How to Add Friends in Minecraft Java Edition?

petra pralica game horizonByPetra Pralica Published on
Adding Friends in Minecraft Java
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Playing Minecraft alone can bring you a ton of joy when you first start playing or when you’re just getting back to the game after a long pause, but it also gets boring quite fast. I don’t think saying that the multiplayer options in Minecraft are its saving grace is an overstatement or something most wouldn’t agree with. We know that adding friends was or still is a feature in some versions of Minecraft, but can the same be said for Minecraft Java Edition? How do you add friends in Minecraft Java?

Sadly, you cannot add friends in Minecraft Java Edition, so you can add them in Bedrock Editon. Luckily, Minecraft Java is also the version you can mod endlessly and some mods make it so that you can add friends with them. One such mod is 5zig.

What other mods in Minecraft Java let you add friends, and how do they work exactly? Why would you add friends in Minecraft all together, and if you’re just getting started with modding in Minecraft, what are some trustworthy sites you can download mods from, and how do you stay safe online?

Why having friends in Minecraft Java Edition is useful

Before getting into what the mods I’ll present to you can do for you, which will probably be how you base your decision on which one you’ll choose, let’s see why adding friends in Minecraft Bedrock Edition is useful and what it can bring you.

The list of benefits isn’t extensive, though, just like it isn’t with any other game. For example, let’s add friends in a game like League of Legends. The only real benefit of adding someone as a friend is that you can see when they’re online and invite them to your game.

You’ll never miss that they’re online when you are. Games are better with friends, so if you intend to play the game alone, you don’t have to play alone if your friend accepts the game invite. You can also see if they’re in-game currently and even spectate a game.

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I went into detail about what having friends in League of Legends gets you because it’s much the same in Minecraft as well. Of course, you can’t spectate their game, but you can see what server they’re playing on and add them to the servers you’re playing on. You can also review their user profile and always know when they’re online.

Gifting is one thing that you won’t benefit from for two reasons: One is that there’s no point in gifting minecoins to a Java Edition user when they can easily download maps, skins, shaders, and so much more for free. The second reason is that you do not have to be friends to gift someone minecoins. You can only buy online gift vouchers.

If you feel like the benefits I just mentioned are something you might want to have, I’ll list the best sites to download mods from and the best add friends mods next.

Add Friends only available in Minecraft Bedrock

Best mod sites to download from

Mojang does not support modding, so any problem you might run into while trying to mod is out of Mojang’s hands, and they won’t be able to help you with it. The same thing goes for malware and viruses. If you download a mod with a virus that infects your PC, you only have yourself to blame. Being aware that this is a possibility and protecting yourself from that happening is a large part of modding as a whole, and it starts by choosing to download your mods from trustworthy websites.

  1. CurseForge – It’s only the most popular website for downloading mods in general, not just Minecraft mods. I always recommend only downloading the mods that already have a ton of downloads and a ton of comments confirming that the mod is completely safe.
  2. Planet Minecraft – Planet Minecraft is a community-run mod website, and although they have moderators in place that make sure that the mods on their website are free of viruses, it’s hard to make sure that every single mod is clean of malware, so follow the same rule as you would with CurseForge – make sure the download numbers are high and to check the comment section.

Java Edition mods that let you add friends

There aren’t many mods that let you add friends in Minecraft. I already mentioned 5zig as an option, but this mod only works for Minecraft versions up to 1.15.2, so if you’re running any version higher than that, it just won’t work.

5zig is also not strictly a mod for adding friends and making friend lists. You’ll also get a fully customizable HUD, the option to add capes and much more.

Another mod that you can use to add friends is the Essential mod. Luckily, the mod runs on all the newer versions of Minecraft up to 1.19.4, and you can add friends either through the main menu or in-game. Of course, your friends must also have the mod downloaded for it to work. You can block users, remove friends, change their names, and more. Another thing to note is that you can download it and run it with Fabric and Forge.

