Technical
Survival runs Paper. That is already not a Mojang dedicated server. Most Paper knobs here are pushed back toward stock Java Edition (entities keep ticking, hoppers are not slowed when full, TNT is not capped). A few are not: mob caps, spawn attempt rate, per-player spawn accounting, redstone implementation, and Paper’s “unsupported” block-update patches being left off.
Yellow marks values that are not current vanilla Java, or Paper defaults that change vanilla. These are the live survival files. Plugin features (cape, withers, sky worlds) are on Features. The plugins list below is survival and the Velocity proxy only.
What you feel in game
| Behavior | Stock Java | This survival |
|---|---|---|
| Hostile mob cap | 70 | 70 |
| Animal cap | 10 | 8 |
| Ambient (bats) cap | 15 | 8 |
| Water creature cap | 5 | 4 in Paper world defaults / 10 in bukkit.yml |
| Ticks between monster spawn attempts | 1 | 4 |
| Who the mob cap is counted against | One global cap | Per-player spawn budget (Paper), and every loaded mob counts |
| Far-away entities | Always tick if the chunk is loaded | Same — activation range is 0, so Paper’s freeze is off |
| Hoppers when full | Keep checking | Same — Paper’s full-hopper cooldown is off |
| TNT processed per tick | No cap | Same — max-tnt-per-tick: 0 |
| Redstone | Mojang implementation | AlternateCurrent / EIGENCRAFT |
| Walking into an unloaded chunk | Allowed | Blocked |
| Empty world ticking | Keeps ticking | Frozen while nobody is in that world |
| Tab complete | On | Off |
| Phantom targets | Only insomniacs | Only insomniacs |
| Player cramming damage | Yes | Yes (Paper usually turns this off; we left it on) |
| Old piston / portal / tripwire quirks Paper patches | Current Java patched most of these | Paper’s patches are turned off on this world |
bukkit.yml
Spawn limits and spawn attempt rates. Vanilla Java uses a creature cap of 10, ambient 15, water creature 5, and tries monster spawns every tick.
spawn-limits:
axolotls: 8
water-underground-creature: 4
water-ambient: 10
monsters: 70
animals: 8
water-animals: 10
ambient: 8
ticks-per:
monster-spawns: 4
animal-spawns: 200
water-spawns: 200
autosave: 6000
spigot.yml
entity-activation-range at 0 means loaded entities in that category tick normally at any distance — stock Java, not Paper’s default freeze. max-tnt-per-tick: 0 is unlimited. tab-complete: 0 turns command tab-complete off.
commands:
tab-complete: 0
world-settings:
default:
mob-spawn-range: 8
nerf-spawner-mobs: false
enable-zombie-pigmen-portal-spawns: true
entity-activation-range:
animals: 0
monsters: 0
raiders: 0
misc: 0
water: 0
villagers: 0
flying-monsters: 0
hopper-amount: 1
max-tnt-per-tick: 0
paper-world-defaults.yml
World-level Paper. Anti-xray is Paper engine-mode 1 (enclosed ores rewritten to stone/deepslate in the chunk packet; cave-exposed ores stay visible). Nether and mirror nether use a debris/quartz/gold list instead. The End leaves it off. Wither and wither-skull entities are capped at 5 saved per chunk. Phantoms only attack insomniacs, same as stock Java. Merge-items-horizontally and the AlternateCurrent redstone engine are Paper, not Mojang.
anticheat:
anti-xray:
enabled: true
engine-mode: 1
chunks:
entity-per-chunk-save-limit:
item: 4096
wither: 5
wither_skull: 5
prevent-moving-into-unloaded-chunks: true
collisions:
allow-player-cramming-damage: true
max-entity-collisions: 4096
entities:
behavior:
only-merge-items-horizontally: true
phantoms-only-attack-insomniacs: true
spawning:
count-all-mobs-for-spawning: true
per-player-mob-spawns: true
spawn-limits:
ambient: 8
axolotls: 4
creature: 8
monster: 70
water_creature: 4
ticks-per-spawn:
monster: 4
hopper:
cooldown-when-full: false
misc:
redstone-implementation: EIGENCRAFT
unsupported-settings:
disable-world-ticking-when-empty: true
fix-invulnerable-end-crystal-exploit: false
Ender pearls through unloaded chunks and invulnerable end crystals are left as Mojang left them. Paper would patch both; this world does not.
paper-global.yml
These “unsupported-settings” flags turn Paper’s extra patches off, so several old block-update behaviors that current Java no longer does can still happen here. That is a config fact, not a tutorial.
proxies:
velocity:
enabled: true
online-mode: true
unsupported-settings:
allow-headless-pistons: true
allow-permanent-block-break-exploits: true
allow-piston-duplication: true
allow-unsafe-end-portal-teleportation: true
skip-tripwire-hook-placement-validation: true
Plugins
Jars currently in the survival plugins folder and on the Velocity proxy. Lobby, PvP, and creative plugins are not listed. Plugin names link to source: our GitHub when we wrote it, otherwise the author’s GitHub or project page.
