Better Cave Miner

Build your skills through survival work: mine natural ores, fell trees, dig earth, harvest crops and catch fish. Each profession has its own progress, with stronger abilities earned over time.

How to play

• Pickaxe: vein mining unlocks at level 5. Mine matching connected natural ores; sneak to break just one.
• Axe: from level 5, sneak and break a log to fell a limited group of connected logs. At level 12, keep matching saplings stocked to replant suitable roots.
• Shovel: from level 5, sneak and dig supported earth to use limited batch excavation.
• Hoe: from level 5, sneak and harvest a mature crop to replant using a real inventory seed.
• Fishing rod: successful vanilla bites earn fishing XP. Open-water catches improve rewards from level 5.

Press K for profession progress and J for the journal/workshop. Controls can be rebound.

Choose your path

At level 10 in each profession, choose Speed, Preservation or Yield. One permanent choice per profession gives you a reason to specialize. Increasing XP costs, tool wear, hunger and batch limits keep progression earned.

Craft the Miner's Hammer and Lumberjack's Axe for heavier work after reaching the matching profession's level 15. Check their recipes in-game.

Prepare for the dark

Craft and upgrade a wearable headlamp. New lamps start empty: wear one in the helmet slot and use coal or charcoal in the air to refuel. To toggle it, hold the lamp and sneak-use it, then equip it again.

Caver's / Reinforced / Expedition lamps hold 60 / 180 / 360 seconds of fuel and illuminate 5 / 8 / 11 blocks. Light is local to the wearer and does not change monster spawning.

Keep exploring

Profession advancements recognize your work. The Trips screen tracks unique biomes and deep cave regions with one-time rewards. Repeated visits do not grant repeated payouts.

Installation

Choose the file matching your Minecraft version and loader. Install on client and server. Fabric also requires the matching Fabric API; Forge and NeoForge use separate files.

The new beta supports 1.20.1, 1.21.1, 1.21.11, 26.2 and 26.3. Use Java 17+ for 1.20.1, Java 21+ for 1.21.x, and Java 25+ for 26.x. Older downloads have different features.

This is a beta. Back up existing worlds before testing; shader, protection-mod and broader modpack compatibility remains under validation.

Artwork is illustrative. Gameplay GIFs show actual staged survival gameplay with level 20 pre-unlocked to demonstrate abilities.