With so much to see and do in Minecraft it soon becomes a necessity for online friends to split up and take on different tasks. Those looking to mine minerals can do so with ease whilst farmers, weapon makers and general explorers can go off and do their own thing, safe in the knowledge that their individual efforts are all helping the team as a whole in some way. However, the beauty of online Minecraft is that the game generally rewards teamwork. Everyone has their own way of enjoying a sandbox game like Minecraft which can at times lead to certain ‘creative differences’. Whilst some of your friends will look to quickly set up a mud house and begin designing a more extensive underground mine, others will prefer to stay on the surface and work on agriculture and house building. Despite not strictly being a mod or downloadable map, the classic Minecraft is endlessly humorous when you have an armada of friends frantically chipping away at blocks beside you. Vanilla drops players into a randomly generated map, leaving them to acquire their own resources and tools in order to survive against the terrifying monsters that hide in the shadows.

‘Vanilla’, as some players call it, refers to the most basic form of Minecraft that almost every player will encounter when they first try the game.

Vanilla MinecraftĪlthough this can be considered cheating, it feels almost impossible to create a Top 5 list of anything Minecraft related without mentioning the original game mode. This list considers five of the best multiplayer mods, maps and modes that exist, are free to download and are generally amazing to play. As fun as it is searching through a Minecraft map alone, the appeal is doubled when you share that experience online with friends.

Whilst the single player is undoubtedly thrilling, it’s Minecraft’s online multiplayer that has really helped establish its excellence. Its light-hearted emphasis on creation, resource gathering and basic survival skills have captured the imagination of millions of players around the world. Since its creation by Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson back in 2009, Minecraft has quickly grown from a harmless block-gathering curiosity into one of the largest and most successful PC games of all time.

Most popular minecraft multiplayer mods