Spectrum Compat
A compatibility mod that bridges Spectrum with The Aether, Deep Aether, VanillaBackport, Copper Age Backport and Better Archeology.
How it works
Heads are real registered block-items tagged into #c:skulls, plus per-mob loot-modifier and recipe entries that plug into Spectrum's existing systems. A small set of mixins covers the cases where data alone isn't enough. Every integration is gated by mod-loaded conditions, so any combination of optional mods works out of the box.
Textures are referenced from the source mods' jars at runtime; this mod ships zero texture bytes (required by The Aether's license).
Supported mods
| Mod | What's added |
|---|---|
| The Aether | 19 mob heads (incl. 3 Moa colours), anvil-crushing dye recipes for Aether flowers |
| Deep Aether | 11 mob heads (incl. 7 Quail variants), anvil-crushing dye recipes for DA flowers |
| VanillaBackport | Happy Ghast head, warm/cold Chicken/Cow/Pig heads (memory variant-lock), anvil-crushing dyes for VB flowers |
| Copper Age Backport | 8 Copper Golem heads (4 oxidation × waxed/unwaxed), honeycomb wax recipes |
| Better Archeology | Enchanter recipes for penetrating_strike, tunneling, soaring_winds; disarming exclusive-set |
Variant heads (Moa, Quail, Copper Golem, Chicken/Cow/Pig) are NBT-filtered, so the right variant drops from the right kill rather than rolling randomly.
A few mobs are deliberately skipped because they're either unkillable upstream (Whirlwinds, Gentle Wind, Slider, Creaking) or practically unreachable in survival (Windflies — no biome spawner entries). Bosses are excluded by Spectrum's own #c:bosses blacklist chain.
Requirements
- Minecraft 1.21.1
- NeoForge 21.1.226+
- Spectrum 1.11+
- Any combination of the optional source mods listed above
Credits
Based on Spectrum, The Aether, Deep Aether, VanillaBackport, Copper Age Backport and Better Archeology. This mod is purely a compatibility layer; all gameplay systems and assets it hooks into are the work of those teams.
- Edition: Minecraft Java
- File type: .jar
- Minecraft version listed: 1.21.1
- How to install: Install the matching mod loader (Forge, Fabric or NeoForge) for your Minecraft version. → Download the .jar. → Put it in the .minecraft/mods folder and launch that loader profile.
- Where to get it: Opens on Modrinth — not every file is mirrored on our own servers.
Install steps are the general flow for this file type — How to install Minecraft Java mods & modpacks walks through it step by step.
- Ships as spectrumcompat-0.1.0.jar — drop this file into the mods folder
- Download size: 144 KB
- Download link checked 6 Sept 2026 — working
These come from our own check of the pack file, not from the source page.