Best Mods for Vintage Story (2026 List) - Multiplayer, Modpacks, Hosting

Vintage Story is already a deep game before you add a single mod. The modding scene is a big part of why people keep coming back, though, and the official Mod DB now lists close to 9,000 mods. Most of them are small. A lot of them are abandoned. A handful are so good that it feels strange to play without them.

This list is the handful. Every mod below has a release for Vintage Story 1.22, which is the current stable branch (1.22.7 as of October 2026). We checked each one against its page on the Vintage Story Mod DB for the author, the supported game versions, and any library mods it needs. If a mod you remember isn't here, check the section near the end on mods we dropped from last year's list. It's probably there, with the reason.

If you're setting up a modded world for friends, Host Havoc's Vintage Story server hosting lets you install mods from the control panel and pin the server to a specific game version, which matters more than you'd think once you're running 20+ mods.

Quick picks: if you only install five

None of these need a library mod, all of them are among the most downloaded mods on the Mod DB, and all of them work in multiplayer. That's a safe base for any server.

Quality of life

These change how the game feels to play without changing its balance much. They're the easiest mods to justify on a shared server because nobody feels like the game got easier.

Carry On by NerdScurvy. Moving a full chest in vanilla means emptying it first. Carry On lets you pick up the whole thing and walk it to the new base. It's a maintained fork of the old CarryCapacity mod, which stopped updating years ago. The stable 1.14.x release has no dependencies; the 2.0 pre-releases need CarryOnLib, so stick with stable on a server.

Auto Map Markers by egocarib. Interact with things like loose ore, berry bushes or traders and they get a marker on your map automatically. After a few hours you stop thinking about it and just have a useful map.

ProspectTogether by Wooza. Saves prospecting pick readings to the map and lets you share them with other players. On a multiplayer world this saves a lot of "where was that copper again" in chat.

BedSpawn by ilan. Sleeping in a bed sets your respawn point. Breaking the bed resets it. Small change, but it fixes one of the more annoying parts of building a second base far from spawn.

Knapster by Apache. Makes knapping, clay forming and smithing easier for players who find the voxel crafting hard to do with a mouse. It's an accessibility mod first, and a kind one to have on a server with mixed skill levels.

Survival and gameplay

Primitive Survival by SpearAndFang. One of the oldest and biggest content mods. You get fishing, trapping, irrigation, smokers, nightcrawlers, snakes and more. It sticks close to the vanilla style, so it feels like an extension of the game rather than a bolt-on.

Butchering by CaptainOats. Instead of getting meat straight from a kill, you process animals through a more involved butchery system. It adds time and a bit of infrastructure to hunting, which a lot of servers like. The current release targets 1.22.7 specifically, so update the server before adding it.

Hydrate or Diedrate by Chronolegionaire. Adds thirst, hydration and hot-weather survival. It makes desert and summer travel a real problem to plan around. Good for servers that want more challenge, less good for casual builder worlds.

Wolf Taming by Gerste. Lets you tame wolves. It requires Pet AI by the same author, which is also the framework behind several other taming mods, so you'll likely end up with it anyway.

Food, farming and storage

Food Shelves by SONZINA. A range of food shelves and food storage, originally built to go with Expanded Foods but useful on its own. It makes a pantry look like a pantry instead of a wall of chests.

Purposeful Storage by SONZINA. Storage blocks designed to look good and still be practical. Same author as Food Shelves, and the two pair well.

Expanded Foods and A Culinary Artillery by l33tmaan. These two have been on every "best mods" list for years: Expanded Foods adds new recipes and uses for existing food, and needs A Culinary Artillery for its cooking tools. The catch right now is that the only 1.22 builds are 2.0 development versions. They work, but expect changes between updates. On a long-running server, test them on a copy of the world first.

World generation and exploration

Worldgen mods only affect chunks that haven't been generated yet. Add them before you start a world, or accept that the effect only shows up in areas nobody has explored.

BetterRuins by NiclAss. The most downloaded mod on the Mod DB, with over a million downloads. It adds a large number of new ruins and underground structures with loot. Vanilla exploration can feel empty after the first few dozen hours, and this fixes that.

Rivers by sneezerstein. Large flowing rivers that cut through the world. It changes how a world looks more than almost any other mod. Oceans need to be enabled in world generation settings for it to work.

Terra Prety by Nephelangelo. A rework of the terrain generator aimed at more natural landscapes. It's server-side only, so players don't need to install anything to join a world that uses it.

Ancient Dungeons by Th3Dilli. Procedurally generated dungeons underground. A good pick if your group wants more combat and loot than vanilla ruins provide.

Building and tech

QP's Chisel Tools by QPTech. Chiselling in vanilla is one voxel at a time. These tools work on larger areas and add shapes and helpers, while still fitting survival progression. If you build detailed bases, install this first.

VS Roofing Mod by tui_smuggler. Roofs that aren't locked to the block grid, in a vanilla style, plus glass houses. Builders tend to love this one.

Millwright by SpearAndFang. Better windmills, vertical and horizontal rotors, axles and brakes for mechanical power. If your base runs on mechanical power, it gives you a lot more options.

Multiplayer and server mods

RP Voice Chat by Ridderrasmus. Proximity voice chat. You hear people who are near you, and you can shout to be heard further. On a roleplay or community server it changes how people interact.

Vinconomy by SeveredSkullz. Player shops, trading and a proper economy. It requires the Commercially library by the same author. Best on servers with enough players for trade to make sense.

