How to Play Skywars in Minecraft

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: November 8, 2021 References

Skywars is a popular Minecraft minigame with a simple premise: fight until one player (or team) is left alive. The catch is that you begin on a small island. It's up to you to build bridges to attack other players, or walls to defend yourself. Each server with Skywars has its own maps and variations, but learning the basic strategy — plus a few advanced tricks — will help you on all of them.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Getting Started

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Join a server with the Skywars minigame. Many Minecraft servers host Skywars games, including some of the big ones like Hypixel, Mineplex, or Arkham Network.^{[1]
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Research source} Go online and join your favorite. If you heard about Skywars from a friend or a YouTuber, ask them which server they play on.
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Select a Skywars game. Most servers will put you in a lobby where you can select games by interacting with signs, or by using items in your hotbar to navigate a menu. Some servers have more than one type of Skywars games available. Here are a few examples:^{[2]
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- Solo Mode: a free-for-all (FFA) where only one player can win.
- Team Mode: players are divided into teams. You might be able to select your team in advance using menu options or special server commands (such as /p on Hypixel).^{[3]
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- Some servers let players vote on special modes, which might add more powerful gear to the map, double your health, or add crazy special events.
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Understand the game. In Skywars, each player starts on a separate island, with chests of randomized loot. There is no respawning (when you're dead, you're out), and the last person left alive wins. On the most common type of map, the player islands are arranged in a big circle. The islands in the center start out uninhabited, and usually have chests with more powerful loot.
- In Team Mode, your teammates start on the same island.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Learning Basic Tactics

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Watch your surroundings at all times. Skywars is a fast-paced game, so stay alert as soon as you drop down onto your island. Your neighbors could throw snowballs at you within seconds. Stay near the middle of your island or stand in holes to avoid getting knocked off the edge.^{[4]
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Research source} And if you have projectiles of your own, keep your eyes peeled for targets building bridges or standing in front of an edge.
- If you keep getting hit by projectiles, build a wall at the edge of your island. A wall two blocks high in front of you will block arrows. A wall one block high behind you will stop you from falling if something knocks you back.
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Loot your chests. Your island should have at least one chest, and might have more down on the lower level. Armor, weapons, and food are obviously valuable, but many items are more useful than they look:
- Pick up every building block you see. You often need to build many bridges and towers to win the game.
- Fishing poles let you snag other players and pull them off bridges.
- Any tool with Knockback is worth keeping, along with your highest attack weapon, since tools with Knockback can strike enemies off the islands.
- Buckets of water or lava come in handy.
- Stash sticks, metal ingots, and diamonds if you can to craft them into better weapons.
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Adapt your strategy to your situation. You're not going to do well in Skywars if you try the same thing every game. You'll get better at planning a strategy with practice, but for now follow these basic rules:
- If you got good armor and weapons, make a surprise attack on your neighbors.^{[5]
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- If you did not get good items, lay low and defend until you see a chance to build to the center or sneak attack a neighbor.
- If you have an average mix, decide based on the map. Maps with islands clustered together favor quick attacks, while large, spread out maps make defensive strategies better.
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Practice rushing your neighbor. If your neighbor's not paying attention, hold down the sneak button, build a short platform out from your island, and jump over to land on theirs.^{[6]
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Research source} Once you're on the island, it's all up to your PvP skills. Be careful — if you take too long to build or to get to the center of the enemy island, anyone nearby could knock you into the void.
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Learn the safer way to build. Never rush onto an unprotected bridge if anyone nearby is watching you. Instead, make sure you have plenty of blocks (breaking trees and dirt if you need to), then build across safely instead:
- On the edge of your island, place one block underneath you, and one block to your left or right, toward the edge of the map.
- Stand on the lower block and slowly build outward toward the other island. Alternate placing blocks on the walkway and the wall to the side. The wall will stop you getting knocked into the void.^{[7]
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- If your neighbor stands at the edge waiting for you, approach until you're just out of reach, then quickly build a tower upward. If projectiles are an issue, build your tower with walls on two sides.
- As soon as you're above your neighbor, jump over them onto the island.
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Get to the center. Most maps have at least one central island. The chests on this island usually have valuable powerful loot, so the first player to reach them has a big advantage. Build over there as soon as your neighbors have died or moved away — but be ready to run if you don't have good armor.
- If the starting islands aren't too close together, you might be able to rush to the center as soon as the game starts without getting knocked off. Practice building a staircase pattern as fast as you can, which is slightly faster than a flat bridge.^{[8]
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- On many servers, chests refill after a certain amount of time. Look for a timer on the sidebar and try to be the first to return to the center chests when it reaches zero.
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Seize opportunities. It's possible to win Skywars by hiding until there's only one enemy left, or by defeating everyone in a fair fight. Your odds are much better, though, if you can get a few "free kills" along the way:
- As soon as you get a projectile weapon, start checking nearby bridges frequently. Knocking players off bridges as they cross is one of the easiest ways to kill them.
- If you see two players fighting, wait a short distance away. Once one of them dies, charge the survivor while they still have low health. If you want credit for both kills, attack early, when both enemies are alive but severely injured.^{[9]
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Practice fighting on bridges. If you're forced to approach an enemy on a narrow bridge, build in a diagonal zig-zag toward them whenever possible. It is much harder for someone to knock you off a diagonal bridge than a straight line. If your enemy is guarding the edge of an island, try running through them as you attack, jumping directly onto the island before they have a chance to maneuver around you.^{[10]
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- If your enemy has better armor or weapons than you do, don't try to fight at close range. Build a tower high above them instead, then build a bridge from there until you are close enough to drop lava, TNT, or other special items and projectiles.
- If you're forced into a fair fight on a bridge, knocking the enemy off is often the easiest way to win. If you don't have an item that causes extra knockback, sprint at your enemy while attacking with a melee weapon.^{[11]
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Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Improving at Skywars

