Aurelium Skills (AuraSkills) vs mcMMO: which RPG skills plugin is better in 2026

If your server has any kind of survival, economy or progression, sooner or later you face the skills question. A player mines stone, chops wood, kills mobs, and a +25 XP Mining line appears in chat. Behind that line there is almost always one of two plugins: mcMMO or AuraSkills (formerly Aurelium Skills). Let us walk through what each does in 2026 and how to pick the right fit for your server.

History: one was born before Spigot, the other during 1.16

mcMMO appeared back in 2010, when Bukkit was young and 1.5 still felt like the distant future. The author nossr50 started the project as a skill set for his own server, and by 2012 the plugin was running on thousands of servers. Several forks and branches came and went since, but the active repo lives at github.com/mcMMO-Dev/mcMMO, builds are produced in their CI and published on Hangar (hangar.papermc.io). The 1.21+ build is called mcMMO Classic and is maintained by a team after the original author stepped back.

Aurelium Skills was released in December 2020, by Archy-X. It started as a young SpigotMC project but by 2022 grew into a standalone plugin with its own stat system and custom skills. In 2023 the author rebranded it to AuraSkills (github.com/Archy-X/AuraSkills), arguing that the word Aurelium was tied to a specific game and held the brand back. The current 2.x release runs on Paper 1.21+ and Folia, available via Modrinth (modrinth.com/plugin/auraskills).

The age difference matters. mcMMO is locked into design decisions from 2010 to 2014: chat as UI, fixed skills, monolithic config. AuraSkills was designed with modern API, GUI menus and YAML grouped by file in mind. You see this immediately when you compare how players interact with each system on the server.

Skill list and design philosophy

mcMMO Classic ships with 14 skills out of the box, split into combat and gathering. Combat: Swords, Axes, Unarmed, Archery, Taming. Gathering: Mining, Excavation, Woodcutting, Herbalism, Fishing. Utility: Repair, Salvage, Acrobatics, Alchemy. Each skill has a set of sub-abilities: super abilities (Super Breaker, Tree Feller, Berserk), passive effects (Double Drops, Bleed), reactive effects (Counter Attack, Deflect Arrows). The logic is simple: real action grants XP, certain levels unlock a perk or active ability.

AuraSkills 2.x ships with 15 skills by default: Farming, Foraging, Mining, Fishing, Excavation, Archery, Defense, Fighting, Endurance, Agility, Alchemy, Enchanting, Sorcery, Healing, Forging. Under the hood every skill levels one or more stats: Strength, Health, Regeneration, Luck, Wisdom, Toughness. A stat is not a skill, the skill raises a stat through level_progression. This gives an RPG structure closer to classic Diablo-like systems than mcMMO, where the skill and its effects are one entity.

Philosophical difference: mcMMO leans into level up, unlock active ability, AuraSkills leans into level up, grow a passive stat. In practice with mcMMO a player holds right click for Super Breaker and clears a vein in eight seconds, with AuraSkills the same player at Mining 50 just gets double drops more often plus more regen, no active button. Which approach fits better is a matter of taste for your server team.

XP formulas and the leveling curve

In mcMMO the XP formula is hard-coded and tuned through experience.yml. By default each level needs 1020 + (level * 20) XP, with exponential modification through Formula_Type: EXPONENTIAL. So leveling from 1 to 100 grows roughly quadratically in actions spent. The actions themselves have fixed XP: a stone block gives 18 Mining XP, an oak tree gives 70 Woodcutting XP, hitting a zombie with a sword scales with damage dealt. You can tweak this in experience.yml, but modifier logic is limited to static multipliers.

