BadPuns
SKrafty Helper
It seems like a lot of new players are interested in factions, but most don't know where to start. Some of you may know me as PretendingToCode on the server, the owner of a large and successful faction called UCLA. Different servers and versions of factions have different ways to get started, but this method is the best for the current SK factions. This server is running 1.8 FactionsX.
Overview
Factions is a Minecraft game mode centered around war, PvP combat, and destruction. If you're looking for a peaceful survival experience, this is not the game mode for you. Your primary goal is to gain money, make a well defended base, and defeat your enemies. You can make a faction by getting 100 dollars, and using the /f create [faction name here] command. After that you can invite players to your faction, who you won't be able to attack. You can run around the maps looking for bases using /f map to display claimed chunks, and then raid them for their loot. For a list of factions commands, you can type /f help in game.
In factions you shouldn't trust anyone. People will often betray your faction so they can keep the loot for themselves, or try to get you to teleport to them so they can defeat you. In this game mode, assume everyone is out to get you.
Base Building
First and foremost, you want to make a base. You can make a base in 1 of 3 worlds; the Overworld, the Nether, or the End. You can access each of them via their own warps (/warp spawn, nether, and end.) Each of these worlds are 5000 by 5000 blocks, so you're going to want to pick a random direction and walk a far ways out. I recommend over 2000 blocks, and not in a straight line. For example, 2086, -1452 would be good X and Z coordinates to make a base. For starting out, you'll probably want to make an underground base, at or near bedrock level. These are by far the easiest bases to make, and they're relatively safe. Your base should have an area for storage, mob grinding, and anything else you think you might need to survive. Once you make your base, you have a few options for how you want to protect it which will be covered in the next section. Later on you can build more complicated and harder to raid bases, but these are typically best left to people who understand the mechanics of raiding in factions very well.
Base Protection
For underground bases, protection isn't a huge issue. You really have two options, to claim your base or not to claim it. If you choose to claim your base, your enemies will be unable to mine in your claims, and it might take longer to raid. However, if a player is nearby they can use /f map to see your claims, and may use TNT cannons or creeper eggs to raid your base. Additionally, if your base is claimed you have to make sure your faction power doesn't drop too low. When anyone in your faction dies, the power in your faction drops. If you have more land claims than you do power, other players will be able to unclaim your base and raid it. This is why it's important not to die in factions, because you can put your entire faction as risk. If you choose to make an unclaimed underground base, people can mine in your claims and easily get to your stuff. The benefit of this, however, is that your base will be much harder to find since it won't show up on /f map. This way you can live underground entirely undetected for a long time. Personally, I think this is the best option for new players.
Above-ground bases must always be claimed. They are usually big, cobblestone structures ranging from Y level 1 to 256. Building an above ground base is an extremely complicated process if you want to prevent yourself from getting raided, and I strongly advise this method only be used by seasoned factions players.
Making Money
In factions, money is an important part of survival. You need money to progress through the game and get better gear for fighting your enemies. Luckily, making money in this server isn't too difficult. Trees are the primary source of income on factions, and if you know how to get wood efficiently you can a lot of money fast. This section should help you achieve that goal.
Before you can understand how to make money, you must first understand McMMO. McMMO is a plugin that adds skills to factions. You can see the skills and your levels by typing /mcstats in game. One of these skills, known as Woodcutting, is the key to getting rich on the server. The Woodcutting skill has a special ability, known as Tree Feller, that lets you mine an entire tree at once regardless of how tall it is. To activate it, right click on the base of the tree and then mine it. Your first few times doing this probably won't get you much wood, but the higher Woodcutting level you have the longer your tree feller will last. You can mine more than 1 tree after the ability is activated, and all of them will drop their wood in 1 single hit. When your tree feller lasts long enough, you can set up rows of trees and mine them all at once to get a ton of wood. You can then type /shop to sell this wood for money. There are lots of other useful items you can buy in the shop, so take a look around it when you can.
However, not all trees are created equal. Some trees drop more wood than others, and will get you a lot more money. Most of the seasoned players on factions use large spruce trees to get money. You can make a large spruce tree by planting 4 saplings in a 2x2 square, and using bone meal on it until it grows. It's best to plant these trees 4 or 5 blocks apart, and then making long rows of them. If you do it right, you can mine upwards of 30 trees in a single Tree Feller use, making close to $100,000. The more trees you mine, the higher your Woodcutting level will go, the longer your Tree Feller will last, and the more money you can make in a single go.
