Hello. This is the new player guide that I wish had existed when I started, and a tribute to people who patiently answered my questions. Please comment. Thank you.

Welcome Home

When you connect to Wildercraft the first time, you land in /spawn. There is a lot to see here at /spawn, but you're probably eager to find somewhere to start building. You can come back to /spawn later and look around.

Wildercraft has six survival servers named after trees, which is why we call them tree servers. There are some other servers you'll learn about later. If you want to choose your tree server, walk forward and a little to the left from your start point. There is an NPC and some pink floating text listing the tree servers and how many people are logged into each one. If you don't want to make a decision, walk straight ahead from the spawn point. There is a warp circle that will take you to a random server.

You will land in the tree server's /localspawn. Each tree server has one. You will find some useful things there, like a notice board and some portals. You are safe at /localspawn. This is where you will land after dying, assuming you don't have another home set (for instance, by having slept in a bed).

Remember, you are playing Minecraft in survival mode on hard difficulty. If you leave /localspawn at night, the mobs will eat you for lunch. Before you leave, check the sun and see if you have enough time to make a safe place to wait out the night.

You can just run out of /localspawn and start looking for a new home. But you have to run about 500 blocks out to find a place where you can build, and the space around there may be built up already. Never fear, there is a circle labeled Wildwarp. Go stand in it. After a short wait, the warp circle will launch you into a random location on the server, high in the air so you can see around. You will float safely to the ground. If you don't like where you landed, go back to /localspawn and try again the next day. If you are there with a friend, stand in the warp circle together to land in the same place.

Before you build, look around. You must build at least 100 blocks away from other people's stuff. If you build too close, your stuff may be removed.

Once you find a space you like, hit F3 and write down or screen shot the coordinates in case you die and want to come back. If it's really far away, someone might still be able to fly there and teleport you, but they can't do it if you don't know where it is.

Ranks and voting

When you start Wildercraft, you have the lowest rank, Feral. Many useful commands and perks only become available when you gain higher rank. You rank up by voting. Typing "/vote" and click on all three links provided to get three votes per day.

By voting you are going other web sites not run by Wildercraft and telling them that you like Wildercraft. Lists of popular Minecraft servers are created based on these votes. You probably heard about Wildercraft from one of these lists, so obviously voting is a big deal.

You do not have to vote. Some people never vote and stay Feral. But most people vote for the rewards. The most common voting rewards are teleport eyes (more on these later), experience, and diamonds. Every week there is a chance of getting a rare piece of gear.

In order for you to vote, lots of things have to go right. Ad and script blockers may stop you from voting. So may problems at your ISP (cacheing). Because the vote sites track IP addresses, only one person per household can vote per day. You can get around this by using your phone on data (not wifi). Wildercraft does not have control over all of the pieces required for votes to work. But if you can't vote, a mod may be able to help you.

You can see how many votes you need to rank up by typing "/vote" and mousing over the blur text.

The "/ranks" command will show you what the ranks are, what perks each rank grants, and how many votes are required to get them.

Notably, you have to rank up to Lightfoot before you can claim land.

Getting around Wildercraft

You can get back to the main spawn any time by typing "/spawn" and to any tree server's local spawn by typing "/localspawn." You can move to any server by typing "/go [servername]". When you /go to a server, you will land exactly where you were the last time you left (except for /spawn, which will always drop you at the spawn point). If you're trading with someone, you will probably meet them at /spawn, because it's easy to get home from there.

Every /localspawn has a nearby end portal. To take a short cut home, jump in the end portal. If you've never read the text that shows up, you might want to check it out. Otherwise hit escape to skip it. When you land in the end, you will see an obvious safe path to the next portal. Jump through that and land at your bed. Once you have Wanderer rank or above, you can also use the "/home bed" command.

If you do not have a bed yet, you will land at /localspawn.

Some movement commands consume teleport eyes. The /home command is one of these. There are also teleport commands. You can't use most of them until you rank up a bit, but someone else can teleport you to them. If you accept a teleport request, you will consume one teleport eye.

If you want more teleport eyes, you can buy them. But you don't have to use them often if you make use of /localspawn and the end portal. Most people have extras within a few days.

Getting Help

If you're a do-it-yourself type and know your way around Minecraft, you'll be ready to set up your base as soon as you find a good spot. If you want some help, though, just ask in chat.

Established players may aid you by giving you a bed and some supplies. You're more likely to get gifts if you say please. People on Wildercraft are friendly and will answer any questions you have.

If you run into more serious trouble, ask for a mod's help. Chat will automatically alert helpers of your request. Be patient. The staff are largely volunteers who need to eat dinner and take bathroom breaks.

Typing the command /wildercraft will bring up a menu with some of the information contained here in compact form with handy links.

