VProg

Vanilla Progression

Build a town. Upgrade your buildings. Unlock new gear.

Vanilla Progression adds a settlement-based progression system to Minecraft. Instead of progressing entirely through individual gear upgrades, you develop a town where buildings, resources, and infrastructure determine what you can craft and unlock.

Start with a small settlement, build your first farms and workshops, and work your way towards a fully developed town. Every building is constructed using vanilla blocks, and its level depends on the actual structure you build.

No new ores, no custom armour sets, and no XP grind. Just vanilla Minecraft with a reason to build something bigger.

Build your own town

Everything starts with a Settlement Core. Place it, give your settlement a name, and start building.

Each building has its own marker, which you place wherever you want the structure to be. From there, it's up to you to build it.

A Blacksmith needs the right equipment and materials. A Farm needs farmland, water, and the appropriate blocks. A Watchtower needs height. Higher tiers require more resources, more complex structures, and sometimes other buildings in your settlement.

There are no predefined building shapes or structures to copy. Build things your own way, and the mod will check whether they meet the requirements.

If something is missing, you'll see exactly what you need to add.

Progress through your settlement

Your buildings contribute to your settlement's overall level. As your town develops, new crafting recipes, equipment, and other features become available to its members.

There are 32 building types, each with 7 tiers, with dependencies between them. Some buildings require other structures to reach a certain level, so you'll need to develop different parts of your settlement rather than focusing on a single building.

A few examples:

• Farm – produce food and support your growing population.
• Blacksmith – unlock progressively better equipment and crafting options.
• Mine & Quarry – supply the materials needed for more advanced construction.
• University – improve your enchanting progression.
• Magic Academy – expand your enchanting options and access treasure enchantments.
• Watchtower & Walls – prepare your settlement for raids.
• Nether Gate & End Spire – progress towards the endgame.

The progression eventually reaches netherite, with no new material tiers or enchantment levels beyond vanilla Minecraft.

Multiplayer progression

Vanilla Progression is designed with cooperative multiplayer in mind.

Progress belongs to the settlement, not individual players. When someone upgrades a building or helps develop the town, everyone benefits from the unlocks.

The mod also includes a settlement membership system with Founder, Officer, and Member roles, as well as contribution tracking and summaries of changes made while you were away.

Playing solo? The multiplayer-specific systems stay out of your way.

More than just building

Developing a settlement also means keeping it running and protecting it.

Population & food

Your population and food supply depend on your settlement's development. As your town grows, you'll need to expand its infrastructure to support everyone. Food shortages slow your settlement down, but they won't undo your progress.

Raids

Raids send waves of enemies against your settlement. Their strength depends on factors such as your town's development and population. You'll receive a warning before a raid, and a boss bar helps you track the attack.

Build up your defences, prepare your resources, and make use of your settlement's infrastructure.

World difficulty

Mobs are tougher than in vanilla Minecraft, with additional difficulty in the Nether, the End, and around developed settlements. Enemy numbers also increase, making preparation and equipment progression more important.

Endgame progression

Continue developing your settlement through Nether and End milestones, explore sulfur caves, and unlock additional crafting recipes.

Advanced buildings can provide access to recipes for items such as ender pearls, gunpowder, and shulker shells, giving your settlement new ways to produce resources.

How buildings work

Every building is constructed from blocks already available in Minecraft.

Place a building marker, supply its required materials, and build around it. The marker checks the surrounding structure and determines its current tier.

Buildings don't need to follow a fixed blueprint. The scanner looks for the required blocks and conditions, allowing you to design your own layouts.

Higher tiers introduce more demanding requirements, including larger material costs and dependencies on other buildings.

Building markers also support hoppers and droppers, making automated material delivery useful for larger projects.

The important part: upgrading a building means actually building and supplying it, not clicking a button in a menu.

The progression menu

Press K to open the Vanilla Progression menu.

It includes nine tabs covering your settlement and its progression:

• Overview – your settlement's current status.
• Buildings – building requirements, current tiers, and missing materials.
• Progress – your next settlement level and its requirements.
• Tree – the complete progression tree, including building dependencies and unlocked items.
• Population – population, food supply, and related information.
• Raid – raid status and requirements.
• Threat – information about the threats facing your settlement.
• Trophies – raid rewards and collected trophies.
• Guide – an in-game manual generated from the datapack currently loaded by the server.

The progression tree includes item icons and a search function. Looking for the diamond pickaxe unlock? Search for it to find the building that grants it and the progression path required to reach it.

Nothing is lost when things go wrong

Vanilla Progression is designed so that your settlement's development is permanent.

• Your settlement's territory only expands.
• Failed raids can cost stored materials and require repairs, but they won't remove building tiers or territory.
• Food shortages slow your settlement down without reducing its level.
• Building requirements and crafting restrictions explain what you're missing.

You can lose resources, but you won't lose the progress you've already made.

For modpack creators and server owners

Vanilla Progression is highly configurable through datapacks.

Building requirements, material costs, settlement levels, mob difficulty, raids, defences, food systems, membership roles, and endgame recipes can all be customized using JSON files.

Datapack changes can be applied with /reload, without rebuilding the mod or restarting the server.

You can override individual files, allowing modpacks to adjust specific parts of the progression system while keeping the rest of the defaults.

The in-game guide is generated from the loaded datapack, so its information reflects your server's actual configuration.

Additional server options include:

• Disabling raids globally or for individual settlements.
• Disabling food-related progression pressure.
• Protecting building markers from interference by outsiders.

Marker protection does not prevent players from modifying ordinary blocks, so the mod can be used alongside other building and land-claim systems.

All gameplay decisions are handled server-side, with the client responsible for displaying the interface.

Balance and progression

Early building tiers are designed to be manageable without automation. Later tiers require significantly more materials, and automation becomes increasingly useful.

The larger material requirements are intentional. Building markers support hopper and dropper input, allowing you to automate the delivery of resources for large construction projects.

Higher tiers also require a greater variety of materials and building prerequisites, rather than simply asking for increasingly large amounts of the same blocks.

The progression follows vanilla Minecraft's material ladder, ending at netherite. Beyond that, advancement comes from developing additional buildings, unlocking new capabilities, and facing more difficult challenges.

Commands

Command	Description
/vprog found <name>	Found a settlement at the core you're standing near.
/vprog info	View your settlement's status.
/vprog building	Inspect the nearest building and its requirements.
/vprog tree	View the progression tree.
/vprog raid	Check raid status and requirements.
/vprog population	View population and food information.
/vprog members	View settlement members.
/vprog role	Manage or inspect member roles.
/vprog guide	Open the in-game guide.