Rope

A simple, lightweight mod that adds a craftable climbable rope block. Hang it from any solid surface above you and traverse vertically with ease.

Install on both the client and the server for multiplayer. Works in singleplayer — just drop it into your mods folder.

Dependencies: Fabric & NeoForge require Architectury API. Forge requires no additional dependencies.

Free to use in any modpack — public or private, no permission needed.

What it does

• Place a Segment — right-click below a solid block to place a single rope segment.
• Drop a Column — sneak + right-click to instantly drop a full column of rope straight down, limited only by the rope in your inventory and free space below.
• Extend Any Column — rope can hang from another rope — extend any column segment by segment.
• Empty-Hand Retrieve — right-click a rope block with an empty main hand to pull that segment and every rope hanging under it (survival returns items; creative removes the column; adventure cannot retrieve).
• Rope Bolt — craft arrow + rope into a Rope Bolt, load it in a crossbow (or bow — it is a vanilla #arrows item), and shoot: on a valid hit the rope unrolls downward with the same hang rules as hand place.
• Scaffold Feel — uses familiar scaffold-like placement and break sounds.

Hold Jump to climb up and crouch to slide down. Unlike ladders, ropes don't need a wall to lean on, and you can walk right through them without getting stuck.

You can manually extend the column by right-clicking an existing rope segment to place another one directly below it.

Sneak + right-click to instantly drop a full column of rope straight to the ground.

Right-click a rope with an empty hand to reel that segment and everything hanging under it back into items.

Shoot a Rope Bolt at a valid block — rope unrolls downward on its own (survival spends rope from your inventory for segments that place, up to 64).

Crafting

Stick | String | Stick
Stick | String | Stick
Stick | String | Stick

Yields 3 rope per craft.

Rope Bolt — shapeless: 1× minecraft:arrow + 1× rope:rope → 1× rope:rope_bolt.

Configuration

No config screen — it works as soon as you install it. Recipes and hang rules are datapack-driven for modpack overrides (recipe ids rope:rope and rope:rope_bolt).

Details

• Climbable rope block + Rope Bolt; no worldgen, no entities, no GUIs.
• Hand- and bolt-placed columns respect build permission, spawn protection, and Forge/NeoForge place events (claim mods).
• Fully translated into 10 languages: English, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, and Italian.
• No builds for Minecraft 26.1 / 26.1.1 / 26.1.2 — stay on a previous release for those, or move to 26.2.

For Modpack Creators

The mod is intentionally minimal — one rope block/item, one Rope Bolt, no worldgen, no entities, no GUIs. Recipes and tags are data-driven and can be replaced by any datapack using the same ids.

After adding or changing the datapack — restart the world or run /reload.

Changing the Rope recipe (rope:rope)

Legacy layout (Forge/Fabric 1.19.2–1.20.1): data/rope/recipes/rope.json (+ advancements/recipes/misc/rope.json).

Modern layout (NeoForge 1.21.1+, Fabric 1.21.11+ / 26.2): data/rope/recipe/rope.json (+ advancement/recipes/misc/rope.json).

Legacy data/rope/recipes/rope.json:

{
  "type": "minecraft:crafting_shaped",
  "category": "misc",
  "pattern": ["ABA","ABA","ABA"],
  "key": {
    "A": { "item": "minecraft:stick" },
    "B": { "item": "minecraft:string" }
  },
  "result": { "item": "rope:rope", "count": 3 }
}

Modern data/rope/recipe/rope.json:

{
  "type": "minecraft:crafting_shaped",
  "category": "misc",
  "pattern": ["ABA","ABA","ABA"],
  "key": {
    "A": { "item": "minecraft:stick" },
    "B": { "item": "minecraft:string" }
  },
  "result": { "count": 3, "id": "rope:rope" }
}

Changing the Rope Bolt recipe (rope:rope_bolt)

Same legacy vs modern folder split as above:

• Legacy: data/rope/recipes/rope_bolt.json + data/rope/advancements/recipes/misc/rope_bolt.json
• Modern: data/rope/recipe/rope_bolt.json + data/rope/advancement/recipes/misc/rope_bolt.json

Recipe-book advancement id: rope:recipes/misc/rope_bolt (unlocks when the player has rope:rope).

Legacy (1.19.2 / 1.20.1):

{
  "type": "minecraft:crafting_shapeless",
  "category": "misc",
  "ingredients": [
    { "item": "minecraft:arrow" },
    { "item": "rope:rope" }
  ],
  "result": { "item": "rope:rope_bolt", "count": 1 }
}

Modern object-ingredients (1.21.1):

{
  "type": "minecraft:crafting_shapeless",
  "category": "misc",
  "ingredients": [
    { "item": "minecraft:arrow" },
    { "item": "rope:rope" }
  ],
  "result": { "count": 1, "id": "rope:rope_bolt" }
}

Modern string-ingredients (1.21.11 / 26.2):

{
  "type": "minecraft:crafting_shapeless",
  "category": "misc",
  "ingredients": [ "minecraft:arrow", "rope:rope" ],
  "result": { "count": 1, "id": "rope:rope_bolt" }
}

#minecraft:arrows tag

The bolt is shipped in #minecraft:arrows ("replace": false, value rope:rope_bolt) so a crossbow can charge it. Override via datapack:

• Legacy: data/minecraft/tags/items/arrows.json
• Modern: data/minecraft/tags/item/arrows.json

Because it is both in #minecraft:arrows and an ArrowItem, a vanilla bow can also load and fire it on current code — not crossbow-only at the tag level.

What you can / cannot override

• Can (datapack): rope recipe, Rope Bolt recipe, matching recipe-book advancements, membership in #minecraft:arrows.
• Cannot (code): item registration ids (rope:rope, rope:rope_bolt); bolt stack size (64); bolt impact / column deploy rules (including Multishot recoverable-only); empty-hand retrieve; the fact that the fired projectile stays a Rope Bolt (ArrowItem behavior is not datapack-only).

Translations

Override via resource pack: assets/rope/lang/<locale>.json

• block.rope.rope / item.rope.rope
• item.rope.rope_bolt

Feedback

Please report any bugs, errors, or feature suggestions on Discord: https://discord.gg/HTkn94BXmA

More mods by Nikrecs: FasterLadderClimbing · PathSpeed!

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