What is Reforged Edition?
Reforged Edition is my attempt to bring Minecraft to its full potential through the power of the mods, shaders, and resource packs. The main goal is to compile various high-quality creations from the Minecraft community (plus a number of my own additions) into a single cohesive game that stays true to Minecraft's core design principles and prioritizes polish. I've been working towards this goal, in one form or another, for over six years, and now it's finally to a point where its ready for its first beta release.
Why am I making this? I've been playing Minecraft since 2011, before beds were even added. I've loved it for all this time, but since I discovered modding, I realized it could be so much more than it currently is. However, I've tried a dozen other modpacks and none of them were what I wanted out of the experience. They were either unpolished, inconsistent with Minecraft's visual design or game design, or were just missing the kinds of small quality-of-life features that I think could really help Minecraft. So this is my attempt at making that perfect modpack, something that could hopefully stand alone as it's own competently-made video game.
(The name "Reforged" is mostly a nod to the Forge mod loader, the framework used by this pack, plus the concepts of "hammering out impurities" and "polishing" a sword at a forge.)
Design Pillars:
1. Cohesion: Every mod and resource pack should be carefully selected to ensure that it is of the highest quality and that it fits well with the rest of the pack. Even vanilla features must be reconsidered or updated to make a more polished, balanced, and consistent gameplay experience.
2. Discovery: Players should feel rewarded for exploring and experiemnting, discovering locations, mechanics, items, and blocks that they didn't even know existed. They should be pleasantly surprised (or scared - fear can be fun!) by new features and changes to old ones, capturing the spirit of playing Minecraft for the first time.
3. Faithfulness: While every vanilla feature should be scrutinized and improved where possible, some things are just too iconic to greatly change. Minecraft should keep its sense of lonely mystery (no intrusive NPCs or "lore" text), its visual identity (mob designs and UI), its iconic features (creepers breaking blocks, etc.), and its core gameplay genre (not an RPG, dating-sim, Soulslike, etc.). In addition, mods that add large numbers of biomes or enemies should be avoided, as they can drown out the existing content of Minecraft when the goal should be to enchance that content.
4. Immersion/Accessibility: Though players should discover some things organically, they should be able to find explanations or hints in-game without needing to consult a wiki. This includes vanilla mechanics like nether portals, summoniong the Wither, and redstone. This game should be playable for people with little experience playing Minecraft, let alone modpacks.
5. Quality of Life: Most sources of frustration and tedium should have workarounds if the player puts in enough effort. This includes auto-farms for more materials, convenient storage solutions, inventory changes, etc.
-Enter the End-
This first release of Reforged Edition is titled "Enter the End," reflecting the main gimmick of the pack as it is. Namely, the path to entering the End (and the dimension itself) has been totally overhauled. No longer will you have to go to the Nether, grind for blaze rods and ender pearls, and then go straight to the final boss. Now, a long journey across the land, depths, and sky awaits you if you wish to reach the dragon and the ancient treasures it protects.
But if adventure and combat aren't for you, don't worry! This pack includes huge expansions to manual farming, mechanical automation, building, and aesthetic customization.
The Dungeons
Based on a modified version of the End Remastered mod, the End Portal is now locked by twelve unique eyes, each of which is guarded by a boss or rare mob in a different dungeon. Six are hidden in the Overworld, three are guarded in the Nether, and three more are protected in the Aether.
These dungeons have (mostly) all been overhauled from vanilla structures thanks to YUNG's excellent series of structure mods, or are altogether new structures. In addition to one of the mysterious eyes, each dungeon contains unique or overhauled loot. For example, defeat the boss of the Crypt, the Mutant Zombie, and you will receive both the Dead Eye and a powerful weapon called the Hulk Hammer.
Craft an Explorer's Compass to find the nearest dungon of all twelve kinds, but know that there are more non-essential structures that are left for you to discover yourself!
The Overworld
Featuring updated biomes (but no new ones), prettier cliffs, and deeper oceans, the Overworld is better than you've ever seen it before! In addition to the mandatory dungeons, there are many more intersting structures to find around the world.
Players can choose a simple Origin and size when first joining a world to try a different way of playing. Maybe you'll be a Shulk to get a bit more inventory space at the cost of forgoing shields, or maybe you'll go all-out and play a Merling, forced to stay underwater until you can craft a landwalking helmet or special potion. Don't worry too much though, there's a way to craft an item that changes your Origin later if you decide you want something else.
Like most modern modpacks, the wonderful Create mod is included for all your automation needs. A handful of Create addons are included as well, plus an overhauled version of MrCrayfish's Gun Mod (with a goofy, steampunk-y coat of paint) and a balanced jetpack to serve as unique endgame gear for those who go though Create's progression.
