Player Head Drops

by Vanilla Tweaks

Players drop their head when killed by another player. Collect heads as trophies from your PvP victories.

Overview

Player Head Drops makes any player who is killed by another player drop a head modelled on their own skin. The head is the same item you would normally only get from the rare wandering-trader or command route, turned into a natural PvP reward. On factions, anarchy, or war-themed servers it gives fights a tangible souvenir and a wall of trophies to show off.

Suited to PvP and faction servers that want kills to leave a lasting, displayable mark. It comes from Vanilla Tweaks, sits in the Gameplay category, and is rated a simple, drop-in 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.

Features

Drops player skull on PvP death
Head shows the killed player's skin
Only drops on player-caused deaths
Works with named players

How It Works

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

1A death-by-player event is detected through the pack's scoreboard tracking
2A player head NBT-tagged with the victim's profile is spawned at the death point
3Mob-, fall-, and environment-caused deaths produce no head
4The dropped skull renders the exact skin of the player who died

Supported Versions

1.201.20.11.20.41.211.21.4

Compatibility

Compatible with most data packs.

Stacks cleanly with More Mob Heads since one targets players and the other targets mobs
Keep-inventory does not block the head drop; the skull is separate from the victim's items

Player Head Drops 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.

How to Install

Player Head Drops 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.Download the Player Head Drops pack as a .zip and keep it zipped.
2.Open the target world folder — a singleplayer save under .minecraft/saves, or the world folder on your server.
3.Drop the .zip into that world's datapacks folder, creating the folder if it does not exist.
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. It only adds loot logic and a death detector, so enabling or removing it never touches existing inventories or builds.

View full install guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Do heads drop from any death?

No. A head only drops when one player kills another. Deaths from mobs, fall damage, lava or other environmental causes will not produce a skull.

Whose face appears on the head?

The head shows the skin of the player who was killed, so each trophy is recognisable as the specific person you defeated.

Can I display these heads on a wall?

Yes. They are ordinary player heads, so they can be placed on blocks, worn in the helmet slot, or arranged as a trophy wall like any other skull.

Which versions does it work on?

It supports Minecraft 1.20 through 1.21.4 on Java Edition and installs the same way on both servers and singleplayer worlds.

Does it interfere with keep inventory?

It does not. The head is generated by the pack independently of the victim's dropped or retained items, so it works whether or not keepInventory is on.