Expanding Your Inventory: A Deep Dive into the More Backpacks Forestry Addon
Minecraft’s storage limitations have always pushed players to get creative with chests, shulker boxes, and modded solutions. Among the most elegant answers is Forestry’s backpack system, and the More Backpacks addon takes that concept to a whole new level. If you have ever wished for a dedicated bag that automatically collects redstone components, magic items, or even nuclear reactor parts, this mod delivers a backpack for practically every occasion. Crafted just like the classic Forestry backpacks, each variant filters specific item types and keeps your inventory tidy without manual sorting.
What Makes More Backpacks Special?
This addon stays true to the Forestry formula while dramatically broadening the range of backpacks available. Instead of a handful of general-purpose bags, you get over a dozen highly specialized options. Each backpack has a unique “special item” that sits in its dedicated slot, and you can customize which items are accepted through simple JSON configuration files. The mod also plays nicely with other major mods like IndustrialCraft 2, Thaumcraft 3, BuildCraft, ComputerCraft, and GregTech, automatically recognizing their items and integrating them into the backpack logic.
All the Backpacks at a Glance
Here is a breakdown of every backpack added by More Backpacks, along with what it stores and its special item:
Redstone Engineer's Backpack
Perfect for contraption builders. Holds redstone dust, torches, repeaters, levers, buttons, and pressure plates. Special Item: Block of Redstone.
Farmer's Backpack
Handles all plant-related materials: seeds, wheat, nether wart, cacti, sugar cane, and with IndustrialCraft 2 installed, seed bags, the cropnalyzer, fertilizer, and hydration cells. Special Item: Seeds.
Survivalist's Backpack
Your go-to for nourishment. Stores all cooked meats (no raw), bread, mushroom soup, apples, Forestry honey pots, and with IC2, full and empty food cans. Thaumcraft 3 users also get meat nuggets and the triple meat treat. Special Item: Cooked Porkchops.
Artist's Backpack
For builders and decorators. Holds every dye registered with Forge, plus wool, stone bricks, bricks, slabs, stairs, torches, lamps, glass, and IC2 painters, iron fences, and scaffolding. Special Item: Yellow Dye.
Magician's Backpack
Embraces all things arcane: bottle o' enchanting, enchanted books, and if Thaumcraft 3 is present, golems, jars, essences, wands, and more. Special Item: Enchanted Books.
Metallurgist's Backpack
Accepts nearly every metal form: nuggets, ingots, blocks, dusts, small dusts, and plates. Special Item: Gold Ingot.
Hydraulic Engineer's Backpack
Stores any liquid container registered with Forge, plus liquid transport and storage devices. Special Item: Empty Buckets.
Jeweler's Backpack
Grabs all Ore Dictionary entries starting with “gem” — diamonds, emeralds, RedPower and GregTech rubies, sapphires, and similar. Special Item: Emeralds.
Logistical Engineer's Backpack
Collects everything related to item transport: hoppers, rails, minecarts, and BuildCraft pipes. Special Item: (varies based on installed mods).
Electrician's Backpack
Carries energy and power items, from MJ to EU. Special Item: copper cables (if IC2 is installed), gold power pipes (if BuildCraft is present), or redstone dust if neither.
Nuclear Engineer's Backpack
Requires IndustrialCraft 2. Holds all nuclear reactor components, including reactor chambers and GregTech reactor parts. Special Item: Coolant cells.
Programmer's Backpack
Requires ComputerCraft. Stores computers, cables, floppy disks, and turtles. Special Item: Cables.
Installation and Setup
Getting More Backpacks running is straightforward. First, you must have Forestry already installed — download it from its official distribution channel. The addon also requires Red Gear Core version 2.0.2 or higher. Once both are in place, simply drop the More Backpacks.jar file into your mods folder. That is all it takes to start crafting these specialized carriers.
If you prefer a streamlined mod management experience, you can also install this addon through the foxygame.net launcher, which lets you browse and download mods right from its built-in menu. It handles dependency checks automatically, so you can skip the manual folder copying and get straight to playing with your new backpacks.
Configuring Your Backpacks
One of the strongest features of this addon is its flexibility. Inside the config/redgear/morebackpacks folder, you will find a JSON file for each backpack. You can enable or disable any backpack entirely from the main config, and even change item IDs if needed. To adjust what a backpack holds, open its JSON file with a text editor. Two values are present:
- backpackKey – the internal name of the backpack.
- items – a list of approved items using the 1.7 item registration system. Each entry follows the syntax modId:itemName@meta (the @meta part is optional; omitting it allows any metadata value).
You can find the correct item identifiers in the FML client logs. After editing, save the file and restart Minecraft. If you ever delete a JSON file, the mod regenerates it with the default settings, so experimentation is risk-free.
How Multiple Backpacks Interact
Forestry already handles backpack priority elegantly, and More Backpacks inherits this behavior. When you pick up an item that fits multiple backpacks, the game first checks your hotbar from left to right. The leftmost compatible backpack receives the item. If no hotbar backpack can accept it, the scan moves to the top row of your main inventory, again left to right, then continues downward row by row. This predictable ordering lets you arrange your bags for optimal sorting without micromanaging.
Compatibility and Mod Integration
More Backpacks shines when used in a modded environment. Its built-in recognition for IndustrialCraft 2, Thaumcraft 3, BuildCraft, ComputerCraft, and GregTech means that items from those mods automatically find their way into the correct backpack without any extra configuration. Even if you do not have those mods, the backpacks still function with vanilla items and any other mod that registers items through the Forge Ore Dictionary. The JSON editing system also lets you add support for mods that are not natively covered, making the addon extremely future-proof.
Why More Backpacks Belongs in Your Modpack
Inventory clutter is a constant battle in Minecraft, especially when you juggle multiple tech and magic mods. The More Backpacks Forestry addon solves this by giving you a dedicated, auto-collecting container for nearly every category of item you encounter. The crafting recipes remain consistent with Forestry’s familiar pattern, so there is no steep learning curve. The deep configurability and cross-mod awareness mean you can tailor the experience precisely to your playstyle. Whether you are a redstone engineer, a farmer, a wizard, or a nuclear physicist, there is a backpack waiting to lighten your load and keep your adventures organized.