FAQ & Troubleshooting

Almost everything that looks like a bug in Cultivation is a mechanic doing its job. These are the ones people hit most, with the setting behind each one so you can check or change it yourself.

Rituals & Breakthroughs

My breakthrough will not start

Three conditions must all be true, and the ritual silently waits until they are. v0.11.2 There is a fourth, which is a choice: see My full-Qi meditation waits instead of starting.

• You are at Peak sub-stage of your current realm.
• You have banked the Qi the next rank costs — check /cultivation.
• The chunk you sat down in holds at least 750 vein Qi (Breakthrough-Min-Chunk-Qi). A sub-stage advancement only needs 200 (Advancement-Min-Chunk-Qi).

Use /cultivation debug vein to read the current chunk's Qi. Most "it won't start" reports are a vein that has been meditated dry.

My full-Qi meditation waits instead of starting

v0.11.2 Your Start breakthroughs automatically at full Qi setting is off. It is on the /cultivation settings page, and /cultivation autobreakthrough flips it from chat. With it off, a full-Qi meditation simply holds where it is. Run /cultivation breakthrough when you are ready and it starts the pending breakthrough or advancement, sitting you down first if you are standing. Every usual requirement still applies, so a vein that is too thin still waits.

If the command says your choice is saved but the server always starts breakthroughs automatically, the owner has set Breakthrough-Suppression-Allowed to false and the setting is ignored. New players start with Auto-Breakthrough-Default, which is on. See Suppressing a Breakthrough.

My ritual started, then froze partway

The vein dropped below the minimum while you were drawing on it. The ritual pauses rather than fails, and resumes on its own once the vein regenerates past the bar. Progress already made is kept.

I lost a sub-stage and my banked Qi

Three things cause a demotion, all intended:

• You died v0.11.2 - the death penalty takes Qi, and a loss bigger than the Qi you hold drops you one stage. See I died and lost Qi.
• You canceled the ritual — by standing up, or by drifting more than 0.35 blocks from where you sat (Meditation-Movement-Cancel-Threshold).
• Qi Deviation — your composure broke during a Heart-Devil Trial (HeartDevil-Deviation-Demotes).

You are never demoted below Early-Stage of your current realm, so a failed breakthrough cannot cost you a whole realm.

I died and lost Qi, or dropped a stage

v0.11.2 That is the death penalty, on by default. Each death in a 30-minute window scatters a larger share of your current stage's Qi requirement: 20%, then 40, 60, 80 and 100 (Death-Penalty-Loss-Percents). When a death takes more Qi than you have, you drop one stage and the rest comes out of the stage below. You never drop out of your realm: at the first stage your Qi just empties. After every death you are told what you lost, how many deaths still count, when the oldest one fades and what the next would cost. A death stops counting 30 minutes after it happened (Death-Penalty-Window-Minutes), logged in or not.

Some deaths are free: a tribulation once its lightning has struck you, Ascension, Reincarnation, an Inner Demon or Dream Trial, sanctioned duels, Dao duels and tournaments, and the Trial Pagoda, the Depths, a Sea of Consciousness or a dungeon boss instance. Creative mode and the admin bypass are never charged, and the same player can only cost you two deaths in a window, so nobody can farm a rival down a stage at their spawn. See who is exempt.

Can I turn the death penalty off?

v0.11.2 A server owner can. Set Death-Penalty-Enabled to false in Society/DeathPenaltyConfig, or soften it: shorten Death-Penalty-Loss-Percents, set Death-Penalty-Demote-Enabled to false so a death only ever takes Qi, or make player kills free with Death-Penalty-Exempt-PvP. A player cannot opt out on their own. An admin who thinks a strike was unfair can read it with /cultivation admin deathpenalty status <player> and wipe it with /cultivation admin deathpenalty clear <player>.

The breakthrough killed me

Working as designed. Tribulation lightning is lethal by default (Tribulation-Lethal) and lands a bolt every 6 seconds of ritual progress for 15% of your max health, scaling ×1.12 per realm reached.

Go in at full health, bank a Tribulation Ward Pill, stack damage reduction, and settle your karma first — karma buys you both deeper and more frequent bolts. v0.11.2 Everything that makes the heavens harsher (Heavenly Dao, karma, Storm Omens) now stacks to at most 1.75 times your realm's base bolt (Tribulation-Harder-Max-Multiplier), and everything that softens it to at most half (Tribulation-Easier-Min-Multiplier). A tribulation death after the first strike has landed is not charged by the death penalty. Server owners who want the drama without the deaths can set Tribulation-Lethal to false; bolts then always leave a sliver of health.

