Newfound Underground
by HenryThe9f
Newfound Underground adds cave biomes, mobs and resources to the underground of Minecraft 1.20.1 Forge worlds, with a focus on caving and survival.
What it does
Cave biomes in the underground now hold petrified root systems, sulphurous slime caverns and ancient fungi growing from bedrock. Players can explore the roots, free the remaining life in them by de-petrifying the wood and iron ore inside, and break dense coal ore that releases explosive dust used to clear space. Rogerfish live in cave aquifers and grow more of their kind from the bones of skeletons, so bones have a use underground as well.
The mod depends on a required library for its cave biomes, and it recommends JEI for the built descriptions of its new functions. Newfound Underground runs on client and server, so the server and every player need it. It is published for Forge and is open source under the MIT License, with its source code public. The files cover 1.20.1 only, with 0.1-1.20.1 as the latest Forge build, released on 2026-05-21.
Key features
Petrified root systems
Ancient trees turned to stone hold thorny vines, which players can uncover and bring back to life by de-petrifying the roots.
Explosive coal and sulphur
Dense coal ore releases explosive dust when broken, and sulphur material in the slime caverns makes the dust more likely as more is harvested.
Lapis stamps and gnomes
New tools such as lapis stamps target several blocks in a single stroke, and gnomes carry items along troughs and spread bonemeal to nearby blocks.
Colony whelps
A passive, rat-like mob lives underground, burns with a bright light and drops flammable fur that can be used to saturate meat.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
How it compares
Upgrade Underground is a Forge mod for 1.20.1 under All rights reserved, and it is not open source. Biospherical Expansion is open source under the MIT License and covers 1.20.1 – 1.20.2 on Forge. Connected Caves is open source under the MIT License and only targets 1.20.1, while Root Companion is open source under the GNU General Public License v3.0 only. Each of these runs on client and server, as Newfound Underground does.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newfound Underground | Forge | 1.20.1 | Client and server | 2026-05-21 |
| Upgrade Underground | Forge | 1.20.1 | Client and server | 2026-10-11 |
| Biospherical Expansion | Forge | 1.20.1 – 1.20.2 | Client and server | 2024-03-25 |
| Connected Caves | Forge | 1.20.1 | Client and server | 2026-08-27 |
| Root Companion | Forge | 1.20.1 | Client and server | 2026-08-30 |
Questions
Does Newfound Underground need a dependency for its cave biomes?
Does the server need the mod as well as players?
Is JEI necessary to use the mod?
Which Minecraft versions does the mod support?
In the catalog
Newfound Underground is one of 8,515 World generation mods on ModsFinder, and one of 5,058 World generation mods for Forge. 34,764 mods support Minecraft 1.20.1.
More from HenryThe9f
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What the author says
This mod adds new features to the underground including blocks, mobs and biomes to make caving more interesting and add more resources for underground survival, such as sources of wood and farmable mobs. Its features are intended to be fairly vanilla+ whilst having unique functions. This mod requires terrablender as…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/newfound-underground
- Owner
- HenryThe9f
- Published
- 2026-05-21
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-05-21
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15