Vulcan Anti-Cheat: advanced protection for your Minecraft server

What is Vulcan Anti-Cheat

Vulcan Anti-Cheat is a paid plugin for Minecraft servers. It first appeared on SpigotMC and stood out right away for its approach to detection. Instead of checking player behavior on the world side (for example, whether a player moves too fast), it analyzes the raw network packets exchanged between the client and the server. That lets it catch cheats at a much earlier stage, before they can affect the game.

The plugin is aimed at PvP servers, survival servers with active players, and server networks where cheating is a real problem. Small servers with friends most likely do not need anything this elaborate: a free option like Grim will do. But if you run a server with hundreds of players a day and regular complaints about killaura or speed, Vulcan is worth its price.

Vulcan supports Minecraft versions from 1.7 to 1.21.x, which is rare among anti-cheats, since most focus only on newer versions. Support for 1.8 is especially important for PvP servers, because a good part of the PvP community still prefers 1.8 combat.

Detected cheats

Vulcan includes over 100 separate checks split into categories. The table below shows the most important ones:

The full list of checks is available in the Vulcan documentation. You can disable or configure each check separately, which is very useful when a specific check produces false alarms for honest players.

How packet detection works

Traditional anti-cheats check player behavior after the server has processed the movement, for example by comparing the player's position in the previous and current tick. That approach has a serious flaw: by the time the cheater is detected, they have already stolen resources, killed a few players or performed illegal actions.

Vulcan works differently. It registers as a network packet listener at the ProtocolLib protocol level and analyzes every packet before the server processes it. That lets it spot anomalies directly in the data the client sends:

• Position/Look packets: Vulcan checks whether position changes are physically possible given the player's speed, the nearby blocks and the player's status effects. A timer hack sends these packets at a rate other than 20 per second, which is instantly detectable.
• Attack packets (Use Entity): KillAura and Reach leave characteristic patterns: attacks from an angle no human could manage, head rotation inconsistent with the movement direction, and hits from beyond the allowed reach.
• Interaction packets: An AutoClicker generates a series of packets at regular intervals. Human clicking is always irregular, so Vulcan analyzes the variance of the time between clicks.
• Transaction confirmation packets: Minecraft's lag compensation systems use Transaction packets for synchronization. Some cheats manipulate these packets, and Vulcan detects that.

The system is built on violation levels: every suspicious behavior adds violation points. A punishment follows only once a configured threshold is crossed, which greatly reduces false alarms caused by a player's one-off lag spikes.

Configuration

After installation, Vulcan creates the plugins/Vulcan/ directory with several configuration files. The most important one is config.yml:

# General settings
prefix: "&c[Vulcan] &r"
debug: false
verbose: false

# Alert settings for players with the vulcan.alerts permission
alerts:
  enabled: true
  format: "&c{player} &7flagged for &c{check} &7({vl})"

# Integration with other plugins
hooks:
  geyser: true      # Detect Bedrock players (Geyser)
  viaversion: true  # Support for multiple client versions

Every check has its own configuration file or section in checks.yml. Here is an example configuration for KillAura:

KillAura:
  A:
    enabled: true
    max-violations: 5
    punishment: "ban {player} 7d KillAura"
  B:
    enabled: true
    max-violations: 10
    punishment: "kick {player} KillAura detected"

Each check can have several variants (A, B, C...): different detection algorithms for the same type of cheat. You can set different thresholds and punishments for each variant. For example, a variant with a low max-violations catches blatant cheats, while a variant with a high threshold catches subtler modifications.

Admin commands available after installation:

• /vulcan alerts: toggle alerts for yourself
• /vulcan kick <player>: manually kick a player
• /vulcan ban <player>: manually ban a player
• /vulcan logs <player>: a player's violation history
• /vulcan reload: reload the configuration without a restart
• /vulcan debug <player>: debug mode for a specific player

Punishments and alerts

Vulcan offers three levels of response to detected cheats, which you can configure freely:

Admin alerts

Players with the vulcan.alerts permission (usually moderators and admins) receive real-time chat messages. A message contains the player's name, the name of the cheat check and the current violation level (VL). That lets a moderator watch a suspect before the player is punished automatically.

Automatic punishments

Once the configured VL threshold is crossed, Vulcan runs the command defined in the configuration. You can set any command: kick, ban, mute, a Discord notification through DiscordSRV, or even a custom command from your ban plugin (LiteBans, AdvancedBan, BanManager):

punishment: "litebans ban {player} 30d #Automatic ban - {check} detected"

Punishment escalation

You can set up a multi-level punishment system: a kick at VL 5, a 24h tempban at VL 15, a permaban at VL 30. This works well because an honest player hit by random lag will collect maybe 1-2 VL and never reach a punishment threshold, while a cheater reaches the ban quickly.

Violation logs are stored in a database (SQLite by default, MySQL/MariaDB optionally). That allows retrospective analysis: you can check a player's history and decide whether a ban was justified.

Vulcan vs other anti-cheats

There are several popular anti-cheats on the market. Here is how Vulcan stacks up against them:

Vulcan vs Grim

Grim is a free, open-source anti-cheat whose detection technology is similar to Vulcan's: it is also based on packet analysis. Grim, however, has a slower release cycle and can be less stable on servers with many players. Vulcan is a more mature product with better support and more extensive configuration. If your budget is tight, Grim is a sensible alternative. If you can spend 20 EUR, Vulcan means fewer headaches.

