Environmental

Overview

Environmental is a comprehensive Overworld expansion that adds five new biomes, nine new mobs, four wood types, and a unique Explorer Armor set that levels up as you play. Rather than adding entirely new dimensions or complex tech trees, it focuses on making the surface world richer and more interesting to explore. Every new biome comes with its own trees, flowers, and wildlife, while vanilla Pigs receive a complete overhaul with muddy coats and truffle-hunting abilities.

You can browse every item and recipe the mod adds using the tabs at the top of this page. The Items tab lists all 281 blocks, items, and entities, while the Recipes tab lets you search for specific crafting recipes. This guide focuses on helping you understand how everything connects and how to get the most out of the mod.

Biomes

Environmental adds five biomes that integrate naturally alongside vanilla Overworld terrain. None of them feel out of place, and each brings its own visual identity and exclusive content.

Blossom Woods & Blossom Valleys

These temperate biomes are filled with Cherry trees that drop falling blossom particles in three varieties: regular Cherry, Cheerful Cherry (brighter pink), and Moody Cherry (deeper tones). Cherry trees drop Cherries, a light snack food that restores 1 hunger. Koi fish spawn naturally in the ponds here, providing the Serenity effect to nearby players. Blossom Valleys are a flatter variant of the same biome, ideal for building.

Pine Barrens & Snowy Pine Barrens

Pine Barrens feature tall Pine trees with harvestable Pinecones. These coniferous forests have a distinctly boreal feel with sparse undergrowth and Cup Lichen growing on the forest floor. The Snowy variant generates in colder regions with snow coverage. Pinecones are gravity-affected blocks that fall when unsupported and can be waxed with Honeycomb. When bone-mealed, Pinecones spread Pine Saplings to nearby dirt blocks, making Pine tree farming straightforward.

Marshes

Marshes are wet, swampy biomes dominated by Willow trees, Cattails, and Duckweed. This is where you will find Cattails growing in shallow water, which can be sheared for Cattail Fluff when they become fluffy. Duckweed covers the water surface and can be bone-mealed to spread. Giant Lily Pads and Large Lily Pads also generate here, and both act as bouncy platforms that launch entities into the air when landed on.

Wildlife

Environmental adds nine new creatures, each with unique behaviors that go beyond simple ambient mobs. Several interact with vanilla mechanics in interesting ways.

Slabfish

The mod's mascot, Slabfish are aquatic creatures with 15 health that spawn in watery areas. They move at a brisk 0.3 speed and come in multiple color variants. You can pick them up in a Slabfish Bucket, similar to Tropical Fish. The Slabfish Effigy is a decorative block tribute to these creatures that responds to Redstone signals.

Deer & Reindeer

Deer have 10 health and spawn in forests. Male Deer grow antlers, and they come in five different coat colors that follow breeding genetics. Deer have a trust mechanic where feeding them enough makes them trusting. Once trusting, Deer can be bred by feeding them an Apple followed by a flower, which causes them to reproduce and spread flowers in the area. This flower-spreading behavior is configurable. Reindeer are a winter variant with the same stats that spawn in snowy biomes.

Duck

Ducks have just 4 health and spawn near water. They lay Duck Eggs (stackable to 16) that can be thrown like regular Eggs. Ducks drop raw Duck meat when killed, which restores 4 hunger but has a 30% chance to inflict Nausea for 30 seconds. Cooked Duck is much better, restoring 8 hunger with no side effects.

Yak

Yaks are large, sturdy animals with 25 health, 3.0 knockback resistance, and natural armor. They drop Yak Hair, the key crafting material for Yak Pants and Yak Hair Blocks. As one of the toughest passive mobs in the mod, Yaks are worth seeking out early for their crafting materials.

Koi

Koi have 10 health and spawn in Blossom biome ponds. Their most important feature is the Serenity effect, a beneficial aura that radiates 32 blocks horizontally and 8 blocks vertically by default. When Koi are nearby, they block natural hostile mob spawns within their range and can grant the Serenity potion effect to players. Multiple breed variants exist, and they can be caught in Koi Buckets.

