As I have said in previous mod reviews, Minecraft has a massive modding community. Some of these mods will add small, but much appreciated details into the game. Others may add loads of content to the game for players to enjoy. Amongst some of the post popular mods found on CurseForge is Botania, which has over 94 million downloads as of the writing of this article.
Botania is a mod that combines two things that many players of modded Minecraft love: magic and technology. As you might be able to guess from the mod’s name, Botania is centered around the concept of magic that originates from nature. To get started with the mod in-game, it is recommended that the player first crafts a Lexica Botania, which can be done by putting a normal book and any tree sapling into a crafting table. Any tree sapling will work for this, even if it comes from a completely unrelated mod, like Blue Skies. This handy book can also be found in many loot chests. The Lexica Botania contains everything the player needs to know to begin utilizing the mod in their world.
But even before the player gets their hands on a Lexica Botania, they can start finding strange, sparkling flowers, called Mystical Flowers, generated in the Overworld. The petals of these flowers (acquired by picking up the flowers and putting them into a crafting table) are necessary to do anything in this mod, so the player should collect as many of these shiny flowers as they can. There are sixteen colors of these Mystical Flowers, all of which will be needed at some point.
Once the player has the Lexica Botania and some Mystical Flowers, the book will guide the player through everything else they need to know to utilize the mod to its fullest. Now, staying in the Overworld for the entire playthrough would limit how much progress a player can make within the mod. There is a point where the player will have to enter the other two dimensions in vanilla Minecraft to proceed, which may be intimidating for players who don’t play Survival Mode often. But doing so will prove to be worth it, as they will gain access to a myriad of powerful trinkets, armor, and baubles that will make a playthrough far more exciting.
There is a lot more to this mod as well, and it’s filled to the brim with unique lore, meaning this singular mod satisfies players interested in lore, magic, fantasy, technology, and a bit of challenge all in one go. It even features a single boss for the late game, which you can fight as many times as you’d like for great rewards and some achievements. If you have the Java Edition of Minecraft, I highly recommend checking this mod out for yourself.
