The Best World Generation Mods For Minecraft

World generation is a big reason Minecraft is so great; for the most part, you never know what kind of unique terrain, structures, or geography you’ll encounter as you explore a massive world. Well, you know there will be villages, for example, but thankfully they all manage to look a bit different depending on their spawn point.

These world generation mods all refer to changes or additions that, in some way, affect terrain, geography, or structure generation within the game. With that out of the way, let’s jump into the best mods that help make exploration feel fun and full of wonder again.

All mods mentioned are, at minimum, compatible with Minecraft Java Edition, versions 1.20 and above. Depending on the mods you decide to download, you may be able to play on earlier versions, and will need the appropriate dependency: Forge, Fabric, or Quilt.

Updated December 17, 2024 by Jacqueline Zalace: Minecraft has been around for a while, so it’s only natural that you’d want to add some new content every now and then. We’ve updated this list, giving you a few more Minecraft world and terrain generation mods that can shake up your experience.

13

Better Mineshafts

Some of you really spend too much time down in the mines, but to give you some credit, everyone has to do at least some resource gathering if they want to progress to higher-tier weapons, armor, and tools. Plus, we’re sure your builder friends appreciate your efforts.

If you’re a real coal rat, though, you can only go through so many vanilla-generated mineshafts until everything starts to feel bland. With Better Mineshafts, you’ll discover 13 biome variants, abandoned outposts, a chance to find juicy ore deposits at the end of tunnels, and more.

12

Towns And Towers

It was only a matter of time until Minecraft’s procedurally generated villages earned their place as hotspots for early playthrough theft, forfeiting their chests and crops for resource-hungry players with no ethics or morals. Okay, maybe that’s a bit unfair; everyone’s stolen before, right?

Pragmatism and looting aside, villages still leave much to be desired when it comes to their looks and layout. With Towns and Towers, you’ll find villages with dynamic, interesting architecture that fits much better with the biome you happen to find them in.

11

Biomes O’ Plenty

Biomes are arguably a part of what has kept Minecraft alive; it’s a huge part of the experience in terms of exploration. Although, as much as this part of the game has developed, if you play for long enough, it’s natural to start feeling bored with it all.

With Biomes O’ Plenty, you can rekindle your adventurer’s spirit, and dive into dozens of fresh, natural-looking biomes with their own, unique characteristics and charm. Also, it doesn’t stop at the overworld; there are even changes to the Nether and the End.

10

Formations Nether

The Nether can be a scary, but wondrous and oddly beautiful place. Once you’ve grown accustomed to this area, though, you can only see a fortress, lava lake, or crimson forest so many times until it starts to feel a bit boring.

With Formations Nether, you’ll encounter dozens of new, novel structures and formations that will make exploring the Nether feel interesting again. Oh, and if you need a guide on every vanilla biome you can find in the Nether, don’t worry; we have you covered.

9

Incendium

If you’re craving a large-scale, completely redesigned Nether that only utilizes the original, vanilla block set, the Incendium mod is exactly what you’re looking for. Plus, this mod can be run completely from the server-side, meaning anyone with a vanilla client can join without needing Incendium.

If that still isn’t enough customization for you, though, you might want to consider making your own texture pack. Sometimes, all you need is some finishing, personal touches to make Minecraft feel just as good as it did when you first started playing.

8

Repurposed Structures

The Repurposed Structures mod takes every existing structure in vanilla Minecraft, and either modifies, or creates new variants of them. To give you an idea of what that looks like, this mod adds over:

• Ten new mineshaft types.
• 15 jungle and desert temple variants.
• Five mansion and witch hut types.
• Ten new village types and spawn formations.
• Five variations of desert wells.

While that’s not everything Repurposed Structures adds, it’d be a shame to spoil everything for you before you try the mod out for yourself.

7

Geophilic

The Geophilic mod puts a focus on subtle, meaningful changes to many existing biomes, all while using the same vanilla assets in the base game. From rocks, fallen trees, and bushes, to tree stumps, moss, and redesigned tree types, this mod is by no means boring or simple.

Ultimately, this mod makes biomes feel even more natural and life-like; well, as much as you reasonably can in a voxel-based environment. That does, however, make it even easier to find a nice area to settle down in and start building.

6

Explorify

While the Explorify mod adds unique, generally medium-sized structures to the overworld, you can also find structures in the Nether and even the End, which not only makes exploration more novel, but almost adds an added layer of history or lore to the land around you.

Ultimately, this is a simple, but good mod that will enrich your world and minimize the chances of you coming across geography that looks unnatural, or even worse, climbing and cresting a big hill only to see a boring, mostly flat chunk of terrain.

5

Terralith

If you couldn’t already tell by the image above, the Terralith mod makes substantial changes to Minecraft’s biome generation, adding a blend of more realistic biomes, like Yellowstone or the Highlands, but also makes room for fantasy-style biomes, like the Moonlight Grove.

To give an idea of the entire package, Terralith adds almost 100 new biomes, and updates or improves almost every existing vanilla biome. In addition, there are also a few different cave biomes, and subsequent shapes or interior, subterranean layouts that can generate.

4

Better Desert Temples

While Better Desert Temples is quite narrow in scope, since it only targets and redesigns vanilla desert temples, the changes that the mode author made are incredible. Not only is the outside architecture bigger and better, but you also get to explore interior changes, like:

Don’t expect to easily “cheese” these new temples, though; similar to a Pharoah’s curse, entering a desert temple will give you the Mining Fatigue debuff, which makes breaking blocks almost painful.

3

BetterEnd

After playing Minecraft for a while, the End can get pretty redundant. While it’s true that exploring End Cities can be exciting, there is not much to look at. If this is how you feel, then BetterEnd is the mod for you.

With BetterEnd, the dimension will now have over 20 new biomes, as well as a variety of new mobs and blocks for you to interact with. Rather than just going to the End for a quick loot-gathering trip, you’ll now be able to explore and take in the beautiful sights of the alien-like dimension.

2

Oh The Biomes We’ve Gone

Oh The Biomes We’ve Gone is quite a popular Minecraft mod that adds over 50 biomes for you to visit. If this mod sounds a bit familiar, it’s because Oh The Biomes We’ve Gone is a sequel to the classic Oh The Biomes You’ll Go. This newer version is for version 1.20+ of Minecraft.

You can still find and download the older version of this mod if you’re playing on 1.19 or below!

In addition to new biomes, Oh The Biomes We’ve Gone adds a variety of new mobs and structures for you to explore. Overall, this mod mixes up the generation of the game without taking away from the Minecraft experience.

1

Regions Unexplored

Last but not least, we have Regions Unexplored. As expected, this mod adds a variety of new biomes to the game. In fact, the CurseForge page for Regions Unexplored boasts a whopping 70+ biomes for you to explore! Moreover, this mod adds 700+ new blocks to the game to make up these biomes.

Overall, a lot of mods add new biomes, so it can be hard to pick which one to download. Fortunately, Regions Unexplored feels incredibly polished and well-made. The biomes are all beautiful, making world exploration quite delightful.