Zebra

Zebras function like horses and can be tamed and ridden with a Saddle. They have unique herd behavior and will flee from predators when unmounted. When you are riding a Zebra, it can kick nearby hostile mobs, applying an 80% speed reduction debuff to anything it hits. Zebras can breed with other horses and accept Horse Armor.

Tapir

Tapirs have 10 health and a distinctive sniffing behavior where they forage for flowers and plants. They can eat decorative vegetation and have a baby pattern variant. Tapirs are largely ambient creatures but add life to the warmer biomes they inhabit.

Pinecone Golem

These small utility mobs have 10 health and are tempted by Saplings. Pinecone Golems wander around looking for suitable spots to plant Saplings, making them natural tree farmers. They are completely silent, producing no hurt or death sounds.

Vanilla Pig Enhancements

One of Environmental's most creative additions is a complete overhaul of vanilla Pigs. These changes affect all Pigs in your world, not just ones in new biomes.

Truffle Hunting

Feed a Pig a Golden Carrot and it will begin sniffing the ground and hunting for Buried Truffle blocks within a 32-block radius. Truffles are the best food item in the mod, restoring a massive 16 hunger and 1.2 saturation per Truffle. This makes Pig farming genuinely worthwhile beyond just Porkchops.

Muddy Pigs

Pigs can become muddy by walking through Mud blocks or being hit with throwable Mud Balls. Muddy Pigs spawn naturally in swampy biomes with a 20% chance of having a flower decoration. You can further decorate Muddy Pigs with various flowers, saplings, and plants. By default, Muddy Pigs only dry out in the Nether, so your decorated pigs will stay muddy indefinitely in the Overworld.

Larger Litters

When Pigs breed, they now produce 1 to 3 additional Piglets beyond the normal single baby. This makes Pig breeding significantly more efficient for food production. Both the minimum and maximum additional Piglets are configurable.

Explorer Armor

The Explorer Armor set is Environmental's standout equipment system. Each piece is crafted from Leather and occupies a different armor slot, but what makes them special is that they level up through use. Each piece tracks a specific activity and gains power at four threshold milestones. The tooltip shows your current progress as a color-coded counter that shifts from gray to green, blue, purple, and finally gold at maximum level. All four pieces are dyeable.

Thief Hood (Head)

The Thief Hood provides 2 armor and levels up by killing hostile mobs. Its unique ability is the Stealth attribute, which reduces your visibility to hostile mobs. At each level, Stealth increases by 0.15 (15%), reaching 75% reduced visibility at max level. The Hood also functions as an Ender Mask, preventing Endermen from becoming hostile when you look at them regardless of level. Level thresholds: 10, 50, 100, and 500 kills.

Healer Pouch (Chest)

The Healer Pouch provides 3 armor and levels up when you take damage from living entities. When triggered, it grants Resistance for a duration of 4 seconds multiplied by your level, plus the Panic effect. At level 3 and above, the Resistance effect upgrades to Resistance II. There is a cooldown between activations that decreases as the piece levels up. Level thresholds: 10, 50, 100, and 250 hits taken.

Architect Belt (Legs)

The Architect Belt provides 2 armor and levels up by placing blocks (excluding Water). Its ability increases your block placement reach distance by 1 block per level, up to +4 blocks at maximum. This is incredibly useful for large building projects where you would otherwise need scaffolding. Level thresholds: 100, 500, 1,000, and 2,500 blocks placed.

Wanderer Boots (Feet)

The Wanderer Boots provide 3 armor and level up by walking. They grant a base movement speed bonus of 15%, increasing by 5% per level up to 35% at maximum. Additionally, they completely negate fall damage from heights under 6 blocks at all levels. Level thresholds: 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, and 50,000 distance traveled.

Yak Armor

Separate from the Explorer set, Yak Pants are leg armor crafted from Yak Hair. They use the Yak armor material with a durability multiplier of 5, defense values of 3 per slot, and 15 enchantability. They are repaired with Yak Hair Blocks. While less interesting than the Explorer set, Yak Pants are a solid early-game option if you find Yaks before you have enough resources for Iron leggings.

