---
title: "How to Start a Minecraft Factions Server"
description: "Start a Minecraft 26.2 Factions server: which Factions plugins really support 26.2, how power and claims decide raiding, and why Towny is not a fallback."
url: "https://www.gameserverkings.com/knowledge-base/minecraft/start-a-factions-server/"
category: "Minecraft"
category_url: "https://www.gameserverkings.com/knowledge-base/minecraft/"
published: "2026-08-19T10:12:31.608Z"
updated: "2026-08-19T10:20:09.179Z"
source_format: "markdown"
site: "GameServerKings"
---

# How to Start a Minecraft Factions Server

Factions is the oldest competitive gametype in Minecraft multiplayer and still the most demanding to run. Players form groups, claim chunks of a shared world, and raid each other for the contents. The whole thing rests on one mechanic — **power** — which decides how much land a faction can hold and, crucially, when that land becomes raidable.

This guide names a stack for Minecraft 26.2 with verified versions, explains the power and claim settings that decide whether raiding is possible at all, and opens with an uncomfortable fact about the state of the ecosystem.

> [!WARNING] Read this before you plan anything else
> As of **19 August 2026**, checked against SpigotMC's, Modrinth's and Hangar's own APIs, **the only established Factions plugin that declares Minecraft 26.2 support is FactionsUUID — and it is now a paid resource.** Every free fork that guides still recommend stops well short of 26.2. If you were planning a free Factions server on 26.2 this week, that plan needs to change, and the rest of this page explains what to change it to.

## What Factions Is, and How It Differs

A Factions server is one shared world with contested ownership. Players group into factions, claim chunks, build a base inside their claim, and then try to break into other people's. Unlike SkyBlock (private islands, no contest) or Prison (a linear ladder), Factions has no content authored by you at all — the players generate it by fighting.

That is its strength and its problem. A healthy Factions server needs enough players online simultaneously for raiding to happen; a Factions server with twelve players is just a survival server with extra commands. Of the four common gametypes, it is by far the hardest to launch from zero, and by far the stickiest once it works.

Technically it is the most demanding too. The world is shared and explored, so chunk load is high. Raiding means TNT, and TNT means large numbers of entities and block updates in bursts. Combat means constant entity tracking. Everything about Factions is expensive.

## The Ecosystem in August 2026

Here is what the Factions plugins actually declare, read from their own distribution metadata on 19 August 2026.

| Plugin | Latest release | Released | Highest declared MC | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **FactionsUUID** | 4.7.0 | 2026-07-26 | **26.2** | Paid — USD 15.99 on SpigotMC |
| SaberFactions | 4.1.9-STABLE | 2026-03-29 | 1.21 | Free |
| Improved Factions | — | 2025-06-16 | 1.21.5 | Free |
| SavageFactions | — | 2020-09-03 | 1.15 | Free |
| FactionsX | — | 2021-05-25 | 1.16 | Free |
| Factions (MassiveCraft) | 2.14.0 | 2018-07-01 | 1.12 | Free |

**FactionsUUID** (SpigotMC resource 1035) is the continuation of the original Factions codebase. Its resource `testedVersions` array lists `26.1` and `26.2`, its last update was 26 July 2026, and its recent version names are explicit about it: `4.7.0 [MC 26.1.2 - 26.2]`, `4.6.2 [MC 26.1.2 - 26.2]`, `4.6.1`, `4.6.0` — four releases in a month, all naming 26.2. The resource is flagged `premium: true` with a price of **USD 15.99**.

**SaberFactions**, the free fork most guides point to, last shipped 4.1.9-STABLE on 29 March 2026 with the update note *"Gesture Revamp + 1.21.x Support Stable"*. Its declared version ceiling is 1.21. It is alive — it is just a full Minecraft major version behind.

**MassiveCraft Factions**, which still has more downloads than everything else combined and still ranks first for the search term, last shipped **2.14.0 on 1 July 2018** and declares up to Minecraft 1.12. Any guide recommending it is at least six years out of date.

> [!CAUTION] Towny is not the fallback you think it is
> The standard advice when Factions looks shaky is "use Towny instead". Checked on Hangar on 19 August 2026: **Towny 0.102.0.0, released 11 November 2025, declares up to Minecraft 1.21.10.** It lists no 26.x version at all. Towny is a healthy long-running project and will almost certainly catch up, but as of today it is further from 26.2 than SaberFactions is.

## What To Actually Do

You have three honest choices. Pick deliberately.

**1. Buy FactionsUUID and run 26.2.** It is the only established Factions implementation whose own metadata claims the version you want to run, and it is being released against actively. USD 15.99 once is not a meaningful cost next to the hosting.

