Tutorials/Player versus Player

PvP or Player vs. Player is a fun and nerve-racking yet considerably dangerous aspect of Minecraft which is only on Multiplayer as you need another player to fight against. PvP lets you pit with others to become the most feared man of a whole server, or you can be a loner, backstabbing others and ridding the powerful of the hard-earned diamonds! Whatever you do with this, PvP is almost always fun, that is unless you're shovelling dirt and the server's top combatant is standing right behind you. Working together with others or fighting solo, this is the second hardest nut to crack.

Combat Itself
The first thing you must always practice before going to survive in such a world is to fight PvP itself. It is always skill dependent and fighting may end up involving more parameters than are shown in this page. It's best to start out fighting alone to gain skill and to be used to the fact that not everybody would be there to assist you. Start off with strong armor, then weaker armor, and if you're so hardcore no armor at all. If you can beat the fighting part itself, then Survival and Faction Wars should be easier...

Friendly PvP
Friendly PvP is when two or more players agree to PvP for only for friendly practice, and usually agree to give back any items won afterwards (or turn off player drops). Friendly PvP is a very good way to practice fighting and is great to play on LAN. Also it tends to be the best option for PvP as it:

A) Avoids starting grudges.

B) Stops you from property loss.

C) Establishes a Minecraft cooperative bond, which is almost always fruitful!

This kind is mostly used in multiplayer schools and mainly to train. However, some servers endorse building, and being kind to other users. Others have specific PvP arenas (or are giant arenas). Usually servers will have a "terms of service" that include whether or not PvP is allowed in that particular server. If you own an SMP server, you may change the settings by entering the server.properties file and setting PvP on either true or false.

Organized PvP
Organized PvP is when players agree to a fight. It is voluntary and therefore is up to the fighter's choice. Fights like so normally range to who is the better fighter to who gets the just-found diamonds. This type of PvP is fun for the whole family (apart for a few sore losers) and shouldn't be the predecessor of a war.

Arenas
First things first, you need a place to fight. Fighting in your house may be fun, but to be honest, it isn't a great idea, especially if your house is made of wood/ wool and someone uses Flint and Steel and/or TNT. A flat area is good for awhile, but after some time you'll get bored. Now if only someone would think of Arena Types and how to build them for you...

Well, you're in luck. Best to build on creative, then switch to survival.

It's quick and easy to build arenas consisting of a floor, some type of wall, and 2 entrances; so let's start:
 * 1) Clear a flat area for your arena, make it as large as you want, but a 10x10 square is a good minimum. Another option is to simply make this on a superflat world.
 * 2) Place a 2-high wall made out of fence or iron bars around the arena so spectators can see what’s happening but not interfere (Arrows can get over a 1 high wall). Place some fence gate or doors at 2 ends of the area so combatants can enter.
 * 3) You're done! Have fun in your very simple arena.

Time consuming and hard to build arenas consist of any shaped floor (e.g. circular, triangular, which has an intriguing design) patterns and shadow shapes. Walls are seats to make a stadium-like building. Arenas also may contain Piston traps (lava, TNT, mob, and pitfalls), piston combatant entrance and many more features. If TNT or lava is used an arena cleaner is going to be needed. Note: if your arena is going to have TNT, or other explosives, it's recommend that you use obsidian.

Types: up.
 * Ancient: Build a Colosseum inspired by the ancient Romans with fights against animals and perhaps some blood (Redstone) on the floor (not historically accurate however) - use stone or all the kinds of stone brick for walls, grass as the floor and wood for decoration and breaking the stone or stone brick
 * Maze: Build the walls and seats so the spectators can watch the combatants run around scared mind-less as they fear a creeper around the next corner.
 * Multi-leveled: Have several floors on the arena with random holes; make sure the sides are made of glass so spectators can see all the gravitational action.
 * Nether Arena: Note: It doesn't actually have to be in the nether. Make a 3 block high nether brick wall around the wanted arena area, and cap it with nether brick fences. Use a piston door with pressure plates on the entry side. Then, make a spectator booth that rises above the walls with nether brick stairs on one side. The arena floor should be netherrack with glowstone in the middle and even some lava dotted around (give players anti-lava protection to make things fairer). You can light some of the netherrack if you want. Have fun!
 * Spleef Twist: Who says you have to do the dirty work? Let lava below the map do it for you (tell combatants before the match to avoid having to pay compensation)! Run around stabbing your opponent whilst removing the floor from beneath their feet.
 * Sky: Build the arena in the sky and use piston traps to make random holes appear. Gravity is now your best and worst friend.
 * Gimmick: create your arena as uniquely as possible - make pistons push from the floor to give some players a height advantage, use stairs to stimulate a slanted room to confuse anyone, or use water to slow everyone down and render sprinting useless. The possibilities are endless.
 * Raining Lava: Once the start lever is pulled, opening the combatant entrances, a Redstone repeater delay is all that's stopping lava from pouring from the ceiling. Using pistons and a two minute delay, make lava pour from the ceiling and kill all remaining combatants! (or make it so they have to dodge lava 'raindrops'. (Remember: Don't use flammable materials!)
 * Dome: create a giant sphere out of glass so spectators can spectate
 * 'Sea battle' Put a pool of water in a glass bowl and give each player a boat, first to sink loses, or continue until someone dies.
 * 'TNT FIELD' Put TNT in random place and activate it. It will now cause a crater. Put multiple TNT to make crater bigger. Now put fences around it and let the battle begin!
 * 'Natural Lava Arena' Find a naturally-generated lava. Get lots of golden apple and/or fire resistance potions. Hop in, you will be burnt during the battle. More excitement and difficulty!

Things you need before PVP
Unless you are professional at PVP, it is recommended you to have these items before you join the fight.


 * A full set of at least iron armor.
 * At least two useful enchantments on your gear.
 * Two Swords - one for backup and one for use. It is also recommended to bring a wood or stone sword so you can fake being poor/weak.
 * A Bow with 64 or more Arrows (or one arrow and an infinity enchantment)
 * Golden Apple (Enchanted ones are better)
 * Food
 * A Lava Bucket (optional)
 * A Water Bucket (optional)
 * Flint and Steel (optional)
 * Invisibility Potions (optional)
 * Splash Poison Potions (optional)
 * Splash Instant Damage Potions (optional)
 * Instant Health Potions (optional)
 * Regeneration Potions (optional)
 * Two other useful items that match the way you play.

However, never bring anything you will not use to PvP or are afraid of losing. Keep unnecessary items in a chest that will not be stolen.

Do whatever you can to win! Try to drive your opponent to corner, than it will be heaps easier for you to kill him/her, especially when you have harming potions. If you know the arena and if it has traps, lure your opponent into them! Now, you might not be one to play dirty and slimy, but bring your tricks anyway, because your opponent may not be as ethical. If you want a truly honest duel have a non-biased administrator check your inventories with a plugin. Otherwise, keep yourself stocked with anything you think you'll usefully use.

Strategic Tactics
In Faction servers or survival PvP servers in general, strategy and a base are always of big use. Don't go charging at someone before you plan every single step you take.

Locating players: Get moving and get some sugar cane and a compass. Craft a map. Not only it will help you see the environment around you, it will also indicate where other players are. (Rei's Minimaps also works, but only if the server allows it.)

Enchanted armor/usage of XP Farms: Now we know how they get the diamond armor, but how do they get the enchantments? They mostly build XP Farms for their factions/bases around the server. Try making a xp farm with spawners or iron golems for the best effects. Also mining a lot helps. To get the enchantments however you will need a Enchantment Table, which needs diamonds.

Underground base: A base underground is always a good choice in PvP servers. To make sure that nobody will find your base try and base it in ocean biomes. Dig deep underneath the water and make sure you know where your hole is. When you start digging down first block up the top so the water stops coming through. A good way of getting out and in of your secret base is by doing a water elevator using pockets of water and signs, however this will make your entrance more noticeable and it could be spotted and raided (unless the server has Lockette on). When you have built your base size put your chests down and prepare it.

Skybase: A base floating in the air is difficult to access, especially if it is built above an ocean. It will be difficult to locate and difficult to break into, as long as it is fortified with obsidian. Best when used on factions servers especially, but only if you are smart about laying out land.

Base Building tips: Use cobblestone, there is plenty of it. Cover chests with mossy cobble if you have it, so the chest won't be visible. Try to encase important areas of your base with obsidian, so TNT cannons cannot blast in. Also use water to protect against TNT. Go all out with various redstone traps designed to kill or hinder invaders.One stratagy is to jump around when fighting a team.Thats because when two or more people in a team get excited so they start hiting each other.So just keep jumping around.

Killing the Player: Best ways to kill the player are sneaking behind them and killing them so you get the first hit, then try cornering it if you can. If you can't, go round the player in a repetative circle so that the other player must keep turning round in order to hit you but never can (basically, go round the opposite direction that the opponent is facing) and jump when you hit for better results. Bows from long range and hidden places are a good idea but the player may run away if he is that type of person that shies from danger.

On the Run: Another good idea is to live on the run, without a home base or faction. Raid any unnocupied bases you see and never stop, apart from the evenings when therefore you hide out in somebodies' base when you can find it. Most people would probably recommend building a base though, as it is the safer and more logical choice, however there is no problem with living on the run as you can never really be targeted as they do not know where the target is (unless they have a map which is suggested in the article above) and you can get free loot from raided chests.

Combat Time!
Time to battle, you can fight them like a man sword to sword, bow to bow, bombard them with potions, or run around like a headless chicken and hope he starves first. Whatever you do, make sure you win!

Dodge his attacks with your lightning reactions (or butter fingers) and stab by rapidly clicking your mouse's left click button. Use you right mouse button to block attacks, sprint at opponents and hit whilst falling for critical hits! Spamming block and hit at the same time will hit and block at the same time, enabling you to deal damage while taking less, at the cost of reduced mobility. If you practice, practice, and practice, nothing will stop you and a well equipped character! Except hackers...

Unorganized PvP
This is when you're minding your own business and someone runs up behind you and kills you. No warning is normally given and most of the time they want your stuff.

If you are moving about on travelling across the wilderness, always hold your sword/bow for unexpected duels, this can be for mobs as well as players, which is handy.

Fight Back!
If you have better stuff than them you will most likely be able to kill them. Use everything to your advantage! They attacked you, and to be honest, fighting is going to often lose you your hard earned equipment (on servers with player drops on). Use critical hits by jumping, knock them far back by sprinting, block their hits using right click, and so on. It doesn't always matter what stuff you have, skill is tied with power, but power is useless without skill! Also, if your server has MCMMO Skills you might like to practice a lot on the weaponry and tools section, as eventually, for example, a regular wooden axe with the MCMMO Skill of around 200 will kill another player whatever the armour in around 2-3 hits.

Tip: A quick splatter with a few damage potions of Instant Harming II will give a nice advantage or an instant kill. If you have them.


