Serene Seasons is a mod that provides a subtle but immersive enhancement to the game by actively changing the climate around you in real, or rather Minecraft based, time. Throughout your overall gameplay, time will still advance as it normally does but with this mod you will now see biomes change from summer to autumn to winter to spring and back around again as well. This mod appears relatively simple on the surface but can actually have some pretty impactful benefits that might not have been as readily available in certain biomes. The most prominent showcasing for this mod will be visible from the leaves changing over the course of an in game year. There are 24 days for each season so a full year will last 96 in game days.

So leaves will go from vibrant greens in the spring and summer months then slowly go through a cycle or oranges and browns through autumn and winter months. The grass and other related foliage will also cycle accordingly. This does also mean that some biomes that are capable of it will now also get snow as part of the natural weather patterns and that won’t be limited to only the existing snowy biomes. Obviously the tropical biomes like deserts and jungles won’t be getting the snow effect but they will equally go through wet and dry seasons just like we do in real life.

So this means both rain and snow can now fall in the same biome depending on the time of year! And to add even more realism when it comes to precipitation, the time of year will determine the amount of rainfall at any given time. So, for example, when winter is coming to an end and spring is starting up there will typically be more rain at that point of the seasons. Far too often rain and snow can vary wildly from biome to biome and not just due to the type of biome you might be in. Some areas will rarely see rain while others of the exact same biome will seemingly never stop raining. Now with this mod installed there is a bit more control and ability to predict the forecast simply by knowing what season you are currently in. And to make that even easier, this mod added a calendar you can craft to tell you exactly what season it is as well as a season sensor block that can be configured to trigger an action when a specific season changes. So you can set the sensor to detect any of the four seasons and it will be able to automatically activate a redstone signal when that season begins. This could be a very useful tool to connect to any machines that might only be useful during certain times of the year.

And that aspect of this mod is particularly crucial for how this mod alters certain crops and their fertility throughout the year. You can now only grow certain crops during the warmer months and others during winter months. Temperate and snowy biomes are typically exempt because you will always be able to grow summer crops in tropical biomes and winter crops in snowy biomes but other biomes that are affected by the seasonal changes will impact your harvests. Crops that are in season will grow normally but if they are out of season they will grow much slower and will likely require much more bonemeal to fully grow. If you’re an avid farmer then you can use this mod to plan harvests. You can also customize which crops will grow in which seasons in the config menu. You can also bypass the seasons a bit by making greenhouses, which you can do by simply surrounding your crops on the sides and top with glass or glass panes, and they will grow normally out of season. And you can also grow some out of season crops underground so long as they are far enough below ground and not exposed to the sky.

Overall this mod adds just that little bit of extra realism to help immerse you in your Minecraft world. It’s one thing to travel and notice the world around you changing with each biome but now you have seasons to look forward to. Time isn’t just limited to the sun rising and setting but now the whole world around you will change gradually and one place can be brimming with life and vibrant sunny days and then become a quiet, snowy tundra in just a few months. If anything it will bring a bit more life and variety to the areas you frequent often in your worlds.

This mod requires an additional API found here.