Before installing, check Versions & Compatibility for the documented build and download requirements.
Craft a Phase Crystal
Combine a diamond with redstone and lapis or blue dye. It is the technological foundation of the Nexus Core.
Build and place the Nexus Core
The Nexus Core requires a Phase Crystal, obsidian, and redstone. Leave space around it: invaders can dig, destroy blocks, and create paths across obstacles.
Prepare a Nexus Catalyst
Craft Catalyst Mixture from a bowl, redstone, a bone, and rotten flesh. Smelt it for 10 ticks to create a Nexus Catalyst.
Activate the invasion
Open the Nexus and place the catalyst in its catalyst slot. After charging, a normal invasion starts at wave 1. Stay nearby and watch the Nexus HUD. Read player binding and defeat before activation: nearby players share the risk.
The active arena stays loaded even when you leave. Walking away or logging out does not pause a stationary invasion on a ticking server.
Tabs, scrolling and GUI scale
Right-click a placed Nexus Core to open its menu. For a player-owned or Versus Core, use your own Core: ownership still controls access. While any Versus Nexus is active in the dimension, opening a Core no longer prints the ordinary Nexus-selection or “already active” chat notices. Silence is not an error or a transfer of ownership.
- Nexus shows activation, input/output slots and status. Exchange opens resource trading, even before an invasion starts.
- In an active Versus match, Mobs and Skills form a second row above Nexus/Exchange. Skills can be used with a lone team; Mobs requires an active opposing Nexus. The selected tab is disabled because it is already open.
- After a Player Nexus transfer, open the menus through your player inventory. Inventory replaces the Nexus-tab button and returns to the normal inventory; there is no stationary Core status tab.
The menu reserves room for its tabs above the panel, including at high Minecraft GUI scale. Exchange, Mobs and Skills grow upward with available window height and display one to ten rows; the inventory stays below the list. Use the mouse wheel or drag the scrollbar for remaining entries. The old inventory heading is hidden on all Nexus tabs; the slots still work.
If controls become cramped, enlarge the game window or reduce GUI Scale in Minecraft's Video Settings. A smaller viewport shows fewer rows, not fewer purchasable entries. If a mob seems missing, check the search and skill filter. This layout is separate from the configuration editor's page arrows.
Read the Nexus status and slots
Return to the Nexus tab of a stationary Core. The input is labeled Catalyst, and the result slot is labeled Output. The Catalyst label sits above the input beside the activation bar; there is no additional catalyst hint next to the slot.
| Where to look | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Left input slot | Insert the correct catalyst to start the intended mode. The same input also accepts remnants for Rift-Flux production; its name does not make it catalyst-only. |
| Right output slot | Collect produced Rift Flux or your selected automatic Exchange goods. Hover the input/output areas for help text. |
| Lower left, above kills | Activating… during ordinary catalyst charging; Activated! for normal active/waiting or Debug mode. The kill counter is below this label. |
| Lower right, above radius | Wave: n in normal/continuous modes, or Debug mode for an Engineer Hammer test. Outside Versus, the radius below is the configured spawn radius, not the wave number or the temporary recovery search distance. Versus hides this radius label. |
| Between the slots | Stable shows Ready; Versus shows its mode instead of an advancing wave. During normal charging, the confirmation prompt appears here. |
Debug mode is a status, not a running wave counter. The translation contains a line break, but the current 26.3 menu places this status in the lower-right wave area and fits it to the available width; older notes describing a central two-line display do not define the current layout. /invasion debug highlights mobs and does not activate this test mode.
Check the payment source for the action. The generic output help says trades use inventory: this applies to manual Exchange trades. Manual Versus mob/skill purchases use carried Flux first, then stored output Flux. Stationary mob Auto Buy uses output alone. Collecting output and buying an upgrade are separate actions.
The personal invasion HUD is a separate display. These positions describe the current Minecraft 26.3 / NeoForge menu; a translated or shortened label does not change the mode or its rules.
Defend and collect Rift Flux
Defeated invaders provide Small Remnants. Nine of them make Rift Flux—the core resource for weapons, traps, Nexus Wolves, and other materials.
You can also eat Small Remnants or Rift Flux even at full hunger to find hidden invaders: both restore half a hunger icon and make loaded IM combatants in your dimension glow for 60 seconds or 10 minutes respectively.
Prepare for special threats: Tar Zombies spread persistent fire, while Wardens can hit the Core through walls and heal by consuming nearby XP.
Check valid spawn flooring before relying on slabs, carpets or buttons to secure an arena. Invaders prefer a safe existing approach, and blocked wave spawns can search closer or farther away.
