How to Play Cobblemon With Friends

Cobblemon works in multiplayer as it is: its CurseForge page says you can trade and battle with your friends. Every player has to run the same pack version, and after that the only choice is where the world lives.

What everyone needs first

Match the pack before anything else. Agree on one build and have everyone install it from the CurseForge app. A different Cobblemon version on one PC is the first thing to rule out when a friend cannot join.

Versions were read from the CurseForge and Modrinth project pages on 30 September 2026. The Cobblemon team also publishes a NeoForge build of the modpack but recommends the Fabric one because it performs better, so pick one and keep the whole group on it.

Pick a way to play together

Three of the routes are free and run on the PC of the player who opens the world, so that world is only there while they are playing. The other three keep a server running on its own.

Cobblemon has no official server of its own. Its team keeps a list of public servers on cobblemon.com, which suits a group that wants other trainers around rather than a private world.

Open to LAN on the same network

Open to LAN is built into Minecraft and costs nothing, but it only reaches devices on the same network, such as everyone in one house.

1. 1The player who owns the world loads it in the Cobblemon modpack.
2. 2They open the pause menu, click Open to LAN, choose the game mode and whether commands are allowed, then click Start LAN World.
3. 3Chat confirms the world is open and shows its port number.
4. 4Friends open Multiplayer, where the LAN world appears at the bottom of the server list. If it does not show, they add the owner's local IP address and that port by hand, and the owner's firewall has to allow the port.

Friends outside the house cannot reach a LAN world without port forwarding or a VPN, which is the gap the next two mods fill.

Essential for friends in other houses

Essential is a free client mod that lets friends join your single-player world over the internet, with your own PC acting as the server. Everyone needs it installed, because Essential asks members to join with the exact same mods.

1. 1In the CurseForge app, open My Modpacks, click the Cobblemon modpack, open the three-dot menu next to Play and choose Profile Options.
2. 2Turn on Allow content management for this profile.
3. 3In the Content tab, press Add More Content, search for Essential Mod and install it. Every friend does the same.
4. 4Start the game, open the Essential menu, choose Host, pick the world and press start on the panel that opens, then select your friends and press Add Members.
5. 5Friends accept the invite from the Social menu with Join Game, or find the world under Multiplayer in the Friends tab.

Essential allows up to 8 players connected at the same time, and the world is only online while its owner is playing. Its CurseForge guide also says to disable custom main-menu mods such as FancyMenu, and the Cobblemon modpack ships FancyMenu, so switch it off in the same Content tab.

e4mc: one mod, one address

e4mc gives an Open to LAN world a public address. Only the player who opens the world installs it; friends do not need e4mc, but they still need the same Cobblemon pack.

1. 1Add e4mc to the modpack profile the same way as Essential, picking the Fabric build for Minecraft 1.21.1.
2. 2Load the world and use Open to LAN as normal.
3. 3A public domain appears in chat next to the local port. Send it to your friends.
4. 4Friends add that domain as a server in Multiplayer and join.

The e4mc page describes it as a way to temporarily expose a local world to the internet, so the address stops working when the world owner closes the game.

Run a Cobblemon server on a friend's PC

A dedicated server keeps the world running while nobody is in the game, as long as the PC under it stays on. The modpack's CurseForge page says its players can join a server that runs only Cobblemon and Fabric API, so the server needs very little.

1. 1Install Java 21 or newer. Minecraft has required Java 21 since 1.20.5, and 1.21.1 is later.
2. 2Download Fabric's server launcher for Minecraft 1.21.1 and put it in an empty folder.
3. 3Create a mods folder there and add Fabric API and Cobblemon 1.8.1 for Fabric.
4. 4Run the launcher once, open eula.txt, change eula=false to eula=true and run it again.
5. 5Forward TCP port 25565 on the router to that PC. Our guide to port forwarding covers the router side.
6. 6Give your friends the public IP address of that network so they can add it in Multiplayer.

Give the server enough memory. CraftLands sizes a Cobblemon server from a 4 GB floor plus about 0.2 GB for each player online, so 6 GB covers 10 players and 8 GB covers 20. Our RAM calculator runs the same sum for any group size.

A server that stays online

At some point the group wants the world up while its owner is offline, and nobody wants to leave a PC on overnight. That world belongs on a server in a data centre. Cobblemon server hosting on CraftLands installs Cobblemon Official Modpack 1.8.1 on Fabric Loader 0.19.5 before first boot and suggests 6 GB for ten players.

When it is running, share the server address with the group and everyone joins from Multiplayer, whether the owner is online or not.

Cobblemon

Fabric · 1.21.1

Deploy

Cobblemon Official Modpack 1.8.1 on Fabric Loader 0.19.5, installed before first boot: 4 GB before anyone joins, about 6 GB with 10 players online.

Trade and battle once you are together

Everything social in Cobblemon starts from one key: R, which Cobblemon labels Throw Selected Pokémon. Look at a friend and press it to open a menu with Battle, Trade and Team up, plus Spectate when they are already in a battle.

• Trade: you both need at least one Pokémon in your party and must be within 12 blocks of each other.
• Battle: within 32 blocks, with at least one healthy Pokémon each. Double battles open when you both have two or more, triple battles at three or more.
• Team up: pairs you with a friend, and two teams can then take each other on in a multi battle.
• Spectate: watch a friend's battle from up to 64 blocks away.

Those distances are the defaults in Cobblemon 1.8.1's config file, so whoever runs the server can change them.

Playing Cobbleverse with friends

Cobbleverse is a separate pack built on Cobblemon 1.7.3, so it cannot share a world with the Official Modpack on 1.8.1. The whole group installs Cobbleverse 1.7.42 for Minecraft 1.21.1 on Fabric. Open to LAN, Essential and e4mc work the same way, with R still opening battles and trades. Cobbleverse has no official server pack, so the steps for running a server on a friend's PC do not apply to it.

Each PC needs more memory than for plain Cobblemon: the Cobbleverse page asks for at least 4 GB and recommends 6 GB or more. Cobbleverse server hosting on CraftLands is sized from 6 GB plus about 0.2 GB per player online, which puts 10 players at 8 GB.

Everyone installs it from the CurseForge app, because CraftLands servers run the CurseForge build; the pack is also on Modrinth. Its licence lets you run private servers for friends and family, but its custom structures, trainers and datapacks may not be used on a public server with a paid shop.

Cobbleverse

Fabric · 1.21.1

Deploy

Cobbleverse 1.7.42 on Cobblemon 1.7.3, installed before first boot: 6 GB before anyone joins, about 8 GB with 10 players online.

Frequently asked questions

Where to go next

Once everyone is in, the next question is usually what else to install. Our guide to mods worth adding for a group sorts them by whether they belong on the server, the client or both.