Hunt the Wanted
Players can place and pursue bounties. The most dangerous active targets appear publicly in The Wild Ledger's Most Wanted record.
Public Beta Phase I · LIVE
VanillaMonster Classic is a long-term Java survival world built around exploration, player trade and meaningful travel. Public Beta Phase I is now live and publicly accessible on the real, persistent 40,000 × 40,000 world. Join in and help test and shape The Wild.
Right now
VanillaMonster is a survival world first. These are the gameplay loops already running in Public Beta Phase I — not a wishlist.
Players can place and pursue bounties. The most dangerous active targets appear publicly in The Wild Ledger's Most Wanted record.
Seasonal competition across VanillaMonster's trial arenas. Arena of Blood and Arena of Beasts are active competitive systems; Arena of the Deep is still in development.
The world is built to persist rather than reset every season. Land claims protect long-term homes, settlements, roads and projects.
Emeralds are the real in-world currency. Players operate shops and trade goods and services with each other in a living economy.
Travel happens in the world. Find destinations, reach stations, and use NPC-operated Monster Transit instead of teleport commands.
Northern Wildport, Sheriff Old Town and its Mining Station are functional places with NPCs and services worth finding — not decorative builds.
Northern Wildport's harbour lets you register an eligible vessel, give it a name, and receive a persistent Vessel ID recorded by the harbour system.
The public Ledger records competition and infamy from the live world — seasonal Trial standings where data exists, and Most Wanted.
Playable now vs. what's next
Some systems are running today. Others are still being built. VanillaMonster keeps those two lists clearly separate, both here and across the rest of the site.
Nothing on this list is playable yet. See Updates for development progress.
The philosophy
VanillaMonster is built so the world between two places actually matters. Roads, ports, rails and settlements exist because the world needs them — some built by the project, others by the community — not because a menu made them unnecessary.
Survival works best when a decision costs something. Choosing where to settle, how to reach a trading partner, and what to carry with you are all real choices here. Convenience features that let players skip the world tend to remove those choices, so VanillaMonster leaves them out — and replaces them with travel that happens inside the world instead of inside a command.
Builds are protected with land claims, trade runs on emeralds between player-operated shops, and the world is intended to grow through new content rather than routine seasonal wipes. In practice that means towns can gain real history, roads become worth maintaining, shops become known destinations, and a build from early Beta can still matter later — while the project keeps room for corrective action if something goes seriously wrong during testing.
Core systems
Normal play has no /home, /sethome, /tpa, /tpahere, /back, /spawn, /warp or /rtp — not a missing feature, but the design. Distance matters. Roads and ports matter. Getting somewhere becomes part of the story instead of a shortcut around it, and the players you pass on the way matter too.
An NPC-operated transport service connecting established destinations for an emerald fare. Travel is an in-world interaction at a station, not a command typed into chat.
Emeralds are the main trading currency, used across player-operated shops. Emeralds can also enter circulation through gameplay and server reward systems.
Builds can be protected with land claims. Protection is intended to be available without requiring a paid rank.
A handcrafted harbour region and one of the world's established destinations, with docks, warehouses, a shipyard and its own station.
The world is intended to expand through new content and new regions rather than routine seasonal resets.
Designed for builders, explorers, traders and players looking for a long-term survival home rather than a server to finish in a weekend.
Support the project without buying power. Paid recognition tiers are not designed to grant combat strength, free or discounted travel, or economic dominance.
Now live
Help us shape The Wild.
Public Beta Phase I is open to everyone — connect and play on the real, persistent launch world. Balancing, bugs, exploits, multiplayer behaviour, economy, claims and stability are still being actively evaluated, so expect ongoing changes as testing continues. We're also keen to meet strong builders and technically minded community members during this phase, though playing now isn't a promise of any staff role.
Discord is the best place for updates, bug reports and the community — no application needed to play.
Main hubs
Northern Wildport and Sheriff Old Town have both completed their final solo audits and are operational in Public Beta. They are connected to each other by Monster Transit, and each keeps its own bank branch on one shared balance.
Competition & consequence
The Wild Ledger is VanillaMonster's public record of competition and infamy. It tracks live standings from the Three Trials where data exists, and the server's Most Wanted list — pulled from the same systems players actually play, not hardcoded here.
Seasonal challenges built into the world. Competing feeds directly into the Wild Ledger's standings.
PvP exists, but reputation follows it. A bounty is not just a chat message — wanted players become part of the server's public record.
Hall of Fame and the Forsaken Citadel are separate Ledger sections still in development.
Getting around
Travel between fixed destinations by paying an NPC in emeralds. It keeps long distances practical for players with limited time without turning the map into a menu. Find it first. Ride there later.
