Start here

1. Join

   Open Minecraft Java Edition, go to Multiplayer, Add Server, and paste the address. Any version from 1.21.11 upwards works.

   play.zeropvp.xyzCopy

2. Queue

   You land in the hub holding a hotbar of menus. Right click the sword to open the queue, pick a kit, and you are in. Or type /duel queue mace

3. Place

   Your first ten matches on a kit are placements. They decide the tier you start at, and they are private: never in the match history or on the leaderboard. Ranked matches are best of three.

ZP is the number. A tier is the band it falls in. Everybody starts on 0 ZP, a win moves you about 20, and each band is 100 ZP wide. There are fifteen of them, three to a division, from LT5 at the bottom to HT1 at the top. LT, MT and HT mean low, mid and high.

Below LT3, crossing a band boundary is the promotion. From LT3 up, reaching the next band starts a short promotion series. There is no demotion series: you drop only once you are 25 ZP below your band.

Behind the ZP there is a hidden rating that decides who you are matched against. It carries how certain the server is about you, so a brand new player moves fast and somebody who plays constantly does not swing on one bad night. You never see it, and that is deliberate: the number matchmaking needs to be accurate is not the number that is interesting to look at.

Being HT2 in mace says nothing about your axe. Each kit has a completely independent ladder, its own ten placements and its own ZP, and you are matched on the one you are queueing for rather than on some average.

That is also why the overall leaderboard does not simply add your ZP up.

The overall table ranks people by points, not ZP. Each tier you hold is worth a fixed number of points (the Pts column above), and it stays worth that until the tier itself moves. The points from every kit add up, and the total earns a global tier on the same LT5 to HT1 scale (the Global column). A kit you have played three thousand matches on cannot outweigh a genuinely high tier somewhere else, and your global number does not twitch every time you play.

On 2v2 or 4v4 a tier counts half: HT1 is worth 30, HT2 15, HT3 5, HT4 4 and HT5 2.

The curve is steep on purpose. One HT1 outweighs six HT3s, because the point of a ladder is that the top of it is rare.

The target on the hotbar puts you alone in an arena with a bot wearing your own skin and the kit's real gear. Five difficulty levels, and modes that count combos, knockouts and mace slams. Nothing there touches your tier. Type /practice to open it.

It is the right place to learn a kit you have never touched, rather than spending placements finding out.

Coins are the server's own currency, and they are earned rather than bought. Finishing your ten placement matches on a kit pays 200 coins, once per kit, so every ladder you place on is worth the same. Linking your Discord with /sync pays a one-time bonus on top, and daily and weekly /challenges, your login streak and voting pay the rest.

They spend on the same things the store sells: thirty days of Zero for 1,299, thirty days of Zero+ for 1,799, or any kill or victory effect for 300 to 450. /coins in game shows your balance and opens the shop. Nothing you can buy with either currency changes a fight.

• Ranked is one account. Playing ranked on an alt is the one thing most likely to get you removed from the ladder. The rules cover it properly.
• Your kit is yours to arrange. The book on the hotbar opens the kit editor: same items, your layout.
• Link your Discord with /sync in game, then /sync in the Discord.
• Effects are cosmetic only. Nothing on the store affects a fight.
• Stuck, or think something is broken? Open a ticket in the Discord.