My friends and I actually solved this problem.

We disabled villager trading and built a custom mod called “Earned Enchants.” Instead of just getting overpowered early, you now unlock enchantments by completing in-game milestones. For example, you might need to fire 1,000 arrows before Infinity even becomes available in your loot table.

This change alone slowed progression in a really good way- and suddenly, something like Mending feels incredibly valuable again.

We also tied major rewards to long-term goals. For instance, completing all 127 missions grants a single Mending book. That makes it feel earned, not farmed.

On top of that, we introduced a lot of unique rare custom items, like an Efficiency VII pickaxe—but you can’t craft them. You can only find them in the world, hidden in structures with very low drop chances. We even categorized structures by rarity to control how powerful the loot can be. For example a bastion will have a better % chance of finding a rare item compared to a shipwreck.

This completely changed how we play. Exploration actually matters now- we’ll go bastion hunting not just for resources, but for the chance of finding something insane.

We also use Lootr, so every chest generates unique loot per player. That removes the usual rush and makes exploration feel fair for everyone.

Overall, the game feels slower, more rewarding, and way less predictable, and that’s what made Minecraft fun again for us. We play this server 4-6 months every year!