The problem
XP farms wreck the economy of survival servers. Players build enderman towers, zombie/villager grinders, and spawner
farms that hand out infinite XP and loot, killing the value of mining, exploration and combat. Most "anti-farm"
plugins solve this with a sledgehammer — flat mob caps that also break legitimate gameplay.
How FarmGuard works
FarmGuard combines three independent, configurable mechanisms that target what farms actually need to function.
Any of them alone breaks the majority of grinders; together they make XP farms effectively impossible without
affecting normal play.

1. Per-chunk hostile mob cap — global cap and per-type caps (zombies, skeletons, endermen, creepers, blazes,
   witches, ravagers, shulkers and more). Only the spawn reasons you choose count toward the cap (NATURAL, SPAWNER,
   RAID…).
   
2. Non-player-kill XP suppression — the silver bullet. If the mob dies from fall damage, suffocation, lava,
   drowning or any non-player source, its XP drop is multiplied by your configured factor (default 0.0). This
   single feature breaks almost every classic XP farm without touching sword combat.
   
3. Spawner XP cancellation — mobs spawned from mob spawners or trial spawners drop zero XP regardless of how
   they die. Dungeon spawner farms become useless.
   

A fourth safety net — a death-rate limiter per chunk — kicks in if too many mobs die in the same chunk in a
short window, suppressing XP even if the first three layers are bypassed.
What it blocks vs. what it allows

Blocks	Allows
Enderman End-platform farms	Killing endermen at your portal with a sword
Zombie/skeleton drop-shaft grinders	Fighting mobs in caves and mob-heavy biomes
Iron-golem-bait farms (XP side)	Iron golem farming (drops untouched by default)
Spawner XP farms	Animal/passive farms (cows, chickens, pigs)
Creeper grinders	Villager trading and XP from smelting/mining
Anything where the player isn't the killer	Bypass permission for trusted players

Features

• Configurable per-type chunk caps (every hostile mob covered)
  
• Per-spawn-reason filtering (cap only NATURAL or include RAID, PATROL, SPAWNER, TRIAL_SPAWNER…)
  
• Non-player-kill XP multiplier (0.0 to 1.0)
  
• Spawner XP cancellation (toggle)
  
• Optional drop suppression (off by default, only XP affected)
  
• Death-rate limiter per chunk with configurable window
  
• Per-world disable list
  
• Dry-run mode — log what would be cancelled without enforcing, perfect for tuning limits before going live
  
• Verbose console logging with exact coordinates and chunk position
  
• Per-chunk metrics visible with /fg stats — see exactly which chunks players are abusing
  
• farmguard.bypass permission for staff/VIPs
  
• Live config reload, no server restart needed
  

Console output example
/fg stats output
At a glance you can see exactly where players are trying to build farms.
Commands

• /farmguard reload — reload config
  
• /farmguard stats — top 10 most-blocked chunks
  
• /farmguard stats reset — clear metrics
  
• /farmguard dryrun [on|off] — toggle dry-run live
  
• Alias: /fg
  

Permissions

• farmguard.admin — access to commands (default: op)
  
• farmguard.bypass — ignore XP/drop restrictions on player kills (default: op)
  

Configuration preview
Compatibility

• Spigot / Paper / Purpur
  
• Minecraft 1.20.x – 1.21.x
  
• Java 17+
  
• No external dependencies
  
• Zero-overhead when listeners aren't triggered (event-driven, no scheduled tasks)
  

Installation

1. Drop FarmGuard.jar into your plugins/ folder
   
2. Start the server (config is auto-generated)
   
3. Edit plugins/FarmGuard/config.yml to your taste
   
4. Recommended: enable dry-run for the first 24h, run /fg stats, adjust limits,
   then disable dry-run
   

FAQ
Q: Will this break iron farms?
A: No, iron golems aren't hostile mobs. Item drops are also untouched by default — only XP is affected.
Q: Will this break my mob arena / PvE plugin?
A: Add the arena's world to disabled-worlds, or give participants the farmguard.bypass
permission.
Q: My natural exploration feels too quiet now.
A: Raise max-hostile-per-chunk (default 8) or remove NATURAL from
count-spawn-reasons — the XP-side defenses still work.
Q: Can players still farm XP from a sword grinder?
A: Yes — that's the point. Real combat XP is preserved. FarmGuard only kills the AFK / fall-damage-style farms.
Q: Performance impact?
A: Negligible. Two event listeners, no repeating tasks, O(chunk-entities) on spawn checks.