Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world today, and it’s no wonder. With its flexible and replayable gameplay, it’s a treasure trove for all sorts of gamers. Whether you like braving the dangerous dark deep in the mine in search for the shiniest ores, or if you spend most of your days relaxing in fields of wheat, you can enjoy Minecraft at your own pace and in your own way.
One of the things that make Minecraft so fun is, inarguably, the vast variety of mobs, animals and creatures in the game. From the small desert bunny to the dangerous ender dragon; from the loyal wolf to the protective iron golem, every mob interacts with the player a little differently and are the pillars supporting Minecraft’s rich, diverse and interactive world.
So, naturally, there are hundreds and hundreds of mods that enhance, change and add to our lovely little pool of creatures in the base Minecraft game. Today, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite mods that affect Minecraft mobs, whether it’s a quality of life update for existing ones, or one that adds in dozens of new mods.
Animania describes itself as an immersive mod that replaces and improves the passive animals in Minecraft. Having gotten into it thoroughly in one of my modded playthroughs, I can say that it’s so much more. This mod changes everything — and I mean, everything — about passive mobs, from husbandry to their animations.
Here’s fair warning: it makes everything about farm animals more realistic — not necessarily easier, although effort put into raising the animals certainly pays off in the form of higher quality produce. The animals that it adds and changes are also all passive. If you’re looking for a mod that adds crazy beasts and tons of custom monsters, you might want to move along (to the next item in the list).
To get started in Animania, you’ll want to gather some animals as per normal. However, that’s where the resemblance stops. You’ll notice that there are now varied models and textures for each mob — different species of each animal are good for different things, such as specific species of cows for milk and others for meat.
Firstly, you’ll need to create troughs and fill them with water and their favorite food. Said food depends on the creature in question, so the chickens love seeds, and the goats (yup, there’s goats!) would love some fresh wheat to munch on. Keeping animals happy and well-fed will result in them eventually breeding with members of the opposite sex, and producing higher quality produce, such as wool, tastier meat and better milk.
Besides all these changes to animal husbandry, the mod also adds a ton of adorable new animals, such as frogs, the aforementioned goats (which act a lot like sheep), peacocks (which act a lot like chickens), and hamsters (!!!) These hamsters can even be put into a hamster ball to run around in, or into a hamster wheel to generate RF, if your modpack has any technology in it.
Now, hamsters and frogs are fantastic and all, but are you looking for a mod that adds creatures to fear? Behold — Ice and Fire: Dragons is the perfect mod, not just because of its nuanced details and great models, but also because who doesn’t want to fight, tame and ride some dragons?
Ice and Fire: Dragons adds two kinds of dragons to the game: Ice and, well, Fire! The type of dragon largely influences the color of the dragon, and their main form of attack. It also adds a ton of mythical, fantasy creatures such as hippogryphs, death worms, cockatrices, sirens and cyclops… all of which have their own mechanics, but mainly, the dragons take the cake in this mod.
These dragons spawn with treasure hordes and an assigned gender, and a level between 1-5. All dragons drop loot when killed, but only level 5 female dragons drop dragon eggs — the only way you can tame a dragon of your own. Once the conditions are met for the egg to hatch, you’ll have your very own, ravenous, baby dragon! And if you manage to keep it alive and healthy till it grows up, you too will be able to soar the skies in a blaze of inferno or glacial fury.
In all, this is a fantastically detailed and coherent mod that any thrillseeker looking to add a mythical element to their gameplay. It fits great in almost any modpack, or as a standalone, with its set of own armor, weapons and items.
Do note that Ice and Fire: Dragons is a large mod that we can’t fully cover in this short blurb, so if you’re interested, do check out their modpage below!
Download Ice and Fire: Dragons
Mo’ Creatures is a mod that adds, unsurprisingly, tons more creatures to Minecraft. Unlike the last two mods we covered, this one is a perfect blend of both atmospheric, friendly additions, as well as ferocious creatures to be bested in combat.
Firstly: the atmospheric additions. The mod adds an insane number of creatures to the environment, from snails and butterflies to mice and deer. These all spawn naturally and in accordance to their natural biomes. Some of these animals have drops that craft into other items, but mostly, they serve to greatly populate the Minecraft world that sometimes can seem lacking in terms of “real-life” animals.
However, that’s not all this mod brings to the table! Mo’ Creatures also adds in lots of hostile beasts that add some challenge to your everyday Minecraft survival playthrough. Some of these mobs are familiar to us: sharks and crocodiles loom in the water while bears and lions prowl the forests. Some of these mobs are less familiar (hopefully) — manticores, magical golems and wraiths tend to attack players on sight.
