Gameplay
Backpacks & Portable Storage
Sophisticated Backpacks in Nytheria: tiers from leather to netherite, upgrade slots, stack upgrades, the Everlasting and Inception upgrades, mob backpacks, plus sacks, quivers and other portable containers.
Backpacks are the storage you carry. This page is a child of Storage & Logistics and covers the Sophisticated Backpacks tiers, the upgrades you can add, how the pack sets them up, and the smaller portable containers from other mods. It is for players who want to know what to craft first and what to upgrade later.
Overview#
Sophisticated Backpacks (Unofficial Fabric port) adds leather-to-netherite backpacks with upgrade tabs. It shares a library with Sophisticated Storage, 
Sophisticated Core (Unofficial Fabric port), and in the pack every one of the 180 listed items of both mods is enabled (116 storage items, 64 backpack items). You wear a backpack on your back and open it with B. That key is shared with the Obscura terminal and Just Zoom's options through the Polybind wheel, so see Controls if the wheel opens.
Tiers#
| Tier | Inventory slots | Upgrade slots |
|---|---|---|
| Leather | 27 | 1 |
| Copper | 45 | 1 |
| Iron | 54 | 2 |
| Gold | 81 | 3 |
| Diamond | 108 | 5 |
| Netherite | 120 | 7 |
The first backpack is 4 strings, 4 leather and a wooden chest: string, leather, string on top, string, chest, string in the middle and 3 leather below. Each higher tier is 8 ingots or gems around the previous backpack (copper, iron, gold, diamond). The netherite backpack is a smithing recipe: netherite upgrade template, Diamond Backpack and a netherite ingot.
Upgrades#
Every upgrade goes into an upgrade slot, so a Leather backpack with one slot has to choose. Most upgrades have an Advanced version.
| Upgrade | What it does | Pack setting |
|---|---|---|
| Pickup, Advanced Pickup | picks up items | filter slots 9 (advanced 16) |
| Magnet, Advanced Magnet | pulls items to you | range 3 (advanced 5), filter slots 9 (advanced 16) |
| Filter, Advanced Filter | filters piped items | filter slots 9 (advanced 16) |
| Feeding, Advanced Feeding | feeds you from the backpack | recipe: golden carrot, golden apple, glistering melon, ender pearl |
| Compacting, Advanced Compacting | 2x2 only, or 2x2 and 3x3 | filter slots 9 (advanced 16) |
| Void, Advanced Void | voids items | can void anything |
| Refill, Restock, Deposit | backpack-only upgrades; advanced versions exist | refill filter 6 (advanced 12) |
| Tool Swapper | backpack-only upgrade | advanced version exists |
| Smelting, Smoking, Blasting | cook items; auto versions exist | input slots 8, fuel slots 4, speed 1.0 |
| Crafting, Stonecutter, Anvil, Smithing | portable stations | Anvil: 2 anvils, diamond, 2 iron ingots, wooden chest, upgrade base |
| Jukebox, Advanced Jukebox | plays music | advanced holds 12 discs |
| Tank | stores fluid | 4,000 per slot row; recipe: 8 glass around an upgrade base |
| Battery | stores energy | 10,000 per slot row |
| XP Pump | handles XP | mending on, 5 XP per mending |
| Inception | backpacks inside the backpack work | see below |
| Everlasting | indestructible, never despawns, cannot fall into the void | 4 end crystals, 4 nether stars, upgrade base |
The Hopper and Compression upgrades are storage only. The Hopper upgrade moves 1 item every 8 ticks and the Advanced Hopper moves 4 items every 2 ticks. The Compression upgrade has 5 slots.
Stack upgrades#
Stack upgrades multiply the stack size of every slot. The pack allows 3 stack upgrades in one backpack. Shulker boxes and bundles are never stacked further.
| Stack upgrade | Multiplier | Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | x1.5 | upgrade base ringed by 8 copper blocks |
| Tier 1 | x2 | upgrade base ringed by 8 iron blocks |
| Tier 2 | x4 | Tier 1 and 8 gold blocks |
| Tier 3 | x8 | Tier 2 and 8 diamond blocks |
| Tier 4 | x16 | Tier 3 and 8 netherite blocks |
| Omega | raises the limit to 2,147,483,647 | 9 Tier 4 upgrades |
Downgrade upgrades reverse this: Tier 1 divides by 8, Tier 2 by 16 and Tier 3 by 32.
