What Basalt is, what it runs and where to go next.
Basalt is Minecraft: Bedrock Edition software written in Rust. You run it on your own machine, players join it from the normal Bedrock client, and it plays the game the way the official Bedrock Dedicated Server (BDS) does: it loads real Bedrock worlds, runs survival and creative gameplay, mobs, combat and redstone, and runs plugins written against the same scripting API that behaviour packs use.
Basalt targets Minecraft 1.26.60 (network protocol 2225) and talks to clients over the NetherNet transport.
What you get
Section titled “What you get”- Real worlds. Basalt reads and writes the vanilla world format. Copy a world folder in and play it; copy it back out and vanilla still opens it.
- Vanilla gameplay. Breaking and placing, inventories and containers, crafting, furnaces, stonecutters and looms, enchanting, anvils and grindstones, farming and composters, campfires, fire, liquids, weather, beds, boats, experience and the vanilla game rules.
- Mobs and combat. Mobs with pathfinding, natural spawning and vanilla loot; melee and projectile damage, knockback, armour, shields and status effects.
- Redstone. Wire, torches, repeaters, comparators, observers, pistons, hoppers, dispensers, droppers, crafters, rails and minecarts, TNT. See Redstone.
- Operator tools. 42 built-in commands, operators and permission levels, an allowlist, name and IP bans, and a terminal that runs every command. See Commands and Permissions, allowlist and bans.
- Anti-cheat. Checks for flight, reach, scaffolding, fast breaking and more, each with its own switch. See Anti-cheat.
- Packs. Resource packs are sent to players as they join, and custom items and entities load from behaviour-pack JSON. See Resource packs and Addons.
- Plugins. JavaScript and TypeScript plugins run against Basalt’s port of
@minecraft/server,@minecraft/server-uiand@minecraft/server-net, plus Basalt’s own@basalt/menusfor chest-style menus. See the Plugin API.
What it does not do yet
Section titled “What it does not do yet”Basalt is honest about its gaps. The most important ones:
- There is one dimension, the overworld. The Nether and the End do not exist yet.
- Newly generated terrain comes from a partial port of the vanilla generator and can be missing structures.
- Eight vanilla mobs are implemented so far.
The full list is on Vanilla parity.
Where to go next
Section titled “Where to go next”| If you want to | Read |
|---|---|
| Build and start Basalt | Installation |
| Play an existing world or make a new one | Worlds |
| Change settings | Configuration |
| Manage players | Commands, Permissions, allowlist and bans |
| Keep the tick rate healthy | Performance |
| Write a plugin | Your first plugin |
Licence
Section titled “Licence”Basalt is licensed under GPL-3.0. Bundled game data has its own terms, listed in the NOTICE file of the repository. See Licence and credits for a summary.