 * Always Carry Extras

You never want to experience the moment of dawning horror when you are about to finish off the enemy but your sword breaks. Always carry two swords unless you have a fresh diamond sword or a decent tool e.g. Iron/ diamond axe or Diamond pick. Alternatively, get an enchanted book with Unbreaking on it, and use it to increase the Durability of your Sword and Armour.

RUN!
Don't run if there is nowhere to go, or if you are likely to win the fight. If you cannot escape the combat area, running will not help you (unless you run up a mountain, tree, or other tactically useful object)

Do run if you don't think you can win, usually, this includes if they have better armor then you, you are starving, you have low health, you have no weapons worth using, etc. If you are in your base, carefully consider whether running will be a good strategy, they will most likely raid and pillage your base, and come back repeatedly to continue their pillaging. (Unless Factions/Lockette is on your server)

Get mixed in Pig's Food...
Get eaten by the pigs.

This may sound confusing, but say that you are attacked. If someone intervenes in your fight, and attacks the enemy, then you and the new fighter can kill the enemy. When that is finished, then you will fight the new opponent and possibly lose. That is why it is called Pig's Food, because instead of possibly losing to your hated foe, you chose to possibly get eaten AKA defeated by the person intervening, who is the pig. However, if the "Pig" does not attack you, you now owe a debt to that person, which is also a way to get "eaten"-through the need to repay them.

What's next?

 * Tournaments: Get a few players together: about 10+ is good, then put them two at a time against each other. If you win, you fight another winner; if you win again, you fight another winner again and again until you lose or there is only one winner left. You never fight a loser; if they lose they are out, exept perhaps for a battle for third place.
 * Free-For-Alls/Last Man Standing: 10+ players fight against whoever they want in the arena at the same time. Maybe there is someone who is annoying or swears too much - who wouldn't want to try killing them...?
 * Team: 10+ players on equal teams. The team with the most players left alive at the end wins.
 * UN-Official Duels: You have a person who you REALLY hate, but you have more TNT than him? Call him on and if he says yes, start the battle. Uh oh, there is going to be a LOT of fouls (like lava pouring, TNT and flint and steel burnings) but, this is why it is called UN-Official duels, as they don't yet count.
 * Survival: Make about 10+ players and make monster spawners in the arena. Give all the players wooden swords. There should be no creepers. Last person standing wins. Players can attack their rivals to kill them or team up and share the victory.

Faction Wars
Another type of organized PvP is the faction war. This is when a faction attempts to irreparably exterminate all members on another faction and later destroy or loot all property of said faction. These can range from a surprise attack to a formal challenge of two armies, and can have up to hundreds of warriors on either side (though this is extremely rare and may cause lag). In some servers you may be asked to pick a team without knowing who is on it.

Your first raid
If you intend to explore the full tactical armory of PvP, then a helpful one and likely the first is the raid.

Simply put, a raid is the theft of materials from the property of another player and killing enemy team members. Raids have a pro and a con.
 * It drains the resources that can be used against you and increases your own resources.
 * It increases your priority on their hit list.

Generally, raids are worth the risk. There are two objects that are absolutely necessary if you want the raid to be effective and efficient.
 * Lots of food.
 * An Efficiency IV Diamond Pickaxe.

The first is always needed since this may take some time. However, you may wonder why I chose a enchanted diamond pick. It's because no matter what, the base is likely to be made of obsidian. Without a powerful pick like this, the odds are that the owner will have mowed you down before you could break a block of their base! Therefore, you must be fast.

Choosing a base is easy, and really, an unmanned base is a dead base. When a minimal amount of people are manning the base, then you can strike. Steal all goods. Remember that your point is sabotage, and so you should dispose of all you didn't steal. If you really want to damage them, clog all entry points.

Some tips:


 * 1) If it's reinforced with obsidian, even so it's likely they'd leave a door or something for ease of access. Enter there if necessary.
 * 2) If you just want the enemy's equipment, then do it when nobody's around the base.
 * 3) Creepers will be easier to control than TNT since you can lure them to the enemy's walls. Just be sure to wear some armor.

Tactical Planning
Keep in mind that faction wars are not always about combat. It's always about preparations and knowledge, such as how you wish to raid another faction's base, not just that you will raid them, how you can slay a guy in diamond armor with only iron armor, and the preparations you went before going out to war. You can't rush into an attack, you need to plan it.

First of all, PvP is clearly about fighting. Here's the lowdown on your armor.

If someone is Protection III Diamond Armor, it takes without them healing...
 * 172 Hearts of (344 health) of Bow or Sword Damage.
 * 34 Hearts of Fire or Falling
 * 10 Hearts of Potions or Drowning or Suffocation
 * Tossing them in the Void somehow is a certain death.

Now to planning. Say a new enemy has come and he has Protection IV armor, with a Sharpness V sword, and an obsidian base all to himself that nobody did so much as dared to walk near. Attacking him would be hard in a fair fight (unless you have better equipment). First, send an (invisible) friend to discover the entrances, exits, traps, base structure and chests. Then you reconstruct a map back home of how things look and work extra hard to get what you need for the raid. After all that, initiate your course of action, which should involve digging below to dismantle traps, blockading critical exit points ,removing supply chests, and blowing holes in his weak points. This allows you to eliminate his source of power. Then, send someone to cause a diversion to distract him. He'll be chased all the way until he comes back and finds the smoldering ruin that was his home. Lead him to a terrain useful to you,such as a cliff where the wall is shaved clean for at least 64 blocks with a diamond block next to the edge. By the time he realizes you were invisible behind him with a Punch III bow, it's too late. A plan like this might be hard to follow, but brains beats brawn.

Always make sure every fight is strongly in your favor. Go to reasonable lengths to ensure you can attack but he cannot retaliate, or sacrifice to gain power, such as you losing 5 hearts though snowballing him but in the process breaking his diamond armor.

Behind Enemy Lines
As stated earlier, faction wars are not always about fighting. Although the point of a Faction War is to demolish, secrets about the other side are very helpful in doing so. Let's go into another scenario. Another faction is the strongest faction but is secretive, stealthy, mean, and very rich. Your team have never liked them, and in fact, hated them. But there isn't any intelligence about them. They need a spy who shoots like snipers, is strategic, is stealthy, patient, and courageous even against the bullet-proof monster opposing them. They need YOU. Now, they equip you with Golden Armor, a diamond sword, a bucket of milk to wear off the effects of a splash potion of poison and 3 of harming, a bow with 128 arrows, and 32 pieces of pork. Throw in some Fireworks for distractions, and you're ready to go. You look loosely armored, so without any skill you are WORTHLESS and your faction has already lost.

Now, as a spy, don't ever alert them to your position, because even if they don't know who you are, you are someone sneaking around their base, and they will pursue. To do that, you must follow some steps.


 * 1) Leave an object to hold Shift to sneak and make it so that nobody sees your nametag.
 * 2) Make no noise, which means: Don't break blocks, put down blocks, pick up resources and blocks, fight monsters, get hurt, or eat. Eating is the most tempting, since you can starve easily and you want to regenerate if you are being chased, but it's better not to get in a chase yet, so sacrifice your regeneration. Enemies can hear your noise and catch you if you do so near them.
 * 3) Even if you know you aren't in reach of one, setting off a trap gives you away! Even if you are safe from it, setting it off may also alert whoever is in the control room. Take alternate routes. The only reason to try to defuse a trap is if there is no other way. Or if there is no other way because of people blocking you, you can set off the trap on purpose to direct attention to hide and kill anyone who comes to check the trap out.

Make note of EVERYTHING. Don't write on a Book and Quill, write it on pen and paper to avoid being exposed, but write it on an in-game book later. This intelligence is most important, and can get you one step closer to victory. Do not forget that this mission is Recon and only to obtain intelligence on the enemy. In other words, don't attack, approach, bomb, or loot the enemy. Report back to your base once you think you have more than enough information on the enemy and that is when you can declare war. Note: More recon missions may need to apply, get psyched if that ever happens!

Base Building
Building a base to protect yourself from the diamond swords and the arrows? Good work! Here are some tips to help you make your base even more efficient:

1: Size Bigger may not be better, as an above ground structure gains visibility the larger it is, and leaves more space for your party to have to defend and be attacked from. Large bases like these also attract PvPers, Looters and griefers quickly. On the flip side, big bases make great headquarters, and can hold more firepower, such as cannons, dispensers, and archer towers. A small base is also not that safe, because of in the case of a explosion, you're going to be saying goodbye to your chests and hard work. One effective type of base is a base that is deep underground, where enemies will take days to hunt you down, while you throw the cobblestone you mined into the fire, relax and build traps and a strongroom. Another base, meant for continuous habitation, is far above the world. In the case of high render distance, enemies still may not notice it, due to players generally looking forward, not up. Even when they do notice it, they will be required to build up to it, at least until they get within range to throw an ender pearl. Unless a prohibitively expensive defensive structure is used to get up, they can be easily pummeled with arrows, a single one of which could send them falling to their death or at least making them restart. Tips for a base in mid-air: don't have any "blind-spots," if someone builds up from straight beneath you, you will be unable to shoot them until they literally enter your base. This can be accomplished by building the bottom floor in a "ring" shape. Also, make a nether portal, but disable it so that it does not attract other portals, if need be, you can enable it to make an escape. Bases in mid-air are somewhat more effective during a raid, when well stocked, as there is very little the enemy can do to actually enter them besides pillaring up and trying not to get shot off of their pillar. Again, this base type is best for continuous habitation, but it is only slightly more protected than a house on the ground if nobody is manning it.

2: Defenses Every good base needs traps and defenses! An easily defeated wall defense is made of cobblestone.another good way is to chessboard wood and cobble ( delaying the players) A good wall should contain at least one obsidian or water layer to shield explosive force, and be thick enough to be make it tedious to mine, frustrating players trying to breach your fort whilye you pick them off with arrows. Traps such as TNT tripwires, pitfalls, and dispensers are great defenses, but some materials, such as sticky pistons, are hard-to-come-by materials, so be careful while trying to get these materials. Also, self building walls can be useful during an attack, but remember, a trespasser will not simply pound at the wall forever (unless they are monotonously dedicated to it). Eventually,they will most likely climb it with blocks, or disable it by destroying the mechanism.

3: Allies This is one of the great secrets to PvP mastery! Allies can be useful in many tasks, but they must be trustworthy, or else they could backstab you and tamper with your welfare in general. An ally could help in battle and gather materials for you,or make an unnecessary enemy,be killed with your valuables when they fall in lava, or stab you in the back. So be careful whom you choose for an ally! Haste in that aspect is generally a waste. So, if someone offers to ally the minute you go on a server, especially a hardcore server, refuse. Likewise, if someone joins a server for the first time, immediately seeking or accepting their alliance is usually a mistake.

Security
Building a base? Smart. However, check that your seemingly secure base is not vulnerable. Time to troubleshoot!

