Tidal Towns is a Minecraft data pack that adds a new village variant to the deep ocean: clusters of driftwood platforms lit by lanterns, holding houses, farms, a cartographer's stall, and a blacksmith. It ships as a vanilla data pack and, for players who would rather skip the datapacks folder, as a Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, or Quilt mod carrying the exact same content. Every block in it is vanilla, so a stock client can join a server running it without installing anything extra.
What changes in Minecraft
Tidal Towns does not touch existing structures. It adds one new one, joshie:ocean_village, that generates alongside the vanilla structure pool. Villages come stocked with the usual villager professions, so a cartographer sells maps, a farmer tends floating crop patches, and a blacksmith trades gear, the same as any land-based village.
- Generates only in the vanilla deep_ocean biome, no other biomes.
- Villages include a cartographer, a farmer, and a blacksmith on the platforms.
- Locate one directly with /locate structure joshie:ocean_village.
- Built entirely from vanilla blocks, so it needs no companion resource pack.
How to install Tidal Towns
For the data pack build, download it from the official listing and drop the folder or zip into your world's datapacks folder, then run /reload if the world is already open. The full steps, including how to add one to an existing world without resetting it, are in how to install Minecraft data packs. Server owners adding it to a running world instead of a fresh one can follow the same reload step covered in adding data packs to a Minecraft server.
Players who would rather use a mod loader can grab the Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, or Quilt build instead and drop it into mods. It carries the same ocean village content as the data pack and needs no Fabric API or other dependency to run, since Modrinth lists zero required dependencies for the project.
Supported Minecraft versions
The current build, 1.3.4, last updated in July 2025 and tops out at Minecraft 1.21.7 across every distribution: the data pack itself and the Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, and Quilt mod builds all reach the same ceiling. Earlier builds cover 1.19 through 1.20.4 for players on older worlds.
What it does not cover
Tidal Towns is a single structure addition, not a broader ocean overhaul. It adds one floating village variant to the deep_ocean biome and does not add new mobs, loot tables, ships, or other ocean structures. Datapacks such as Structory and its companion Structory: Towers cover land-based structure variety if a wider worldgen pass is the goal, and Dungeons and Taverns does the same for village taverns and dungeons on land.
Questions about Tidal Towns.
5 questions
How do I install Tidal Towns?
Download the data pack build from the official Modrinth listing and drop it into your world's datapacks folder, then run /reload in an existing world or just load a new one. A Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, or Quilt build with the same content is also available for players who would rather use a mod loader's mods folder.
Where do Tidal Towns villages spawn?
Tidal Towns adds one structure, joshie:ocean_village, that generates only in the vanilla deep_ocean biome. With cheats enabled, run /locate structure joshie:ocean_village to find the nearest one instead of sailing around looking for one.
Does Tidal Towns work on multiplayer servers?
Yes. The structure is built entirely from vanilla blocks, so it only needs to run on the server or the world generating the terrain. Players can join with a stock, unmodified client and still see and enter the floating villages.
Which Minecraft version does Tidal Towns support?
The latest build, 1.3.4, last updated in July 2025 and reaches up to Minecraft 1.21.7 across the data pack and every Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, and Quilt build. There is no confirmed build yet for the 26.x version drops.
Do I need a resource pack for Tidal Towns?
No. Every block used in the floating villages is vanilla, so the structure renders correctly with the default textures. No matching resource pack is required to see it as intended.
