The 20 Best Minecraft Survival Mods

What are the best Minecraft survival mods?

While it’s fun to mess around in creative mode, survival mode offers a real challenge, and it can be one of the best ways to experience the game, and one of the most infuriating, depending on how many times Creepers kill you.

However, if you’re looking to make survival mode in Minecraft even more exciting, you’re going to want to download some mods that have been specially designed for survival playthroughs.

The Best Minecraft Survival Mods

To make your next survival run more dynamic and engaging, we’ve rounded up the most well-designed survival mods for Minecraft so that you can easily find the ones you want to play with next.

Here’s our list of the 20 best Minecraft survival mods:

20. Better Survival

This Minecraft mod adds additional melee weapons and enchantments to help make combat more engaging and strategic.

In total, this mod introduces eight new weapon enchantments, five shield and bow enchantments, four tool enchantments, and a new enchantment for leggings, chest plates, and boots.

There are also six new melee weapons and seven new potions that you can craft.

The best thing about this Minecraft mod is that it challenges you to be strategic since some weapons and enchantments will work better against specific enemies.

While it’s not a huge change, it does make survival mode a bit more dynamic.

19. Lost Cities

Lost Cities looks like something you would find in one of the best post-apocalyptic games of all time, and it definitely is one of the most unique Minecraft mods on this list.

With this Minecraft mod, players will spawn in a long-forgotten city filled with ruined skyscrapers and desolate streets.

There’s plenty to explore, with numerous highways, tunnels, bridges, and subway systems just waiting for you to discover them.

If you’ve mastered surviving in the Minecraft world and are ready for a brand new challenge, this is one mod that you’ll definitely want to try.

18. The Twilight Forest

The Twilight Forest is one of the most popular Minecraft mods, and it is one of the most fleshed out.

This Minecraft mod adds a whole new dimension to explore, complete with new creatures, dungeons, and much, much more.

Twilight Forest is constantly being updated, so new things are regularly added to ensure that it never gets boring.

If you’ve seen and done everything in vanilla Minecraft, we definitely recommend checking out this mod. It’s even earned its own Wiki page, which basically makes this mod all but an official DLC.

17. Storage Drawers

The storage system in Minecraft can be a real nightmare to navigate, especially in the late game when you’ve acquired a lot of items and resources.

While this mod doesn’t add new mobs or change the way you do battle, we think it is just as important, and it certainly makes sorting your items a lot easier.

With this Minecraft mod, you can easily sort all of your storage items by type, allowing you to easily find the exact thing that you’re looking for without needing to search through 20 trunks blindly hoping.

This mod also makes storage rooms look much more organized, which is a huge benefit if you’re trying to build the perfect house.

16. BiblioCraft

BiblioCraft is another organizational mod that can make survival mode just a bit easier, and it definitely is great for those looking to build awesome home bases.

This Minecraft mod is chock-full of useful furniture pieces that you can use to store a variety of items. However, what makes this slightly better than Storage Drawers is that there is a lot more for you to craft than just wooden cabinets.

With this mod, you can make bookshelves, armor stands, potion shelves, labels, desks, and much more.

It even has its own website where you can learn more about this ongoing project and about the individual block types, it adds to the game.

15. Iron Backpacks

Unlike in Fallout 4, where you can just download some of the best Fallout 4 companion mods to enable your pack mules — I mean companions — to carry an unlimited amount of gear, in Minecraft, you can only rely on yourself.

Fortunately, Iron Backpacks adds a new way to increase inventory space by allowing players to craft useable backpacks.

These can later be upgraded to hold even more items so you can horde to your heart’s content!

While storing extra items in your home is essential, being able to carry all the essentials with room left over to pick up extra materials is also important in Minecraft.

For that reason, we definitely recommend picking up this mod.

14. Chisel

Just because you’re struggling to survive in the Minecraft world doesn’t mean that your home base has to look like a thrown-together rickety shack.

Chisel is a mod for those who love the design aspects of Minecraft, and it adds an enormous variety of new block types that you can use to build some truly awesome buildings.

Access to these blocks is gained using the new chisel tool, which can be created with an iron ingot and a stick in a diagonal pattern.

This is definitely one of the best Minecraft mods for players who love to create their own impressive structures and show them off to other players.

13. Minecraft Comes Alive

This mod does the work of many mods combined, and it seeks to make the Minecraft world feel more like one that you would find in one of the best RPG PS4 games, and we have to admit what it does is pretty impressive.

With Minecraft Comes Alive, all villager behaviors have been completely overhauled.

This means that they all have unique appearances, and you can interact and speak with them just like you could in a standard RPG.

There is even an option to hire or marry villagers, and to have children! Now that is something that we never thought we’d ever see in the world of Minecraft.

12. Extended Caves

One of the most exciting things in Minecraft is discovering a cave and exploring just how far and deep it goes.

However, after a few caves, things start to feel a bit dull and repetitive, which definitely takes away from the experience.

With this mod, Minecraft explorers can rejoice, as Extended Caves overhaul the underground to make it feel more diverse and interesting to explore.

Now you can find new effects, crystals, mushrooms, plants, stones, and treasures where before there would have just been limestone.

Just make sure to keep an eye out for monsters because those could still be lurking around any corner.

11. Pam’s HarvestCraft

One of the hardest things in survival mode can be finding enough food to eat, especially in the early game.

This can make staying alive incredibly difficult since you’ll have to go out searching for food, which can put you at risk of getting killed.

This Minecraft mod adds an incredible 1400 new foods and items, including 80 new crops, 50 new fruits, 19 new fish, and beehives for gathering wax and honey.

