Tutorials/Player versus Player

PvP, formally Player versus 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 is combat against other players, whether for diamonds or fun! Working together with others or fighting solo, this is the second hardest nut to crack.

Note that this guide WILL cover Vanilla Minecraft plus plugins that are recognized by the community in a near-complete consensus.

PvP is dependent on a variety of factors. First of all, one must have a firm grasp of the mechanics of:


 * Damage
 * Armor
 * Potions
 * Enchants
 * Crafting

and this guide will therefore not address how to enchant weapons and armor, how to get said weapons or armor, or the statistics of said weapons and armor. This guide will not address how to get other important objects.

Combat Itself
This is an overview of everything someone in PvP should know. Further sections are more expansive, precise, or innovative.

Friendly PvP
Friendly PvP is when two or more players agree to PvP for friendly practice and training ONLY. Friendly PvP is great to play on LAN. Also it tends to be the least hostile option for PvP as it:

A) Avoids grudges.

B) Stops property loss from thieving player drops.

C) Encourages cooperation.

Because some servers endorse building and adventuring cooperatively, while others are PvP-oriented, servers will usually have a "terms of service" that include whether or not PvP is allowed in that particular server.

Challenge PvP
This PvP is in a challenge map. This is cross between server war and friendly PvP. It is the same as regular PvP except it is in an arena or small land and the players are still friends. However, the battle is quite the same as a server war.

Server War
This is a rather rare type of PvP. It is not friendly at all. It is just like a real war. Two parties fight for power or resources on a server. Server Wars happen when one party, typically griefers, organize into an army and invade or attack a certain area or group of people on a server. This attacking party is typically very organized and very well armed. They launch an attack big enough to cause a disturbance on the server. Another party, typically admins, retaliate against this attack. If the retaliating party is composed of admins, it will typically resort to Intel and the power to ban players. However, admins will counterattack with weapons in the process of banning the attacking players. Unless they allow griefing of course. In an all out server war,you have two choices: you can either fight for one of the two parties, or you can flee to safety and let the admins sort it out. Most players decide to fight for their server, however, players who have a lot of resources like diamond, might feel the need to protect their precious resources and flee to safety. If you decide to join the party that is defending the server, you don't really need to worry about firepower since you will probably be armed by fellow soldiers. If you join the attacking party, you should equip enchanted weapons with high damage. It is also good to equip weapons of mass destruction such as TNT, fire charges, lava buckets, etc. You should do everything in your power to keep your nametag hidden if you don't want to be banned. Being banned means you are out of the server, and out of the war. You can no longer fight alongside you comrades. When you are fighting with the attacking party, you typically want to destroy as much as possible and invade as much of the server as you can. Remember, the retaliating party doesn't always win even though they seem like the " underdogs ". Server wars are won with great soldiers,and most importantly, great leaders. You don't have to be a "grizzled" war veteran to be a great general, a great general is someone who is smart and fights alongside his/her soldiers. Remember, great generals take point, they don't watch from a safe distance and bark orders while watching their fellow players get slaughtered. Also, if the server has mods equipped, especially mods like "flans mod", "flintlock weapons mod", or "Mo' explosives mod", use that to your advantage!

Organized PvP
Organized PvP is when players fight for dominance. These normally range to establishing superiority to rights to a prize.

Arenas
Fighting in your house may be fun, but it would risk home damage from TNT and flint and steel. A flat area is not very interesting, so here are some arena types...

Beginners can build arenas consisting of a floor, some type of wall, and 2 entrances here.
 * 1) Clear a flat area for your arena, at least 10*10 in general or make this on a superflat world.
 * 2) Place a 2 block high wall made out of transparent blocks around the arena so people can spectate without getting hit by crossfire.
 * 3) Place some entrances at 2 ends of the arena so combatants can enter.
 * 4) Have fun in your very simple arena!

Time consuming and unorthodox arenas consist of floors with polygon shapes, patterns and shadow effects. Walls are replaced by fortified spectating boxes and also may contain traps, piston combatant entrances and much more. 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:
 * 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 up.


 * 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 apples and/or fire resistance potions. Hop in, you will be burnt during the battle. More excitement and difficulty!
 * 'Mob Attack': Fill the arena with hidden monster spawners. Watch as the players get attacked by  both  monsters and other players!
 * 'Sky Blocks' have a 40 X 40 square up with a 50 drop fall, have water at the bottom. Make multiple layers of having 1 block of air between the next block, so no blocks are actually touching eachother. Make multiple layers with 2 blocks between, so players who fall down the first fall won't die, but continue. To add to the fun, do it while invisable in the dark, but everyone is wearing a Chestplate so it's still possible to play.

