5 best client-side mods for Minecraft

Minecraft has some of the best modding communities in the gaming space. Thousands of mods have been released for the famous sandbox title. Some change a few aspects of the game, while others completely change how it feels and runs.

There are essentially two types of mods: server side and client side. As the name implies, server-side mods are those that work on servers and are applied to every player once they download them.

On the other hand, client-side mods are those that are installed on an individual computer. Players can use them for single-player gameplay and on vanilla servers only, though some servers might allow them too.

Listed below are some of the best client-side mods for Minecraft.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion. There are thousands of other client-side mods worth checking out.

---

OptiFine, AppleSkin, and 3 other great client-side Minecraft mods

1) OptiFine

OptiFine extends video settings in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

OptiFine is arguably the most famous client-side mod and has been downloaded by millions of players. It is essentially a performance and graphics add-on that drastically improves FPS and general fidelity of the game.

Apart from a plethora of new video settings to tweak, the mod also offers shader support through which users can enhance the lighting and shadow engines of the game.

---

2) Just Enough Items

Just Enough Items changes the GUI interface to make it more intuitive in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Just Enough items is another client-side mod that changes how the GUI interface looks. Even though players can use the knowledge book to see all the crafting recipes for available items, this add-on takes things to another level and shows what simple resources can turn into after several crafting stages. Additionally, it also adds a complete list of blocks, items, and their crafting recipe.

It is an incredibly helpful mod in dire situations when players need a particular item's crafting recipe without fail.

---

3) AppleSkin

AppleSkin adds much more information about food items in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

AppleSkin is a highly useful client-side mod, especially for beginners who are alien to different food items and their hunger-replenishing properties. Figuring out which food item is the best to consume can take some trial and error. This is where AppleSkin mod helps gamers identify different nutritional properties of each edible item.

When players hover over something, the mod will show how many hunger points it can replenish along with the saturation level.

---

4) Xaero's minimap

This mod adds a useful minimap in Minecraft to easily navigate through the world (Image via CurseForge)

When new players enter the game, they are confused since there is no minimap or main map to guide them. Hence, mods like these are extremely popular in the community. Not only does this add a minimap that shows terrain generation, but it shows different mob locations as well.

Players can tweak it according to their liking with loads of customization. Additionally, the same modder has a full map mod as well.

---

5) Litematica

Litematica is an excellent schematic mod for Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Several players might be interested in building complex structures and by creating schematics. Litematica is an excellent client-side mod for this purpose. It is the successor to the original Schematica and adds the ability to create blueprints for different structures built in the game.

With this mod, players can create blueprints for any build and follow them to construct the structure accurately. They can also create plans from different offline worlds and use them in servers or other worlds.