The bread and butter of Mo’ Creatures, however, is their Wyverns. The mod adds a whole new dimension for these majestic flying creatures, and only players who are brave enough to venture into Wyvern Lairs will be able to claim an egg for themselves.
Lycanite’s Mobs is unlike anything on the list we’ve seen so far, and is certainly NOT for the faint of heart. This massive mod adds dozens of strange and deadly creatures, dragged right out of your worst nightmares onto your computer screen. Seriously, whatever you’re imagining, it’s worse. You can see a few of these mobs for yourself on the Lycanite’s Mobs Creatures Page.
Still here? Good. Most of these monsters will try to kill you on sight, infesting everything from the caves, ocean, forest, mountains and especially the nether. Going for a swim? The Jengu will drag you to a dark, watery grave. Mining? The Geonachs are hiding in the rocks, just waiting for your pickaxe to spring them free — and that’s if the Grue haven’t devoured you from the shadows yet. Going for a walk at night? The Rocs might carry you away and drop you from a heavy height. Spectres and Wraiths haunt the End and Nether too, ensuring that nowhere is safe from these monstrosities.
If you’re down for a little challenge, however, this mod is incredible. The hauntingly realistic textures (just look at all… those… Concapede legs…) and special mob mechanics (almost every creature has their own AI, goals, behaviour and drops) alone make this mod a solid solo mod or pack addition in every situation. The mob designs are also commendable, with many based off of mythological creatures from various cultures.
And naturally, a mod focused on conquering dangerous mobs would have a taming, or summoning, system that we won’t get into too much in this guide but is definitely worth looking into. In all, if you’re looking for anything but a completely peaceful and relaxing playthrough, Lycanite’s Mobs is an absolute experience and worth a try.
Champions is a bit of a different twist on a mob-related mod. Rather than adding tons of custom mob models and types, it plays around with the existing ones, whether vanilla or added from other modpacks.
Champions adds various tiers and levels to every single mob that spawns, as well as affixes and characteristics. This adds a ton of variety to each and every modpack that contains any sort of hostile creatures. For instance, the “Magnetic” affix causes the mob in question to periodically pull in targets and players; the “Infested” affix causes the mob to spawn silverfish minions when attacked, and the like.
This also adds a new level of challenge when handling mobs and mob farms — for instance, “Adaptable” champion mobs will take consecutively less damage from similar damage sources, making it incredibly deadly on high-health mobs like bosses.
While it’s relatively simple compared to some other mods on the list, it’s worth mentioning for two reasons. Firstly: it’s much more lightweight than some other options in this guide, seeing as it doesn’t add any assets of its own but rather enhances pre-existing ones. And secondly: it’s super configurable, letting you mold your own experience however you’d like.
Mowzie’s Mobs is a relatively small, but extremely well-made mod that adds in a few unique creatures to Minecraft. Most of these are hostile, from jungle-lurking man-eating plants to massive hairy frost yeti beasts, but there are also some passive ones to be had in this awesome mod.
What stands out the most with this mod is their attention to detail. The mod description claims to pride itself in “unique AI, environmental and atmospheric appropriateness and standard-setting animations”, all of which are absolutely true.
The art of the mod involves a very stylistic and Minecraft-appropriate style, fitting right into the game while also adding a breath of fresh air to the tried and true vanilla Minecraft survival. The animations of the mod are absolutely stunning, with dynamic and gorgeous motions that look straight out of a movie. It’s especially terrifying when a tribe of Barakoana come running after you, chattering and wobbling uncannily!
In all, if you’re planning on having exploration or PvE combat in your playthrough or modpack, Mowzie’s Mobs is a solid addition that adds extremely high-quality content to your gameplay with very little tradeoff.
While not exactly an animal mod, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Pixelmon in a mod discussion about adding new creatures. Pixelmon adds tons of new creatures to the game — in the form of 800+ Pokemon from the immensely popular Pokemon franchise.
We couldn’t possible summarize the franchise in this list, but if you’re at all interested in the Pokemon games, movies or show, Pixelmon is a must-try on one of your Minecraft playthroughs. You’ll be able to live out your Pokemon trainer dreams to the fullest extent by exploring the world to find rare Pokemon, battling wild Pokemon and other trainers, and challenging the Gyms scattered across the world.
Part of why Minecraft is so incredibly appealing is its nostalgic quality, the familiarity that you can load into your new world and know exactly how everything works, know exactly what you want to do. However, sometimes, what makes Minecraft so appealing is that it is what the player makes it, that it’s so receptive to player creativity. And nothing demonstrates player creativity like player-made mods!
Whether you’re a seasoned monster hunter or just looking for something to enhance your farm, we hope that there was something that caught your eye on our Best Minecraft Creature Mods guide
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