Here you'll also notice much better inventory and storage mechanics, including stack sizes of 256, a multitool to save hotbar space, a balanced backpack crafted with ravager hide (giving a much-needed use to pillager raids), and an all-in-one storage solution with a Create-themed version of Tom's Simple Storage.
The Nether
There are two changes that will be immediately obvious when entering the Nether. First, the gorgeous Complementary Reimagined shaders plus the unofficial Euphoria Patches make the fiery landscape look more beautiful and hellish than ever.
Second, the Nether's height has been expanded drastically to fill the once-unused Nether roof. Find multi-layer caves, huge open areas, and majestic Nether mountains like in the Nether update trailer.
Beyond that, the Nether still serves as a highly dangerous place to collect rare resources like netherite, or to make high-speed shortcuts around the Overworld using the Nether's unique eight-to-one block properties.
The Aether?
Yes, the classic Aether mod is included in this pack. It offers unique and powerful items that will be crucial in facing the more challenging dungeons and bosses in the game. It's also a classic for a reason, acting as fun a change-of-pace that resets much of the player's progression while in its heavenly lands.
However, there are some issues with the Aether's inclusion as-is. Mainly, the Aether includes a handful of mobs with dialogue and human-like designs that break the faithfulness rule of Reforged Edition. I'm hoping to develop an addon for the Aether that removes the dialogue and redesigns the visuals of the valkyrie and sun god mobs, but for now, the dimension is included as it was originally designed.
The End
Since the route to the End has been expanded so much, the End itself needs overhauled too! Expect a much harder dragon fight, fitting of its final boss status, on an updated central arena island. Then once you're done, come back for a totally-revamped outer end, featuring roughly five unique & overhauled biomes courtesy of Nullscape and the Endergetic Expansion, new mobs, and a more interesting End City dungeon, all while maintaining the End's desolate nature.
There's also a lot of unique mechanics to be found out here, like a block that acts as a viaduct for thrown enderpearls, a trampoline, and a limited form of fast-travel to places you've already been in the End to help with long End-raids. There's also two mounts available here: a strange frog-like creature called a Booflo, and a second one I'll let you discover for yourself... Let's just say it's been a long-requested feature ;)
Miscellaneous
There's so much more to discover in Minecraft RE: Enter the End! I'll leave most of it for you to discover, but for now, I'll list a few of my favorite features:
- Cosmetic Armor lets you change how your armor appears, even letting you disable it entirely.
- A new enchanting system that gives you more control over your tools.
- Potions now stack to 16, and drinking multiple of the same potion will stack their time durations. Maybe now you'll finally use potions?
- New animations for many player actions like climbing ladders and rowing boats, plus animations of food items getting eaten as you go.
- Compasses, clocks, and spyglasses are all useful while anywhere in your inventory, letting you access information like your coordinates and the time of day, or giving you a zoom hotkey.
- Overhauled movement with wall-jumps (shift midair) and dodge-rolls (double-tap WASD key) that offer more skill expression without comprimising core gameplay or forcing players to use those mechanics if they'd prefer not to.
- Mobs get stronger the lower in the world you are, making caving a more risky and intersting experience. Ores also spawn less often outside of caves, so players are incentivized to brave the dangers of the deep.
- New crops (that can just be right-clicked to harvest!) and meals provide interesting and varied options for players who like to farm, cook, or automate production lines. Scratch your Stardew Valley itch with a simple tomato farm, or go full-on Factorio with a fully-automatic hamburger factory.
- Just right-click the air with a crafting table to start crafting without needing to place it down.
- Instant blocking with shields and no more random arrow inaccuracy. Now the game will actually respond to your inputs!
- To make up for generally harder monsters, mobs will drop little hearts in addition to XP, healing you up for a portion of your enemy's total health. Now you can rip and tear right though a horde of enemies, so long as you can keep up the slaughter until it's done.
- Never worry about losing your items again, as a magical totem will appear where you died to hold your stuff without despawning. Just make sure you don't die a second time, because then your existing totem will drop all your old items on the floor. There's also a rare enchantment that can let you keep your items even after death, so keep a look out for that.
- Craft the expensive Mega Torch to completely disable hostile mob spawns in an area.
- Roughly 50 different hints and tips that show up during loading screens and while paused to gives players clues about odd mechanics new and old.
- VERTICAL SLABS!
Download:
Here's a link to download the latest stable build, for Minecraft 1.19.2 and Forge 43.3.0. It is only tested in singleplayer, and some issues will likely arise, but I hope you enjoy!
This .zip contains an instance for the MultiMC launcher. I reccomend downloading that if you wasnt to run this modpack, but it's not strictly necessary if you know how to mess with Minecraft's folder structure.