SimpleChallenges

Simple Challenges

I enjoy Minecraft challenges and like watching them on YouTube, for example the ones by BastiGHG, a German streamer and YouTuber. I wanted to play challenges like that with my own friends, so I made Simple Challenges. I'm sharing the plugin here so you can play it with yours too.

It's a challenge plugin for Paper 26.3. You can compete on your own, team up with a friend, or work together in a cooperative challenge. Use /challenge to choose what you want to play.

Version 1.1.0 adds Mob Battle (Solo and Duo), XP Battle, Chunkbound, and optional world seeds for every challenge. The original Random Items, Achievement Challenge, Duo Bingo, and Skyblock Bingo modes are still included.

I'm still working on the plugin and plan to add more challenges over time. These are the modes available in this release.

Current challenges

Random Items - Solo

You get a random item that you need to collect. Once you have it, you get a point and the next target. The player with the most points when the timer ends wins.

You can change the time limit and number of skip tokens, and edit the blacklist to remove items you don't want to appear.

Random Items - Duo

The same idea as Solo, but you play in teams. You and your teammate share the target, points, skip tokens, and a backpack.

One of you can gather materials while the other prepares what you need for the item. Whoever collects it completes the target for both of you. The team with the most points at the end wins.

Achievement Challenge

Complete as many Minecraft advancements as you can before the timer runs out. You can play on your own or compete against other players.

Set the time limit in the config to fit how long you want to play.

Duo Bingo

You and your teammate work through a shared Bingo card. Tasks include collecting items, crafting, visiting biomes, killing mobs, and completing advancements.

The first team to complete the required number of tasks wins. By default, that's 20 tasks. You can change that number in the config.

If you prefer playing alone, you can join a team on your own.

Skyblock Bingo

Everyone starts on their own island in a void world, with the same Bingo card. Build up your island and complete a row, column, or diagonal before the other players.

The tasks include things like generating cobblestone, growing trees, farming, fishing, and crafting. You can edit the tasks and the resources available on your island in the config.

If you mess up your cobblestone generator, use /skyblock reset to restore your starting island chunk. You keep your inventory and Bingo progress.

Mob Battle - Solo and Duo · Added in 1.1

Find and kill a randomly assigned mob to score a point and receive your next target. The player or team with the most points when the timer ends wins. The default round lasts two hours, with five skip tokens. Skipping a target also earns one point.

Your bossbar shows the target and your score. Other players can see your target's spawn egg above your head. In Duo, teams of up to two share their targets, points, skips, and backpack, and start together.

Edit mob-blacklist-config.yml to exclude mobs you don't want, including PLAYER. Optional CSV exports show the allowed targets and exclusion reasons. Saved rounds keep their original target pool.

After the round, /result reveals the standings from lowest to highest, including completed and skipped targets.

XP Battle · Added in 1.1

Compete to reach the highest XP level before the timer ends. Your score is your highest level reached during the round, not your current level or total XP points. Dying, enchanting, or spending levels does not erase your record.

The bossbar shows the current leaders and their highest level. Players with the same record share the lead. At the end, titles announce the winner or winners, and the chat shows the full ranking with everyone's highest level. Everyone then returns to the lobby automatically.

Set the round length under modes.xpbattle.duration-seconds. Pause and resume preserve the remaining time and highest levels, including across server restarts.

Chunkbound - CO-OP · Added in 1.1

Everyone starts together on one natural chunk surrounded by void. Farm XP and walk into the edge of your unlocked area to buy a neighbouring chunk. The player at the border pays with their levels, but the new chunk is unlocked for everyone.

The first purchase costs one level, the second two, the third three, and so on. Overworld and Nether purchases share the same increasing price. There is no confirmation item: walking into a locked border attempts the purchase.

The Nether also uses unlockable chunks. Your portal's arrival chunk is unlocked for free. The End generates normally. Find the stronghold using Eyes of Ender and defeat the Ender Dragon together to win; there is no time limit.

The starting chunk is chosen near a stronghold, within a configurable distance of 500 blocks by default. PvP is on by default; disable it with modes.chunkbound.pvp: false if you prefer. Pause and resume keep the shared unlocked area and purchase progress.

