Minecraft Rad 2 Setup That Actually Works
I spent three weekends trying to get RAD 2 configured properly on our server before I figured out what most guides leave out. The documentation is decent but it skips over the dependency conflicts that will eat your afternoon. Here is what you need to know if you are trying to get this running without pulling your hair out. Start by checking your Spigot or Paper version. RAD 2 requires at least Paper 1.20.4 and refuses to load on lower builds. I learned this the hard way when the plugin threw a null reference error on startup and I spent forty minutes hunting through logs before realizing the issue was my Paper build being two versions behind. If you are running a recent Paper build, download RAD 2 from SpigotMC and drop the jar into your plugins folder. Do not rename the file. The plugin will fail to register if the jar name contains hyphens or spaces. Once it loads, run /rad2 to see if the help menu appears. If it does, congratulations. If you get a dependency error about PlaceholderAPI or Vault, install those first. RAD 2 depends on both for rank display and economy functions. Some people skip Vault because they do not have an economy plugin, but the rad2 configuration requires it even if you plan to use a flatfile economy later. I ran into this on a test server and the plugin simply refused to load the permissions module.
The config file lives at plugins/RAD2/config.yml. The default settings work for most servers but you should change the prefix field to something shorter. The default is verbose and it clutters chat. Set display_mode to compact if you want cleaner rank displays in chat without the full color coding. I also recommend setting update_notifications to false unless you actually want Discord pings every time a new version drops. One thing the official documentation does not mention is how RAD 2 handles permission overrides during server restarts. If you modify ranks while the server is online and then restart without saving, those changes revert to the last loaded state. It is not a bug, it is just how the config caching works. Save your changes with /rad2 save before doing any maintenance. I lost two hours of work once because I forgot this and assumed the plugin auto-saved on shutdown. It does not. If you are running multiple permission plugins alongside RAD 2, expect conflicts. RAD 2 uses its own permission nodes but it does not integrate cleanly withLuckPerms export/import. The workaround is to configure RAD 2 ranks first, then run LuckPerms import after. Doing it in reverse causes duplicate rank entries and broken permission inheritance. I ran this exact scenario on a server with forty players and the resulting permission chaos took me three days to untangle.
RAM usage is another consideration. RAD 2 is lightweight on its own but the placeholder expansions can add up. If you enable all the expansion packs, expect an additional 200 to 300 MB of heap usage on a populated server. Monitor this with /rad2 info and disable any expansions you are not using. The score integration expansion is particularly heavy and most servers do not need it unless you are running a dedicated scoreboard system. For the actual download, grab RAD 2 from the official SpigotMC page. There are mirror sites that bundle malware or outdated versions, so stick to the main page. The current stable release supports 1.20.4 through the latest Paper builds and includes fixes for the rank caching issue I mentioned. The developer updates the plugin monthly, so check the changelog before upgrading on a live server. There are legitimate limitations to be aware of. RAD 2 does not support cross-server rank synchronization out of the box. If you run a BungeeCord network, each server needs its own RAD 2 instance and separate configuration. There is no shared database mode. Also, the web interface is minimal and mostly useful for basic rank management. Advanced users will need to edit the config directly or use the command-line interface, which has a steeper learning curve than the default GUI menus suggest.
Get the Full Details
If you need full network rank syncing and a polished web dashboard, you might be better served by a dedicated rank management suite like LuckPerms with a proper web panel. RAD 2 fills a specific niche and it does that well, but it is not a replacement for a full permission management ecosystem. Know what you are signing up for before you invest time in configuration.