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You’ll notice that I haven’t linked any mods from the sites I mentioned earlier. That is mostly because although these websites have a plethora of mods to download, finding specific mods might be a bit challenging at times. Besides, this is a highly specific mod, and it might not be a standalone mod which is the case with 5zig, so it becomes harder to find mods that have the feature you’re looking for including, among other things.

How adding friends on servers work

Suppose you’re playing on a popular server like Hypixel. In that case, these servers already have plugins installed that lets you add people to your friends list and communicate with them separately from the server. Of course, the plugins servers like Hypixel use are server-side mods and can’t be used as standalone.

petra pralica game horizon

Petra Pralica has been a content writer for over three years and is based in Zagreb, Croatia. She studied economics in high school and went to college to get her English language and literature degree but decided against proceeding with her studies after three years since an opportunity arose for her to work as a content writer full-time. Petra’s interests span wide, which is clear from her content writing history. She spent around a year and a half writing content about animals and animal products for Petovly, making sure to educate people about the responsibilities that come with pet ownership, especially when it comes to non-traditional pets like parrots, rats, and ferrets. Then she went on to write about all things related to kitchens. After that affair ended, she educated herself on advertising through social media and search engines. Still, she decided to postpone a career change for the future since she got the opportunity to write about another one of her old passions: games. Whether it’s a board game or a video game, Petra will play it. She’s more into the old-school games she used to play on her PS1 and PS2 and her old computer brick. After video games went online and started to focus more on the PvP aspect like many MOBAs and battle royale games do, she decided to stick to her guns but in a different format. Nowadays, she mostly plays games where she can write out a story or live through a story on the PC screen. Part of the reason she likes League of Legends so much is because of the game’s lore, and part of the reason she enjoys Minecraft so much is that you are free to do whatever you want and write out your own story. She’d spend hours in high school playing games like Skyrim, GTA San Andreas, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Crash Twin Sanity, and Assasin’s Creed. This is a salad of genres, but they all have one thing in common: they all tell a story. Although Petra likes to live in fantasy worlds and fantasize about how epic it would be to live out her life through these alternate worlds, her writing isn’t all that creative and imaginative. She’ll write about facts and try to make things easier to understand and figure out. Of course, she’ll never pass up on an opportunity to write about her favorite characters and why they’d win or lose in a fight with a character from a different universe. She will give you direct answers to all of your questions and then present you with a bunch of if’s, but’s, and what if’s. After all, she can’t completely let go of her creative and imaginative nature.

Rumor: ‘Minecraft’ Coming to Xbox Series X/S via New Gen Upgrade

valentina kraljik game horizonByValentina Kraljik Published on
Minecraft new gen update
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Exciting rumor has started surfacing this week regarding the possibility that Minecraft will arrive on the newest gaming console, namely Xbox Series X/S, via what appears to be the new generation update. 

Nothing has been confirmed by Microsoft so far, and the only proof we have so far appears to be a screenshot posted to X by Andrew Marmo that shows what appears to be an Xbox Series rating for Minecraft on USK, aka Germany’s video games rating board.

Minecraft is so far available on a plethora of systems, it’s one of the most diverse and accessible games out there, but sadly the game lacks native support on the newest consoles, and considering the game’s age, it’s due time that it sees some upgrades in the technical department. 

Even though this update so far remains unconfirmed, there are plenty of reasons why fans should entertain and be overjoyed by the possibility of a new-gen update. 

Minecraft on Xbox Series X/S could provide much-needed graphics updates. Considering that the console is much more powerful than its predecessors, this opens the possibility of higher resolutions, smoother frame rates, and faster loading times. 

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The Xbox Series X/S features solid-state drives (SSDs) that significantly reduce loading times in games. This means that entering and exiting the game, as well as loading into different areas within the Minecraft world, can be much quicker and more seamless.

But most importantly, the new-gen update will ensure the longevity of the game in the years to come. As more and more players make the move to the newest console, it only makes sense for Minecraft to make the jump as well. The game is, after all, one of the biggest hits in the last few decades. 

There are no news regarding the possible PS5 version of the game.