Flora & Vegetation

Environmental adds a huge variety of decorative plants and flowers, many with unique mechanics beyond simple decoration.

Flowers

The mod adds over a dozen new flowers, each with a Suspicious Stew effect when crafted into soup. Bluebells grant Speed II for 8 seconds, making them one of the most useful. Red and White Lotus Flowers emit ambient particles and grant Haste II for 5 seconds. Hibiscus flowers come in six colors (Yellow, Orange, Red, Pink, Magenta, and Purple) and all grant Regeneration IV for 8 seconds, making them excellent for healing stews. Cartwheels are directional flowers that face away from the player when placed. Tall flowers include four colors of Delphinium and the exotic Bird of Paradise.

Water Plants

Cattails are the most complex plant in the mod. They grow in shallow water, can stack multiple per block (up to 3), grow taller over time, and develop fluffy tops that can be sheared for 2-3 Cattail Fluff. Walking through fluffy Cattails releases floating fluff particles. Cattail Sprouts are the early growth stage that matures into full Cattails. Duckweed is a water surface plant like Lily Pads that can spread when bone-mealed. Giant Lily Pads occupy a 3x3 area and bounce entities, while Large Lily Pads cover a 2x2 area with a slightly weaker bounce.

Other Plants

Mycelium Sprouts only grow on Mycelium blocks. Cup Lichen grows on specific surfaces in Pine Barrens and spreads horizontally when bone-mealed. Cactus Bobbles naturally generate on top of Cacti and prevent them from growing taller, which is a configurable behavior. Hanging Leaves and Hanging Wisteria Leaves drip water particles and attach to the underside of leaf blocks, adding vertical dimension to tree canopies.

Building Blocks

Beyond the four wood types, Environmental adds several decorative building blocks. Dirt Bricks and Dirt Tiles come with full stair, slab, wall, and vertical slab variants. Smooth Mud and Chiseled Mud Bricks expand the Mud building palette. Yak Hair Blocks and Yak Hair Rugs serve as both decoration and fuel (burning for 200 and 67 ticks respectively). Thatch blocks come in three varieties: Grass Thatch, Cattail Thatch, and Duckweed Thatch, each with stairs, slabs, and vertical slabs. Path variants of Dirt, Podzol, and Mycelium let you create walkways in different terrain styles.

Food & Cooking

Environmental introduces several new food items tied to its mobs and plants. Here is how they compare:

Music Discs

The mod adds two music discs: "Leaving Home" (144 seconds) and "Slabrave" (111 seconds). Both are rare items that play unique tracks in Jukeboxes.

Configuration

Environmental has an extensive configuration file that lets you customize most of its features. All settings are in the common config.

Koi Settings

The Serenity effect radius defaults to 32 blocks horizontal and 8 blocks vertical. You can adjust both independently or disable the Serenity potion effect entirely while keeping the spawn-blocking behavior. The "Block only natural spawns" option (enabled by default) ensures Koi only prevent naturally spawning mobs, not spawner-based ones.

Pig Settings

Truffle hunting, muddy Pigs, larger litters, and all sub-options can be toggled individually. You can adjust the minimum and maximum additional Piglets (default 1-3), the chance for Muddy Pigs to spawn with decorations (default 20%), and whether mud dries only in the Nether or anywhere over time. If you find the Pig changes too intrusive, each feature can be disabled separately.

Other Settings

Deer flower reproduction can be toggled off if you don't want them spreading flowers everywhere. The Cactus Bobble feature, which prevents natural Cactus growth, can also be disabled if you rely on Cactus farms.

Cross-Mod Compatibility

Environmental integrates with several companion mods from Team Abnormals. Boatload adds Chest Boats, Furnace Boats, and Large Boats for all four wood types. Woodworks adds extra wood variants like Boards, Bookshelves, Ladders, and Beehives. Clayworks and Gallery provide additional decorative blocks. JEI integration is included for viewing recipes. These companion mods are optional but expand the building options significantly if installed.