Solution: Reinforce the walls with rings of obsidian embedded in it to break TNT impact and deter speedy tunneling, and coat with water. Solution: Build tall ladder shafts around the perimeter so that you can climb them and shoot off the enemy. Solution: Put lava falls to help deter them and have archers constantly patrolling the walls. Solution: Dig a long 1 block wide trench all around your base beyond the walls all the way to bedrock. Occasionally look down it, and if you spot any gaps in the "canyon" in the form of tunnels, ladder down and attack. Solution: Find a way to put an inactive nether portal to another dimension in your base so you can portal away, or build your base around an end portal, or build tunnels.
 * Problem: Enemies can easily blow up walls and tunnel through them.
 * Problem: An air based attack gets you quite often.
 * Problem: Enemies eventually get through your walls.
 * Problem: Enemies tunnel under your base.
 * Problem: You have bricked your self in.

Keep a self destruct and an escape
If the base is being raided, and your hand is forced, activate the self destruct on your base. It is very important to keep one on hand at all times and also have an escape. The self destruct must be designed to overwhelmingly destroy all life inside the base and the base itself but also be well hidden. This is hard and so you should experiment. In times of need, start the lethal countdown and escape.

Keep In touch
Not all of your faction skirmishes in the PvP world will be set up beforehand. Organize raids with your faction. Find some server to host a voice chat box with your teammates. This will allow you to coordinate your attacks on hostile bases and their creations. The more connected you are with your fellow faction members, the more likely you are to emerge victorious. Keep in touch with them and increase your odds of success.

Keep hidden bases
Let us say that you have just moved in with your awesome new faction. They have diamonds, dozens of anvils, and general awesomeness in general. Now, a faction war has started, and you have no base, no food, nothing except what the faction gave you. Then boom! A traitor gave the enemy faction a way to teleport in, and the base has all its supplies blown up and doused in lava. The faction is in ruins, and the spy hunts relentlessly to kill off any remaining tanks by teleporting to the players and summoning their faction with them. (True story.) So, since you had no idea how to make a Teleport connection, you are safe from being teleported to by diamond juggernauts. There are multiple ways to go. The best way is dependent on circumstances, but this shows that a spy is lethal. Trust nobody and keep a secret base all to yourself. Put a home there and be safe from pursuers, spawncampers, etc. There are more ways this scenario could have been worse. Be ready!

Mass Battle
PvP in large factions can include multiple scenarios, from individual murders or attempts to murder, to entire factions battling it out with organized lines of defense, barricades, tunnels, trenches, and siege-equipment.

Open-Field Battle
To make it brief, an open field battle is the combat of multiple factions in an open area. If your leader dies, retreat is necessary to regroup and reorganize. Everyone must retreat, but not necessarily passively! Leave a little lava barricade for them so they cannot easily sprint after you. I should note that this tutorial works best if each army is at least 5-10 players in size and not all roles have to be filled. One person can take on multiple roles. A good tactic would be to arm your whole team with invisibility potions. This gives you an advantage because your enemy won't know where the arrows or attacks are coming from. This also allows for a quick retreat in case of emergency. Another good tip is to attack at night with invisibility and night vision.

There are three major melee builds, which will be discussed more in depth later. They are... 4 Exotics usually beat a Juggernaut, a Juggernaut will usually beat 20 soldiers, and 4 soldiers usually beat 6 Exotics. All soldiers should stay in a formation.
 * The juggernaut. These are heavily armored man-hack sword enchanted soldiers. Rarely can a single melee to fight them survive. Highly costly to make!
 * The infantry. These are normally armored soldiers without enchantments. They are cheap but consume lots of iron at worst.
 * The exotic. These are users of exotic weapons with varying armor levels. They are not very difficult but suicidal hard in certain cases. Not very costly, but takes time to make.

If you are ambushed with a group,you should stay with the group. In a group soldiers are denser and so more damage is dealt at once to your attackers and damage is also distributed so that you'll be barely injured. Archers can mass-fire arrows.

It is tempting in an organized battle to do one of two things:
 * 1) Charge the enemy.
 * 2) Run from the main areas of combat to camp the areas nobody goes to.

Charging the enemy will get you killed if you do it alone. Most likely, you will be shot dead by archers, but if you have diamond armor, you may live long enough to be gutted alive by massed swords and potions. Luck or unnatural skill in using invincibility frames are your only hope in your suicidal attempt. Running will get your allies killed, and any left will dislike your cowardliness. They may even kill you or evict you from their faction.

Defend as follows:

Have all your soldiers stand in relatively straight, layered lines, each around 5 blocks apart. Row one should be soldiers that are somewhat expendable but relatively tough fighting or otherwise blocking. Row 2 should have archers that stand about 1 block above the soldiers of Row 1, so that they can jump back on their perch easily and shoot effectively over Row 1 soldiers. If the enemy is very brutal and pinpointing, build a 1 block high wall, dig a trench one block deep one block behind it, and keep hidden reserves there in the midst of battle. This way, the enemy will be hit from 2 sources, and two will have two layers two replace the front line!

The first situation is if the enemy has large numbers of archers. Send a wave of mundane soldiers charging in, with moderate armor, a few Instant Damage II potions, and some skill, if they do have archers.

If they don't, they will run or charge. If they run, have archers retreat to the back lines and then have the whole army sprint, bunching Juggernauts close to the front line while staying together, for maximum impact momentum.

If they charge, then that is the most dangerous possibility. The best way to stop their forward momentum is to have every archer ready to fire at full force, shooting when they are 10-15 meters away. When archers have switched to rapid-spam mode then move them one row back and have them switch weapons, with melee infantry occupying the row they once were in. The infantry should fight for a bit, while juggernauts and potion lobbers move in at sprinting speed to surge into enemy lines and later replace the infantry and slaughter anyone that was engaging the infantry. Make sure that the juggernauts and potion lobbers do this around 5 seconds AFTER the infantry start fighting, as the enemy infantry may have potions, and they will likely waste them on your infantry instead of waiting for the juggernauts.

No matter the case, the enemy can do little versus Juggernauts and potion lobbers coming in from a flank as well as a defensive row of Exotics to stop enemy Juggernauts from advancing effectively.

Then attack as follows:

If you are on the attack, there are some threats to your advance you must take into account. Eliminate these! Then charge with infantry, followed immediately by exotics. The juggernauts among you should flank around and smash the enemy infantry after a few seconds of fighting. The Exotics should only engage juggernauts in combat, and only with superior numbers. In this situation, have archers aim for infantry advancing toward the fight, NOT the enemy front line, where you could shoot one of your own men.
 * A massed force of archers or snipers(These can really break a big section of the front line off. Terminate -a method was stated earlier- them as soon as possible.)
 * A hardened, continually blocking front line(These are really hard to fight by, but you can bait them just by having a player sprint near them and run away.)

The worst strategy you should try is just to have everyone charge at once. They will be quickly cut down by arrows, swarmed individually by infantry, and wrecked in 1-1 PvP by juggernauts, but if that is your only option, send archers first as shields and one-time full-force arrow shooters, then have exotics and juggernauts close in, a block behind, followed by infantry to keep up the pressure.

Typical inventories
Juggernaut: The Juggernaut is very expensive and dishes out major damage by sweeping away lesser infantry and archers. Typically dominating the battlefield, they usually cause a huge morale drain on enemies, as their high-tier equipment makes them superior to almost anyone in one vs. one combat. Due to that, it is reasonable to say that your leader should be one. However, no matter their superiority, putting these guys as your front line is a no-no. Their strength will easily present a target, and they will probably be gutted alive, spending most of their time blocking to defend line 2, and be occupied trying to fight enemy Juggernauts. However, on line 2, they can flit in and out without constraint and deploy more stealthily.

We recommend:
 * Diamond armor with protection enchantments on at least some of it.
 * A diamond sword with at least Sharpness II and Fire Aspect II.
 * The most enchanted bow they can afford.
 * At maximum 32 arrows.
 * Potions of Instant health II or Regeneration II.
 * Possibly some harmful potions.
 * Stat-Buffing Potions, particularly Strength II.
 * Basic tools (pick-axe, axe, possibly shovel).
 * One or more Ender pearls for a quick escape or charge.
 * Fire resistance potions.
 * A stack of cobblestone.
 * A stack of combat-ready food (such as meat, potatoes, particularly golden carrots)
 * If possible, an enchanted gold apple, this will allow them to evade death if being mobbed.
 * At least one bucket of milk.
 * At least one bucket of lava.

Melee infantry: The bulk of an army, deal a lot of damage quickly due to their numbers and weaponry, and are fairly tough to beat in a fair fight. They also cost mostly iron and little else.

We recommend:
 * Iron armor, lightly enchanted.
 * An iron or diamond sword, best if it has Sharpness, fire_aspect is not as useful as they will be engaged in quick, constant melee.
 * Possibly a bow and arrows, but don't make it their primary weapon unless they are fully an archer as well.
 * Possibly Potions of Instant health II or Regeneration II.
 * Possibly some harmful potions. Tell them not to throw them at non-juggernauts unless they will injure multiple enemies.
 * Possibly stat-Buffing Potions, particularly Strength II.
 * Basic tools (pick-axe, axe, shovel).
 * A stack of cobblestone.
 * As much as possible of combat-ready food (such as meat, potatoes, particularly golden carrots).

Note that they WILL NOT have time to eat during combat unless the battle devolves into a brawl and they win in 1-1 combat.

Archer: Deal damage at range and rarely receive it unless their army loses, which case they are likely to be smashed while trying to run for their lives. Fairly cheap material cost (a bow, arrows, light armor and food) but the most well-equipped archers cost many levels worth of enchantments as well.

We recommend:
 * If they have armor, make it leather or iron. Give it as high a level of projectile protection and fire protection as available. When in a high perch with a backstop for falling avoidance, a great spearhead.
 * A sword, just in case, preferably an iron one.
 * A bow, every enchantment is beneficial, and depending on the enemy, they may need large numbers of arrows, multiple stacks each. Every bow enchantment is good, but Power or Flame are preferable. They should fire at low-armor enemies who can't escape or heal themselves.
 * Possibly some harmful potions. Tell them not to throw them at non-juggernauts unless they will injure multiple enemies.
 * Basic tools (pick-axe, axe, shovel).
 * Possibly an Ender pearl for a quick escape.
 * A stack of cobblestone.
 * 3 stacks of arrows or one arrow and an Infinity bow.
 * A bucket of liquid, preferably lava to slow and kill more powerful melee-enemies.
 * As much as possible of combat-ready food (such as meat, potatoes, particularly golden carrots)

Sniper: Picks off and wears away valuable targets from a high and protected perch. They are unlikely to need a sword.

We recommend:
 * If they have armor, make it leather or iron. Give it fire protection and/or projectile protection if you can afford it.
 * A bow, Punch will be useless at this range, Flame can be very deadly, but only if they don't extinguish themselves or drink potions of fire_resistance. Power is necessary to have at high-level to kill juggernauts.
 * Possibly potions of fire-resistance.
 * Basic tools (pick-axe, axe, shovel).
 * Possibly an Ender pearl for a quick escape.
 * A stack of cobblestone.
 * A stack of arrows.
 * Possibly a bucket of liquid, preferably lava to slow and kill more powerful melee-enemies.
 * Some food, it is unlikely they will need to eat it quickly, and they will be away from battle for most of the time anyway. Even cakes or cookies work.