Suggestions for PvP Setup
It is recommended to have the best armor, weapons, and items you can in any fight, in order to maximize chances of victory. However, be sure to be as minimalist as possible; doing so will allow for easier inventory management and weapon changing. Put Unbreaking III on anything you can. This is a good rule of thumb for PvP and Minecraft in general. Bring two swords. Having your sword break is just downright terrible, especially in a tense match. Put Infinity I on your bow or bring 400 arrows. Bring the bow!

Fairness is not a rule; if you know the arena and if it has traps, lure your opponent into them. If you can corner them, do so. If you want a truly honest duel have a non-biased administrator check your inventories with a plugin. Otherwise, take anything useful to the fight.

Strategic Tactics
In general, don't go charging at someone before you plan every single step you take.

The following factors are of immense strategic value:


 * A map. Not only it will help you see the environment around you, but it will also indicate where other players are.
 * Fully Functional, Armed, and Finished Base: A base is always a good choice in PvP servers. To make sure that nobody will find your base try and base it in an ocean biome, underground. Or...
 * 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.
 * The best equipment possible.

Or 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. 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) and you can get free loot from raided chests.

Keep in mind that small tactics like this are quite fruitful!

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...

Spin in circles around the player rapidly hitting them, they'll never be able to hit you! This is called strafing. Or try a direct approach and spam left click and W to create a combo.

If you are in a tight place where strafing does not work, try to spam right and left click. This will reduce the damage you get, but still allow you to damage your opponent.

Unorganized PvP
This is when someone surprise attacks you without any warning. Keep your weapons ready for this!

Fight Back!
If you have better stuff than them you will most likely be able to kill them. However, in all cases you must use anything possible to attempt victory. Ethics should be out the window by this point (minus hacks or combat-logging) and there is no better time to give it your all.

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 be stuck in battle without a weapon. Therefore, extensive measures must be taken to ensure that equipment can be readily replaced in a fight, such as enchantments, extras, and consistent resupplying.

Flee!
Run if there is almost no chance of victory, using Ender Pearls and hopefully a Speed Potion. While running does carry an inherent danger to it, it is probably your only hope at that point.

If you are in your base, consider whether running will be a good strategy,as then they will most likely raid and pillage your base, and come back repeatedly to continue their pillaging. (Unless Factions 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.

Don't Give Up
Now this may sound like a weak statement, but hear this. Suppose someone attacks you, and there is no escape possible for you. You hate the guy who is killing you and the fact that you aren't combat savvy enough to fight back. If there is honestly no escape, try to hit your would be assailant. Hey, at least you hurt him right?

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, except 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.

There are two different types of faction raids:

1: TNT raid. Most of the time, nobody in a faction is online. In this case, simply bash the walls with TNT and then steal everything from the chests. This is very difficult on underground and obsidian bases though, which is why usually you will do a...

2: Claim raid. This means that you will simply kill players in the opposing faction when they are online and claim their land. This is the only way to raid factions with huge obsidian walls.

Getting in the enemy's base
In most, if not all faction servers, there is a plugin that allows factions to claim chunks of land. If you are raiding a base, there is a 99% chance that they have claimed their base. So how do you get in? Here's how.

1. Ender Pearling; there is a glitch in Minecraft that if you throw an Ender Pearl up at a roof, your head will get stuck in it, and if you throw another Ender Pearl up while in that state, the Ender Pearl will go through the roof. A way to combat this is to make your ordinary floor, dig 1 block below each block of your floor, and fill it with lava.

2. Nether Transport; this method requires a Flint and Steel, as well as 28 Obsidian or the molding supplies for it. Note that this will not work if the territory in the Nether is claimed, or if the Nether is disabled in the server. First, find the coordinates of the interior of the enemy's base. You can estimate this by getting close to their base and adding 10 blocks or so the the X and Z coordinates. Then, go outside of the claimed land and build a portal. Enter it, and go to the exact X-Y-Z coordinates of the enemy's base, divided by 8. Build a portal there and enter it. A new portal will spawn inside the enemy's base, rendering them defenseless.

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 the list contains an enchanted diamond pick. It's because you can break almost anything fast. Without a powerful pick like this, the odds are that the owner will have mowed you down before you could even get inside 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 about preparations and knowledge in order to turn the tide exponentially in your favor, such as how you can slay a guy in diamond armor with only iron armor and win a battle 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 and killing your enemy before he kills you. Here's the lowdown on your armor.

If someone has Protection III diamond armor, it takes without them healing...
 * 172 hearts (344 health) from bow or sword damage
 * 34 hearts from fire or falling
 * 10 hearts from potions, drowning or suffocation
 * Tossing them in the Void somehow is a certain death.

