Here are my top 5 Minecraft mods after playing the game for 5000 hours

Minecraft has been one of the very few games I've consistently played. Since I started playing it in 2019, over 5000 hours have been poured into it. I also dove deep into its modding side, searching for various third-party features made by its community. Over the years, I have always found myself picking some essential mods for my new Java Edition installations.

Here is a list of some of my favorite Minecraft mods I've always used since the beginning.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion.

---

List of my 5 favorite Minecraft mods after playing for 5000 hours

5) AmbientSounds

AmbientSounds add various new sounds based on my location (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

While Minecraft has loads of vanilla sounds, the game can sometimes feel a bit too quiet, especially when you are out in the wilderness and cannot hear any background sounds. Hence, I have always used the AmbientSounds mod.

This mod adds various new sound effects like crickets at night, bird sounds in forests, seagull and wave sounds in the beach biome, etc. These sound effects might not come directly from a mob or a place, but they drastically enhance immersion.

---

4) Xaero's Minimap

Xaero's minimap makes exploration and finding pets extremely easy (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Even though for the first few years I played Minecraft without a minimap, I always felt the need for one, simply because most games have one to help me know where my character is. Then I started using Xaero's Minimap and never looked back.

This brilliant mod adds various map functionalities. I can customize the size, the mob dots, the additional information, and other features of the minimap. This mod even allows me to set waypoints that are visible from anywhere in the in-game world.

---

3) Sound Physics

Sound Physics adds different sound effects based on my surroundings (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Minecraft has various sounds that play at various moments. Random spooky cave sounds can be heard, peaceful music while exploring the Overworld can be heard, and block sounds that you interact with can be heard. However, the game does not add special sound effects based on where you are. Sound effects like echo and reverb in a cave are non-existent.

To get these special sound effects, I have always used the Sound Physics Remastered mod. It adds various sound effects based on where my character is. If it is in a cave, every single sound made by me, mobs, or blocks is heavily reverbed and echoed.

---

2) Apple Skin

AppleSkin stats of every food item (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Despite clocking so many hours in-game and knowing most details about each food item, I continue to use AppleSkin. This mod shows detailed stats of each food item with hunger bar icons. For example, if you hover over a food item, it will show how much hunger and saturation it will replenish. This is particularly useful for new players who might not know about every food item.

Furthermore, the mod's ability to show the stamina bar in the hunger bar itself has become quite useful to me. It clearly shows how saturation and hunger are depleting if you are running or jumping, allowing me to fill up at the right time.

---

1) Sodium

Sodium mod drastically improves the game's performance (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

I consider Sodium a must-have mod for Minecraft. Even though the sandbox has basic graphics and block textures, it can still become heavy on a device because of the basic chunk rendering engine. However, this mod drastically optimizes chunk rendering of the game, squeezing lots of extra FPS from the game. I experienced around 100+ FPS jump when I first installed the mod.

Hence, in any new version installation, I always try to find a compatible Sodium mod version so that I can run the game smoothly, even at high render and entity distances.

---

Check out our latest articles on Minecraft:

• Minecraft fans have already figured out how to turn copper golems into war machines
• How to sort items using copper golem in Minecraft
• Copper gears vs iron gears: Which one is better for beginners in Minecraft?