Minecraft PVP has been a constantly changing meta ever since the Minecraft combat update of 1.9. Whether you're new to the PVP community or a longtime veteran of Minecraft combat, Shockbyte will give you a major briefing of everything you need to be using these days to give yourself the biggest advantage in PVP game modes. With such a wide variety, we'll be covering some of the most popular modes out there!
Game modes and what you'll need for each:
- Skywars: X-ray (technically cheating, allows quick resource gathering), Clean HUD, easily identifiable equipment (both in chests and on enemies)
- Bedwars: Clean HUD, easily identifiable equipment, low-lag (textures with less particles to keep the FPS as high as possible)
- Hunger Games: X-ray (again, technically cheating to find hidden chests), low-lag, nice aesthetic textures
- The Walls/Mega Walls: low-lag (big requirement), X-ray, nice aesthetic textures, easily identifiable equipment (most important for post-walls combat)
- Wool Wars: low-lag textures (most important for quick-paced action)
Here is the best Minecraft Texture Packs for PVP:
Faithless | Bytecraft | Better PVP | Celesta | Bare Bones PVP
X-ray Ultimate | Dark Pixels | New Default | F+ PVP | Anti-Xray
How to get Better at Minecraft PVP
Especially after the combat update of Minecraft 1.9 there is heated debate about which version of Minecraft has the best PVP mechanics. Post-1.9 combat is much more focused on using all of the tools at your disposal to whittle down your opponent. Using bows and arrows, throwable potions, and even eggs or snowballs can be a useful tool leading up to a melee confrontation. Worry not! Shockbyte will be further covering Minecraft PVP tutorials in the time to come.
Faithless
The Faithless texture pack is the prettiest of our texture packs today, as it deliberately focuses on the RPG genre. In many ways, it does not offer much of what was described above for the individual game modes, but for games that have long preparation periods, it is very pleasing to the eyes. Games that take a lot of time to prepare can be exhausting if you are looking at the same dim pixels for a long time, but Faithless is also magical and stunning in every menu!
Bytecraft
The texture pack with the best name of the bunch! Despite it's incredible name it actually was not created by Shockbyte, but we recommend it regardless! This texture pack has the most easily recognizable item sprites while still maintaining an adorable art-style. Quickly sifting through loot-chests without filling your inventory is extremely easy with these textures.
Better PVP
Better PVP is exactly the kind of texture pack that regular PVP players will want in their pocket. This texture pack doesn't provide X-ray functionality on it's own, but it does provide VERY intentional outlines on high-priority blocks to make them easily identifiable for the player. Ores all have a bright highlight along them, many particles have been dulled to keep FPS high and for screen clarity. This resource pack even has bow readiness indicators and smaller on-fire effects.
Celesta
This texture pack calls itself the "Resource Pack for Pros" due to it's oversimplification of many blocks and optimization of everything PVP related. Every single model in the game has been replaced with an extremely simple version making lag a near-nonexistent problem. On top of this, all armors have been replaced with extremely bright versions of their intended colors, making them easily distinguishable. This is definitely a big contender for the best PVP texture pack.
Bare Bones PVP
Bare Bones PVP functions very similarly to the Better PVP texture pack. They both highlight high-priority ores for the player while maintaining a simple style. Bare Bones takes it a step further, making Minecraft....bare bones...and further simplifying many textures than even vanilla Minecraft. Particles have also been dimmed to make them non-distracting but clear to help give away "invisible" players.
X-ray Ultimate
We've covered this incredible texture pack before on our Best Texture Packs for Minecraft overall post! This is among the strongest texture packs out there offering full X-ray capabilities, allowing you to find ores and chests no matter the obstacles in between. Among many servers this is considered cheating and we do not condone it! But for preparation phase games such as the Walls, it may serve as a slight advantage.
Dark Pixels
A common themed we have seen so far is the simplification and highlights of high-priority ores/blocks. That theme continues in the Dark Pixels texture pack, in addition to making each unique tier of armor much more distinct. Food and other common items seem throughout PVP have also gotten slightly revamped in this resource pack turning them into only slightly different versions of vanilla Minecraft. Swords and weapons have also been shortened to take up less of the screen during PVP battles!
New Default + PVP Add-on
New Default is a regularly updated texture pack by SeaofPixels on Curseforge. This pack features a wide variety of QoL changes in addition to beautiful pixel art. The New Default + PVP Add-on is exactly as described, giving useful additions to help Minecraft players in combat situations. Similarly to the Better PVP texture pack again, this add-on provides a very helpful bow charge indicator allowing you to know when you should shield, or press the attack!
F+ PVP Add-on
Like the New Default Add-on previously, this is also an optional addition to the Faithful x32 texture pack. This though completely revamps everything to provide the most seamless and high FPS PVP experience available. One of the best additions for PVP is a completely transparent menu system, so no matter the game mode, no-one will sneak up on you while crafting or changing settings. It also features several common themes like highlighted ores and bow indicators.
Anti X-ray
While many other resource packs were provided here to give a strategic advantage during PVP, this texture pack is meant for server owners interested in setting an even playing field for all players. Using the ability to set a resource pack for your entire server, you can prevent players from using Xray add-ons on their own setups. To prevent X-ray on your server, this is the easiest way to go. If you aren't sure how to set a resource pack for your server, checkout this knowledgebase article!
Looking for more Minecraft?
- Catch up with what was added in Minecraft 1.19
- Look at what we expected out of Minecraft Live
- Best Multiplayer Minecraft Adventure Maps
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