Verdant Sky

Introduction

Have you played Ex Nihilo? It lets you obtain dirt and ore resources in harsh environments. After playing for a while, you might find it a bit tedious and go try Garden of Glass. Although flowers and magic are fun, it is too “easy” for players who enjoy a challenge, and modpacks that include it are almost only playable on Forge. ￣へ￣

But now, things have changed… |･ω･ )

Overview

This is a skyblock modpack available for both Forge and Fabric. It includes several skyblock world presets. Your resources are extremely limited: no continents, no oceans, no grass, no ores—you can’t even build a cobblestone generator. Σ(ﾟдﾟlll) You can only use your limited resources to try to grow plants and use their magic to obtain more resources. In the late game, you’ll need small or large machines to automate things and improve resource-gathering efficiency. It won’t be easy, and unexpected events may happen along the way. (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

World Presets

• Default world preset: Same as vanilla; not a skyblock. You need to switch the world preset when creating a world.
• Garden of Glass: The skyblock world preset from Garden of Glass. There is no tree at spawn, but there are fertile roots and enough water for the early game.
• Floating Island: The skyblock world preset from verdant sky. The spawn island is larger and has relatively more natural resources.
• Void: The skyblock world preset from verdant sky. Similar to the classic Ex Nihilo skyblock, the spawn has only one tree and a small amount of dirt, but with different biome variants.

Features

• Leaves have a higher chance to drop saplings.
• Some plants that require Silk Touch or Shears now have a chance to drop even when broken with bare hands.
• New plants you’ve never seen before. (✪ω✪)
• Many Mana Infusion recipes (around 190) for obtaining resources that are hard to obtain or renew in skyblock or even in vanilla worlds.
• The Garden of Glass method of obtaining pebbles has been removed. Instead, you can use Mana Infusion to convert dirt into pebbles, or pebbles into cobblestone.
• Miniature versions of some Botania functional flowers can be obtained through Petal Apothecary, with their non-petal ingredients replaced by Mana Powder.
• Botania‘s Marimorphosis can convert stone into other forms of stone. Diorite, Granite, and Andesite are not converted into other stone types; instead, they are obtained by converting Stone.
• Bowls can scoop water from Wooden Cauldrons or water sources and pour it into the Petal Apothecary.
• The Twilight Forest‘s Uncrafting Table is disabled (intentionally). ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ
• Some of the cross-mod recipes that should exist between the mods have been implemented in this modpack.

Mods

• Botania and its add-ons Garden of Glass and verdant sky: an important way to obtain resources;
• Create: a great helper for late-game automation;
• Farmer’s Delight: a comfort in the skyblock;
• The Twilight Forest: adventure and distant lands; it may also receive a skyblock version in the future; if there are issues in the Fabric version, this mod may be removed;
• Other helper, utility, or library mods.

Notes

• This is the modpack Verdant Sky, not the same-named mod verdant sky that was made specifically for this modpack.
• Currently (as of 2.0.9), the modpack does not yet have an in-game guide, but one is coming soon. It may take the form of vanilla advancements (opened with L by default) rather than an FTB Quests book.
• When choosing the Void world preset, there is a chance you will spawn in the void (in theory). If that happens, try creating a new world with a different seed, or tell the author which seed caused it. This will help fix the issue. (´இωஇ｀)
• The modpack includes built-in resource packs, including translations, the main menu, and UI. If you don’t like them, you can override them with your preferred resource packs in the resource pack options, or remove them from the game directory subfolder kubejs/assets. (๑>A<๑)

Author’s Note

Where the Dream Began

This modpack was planned a long time ago. From the first encounter with Botania in 1.12.2, Sunny Verdant Leaves (Verdant Leaves), the modpack author, fell in love with it. It has not only the fun of magic and the convenience of technology, but is also related to plants (Verdant Leaves is a four-leaf clover by design, so it’s plant-related too). ⁄(⁄⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄⁄)⁄

Attempts and Exploration

So in 1.16.5, Verdant Leaves put Botania and a bunch of mods together, but at that time there was no concept of a modpack, and no changes were made. (´๑•ω•๑`)

By 1.18.2, Verdant Leaves had watched many modpack videos. With the concept in mind, Verdant Leaves decided to make a modpack. However, due to technical and time constraints, only recipes were modified, and it ran very laggy.

In 1.20.1, many modpacks emerged in Verdant Leaves’ community (China), and quite a few were high-quality. In comparison, Verdant Leaves’ modpack had no clear theme, no appealing features, and no polished UI. Verdant Leaves lost the courage to make and release it. (*¯ㅿ¯ *;)

Reflection and Resolve

In 2025, Verdant Leaves became an admin of a friend’s modpack server. During nearly a year of running it, Verdant Leaves learned how to make vanilla resource packs, create vanilla data packs to manage tags and recipes, use commands and functions, write new world presets, configure mods, package modpacks, and program mods… Verdant Leaves also played many modpacks and accumulated many ideas.

So in October 2025, Verdant Sky was born—a lightweight but focused modpack that is hardcore but not discouraging, with a custom UI. It may not be perfect, may not have rich gameplay, and may not be for everyone. But I hope you enjoy it. (๑╹ᴗ╹)ﾉ♡