Uncontroversial opinion: Minecraft isnโt Minecraft without mods. Listen, Iโve 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. Itโs 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 youโve started with these!
RL Craft
Some YouTubers call this the hardest Minecraft modpack ever. The creator tells users to expect to die many times. Itโs not a cakewalk, thatโs 100% clear, but itโs definitely worth playing. Itโs far from perfect, but Woah, itโs 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. Itโs 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.
Youโre alone. A tiny piece of land, a tree for company. Youโre 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.
Farming Valley
Critics and (some) fans alike call this the FarmVille of Minecraft. If you ask me, itโs 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 thatโs involved in both growing and selling crops: watering and harvesting them, and then selling them on for profit.
It sounds โmeh,โ but itโs actually a really cool and playable mod pack. If youโve ever been hit by the FarmVille bug, I donโt need to explain to you how playing a farmer can be oh so incredibly addictive.

FTB Academy
Iโll sign off with a boring, yet very much necessary modpack. Once youโre 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 โinformation overloadโ 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 Iโll leave you with this: consider this collection of mods a springboard to discovering a new world.
Keep exploring. Download new mods as theyโre released. Engineer your own, if youโre feeling creative. Enhance the experience to its fullest extent. You wonโt regret it.