Allowed vs banned mods (fair play)
Performance and visual mods (Sodium, OptiFine, Iris/shaders, Lunar, simple minimaps) are allowed; cheat clients, x-ray, and autoclickers/macros are banned — and auto-harvest earns zero score anyway, so it's pointless as well as bannable.
HarvestSeason has a simple, transparent fair-play policy. We want you to have a smooth, good-looking game — performance and visual mods are encouraged. What’s banned is anything that gives an unfair advantage: cheats, x-ray, and automation. This page lays out exactly where the line is.
The one-line rule: if a mod only makes the game run better or look nicer, it’s allowed. If it plays the game for you or shows you things you shouldn’t see, it’s banned. When in doubt, ask staff.
The allowed / banned table
| Category | Examples | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | Sodium, Lithium, OptiFine, Fabulously Optimized, Lunar Client | Allowed |
| Shaders / visual | Iris, OptiFine shaders, resource packs, FOV/zoom | Allowed |
| Simple minimap | Basic minimap with no entity/cave/ore radar | Allowed |
| Quality-of-life | Inventory sorters, brightness/gamma, FPS counters | Allowed |
| Cheat / hacked clients | Wurst, Impact, Aristois, “utility mods” | Banned |
| X-ray | X-ray packs, cave finders, ore highlighters | Banned |
| Automation | Autoclickers, macros, auto-harvest, AFK farming scripts | Banned |
| Radar | Minimaps with entity/player/cave/ore radar | Banned |
| Reach / aim / movement hacks | Killaura, reach, fly, speed, no-fall | Banned |
Why performance and visual mods are fine
These mods change how the game runs on your screen — not what happens in the world. A shader makes your crops look prettier; Sodium makes the frame rate smoother; a brightness mod helps you spot ripe crops. None of them give you score, balance, or information another player couldn’t get by adjusting their own settings. So we say yes, and we even recommend them — see Running on a low-end PC and High refresh-rate setup.
Why auto-harvest is pointless and bannable
This is the most important thing to understand about cheating here: it doesn’t even work.
Score on HarvestSeason is awarded only when a real player directly harvests a mature crop — a genuine block break, right-click harvest, or AoE sweep with the Harvester Tool. The scoring code is only reachable by a real player action. Automated harvesting — autoclickers, macros, AFK scripts, water-stream farms, villager farmers, crop hoppers — never reaches the scoring path. It earns exactly zero points toward your rank. See Your first harvest for the full explanation.
So an autoclicker gains you nothing on the leaderboard, and it’s a bannable offense. You’d be risking your account for a tool that mathematically can’t help you. There’s no upside — just farm by hand, which is the whole game.
Minimaps: where’s the line?
Minimaps are a gray area, so here’s the rule:
- Allowed: a simple minimap that shows the terrain and your own position. Helpful for finding your way around a big island.
- Banned: any minimap with entity radar (showing players, mobs, or vanished staff), cave radar, or ore/x-ray features. These reveal information you’re not meant to have.
If your minimap mod has a settings menu with toggles for “show players” or “show entities,” turn them off — or just don’t use that mod.
X-ray and “fullbright” — not the same thing
- Fullbright / brightness / gamma mods that brighten the whole world evenly are allowed. They help you see; they don’t reveal hidden blocks.
- X-ray — anything that makes terrain transparent or highlights ores/caves through walls — is banned. On a farming server there are no ores to mine anyway, but the ban stands regardless.
When you’re not sure: ask
If a mod isn’t on this page and you can’t tell which side of the line it falls on, ask a staff member before using it. Staff would much rather answer a quick question than process a ban appeal. Asking is never penalized; assuming wrong can be. You can reach staff in-game or on the Discord.
How enforcement works
Most “cheats” are structurally useless here (automation can’t score), but blatant cheat clients, x-ray, and radar are still caught and punished — they break fair play even when they don’t help score, and they ruin trust. Confirmed cheating leads to a ban; you can read about the process in Punishments & appeals.
What’s next
Set up your allowed mods the right way with Running on a low-end PC or High refresh-rate & competitive settings.
FAQ
Are Sodium, OptiFine and shaders allowed?
Yes. Performance mods (Sodium, Lithium, OptiFine, Fabulously Optimized, Lunar Client) and visual mods including Iris shaders are all explicitly allowed. They only make the game run and look better.
Can I use an autoclicker or macro?
No. Autoclickers and macros are banned and bannable. They also earn zero score — auto-harvest never reaches the scoring path by design, so cheating literally gains you nothing toward rank.
Are minimap mods allowed?
Simple minimaps are allowed. Any minimap with entity radar, player tracking, or cave/ore radar is banned because it gives an unfair information advantage.
I'm not sure if my mod is allowed — what do I do?
Ask staff before you use it. The rule of thumb is simple: if it only makes the game run better or look nicer, it's fine; if it gives you information or actions you couldn't get legitimately, it's not.