What base hunting is (and is not)
On DonutSMP players build bases in the wild and hide them, because raiding is part of the game. Base hunting is the search for those bases. It is allowed within the server’s rules – it is a survival server with PvP and griefing – which is more than can be said for most of what people argue about on Discord.
What it is not is reliable income. A loaded base can set you up for a season; ten empty sessions in a row are normal. Treat it as a high-variance activity funded by your farm, not as the farm itself.
The gear that matters
Six things separate a hunter from a tourist. If you want all of them at once, the Basehunter Bundle packages the Elytra, the Amethyst Pickaxe, 16 totems and 20M for rockets and supplies in a single $37.99 order – the quickest way to go from zero to a first hunting session.
- Elytra with Mending – non-negotiable. You will cover tens of thousands of blocks per session. Ours is $28.49 with Unbreaking III and Mending (Elytra).
- Rockets – a lot. Two or three stacks per session. A creeper spawner farm is the long-term supply.
- Amethyst Pickaxe – the DonutSMP custom pickaxe ($4.79) built for fast tunneling. When you find a base you want to be in and out before the owner logs on, and a normal maxed netherite pickaxe is slow by comparison.
- Totems of Undying – stack them. A hunter who dies loses the loot and the Elytra. $0.25 each, $0.19 from 64 (Totems).
- Shulker boxes – empty, to carry what you find. $0.29 each, $0.25 from 27.
- Decent armor – a maxed netherite set ($4.99) or the PvP Kit ($8.49) if you expect a fight. Do not hunt in your best gear if you cannot afford to lose it.
How hunters find bases
Bases are found because of what their owners leave on the surface. The amateur mistake is flying high and fast; good hunters fly low and slow in a grid, in one direction, and note the coordinates of anything suspicious to come back to later. Learn to spot these from the air:
- Light. Torches, lanterns and glowstone in the middle of nowhere at night. Fly at night with brightness turned up.
- Missing trees and broken terrain. Players clear areas, take wood and dig straight down. A neat circle of missing trees is a flag.
- Nether portals. A portal far from spawn means somebody travels there. Follow the overworld side.
- Straight lines. Tunnels, cobblestone paths, water channels – nature does not make straight lines.
- Signs of recent activity. Harvested crops, trampled farmland, a boat left on a shore.
- Nether tunnels. Every block in the nether is eight in the overworld, and a long tunnel in the nether usually leads straight to a base entrance.
Tactics once you find one
Do not rush in. Check the tab list for the owner and anyone who might be their friend. Enter from an unexpected side with the Amethyst Pickaxe rather than through their door. Take spawners first – they are the highest value per slot and the hardest to replace – then shulkers, then whatever netherite and totems are in chests.
Load everything into shulkers as you go so a death does not scatter forty stacks on the floor. Leave the way you came, fly in a direction that is not toward your own base, and only head home after a detour. Players have lost their own base by flying straight back from a raid with a tail.
Protecting your own base from hunters
Everything above works in reverse. Build underground with no surface light, no nearby portal, no cleared trees. Enter through a hidden water elevator or a piston door, never a straight tunnel. Keep your spawner room separate from your storage so one find does not cost you both. And never post coordinates, screenshots with coordinates, or a “come see my base” invite in public chat.
The honest part: odds and cost
A full session – two hours of flying, two stacks of rockets, maybe a totem – has a real cost, and most sessions end with nothing but a few noted coordinates. The hunters who make money treat it like fishing: consistent routes, notes on everything, patience. If you are buying gear to hunt, buy it because you enjoy the search, not because a video showed a single lucky raid.
Everything we sell for hunting is delivered in-game by our staff after payment. Usually within 5–30 minutes while we are online (see Discord status). DonutSMP’s rules prohibit real-money trading, so the usual disclaimer applies: the risk of enforcement is yours, and DonutCoins is not affiliated with the server or Mojang.
Frequently asked questions
A custom DonutSMP pickaxe that mines far faster than a standard maxed netherite pickaxe, which makes it the tool of choice for breaking into bases quickly. It is $4.79 in our store and part of the Basehunter Bundle.
Raiding and griefing are part of DonutSMP’s survival gameplay. What is against the rules is cheating – x-ray, hacked clients, freecam – which is also how most hunters who get banned got banned.
Far enough that walking is impractical – which is exactly why hunting needs an Elytra. Grid-search in bands at increasing distance from spawn rather than flying randomly.
Spawners, with a silk touch pickaxe. They are the most valuable items per inventory slot and the ones the owner cannot easily replace.
Related products
Everything mentioned above, at the prices quoted. Handed over in-game by our staff after payment.
