Butchery: Add Mobs — Make Any Mob Compatible with Butchery

Understanding the Butchery Add Mobs Data Pack

Minecraft modding opens up endless possibilities, and the Butchery mod has quickly become a favorite for players who want more realistic animal harvesting and resource drops. However, one common challenge is compatibility with other mods that alter vanilla creatures. The Butchery: Add Mobs data pack solves this problem elegantly. It lets you bridge the gap between Butchery’s carcass and corpse system and custom mobs introduced by mods like TerraFirmaCraft, Alex’s Mobs, or any other mod that tweaks vanilla animals. By editing simple tag files, you can ensure that those modded creatures drop Butchery’s unique items instead of breaking immersion.

What Exactly Does This Data Pack Do?

Butchery introduces a detailed butchering mechanic where animals drop carcasses and corpses that you can process for meat, bones, and other resources. The base mod supports standard vanilla mobs, but if you use mods that replace or alter those mobs—say, TerraFirmaCraft’s livestock or Alex’s Mobs’ bison—the drops won’t match. The Add Mobs data pack provides a straightforward way to include those custom entities in Butchery’s supported list. Once added, those mobs will drop the appropriate carcass or corpse, even if the mod changes their model or texture. Just keep in mind that the dropped carcass will always use the vanilla model and texture; this isn’t a bug, but a design limitation of how Butchery handles drops.

Why You Need This Data Pack

If you’re running a modded server or a single-player world with multiple creature-altering mods, you’ve likely noticed that some animals don’t interact with Butchery at all. They die and drop nothing, or they drop their mod-specific items instead of the butchering resources you expect. This data pack lets you unify the experience. You can map any modded mob to a vanilla equivalent’s carcass, so a TerraFirmaCraft cow drops a beef carcass just like a regular cow would. It’s a lightweight solution that requires no coding knowledge—just a bit of text editing.

When you’re juggling several data packs and mods, keeping everything in order can feel overwhelming. That’s where a modern launcher comes in handy. If you’re looking for a convenient way to manage your Minecraft setup, the foxygame.net launcher lets you download mods directly from the menu and handles data pack installations with ease, so you can spend less time fiddling with files and more time playing.

How to Add Mobs to Butchery’s Supported List

The process involves editing tag files inside the data pack’s ZIP archive. You don’t need to extract anything—just open the archive, locate the correct file, and add the entity ID of the modded mob. Follow these steps carefully.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Open your world save folder. Navigate to .minecraft/saves/YourWorldName and find the datapacks directory.
2. Locate the Butchery Add Mobs ZIP file. It’s usually named something like butchery_add_mobs.zip. Right-click and open it with your archive tool (do not extract).
3. Find the tag file for the mob you want to edit. Inside the ZIP, go to data/butchery/tags/entity_types/. You’ll see files like chicken.json, cow.json, etc.
4. Edit the file. For example, open chicken.json. It will contain a list of entity IDs that are treated as chickens for butchering purposes. The original file might look like:

   {
     "replace": false,
     "values": [
       "minecraft:chicken"
     ]
   }

   To add Alex’s Mobs bison (so it drops a chicken carcass), change the values array to:

   {
     "replace": false,
     "values": [
       "minecraft:chicken",
       "alexsmobs:bison"
     ]
   }

   You can add as many modded mobs as you like, separated by commas.
5. Save the file and close the ZIP. Your archive tool should update the ZIP without needing to re-pack it.
6. Reload your world. Use the /reload command or restart the game. Then test by spawning the modded mob and checking its drops.

Important Considerations and Limitations

• Model and texture mismatch: The carcass or corpse will always use the vanilla model and texture, regardless of how the modded mob looks. This is hardcoded in Butchery and not something the data pack can change.
• Tag file naming: The file name determines which carcass type the mob drops. If you add a mob to pig.json, it will drop a pig carcass. Choose the closest vanilla equivalent for logical results.
• Multiple data packs: If another data pack also modifies the same tags, load order matters. Place the Butchery Add Mobs pack higher in the list if conflicts arise.
• Modded mobs without vanilla equivalents: You can still add them, but the drop might feel out of place. For example, a fantasy creature dropping a cow carcass could break immersion.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

If the modded mob doesn’t drop anything after editing, double-check the entity ID. Use the /summon command with autocomplete to see the exact ID. Also ensure you saved the file inside the ZIP correctly—some archive tools require you to update the archive explicitly. If the carcass doesn’t appear, try reloading the world or restarting the game. For more complex problems, the Butchery community on Discord is always helpful, and many players share their custom tag configurations there.

Expanding Your Butchery Experience

Once you’ve mastered adding mobs, you can customize drops even further. Some players create separate tag files for different modded creatures to assign unique carcass types. For instance, you might want a TerraFirmaCraft bear to drop a large predator carcass instead of a pig one. The flexibility is entirely in your hands. The data pack’s simplicity makes it a must-have for any modded butchering setup, and it plays nicely with resource packs and other gameplay tweaks.

Final Thoughts

The Butchery Add Mobs data pack is a small but powerful tool that bridges the gap between Butchery and your favorite creature mods. It eliminates immersion-breaking drop inconsistencies and lets you enjoy a seamless butchering mechanic across your entire modpack. With just a few minutes of tag editing, you can bring TerraFirmaCraft, Alex’s Mobs, and countless other mods into the fold. Whether you’re building a medieval farm or a wild hunting ground, this data pack ensures every animal contributes to your survival story the way you intended.