Mastering Minecraft Artillery: A Guide to Long-Range PvP Combat
Imagine launching an explosive shell across thousands of blocks, adjusting your aim based on the distant rumble of impact, and zeroing in on an enemy base without ever seeing your target. That is the core thrill of the Artillery plugin, a PvP minigame inspired by the classic Scorched Earth. Unlike standard Minecraft combat that relies on swords and bows, Artillery turns the world into a massive ballistic playground where trajectory, angle, and velocity determine victory.
How the Artillery Plugin Works
The plugin transforms TNT into unguided shells that follow realistic ballistic paths. When you fire, the shell’s flight is determined by three factors: the horizontal angle (azimuth), the vertical angle, and the initial velocity. There is no mid-flight guidance or rocket propulsion, so every shot demands careful calculation. Once a shell lands near a player, the distance between the impact point and that player is displayed to the shooter, allowing you to correct your aim and dial in the perfect shot after just a few attempts.
For the target, the experience is equally intense. The sound of incoming explosions and the sight of craters nearby force quick decisions: flee, take cover, or return fire using your own artillery setup. The plugin keeps chunks loaded only when a player is nearby, so firing into unloaded terrain simulates the trajectory and reports the impact coordinates without causing actual block damage. This prevents world corruption while preserving the strategic depth.
Building Your Launch Platform
The heart of your artillery battery is the launch platform. This structure must be built with precision, and its size directly controls the power of each shot. The platform is a horizontal, cross-shaped arrangement with a central obsidian block and arms made of gold blocks. The length of these golden arms defines the platform’s size, which in turn sets the shell’s velocity.
Key construction rules:
- The center block must be obsidian, and it must have a clear line of sight to the sky — it cannot be completely underground.
- Gold blocks form the arms, extending outward in all four cardinal directions from the center.
- The arm length determines the platform size. For example, a size 6 platform requires 24 gold blocks and can hurl a shell roughly 3,000 blocks when fired at a 45-degree angle.
- Minimum arm length is 1, maximum is 6 (configurable in the plugin’s settings).
A larger platform gives you the range to strike distant targets, but it also consumes more gold. Balancing resource investment with tactical needs is part of the fun.
Firing Mechanics and Aiming
To fire, stand on the obsidian center block, hold a TNT block, and left-click while looking at a point in the sky. Your viewing direction sets both the horizontal and vertical angles. The TNT is consumed as the shell. Because the shell is unpowered, you must account for gravity, which pulls the projectile downward. A higher vertical angle gives more loft, while a lower angle flattens the trajectory. Experimenting with angles and platform sizes is the key to landing shots on distant foes.
One clever aspect of the plugin is its detection system. When a shell lands close to a player, the exact distance is reported to the shooter, but only if that player is within the configured detection range. This feedback loop creates a tense cat-and-mouse game: the shooter refines the aim, while the target can try to relocate or build a counter-battery. For those who want to remain hidden, the artillery.undetectable permission prevents your position from being revealed when shells land near you.
Explosions and World Safety
Artillery shells create real explosions only when a player is nearby to keep the chunk loaded. This design prevents unnecessary terrain damage in unloaded areas and reduces server lag. When a blast does occur, it is about 50% more powerful than a standard TNT explosion, making direct hits devastating. The combination of realistic ballistics and enhanced destruction makes every successful hit feel earned.
Setting up the plugin on your server is straightforward. If you are using a modern launcher like the foxygame.net launcher, you can install and manage Artillery directly from its built-in menu, which streamlines the whole process and lets you jump into long-range duels without digging through config files manually.
Commands and Permissions
The plugin keeps things simple with a single command and a handful of permissions. The command /artillery prints the current version, useful for verifying your installation. Permissions control who can fire, who can use the admin command, and who can stay off the radar.
- artillery.admincmd – Allows use of the /artillery command (ops only by default).
- artillery.fire – Lets a player fire TNT shells (granted to everyone by default).
- artillery.undetectable – Prevents the player’s position from being reported when shells land near them (false by default).
Configuration Tweaks
The plugin’s config.yml file gives server owners fine control over the artillery experience. You can adjust gravity strength, minimum firing angle, detection range, velocity scaling, and the blocks used for the platform. Here are the key settings:
- gravity: 10.0 (higher values make shells drop faster)
- minimum-firing-angle: 20.0 degrees (prevents nearly horizontal shots that could cause issues)
- max-detection-range: 200.0 blocks (how close a shell must land to a player for the distance to be reported)
- velocity-per-block: 30.0 (multiplied by arm length to determine initial speed)
- launch-platform-base-block: OBSIDIAN
- launch-platform-arm-block: GOLD_BLOCK
- maximum-arm-length: 6, minimum-arm-length: 1
- cooldown: 1000 milliseconds (time between shots)
Changing these values can transform the game from a slow, methodical artillery duel into a rapid-fire barrage. Experiment with gravity and velocity to simulate different planetary conditions or simply to match your server’s playstyle.
Bringing Artillery into Your Minecraft World
Artillery adds a layer of strategic depth that few other PvP minigames can match. It rewards patience, spatial reasoning, and a bit of trial and error. Whether you are defending a faction base, staging a siege, or just challenging friends to a long-distance duel, the plugin turns the landscape into a dynamic battlefield. The combination of simple construction, realistic physics, and tense feedback loops makes every engagement memorable.
Start with a small platform to learn the basics, then scale up as you gather gold. Pay attention to the reported distances, adjust your angles, and soon you will be landing shells on targets you cannot even see. With the right configuration and a steady hand, you can dominate the skies of your Minecraft server.