Minecraft Mods


Goblins are among those standard fantasy world monsters we see in so many games these days, however they have not made an appearance in Minecraft. Yet. Modder Sartharis took up this task and made the mod “Goblins!”. It adds a whole lot of stuff to the game, not just goblins as a mob, and it does so very well. The mod is currently in it's third version. Let's check it out.

You can't just find goblins anywhere like other mobs, you need to seek out a goblin village. These aren't very rare and generate approximately once per biome from my experience. The villages are quite small and not complicated like Millenaire's but rather simple like the regular ones in Minecraft. The buildings there are made out of planks, save for the main building which is made of cobblestone. In these villages you will find the goblins. There are several special buildings that have a chance of spawning in villages. Currently the only special buildings are wolf pens (allowing for goblin riders to spawn) and mines (allowing for goblin miners to spawn), but more will be added soon. In each building in a village there is a goblin spawner which you need to break if you don't want any more goblins to spawn. In the center of the village is the totem, comprised of off a few different totem blocks.

Goblins are the main focus of the mod, and act a lot like zombie pigmen - they will be neutral to you, however if you attack one, the rest may come to his defense and attack you. There are several kinds of goblins, each with specific strengths and weaknesses. The regular goblin is fast, but not very strong by himself, then there is the warrior who wears a suit of armor which makes him tougher but slower, making him a real threat if he corners you or catches you by surprise. The ranger goblin carries a bow and is also fast and weak, but is significantly more dangerous than the regular goblin because of his ranged ability. A bomber goblin also roams the village, matching the slowness of the warrior, but compensating for it with bombs. Bombs are one of the items the mod adds, and they are about the strength of a creeper explosion, deal damage to entities, but don't destroy blocks. A goblin rider may spawn if there is a wolf pen in the village. He rides on a wolf and is therefore fast and dangerous, best picked off with a bow from a distance. Goblin miners spawn in a village with a mine, he isn't very dangerous, and actually doesn't hang out in the village much, but is a threat in any caves near the village as he can often wonder there.

The goblins aren't by themselves though, they need leaders, and there are currently 2 leader goblins: the Mage and the Lord, neither can respawn through the spawners in village buildings. The Lord goblin is your typical leader, stronger, faster and more dangerous than any other goblin. The Mage is much weaker than the Lord, but can shoot magic lightning  which deals a considerable amount of damage. There are special very rare goblins that can spawn, one of which is a ninja goblin, which is very dangerous since he can throw shurikens.

The mod also adds a variety of items, mostly very useful weapons that fit the Minecraft world. I've already mentioned the bomb and what it does, but another awesome addition are shurikens, they are stackable throwable arrows basically. Very useful and fast, but you will use them all up quickly since they fire rapidly. You may also find a Fire Blade, which is a normal sword, except that it sets whatever mob you hit on fire. You can also find more powerful kinds of TNT.

The mod also adds it's own take on special arrows, adding special gems that goblins drop with which you can craft 3 special kinds of arrows. The Explosive arrow does what the name says - it explodes. It deals a lot of damage and destroys blocks in an explosion a bit smaller than that of a creeper. The Lightning arrow hits whichever enemy you hit with lightning, however it will not do anything if it hits a block, which makes it even more powerful since any missed shots aren't wasted arrows but you can pick them back up. Lastly we have the nature arrow, which grows trees or cacti on impact, depending of course on what it hits: grass or sand. All these arrows are extremely powerful, but expensive to make so they balance out. The mod also adds various staffs: The Scepter of Life which acts like bonemeal on right click, but has a lot of uses, the Arcane Staff which on right click shoots an arcane bolt like the one a goblin mage shoots, the lightning staff which shoots a missile that creates lightning when it hits a block. Opposite to the lightning arrow, this works only on blocks, and never on mobs. Then there's the teleportation staff which just randomly teleports you to a location nearby. Since that location is random, it isn't very useful, but is cool to play around a bit with.

And that's it - those would be the current features of the Goblin mod. I enjoyed my time with it. It's a very well made, fun, balanced mod that works well on it's own. It's compatible with most mods as it only overwrites 3 classes and requires only ModLoader and AudioMod. The only problem you might face is that it, like many content adding mods, can conflict in multiplayer. For instance, I once was crafting something with iron and accidentally crafted a shuriken which crashed the game. This isn't a huge problem, though, and isn't easily fixable, which is why most mods have it. I recommend you download Goblins! now. Here. Or here. Or even here. I don't know, you pick.

Have a nice day, and as always feedback is appreciated, so leave good (or bad) vibes, questions and requests in the comment section below.