Pixelmon Generations or Reforged? Choosing Your Pokémon Server Fork

Players setting up a Pokémon-themed Minecraft server hit the same fork in the road almost every time: which version of Pixelmon should they actually install? With the original mod long dead and two active successors competing for attention, the answer is less obvious than it sounds. Below is what HolyHosting supports today, and how to choose between the options.

A Quick Word on the Original Pixelmon

Before the forks existed, there was simply the Pixelmon Mod. It was great. It was also unauthorized. The Pokémon Company eventually noticed, and the original project was shut down through legal pressure rather than developer choice. The mod is no longer maintained and should not be used today. Anything you find labeled as the original Pixelmon Mod is essentially abandonware.

Pixelmon Generations: Fast and Loaded

Pixelmon Generations is one of the two unofficial continuations that picked up where the original left off. Its biggest selling point is speed of content: when Nintendo adds a new Pokémon to the official games, Generations tends to be the first to ship it in mod form. Cosmetic extras like costumes also land regularly.

The trade-off is stability. The wider feature set comes with a heavier bug count, and players who care about a polished experience sometimes find themselves filing reports instead of catching Pokémon.

Pixelmon Reforged: The Safer Bet

Pixelmon Reforged is the other fork, and it leans the opposite direction. Updates arrive more slowly, but each one is generally smoother and better tested. The team is also careful about staying inside fair use territory: every asset is custom-built rather than copied, which gives the mod a much better shot at long-term survival. If you remember what happened to the original, that matters.

The Pixelmon Modpack

A common point of confusion: the Pixelmon Modpack is not a third version of the mod. It bundles Pixelmon Reforged with other community staples like Biomes O' Plenty to create a richer overall world. If you want extra biomes, new gear and bigger exploration loops layered on top of Pokémon, this is the route. The modpack is a packaging choice, not a separate fork.

So Which One Should You Run?

The honest answer is that this is a quality versus quantity decision. Pick Generations if you want the newest Pokémon and every shiny cosmetic the moment it drops. Pick Reforged if you prefer fewer bugs, cleaner releases and access to the modpack ecosystem.

There is also a legal angle worth weighing. Reforged makes a visible effort to stay within fair use, while Generations sticks closer to the gray area the original mod lived in. That probably will not affect your day-to-day play, but it is worth knowing.

A Personal Lean

If pushed to commit, Reforged tends to come out ahead for most players, mainly because the modpack pulls it forward. The extra biomes and supporting mods feel like they were designed to sit next to Pokémon. Even without the modpack, a stable build tends to beat a feature-rich one once you have logged a few dozen hours.

That said, there is no rule against running both on separate servers and seeing which one sticks. HolyHosting can host either, or both, without judgment.