Set up DragonSlayer on your Minecraft server

DragonSlayer adds a title and rewards to the Ender Dragon fight. When a dragon dies, the player who beat it becomes the Dragon Slayer, gets a prefix in chat and the tab list, and can have a statue built in their honour. The dragon can respawn on a timer, and you can run several dragons in one End world.

Checked against DragonSlayer 0.15.6, which the author lists as tested up to 26.1.1. It also loaded on Paper 26.3 in a test, October 2026.

What it needs

• A server that loads plugins. You need a Plugins tab, which means Paper or Purpur (Change Minecraft server version or loader). DragonSlayer is a Spigot plugin, and Paper runs Spigot plugins.
• A tested Minecraft version. The author lists 1.8 to 1.21.11 and 26.1.1 as tested. Version 0.15.6 fixed a start-up problem on the newest Paper builds at 26.1.
• A manual install. DragonSlayer is published on SpigotMC, and the store in the Plugins tab searches Modrinth, CurseForge and Hangar only. You download the jar yourself and upload it. A CurseForge search for DragonSlayer finds a different plugin from 2012 with a single /dragon command, so do not install that one.
• Vault, only for money rewards. The reward option needs Vault. See Set up Vault on your Minecraft server.

Install it

1. Download the current jar from the plugin's page, spigotmc.org/resources/dragonslayer.36250.
2. Open the Backups tab and click Create backup.
3. Open File Manager, open the plugins folder and click Upload files. Choose the jar.
4. Open the Console tab and click Restart.
5. When the server is back, run dragonslayer showtimer in the console to check the plugin answers. From the console the command needs a world name, and without one the plugin prints its list of commands, such as showtimer [world].

Tell it about your End world

The author says the plugin only works in worlds it knows about, and that you add a world with its setspawn command. In the Console tab the plugin's list of commands shows its form as dragonslayer setspawn {x y z} {worldname}: coordinates first, then the name of the world. Tab completion lists the plugin's subcommands as you type.

World names in the config must be lowercase. If you edit the config by hand, keep that in mind.

What you can change

The settings live in the plugin's config.yml inside its folder under plugins. Open it in File Manager, edit and save. The author's configuration reference lists these among the defaults:

• prefix has enabled, assuffix and tablist switches for the Dragon Slayer tag.
• Under dragon, the _default block holds the values copied to each world you add: name, health (1 to 2048, default 200), respawndelay (minutes, default 360, -1 to turn respawns off) and maxdragons (default 1).
• reward is the money paid to the killer and needs Vault. exp sets the experience. eggchance is the chance of a dragon egg, from 0 to 1.
• alternativereward splits the experience and money between players by the damage each one did.

Apply changes with the plugin's reload command, /dsl reload, or restart from the Console tab.

Commands worth knowing

• /dragonslayer showtimer shows the time until the next respawn.
• /dsl force respawns any missing dragons and ignores running timers.
• /dsl forceall starts a respawn in every world the plugin manages.
• /dsl remd removes dragons the plugin made. Add force to remove every dragon in that world.

The permission dragonslayer.admin was added for the commands that change settings. With PlaceholderAPI installed, %dragonslayer_prefix%, %dragonslayer_timer% and %dragonslayer_mykills% work in chat, scoreboards and holograms (Set up PlaceholderAPI).

Common problems

• Nothing happens when the dragon dies. The plugin only works in worlds it knows about, which you add with the setspawn command, and all world names in its config must be lowercase.
• Minecraft's own dragon handling still runs at a restart. The nomcdragonrespawn setting, when true, disables the server's internal dragon respawn and removal at restart, and the original portal with it. The author's sample config shows it as true, so check yours in config.yml.
• No money for the killer. The reward option needs Vault, so check that Vault is installed.
• Odd behaviour after an update. The plugin updates your existing config. If something still looks wrong, the author suggests deleting the config and letting the plugin write a new one.