EssentialsX is one of those plugins that, once you install it on your Minecraft server, you wonder how you ever lived without it. It bundles moderation tools, warps, homes, kits, an economy system, chat improvements and tons of utility commands into a single, easy-to-configure package.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to install EssentialsX on your Minecraft server, what its main features are, how its add-on modules work, and how to manage permissions so your players can actually use the commands. Whether you run a small friends-only world or a big public server, this EssentialsX tutorial will help you get a clean, powerful setup.

What is EssentialsX and why use it?

EssentialsX is the modern continuation of the classic Essentials plugin, actively maintained for recent Minecraft versions. It provides 130+ commands and features that cover most everyday needs for both server admins and players: moderation, teleportation, economy, kits, chat, utility commands, and more.

The plugin is highly configurable, translated into multiple languages, and remains easy to use despite its huge feature set. EssentialsX is compatible with every Minecraft version from 1.8 up to the latest releases (currently 1.20/1.21). Most commands work the same across versions, with only a few differences such as the switch from numeric item IDs to item names since Minecraft 1.13.

📝 Note: One EssentialsX guide generally works for all supported versions. When there are version-specific differences, we’ll mention them explicitly.

How to install EssentialsX on your server

Before installing EssentialsX, your Minecraft server must support Bukkit/Spigot/Paper plugins. A pure vanilla server cannot load plugins. On MineStrator, you can select a Spigot or PaperMC version directly from the panel; we recommend Paper for better performance and stability.

Once your server runs a compatible version, installing EssentialsX is like installing any other plugin: download the plugin jar and place it in the plugins folder of your server, then restart. If you need a step-by-step walkthrough, follow our tutorial on how to add plugins to your Minecraft server.

Basic EssentialsX configuration and language

After the first restart, EssentialsX will load with its default configuration, which is perfectly fine for most servers. All settings are stored in plugins/Essentials/config.yml, with comments explaining what each option does. By default, the plugin uses English, but you can switch to French or another supported locale.

To change the language, edit the config.yml file and set the locale option. For example, to enable French messages, add or modify this line:

locale: fr

Then save the file and reload EssentialsX with the following command:

/essentials reload

After the reload, all EssentialsX messages (teleport confirmations, error messages, economy messages, etc.) will appear in the selected language.

💡 Tip: Always restart your server or run /essentials reload after editing config.yml. Use a proper text editor like Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code and be careful with YAML indentation, or the plugin may fail to load.

Core features of EssentialsX

EssentialsX adds a huge number of tools to your Minecraft server. Below are the main feature categories you’ll use most often: moderation, teleportation, kits and inventory management, economy, communication, and various utilities.

Moderation tools for your Minecraft server

EssentialsX gives your staff powerful commands to keep your server under control. Instead of relying only on vanilla commands, you get more flexible moderation options such as temporary bans and jails. Some of the most useful moderation commands include:

• /kick – Expel a troublemaker from the server

• /ban – Permanently ban a player

• /tempban – Temporarily ban a player

• /mute – Prevent a player from chatting

• /jail – Send a player to jail without banning them

• /unjail or /togglejail – Release a jailed player

These moderation tools go beyond vanilla Minecraft, which does not support features like temporary bans out of the box. With EssentialsX, you can apply more nuanced sanctions and keep your community clean without overusing permanent bans.

Teleportation, warps and homes

EssentialsX includes a complete teleportation system so players can move around your world easily. You can set global warps, a server spawn, and personal homes, plus handle teleport requests between players. Common teleport commands include:

• /setwarp and /warp – Create and use named warp points

• /setspawn – Define the server spawn location

• /sethome and /home – Let players set and return to their home

• /back – Return to the last teleport location or death point

For player-to-player teleports, EssentialsX adds a simple request system:

• /tpa – Send a teleport request to another player

• /tpaccept – Accept a teleport request

• /tpdeny – Deny a teleport request

Admins can also teleport players directly with /tp or bring everyone to them using /tpall. Combined with /back, this makes exploring and recovering from death much less frustrating for your players.

Kits and inventory management

EssentialsX lets you create kits, which are predefined sets of items that players can claim on demand. Kits are perfect for starter gear, donor rewards, or event kits. To create a kit, fill your inventory with the desired items and run:

/createkit 

Players can then claim it with:

/kit 

You can configure cooldowns and other kit options in config.yml to prevent abuse. EssentialsX also includes a default “starter” kit that you can tweak. For inventory control and rule enforcement, you get additional commands:

• /invsee – View and edit a player’s inventory

• /enderchest – Open a player’s Ender Chest

• /clear – Completely clear a player’s inventory

These tools make it easy to distribute items fairly, remove prohibited gear, and help new players get started on your Minecraft server.

