WorldGuard, also built by EngineHub, protects specific areas of your world with defined regions and rule flags, spawn protection, PvP restrictions, build permissions, and dozens of other per-region rules, instead of relying purely on player trust or manual moderation.
WorldGuard requires WorldEdit
WorldGuard depends on WorldEdit for its region selection tools, install WorldEdit first, or WorldGuard will fail to load with a missing-dependency error.
Step 1: Install WorldEdit, then WorldGuard
Download both from EngineHub, Modrinth, or Hangar, drop both jars into plugins, and restart. Confirm WorldEdit loaded successfully first if WorldGuard reports a dependency error.
Step 2: Select an area with WorldEdit's wand
//wand
Left-click and right-click to set the two corners of the area you want to protect, exactly like a normal WorldEdit selection.
Step 3: Define the region
/region define <name>
This turns your current WorldEdit selection into a permanent WorldGuard region.
Step 4: Set flags on the region
/region flag <name> pvp deny
/region flag <name> build deny
Flags control specific behaviors within the region, PvP, building, mob spawning, item use, and many more, each set independently.
Step 5: Add trusted members
/region addmember <name> <player>
Members can build in a region that otherwise denies building to everyone else, useful for player-owned plots or shared build areas.
Combining it with permissions
Pair WorldGuard's region flags with LuckPerms for staff-only regions, granting worldguard.region.bypass.<region> to specific ranks lets moderators bypass a region's restrictions when needed.
Common first-setup issues
"WorldEdit not found" on startup: confirm WorldEdit's jar is actually in the plugins folder and loaded without its own errors first. Regions overlapping unexpectedly: WorldGuard has explicit priority and flag-inheritance rules for overlapping regions, worth reading EngineHub's documentation before building a complex region layout.
Getting it running quickly
Tick Hosting's panel installs both WorldEdit and WorldGuard together through its one-click plugin installer. Available on every plan, including the free tier, from Tick Hosting's plans page.