Same fare for Default, Supporter, Patron and Founder.
Northern Wildport is intentionally the transfer hub. Further routes are added only once they have been tested.
The world
BlueMap renders the complete public Overworld, including roads, settlements, ports and player claims. Player positions remain hidden, while the Nether and End are intentionally excluded from the public map.
The public BlueMap renders the full Overworld. Enable JavaScript, or open the map directly.
The launch Overworld is fully pregenerated and is the persistent world Public Beta Phase I is playing on. The Oceanbound expansion size describes planned future content only.
Screenshots
Captured in the current Public Beta build.
A world with history
VanillaMonster is not designed around routine seasonal wipes, so what happens here can accumulate into a long-term world history. A short selection of what's already become part of it:
Development
Public Beta Phase I is the current stage. Nothing below it carries a date until it is confirmed.
Technical testing and construction of the world and spawn, with the core systems running for a small internal group.
Core technical preparation, onboarding, documentation, world generation and first-wave recruitment have been completed.
A small whitelisted group tested the persistent launch world, focusing on real multiplayer behaviour, economy balance, claims, PvP, bounty systems and shared services.
Open to everyone on the same persistent launch world. Balancing, bugs, exploits, multiplayer behaviour, economy, claims and stability continue to be actively evaluated.
Opening as the official full release on the same persistent 40,000 × 40,000 Overworld already in use. No date has been announced.
Controllable ships, crews and maritime exploration. Wave I targets a staged frontier of approximately 60,000 × 60,000, with a long-term direction toward approximately 100,000 × 100,000, without replacing the existing world.
A major expansion of the same persistent VanillaMonster world, currently in final pre-implementation design. Same world, new frontier — Oceanbound extends the map outward instead of replacing it.
Wave I targets a staged frontier of approximately 60,000 × 60,000, with a long-term direction toward approximately 100,000 × 100,000 — both describe planned future expansion, not the current world size. Oceanbound is not released and has no announced date.
Build more than a base. Recognized player settlements will be able to join Monster Transit, establish local services and become part of the world's history.
Questions
Yes — Public Beta Phase I is live. The server is open to everyone; the official launch date has not been announced.
Connect directly to play.vanillamonster.eu — no application or whitelist required. Joining our Discord is recommended for updates, bug reports and the community, but it isn't required to play.
Public Beta runs on the persistent launch world, and the intention is that builds, claims, balances and ordinary progress carry forward. Beta is still a testing phase, so we cannot rule out corrective action if a serious bug or exploit makes it necessary. Anything that would affect player progress would be communicated on Discord first.
No. Normal players do not have /home, /sethome, /tpa, /tpahere, /back, /spawn, /warp or /rtp. Travel between established destinations is handled in the world through Monster Transit instead.
You visit a station and pay an NPC in Emeralds to travel to another established destination. Two routes are tested: Spawn Central to Northern Wildport for 16 Emeralds, and Northern Wildport to Sheriff Old Town for 32 Emeralds. Northern Wildport is intentionally the transfer hub. There is a 60-second cooldown, and the fare is the same for Default, Supporter, Patron and Founder.
Local chat is the default and reaches players within 128 blocks. Use /local, /world and /trade to switch channels. World reaches the whole server, while Trade is reserved for buying, selling and services. World and Trade are bridged to Discord; Local stays in-game.
It is designed not to be. The project may offer ranks, cosmetic benefits and limited additional claim blocks, but supporter benefits are not intended to provide combat power, free or discounted travel, exclusive overpowered items, or economic dominance. The aim is to let people support the project without buying power.
Emeralds. They are used for player-operated shops and for services such as Monster Transit fares, and can also enter circulation through gameplay and server reward systems.
Through land claims. Claim-based protection is intended to be accessible without requiring a paid rank.
Routine seasonal wipes are not part of the design. Keeping the world and expanding it through new content is a long-term design commitment for the project.
Yes. BlueMap renders the full 40,000 × 40,000 Overworld, including roads, settlements, ports and player claims. Player positions and names are hidden, and the Nether and End are intentionally not published.
Oceanbound is a major expansion of the same persistent world, currently in final pre-implementation design — it is not released and has no announced date. The direction includes controllable ships, crews, maritime exploration and new frontier content, extending the existing world rather than replacing it. Wave I targets a staged frontier of approximately 60,000 × 60,000, with a long-term direction toward approximately 100,000 × 100,000. See the Oceanbound preview for more.
Development updates are shared on our Discord. The invite is linked in the navigation, in the Beta section and at the bottom of this page.
Get involved
Public Beta Phase I is now live. Connect and play on the real, persistent world, and join our Discord for updates, bug reports and the community.
Server address: play.vanillamonster.eu · Launch date to be announced after testing.