I am facing an inner demon instead of lightning

Your Yin or Yang lean has reached HeartDevil-Lean-Threshold (0.5). Past that point the heavens send the Heart-Devil Trial instead, which attacks composure rather than health. A Tribulation Ward Pill does nothing here — you need a Clear-Mind Pill. Pulling your balance back toward the middle takes you off that track entirely.

Qi & Spirit Veins

My vein never seems to refill

Veins regenerate at 1.5/second, and draining pulls from a 1-chunk radius (Spirit-Vein-Drain-Radius-Chunks) — so sitting just one chunk over is not far enough. Move properly, or find a rich vein.

I am not getting any cores

Drop chances are low on purpose, rolled rarest-first, and at most one core drops per kill:

Absorb them while meditating for a ×1.1 bonus (Meditation-Core-Bonus-Multiplier).

v0.11.1 A few Update 7 bosses always drop a Profound Core (sometimes a Divine one), whatever the chances above say - see Breach & Boss Rewards - and both can be crafted from Update 7 materials - see Forging.

Races, Sects & Land

The race menu will not let me choose

Demon and Deity unlock at Golden Core Formation. Human is available from the start. If you have already spent your one choice, an admin can grant another with /cultivation admin grantracechoice <player>.

I cannot claim a sect hall here

v0.11.2 A hall no longer needs a rich vein: with Sect-Hall-Claim-Anywhere on (the default) any land works, and a hall on plain ground just earns no rich or dragon hall bonus. Three things still refuse a claim:

• You are near a world's spawn. No sect may raise a hall or claim territory within Sect-Spawn-Protection-Radius-Chunks chunks (3 by default, counted as a square around the spawn chunk, so 7 x 7 chunks) of spawn. Set it to 0 to turn that off. Admin bypass does not lift it.
• An admin protected the land. Staff can close any other land to sects with /cultivation admin sectprotect add <name> [radius] - a town, an event arena. /cultivation admin sectprotect check says which rule closes the chunk you stand on.
• It is not yours to take. No hall, territory or Cave Abode can be claimed over a rare place or inside an open Secret Realm.

Land a sect already held when the rule arrived is left as it is. A server that had raised Sect-Hall-Min-Vein-Tier above the default keeps its vein rule, and with Sect-Hall-Claim-Anywhere off the old bar returns: the chunk must roll a rich vein or better (Sect-Hall-Min-Vein-Tier, default 1; 2 demands a dragon vein). Rich veins roll at 3% of chunks and dragon veins at 0.3%, deterministically from the world seed. See Sects.

My retainer stopped growing, or left

v0.11.2 Check its wage purse first. A retainer draws a daily wage in Spirit Stones from a purse you top up with /sect retainer pay <n> <amount>. With the purse empty it turns discontent - no growth, no new posts or expeditions - and after three unpaid days (Retainer-Unpaid-Days-To-Depart) it leaves for good. A post also ends, and the retainer comes back to you, if you leave your sect, are kicked, the sect disbands or it loses the hall. A defeated retainer is out for about ten minutes and loses a quarter of its progress to the next stage, but never drops a stage; Retainer-Permanent-Death makes a defeat final. See Wages and Defeat.

I lost my Cave Abode

Upkeep lapsed. Abodes cost Spirit Stones over time (Upkeep-Enabled) with a 168-hour grace period (Upkeep-Grace-Hours) before the claim is released. You can bank up to 720 hours ahead (Upkeep-Max-Banked-Hours). Turn Upkeep-Enabled off entirely on a relaxed server.

Profiles & Presence

Does my sect come with my new profile?

No — and neither does your abode, your formations or your marriage. A profile carries who you are (realm, Qi, race, dao, skill tree, techniques); everything anchored to the account or the world is shared by all of them. Your equipped title and settings are account-wide too.

Why can I not switch profiles?

A mod that replaces Cultivation's progression ladder must declare that it keeps its own records in step with your saves. Until it does, switching is refused rather than half-performed — the message names the cause. Ask that add-on's author about ProgressionProvider.supportsProfiles(), or see Building Add-ons.

