Locks are new items, which can be added to blocks like Chests to protect them from other players. That way, they can only be opened by you. Although with a bit of skill and luck, other players can still pick and bypass the locks.
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Locks
There are 5 tiers of Locks included with the mod, with them being crafted from Wood, Iron, Steel, Gold, and Diamond. You’re able to craft Wood and Iron Locks easily; however, any higher tiers require Steel, which isn’t included with the Locks mod.
A third-party mod will need to be installed that adds Steel Ingots and Nuggets (such as Steel Workshop on 1.16.5). Otherwise, you can obtain these locks after pick-locking them in-game.
With the mod installed, all Chests in the game world will generate with Locks applied to them. This option is configurable and might not affect Chests that are found within other mods, such as Recurrent Complex.

Each tier of lock changes the number of pins it has, which will make picking them much harder for other players. Wood has 5 pins, Iron has 7, Steel has 9, Gold has 6, and Diamond Locks have 11 pins. When holding a Lock, sneak and right-click a Chest to apply it, or even a Door!
Keys
Before placing a Lock, you’ll also need to create a Key, and bind it to the Lock. A Blank Key can be crafted from 4 Iron Nuggets and 1 Iron Ingot, with the recipe shown on the screenshot below.

When hovering over a Lock, you’ll see that it has a unique ID. It’s important that a Key has the same ID, so that it can open and close the correct Lock. To do that, place both the Key and Lock inside a Crafting Table to bind them together. Then you’re able to place down the Lock and interact with it while holding a Key (you might have to sneak).
If a container is Locked and no Key is assigned, or you’ve lost it, then you will need to enter Creative mode. Then you can obtain the ‘Master Key’ item, which will open and close any Lock in the game world.
Lockpicking
Even though your containers and doors are locked, they can still be broken into by other players using Lock Picks. These have multiple tiers as well, which gives them different strength values, which reduces the chances of them breaking when picking a Lock.

While holding a Lock Pick, right click on a Lock. An interface similar to the screenshot above will be shown, with the number of pins varying dependent on the tier of the lock used.
Using the A and D keys, you’re able to move the lockpick along horizontally. Then press the W key to press a pin upwards. To pick the Lock, they must all be pushed up in the correct order.
When the correct pin is selected, it will stay in an upwards position. However, each time you choose the wrong pin, there’s a chance that your lockpick will break, and all the pins will reset.
Locks Mod Download
The links above will take you to the CurseForge page for the Locks Mod. Specifically, they direct you to the download for your chosen version of Minecraft. Learn more about why you should only download files from CurseForge.
How to Install
If you haven't already, make sure to install Forge for Minecraft. It's a simple process and takes just a few minutes. Once Forge is installed:- Download the mod for your Minecraft Version. It will be a .JAR file.
- Take this file, and place it in the 'mods' folder of your Minecraft directory. If this folder doesn't exist, create it. The easiest way to access your Minecraft directory is opening the game, going to Resource Packs and pressing the 'Open Resource Pack Folder' button.
- Once it's inside the mods folder, run Minecraft with the Forge preset selected. The mod will be installed and can be played with in-game.