Now say a new enemy has come and he has Protection IV armor, with a Sharpness V sword, and an obsidian base. Attacking him would be suicidal in a fair fight (unless you have better equipment). First, send someone to scout his base while you prepare a full assault. TNT his base and ruin the defenses.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 II 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, a clear assessment about the other side is 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 faction have never liked them, and in fact, hated them. But in terms of pure force, your faction is outclassed. 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. The whole faction depends on you!

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, under any circumstances. To recap: no noise ever!
 * 3) If they catch you, they will certainly declare war. Kill yourself with permission from the faction leaders unless in hardcore to escape discovery if they are closing in. Be warned that you must use fire or risk your item drops being seen.
 * 4) 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 secrecy is required. 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.

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: (Note that the marvelous Multiplayer PvP Bases guide is also useful.)

1: Size Bigger may not be better, as a visible structure gains visibility the larger it is, and leaves more space unguarded. On the flip side, big bases are very good for large amounts of people that are working on something together, and can hold more munitions. A small base is also dangerous, because it will be very easily demolished.

2: Type One effective type of base is a base that is deep underground. Here enemies will take days to hunt you down, while you survive on a farm and strip mine for diamonds.

Another base, meant for continuous habitation, is far above the world. Therefore enemies will be required to build up to it. 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. For sky fortress builders, the most important rule is to not have any spots that is out of the fortresses' archers' line-of sight. Try building the bottom floor in a "multiple ring" shape to do this.

Also make a disabled nether portal that will upon activation become an escape (disable it to ensure that it cannot accidentally link up to another portal). Bases in mid-air are effective during a raid, when manned, as entry is all but impossible. 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. Also make sure to put cobwebs all over the bottom to stop ender pearl glitching.

3: Defenses Every good base needs traps and defenses! First of all, we have the wall. A good wall should contain at least one obsidian or water layer to shield explosive force, and require at least one minute to mine through with an unenchanted diamond pickaxe. To further prolong base penetration, chessboard wood and cobble to force players to slowly break wood or switch from axe to pick. Traps are great defenses to surprise enemies that make it through the wall, but are generally not infallible.

Note that self building walls can be useful during an attack to repair severe damage (aka the TNT equivalent of a bunker missile). However, remember that 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.

4: Allies This is one of the great secrets to PvP mastery! Trustworthy allies can be useful in many tasks, from grunt work to being the safe keeper of your gold. Be careful whom you choose for an ally, as treachery or lack of skill can easily hamper or destroy your attempts to thrive in PvP. Haste in that aspect is generally a waste.

5: Tough Base with a Factions Plugin If the server you're playing on has the Factions plugin, you can create an impenetrable base with water and cheap walls. To do this, dig a hole along the border of claimed land (INSIDE your faction land, otherwise it can be blocked up or destroyed) all the way to bedrock. Next, cover your base with water, including the sides and roof, and let it flow down to bedrock. Make sure TNT cannot land anywhere in the base. There should be no blocks connecting your base to the wilderness. The water acts as a shield, making your base invulnerable to TNT, and impassable by enemies. The only way to counter this is make a sand/gravel cannon (a TNT cannon that shoots the falling gravel/sand instead).

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: The Nether is there for open use. 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: Don't have any lava.
 * Problem: Enemies tunnel under your base.
 * Problem: You have bricked yourself in.

Self-Destruct and 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. Ender chests are good for these kinds of bases, as they don't drop their content and it can be accessed anywhere as long as you have another one.

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 Your Own Bases
Let's say that you have just moved in with your awesome new faction. They have diamonds, dozens of anvils, and general awesomeness. Now, a faction war has started, and you have no base, no food, nothing except what the faction gave you. This is dangerous. In the event the faction falls you are defenseless. Trust nobody and keep a secret base all to yourself. Put a home there and be safe from pursuers and spawncampers. 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. This can cause chaos and may lead to a slaughter in the right conditions. Be sure to be well-stocked for this.

First of all, the open field battle playstyle is to have minimal life lost on your side no matter what, even above the victory itself. Why? Because of damage distribution and momentum.

Think about it like this. With lots of people on one side, as well as regeneration from a full hunger bar slowly healing each player (and health potions), the whole army in general is almost continuously regaining health. (If your army's hunger bar isn't full, you shouldn't be in a battle!) Since all the opponent's damage is not placed in a concentrated area, every person alive is in a sense helping heal others. When someone dies, their regeneration and health is lost. So is their ability to fight, and the formation they were in is weakened, so momentum in terms of a steady advance is lost. Therefore minimal life loss is the goal throughout the battle.

