Parkour on Your Minecraft Server: Courses with Checkpoints, Times and Prizes

What you need

A Paper server (or Spigot, Purpur): Parkour, by A5H73Y, is a free, open-source plugin updated since 2012; its version 7.2.8 already works on Minecraft 26.1. It doesn't work on Fabric, Forge or NeoForge. On NapNodes, Minecraft servers come with Paper, on the latest version.

Players don't install anything: they join with their usual Minecraft.

The comfortable way is to build the courses in a separate world, so nobody walks in from the survival world or breaks the jumps. With Multiverse it takes one command (mv create parkour normal -t flat); it's in the multiple worlds guide.

Installing it

1. Make a backup

   In the panel, «Backups». Always before adding a new plugin.

2. Search for it in «Mods & plugins»

   Inside the server, «Mods & plugins»: search for Parkour and check the author is A5H73Y (there are others with similar names). Only the ones that work on your version and server type show up.

3. If it doesn't show up, upload it by hand

   Download the .jar of the latest version from its GitHub (A5H73Y/Parkour, «Releases») or its SpigotMC page and upload it to the plugins folder from «Files».

4. Restart

   With «Restart» the plugins/Parkour folder appears with its config.yml. If the console shows a red error with its name, it's almost always an old version of the plugin.

Before building: how far you can jump

A sprint jump clears a 3-block gap comfortably; 4 on flat ground is the maximum and already takes precision. If the landing block is one higher, the maximum gap drops to 3. Without sprinting, 2 blocks.

Start easy and raise the difficulty little by little: the first jumps teach, the last ones hook. Put a checkpoint before each hard section, so falling doesn't mean redoing everything, and mark the path with colours (for example, wool or concrete of one colour per section) so it's clear where to go.

For the big filler (walls, floors, the void below) WorldEdit saves hours; it has its own guide.

Creating the course

Every command starts with /pa. Run them in game, as an op (or with the permissions further down). /pa cmds shows the list and /pa help join, the help for each one.

1. A lobby

   Stand where you want players to wait and type /pa create lobby. You do it once: it's where they go back to when they finish or leave a course, and /pa lobby takes you there.

2. The start

   Stand at the beginning of the course, facing the way out, and type /pa create course tower (tower is the name: no spaces). That position and direction are what the player will have when starting.

3. The checkpoints

   At each checkpoint, standing and facing forward: /pa create checkpoint tower. The plugin puts a pressure plate there. Repeat as many times as you like; they count in order (1, 2, 3…). To move the second one, stand on the new spot and /pa create checkpoint tower 2.

4. The finish

   /pa kit gives you the plugin's special blocks. One is the finish block (by default, the red mushroom block): place it at the end and stepping on it ends the course and saves the time.

5. Test it yourself

   /pa test turns on test mode: the special blocks work and, if you fall, you go back to where you turned it on. Another /pa test turns it off. /pa tp tower takes you to the start without starting the clock.

6. Open it

   /pa setcourse tower ready. Until then nobody can join, so nobody plays a half-built course.

The special blocks

/pa kit fills your hotbar with the default kit's blocks, each with its effect when stepped on: death (back to the last checkpoint), launch upwards, speed, jump, climb a wall, bounce backwards, no sprinting, clear effects and the finish. Careful: it replaces your hotbar, so don't do it with valuable items on you.

If you want other blocks (for example, death being magma in a Nether parkour), create your own kit with /pa parkourkit create nether, which asks you block by block, and link it to the course with /pa parkourkit link tower nether. The author asks you not to edit kits by hand in the config: that's what breaks them most.

For your players: joining, leaving and the leaderboard

/pa join tower joins (each course also has a number: /pa join 1). /pa restart starts over from scratch and /pa leave leaves and takes you back to the lobby. After a long fall or stepping on a death block, you go back to the last checkpoint. Making falling into water or lava count too is turned on per course: /pa setcourse tower dieinwater true (or dieinlava).

/pa leaderboard tower 10 shows the ten best times, and /pa leaderboard tower 10 personal, your own. /pa info shows your stats.

So nobody has to learn commands, put signs in the lobby: the plugin has signs to join a course, to finish it and to go back to the lobby. Or an auto-start plate with /pa create autostart tower: whoever steps on it, starts.

Prizes

/pa prize tower opens a conversation to choose what you win when you finish: an item or a command (and it lets you test it). With an economy plugin it can be money, with LuckPerms a rank, or a simple give. If you don't want it repeated, /pa setcourse tower rewardonce true gives it only the first time.

Permissions

Anyone can join, leave and restart. To let a trusted player build courses without making them op, from the panel's «Console» with LuckPerms: lp user Name permission set parkour.basic.* true (create courses, the kit, teleporting, the leaderboard). The admin side (deleting courses, resetting leaderboards, prizes) is parkour.admin.*: keep that for yourself.

To delete something, /pa delete course tower (or checkpoint, lobby, kit): it always shows you what will be lost and asks for confirmation.

And if you want parkour without building

There are infinite parkour plugins that generate the jumps on the fly as you run (several show up on Modrinth and SpigotMC, like Infinite Parkour). It's a different idea: there's no course and no record on a specific circuit, just how far you get. Check on its page which Minecraft version it's for and whether it needs another plugin.

And if instead of a course you want a whole parkour and minigame server, the usual setup is one world per thing with Multiverse: the lobby in one, the courses in another and the survival apart. Step by step in how to make a minigame server.

Frequently asked questions