Getting Gear
Now that you've got some money, it's time to work on your gear. Diamond armor is the best armor in the game, and the highest enchant you can get on it is Protection 6 Unbreaking 5. You can't get this armor through normal methods though, and in a later section we'll cover how to get it for yourself. Regardless, the first step to getting good gear is purchasing blaze spawners. You can buy them under the "spawner" section of the shop, and they should cost you $200,000 a piece. This might seem like a lot, but once you're getting a lot of money from mining trees it won't seem like too much. You can make a blaze grinder in whatever way suits your needs, but most people place the spawners above water that pushes the blazes into a small area where you can kill them and get their XP levels. XP levels are key to getting good gear on this server. In normal Minecraft you use those levels in an enchanting table or anvil, but on factions you probably won't use either of those very much. Instead, Custom Enchants have been added to the game through a plugin called AdvancedEnchantments. More about this in the next section.
Custom Enchants
Custom enchants are vital to surviving confrontations with other players in factions. You can get a list of all custom enchants by typing /enchants. There are 5 tiers of enchants; Basic, Rare, Legendary, Divine, and Immortal, with each tier costing more XP than the last. To get an enchant, type /e and click on the tier you want. If you have enough XP, it will give you a book. Then you hold this book in your hand and right-click it. From there you will get the actual enchanted book you can apply to your items. Some are for weapons, some are for armor and tools. Each book has several key features unique to it, these include the success rate, the destroy rate, and the level. The success rate is the percent chance the book has to apply successfully, the destroy rate is the chance the book has to fail and destroy the item, and finally the level just says what level the book is (you can right click a book to see it's max level.) It's up to you to make the choice as to whether or not you think a book has a high enough success chance to apply it to an item, or if the risk of the book destroying the item is too great. If you wish to apply the book, you can drag it over an item to apply it. It's up to you to decide which enchants you want on your armor or weapons, each one provides a different kind of advantage in combat.
Tinkerer
If you have custom enchant books you don't want, you can recycle them using the tinkerer. To access it, type /tinkerer. Here you can place your unwanted custom enchants to trade them for Secret Dust, which will either turn into Magic Dust or Mystery Dust when you right click it. Mystery Dust is just gunpowder, and is considered useless. Magic Dust, however, can be used to increase the success chance of a book you like. Simply drag the Magic Dust onto a a custom enchant book to apply it and raise it's chances.
Mob Coins
Blaze spawners serve another purpose; getting Mob Coins. Mob coins are given to you while you're killing mobs. You can see your mob coins by typing /coins. You can spend these coins at spawn, by clicking the Mob Shop NPC. This will grant you access to a bunch of rare items, some of which are the Prot 6 diamond armor pieces discussed earlier. Take the opportunity to look through this shop regularly, as some of these items are crucial to survival in factions.
McMMO
As mentioned earlier, this server runs McMMO, a plugin that adds skills to Minecraft. It's a good idea to get your PvP combat skills up, such as Axes or Swords, through fighting pigmen at /warp nether. It's important to note that mobs from spawners will not give you McMMO levels.
Overview
Factions is a Minecraft game mode centered around war, PvP combat, and destruction. If you're looking for a peaceful survival experience, this is not the game mode for you. Your primary goal is to gain money, make a well defended base, and defeat your enemies. You can make a faction by getting 100 dollars, and using the /f create [faction name here] command. After that you can invite players to your faction, who you won't be able to attack. You can run around the maps looking for bases using /f map to display claimed chunks, and then raid them for their loot. For a list of factions commands, you can type /f help in game.
In factions you shouldn't trust anyone. People will often betray your faction so they can keep the loot for themselves, or try to get you to teleport to them so they can defeat you. In this game mode, assume everyone is out to get you.
Base Building
First and foremost, you want to make a base. You can make a base in 1 of 3 worlds; the Overworld, the Nether, or the End. You can access each of them via their own warps (/warp spawn, nether, and end.) Each of these worlds are 5000 by 5000 blocks, so you're going to want to pick a random direction and walk a far ways out. I recommend over 2000 blocks, and not in a straight line. For example, 2086, -1452 would be good X and Z coordinates to make a base. For starting out, you'll probably want to make an underground base, at or near bedrock level. These are by far the easiest bases to make, and they're relatively safe. Your base should have an area for storage, mob grinding, and anything else you think you might need to survive. Once you make your base, you have a few options for how you want to protect it which will be covered in the next section. Later on you can build more complicated and harder to raid bases, but these are typically best left to people who understand the mechanics of raiding in factions very well.
Base Protection
For underground bases, protection isn't a huge issue. You really have two options, to claim your base or not to claim it. If you choose to claim your base, your enemies will be unable to mine in your claims, and it might take longer to raid. However, if a player is nearby they can use /f map to see your claims, and may use TNT cannons or creeper eggs to raid your base. Additionally, if your base is claimed you have to make sure your faction power doesn't drop too low. When anyone in your faction dies, the power in your faction drops. If you have more land claims than you do power, other players will be able to unclaim your base and raid it. This is why it's important not to die in factions, because you can put your entire faction as risk. If you choose to make an unclaimed underground base, people can mine in your claims and easily get to your stuff. The benefit of this, however, is that your base will be much harder to find since it won't show up on /f map. This way you can live underground entirely undetected for a long time. Personally, I think this is the best option for new players.
