How To Install and Use the Minecraft Essentials Plugin

Last modified on Nov 3, 2022 in Plugins

By Nathan Young

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Overview

Hosting your Minecraft server can be lots of fun, but the default version of the game doesn’t allow for much control. If you want to set homes, have teleportation, kits, sign commands, and more, then you can do that through plugins. However, there are thousands of plugins out there online for almost any feature or ability you may want, which can be frustrating to locate and use on your server. Having an all-in-one plugin that implements everything you want is ideal, and EssentialsX does that for you. It has many unique features that are essential to your server, hence the plugin’s name. Additionally, it’s highly customizable with its many configuration files and commands that allows you to fully control how it appears or acts in-game. Our Apex Hosting guide will show you how to install and use EssentialsX on your Minecraft server.
 

Summary

The EssentialsX plugin has been around since 2015, accumulating around 6 million downloads from Spigot and Bukkit. This is a well-known 1.8 to 1.19 plugin that is commonly used among thousands of Minecraft servers. It contains 130~ commands and tons of features ranging from setting homes to a full shop system. EssentialsX also allows other plugins like Vault to be compatible with its design, which grants even more functionality such as chat prefixes, economy, and other things. It’s a flexible tool for your game server that enhances the gameplay through its many abilities that your players may enjoy.
 

Plugin Installation

In order to use and customize this plugin, it must be installed on your Minecraft server.

1. Head towards EssentialsX’s Spigot page and click the Download Now button.
2. Afterward, make sure you are viewing the Stable release section and click Download on the core EssentialsX plugin.
   
3. Once downloaded, navigate to your Apex server panel and in the top right corner, click FTP File Access, then log into that area using your password.
4. Once you’re inside the FTP panel, locate and enter into the plugins directory.
5. Press Upload in the top left and drag the EssentialsX jar file, then wait until it reaches 100%.
   
6. After that, Restart the server from the main panel so it’ll load into the server.

 
If you need additional support when installing the plugin to your server, please review our manual installation guide.
 

Getting Started

There are tons of unique features and commands with EssentialsX, but we will focus on the important main aspects to get you started. Understanding the commands and settings is useful because that’ll give you complete control over the plugin. For additional resources about using EssentialsX on your Minecraft server, you can find tutorials and information here.
 

Kits

An amazing tool from EssentialsX is their kit system, which allows you to obtain defined items or blocks from a command. For example, you can get a pvp kit with enchanted weapons and armor with golden apples. You may create any kit you want with a set cooldown period before using it again. This is used for almost any gamemode on your server, from Skyblock to Factions. Down below you can find the list of commands and permissions relating to kits.
 
Common Commands

 
Common Permissions

Creating a Kit

You’d first want to gather all your items in your inventory for the kit, then run the /createkit [kitname] [delay] command. After that, you should be able to use it! Once you have a kit created, you’ll be able to use this permission node for your rank or player to use it: essentials.kits.[kitname]. Although, the base node essentials.kit must be defined for that player or group to even use any kits.

Alternatively, you can manually create the kits in the plugin’s kits.yml file from the FTP panel, and an example is below to show that.

  kitname:  -  Set the kit’s name to use in the config.yml, permissions, and commands.
    delay: 86400  -  Cooldown for the kit in seconds.
    items:
    - [item/block] [amount] [enchantments] [name] [lore]  -  The format per item or block for the kit.
    - diamond_sword 1 damage_all:5 name:&3ApexHosting lore:The best hosting service!

Homes

In the default version of Minecraft, using a bed is how you can have a spawn point at your base. However, with EssentialsX’s home system you can have tons of homes that are accessible through commands. For example, using the /sethome Base creates a home called “Base” that can be used with the /home Base command.

Additionally, you can control how many homes each player or rank can set, which is through settings in the config.yml file of the main plugin. Otherwise, you can use the permissions to have no limit for the number of homes. Down below, you’ll find a list of commands and permissions all related to the home system.
 