# mcMMO experience.yml (excerpt)
Formula:
  Curve: EXPONENTIAL
  Multiplier:
    Exponent: 1.0
    Skill: 0.5
  Modifier:
    Linear: 20.0
    Exponential: 0.1

Experience_Values:
  Mining:
    Stone: 18
    Coal_Ore: 50
    Iron_Ore: 80
    Diamond_Ore: 150
  Combat:
    Multiplier:
      Animals: 1.0
      Animals_Hardcore: 2.0
      Passive: 1.0

In AuraSkills the formula sits in config.yml and is described by base, multiplier, level_exponent. The default is XP(level) = base + level * multiplier + level^level_exponent * multiplier. This lets you precisely tune the curve to the desired progression length. On top of that every action lives as a separate file under sources/ and is described by a YAML block with multipliers, world filters, NBT filters and conditions. The flexibility is noticeably higher.

# AuraSkills config.yml (excerpt)
leveling:
  highest_max_level: 100
  experience:
    base: 100
    multiplier: 1.0
    level_exponent: 2.0

# AuraSkills sources/mining/blocks.yml
ores:
  type: BLOCK_BREAK
  values:
    - block: minecraft:stone
      xp: 4.0
    - block: minecraft:coal_ore
      xp: 12.0
      conditions:
        worlds: [world, world_nether]
    - block: minecraft:diamond_ore
      xp: 80.0
      multipliers:
        worlds:
          world_nether: 1.5

In practice: with mcMMO admins usually only edit numbers in one file and accept the fixed curve shape. With AuraSkills the admin can rewrite the math itself and split each action into its own file, which scales much better for big configs and Git repos.

UI: chat commands vs Lapis menus

mcMMO has historically lived in chat. Commands /mmoinfo Mining, /mmoedit, /inspect <player>, /mctop print colored text blocks. Since version 2.x the plugin gained ScoreboardUtils, progress bars and ActionBar notifications, but the main UI stayed text-based. For an admin that is a plus: everything is visible in logs. For a player it is a minus: 14 skills and hundreds of perks live in chat, and a newcomer without a wiki is lost.

AuraSkills has shipped with a GUI menu since version 1, built on Lapis API (the author's wrapper around Bukkit Inventory). The /skills command opens a chest window with skill items, clicking each opens a detail screen with a progress bar, level rewards list and active stats. Menus are fully customizable through the menus/ directory: icons, slots, text, filters. For servers with a large share of newcomers this is a huge plus, especially for survival with economy where you want to show the player exactly what is leveling right now.

# AuraSkills menus/skills.yml (excerpt)
title: '<gradient:#10b981:#8b5cf6>Skills</gradient>'
size: 6
items:
  mining:
    type: skill
    skill: mining
    pos: '1,1'
    material: diamond_pickaxe
    enchanted: '{level} >= 25'
    lore_when_locked:
      - '<gray>Locked until level 5'

ActionBar and BossBar are supported in both plugins, but AuraSkills draws them more nicely by default: MiniMessage gradients, progress bar, current level and next. mcMMO can do that with tuning, but its default is drier.

Custom skills and the stat system

mcMMO does not officially support custom skills. There was an experimental Custom_Skills flag in a developer branch, but in Classic it is disabled, and to add your own skills you either fork the plugin or pair it with Skript or Denizen. That is a serious limitation if your server has unique mechanics and you want to add, for example, a Cooking or Smelting skill separate from Alchemy.

In AuraSkills custom skills are a first-class feature. In the skills/ directory you create a YAML file with skill metadata: icon, description, ability list, related stats. Then in sources/ you describe the XP sources. You can build a Cooking skill that levels by smelting food in a furnace, give Wisdom and Health stats for it, and bind rewards. No Java work, no fork.

# AuraSkills skills/cooking.yml (custom skill)
cooking:
  display_name: Cooking
  description: Skill of cooking food in a furnace
  max_level: 100
  ability_options:
    cook_master:
      enabled: true
      base_value: 0.5
      value_per_level: 0.5
  abilities:
    - cook_master
  mana_abilities: []
  options:
    icon: cooked_beef

The stat system gives a second layer of customization. On top of six built-in stats the admin can declare their own: create mana_pool, bind it to the Sorcery skill, grant it per level and consume it from MythicMobs abilities. mcMMO does not support that at the core level, and similar mechanics need third-party plugins with their own API.

