JMG's Better Than Ever (BTE)

Players begin a new world with fewer health and hunger bars and a new thirst meter. Survival bars grow as experience is gained, and a temperature challenge is added to the early game. Monsters can spawn with random levels and armor, and the roster adds new foes such as werewolves, wraiths and cyclops. The author describes the goal as keeping the game difficult without taking away creative options, so the path to defeating the Ender Dragon stays open from the start.

Tool progression is changed so that wooden tools become less useful, and a tiered forging system takes their place. Furnaces melt new metals such as copper, bronze and steel, and machines make advanced items for new tiers. The mod also adds foods, feasts, building blocks, spices, furniture and stylish hats. Requires NeoForge; the mod is published for 1.21.1 only, with 1.7 as the latest file, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, so it is not open source. Both the server and every player need it.