ProspectTogether belongs here too, for the reasons above.

Modpacks

There's no official modpack system in Vintage Story. Modpacks on the Mod DB are just mod lists bundled together, so you get the same version-matching problems as with individual mods, only at a larger scale.

Vanilla++ Modpack by AnneKitsune is the most notable new one. It bundles around 80 mods, including several on this list (Carry On, BetterRuins, Butchering, Rivers, Terra Prety, VS Roofing, Vinconomy, RP Voice Chat and more), and targets 1.22.7. It was first published at the start of October 2026, so it's still young. Give it a few updates before committing a long-term server to it.

If you'd rather build your own, here's a low-risk starting set. All of these have 1.22 releases and none need extra libraries:

• Light survival server: Carry On, Auto Map Markers, ProspectTogether, BedSpawn, Food Shelves, Purposeful Storage
• Harder survival: the above plus Primitive Survival, Butchering and Hydrate or Diedrate
• Builder world: QP's Chisel Tools, VS Roofing Mod, Purposeful Storage, Carry On, with BetterRuins and Rivers on a fresh world

How to install Vintage Story mods

Mods are .zip files. You don't unzip them.

Singleplayer

1. Download the mod's .zip from its Mod DB page. Pick the release that matches your game version.
2. Open Vintage Story, go to Mod Manager, and click Open Mods folder. On Windows it's %appdata%\VintagestoryData\Mods.
3. Drop the .zip into that folder, along with any library mods it needs.
4. Restart the game. The mod should show up in the Mod Manager list.

On a server

Upload the same .zip files to the server's Mods folder and restart it. Players don't need to install anything by hand. Since Vintage Story 1.16, the game downloads a server's mods automatically when a player joins, into a separate ModsByServer folder. The catch is that the versions have to match exactly, so update the mods on the server rather than telling players to update theirs.

One thing that trips people up: if a cached copy of a mod has the same version number as the server's, the game won't re-download it. If someone has a broken copy, they need to delete it from ModsByServer themselves.

We have a full walkthrough for servers, including backups and fixing load errors, in How to Install Mods on a Vintage Story Server. On Host Havoc you can also install mods with one click from the control panel, or upload them through the file manager or FTP.

Keeping a modded server stable

• Pin your game version. When a new Vintage Story version drops, mods take days or weeks to catch up. Don't update the server until the mods you rely on have releases for it. Host Havoc's panel lets you pin a specific stable version and switch to release candidates only when you choose to.
• Back up before adding or removing anything. Removing a content mod can delete its blocks and items from the world. Adding a worldgen mod mid-world only affects new chunks.
• Add mods a few at a time. If the server won't start after adding ten mods, you have ten suspects. With two, you have two.
• Read the server log. Missing dependencies and version mismatches are almost always spelled out in the log on startup.
• Watch for performance. Big content mods add load. If the server starts lagging, our Vintage Story performance tuning guide covers RAM, view distance and the other settings worth checking.

Mods we dropped from last year's list

Our 2025 version of this list was written for 1.18 to 1.20. A lot has changed since then:

• CarryCapacity hasn't been updated since 1.16. Carry On is the maintained fork and replaces it.
• Better Firepit isn't needed anymore. Its author notes it's no longer required as of 1.22.0.
• Player Corpse and its library Common Lib have no 1.22 release yet. Vanilla++ uses a community fork instead.
• Stone Quarry has no 1.22 release from its original author. A standalone repack by fipil is what modpacks are using for now.
• XSkills and XLib have no 1.22 release from the original author, Xandu. Forks by El_Neuman were released for 1.22.5 and later in early October 2026. If you're running a skills server, those are the ones to look at, but they're brand new.
• Teleportation Network (TpNet) stopped at 1.19. Teleportation Network Patched by Lorgar continues it for 1.22.
• Workbench Expansion stopped at 1.19. Workbench Expansion Patch by Elocrypt is the maintained replacement.
• More Map Icons hasn't been updated past 1.21 yet.

FAQ

Do players need to install mods to join a modded Vintage Story server? No. The game downloads the server's mods automatically when a player connects. Their game version and the mod versions need to match the server's.

Can I add mods to an existing world? Yes, for most mods. Worldgen mods like BetterRuins, Rivers and Terra Prety will only affect chunks generated after you add them. Back up first, because removing a content mod later can delete its blocks and items.

Do these mods work on Vintage Story 1.22? Every mod in the main list has a release for 1.22. Some target a specific patch, like Butchering and BetterRuins on 1.22.7, so check the release list on the Mod DB page against your server's version.

Are there client-side only mods? Yes. Some mods only change the interface, sounds or controls, and don't need to be on the server at all. The Mod DB lists each mod's side as client, server or both.

Where is the Vintage Story mods folder? Use Mod Manager > Open Mods folder in the game. On Windows it's %appdata%\VintagestoryData\Mods. Mods downloaded from servers go to ModsByServer instead.

Is it safe to download mods from other sites? Stick to the official Mod DB. It's where authors publish updates and where version compatibility is listed.

Run a modded Vintage Story server with Host Havoc

If you want a modded world that's online when you aren't, Host Havoc's Vintage Story servers come with one-click mod installs, full FTP and file manager access, automatic backups, DDoS protection, and 24/7 support. You can also pin your server to a specific game version, so a surprise update doesn't break your mod list.

New to running your own world? Our guide to hosting a Vintage Story server covers the basics, and if you're still deciding whether the game is for your group, here's how Vintage Story compares to Minecraft.