FAQ & Troubleshooting

Almost everything that looks like a bug in Cultivation is a mechanic doing its job. These are the ones people hit most, with the setting behind each one so you can check or change it yourself.

Rituals & Breakthroughs

My breakthrough will not start

Three conditions must all be true, and the ritual silently waits until they are:

• You are at Peak sub-stage of your current realm.
• You have banked the Qi the next rank costs — check /cultivation.
• The chunk you sat down in holds at least 750 vein Qi (Breakthrough-Min-Chunk-Qi). A sub-stage advancement only needs 200 (Advancement-Min-Chunk-Qi).

Use /cultivation debug vein to read the current chunk's Qi. Most "it won't start" reports are a vein that has been meditated dry.

My ritual started, then froze partway

The vein dropped below the minimum while you were drawing on it. The ritual pauses rather than fails, and resumes on its own once the vein regenerates past the bar. Progress already made is kept.

I lost a sub-stage and my banked Qi

Two things cause a demotion, both intended:

• You cancelled the ritual — by standing up, or by drifting more than 0.35 blocks from where you sat (Meditation-Movement-Cancel-Threshold).
• Qi Deviation — your composure broke during a Heart-Devil Trial (HeartDevil-Deviation-Demotes).

You are never demoted below Early-Stage of your current realm, so a failed breakthrough cannot cost you a whole realm.

The breakthrough killed me

Working as designed. Tribulation lightning is lethal by default (Tribulation-Lethal) and lands a bolt every 6 seconds of ritual progress for 15% of your max health, scaling ×1.12 per realm reached.

Go in at full health, bank a Tribulation Ward Pill, stack damage reduction, and settle your karma first — karma buys you both deeper and more frequent bolts. Server owners who want the drama without the deaths can set Tribulation-Lethal to false; bolts then always leave a sliver of health.

I am facing an inner demon instead of lightning

Your Yin or Yang lean has reached HeartDevil-Lean-Threshold (0.5). Past that point the heavens send the Heart-Devil Trial instead, which attacks composure rather than health. A Tribulation Ward Pill does nothing here — you need a Clear-Mind Pill. Pulling your balance back toward the middle takes you off that track entirely.

Qi & Spirit Veins

My vein never seems to refill

Veins regenerate at 1.5/second, and draining pulls from a 1-chunk radius (Spirit-Vein-Drain-Radius-Chunks) — so sitting just one chunk over is not far enough. Move properly, or find a rich vein.

I am not getting any cores

Drop chances are low on purpose, rolled rarest-first, and at most one core drops per kill:

Absorb them while meditating for a ×1.1 bonus (Meditation-Core-Bonus-Multiplier).

Races, Sects & Land

The race menu will not let me choose

Demon and Deity unlock at Golden Core Formation. Human is available from the start. If you have already spent your one choice, an admin can grant another with /cultivation admin grantracechoice <player>.

I cannot claim a sect hall here

Halls require a rich vein or better (Sect-Hall-Min-Vein-Tier, default 1). Ordinary chunks can never host a hall — set it to 2 to demand a dragon vein. Rich veins roll at 3% of chunks and dragon veins at 0.3%, deterministically from the world seed, so scouting is the real cost.

I lost my Cave Abode

Upkeep lapsed. Abodes cost Spirit Stones over time (Upkeep-Enabled) with a 168-hour grace period (Upkeep-Grace-Hours) before the claim is released. You can bank up to 720 hours ahead (Upkeep-Max-Banked-Hours). Turn Upkeep-Enabled off entirely on a relaxed server.

Profiles & Presence

Does my sect come with my new profile?

No — and neither does your abode, your formations or your marriage. A profile carries who you are (realm, Qi, race, dao, skill tree, techniques); everything anchored to the account or the world is shared by all of them. Your equipped title and settings are account-wide too.

Why can I not switch profiles?

A mod that replaces Cultivation's progression ladder must declare that it keeps its own records in step with your saves. Until it does, switching is refused rather than half-performed — the message names the cause. Ask that add-on's author about ProgressionProvider.supportsProfiles(), or see Building Add-ons.

How do I stop seeing everyone's auras?

Settings → Cultivation Aura → Show me other cultivators' auras. To stop giving one off, use /cultivation aura or the first toggle in the same section. A server owner can switch auras off entirely with Aura-Enabled.

My title vanished from my nameplate

Another mod that writes display names — a nickname plugin, usually — overwrote it; the overhead name is shared engine state and the last writer wins. Re-equip the title, or drop the other mod's nickname for that player.

Arts & Items

I have the realm for a technique but cannot use it

Since 0.7.4, reaching the realm makes you able to hold an art rather than entitled to it. Requires-Unlock is on for all 28 built-ins, so you also have to have come by it — by reading its manual, comprehending it in meditation, being handed it by a breakthrough, or having your sect inscribe it in a hall it still holds.

Manuals drop from surviving tribulation bolts (4%), from NPC cultivators, and from players you kill. If nothing has dropped for you, meditating on a rich vein is the route that cannot run dry — every second that actually draws Qi rolls for enlightenment.

Server owners who want the old behavior can set Requires-Unlock: false per art in Arts/TechniqueConfig.json.

My Life-Bound weapon stopped gaining levels

Check it is still yours. A Life-Bound Treasure is bound to a specific player, not an item type. Depending on server config, an item that changes hands either silently rebinds or stays permanently inert for anyone but its original owner. Run /cultivation bind on your own bound item to reset it to level 1.

Servers & Compatibility

Does this work in singleplayer?

Yes. Everything except the multiplayer-only systems (sects, wars, duels) works solo, and those refuse politely rather than breaking. See Tuning Presets for a solo-friendly starting configuration.

My realms have different names and a different curve

An add-on has replaced the progression system through the 0.5.0 provider hook — that is a supported feature, not a bug. Your original Cultivation progress is never overwritten while an add-on is running; it sits underneath untouched, and removing the add-on hands you back the realm you had. See Compatible Mods.

I edited a config file and nothing changed

Three usual causes:

• You edited a Description-* field. Those are documentation, not settings — the mod rewrites them on load.
• You edited ConfigVersion. Never do this by hand; migration is automatic.
• The value is also live in /cultivation admin, and a later in-game save overwrote your file edit.

Nothing works after updating

Delete the old jar first — two copies of Cultivation.jar on the classpath will conflict. Your configs and player data are migrated automatically and do not need resetting between versions.