Whether the rumors will turn out to be true is yet to be seen. Until we wait for any kind of confirmation, we can plunge ourselves into the newest update that was released only a few weeks priors, titled ‘The Trails & Tales.’ 

valentina kraljik game horizon

Valentina Kraljik is a writer and editor at Game Horizon with a deep love for everything related to video games. With a degree in Information Sciences, she brings a well-informed and unique perspective to her work. Valentina's writing is known for covering a wide range of video game genres, but she truly shines in her expertise in open-world RPGs. From offbeat euro-jank games like "Gothic" to critically acclaimed titles like "The Witcher," Valentina is well-versed in this exciting genre. Her passion for imaginative storytelling is reflected in the topics she writes about, with favorites like "Disco Elysium," "Elder Scrolls: Morrowind," "World of Warcraft," and "Mass Effect" influencing her tastes in games. Even though nothing beats a good high-fantasy setting, she often wanders into the realm of first-person shooters, occasionally even hitting the target. With a commitment to objectivity and insightful analysis, Valentina strives to bring a fresh perspective to the subjects she covers, even when exploring genres that may be unfamiliar to her. Her blend of academic rigor and creative flair sets her apart in the world of media writing.

Villager Changes & Diamond Distribution Buffs Coming to Minecraft Snapshot 23W31A

valentina kraljik game horizonByValentina Kraljik Published on
Villager Changes Diamond Distribution Buffs Coming to Minecraft Snapshot 23W31A
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‘Trails & Tales’ Update for Minecraft was just recently released, and while the fans are enjoying the new items, mechanics, and features, the developers are already cooking up different ways to make gameplay more balanced and enjoyable. 

Minecraft just received a snapshot for version 1.20.2, and several important changes are scheduled to be incorporated into the game. One thing that seemed nonsensical in recent years was the fact that enchantments provided by Librarians seemed mostly random. This meant that a Librarian villager with a novice skill level could provide you with some of the rarest enchantments in the game. This is set to be changed. A new Feature Toggle will allow the players to change the way Librarians generate enchantments instead of relying on pure luck and random chance. The players will get the opportunity to “earn” the targeted enchantments. 

Librarian villager changes

With the villager Feature Toggle Librarians will sell different enchantments depending on their biome. The newly introduced special enchantments that are different across various biomes can only be purchased from a Master Librarian with a Full XP. This means that to collect all valuable enchantments, you will have to visit all biomes and work on your trades. Keep in mind that there are two secret biomes from which enchantments can be gathered that do not generate villages by default. You will have to build them yourself. 

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Can You Transfer Enchantments in Minecraft? (& How to Do It)

Not all enchantments are available for purchase from Librarians, no matter their biome. These enchantments have to be acquired through other means. The feature is, of course, optional, and if it sounds like too much grind for you, you can always leave it unactivated. 

Wandering Trader changes 

wandering trader with llama

Some players felt that Minecraft devs didn’t really hit the spot with the Wandering Trader since the villager was useless in the large scheme of things, often having a limited stock of items that were particularly useful to begin with but highly overpriced. With Wandering Trader Feature Toggle, this is set to be remedied. 

Wandering Trader will have a greater selection of goods available in larger amounts under more balanced prices. Perhaps the biggest change is the fact that Wandering Trader will be able to buy things from your instead of only peddling junk. 

Diamond generation changes 

Not the most drastic change in the Snapshot, but you will certainly notice it when you brave mining Deepslate layers of the Overworld. The devs boosted the Diamond generation in the Deepslate layers in order to facilitate and reward the exploration of the deepest parts of the world. How drastic the change is remains to be seen. 

Other changes…

Besides the three big changes, there are a ton of smaller but important changes coming your way. Curing a Zombie Villager grants a significant discount only on the first occasion, with no additional bonus for repeated curing. Barrier blocks can be waterlogged by players in Creative mode, but non-direct interactions like Dispensers can’t fill or empty them with water. Riding vehicles won’t allow players to crouch anymore, and the Chorus Flower no longer supports hanging or standing blocks.

