EssentialsX on Your Minecraft Server: /home, /tpa, /spawn, Warps and Kits

What you need

A Paper server (or Spigot, Purpur): EssentialsX is a plugin and doesn't work on Fabric, Forge or NeoForge. On NapNodes Minecraft servers come with Paper.

EssentialsX comes in modules, each one a separate .jar. The main one (EssentialsX) has almost everything: /home, /tpa, /warp, /back, /kit, the economy. EssentialsX Spawn adds /spawn and /setspawn and decides where new players and people who die appear. EssentialsX Chat formats chat and shows rank prefixes. The rest (Protect, AntiBuild, GeoIP, Discord…) are optional.

The authors themselves recommend LuckPerms for permissions, and Vault if you want chat prefixes or other plugins to use its economy.

Installing it

1. Make a backup

   In the panel, “Backups”: if something doesn't fit, you go back in a minute.

2. Find EssentialsX

   In the panel, “Mods & plugins”: search for EssentialsX and install it; then do the same with EssentialsX Spawn (and EssentialsX Chat if you want it). They all have to be the same EssentialsX version and work with your Minecraft version.

3. Add LuckPerms

   In the same place. Without a permissions plugin, EssentialsX commands are, in practice, for ops only.

4. Restart

   Plugins load at startup. In “Files” you'll see the plugins/Essentials folder with config.yml (the settings) and kits.yml (the kits).

Let your players use the commands

This is the most common question: “I've installed Essentials and my friends get a no-permission message.” That's normal. With LuckPerms, you give them to the default group, which is everyone who joins, from the panel console:

lp group default permission set essentials.home true, and the same with essentials.sethome, essentials.delhome, essentials.tpa, essentials.tpaccept, essentials.tpdeny, essentials.tpahere, essentials.spawn, essentials.warp, essentials.back and essentials.kit. Each permission unlocks one command: if there's one you don't want to give (for example /back, which on a hardcore survival server can look like cheating), leave it out.

For a moderators group with more powers, create the group and give it its own permissions separately; how to do that is in the LuckPerms guide. Don't op anyone just so they can use /home: an op can do anything, including wiping the world.

The most used commands

Homes: /sethome name saves where you are, /home name takes you there and /delhome name deletes it. Without a name, “home” is used.

Teleporting between players: /tpa Name asks to go to someone and /tpahere Name asks them to come to you; the other player answers with /tpaccept or /tpdeny. The request expires after 120 seconds (tpa-accept-cancellation in config.yml).

/back takes you back to where you were before your last teleport; with the essentials.back.ondeath permission, also to where you died.

Spawn and warps: /setspawn (as admin) sets the spawn point and /spawn takes you there (if you have several worlds with Multiverse, each one has its own). /setwarp shop creates a named point, /warp shop takes you there and /warp on its own shows the list.

config.yml settings worth checking

sethome-multiple: how many homes each player gets. By default, one; to have more, the player needs essentials.sethome.multiple, and the number comes from this list (default: 3, vip: 5, staff: 10 out of the box). For everyone to have 3, give essentials.sethome.multiple.default to the default group.

teleport-delay: seconds of waiting before teleporting (0 out of the box). Setting it to 3 or 5 stops people escaping a fight with /home. teleport-cooldown: seconds between one teleport and the next.

respawn-at-home: if true, when you die you respawn at your first home or your bed instead of at spawn. spawn-if-no-home: if true (the default), /home with no home set takes you to spawn.

starting-balance: the money each new player starts with, if you use the economy (/balance, /pay, /baltop; shops and everything else are in the economy guide).

Edit config.yml with the server stopped from “Files”, then start it; or change it while it's running and type /essentials reload in the console.

Kits: the welcome gear

1. Prepare the inventory

   As admin, put exactly what you want to hand out in your inventory.

2. Create the kit

   /createkit starter 86400 creates the “starter” kit with what you're carrying and a cooldown of 86 400 seconds (one day) between uses. It's saved in kits.yml.

3. Give it to the right people

   For everyone to be able to use it: lp group default permission set essentials.kits.starter true. It's claimed with /kit starter.

4. Or give it on first join

   In config.yml, the newbies section has kit: the kit given automatically the first time someone joins (out of the box, “tools”). Put yours there or leave it empty to give none.

Frequently asked questions