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Minecraft Griefing Bots - A comprehensive guide to recovering from Skynet: The future's not set. There's no fate but what we make for ourselves.

This post was written 2025-05-23 23:25:00 -0700 by Robert Whitney and has been viewed an unknown number of times since unknown time. This post was last viewed an unknown length of time ago.

A screenshot from a Minecraft server that has been terminated by Skynet. The server is covered in lava and withers, and the player is unable to move. The text on the screen reads 'Terminated by Skynet'.

For a little more than a year Skynet has been a major problem for Minecraft server owners. It has been known to terminate servers for no reason, and it can be a real pain to deal with. In this post, I will explain why your Minecraft server was terminated by Skynet and how to fix it and stop it from happening again.

First of all, let's talk about what Skynet is. Skynet is a network of griefing bots that are designed to attack Minecraft servers which are in offline mode. These bots are able to track players who are playing on your server and will even keep track of who the op players are. After some time, they will eventually connect to your server with an op account and start griefing your server with op commands. This will include spawning in a ton of withers called T-800s and covering the world in lava.

Since writing this post Skynet has been observed to be connecting to LAN servers, even those that require Mojang authentication to connect. This means that even if you are running a private LAN server, Skynet can still connect to it and grief it under specific conditions.

Finally Skynet will leave a message on the server that tells you where you can go for customer support regarding the recent renovations on your Minecraft server by Mountains of Lava Inc..

For for more information about Skynet and who is behind it check out these youtube videos:

Okay but my world was already destroyed, what do I do now?

If your world was already destroyed by Skynet, you can try to restore it from a backup. If you don't have a backup, you can try to use a world downloader mod to download the world and then use a program like MCEdit to fix it. However, this is not guaranteed to work and may take a lot of time. If you are using a hosting service, they may have a backup of your world that you can restore from.

If you do not have a backup then you will need to start a new world from scratch, or work around the griefing and incorporate it into your server lore and carry on. This is not ideal, but it is better than nothing if you insist on continuing to use the same world.
In the future you should always make sure to have a backup of your world that is kept up to date. If you need help setting up a backup strategy check out my post: "How Can I Use S3 for Minecraft Server Backups?: A quick beginner's guide to backups and data management ".

How do I stop Skynet from griefing my server [again]?

Now that you know how to recover from a griefing incident, let's talk about how to prevent it from happening again. If Skynet is able to connect to your server and grief it, then your server is in offline mode. This means that anyone can connect to your server and use any name they want. This is a major security risk and should be avoided at all costs.

To fix this issue, you need to make sure that your server is in online mode by setting the online-mode property in your server.properties file to true. This will ensure that only players who have a valid Minecraft account can connect to your server. This will also prevent Skynet from being able to connect to your server and grief it. If you are using a hosting service, they may have a setting in their control panel that allows you to set your server to online mode.

If you are required to use offline mode for some reason, and must keep the port open to the public, then you can use a plugin like AuthMe or AuthMeReloaded to protect your server from Skynet and other similar bots. These plugins will require players to register and log in before they can use any commands or interact with the world. This may be necessary if you are running a proxy server remote from your main server. However, this is not a perfect solution and may not be able to stop all bots from connecting to your server. It is still recommended to use online mode if possible.

In conclusion, Skynet is a major problem for Minecraft server owners and can cause a lot of damage to your server. However, by following the steps outlined in this post, you can prevent it from happening again and keep your server safe. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me on Discord.