Getting started

Punchy! gives you animated first-person hands: your arms swing, mine, eat, draw a bow and inspect the item you hold, and the held item has weight and moves with you. This page is for anyone who wants it running: which file to download, how to install it, and a short tour to check that everything works. You do not need any other knowledge of the mod.

Before you start

You need Minecraft Java Edition, a mod loader for your version (Fabric, Forge or NeoForge) and the Punchy! file that matches both.

Punchy! is a client mod. Install it on your own game only. A server does not need it, and other players do not have to install it to play with you.

Supported versions and loaders

The version is 3.0. These are the Minecraft versions and loaders it comes in:

Each Minecraft version and loader has its own file. Modrinth and CurseForge list each one by its loader and Minecraft version, such as Punchy 3.0 (Fabric) - 26.3, and the one for 26.1 covers all three 26.1 releases in a single file: Punchy 3.0 (Fabric) - 26.1-26.1.1-26.1.2. A file for the wrong version or the wrong loader will not load, so match both.

Punchy 3.0 (Fabric) - 26.4
Punchy 3.0 (Fabric) - 26.3
Punchy 3.0 (Fabric) - 26.2
Punchy 3.0 (Fabric) - 26.1-26.1.1-26.1.2
Punchy 3.0 (Fabric) - 1.21.11
Punchy 3.0 (Fabric) - 1.21.5
Punchy 3.0 (Fabric) - 1.21.1
Punchy 3.0 (Fabric) - 1.20.1
Punchy 3.0 (Forge) - 26.3
Punchy 3.0 (Forge) - 26.2
Punchy 3.0 (Forge) - 26.1-26.1.1-26.1.2
Punchy 3.0 (Forge) - 1.21.11
Punchy 3.0 (Forge) - 1.21.5
Punchy 3.0 (Forge) - 1.21.1
Punchy 3.0 (Forge) - 1.20.1
Punchy 3.0 (NeoForge) - 26.3
Punchy 3.0 (NeoForge) - 26.2
Punchy 3.0 (NeoForge) - 26.1-26.1.1-26.1.2
Punchy 3.0 (NeoForge) - 1.21.11
Punchy 3.0 (NeoForge) - 1.21.5
Punchy 3.0 (NeoForge) - 1.21.1

Install Punchy!

Download Punchy! from either site below: the steps work the same way on both.

If a window titled Punchy: resource pack disabled appears, the built-in animation pack is switched off. See the pitfalls at the end of this page.

What you get

Punchy! replaces the plain Minecraft hand with a set of first-person animations and the settings to tune them.

• Hand and item animations. Sword swings that cycle through different clips, critical hits, mining, eating and drinking, bows, crossbows, shields, spears, tridents, fishing rods, goat horns, thrown items and switching the item in your hand.
• Movement. A walk sway, a sprint arm swing, and animations for falling, crawling, climbing, swimming, flying with an elytra and rowing a boat or raft. Each one has a switch in the settings.
• Weight and physics. Held items and your arms swing and settle as you move and turn the camera.
• Weather on your hands. Freezing shake and snow on the arms, mud, burning from hot items and extra fire effects.
• Item effects. Some held items give off particles. Packs can also give items their own first-person models, glow and particles.
• Tools inside the game. A Hand Editor for placing items and arms in your view, Mix Packs for combining animations from several packs, and an Item Blacklist for items that should look like vanilla.
• Support for other mods. Switches for Better Combat, Spatial GUI, InteractiveStuff and Sword Blocking Mechanics support.

The animations themselves come from a resource pack. Punchy! ships with a built-in pack, also called Punchy!, that is switched on by default. It holds the clips and the file that decides which clip plays for which item and action. Other packs can replace or add to it, and Resource packs explains how.

First things to try

Join a world in first person and go through these. Each one checks a different part of the mod.

Swing, mine and eat

Use the keys

Watch the details

Open the settings

The left column holds a preview box with the Punchy! logo, Done, the Enable Punchy switch and the tabs. Enable Punchy is on every tab; turn it off and your hands are drawn the vanilla way. Two more tabs show up only when you have the matching mod: Face with Punchy! Moves, and Punchy Studio with Punchy! Studio.

The Hand Editor has an Open button in General, under Tools. On Minecraft 1.20.1 to 1.21.11, closing the Hand Editor brings you back to the menu, and on 26.1 and newer it closes to the game. Mix Packs is its own tab. To put every setting back, press Reset on Reset all settings in General and confirm: every setting and the item blacklist go back to their defaults, while your pack choices and profiles stay.

Settings and controls goes through every option.

Change settings from a file

The menu writes your choices to config/punchy/punchy_config.json in the game folder. You can also edit that file by hand. Close the game first, because the menu rewrites the file each time you change a setting. A key you leave out keeps its default.

This example slows the swings a little and makes sticks look like vanilla:

{
  "animationSpeed": 4.0,
  "disableNewKeyframeMoves": true,
  "itemBlacklist": ["minecraft:stick"]
}

Things that go wrong

• The game refuses to start, or Punchy! is missing from the mod list. The file does not match your Minecraft version or loader. Check the table above and download the right file. On Fabric, check that Fabric API is in the mods folder too.
• “Punchy: resource pack disabled”. Punchy! found no compat files and no first-person animations in your active packs. If the window has a Turn on Punchy’s pack button, press it. Otherwise open Options, then Resource Packs, and move the built-in Punchy! pack to the right-hand list, or enable another pack made for Punchy!. Then press F3+T to reload.
• A warning about Hold My Items or Locomotion. When one of these mods is installed next to Punchy!, the game shows a warning the first time you join a world after starting the game. Remove Hold My Items, or you will see duplicate arms. Locomotion cannot be used together with Punchy! either, so remove one of the two.
• Nothing animates when you swing. Check that Enable Punchy (the switch under Done) is on, that the item is not in the Item Blacklist, and that you are in first person.
• Your edits to punchy_config.json vanished. If the file has a syntax error, such as a missing comma, Punchy! cannot read it, writes a fresh file with the defaults and your edits are lost. Keep a copy before you edit, and check the JSON.
• A setting changed back. Loading a profile, Reset all settings or an earlier change may have set it. While the menu is open, Ctrl+Z undoes your last change, and Undo changes in the title bar takes back everything since you opened the menu.
• A pack you added did nothing. After adding or reordering packs, press F3+T so Punchy! reads them again.

Where to go next

• Learn every option and key in Settings and controls.
• Install and stack packs in Resource packs, and combine their animations in Mix the packs. If you make a pack, clip files go in assets/minecraft/punchy/animations/ and compat files in assets/minecraft/punchy/compat/ inside the resource pack.
• Move items and arms in your view with the Hand Editor (General tab, under Tools): Tuning editor and debug.
• Make your own animation. Punchy! Studio is the editor inside the game (press F6 in a world once it is installed), and Create an animation walks through the whole job.

• Read how clips are matched to items and actions in Types and triggers.
• Answers to common questions are in the FAQ, and the Troubleshooting page covers problems in more depth.
• Want your whole body animated in third person? That is a separate mod, and it starts at Punchy! Moves: getting started.
• The Punchy! compatibility collection on Modrinth gathers the packs and mods that officially support Punchy!.