diff --git a/build-logic/build.gradle.kts b/build-logic/build.gradle.kts
index 53ead835f..d306fc9d9 100644
--- a/build-logic/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/build-logic/build.gradle.kts
@@ -9,5 +9,5 @@ repositories {
 dependencies {
     implementation("net.kyori", "indra-common", "3.1.3")
     implementation("com.github.johnrengelman", "shadow", "8.1.1")
-    implementation("xyz.jpenilla", "run-task", "2.1.0")
+    implementation("xyz.jpenilla", "run-task", "2.2.3")
 }
diff --git a/build-logic/src/main/kotlin/essentials.base-conventions.gradle.kts b/build-logic/src/main/kotlin/essentials.base-conventions.gradle.kts
index e2401cba3..efb9fdbc4 100644
--- a/build-logic/src/main/kotlin/essentials.base-conventions.gradle.kts
+++ b/build-logic/src/main/kotlin/essentials.base-conventions.gradle.kts
@@ -117,6 +117,8 @@ indra {
     javaVersions {
         target(8)
         minimumToolchain(17)
+        // Don't enforce running tests on Java 8; we only care about the release for compiling, not running tests
+        strictVersions(false)
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index c1962a79e..d64cd4917 100644
Binary files a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar and b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar differ
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index c30b486a8..a80b22ce5 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.3-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.6-bin.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
+validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/gradlew b/gradlew
index aeb74cbb4..1aa94a426 100755
--- a/gradlew
+++ b/gradlew
@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ done
 # This is normally unused
 # shellcheck disable=SC2034
 APP_BASE_NAME=${0##*/}
-APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" && pwd -P ) || exit
+# Discard cd standard output in case $CDPATH is set (https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/25036)
+APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" > /dev/null && pwd -P ) || exit
 
 # Use the maximum available, or set MAX_FD != -1 to use that value.
 MAX_FD=maximum
@@ -130,10 +131,13 @@ location of your Java installation."
     fi
 else
     JAVACMD=java
-    which java >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
+    if ! command -v java >/dev/null 2>&1
+    then
+        die "ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
 
 Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
 location of your Java installation."
+    fi
 fi
 
 # Increase the maximum file descriptors if we can.
@@ -141,7 +145,7 @@ if ! "$cygwin" && ! "$darwin" && ! "$nonstop" ; then
     case $MAX_FD in #(
       max*)
         # In POSIX sh, ulimit -H is undefined. That's why the result is checked to see if it worked.
-        # shellcheck disable=SC3045
+        # shellcheck disable=SC2039,SC3045
         MAX_FD=$( ulimit -H -n ) ||
             warn "Could not query maximum file descriptor limit"
     esac
@@ -149,7 +153,7 @@ if ! "$cygwin" && ! "$darwin" && ! "$nonstop" ; then
       '' | soft) :;; #(
       *)
         # In POSIX sh, ulimit -n is undefined. That's why the result is checked to see if it worked.
-        # shellcheck disable=SC3045
+        # shellcheck disable=SC2039,SC3045
         ulimit -n "$MAX_FD" ||
             warn "Could not set maximum file descriptor limit to $MAX_FD"
     esac
@@ -198,11 +202,11 @@ fi
 # Add default JVM options here. You can also use JAVA_OPTS and GRADLE_OPTS to pass JVM options to this script.
 DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS='"-Xmx64m" "-Xms64m"'
 
-# Collect all arguments for the java command;
-#   * $DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS, $JAVA_OPTS, and $GRADLE_OPTS can contain fragments of
-#     shell script including quotes and variable substitutions, so put them in
-#     double quotes to make sure that they get re-expanded; and
-#   * put everything else in single quotes, so that it's not re-expanded.
+# Collect all arguments for the java command:
+#   * DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS, JAVA_OPTS, JAVA_OPTS, and optsEnvironmentVar are not allowed to contain shell fragments,
+#     and any embedded shellness will be escaped.
+#   * For example: A user cannot expect ${Hostname} to be expanded, as it is an environment variable and will be
+#     treated as '${Hostname}' itself on the command line.
 
 set -- \
         "-Dorg.gradle.appname=$APP_BASE_NAME" \
diff --git a/gradlew.bat b/gradlew.bat
index 93e3f59f1..25da30dbd 100644
--- a/gradlew.bat
+++ b/gradlew.bat
@@ -43,11 +43,11 @@ set JAVA_EXE=java.exe
 %JAVA_EXE% -version >NUL 2>&1
 if %ERRORLEVEL% equ 0 goto execute
 
-echo.
-echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
-echo.
-echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
-echo location of your Java installation.
+echo. 1>&2
+echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH. 1>&2
+echo. 1>&2
+echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the 1>&2
+echo location of your Java installation. 1>&2
 
 goto fail
 
@@ -57,11 +57,11 @@ set JAVA_EXE=%JAVA_HOME%/bin/java.exe
 
 if exist "%JAVA_EXE%" goto execute
 
-echo.
-echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is set to an invalid directory: %JAVA_HOME%
-echo.
-echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
-echo location of your Java installation.
+echo. 1>&2
+echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is set to an invalid directory: %JAVA_HOME% 1>&2
+echo. 1>&2
+echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the 1>&2
+echo location of your Java installation. 1>&2
 
 goto fail