Chunklock Servers: Setup and Best Practices

Choose your Chunklock project

Several unrelated projects use the name. They are not compatible with each other: install exactly one.

There is also Chunklocked, a Fabric mod remake of the datapack. Every player must install it in their own client too, so it suits a private modded group rather than a public server.

The rest of this guide covers the plugin in depth (steps 2–8), then the datapack and ChunkBlock.

Install the Chunklock plugin

1. Make a backup: Backups → Create Backup.
2. On Startup, set the Minecraft version and Java the plugin supports (see the table), then start and stop once.
3. Download the plugin jar. The newest release is on the project's GitHub releases page (Lunary1/chunklock); Hangar may lag a release behind. Check that the version you download lists your Minecraft version.
4. In Files → plugins, Upload the jar (or Pull from URL with the release link). Install plugins
5. Optional plugins it uses if present: Vault (money costs and paid re-rolls), FancyHolograms (cost holograms on chunk borders), Oraxen or MMOItems (custom items as costs).
6. Install LuckPerms, Chunky, spark and CoreProtect at the same time.
7. Restart. Run plugins in the console: Chunklock should be green.

The plugin creates plugins/Chunklock/ with these files:

Size and create the Chunklock world

The plugin uses one dedicated world (chunklock_world by default). Every player gets their own starting chunk inside it, spaced apart from everyone else's.

Pick a size

/chunklock setup <diameter> creates the world, sets a world border of that diameter, and pre-generates everything inside it. Big diameters take a very long time and a lot of disk:

Chunklock players spread slowly: a dedicated player unlocks perhaps a few hundred chunks in a season. You need room for everyone's start areas plus their growth, not a 30,000-block world. The minimum is 1000 and the maximum 100,000.

These are estimates. Generate the world, check its size on Files, and remember backups need space too.

Run setup

1. Join the server as an operator (the command has to be run in game, not in the console).
2. Run /chunklock setup 6000.
3. Leave it running. It reports progress in chat. Stay online, keep other players off, and don't restart until it finishes.
4. When it says setup is complete, players can start.

Fill in the Nether and End

Setup only pre-generates the Chunklock Overworld. If players will build portals, pre-generate the Nether too with Chunky, inside a border one-eighth the size. In the console:

chunky world chunklock_world_nether
chunky center 0 0
chunky radius 500
chunky start

Check the Nether world's actual folder name in Files first.

Check it worked

Run /chunklock start from a normal player account. You should be teleported into a single unlocked chunk with glass walls on its edges. /chunklock status shows one chunk unlocked.

Tune unlock costs

Items or money

In economy.yml:

type: "materials"
materials:
  enabled: true
  cost-mode: "resource-scan"
  resource-scan:
    base-cost: 16
    min-cost: 1
    max-cost: 128
  price-commitment:
    reroll-cooldown-minutes: 60
  vault-fallback: false

For a money economy, the vault: section sets base-cost (e.g. 100), cost-per-unlocked (added per chunk already owned) and multipliers per difficulty and biome.

Fixed biome costs

If you use cost-mode: "biome", set what each biome costs in biome-unlocks.yml. Every item listed is required:

PLAINS:
  WHEAT: 8
  HAY_BLOCK: 2
FOREST:
  OAK_LOG: 32
DESERT:
  SAND: 64
  CACTUS: 8

Apply and test

1. Run /chunklock reload after any edit.
2. Walk to a locked chunk's border and right-click a block (or run /chunklock gui) to see its price.
3. Unlock it with the GUI or /chunklock unlock while standing in it.

Balancing tips

• The first ten unlocks should take minutes, not hours; players quit if their first chunk is a dead end.
• Pricing by distance and progress means late chunks get expensive. Test with a fresh account: unlock 20 chunks and see whether it still feels fair.
• Tell players before you change prices on a live server. Plugin updates can change prices too: read the release notes.

Teams and multiplayer

Solo, co-op or competitive

• Solo: everyone plays alone. Starting areas are at least claims.min-distance-between-claims chunks apart (in worlds.yml, default 2). Raise it to 6–10 so neighbours don't collide straight away.
• Teams (co-op): a team shares its unlocked chunks. Costs rise with team size so a big team isn't simply faster.
• Competitive: team-settings.yml has options for claiming chunks another team owns, at a higher price and a daily limit. Turn this down or off if you want a peaceful server.

max-team-size: 6
team-cost-multiplier: 0.15
max-cost-multiplier: 3.0
contested-cost-multiplier: 3.0
max-contested-claims-per-day: 5

Player commands

/cl works in place of /chunklock.

Admin commands

Run /chunklock help on your version for the exact list; commands change between releases.

Permissions with LuckPerms

Player commands are allowed by default through chunklock.use. Admin commands need chunklock.admin (operators have it). Set up groups in the console:

lp group default permission set chunklock.use true

lp creategroup helper
lp group helper parent add default
lp group helper permission set chunklock.bypass true

lp creategroup mod
lp group mod parent add helper
lp group mod permission set chunklock.unlock true
lp group mod permission set chunklock.reset true

lp creategroup admin
lp group admin parent add mod
lp group admin permission set chunklock.admin true

chunklock.bypass makes unlocks free and lets the holder enter any chunk. Give it to staff only, and remind them to turn it off.

Beyond Chunklock, give normal players the usual survival basics (EssentialsX /home, /tpa, /msg). Think carefully about teleport commands: /tpa to a friend in another area skips the whole point of the game. Many Chunklock servers allow /tpa only between team members, or not at all.

Performance

Chunklock is mostly ordinary survival, plus border and hologram updates for every player.

• Check with spark tps and spark profiler start --timeout 300 at your busiest time. Fix lag
• On long-running servers, /chunklock debug memory shows whether the plugin's hologram cache is growing. Schedule a daily restart either way. Schedules

Backups, storage and resets

What to back up

Chunklock keeps progress in its own storage (database.yml → type: "mapdb", local files in plugins/Chunklock/) and the blocks in chunklock_world. With MapDB, a panel backup captures both at the same moment, which is what you want.

Switch to mysql only if several servers must share Chunklock data. Then create the database on Databases (Databases), fill in database.yml's mysql: section, and remember that panel backups don't include databases: you need a separate database backup taken at the same time.

Schedule

1. Schedules → Backup every 6 hours: Minute 0, Hour */6. Tasks: Send Command save-all, then Create Backup after 10 seconds. Backup schedules
2. Lock a backup on launch day, and before every plugin update or cost change.

Seasons

1. Announce it. Lock and download a backup.
2. Run /chunklock resetall (type the confirmation) to clear progress, teams and stats.
3. For a new map as well: stop the server, delete chunklock_world (and its Nether and End) in Files, start, and run /chunklock setup again.

Anti-grief

Locked chunks keep strangers out of each other's territory, but team members and anyone in shared chunks can still grief. Install CoreProtect (/co inspect, /co rollback u:<player> t:1d) and, if you allow building in the spawn area, protect it with WorldGuard or by keeping it locked to players.