Built-in economy system

EssentialsX comes with an integrated virtual economy, so you can run a survival or FFA server with money without installing a separate economy plugin. Each player has a balance you can check and modify. Key economy commands include:

• /balance or /money – Check your current balance

• /pay – Send money to another player

• /eco give/take/set – Admin commands to adjust balances

In the config.yml, you can assign command costs (for example, charging $100 per teleport) and enable in-game shops using signs. A sign labeled [Buy] lets players buy items, while [Sell] lets them sell items for money. Make sure the relevant sign types are listed under enabledSigns in your configuration.

💬 Good to know: EssentialsX works with Vault, so its economy can integrate with other shop or job plugins if you want a more complex setup later.

Chat, communication and social commands

EssentialsX improves how players communicate on your server by adding private messages, quick replies, nicknames, and broadcast messages. Some of the most useful social commands are:

• /msg (or /tell) – Send a private message

• /reply (or /r) – Reply to the last private message

• /socialspy – Let staff monitor private messages for moderation

• /nick – Change a player’s display name

• /broadcast – Send a formatted announcement to all players

With these tools, your community can communicate more comfortably, while moderators still keep an eye on what happens in chat to prevent abuse.

Extra utility commands and server tools

On top of everything else, EssentialsX provides many quality-of-life commands that make running a Minecraft server smoother. A few examples:

• /fly – Toggle flight mode for yourself or another player

• /speed – Adjust walking or flying speed

• /heal – Restore health to full

• /feed – Fill the hunger bar

• /god – Enable invincibility

• /time – Simple aliases for time commands

• /weather – Simple aliases for weather commands

• /gc – Show memory usage, TPS and other performance stats

Together, these utilities mean EssentialsX truly lives up to its name: it covers almost every common server need in one plugin, making your life as a server owner much easier.

📝 Note: For the full list of commands and permissions, check the official EssentialsX Wiki. It documents every command, its syntax and the exact permission node required.

EssentialsX add-on modules

EssentialsX is built around a central Core plugin plus several optional modules you can add depending on your needs. The Core plugin provides most of the functionality described above: commands, kits, economy, teleportation and interactive signs. For many Minecraft servers, EssentialsX Core alone is enough.

If you want more advanced chat formatting, spawn control, protection features or Discord integration, you can install additional EssentialsX modules alongside the Core. They are separate jars, and none of them work without the Core plugin present.

EssentialsX Chat: advanced chat formatting

EssentialsX Chat handles chat formatting and lets you fully customise how messages appear. You can add colours, prefixes and suffixes, and different layouts per group. For example, you can show a player’s rank or faction before their name, or colour staff names in red so they stand out.

To use EssentialsX Chat effectively, you’ll need the Vault plugin and a permissions plugin such as LuckPerms. EssentialsX Chat pulls prefixes and group names from your permissions plugin and injects them into the chat format, so your ranks are visible directly in chat.

EssentialsX Spawn: control player spawn points

EssentialsX Spawn manages where players appear when they join or respawn. With this module installed, you can define the main spawn using /setspawn, and players can return there with /spawn. You can even configure different spawns per group, such as sending new players to a tutorial area.

Without EssentialsX Spawn, the /setspawn command is unavailable and EssentialsX will not modify the default server spawn. To avoid conflicts, remove any other spawn-management plugins if you decide to use EssentialsX Spawn and assign the essentials.spawn permission to groups that should access /spawn.

🚨 Important: Never run multiple spawn plugins at the same time. Pick one spawn system and stick with it to prevent unexpected behaviour.

EssentialsX Protect: basic world protection

EssentialsX Protect offers simple, global protection rules for your Minecraft server. In the Protect section of config.yml, you can disable creeper block damage, prevent fire spread, or block certain mob spawns, among other options. These rules apply per world or server-wide.

However, EssentialsX Protect is not a region-protection plugin. It does not allow per-region flags or land claims like WorldGuard. Instead, it focuses on global safety rules that affect everyone equally, which is often enough for smaller or more casual servers.

EssentialsX AntiBuild: control who can build

EssentialsX AntiBuild lets you control building and interaction rights in a more detailed way. By default, EssentialsX does not block anyone from building. With AntiBuild enabled, you can specify which groups are allowed to place or break blocks, and which items are forbidden.

AntiBuild uses a combination of permissions and configuration. Typical rules include:

• Denying building to visitors by revoking essentials.build

• Allowing trusted players to bypass restrictions via essentials.build.exempt

• Listing specific blocked items or blocks in config.yml (such as TNT)

Again, this is not region-based protection. AntiBuild applies rules globally by action or item type. You’ll need a permissions plugin like LuckPerms to manage which groups can build and which cannot.

