Minecraft is the most popular game of the last decade and is one of the best Xbox games available, and many even believe that Minecraft is the greatest game ever made due to its status as the ultimate platform for creativity. With that said, there are ways that the vanilla Minecraft experience could be made better, and one of the best places that developer Mojang should look to for inspiration and ideas is the modding scene.
Over the course of Minecraft's 12-year lifespan, its talented and dedicated modding community has created many wonderful mods that add new mechanics, mobs, biomes, and more to the game. Many of the best Minecraft mods have become a core part of the Minecraft experience for millions of Java Edition players, as they add lots of additional flavor and depth to the game without fundamentally changing the way Minecraft plays. Therefore, I think it would be beneficial for Mojang to develop and implement official versions of the content these mods offer to users on both the Java Edition and the Bedrock Edition. Here are five mods that I believe would fit perfectly into vanilla Minecraft.
Just Enough Items (JEI)
The vanilla Minecraft recipe book is helpful since it catalogs crafting recipes that you discover, but in a game as large as Minecraft, having to manually figure out what each recipe is can often be a chore. Most players will ultimately have no idea what materials they need to look for while exploring in order to make their desired block or item. This drives players to search community-made wikis, which isn't exactly an elegant solution.
Just Enough Items (JEI) is a mod that solves this issue by allowing players to view all of Minecraft's recipes at any time. This makes figuring out how to make progress in each playthrough a simple process, and it also allows players to look up the items they need to keep an eye out for if they want to make a specific item or block. Because of that, an official update to the recipe book that makes it function like JEI would be awesome.
Biomes O' Plenty
Another thing that could be better about Minecraft is its biome diversity. While it's true that there are a good amount of different biomes in the vanilla game, many of them can be tough to find. This means that there's a good chance you won't find anything other than basic plains, forests, mountainous regions, and deserts for a long time, which can make exploring feel a bit boring.
The Biomes O' Plenty mod adds in over 60 new biomes to Minecraft, and as a result, exploring is much more interesting and fun with the mod installed. Alongside the standard vanilla biomes, you'll also be able to come across tropics, overgrown cliffs, floodplains, lush deserts, dead forests, rainforests, and more. It even comes with biomes for The Nether dimension, too, such as crystalline chasms and the withered abyss (these pair excellently with the additions from the Nether Update). All of the biomes added by this mod also come with unique blocks, plants, flowers, trees, and more as well. Overall, Biomes O' Plenty makes exploration significantly more enjoyable, and I hope Mojang takes some inspiration from it in the future.
The Aether II
One of Minecraft's defining features is its implementation of alternate dimensions. In addition to the Overworld, there's also The Nether and The End, with each one featuring tons of unique items, mobs, and environments. But what if Minecraft was to get a third alternate dimension that contrasted the hellish Underworld-like appearance of The Nether with a Heaven-style theme?
That's where The Aether II comes in, which is a mod that adds in a heavenly alternate dimension called The Aether that you can visit by creating a portal out of quartz blocks and then by "lighting" it with water. In The Aether, players can discover dozens of unique items, building blocks, structures, and mobs to interact with. As development on the mod continues, there will also be several new biomes in the dimension to explore, NPC villages to visit, and dungeons to conquer. The Aether offers many opportunities for fun and engaging adventures, which is something that would benefit vanilla Minecraft substantially.
Ice and Fire
One of the main reasons that I think Minecraft's Survival Mode is boring and needs to evolve is because once you've got a basic set of armor, weapons, and tools, none of the game's mobs really threaten you enough to encourage you to get gear that's better. It's not that hard to conquer all of Minecraft with iron armor and an iron sword, and I think Mojang should change that by adding tougher enemies to the game.
One of my favorite mods that does this is Ice and Fire, which adds dragons to Minecraft. With this mod installed, you'll occasionally find these beasts roaming the skies, raining fire down on everyone and everything that dares to enter its territory — you included. They're tough to take down, but with a strong bow, diamond armor, and an effective melee weapon that you can use to fight them if they land, you can kill them and then collect their scales, blood, and bones to make advanced pieces of armor and weapons infused with fire or ice powers. If you're lucky enough to find one sleeping underground and manage to kill it, you'll even be rewarded with a dragon egg. Hatch it and grow your dragon by feeding it meat, and you'll have your very own flying mount.
I think it would be awesome if Mojang designed dragons of their own and implemented them into the game. Not only would they give players a new challenge to overcome, but they would also reward players with new types of gear and a dragon of their own. Plus, dragons fit right in with Minecraft's medieval fantasy aesthetic.
Chisels & Bits
Finally, I think Minecraft's decoration potential could do with some improvements. While it's true that hundreds of decorative blocks have been added over the years, it would be nice if players had the ability to alter the way individual blocks looked so that they could customize their structures and create unique designs for their decorations.
This is precisely what the Chisels & Bits mod does by allowing players to whittle away at blocks with a chisel. With this mod, you can shave down any block in the game in any way you want to achieve a specific look. Want to make a fence poles out of logs? You can. Want to give your castle a worn appearance by cutting out small bits of stone? You can. Ultimately, the sky's the limit with this mod installed, and I think it would be awesome if Mojang implemented a similar feature for the vanilla game.
Your thoughts
What do you think of the mods I mentioned in this article? Would you like to see their features added into the official game in some capacity? Let me know.
For more on Minecraft mods, don't forget to check our guide on how to install and play with mods in Minecraft: Java Edition on PC. Also, make sure you read our lists of the best Minecraft mods on Windows PC and the best Minecraft shaders on Windows PC.
Available everywhere you play
Minecraft is an inarguable and complete success. It has sold copies in the hundreds of millions, has a huge following of dedicated players, and lets you unlock your every creative desire.
