Install the Crafting Dead mod on your server

Crafting Dead is a zombie survival mod for Minecraft Forge. The core mod adds guns with attachments and paints, cosmetics and medical supplies. Its official add-on, Crafting Dead: Survival, adds zombie types, the RBI infection, broken legs, bleeding, supply drops and loot piles. This guide installs both on a Forge 1.18.2 server and covers what players need.

Checked against Crafting Dead: Core 1.8.0.943 and Crafting Dead: Survival 1.2.0.942 on Forge for Minecraft 1.18.2, October 2026.

What the server needs

The newest builds of both mods are for Minecraft 1.18.2 and Forge only, with Forge 40.1.80 or newer. They are not available for Fabric, NeoForge, or Paper and Purpur. The panel runs 1.18.2 on Java 17 and switches that for you.

Survival needs the core mod, which its metadata lists as a mandatory dependency. CurseForge's own dependency list for the Survival file is empty, so the store will not ask you for Core. You have to install it yourself.

Survival depends on Core on both the client and the server side, so each player installs the same two mods in their game. Join a modded server from your launcher covers the player side.

To put the server on Forge 1.18.2, open JAR Manager under More, choose Forge under Server software and 1.18.2 under Minecraft version, then press Apply change. Switching reinstalls the server and keeps your world, but make a backup first in the Backups tab. Change your Minecraft version or mod loader has the full steps.

Install the mods

Use the CurseForge listings. Crafting Dead: Core and Crafting Dead: Survival there are published by nexusnode and DetectiveStudios. Modrinth has copies posted by another account, and they are older builds (1.8.0.537 rather than 1.8.0.943).

1. Open Mods under Content and press the CurseForge chip in the source chip row at the top of the tab.
2. Search for Crafting Dead. Check the Game version filter reads 1.18.2.
3. Press Install on Crafting Dead: Core.
4. Search again and press Install on Crafting Dead: Survival.
5. Restart from the Console tab. The install toast says "Restart the server to load it".

Open the Installed view to check. Both should be listed. A Needs badge on Survival means Core is missing.

A note on the licence

The project's README allows personal use and gives hosting a server for friends as an example. It says commercial use, meaning any purpose that is "marketed, promoted, or sold and incorporates a financial transaction", must be authorised by NEXUSNODE, and that you can't use the mod "in any way that gives you a financial advantage". The repository's LICENSE.txt is titled a Non-Commercial Software License Agreement, yet the mod's source metadata (mods.toml) says GPL v3.0, so the project's own licence information is inconsistent. Read the README and LICENSE.txt in the project repository before you run a public or paid server.

Other pieces of the project

The project also publishes an official Crafting Dead modpack on CurseForge, and extra mods such as Crafting Dead: Decoration and Crafting Dead: Immerse. This guide covers only Core and Survival, so check the other pages for their own requirements before adding them.

Common problems

• The server stops at startup: open the Console and read the last lines. Forge older than 40.1.80, or Survival without Core, will stop it. Fix mod and plugin errors on Minecraft covers reading the log.
• No results for Crafting Dead: make sure CurseForge is the selected chip and the Game version is 1.18.2. The newest builds of both mods are for 1.18.2.
• Players are refused on joining: their mod list must match yours. See Fix the mismatched mod channel list error.
• The server runs slowly: Why is my server lagging? Find the cause lists the usual causes.