BestSMPServers

The basics

Your first week on a new SMP

Most people lose their first SMP base in week one, and almost always to something avoidable. This is the order that prevents it.

Before you place a single block

  1. Establish the genre. Lifesteal, anarchy, earth or claims-based changes everything that follows. See what is an SMP.
  2. Find the claim command and its inactivity expiry. If claims expire in two weeks and you play weekends, plan around it.
  3. Ask how old the world is and where the border sits. That decides how far you walk.
  4. Sit in chat for ten minutes and read. It predicts your month better than any feature list.

Day one

Travel away from spawn further than feels necessary. Claim a small area immediately, before you place a chest, then build a hole in the ground with a door. It does not need to be good; it needs to be claimed and boring. The impressive base comes later, when you know the server is worth it.

Days two to four

Get self-sufficient: a food source, an iron supply, a bed, and a second claimed spot far from the first as a backup. Join the economy properly, whether that is jobs, a shop or the auction house. Learn one income route well rather than four badly.

Day five

Now consider other people. A town, a group, a trading partner. This is deliberately late: joining a group on day one means trusting a stranger with your only base, and joining on day five means you have somewhere to go if it does not work out. See land claims on why trust is the most common cause of base loss.

Day six and seven

Build the thing you actually wanted to build. By now you know the claim rules, the economy, the moderation quality and whether the server is going to reset, which are the four facts that decide whether the build is worth the hours.

The things not to do in week one

  • Do not announce coordinates in chat, ever, on any genre of SMP.
  • Do not put everything in one base.
  • Do not trust anyone with container access yet.
  • Do not spend real money before you have played a week.
Considering something else? TalonMC is our #1 play.talonmc.net

Next in the SMP wiki