This update is all about fair games. Cheat mods are now caught and punished (with warnings first, and minimaps simply switched off), leaving a game early gets a warning, then a pause or suspension, new ranked players get a fairer start, and a batch of morph and Structure Mania bugs are fixed.

🛡️ Mod Check: cheat mods are now punished

Our new Mod Check finds disallowed client mods. It runs when you join a lobby (at most once every 6 hours), and staff can run a full check on anyone. You may see a sign screen flash for a split second: that is the check. If it cannot tell for sure, nothing happens.

Every mod now gets 3 warning kicks before any ban. After that come the bans, and the last step repeats:

  • Cheat clients (Meteor, Wurst, LiquidBounce, Killaura and others): 3 warnings, then 7 days, then 30 days, then 60 days.
  • X-ray: 3 warnings, then 7 days, then 30 days.
  • Seeing through walls (Chest ESP, Player Highlighter): 3 warnings, then 24 hours, then 7 days, then 30 days.
  • Movement and inventory helpers (Fly, Step, InvMove, Item Swapper and others): 3 warnings, then 24 hours, then 7 days.
  • Health bars, autoclickers and Tweakeroo: 3 warnings, then 24 hours, then 7 days.
  • Freecam, Autofish, Flight Helper, Do a Barrel Roll, AntiGhost and Vivecraft: a kick every time, never a ban.
  • Minimaps (Xaero’s Minimap, VoxelMap): no more kicks. You can join with one installed, and it is simply switched off while you play here, radar and cave view included.
  • Kicked? Close Minecraft completely and open it again before you rejoin, because a mod stays loaded until the game restarts. If you rejoin within 15 minutes without restarting, you get a reminder kick that does not use up a warning.
  • Clean for 90 days? Your steps start over.
  • The kick message names the mod, says how to remove it, and tells you whether this is your 1st, 2nd or 3rd offence.

Performance and visual mods like Sodium and Iris are fine.

⚔ Ranked: leaving gets a warning, then suspensions

  • /forfeit is free 3 times a day, plus more if your opponent agrees. After that, another forfeit or going to the lobby gets a warning first, then ranked suspensions.
  • Opponent went to the lobby? The match ends right away. No more 2-minute wait.
  • Opponent disconnected? After 60 seconds you get a clickable [Claim the win].
  • A clickable [Forfeit] at the start of every ranked match.
  • Bad day? Each leave stops counting after 24 hours, so one rough evening does not make your next suspension longer for days.
  • Our servers lost connection? If players drop because of a network problem on our side, nobody is punished.

🆕 Fairer ranked matches

  • New to ranked? Your first 5 games are matched with other new players, not veterans with 40+ games.
  • Opponent dodged before the start? You go straight back to the front of the queue, no clicking needed.
  • Fairer Manhunt maps. Ranked Manhunt now steers you away from maps that start you inside a village with no blacksmith, so the runner gets a fair shot at early iron gear.
  • Random Item border. The ranked border now really closes in: it starts shrinking after 1:30 and is down to 50 x 50 blocks by about 7 minutes. Camping in one spot is much harder.
  • Random Item matches last up to 1 hour. A match nobody has won by then is a draw.

🔥 Fairer games

  • Idle ranked hunters forfeit. A hunter in ranked Manhunt who stops playing gets a warning after 2 minutes, and forfeits the match after 3. Runners no longer have to wait out a hunter who has given up.
  • No lava or fire near spawn. Lava buckets and fire are blocked close to spawn (32 blocks in every mode), so nobody can trap the spot where players respawn. You can still light a nether portal there.
  • Quiet EU lobbies merge. When the EU lobbies are quiet, players are moved together into one lobby, so you are not left standing in an empty one.

🎉 Party games: leaving gets 2 warnings a day, then a pause

  • Just came to watch? Leaving in the first 3 minutes of a party game, or within 3 minutes of being added to one, is always free and never counts.
  • /forfeit never penalizes you in party games. Closing Minecraft or going to the lobby counts as a leave.
  • Two warnings a day, then a matchmaking pause: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 7 days. Each leave stops counting after 24 hours.
  • Our servers lost connection? Nobody is punished for that either.
  • Crashed? Come back within 2 minutes and nothing happens.
  • Party leader reset the game, or left it? Nobody is penalized, the leader included.
  • Never counted: replacement hunters, being warped out by your party leader, or the whole party leaving together.
  • Hunter left for the lobby? The replace-hunter menu unlocks right away.

🤝 New party tools

  • Auto-Add Invited Players. A new party setting, off by default. Turn it on and players you invite jump straight into your running game by themselves, no /addtogame needed. In Manhunt they join as a hunter. People who join an open party without an invite still spectate.
  • /p blacklist <player> keeps someone out of your parties for good. If they are in your party they are kicked, and any invite you sent them is withdrawn.
  • /p unblacklist <player> undoes it, and /p blacklist list shows everyone you have blocked.
  • Just kicked someone? Click [Blacklist] in chat to block them in one go.

🏗️ Structure Mania

  • No more lag spikes. Big structures now build over a few seconds instead of all at once.
  • Woodland Mansions are back.
  • Village ice and hay piles no longer turn invisible.

🐛 Bug fixes

  • Aquatic morphs. Shell Spin and Aquatic Tornado no longer get you kicked.
  • Cursed armour stays on. Golem, Warden, Ravager, Wither and Dragon morphs keep Curse of Binding armour.
  • Spectators ignore potions. No more splash, lingering or beacon effects on spectators.
  • Infection. A converted hunter who gets re-added to the game stays a hunter.
  • No free extra kits. Leaving and getting re-added no longer gives you a second catch-up kit.
  • God of Thunder. The strike’s flash and spark ring are back.
  • Better reports. Reporting a player now shows staff their last 30 minutes of public, team and party chat.
  • Party game buttons. Clicking a party game when you are not in a party, or not its leader, now tells you why instead of doing nothing.
  • /p kick in a game. A kicked party member is now taken out of the game right away.

🐜 Found a bug? Got an idea?

Use /bug in game to report a bug, or /suggestion to share an idea. Include as much info as possible: gamemode, twists and settings enabled, steps to reproduce, and video clips if you have them.