Features

• Custom world seeds · Added in 1.1.0: Share a seed with friends or replay the same world. Add a number or text after the mode name, such as /challenge start randomitems 123456789 or /challenge start chunkbound Our shared world. Use the same Minecraft version and world settings for matching terrain. Targets and Bingo tasks stay random; Skyblock keeps its island setup. Without a seed, the world stays random. Available through start commands; the menu works as before.
• In-game menus: Choose a challenge and select your team through the GUI. Updated in 1.1: the menu groups modes under Competitive and Cooperative, with Challenges and Bingos inside Competitive.
• Timers: Timed challenges count down; Bingo modes show how long you've been playing.
• Pause and resume: Save a round and continue later, even after restarting the server. All original participants need to be there to resume.
• Separate worlds: Each challenge creates its own world and teleports the players there. When you return to the lobby, your original inventory and player state are restored.
• Preparation progress · Added in 1.1: While you wait for a round to start, a bossbar shows what is being prepared, how long you have waited, and progress percentages where available. Longer waits also get chat updates. Each percentage refers to the step currently shown.
• Results: Review player and team results after a round.
• Skyblock resets: Restore your starting island chunk without losing your inventory or Bingo progress.

Make it your own

You can edit the YAML configuration files to change the settings and add your own tasks. The sections below show a few examples.

Round settings

Change the duration and starting countdown for timed challenges, or adjust how many skip tokens players receive in Random Items.

Depending on the mode, you can also configure team spawn distances, PvP, and how many tasks are needed to win.

Times are in seconds, so 3600 is one hour and 7200 is two hours. Edit the existing settings in your config, restart the server, and start a new round. A saved round keeps its original settings and tasks.

world.lobby selects the loaded world whose spawn is used as the lobby destination. Leave it empty to use the first loaded non-challenge world. world.preload-radius loads chunks around the challenge Overworld spawn before starting; 2 means a 5×5 area of 25 chunks.

Bingo tasks - add or change objectives

You can edit the existing tasks or add new ones to the task list. Each entry has a task type and the requirements for that type. You can also give it a custom title and icon.

For example, these Duo Bingo tasks ask players to collect eight diamonds, craft an enchanting table, and kill five blazes:

- type: OBTAIN
  item: DIAMOND
  amount: 8
  title: "Collect eight diamonds"
  icon: DIAMOND

- type: CRAFT
  item: ENCHANTING_TABLE
  title: "Craft an enchanting table"
  icon: ENCHANTING_TABLE

- type: KILL
  mob: BLAZE
  count: 5
  title: "Kill five blazes"
  icon: BLAZE_ROD

Skyblock uses its own task types. Here are two examples:

- type: FISH
  amount: 5
  title: "Catch five items"
  icon: FISHING_ROD

- type: INVENTORY_HAS
  item: COBBLESTONE
  amount: 64
  title: "Collect a stack of cobblestone"
  icon: COBBLESTONE

Add these entries to the appropriate task list, with the same indentation as the other tasks. Use Minecraft material and entity names such as DIAMOND or BLAZE.

Keep enough different tasks in the pool to fill the card. For Skyblock, make sure the required items can actually be obtained with your island setup.

Skyblock's winning line always matches bingo.board-size: on a 5×5 card, complete five tasks in a row, column, or diagonal. There is no separate winning-line length. Duo Bingo still uses bingo.win-count and a 20-task card.

Added in 1.1: Duo Bingo can require a specific item, enchantment, and minimum level for ENCHANT_ITEM; a potion effect, strength, duration, or form for POTION_BREW; and an animal type and count for ANIMAL_BREED. For example:

- type: POTION_BREW
  potion: STRENGTH
  upgraded: true
  form: SPLASH_POTION
  title: "Brew a Strength II splash potion"
  icon: SPLASH_POTION

Here, form specifies the required potion form; icon only sets the picture on the card. Without form, drinkable, splash, and lingering variants are all accepted.

More task types and configuration details are available on GitHub.

Random Items blacklist - remove targets you don't want

Both Random Items modes use blacklist-config.yml. You can exclude a single item, a group of items with similar names, or colored variants.

Updated in 1.1: The default blacklist excludes more rare or difficult targets from the current item catalog, including specialist exploration maps, Nautilus armour, large fern, amethyst buds, and additional rare drops and music discs. Existing custom blacklists are left unchanged; you can adjust them yourself.

