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Resources / Plugins / Better Keep Inventory

Better Keep Inventory

Keep or drop your inventory when killed by natural sources, mobs or players in PVP (Configurable)

PluginsFree1.8 – 26.x
by JustDoom · listed from Modrinth
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Direct download from Modrinth · 37,697 downloads

What it does

Better Keep Inventory is a plugin for Paper / Spigot servers, made by JustDoom. Keep or drop your inventory when killed by natural sources, mobs or players in PVP (Configurable).

It supports Minecraft 1.8 – 26.x. It has been downloaded 37,697 times on Modrinth. That puts it at #152 of the 371 utility plugins listed here. The last update came out on May 31, 2025.

Supported versions

26.x1.211.201.191.181.171.161.131.121.8

Release history

Better Keep Inventory has had 10 releases on Modrinth since Nov 13, 2022. None of them came out in the past year. The newest is 2.1.1, released on May 31, 2025. It is made for Minecraft 1.21.5 – 26.3. It runs on Paper and Purpur. The download is 41 KB.

VersionReleasedMinecraftType
2.1.1May 31, 20251.21.5 – 26.3Release
2.1.0May 15, 20251.21.4, 1.21.5, 1.21.6Release
Sponge-2.0.1May 3, 20251.21.4Release
Paper-2.0.1May 3, 20251.21.4, 1.21.5Release
Sponge-2.0.0May 2, 20251.21.4Release

Commands

The commands named on the Modrinth page of Better Keep Inventory:

/kill/betterkeepinventory/bki

Permissions

Permission nodes named there, to give with a plugin like LuckPerms:

betterkeepinventory.commandsbetterkeepinventory.keep
Description from the author on Modrinth

Better Keep Inventory

Better Keep Inventory is a plugin that builds more functionality on top of the "Keep Inventory" gamerule idea.
The gamerule is very limited with the only configuration available is enabling/disabling it and having it work in specific worlds.
This plugin can handle those scenarios for you and more! Per world configuration and keeping your inventory in specific scenarios such as natural deaths, mob deaths or player deaths.
Whether your items are kept or dropped for whatever reason is up to you!

Features

  • Per world configuration
  • Permissions
  • Reloadable config without restarting the server
  • Keep/Drop on PVP, Natural or Mob caused death!
  • Paper and Sponge support

Planned

  • Configurable message on keep inventory
  • Drop/keep only certain items
  • Limited keep inventory uses per specified time/lifetime

Usage

Just install the plugin to your plugins folder for your platform (Paper or Sponge)

A player death is classified as a player other than yourself causing your death, whether it be from a sword, arrow, or hitting off a cliff.
As long as Minecraft classifies it as being killed by another player it is labelled a player death in the plugin.

A natural death is when you die from starvation, fall damage, drowning, or from the void. It should cover death from the /kill command too.

A mob death is when you are killed by a hostile mob, creeper, skeleton, spider etc.

Commands

There is one command /betterkeepinventory reload which reloads the config file and applies the changes made.
It requires the permission betterkeepinventory.commands. You can also run /bki reload for short.

Permissions

By default, every player will have the keep inventory functionality enabled.
To only give it to specific people you can set the option require-permission to true and give only the players you want to have the keep inventory ability the permission betterkeepinventory.keep.
To do that you will need a permission plugin like LuckPerms.

Configuration

The Paper plugin uses a .yml file for configuration and the Sponge plugin uses a .json file.
For world specific settings the Sponge config needs the full world name such as minecraft:overworld.
Default world names are also different between Paper and Sponge

NOTE: DO NOT HAVE THE KEEP INVENTORY GAMERULE ENABLED WITH THIS PLUGIN

Global default settings that affect all worlds. Set all of them to false for vanilla functionality (No keep inventory)

"keep" refers to what should be kept when the player dies which is not configurable

Should the permission "betterkeepinventory.keep" be required for a player to "keep" on death

If false everyone will "keep"

require-permission: false

Should the player "keep" when killed by another player

keep-on-player-death: false

Should the player "keep" on a natural death. Fall damage, starving, drowning etc

keep-on-natural-death: true

Should the player "keep" when killed by a mob

keep-on-mob-death: true

Should the player "keep" if they commited suicide. With arrows, end crystal etc

keep-on-suicide: false

"keep" settings

When the player dies should their inventory be kept

keep-inventory-items-on-death: true

When the player dies should their EXP level be kept.