Above-ground bases must always be claimed. They are usually big, cobblestone structures ranging from Y level 1 to 256. Building an above ground base is an extremely complicated process if you want to prevent yourself from getting raided, and I strongly advise this method only be used by seasoned factions players.
Making Money
In factions, money is an important part of survival. You need money to progress through the game and get better gear for fighting your enemies. Luckily, making money in this server isn't too difficult. Trees are the primary source of income on factions, and if you know how to get wood efficiently you can a lot of money fast. This section should help you achieve that goal.
Before you can understand how to make money, you must first understand McMMO. McMMO is a plugin that adds skills to factions. You can see the skills and your levels by typing /mcstats in game. One of these skills, known as Woodcutting, is the key to getting rich on the server. The Woodcutting skill has a special ability, known as Tree Feller, that lets you mine an entire tree at once regardless of how tall it is. To activate it, right click on the base of the tree and then mine it. Your first few times doing this probably won't get you much wood, but the higher Woodcutting level you have the longer your tree feller will last. You can mine more than 1 tree after the ability is activated, and all of them will drop their wood in 1 single hit. When your tree feller lasts long enough, you can set up rows of trees and mine them all at once to get a ton of wood. You can then type /shop to sell this wood for money. There are lots of other useful items you can buy in the shop, so take a look around it when you can.
However, not all trees are created equal. Some trees drop more wood than others, and will get you a lot more money. Most of the seasoned players on factions use large spruce trees to get money. You can make a large spruce tree by planting 4 saplings in a 2x2 square, and using bone meal on it until it grows. It's best to plant these trees 4 or 5 blocks apart, and then making long rows of them. If you do it right, you can mine upwards of 30 trees in a single Tree Feller use, making close to $100,000. The more trees you mine, the higher your Woodcutting level will go, the longer your Tree Feller will last, and the more money you can make in a single go.
Getting Gear
Now that you've got some money, it's time to work on your gear. Diamond armor is the best armor in the game, and the highest enchant you can get on it is Protection 6 Unbreaking 5. You can't get this armor through normal methods though, and in a later section we'll cover how to get it for yourself. Regardless, the first step to getting good gear is purchasing blaze spawners. You can buy them under the "spawner" section of the shop, and they should cost you $200,000 a piece. This might seem like a lot, but once you're getting a lot of money from mining trees it won't seem like too much. You can make a blaze grinder in whatever way suits your needs, but most people place the spawners above water that pushes the blazes into a small area where you can kill them and get their XP levels. XP levels are key to getting good gear on this server. In normal Minecraft you use those levels in an enchanting table or anvil, but on factions you probably won't use either of those very much. Instead, Custom Enchants have been added to the game through a plugin called AdvancedEnchantments. More about this in the next section.
Custom Enchants
Custom enchants are vital to surviving confrontations with other players in factions. You can get a list of all custom enchants by typing /enchants. There are 5 tiers of enchants; Basic, Rare, Legendary, Divine, and Immortal, with each tier costing more XP than the last. To get an enchant, type /e and click on the tier you want. If you have enough XP, it will give you a book. Then you hold this book in your hand and right-click it. From there you will get the actual enchanted book you can apply to your items. Some are for weapons, some are for armor and tools. Each book has several key features unique to it, these include the success rate, the destroy rate, and the level. The success rate is the percent chance the book has to apply successfully, the destroy rate is the chance the book has to fail and destroy the item, and finally the level just says what level the book is (you can right click a book to see it's max level.) It's up to you to make the choice as to whether or not you think a book has a high enough success chance to apply it to an item, or if the risk of the book destroying the item is too great. If you wish to apply the book, you can drag it over an item to apply it. It's up to you to decide which enchants you want on your armor or weapons, each one provides a different kind of advantage in combat.
Tinkerer
If you have custom enchant books you don't want, you can recycle them using the tinkerer. To access it, type /tinkerer. Here you can place your unwanted custom enchants to trade them for Secret Dust, which will either turn into Magic Dust or Mystery Dust when you right click it. Mystery Dust is just gunpowder, and is considered useless. Magic Dust, however, can be used to increase the success chance of a book you like. Simply drag the Magic Dust onto a a custom enchant book to apply it and raise it's chances.
Mob Coins
Blaze spawners serve another purpose; getting Mob Coins. Mob coins are given to you while you're killing mobs. You can see your mob coins by typing /coins. You can spend these coins at spawn, by clicking the Mob Shop NPC. This will grant you access to a bunch of rare items, some of which are the Prot 6 diamond armor pieces discussed earlier. Take the opportunity to look through this shop regularly, as some of these items are crucial to survival in factions.
McMMO
As mentioned earlier, this server runs McMMO, a plugin that adds skills to Minecraft. It's a good idea to get your PvP combat skills up, such as Axes or Swords, through fighting pigmen at /warp nether. It's important to note that mobs from spawners will not give you McMMO levels.