Exotic: Carry everything people forget about, potions galore, multiple buckets of lava, Ender pearls, a flint and steel and more. Cheap and powerful in factions with potion-making technology, but much less effective before that level of technology. They are what the smarter juggernauts dread, as their weaponry cuts through anyone Juggernauts almost as effectively as it does armorless archers. A smart way to combat this as a Juggernaut is to back off and let them overextend (or as a leader assign one sniper/archer to support every Juggernaut, in which case the Juggernaut can just say to the archer,"shoot that menacing exotic". Then close them off and fight them, as exotics carry AoE weapons, and in close quarters can either hurt themselves or not fight at all.

We recommend: This will be 35 inventory slots, excluding armor, it is recommended that they carry an empty bucket to auto-stack empty milk and lava buckets into. Also note that the invisibility potions should not be used with armor, as the armor will have to be abandoned or 4 slots of inventory emptied to use them.
 * Either no armor or full iron with thorns and/or protection.
 * A sword if possible, Knockback and sharpness are extremely valuable. Better wood with Sharpness I and Knockback I than diamond without.
 * A bow, every enchantment is good, but punch and power are extremely important.
 * Flint and steel.
 * 1-16 Ender pearls.
 * Buckets of lava, at least 3.
 * Buckets of milk, at least 3.
 * A fire-resistance potion, or perhaps 2.
 * An invisibility potion, or perhaps 2.
 * At least 2 splash potions of slowness extended to 3:00.
 * 2 1:30-splash potions of poison I.
 * 4 16-second splash potions of Poison II.
 * A 22-second regeneration II potion, or perhaps 2.
 * 4 splash potions of Instant Healing II.
 * 9 splash potions of Instant Damage II.
 * As much as possible of combat-ready food (such as meat, potatoes, particularly golden carrots)
 * A stack of cobble.
 * A shovel
 * A stack of arrows.

Ranger: The special forces of the army capable of causing massive confusion on the battlefield. we recommend:
 * A bow enchantments power and punch are a must.
 * Light armor (such as a leather chestplate.)
 * An iron sword
 * And plenty of invisibility potions (for sneaking to unexpected positions.)

Less typical Inventories
Juggernaut Supreme The title says it all. You are the breaking point, the tip of the spear, the delayer and slayer of many. Setting up this formation on someone is difficult, because no faction would be nuts or truly powerful enough in order to invest such severe amounts of effort into one possible betrayer or poorly skilled player,and so you must get the equipment and enchants yourself, assuming you think you can live up to your role. You will need:


 * Protection IV & Feather Falling IV Diamond Boots
 * Protection IV & Blast Resistance IV Diamond Leggings
 * Protection IV & Projectile Protection IV Diamond Chestplate
 * Protection IV & Fire Resistance IV Diamond Helmet''
 * Sharpness V + Knock-back II + Fire Aspect II Diamond Sword
 * 6 Potions of Healing II
 * 6 Splash Potions of Healing II
 * 64 Steaks
 * 64 Obsidian
 * 4 Splash Potions of Instant Damage II
 * 4 Splash Potions of Poison II
 * 2 Potion of Fire Resistance Extended
 * 2 Potion of Invisibility Extended
 * 2 Potion of Strength II
 * 2 Potion of Regeneration II
 * 2 Potion of Swiftness II
 * 32 Ender Pearls
 * 1 Efficiency IV Diamond Pickaxe''

Note that anything that you can enchant with Unbreaking III, you should.

Now you may be very confused by the lack of bows, an entirely full inventory, and lack of Flint and Steel, Snowballs, Fire Charges, and other odds and ends. However, this army leading paladin of doom is solely here in order to charge and break lethal formations of enemies while weathering the basic full force of an opposing army. While it does demolish anything that comes near,it generally needs backup to create a lethal movement, mostly archers to stave off foes so that the Juggernaut Supreme will be able to reasonably handle the flow of enemies and another two tough but not expensive guards. When playing this, TAKE YOUR POTIONS!

Mixed You will need:
 * Full Juggernaut armor
 * A good Enchanted Sword
 * Three or five Potions, Splash and Regular
 * Power IV Bow

Form this you'll get a very mixed inventory. If you happen to get the inventory filled with random items, the best thing to do is to keep away from the initial battle, as staying in the center of it will mean that the enemy will likely get your stuff upon your death. Mixed inventories are better when you don't have a restrictive inventory like a Sniper, and in one on one duels.

Builder If you get the role of a Builder, you are probably the one that stays behind to repair castle walls and to build last-minute fortifications. If you do get stuck with this job, you had better know how to build an at least decent fort, or be good at Redstone. If not, the tables will turn. You should get:
 * At least 256 Redstone Dust
 * At least 64 Repeaters
 * At least 64 Redstone Torches
 * TNT (Use in quick TNT cannons and destruction of buildings for fear of them being in enemy hands)
 * One or two stacks of Stone or Stone-Based materials (Cobblestone, Stone Bricks, Mossy Cobblestone, etc),
 * Ladders,
 * Basic tools (Pickaxe, Shovel, Axe),
 * Obsidian (If so, get a Diamond pickaxe),
 * Sand or Gravel (Somewhat better than Stone-Based blocks, as walls of Sand will continuously fall every time someone tries to break it, but less as Sand is less Blast Resistant and is mined faster than stone).

Ninja You will need:
 * 10+ Invisibility Potions Extended
 * A diamond sword - Sharpness 5 and Knockback 2
 * 2+ speed II potions. 2-4 potions of night vision (optional), extended.
 * Fire Charges
 * Ender pearls optional.
 * 1+ bucket of milk.

Get 5-15 ninjas for good effect, more than 20 will give you away. You cannot have fire aspect, the burning character will draw attention, but knockback confuses others where the slayer was.

Fire User You will need:
 * Flint and steel
 * Flame bow
 * Fire aspect sword
 * Two or three lava buckets
 * Fire protection armor, gold or better

These are rather effective for setting up traps for the weaker members of the army. However, the fire will often make them seen, so do not have too many.

Saboteur You will need:


 * 1 Iron sword (Sharpness 1 or 2 is recommended)
 * 3 Invisibility potions (extended)
 * Lots of Food
 * Bow (Power 1 or 2 and Punch 1 is recommended)
 * A stack of blocks (Cobblestone, Dirt)
 * 2 buckets of lava
 * Bucket of water
 * As many TNT as possible
 * Flint and steel
 * NO ARMOUR
 * 2 of each potions: Instant Health, Swiftness (Splash is not recommended)
 * 1 stack of arrows
 * 1 or more stacks of enderpearls
 * 1 stone pickaxe

The saboteur can be a deadly class if correctly used. The key to becoming good saboteur is always running away at the slightest sign of danger and always killing the enemy when they are not looking. As they have no armour they die quite easily and are extremely vulnerable when not invisible, remember, a saboteur's goal is to inflict the highest damage as possible and then to run away. (Do not bring diamonds on a saboteur mission as the risk of death is high.

Siege Trooper You willneed:
 * Iron Sword
 * If using armor, Gold to Iron
 * Bow (Optional)
 * A few arrows (Optional)
 * Lots of cobblestone
 * Some Redstone
 * Lots of levers
 * Lots of sand
 * Lots of TNT
 * Lots of Redstone Repeaters

This class is used for, well, as the title says, laying siege on overground fortresses. They are used to build TNT Cannons, Flying Machines, battering rams (Close-to-the-ground flying machines with TNT on the front) etc. Good for castles, towers, and sometimes sky bases, but useless against underwater and underground bases.

Mole You will need:
 * Efficiency IV Pickaxe (Diamond or, even better, Gold with Unbreaking III)
 * Iron Sword
 * 1-3 Potions Of Night Vision ext
 * 1-3 Potions Of Fire Resistance ext
 * If any armor, Iron
 * 4-5 TNT + Method of lighting (Flint and Steel, Lever, Redstone Torch etc.)

This class is used, unlike the above, to raid underground bases. Dig around a base to find weak points, then blast them with TNT. By no means a solo worker, this class will need a couple of infantry and at least 1 more Mole to work well.

'"Aqua Trooper'" You will need:
 * Iron Sword, best if it has Sharpness or Knockback. Fire Aspect is useless in water.
 * Leather Cap with as high Respiration as you can get, dyed blue
 * Rest of armor leather, also blue dye
 * 2-3 stacks of Snowballs

This class is used for fighting in water. It can kill almost anyone by sinking under them, then, as they pursue, surfacing and pinning the enemy down with Snowballs. Since armor does not block drowning, this is a good way to kill juggernauts.

Jungle or Urban warfare
When two factions encounter each-other like this, Stealth and vigilance play huge roles, so:


 * Crouch if you are not in a hurry.
 * EVERYONE should have a bucket of lava.
 * EVERYONE should have a fire-resistance potion or water bucket.
 * EVERYONE should have some kind of bow to kill enemies that would take too long to reach.
 * Nobody, not even juggernauts should go alone for fear of being mobbed by enemies. Recommended groups are 3.
 * Battle-Archers should go to areas of the battlefield that are generally not easily accessible and a good perch.

As with any other battle, Potions still beat heavy armor, heavy beats melee, and melee beats potions. Archers beat everything more than 12 blocks away, but rarely deal the damage necessary to kill heavy armor. All could get slaughtered by invisibility potions.Exotics should keep invisibility and fire-resistance in an easy to access area of their hot-bar, but travel in company of infantry or archer groups.Snipers should get somewhere were they can see but not be seen, preferably a jungle-tree or a tall tower.

TNT-landmines are not actually very effective in most cases, as enemies hear it and run away.

TNT cannons are impractical to make and shoot more than a few times, they also take extensive knowledge and excessive time to aim and fire.

City Assaults
In a city assault, you attack a walled fortification with civilians inside.

First of all, here are the general setups.
 * Archers will be on the wall.
 * The entrance will be heavily guarded.
 * Walls will be reinforced with some obsidian or water.

Do not ever stand idle in range of arrows. Set up camp a little while away. Siege-weapons are ineffective, it is more costly and time-consuming to blow up a wall than to fix the hole. Don't waste arrows in a literally up-hill battle against archers on the walls. Unless hardcore mode is enabled or beds or /homes are disabled, killing beds and raiding chests is extremely important.

You CANNOT starve them out, they can mine and farm just as easily when you are there as when you aren't. Tunneling in is probably best. If that is not possible for some reason such as bedrock or plugins, let them get tired out trying to scare you away, running out of arrows, then send in someone invisible with an Ender pearl to dig a small hole in the wall. At this point, simply charge juggernauts into range and kill enemies, while sending all melee infantry through the breachs in the walls. All exotics should teleport in with Ender pearls, wreaking havoc with TNT and lava while invisible. They should probably get on top of roofs or the like to avoid detection, then spam potions on to the faces of any juggernauts trying to escape or stop your infantry. Once the walls are relatively free of enemies, have a few snipers climb up. They can make short work of enemies near the breach.