Common Commands

 
Common Permissions

 
If you’re wanting to use the multiple homes setup, then configuring that is required in the config.yml file. You can define the [set name] value from the permission in the settings for the sethome-multiple option. An example of a completed group permission node is: essentials.sethome.multiple.vip. You can find the exact area to make these edits down below.

sethome-multiple:  -  The list of groups that limit how many homes a player can set.
  default: 3  -  permission node: essentials.sethome.multiple.default
  vip: 5
  staff: 10

Teleportation

A useful design from EssentialsX is teleporting to players or defined locations with warps. That can be implemented in any gamemode on your server! For example, if you wanted to set up a shop then having a warp for that will help players get there from anywhere in the world. Additionally, if one user wants to check out their friend’s base, then using the teleport commands is required.
 

Warps

Setting up warps in your Minecraft server is essential for most owners, because this system allows you to instantly transport between locations. For instance, you can create a warp with the /setwarp [name] command at the desired spot in your world so players can use /warp [name] to get there. You can find a list of commands and permissions down below.
 
Common Commands

 
Common Permissions

TPA

Sometimes teleporting to a specific user is better for your setup rather than having warps. In that case, you can use the /tpa [player] command to request transportation to that user. You can bypass that request with /tp instead if you have admin permissions for your account or rank. Down below shows commands and permissions for all warp and teleportation functions.
 
Common Commands

 
Common Permissions

Signs

Having signs in your Minecraft world while using EssentialsX grants you many features that can be useful to your players. For instance, having the kit sign allows users to easily obtain items for PvP or starter items. The player or group must have the essentials.signs.use.[sign] permission node to use any sign functionality. If the user wants to use a warp sign command, then the essentials.signs.use.warp node is required. You can find all signs and their specific formats at EssentialsX’s Sign Tutorials.

However, it should be noted that before you use any signs the settings must be enabled in the config.yml file of the plugin files. In the file, you need to remove the hashtag symbols to enable them. You can find that on line 359 to begin making these changes. Make sure to click Save to retain the edits and Restart the server to apply them.

Economy

In most servers, having an economy for shops and trading is a necessity for the players. Luckily, EssentialsX comes with a built-in economy system, but requires the Vault plugin to be installed to support that. When you have it installed, you can start using commands and signs to buy, sell, and trade items/blocks. Additionally, you can even spend money on specific functions such as enchantments, heals, or gamemodes. For more information about using eco signs, go here. You can view the commands and permissions down below to help you get started.
 
Common Commands

 
Common Permissions

Miscellaneous Commands

The following commands are the most commonly used ones by players and admins. However, there is an entire list of commands and permissions that reveals everything you need.

Configuration

There are a lot of settings and options in the config.yml file of the EssentialsX plugin, which controls features from teleport cooldown to the money symbol in-game. You can access that file by logging into the FTP File Access area with your panel password, then navigating to the …/plugins/Essentials/ directory. Due to the large size of the configuration file, we’ll only be focusing on the most important and commonly edited ones.

ops-name-color: '4'  -  Control what color operators appear as in the server.
nickname-prefix: '~'  -  The prefix before any nickname for a player to be displayed in-game.
max-nick-length: 15  -  Maximum number of characters allowed for any nickname.
teleport-delay: 0  -  The command cooldown for teleportation in seconds.
auto-afk: 300  -  Automatically make any player AFK after specific time in seconds.
unsafe-enchantments: false  -  Toggling non-vanilla enchantment levels (ex: Sharpness 100).
starting-balance: 0  -  Sets the initial in-game balance for any user that joins.
currency-symbol: '$'  -  The displayed currency icon when money is mentioned.
max-money: 10000000000000  -  The limit for how much money a player can possibly obtain.
min-money: -10000  -  The minimum amount of cash a user can have, which can be negative.

Conclusion

EssentialsX is an all-in-one plugin that gives you the ability to use kits, warps, homes, sign commands, money, and so much more. However, remember that Vault is required for economy usage with the main plugin. Most of the features use commands, but how they act in-game are configurable in the main config.yml file of the plugin in the FTP panel. Make sure to use the permission nodes accordingly for your players and ranks so they have access to all the functions. In this resource, we’ve covered all the main aspects of EssentialsX and that should assist you in creating a professional, creative, or fun Minecraft server.
 

Useful Links

EssentialsX Spigot
EssentialsX Wiki
How to Manually Install Minecraft Plugins