Tutorials/Player versus Player

PvP or Player vs. Player is a fun yet dangerous aspect of Minecraft which is only on Multiplayer as you need another player to fight against. PvP allows you to pit yourself against other Minecraft players in an organized fight or a backstab to steal their hard earned diamonds! Whatever you do with it, PvP is normally fun, unless you are digging dirt and the server's top combattant is right behind you. PvP is very complicated and not for the faint of heart. A sudden misposition, combat log or bad base design can suddenly leave you between two neutral or enemy armies. However remember, Minecraft is mainly a co-op game, PvP is just one aspect.

Organized PvP
Organized PvP is when a player agrees to a fight; that might mean if you win they give you 2 diamonds, and if you lose they get your base. If you go to an Organized PvP fight make sure someone knows that you're doing it; bring a friend in case you get double-crossed.

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

Building Your Arena
Well, you're in luck. Best to build on creative, (if creative is available,) then switch to survival

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

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

Types:
 * Ancient: Build a Colosseum inspired by the ancient Romans with fights against animals and perhaps some blood (Redstone) on the floor - use sandstone for walls, sand as the floor and wood for decoration and breaking the sandstone 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, and a gold block throne on the other for you or the current arena champion. The arena floor should be netherrack with glowstone in the middle. 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! 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, 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

Preparing For Organized PvP
Get a full set of armor Iron-level and above, a weapon (Sword), a Bow with some Arrows, Flint and Steel, or anything else you can get your hands on which does damage. Now a Potion or 5 is going to be a huge help, especially splsh poison and instant health potions. Some food is also a good idea if the fight is going to be a long one. Also, make sure you >BACK UP EVERYTHING<. Make or ask for a trunk, and put all of the things you're afraid of losing, and doubles, in it before EVER going to an organized PvP.

Anything which will help you win is good! If you know the arena and if it has traps, lure your opponent into them! Everything helps. What's that you say? An honest fight? Okay you go for that but don't worry, It's sure your opponent will be just as honest and have no TNT or Lava in his bag either. If you want a truly honest duel have a non-biased administrator check your inventories with a plugin.

The Fighting part
Time to battle, you can fight them like a man (or woman) sword to sword, bow to arrow, 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 spamming your mouse's left click button. Use you right mouse button to block attacks, sprint at opponents and hit whilst falling for critical hits! (be wary of hackers with forcefield, they are a pain)

What's next?

 * Tournaments: Get a few players together: about 10+ is good, then put them two at a time against each other. If you win, you fight another winner; if you win again, you fight another winner again and again until you lose or there is only one winner left. You never fight a loser; if they lose they are out, exept perhaps for a battle for third place.
 * Free-For-Alls/Last Man Standing: 10+ players fight against whoever they want in the arena at the same time. Maybe there is someone who is annoying or swears too much - who wouldn't want to try killing them...?
 * Team: 10+ players on equal teams. The team with the most players left alive at the end wins.
 * UN-Official Duels: You have a person who you REALLY hate, but you have more TNT then 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.
 * 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.

Friendly PvP
Friendly Pvp is when two or more players agree to pvp for the fun of it, and usually agree to give back any items won afterwards. Friendly PvP is a very good way to practice fighting and is great to play on LAN. Also it tends to be the best option for PvP as it a. Avoids most unfriendly feudes. b. Stops you losing all your diamond tools. c. Minecraft tends to reward cooperation (often in the form of more diamonds collected mining), killing other players and stealing their items is tends to be less effective, damaging the affected player much more than the other player benefits from it. Friendly PvP comes out at its very best in Tekkit, arial battles can be great fun and many items are too expensive for it to be justified to rob people in PvP.

Can I PvP here?
Some servers endorse building, and being kind to other users. Others are specific PvP arenas. Usually servers will have a "terms of service" that include whether or not PvP is allowed in that particular server. If you own an SMP server, you may change the settings by entering the server.properties file and setting PvP on either true or false.

