Installing Minecraft Mods for Beginners

Installing Minecraft mods can seem daunting, but once you get the basics, it's relatively straightforward.

---

The Mod loader

Forge and Fabric are two of the most popular mod loaders for Minecraft, but they are not interchangeable. I recommend Fabric, but in the end it depends on what mods you want and for what loaders they are compatible with.

The Minecraft version

The Minecraft version defines your set of available mods, make sure to pick a common one, for example:

• 1.18.2
• 1.19.2
• 1.20.1

The most recent version is usually a battlefield of incompatibilities, I suggest using the version before that.

---

Installing via the vanilla launcher.

Maybe not the most convenient way to install mods, but definitely the one to understand modding better:

Download and run either

• Forge installer from Forge's website.
• Fabric installer from Fabric's website.

Then start the launcher and create a new profile. Profiles are their own folder to keep things clean and separated.

1. Select the just installed loader.
2. Set a new directory where to save your profile, for example, in a new folder "Forge 1.20.1" in your Documents folder.
3. It is also recommended to set the allocated memory under more options to around 6G.

Start the profile once and close it again. You should now see data in your chosen profile folder.

---

Adding mods

Now you can add mods (.jar files) to the mods/ folder inside the profile folder.

The ONLY source for mods:

• https://modrinth.com/mods
• https://www.curseforge.com

Do not download it from anywhere else. Mods are code, they are executable, don't execute stuff from unknown sources!

Dependencies

Most mods require dependencies, read instructions carefully and install them as well. For example, MCA requires:

• Architectury API
• Fabric API

Version Matching

Each mod is built for specific Minecraft versions and Mod loaders, make sure to match your profile!

---

Debugging

In your profiles directory is a logs/latest.txt. This file contains information about what is happening in detail. ALWAYS append that file when asking others for help.

---

Modrinth

Once you are familiar with how things work under the hood, you can use more suited tools, such as the Modrinth app. It does most things for you. Do not skip the manual modding before, you will need that knowledge later on.