Vulcan vs Spartan

Spartan is an older plugin with a long history. It has more reviews online and a large user base, but among Minecraft server admins Vulcan is generally considered more precise at detection and prone to fewer false positives. Spartan has a slightly easier configuration panel, which can be an argument for less experienced admins.

Vulcan vs Matrix

Matrix is especially popular with big networks. Vulcan and Matrix are comparable in price and quality, and the choice between them often comes down to the preferences and experience of the individual admin. It is worth testing both on a staging server before you decide.

Performance

Anti-cheats have a reputation as TPS (ticks per second) eaters, so performance is an important factor when choosing one. Vulcan is written to keep the performance overhead low:

• Asynchronous checks: Most checks run asynchronously and do not block the main server thread. The exception is checks that need access to the world (for example, inspecting the blocks around the player), which have to run synchronously.
• Lazy initialization: A player's check instances are initialized when that player connects, not at server startup.
• Configurable scope: You can disable cheats you do not want to detect (for example X-Ray, if you use a separate anti-xray plugin), which reduces the load.

On a server with 50 players, Vulcan's overhead is usually under 0.5 TPS. With 200+ players it is worth monitoring TPS and possibly turning off the most expensive checks. Use the command /vulcan timings in game to see which checks use the most time.

It requires ProtocolLib, which is a mandatory dependency. ProtocolLib itself is lightweight, but keep in mind that every additional plugin listening to packets (DiscordSRV, Citizens, other anti-cheats) adds to the overhead.

Price and license

Vulcan is a premium plugin, so it is not free. The current price is about 20 EUR as a one-time purchase on SpigotMC. After buying it:

• You get access to all future updates for the version you bought
• The license covers one server (or a network of servers under one brand)
• You can download the .jar file straight from SpigotMC after logging in to an account with an active license
• You get access to the support channel on the official Vulcan Discord

The license is tied to your SpigotMC account, not to a server. If you have several servers in the same network, one purchase should be enough, but check the ToS before deploying to more instances.

There is no free version or trial. Before you spend money, we recommend browsing the plugin's official forum on SpigotMC, where admins share their experiences, both positive ones and problems with false positives on specific versions.

If 20 EUR is too much, consider Grim Anti-Cheat as a free alternative, or configure the free NoCheatPlus carefully with some extra tuning. No free anti-cheat will match Vulcan's quality, but they will give you basic protection.

Tips for admins

• Do not auto-ban at a low VL: set the ban threshold high (for example 20-30 VL), and at a low VL (5-10) only kick with a warning. That way an honest player with a momentary lag spike does not get thrown off the server for good.
• Give moderators the vulcan.alerts permission: real-time alerts let moderators watch a suspect manually before an automatic punishment. The /vulcan alerts command toggles alerts on and off for a moderator.
• Integrate with your ban plugin: instead of using the built-in /ban command, integrate Vulcan with LiteBans or AdvancedBan. That way Vulcan's bans show up in a player's history alongside other sanctions.
• Test on staging before making changes: changes to VL thresholds can drastically affect false alarms. Always test on a test server with a few players before rolling out to production.
• Disable the X-Ray check if you have OreAnnouncer: if you use a dedicated plugin for detecting X-Ray (for example OreAnnouncer), disable that check in Vulcan to avoid double alerts and wasted resources.
• Update ProtocolLib together with Vulcan: an outdated ProtocolLib is a common cause of bugs and crashes. Always update both plugins together, especially when moving to a new Minecraft version.
• Turn on MySQL logging on big servers: the default SQLite can become a bottleneck with many players. On servers with more than 100 players a day, set up a MySQL connection in config.yml.
• Tell players how to appeal: even the best anti-cheat sometimes wrongly bans honest people. Have a clear unban request procedure (Discord, forum, form) and mention it in the ban message.

Compatibility

Vulcan runs on the following server platforms:

• Paper 1.8 - 1.21.x: the main and best-supported platform
• Spigot 1.8 - 1.21.x: full compatibility
• Purpur: works, it is a Paper fork
• Folia: experimental support (check the changelog before deploying)
• BungeeCord / Velocity: Vulcan installs on each backend server separately, not as a proxy plugin

Required dependencies:

• ProtocolLib: mandatory, must match the server's Minecraft version

Known conflicts and notes:

• Another anti-cheat at the same time: running two anti-cheats (for example Vulcan + NoCheatPlus) causes conflicts in packet handling and double false positives. Use just one.
• Geyser (Bedrock players): Vulcan has built-in Geyser support. Enable the hooks.geyser: true option in config.yml to apply separate thresholds for Bedrock players.
• ViaVersion: if your server supports clients of different versions, enable hooks.viaversion: true. ViaVersion changes the structure of some packets, and without this option false alarms are possible for players on older clients.
• CitizensAPI / NPC: make sure Citizens NPCs are excluded from the checks, because their movement can trigger speed/fly alerts.

More about managing plugins on your server: EssentialsX, LuckPerms. Full plugin overview: Plugin catalog.