Set up LootChest on your Minecraft server

LootChest turns any chest into a loot chest that refills on a timer. You choose the items, how often it respawns and how it looks when it does, with particles, a hologram and an optional falling-chest effect. It suits PvE servers, adventure maps and events. This guide installs it from its GitHub release and builds a first chest.

Checked against LootChest 2.5.9, whose release note mentions Minecraft 26.1 support, October 2026. The plugin's page lists Minecraft 1.7 to 1.21.X.

What you need

• A Paper or Purpur server. LootChest is a Spigot-family plugin, so a Fabric or Forge server can't run it.
• Permission to use the File Manager on the server. The panel shows the GitHub button only to people with that access.
• A backup from the Backups tab.

Don't search the store for LootChest. Modrinth lists a different plugin with the same name, which gives each player their own copy of a chest's loot. The author of this one publishes the jar on SpigotMC and in the Guarmanda/LootChest releases on GitHub. The panel can install straight from GitHub.

Install from GitHub

1. Open your server and select Plugins.
2. Press the GitHub button, which sits beside the Modrinth, CurseForge and Hangar buttons. A window titled Add a plugin from GitHub opens.
3. Type Guarmanda/LootChest into the repository box and press Look up.
4. Continue through the Release and Review steps. The panel picks a release and its jar for you, which at the time of writing is Lootchest-2.5.9.jar. The File step is skipped when a release has a single jar, as this one does.
5. Press Install.
6. Open the Console tab and press Restart (or Start if the server is off).

The Review step tells you whether the file matches the checksum GitHub lists for it. GitHub doesn't screen uploads, so only install from a repository you trust. This one is linked as the source code on the plugin's SpigotMC page.

If you prefer, download Lootchest-2.5.9.jar from the GitHub release and upload it to plugins with the File Manager (Install Minecraft plugins on Paper or Purpur). The SpigotMC page may carry an older file than the GitHub release, so check the version number before you rely on it.

Make your first loot chest

You need the LootChest permissions listed below. The plugin's plugin.yml declares none of them, so Bukkit gives them to operators only. For anyone else, give lootchest.admin in a permissions plugin (Set up LuckPerms on your Minecraft server). In game:

1. Place a chest where you want the loot to appear and put the items in it. Look at it from no more than 10 blocks away and run /lc create dungeon1. Change dungeon1 to any name you like. The command refuses a chest with nothing in it.
2. A menu opens. Use it to change the items, set each item's chance and set the respawn time.
3. Run /lc list to confirm it exists, and /lc respawn dungeon1 to test the refill.

The command is /lootchest, and /lc is its alias. These cover day-to-day use:

Each command's permission is lootchest.<command>. Admins can use lootchest.admin or lootchest.*.

Settings to know

Stop the server, then open plugins/LootChest/config.yml in the File Manager. The defaults include:

• default_reset_time: 10, the respawn time in minutes for new chests.
• default_item_chance: 100, the percentage chance for each item.
• UseHologram: true and RemoveEmptyChests: true.
• Fall_Effect with Enabled: true and Height: 50.
• Protect_From_Explosions: false. Set it to true if TNT and creepers shouldn't destroy chests.

Chest data is stored in data.yml and messages in lang.yml, in the same folder. After editing, run /lc reload.

Common problems

• The hologram floats too high. Set Hologram_distance_to_chest to a lower number. The config says a negative number is allowed.
• Chests in a world are missing after a restart. The config notes that a world can load after the plugin. Raise Cooldown_Before_Plugin_Start, which is in seconds.
• Chests spawn inside protected land. Set Prevent_Chest_Spawn_In_Protected_Places to true. The config says it detects Factions, Residence and WorldGuard regions (Set up WorldGuard on your Minecraft server).