If you have a large force, you can attack multiple points of the city, and overextend their forces around the city

Exotics should be modified to carry TNT, Redstone torches, etc as opposed to so many health potions.

About 1/3rd of Exotics should also search out enemy chests and beds Immediately, this will stop the enemy from respawning in the city and getting powerful gear again.

A possible city assault plan should go as such: 1: Build a major, somewhat safe siege tower.

2: Have all Juggernauts teleport into the city from the tower.

3: Order at least 6 ladder shafts into the city.

4: Have the invading Juggernauts sprint directly toward the center and place obsidian above any chests.

5: Through all ladder shafts, have infantry continue assault and destroy everything that is not a chest and breakable with their tools. This IS war!

6: Seize all chests, destroy all of the city remains, and plant trees over the remains to ensure they cannot EVER recover.

Sky Castle assaults
A fully manned, well built sky castle is the most formidable fortress possible in Minecraft (that is not one of those ridiculous bedrock-to-sky solid 1000*1000*252 obsidian boxes that take forever to make with a ton of dispensers and lava) as a single unarmored unenchanted archer on the defense platform could send a dozen undefeatable juggernauts plummeting to their certain death, even if they all pillared up at the same time with a semi-defensive structure and attempted to get in with Ender pearls. Assaulting a Sky castle is a dangerous and difficult attack, as an attacking army 10 times as numerous as that of the defenders can be easily destroyed without ever even causing damage if they do not carefully plan their assault.

For the defenders:
 * Build it at least at y=180 for the bottom.
 * Have a Nether Portal, but keep it turned off unless it is in-use.
 * Make a ring around the bottom of the castle which allows archers to move around and fire at things straight below them.
 * Farm everything you can in the castle, food, chickens and trees are a must.
 * There are some items that are difficult to farm on a castle, stock up on them:
 * Sand/Glass: for making potions.
 * Gunpowder: for potions and TNT.
 * Ghast-tears: for potions, just in case.
 * Iron: for armor, buckets, tools.
 * Diamond: For swords, armor, etc.
 * Gold: For potions.
 * Redstone: for potions.
 * String: for new bows.
 * Lava: for dropping on people.
 * Ender pearls: for abandoning ship or surprise-attacking the more intelligent juggernauts (often a suicide mission)

Also

Make as little surface-area as possible for people to Ender pearl to, make it so that they will hit a wall and fall to their deaths.

For the attackers:
 * DO equip all attackers with Feather Falling IV boots and Projectile Projection IV
 * DON'T build 1x1 pillars to the tower straight under it, the archers will shoot you off, Ender pearls are not long-enough range to reach them, and you won't be able to kill them with arrows at such steep angles.
 * DON'T try to Ender pearl unless you can successfully get in, hitting the walls will cause you to drop to your certain death.
 * DO sit on the ground below the base and fire mortars at important areas of their base. It may seem like a waste of gunpowder, but it is worth it.
 * DO guard the Nether and move their portal to link with one that teleports them to the ground instead of their base.
 * DO put pressure plates all over the place next to the portal to detect invisible enemies.
 * DO go directly under the fortress(or any blind spot)and use your cobble and ladders to slowly create a shaft with a ladder that an archer cannot shoot you off (since the ladder is in a little shaft of cobblestone) in order to anchor the fortress to the ground. Following this, send Juggernauts in.

Go 100 meters away or more and build a pillar slightly taller than their base, from said pillar, build a man-powered enclosed flying machine. This is perhaps the most effective piece of siege-equipment possible. Move the enclosed flying machine about 30 blocks away from their base. Have all of the troops inside drink an invisibility potion and break the glass between them and the sky castle. Have each throw an Ender pearl and start to storm the base invisible, if it you wish to destroy it, break all beds and steal the items from the chests. If not, simply activate the Nether Portal, send all soldiers but one on the ground into the Nether, disable the ground portal, and send all soldiers back to earth, they should appear in the portal. Send everyone still invisible to random areas to spy, and let the majority of the army sweep through the castle.

If one lacks the expertise to do this, building a 5x5 diamond-shaped tower of cobblestone with multiple juggernauts or melee-infantry at the top works as well, just remember that they need regeneration II or healing potions (preferably splash potions to heal all of the juggernauts at once). Also, Make sure that the walls of the tower are always 1-3 meters taller than the floor and never jump onto or above the altitude of the walls. Also remember that this takes 26 stacks of cobble to reach 128 meters up.

It is recommended to have another person go up inside the tower and replace the cobble with ladders, allowing future, secure use. Also, deleting the tower may take some time, so take note of that if you plan on taking the castle for your faction.

It is especially a good idea to create a spleef arena made with snow as the floor. If the base is protected, only you can shovel it, and it's also the fact that no enchantment can negate the fall damage caused by the fall.

One important note is that if you trap the nether portal they have and keep a sentry on hand to see that they do not attempt escape though the overworld, they will be basically deadlocked until they fight their way out the nether through melee and archers, losing all their base advantages.

PvP Major Nuances
Some fighters and to some extent servers go way out of hand, having players with diamond equipment camping at spawn or at chest shops or areas with good amounts of materials, and sometimes people killing others on sight, so here's your guide to surviving PvP servers.

Be great to everyone
If you want those griefers or spawnkillers on your side, be really nice to them, like asking if they wanna live with you in your house or giving them stuff like food and iron ingots, or if you're really nice, diamonds and diamond tools. They are out to get that stuff so if you're offering it to them once every so often they won't hound you for them, plus many spawnkillers are homeless and camp at the spawn for protection anyway, so if they live with you in-game then they won't camp at spawn so often. This may also backfire, if the spawnkillers/griefers know you have ingots and diamond on you, that just gives more reason to kill you and get it all. Ironically, this may be the most effective way to make allies with random people, giving them full access to all of your resources will generally remove any want to take your items, so as long as you aren't too mean to them.

Keep up the map
If a server has an online dynamic map or if Rei's minimap is allowed (most likely), USE THEM. Rei's minimap helps you understand what structures are ahead of you, and Online maps show everything and also show locations of players. Use them to your advantage.

Participate in Server Events
Whether it'd be a Drop Party or an organized PvP match participate in server events and you'll be known by most members in the server, meaning people will have second thoughts of attempting to kill you, plus if you really are a good server participator, by winning PvP matches or dropping valuable items, you'll be recognized throughout the server and most players won't attempt to kill you, you may even be made a mod/ op, meaning you can just go to creative if you are attacked.

Defending Your Base
Let's say you're on a faction server. You own a rich faction that constantly raids and battles. Your base has not been found until now. Two guys each holding a Sharpness V, Fire Aspect II, Knockback II sword and wearing Protection IV armor are directly outside your base setting up a TNT cannon. You should always have passive defenses, such as a water-coated roof and walls (Considering the fact that water negates explosions). You may also want to put, if the server has them in its shop, a hostile mob spawner on top of your water-coated base. The mobs will funnel down to the bottom of the walls of your base, driving away all unarmored or weak-armored raiders, and if they are heavily armored, it will distract them from actually attacking your base. Now, you have both of those defenses, but the raiders remain unfazed. Don't jump down and PvP them like an idiot. They will kill you no matter what. Instead, either wait for the spawning mobs to break their armor (If you have the spawner defense, of course), or bring your faction members and allies to assist in defeating the enemy. Of course, the enemies can pay one of your allies to betray and kill you, so be aware of this! Or you could just spam Power IV Flame I arrows at them until their armor breaks enough for you to swoop in and kill them. Note that you will not get their armor. Also, if you have enough supplies, place some piston traps or TNT landmines around your base. It'll have them watching for traps once they've dismantled the first one they found, and when they least expect it, snowball them into one of the traps while they are dismantling it. Remember to cover the trap with a block once they fell in so they can't escape. All of these are good defense tactics, but are generally outclassed by things such as a 3-layer thick water-coated self repairing wall, although that takes a very long time to build.

In these cases, booby traps are good, so set up booby traps everywhere where the enemy can't find them. In fact, make some that are meant to make the enemy know about the traps but it itself is a trap. These work as warnings and signals. Use tripwires and wool under them to use as signals for example.

Hate the Spawn
If you're building a massive fortress near the spawn, a griefer or simply a plain idiot might run behind you and kill you, disassemble your fortress and run off with your materials. Well the easiest method to prevent this is to build your house away from spawn and try to survive a good distance away from spawn. It is usually a good idea to use the /sethome command around this area where you wish to live, as if it is a long way away from spawn and you die, it's a long walk, or mad chase if there are spawnkillers with diamond armor and enchanted diamond swords. Using the /home command if you used /sethome cuts the time getting to your safe zone drastically, usually having the spawnkillers and griefers be dazzled in confusion.

What about my valuables?
On many PVP servers there are few ways to protect your resources. The best way is to keep your most precious valuables in an ender chest. Then put a chest in your house with basic invaluable items in it (with a few valuables mixed in to help fool them), and bury a chest with 8 obsidian, an eye of ender, a crafting table, and other less semi-valued objects in it a short way away from your house.

Even if your entire house is a crater and the ender chest you placed is destroyed, the chest you buried will still be safe, and your can craft an ender chest with what is in it to access all your valuable items and loot in there, as well as the loot in your actual chest. If you're really paranoid you can bury your stuff at the bottom of the sea.

Basic PvP supply setup
The following is a step-by-step tutorial on how to survive while being a new dude to a PvP server. Follow in this order:
 * Go solo for now. Don't make a faction, don't talk. This prevents you from having to deal with "professionals." More information coming on them soon...
 * Go in the opposite direction people are moving toward. This prevents you from being noticed.
 * Make sure it is far away from anything. There's nothing more horrifying than your mortal enemies being your next-door neighbors.
 * Make a small, undetectable base. Underground is the least noticeable around layer 10 is ideal, putting you near good materials and hiding your nameplate on the surface.
 * Cheating is something that undermines every setup. Step carefully!


 * Start gathering immediately. Do them in this order;
 * -Get wood.
 * -Make a bed to set your new spawn point (unless your server is customized).
 * -Make chests and protect them.
 * -Build a farm.
 * -Find coal and iron.
 * -Look for diamond. Layer 8 is the best, but look for caves especially.
 * -Mine obsidian and reinforce the walls of your base.
 * -Make a portal to the Nether in order to find Blazes and Nether Wart.
 * -Once you have a blaze rod or two, start hunting for Endermen.
 * -Make an Ender Chest.
 * -Start brewing potions.
 * -Find leather and sugar canes.
 * -Make an enchantment table if you have the tools to and keep it well concealed.
 * -Make an anvil to combine enchantments.
 * -Enchant your diamond armor and sword.

I-MUST-WIN tip: You must have fallback in your base in the case of hard times. This means:


 * A renewable source of food,
 * A renewable source of wood, and
 * A set of stone tools to restart the gathering of supplies.