**2. Run Minecraft 26.1.2 instead of 26.2.** This is more attractive than it sounds. On 26.1.2 you can run FactionsUUID *and* EssentialsX 2.22.0 *and* CoreProtect 24.0 *and* GriefPrevention — all of which currently stop at 26.1.2. Paper's Fill v3 API reports 26.1.2 as `SUPPORTED`, same as 26.2. See [updating your Minecraft server version](/knowledge-base/minecraft/updating-your-server-version/) for what moving between them involves.

**3. Build a Factions-shaped server out of a claim plugin.** You lose faction power, raidability windows and `/f` command muscle memory, but you get a working 26.2 server today. See the section below.

### The claim-plugin route

If you go this way, the claim plugin replaces the faction. Versions read 19 August 2026:

| Plugin | Version | Released | 26.2 | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Homestead** | 5.2.3.0 | 2026-08-09 | Declares 26.2 | Free (SpigotMC 121873) |
| **Lands** | rolling | 2026-08-16 | Declares 26.2 | Paid — EUR 19.99 (SpigotMC 53313) |
| GriefPrevention | 16.18.7 | 2026-03-05 | Stops at 26.1.2 | Free |

Lands is the closest in spirit — it has nations, wars and a full claim GUI — and it is actively released against, with three updates in the eight days before this page was written. Homestead is the free option that declares 26.2. GriefPrevention, the default free claim plugin everywhere, has not shipped since 5 March 2026 and stops at 26.1.2.

What you do *not* get from any of them is the power mechanic. That matters, and the next section explains why.

## Power: The Mechanic That Makes Factions Work

Everything distinctive about Factions comes from power. Get this wrong and your server is either unraidable or unplayable.

Each player has a **power** value. A faction's total power is the sum of its members'. That total sets **how many chunks the faction may claim**. Power falls when a player dies and regenerates over time while they are online.

The consequence — and this is the whole game — is that **a faction whose claimed land exceeds its current power becomes raidable.** Raiders farm the defenders' deaths until power drops below land, then break in. Raiding is not a permission; it is an arithmetic condition you configure into existence.

The four numbers that decide your server's character:

| Setting | What it controls | Typical shape |
|---|---|---|
| **Power per player (max)** | How much land each member is worth | Higher = bigger factions, fewer of them |
| **Power lost per death** | How fast a losing fight becomes a lost base | Higher = faster, more brutal raids |
| **Power regeneration rate** | How long a beaten faction stays vulnerable | Higher = shorter raid windows |
| **Power floor (minimum)** | Whether power can go negative | Negative floors let a faction be pushed below zero |

> [!IMPORTANT] Land-per-power is the single dial that defines your server
> If each power point buys a lot of chunks, factions sprawl and nobody can defend anything. If it buys very few, factions huddle and raiding never starts because there is nothing exposed to take. Decide the *size of a typical base in chunks*, then work backwards to the number. Changing it after launch retroactively makes existing bases either raidable or unraidable overnight, which is the fastest way to lose your player base.

### Claim mechanics

Beyond power, three claim rules do most of the work:

**Contiguity.** Must a faction's claims touch? Requiring contiguity produces defensible territory and clean borders. Allowing disconnected claims produces "corner claiming", where factions pepper the map with single chunks to deny others — usually undesirable.

**Overclaiming.** Can a faction claim a chunk already owned by a weaker faction? This is how territory changes hands without a raid, and whether you enable it is a genuine design choice. Off, land only changes hands when a faction disbands. On, the map is fluid.

**Zone types.** Every Factions implementation has special zones — a **safezone** at spawn where PvP and building are off, and a **warzone** where PvP is on but claiming is not. Set both up before you open. A server without a safezone spawn is a server where new players are killed at the spawn point on their first login, and they do not come back.

### The raiding rules you must set explicitly

Three server-level settings decide whether raiding is possible at all, and defaults are usually wrong for a Factions server:

- **TNT inside claims.** If TNT cannot break blocks in claimed land, there is no raiding. Most operators enable it in claimed territory and disable it in safezones.
- **Creeper and other explosion damage.** Usually handled by the same setting; decide separately whether mob explosions count.
- **Chest access for enemies.** Raiding means taking things. If enemy chest access is denied inside claims, a successful raid gets you nothing.

Configure all three together and test them together, because two of the three being right produces a server that looks like it works and is not raidable.

