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Surface Samples

A small mod that adds surface mineral indicators, intended to be used with worldgen mods that add large deposits of ore to your world.

NeoForge
Loaders
NeoForge
Downloads on Modrinth
1.9K
Followers on Modrinth
8
version
1
Updated
June 22, 2026Jun 22
Published
in 2026
Banner image, showcasing the added blocks · swipe

At a glance

Runs on NeoForge
For Minecraft 1.21.1
Needed in the game and on the server
Latest version — 0.1.2 from June 22, 2026
License Apache-2.0 — free
Where it's needed
In gamerequiredOn serverrequired

Needed both in the game and on the server

Game versions1.21.1

Surface Samples

Selection of blocks this mod adds

Surface Samples is a simple mod to do a simple thing: add small indicator blocks that worldgen mods can use as markers for ore deposits. I created this with EnderLanky's fantastic Large Ore Deposits mod in mind, but you can use it with any mod that allows you to specify blocks as markers. You could even use them solely as decoration for creative builds. The samples drop nuggets of their respective ores when right-clicked or destroyed, and are waterloggable, and snowloggable with Snow! Real Magic.

THIS MOD DOES NOT IMPACT WORLDGEN, FOR THESE TO APPEAR NATURALLY YOU WILL NEED A WORLDGEN MOD LIKE LARGE ORE DEPOSITS.

There are ore samples for all vanilla and create ores, including nether variants for gold, quartz, and netherite. I've also included a non-nether variant of quartz, which by default drops Sky's Overworld Quartz shards.

There are blockstate variants for sandy and red sandy environments, these live under the flavour blockstate, the values are stony, sandy, and red_sandy I've included example configs for Large Ore Deposits here. When placed by hand, the sample blocks will automatically detect the block under them. Sadly this doesn't work for worldgen, you'll have to specify the blockstate for that.

All samples included with 0.1.2

It also adds in four other blocks:

  • Crystallised redstone, which is a concentrated block of redstone that acts as a hybrid between a redstone block and redstone ore
  • Glowquartz, which is intended to be used as an early-game alternative to glowstone
  • Polished glowquartz, which has a different look and a higher light level
  • Glowquartz lamp, a redstone lamp equivalent

Intermediary items have been added for glowquartz, crystallised redstone, and andesite samples (since having a small sample drop an entire block felt strange).

All blocks and items have Create integration out of the box.

To change the drops of the samples, you can use a datapack, targeting data/surfacesamples/loot_table/blocks

This mod was created for a private SMP I am setting up, and so will likely get intermittent updates, but feel free to suggest changes or ore samples you'd like to see on the github issues page, I'll try to get to them one way or another :)

Inspiration from this mod stems from oitsjustjose's Geolosys and Vintage Story's ore samples.

This is my first venture into minecraft modding, I hope you like it as much as I do :3

All blocks lit

If you want to use this in a modpack be my guest! It'd be polite to credit me, but don't feel like you have to. If you use it in a video though, I'd appreciate credit. And if you use it to make something even cooler, show me!

Attribution/Credits:

Regarding Creativity

I do not and never will use AI in my creations. The code, models, and artwork in this may not be perfect, but they are mine, as are any modifications I've made to the sources listed above.

FAQ

How to install Surface Samples?

Install NeoForge for your Minecraft version, download Surface Samples for the same version and loader, put the file into the mods folder and launch the game with the loader profile.

Which Minecraft versions does Surface Samples support?

Surface Samples has builds for Minecraft 1.21.1.

Is Surface Samples needed on the server?

Needed in the game and on the server

License and source
Apache License 2.0free to use and share with credit to the author
Original — Modrinth↗Files unchanged, verified with SHA-512Is this your mod? For rights holders

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