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.bypass permission (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.

Terrain is preserved

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 SkyblockCore 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 SkyblockCore features — Chunklock doesn't reimplement them. A Chunklock island is a normal core island with a lock layer on top, so everything in the SkyblockCore wiki applies.