Faction Wars
Another type of organized PvP is the faction war. This is when two factions invade the other faction's base, killing members, griefing structures,etc. These can range from organized to a surprise attack, and can have up to hundreds of warriors on either side (though this is extremely rare and may cause lag).

Help! I'm trapped!
Building a base? Good. But maybe your West, East, and South walls are exposed. What if they penetrate your walls with massive amounts of TNT. And an aerial attack? This all sounds easy to control, with thick walls of Obsidian, but always consider this, what if they manage to somehow break in? Not good. Always keep tunnels underground to escape if the time ever comes. Do not brick yourself in!!! This only gives the enemy an advantage because even though your home is protected, the home spawn point is vulnerable and they may spawn camp you (some may consider this cowardly or over-aggressive, but it is quite common). Tunnels dug up to maybe another territory could work. If your base is in they sky or somewhere where tunnels can't apply, put a nether portal, and carry 10(never make the corners) blocks of Obsidian and some flint and steel. Keep in mind, this is only a last resort, because enemies can follow you and the nether is no guarantee of survival, perhaps a better option would be to live next to an end portal and jump through it. (assuming you have killed the enderdragon) This is instant and means a pursuer may end up being mobbed by endermen (this applies to you too) and you can either help the endermen and counter attack or make your getaway through the other portal.Note: Protection and home spawn points apply if your Bukkit server had the Factions Plugin.'

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

2: Defenses Every good base needs traps and defenses! A common defense is a cobblestone wall, but is easily defeated. A good wall should contain obsidian, or if you cannot afford it, water, which is an explosion-proof block, so you are sure to keep cannons and TNT away, and it takes a long period of time to mine, which will anger players, while their trying to breach your fort while you pick them off with arrows. Traps such as TNT tripwires, pitfalls, and dispensers are great defenses, but some materials, such as sticky pistons, are hard-to-come-by materials, so be careful while trying to get these materials, also self building walls can be useful during an attack, but remember, a trespasser will not simply pound at the wall forever (unless they are monotinously dedicated to it), they will most-likely climb it with blocks, or disable it by destroying the mechanism. 3: Allies This is one of the great secrets to PvP mastership! You need allies, and they MUST be trustworthy. Allies can be a gift or a curse. An ally could help in battle, gather materials for you, make an unnecessary enemy, fall in lava, or worse yet, be killed with your valuables or stab you in the back. So be careful whom you choose for an ally (hint: if someone offers to ally the minute you go on a server, especially a hardcore server, don't do it, likewise, if someone joins a server for the first time, immediately seeking or accepting their alliance is usually a mistake).

Tactics first before PvP
Keep in mind, faction wars are not always about combat. It's always about preparations and details, for instance how you raided another faction's base, not just that you raided them, how you killed a guy in diamond with only Iron gear, and the preparations you went before going out to war. You can't rush into an attack, you need to plan it. For instance, a new enemy has come, he is powerful and has Protection III armor, with a Sharpness III sword, and a big base all to himself that nobody did so much as dared to penetrate. Yet you still want to attack him anyway. That would be hard on your own, face to face. First, Send a scout to spy on the entrances, exits, tricks, traps, hideaways and chests. Then you visualize a map back home of how things look and work extra hard to get what you need for the raid. After all that, when attacking, blow holes in his base, and take out the inner traps. This also 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 a mess in his home. Distract him again, leading to a cliff, where the wall is shaved clean, at least 64 blocks high. By the time he realizes someone is behind him, it's too late. A plan like this might be hard to follow, but strategy beats power i.e. David and Goliath. In other words, Brains beats brawn. Another hint: you are very unlikely to win a fair fight versus a superior opponent. Make sure every fight is strongly in your favor. for instance, if you have an iron sword and no armor, but your enemy has diamond armor and a diamond sword, quickly climbing a jungle tree and shooting them with arrows not only gives you a free attack, they don't get to counter-attack at all. Pouring lava on, or using flint and steel near an enemy can be an effective way to kill or weaken them, particularly if they don't have enchanted armor or potions. Fire, falls, suffocation, poison and drowning are unaffected by raw armor-rating, and suffocation, poison and drowning are unaffected by protection as well. killing someone in protection III diamond armor normally requires an average of 172 hearts of damage, if they don't heal. if they are healing, either from a full hunger bar or regeneration potions or beacons, they may be nearly impossible to slay by melee or ranged attack, but a single poison potion can bring them down to 1/2 heart, equivalent to the health of a mere slime (tiny). and fire or falling harms them as if they had only 34 hearts, as do potions of harming.