There are four major melee builds, which will be discussed more in depth later. They are:
 * The juggernaut. These are heavily enchanted soldiers. Highly costly to make!
 * The infantry. These are normally armored soldiers without enchantments. They are cheap on everything but Iron
 * 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.

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 is a waste of time and durability due to damage distribution. It is also near suicidal due to the large amount of weapons present. Running wastes time as well and is both cowardly and counterproductive, as then damage distribution will be far less useful.

Instead, have all your soldiers in a group and have a continuously switching front line.

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

If they don't have archers, 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.

If they charge, stop their forward momentum with arrows, shooting when they are 10–15 meters away. Then the infantry should then 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 carefully, as the enemy infantry may have lethal potions.

However, in general 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.

However, if you are on the attack, there are some threats to your advance you must take into account.
 * A massed force of archers or snipers(These can really break a big section of the front line off. Terminate 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.)

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.

Never have everyone charge at once. They will lose momentum and a solid position, while also becoming less cohesive which causes less damage distribution. Retreat, while also dangerous, is far safer.

If a murderer is chasing you, then in order to kill him, you will need to be as smart as possible. Remember that 3 Instant Damage II Potions in the face will kill any type of player.

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 (Respiration III helps when fighting near water).
 * A diamond sword with at least Sharpness II and Fire Aspect II.
 * The most enchanted bow they can afford.
 * At minimum 32 arrows (or 1 if the bow has Infinity).
 * Potions of Instant Health II or Regeneration II.
 * Possibly some harmful potions.
 * Stat-buffing potions, particularly Strength II.
 * Basic tools (pickaxe, axe, possibly shovel).
 * One or more Ender pearls for a quick escape or charge.
 * Fire resistance potions extended.
 * Water breathing potions extended.
 * A stack of cobblestone.
 * A stack of combat-ready food (such as meat, potatoes, particularly golden carrots)
 * If possible at least 1 enchanted golden 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. As the base of an army, with their standard equipment and cheapness, they can easily be molded into many types of soldiers, such as the aqua trooper, mole, and siege trooper, below.

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 (pickaxe, 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 1v1 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 (pickaxe, 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 (pickaxe, 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 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 32 inventory slots, it is recommended that they carry an empty bucket to auto-stack empty milk and lava buckets into. Also note that the invisibility potion users should always have one empty slot on their hot bar, as swords can be seen even under the potion effects. They should be used to teleport on or over the walls while invisible to allow the heavy troops to come in safely.
 * At least golden armor, to prevent easily getting killed.
 * A sword if possible, Knockback and Fire Aspect are extremely valuable. Better wood with Knockback I and Fire Aspect I than diamond without.
 * A bow, every enchantment is good, but punch and flame are extremely important.
 * Flint and steel.
 * 1-16 Ender pearls.
 * Buckets of lava, at least 2.
 * Buckets of milk, at least 2.
 * A fire resistance potion, or perhaps 2.
 * 2-3 invisibility potion extended.
 * A 22-second regeneration II potion, or perhaps 2.
 * 4 splash potions of Instant Healing II. If you have a medic, specially one for yourself, then these are not required.
 * 13 splash potions of Instant Damage II.
 * A stack of golden carrots. The hunger bar will drop the slowest if you only eat golden carrots.
 * A stack of cobblestone.
 * A shovel
 * A stack of arrows.

How to PvP
Many people think Minecraft PvP is "just clicking with a sword". It does take skill, but doesn't need hours upon hours of solid concentration.

Getting killed? With this guide and some practice, you will be killing diamond people with iron! First off. Swords are everything. Kill your enemy, and he won't hurt you anymore. Unless you are a tank and have some kind of lucky-level-30-enchanted sword, always remember that swords will save your life any day.

Leather armor The weakest armor, full leather armor will shield you for 28% of damage taken. If anyone has full leather armor, the thing that they will likely be able to get(and because risk of death is high), is a iron sword because leather is just about as easy to farm as iron is to find. If you ambush them with an iron/stone sword, you should be able to get about 2 or 3 critical hits in most cases. Each critical hit should be able to do 6 to 7 damage (♥♥♥-3.5 hearts.) Please note that they will likely start running. The best thing to do is to cut corners, meaning if he's waiting to see a wall to turn, turn right when he turns, that way you will get to him because you're both at the same place and he has traveled the most. Jump whilst sprinting to get to your enemy if you have the hunger to spare.

Gold armor Many people don't use this armor, and it shields for 44% of damage, if fully worn. A diamond sword critical hit will do ♥♥♥ hearts on it.

