World generation is a big reasonMinecraftis 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 Jul 04, 2025 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.
Author
YUNGNICKYOUNG
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 may 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.
Towns and Towers
Biban_Auriu
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 cropsfor resource-hungry playerswith 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.
Forstride
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.
SuperMartijn642
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 needa guide on every vanilla biome you can find in the Nether, don’t worry; we have you covered.
Starmute
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.
telepathicgrunt
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:
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.
bebebea_loste
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.
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.
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.
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.
