How to Make a Minecraft Factions Server with FactionsUUID

How Factions works

Land is claimed by chunks, 16×16 columns of blocks that run from bedrock to the sky. Inside a faction's territory only its members can build (what each one can do is changed with /f perms); outside is the wilderness, which belongs to nobody.

What decides how much a faction can claim is power. Every player has their own: it starts at 0, goes up with the time they spend playing and goes down every time they die. The faction's power is the sum of its members' power, and it can keep claiming as long as it has more power than chunks.

If a faction ends up with more land than power (because its members have died a lot or left), it's exposed: other factions can claim inside its territory and raid it, which means breaking its defences and taking whatever is there, with TNT if needed. The FactionsUUID documentation also describes another system, DTR (deaths until raidable): each death of a member takes one off, and when it reaches 0 the faction can be raided.

What you need

A Paper server: FactionsUUID is a plugin, so it won't load on the official server, on Fabric or on Forge. At NapNodes, Minecraft servers are delivered on Paper, in the latest version.

Before installing it, check on its page which Minecraft version the build you're about to download is for: recent FactionsUUID versions work with Minecraft 26.x and, when a new version of the game comes out, it can take a few days to support it. If your server is ahead, you can pick the version it does support.

Optional: an economy (EssentialsX and Vault, as in the economy guide) if you want factions to have a bank and claiming to cost money, and LuckPerms to hand out command permissions (LuckPerms guide).

Install FactionsUUID

1. Save what you have

   If you already have a world you want to keep and your plan has backups, create one in “Backups” (the free server has no backups: download the world first).

2. Find it in “Mods & plugins”

   Inside your server, “Mods & plugins” → search for “FactionsUUID” → “Install”. If it doesn't show up for your version, download it from its SpigotMC page and upload it with “Files” to the plugins folder.

3. Restart and check the console

   Press “Restart”. The “Console” should show Factions loading; if the build isn't for your Minecraft, it says so there. On startup it creates its folder, plugins/Factions, with the configuration.

4. Check the version

   In game, as an op, type /f version: it shows the FactionsUUID version you have. /f help lists the commands of yours.

Founding a faction, step by step

This is what each player will do. It's worth writing it down on a sign at spawn or in the server's Discord channel.

1. Create it

   /f create FactionName. Whoever creates it becomes its leader. /f desc followed by some text gives it a description.

2. Claim land

   Stand where you want your base and type /f claim: it claims the chunk you're in. /f claim 2 claims the ones around you in a radius of 2, and /f autoclaim keeps claiming every chunk you walk into while it can. /f sc shows you the chunk border.

3. Set the home

   /f sethome inside your territory sets the point that /f home takes every member to.

4. Invite your friends

   /f invite Name and the other player joins with /f join FactionName. With /f open, anyone can join without an invite.

5. Check the map

   /f map draws the surrounding chunks in chat: yours, other factions' and the free ones. /f map on redraws it by itself as you move.

Allies, enemies and raids

Relations are requested with /f rel followed by the relation and the other faction: /f rel ally Neighbours proposes an alliance, /f rel truce Neighbours a truce, /f rel enemy Neighbours declares it an enemy and /f rel neutral Neighbours goes back to normal. The other faction has to accept an alliance or a truce.

/f show shows your faction's info (or another one's, with its name after it): members, power and land. /f power Name tells you a player's power. If an enemy faction has more land than power, it's time to raid it.

Chat has channels: /f chat faction talks only to your own members, /f chat alliance to your allies and /f chat public goes back to general chat.

Ranks inside the faction

The leader promotes a member to moderator with /f mod Name and to co-leader with /f coleader Name; /f promote Name and /f demote Name move them up or down one rank. /f admin Name hands leadership to someone else, /f kick Name kicks someone out and /f disband disbands the faction.

What each rank can do (build, open chests, invite, claim…) is decided in /f perms, which opens a menu. /f setwarp Name creates the faction's own teleport points and /f warp opens them; /f fly lets you fly inside your territory and cuts out in combat.

What the admin sets up

Spawn, as a safe zone: that way nobody claims it, nobody fights and nobody breaks it. With the factions.managesafezone permission (as an op you have it), stand at spawn and claim it for the special SafeZone faction, for example /f claim 3 SafeZone. The opposite is the WarZone, free-for-all fighting areas for events, claimed the same way. If you already use WorldGuard for spawn, its guide works too.

PvP is on by default in Minecraft; if you ever turned it off, gamerule pvp true turns it back on. On a Factions server the usual thing is to lose your inventory when you die (gamerule keep_inventory false, the default).

Admin tools: /f bypass lets you break and build in any territory (to fix something), /f modifypower Name 10 changes a player's power and /f reload applies whatever you changed in the plugins/Factions configuration without restarting. Some commands (like /f fly) need their own permission: give it to the ranks you want with LuckPerms.

And pregenerate the world before opening: on a Factions server everyone moves away from spawn to hide their base, and generating new terrain is what puts the most load on the server. With Chunky you get it done in advance.

How much RAM a Factions server needs

For a group of friends, 3 GB is fine. What pushes it up is a big world (each faction has its base far from the others), TNT explosions during raids and farms; for a community of 15 or 20 people, 4 GB is a good starting point. The RAM calculator fine-tunes it by players and plugins.

At NapNodes you can set it up on the free Minecraft server, which is a normal Paper server with “Mods & plugins”, and send your friends its link to join. If things grow, you move to a plan with the same world to keep it always on, with no queues and with backups.

Frequently asked questions