NPCs on a Minecraft server: Citizens, FancyNpcs and more

In short: if your NPCs need to walk routes, guard or fight, use Citizens, the oldest and most capable NPC plugin. If you need stationary lobby NPCs that send a message, run a command or move the player to another server on click, use FancyNpcs: it shows NPCs through packets, runs on Paper and Folia, and an NPC takes two or three commands. ZNPCsPlus is packet-based too and supports Spigot, but its current builds only come out on its Jenkins. Run a single NPC plugin: Citizens and FancyNpcs both register the /npc command.

What servers use NPCs for#

• Lobby navigation. An NPC by the portals sends the player to a game mode — on a network through the proxy, see server networks.
• Shops and services. A click opens a shop, blacksmith or bank menu — the menu itself comes from a separate plugin, see menus and GUIs.
• Quests and story. An NPC hands out tasks, talks to the player and leads them through the world.
• Decoration. Statues of top players, characters at spawn, text overhead — for text without an NPC there are holograms.

NPC plugins compared#

Citizens: first commands#

Citizens creates an NPC with /npc create and selects it straight away, so the next commands apply to it. You select another NPC with /npc select <id or name> or by right-clicking it with a stick (the item is configurable). /npc help lists the commands of your exact version — the Citizens wiki itself warns it's updated less often than the plugin.

/npc create Guide
/npc skin Notch
/npc lookclose
/npc command add -p help
/npc command add --cooldown 10s tp <p> 0 64 0

• /npc skin sets a skin from a name, URL or file; /npc lookclose makes the NPC turn to nearby players.
• /npc command add with no flags runs the command as the server; -p runs it as the clicking player; <p> fills in the player's name.
• -l makes it a left-click command (may not work with PvP off), -r right-click (the default). --cooldown is a per-player pause, --n caps how many times a player can use it.
• On BungeeCord or a proxy that speaks its protocol, /npc command add -p server <server> sends the player to another server.
• /npc path toggles the waypoint editor, /npc equip the equipment editor, /npc hologram controls lines of text above the NPC.

FancyNpcs: first commands#

In FancyNpcs every command names the NPC. The name overhead supports MiniMessage, PlaceholderAPI and MiniPlaceholders. Actions are bound to a trigger: right_click, left_click or any_click.

/npc create skyblock
/npc skin skyblock Notch
/npc displayname skyblock <green>Skyblock</green>
/npc turn_to_player skyblock true
/npc action skyblock any_click add message <gray>%player_name%, off to Skyblock…</gray>
/npc action skyblock any_click add send_to_server skyblock

send_to_server goes through the proxy's messaging channel: velocity.toml needs bungee-plugin-message-channel = true — see Velocity setup. Placeholders in messages come from PlaceholderAPI. Moving from Citizens? FancyNpcs has a converter for its NPCs.

Security: console commands#

An NPC that runs a command as the server effectively hands a sliver of the console to anyone who clicks it. That's fine in itself — Citizens even recommends running commands as the server with <p> filled in rather than giving the player OP. The danger lies elsewhere:

• Temporary OP. The -o flag in Citizens and the player_command_as_op action in FancyNpcs make the player an operator for the duration of the command. The FancyNpcs docs call this a security risk outright, and Citizens warns of side effects. Do without them.
• NPC editing rights for admins only. Whoever can add a console command to an NPC can run anything through it. FancyNpcs grants each action type separately (fancynpcs.command.npc.action.add.<type>), so a builder can be allowed messages but not console_command. Manage this with LuckPerms.
• Limits on rewards. If an NPC hands out items, set --cooldown and --n in Citizens, or interaction_cooldown and block_until_done in FancyNpcs — otherwise the reward gets farmed by rapid clicking.

NPCs and performance#

The Citizens FAQ gives no limit on the number of NPCs: the load depends on your hardware, on whether NPCs move and keep chunks loaded, and idle NPCs far from players are barely processed. It recommends checking with the spark profiler — see the spark profiler. FancyNpcs and ZNPCsPlus send NPCs to players as packets and, according to their authors, add almost no work for the server.

Which one to pick#

• Guards, pets, NPCs with routes and combat, large quest systems — Citizens: it's the only one in this comparison with route movement.
• A Paper or Folia lobby: navigator, shop, greeter — FancyNpcs.
• A server on Spigot or an older version — ZNPCsPlus or Citizens; FancyNpcs runs on Paper and Folia only.

NPCs and fair fights#

A lobby NPC sends players to the game modes, and the fights there have to be fair. Lobby and minigame plugins often teleport a player to an NPC or an arena and turn them to face it — and the NoRotate cheat throws that rotation away so KillAura doesn't lose its target. DGuard — the best anticheat for a modern Minecraft server — checks NoRotate along with the other cheat types in the comparison: 47 in all, where the nearest rival, Intave, has 27. It gathers evidence on every front at once — combat, movement, packets, inventory, building, world — doesn't rush to a verdict, and you set how strict punishments are.

FAQ#