Minecraft EssentialsX Protect

in plugins

By Nathan Young

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Youtube

Overview

Building is a major aspect of Minecraft, allowing players to create structures for survival or unleash their creativity. Oftentimes, troublesome users will attempt to ruin this fun by placing lava, using TNT, and more. Protecting against these threats are crucial if you want to maintain you and your players’ in-game progression. Fortunately, if you host a Spigot or Paper server then the EssentialsX plugin offers a Protect addon that safeguards your buildings and gear. A few examples include disabling creeper explosions, PvP, fire spread, and many more features. The plugin allows you to completely control its several functions within the configuration file and permissions. In this Apex Hosting guide, we’ll teach you how to install and configure EssentialsX Protect on your Minecraft server’s world.
 

Installation

1. Head over to the EssentialsX Download page, then Download the EssentialsX and EssentialsX Protect plugins.
   
2. Once you have the JAR files, navigate to your Apex server panel and locate the FTP File Access button.
3. Enter in that area and use your panel password to login, then enter into the plugins directory.
4. Afterward, press Upload in the top left corner and drag the plugin files in the respective section.
   

From there, go back to the main panel and Restart the server so it can load the plugins.

Getting Started

The main EssentialsX plugin has over 6 million downloads and has been around since 2015. The plugins are compatible with 1.8 to 1.19 Minecraft versions, which means that most server owners can freely use it without worrying. The same applies to all its addons, which have been a significant part of EssentialsX. Using those plugins together helps build a completely controlled server with many settings to configure.
 

Configuration

If you want to limit griefing or are annoyed with specific functions from mobs or entities like explosions, then you can edit the Protect area of the plugin. This can be a literal life-saver if you encounter too many creepers or griefers.

1. Head towards the FTP File Access area from the main panel and login with your password.
2. Once there, enter into the plugins folder and click Edit to the right of the config.yml file.
3. Scroll down and locate the Protect section of the file, which is near line 935.
   
4. You may now start configuring the settings how you want them.

Prevention

The Prevent category of the configuration controls what most blocks, entities, and items can do in-game. This helps prevent certain troublesome mechanics such as Wither Skull player damage, Enderman block pickup, or water/lava flow. There are tons of settings to review and configure inside the file’s section, but we’ll run through common examples that you can implement in your Minecraft server.
 

Preventing TNT & Creeper Explosions

Removing explosions from mobs or blocks helps minimize the damage from griefers, exploiters, or the scary encounter of meeting a creeper while you mine. Disabling TNT or Creeper explosions requires the enabled settings down below.

  prevent:
    tnt-explosion: true
    creeper-explosion: true

New Minecraft players may not know this, but no one can sleep in the Nether. If you attempt to do that, you’ll explode into flames and likely lose your gear. If you’re wanting to disable that functionality, then it’s possible with EssentialsX Protect. The option below can achieve that.

  prevent:
    bed-explosion: true

Preventing Bed Explosions in the Nether

Preventing Flint & Steel from Working

Whether you make pixel art with wool or have a wooden base, Flint & Steel can be used as a griefing tool to destroy your structures. You gain control over the item’s functionality through the plugin, which may save your world from problematic players. The following setting removes fire from the item’s usage.

  prevent:
    flint-fire: true

The entire list of settings can be found in Protect’s Prevent section of the main configuration.
 

Spawning

In addition to controlling entities or block interactions, you can disable spawning for passive and hostile mobs. If you have a Factions server that allows spawn eggs, but some players use it for exploiting or griefing purposes then disabling that might be best. The configuration is located in the Spawn category of the Protect section in the config.yml file. A few examples are shown below.

    spawn:
      creeper: false
      villager: true
      giant: false
      ghast: false

Other Settings

There are miscellaneous features from EssentialsX Protect, which are found in the Disable category of the file. You can toggle PvP, drowning damage, lightning, or even weather. It gives more control over your world and possible aspects that could harm your structures or progression. You can find some examples of these settings down below.
 

Disabling Fire Damage

Removing fire damage from your server would be ideal if a player constantly griefs or annoys your playerbase with it. Toggling the function would also help with PvP if it was causing too many issues. The option below shows how to disable fire damage.

  disable:
    firedmg: true

Most likely the best function with this section is removing fall damage from the world. Ever since Minecraft 1.18, there are more areas to fall in-game thereby resulting in death. If no one can die by falling, then you’ll save your loot and progression. Consider enabling the following setting below to achieve that.

  disable:
    fall: true

Disabling Fall Damage

Instead of protecting the entire world, you can set up protected regions from the WorldGuard plugin.
 

Permissions

If you desire specific players or ranks to bypass some protections, then using EssentialsX Protect permission nodes is required. We advise using LuckPerms to manage them, but will work with any permission managing plugin you install. You may view an entire list of them down below. Alternatively, you may review other permissions from the main plugin here.

Conclusion

While enjoying your building experience, griefers or otherwise problematic players can disrupt that. It’s annoying to deal with them, but preventing damages through EssentialsX Protect is best. Tweaking the configuration file is how you’ll establish the proper settings for your world, as some features you may want enabled rather than disabled. Although, you can add permissions to specific players or ranks to allow bypasses for disabled features. Additionally, exploring other EssentialsX addons or plugins to combine with Protect might be even better for your setup. We wish you the best of luck and hoped this helped you get started with the Protect addon for your Minecraft server.
 

Useful Links

EssentialsX Permission List
EssentialsX Download page
How to Setup a Paper Server