5 best mods to make Minecraft exploration fun

Exploration is a key aspect of survival in Minecraft. Some items, resources, mobs, and materials are exclusive to particular biomes, so exploring to find new and interesting regions, along with their structures is something that every player needs to do eventually. But, as visually appealing as the vanilla game is, the landscapes eventually start to look similar.

Detailed below are five amazing Minecraft mods that add new structures, biomes, or world-generation rules to get exploration feeling fresh and new again.

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5 amazing Minecraft mods to make exploration much more enjoyable

1) YUNG's mods

Strongholds are one of the coolest structure revamps (Image via Mojang)

Creator: YUNGNICKYOUNG

Download link for every YUNG mod: https://www.curseforge.com/members/yungnickyoung/projects

YUNG's mods are a series of mods familiar to players who have messed around with Minecraft structure mods. They are centered around revamping and overhauling Minecraft's many different structures, making them larger, more detailed, and generally more interesting to find and explore.

The YUNG's range of mods includes revamps for these structures:

• Mineshafts
• Dungeons/Monster Rooms
• Strongholds
• Ocean Monuments
• Nether Fortresses
• Bridges
• End Island
• Witch Huts
• Desert Temples
• Jungle Temples

Since each of YUNG's mods only revamps a single vanilla structure, they tend to be used as one large mod rather than on their own.

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2) Terralith

Terralith makes Minecraft's environments even prettier (Image via Mojang)

Creator: Starmute

Download: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/terralith

Terralith is a massive mod that fundamentally changes how the game generates terrain while also adding more than 100 new biomes. Caves are larger, deeper, and even more dangerous, while mountains and valleys look more beautiful than ever.

But these biomes are truly where Terralith shines when it comes to enjoyable exploration. The fact that there are 100 new biomes means that there's almost no shortage of new sights and sounds to experience. Moreover, these biomes are incredibly well made, with the standouts being the fantasy-style biomes as well as the Yellowstone biome.

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3) Repurposed Structures

Creator: telepathicgrunt

Download: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/repurposed-structures

Repurposed Structures is an incredibly interesting mod due to how it solves the structure issue. Rather than adding new structures, Repurposed Structures instead allows all vanilla structures to generate as something else. What this means is that villages can generate in the shape of end cities, or desert temples can generate in the shape of ocean monuments.

It takes the variety of structures available in vanilla and expands them internally. This keeps all the content feeling quite vanilla, as it's all Mojang-designed structures. There's also plenty of support for Repurposed Structures in other mods, allowing even more structures to be added to the mix. This mod will keep exploration exciting forever.

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4) Biomes O' Plenty

Creator: Forstride

Download: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/biomes-o-plenty

Biomes O' Plenty is another large-scale Minecraft biome mod. It adds 58 new biomes to the overworld, ranging from expanses of lavender flowers and trees to magical forests filled with rare trees and flowers. The mix of realist and mystical biomes helps to keep exploration interesting, as biomes are more than just new colors of trees and grass.

The mod doesn't just add new biomes to the overworld. It adds new biomes to all three different dimensions, meaning the underdeveloped end dimension will feel completely fresh and new. These new biomes will keep players coming back to the End for reasons outside of an Enderman XP farm. The new Nether biomes also serve to make that dimension much more fun to explore.

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5) Naturalist

Alligators are the deadliest of Naturalist's mobs (Image via Mojang)

Creator: Starfish_Studios

Download: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/naturalist

Naturalist is a mob-focused mod that adds nearly two dozen new animals to the beautiful Minecraft biomes that make up a survival world. These animals range from small snails and birds to imposing elephants and hippos. While most of these inclusions serve to make exploring feel more rewarding, some also serve to make exploration more risky.

These mobs include Naturalist's alligator, which can be found in swamps. They don't normally hunt down players, but when they do, it can be difficult to escape unscathed. This mod is amazing for explorers looking for more interesting mobs to work around.