Integrations: PlaceholderAPI, MythicMobs, Slimefun

PlaceholderAPI is supported by both plugins. mcMMO registers placeholders as mcmmo_*: %mcmmo_level_mining%, %mcmmo_xp_mining%, %mcmmo_power_level%. AuraSkills uses auraskills_*: %auraskills_mining%, %auraskills_mining_xp_progress%, %auraskills_stat_strength%. AuraSkills exposes more entries, because the plugin also publishes stats, reward multipliers and active modifiers.

MythicMobs works with both, but in different ways. With mcMMO the integration is mostly through damage hooks: a MythicMobs mob deals damage, mcMMO catches the event and grants XP to Swords or Archery. Fine tuning is possible via experience.yml and Combat_Tracking, but it is not perfect, because mcMMO does not understand custom mobs and treats them with the default multiplier.

With AuraSkills there is an official integration through the mythic module: in XP sources you can declare mythic_mob: SkeletonKing and set a custom XP for that specific mob. Beyond that, MythicMobs can use the auraskills_xp and auraskills_stat mechanics to grant players XP or temporarily boost a stat right from a boss fight. That removes a lot of glue work from anyone building an RPG server with bosses.

Slimefun integrates with AuraSkills through addons like SlimefunSkillsAddon and dedicated hooks. Slimefun blocks and ores can be registered as Mining XP sources. With mcMMO this only works through workarounds, because the mcMMO core does not distinguish Slimefun custom blocks from vanilla and may produce odd results when granting XP on a placeholder block.

Performance

Both plugins are not bottlenecks on a modern server with 30 to 50 online. But they have different costs in edge cases.

mcMMO under load: the common pain points are Acrobatics on combat arenas with many falls and Repair on servers with active repair economy. Under such conditions Spark shows spikes from level recalculation and perk checks. The fix is disabling unused modules in config.yml under Skills.

AuraSkills under load: the main costs are async player stat saves and processing custom skills with many XP sources. On servers with 100+ online and the vanilla skill set the plugin usually takes less than one tick per full cycle, but with hundreds of custom sources costs grow linearly. Spark shows small spikes during BlockBreakEvent.

Memory: mcMMO uses SQL or flatfile storage. On large servers with tens of thousands of players the difference is visible in the dump size, but barely felt in RAM. AuraSkills holds data through PlayerData objects and supports MySQL/H2, keeps active players in RAM and flushes to disk every N seconds (autosave_interval).

Configurability

mcMMO is configured through several large YAML files: config.yml, experience.yml, treasures.yml, repair.vanilla.yml. One file can grow to 1500-2000 lines. That is convenient when everything sits in one place, but harder to track in Git and code review.

AuraSkills splits configs into directories: config.yml, messages/, menus/, skills/, sources/, lang/. Each skill is a file, each menu is a file. Easy to make partial edits and keep a repo. Downside: at first setup you have more files to keep in mind.

# AuraSkills layout (plugin/AuraSkills/)
plugins/AuraSkills/
  config.yml
  loot/
    fishing.yml
    excavation.yml
  menus/
    skills.yml
    stats.yml
    skill.yml
  messages/
    messages_en.yml
    messages_ru.yml
  skills/
    mining.yml
    farming.yml
  sources/
    farming/
      blocks.yml
      crops.yml
    mining/
      blocks.yml

# mcMMO layout (plugin/mcMMO/)
plugins/mcMMO/
  config.yml
  experience.yml
  treasures.yml
  fishing_treasures.yml
  repair.vanilla.yml
  salvage.vanilla.yml
  advanced.yml
  locale/

Migrating from mcMMO to AuraSkills

The plugins are not data-compatible directly: their internal skills differ, XP formulas differ, storage layouts differ. There is no first-party importer, but a manual mapping via a script works. The production approach:

1. Dump mcmmo_users from MySQL or copy the flatfile players.flat.
2. For each player compute power level and distribute it across AuraSkills skills via a mapping table (Mining to Mining, Swords to Fighting, Acrobatics to Agility, and so on).
3. Load the result through /auraskills profile load <player> or directly into the database.
4. Hand out bonus rewards for the conversion to soften the psychological hit of perceived level loss.

