How to set the spawn on your Minecraft server

The spawn is where new players appear for the first time, and where everyone without a bed comes back after dying. Moving it takes one command: stand in the right spot and type /setworldspawn. A game rule makes players land exactly there, and spawn protection stops anyone from wrecking your welcome area.

How do you move the spawn?

1. Make sure you’re an operator. You do that in the console of the game panel with op and your player name.
2. In game, stand where you want players to appear.
3. Type /setworldspawn. You can also add coordinates, like /setworldspawn 100 64 -250. From the console you always need those coordinates, because the console isn’t standing anywhere.
4. Want players to face a certain way? Add an angle: /setworldspawn 100 64 -250 90 makes them face west, 180 faces north.

New to your server? First steps after ordering explains how to get into the game panel.

Why don’t players land exactly on the spawn?

Minecraft drops players at a random spot around the spawn, up to 10 blocks away by default. If you want everyone to start on the exact block, say in the middle of a lobby, set that distance to zero with /gamerule respawn_radius 0. Since Minecraft 1.21.11, game rules use snake_case names. On older versions this rule is still called spawnRadius.

How do you protect the spawn?

server.properties has a spawn-protection setting, 16 by default. Inside that area, players who aren’t operators can’t break or place blocks. The value counts out from the centre, so 16 gives you a 33 by 33 square. Set it to 0 to switch protection off. One catch: as long as nobody on the server is an operator, spawn protection doesn’t work at all. Change the value under Configs in the game panel, then restart your server.

Need to protect more than one square, like a whole town with its own rules? Look at the WorldGuard plugin. It needs WorldEdit, which How to use WorldEdit walks you through.

Can a player get their own spawn?

Yes. /spawnpoint gives one player a personal respawn point, for example /spawnpoint Alex 100 64 -250. It takes priority over the world spawn, just like a bed. Handy for an event or for someone who lives far away. A /spawn command to head back isn’t part of Minecraft itself; you get one from a plugin such as EssentialsX Spawn.

What about Bedrock?

On a Bedrock server /setworldspawn and /spawnpoint work too, with slightly different syntax. Bedrock’s server.properties has no spawn-protection setting.

No server yet? Have a look at Minecraft server hosting or Bedrock server hosting. A Java server starts at €4.95 a month. Stuck? Open a ticket and we’ll help, cake optional.

This article is a refreshed version of a CakeHosting knowledge base article from 2019.