Welcome to Ancients
Ancients is a Minecraft prison server set in the Greek underworld. You start as a prisoner of Tartarus with nothing but a wooden pickaxe — mine, enchant, prestige, and fight your way up from there.
How to join
- Open Minecraft Java Edition (the server currently runs version 1.21.11).
- Add a new server with the address
play.ancients.gg. - Join! You'll arrive in the hub — right-click the compass in your hotbar to open the server selector and step into Tartarus Prisons. You can return to the hub at any time with
/hub.
Your first few minutes
New players begin on a small tutorial island. You're handed a wooden pickaxe and some food — mine the coal ore around you to earn levels and Ancient Energy, the server's main mining currency. Once you reach level 10, you're free to leave: use /spawn or /warp to head into the prison proper. (Up to level 10 you can return with /tutorial; past that, the tutorial is closed to you.)
The mines
The heart of the prison is its mines. Open the warp menu with /warp to see them all — from the Coal mine up through Iron, Lapis, Redstone, Gold, Diamond, Emerald, and finally Netherite. Deeper mines unlock as your level grows. The same menu also lists special destinations like the Calcite Caverns, the Pit of Erebus, KOTH, and the AFK area, some of which unlock later in your progression.
Three connected areas
Ancients isn't just one prison. The live map has three connected areas, all reachable from the /warp menu:
| Area | What it is |
|---|---|
| Tartarus (the prison) | The core experience — mines, spawn, shops, and your day-to-day grind. |
| Forgotten Polis | An open overworld zone. Hunt shades to earn Hunter Points and climb the Hunter ranks. |
| Ancient Roads | A more dangerous overworld zone with caravans to raid. Requires Hunter Rank III, earned in the Forgotten Polis. |
When you enter the Forgotten Polis or the Ancient Roads, you'll be asked to choose a path for that visit:
- Pilgrim — sworn to peace. PvP is off entirely (you can't hit or be hit), but you deal less damage to monsters and earn no bonus drops.
- Wanderer — walks the in-between. PvP is on, with a chance at bonus loot rolls; if another player kills you, you only drop what you farmed during the trip.
- Defiler — all risk, all reward. PvP is on with guaranteed bonus loot rolls, but death is far more costly.
Handy commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/warp |
Open the warp menu (mines, events, and the overworld zones) |
/spawn |
Return to the prison spawn |
/rules |
View the server rules |
/discord |
Get the link to the official Discord |
/link |
Link your Discord account for perks |
/vote |
Vote for the server and spend vote credits |
/bugreport <what happened> |
Report a bug to the team |
/hub |
Return to the network hub |
Welcome to the underworld. Good luck down there.