Chain armor This is the least used armor because it is so hard to get. Protecting for 48% of all damage, it is about as effective as gold armor.

Iron armor The second best armor and one of the most effective sets of armor (due to iron being easy to find) iron armor seems fairly weak to be the second best armor. It protects for 60% of damage taken. A stone sword will do 1 full heart of damage against it with no buffs. A critical hit with a diamond sword will do 1.5-♥♥ hearts of damage, and if that is Sharpness I then it will do ♥♥ to 2.5 hearts of damage.

Diamond armor The strongest armor. It withstands a lot of punishment. Even a Sharpness V (5) sword will only do ♥ to 1.5 hearts of damage. It protects against 80% of damage taken. If fully enchanted with Protection IV (4) then a Sharpness V sword will only do 0.5-♥ hearts of damage.

Now that we have described all armor, we will now give you a guide on how to PvP. our If you see a strong enemy heading for you, if you have one, drink a Potion of Strength II. As of Minecraft 1.6.1, they increase your damage by a whopping 260%! Even if they have full Protecction IV and you have Sharpness III, you still stand a chance because you do ♥ to ♥♥ damage every hit! Note that ♥♥ can only be obtained by critically hitting. If the server has a plugin that shows the health of the enemy, even better!

Practice all the time with a sword against other players, if they allow you, or do it on LAN. Bows are not as useful at close range, depending on the skill of the player, medium-long is usually best. Jumping while shooting while fighting other archers will decrease the chance of getting hit, but only do this if your skill in aiming is good.

Always keep splash potions of Speed II in your hotbar. If you get a hit on your opponent, best with a knockback sword, you can throw the potion (make sure your enemy(s) get as little or none of the potion at all), and start running for your life. This can also be used against someone that loves to run. Remember! You should jump while sprinting if you have Speed 1 or 2! (Jumping too much will cause you to not be able to take advantage of the Speed potion, but your speed is still higher than just sprinting as long as you're using legit Speed potions (Speed I and Speed II.))

The preceding part is incomplete, please complete: "PvP Better"

How to shoot from far away
Sniping and using a bow can be difficult for some but for others it's their natural talent. Some people have many styles of shooting such as jumping and shooting, aiming upwards and strafing to the right/left or by simply hammering people with spam shots.

Some basics

In order for you to support your team as an archer/sniper you need:


 * as many arrows as you think you need
 * armor, unless suicide mission
 * food (doesn't have to have high saturation foods since you should be far away from getting hit)

Also it is recommended that you strafe from left to right when shooting and you should also know when the right time it is to shoot another person. A good scenario is that your in battle with another person, and he's a good few blocks away cocking his bow up and you just started cocking your up, what do you do? Well first of all you release it halfway there then strafe so that when he shoots, you have the advantage of shooting back at him dealing more damage to the enemy.

Sniping

When sniping, you must calculate some possibilities that may happen and you must aim high for long range shots. eg: 80-150 blocks away first you find your target then you use the crosshair to point your bow at the target and then you move it higher like say 60 degrees high(it depends on how far your target is). You may miss your target but keep trying and you may eventually get him. Try to shoot where you think your target will be, take note that arrows travel fast, but won't hit a opponent as soon as you release it.

Shooting styles

Many people who shoot have developed their own style of shooting such as:

Jump strafe

Jump strafe is charging your bow and strafing to the side or not moving at all then when fully cocked, jump and shoot the target. It is good for mid range combat but not ideal for sniping.

Strafing

People who strafe just simply move in one direction while shooting the target and occasionally take cover when getting pinned down. So when shooting you have to aim slightly above your target's head before shooting for a larger hit rate.

Spam shooting

Spam shooting is being very close to a charging target and lightly cocking the bow and shooting the target. this is a risky style you can do but the risk fades if you shoot the target off a high place like a cliff. Note that when encountering another spam shooter, you have to strafe to avoid getting hit by it. Another easy way to kill a spam shooter is to sprint, then jump, this takes advantage of the fact that you can't be hit while your character turns red, and are immune to damage in that short time. This will be more than enough time to spamm-click the person do death.

This concludes the How to shoot from far away.

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 almost 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 & Thorns lll diamond Leggings
 * Protection IV & Thorns III diamond chestplate
 * Protection IV & Respiration lll & Aqua Affinity l diamond helmet''
 * Sharpness V + Knockback 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 potions of Fire Resistance Extended
 * 2 potions of Invisibility Extended
 * 2 potions of Strength II
 * 2 potions of Regeneration II
 * 2 potions of Swiftness II
 * 32 Ender pearls
 * 1 Efficiency IV-V 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:
 * Full Juggernaut armor
 * A good enchanted sword
 * Three or five potions, splash and regular
 * Power IV bow

From 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 loot your stuff upon death. Mixed inventories are better when you don't have a restrictive inventory like a Sniper, and in 1v1 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 better know how to build a somewhat 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).
 * 7 lava buckets.
 * 1 donkey with a chest containing an Ender chest inside.
 * Melee Infantry build inside Ender chest.

