How To Get and Use The Minecraft World border (Updated)

Hello everyone, it’s UnderMyCap, and welcome back to another video. Today I’m going to show you how to use the World Border command. I’ve made videos like this before, but I want to answer some common questions and clearly explain every feature. I’m pretty sure there are six main parts, so we’ll go through each one.

Unfortunately, this only works on Java Edition (not Bedrock/MCPE). By the end of this post, you should be able to use the World Border command right away.

What the World Border Does

This is what the world border looks like in-game. A world border exists to stop players from leaving a defined area of the world.

How to Place the World Border (Center)

You may be wondering how I got the world border in this exact spot. The first command is setting the center.

Use:

/worldborder center ~ ~

After running it, you’ll notice the border shifts—because you just centered it on your current position. When you first start, it might look like nothing is happening (because the border is extremely far away by default), but this command defines where it’s centered.

How to Resize the Border (Set)

The second command is setting the border’s size (distance/diameter).

For example:

/worldborder set 50

Now the world border is set to 50 blocks across.

In a brand-new world, the border is usually set to something massive (millions of blocks), so you won’t see it until you shrink it.

Set the Border Over Time (Smooth Movement)

You can also change the border size gradually over a set duration (in seconds). For example:

/worldborder set 100 5

This changes the border to 100 blocks across over 5 seconds. While it’s moving, you’ll see the border animated (often appearing green while expanding).

Check the Current Border Size (Get)

If you’re ever unsure how wide your border is, use:

/worldborder get

This tells you the current size of the world border.

Increase or Decrease the Border Size (Add)

The add command increases or decreases the current border size by a specific amount.

Example (increase by 10):

/worldborder add 10

Example (decrease by 10):

/worldborder add -10

Add Over Time

Just like set, you can apply add gradually over time:

/worldborder add 10 3

This adds 10 blocks to the current border size over 3 seconds.

How to “Remove” the World Border

If you want the border to effectively disappear, you can set it to a huge value. For example:

/worldborder set 999999999

Once it’s that large, it won’t matter during normal gameplay because you won’t reach it.

Damage Settings (Damage)

Now for the more advanced (but still easy) commands. Next is damage. This section has two important parts: buffer and amount.

Damage Buffer

Buffer is the distance a player must be outside the border before taking damage.

Example:

/worldborder damage buffer 10

This means you can go up to 10 blocks beyond the border without taking damage. Once you are more than 10 blocks outside, you will start getting hurt.

Damage Amount

Amount controls how much damage you take once you’re past the buffer.

Example:

/worldborder damage amount 0.1

This sets the damage per block per second beyond the buffer. For instance, if you’re 11 blocks outside, you’ll take a small amount of damage; if you’re 12 blocks outside, you’ll take more, and so on—adding more damage the farther you are beyond the buffer.

Warning Settings (Warning)

The final command is warning. This only matters when the world border is moving (for example, when it’s expanding or shrinking over time). When warning is active, a red vignette effect appears around the edges of the player’s screen if the border is getting close.

There are two types of warning settings: distance and time.

Warning Distance

Distance means the warning effect appears when the border is within a certain number of blocks from the player.

Example:

/worldborder warning distance 5

If the border moves and comes within 5 blocks of you, you’ll see the red warning effect.

Warning Time

Time means the warning effect appears when the border will reach the player within a certain number of seconds.

Example:

/worldborder warning time 10

If the border is moving and is about to reach you within 10 seconds, the warning effect will appear.

That’s about it—I’m trying to keep this as short as possible. Thanks so much for watching, and I can’t wait to see you in the next video.