GriefPrevention Setup Guide: Claims, Trust Levels and Admin Claims for Minecraft Servers

GriefPrevention gives players the tools to protect their own builds without requiring a staff member to create a WorldGuard region for every house. Players dig a golden shovel, click two corners and their claim is created. Everything inside is automatically protected from strangers. Staff control the claim economy (how many blocks players earn), admin claims override player claims, and a full trust system lets players share their land on their own terms. This guide covers the full configuration and all the commands your players and staff will use.

Installation and initial setup

Drop GriefPrevention into plugins/ and restart. The plugin generates plugins/GriefPrevention/config.yml. The most important initial settings:

GriefPrevention:
  # How many claim blocks a new player starts with
  Claims.InitialBlocks: 200

  # How many blocks a player earns per hour of play
  Claims.BlocksAccruedPerHour_Default: 100

  # Maximum total claim blocks a player can accumulate
  Claims.MaxAccruedBlocks_Default: 80000

  # Minimum claim size in blocks (prevents tiny claims used to grief)
  Claims.MinimumClaimSize: 100

  # Maximum claim size (prevents one player claiming a continent)
  Claims.MaximumClaimSizeX: 0   # 0 = unlimited
  Claims.MaximumClaimSizeZ: 0

  # Whether to restrict building near existing claims
  Claims.PreventGlobalMobs: true

  # Whether creepers damage terrain in the wilderness
  Siege.EndermenMoveBlocks: false
  Claim.preventTheft: true

How players create claims

Players use a golden shovel (given automatically on first login, or type /kit claim if configured) to create claims:

1. Hold the golden shovel and right-click one corner of the area to protect.
2. Right-click the opposite corner. The area highlights with gold and diamond blocks at the corners.
3. The claim is created. Everything inside is protected.

Players can also see existing claims by holding a stick and right-clicking the ground. Claim markers appear temporarily to show the boundaries.

Basic claim commands for players:

/claim           # enter claim creation mode (same as holding golden shovel)
/abandonclaim    # abandon the claim you are standing in
/abandonallclaims  # abandon all of your claims
/claimlist       # list all your claims with coordinates
/claimexplosions  # toggle whether explosions affect your claim
/trust <player>   # add full trust to a player in your claim
/untrust <player> # remove a player's trust

Trust levels — controlling what visitors can do

GriefPrevention has four trust levels that players can grant to others inside their claims:

1. Container Trust — /containertrust <player>

The visitor can open chests, barrels, furnaces and other containers. They cannot break blocks or build. Use this for shop owners or friends you want to access your storage.

2. Access Trust — /accesstrust <player>

The visitor can interact with buttons, levers, pressure plates, doors and beds. They cannot access containers or build. Use this for farms with button-activated dispensers you want visitors to use.

3. Build Trust — /trust <player>

Full build permission. The visitor can place and break blocks and access containers. This is the trust level for friends or co-builders. Use it carefully — a trusted player with /trust can remove blocks you placed.

4. Manager Trust — /permissiontrust <player>

The visitor can grant and revoke trust for other players, including up to but not exceeding their own trust level. Use this for the co-owner of a shared build who you want to manage access themselves.

Trusting all players

You can grant a trust level to everyone:

/accesstrust public

This makes the claim open to all players for interaction (buttons, doors). This is useful for public farms or community areas within a player's claim where you want visitors to be able to use but not build.

Claim blocks — the economy of claims

Claim blocks are the currency of the claim system. Players start with InitialBlocks, earn more by playing (BlocksAccruedPerHour), and can purchase additional blocks with in-game money:

# In config.yml — claim block purchase pricing
Economy.ClaimBlocksPurchaseCost: 0.10   # cost per block
Economy.ClaimBlocksSellValue: 0.0       # amount players get back when abandoning (0 = no refund)

Players buy additional claim blocks with:

/buyclaimblocks 1000    # purchase 1000 blocks

Admins can add blocks to a player directly:

/acb YourPlayer 5000   # add 5000 claim blocks to the player's total

Check a player's claim stats:

/playerinfo YourPlayer

Subdivisions — splitting a claim into zones

Players can subdivide their claim into smaller zones, each with independent trust settings. This lets a player have a public market area (access trust for all) and a private storage area (no trust) within the same overall claim.