The /help command will put you in a special help channel, another way of contacting staff. If you land there accidentally because you expected a menu of help instead, you can get out of it by typing "/ch local".

Rules

Now, while you're sitting in your spartan new base waiting for dawn, take some time to type "/rules" and read what pops up.

Most of the rules boil down to "be kind and don't touch anyone else's stuff." This goes both ways. People have to be kind to you and should leave your stuff alone. If someone is mean to you or you come home to find all your sheep dead and your diamonds stolen, ask for a mod's help to get your stuff back and problems solved.

People who violate Wildercraft rules may be suspended or banned entirely.

To find out which mods are permitted, use the "/allowedmods" command. If it's not listed here, don't use it, because it's depressing when people get banned.

There is a chat filter. It's not very smart. Try to resist the temptation to subvert it. Especially with British swears.

Seasons

Wildercraft resets worlds about every six months. Before you start your big build project, check to see how long it's been since the last reset and how soon the next reset is expected. While resets are usually in December and July, the date may change according to when new versions of Minecraft are released.

Why reset everything? Why not let everyone's stuff last forever? People come and go often, leaving behind half-completed eyesores, making it harder for new people to find a good spot to build. It's difficult to take advantage of some new Minecraft features without regenerating the entire world.

Also, no in-game stuff lasts forever. When I played on TinyMUD back in 1989, we thought our stuff would last forever. Spoiler alert: it didn't.

Talking to People

[Question: which chat commands are native to Minecraft, which come from plug-ins, and which are specific to Wildercraft? Thanks--tigerbalmv]

Every server has its own local chat channel. While you are in local chat, only people in that same local chat can see what you say. Local chat is the best place to socialize and coordinate activities that are specific to that server.

Global chat includes everyone in most of Wildercraft (if you're in a minigame dungeon, you only see chat from people with you). Global chat is the best place for buying and selling, finding people who want to join you in a minigame, or ask for general help. Try not to flood global chat with too much random chatter. Sometimes people will get cranky at you for talking in global chat too much. Don't worry, they will probably make the same mistake tomorrow. When they do, be kind to them.

The command "/ch local" or "/ch l" puts you in local chat. The command "/ch global" puts you in global. It's a good habit to "/ch l" every time you talk in global so you don't forget to change back later. If reading global chat makes you feel like you are drinking from a fire hose, you can leave global by typing "/leave global". The command "/join" is synonymous with "/ch" so you can "/join local".

If someone is taking up too much space in chat, possibly by begging for stuff and not saying please, you can mute them. Hit the "p" key for a menu of people on your server and an option to mute them.

If you want to send a private message to someone, use the whisper command "/w [playername]".

Players at Colossal rank and higher can create private party chats.

Wildercraft has a Discord server. To learn how to sign up, look for the NPC at /spawn. You can carry on longer conversations there, share screenshots of your builds, buy and sell or ask for a mod's help. Information about how to connect to Discord is available at spawn. If you want to have a long or private conversation with someone, Discord is probably better. The in game chat interface is a bit clumsy and mischats are embarrassing.

Likewise Wildercraft has some forums. There is--you guessed it--an NPC at /spawn with information.

Shopping

The Wildercraft shop system is one of the server's most popular unique features. The shops are the wildest buildings in Wildercraft as each shop owner tries to get your attention. Anyone can shop at a store. Once you hit Peddler rank or higher you can set up a chest to sell stuff from, and at Mythic rank you can set up an entire shop.

Normally when you've mined your first diamonds you'd make a pickaxe out of them to mine more diamonds so you can make armor and weapons. On Wildercraft you can buy a pick that takes three diamonds to make for one diamond, so you might want to head for the shops.

How can someone sell a pick that takes three diamonds to make for one diamond? Easy. There are different ways to get gear without having to make it. Early in the game most of the good gear comes from raiding end cities. Soon enough players set up villages and trade with their villagers.

The amount of cheap gear for sale tends to frustrate shop owners who thought that a shop was their ticket to never having to strip mine to get diamonds. As a new player, though, you can be on your way to owning max gear within a couple of hours of starting. Then you can move on to exploring, slaughtering mobs or making art. When you die, take a few minutes to mourn your old gear, then head to the shops to get replacements that are at least as good.

There are three ways to get to shops.

• Walk and swim. Walk forward from the spawn point and turn right into the second archway. Walk down the insufficiently-lit, scary passageway to the waterfall. Swim up it, and you'll be in shop territory. Don't worry if it's nighttime. Mobs don't shop.
• Shop region warps. Turn left out of the spawn point, and turn left again to face back the way you came. There are four regional warp points. Stand in one for a free teleport.
• Direct warp. You can warp to any shop by typing "/$ [username]". For instance, to get to my shop, you use the command "/$ tigerbalmv". Direct warp is the main way to get to the few shops that are set up on tree servers where shop owners are free to set up much larger emporia. Traveling to these shops costs a teleport eye.

