Hey everyone — quick heads up before the fun part. As most of you know, EverHaven is self-hosted, and I'm moving houses this week. That means the server hardware is literally going into a box and riding in a moving truck, so the main server will be offline for a few days while everything gets set back up at the new place.
But we're not going dark. While EverHaven rests, the Gauntlet begins — and for that we owe a big thank-you to octoshrimpy, who's generously hosting the entire event on his own server while ours is in transit. Go thank him in game (or pass him the potato).
Starts tonight — Saturday, July 25 — and runs until Wednesday afternoon, July 29. Same address you always use; you'll be dropped straight into the event world.
What is the Gauntlet?
The Gauntlet is a temporary, hardcore-flavoured event on a fresh 1000×1000 map — overworld and nether are border-locked, the End is wide open. Fresh world, fresh inventories, everyone starts from zero. It's a race to rack up points over four and a half days, and everything you earn converts into rewards on the real server when it returns.
When you first join you'll pick two things, so choose carefully:
Your track
- ♥ Hardcore — 2x points, ONE life. Every point you earn is doubled… but die once and you're done. Fall and you'll spectate the rest of the event — unless you take the one escape hatch: convert to softcore, burning 75% of your points, and respawn fresh with nothing. That choice is permanent (
/convertif you change your mind later while spectating). - ☀ Softcore — 1x points, infinite respawns. Deaths drop your items right where you fell, get announced to everyone, and are counted on a board — but cost you nothing else.
PvP: in or out?
PvP is opt-in and only matters for one thing: Hot Potato (more below). This choice is also locked for the whole event.
Earning points
Points come from four places:
- Advancements — every advancement pays out the moment you earn it. Normal ones are worth a little, goals more, challenges a lot.
- Fixed objectives — 20 bounties you can complete any time, from craft a full iron armor set and sleep in 3 different biomes up to obtain elytra, beat a raid, kill the Wither, and kill the Ender Dragon. Bronze pays 5–10, Platinum pays 100–150. One-time each, announced in chat when you land them.
- Timed chat objectives — every half hour or so, a challenge fires in chat. Races pay the first two finishers (Diamond Rush: next diamond ore mined wins!). Deadlines pay everyone who completes them in the window (craft an item containing the word "stone" — 10 minutes!). And if enough PvP players are on, Hot Potato: one player gets marked and glowing — punch another PvP player to pass it on, because whoever holds it when the timer ends loses points, and everyone who passed it gains.
- Leaderboard placements — when the event ends, the top 3 on each board take home bonus points.
Track it all on your sidebar — /board (or /lb) flips between your personal stats and the rotating leaderboards.
The leaderboards
Seven boards pay placement bonuses at the end: Advancements, Diamonds Mined, Fish Caught, Mob Kill Score, Distance Traveled, Deathless Time, and Ore Diversity. Two more are for glory: the Hardcore Standings — the prestige board, hardcore players only, where the fallen stay frozen at their death score — and Deaths, which pays nothing but crowns a certain kind of champion.
House rules
A few things work differently in the Gauntlet:
- Every enchantment is capped at level I. Sharpness I, Efficiency I, Protection I — that's the ceiling for everyone.
- Mending, Infinity, and Silk Touch are banned.
- Totems of Undying are banned. No second chances — that's the point.
- Difficulty is hard. Sleep with one eye open.
The rewards
Here's why it's worth grinding: every point you finish with becomes event currency on EverHaven when the server returns.
Spend it on:
- Double chests stuffed with resources — a serious shortcut to finishing off that mega build you've been putting off.
- Cosmetics — weapons, tools, hats, and more.
On top of that, board winners and event survivors earn a permanent achievement on their website profile — proof you ran the Gauntlet, long after the event world is gone.
Rewards will be worth it. Bring a friend, pick your track, and try not to be holding the potato.
See you tonight. ⚔