How to Install and Use LiteLoader Mods

LiteLoader Installation for Minecraft Modifications

Minecraft modifications (mods) offer a fantastic way to spice things up and add new features to your Minecraft game. Using mods, your Minecraft game can become anything you can imagine. They add new blocks, new items, enemies, and dimensions, and even completely change the gameplay!

Minecraft mods come in many shapes and sizes. Over the years, the face of Minecraft modding has changed, as different mod loaders came and were replaced. Nowadays, the dominant Mod Loader is Forge, and the vast majority of mods are based on it.

However, Forge is not the be-all and end-all of modding. Take, for example, LiteLoader. It is a mod loader designed to be as lightweight and compatible as possible, and like Forge, it had many mods developed for it. But unlike the other mod loaders that Forge surpassed, LiteLoader remained popular, and that for two important reasons:

The first reason is that LiteLoader is compatible with Forge and all Forge mods, and can be used alongside it. The second, and much more appealing reason, is the fact that LiteLoader mods are client-side. Unlike Forge, players can join servers without having to make sure mod lists match, something that can become quite annoying otherwise.

Why LiteLoader?

Lightweight Gameplay

As mentioned in the overview, LiteLoader mods are client-side. They are lightweight, easy to use and install, and add features that do not interfere with a server's work, so you can join any server, whether Forge, Vanilla, or anything else, without having to make sure LiteLoader mod lists match.

LiteLoader, at its core, is a mod loader designed to load mods that do not need to modify game mechanics. For example: minimap mods, mods that add extra UI elements, or mods that automate certain actions within the game. By design, LiteLoader is designed to run alongside Minecraft's Forge Mod Loader (FML), and LiteLoader mods will practically never conflict with Forge mods.

Of course, a mod loader would be nothing without a selection of mods. You can find a list of LiteLoader mods, along with their compatible Minecraft versions, here.

If you are convinced and want to try LiteLoader, you can follow the steps outlined below to do so. It is not as hard as it looks!

How to Install LiteLoader

The installation of LiteLoader varies depending on whether you want to add it to an already existing modpack or start from scratch with LiteLoader. Either way, it is fairly straightforward.

How to Install LiteLoader from Scratch

1. Go to the LiteLoader downloads page and choose the version you want. Always pick the leftmost download, as those are the most recent.

2. Once you have selected a version, download the latest [JAR] snapshot.

3. Open the file you have downloaded. This will open the LiteLoader installation wizard.

4. In the "Extend from:" dropdown menu, select the Minecraft profile you want to add LiteLoader to.

5. If you want to use Forge with LiteLoader, you must install it first! Once done, a Forge profile should appear in the dropdown list.

6. In "New profile:", set the name of the LiteLoader profile. Make it something you can remember, as you will be choosing it as the profile for Minecraft to launch.

7. Press OK to proceed with the installation.

And that is it! Once the installation completes, LiteLoader will be installed, and you can select it as the profile you want Minecraft to launch with. The profile list is on the left side of the Play button in the Minecraft launcher; simply select the LiteLoader profile you named earlier and press Play.

How to Add LiteLoader to a Modpack

1. Go to the LiteLoader downloads page and choose the version you want. Always pick the leftmost download, as those are the most recent.

2. Once you have selected a version, download the latest [JAR] snapshot.

3. Open the file you have downloaded. This will open the LiteLoader installation wizard.

4. On the installation screen, press the checkmark next to "Extract LiteLoader.jar".

5. Press [...] on the right side of the installation path. Set this to somewhere accessible, like a new folder on your desktop, for example.

6. Press OK to proceed with the extraction.

7. Locate the liteloader-VERSION-SNAPSHOT-release.jar file that was just extracted.

The following steps depend on how you installed your modpack. Different launchers have different ways to access modpack files, and you will want to add the LiteLoader .jar file to the modpack's mods folder.

