Tired of swinging the same diamond sword through every creeper and enderman encounter? Minecraft's vanilla combat offers only a handful of melee options, and while enchantments add some flair, the base toolset can feel repetitive after a few hundred hours. The More Vanilla Weapons mod, also known as MVW, injects a healthy dose of variety into your hotbar without straying far from the game's core aesthetic. It introduces over a dozen new weapon types, each with distinct speed, reach, damage, and special mechanics, so you can finally match your gear to your playstyle.
What is More Vanilla Weapons?
More Vanilla Weapons is a mod designed to expand Minecraft's arsenal while keeping the feel as close to vanilla as possible. Every new weapon is crafted from standard materials like wood, stone, iron, gold, diamond, and netherite, and they follow familiar tier progression. The mod doesn't overhaul combat mechanics; instead, it fills the gaps between the sword, axe, and trident with specialized tools that reward different approaches. Whether you prefer fast, flurry-based attacks or slow, devastating blows, there is a weapon here for you. The mod also introduces tiered bows and crossbows, giving ranged fighters more progression options beyond the single bow and crossbow line.
Expanding Your Arsenal: Melee Weapons
The heart of MVW lies in its melee lineup. Each weapon has been tuned with unique stats: attack speed, base damage, reach, and often a special ability that changes how you engage mobs or other players. Here is a breakdown of what you can craft:
One-Handed Weapons
- Katana – Slightly faster than a sword but a little weaker, with extended reach. Ideal for hit-and-run tactics.
- Knife – Extremely fast, low damage, and reduced reach. Perfect for applying pressure or finishing low-health targets.
- Rapier – High speed and balanced damage, but can only strike one enemy at a time. Great for dueling.
- Saber – Fast with decent damage; absorbs 25% of the damage you deal, converting it into a small self-heal.
- Dagger – Weak but lightning-fast. Deals 4x damage when attacking while crouching, making it a deadly ambush tool. Slightly shorter range.
- Spade – A shovel that stuns mobs on hit, offering decent speed and damage with crowd-control utility.
Two-Handed Heavy Hitters
- Double Axe – High damage, medium speed. A straightforward heavy weapon for those who want raw power.
- Two-Handed Hammer – High damage, low speed, and massive knockback. Sends enemies flying.
- Two-Handed Long Sword – Higher damage, slower swings, and longer reach than a standard sword.
- Halberd – An axe variant with higher damage, slower speed, and extended range.
- Two-Handed Flail – Slightly less damage than a sword but as fast as a diamond axe. Has a 50% chance to land a critical hit that deals extra damage beyond a normal crit.
- Two-Handed War Hammer – Armor-piercing weapon with decent speed and average damage, effective against heavily armored foes.
Specialized Reach and Crowd Control
- Scythe – Fast speed, low damage, and the ability to hit multiple mobs in one swing. Perfect for farming or clearing groups.
- Lance – Good damage, mid-speed, and a right-click dash ability that propels you forward for a sudden strike.
- Pole – A long-reaching weapon with medium speed and damage, keeping enemies at a distance.
- Glaive – Decent speed and damage with extended reach, bridging the gap between spear and sword.
All these weapons are crafted using standard recipes that mirror existing tool patterns, often with a different arrangement of materials. You can check the in-game recipe book or JEI for exact layouts.
Tiered Bows and Crossbows
Ranged combat also gets a meaningful upgrade. MVW introduces tiered bows and crossbows that scale with material tiers. Wood, stone, iron, gold, diamond, and netherite variants exist for both weapon types. Tiered bows charge faster and launch arrows with greater velocity, while tiered crossbows deal more damage and fire bolts at higher speeds. Durability scales accordingly, so a netherite bow will outlast a wooden one by a huge margin. This progression makes archery feel more rewarding throughout a playthrough, especially when combined with the new melee options.
Mod Compatibility and Modpack Integration
For players still enjoying Minecraft 1.16, More Vanilla Weapons offers compatibility with several popular mods that add ores like silver, copper, amethyst, and black opal. It works seamlessly with Ice and Fire, Clib, Immersive Engineering, SimpleOres, and Ores Above Diamonds, among others. This means you can craft MVW weapons using materials from those mods, further expanding your choices. The mod is also fully approved for use in modpacks, and its lightweight nature ensures it won't clash with most other content mods. If you're assembling a custom modpack, you might find the process streamlined with a launcher like foxygame.net, which lets you download and manage mods like More Vanilla Weapons directly from its menu without the usual hassle of manual file placement. That flexibility can save a lot of time when you're juggling dozens of mods.
Conclusion
More Vanilla Weapons succeeds at its core promise: giving Minecraft players a broader weapon selection that feels like a natural extension of the base game. The careful balance between speed, damage, and special traits means no single weapon dominates, encouraging experimentation. Whether you're a builder who needs a scythe for clearing farmland, a PvP enthusiast who loves the dagger's sneak attack, or an explorer who relies on the lance's dash to traverse gaps, MVW has something to offer. With tiered bows and crossbows rounding out the ranged options, the mod transforms combat from a monotonous sword spam into a thoughtful gear choice. Give it a try, and you might never look at a plain diamond sword the same way again.