Set up Rankup on your Minecraft server

Rankup lets players move up a ladder of permission groups by meeting requirements, such as paying money, reaching an experience level or playing for a set time. A player types /rankup, the plugin checks the requirements, and it moves them to the next group. You define the ladder in one file.

Checked against Rankup 3.15.3, which the SpigotMC page lists as tested up to Minecraft 26.1, October 2026.

What it needs

• A server that loads plugins. You need a Plugins tab, so Paper or Purpur.
• Java 21 or newer. Rankup 3.15.3 raised its minimum to Java 21. The panel picks Java from your Minecraft version: versions before 1.20.5 get Java 17 or older, which is too old. Choose 1.21 or newer in JAR Manager (Change Minecraft server version or loader).
• Vault and a permissions plugin. Rankup depends on Vault to change groups. The author recommends LuckPerms. See Set up Vault and Set up LuckPerms.
• An economy plugin, only for money requirements. Without one you cannot use the money requirement. Set up EssentialsX includes one.
• A purchased jar. The current Rankup is a paid resource on SpigotMC, so it will not appear in the store. Searching the store for Rankup finds other plugins with similar names, which are not this one. The older free release, 3.6.1, is no longer updated and was only tested up to 1.15.

Install it

1. Buy and download the jar from spigotmc.org/resources/rankup.76964. See the page for the current price.
2. Install Vault and your permissions plugin first. The SpigotMC page says Rankup depends on Vault.
3. Open the Backups tab and click Create backup.
4. Open File Manager, open the plugins folder and click Upload files. Choose the Rankup jar.
5. Open the Console tab and click Restart.

On first start Rankup writes rankups.yml, config.yml and a language file in its folder under plugins. The author's tutorial says to stop the server once the plugins have loaded, then edit rankups.yml.

Set up your first ladder

Rankup links to groups by name. Create the groups in your permissions plugin first, for example member, regular and veteran. Then open rankups.yml in File Manager and replace the example ranks. Each step needs a heading, a rank, a next and its requirements:

member_to_regular:
  rank: 'member'
  next: 'regular'
  requirements:
    - 'money 1000'
regular_to_veteran:
  rank: 'regular'
  next: 'veteran'
  requirements:
    - 'money 2500'
    - 'xp-level 5'

The last step should name the final rank in next, and that rank should not appear as the rank of any other step. Add a commands list to a step to run console commands when someone ranks up.

Check config.yml too. The tutorial says to confirm permission-rankup: false, which is the default and lets Rankup change groups through Vault itself.

Commands

• /rankup ranks you up to the next step.
• /ranks lists the ladder, and /prestiges lists prestiges when they are enabled.
• /rankup3 reload reloads rankups.yml, prestiges.yml and the language file without a restart. Restart the server after changing config.yml. The alias is /pru.
• /rankup3 forcerankup <player> ranks someone up and skips the requirements.

Players have /rankup and /ranks by default. The reload and force commands are for operators.

Common problems

• The rank does not change after /rankup. The group in next must exist in your permissions plugin and match the name in rankups.yml exactly. GroupManager does not work with Vault correctly, per the author.
• The money requirement does not work. The Rankup page says the money requirement cannot be used without an economy plugin, so install one that Vault can use.
• The plugin does not load. Rankup needs Vault to start, and Java 21 or newer. Open Download Log in the Console tab and look for the Rankup lines.
• Prestige commands do nothing. prestige is off in config.yml by default.