Twenty Horizon modpacks.
Each one a decision.
20 manifests, 307 mod entries, 104 unique mods. Every card here states its pin count, its hook floor and whether it belongs on a server. Pick by what you want to do, not by mod names you have to learn first.
What an .hpack contains
A pack is a manifest, not an archive of mods. Better+ is 3 KB; Near Vanilla is 1 KB. Inside is a list of registry ids, the version of each mod, and the SHA-256 the launcher checks after download. The mods themselves stay on the registry, which is why a pack updates without a re-download of everything.
That design has one consequence worth knowing before you install: a pack cannot carry a world, a shader or a resource pack. Shaders are separate .hshader files and resource packs are zips. A pack that bundled them would install cleanly and change nothing.
All 20, with the numbers that matter.
Mods is the entry count in the manifest. Pins is how many exact Horizon commits the native mods are tied to. Hooks is the minimum hook API the pack needs. 17 of 20 packs are server-safe.
| Pack | Mods | Pins | Hooks | Server |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Better+ | 39 | 1 | 411 | safe |
| Near Vanilla | 15 | 0 | 2 | safe |
| Featherweight | 10 | 1 | 1 | safe |
| Studio | 18 | 3 | 411 | safe |
| Blueprint | 14 | 2 | 411 | safe |
| Wallpaper | 16 | 2 | 411 | safe |
| The Works | 20 | 3 | 411 | safe |
| Grid | 12 | 1 | 411 | safe |
| High Voltage | 14 | 2 | 411 | solo + LAN |
| Deep Shift | 15 | 2 | 411 | safe |
| Seedstock | 14 | 2 | 411 | safe |
| Hearth | 17 | 2 | 409 | safe |
| Stone Road | 14 | 2 | 411 | safe |
| Skyline | 10 | 2 | 411 | safe |
| Drift | 12 | 2 | 411 | solo + LAN |
| Duel | 13 | 2 | 139 | safe |
| Campfire | 15 | 2 | 411 | safe |
| Cockpit | 16 | 2 | 411 | safe |
| Any% | 12 | 1 | 40 | solo + LAN |
| Blackout | 11 | 2 | 411 | safe |
How these 20 were chosen
A public registry grows duplicates. This one carries two AppleSkin ports, three zooms, four recipe viewers and several free cameras, because different authors ported the same idea. A pack cannot ship all of them without looking broken, so each pack takes one mod per job.
The second rule is technical. Native ports compile against the engine, and a pin ties one port to one commit. Two pins are manageable; three are a kitchen sink with a warning. Better+ keeps one, Near Vanilla keeps none, and the two kitchen-sink packs take three and say so on the card.
The third rule is scope: every pack declares whether it belongs on a server. Three do not. High Voltage adds reactors and orbital strikes, Drift adds flight and wall running, Any% is a timer for solo runs. Those are choices, not accidents, and the flag is on the card before you download.
Pick by what you want to do
The catalog filters by category, but a category is a label, not a plan. This table maps an intention to a pack.
| If you want to... | Install |
|---|---|
| First install, no strong preference | Better+ |
| Old Horizon build or a public server | Near Vanilla |
| Laptop, integrated graphics | Featherweight |
| Screenshots and camera work | Studio |
| Building with schematics | Blueprint |
| Interiors and decoration | Wallpaper |
| AE2 automation | Grid |
| Create, Voltz and ProjectE together | The Works |
| Mining, no machines | Deep Shift |
| Farming and gems | Seedstock |
| Survival with friends | Hearth |
| Travel and waypoints | Stone Road |
| Distant Horizons and worldgen | Skyline |
| Movement and flight | Drift |
| PvP with equal HUDs | Duel |
| Voice chat and a server list | Campfire |
| One HUD instead of six | Cockpit |
| Speedruns | Any% |
| Hard nights, dark caves | Blackout |
| Reactors and orbital strikes | High Voltage |
Install, update, remove
Install
Open the pack page, press install, and let the launcher create a profile folder. Every mod is resolved and hashed before it lands.
Build the native side
One compile pass. The first run takes longer because the toolchain has to be ready; later runs reuse it.
Update
A new manifest version replaces the mod list. Worlds, configs and screenshots stay in the profile and are not touched.
Remove
Deleting one pack leaves the others alone: each has its own folder, logs and settings.
Without this launcher
Download the .hpack, open the official Horizon client, and import it from the library. The client reads the same manifest and resolves the same mods. You lose the install queue, the native build screen and the readable crash report, not the pack.
One caveat: an .hpack is not a world. If a pack adds ores or blocks, a new world sees them; an existing one only sees them in chunks it has not generated yet.
Kitchen sink, Technology, Adventure, Performance, Lightweight, Multiplayer, PvP, Magic, Quests, Challenging. A pack can carry more than one: Better+ is kitchen sink, adventure and performance at once, which is why it is the default first install.
Read before you commit to a pack.
What is inside a pack
Native ports, content packs, pairs and pins explained once, so the numbers on a pack card mean something.
144 modsHow the install runs
Which program downloads the game, which one installs the manifest, and what to do when detection fails.
v0.1.4Packs on a server
The server-safe flag, what friends need installed, and why three packs stay in single-player.
17 safeQuestions this page gets
What file is a Horizon modpack?
An .hpack manifest: a few kilobytes of text with mod ids, versions and a SHA-256 per file. It does not contain the mods. The launcher resolves each one from the Horizon registry and verifies the hash before writing it to a profile.
Will a pack work in the official Horizon launcher?
Yes. Download the .hpack from its page and import it in the official client. The manifest is the same one the xHorizon launcher reads; the only difference is how many steps you press.
Which pack should I install first?
Better+ for an all-rounder with 39 entries, Near Vanilla if your Horizon build is older or you want the world untouched, Featherweight on a laptop. All three are server-safe and carry at most one pin.
What does a pin count of three mean?
The pack mixes native mods pinned to three different Horizon commits. The launcher takes the newest commit and asks before building; a mod may be left out of the native build. Only the two kitchen-sink packs carry three pins.
Can I edit a pack after installing it?
Yes. The launcher has a pack editor: add or remove registry mods, switch files off, check for cluster duplicates, then export the result back to .hpack. The original stays untouched in the catalog.
Start with Better+ or Near Vanilla.
Both are server-safe, both keep pins low, and both install in one click. Everything else in the catalog is a variation on those two decisions.