To create a subdivision:

1. Hold the golden shovel and crouch-right-click inside an existing claim.
2. Right-click the second corner within the parent claim.
3. A subdivision is created inside the parent. Set trust differently on the subdivision without affecting the parent.

Admin claims — staff-controlled regions

Admin claims are created by staff and function differently from player claims:

• They do not consume claim blocks.
• Players cannot create player claims that overlap admin claims.
• They can cover any area, including spawn, market districts and event arenas.

Create an admin claim:

/adminclaim

Then use the golden shovel as normal to define the area. To switch back to creating regular claims:

/basicclaims

Admin claims should protect spawn, the market, warps and any staff-built structures. Players who try to claim inside an admin claim will see a rejection message.

Admin commands for claim management

# Delete the claim you are standing in (regardless of owner)
/deleteclaim

# Delete all claims owned by a specific player
/deleteallclaims <player>

# Teleport to a player's claim list
/claimlist <player>

# Modify another player's claim blocks
/acb <player> <amount>

# Ignore claim protections for admin build work
/ignoreclaims    # toggle admin bypass mode

# See claim info for the claim you are standing in
/claiminfo

Protecting wilderness from mob griefing

GriefPrevention applies some protection to unclaimed land as well. Configure in config.yml:

Creeper.Explosion.BlockDamage: false     # creepers do not destroy wilderness blocks
Zombie.Villager.Infection: false         # zombies cannot infect villagers
Enderman.GriefUnclaimed: false           # endermen cannot steal from wilderness
FireSpread.Unclaimed: false              # fire does not spread in unclaimed areas

These settings protect the overall world aesthetic — without them, long-running servers end up with craters and burned areas everywhere outside player claims.

Configuring the golden shovel tool

The golden shovel is the default claim tool. You can change this in config.yml:

GriefPrevention.Claims.ClaimTool: GOLDEN_SHOVEL
GriefPrevention.Claims.ClaimCreationRequiresPermission: false

If you have a cosmetic or custom item plugin that also uses golden shovels, change the claim tool to a less common item like STICK for inspection only, and give players the shovel tool a different material to avoid conflicts.

Integrating with EssentialsX economy

GriefPrevention uses Vault to connect to your economy provider. When a player runs /buyclaimblocks, Vault deducts the configured amount from their balance. Ensure Vault is installed and an economy plugin (EssentialsX or CMI) is registered, otherwise the purchase command will fail silently.

Claim flags with GriefPrevention Flags addon

The base GriefPrevention plugin has limited per-claim behavior control. The community-maintained GPFlags addon adds per-claim flags similar to WorldGuard:

• /cf NoMobSpawns — disable hostile mob spawning in the claim.
• /cf NoEnterPlayer — block non-trusted players from entering.
• /cf NoFireSpread — prevent fire spreading inside the claim.
• /cf pvp — enable PvP inside the claim (even if disabled globally).
• /cf NoFlight — disable flight inside the claim.

Claim expiry — removing abandoned claims

Inactive players leave claims that block new players from building nearby. Configure automatic expiry:

Claims.AutomaticNewPlayerClaimsExpirationDays: 30  # expire tiny new-player claims after 30 days of inactivity
Claims.Expiration.AllClaims:
  DaysInactive: 90        # expire all claims after 90 days of player inactivity
  MinimumBlocksAccrued: 0 # only expire if player has not accumulated many blocks (0 = all players)

Be careful with expiry settings — long-time players who take a real-life break should not lose their land. Consider setting a higher threshold (180 days) and announcing it in your server rules.

Common mistakes

• Not creating admin claims at spawn. Without an admin claim, players can claim inside the spawn area, locking parts of it from other players and staff.
• Setting accrued blocks per hour too high. If players earn 500 blocks per hour, a veteran player quickly has so much land they block new players from building anywhere on the map.
• Forgetting to configure Vault. The /buyclaimblocks command silently fails without a Vault economy provider. Test it before announcing the feature.
• Not explaining trust levels to players. Many new players do not know the difference between /trust (full build) and /accesstrust (buttons/doors only). A clear server guide prevents accidental griefing by trusted players.
• Using /ignoreclaims and forgetting to turn it off. Admin bypass is toggled per-session but can persist across relog depending on configuration. Always confirm your bypass state before building in a player's claim area.

See these configs in action: Astroworld MC, IP play.astroworldmc.com, Java + Bedrock.