Adding the Critters and Companions Mod to Minecraft Forge or Fabric

What This Mod Brings to the Table

Vanilla Minecraft has a solid lineup of passive and hostile mobs, but you can keep that flavor while adding more variety. Critters and Companions is a small, vanilla friendly mod that drops nine extra creatures into the world. Some are decorative, others are tameable pets, and a couple grant status effects that come in handy on long survival runs. Red pandas in the jungle, dumbo octopuses in deep oceans, leaf insects that dance when a jukebox is playing nearby. It is the kind of mod that feels like it could have been a future Mob Vote winner.

The mod works on either Forge or Fabric, which means you can pair it with most other content mods without much fuss. This guide covers the full setup process, from downloading the right files to verifying everything loads on your server, plus a rundown of what each new creature actually does once you find one.

Downloading the Mod and Its Dependencies

Critters and Companions is hosted on CurseForge along with its required helper mod. Grab everything before you touch your mods folder, since a missing dependency is the most common reason the game refuses to launch later on.

• Open the Critters and Companions page on CurseForge and click the Files tab at the top.

• Browse the version list and find the entry that matches the Minecraft version you plan to run.

• Click the three vertical dots on the right side of that row, then choose Download File.

• Save the jar somewhere easy to find, like your Downloads folder.

• Repeat the process for GeckoLib, the animation library this mod depends on.

• If you are running Fabric, you also need the Fabric API. Forge users can skip this one.

Make sure every file you download targets the same Minecraft version. A 1.20.1 build of GeckoLib will not work with a 1.19.2 build of the mod, even if both load individually.

Installing on the Client

The client side requires a working Forge or Fabric installation in the Minecraft launcher. If you have not set one up yet, install your preferred loader for the same version as the mod files before going further. With that out of the way, dropping the mod in is just a few clicks.

• Open the Minecraft launcher and switch to the Installations tab.

• Find the Forge or Fabric profile you just made and click the folder icon next to it. That opens the profile's working directory in your operating system file browser.

• Inside that directory, look for a folder called mods. If it is not there, create one with that exact name in lowercase.

• Drag the jar files you downloaded earlier into the mods folder. Both Critters and Companions and GeckoLib at minimum, plus the Fabric API if you are on Fabric.

• Return to the launcher, pick the modded profile, and hit Play. The first launch with new mods is usually slower than normal, so do not panic if it sits on the loading screen for a bit.

Installing on the Server

A modded server has to mirror the client. Forge or Fabric must be selected in your panel's version selector, and the version has to match exactly. Pick the right loader, restart the server once so it generates the mods folder, and then you are ready to upload.

• Open your HolyHosting control panel and click the file manager option in your panel menu.

• Type your password in the box and click Login to enter the file manager.

• Open the mods directory from the list, then click the Upload button at the top.

• Drag the same jar files you used on the client into the upload area.

• Wait for each file to finish at 100 percent. Once they are done, head back to the main panel and restart the server.

The single most common reason players cannot join a freshly modded server is a mismatch between the client and server mod lists. Keep them identical and you avoid most headaches.

A Tour of the New Mobs

After you log into the world, expect to see new creatures in the usual biomes within a few minutes of exploration. The mod respects vanilla spawn rules, so you will not have a red panda invasion at spawn. If you want to skim through every mob quickly, switch to creative with cheats enabled and use the spawn eggs. Otherwise, the sections below break down where each animal lives and what it offers.

Land Animals

These are surface dwellers, found exclusively on land in their respective biomes.

Ferret. Lives in forests and behaves a bit like a small wolf with a worse temper. Wild ferrets travel in packs and attack tiny mobs, which is why you can sometimes find them chasing chickens through the trees. Tame one with a raw rabbit and you gain a pet that helps you hunt for food, and tamed ferrets can also dig up small treasures from the ground.

Dragonfly. Hovers above rivers rather than walking. Tame with spider eyes. Once tamed you can fit it with custom armor and send it after hostile mobs, which is mildly absurd and very fun.

Leaf Insect. A tiny forest mob with no real gameplay use beyond ambience. Place a jukebox nearby and they will dance to the music. Build a small disco around one if you want a feature room at your base.

Red Panda. Jungle exclusive, sleeps all day and only becomes active at night. Breed them with bamboo and tame them with sweet berries. Tamed red pandas frighten away hostile mobs in your vicinity, which is genuinely useful when caving or exploring at night.

Shima Enaga. A tiny round bird that spawns only in snow biomes. Tame with seeds. They perch on and under trees, but they have no special utility beyond looking adorable. Perfect for indoor aviaries if you build a snow themed base.

Water Creatures

The aquatic side of the mod tends to be more useful in terms of effects and crafting.

Otter. Found drifting along rivers. They hunt fish on their own and float on the surface. While you fish in their area you can pull up clams, which otters will crack open into pearls. Those pearls are the crafting ingredient for the Pearl Necklace covered below, which makes otters more important than they first look.

Koi Fish. River dwellers that grant the Luck effect when several gather together. Luck improves chest loot, so a koi pond next to your storage room can shave runs off your loot grind. Pick them up with a bucket to carry the buff around with you.

Dumbo Octopus. Spawns in deep oceans. They grant a temporary bubble around your head, which buys you extra time when exploring shipwrecks or ocean monuments. You can also scoop them into a bucket and keep one as a personal emergency oxygen supply.

Sea Bunny. Snail like creatures sitting on the ocean floor. They have no gameplay effect at all, but they look cute and bucket cleanly, which makes them ideal aquarium pets back at base.

Where to Find Each Mob

Some of these critters are easier to track than others. Ferrets and leaf insects show up in nearly every temperate forest, so you will see them quickly. Red Pandas need a jungle biome, which may force a longer trip from spawn. Shima Enagas only appear in snow biomes, while dragonflies, koi, and otters share river territory at different elevations. For ocean species, head out into deep waters and look near the seabed for sea bunnies and out in the open for dumbo octopuses.

Craftable Items

The mod adds two notable craftable items.

• Dragonfly Armor. Reinforces a tamed dragonfly so it lasts longer in fights against hostile mobs.
• Pearl Necklace. Crafted from otter pearls. While worn, drowned and guardians notice you less, and your underwater swim speed increases. Combine it with the koi Luck effect and underwater ruins start producing much better loot tables.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

If the game crashes on launch right after installation, the cause is almost always a missing dependency. Confirm that GeckoLib is sitting in your mods folder, and double check that Fabric API is in there too on Fabric installs. Version mismatches are the other classic culprit: a Forge 1.19.2 build of the mod will refuse to load on a 1.20.1 client. Match the loader version to the mod version, every time.

The same rules apply on the server. If clients connect and immediately disconnect with a missing mod error, check that Forge or Fabric is set as the active version in your panel and that the uploaded jar list mirrors the client. After verifying, restart the server and try again. If you still cannot connect after that, contact the HolyHosting support team with the latest crash log attached.

Mod conflicts are the other source of grief. Other animal mods that touch the same biome spawn pools can collide with Critters and Companions. The fastest way to identify a conflict is to load the mod by itself first to confirm it works, then add the other mods back one at a time until something breaks. A quick sanity check before going deeper: open creative with cheats on and search the inventory for the new spawn eggs. If they are missing, the mod itself is not loading and the problem is the installation, not a conflict.

Useful Links

• Critters and Companions on CurseForge
• How to install Forge on Minecraft
• Installing Fabric on the Minecraft launcher
• How to add mods to a Minecraft server