What The Bucket
by Darkhax
What The Bucket fixes a vanilla bug where some bucket items vanish instead of leaving an empty bucket when used as crafting ingredients.
What it does
Certain bucket items were destroyed when used in a recipe, while a bucket of water correctly returned an empty bucket. Newer buckets such as the powder snow bucket were consumed entirely. With this installed, the affected vanilla buckets return an empty bucket as expected in crafting.
The fix covers the fish buckets for axolotl, cod, salmon and tropical fish, the tadpole bucket and the powder snow bucket. The mod depends on Bookshelf, Fabric API and Prickle, and the source code is public under the GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 only, so the code is open source. Builds cover 1.20 – 26.3, and the environment is client and server, so the server and every player need it.
Key features
Empty bucket returned
Each affected bucket leaves an empty bucket behind when it is used as a recipe ingredient.
Fish and axolotl buckets
The buckets for axolotl, cod, salmon, tropical fish and tadpole are covered by the fix.
Powder snow bucket
The Powder Snow Bucket also returns an empty bucket when crafted with, instead of being consumed.
Vanilla behaviour kept
Buckets of water and lava already behaved correctly, and the change restores the same result for the rest.
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
26.x5 of 5 versions with builds
1.21.x1 of 1 version with builds
1.20.x5 of 5 versions with builds
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Requirements
Dependencies declared by the latest file for each loader.
Required 1
Use cases
Crafting with fish buckets
Players who craft with fish or axolotl buckets keep their empty buckets for reuse.
Powder snow farming
Players who use powder snow buckets in recipes no longer lose a bucket per craft.
Who it’s for: Players and server owners who use bucket items in crafting and want the empty bucket returned as vanilla does for water buckets.
How it compares
Breed Axolotl With Tropical Fish Item needs the server but not the client, is open source under the MIT License and is published for 1.20.1 – 26.2, so players can join without installing it. Wooden Bucket shares the client and server environment of What The Bucket, is open source under the MIT License and covers 1.18.2 – 26.3. Friendly AxolotlS needs the server while clients may leave it out, is not open source and is published under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 4.0 license for 1.20 – 26.2.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What The Bucket | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.20 – 26.3 | Client and server | 2026-09-25 |
| Breed Axolotl With Tropical Fish Item [PurpurPack] | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.20.1 – 26.2 | Server required, client optional | 2026-06-24 |
| Wooden Bucket | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.18.2 – 26.3 | Client and server | 2026-10-01 |
| 🐟Friendly AxolotlS🐟 | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.20 – 26.2 | Server required, client optional | 2026-07-02 |
Questions
Which dependencies does What The Bucket need?
Does the server need What The Bucket?
Which loaders have files?
Does the mod change buckets of water?
In the catalog
What The Bucket is one of 17,631 Equipment mods on ModsFinder, and one of 8,894 Equipment mods for Fabric. 8,071 mods support Minecraft 26.3.
More from Darkhax
Similar mods
What the author says
This mod fixes an old bug in Minecraft that causes certain bucket items to be destroyed when using them as ingredients. For example a bucket of water will normally convert into an empty bucket when used as a crafting ingredient however newer buckets such as the bucket of powdered snow will be completely consumed…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/what-the-bucket
- Owner
- Darkhax
- Published
- 2023-07-15
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-09-25
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15