Inception and nesting#
A backpack cannot be placed into a shulker box, bundle or other container item. According to its tooltip, the Inception upgrade lets backpacks inside the backpack work, and their upgrades use the inner inventories. Its recipe uses eyes of ender, a nether star and diamonds. How this interacts with the container-item rule has not been tested in play.
Building Upgrades#
Sophisticated Building adds five Building Upgrades (Tier 1 to 4 and Omega) that sit in a backpack upgrade slot and place blocks from the backpack. A backpack can hold only one. The tiers, caps and recipes are on Building & Decoration.
Backpack rules in Nytheria#
- Other players can open your worn backpack: right-click it.
- A worn backpack is not the only one that works. Upgrades run in any backpack you carry (
onlyWornBackpackTriggersUpgradesis off). - The "too many backpacks" slowness is switched off.
- Item fluid handlers are enabled.
- Backpacks appear in vanilla chest loot.
Mobs with backpacks#
Some mobs spawn wearing a backpack. The chance is 1 %, and the mob can be armoured, buffed with potion effects and given more health that scales with the backpack tier. The backpack drops with a 50 % chance, plus 15 % per level of Looting, and its loot comes from the structure that fits the mob.
| Mob | Loot table the backpack uses |
|---|---|
| Creeper, Husk | desert pyramid |
| Drowned | shipwreck treasure |
| Enderman | End city |
| Evoker, Vex, Vindicator | woodland mansion |
| Piglin | bastion bridge |
| Piglin Brute | bastion treasure |
| Pillager | pillager outpost |
| Skeleton, Zombie | simple dungeon |
| Stray | igloo |
| Witch | buried treasure |
| Wither Skeleton | Nether bridge |
| Zombie Villager | armourer |
| Zombified Piglin | bastion other |
The backpack does not drop when a fake player makes the kill, and a backpack mob can play a jukebox.
Keys#
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| B | Open Backpack (shared with Open Terminal and Just Zoom options) |
| Middle mouse | Sort Backpack (shared with Pick Block and other sort actions) |
The tool swap, inventory interaction and "toggle upgrade 1 to 5" actions exist but have no key by default.
Other portable containers#
Sophisticated Backpacks is the main one, but several other mods add small containers:
- Supplementaries: the Sack (9 slots, needs flax, slows you down when you carry several), the Quiver (6 slots, found in dungeon, mansion and outpost chests), the Lunch Basket (6 slots) and the Jar (12 capacity). Details are on Building & Decoration.
- Kibe: the Entangled Bag opens the same inventory as an Entangled Chest. It is made from 7 leather and an Entangled Chest.
- Tide: the Fish Satchel collects fish automatically while open, and Tide adds crates.
- Artifacts Remastered: the Bottomless Quiver and the Universal Attractor, a magnet artifact with a toggle key.
- Eternal Starlight: the Galactic Quiver and a Loot Bag.
- Twilight Forest: the Ore Magnet and the Sortingwood, Minewood and Transwood chests.
- Vanilla Backport: 16 coloured bundles.
- Galosphere: a Mining Pouch.
How it fits together#
Craft a leather backpack early and add upgrades as your slots grow. An iron backpack has 2 upgrade slots, enough for a Feeding and a Magnet upgrade. Use the Everlasting upgrade on the backpack you carry into dangerous realms: it never despawns or falls into the void. Plan your slots, because the pack allows 3 stack upgrades per backpack and the Netherite backpack has 7 upgrade slots. For chests, barrels and the storage network, see Storage & Logistics.
In the quest book#
The chapter The Marked Road (Part 1) asks you to craft a Sophisticated Backpack, and Shelves and Signposts (Part 2) asks for an iron backpack. See Part 2: Hearth and Home.
Tips#
- Copper, iron, gold and diamond backpacks are crafted around the previous tier, so keep your first backpack until you can upgrade it.
- Ask before you open another player's worn backpack, and expect the same from others.
See also#
- Storage & Logistics - tiers for chests and barrels, item movement
- Storage Networks - the Obscura terminal that shares B with backpacks
- Building & Decoration - Sophisticated Building upgrades
- Controls - the Polybind wheel
- Part 2: Hearth and Home - the quests that ask for backpacks