Getting Started
Explore the complete guide below for setting up and managing your RankForge server.
⚒️ RankForge
A modular, production-ready Minecraft rank management plugin.
Build the rank system your server deserves — with flexible requirements, powerful rewards, animated GUIs, cosmetics, multi-language support, a REST API, and a full developer API.
🚀 Installation · ⌨️ Commands · 📋 Requirements · 🎁 Rewards · 🧩 API · 💬 Support
📖 Table of Contents
Core Navigation
✨ Introduction
RankForge is a comprehensive, enterprise-grade rank plugin for Paper and Spigot servers. It replaces brittle, script-based rankup setups with a clean YAML-driven system that is beginner-friendly yet exposes a full Java API for developers.
RankForge handles the entire lifecycle of rank progression:
- Checking a player's requirements (money, XP, playtime, mob kills, block breaks, items, quests, worlds, custom logic)
- Executing rewards when a player ranks up (commands, permissions, cosmetic effects)
- Displaying progress through animated GUIs, PlaceholderAPI placeholders, and boss bars
- Persisting data safely to YAML or MySQL with automatic cache management
- Protecting against exploits with a built-in anti-abuse system
- Serving rank data over an optional embedded REST API
🎯 Features at a Glance
Click to expand core feature list
Core
- 🏅 Unlimited ranks defined in a single
ranks.yml - 🔗 Linked-list rank chain: each rank points to the next via
next-rank - 🛡 Slot-based GUI positioning — each rank occupies a configurable inventory slot
- 💾 Hot-reload without server restart (
/rank reload) - 🔧 In-game rank creation, editing, and deletion via chat prompts and GUI
Requirements
- 💰 Money — Vault economy balance
- ⭐ XP Level — Vanilla Minecraft experience level
- ⏱ Playtime — Tracked via real wall-clock time (independent of server TPS)
- ⚔️ Mob Kills — Tracked via vanilla
MOB_KILLSstatistic - 🪨 Block Breaks — Exact per-player counter via a dedicated event listener
👥 Tablist & Chat Formatting
RankForge natively manages and applies custom rank prefix formats across player lists and chat conversations seamlessly.
Example showing rank prefix formatting inside the server tablist.
🎉 Immersive Rank-Up Celebrations
Reward successful advancements with gorgeous custom titles, bossbar announcements, and broadcast messages.
In-game preview showcasing boss bar and title announcements when a player ranks up.
⚙️ Requirements
| Requirement | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Server Software | Spigot 1.17 | Paper 1.21+ |
| Java Version | Java 21 | Java 21 |
| Minecraft Version | 1.17.x | 1.21.4 |
RankForge is compiled targeting Java 21 and Spigot API 1.21.4. Paper is strongly recommended over Spigot for best compatibility with async features and GUI handling.
Do not use the /reload command. Always use /rank reload instead to prevent database corruption.
🚀 Installation
- Download
RankForge-3.8.jarfrom the Spigot page. - Drop the JAR into your
plugins/directory:
server/
└── plugins/
└── RankForge-3.8.jar- (Optional) Install Vault, LuckPerms, and/or PlaceholderAPI for extra features.
- Start your server. RankForge auto-generates all configuration files.