Bullets Boats
Vanilla Minecraft boats are simple, two-seat tools for crossing water. They get the job done, but they are hardly inspiring. Bullets Boats changes that by turning the humble rowboat into a modular building project. Instead of a fixed vehicle, you get a hull you can expand again and again, adding seats and size with every crafting step. The only real limit is how many planks you are willing to gather.
This add-on takes the core idea of a boat and makes it something you assemble. You start with any vanilla boat, surround it with planks in a crafting table, and it comes out bigger. Do it again, and it grows still further. Every hull segment you add gives you two more seats, and there is no built-in ceiling. Whether you want a long train of boat bodies or a wide, flat deck, the choice is entirely yours.
How the Expansion System Works
The crafting mechanic is straightforward. Place any vanilla boat in the center of a crafting table and use matching planks around it. There are three expansion patterns, each adding a different dimension to your vessel:
- Surround with 8 planks: Grows the boat bigger in both width and length.
- A U of 5 planks: Adds one segment to the length.
- A C of 5 planks: Adds one segment to the width.
Seats scale directly with the hull size. A boat that is X segments wide and Y segments long carries X multiplied by Y multiplied by 2 riders. A vanilla boat holds 2 seats. A 2 by 2 boat holds 8. A 3 by 3 boat holds 18. A 4 by 5 boat holds 40. There is no cap in the code, so the only thing stopping you from building a floating fortress is your plank supply.
Choosing Your Wood
All the planks used in a single craft must match, but they do not have to match the original boat. Give an oak boat a ring of spruce planks, and it becomes a spruce boat. This allows you to change the appearance of the entire hull at any point in its life. Large Boats are available in Oak, Spruce, Birch, Jungle, Acacia, Dark Oak, Mangrove, and Cherry.
Seats, Steering, and Crew Management
Boarding works much like you would expect. Right-click an empty boat anywhere along the hull and you take the helm, regardless of which segment you clicked. If somebody is already driving, you enter the free seat nearest to where you are aiming. Sneak and right-click to board as a passenger even when the helm is available.
Once aboard, you can move between seats using a few simple keys:
- R: Move to the next seat, wrapping around the boat.
- J: Move one seat toward the bow.
- K: Move one seat toward the stern.
J and K stop when you reach the ends instead of looping around. Trying to enter an occupied seat swaps you with the person or creature sitting there. This is how a passenger can take the helm and how a driver can hand control to somebody else. A boat with nobody at the helm is completely valid and will happily drift. Animals enter the nearest free seat that is not the helm. They also keep their assigned seats after reloading the world, so your livestock barge should still have everyone exactly where you left them.
The Fish Boat: Automated Fishing on the Move
One of the two purpose-built boats in Bullets Boats is the Fish Boat. The crafting recipe is simple: place a fishing rod directly above any boat. Sail it, and it fishes for you. While you are at the helm, moving through water, fish periodically appear in your inventory. You can catch Cod, Salmon, Tropical fish, and Pufferfish. Cod is the most common catch, followed by salmon, with tropical fish and pufferfish being rarer.
You do not need to hold a fishing rod or watch a bobber. Simply keep sailing. The Fish Boat catches roughly one fish every five seconds while moving. If your inventory is full, the catch drops near you instead of disappearing.
The Lava Boat: Conquer the Nether
The second purpose-built boat is the Lava Boat. Its crafting recipe places a boat with five obsidian around it. This vessel sails on lava. It does not merely survive lava; it moves across it with the same paddling and handling you would expect from a normal boat on water. The boat rides directly on the surface, with smoke curling from the hull and the occasional lava pop. The item itself is also fireproof, so accidentally dropping it in the Nether is not a disaster.
Installation and Compatibility
Bullets Boats 0.0.12 is available across 29 builds. For Forge, it supports Minecraft 1.19.2, 1.20.1, 1.20.4, 1.20.6, 1.21.1, 1.21.4, 1.21.8, 1.21.11, 26.1, and 26.2. NeoForge supports the same versions except for 1.19.2, which predates the loader. Fabric supports all ten Minecraft versions. To download Bullets Boats, simply search for it on your preferred mod repository and match the file to your game version and loader.
If you want a hassle-free setup, the foxygame.net launcher offers a one-click install for Bullets Boats, automatically handling version compatibility so you can jump straight into building your fleet without wrestling with manual mod management. The launcher's add-on catalog keeps the mod updated, ensuring your custom ships keep working across different Minecraft releases.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big can it actually get?
There is no cap in the code. The limit is how many planks you feel like crafting.
Can I mix different woods?
Not within a single craft. All the planks used in one recipe must match. You can use a different wood during a later expansion, however. The newest planks determine what the entire boat looks like.
Do the Fish Boat and Lava Boat come in different woods?
Not yet. Those two boats use their own dedicated recipes. Wood variants currently apply only to Large Boats.
Does the Lava Boat still float on water?
Yes.
Do I have to hold a fishing rod in the Fish Boat?
No. Steering it through water is the entire mechanic.
What happens when the driver gets off?
The boat drifts. Anyone still aboard can use J to move toward the helm and take control.
Bullets Boats for Minecraft is a refreshing take on water travel. It transforms a basic utility item into a creative building challenge. Whether you are planning a massive livestock transport, a mobile fishing operation, or a daring Nether expedition, this add-on gives you the tools to build exactly what you need. The expansion system is simple to learn, the purpose-built boats are genuinely useful, and the lack of a size limit means your imagination is the only constraint. Gather your planks, pick your wood, and start building the biggest ship your world has ever seen.