod centered around spirit magics
Reliquary Reincarnations - Magical relics crafted from rare mob drops

🌍 World Generation

Mods that add to or modify world generation, whether biomes, dungeons, other structures, or dimensions.

Biomes O' Plenty - Expansive biome mod to add variety to the overworld and nether
- Compat O' Plenty - Adds variants of various modded blocks made from BoP materials
Dungeon Crawl - Tiered dungeons with loot that gets more difficult the deeper you go
Dungeons Enhanced - Many new structures and dungeons to explore
Enlightened End - Adds much needed content to the end
Integrated Dungeons and Structures - Structures that use other mods' content
Lootr - Per-player instanced loot chests
Repurposed Structures - Vanilla structures, repurposed for other biomes
Stalwart Dungeons - Special nether and end dungeons with unique loot
Terralith - Overhauls world generation, new and improved Vanilla biomes
The Twilight Forest - A whole magical dimension to explore and progress within
When Dungeons Arise - Massive, unique and potentially dangerous dungeons
YUNG's Mods - Improved and additional structures
- YUNG's Better Desert Temples
- YUNG's Better Dungeons
- YUNG's Better Mineshafts
- YUNG's Better Strongholds
- YUNG's Better Witch Huts
- YUNG's Extras

📚 Library

Mods that are used by other mods to share common code / resources but don't themselves add content.

🧩 Essential
⏱ Optimization / Fixes
🔩 Utility / Tweaks
🏷 Information
🧮 Inventory Management
🖥 Visual
🔊 Sound
🧺 Various Content
🍏 Food / Farming
🖼 Decoration / Building
🪖 Equipment
🐺 Mobs
🏭 Technology
🪄 Magic
🌍 World Generation
📚 Library