Getting Started

Installation

1. Download Better Harvest Level for your mod loader and Minecraft version
2. Place the .jar file in your mods/ folder
3. Launch the game

On first launch, BHL automatically generates default config files in the betterharvestlevel config directory.

tip

No other mods are required. BHL has zero dependencies. Jade integration activates automatically if Jade is present.

Config Directory

All config files are located in the betterharvestlevel folder inside the game's config directory:

Launcher	Typical Path
CurseForge	.minecraft/config/betterharvestlevel/
Prism / MultiMC	instances/<name>/.minecraft/config/betterharvestlevel/
Server	config/betterharvestlevel/ (relative to server root)

Default Files

After first launch, the following files are generated:

File	Purpose
tiers.json	Tier definitions (vanilla tiers are pre-configured)
blocks.json	Block mining level overrides
tools.json	Tool tier assignments
equivalences.json	Tier equivalence group definitions

---

Quick Start: Require Diamond for Obsidian

Here's how to set a block's required mining tier in three steps:

Step 1: Open the Block Overrides File

Open config/betterharvestlevel/blocks.json in a text editor.

Step 2: Add an Override

Add an entry to the overrides array:

{
  "configVersion": 1,
  "overrides": [
    {
      "target": "minecraft:obsidian",
      "type": "block",
      "requiredTier": "diamond"
    }
  ]
}

This tells BHL that mining obsidian requires at least a diamond-tier tool.

Step 3: Reload

Either restart the game or run /bhl reload in-game (requires permission level 2).

note

/bhl reload hot-reloads all config files without restarting. Changes to tier definitions on Forge/NeoForge may require a full restart due to tier sorting registry constraints.

---

Quick Start: Override an Entire Mod

You can set a blanket tier requirement for all blocks from a mod using the mod override type:

{
  "configVersion": 1,
  "overrides": [
    {
      "target": "create",
      "type": "mod",
      "requiredTier": "iron"
    }
  ]
}

This requires at least an iron-tier tool to mine any block from the Create mod.

tip

For better organization, save mod-specific overrides in a separate file like blocks_create.json. BHL automatically loads all blocks_*.json files. See Layered Configs for details.