7 best ways to protect your base in a Minecraft PvP server

An intruder-proof Minecraft entrance (Image via MrCrayfish/YouTube)
An intruder-proof Minecraft entrance (Image via MrCrayfish/YouTube)

Minecraft's PvP servers are difficult enough without players breaking into your base and looting your precious valuables. It's only natural then for players to take the appropriate measures to keep their bases safe from intruders.

The good news is that the Minecraft community has created more than a few ways to help. These base defense tactics range from fairly simple to remarkably complex. They can be tricky to enact within PvP servers at times, but they're certainly worth the time and resources invested to ensure players have peace of mind.

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PvP servers can be uncaring and brutal places in Minecraft, but if a player has a secure place to call home, at least one aspect of the server can be peaceful.


Traps and mechanisms to protect your base in Minecraft PvP

1) Pitfall Chest Trap

This trap should keep players' valuables intact (Image via Puredominance/YouTube)
This trap should keep players' valuables intact (Image via Puredominance/YouTube)

A simple and effective Minecraft trap, this build uses a trapped chest as bait for intruding players. When intruders open the chest, a sequence of pistons will activate, pulling the floor apart from underneath the intruder. They should then fall into the accompanying pit below.

Players can fill this pit with any number of hazardous blocks like magma blocks, cacti or even flowing lava. The blocks that kill the intruders are up to the player building the trap. However, keep in mind that some blocks, like lava, might keep players from retrieving any items that their invader drops.

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Using lava should be done so with caution as well, as players won't want to catch any accompanying blocks on fire. Usually, this isn't an issue, but depending on what players build their base out of, it may become a problem. Players should abstain from the use of wooden blocks or any blocks that are considered flammable.


2) Painting Trap

PvP players tend to check paintings for hidden rooms, which can be used to one's advantage (Image via Minecraft.net)
PvP players tend to check paintings for hidden rooms, which can be used to one's advantage (Image via Minecraft.net)

Most Minecraft players are well aware of the concept of hidden painting doors. Because of this, base intruders tend to walk flush against paintings to check for hidden rooms.

Base builders can use this to their advantage by placing lava pits on the other side of paintings. When enemy players walk through the paintings, all they'll be met with is a flaming pool of lava and a quick return to their spawn point.

This is one of the most economical traps that players can utilize, as all it requires is a painting, a bucket of lava and a well-dug hole. If players mix these traps in with actual painting doors, any invader will think twice about attempting to search the other side of a painting.

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3) Landmines

Landmines can take approaching players completely by surprise (Image via Reddit)
Landmines can take approaching players completely by surprise (Image via Reddit)

An explosive trap that is sure to deal heavy damage to enemy Minecraft players. Landmines only require a powered rail, some TNT minecarts and a light pressure plate. When an enemy steps on the plate, they'll activate the stacked minecarts on top of the powered rail, detonating the TNT.

The more minecarts the builder utilizes, the more powerful the explosion. Stack up to ten minecarts, and the explosion should be more than enough to kill just about any vanilla player, even if they're exceptionally well-equipped in high-end armor.


4) Projectile Pit

Arranged projectile-based dispensers (Image via Zatanic/Planet Minecraft)
Arranged projectile-based dispensers (Image via Zatanic/Planet Minecraft)

This Minecraft trap combines the damaging potential of dispensers and a floor trap. In its essence, the trap forces intruders across a narrow walkway near a pit of lava. When they step across this walkway, they will step on a pressure plate, where a dispenser will fire a projectile at them. This projectile can be something like a snowball, arrow or similar ammunition that causes knockback.

Once the target is struck, they should be knocked into the lava pit if they aren't enchanted with Knockback Resistance. It isn't a foolproof trap, but it does the job very well for 99% of cases.

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5) Fake Water Elevator

Faking a water elevator can easily drown enemies (Image via Mojang)
Faking a water elevator can easily drown enemies (Image via Mojang)

Water elevators in Minecraft are an easy way to climb to tall heights in just a few seconds. Utilizing bubble columns in the elevator is the best way to do so, ensuring players shoot to the top. However, savvy Minecraft players can also use this in the form of a trap.

All that's needed is for players to build a water elevator with a bubble column but seal the roof off. Ideally, this should be done with a very durable block like obsidian to ensure the player can't break through the roof. Since the bubble column is constantly pushing the intruder upward, they can't swim back down to the entrance, drowning them fairly quickly.


6) Lava Staircase

A lava staircase can completely incapacitate any invaders (Image via Lemon Craft/YouTube)
A lava staircase can completely incapacitate any invaders (Image via Lemon Craft/YouTube)

Lava staircases are a simple design and work very effectively at warding off attackers. Players simply place a pressure plate on a given staircase, connecting the plate to a dispenser higher up on the staircase. Once the two are connected via redstone dust, place a lava bucket into the dispenser.

Doing so should cause a pool of lava to spill out into the staircase, burning the invader and preventing them from swimming further upward.

This design may need a little more work to ensure that the lava can be retracted when necessary, but otherwise, it's a spectacular base defense build.

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7) TNT House

Placing TNT under a player's house can obliterate invaders, at a cost (Image via WiederDude Tutorials/YouTube)
Placing TNT under a player's house can obliterate invaders, at a cost (Image via WiederDude Tutorials/YouTube)

This trap design is destructive but effective for Minecraft players. Granted, it will take most of a player's home with them, but some may not mind if it removes the existing threat.

When players place a large amount of TNT under the base and wire it via a pressure plate or a button, one false move can obliterate an invader. With enough TNT, the explosion will kill the opposing Minecraft player while also destroying anything they'd like to loot.

This is considered something of a slash-and-burn tactic, but it gets the job done.

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