Thieenj ethical Hardcore Minecraft

So, this month is July, eh? Apart from the fact that we have passed a half of 2026 (damn... I thought Maduro was captured and Khamenei was killed all in last month), this also means we are very close to my birthday which is in September — the month in which most people (at least in the US) are born. Heh, not to flex, but my birthday was ranked 8th most popular birth date (still in the US but from 1994 to 2014 in this case) by BirthdayRank.com. In fact, I'm a Virgo, and I'm always proud to be one!

Anyway, I'm going to ask my mom to buy Minecraft when that day comes, and I really want to start playing Minecraft's Hardcore mode... again. Yes, again, I've already played and lost 4 Hardcore worlds (prolly more but I can't quite remember), and this one is going to be the next grand adventure, the fifth attempt of mine in Hardcore Minecraft.

Now, I also plan to post my progress in a Minecraft Vietnamese Facebook group and my friend group, thus I need to tell people what mods and resource packs I use (or otherwise they will suspect whether what I use are legitimate or not), and since I mustn't use unethical resource packs and mods, this entry concerns my list of mods and resource packs that are ethical, questionable, and unethical to use, so that I can pick which to use based on this list.

List of Minecraft mods and resource packs by ethic

Before we begin, keep in mind that this is only my opinion, which is based on personal experiece and perhaps some more sources, and maybe «hypocritical» sometimes. Of course you can... uh... contact me or fork and pull request this if you want to make some changes :) Also, whilst this entry is named «Thieenj ethical Hardcore Minecraft» and primarily focuses on Hardcore Minecraft, it may also be used for normal Survival Minecraft and multiplayer mode.

And of course, just like every dynamic lists, please expect this list to be updated any time.

Green lines indicate mods only, blue lines indicate both/either resource packs and/or mods and proper names are indicated by italic lines.

Ethical to use

Completely ethical

These mods/resource packs are totally fine to use as they are purely aesthetic and don't change the gameplay.

• Higher resolution texture like Faithful resource packs.
• Different art styles such as one that makes the game looks more realistic.
• 3D models for blocks and items.
• Different fonts.
• Totems' appearance.
• Most options for resource packs on Vanilla Tweaks.
• Most performance and optimisation mods, examples include Sodium and FerriteCore.
• Shader mods, Iris for instance.

Accepted

Whilst these mods/resource packs slightly make certain tasks easier, they are still considered ethical to use by most players.

• Zoom mods.
• OptiFine why.
• Fullbright and unobtrusive texture.
• Improving visibility of blocks, items, etc. and some of their states, such as
• Making ores, suspicious sand and gravel, fully aged crops, amethyst clusters, strings, etc. easier to spot;
• Making melon and pumpkin stems distinguishable;
• Visualising directions, stages, redstone levels, growth, etc. of functional and non-functional blocks;
• Making hearts more visible when under the Wither effect.

Grey area

Debatable

Mods/Resource packs in this section might be subjected to debate on whether they provide unfair advantages to players or not.

• Schematic mods, among them is Litematica might be controversial.

Questionable

These mods/resource packs DO provide somewhat unfair advantages to players in specific aspects. I will avoid using these mods/resource packs in my Hardcore world(s), and you guys should do so too!

• Xaero's Minimap and other minimap mods.
• Health indicators.
• Waypoints that display the location of places.
• Making mob and players easier to spot.
• Highlighting mobs and players that are under the Invisibility effect.

Unethical to use

Semi-anarchy

Usage of these mods/resource packs is generally considered as cheating, though they don't significantly alter how players will play the game.

• X-ray.
• ESP.
• Revealing location of every other player.

Pure anarchy

These mods/resource packs break all Vanilla gameplay for essentially altering Minecraft's mechanics, giving players huge advantages they aren't supposed to have and/or changing how you play the game far from how you should normally do it.

• Altering player's movement such as those that allow climbing when not on ladders or vines, walking on water, flying, etc.
• Automating actions, from mining, building, to fighting.
• Freecam.