## The Supporting Stack

All versions read 19 August 2026, all declaring 26.2 unless noted.

| Role | Plugin | Version | 26.2 status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permissions | **LuckPerms** | v5.5.71-bukkit (2026-08-06) | Declares 26.2 — see [LuckPerms](/knowledge-base/minecraft/luckperms-permissions/) |
| Placeholders | **PlaceholderAPI** | 2.12.3 (2026-07-03) | Declares 26.2 |
| Economy bridge | **VaultUnlocked** | 2.20.2 (2026-06-22) | Declares 26.2 |
| Shop | **EconomyShopGUI** | 7.2.1 (2026-08-16) | Declares 26.2 |
| Spawn/warzone protection | **WorldGuard** | 7.0.18 (2026-07-31) | Declares 26.2; requires WorldEdit — see [WorldGuard](/knowledge-base/minecraft/worldguard-region-protection/) |
| Region tooling | **WorldEdit** | 7.4.5 (2026-08-09) | Declares 26.2 |
| Large builds | **FastAsyncWorldEdit** | 2.15.4 (2026-08-16) | Declares 26.2 |
| Entity/spawner control | **WildStacker** | 2026.2 (2026-06-28) | Declares 26.2 |
| Tab list and scoreboard | **TAB** | 6.1.2 (2026-08-09) | Declares 26.2 |
| Live map | **BlueMap** | 5.23-paper (2026-08-06) | Declares 26.2 |
| Pre-generation | **Chunky** | 1.5.3 paper build (2026-05-04) | Declares 26.2 on Modrinth; Hangar lists the same version at 26.1.2 |
| General commands | **Server Essentials** | 2.6.0 (2026-08-15) | Declares 26.2 |

> [!CAUTION] EssentialsX, CoreProtect and Dynmap have no 26.2 build
> **EssentialsX 2.22.0** (31 May 2026) stops at **26.1.2** — identically on Modrinth, Hangar and SpigotMC. **CoreProtect 24.0** (7 July 2026) stops at **26.1.2** on both Modrinth and Hangar. **OldCombatMechanics 2.5.1** (2 July 2026), which many PvP servers use to restore 1.8 combat, stops at **26.1.2** on Hangar. **Dynmap v3.8** (14 January 2026) stops at **1.21.11**. Substitutes that do declare 26.2: Server Essentials 2.6.0 for commands, BlueMap 5.23 for the map. There is no substitute for [CoreProtect](/knowledge-base/minecraft/coreprotect-rollback/) at 26.2 — which on a raiding server hurts, because CoreProtect is how you tell a raid from a griefing incident.

### Vault, by name

Factions economies run through Vault. **Vault's last release is 1.7.3 from 17 July 2020, declaring up to Minecraft 1.17.** VaultUnlocked 2.20.2 is the maintained fork and declares 26.2 — but plugins declare dependencies by name, and some name the original. ChestShop's 26.2-capable build declares `Vault` required; LiteEco declares both `Vault` and `VaultUnlocked` required. Check each plugin's declared dependencies before you remove the old jar.

## Permissions

Factions servers need a permissions ladder for two separate things: **staff tiers**, and **donor perks**. Both live in LuckPerms.

[Managing permissions with LuckPerms](/knowledge-base/minecraft/luckperms-permissions/) covers groups, inheritance, weights, tracks and the web editor — build the ladder there. Three Factions-specific notes:

- **Give every group an explicit weight.** Donor groups and staff groups will overlap, and unweighted conflicts resolve unpredictably.
- **Faction roles are not permissions.** A faction's internal ranks (recruit, member, officer, leader) are managed by the Factions plugin, not by LuckPerms. Do not try to model them as groups.
- **Staff bypass nodes are dangerous here.** A moderator who can ignore claim protection can also accidentally destroy someone's base. Keep bypass on a separate, deliberately-toggled group.

## Realistic Resource Expectations

Factions is the most expensive gametype on this list, for reasons that are structural:

- **The world is shared and explored.** Every player is somewhere different, and every one of them loads chunks. A Factions world reaches tens of gigabytes where a SkyBlock world of the same population reaches hundreds of megabytes.
- **Raids are burst load.** A TNT cannon is hundreds of primed entities and thousands of block updates in a few seconds, delivered to every player nearby.
- **Combat is entity-tracking-heavy**, and it happens in exactly the moments when you can least afford a lag spike.

Two practical mitigations, both worth doing before launch:

**Set a world border, and pre-generate inside it.** An unbounded Factions world grows forever and every new chunk costs disk and generation time during play. Set the border first, then pre-generate with **Chunky 1.5.3** — note that Modrinth's paper build of 1.5.3 declares 26.2 while Hangar shows the same version at 26.1.2, one of several channel disagreements worth being aware of.

**Stack entities and cap spawners.** WildStacker 2026.2 declares 26.2 and is the standard tool.

For heap sizing, Factions sits at the upper end of the bands in [Minecraft server RAM and JVM flags](/knowledge-base/minecraft/allocating-ram-and-jvm-flags/), because the loaded world is large. But memory is rarely the binding constraint — [diagnosing Minecraft server lag](/knowledge-base/minecraft/diagnosing-lag-and-low-tps/) will usually point at the tick loop instead. Measure before you buy.