Saboteur:
 * 1 iron sword (Sharpness I or II is recommended)
 * 3 Invisibility potions (extended)
 * Lots of food
 * Bow (Power I or II and Punch I is recommended)
 * A stack of blocks (cobblestone, dirt)
 * 2 buckets of lava
 * Bucket of water
 * As much TNT as possible
 * Flint and steel
 * NO ARMOR
 * 2 of each potion: Instant Health, Swiftness (Splash is not recommended)
 * 1 stack of arrows
 * 1 or more stacks of Ender pearls
 * 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 armor they die quite easily and are extremely vulnerable when not invisible, but if they have armor, then they are even more vulnerable if they have armor, since the enemy can spot then, even if they are 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:
 * 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:
 * 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:
 * Iron sword, best if it has Sharpness or Knockback. Fire Aspect is useless in water.
 * A bow with Power lll to V Punch lll and Infinity l (along with an arrow)
 * Leather cap with as high Respiration as you can get, dyed blue
 * Rest of armor leather, also blue dye
 * 2-5 stacks of snowballs or eggs
 * A lot of water breathing and night vision potions extended.
 * A couple of boats

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 or Eggs. Since armor does not block drowning, this is a good way to kill juggernauts.

Nether Exotic: For Nether-based operations.


 * Gold or iron sword, Knockback+Fire Aspect crucial
 * Red dyed leather armor (or better). Feather Falling is good, fire protection is mandatory unless using potions of fire resistance
 * 3 buckets of lava, plus several extra for picking up lava from lava seas
 * 3 buckets of milk
 * 1-2 stacks of snowballs or eggs
 * 3-5 splash potions of Instant Damage II
 * 2-4 splash potions of Poison II
 * 5 splash potions of Instant Health II
 * 2 flint and steels
 * Lots of fire resistance potions (ext)
 * Possibly some TNT
 * 16 Ender pearls
 * Flame+Power bow and 64 arrows (or 1 arrow and Infinity)
 * Fishing Rod (for pulling enemies into lava)

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.
 * Everyone should have several potions of invisibility just so that players can run around with out their nameplate sending everyone after them
 * Nobody, not even juggernauts should go alone for fear of being mobbed by enemies, because what if an enemy juggernaut you are feared of battles against you? Then you will get killed easily, even if you are a juggernaut. Don't do this not even if you are a murderer. The murderer can kill a player in one hit, but can get smacked by some splash harming ll like every one else. 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 hotbar, 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 off, 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. Immediately set up TNT cannons to blow a hole in the wall. On a server with Obsidian Destroyer, set up a TNT cannon using dispensers that fire around 5 pieces of TNT per shot. If the wall has water, build a hybrid cannon (A cannon that shoots TNT inside of sand). Following this, send your troops in. If this is not possible, set up mortars to bombard the city and cause general havoc. It takes a LOT of manpower to quickly rebuild defensive structures, so if they DO manage to rebuild in 5 minutes or less, either they don't have enough archers on the walls, which literally hands you the advantage, or they have a humongous faction, which is not likely, but if they do, then proceed with the directions below.

Don't waste arrows in a literally up-hill battle against archers on the walls. (unless it's meant as a distraction or cover) 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: send a spy or two to gauge weakness in the design

2: Build a major, somewhat safe siege tower/ about 800 blocks away with 8-20 Ender pearl cannons at least.

3: Have all Juggernauts teleport into the city with the cannon, AFTER the exotics drink an invisibility potion and secure the area.

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

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

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

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

Sabotage
If you can't hurt them from the outside, hurt them from the inside! Try joining your enemy faction if they aren't already trying to kill you. Keep in mind that you may be killed, as not all factions are for teaming, only allowing a person to "tpa" or "f home" and then kick them. After kicking you, they will most likely kill you. However, if you get into their base as a faction member, wait until the owner of faction is offline, and strike as soon as there are as little amount of faction moderators,, who can kick you form their faction. When very little faction people are online, this is a golden opportunity to strike. Take their best valuables, then brake the furnaces, chests, and burn the items with a flint & steel. If they have a water mine, block the water. If they have a staircase mine, put a lava or two at the top. Go the the "f home' and dig a hole. put lava in it, from the ceiling and make a wall so as soon as they "f home" they will constantly respawn in lava. If you have spare lava, fill the place with it! Make sure that there aren't any hidden chests, and destroy the farms if no one in the faction catches on. If possible, if they don't know you griefed/raided them, wait until they repair their bases with more food/loot and restart the process! Remember to give loot to your actual team after each raid.

