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Graves

by Vanilla Tweaks

When you die, your items are stored in a grave block at your death location instead of scattering on the ground. Right-click to retrieve.

Overview

Graves replaces the chaotic scatter of items on death with a tidy grave placed right where you fell. A function captures your inventory at the moment of death and stores it in a grave marker at your death coordinates, with the location announced in chat so you can navigate back. Only you, the owner, can open the grave by right-clicking it, and the stored items never despawn while they wait. It softens the sting of dying without handing out the full safety of keepInventory.

A fit for survival and SMP worlds that want a fair death penalty while protecting players from losing gear down lava or off cliffs. It comes from Vanilla Tweaks, sits in the Gameplay category, and is rated a moderate pack to run. Everything happens through vanilla data pack functions, so no mod loader such as Fabric or Forge is required to use it on Minecraft 1.20 through 1.21.4.

Category
Gameplay
Complexity
Moderate
Install Method
World & Server
Popularity
Very Popular

Features

How It Works

Under the hood, Graves relies on plain data pack mechanics rather than any client mod. Here is what happens in-game once it is loaded:

  1. 1A death-triggered function gathers the player drops and writes them into a grave at the death position
  2. 2The grave coordinates are broadcast to the owner in chat for easy recovery
  3. 3Ownership is recorded so only the player who died can right-click and reclaim the contents
  4. 4Stored items are held in the grave and do not despawn over time like ground drops

Supported Versions

1.201.20.11.20.41.211.21.4

Compatibility

Compatible with most data packs.

  • Conflicts with other death-handling or grave packs that also intercept player death drops
  • Pairs well with hardcore-style or no-keepInventory play where losing gear matters
  • Leave the keepInventory gamerule off, since enabling it skips drops and bypasses graves

Graves is a pure data pack and does not ship a resource pack, so it changes server-side behaviour without altering textures, models or sounds on the client.

Tags

deathgravesitemskeep inventory

How to Install

Graves installs as a standard Java Edition data pack and runs on both singleplayer worlds and multiplayer servers. Recent 1.21 releases bumped the data pack format, so keep the pack's pack.mcmeta in step with your server version.

  1. 1.Download the Graves pack as a .zip and keep it zipped.
  2. 2.Open the target world folder — a singleplayer save under .minecraft/saves, or the world folder on your server.
  3. 3.Drop the .zip into that world's datapacks folder, creating the folder if it does not exist.
  4. 4.Load the world (or run /reload if it is already open) and run /datapack list to confirm it is enabled.

The pack is built for Minecraft 1.20 through 1.21.4, so it loads on vanilla Java without Fabric, Forge or any other mod loader. Drop it into the datapacks folder; graves are owner-locked and hold your items at the exact death coordinates until you return to collect them.

View full install guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Minecraft versions does Graves support?

Graves runs on Java Edition 1.20, 1.20.1, 1.20.4, 1.21, and 1.21.4. Use the download that matches your save.

Does Graves require a mod?

No. It is a server-side vanilla data pack and needs no Fabric, Forge, or client mods.

Can other players steal my grave?

No. Graves are player-locked, so only the owner who died can right-click to retrieve the stored items.

Will my items despawn before I get back?

No. Items held in a grave never despawn, so you can take your time returning to your death location.

How do I find where I died?

The grave is created at your death coordinates, and those coordinates are posted in chat so you can navigate straight back.

Should I keep keepInventory turned off?

Yes. With keepInventory on, you do not drop items on death, so the grave system has nothing to store.

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