> [!IMPORTANT] On a GameServerKings server the heap follows your plan automatically
> Our Minecraft servers launch with `-Xms128M -XX:MaxRAMPercentage=95.0` and **no `-Xmx`**. There is no `MEMORY` variable on the Startup tab — the heap ceiling is 95% of the RAM your plan allocates and moves with it. The lever is the plan, not a flag. [Article 559](/knowledge-base/minecraft/allocating-ram-and-jvm-flags/) has the full mechanics.

## What Was Verified — and What Was Not

**Verified**, from distribution metadata on 19 August 2026: every version number, release date, declared Minecraft version list, publishing channel and price on this page. FactionsUUID's premium status and USD 15.99 price come from SpigotMC's own API record for resource 1035. Towny's 1.21.10 ceiling comes from Hangar's platform-dependency list for release 0.102.0.0.

**Not verified**, because it requires a running server: that any of these stacks boots together. Nothing here has been tested end to end. Declared support is what the author targeted, not a test result.

**A structural gap:** SpigotMC's API publishes no dependency information. FactionsUUID, Lands, Homestead, EconomyShopGUI, TAB, WildStacker and Server Essentials are all SpigotMC resources, so their version support was confirmed but their dependency graphs could not be. If FactionsUUID silently requires a particular economy provider, this page could not have told you.

A plugin declaring 26.1.2 will often run on 26.2 in practice, because Paper's plugin API tends to be stable across point releases. That is a reasonable expectation, not a fact, and this page has tried to stay on the fact side of that line.

## Common Issues

**Nobody can raid anybody.** TNT block damage is disabled in claimed land, or enemy chest access is denied. Both must be enabled for raiding to exist.

**New players are killed at spawn.** No safezone. Create a WorldGuard region over spawn with PvP denied, or use your Factions plugin's own safezone claim.

**Factions claim the whole map in a week.** Land-per-power is too generous, or there is no world border. Fix both; the border first.

**A faction's land will not unclaim after they go inactive.** Most implementations have an inactivity threshold that must be enabled explicitly. Without it, dead factions hold territory forever and the map ossifies.

**Two protection systems disagree.** If you run WorldGuard regions over land that the Factions plugin also claims, the result is inconsistent. Keep WorldGuard to spawn and warzone; let the Factions plugin own everything else. See [grief protection and rollback](/knowledge-base/minecraft/grief-protection-and-rollback/).

**TPS collapses during raids.** TNT entity count. Cap it in your Paper configuration, and pre-generate the world so raids are not also generating chunks.

## FAQ

**Is there a free Factions plugin for 26.2?**
Not among the established ones, as of 19 August 2026. SaberFactions, the most active free fork, declares up to 1.21. The realistic free routes are to run 26.1.2, or to build on a claim plugin like Homestead.

**Is MassiveCraft Factions still usable?**
Its last release was 1 July 2018 and it declares up to Minecraft 1.12. No.

**Should I use Towny instead?**
Towny is a different gametype — towns and nations, not raidable power. And its current release declares up to 1.21.10, so it does not solve the 26.2 problem either.

**Can I run Factions on Fabric or Forge?**
No. Everything here is Bukkit-family. See [choosing your server software](/knowledge-base/minecraft/choosing-server-software/).

**Do players need to install anything?**
No. All server-side.

**How many players do I need for Factions to work?**
More than any other gametype on this list. Raiding requires targets who are online. If you cannot reliably get a dozen concurrent players, [an SMP](/knowledge-base/minecraft/start-an-smp-server/) or SkyBlock will serve you better.

## What to Read Next

- [Choosing your Minecraft server software](/knowledge-base/minecraft/choosing-server-software/) for why Factions means Paper
- [Updating your Minecraft server version](/knowledge-base/minecraft/updating-your-server-version/) if you decide 26.1.2 is the better target
- [How to install plugins for Minecraft Java Edition](/knowledge-base/minecraft/java-plugins/) for getting the jars on
- [Managing permissions with LuckPerms](/knowledge-base/minecraft/luckperms-permissions/) for staff and donor ladders
- [Minecraft WorldGuard: region protection explained](/knowledge-base/minecraft/worldguard-region-protection/) for the safezone and warzone regions
- [Grief protection and rollback](/knowledge-base/minecraft/grief-protection-and-rollback/) for the wider picture
- [Minecraft server RAM and JVM flags](/knowledge-base/minecraft/allocating-ram-and-jvm-flags/) for heap sizing and why there is no `-Xmx` field
- [Diagnosing Minecraft server lag](/knowledge-base/minecraft/diagnosing-lag-and-low-tps/) for raid-time TPS collapse
- [Anti-cheat and fair play](/knowledge-base/minecraft/anti-cheat-and-fair-play/) — a PvP server needs this more than most
- [How to make a Minecraft SMP server for friends](/knowledge-base/minecraft/start-an-smp-server/) if the concurrency is not there yet

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