There are even vegetarian and vegan options for those who want their Minecraft dietary choices to match their own.

If you couple Pam’s HarvestCraft with one of the other best Minecraft mods, like Still Hungry, you can ensure that you’re never at risk of going hungry ever again.

10. Here’s What You’re Looking At

An updated version of the original mod, What Am I Looking At, this mod shows the name of whatever you’re pointing at on the top of the screen.

This can be extremely useful if you are new to Minecraft survival and need to understand what resources are around you.

It can also benefit veteran players who are using a mod-pack that adds new items that you might not immediately recognize.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering what a specific block is, with this mod, you can wonder no longer.

9. Dynamic Lights

Dynamic Lights is by far one of the best survival mods to download if you want to make your game a little more immersive.

With this mod, all light sources in Minecraft now work much more dynamically, illuminating the area around them and nothing else.

It can definitely make exploring caves a little bit creepier, but it is definitely a realistic effect that benefits gameplay for the better.

Just take care if you’re using one of the best Minecraft dragon mods alongside this one since you definitely don’t want to run into one of those lurking deep underground in the dark.

8. Rope-Bridge

If you’ve ever scaled a high peak and wanted to cross a gap without manually building a bridge or climbing down and around, this Minecraft mod is for you.

This mod adds a grappling gun to Minecraft that you can customize and configure to allow you to easily get over gaps and gorges.

Best of all, this mod also detects obstacles in the way so that you won’t be at risk of running into random trees or mountainsides!

7. Iron Chests

If you want a simple mod that will let you keep track of all your possessions, Iron Chests is worth checking out.

This Minecraft mod gives players the ability to create chests with larger storage capacities, up to 108 slots, depending on the materials you use.

Chests can also be upgraded once created, so you can always make them bigger instead of building a brand new one.

If you’re stocking up before heading out to defeat one of the toughest video game bosses, the Ender Dragon, you may want to consider adding this to your mod-pack.

6. Infernal Mobs

Have you mastered survival mode and want to change the game to make it more of a challenge? Well, this is one of the Minecraft survival mods you’ll definitely want to download.

Infernal Mobs takes the standard enemies in the game and gives them special buffs and abilities that make them nightmarishly tough to kill.

You may be wondering why you’d ever want to make enemies this powerful, and the answer is because they now also drop quadruple the base XP and a random enchanted item when killed.

Sure it’s a tough fight, but the reward is very tempting!

5. Biomes O’Plenty

Minecraft has many beautiful biomes, and this mod takes them to a whole new level.

This mod overhauls the biomes in the Overworld, as well as in the Nether. It adds in all-new trees, flowers, blocks, and more for you to discover while you explore.

Trust us when we say this mod is truly gorgeous, and if you’re after Minecraft survival mods that will make it feel like you’re playing in a whole new world, this is one that you will definitely want to get.

4. Inventory Tweaks

Quality inventory tweaks are always appreciated in Minecraft, and this mod can be invaluable when playing survival mode.

This Minecraft mod is incredibly customizable, and not only can it automatically sort out the content of containers, but it can also replace tools as your old ones wear down and break.

The only downside is that these tweaks are only compatible with Minecraft version 1.13, so anything beyond that won’t work.

However, the creators are urging other designers to port this mod to later versions, so there is hope that it will be compatible in the future!

3. Just Enough Items

Just Enough Items is one of the best Minecraft survival mods for finding what you need, exactly when you need it. Think of it as the Google of Minecraft!

This Minecraft mod saves you from having to scroll through pages of recipe information to figure out how to create the things you need.

Instead, it enables you to use easy-to-remember shortcuts to show you every recipe an item features in.

It’s an incredibly simple mod, but it definitely saves you a lot of time that could otherwise be spent exploring different Minecraft worlds.

2. LotsOMobs

LotsOMobs is one of the most fun Minecraft survival mods to play with, and it fills the world with loads of different animals.

Over 25 new mobs are added with this mod, including lions, birds, fish, and even dinosaurs. There are also new biomes for these creatures that are great to spend time exploring.

If you’re an animal lover and have ever wished to turn Minecraft into a zoo, this is a mod we highly recommend downloading.

Now, if only there was a mod that added some of the best dog Pokémon, we’d really be set!

1. JourneyMap

Last, but not least, we have to give our number one spot to the Journeymap mod, which is by far one of the best Minecraft survival mods you can download.

JourneyMap is a simple mod, but it makes navigating in Minecraft survival mode a lot more straightforward since it creates a map of the world as you explore it.

This allows you to know where you’ve been and where you still need to explore.

While it only shows locations where you have been, we find this is a great balance that doesn’t make Minecraft survival too easy.

Summary

While the base game of Minecraft is incredible to play, and it isn’t lacking in terms of incredible worlds, we all need a little diversity now and then, and that is where mods come into play.

If you’re looking for the ultimate Minecraft survival experience, we couldn’t recommend these 20 mods more highly, and we definitely recommend checking them out for yourself!

Here’s a quick recap of the 20 best Minecraft survival mods:

1. JourneyMap
2. LotsOMobs
3. Just Enough Items
4. Inventory Tweaks
5. Biomes O’Plenty
6. Infernal Mobs
7. Iron Chests
8. Rope-Bridge
9. Dynamic Lights
10. Here’s What You’re Looking At
11. Pam’s HarvestCraft
12. Extended Caves
13. Minecraft Comes Alive
14. Chisel
15. Iron Backpacks
16. BiblioCraft
17. Storage Drawers
18. The Twilight Forest
19. Lost Cities
20. Better Survival

What’s the best Minecraft survival mod, in your opinion? Leave a comment below.