Nucleus
Paper 1.21+ Required

Premium PvP Practice
Plugin for Minecraft

Nucleus provides duels, FFA arenas, ELO rankings, and comprehensive statistics. Built for performance with Paper's modern API.

Download on Modrinth View Features

Core Features

Everything you need for a competitive PvP server

1v1 Duels

Challenge players or queue for ranked/unranked matches with ELO-based matchmaking.

  • • Direct challenges with /duel <player>
  • • Queue system with /duel queue
  • • Ranked & unranked modes
  • • Per-kit ELO ratings

FFA Arenas

Multiple simultaneous FFA arenas with join protection and anti-cleanup mechanics.

  • • Separate from duel arenas
  • • Join protection on spawn
  • • Anti-cleanup effects on kill
  • • Periodic arena regeneration

Kit System

Create custom kits with personal layouts and 16+ toggleable rules.

  • • Player kit editor with /kiteditor
  • • Personal hotbar layouts
  • • Kit rules (Sumo, Boxing, Best of 3, etc.)
  • • Pearl cooldown, fall damage, build toggle

Statistics & ELO

Comprehensive tracking with global and per-kit ELO, divisions, and leaderboards.

  • • Global & per-kit ELO
  • • Division ranks
  • • Kill/death tracking
  • • Leaderboards

Arena Regeneration

Built-in NMS arena regeneration for both duel and FFA arenas.

  • • Automatic post-match regen
  • • Periodic FFA arena regen
  • • No external dependencies
  • • Build limit controls

Placeholders & Animations

Built-in placeholder system with custom animations support.

  • • Format: <placeholder>
  • • Custom animations: <animation:name>
  • • Leaderboard placeholders
  • • Flicker-free scoreboards

MySQL Storage

Full MySQL support for all player data with async operations.

  • • Stats, ELO, settings sync
  • • Personal kit layouts
  • • YAML fallback option
  • • Async save/load

Dynamic Scoreboards

Packet-based scoreboards with FastBoard for zero flicker.

  • • Context-aware (lobby, FFA, duel)
  • • Custom animations support
  • • Per-kit scoreboards
  • • Spectator live stats

Player Profiles

Shift+right-click any player to view their profile and stats.

  • • View player stats instantly
  • • Challenge to duel from profile
  • • See player status (in duel, FFA, etc.)
  • • Quick access to full stats

Kit Rules System

16+ toggleable rules per kit for complete customization

Fall Damage

Toggle fall damage

Pearl Cooldown

15s ender pearl CD

Best of 3

Multi-round matches

Show Health

Enemy HP display

Build

Block place/break

Sumo

Knockback only

Boxing

First to 100 hits

Deny Movement

Freeze players

Auto Ignite

TNT auto-ignite

Reset Arena

Between rounds

Free vs Premium

Choose the version that fits your server

Free

Great for small servers

  • 1v1 Duel System
  • FFA Arenas
  • Kit Editor
  • Scoreboards & Animations
  • ELO & Divisions
  • MySQL Support
  • Max 20 Arenas
  • Max 7 Kits
  • Armor Trim Editor
  • 2v2 Duels
  • Party System
Download Free
COMING SOON

Premium

For competitive servers

  • Everything in Free
  • Unlimited Arenas
  • Unlimited Kits
  • Armor Trim Editor
  • 2v2 Duels
  • Party System
  • Custom Items (ItemsAdder/Oraxen)
  • Discord Webhooks
  • Redis Cross-Server Sync
  • Web Leaderboard API
  • Priority Support

Commands

All commands with tab completion support

Player Commands

/duel Open duel GUI or challenge players
/duel queue [kit] Join matchmaking queue
/duel accept/deny Accept or deny duel requests
/duel leave Leave queue or forfeit match
/duel elo [player] View ELO ratings
/ffa Open FFA arena selection
/ffa join <arena> Join an FFA arena
/ffa leave/list/stats FFA management
/kiteditor Customize kit layouts
/spawn Teleport to lobby

Admin Commands

/nucleus Admin menu & commands
/nucleus reload Reload configuration
/nucleus setspawn Set lobby spawn
/dsetup create <name> Create duel arena
/dsetup spawn1/spawn2 Set arena spawns
/ffasetup create <name> Create FFA arena
/ffasetup setspawn/min/max Configure FFA arena
/akit create [name] Create kit from inventory
/akit edit/rules <kit> Edit kit settings

Placeholders

Internal placeholder system - no PlaceholderAPI required

Player Placeholders

<kills> - Total kills
<deaths> - Total deaths
<kdr> - Kill/death ratio
<streak> - Current streak
<elo> - Global ELO
<elo_kitname> - Kit ELO
<wins> - Duel wins
<losses> - Duel losses
<division> - Rank division
<ping> - Player ping

Global Placeholders

<players> - Online players
<max_players> - Max players
<tps> - Server TPS
<time> - Current time
<in_queue> - Players in queue
<in_fight> - Players in duels
<active_matches> - Active matches
<in_ffa> - Players in FFA

Leaderboard Placeholders

<top_kills_1> - #1 kills value
<topname_kills_1> - #1 kills name
<top_kills_kitname_1> - Kit-specific
<top_elo_1> - #1 ELO value
<top_wins_1> - #1 wins value
<top_kdr_1> - #1 KDR value

Replace 1 with position (1-10)

Match Placeholders

<opponent> - Opponent name
<opponent-ping> - Opponent ping
%nucleus_opponent% - PAPI format
%nucleus_opponent-ping% - PAPI format

Works in scoreboards and external plugins

Permissions

Simple permission structure

Permission Default Description
nucleus.use Everyone Basic player commands
nucleus.kiteditor Everyone Use kit editor
nucleus.kiteditor.trim OP Edit armor trims
nucleus.admin OP Admin commands
nucleus.* OP All permissions

Requirements

Paper 1.21+

Required server software

Java 21+

Required Java version

Optional: Vault

For economy integration