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.
 * Make it an inverted triangle shape to deter Ender Pearlers, and cover the top with lava.
 * Put pressure plates all over the floors to nail invisible exotics and assist in hearing where everyone is not to mention to make any traps harder to spot
 * Have a Nether Portal, but keep it turned off unless it is in-use.
 * Make murder holes!. This way you can fire at enemies straight below you without exposing yourself. Chances are, they'll try to pillar up under the murder hole, try to shoot you and hit themselves as they try to hit you.
 * Make TNT. Make a hole in the floor of your base, and put 1-4 Dispensers around it, the openings facing the Dispenser opposite them. Then connect them with Redstone and attach it to a button.
 * Make two or more rings around the bottom of the castle which allows archers to move around and fire at things straight below them with relative ease.
 * Farm everything you can in the castle, food, chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, creepers, skeletons, spiders, witches, and trees are a must.
 * If you have a bigger sky castle you can make a villager trading hall providing but not limited to diamond/iron gear, enchanting services, arrows, apples, porkchops, saddles, redstone, glowstone, and glass.
 * try making mob containers with droppers ready to despense diamond/iron gear at a switch that allows diamond equipped skeletons/zombies, a few witches, and a dozen or so creepers to drop onto the attacking force.
 * If the server lets players set their homes ask them to make it far away and near the items below
 * There are some items that are difficult to farm on a castle, stock up on them:
 * Ghast-tears: for potions, just in case.
 * Iron: for buckets.(Unless you have an iron golem farm)
 * Gold: For potions.
 * Lava: for dropping on people.
 * Ender pearls: for abandoning ship or surprise-attacking the juggernauts (often a suicide mission)

PvP Behind The Scenes
Player-against-player combat is far more advanced than it may look. With it said, it's best to know what people can encounter in a so-called "behind the scenes" stage.

Be Popular and Revered
If you want griefers or spawnkillers on your side, be really nice to them. Most of them are notoriously good at PvP from practice, and giving them a reason to be on your side through making sure they never have to worry about starving or being hunted by others is a good way to avoid alienating them. Ironically, this may be the most effective way to make allies with random people, giving them full access to all of your resources and your considerable efforts to be hospitable will generally remove any want to take your items. (As always, this may backfire).

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. This means people will have second thoughts of attempting to kill you.

Defending Your Base
Let's say you're on a faction server and you have many enemies. 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 defenses that are innately active, such as obsidian and water to negate explosions and if available, a spawner that can funnel out mobs on command (go exploring for spawners) to distract and dangerously deter, or snow golems to break armor.

If you have these, don't jump down and PvP. Wait for the spawning mobs to break their armor, or call for your faction members and allies to assist in defeating the enemy.

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?
The best way to keep your most precious valuables is put them in an Ender chest. Then put an Ender 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.

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.
 * -Tip: Enchant Some leather armor with Protection IV if possible and a stone or wooden sword with extreme enchantments. This will trick players into thinking "That guy is terrible and doesn't even have good armor". Then sneak and follow them (use an invisibility potion if you have one), and they may end up revealing a base or hidden valuables. If you know you can beat them then go for it. BIG TIP: USE POTIONS ALWAYS!

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.

Oops!
Ambushing someone is good. Its even better when he/she turns around to attack you with the wrong item! (E.G. a cooked chicken) This makes an easy kill. Take this advantage. And try to make sure this does not happen to you. If it does, it can cost you everything you have on hand!

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. 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.


 * Don't be scared to act like a coward. If you stand no chance, save what you can save and run! If your nearly killed, and have no hope of victory? Run! and don't let yourself be lured into 1-on-1 PvP unless you can win this: use your mind over your in-game muscles! Preverably, use both! Most important is: use your environment wisely. For example: if your in a jungle biome, run into the trees and assasign your foes! or maybe: if your in a big NPC-village with Iron Golems: make your foe hit the Iron Golem, then run of and snipe the foe! if your on a small island in an ocean biome: run into the ocean with a boat, sail a little away, and use your bow to take down that diamond-armor juggenaut! It will all be yours if you succeed! Your sword might be a strong weapon, but your bow is even stronger if you use your mind. also, don't be scared to use potions: they can give you a great advantage over your non-potion using foes.


