Surface Samples
Surface Samples places small indicator blocks on the surface that mark ore deposits for worldgen mods to use as markers, including Large Ore Deposits.
What it does
Surface Samples adds small indicator blocks meant to be used alongside worldgen mods. Worldgen mods can place these blocks as markers that show where ore deposits lie underground, and the mod allows the blocks each marker uses to be specified. It was created with EnderLanky's Large Ore Deposits in mind, and it works with Large Ore Deposits out of the box. Its own worldgen does not place samples; a blockstate has to be specified for them to appear in a world.
The samples cover vanilla ores, including nether variants of gold, quartz and netherite, plus crystallised redstone, glowquartz and polished glowquartz. Placed samples detect the block under them, and when broken or right-clicked they drop nuggets of the matching ore. The mod also adds four other blocks and intermediary items. It is open source under the Apache License 2.0, and it integrates with Create out of the box. The mod requires a worldgen mod such as Large Ore Deposits to place the markers in the world. Files are published for NeoForge 1.21.1 only, with 0.1.2 as the latest file, released on 2026-06-22 on the beta channel.
Key features
Ore sample blocks
Indicator blocks for vanilla ores, including nether gold, quartz and netherite, that drop nuggets when right-clicked or destroyed.
Glowquartz blocks
Glowquartz and polished glowquartz serve as an early-game alternative to glowstone, the polished version shines brighter, and a glowquartz lamp works as a redstone lamp equivalent.
Crystallised redstone
A concentrated block that sits between a redstone block and redstone ore in behaviour.
Datapack drop changes
Sample drops can be changed with a datapack that targets the surfacesamples loot table path for blocks.
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
Advanced Ore Deposits is also a NeoForge option for 1.21.1 with client and server environment, and it is open source under the MIT License. Create ReAutomated: Traces is also a NeoForge mod for 1.21.1 with client and server environment, but it is under All rights reserved and is open source.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surface Samples | NeoForge | 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-06-22 |
| Advanced Ore Deposits | NeoForge | 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-05-09 |
| Create ReAutomated: Traces | NeoForge | 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-07-02 |
Questions
Does Surface Samples require a worldgen mod?
Does Surface Samples need to be installed on both sides?
Which game versions does Surface Samples support?
How can the drops of the samples be changed?
In the catalog
Surface Samples is one of 8,515 World generation mods on ModsFinder, and one of 4,175 World generation mods for NeoForge. 32,366 mods support Minecraft 1.21.1.
Similar mods
What the author says
Surface Samples is a simple mod to do a simple thing: add small indicator blocks that worldgen mods can use as markers for ore deposits. I created this with EnderLanky's fantastic Large Ore Deposits mod in mind, but you can use it with any mod that allows you to specify blocks as markers. You could even use them…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/surface-samples
- Owner
- all.hail.c3sar
- Published
- 2026-06-22
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-06-22
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15