Modded Minecraft can be difficult to get into. Popular modpacks often include tens of content mods, each fundamentally changing how Minecraft is played, which can get overwhelming. FTB Academy aims to bridge the gap of lightweight, beginner-friendly modpacks.

The gameplay is not stellar — it’s a kitchen sink pack with a short mod list, which questionably includes Draconic Evolution, leading to some machine spam in the late game. What’s special in this modpack is its rich guidance. It has the standard FTB Quests, which cover more items than usual, and pretty much all mechanics associated with that item is explained. Then it has a Guide, which is an in-game wiki complete with images, and Tutorials, which are annotated images, mainly for showing how to use the UI. Finally, before you even start the first day, you’ll complete the School dimension, an interactive tutorial where you get to learn the very basics. The modpack makes no assumptions that the player knows anything about modded Minecraft, so it teaches mods like JEI and The One Probe as well.

Whether that’s enough for a new player to finish this pack, I’m not sure, as I have some experience in modded already when playing this pack, and I think a lot of things in modded cannot be taught and must be learned from experience. But regardless of how much prior experience you have, this pack is great if you want to learn new mods. I had fun playing Astral Sorcery for the first time here.

Excellent pack to ease players into modded minecraft. It has quest descriptions that explain concepts very well, and allows for the transition from complete lack of knowledge to understanding of basic concepts. Very fun to play, and accomplishes the goal it aimed for well.

This modpack is honestly one of the best tools for any player wanting to get into the tech based modpacks. It spells it out confusing and weird concepts in plain English, and holds the new players hand as they get used to so many things that’s second nature to more experienced players.