Minions

Skyblock-style placeable minions that automatically gather resources for you. Give yourself a minion item, right-click a block to place it, and the minion sits there producing its resource into its own storage on a timer - faster and with more capacity as you upgrade it.

What it does

• A minion is a small, invulnerable, clickable ArmorStand wearing a themed head with a floating name like Iron Minion V.
• On a per-tier interval it produces its configured item into an internal storage, with a little arm swing and particle each time.
• When its storage fills up it stops producing, and resumes as soon as you empty it.
• It keeps working while you are away: production is time-based, so when the chunk loads again (or the server comes back up) the minion is credited for the elapsed time, capped by how much storage it had free.

Server-safe by design

By default minions do not dig or place real blocks. They produce the output item straight into storage (place-blocks: false). This keeps the plugin TPS-friendly and never touches the world, your protections, or your terrain.

Placing, using, and picking up

• Get a minion item with /minion give <player> <type> [tier] (admin).
• Right-click a block with the minion item to place the minion on top of it. One item is consumed (not in creative).
• Right-click the minion to open its management GUI.
• Sneak + right-click (or sneak + left-click) the minion to pick it up. You get back the minion item (with its tier), its fuel, its modules, and everything in its storage.

The GUI

Element	What it does
Storage area (top rows)	Mirrors the minion's storage. Click a stack to collect it. Locked panes are capacity you have not unlocked yet.
Collect All (hopper)	Moves everything that fits into your inventory.
Fuel slot	Drop in the configured fuel item for a speed boost while it lasts.
Module slot x2	Install Auto-Smelt (smelts ore/raw output) or Compactor (packs output into blocks).
Upgrade (anvil)	Pay the listed cost to raise the tier (faster + more storage).
Info (paper)	Shows type, tier, slots, interval, fuel state, owner.

Commands

All under /minion (alias /minions).

Command	Description
/minion give <player> <type> [tier]	Give a placeable minion item. (admin)
/minion list	List your placed minions and where they are.
/minion info	Plugin info, type/tier list, and your minion count.
/minion reload	Reload config.yml. (admin)

Tab completion is provided for subcommands, online players, types, and tiers.

Permissions

Permission	Default	Grants
minion.use	everyone	Place, open, upgrade, and pick up your own minions.
minion.admin	op	give and reload, plus open/pick up any minion. (includes minion.use)

With owner-only: true (default), only the owner, an op, or minion.admin may open or pick up a given minion.

Types and tiers

Shipped types: Cobblestone, Coal, Iron, Gold, Diamond, Redstone, Lapis, Emerald, Wheat. Each defines its output item, amount, base interval, and head skin.

Tiers I through XI. Higher tiers act faster (lower interval multiplier) and hold more (more storage slots). Each tier has an upgrade cost; XI is the cap. All of this lives in config.yml, so you can retune, add, or remove types and tiers.

Configuration (config.yml)

Key	Default	Meaning
settings.place-blocks	false	Physically edit terrain. Not implemented (stub) - leave off.
settings.owner-only	true	Only owner/op/admin may open or pick up a minion.
settings.tick-period-ticks	20	How often the engine checks minions (20 = 1s).
settings.autosave-seconds	120	How often all minion data is flushed to disk.
settings.max-minions-per-chunk	8	Cap per chunk.
settings.max-minions-per-player	100	Cap per player (ops are exempt).
settings.show-particles	true	Show the action particle.
fuel.material	BLAZE_POWDER	Accepted fuel item.
fuel.speed-boost	0.25	Interval reduction while fuel is present.
fuel.seconds-per-unit	1800	Real run-time one fuel unit powers before it is consumed.
tiers.<n>	I..XI	Per-tier roman, interval-multiplier, storage-slots.
types.<id>	9 types	display, head-owner, output, amount, base-interval.

Invalid materials or malformed entries are logged and skipped/defaulted rather than aborting the load.

Notes

• place-blocks is a stub. Terrain editing is intentionally not implemented; production into storage is the supported mode.
• Head skins use the head-owner name via the Bukkit SkullMeta API. On offline-mode servers heads may render as the default Steve head; the minion still works.
• The storage grid is collection-only. You take items out (click a stack or Collect All); you cannot deposit your own items. Shift-clicking, double-click-gathering, and dragging into the grid are intentionally blocked so a produced item can never be reverted or duplicated.

Compatibility

Paper / Spigot / Bukkit / Purpur, Minecraft 1.21.1-1.21.11. One jar, built against the 1.21.1 API (Java 21, class 65); no Paper-only classes, no NMS, no dependencies.

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Original concept by u/hykeemssecondphone on Reddit (r/Minecraft). Built by BeansNToast.