How to get Minecraft Sodium 1.21.4

The Minecraft 1.21.4 The Garden Awakens Drop has finally been released for Java Edition and Bedrock Edition (1.21.50 version). The update dropped on December 3, 2024, and brought the Creaking mob, Pale Garden biome and lots of building blocks and items to the game. As usual, many modders started updating their third-party features to be compatible with the new game version.

Sodium, one of the most popular performance mods, has already released a beta version for Minecraft 1.21.4 The Garden Awakens. Here is a short guide on how to get the performance mod for the latest update.

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Steps to get Sodium for Minecraft 1.21.4 update

1) Download and install Fabric API

First, you must download and install Fabric API to run any mod (Image via Mojang Studios)

For any mod to work, you need to first install a modding API that adds support for third-party features. There are two famous modding APIs: Forge and Fabric. To install Sodium, you must install Fabric API first.

Fabric for Minecraft can be found online, and the latest setup can be downloaded from its official website. Once done, you can open the installer, select the latest 1.21.4 version, select the latest mod loader, make sure the 'create profile' option is checked and hit install. Also, make sure that the launcher location is accurate and that a folder named '.minecraft' is selected at the end.

The installer will automatically download and install the necessary files for the mod API to work.

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2) Download and install Sodium

Download and copy-paste the Sodium mod into Minecraft's directory (Image via Mojang Studios)

Once Fabric is installed, you can look for the Sodium mod. This is a performance mod that will drastically improve FPS and chunk generation speed and reduce lags and stutters. It is a direct competitor of another famous performance mod called OptiFine.

To download Sodium, players can either head to CurseForge or Modrinth. Both websites will have the latest beta version of the mod that is updated to 1.21.4 The Garden Awakens update. You might have to re-download and replace the beta version with the official one once it is released.

Search for the Sodium mod for Minecraft and select CurseForge or Modrinth. From there, carefully look through the files and download the latest one, version 0.6.2.

After downloading the .jar file, you need to copy and paste the file into Minecraft Java Edition's official directory on your PC. The exact location of the game's folder should be 'C:\Users\admin\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft.' If the main game folder already has another folder named 'mods,' then the Sodium mod file can be copy pasted into it. If there is no mods folder, you can simply create it.

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3) Open the launcher and start Fabric modded version

Open the official launcher and start the Fabric modded version (Image via Mojang Studios)

Finally, when all the steps are complete, you can simply open the official game launcher and search for the modded version that has Fabric installed. Once you open the game, you will notice that the video settings UI will be changed. This means that the Sodium mod was correctly installed for The Garden Awakens Drop.

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Check out other latest Minecraft articles:

• All major features in the Minecraft Pale Garden update
• Minecraft Bedrock 1.21.50 update: All you need to know
• How to download Minecraft 1.21.4 update