 * To make raids against you rare, it is recommended to live in the Nether (but not the End since it's highly coveted) where people normally don't go. It's dangerous, but not as dangerous as living in the overworld. Keep in mind, if you have a mining base, that too must be defended as since raiders can get there via the portal.

-Note to do this when only a few people are online to make sure that nobody else is there to make you enemy (if you're lucky). (Factions is a bukkit plugin and is not part of a vanilla server.)
 * Make a faction and start recruiting.

That's it! Not too long ahead, you should become good enough to last through most attacks... eventually.

Lag creates opportunities.
Despite lag making people randomly visually act, cause injury because of damage just showing up, and crash the server, it may still be useful instead of a nuisance if you know how to control it to your advantage. Whenever you hit someone under the effects of a lag spike, there is a chance that they won't be hurt and can escape. You can use this time to run when a lag spike comes, therefore you may escape if necessary. Keep in mind, lag also delays redstone machinery, meaning if there's a staircase that only activates when you're on a pressure plate, you can get up easier.

Weapon training
Always carry potions of damage and poison on you. You'll never know whether you're fighting a guy with a stone sword in gold armor with minimal enchantments or if you're face to face with a full armed juggernaut carrying what people consider as "God Equipment." This is the most efficient way of disposing of anybody.
 * Be a grenadier!

You may be a fast clicker with a powerful sword and you may have a large chest's worth of damage potions, but without training these aren't of any use. Train yourself to arch with a regular and enchanted bow so that you are so good at it that people accuse you of having an aimbot (don't shoot people constantly or you might get banned mistakenly). Get it in your mind to strafe around the enemy and jump to get critical hits and get an edge over your opponent. Train to throw potions so well that you don't wound yourself and get direct hits for maximum effectiveness.
 * Train yourself with weaponry.

You see some guy mining some diamonds, and the only weapon he has is a bow. You decide to kill him. It seems like a great idea, especially when you have armor, until you get close to him and he starts rapidly shooting arrows. Some players have an uncanny ability to shoot arrows VERY fast at low charge. They may only deal 1/2 heart of damage, but they will knock you back, and enough of them will kill you. If someone starts using this tactic on you, DO NOT RUSH THEM. It will most likely lead to your death. Fall back behind some cover, and if you have a bow, start shooting back at them. Stay far away, because while they are amazing at close range, they usually aren't very good at hitting those far shots (there are exceptions). Finally, Almost no amount of spam shots can stop a sprint-jump attack, ender pearl charge or splash potion, so if ranged combat is not your strong suit either, hit them with a critical attack or potion, this will usually cause them to run, then be slaughtered by your melee strikes. Remember though; you could do this as a tactic too!
 * Rapid fire!

Who says you need NORMAL weapons to beat a strong enemy? Nobody, that's who! The truth is, using weapons that your enemy doesn't even think about will make you more probable to beat your enemy. If you know how to use them, that is. For instance, if you are fighting a juggernaut, there are few weapons usable against him; Potions harm and distort the enemy, making them the most effective against especially such people with Protection IV armor. Snowballs and Eggs will knock the enemy back. You can project him into lava or a pit, and as part of a bug in the game it damages armor as well because it technically harms the player pummeled by it. Always try to find a way around normality!
 * Creative Tactics and Weapons
 * 1) Potions (most effective)
 * 2) Snowballs and Eggs (to knock him back)

Good Philosophy for Fights
There is that one case of being Left for Green. This means that your squad disbanded, you are out, all alone with maybe a few enemies a kilometer or two behind you looking for you, and you starving. Be independent. What if nobody is there to help you? What if your leader takes all the valuables and leaves his troops out to die? You must gather resources, get help of any kind, whether it be a lone man just with a stone toolkit or a juggernaut in Protection IV armor, and you must be careful and start your own faction. I-MUST-WIN tip: Since anyone can be bought...eventually, keep your own secret, hidden, well guarded bases. NEVER tell anyone about it. It is for you and only you.
 * "Only the dead have seen the end of war."


 * Watch videos and tutorials on how to build traps, and be smart with what you learned. Many people know how to make traps. That is good on one hand, but on another they might not know how to use their knowledge to their advantage. Combine traps and improvise offline.


 * Don't overkill yourself. Think first before charging ahead to do something. Think first of the necessities, which are supplies, and deal with the secondary needs, which are traps, after.


 * Evaluate your position. In other words, take into account all your advantages, all their advantages, and weigh the options. Sometimes, you need to guess and check. The most important ones are your advantages or disadvantages in:
 * 1) Armor and Armor Enchants
 * 2) Swords and Sword Enchants
 * 3) Bows and Bow Enchants
 * 4) Ender Pearl or Portal availability
 * 5) Potions, Skill, and Hunger

The most iffy is skill. Some people are so good with their timing that they can calmly mine and take their diamond ore, then swing around and shoot just as soon as you are within a block of them!

In fact, who says you need better equipment to win? Let's say that your base is in the sky with a public chest containing some equipment. Then, all of a sudden, you come down with one teammate and realize that the base is being raided! In the chest, you find some string and cobblestone. The enemies are in iron armor, but enchantments are unknown due to this being before the 1.3 update. Now, if the raider's armor was not enchanted, then you're in luck. A stone sword against iron armor with no buffs deals a full heart of damage. A fully charged bow does about as much damage as a diamond sword. Even if you have no armor, you still somewhat stand a chance against those two since it's you and your teammate fighting them. You do not need to be the same size as long as you can beat them. (Fun fact: This was a true story and the contributor who wrote this probably would have repelled the raiders if he had known this earlier!)

You may be thinking that people who have lost so much that their anger is uncontrollable are going to go psycho to win and when people come with supreme equipment you should be scared out of your wits, since that "causes" adrenaline. NO! Anger and fear are both factors to defeat. When either happens, whether it be an attempt to kill a guy who has diamond armor with your fists or combat logging just because you are so scared that you have to go to the bathroom of fear of peeing in your pants, you will most likely forget all the tips you have learned until you get back to your senses. Avoid that. Now, you must stay calm. Run for cover, and don't stop to watch the deaths of your teammates. If you have one, drink a Potion of Swiftness (second tier is highly recommended), and keep running. Do not turn back, do not look back, do think of what's back there, and do not stop. Just keep running until you reach safety, whether it be allied or peaceful territory, or a secret place. Don't stop. Stay sharp. (If you can, bring a fat friend along with you and hope the lethal enemies kill him and not you.)
 * Get to your senses.

Remember what's been said about not trusting anyone? Your turn to chip in to taking a stab at backstabbing. Create peaceful factions for your team. Their only purpose is to earn supplies while being impossible to touch.
 * Peace, dude.

If two guys in diamond with enchantments come and raid your base, and you're 4 people in iron, and only you have a full set of diamond equipment, do not bring it out! It is obvious you don't stand much chance as you are overpowered. You do, however, need to keep potions. They should consist of the following:
 * Diamonds aren't the key to victory.

Poison+Damage+Speed+Health+Invisibility

Also, keep Flint and Steel, along with fire aspect swords and bows, along with you. And if you find generation errors that create gateways to the void, use them. Don't forget to keep your dispensers loaded and ready to fire with arrows, damage splash potions, and fire charges. The reason why this equipment and these traps can beat people in diamond is because they go right through their armor. Nothing, not even diamond armor, can resist their effects (except for arrows. Fire, potion effects and void damage are the only lethal things unaffected no matter what kind of armor.). Also, a potion of invisibility will mean no-one will know where you are attacking from!

Also, remember the gift of decoys. Say you have nothing at all and you were just a guy that started in a faction war faction. Use your expendable condition. Say there is a hall of traps designed by a redstone scientist. Throw yourself at the traps, run like a madman, break those hidden redstone clocks, and just kill your player on those lethal traps so your faction can zip in and break a hole in their obsidian shield. To victory!

Trick the enemy
It being said above regarding running in traps (refer to "Diamonds aren't the key to victory") being a tactic that will fool the enemy, this makes it a rather effective attack. Always use psychology as a weapon! When running into a row of tripwires, the enemy might find it as a suicide attempt and not as a double trap, although not very likely since most people will tend to just chase you. However, if you have a circuit that makes it so that the first time somebody runs through it, there is a chance your enemy may think that it's a dud or just a scare for the raiders. Once they step over it, though, the trap activates. This makes it useful since it can make the enemy think you are intending to run away when you're instead luring them into a death trap.

Immediate Tactics
Practice. Whether or not it's in Multiplayer; practice shooting moving targets. This can train how well you hit, strafe and can sharpen your reflexes.
 * Trigger Happiness.

When engaging in a fight, the regular reflex? Charge the enemy, spam that mouse. Now, this is pretty average, but there is a smarter way to do this. Go in a circle; w a s d w a s d. Simple, but effective as a tactic. This should reduce the damage you take by quite an amount, while still being able to deal sufficient damage to your opponent.
 * Round and Round

Equipment saves lives, mostly your own. Keep some snowballs with you to knock enemies back. It MIGHT give the impression they are being attacked. It also knocks them back and gives you more space from him. Most of them will try to use their oh-so-powerful sword and charge you, back off (skirmish). Take note that Snowballs will also damage Armour, so if you see somone in full Gold Armour for it's Enchantibility, don't be afraid to pelt them with Snowballs.
 * Son of a beach ball

I-MUST-WIN tip: Snowballs are cheap, easy-to-mass-produce armor killers! Do not pass up this attack! Keep snow golems in your base for this! Unfortunately... it takes a little less than 4 chests of them to destroy diamond armor.

Don't carry anything of value on you except some TNT and levers and blow your enemies up (keep in mind that this is also a suicide weapon).
 * Be a creeper

PvP isn't exactly always standing still in one spot while hitting someone with a sword, and never really should be. Circle strafing around your foes can really save your bacon, especially if they have diamond weapons. Because the player attacking you needs to aim ahead with the bow, since there is a delay before the arrow strikes, it can disorient them and you can avoid hits much easier. To make it even harder for your opponent to hit you, use potions of speed. However, this should be avoided as much as possible when near obstacles like walls, or hazards like lava or cactus. Most people don't strafe, that's your advantage.
 * Circle in a square game


 * Humiliation

If you really hate someone, make a place near their base/main spawn. Then expose yourself. In that place, you need to leave TNT or whatever will kill the enemy. It kills you as well, but it's for your enemy. If you are slightly less suicidal, such as on a hardcore(death-ban / death-temp-ban) server, make the same sort of house, make it plainly visible to them, but design it to kill them and leave you standing. This can be efficiently done by filling the walls, floor, and ceiling with TNT, and making a small room, not very visible, deep inside, make it out of solid obsidian, but leave the entrance clear, put a lever triggering the traps(TNT, preferably some lava, too. wait inside for them to come in, once they do, get in the obsidian room (cost=4x3x3-4=32 blocks of obsidian) then use the remaining 2 in your inventory to patch it closed, it should be wired with a lever to activate the traps, hopefully killing anyone else in the home.

