If your server feels 'laggy', the culprit is usually low TPS. This guide explains TPS and gives concrete ways to keep your server smooth.

What is TPS?

TPS (Ticks Per Second) is how many times per second the server updates game logic. The target is 20 TPS. Below 20 the game slows down: blocks break late, mobs stutter, commands lag. You can see live TPS in the panel's console and overview.

Most common causes of low TPS

  • Too high view distance (view-distance): every chunk is processing load.
  • Too many entities: huge animal farms, item piles, lots of mobs.
  • Redstone and hopper spam: large redstone machines running constantly.
  • Heavy plugins/mods: poorly optimized or conflicting plugins.
  • Insufficient RAM/cores: a package too small for your player and content count.

Step-by-step optimization

1. Lower view and simulation distance. In the Settings tab set view-distance and simulation-distance to around 6-8. This single change often gives the biggest gain.

2. Use Paper/Purpur. Switching from Vanilla or Spigot to Paper makes a clear difference thanks to built-in optimizations.

3. Limit entities. Keep animal farms reasonable and use a plugin (ClearLag-style) that clears dropped items.

4. Set RAM correctly. Upgrade your package based on player and mod count. Even lots of RAM alone isn't the fix; core speed is the most critical factor for Minecraft — which is why we offer dedicated cores.

5. Watch the console. 'Can't keep up!' or 'Overloaded' warnings signal TPS drops; look at what event they follow.

On ArcadeServers every server gets dedicated cores and NVMe SSD; with the right settings, holding 20 TPS is much easier.