Survival
| Plugin | What it does |
|---|---|
| HardcoreWither | Some withers become Wither Kings that hunt one player. Details on Features. |
| SpawnCape | One offhand cape at spawn: fly, reach, broadcasts, returns to spawn. Details on Features. |
| SkyWorlds | Hold Dragon's Breath and fly above Y 1320 to transfer to the Fabric sky server. Details on Features. |
| UniqueKills | Tracks first-time player kills and /topkiller. |
| HeadDrop | Killing a player can drop their head. |
| MobDrop | Extra custom mob drops. The ender dragon has a chance to drop an end portal frame. |
| LorePunisher | Some lore items apply effects while you hold them. |
| LoreCleaner | If you are offline more than six months, lore items are barreled at your last logout. |
| FirstJoinReward | The first player onto an empty survival gets a small item reward. |
| PlayerCouncil | Activity-ranked council that can vote bans and gamerules. See the council page. |
| TopPlayers | In-game leaderboards for playtime and other stats. |
| MyCommand | Custom commands used for ranks, Discord link, and similar QoL. |
| VotingPlugin | Handles votes from server lists and vote rewards. |
| Votifier | Receives the vote packets from those lists. |
| DiscordVotePlugin | Turns votes into Discord credits/permissions. |
| FirstJoinDiscord | Announces a first-ever join. |
| AdaptiveAntiCheat | Combat/movement checks that learn from trusted long-time players to cut false positives. |
| SmartBan | Staff bans with escalating duration, plus a permanent-ban path for cheats. |
| ConfusePunishment | Staff command that applies a confuse effect as a punishment. |
| CoreProtect | Logs block and container changes so staff can look up grief. |
| CommandFilter | Hides staff/internal commands from ordinary players’ tab-complete. |
| OpPassword | Requires a password to use /op. |
| StatisticEditor | Lets staff read or edit Minecraft player statistics. |
| HelpReload | Reloads the in-game help list without a restart. No public source page found for this jar. |
| EntityDensityWarner | Warns (and can clear) dense entity clumps when TPS is in trouble. |
| TPSAdjuster | Staff tools to ease load, including villager AI toggles. |
| IdleStop | Stops survival after it has been up long enough and then empty for a while. |
| NetRestore | If you die during detected server-wide network lag, you can restore that inventory for a short time. |
| TransferClient | Talks to the proxy so players can be sent to another server on the network. |
| BackChatHelper | Network-wide ignores, private messages, and nicks. |
| ViaVersion | Newer Minecraft clients can join this survival version. |
| ViaBackwards | Older Minecraft clients can join this survival version. |
| PlaceholderAPI | Placeholder text other plugins use in chat, tab, and holograms. |
| PAPIProxyBridge | Lets the proxy read those placeholders. |
| Vault | Shared permissions/economy API other plugins hook. |
| ProtocolLib | Low-level packet access used by other plugins. |
| packetevents | Another packet library used by the anti-cheat stack. |
| YepPaper | Forwards selected survival events up to the Velocity proxy. |
| CMILib | Shared library jar. Not a gameplay plugin on its own. |
Velocity proxy
| Plugin | What it does |
|---|---|
| Geyser | Bedrock Edition players join the Java network. |
| Floodgate | Those Bedrock accounts work while the proxy stays in online mode. |
| ViaVersion | Newer clients can connect through the proxy. |
| ViaBackwards | Older clients can connect through the proxy. |
| SkyWorlds | Blocks /server fabric. Fly-up with Dragon's Breath is the only way onto the sky server. |
| GhostTab | Tab list shows who is online and who was on recently. Feeds the Who is on page. |
| Super Simple Proxy Chat | Chat across servers and proxies, with ignore and nick support. |
| Vmessage | Also shares chat across servers on the network. |
| Velocity Discord Bridge | Mirrors some game chat with Discord. |
| Transfer Service | Backend for moving players between servers on the network. |
| redirect-players | Sends players somewhere else if this proxy is shutting down. |
| ProxyAutoEnd | After the proxy has been up a long time and then empty, it shuts itself down. |
| LimitedOfflineMode | A short allow-list of names can join if Mojang auth is unavailable. Everyone else still uses online mode. |
| ConnectorPlugin | Lets backend servers talk to the proxy. |
| YepLib | Receives plugin messages from backend servers (pairs with YepPaper). |
| PAPIProxyBridge | PlaceholderAPI on the proxy side. |