WorldGuard Safe Zones: Protect Spawn, Shops and Arenas Step by Step

This guide is for server owners who want a spawn, shop street or hub where nobody can grief, fight or get blown up. By the end you will have a protected WorldGuard region with the right flags, a builder team that can still edit it, and an arena carved out inside it where PvP is allowed.

Install WorldGuard and WorldEdit#

WorldGuard protects areas of land and lets you switch off gameplay features such as fire spread, mob damage or PvP inside them. It is free and open source (LGPL-3.0), and it runs on Bukkit based servers such as Paper and Spigot.

WorldGuard Free An open source protection plugin that guards areas of land and lets you switch gameplay features on or off per region. On Modrinth

WorldGuard needs WorldEdit to work. WorldEdit is the in-game map editor you will use to select the area you want to protect, and it is also free and open source.

WorldEdit Free An in-game map editor with selections, schematics and brushes, required by WorldGuard for selecting regions. On Modrinth

Download both from their Modrinth pages, picking files that list your server's Minecraft version. Then put the two jars in your plugins folder and restart.

Run /plugins in game. WorldEdit and WorldGuard should both show in green. You need to be op, or have the WorldGuard and WorldEdit permissions in your permissions plugin, to use the commands below.

Select the area you want to protect#

Regions are created from a WorldEdit selection, so the first job is marking the corners.

1. Type //wand. You get a wooden axe.
2. Left-click a block at one corner of your spawn. That is position 1.
3. Right-click a block at the opposite corner. That is position 2.
4. Type //expand vert so the selection reaches from bedrock to the sky.
5. Type //size to check the dimensions look right.

Other ways to select#

• //pos1 and //pos2 set the corners where you are standing, which helps when you are flying.
• //hpos1 and //hpos2 set the corner on the block you are looking at, handy for big areas.
• //sel poly switches to a polygon selection. Left-click the first point, then every right-click adds another point. Use this for round or irregular spawns, since normal cuboid selections always line up with the world grid.

Create the spawn region#

With the selection made, define the region and give it a short, clear name:

/rg define spawn

A new region blocks building straight away for anyone who is not a member. You can check it with:

/rg info spawn
/rg list

If you got the shape wrong, make a new selection and run /rg redefine spawn. To delete it completely, use /rg remove spawn.

Set the flags that make a zone safe#

Building protection alone does not stop fights, creepers or fire. Flags do that. The syntax is /rg flag <region> <flag> <value>, and you can see every flag on a region with /rg flags spawn.

A safe spawn flag set#

/rg flag spawn pvp deny
/rg flag spawn mob-spawning deny
/rg flag spawn creeper-explosion deny
/rg flag spawn tnt deny
/rg flag spawn other-explosion deny
/rg flag spawn fire-spread deny
/rg flag spawn lava-fire deny
/rg flag spawn fall-damage deny

Pick extras depending on your server:

For example:

/rg flag spawn greeting You are now in the safe zone.
/rg flag spawn farewell You left the safe zone. PvP is on.

To remove a flag, run the same command without a value, such as /rg flag spawn item-drop.

Target a flag at certain players#

Add -g and a group to apply a flag only to some players. The groups are all, members, owners, nonmembers and nonowners. This keeps chests open to your staff but closed to visitors:

/rg flag spawn -g nonmembers chest-access deny

Let your builders keep working#

Once a region exists, only its members and owners can build in it. Add your build team so they can keep editing spawn:

/rg addmember spawn PlayerName
/rg addmember spawn g:builders
/rg addowner spawn YourName

The g: prefix adds a whole permission group (for example a LuckPerms group called builders) instead of one player. That way, promoting someone to builder gives them access without touching WorldGuard. Remove people with /rg removemember or /rg removeowner.

Layer regions with priorities and parents#

Most servers need more than one zone: a PvP pit inside spawn, a shop row, a parkour course. WorldGuard handles overlaps with priorities.

• Every region starts at priority 0.
• Where regions overlap, the highest priority region that has a flag set decides that flag.
• For building, only the highest priority regions count, so a player needs to be a member there.
• When regions of the same priority disagree on a state flag, deny wins over allow.

Add a PvP arena inside a safe spawn#

1. Select the arena with the wand and run //expand vert.
2. Define it: /rg define arena
3. Raise it above spawn: /rg setpriority arena 10
4. Turn fighting back on: /rg flag arena pvp allow
5. Add a warning: /rg flag arena greeting PvP is enabled here!

Because the arena has the higher priority and its own pvp flag, it overrides the spawn's pvp deny. Everything you did not set on the arena (explosions, fire) still comes from spawn wherever the two overlap.

Reuse settings with a parent region#

If you have several shop plots that should all behave like spawn, make spawn their parent:

/rg setparent shop1 spawn

The child picks up the parent's members, owners and any flags it does not set itself. Remove the link with /rg setparent shop1. Keep children at the same or a higher priority than the parent, otherwise the parent overrides them.

Let other zones control building#

Sometimes you want a region only for its flags, not for build protection, such as a "no mobs" zone over a player town that already has its own claims. Set /rg flag zonename passthrough allow and the region stops blocking building while its other flags keep working.

Protect the whole world with the global region#

Every world has a hidden region called __global__. It sits at the lowest priority and supplies default flags for everywhere else. By default it does not protect anything, so players can build in the wilderness.

For a server where players may only build inside regions they belong to (creative plot worlds, for example), set:

/rg flag __global__ passthrough deny

You can also set world-wide defaults, such as /rg flag __global__ pvp deny on a peaceful server, and then allow PvP only in arena regions.

Test and save your regions#

Staff accounts often have rights that hide mistakes, so test properly:

1. Log in with a normal player account that is not op and not a region member.
2. Try to break a block, light a fire, hit another player and open a chest in spawn.
3. Walk into the arena and confirm the greeting appears and PvP works.
4. Run /rg info spawn to confirm the flags, members and priority.
5. Run /rg save to force WorldGuard to write the regions to disk.

Region data lives inside the plugins/WorldGuard folder, so include that folder in your backups.