How to Host a FTB Skies Server

What Is FTB Skies?

FTB Skies is Feed The Beast's official skyblock pack, built on Forge for Minecraft 1.19.2. It combines the classic skyblock formula with a guided quest book that walks players through resource gathering, tech progression, and magic exploration. The mod list includes Industrial Foregoing, PneumaticCraft, Botania, Mystical Agriculture, and dozens of quality-of-life additions. FTB Skies is polished, stable, and designed so every resource can be obtained from the starting island without leaving the void.

If you want to host a FTB Skies server, the process is straightforward. The pack is well-optimized by the FTB team, and its void world type means chunk generation is nearly instant.

Server Requirements

Forge and Java Version

FTB Skies requires Forge on Minecraft 1.19.2 and Java 17. Download the server pack from the FTB App or CurseForge. The included Forge version is tested against every mod in the pack, so use it as-is.

RAM Allocation

Player Count	Minimum RAM	Recommended RAM
1–5 players	4 GB	6 GB
6–12 players	6 GB	8 GB
12–20 players	8 GB	10 GB

FTB Skies is moderate on RAM. The void world keeps chunk data small, and the FTB team removes redundant or unstable mods before each release. You can host a FTB Skies server comfortably on 6 GB for a small group. Use the RAM calculator for precise sizing.

Downloading and Installing

Download the FTB Skies server pack and extract it into your server directory. Run the startup script:

chmod +x startserver.sh
./startserver.sh

Accept the EULA, restart, and wait 2 to 3 minutes for the initial boot. FTB packs include all dependencies, so you should not need to download anything extra.

Config Tweaks

Island Management

FTB Skies uses FTB Teams and FTB Chunks for island management. Each team gets an island, and players can invite others to join. In the FTB Chunks config, set a reasonable chunk claim limit per team (16 to 25 chunks is typical). This prevents single teams from loading excessive areas and dragging down TPS.

Quest Reward Balancing

The quest book hands out resources at specific milestones. If you want a harder experience, reduce reward quantities in the FTB Quests config files under config/ftbquests/. For a more relaxed server, increase them. The defaults are balanced for normal play.

Common Issues

Mystical Agriculture Crop Farms

Mystical Agriculture lets players grow any resource as crops. Fully automated crop farms with growth accelerators can tick heavily. If a player builds a 100-plot farm with Lilypad of Fertility accelerating every crop, the server processes hundreds of growth ticks per second. Suggest growth accelerator limits or cap farm sizes in server rules.

Industrial Foregoing Mob Farms

The Mob Crusher from Industrial Foregoing is efficient but spawns items and experience rapidly. Without output storage, items pile up as entities on the ground and spike the entity count. Encourage players to pipe outputs directly into storage or trash excess.

Performance Tuning

Set view-distance=6 and simulation-distance=4. Void worlds benefit from tight simulation distances since there is nothing useful beyond each island.

JVM flags for Java 17:

java -Xms4G -Xmx6G -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=130
-XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:G1NewSizePercent=40
-XX:G1MaxNewSizePercent=50 -XX:G1HeapRegionSize=16M
-XX:G1ReservePercent=15 -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=20
-XX:+AlwaysPreTouch -jar forge-server.jar nogui

See our JVM flags guide for a detailed walkthrough. For a comparison with other skyblock packs, check the SkyFactory 5 guide. For heavier packs, our ATM10 guide covers the top end.

Try our server: Astroworld MC, IP play.astroworldmc.com, Java + Bedrock.