The higher level you are the more EXP needed to level up so dying with 10 levels and 50% keep EXP will not respawn the player with 5 levels

The value can also be a number from 0 to 1, with 1 meaning that all EXP is kept and 0 is none

0.5 - Keeps only half the EXP

keep-exp-on-death: 1.0

World specific settings. These will override the above global settings for the specified world

worlds:

The name of the world

world:

Should these settings override the global ones. Set to false to disable the override

enabled: false
require-permission: false
keep-on-killed-by-player: false
keep-on-natural-death: true
keep-on-mob-death: true
keep-inventory-items-on-death: true
keep-exp-on-death: 0.5
world_nether:
enabled: false
require-permission: true
keep-on-killed-by-player: false
keep-inventory-items-on-death: true
keep-exp-on-death: 1.0

The "keep-on-natural-death" and "keep-on-mob-death" options have been left out. These two will default to the global

defaults set at the top of the file while the other settings that are specified will have whatever option is set

above inside the world section

Example for only keeping your inventory in the nether no matter what

require-permission: false
keep-on-player-death: false
keep-on-natural-death: false
keep-on-mob-death: false
keep-on-suicide: false
keep-inventory-items-on-death: true
keep-exp-on-death: 1.0

worlds:
world_nether:
enabled: true
require-permission: false
keep-on-killed-by-player: true
keep-on-natural-death: true
keep-on-mob-death: true
keep-on-suicide: false
keep-inventory-items-on-death: true
keep-exp-on-death: 1.0

Support

Support can be provided on my discord server or you can report any bugs on the GitHub repository here

If you need a new server check out our partner lagless.gg

Use code Dinonuggies for 20% off!

Written by JustDoom. Read it with pictures on Modrinth.

How to install Better Keep Inventory

  1. Make sure your server runs Paper and Spigot on Minecraft 1.8 – 26.x.

  2. Download the .jar file from Modrinth and put it in the plugins folder of your server.

  3. Restart the server. Avoid /reload, many plugins do not handle it well.

  4. Type /plugins in the console: Better Keep Inventory should be listed in green. Its config files are created in the plugins folder on the first start.

Compatibility

Minecraft versions
26.x, 1.21, 1.20, 1.19, 1.18, 1.17, 1.16, 1.13, 1.12, 1.8
Runs on
Paper, Spigot
Edition
Java
Needs
Nothing else
License
MIT
Price
Free
Upkeep
Actively updated (Nov 10, 2026)

Better Keep Inventory compared with similar ones Compare all alternatives

ResourceDownloadsVersionsLast updatePrice
Better Keep Inventorythe one you looked at38K1.8 – 26.xMay 31, 2025Free
SmartSpawnerNightter232K1.20 – 26.x13 days agoFree
Lightning Grim AnticheatAxionize164K1.8 – 26.xOct 1, 2026Free
PvPManagerChanceSD104K1.8 – 26.x10 days agoFree

Questions

Does Better Keep Inventory work on Minecraft 26.x?

Yes. Better Keep Inventory supports Minecraft 26.x. All supported versions: 26.x, 1.21, 1.20, 1.19, 1.18, 1.17, 1.16, 1.13, 1.12, 1.8.

Is Better Keep Inventory free?

Yes. Better Keep Inventory is free to download from Modrinth.

Which server software does Better Keep Inventory run on?

Better Keep Inventory runs on Paper and Spigot servers.

Is Better Keep Inventory still updated?

Yes. The last update came out in the past day.

What are the best alternatives to Better Keep Inventory?

The closest ones are SmartSpawner, Lightning Grim Anticheat and PvPManager. Compare all alternatives

Alternatives to Better Keep Inventory

Open InventoryPlugins · 1.16 – 26.x

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