Explorify

Overview

Explorify is a structure mod that adds eight new structures across all three Minecraft dimensions: the Overworld, the Nether, and the End. Unlike mods that add flashy, elaborate builds that feel out of place, Explorify's structures are designed to match vanilla Minecraft's aesthetic perfectly. You won't find any new items, blocks, or mobs here. Instead, the mod focuses entirely on giving players new places to discover and loot to find while exploring.

The structures range from small roadside Guide Posts and cozy Campsites to larger builds like the Dark Forest Settlement, the Badlands Pyramid, and the sprawling Black Spiral in the Nether. Each structure uses vanilla blocks and loot tables, so compatibility with other mods is excellent. Since Explorify is purely data-driven with no custom code beyond initialization, it has virtually zero performance impact on your world.

Overworld Structures

The Overworld contains the majority of Explorify's structures. Six distinct structure types spawn across various biomes, from mountain peaks to dark forests. Each one uses vanilla blocks and blends naturally into its surroundings.

Watchtowers

Watchtowers are tall wooden towers that spawn in three biome variants: Plains, Taiga, and Savanna. Each variant uses wood types native to its biome, so a Plains Watchtower uses Oak while a Taiga version uses Spruce. They generate with a 32-chunk spacing and 12-chunk minimum separation, with a 75% spawn chance per valid position, making them roughly as common as Villages.

The base of each Watchtower can include randomized features like a Campfire, piles of Hay Bales, Coal, Logs, or resource stockpiles. These features spawn with varying probabilities depending on the biome variant. Savanna Watchtowers, for example, have a higher chance of spawning with Log and Hay piles (about 7% each) compared to Plains variants (around 4%). The tower itself uses Minecraft's mossify processor, giving 10% of its Stone Bricks a mossy appearance for a weathered look.

Guide Posts

Guide Posts are small roadside markers that spawn in mountainous biomes. The Cold variant appears in Groves, Snowy Slopes, Jagged Peaks, Frozen Peaks, and Meadows, while the Warm variant spawns exclusively in Stony Peaks. Both share a placement pool with 32-chunk spacing, 10-chunk separation, and a 75% spawn rate.

These structures are built primarily from Cobblestone but use a randomization processor that swaps some blocks for variety. Roughly 30% of Cobblestone becomes Andesite, another 30% becomes Stone Bricks, and 5% becomes Mossy Cobblestone. Their Campfires have a 25% chance to become signal fires (producing taller smoke columns) and a 25% chance to be extinguished entirely. This randomization means no two Guide Posts look exactly the same.

Mausoleum

The Mausoleum is a foreboding structure that spawns in forested biomes: Forest, Birch Forest, Dark Forest, Taiga, Snowy Taiga, Old Growth Pine Taiga, and Old Growth Spruce Taiga. With 48-chunk spacing and 16-chunk minimum separation, Mausoleums are less common than most other Explorify structures, though an 80% spawn frequency still makes them reasonably findable.

The Mausoleum generates at surface level with beard-thin terrain adaptation, meaning it blends smoothly into the surrounding landscape. It contains a Zombie Spawner along with Cobwebs and dungeon-style loot. Treat it like a standard Dungeon but with a more atmospheric build. Bring Torches to disable the Spawner and clear out any mobs before looting.

Desert Shrine

The Desert Shrine is a smaller cousin of the vanilla Desert Pyramid. It spawns in the same biomes as Desert Pyramids and is the most common Explorify structure, with 24-chunk spacing, 8-chunk separation, and a 100% spawn frequency. You will encounter these frequently when traveling through Deserts.

The structure generates partially buried, with its floor set between 6 and 10 blocks below the surface. This means you might walk right over one without noticing. The Shrine contains a Cartography Table, Barrels with food, and a Chest with supplies. Unlike the full Desert Pyramid, there is no TNT trap beneath the floor, so you can loot safely. Because of how common these are, they serve as reliable supply stops when crossing large Deserts.

Badlands Pyramid

The Badlands Pyramid brings the classic Desert Pyramid concept to the Badlands biome. It spawns exclusively in Badlands with 32-chunk spacing, 12-chunk separation, and a 75% spawn frequency. The structure generates buried 9 to 12 blocks below the surface, following a similar layout to vanilla Desert Pyramids.

Be careful when exploring the interior. Like the vanilla Desert Pyramid, the Badlands Pyramid contains a pressure plate TNT trap at the bottom. Watch your step when approaching the loot chests, or mine around the pressure plate from the side to disarm it safely. The Terracotta and Sandstone construction gives it a distinctive look that fits the Badlands aesthetic perfectly.

Nether Structure: The Black Spiral

The Black Spiral is Explorify's most complex and dangerous structure. It spawns in the same biomes as Bastion Remnants with 40-chunk spacing, 18-chunk separation, and a 100% spawn frequency. The structure generates at a fixed height of Y=32, meaning it sits in the lower portion of the Nether.

The Black Spiral consists of a central tower connected by a network of bridges. These bridges can spawn in normal, ruined, or long variants, with ruined bridges having 25% of their Blackstone blocks randomly replaced with air, creating gaps you can fall through. The tower itself uses extensive block randomization: 5% of Blackstone becomes Gilded Blackstone, 10% becomes Polished Blackstone, and a rare 1% becomes Lava, creating unexpected hazards.

Along the bridges and within the dungeon areas, you can encounter a variety of features. Blaze Spawners and Hoglin Spawners guard valuable loot. Treasure Chests, Gold Block deposits, Gilded Blackstone caches, and Nether Wart farms are scattered throughout. The rarest finds are the Netherite treasure rooms and Hoglin Spawner rooms, each with only a 2.3% chance of generating in any given dungeon feature slot.

End Structure: End Shipwreck

The End Shipwreck is a crashed version of the End Ship found at End Cities. It spawns in End City biomes with 24-chunk spacing, 6-chunk separation, but only a 50% spawn frequency, making it the rarest Explorify structure by effective spawn rate. The wreck generates partially buried, set 5 to 7 blocks below the surface of End islands.

End Shipwrecks come in two variants with equal probability: a sideways crash and an upside-down crash. Both convey the idea of a ship that failed to stay airborne and slammed into the End island. The wrecks contain some supplies but notably do not include an Elytra or Dragon Head, which are exclusive to intact End Ships floating above End Cities. Think of these as flavorful exploration content rather than a shortcut to endgame loot.

Structure Spawning & World Generation

All Explorify structures use Minecraft's random spread placement algorithm with linear distribution. This means structures are placed on a grid defined by their spacing value, with a minimum distance between instances defined by the separation value. The frequency determines the probability of a structure actually generating at each valid grid position.

Explorify does not include any custom configuration files. All generation parameters are controlled through JSON data files, which means datapack creators can modify spacing, separation, frequency, and biome targeting by overriding the relevant files. If you want to make structures more or less common, you can create a datapack that overrides the structure_set JSON files in the explorify namespace.

The mod uses biome tags for structure placement rather than hardcoded biome lists. Several structures reference vanilla biome tags (like the village or desert pyramid tags), which means any mod or datapack that adds biomes to those tags will automatically become valid spawn locations for Explorify structures. This provides excellent compatibility with biome mods like Biomes O' Plenty or Terralith.