Changes From Vanilla

Overview

Better than Wolves is by far one of the most exhaustive overhaul mod there is, because basically every single aspect of the game as you know it has been tuned in some way or another. I has such a massive scope that people sometimes refer to it as a modpack, even though it's a single mod.

• [O] - Optional - this mode can be turned off or on in config file
• [D] - Default - Despite being optional this mode is considered the default BtW setting and is recommended for proper and balanced BtW experience.

Change	Summary
Hardcore Archery	Arrows need to be in the hotbar to act as a sort of quiver.
Hardcore Armor	Metal and diamond armor have weight. Heavier armor makes the player grow hungry faster. Too much heavy armor will cause the player to sink in water.
Hardcore Beacons	Major change in how Beacon work
Hardcore Bedding	Disables beds from being used to skip the night.
Hardcore Bonemeal	Bonemeal no longer forces growth (except for tall grass and flowers), but will instead increase the rate at which crops grow (approximately 2 times faster).
Hardcore Bouncing	Players cannot place blocks while jumping or falling.
Hardcore Brewing	Changed the potion system to up the value of various mob drops, while reducing the prominence of the whole "golden vegetable" bit.
Hardcore Bucket	Buckets cannot place source blocks or pick up lava, but can collect flowing water.
Hardcore Buoy [O][D]	Causes some items to float, some to sink, and some to be neutrally buoyant based on their density.
Hardcore Chests	Ender Chests behave like normal chests unless placed on an ender block beacon.
Hardcore Chicken	Chickens cannot give live birth, and must be fed seeds to produce Eggs.
Hardcore of Darkness	Areas that are in total darkness, will appear absolutely pitch black regardless of your gamma settings and status effects for the player being in total darkness that will seriously impede the ability to function under such conditions.
Hardcore Enchanting	Rebalances the vanilla enchanting table in various ways to make it a better integrated part of the BTW tech tree, and to make it feel more like a feature and less like an exploit. This feature is comprised of various changes.
Hardcore Explosives	TNT is replaced with Powder Kegs, and Gunpowder must be crafted.
Hardcore Fishing	Change in recipe and functionality of Fishing Rod
Hardcore Fist	Reduces the effectiveness of punching.
Hardcore Grinding	Various items require a Millstone to grind them into other forms (e.g. Bones grind into bonemeal and flowers grind into dye).
Hardcore Hunger	Players get hungrier faster even when doing nothing. Penalties are added for hungry and obese players.
Hardcore Hunger for Wolves	Wolves have to eat or they starve.
Hardcore Hunger for Animals	Animals have to eat or they starve.
Hardcore Info	The "F3" debug display no longer displays biome info and coordinates.
Hardcore Knitting	Wool has to be knit from yarn.
Hardcore Lactation	Cows and Mooshrooms can only be milked when their udders are full. Similar to sheep, they need to eat grass several times for their udders to refill.
Hardcore Melons	They are now affected by gravity and can break into seeds after a long fall.
Hardcore Movement	Movement speed is dependent on surface
Hardcore Nothing to Worry About	There are a few tiny little insignificant things related to how various creatures react to nether exposure. Absolutely nothing to worry about here, as they like the nether lots and lots. Mmmmm, mmmm...can't get enough of that nether exposure.
Hardcore Ores	Iron Ores smelt into Iron Nuggets instead of Iron Ingots.
Hardcore Packing	A new mechanic to craft items using pistons pushing into an enclosed space.
Hardcore Performance Enhancement	BTW makes a lot of changes to make Minecraft run better.
Hardcore Player Names [O]	Allows server owners to disable player name plates (intended for anarchy play).
Hardcore Protection	Adds a number of new armors.
Hardcore Redstone	Vanilla recipes for redstone reactive blocks have been changed so they actually include redstone in the recipe itself. Wooden doors, trapdoors, and fencegates no longer respond to redstone.
Hardcore Sheep	Dyeing sheep only works for one shearing session and must be bred for new colors.
Hardcore Sinkholes	Falling blocks update when players stand on them, causing them to fall if the blocks are not supported by non-falling blocks.
Hardcore Smelting	Smelting times in a furnace are determined by the item being smelted. Food cooks normally, glass is slower and costs more fuel, stone takes longer and burns more fuel than glass, and ores take the longest amount of time.
Hardcore Soul Mating	Players that die in close succession spawn together.
Hardcore Spawn	Players will often respawn at a random location after death.
Hardcore Stratification	Stone generated under Better than Wolves is separated into strata. Deeper strata are darker in color, and require better picks to mine. Ores are not affected by stratification, and only need their appropriate tool level (e.g. iron ore in the deepest strata only needs a stone pick to harvest).
Hardcore Tools and Weapons	Some of the tools and weapons can't be crafted from low durability materials like wood or stone.
Hardcore Torches	Torches now require a piece of coal or charcoal for every torch, and charcoal must be made in a Kiln.
Hardcore Villagers	Villagers need diamonds to go into breeding mode. Iron golems can only be created by the player.
Hardcore Wood	Obtaining wood and wood planks has become much less efficient without the proper tools.

Crafting Recipes

Many of the vanilla crafting recipes has been changed.

Aesthetic Blocks

Who said that BTW isn't artistic.

Miscellaneous Features

Many fun little features