How It Works
This page explains the mechanics: how chunks lock, how players unlock them, and how the two boundary layers behave.
Starting Out
When an island is created, only a small area around the center chunk is open.
The start.radius-chunks option decides how much:
radius-chunks | Open area at the start |
|---|---|
0 | Just the center chunk (all 4 sides locked) |
1 | A 3×3 block of chunks |
Everything beyond that is locked.
Rings
A chunk's distance from the island center is its ring (Chebyshev distance):
2 2 2 2 2
2 1 1 1 2
2 1 0 1 2 0 = center
2 1 1 1 2
2 2 2 2 2
The cost to unlock a chunk depends on its ring — farther rings cost rarer items.
Unlocking a Chunk
To open a locked chunk:
- Look at the locked chunk (you'll see a hologram telling you what it costs).
- Drop (Q) the required item while looking at it.
- Dropped items accumulate until the cost is satisfied.
- When the cost is met, the chunk unlocks — the barrier wall comes down and a sound plays.
The cost is read from the first band in unlock.items whose max-ring is at
least the chunk's ring:
unlock:
items:
- max-ring: 2
require: [ DIRT:5 ]
- max-ring: 4
require: [ COBBLESTONE:16, OAK_LOG:8 ]
- max-ring: 8
require: [ IRON_INGOT:8, COAL:16 ]
- max-ring: 16
require: [ DIAMOND:4, GOLD_INGOT:8 ]
- max-ring: 999999
require: [ NETHERITE_INGOT:1, DIAMOND_BLOCK:2 ]
So chunks near the center cost dirt; the outer frontier costs netherite.
The Two Boundary Layers
Chunklock deliberately splits confinement and the upgrade border into separate systems.
1. Chunk Lock (always on)
Entering a locked chunk is stopped by movement blocking:
- Works at every height — you can't jump over it from Y 200 like a barrier.
- Follows the exact shape of your open area, so opening one direction never opens the opposite side by accident.
- Bypass with the
chunklock.bypasspermission (for staff).
A barrier wall is built on the edge of a locked chunk as the visible marker — but the real stop is the movement blocking, not the barrier.
Only passable blocks (air, grass, etc.) on the frontier become barrier, so natural terrain isn't destroyed. When a chunk unlocks, those barriers turn back to air (self-healing).
2. Island-Upgrade Border (optional)
A square WorldBorder showing the island's protection size, which grows with the
uxmSkyblock size upgrade. Purely informative — toggle it with
island-border.enabled.
Holograms
Each locked frontier chunk shows a floating marker telling the player what to drop.
It's configurable (title, requirement line, footer) under hologram: in the config.
What Comes From the Core
Membership, roles, bans, warps, visiting, the bank, and upgrades are all uxmSkyblock features — Chunklock doesn't reimplement them. A Chunklock island is a normal core island with a lock layer on top, so everything in the uxmSkyblock wiki applies.
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