NapNodes
Free tool · Minecraft Java

Minecraft world border generator

Say what size you want (from the centre or the whole square), where the centre goes and in which dimensions, and you get the /worldborder commands ready to paste into the console. In the format your server's version wants, which changed in 1.21.11.

How do you want to give the size?

Border centre

Usually 0 0 or the spawn point. Y doesn’t matter.

Server version

Where

Make it shrink? (UHC, battle royale)

A square of

4,000 × 4,000 blocks

Overworld
worldborder center 0 0
worldborder set 4000
Nether
execute in minecraft:the_nether run worldborder center 0 0
execute in minecraft:the_nether run worldborder set 500

In the panel’s “Console”, as they are; in the game chat, with “/” in front and as an operator.

To pre-generate right up to the border with Chunky (Overworld): “chunky center 0 0”, “chunky radius 2000” and “chunky start”.

Try it on your free server

A Minecraft server for you and your friends, 3 GB and no card needed.

What a border is for on a server

Everything someone explores gets generated, saved to disk and included in every backup. Without a border, one player going far away “for a biome” grows the world by hundreds of megabytes in an afternoon, and the server keeps generating terrain, which is what loads it the most. With a border the map has an end: the world weighs what it should and, if you also pre-generate it with Chunky up to that same border, exploring costs nothing any more.

For a group of friends, a radius of 2000 to 5000 blocks is a lot of map. You can always make it bigger later.

What changed in recent versions

  • Time is in ticks (since 1.21.11): 20 ticks are one second. Write the unit, “s” for seconds or “d” for in-game days. Many guides still say “worldborder set 100 600” meaning 10 minutes, and today that's 30 seconds.
  • Each dimension, its own border (since 1.21.9): the Nether's and the End's are set separately, with “execute in”. Before, in vanilla, there was one for all of them.
  • The border no longer moves while the game is paused and follows /tick: it runs on the server's ticks, not the clock.

Frequently asked questions

Is the /worldborder set number the radius?

No: it's the side of the whole square. “worldborder set 4000” leaves 2000 blocks on each side of the centre. Chunky, on the other hand, asks for the radius: to pre-generate up to that border, “chunky radius 2000”.

Why does my border shrink much faster than I set?

Since 1.21.11 the /worldborder time is in ticks (20 per second), not seconds. “worldborder set 100 600” shrinks in 30 seconds. Write the unit: “600s” is 10 minutes. In 1.21.10 and older it was a number of seconds with no letter.

Does the Overworld border also apply in the Nether?

Since 1.21.9 each dimension has its own border (on Paper, Spigot and Purpur each world already had one): the Nether's is set with “execute in minecraft:the_nether run worldborder set …”. To cover the same ground as the Overworld's, one eighth of the size and of the centre.

What happens if a player was already outside the border?

They take damage while they stay outside, after a few blocks of margin (5 by default, “worldborder damage buffer”). What was built outside isn't deleted: it stays in the world, you just can't reach it without moving the border.

How do I make the border bigger later?

With another, larger “worldborder set”, or with “worldborder add 1000” to add 1000 to the side (500 on each side). If you give it a time, it grows little by little.

Getting a UHC or a new world with friends ready?

At NapNodes the RAM in your plan is yours alone and each machine's load is in plain sight on the status page. Try it with a free 3 GB Minecraft server, no card and no end date: type these commands into its “Console” and you're done.

Create your free server

Linking Nether portals? Use the Nether portal calculator. Playing with friends for the first time? The SMP with friends guide.

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