Minecraft mod installation

This quick one-page tutorial will teach you all you need to know about installing and using mods on your local copy of Minecraft. Note server mods are not covered in this guide – these require a download when the client logs in and are generally not practical for multiplayer servers for accessibility reasons.

Some mods will require a mod loader such as Forge or LiteLoader. We will be covering the installation process for the former as it is widely used and supports all popular mods.

1. Get Java

As we know, Minecraft is a game based on Java. You can check if you have it by opening a terminal and typing java -version. Without Java installed on your computer, the game will not run, so go install the latest version from here if you need it:

You’re on the right track, but if you walk the modding path you’re not finished with Java yet. Most mods will come packaged and ready-to-use – however, a few will require compilation. To automate this and because it is generally a good idea anyway, you should install the Java Development Kit or JDK, which will allow your computer to run the java command on your mod’s source code and turn it into something executable.

2. Download Forge

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Now that you have a working copy of the JDK, you can install Forge without worrying about mod errors in the future. Forge is an Application Programming Interface or API – that is, it’s an extremely useful library of code that you can use to interact with a Minecraft copy. It comes with something called the Mod Coder Pack or MCP, a collection of tools used to facilitate the decompilation and deobfuscation of Minecraft’s JARs. This allows Forge to access, modify and rebuild the resulting Java files without breaking Minecraft, so Forge as a whole is sometimes referred to as a mod-loader.

You can get always get the latest version of Forge from the following page. Out of the two options “latest” and “recommended”, you should always pick “recommended” unless you know what you’re doing (development builds will sometimes contain bugs or get constantly hotfixed). If you’re on Windows, you should make sure you click “Installer-win” – any other operating systems must use the “Installer” and, if this fails, the “Universal” installer. For information only, MDK stands for Mod Development Kit and is a version of Gradle and Eclipse designed with mod programming in mind.

3. Install Forge

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You’re almost done. Now that you have the Forge installer, you need to execute it. Double-clicking it will bring up the interface. It will give you three choices (client, server and extract). For the purposes of this tutorial, we want the one that says “Install client“. The path you can see is the location of your Minecraft folder. Usually, Forge will auto-detect it, but check it just in case. The default folder on Macs is ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft. On Windows, It will be C:/Users/YourName/AppData/Roaming/.minecraft. An easy way to get to the containing folder is pressing Windows + R and typing %appdata%. On Linux, it’s even easier: just ~/.minecraft. It should look like this:

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Click OK. You can check installation was successful by checking the versions archive in your Minecraft folder. It should have been updated to display a folder titled something containing the keyword “forge” and the version of Minecraft you chose:

You need to execute Minecraft at least once before doing anything else. Open your launcher and select the profile named “forge” – in most cases you can rename it easily just by going to “Edit profile”. If everything works, when you press Play you should see the Mojang logo as always. Sometimes, it will have some additional info underneath, like in the example below right:

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When the Mojang intro finishes, you can check out the new and improved Forge game menu! (which overrides the default). There are two things you need to worry about on the menu screen: the very bottom left tells you how many mods are loaded (there are 3 by default) and the “Mods” button will let you view a list of your mods, selectively enable/disable them and, in some cases, apply some basic configuration. If it looks like this, you’re on the right track.

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4. Get some mods!

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You’re all set! You now have an environment correctly set up to install and use Minecraft mods. Note some mods do not require Forge and some are not compatible with it – almost all popular mods’ documentation contains a section on this.

The last thing you know before you’re on your own is how to install a mod. I’m going to use the Forge mod version (as opposed to Bukkit plugin version) of WorldEdit to demonstrate this. First of all, download it. Note you need to pick up the most recent version if you plan to use an updated copy of Minecraft (listed under “recent files” on the right).

If you have a Minecraft copy open, close it before you start. This is not strictly necessary but definitely safer, and you will need to restart the game anyway once you’re done. Now, go to your Minecraft folder and enter the freshly created “mods” folder. Place the .jar file you just downloaded in here. Believe it or not, that is usually the entire process. Fire up the game and try using the wooden axe (WorldEdit’s default wand) on a block and you should see some pink text in the chat informing you that you have selected a block.

There are many useful mods out there – SPC (additional commands), Optifine (FPS boost), AmbientOcclusion’s XRAY (structure locator), JourneyMap (mapping and info)… just to name a select few. AO’s XRAY is merely one example of a mod which does not require Forge, but will run alongside Forge and any other mods loaded with it. You can combine an infinite number of mods, Forge or non-Forge, as far as no compatibility issues arise.

A word of warning: do not use mods on multiplayer servers. Almost all mods aren’t allowed, and most servers will have a plugin in place taking care of auto-detecting users with a modified copy of Minecraft, sometimes combined with extensive human moderation and supervision. Expect a ban or other severe punishment if you ignore this advice.

This being said, here is a small list of mod download pages to get you started. Go explore!