7 of the Best Modpacks for NeoForge in 2025

Neoforge has gone to a mainstream modding platform in just a couple of versions, and 2025 is the first year most big packs ship native builds for it. If you’re curious which packs are worth the download, whether for public servers or a solo world, this list showcases 5 Minecraft Modpacks with Neoforge support. Read on for quick summaries, install tips, and what sets each pack apart.

1. MineColonies Official Modpack

MineColonies Official is the town-building experience straight from the mod’s own dev team, so everything is pre-tuned and configured. The pack drops you into Minecraft 1.21.1 on NeoForge with balanced configs, a server pack, and near-weekly hot-fixes. At its core are 25-plus NPC jobs and their upgradeable structures – builders, bakers, deliverymen, university researchers, you name it – letting you grow a fully-autonomous colony.

To keep the resource loop interesting, the authors layer in world-gen and adventure staples such as new biomes, Twilight Forest-style dimension runs, and Create-flavoured automation so you can feed your settlers at scale without grinding every log yourself.

The result is a focused yet rounded pack: strategy-heavy colony management up front, exploration and boss fights when you need a break, and performance/QoL mods humming quietly in the background. If you want the most up-to-date way to play MineColonies in 2025, solo or on a small server, start here.

2. Immersed with Shaders

Immersed With Shaders is a pure client-side overhaul for Minecraft 1.21.x that adds performance improvments onto photoreal visuals. It supports NeoForge, Forge, and Fabric in the same download, with the latest stable build v5.1 released May 6 2025. Because it never touches world data, you can join any vanilla or modded server without breaking compatibility.

Highlights

Pre-bundled Complementary shaders and a hot-key toggle—no OptiFine needed.
Sodium / Iris or Rubidium / Oculus baked in for FPS gains on high-end and low-end rigs.
Ambient upgrades: Fresh Animations, richer soundscapes, custom music, better HUD, zoom (Z), JourneyMap (J).
Clean QoL only—no added blocks or items—so worlds stay cross-platform with friends.

If you want 2025-grade graphics that work on any server, Immersed With Shaders is the answer.

3. Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders

Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders is the one-click route to huge render distances and modern shaders. It is similar to the above modpack but with Distant Horizons support.

Fabric or NeoForge loaders are bundled, making it drop-in friendly for most clients and mixed-loader servers.
Performance boosters included – Sodium, C2ME, Noisium and others tame Distant Horizons’ CPU load while keeping FPS high.
Server-ready LOD streaming – DH 2.3 no longer forces you to pre-explore every chunk; far terrain streams in on the fly.
Clear hardware guidance – allocate ~6 GB RAM for smooth play (4 GB is bare minimum; 2 GB will crash).

If you want cinematic shaders and 512-chunk vistas without hunting down every jar, this pack is the hassle-free way to push Minecraft’s view distance in 2025.

4. Cobblemon Official Modpack

The sanctioned way to play Cobblemon bundles everything you need for a Pokémon-style adventure without touching vanilla world data.

700 + Pokémon & Showdown-accurate battles – capture, train, and evolve with full competitive move sets and free-movement fights.
Immersive extras, light footprint – performance mods (Sodium, FerriteCore, etc.), QoL tweaks, and optional shader/resource packs keep FPS high while the game looks and sounds better than stock Cobblemon.
Cobbled Farms tutorial world – a pre-built single-player map that teaches every mechanic from berry farming to fossil revival.
Plug-and-play multiplayer – client pack and server files connect to any vanilla Cobblemon server; no config hassle.

If you want the smoothest, officially-tuned Cobblemon experience on NeoForge in 2025, start here.

5. The Pixelmon Modpack

An alternative to the Cobblemon pack above, The Pixelmon Modpack is the official, one click way to turn Minecraft into a full Pokémon adventure. The team’s newest build bundles all core mods plus a ready-to-run server pack.

Pixelmon Reforged – 700-plus Pokémon with capturing, breeding, trading and Showdown-style battles. Recent updates add Research tasks, new abilities like Poison Puppeteer and fresh species such as Bombirdier and Gimmighoul.
Pixelmon OST by Chris Geddes for custom music that blends with the mod’s UI.
Exploration add-ons – Oh The Biomes You’ll Go for 80+ new biomes, plus JourneyMap with sprite integration and both Nature’s & Explorer’s Compass to help locate biomes and structures.

Check it out here.

6. Prominence II Classic

Prominence II Classic is a content-stuffed but balanced mega-pack for Minecraft 1.20.1 (NeoForge or Forge). The current build v2.8.0, packs 250-plus mods.

Highlights

Combat, tech, exploration and magic all get equal love, so no style feels under-served.
Better Combat retools melee; 1 000+ new structures and 8 fresh dimensions add long-term discovery; Ad Astra lets you rocket to other planets.
Built-in shader presets (Complementary, Insanity, Pastel, Rethinking Voxels) come pre-configured for one-click visuals.
Official SMP support plus included server packs make multiplayer hosting painless.

If you want an experience that still feels tuned rather than bloated, Prominence II Classic is a safe bet.

7. Medieval MC [NEOFORGE] MMC5

Medieval MC MMC5 (NeoForge) turns Minecraft 1.21.1 into a full-scale medieval RPG sandbox:

Vast new world-gen & dungeons – Oh The Biomes You’ll Go, Capital Cities, Taverns, Trial Dungeons and thousands of structures keep exploration fresh.
Kingdom building – MineColonies + StyleColonies let you found, upgrade and defend a bespoke settlement.
Deep magic & combat – cast with Iron’s Spells ‘n Spellbooks and Ars Nouveau while revamped strongholds, fortresses and Better Combat-style tweaks raise the stakes.
Guided progression – 50-plus quests ease you into the 250-mod stack and reward exploration.

If you want a balanced blend of exploration, colony management and spell-slinging in a single download, MMC5 is the medieval flagship to grab in 2025.