Behind Enemy Lines
As stated earlier, faction wars are not always about PvP. Truth is, there are more secrets in Faction wars that need to be ridden of their cloaks. Let's go into another scenario. Another faction is the third strongest and tactical faction. Your team have never liked them, and in fact, hated them. But there isn't enough intelligence about them to declare war against them. They need a dude who's a sharpshooter, who knows strategy better than the leader, who is best at stealth, who has a lot of patience and who fears nothing, not even the bullet-proof monster who you may be up against. They need YOU. Now, they equip you with Golden armor, a sword of iron enchanted with Sharpness II and Knockback I, 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 64 pieces of raw pork. You look loosely equipped, but without any skill you are WORTHLESS and your faction has already lost. Now, in the enemies' base there is a chain of tunnels and caverns. Maybe even a ravine or two. Now, first things first, they cannot see your name, even for a few seconds, because even if they don't know who you are, you are exposing your position and they know you are here. To do that, leave a battery or something to hold Shift to relax your fingers and make it so that nobody knows your presence. Second, don't break, put down, or pick up blocks and resources. Enemies can hear your noise and catch you if you do near them. Don't make any sound at all, including fighting monsters, getting hurt, and eating. Eating is the most tempting, since you can starve easily and you want to regenerate if you are being chased, but it's better not to get in a chase yet, sacrifice your regeneration. Third 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 intel is most important, and can get you one step closer to victory. Keep extra details in mind. Fourth, even if you know you aren't in reach of one, setting off a trap gives you away! Even if you are where you know it can't touch you, 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. Fifth, do not forget that this mission is Recon and only to obtain intel on the enemy. In other words, don't attack, approach, bomb, or loot the enemy. Report back to your base once you think you have more than enough information on the enemy and that is when you can declare war. Note: More recon missions may need to apply, get psyched if that ever happens!

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.

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

If you are engaged in a duel, be sure to be prepared with weapons as your opponent will make quick work of you if you are unprepared.

Fight Back!
If you have better stuff than them you will most likely be able to kill them. Use everything to your advantage! They attacked you, and to be honest, fighting is going to often lose you your hard earned equipment (on servers with player drops on). Use critical hits by jumping, knock them far back by sprinting, block their hits using right click, and so on. It doesn't always matter what stuff you have, skill is tied with power, but power is useless without skill! Just make sure you WIN!

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

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

Always carry extras
You never want to experience the moment of dawning horror when you are about to finish off the enemy but your sword breaks. Always carry two swords unless you have a fresh diamond sword or a decent tool e.g. Iron/ diamond axe or Diamond pick.

Get mixed in Pig's food...
...get eaten by the pigs. When someone fights someone else, it's great if someone intervenes in your fight but terrible if you are that guy. Never attack both sides of a fight that's not yours, you will have to face two enemies at once. However, saving somebody's life can often make them a useful ally.

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

Newbie's guide to survival
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:


 * Don't stay on if you hate being greifed, murdered, mugged, assassinated, robbed, burgled or bullied.


 * 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 noticable (about layer 10 is ideal, putting you near good materials) unless your enemy uses X-Ray...

-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.
 * Start gathering immediately. Do them in this order;


 * Perhaps live in the nether/end with a small mining base in the overworld?