Counter-attack via attack
Those useless things that you can't use in PvP and Faction wars may not be so useless after all. Your base could be raided. And if it is high in air then you're somewhat outta luck, since it's hard to escape the raid. If it's attached to the ground but still high, you're somewhat safe. You could escape, but they still have their valuable diamond armor and swords. You can stay and get defeated UNLESS you have tricks and traps around your base. Make sure you and the leader only know about it to prevent traitors from knowing the base too well. Try these:


 * Block Update Detectors and TNT. The first thing enemies would normally do is take out the water around the base and replace it with lava. If that happens, and you have a BUD to confirm that water is still there, TNT is supposed to be set off under a pile of sand, with water to block out the damage to the environment (be careful using it without water, you'll probably get more damage done than you bargained for) and torches to break the sand. Maybe even not add torches to suffocate the enemies, but the explosion will be reduced.


 * Emergency switches. Set your Faction's spawn point in a 2x2 hallway. Put an emergency button to pull in the blocks under you with sticky pistons and the enemy will fall into lava. Note that this is guaranteed to waste the enemy's armor, not to kill him. Use a BUTTON, NOT A LEVER! Stay around to ensure that the enemy cannot teleport to his Faction home.


 * Extremely thick walls. For the paranoid. Make walls 20-40 layers deep if you want. This is not a death trap. This is meant to give you enough time to escape.


 * Secret switches. Not always will enemies come via broken brick walls. They might just come through the front door. Hide your entrances and fool enemies with fake entrances. Make sure all your team knows of them.


 * Spleef o' Death. Dudes in diamond might come and kill you and raid your chests. You are in iron, huh? Shovels are your weapon here. Put snow blocks as the one layer floor block, dig all the way to bedrock, lay TNT everywhere (just make sure it is out of reach from your base), and depending on how strong they are or how much you hate your enemy, put a manual switch or lay tripwire to automatically blow them up. Note that you might not get their loot.


 * Gas Chamber. Cram dispensers in the walls of a tight hallway, load them with damage potions, lead a rapid clicker to them, place a switch to restrain it, and then put sticky pistons in the walls to trap people in separate rooms. Nothing, not even Heavy weapon dudes with so much as Protection X (not that that enchantment is available without editing the NBT file) can survive.

Deploy a Decoy
If you are with a group or faction of people and have a reputation on the server, use this to your advantage. Create a fake base near the spawn (Be sure to make it look convincing, like a low sky base or an obsidian above-ground base). Do not store anything in this base and make a trap inside the base, like a Piston Pitfall trap or Button-activated trap. People will come for this base assuming it is your real base (It may not always work. This works mainly on faction servers, but if you are good enough at designing these you can make it compatible with a non-Faction PvP server). Once they fall in the trap and die, you are able to take their items. This is a great source of money, items, and PvP supplies.

Punish as the Juggernaut
Most PvP servers are unruly and free-for-all situations. Now what's the best thing you can get? Victory and Survival! What's the best tool? Juggernaut-like armor (and some brains mixed in)! First, you'll need to find iron or diamonds. Watch out for people, because they'll most likely be on the same track. Second, brew a potion of Strength. Third, enchant everything. Enchant the armor for maximum Protection. Enchant the sword to maximum power with Fire Aspect, Knockback, etc. Remember, Sharpness is the only generic damage booster. Smite and Bane of Arthropods V may seem impressive, but in a PvP situation they are useless. A useful PvP only fighter is the Juggernaut Supreme build with a powerful bow and a few arrows.

Immediate Tactics
You can melee other players, but you'll need a fast clicking pace and some conditions to fight. Keep your distance! An enchanted bow is the best against an armored player. Regular bows work as well. The only case where you have no choice but to melee is when you're out of ammunition or if marksmanship isn't your thing. Even at point blank range, a bow could be a better choice, fully charged it sends a critical hit the power of a diamond sword!
 * Keep your distance

Whilst in the middle of a multi-player pvp standing around and checking out the loot from the guy you just killed is just being a burden on your group, having to protect you and in most cases they won't protect you, most likely getting you killed and losing the loot you just got and your original possessions. Although a bit of senario analysis is also needed (I.E. take this advice with a pinch of salt).
 * Your money won't save you

Although an escape tunnel is a great idea, your enemies might follow you through. To combat this, you should have a lot of dirt at hand. Simply block up the top part of the tunnel. Don't block the bottom, as placing blocks on the bottom lets your enemy shoot arrows. (NOTE: The tunnel must be 1x2 to make it easier.) It usually takes longer to dig through the dirt than placing it. Plus, this can easily frustrate your enemies heavily. An alternative is to have dirt ceilings in the tunnel with sand or gravel on top, so if someone comes, you can break the dirt to drop the gravel or sand, which can be much easier. Using torches to support multiple columns with one block is suggested, as it can take 1 block broken to cause a huge blockade. Alternatively, make a 1-block deep ditch in the ground. When your enemies come, fill the pit with soul sand or water, slowing their. Again, this will create an ENORMOUS amount of rage in your opponents, as they usually will have to get through a long period of block removal before they mobilize. But, this can make your enemies more enraged and chase you harder.
 * Tunnel Escape Route Tactics

If someone is pummeling you with arrows and you cannot dodge them, block them by right click holding your sword. This will reduce incoming damage by half. Block in between shots while trying to get closer to them.
 * Block


 * Keep armor and a sword on you at all times

You might have Iron armor and a pickaxe mining in a well known mine, but you're not very hard to defeat against someone without armor but a stone sword, which is the first weapon people settle for. Keep a sword on you at all times and hopefully you can retaliate, plus, keep armor, even if it is basic leather or even the fragile gold armor, so if someone does attack you, you can still live to turn around and kill your attempted killer.


 * Safety first

When you are using lava or TNT, bring some obsidian and/or a Water Bucket. This will protect you from explosions and burning.


 * Be Vigilant

On a PvP server, you never know where people are. Even if you are far away from spawn someone may be spying on you, stalking you, waiting to attack or worse. NEVER think you are alone, always assume someone is near you and will attack you. Keep your fingers ready to whip out your sword.

They're bluffing
Prime rule. Do not trust anyone. If there is an online map, use it to track locations of people. Stay away from other guys. If they offer to let you in their faction just if you do something very simple for them, there may be something underhanded about the deal. They might kick you out or even kill you immediately if they give no notice they want you (on servers with the Factions plugin for Bukkit). Be ready for that just as ready as when attacking. Assume that everyone will stab you in the back. Also on some servers there are teleport commands. On a PvP server, if you get a random teleport request from someone you don't know, NEVER ACCEPT IT. They only randomly TP to look for a victim to raid and kill. Also, don't accept it if you think you have better stuff, you may not know what they have in their arsenal and also on some servers there is a /back command. Even if you kill them, they can teleport back and camp there. If someone wants to fight in a 1-versus-1 face-off, be careful if you accept. They may bring someone along to "watch." Take this advice with care, since putting too much trust in even your best combatant might get you in an irreparable situation.

Love the Wolfpack
Usually you'll die alone from fighting a player with a better advantage than you, but this can be a different story altogether if you have wolves or golems with you. Wolves will follow and protect you, and usually, depending whether your enemy is smart or just blatantly stupid, will either not bother attacking you or die from a pack of wolves attacking them. Even though a wolf has no armor and only has an attack strength of 4 life points, a pack of them can still pack a punch. Iron Golems are a good choice as well as your attacker might accidentally hit the Iron Golem, in which case it will attack them, and even diamond equipment is second to the strength and health of an Iron Golem. After one of the Golems attacking, the enemy will have to retreat. You do not have to worry about aggravating the Iron Golem if it is made by you, as Iron golems will never attack their creator. Using Snow Golems to damage armor excessively also is effective.

Note: Iron Golems are neutral mobs and do not attack players unless provoked.

Bring in something different every time
You may be pretty powerful with your not-inconsiderable Protection IV diamond armor and Sharpness V Knockback II and Fire Aspect II sword. This will give a good warning to enemies to back off. However, as it becomes easier to get diamonds, set up traps, and find ways to kill you indirectly, staying with this setup is not recommended. Sooner or later, they'll get to you and then use your own gear against you because they tested out all these effects on the armor and they'd find ways to dodge your sword. Therefore, you'd better keep different kinds of equipment on. For instance, you can start off with Thorns enchantment added to your armor. Then, add Protection. Then slowly make your sword more powerful. People will get used to this. Then, all of a sudden, get them with your best shot in your armory!

Use monsters to your advantage
Let's say you're in a small guerrilla faction. Your members in your faction aren't half bad. However, the only problem is that there are a few people. They don't mine or gather too much, although they are quite skilled. The problem here is that even if they don't die much, they still do. Instead of using people that need supplies, why not make an army that purely just spawns with them? An army of skeletons is best, although zombies work too. If you can, try to get your hands on Wither Skeletons, that can attack with their stone swords and still give the Wither effect, or better yet, give them bows long forgotten and unneeded so that they can shoot fire arrows and set the enemy on fire, although this may take more time to wait for them to spawn and transporting them is more difficult. Find a skeleton monster spawner, set up a network of water transportation (if you are using wither skeletons, try using lava), bring them to a certain room, with someone in there. Then, when the time comes and somebody comes to raid the base, unleash them. Such an army does not mine diamonds for you, but even so they're useful by the fact that they're easy to find and easily replaceable.

Equipment
Being properly equipped is very important if you're entering into organized PvP, or even simply being prepared for unexpected attacks. All this is guaranteed to kill monsters and players.

Offensive
Sword


 * Use: Melee
 * Damage: Varies with material  wood-2 gold-2 stone-2.5 iron-3 diamond-3.5

Bow


 * Use: Ranged
 * Damage: No charge:, Half charge: , Full charge: , rarely

TNT


 * Use: Explosive
 * Range: ~10 blocks in diameter (depends on surrounding blocks)
 * Damage: Explosive (around at point blank range)
 * Note: When it comes to higher levels of armor, TNT get weaker and weaker up to the point where it gets completely obsolete. It is recommended to use this for mining or for sandtraps rather than damage.

Flint & Steel


 * Use: Fire
 * Range: Damage on contact
 * Damage: every second while on fire
 * Note: This will keep an enemy that's in the fire for a second burning for 4.

Fishing Rod


 * Range: 15 blocks
 * Use: This deals no damage to enemies, but it will grapple them and pull them as far as you are. This can be useful since you can kill enemies via fall damage, therefore being very effective in places such as ravines.

Defensive
Armor


 * Protection: Leather blocks 30% damage, Gold blocks 44% damage, Chainmail blocks 48% (only obtainable through trading), Iron blocks 60% damage, and Diamond blocks 80% damage. Armor can be more potent with enchantents added, like Protection or Feather Falling.
 * Note: With the new "Thorns" enchantment to be added in 1.4.6, enemies can be damaged by hitting you. HOWEVER this will deal extra damage to your armour, so like the Wither, it is somewhat of a double edged sword.
 * Don't leave home without it! One of the best ways to outlast you opponent is to reduce the damage you take by wearing quality armor. This damages them indirectly by giving you more time to kill them.