Before customizing the world, read Configuration for the in-game editor, server files, spawn layers and general rules.
Player binding and Nexus defeat
Everyone nearby can become a participant, not just the player who inserts the catalyst. In Minecraft 26.3 / NeoForge, a starting normal invasion binds non-spectator players in its arena. While active and unpaused, it refreshes nearby bindings every 60 ticks (about 3 seconds at 20 TPS). Watch for the green message that your life is now bound to the Nexus.
Area and duration
For a normal stationary invasion, the checked area is a box around the Core: the configured spawn radius plus 10 blocks horizontally, and the radius plus 40 blocks vertically, expanded from the Core's block bounds. At the default radius of 52, that is 62 blocks horizontally and 92 vertically beyond the Core. Stable continuous mode initially uses the same horizontal reach across the dimension's full build height.
A binding is valid for five real-time minutes since the last nearby refresh. Staying in range renews it. Leaving, changing dimensions or logging out does not immediately clear it. Spectators are excluded from new bindings and refreshes; switching to Spectator does not erase an existing entry. Participant UUIDs and timestamps are saved, so reconnecting or restarting is not an immediate reset. Pausing stops refreshes; expiry uses wall-clock time, not game ticks.
What happens at defeat?
The release checks whether the player is present anywhere in the Nexus's dimension. Present Creative players are exempt. If a still-bound player is absent from that dimension, a saved penalty is queued unless that player was Creative at the last binding refresh. Leaving before defeat therefore does not guarantee safety.
The pending list is checked every 3,500 server ticks while nonempty (about 175 seconds at 20 TPS). Once the player is found again in that dimension, the entry is consumed. A non-Creative player receives 500 magic damage followed by a health assignment to 1 HP; this is not a clean kill-only operation, so the exact death outcome can depend on other damage/death handling. A player who is Creative at collection is exempt. A queued penalty persists in world data and does not expire when the original five-minute binding window passes.
Different ways to end an invasion
- Normal/Strong defeat: uses the participant release above. A normal wave running over continuous mode can also enter this defeat path. Debug-mode zero-HP damage uses it too.
- Stable continuous attack failure: separately ends the attack and cleans up enemies; it does not call this participant release. See 100-HP Core healing and Stable loss.
- Administrator stop:
/invasion stopuses stop/cleanup, not the zero-HP participant penalty. It does not cancel a penalty already queued by an earlier defeat. - Player Nexus: the owner's actual death ends the moving invasion and cleans up invaders without this stationary-Core release. See Player Nexus for its separate logout and dimension-change pause behavior.
Versus Nexus binds only its owner and has different match-reset and disconnect rules. Tell nearby players before activating an ordinary invasion. Keep access to the Core and coordinate defense: a stationary arena continues ticking when everyone leaves. For an interruption, an administrator can pause the invasion; leaving is not a pause.
Useful next goals
For an older world, compare current shipped defaults before resetting your setup. Try the five extra family themes, learn why an invader keeps pursuing you behind cover, and check the optional Infernal integration for natural invaders.
For opposing-team battles, prepare combat skills and family conversions, then optionally carry your Versus Nexus into battle.
Spend rewards in Nexus Exchange: buy or sell resource packages, try Gamble, or select automatic goods production.
- Save Rift Flux for a Rift Trap or an Infused Sword; its attacks consume no durability, and direct damage recharges its healing or hunger ability.
- Craft a Searing Bow for empowered shots after at least 51 ticks of drawing (about 2.55 seconds at 20 TPS).
- At Nexus level 10 or higher, process Rift Flux into Strong Nexus Catalysts.
- Bind a wolf to the active Nexus with a Strange Bone.
- Use Damping Agents for a timed Normal/Strong pause or to postpone future Stable nights.
- Set the spawn radius from 8 to 1024 blocks with a Nexus Adjuster or Material Probe; use the Engineer Hammer for Nexus test mode.
- Challenge another player with a Versus Nexus: craft its catalyst, unlock mobs and buy an army. See economic upgrades and match resets before starting.
- For administrator controls, see commands, permissions, and Nexus targeting.
- Plan cover against 32-block sniping and four-block shooter towers.
- Prepare for wave-scaled enemy enchantments before increasing difficulty.
- Read about the differences between Normal, Strong, and Stable.
- For a moving invasion, craft a Player Nexus Catalyst and insert it yourself into the Nexus input slot. The Core disappears, enemies pursue you, and your health becomes the objective. Read the Player Nexus guide before activation. Closer eligible mobs can distract pursuers; nearby other players do not replace you as the owner.
Before server maintenance, read saving, restarting and resuming an invasion. A saved pause remains in effect after restart.