Specific items go under material-blacklist.items. For example:

material-blacklist:
  enabled: true
  items:
    - NETHER_STAR
    - ENCHANTED_GOLDEN_APPLE

Name filters exclude every material whose name contains the pattern. For example, _SPAWN_EGG excludes spawn eggs, while MUSIC_DISC excludes music discs:

name-filters:
  enabled: true
  patterns:
    - "_SPAWN_EGG"
    - "MUSIC_DISC"

Colored-variant categories let you exclude groups such as colored wool or concrete:

colored-variants:
  enabled: true
  categories:
    - WOOL
    - CONCRETE

These are examples of the existing sections. Add entries to your lists rather than replacing the whole blacklist or creating duplicate sections.

An item may match more than one filter. If you want to allow it again, check the exact blacklist, name patterns, and colored-variant categories. Removing it from just one list might not be enough.

Item lists and CSV exports

Want to see which items can appear, or why an item is excluded? Export reference lists for your server's Minecraft version.

To export the lists, enable this option in blacklist-config.yml:

options:
  debug-export: true

The CSV files show the available targets and why other items were excluded. This helps when you want to adjust the pool or check why an item never appears.

Skyblock - starter items and fishing rewards

You can change the starter chest contents and the spacing between islands. Starter items use entries such as LAVA_BUCKET:1 or ICE:2.

Fishing can provide extra resources for your island. Each custom drop has an item, a minimum and maximum amount, and a weight. Higher weights make a drop more likely compared with the other custom drops.

You can also adjust how often normal fishing loot is kept. This lets you add resources for your custom tasks without putting everything in the starter chest.

Commands

Here you can find the available commands and what they do.

Managing a round

Command	What it does
/challenge or /challenge menu	Open the challenge selection menu.
/challenge start <mode> [seed]	Start a round, optionally using a number or text as the world seed. See the mode names below.
/challenge pause	Save and pause the current round so you can continue later.
/challenge resume	Continue the saved round. All original participants must be online.
/challenge discard	Delete the saved, paused round so you can start a new one.
/challenge stop	End the active round and return players to the lobby.
/challenge reset	Reset and end the active challenge, returning players to the lobby. This does not reset an individual Skyblock island.
/challenge status	Check the round's current state and any missing players needed to resume.

Starting, pausing, resuming, stopping, resetting, and discarding rounds requires OP or simplechallenges.challenge.admin.

The /challenge aliases are /challenges, /simplechallenge, and /simplechallenges.

Mode-specific commands

Use these mode names with /challenge start <mode>:

Mode	Command
Random Items - Solo	/challenge start randomitems
Random Items - Duo	/challenge start randomitemsduo
Achievement Challenge	/challenge start achievements
Duo Bingo	/challenge start duobingo
Skyblock Bingo	/challenge start skyblock
Mob Battle - Solo · Added in 1.1	/challenge start mobbattle
Mob Battle - Duo · Added in 1.1	/challenge start mobbattleduo
XP Battle · Added in 1.1	/challenge start xpbattle
Chunkbound - Co-op · Added in 1.1	/challenge start chunkbound

Starting, pausing, resuming, stopping, resetting, and discarding rounds requires OP or simplechallenges.challenge.admin.

During and after a challenge

Command	What it does
/bp or /backpack	Open your backpack in Random Items, Mob Battle, or Duo Bingo.
/bingo	Open your Bingo card in Duo Bingo or Skyblock Bingo.
/skyblock reset	Restore your own starting island chunk during Skyblock. Keeps your inventory and Bingo progress, with a three-minute cooldown during active play.
/result or /result next	Show the next result during the end-of-round reveal.
/result overview	Open your result overview in a mode that supports it.
/result overview <player>	View another player's results. For Duo Bingo, use the team color instead.
/result stop	End the result phase and return players to the lobby.
/ric lastrun [gui] [player]	Open a Random Items result overview while the round is still available. The player argument is optional.

The host controls the result reveal and /result stop. For Bingo modes, using /result again after the final card ends the result phase and returns everyone to the lobby.

/randomitemchallenge is the full name of /ric. The /challenge aliases are /challenges, /simplechallenge, and /simplechallenges.

Getting started

I built this plugin for Minecraft 26.3. If you host your own server, you need Paper 26.3 and Java 25.

Place the plugin JAR in your server's plugins folder, restart the server, and use /challenge to get started.

Feedback & ideas

If you have an idea for a challenge, want another setting, or find a bug, you can open an issue on GitHub.

I'd also like to hear how your rounds went and what you'd like to play next.