How do I stop seeing everyone's auras?

Settings → Cultivation Aura → Show me other cultivators' auras. To stop giving one off, use /cultivation aura or the first toggle in the same section. A server owner can switch auras off entirely with Aura-Enabled.

My title vanished from my nameplate

Another mod that writes display names — a nickname plugin, usually — overwrote it; the overhead name is shared engine state and the last writer wins. Re-equip the title, or drop the other mod's nickname for that player.

Arts & Items

I have the realm for a technique but cannot use it

Since 0.7.4, reaching the realm makes you able to hold an art rather than entitled to it. Requires-Unlock is on for every built-in art by default (all 38 entries in Arts/TechniqueConfig.json), so you also have to have come by it — by reading its manual, comprehending it in meditation, being handed it by a breakthrough, having your sect inscribe it in a hall it still holds, or being taught it by your master.

Manuals drop from surviving tribulation bolts (4%), from NPC cultivators, and from players you kill. If nothing has dropped for you, meditating on a rich vein is the route that cannot run dry — every second that actually draws Qi rolls for enlightenment.

Server owners who want the old behavior can set Requires-Unlock: false per art in Arts/TechniqueConfig.json.

Aura Sight shows nothing, or only "stronger"

v0.11.2 Aura Sight reads by rank gap, so that is the answer, not a fault. Someone weaker shows their exact realm and stage, an equal shows the realm, someone one realm above only registers as stronger, and someone two or more realms above reads as a mortal, so you cannot tell them from a bystander. Walls block it, and you need the sight switched on (/cultivation sight) and a realm of at least Aura-Sight-Min-Realm (Body Refinement by default). A cultivator who has switched their aura off reads as a mortal unless you stand at least a realm above them. See Concealing.

Pressure does nothing to someone

v0.11.2 Pressure is spared from your party, your sect and allied sects, from anyone in Creative, invulnerable or under spawn protection, and from bosses. A target has to be weaker by enough ranks to feel the first tier, close enough to be inside the radius (it weakens toward the edge), and not pressing back, which holds them out better. You need Qi Condensation or above and the Qi to hold it: it drains 0.25% of your stage's Qi each second and ends when you sit down to meditate, start a ritual, run dry or die. See who is spared.

I cannot absorb a Spirit Stone

v0.11.2 Stones now come in four grades, and the higher ones are gated by realm: Mid needs Foundation Establishment, High needs Nascent Soul and Supreme needs Void Refinement. Low stones, the ones every shop deals in, absorb at any realm. Below your gate a Mid, High or Supreme stone can still be broken into four of the grade below with /cultivation stone break. See the grades.

My technique keybind does nothing

Go down the Keybinds troubleshooting list. The usual causes, in order: nothing is bound to that combination; ALT was held rather than pressed (press it no more than about half a second before the number key); the technique itself is refusing you (realm, Qi, cooldown, an unread manual); or you bound Q, E or R, which are off by default and cannot work in a singleplayer world. v0.11.1 Number-key binds did nothing at all in singleplayer worlds before 0.11.1, so on 0.11.0 or older that was the bug rather than your setup.

My Life-Bound weapon stopped gaining levels

Check it is still yours. A Life-Bound Treasure is bound to a specific player, not an item type. Depending on server config, an item that changes hands either silently rebinds or stays permanently inert for anyone but its original owner. Run /cultivation bind on your own bound item to reset it to level 1.

Servers & Compatibility

Does this work in singleplayer?

Yes. Everything except the multiplayer-only systems (sects, wars, duels) works solo, and those refuse politely rather than breaking. See Tuning Presets for a solo-friendly starting configuration.

My realms have different names and a different curve

An add-on has replaced the progression system through the 0.5.0 provider hook — that is a supported feature, not a bug. Your original Cultivation progress is never overwritten while an add-on is running; it sits underneath untouched, and removing the add-on hands you back the realm you had. See Compatible Mods.

I edited a config file and nothing changed

Three usual causes:

• You edited a Description-* field. Those are documentation, not settings — the mod rewrites them on load.
• You edited ConfigVersion. Never do this by hand; migration is automatic.
• The value is also live in /cultivation admin, and a later in-game save overwrote your file edit.

Nothing works after updating

Delete the old jar first — two copies of Cultivation.jar on the classpath will conflict. Your configs and player data are migrated automatically and do not need resetting between versions.