You can read all additional technical changes included in the Snapshot on Minecraft.net

valentina kraljik game horizon

Valentina Kraljik is a writer and editor at Game Horizon with a deep love for everything related to video games. With a degree in Information Sciences, she brings a well-informed and unique perspective to her work. Valentina's writing is known for covering a wide range of video game genres, but she truly shines in her expertise in open-world RPGs. From offbeat euro-jank games like "Gothic" to critically acclaimed titles like "The Witcher," Valentina is well-versed in this exciting genre. Her passion for imaginative storytelling is reflected in the topics she writes about, with favorites like "Disco Elysium," "Elder Scrolls: Morrowind," "World of Warcraft," and "Mass Effect" influencing her tastes in games. Even though nothing beats a good high-fantasy setting, she often wanders into the realm of first-person shooters, occasionally even hitting the target. With a commitment to objectivity and insightful analysis, Valentina strives to bring a fresh perspective to the subjects she covers, even when exploring genres that may be unfamiliar to her. Her blend of academic rigor and creative flair sets her apart in the world of media writing.

Here’s How to Summon Moving Arrows Aimed at Mobs in Minecraft

petra pralica game horizonByPetra Pralica Published on
Summon moving arrows aimed at mobs Minecraft
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We all know that there are a ton of things you can do with commands in Minecraft, and they require a lot of game and, dare I say, programming knowledge to execute and to be able to work with them. To most, they are rocket science, but to a select few, they are a source of infinite power. You can use them to create fun mini-games, enhance your builds, and more. So, what if you, for example, wanted to summon moving arrows aimed at mobs in Minecraft? How would one do that?

Unfortunately, summoning moving arrows aimed at mobs in Minecraft is either impossible to do or requires a true expert to pull off. The only way I was able to pull it off was to enter this command into a repeating command block /execute as @e[type=zombie] at @s run summon minecraft:arrow ^ ^ ^1.0 {Motion:[0.0,0.0,0.0],Tags:["aimed_arrow"],CustomName:'[{"text":"Targeted Arrow"}]',UUIDLeast:1,UUIDMost:1,PersistenceRequired:1} which shoots the arrow in the general direction of the mob but never aims it at them and damages them.

Since there’s no easy way, or a way at all, to summon moving arrows aimed at mobs, throughout the rest of this article, I’ll aim to provide you with all the commands I tried to execute to solve the issue and explain every one by sectioning them. By the end of the article, you might find your own answer to the question.

Explaining the command

Since the command is pretty long, to perhaps try and make adjustments on your own, we need to make sure you understand the command completely. I’ll explain the command section by section:

/execute as – The execute command, as the name would suggest, executes commands but allows you to change who is executing it. The ‘as’ and what follows determines who is executing the command.

@e[type=minecraft:zombie] – the @e defines that an entity will be executing the command. Mobs are entities, so we further defined that only a zombie will execute the command. If you wanted to aim arrows at other mobs, you’d change the ‘minecraft:zombie’ part of the command.

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at @s – This portion of the command tells the game to execute the command at the location of the @e(in this case, zombie)

run summon minecraft:arrow ^ ^ ^1.0 – This is where it gets complicated. The first bit tells the game to summon an arrow at the specified location, while the second bit communicates where the relative position of the entity being targeted. The 1.0 bit will make the arrow shoot one block in front of the zombie. This is also the first part of why the command can’t shoot the zombie since the zombie’s position is ever-changing.

Tags:[“aimed_arrow”] – the tag specifies which type of arrow is used to target the specific entity. This is necessary if you want a chance to pull the command off.

CustomName:'[{“text”:”Targeted Arrow”}] and CustomNameVisible:1 – These two parts of the command are completely unnecessary. The first line gives each arrow summoned a name. In our case, when the command is executed, each arrow will be named ‘targeted arrow’. The second part makes the name of the arrow visible above it.

UUIDLeast:1,UUIDMost:1 – Every entity in the game has a unique identifier that helps the game recognize them. In the case of arrows, both Universally Unique Identifiers are set to 1, which tells the game that we’re talking about arrows. This part of the command helps separate each arrow summoned so that we can interact which each arrow separately if needed.

PersistenceRequired:1 – If persistence is set to one, this ensures that the arrow doesn’t despawn naturally, but rather, the player has full control over what will happen to it.

