Welcome back to our penultimate entry in our ongoing series, Building A Discord. In case you missed any of the previous entries, so far we’ve covered what Discord is and why you should use it, creating an action plan for building and developing your server, and how to add polish and flare. For this installment, we’re diving even deeper as we discuss the various types of Bots you can use in your server.

Attack of the Bots

So, what exactly are “Bots”? Aren’t they those things that people use in RuneScape to level up automatically? Well, yes, but not in this case.

In terms of Discord, a Bot is a sort of plugin you can use for your server to perform many different functions that a normal user cannot (at least not easily). They are typically maintained and deployed through user commands or pre-set through a configuration page. Bots can be programmed to do almost anything on Discord, and as such, there are many, many different bots that all do different things.

For example, bots can do things like keep track of user stats/metrics, award points based on activity in a server (or even a specific channel), hand out user roles, play music through a voice channel, auto-moderate your chat, and so much more.

In fact, there are bots for almost any purpose and function. To avoid overload, the first thing you should do is narrow down which bots you should consider using in your server.

A Robot Army

Now that you have at least a vague understanding of what Bots are, here are some that are particularly useful across most types of servers:

MEE6

MEE6 (yes, it is a reference to Mr. Meeseeks from Adult Swim’s Rick & Morty) is probably the most popular Discord bot. You’ll find it on many different servers, mostly because of its multipurpose nature and ease of use.

It doesn’t require any commands to use (though you can set them up if you’d like), and it can do a multitude of different things, all of which it does very well. It can moderate your server through word filters, notify you when users go live on Twitch or upload a YouTube video, post messages on a timer, and award points based on user activity across the whole server, or in specific channels.

 

There is a caveat, however. Certain features of MEE6 (and parts of some of the free ones) are only available if you purchase MEE6 Premium, the most significant being the previously free Role Reward feature. It can be pretty pricey, but depending on your budget and how badly you want to use the features, it can be worth it.

Arcane

A MEE6 alternative that will level up users and award roles for free. Arcane’s description actually takes a bit of a jab at MEE6, saying “We will never charge a dime for our core features, ever. Levels with rewards, auto-moderation, music. Dyno, Rythm, and MEE6 combined!”

But seriously, if you’re looking for a Level and Role Reward bot but don’t feel like shelling out for MEE6 Premium, Arcane may be the bot you’re looking for.

Nightbot

If you’re at all familiar with Twitch.tv, you’ve likely seen Nightbot in a few channels before. If you’re a streamer, you should definitely consider adding Nightbot to your Discord server as well. Commands are cross-compatible with the Twitch version, so users can use the same commands in both places. It also features auto-moderation, which can be handy if your server becomes quite large.

Custom Bots

While there are many, many different bots already out there for users to download for free, sometimes there isn’t one that can do what you’d like it to do. Maybe you have a specific need that isn’t covered by another Bot. In this case, it may be worth it to create your own (or hire someone to make it for you).

For example, The Messenger Discord server (discord.gg/themessenger) has a couple of unique custom bots, one of which is the Clockwork Concierge, which awards Time Shards upon people “joining the #dojo”. If you have a specific need or theme to your server, a custom bot may be the way to go.

The Tip of the Botberg

There are many other types of bots, like economy bots, team-finding bots like Guilded, and music bots like Rythm. Rest assured, there are plenty of options for you to tailor your server to your needs. They can add a ton of personality and functionality to a server, which can play a big part in getting users to stick around longer and stay active…

Speaking of which, that’s exactly what we’ll be covering in the finale of Building A Discord. Stay tuned for our final blog in which we’ll talk about how to get people into your server, and more importantly, how to get them to be active and stay in your server.

 

 

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