The Best Way to Play Minecraft

Background Information

Minecraft has two main versions: Bedrock Edition and Java Edition. The two editions have mostly the same gameplay experience, and they mainly differ in platform and mod support. Bedrock Edition is the version available on consoles, mobile devices, and Windows, and it has an integrated marketplace for paid content packs. Java Edition is only available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it has a large and active modding community with many free mods available.

Both editions may be purchased together in the Minecraft: Java & Bedrock for PC bundle.

If you want to join a friend who is already playing Minecraft, then you'll need to use the same edition as them to play together. If you're starting fresh on PC and you want to use mods now or might want to in the future, then I recommend using Java Edition for its modding capabilities.

Mods

  1. Install the Migurinth Launcher and launch it. (It's an ad-free version of the otherwise-excellent Modrinth Launcher.)

  2. Open "Settings" (gear icon at bottom left), "Default instance options", and change "Memory allocated" up to 16384 MB (16 GB), assuming you have at least that much RAM. (It's not recommended to go much higher than that even if you have more RAM because it can actually make Java perform worse.)

  3. Pick the "Create new instance" option, give it a name (like "Main"), set the loader to "Fabric", and set the Minecraft version to the latest release (1.21.11 at the time of writing) or the version you want to use.

  4. With the instance selected, click "+ Install content". You can now search for the mods below to add them. (Make sure that you have the "Mods / Resource Packs / Data Packs / Shaders" switcher set correctly when searching. Most of these will be under "Mods".)

    Any of the mods below can also be installed from their page on Modrinth by clicking "Download" -> "Install with Modrinth App" -> "Choose a different app to open this link" -> Browse to where you installed Migurinth.exe (C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Migurinth\Migurinth.exe by default) and checkmark "Allow this website to open this app in the future".

The mods listed below are my personal recommendations to improve the core game experience without straying too far from vanilla Minecraft. All of these mods can be added together safely.

This list is primarily intended for use with the Fabric mod loader. Some mods in this list are Fabric-only and have Forge/NeoForge alternatives listed in case you want to use a mod you found elsewhere that requires you to use Forge or NeoForge.

Making the game pretty

Both of these mods are must-have if your system can handle them.

  • Distant Horizons
    Greatly increases the distance you can see in-game, making the world feel much larger and more immersive.
  • Iris (Forge alternative: Oculus)
    This mod is required to use custom shaders. You should install multiple shaders like the following ones and switch between them in-game (using the menu in "Options" -> "Video Settings" -> "Shader Packs") to see which you like best:

Performance

Gameplay-changing Quality of Life

Quality of Life / Utility

  • Mod Menu
    Some mods only expose their settings through this, so it's a good idea to have it installed.
  • Controlify (Forge alternative: Controlify: Forgified)
    This mod adds full controller support to Java Edition like Bedrock Edition has. Even if using a controller isn't your usual way of playing, it can be nice to be able to pick up a controller and have it work immediately like it does in many other modern games.
  • Advancement Screenshot
    Automatically takes a screenshot when you earn an advancement. It's a small gimick but it's kind of fun.
  • Spark
    Performance debugging tool to help identify lag sources.

Ambience

Multiplayer

  • Essential
    Allows you to invite friends to your singleplayer worlds. This is the quickest way to play with friends without setting up a server.
  • Simple Voice Chat
  • No Chat Reports + Chat Reporting Helper (Resource pack)
    Something that is surprising to many players is that chat messages in private servers can be reported to Mojang by other players, and people can get a game-wide chat ban for it. If you're playing on a private server with friends, then it's unlikely that this feature will be more useful than the risk of someone abusing it. These mods disable the feature.

Advanced

These mods aren't zero-config and aren't necessary for most players.

  • BlueMap
    Creates a web-based 3d map of your world. You can view it in your web browser while playing.
    It takes a config tweak to get it started and then more setup if you want to share it over the internet. (If you're a developer familiar with Cloudflare R2, then it's not hard to combine the BlueMap S3 plugin and BlueMap's Cloudflare R2 guide to host a continuously-updated map of your world in the cloud at a publicly-accessible URL.)

About

I discovered many of these mods by browsing popular mod packs in the Migurinth Launcher and seeing which mods were commonly included. You can view the mods inside of a modpack (such as Fabulously Optimized) by clicking the "Versions" tab and then picking the latest version on your Minecraft version and platform. The page for that version will have a "Dependencies" section listing all of the mods included in the modpack.