mob-spawn-range

The mob-spawn-range is the radius (in chunks) around each player in which mobs can spawn.

You can change it in spigot.yml, under world-settings -> default. Its default value is:

mob-spawn-range: 8

Recommended starting value

The recommended starting value depends entirely on your server’s spawn limits.

This helpful table from Paper chan provides some great guidance. The below table is moderately adapted from it:

Mob spawn limit	Recommended mob-spawn-range
70+	8
63-69	8
56-62	7
56	6
49	6
42	5
35	5
28	4
21	3
14	3
7	2

You should generally use the monsters spawn limit to determine your mob-spawn-range.

What does mob-spawn-range do?

It’s the distance in chunks from each player in which mobs can spawn. For example, if the mob-spawn-range is set to 8, mobs can spawn in a radius of 8 chunks (128 blocks) around each player.

Or, if it’s set to 4, mobs can spawn in a radius of 4 chunks (64 blocks) around each player.

It doesn’t really improve performance on its own, but it’s necessary if you have lower spawn limits. That’s because you want the few mobs which do spawn to be concentrated around players, to give the illusion of more mobs spawning.

For example, if you have a spawn limit of 21 monsters, and a mob-spawn-range of 8, those 21 monsters will be spread out over a large area, meaning players may not see many mobs around them. But if you set the mob-spawn-range to 3, those 21 monsters will be concentrated in a smaller area, meaning players will see more mobs around them.

Simulation distance notes

You should never set the mob-spawn-range higher than your server’s simulation-distance (set in server.properties) or it just won’t do anything useful. There’s no point spawning mobs outside of the area which can be ticked.

You also shouldn’t set the mob-spawn-range to anything above 8.