-Note to do this when only a few people are online to make sure that nobody else is there to make you enemy.
 * Make a faction and start recruiting.

That's it! Not too long ahead, you should become good enough to last through most attacks and be feared like a pro... eventually.

Note that factions is a bukkit plugin and is not part of the vanilla server

Quick Tips, Tricks, and traps

 * 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.


 * Train yourself with weaponry. 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 good enough. 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. 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.


 * Always keep the best items you find in an ender chest. Even if you can find a spot where nobody can find the diamonds you worked a day for, put them in. You still have a chance of losing them.


 * Santa Claus with a gun is a no-no. Don't carry too many items, useful or not. You will not be able to get all the items from the man you kill, and someone may claim them first before you. Not to mention, your enemy has more items for their convenience.


 * 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.

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."
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.

Get to your senses.
You may be thinking that when people have lost so much that their anger is uncontrollable so that they go psycho, it's a good thing. And when people come, all overpowerful, you may be scared out of your wits. NO! Anger and fear are both factors to defeat. When either happens, whether it be attempt to kill a guy who has diamond armor and killing him 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. NOT GOOD! 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.)

Peace, dude.
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 unraidable.

Diamonds aren't the key to victory
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: 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 invisibillty will mean no-one will know where you are attacking from!
 * Poison
 * Damage
 * Speed
 * Health
 * Invisibillity

Trigger Happiness
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.

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.

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.

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

What about my diamonds?
On most PVP servers there's no way to protect your equipment and resources, so most players resort to burying them. A good strategy to keep those hard earned diamonds safe is to put a chest in your house with basic invaluable items in it, and bury your more expensive items a short way away from your house. When raiders come to your house, they might grief it and take your stuff (or so they think), but the chest you buried will still be safe. If your really paranoid you can bury your stuff at the bottom of the sea. People rarely cross the ocean and if they do they won't be looking for treasure. Also, use the ender chest. It is player-specific.

Son of a beach ball
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 them off. Take note that Snowballs will also damage Armour, so if you see somone in full Gold Armour for it's Enchantibility, don't be afraid to pelt them with Snowballs.

Booby traps are good
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.

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.

Keep your distance
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 sends a critical hit the power of a diamond sword!

Mid-combat Looting
Whilst in the middle of a multi-player pvp standing around and checking out the cool 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 lightly getting you killed and loseing the cool loot you just got and your original possessions. Although a bit of senario analysis is also needed (ie take this advice with a pinch of salt).

Run for your life
You might be thinking this is an ordinary idea, but running away from your killer might give you an advantage over him, as well as an advantage for him. Running deprives you of your Hunger Bar. The thing is, if his hunger bar is over 90%, he will regenerate. Deprive him of that and get him when he's eating as a head start.

Block
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.

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! First, you'll need to find iron or diamonds. Watch out for people, because they'll most likely be on the same track. Second, brew a potion of Strength. Third, enchant everything. Enchant the armor for maximum Protection. Enchant the sword to maximum power with Fire Aspect, Knockback, etc. Remember, Sharpness is the only generic damage booster. Smite and Bane of Arthropods V may seem impressive, but in a PvP situation they are useless.

Hate The Spawn
If you're building a massive fortress near the spawn, some griefer or some 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.

Love the Wolfpack
Usually you'll die singlehandedly from fighting a player with a better advantage than you, but this can be a different story altogether if you have wolves or golems with you. Wolves will follow and protect you, and usually, depending whether your enemy is smart or just blatantly stupid, will either not bother attacking you or die from a pack of wolves attacking them. Even though a wolf has no armor and only has an attack strength of 4 life points, a pack of them can still pack a punch. Iron Golems are a good choice as well as your attacker might accidentally hit the Iron Golem, in which case it will attack them, and even diamond equipment is second to the strength and health of an Iron Golem. 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.

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

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

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 no match for a guy with NO armor but a Stone Sword. 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.

