Sky Factory 4

I climbed to the top of a tree that stands on just a single block of dirt, surrounded by an immense, boundless expanse of existence. This void is devoid of all matter. The sun rises in the east while the moon disappears somewhere beyond the horizon in the west. There is no sound, and nothing remains except for the act of chopping down the tree. The leaves of the felled tree break apart into saplings, which I gather and plant anew to begin the cycle once more.

Days and weeks pass. My platform has grown so large that I can barely see its beginning or end. One area is filled with pigs, truffle carcasses that I can transform into coal, glass, and redstone. In another section lies a vast arboretum brimming with tiny bonsai trees, providing me with even more resources. A third zone houses a humming nuclear reactor. And in the fourth, my airship is parked. I’m constructing a home in the sky from scratch! And do you know what it’s called? It’s called Sky Factory 4! So, let’s take it step by step. Sky Factory 4 is a modpack, meaning a collection of mods for Minecraft Java Edition, meticulously crafted and configured for seamless collaboration, available through the Twitch launcher. It was created by a person who has developed countless modpacks, known as Darkosto. However, this time he wasn’t alone; he collaborated with Bacon_Donut, who originally assembled Sky Factory back in 2014. According to estimates, the original modpack and all its copies have been downloaded millions of times!

“You begin in an empty, infinite world atop a tree, with only a pile of dirt below,” explains Darkosto. “This was the core idea behind all modpacks in the series. The concept was to create everything from nothing. In vanilla Minecraft, you need to gather resources and build the landscape around you on your own. However, in Sky Factory 4, it’s the opposite!If you don’t often use mods for Minecraft Bedrock, then Sky Factory 4 will likely change your perception of the game entirely! There are numerous features that might pique your interest. For instance, why is the inventory screen filled with pages of items? Why do I have a mini-map in the corner of my screen? What is this book doing in my inventory? But once you get accustomed to it, perhaps with the help of a friendly tutorial, you’ll gradually adapt to this interface, and the game will start bringing you genuine joy!

“The greatest allure of playing in the modern style lies in the depth it offers to players,” says Darkosto. “You never feel like something is missing in the classic version of Minecraft. You might be doing everything possible to achieve your goals, yet something still feels off. Do you want all your actions to be justified by the progress you make? Are you looking to increase or decrease the game’s difficulty? If so, then Sky Factory 4 is just what you need!”

What is this friendly guide I mentioned earlier? It’s a book designed to help you navigate the modpack and effectively utilize all its features in practice. “We have developed and implemented an entirely new set of enhancements that assist players in understanding the mod during the early stages of gameplay, as well as integrating this knowledge into their experience,” says Darkosto. “Many people tend to overlook this crucial aspect and later find themselves somewhat lost among all the functionalities.”

The various sections of the book focus on different specialties—storage, agriculture, machinery, exploration, and much more. Once you complete a page, you will receive a ‘prestige point’ that can be used to unlock powerful permanent upgrades available in all future games, such as pots that can automatically gather trees and deposit their contents into an attached chest. Or jetpacks. Or in-game computers. Or portal guns. Or simply a massive torch. However, completing achievements isn’t the only way to earn prestige points. You can also test your skills through time travel. “This feature was requested by Bacon_Donut,” explains Darkosto. You can literally build a time machine called the ‘Parabox’ that generates additional prestige points. You’ll be able to operate it as long as you supply the necessary amount of energy for its function, which, by the way, will increase each time. The moment the time machine ceases operation, your world will revert to exactly how it was before. Everything will appear as if nothing ever happened, just like in movie plots.

According to Darkosto, developing this feature posed a significant technical challenge. “I wanted the modpack to be publicly available all along, without needing a complete restart. Such a long wait was not part of my plans, so that option was immediately off the table.” Consequently, he persuaded a mod developer named DarkHax to create a mod capable of temporarily pausing the world and reopening it during time travel. He succeeded! “Many projects I work on push other mod developers to do crazy things!” Darkosto admits, noting that the development of Sky Factory 4 took a full ten months from start to finish. This marked the end of his work on the Sky Factory 4 mod. What’s next? Perhaps Darkosto has more items on his agenda? “The last few projects I’ve worked on were for others,” he says. “Next, I’d like to focus on a small, light project of my own design. I have a couple of ideas for some elegant concepts that could reflect and showcase my first encounter with Minecraft Pocket Edition. I’m a true fan of various hardcore modpacks. Some of them possess a simple yet effective charm. I want to create something similar and try to polish it more than I’ve ever polished any previous pack.”

“I spend a tremendous amount of time playing Minecraft Bedrock with mods every single day. Over the years, I’ve dedicated countless hours to streaming various games, but none have given me the same feeling as Minecraft,” he shares. “Ultimately, my favorite pastime is creating new things, and putting together mod packs has filled that void within me. Watching others enjoy these mod packs brings me an immense sense of satisfaction that I’ve never felt before.”