How the game works

What each rule does, with the values it ships with. Every number on these pages is a setting; the file that holds it is named at the top of each page, and /hcf reload applies a change.

HCF in one minute

Hardcore Factions is a team PvP game on a bounded map that resets every few weeks.

1. Players form teams and claim land around a base. Inside it, nobody else can build, break or open anything.
2. Every team has a DTR — Deaths Till Raidable — that each member's death lowers. When it runs out, the team is raidable: its land is open to pillage until its DTR regenerates. The land itself never changes hands.
3. A death bans the player for a while (a deathban), so every fight matters. Logging out in combat leaves a villager in your place, which anybody can kill.
4. Events — KOTH, Conquest, Kill the King, Mountains — pull teams into the open to fight for rewards and points.
5. The map opens with SOTW (no PvP while everyone settles) and ends with EOTW (everyone raidable, a death bans until the reset).

flowchart LR
    A(["🛡️ Team protected<br/>DTR 0 or above"]) -- "a member dies" --> B{"DTR below 0?"}
    B -- no --> A
    B -- yes --> C(["⚔️ Raidable<br/>land open to pillage"])
    C -- "DTR regenerates<br/>above 0" --> A

Kitmap is the fast variant: kits from signs at spawn, usually no deathbans, killstreak rewards. The same plugin runs both — see Game modes.

The rules, system by system

• Teams — roles, invitations, alliances, focus, rally, bank, points and chat
• Territory — claims, protection, HQ, stuck, lock, server land and the warzone
• DTR and raids — how many deaths a team takes, regeneration, the raid cycle
• Combat — combat tag, combat logging, safe zones, friendly fire, loot protection
• Classes — Diamond, Bard, Archer, Rogue, Miner, and your own
• Effect commands — /speed, /strength and your own: an effect until death
• Deathbans and lives — ban length, rank tiers, lives and revives
• SOTW, EOTW and the Purge — opening, closing and purging the map
• Capture events — KOTH, Citadel, Conquest, Kill the King
• Mountains — regions that refill on a clock
• Economy — balances, /pay, team banks, Vault
• Kits and killstreaks — kits, refill signs, layouts, killstreaks
• Abilities — 42 partner items: Switcher, Ninja Track, Pocket Bard, Grappling Hook… and your own
• Enchants, limits and the crowbar — custom enchants, enchantment, potion and effect caps, block limits
• Chat, scoreboard and settings — chat format, scoreboard, tab list, stats, settings

Which rule wins

A few systems answer the same question — may this player build here? may they hit that one? — and the plugin settles them in a fixed order:

• Building, from most to least specific: land claimed by a team follows that team's rules; on unclaimed land, a Mountain's region follows the Mountain's rules; the rest of the warzone follows the warzone's; beyond it is the wilderness, where anything goes.
• Hitting: a hit is refused on a safe zone, during SOTW (unless both players typed /sotw enable), between teammates, and between allies outside an event area. A refused hit tags nobody. What a player may not hit, they may not affect either — no harmful splash potion, fishing rod pull or wind charge push.
• Raidable: a team is raidable while its DTR is below 0, or while EOTW runs. During the Purge, enemy blocks can be used but nothing is built or broken.