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

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

Circle in a square game
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.

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

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

Run From Spam
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 spamming 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).

Equipment
Being properly equipped is very important if you're entering into organized PvP, or even simply being prepared for unexpected attacks.

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.
 * Style: Defensive, indirect
 * Protection: Leather blocks 30% damage, Gold blocks 44% damage, Chainmail blocks 48% (only obtainable through trading), Iron blocks 60% damage, and Diamond blocks 80% damage. Armor can be more potent with enchantents added, like Protection or Feather Falling.
 * Note: With the new "Thorns" enchantment to be added in either 1.5 or 1.4.6, enemies can be damaged by hitting you. HOWEVER this will deal extra damage to your armour, so like the Wither, it is somewhat of a double edged sword.

Milk

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

Sword

 * Style: Offensive, direct
 * Range: Melee
 * Damage: Varies with material  wood-4 gold-4 stone-5 iron-6 diamond-7

Bow

 * Style: Offensive, direct
 * Range: Ranged
 * Damage: No charge:, Half charge: , Full charge: , rarely

Water Bucket

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

Lava Bucket

 * Style: Offensive, lasting
 * Range: 3 from source (7 in The Nether)
 * Damage: Contact ( every second, + fire effect)

TNT

 * Style: Offensive, Explosive
 * Range: ~10 blocks in diameter (depends on surrounding blocks)
 * Damage: Explosive (around at point blank range)

Flint & Steel

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

Potions

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

Ender Pearls

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

Beacon

 * Style: Support
 * Range: Effect applied on touch. Recommended for placement inside base so enemies cannot get their hands on the beacon's effect.
 * Use: Applies a positive potion effect for about 10 seconds to players that touch it. Potion effects can be set to: Speed, Haste, Regeneration, Strength, Jump Boost.

Snowballs or Eggs

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

Food

 * Style: Support
 * Range: User
 * Damage: None
 * Use: 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.

Fire Aspect and Flame

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

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.

Sharpness and Power

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

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.

Protection

 * Ability: Additional protection against everything exept Void damage, Suffocation, Hunger, Poison and catching fire. Higher tiers offer greater protection from damage.
 * Used on: All armour pieces.
 * Highest level: IV (4)
 * Notes: This is one of the better Armour enchantments. It protects against everything you would usually worry about in the battlefield, and with the same quality as the more "specific" Protection enchantments.

Blast Protection

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

Fire Protection

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

Projectile Protection

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

Weapons of mass destruction
When all you want is for them to die, settle for nothing less.

Redstone, Repeaters, Redstone Torches, Levers or Buttons, Dispensers, and TNT

 * Style: Indirect
 * Damage: Depends on what Dispensers are loaded up with.
 * 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

 * Style: Destructive, Offensive
 * 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 plugin, unless the plugin disables explosions as well.

Wither

 * Style: Destructive, Offensive, Lasting (depending on difficulty), Terrorism (depends on players), Complete and Total annihalation of any non-undead mobs, and the structures surrounding said mobs.
 * Range: Where you, other players, or non-undead mobs lure them.
 * 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, if it isn't protected by plugins or made of Bedrock, unless, like the Creeper, the plugin disables explosions. Also, it is a mobile, rapid-fire T.N.T. Cannon that can easily wreck any and all players in the P.V.P. area. However, if the P.v.P. is team-based, it can be a two-edged sword, as it will attack ANY player or non-undead mob that gets nearby, and, if the server is on Normal or Hard, they can shoot blue skulls randomly. They can also be used to strike fear into every player on the server, unless there are people with their sound turned extremely down. They will not be terrorized unless they get attacked by the Wither. Do NOT do it near your base or near the spawn since you can get destroyed or banned, and make sure you have some plan in eventually killing it before an administrator does, because once you lay it down, you can never turn back. Overall, the wither is a suicide/ doomsday weapon, don't use it unless you hate everybody.