EssentialsX GeoIP: show player locations

EssentialsX GeoIP is an informational add-on that shows the country or region players connect from. When someone joins, you might see a message like “Player joined from France.” Admins can also view this information via /whois .

The module downloads and updates a GeoIP database automatically. Because it uses IP-based geolocation, make sure you inform your players if you enable it, especially if you want to follow privacy best practices on your Minecraft server.

EssentialsX Discord and Discord Link

EssentialsX Discord connects your Minecraft server chat with a Discord channel. Messages sent in-game appear on Discord and vice versa, so your community can keep talking even when they are not online in Minecraft. The module can also relay events such as joins, leaves, deaths and broadcasts to a Discord channel.

Admins can even run Minecraft commands from Discord using slash commands, for example to kick a player without logging into the game. To set this up, you need to create a Discord bot, invite it to your server, and configure its token and channels in the EssentialsX Discord settings.

💡 Tip: The official EssentialsX documentation provides detailed steps for configuring Discord integration. Follow them carefully, especially when handling your bot token.

On top of that, EssentialsX Discord Link goes further by synchronising Discord roles with in-game ranks and permissions. You can even restrict server access based on Discord membership, which is great for communities that only allow verified Discord members to join their Minecraft server.

How to install EssentialsX add-ons

Installing EssentialsX modules is straightforward. Each module is a separate .jar file available from the same download page as EssentialsX Core. To add a module, download its jar, place it in your server’s plugins folder, and restart your server.

You should only install the modules you actually need. For a small survival server with friends, EssentialsX Core plus maybe EssentialsX Spawn and EssentialsX Chat is usually enough. There is no reason to load Protect or AntiBuild if you do not plan to use their features.

💬 Good to know: On a large public Minecraft server, it is recommended to add modules like Protect, AntiBuild, Chat and Spawn to cover moderation, security and quality-of-life needs.

Using EssentialsX commands and permissions

Once EssentialsX Core and any desired modules are installed, your Minecraft server gains access to a huge set of commands. However, by default, most of these commands are only available to server operators (OPs). Regular players will only be able to use a few basic commands unless you grant them specific permissions.

To control who can use what, you should install a dedicated permissions plugin such as LuckPerms. It lets you create groups (players, moderators, admins, etc.) and assign EssentialsX permission nodes to each group in a clean and organised way.

Example permission setup with LuckPerms

Here is a simple way to structure permissions for EssentialsX on your server using a plugin like LuckPerms:

1. Create a Players group and give it basic EssentialsX permissions such as essentials.tpa, essentials.home, essentials.sethome and other non-destructive commands.

2. Create a Moderator group with additional permissions like essentials.kick, essentials.mute, essentials.tempban and inventory viewing commands.

3. Create an Admin group with broader or full EssentialsX permissions, depending on how much control you want admins to have.

LuckPerms includes a very handy web editor that makes managing these groups and permissions much easier than editing files by hand. You can open the editor with a command like:

/lp editor

This command generates a link to a web interface where you can visually configure groups, players and permission nodes, including all EssentialsX permissions used on your Minecraft server.

⚠️ Warning: Avoid giving players OP unless absolutely necessary. Use permissions to grant only the commands they need instead of full server control.

FAQ about EssentialsX on Minecraft servers

Is EssentialsX compatible with my Minecraft version?

EssentialsX supports all Minecraft versions from 1.8 up to the latest releases, including 1.20 and 1.21. As long as your server runs a compatible Bukkit/Spigot/Paper build for that version, EssentialsX should work. Always download the latest stable EssentialsX release for best results.

Do I need all EssentialsX modules?

No. For most servers, EssentialsX Core is enough. You only install add-ons like Chat, Spawn, Protect, AntiBuild, GeoIP or Discord if you specifically need their features. Keeping your plugin list focused helps reduce complexity and potential conflicts.

Can EssentialsX replace my economy plugin?

For many setups, yes. EssentialsX includes a built-in economy system with balances, payments, command costs and sign shops. If you need advanced features like jobs or complex shop GUIs, you can still use other plugins via Vault while keeping EssentialsX as the core of your Minecraft server utilities.

Where can I find the full command and permission list?

The official EssentialsX Wiki documents every command, its syntax and the required permission nodes. It is the best reference when configuring permissions or troubleshooting a specific feature on your server.

Conclusion

EssentialsX is one of the most powerful and reliable plugins you can install on a Minecraft server. With moderation tools, warps, homes, kits, an economy system, chat improvements and plenty of utilities, it covers almost everything you need to run a smooth and enjoyable server.

Once your EssentialsX setup is ready, all you need is solid hosting to keep your world online 24/7. Don’t have a server yet? Try a free 12-hour Minecraft server with MineStrator, no credit card required, and start testing EssentialsX with your friends in just a few minutes.