CurseForge

1. Open the Twitch app and locate your modpack, then right-click on its thumbnail.

2. Click "Open Folder".

3. In the folder that opens, enter the "mods" subfolder.

4. Drag and drop the LiteLoader .jar file into the mods subfolder.

Technic

1. Open the Technic Launcher and go to the "Modpacks" tab at the top, then click on your modpack.

2. Click "Modpack Options" in the top right.

3. Press the "Open" button to the right of the directory list.

4. In the folder that opens, enter the "mods" subfolder.

5. Drag and drop the LiteLoader .jar file into the mods subfolder.

ATLauncher

1. Open ATLauncher and navigate to the "Instances" tab on the right side of the launcher.

2. Scroll down to your modpack and click "Open Folder".

3. In the folder that opens, enter the "mods" subfolder.

4. Drag and drop the LiteLoader .jar file into the mods subfolder.

Voidswrath

1. Open the Voidswrath Launcher and locate your modpack.

2. Click "Advanced".

3. Click "Edit Mods".

4. Drag and drop the LiteLoader .jar file into the folder that opens.

FTB

1. Open the FTB launcher and navigate to the "My Modpacks" tab.

2. Hover over your modpack and click the three dots.

3. In the top right corner of the page, click "Open Folder".

4. In the folder that opens, enter the "mods" subfolder.

5. Drag and drop the LiteLoader .jar file into the mods subfolder.

And there you go! Once you have placed the LiteLoader .jar file in the correct place, it will load alongside your regular modpack.

How to Add LiteLoader Mods

Now that you have LiteLoader set up and installed, it is time for the fun part: choosing and adding mods. As mentioned earlier in the guide, you can find a list of LiteLoader mods here.

Once you have found a mod, or several mods, that you would like to add, the first step is to download them.

To the right of the mod's entry in the list, click the download location. This is usually Minecraft Forum or CurseForge.

Once at the download location, proceed to download it. You will notice that LiteLoader mods come in the form of .litemod files.

Next, you will want to open the Minecraft mods folder. If you added LiteLoader to an already existing modpack, you can follow the previous steps, as it is the same mods folder you put the LiteLoader file in. However, if you are installing

LiteLoader from scratch, the process is slightly different.

If you are on Windows, press the Windows logo key + R, then type %APPDATA%\.minecraft and click OK.

For those on Mac, press Command + Space, type ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft and press Enter.

Navigate to the mods folder if you are not already in it.

Drag and drop the .litemod files you just downloaded into the folder.

And we are done! The next time you start Minecraft with LiteLoader, it will load the LiteLoader mods for you.

If you want to verify whether the mods loaded correctly or not, you can press the gray tab in the top right corner of the Minecraft main menu to open the LiteLoader settings panel. If the mods loaded correctly, they will appear in the list there, and you can configure them to your liking.

Suggested LiteLoader Mods

If you are not sure which LiteLoader mods you might want to get, here are some tried-and-tested suggestions:

Armors Hud Revived — Adds a configurable UI that displays the armor you currently have equipped. Very useful for almost all occasions.

Autofish — Automatically reels in and recasts your fishing rod when catching a fish. No more annoying waiting and watching for the fish to bite.

Chat Bubbles — Adds chat bubbles, reminiscent of MMOs like World of Warcraft, to Minecraft. Highly customizable and essential for any role-player, though useful for almost everyone.

Macro / Keybind Mod — Allows you to set up hotkeys and extensive macros for in-game automation.

VoxelMap — A conversion of the Forge mod, VoxelMap adds a minimap to the corner of your screen.

Conclusion

Forge is undoubtedly amazing: its robust API and multiplayer compatibility have brought an entire new era of Minecraft modding, but there is a wide world of mods outside its reach as well. LiteLoader proves that mods can be usefully practical beyond just adding new gameplay features, while remaining client-side.

As a Minecraft player, it is important to know all your options and not just the most popular ones. Ease of use, accessibility, and lightweight nature are also important factors to consider, and LiteLoader, which even has "lite" in its name!, is a benchmark in each of them.