Vault Hunters is unlike any other Minecraft modpack. Instead of open-world survival with tech progression, you're running procedurally generated vaults - dungeon instances that test your gear, skills, and decision-making. This unique design has specific hosting requirements.
What Makes Vault Hunters Different
In Vault Hunters, the overworld is your base. You gear up, craft vault crystals, and enter randomly generated vault dimensions. Each vault is a temporary dimension that exists only while you're inside. This means:
- Dimension creation is frequent - Every vault run creates a new dimension
- Storage overhead is temporary - Vault dimensions are deleted after completion
- CPU spikes happen during vault generation - The server builds an entire dungeon on the fly
- Memory usage is spikier than regular Minecraft - New dimensions load and unload constantly
RAM Requirements
| Players | Minimum | Recommended | Space-Node Plan | |---------|---------|-------------|-----------------| | 1-4 | 6GB | 8GB | MC Emerald (8GB, €10.99) | | 4-8 | 8GB | 10GB | MC Emerald (8GB) or MC Obsidian (16GB) | | 8-15 | 10GB | 14GB | MC Obsidian (16GB, €15.99) | | 15+ | 14GB | 16GB+ | MC Netherite (32GB, €27.99) |
The higher RAM recommendations compared to similar-sized modpacks account for the dimension creation/destruction overhead. When 4 players enter vaults simultaneously, the server temporarily needs extra memory for 4 additional dimensions.
Performance During Vault Runs
The biggest performance challenge is vault generation. When a player enters a vault, the server generates a full dungeon dimension - rooms, hallways, traps, loot, and mobs - in real time. On good hardware, this takes 2-5 seconds and causes a brief TPS dip.
On the Ryzen 9 7950X3D servers at Space-Node, vault generation typically takes 1-3 seconds with minimal TPS impact. The CPU's 3D V-Cache is particularly helpful here - the random memory access patterns during world generation benefit enormously from the extra cache.
If you're seeing vault generation take 10+ seconds or causing extended TPS drops, your CPU is the bottleneck. This is not fixable with more RAM or configuration changes - only faster single-thread CPU performance will help.
Configuration Guide
server.properties
view-distance=8
simulation-distance=6
max-players=15
Lower view distance helps because some vault rooms contain many entities and block entities (spawners, chests).
JVM Arguments
Use Aikar's flags with an emphasis on larger young generation:
-Xms10G -Xmx10G -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:G1NewSizePercent=40 -XX:G1MaxNewSizePercent=50
The larger young generation handles the burst allocations from vault dimension creation.
Multiplayer Party System
Vault Hunters supports party vault runs. When a party enters a vault together:
- All players share the dimension
- Difficulty scales with party size
- Loot is individual (no fighting over drops)
- The vault is harder but more rewarding
Server load scales linearly - a 4-player party vault isn't much heavier than 4 individual vaults.
Backup Strategy
For Vault Hunters specifically:
- Overworld backups: Critical. Contains all player bases, storage, and progression
- Vault dimensions: Don't bother backing up - they're temporary
- Player data: Back up
world/playerdata/- losing vault progress is devastating
Configure automatic backups every 2-4 hours focusing on the overworld. Space-Node plans include backup slots - use them.
Growing Your VH Community
Vault Hunters has a dedicated community:
- The official Discord helps with recruitment
- Post on r/VaultHunters
- Vault Hunters streamers on Twitch often direct viewers to community servers
- The modpack's competitive nature means players seek well-performing servers
A smooth-running Vault Hunters server with fast vault generation becomes its own advertisement. Players will tell their friends when they find a server where vaults load in under 3 seconds.
