Minecraft Basic Troubleshooting Steps for [Nether Piglin Farm]

Introduction / Background 🔗

Last updated: June 4th, 2026 for Paper Version 26.1.2.

Introduction
Prerequisites
Closing Notes

Prerequisites 🔗

In order to properly troubleshoot your farm, please make sure you meet all the requirements listed below.**

You have OP permission or backend console access.

Step 0. Ensure your Paper is up to date. 🔗

Why does this matter?

Paper fixes bugs relatively quickly, using the latest release will ensure no potential already fixed bugs exist in your server.

Follow PaperMC’s Upgrade Guide to update your Paper server.

Step 1. Check Biome 🔗

For a Zombified Piglin farm, ensure the entity of the farm is built within the Nether Wastes biome for maximum efficiency.

(The farm will work somewhat in other biomes aside from Warped Forest in which no hostile mob will spawn.) For a Wither Skeleton Farm, ensure the farm is built inside a Nether Fortress.

Step 2. Check World Difficulty. 🔗

`Difficulty` is `per world` on Paper so please double check the difficulty in the Nether.**

While inside the Nether, type /difficulty hard.
To run this command while in another world, type /execute in nether run difficulty hard.
If you have the Essentials plugin installed, type /execute in minecraft:the_nether run difficulty hard instead.
If you are on the console, type the above commands but without the /.

When successfully run, you will either get the following prompt or successfully set the difficulty to hard.

Step 3. Ensure Your Farm Isn’t Outdated. 🔗

Slight changes to farm designs happens on each Minecraft version, please make sure you are using the most efficient one for your server’s native version.

At the time of this writing, on 1.17.1, the most efficient farm is the donut with manual aggro trigger.

However, if you are using a slower design where a turtle egg is used as lure, ensure that there are a minimum of two full block height on top of the turtle egg, and a clear line of sight for Piglin to see the turtle eggs.

Step 4. Ensure per-player-mob-spawn is Set to true 🔗

Unless manually changed, the `default` should already be `true`. Double check anyway! The config option is located in `config/paper-world-defaults.yml`.

Step 5. Check Your Mobcaps 🔗

Utilize `/paper mobcaps` and `/paper playermobcaps` for additional details on mob spawning around a player. It is especially useful for finding errors in the spawn-proofing.

If your mobcap is already full while no mobs are spawning in your farm, it means that the spawn-proofing around the farm is not complete. Fix it!

Not all servers are running Vanilla default.

In fact, most big servers have altered their configs for lag reduction one way or another. Please double check every single config mentioned in the link below and make any necessary adjustments if needed.

Check out the Minecraft Server Optimization Guide to review your configs.

Step 7. Test Without Plugins 🔗

Sometimes plugins may introduce unwanted behaviors and if all the above steps have been properly followed, this is the next step to troubleshoot. Firstly, shut down the server and simply rename your plugins folder to _plugins and boot up the server again to verify the functionality of the farm. If the farm starts to work after the removal of plugins, perform a Binary Search on all your plugins. To perform Binary Search, carefully divide all your plugins into two groups. Any plugin with dependencies should be grouped together.

If the issue is fixed, the problematic plugin is in the other group.
If the issue persists, continue to divide the group into two smaller subgroups. Continue to divide the problematic groups into smaller and smaller groups until you isolate the one singular plugin that is causing the issue and address it accordingly.

Closing Notes 🔗

This guide should cover all possibilities where a farm can be malfunctioning. If you are still experiencing issues or have any suggestions and feedback, please visit the Paper-help channel on Discord.

Special Thanks 🔗

Owen for editorial suggestions and grammar fixes.

Minecraft Basic Troubleshooting Steps for [Nether Piglin Farm]

Minecraft Basic Troubleshooting Steps for [Nether Piglin Farm]

Introduction / Background 🔗

Table of Contents

Prerequisites 🔗

In order to properly troubleshoot your farm, please make sure you meet all the requirements listed below.**

Step 0. Ensure your Paper is up to date. 🔗

Step 1. Check Biome 🔗

Open F3 Menu and check the biome.**

Step 2. Check World Difficulty. 🔗

`Difficulty` is `per world` on Paper so please double check the difficulty in the Nether.**

Step 3. Ensure Your Farm Isn’t Outdated. 🔗

Slight changes to farm designs happens on each Minecraft version, please make sure you are using the most efficient one for your server’s native version.

At the time of this writing, on 1.17.1, the most efficient farm is the donut with manual aggro trigger.

Step 4. Ensure per-player-mob-spawn is Set to true 🔗

Unless manually changed, the `default` should already be `true`. Double check anyway! The config option is located in `config/paper-world-defaults.yml`.

Step 5. Check Your Mobcaps 🔗

Utilize `/paper mobcaps` and `/paper playermobcaps` for additional details on mob spawning around a player. It is especially useful for finding errors in the spawn-proofing.

If your mobcap is already full while no mobs are spawning in your farm, it means that the spawn-proofing around the farm is not complete. Fix it!

Not all servers are running Vanilla default.

Step 7. Test Without Plugins 🔗

Closing Notes 🔗

This guide should cover all possibilities where a farm can be malfunctioning. If you are still experiencing issues or have any suggestions and feedback, please visit the Paper-help channel on Discord.

Special Thanks 🔗

Minecraft Basic Troubleshooting Steps for [Nether Piglin Farm]

Introduction / Background 🔗

Just a simple guide to showcase my thought process on troubleshooting issues related to farms, using a Nether Piglin farm as an example. This is actually an old guide that I finally decided to port over to the new site; nevertheless, I hope it helps someone somewhere.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites 🔗

In order to properly troubleshoot your farm, please make sure you meet all the requirements listed below.**

Step 0. Ensure your Paper is up to date. 🔗

Step 1. Check Biome 🔗

Open F3 Menu and check the biome.**

Step 2. Check World Difficulty. 🔗

Difficulty is per world on Paper so please double check the difficulty in the Nether.**

Step 3. Ensure Your Farm Isn’t Outdated. 🔗

Slight changes to farm designs happens on each Minecraft version, please make sure you are using the most efficient one for your server’s native version.

At the time of this writing, on 1.17.1, the most efficient farm is the donut with manual aggro trigger.

Step 4. Ensure per-player-mob-spawn is Set to true 🔗

Unless manually changed, the default should already be true. Double check anyway! The config option is located in config/paper-world-defaults.yml.

Step 5. Check Your Mobcaps 🔗

Utilize /paper mobcaps and /paper playermobcaps for additional details on mob spawning around a player. It is especially useful for finding errors in the spawn-proofing.

If your mobcap is already full while no mobs are spawning in your farm, it means that the spawn-proofing around the farm is not complete. Fix it!

Step 6. Check Other Related Server Configs 🔗

Not all servers are running Vanilla default.

Step 7. Test Without Plugins 🔗

Closing Notes 🔗

This guide should cover all possibilities where a farm can be malfunctioning. If you are still experiencing issues or have any suggestions and feedback, please visit the Paper-help channel on Discord.

Special Thanks 🔗

`Difficulty` is `per world` on Paper so please double check the difficulty in the Nether.**

Unless manually changed, the `default` should already be `true`. Double check anyway! The config option is located in `config/paper-world-defaults.yml`.

Utilize `/paper mobcaps` and `/paper playermobcaps` for additional details on mob spawning around a player. It is especially useful for finding errors in the spawn-proofing.