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Use your water bucket effectively. A water bucket seems useless at first glance, but it can save your life:^{[12]
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- When making a risky crossing, empty a water bucket on the bridge. If you get knocked off, try to land in the waterfall and swim back up to the top.
- When jumping or falling from a great height, empty your water bucket beneath you just before you hit the ground to avoid taking damage.
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Learn to use advanced items. Some maps have high powered items available, especially on the central islands or if players voted for a special overpowered mode. If you get enchanted gear or golden apples, you can go on the offensive and charge players with weaker equipment. If you get ender pearls, keep these on your hotbar to teleport to safety if you fall. Ender pearls are also very useful for attacking well-defended islands without the risk of crossing a bridge.^{[13]
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Sneak attack from below. One way to get past someone's defenses is to creep down to the bottom of your island while the other player isn't looking. Build a bridge from here to the bottom of the other island, while the defender is still looking up at surface level. Just keep an eye out above you and be ready to run back.
- Remember to hold down the sneak button so your name tag isn't visible.
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Lure people into fire. One of the best ways to gain an advantage in a close range fight is to trick the other player so they run into your trap. If you find a bucket of lava or a flint and steel, keep it in your hotbar but don't equip it. Try to get another player to chase you while you run backward, then select the item and drop lava or fire behind you. This usually damages the other player enough for you to win the fight, even if they have better equipment.
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Become familiar with the maps on your server. Each server has its own set of Skywars maps. Each map favors different strategies, and might have special resources like hidden chests or lava. Experiment with different tactics, and spectate matches after you die to see what works for the winning players.
- If you're having trouble winning on certain maps, search the server's forums for advice.
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Earn server perks. Most big servers have their own unique additions to Skywars. You might be able to earn special currency that you can use to buy items during the game, or to buy kits that grant bonus equipment or special abilities. For the best results, choose bonuses that match the strategies you like to use. For example, if you prefer a "camping" strategy (defending your island until most players are dead), choose kits that give you friendly defensive mobs, knockback items, or the ability to enchant your equipment so you aren't reliant on the center chests.^{[14]
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Community Q&A

Question

How do I decide which is better, an axe or a sword?

Nerdzap

Community Answer

You can hover over them in your inventory to find out their attack power. The higher, the better. Swords attack faster than axes, but some servers have special PvP rules that change this.
Question

Can I play "Skywars" on Wii?

Community Answer

No.
Question

Are there any hackers in Skywars?

Vortrexion

Top Answerer

It is possible. Some servers have low security systems that allows hackers to fly, unlimited health, or no knockback. Just make sure they aren't glitches if you want to report them.