Explosive Barrels
by alexdesander
Explosive Barrels adds a family of barrels that detonate on command, filled with powders and catalysts that set how strong each blast is.
What it does
Barrels are crafted and filled with explosive powders, then set off to produce an explosion. The Wooden Explosive Barrel is the entry point and can be tuned in its configuration for precise blasts. Its filling sets the raw strength, and added catalysts shape the effect, so a player picks the exact kind of blast wanted. The Netherite Explosive Barrel sits at the late end of the range and is intended for large-scale destruction.
The explosions are custom coded instead of reusing vanilla TNT logic, which gives them a different feel. Recipes for the barrels and the new powders come as crafting and smithing recipes integrated with vanilla progression. The mod is released under the CC0 1.0 Universal license, so it is open source. It needs client and server installation, meaning the server and every player need it, and it is published for Fabric for 1.21.10.
Key features
Wooden Explosive Barrel
A configurable barrel for precision blasting, meant to become the go-to explosive block early on.
Netherite Explosive Barrel
A late-game barrel that produces a nuke-scale blast for wiping out large areas of a world.
Escalating explosive powders
Flash Powder and Blitz Powder add stronger, brighter explosions, with power rising from one powder to the next.
Filling and catalyst control
Loading different fillings and adding familiar items as catalysts changes the power and the drops of each blast.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Who it’s for: Players who want controlled, instant blasts with a lot of customization, and server owners who want a configurable explosive replacement for TNT in their worlds. Players who need a movable explosive entity for large TNT machines will still want TNT.
How it compares
Explosives Enhanced is a Fabric mod for 1.21 – 1.21.5 that is not open source, and it uses a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 4.0 license. Explosive Arrows / TNT Arrows is a server-side only Fabric mod for 1.19.4 – 1.21.10 under the MIT License, so players join without installing it. TNT Arrows is a Fabric and Forge datapack for 1.21.10 – 1.21.11 that is server required with optional client install.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Explosive Barrels | Fabric | 1.21.10 | Client and server | 2025-11-14 |
| Explosives Enhanced | Fabric | 1.21 – 1.21.5 | Client and server | 2025-07-21 |
| Explosive Arrows / TNT Arrows | Fabric | 1.19.4 – 1.21.10 | Server-side only | 2025-11-12 |
| TNT Arrows | Fabric and Forge | 1.21.10 – 1.21.11 | Server required, client optional | 2026-01-03 |
Questions
Does Explosive Barrels need to be installed on the server?
Which loader does Explosive Barrels support?
Can the barrels be used in traps?
In the catalog
Explosive Barrels is one of 7,555 Cursed mods on ModsFinder, and one of 4,235 Cursed mods for Fabric. 15,569 mods support Minecraft 1.21.10.
More from alexdesander
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What the author says
Bring proper explosives to Minecraft with two new barrels, fully integrated into vanilla progression and crafting, but far more satisfying to use than plain TNT. All explosions are custom coded to feel more realistic and impactful than vanilla TNT, making base clearing, mining and chaotic experiments far more fun.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/explosive-barrels
- Owner
- alexdesander
- Published
- 2025-11-14
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2025-11-14
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15