Most gear is sold for diamonds, but plenty of shop chests take other items in exchange. Look around for black ender chests (echests) that serve as ATM's to give you access to your diamonds and other valuables.

If you get tired of browsing, you can search for items and teleport directly to the shop that has the stuff you want. Use the command "/search$ item [itemname]" for a list of shops that have it. Remember to use the actual word "item" in the command. The itemname will autocomplete if you hit tab. Each entry in the list that you get from "/search$" is a teleport link. Click and go. You can also "/search$ description [description]" to look for things in a shop's description. While most of the shops are around spawn, "/search$" also works from any of the tree servers.

It often pays to shop around as prices may vary wildly between shops.

Minigames

Once you get bored of mining for diamonds, check out the Wildercraft minigames for challenges and rewards.

• The Ruby Dragon
• Dungeon Run
• Match-5, my personal favorite

If you survive, use the XP you gained to enchant more gear to sell to the next new players.

Other Servers

Once you have a home built out in a tree server, there are other places to visit, each with separate inventories. One is Expanse, which is a vanilla Minecraft server. There is a Skyblock server where you level up by placing nature blocks. Finally, high-ranking players can get creative in a creative-mode server.

Also of note: the lobby. You end up there for a couple of minutes if you are logged on during Wildercraft's nightly reboots. You'll be returned automatically. You can go there any time with "/go lobby". There are parkour courses for entertainment.

GL HF --tigerbalmv

Here are some suggestions for this very thorough guide!

I'd move up the discussion about moving around wildercraft about the tree server names and tping to the first few paragraphs.

I'd mention being able to go /home bed for wanderers who have at least slept in a bed.

"If you leave /localspawn at night, the mobs will eat you for lunch." I might say dinner since it's night :P

Maybe mention that if people want to walk instead of wilderwarp out, they have to go about 500 blocks from localspawn.

When you talk about the discord say you can sign up for it while in game by going /discord at spawn.

At the shops section you could mention that they are all around spawn, up the steps or the waterfall. Also that people can search shops from anywhere. And that people can even just click on the name of the shop owner to teleport in 10 seconds. Also people might want to know about the player warps NPC dude on the left of spawn that has multiple pages of special player warps, including some public farms.

When you talk about starting with a pick, you could remind people they should try not to mine any more diamonds until their dia pick has fortune 3 and ideally the other max enchants of course, available at the shops.

"Soon enough players set up villages and trade with their villagers." - I'd insert a comma after "enough"

When you talk about the end, you could mention every server has an enderman farm, which are usually located behind you when you arrive at the end, so people can quickly repair their mending items.

Needs a section on claims. I'd just say you can make a temporary claim with a sign stating your intent to claim the area. It must be at least 100 blocks from other players' claims unless otherwise agreed upon with a player. You can use a stick to see which blocks are claimed and who they belong to. If people steal or grief they will likely be persecuted and possibly banned. Staff can bring stuff back fairly easily anyway. Once lightfoot, use a golden shovel to create a claim by right clicking two opposing corners of the rectangular claim you wish to make. They can be extend via commands or shovel, while holding the golden shovel.

The middle of the night is lunchtime for mobs, you know. Also, congratulations on being my first commenter. You win a cookie!

I like your suggestions. If I don't immediately incorporate all of them, it's because the guide isn't (yet) designed to be comprehensive. I think it's already too long for most people's attention spans. This can be dealt with by judicious use of section hypertext links and other document features if it becomes a "real" guide.

For some things, like claims, I feel that there is already a bunch of documentation about it. Also, new players can't claim right off, so I'm not sure if that belongs in the new player's guide. I'm open to persuasion either way.

ETA: Persecute?????

Is 500 blocks out a constant? Can you build closer to localspawn at the beginning of the season but must go further at the end?

Yay, cookie!

Yeah, makes sense to leave claims out.

I mean prosecute, not persecute haha. As in hold accountable. :P

And the distance from localspawn won't change. It's approximately 500. Not sure about it super exactly.

Also, there is at least one server without an enderman xp farm at the end so you'd have to say most servers have them.

The reason I'm not putting the endermen farms in the newbie doc is I tried to use them after a death loss when I had only unenchanted diamond armor to wear, and the evil things kept smacking me good. It was not a nuturing experience. Also, I suspect that the enderman farms don't exist right after reset. I'd like to include only fairly constant stuff so if the guide sees wider use it won't have to be changed depending on how far advanced is the season. That's the kind of thing I'll get to learn more about in a couple of months. Meanwhile, I rely on comments like yours.

Hi.

I like your post.  Is it still accurate?  It's been 1 year since it was originally posted.

No, not all of the info here is up to date. Quite a bit is changed/altered on current map but some of it still applies.