Arrow motion

Now that we removed the command let’s see what else is required for the command to work. Spawning an arrow using the above command will only spawn it; the arrow won’t have motion, so we need to add another set of commands to update its motion continuously. The command is:

/execute as @e[type=arrow,tag=aimed_arrow] at @s run data modify entity @s Motion set from entity @e[type=zombie,sort=nearest,limit=1] Pos[0]
/execute as @e[type=arrow,tag=aimed_arrow] at @s run data modify entity @s Motion[1] set from entity @e[type=zombie,sort=nearest,limit=1] Pos[1]
/execute as @e[type=arrow,tag=aimed_arrow] at @s run data modify entity @s Motion[2] set from entity @e[type=zombie,sort=nearest,limit=1] Pos[2]

The command will continuously update the arrow’s motion to appear like it’s moving. This command should be added to a repeating redstone circuit and typed into a command block.

Repeating command block and repeating redstone circuit Minecraft

Problems you might run into trying to make the command work

The most obvious problem is that the arrow will never shoot at the mob. Still, probably the biggest one is that the command does not specify which entity (in this case zombie) you want the arrow to shoot, which means that there will be a lot of lag since it’ll try and shoot every zombie currently in your loaded chunks.

The only way to fight this lag is to destroy the command block running it. I could also stop it by killing all zombies in my world and summoning one zombie.

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This means that the command might work in your custom world where you have no mob, only a specified amount of mobs in a certain area, but that’s me just being optimistic about the chances of this command working.

I also tried running this command.’execute as at @s run summon minecraft:arrow ^ ^ ^1 {Motion:[0.0,0.0,0.0],Tags:["moving_arrow"],Pickup:0b,Life:100s,Damage:2.0f,ShotFromCrossbow:1b,CustomPotionEffects:[{Id:"minecraft:instant_damage",Amplifier:0b,Duration:100}]}‘ but unfortunately, the command doesn’t work at all or works in random intervals. My guess with this command is that I didn’t manage to write it correctly, according to the 1.19.4 rules, which is where I was trying to make the command work.

What are your thoughts on this specific problem? Do you know where we went wrong and if making the command work is possible? Let us know in the comments.

petra pralica game horizon

Petra Pralica has been a content writer for over three years and is based in Zagreb, Croatia. She studied economics in high school and went to college to get her English language and literature degree but decided against proceeding with her studies after three years since an opportunity arose for her to work as a content writer full-time. Petra’s interests span wide, which is clear from her content writing history. She spent around a year and a half writing content about animals and animal products for Petovly, making sure to educate people about the responsibilities that come with pet ownership, especially when it comes to non-traditional pets like parrots, rats, and ferrets. Then she went on to write about all things related to kitchens. After that affair ended, she educated herself on advertising through social media and search engines. Still, she decided to postpone a career change for the future since she got the opportunity to write about another one of her old passions: games. Whether it’s a board game or a video game, Petra will play it. She’s more into the old-school games she used to play on her PS1 and PS2 and her old computer brick. After video games went online and started to focus more on the PvP aspect like many MOBAs and battle royale games do, she decided to stick to her guns but in a different format. Nowadays, she mostly plays games where she can write out a story or live through a story on the PC screen. Part of the reason she likes League of Legends so much is because of the game’s lore, and part of the reason she enjoys Minecraft so much is that you are free to do whatever you want and write out your own story. She’d spend hours in high school playing games like Skyrim, GTA San Andreas, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Crash Twin Sanity, and Assasin’s Creed. This is a salad of genres, but they all have one thing in common: they all tell a story. Although Petra likes to live in fantasy worlds and fantasize about how epic it would be to live out her life through these alternate worlds, her writing isn’t all that creative and imaginative. She’ll write about facts and try to make things easier to understand and figure out. Of course, she’ll never pass up on an opportunity to write about her favorite characters and why they’d win or lose in a fight with a character from a different universe. She will give you direct answers to all of your questions and then present you with a bunch of if’s, but’s, and what if’s. After all, she can’t completely let go of her creative and imaginative nature.