SkyFactory 4 Server Hosting: Running Skyblock with Islands and Prestige for Friends

SkyFactory 4 server hosting turns the best-known skyblock pack on Minecraft 1.12.2 into a shared project: one island for everyone or one each, a joint factory or a race to the late game. But the pack has server-side quirks you don't see in singleplayer: world type, prestige and islands are all configured separately. Here's what a SkyFactory 4 server needs, how much memory to get and how to set it all up on Elysium.

What SkyFactory 4 is

SkyFactory 4 was made by darkosto, Blargerist and Firstnecron. It came out in 2019 and has since passed 14 million downloads on CurseForge. The start is classic skyblock: a tree on a patch of dirt in the middle of the void. From there it's tech, magic and full automation all the way to the late game.

SkyFactory 4 differs from earlier entries in the series in several ways the authors point out themselves:

• More than 30 world types. Some are built around the classic tree on dirt, others come with their own recipes and goals.
• Resources grow on trees. Sieving from previous entries is gone; instead there are Sky Orchards, resource trees with built-in progression that let you choose which resource to grow.
• Advancements instead of a quest book. The game tracks progress for you, and the goals act as hints about what to do next rather than a mandatory quest line.
• A prestige system. An optional mode where points unlock mods, items and mechanics. You earn points from advancements, and the Parabox, a time-traveling box, generates them too.

The latest version, 4.2.4, came out in December 2021. The pack is finished: you can set up the server once and play in peace without keeping up with updates.

What a SkyFactory 4 server needs

For servers, the pack has an official wiki page with multiplayer instructions: world types, prestige, islands and commands. We've collected the key points from it below.

How much RAM you need and which plan to choose

In skyblock the server barely generates any terrain: it's void all around. Load grows as players build farms, machines and automation, and by the late game of SkyFactory 4 it's the players' bases that become the main load on the server. So 8 GB is the baseline for two or three players, and a bigger group needs headroom. How memory depends on mods and players is covered in detail in how much RAM a modded server needs.

Machines and farms are processed every tick, and Minecraft 1.12.2 does that almost entirely on one thread. That's why clock speed matters for automation: Elysium servers run on the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X at up to 5.6 GHz with NVMe drives, in a data center in Frankfurt.

How to install SkyFactory 4 on an Elysium server

1. Open the order page and find SkyFactory 4 using the search in the pack list.
2. Choose a plan. The form suggests the minimum by memory and marks plans that are too small for the pack.
3. Pay for the order. The server downloads the pack from CurseForge and installs Forge on its own.
4. Before the first start, open server.properties in the panel's file manager and check the world type (more in the box below).
5. Start the server from your client area. The first start takes longer than usual while Forge loads the mods.
6. Install the same SkyFactory 4 version through the CurseForge launcher and connect using the address from the panel.

If you already have a server, you can install SkyFactory 4 from the panel in the Modpacks tab. It's a clean install: all server files, including the world, are deleted, so make a backup first.

Setting up a SkyFactory 4 server

World type

For classic SkyFactory 4, the pack's wiki gives these lines:

generator-settings={"Topography-Preset":"Sky Factory 4"}
level-type=DEFAULT

Most of the 30+ presets also use level-type=DEFAULT, and only the preset name in generator-settings changes. There are exceptions — Skygrid, for example, needs level-type=skygrid, and CompactSky needs level-type=compactsky plus extra size settings. Take exact preset names from the official wiki to avoid typos. The remaining server parameters are covered in our article on configuring server.properties.

Prestige

On a server, prestige mode isn't turned on with a button at world creation. You enable it in the prestige.cfg file by setting the relevant option to true. Keep two things from the wiki in mind: prestige is per player, and singleplayer progress doesn't transfer to a server. Also, you have to redo this config change after every server update. If a player can't open the prestige window, an admin can force the mode on or off with /prestige force.

Islands and commands

Islands are handled by the /topography command. /topography island new <name> generates a new island for a player and teleports them to it, /topography island home <name> sends them home, and /topography island info <name> shows the island's coordinates. Players who want to play together and share advancement progress form a team with /together invite <name>.

Agree on the Parabox separately: according to the wiki, once all players have voted to close its loop, the server has to restart. You can restart from the panel, but it's best if everyone knows the restart is coming.

Common problems and how to fix them

The world isn't skyblock

That means the server started before you set generator-settings and level-type. Stop the server, fix the parameters, delete the world folder and start again.

A player can't join the server

Check that the SkyFactory 4 version in the player's launcher matches the version on the server. A client and a server on different pack versions won't agree on the mod list.

The server won't start or complains about Java

1.12.2 needs Java 8. If the console shows a Java version error, select it in the panel's Versions tab — changing only Java doesn't touch the server files. If a mod is at fault, Forge names it in the log.

TPS drops in the late game

In SkyFactory 4, lag almost always grows out of automation: huge farms, hundreds of machines, chunks that stay loaded all the time. Tidy bases and spare memory help; a general rundown of causes is in the guide why your server lags.

Backups and updates

Elysium makes an automatic backup of your server every night, and you get 3 manual slots on Nexus, 4 on Vortex and 5 on Apex. Make a manual backup before experimenting with configs and before reinstalling.

The pack hasn't been updated since 2021, so you'll hardly ever need to update it. If you do reinstall it through Modpacks, remember that it's a clean install: save the world with a backup and over SFTP, and after installation re-enable prestige in prestige.cfg and check the world type in server.properties. Want something newer? We have a guide to a SkyFactory 5 server on Forge 1.20.1, and for another 1.12.2 classic, see our InsaneCraft server guide.