Setting Up Advanced Crates: From First Crate to Reward Rerolls

Before you start: what the plugin needs

Advanced Crates runs standalone: no PlaceholderAPI, no ProtocolLib, nothing required. It supports Spigot and Paper 1.8 through 26.2, every subversion in between, and costs €19.99 (price at time of writing) as a one-time purchase with free lifetime updates. Optional integrations are picked up when present: ItemsAdder, Oraxen, Nexo and MMOItems items work as rewards, HeadDatabase heads and Citizens NPCs are supported, and PlaceholderAPI is hooked.

The documentation covers every option; this guide is the order to make the decisions in. One disclosure: Advanced Crates is one of three crate plugins we sell, and the crates comparison is where we argue which one fits which server. Here we assume you have chosen this one.

Your first crate in the in-game editor

Nothing in the first crate requires a YAML file. Crates and rewards are created from scratch in-game, rewards are added by dropping items into the editor GUI, and every configuration file can be customised from inside the game. Rewards dropped into the editor are saved to the files instantly, so there is no reload step between editing and testing.

• Create the crate — Build a new crate entirely in-game and give it a name players will see on the hologram.
• Drop rewards in — Drop any item into the editor GUI; it is saved to the files instantly, custom model data included.
• Lay out the preview — The reward preview menus are customised in the same editor, so players can left-click a crate to see what is inside.
• Place it — A stationary crate is a block crate opened by right-clicking with a key; left-click shows the rewards.
• Hand out keys — Keys exist as inventory items or as a per-player virtual balance; virtual keys survive death and full inventories.

Stationary crate or lootbox

Two crate types cover the classic block crate and the placeable lootbox, and both can be modelled as players, skins, mobs or blocks. Choose per crate, not per server: a spawn hub usually wants stationary crates in a fixed place, while a lootbox suits vote rewards and event drops that players open wherever they are.

Picking an animation and who sees it

All 17 animations are calculated on a different processor core from the one running your server and sent to players as packets, so the server itself never processes the animation data; the plugin is designed for large playerbases for that reason. That frees you to pick animations for how they look rather than for what they cost.

Visibility is the setting most servers forget. Three configurable modes decide whether an animation is a spectacle or a private moment: visible to everyone, opener only, or proximity-based with a radius you configure, where animations become visible as players approach. On a busy spawn, proximity-based keeps the area readable while still letting nearby players watch; on a small survival server, visible to everyone is part of the fun.

Alongside the crate animations, reward rolling shows each reward item one by one above the crate, four further particle animations accept any particle type, and you can customise how many rewards appear in the animation.

Reward rules worth setting on day one

A crate is only as good as its reward configuration, and these options are the ones that stop a crate from feeling either stingy or broken. Each is a per-reward or per-crate setting in the editor.

• Random number generator — Reward values can be random numbers, so a money reward pays a range instead of a fixed amount.
• One-time-only rewards — A specific reward can be won only once; use it for a rank or a unique item.
• Unique rewards — Rewards never repeat within the same opening, which matters once a crate pays several at once.
• Special rewards — A separate pool of rewards a player can win, kept apart from the everyday pool.
• Linked rewards — Landing on a specific reward pays out several rewards at once, for kits and bundles.
• Reward actions and the final message — Run commands or send messages on specific rewards, then list everything received, broadcast globally or shown to the player only.

Rerolls, holograms and custom items

The reroll system lets a player reroll a crate when they do not like the reward. Rerolls are permission-gated, and each permission grants its own number of rerolls, so a ladder of permissions gives donor ranks more rerolls than others; players without the next tier see a configurable lore line explaining how to unlock it. Set the ladder up with your rank plugin before you advertise it, because the lore is what sells the next rank.

Holograms are built in for both the crate and the rewards themselves, so there is no hologram plugin to install. Text accepts HEX colours and gradients, items accept custom model data, and custom items from ItemsAdder, Oraxen, Nexo and MMOItems work as rewards, which is how a crate on a textured server hands out the items your other plugins define.

Skipping the tier design: the Crates & Keys Pack

Setting up crate tiers from scratch is tedious: naming them, pricing them, colouring them, balancing the reward pools. The Crates & Keys Pack is an add-on for Advanced Crates only, with 50+ pre-configured keys and reward packs in a six-tier rarity structure that maps to common server progression: first login to Common, voting to Uncommon, playtime rewards to Rare, store purchases to Epic and above. Drop the pack folder into your Advanced Crates configs directory, reload, and the tiers exist.

Every key in the pack is a normal Advanced Crates config file, so edit freely; the pack is a starting point, not a lock-in. Pack updates ship as config files you copy in yourself, so back up any keys you have customised before copying a new version over them. If you are still choosing between the three crate plugins, the crates hub compares them at a glance.