In practice most admins do not run a full migration. They install AuraSkills in parallel, freeze XP in mcMMO via Skill_Disabled: true, leave mcMMO around as legacy for a month or two, and then remove it. That is safer than a mass import with risk of data loss.

When to pick which plugin

Pick mcMMO if: the server was born between 2014 and 2020, players already use chat commands, you want active super abilities on right click, and you do not plan custom skills. It is a reliable choice for classic survival betting on nostalgia and proven code.

Pick AuraSkills if: the server is new, you have at least one custom skill in mind, you need GUI menus for newcomers, you have an RPG layer with stats and MythicMobs bosses, and you plan to manage the system through Git. That is the choice for projects from 2024 to 2026 with an RPG vector.

Some teams run both, splitting them by sub-server through a proxy: mcMMO on survival for classic leveling, AuraSkills on the RPG arena for MythicMobs raids. That works, but it costs you stats sync and double configs.

Big comparison table

Parameter	mcMMO Classic	AuraSkills 2.x
Release year	2010	2020 (rebranded 2023)
Author	nossr50 + team	Archy-X
Distribution	Hangar	Modrinth, GitHub
MC versions	1.13-1.21+	1.20-1.21+, Folia
Default skills	14	15
Custom skills	no	yes, via YAML
Stat system	no	6 built-in + custom
UI	chat, ActionBar, BossBar	Lapis menu + ActionBar
Localization	yes	broader
PlaceholderAPI	yes	yes, wider coverage
MythicMobs	via damage events	official integration
Slimefun	workarounds	through addon
Active abilities	yes (Super Breaker, etc.)	through mana abilities
Storage	MySQL/Flatfile	MySQL/H2
Configs	big monoliths	per directory
Folia	partial	yes
Admin commands	/mmoedit /mctop /mcrefresh	/sk admin /sk profile
Developer API	stable, old	modern, active

FAQ

Can I run mcMMO and AuraSkills together?

Technically yes, the classes do not collide. But players will earn XP from both, which almost always breaks balance. If you run both, disable overlapping skills in one of them through Skills_Disabled or by removing files in sources/.

Which is better for bosses and arenas?

AuraSkills, because it has direct integration with MythicMobs and lets you grant custom XP for a specific boss. mcMMO counts damage mechanically and does not distinguish unique mobs.

Does AuraSkills hammer the server?

On Paper 1.21+ with 50 online and a standard skill set it costs less than one tick per cycle. mcMMO is roughly the same. The gap shows only with hundreds of custom XP sources in AuraSkills, and is solved by disabling unused files.

Does AuraSkills support MySQL?

Yes, the sql section in config.yml lets you specify host, port, database, user and password. By default it uses H2 as a local SQLite replacement. For sync between servers behind BungeeCord/Velocity you should use MySQL.

Are Aurelium Skills and AuraSkills the same?

Yes, AuraSkills is the new name of the same plugin after the 2023 rebrand. Old versions under the Aurelium Skills name still sit on SpigotMC, but new builds and support only ship under AuraSkills.

Can I run AuraSkills with MineGuard DDoS protection?

The shield works at the network layer and does not interfere with plugins. AuraSkills, mcMMO and any other RPG plugins run as usual, MineGuard cuts bots and L7 floods before packets reach the Bukkit cycle.

In 2026 the right move is AuraSkills on new projects. mcMMO remains a solid choice for classic survival servers where players are already attached to it. If your project leans RPG, with custom skills or serious MythicMobs and Slimefun integrations, AuraSkills wins on almost every front, and you do not pay for that flexibility with anything important.