 * 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!) If you and your team mate are strategic, let's say they stick together, and your enemy doesn't, then you are almost guaranteed to kill them, that is if both of you have at least stone swords and he is alone with an iron sword and full iron armor. If you got lucky enough to mine a diamond sword, bring that out too: if you can, enchant with even just Sharpness I, which will do about 1.5-2.5 hearts every hit. If you somehow have gotten a Strength II potion, maybe by buying it on a server, then DRINK IT! It will multiply your damage by 3.6, so that 2.5 hearts, if you make that a critical hit (by falling when attacking) (will do 3.0-3.5 hearts) WITH Strength II, then you just might have killed your opponent in one or two hits.

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. If you have any type of invisibility potion or maybe you are just very good at not being noticed, you can easily lure the enemy away from your actual position, then jump-attack them when they are least expecting it. This can be the key to a neck-and-neck battle, where your enemy's equipment is as good as yours.

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 Armor, so if you see someone in full Gold Armor for it's Enchantibility, don't be afraid to pelt them with Snowballs.
 * Son of a beach ball

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

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.
 * Humiliation

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 potions such as strength, health, regen, and invisibility. 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 scenario 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.

When you are using lava or TNT, bring some obsidian and/or a water bucket. This will protect you from explosions and burning.
 * Safety first

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.
 * Be Vigilant

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 teleport 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 unless your enemy is smart enough to set up a hidden advantage or just blatantly stupid, will not bother attacking you because most know they will 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, and remember to take rotten flesh to heal your wolves.

Switch Tactics
You may be pretty powerful with your not-inconsiderable Protection IV diamond armor and Sharpness V Knockback II and Fire Aspect II sword. However, as diamonds are not exactly impossible to find and more people will attempt diamond swords and enchants, staying with this setup is not recommended. Sooner or later, their sheer number will make your PvP a button mash while surviving in a free-for-all becomes luck-based. Therefore, keep different weapons on you. Here's some ideas:


 * 1) Poison them.
 * 2) Use a fire charge to burn them.
 * 3) Use snowballs or eggs; these are cheap rapid-fire armor breakers.
 * 4) Use Punch II bows to knock them back.

All this is vital, as the once invincible enchanted diamond armor is now commonplace for any serious PvP player.

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 this as a melee primary weapon.

Bow

Use this as a powerful ranged weapon.

TNT

Use this in inventive and creative ways.

Flint & Steel

As fire is one of the few sources of damage that are NOT affected by armor, this will hit just as hard, whether the enemy is in diamond armor or no armor.

Fishing Rod

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

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

While useful, it is only good if you have an advantage. Remember that they will be affected as well!

Food

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

Milk eradicates all potion effects, good or bad. Poison potions, which are otherwise impossible to nullify, can be countered with this.

Tactical
Potions

Potions can do a variety of effects, all of which can be used.

Ender Pearls

When thrown, it teleports the user to the place it lands. Useful for getting over walls.

Water Bucket

Water slows movement, allowing for a quick escape.

Lava Bucket

Lava is the ultimate barricade. Dump it behind you and retreat to guarantee an obstacle which deals incredible damage.

Snowballs or Eggs

While it deals no damage to a player, it has a high rate of fire, allowing you to knock people off cliffs. They only damage other players if there is a plugin for the server that gives the ability of harm for these. Most players will not expect an egg to be used as a weapon, and therefore it can be very effective and surprising. It damages armor, making it a mass-producible armor killer.

Horses

Use this to escape quickly and later return for revenge.

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 particle effects or a full set of enchanted armor. Chances are, they 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 armor protection, so your enemy's diamond armor 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 armor and Weapons, but how much damage is dealt.

Thorns
 * Ability: Wearer has a chance to reflect taken damage back at opponent. Higher levels offer higher chance to reflect damage.
 * Used on: All armor pieces
 * Highest level: III (3)
 * Notes: Be wary of the extra durability damage your armor takes. If you combine Thorns and Protection, then your armor 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 armor pieces.
 * Highest level: IV (4)
 * Notes: This is one of the better armor 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 armor pieces.
 * Highest Level: IV (4)
 * Notes: A full set of Blast Protection IV (4) armor should protect you well from explosions, and is the preferred armor 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 armor pieces.
 * Highest Level: IV (4)
 * Notes: A full set of Fire Protection IV (4) armor 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 armor pieces.
 * Highest Level: IV (4)
 * Notes: This should be the armor 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 armor/weapon in question. Higher tiers offer longer durability.
 * Used on: All armor and weapons (Not available via standard enchantments, only through Unbreaking enchantment book on an 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 armor 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 TNT. 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 they have joined the enemy 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. Worse of all, you factions are you enemy and will join the enemy forever. 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.