Beacon


 * Range: Effect applied within wide radius. Recommended for placement inside base so enemies cannot get their hands on the beacon's effect.
 * Use: Applies a positive potion effect for about 10 seconds to players that touch it. Potion effects can be set to: Speed, Haste, Regeneration, Strength, Jump Boost.
 * Note: It is probably not a wise idea to risk a WMD fallout caused by attempts to fight the Wither to gain the core of the Beacon.

Food


 * Range: User
 * Damage: None
 * Use: Hunger regeneration. Always make sure to have full food during a fight! If your food goes below 9 bars,you will not regenerate health, and if your food gets below 3 bars, you cannot sprint. Golden apples are best because they heal you at the same time, but any other food works.

Milk


 * Use: Eradicates all potion effects, good or bad.

Tactical
Potions


 * Use: Support or Punishment
 * Range: User (regular), 5 blocks after toss (splash)
 * Damage: Depends on potion

Ender Pearls


 * Range: Up to 50ish blocks
 * Damage: 2 1/2 hearts damage to the user
 * Use: When thrown, it teleports the user to the place it lands. Useful for getting over walls.

Water Bucket


 * Use: Hindering
 * Range: 7 from source (cannot be used in The Nether)
 * Damage: Usually none, drowning possible

Lava Bucket


 * Use: Burning, Hindrance
 * Range: 3 from source (7 in The Nether)
 * Damage: Contact ( every second, + fire effect)

Snowballs or Eggs


 * Range: Up to 15-20 blocks
 * Damage: None
 * Use: Deals no damage except to Blazes and Endermen. Knocks back all other mobs. High rate of fire. Best when next to cliffs. They only damage other players if there is a plugin for the server that gives the ability of harm for these. Best if against someone not your own size. They can be useful in a Survival Games match as well. Use when you are on a high perch with an enemy chasing you up. Most players will not expect an egg to be used as a weapon, and therefore can be very effective. Damage armor.

Offensive
Fire Aspect and Flame
 * Ability: Damage over Time, Higher levels make Fire damage last longer.
 * Highest Level: II (2)
 * Used on: Sword (Fire Aspect), Bow (Flame)
 * Notes: This effect goes right through all kinds of armor, however it doesn't always work reliably: don't try to attack someone with Orange Potion particles or a full set of Enchanted armour. Chances are, they will have Fire Resistance on them.

Sharpness and Power
 * Ability: Deals a random amount of extra damage, damage limit is increased by higher levels.
 * Used on: Sword (Sharpness), Bow (Power)
 * Highest Level: V (5)
 * Notes: The additional damage bypasses Armour protection, so your enemy's Diamond Armour won't protect them that much from your Sharpness V (5) Iron sword. The damage dealt isn't constant, so fighting isn't a just a matter of who strikes first or who has better Armour and Weapons, but how much damage is dealt.

Thorns
 * Ability: Wearer has a chance to reflect taken damage back at oppoment. Higher levels offer higher chance to reflect damage.
 * Used on: All armour pieces
 * Highest level: III (3)
 * Notes: Be wary of the extra Durability damage your Armour takes. If you combine the Thorns and Protection, then your armour will break very, very quickly, unless it has Unbreaking.

Knockback and Punch
 * Ability: Knocks target back farther. Higher levels will increase distance.
 * Highest Level: II (2)
 * Used on: Sword (Knockback), Bow (Punch)
 * Notes: These enchantments should be preferably used against Players with Strength on them (surrounded by Dark Red swirl particles). If you knock them away, they won't be able to use their Strength to its full extent, as it only affects Melee combat. On the other hand, if you know someone has a Power V (5) Bow, but only a Wooden Sword, then maybe keeping them close will be a better strategy.

Armor
Protection
 * Ability: Additional protection against everything except Void damage. Higher tiers offer greater protection from damage.
 * Used on: All armour pieces.
 * Highest level: IV (4)
 * Notes: This is one of the better Armour enchantments. It protects against everything you would usually worry about in the battlefield. It only is a small percent worse than the "specific" enchantments (ex. Fire Protection).

Blast Protection
 * Ability: Additional damage protection against Explosions. Higher tiers offer more protection from explosions.
 * Used on: All armour pieces.
 * Highest Level: IV (4)
 * Notes: A full set of Blast Protection IV (4) armour should protect you well from Explosions, and is the preferred armour of choice against Weapons of Mass Destruction (see bottom of page).

Fire Protection
 * Ability: Additional damage protection against Lava, catching fire, and standing in fire. Higher tiers offer more protection from fire.
 * Used on: All armour pieces.
 * Highest Level: IV (4)
 * Notes: A full set of Fire Protection IV (4) armour is preferred for fights against someone with Fire Aspect or Flame enchantments.

Projectile Protection
 * Ability: Additional damage protection against fired arrows, as well as Ghast and Blaze fireballs (impact only). Higher tiers offer greater protection from Projectiles.
 * Used on: All armour pieces.
 * Highest Level: IV (4)
 * Notes: This should be the armour of choice if you need to get past Dispenser traps. Since many Dispenser traps involve Projectiles, this enchantment will protect greatly against it.

Feather Falling
 * Ability: Additional protection against Fall Damage. Also protects against Ender Pearl damage. Higher tiers offer better protection.
 * Used on: Boots only.
 * Highest Level: IV (4)
 * Notes: Even though falling from a distance that would usually hurt you gets completely nullified by the Boots, it will still make the sound of bones cracking, and alerting those nearby to your presence.

Respiration
 * Ability: Wearer can breathe underwater for longer, when Suffocating there is more time between loss of health. Higher tiers let you breathe underwater for even longer, and give more time between taking Suffocation damage.
 * Used on: Helmet only.
 * Highest Level: III (3)
 * Notes: This enchantment is rather useful for Recon: you can spend more time hiding underwater in the Enemy moat.

Weapon
Infinity
 * Ability: Fire unlimited Arrows, but at least One must be in your Inventory.
 * Used on: Bow
 * Highest level: I (1)
 * Notes: Infinity is a good enchantment for spamming Arrows, and Archery at all. You don't need to worry about wasting all your resources on a 64 stack of arrows, only to use them all in less than half an hour, and you don't need to keep running back to base to get more Arrows. Bow durability, however, is still an issue.

Unbreaking
 * Ability: Lengthens the Durability of the Armour/Weapon in question. Higher tiers offer longer Durability.
 * Used on: All Armour and Weapons (Not availible via standard enchantments, only through Unbreaking Enchantment book on Anvil)
 * Highest level: III (3)
 * Notes: Although you need to go through more of a hassle to get Unbreaking on your Items, it can be worth it. Prolonged engagement in Combat means that even your Diamond gear will break rather quickly, especially if your Armour has Thorns or Protection on it. Try to get Unbreaking on your Gear as soon as possible for maximum effectiveness.

Weapons of Mass Destruction
When it absolutely must die, settle for nothing less.

Note: Since all of these weapons are offensive and deal damage, they are not listed as attributes.

Redstone Mechanisms, Dispensers, Pistons and TNT

 * Purpose: Varies
 * Damage: Arrows harm depending on difficulty, fire charges set enemy on fire.
 * Use: Always bring Redstone supplies when going on raids. These can be used to blow holes in the enemy's base, surround them, lay traps, etc. Leave one dude to handle these and the rest to fight. Note that this CAN leave you vulnerable.

Creeper

 * Purpose: Destruction
 * Range: Wherever you lure them.
 * Damage: Depends on difficulty.
 * Use: Creepers are more effective than TNT cannons, so don't kill them on sight. They can destroy bases protected with a certain plugins, unless the plugin disables explosions as well.

Skeletons and Zombies

 * Purpose: Combat
 * Range: Skeletons use bows but can fight with swords, zombies are melee fighting.
 * Damage: Depends on difficulty.
 * Use: Skeletons and Zombies can be found in abundance, especially from a monster spawner. Despite not having the same skills as one person, a full army can defeat your rivals or at least damage their armor. If you have extra sets of armor, be sure to give them some, along with more powerful weapons. They are easily replaceable.

Wither

 * Purpose: Terrorism, Destruction
 * Range: Where you, other players, or non-undead mobs lure it.
 * Damage: Depends on difficulty.
 * Use: Withers are even more effective than Creepers, so don't attack them on sight when you spawn them in. If you spawn it in or near a base, the resulting explosion can knock down a sizable portion of the base, unless bedrock or a plugin disables such an explosion. After that, it is a mobile rapid-fire T.N.T. Cannon that can easily damage severely all players or non-undead mobs in the area. However, it can also be a double-edged sword in team based fighting, as it will attack ANY player or non-undead mob that gets nearby and can shoot blue skulls randomly if the server is on Normal or Hard.

They can also be used to commit terrorism through horrid noise unless there are people with their sound turned extremely down. Those people will not be terrorized unless they get attacked by the Wither. Do NOT do it near the spawn or any server landmark of importance since you can get banned for destruction of property. Make sure you have some plan in eventually killing it before an administrator does, because once you lay it down, you cannot turn back. Be warned that admins don't always take kindly to Semi-permanent WMD-fallout caused by the Wither spawning, and may kill it using... commands, creative mode, or even just a skilled hunting party or particularly lethal trap.

Overall, the Wither is a localized doomsday weapon. It will likely destroy terrain near players and all present players until its chunk is unloaded. Don't use it unless you want to terrorize the whole server or you are doing it far from any possible unintended targets. However, the Wither is not invulnerable, and often can be killed by a single well-armored player with some luck or skill. In fact, once the Wither is at 50% health and becomes easy to hit, one player can often kill it by simply walking up to it and hitting it rapidly. Note that Withers can only see in a 16 block radius. It is also a great deterrent to immediate attack.


 * Note: Since a Wither can still be killed, it's recommended to keep a few more Wither Skeleton Skull heads by your side.

Self Destruct System

 * Purpose: Destruction, Escape
 * Range: The size of your base and the area around it.
 * Damage: Overwhelming.

Set up a self-destruction sequence in your base used ONLY in absolutely extreme cases. When your base is taken by your most hated enemies, your faction has betrayed you and left you to die, and you have nothing left, this is your ultimate (and perhaps last) effort. Be sure to keep the detonation mechanisms very well hidden, the trigger only accessible from a secret tunnel that you build beneath the base (and the entrance to this tunnel can be hidden in a jungle, a cave or something like that). This is it. When you pull the lever, your base, everything and everyone inside it will be blasted to non-existence, the only remains of your previously glorious base will be a massive crater on the ground. Use this as a last resort. Keep in mind that the ones who were blown up with the base will probably hunt you and kill you. A reminder: this trap is meant for your enemies, not for yourself. The tunnel with the switch (which you are on) might be blasted as well, and there goes your glory, along with your life. So build an escape so you can avoid a pathetic suicide.