On Prison you mine blocks in a mine of your own, sell them for money, and spend that money to rank up, while the tokens you earn make your pickaxe stronger. This guide walks you through your first session and then shows what comes next. If you are new to the network, read Getting Started on Netherite first for connecting and the basics shared by every gamemode.
1. Join Prison#
Choose Prison from the server selector at the hub (see Server Selector). You arrive at Prison spawn.
- Your pickaxe is given to you automatically. It never breaks and you cannot drop it. If you ever log in without it, a new one is given to you. See The Pickaxe.
- Your first daily kit is given on your first join, and you can claim it again every day with
/kit default. It holds an Explosive enchant token (5 levels) and a Daily Tokens Booster (1.25x tokens for 15 minutes). See Enchant Tokens and Mystery Dust and Boosters. - The Prison Progression Guide also opens on your first join. Reopen it any time with
/guide./phelpopens How Prison Works, a short page on each system, and/prisonopens the Prison hub, with a button for every system. See Prison Menus. - The
/warpsmenu (see Warps) lists the main destinations: Spawn, Crates, My Mine, PvP, Leaderboards and AFK.
2. Go to your mine#
Run /mine home (or click My Mine in /warps). You arrive in your own mine, a private world that only you and your gang can mine in. It starts at rank 1 and is filled with stone and cobblestone. See Mines and Using Your Mine. (On Bedrock Edition, /mine takes you there directly.)
3. Mine#
Break blocks with your pickaxe. For every block:
- you instantly receive tokens (15 for stone and 20 for cobblestone at rank 1);
- the block drops into your backpack, not your inventory, and the backpack has no size limit.
Tokens pay for pickaxe upgrades. Dropped items become money when you sell them. See Prison Currencies and Mine Blocks.
4. Sell#
Run /sell to turn your backpack into money. At rank 1 every stone or cobblestone sells for $50, so 1,000 blocks give you $50,000.
To save typing, open /backpack and switch on Toggle Auto Sell: your backpack is sold for you on a timer, every 5 minutes at first. Two token upgrades shorten the timer and raise the payout. See Backpack and Autosell. Instant autosell (/autosell) needs the Huntsman rank or higher, or the Permanent Autosell reward from the Rebirth Crate.
5. Rank up#
Spend money with /rankup, or /maxrankup (alias /rankupmax) to buy as many ranks as you can afford. The first rankup costs $800 and the price rises with every rank.
| To reach rank | Total money |
|---|---|
| 5 | $8,007 |
| 10 | $36,068 |
| 25 | $241,180 |
| 50 | $989,758 |
| 100 | $4,039,684 |
| 250 | $26,177,897 |
| 500 | $110,351,705 |
| 1,000 | $489,212,493 |
Turn on /autorankup to rank up automatically as soon as you can afford it. The full ladder is on Rankup Costs. As you rank up, richer blocks appear in your mine; for example iron ore from rank 25 and gold ore from rank 50.
6. Spend your tokens on the pickaxe#
Hold your pickaxe and right-click, or run /pickaxe, to open the enchant menu. Enchants cost tokens and make you mine and earn faster.
- Start with the Common enchants that are unlocked from the start, such as Fortune, Token Finder and Explosive.
- Turn on Auto level for the ones you want, so levels are bought whenever you can pay.
- New enchants unlock as you prestige. Every enchant has a cap that rises with prestige. See Pickaxe Enchant Caps and Prison Enchants.
7. Your first prestige#
Your first prestige needs rank 1,000 and $1.5 billion. It resets your rank to 1 and your money to 0, and permanently multiplies the money and tokens you earn by 1.10, compounding with every prestige. Later prestiges need a higher rank and a bigger fee. You keep your tokens, pickaxe, backpack upgrades and beacons. Sell your backpack first, because its contents are destroyed rather than sold. See Prestige.
Prestige 10 opens the shared planet mines (/prestigemine), and 100 prestiges lead to rebirth. See Rebirth.
Daily habits#
| What | How it helps | Page |
|---|---|---|
/kit default | A free token booster and enchant token every day | Enchant Tokens and Mystery Dust |
| Rollcall | Click the officer at spawn during the hourly 5-minute rollcall for a 10% money boost on selling until the next one | Rollcall |
| Quests | Daily, weekly and monthly rewards | Prison Quests |
| Achievements | Milestone money rewards, claimed automatically | Prison Achievements |
/mine reset | A fresh mine whenever it runs low (at most every 45 seconds) | Using Your Mine |
What to unlock next#
| System | What it is |
|---|---|
| Plot | Your own building area, with chest shops and themes |
| Mining Robot | Mines for you, even while you are offline |
| Minions | Hatchable companions with boosts that level up |
| Pets | Collectible buddies for small boosts |
| Gangs | Team up, share perks and compete on beacons |
| Dungeons | Group runs for rewards |
| Orders | Fill other players' item orders for pay, or post your own |
| Crates | Keys from prestiging, rebirthing, voting and chat games open rewards |
Progression at a glance#
| Step | What you do | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Rank (1 to 10,000) | Pay money | Richer blocks and, from prestige 2, a bigger mine |
| Prestige (1 to 100) | Pay a money fee at the required rank | x1.10 money and tokens per prestige, new enchants, Prestige Crate Keys, planet mines from prestige 10 |
| Rebirth | Prestige 100, rank 10,000, mined blocks and a token fee | x1.5 money and tokens, x2 beacons per rebirth, Rebirth Crate Keys |
Tips#
- After a big sale, use
/maxrankupto buy every rank you can afford in one go. - Keep your pickaxe in your hotbar: right-click it to open the enchant menu from anywhere in the mine.
- Use
/phelpwhenever you forget a system. It covers every one of them in short pages. - Some vanilla actions work differently on Prison (no damage or hunger in mines, no inventory crafting). See Prison Restrictions.