Epitaph | Grave Recovery v1.0.0

Epitaph
Epitaph keeps a player's items and experience safe at their death spot instead of scattering them on the ground. Dying creates a grave that holds everything until the owner claims it back.

Built for: Survival, SMP, and any server that wants deaths to cost players less gear.



How a grave works

• A grave marks the spot. By default it is a player head showing the dead player's skin, placed within 6 blocks up or down of the death point so it is never buried or floating. Any solid block can be used instead.
• A hologram shows the time left. Floating text above the grave counts down until it expires, or shows "waiting" if graves are set to never expire.
• Soft particles mark it from a distance. A light trail rises from the grave so it stays easy to spot.
• Items and experience are both saved. A grave can hold the player's full experience total or just the amount vanilla would have dropped, your choice.
• A blocked death spot still gets a grave. If Epitaph cannot find room for a block, it falls back to a chest, or a blockless grave you claim from /epitaph list if there is no room at all.

Claiming your items

• Break it to claim it. The owner can break their own grave block to claim everything instantly, and the original block underneath is restored exactly as it was.
• Or use the claim menu. Right-click the grave, or run /epitaph near, to open a menu showing every item inside. Take one at a time, or hit claim everything to grab all of it plus your experience at once.
• A full inventory does not cost you items. Anything that does not fit drops at your feet instead of vanishing.

Protection

A grave block cannot be broken by anyone but its owner or an admin. TNT and other explosions can destroy everything around it, but never the grave block itself. Pistons cannot push or pull it, and fire cannot burn it away.

Built to be configured

• Set how long a grave lasts, or make it last forever until claimed.
• Choose what happens when a grave expires: items drop where it stood, or are lost for good on a hardcore-style server.
• Cap how many graves one player can hold at once. Past the cap, the oldest is released automatically so nothing silently disappears.
• Turn grave creation on or off separately for PvP deaths and PvE deaths.
• Give trusted players the bypass permission to keep their items the vanilla way, with no grave made.
• Run Epitaph everywhere except a list of worlds, or only in a list of worlds.
• Every sound and every line of text can be edited, with full MiniMessage color support.

Commands

• /epitaph (aliases /grave, /graves) your graves and their time left.
• /epitaph help lists the commands you can use.
• /epitaph list [player] your graves, or another player's with permission.
• /epitaph locate points you toward your nearest grave.
• /epitaph near opens the claim menu for the grave you are standing on.
• /epitaph open <player> [#] opens a player's grave menu. Admin only.
• /epitaph tp <player> [#] teleports you to a player's grave. Admin only.
• /epitaph clear <player> confirm releases a player's graves. Admin only.
• /epitaph clearall confirm releases every grave on the server. Admin only.
• /epitaph reload reloads the config and messages live. Admin only.

Every command has full tab completion.

Permissions

• epitaph.use view and claim your own graves. Default: everyone.
• epitaph.admin locate, open, teleport to, and clear any player's graves, plus reload. Default: operators.
• epitaph.bypass keep your items on death, no grave made. Default: nobody.

Configuration
Every option lives in config.yml with inline comments, and every player-facing line lives in messages.yml with MiniMessage color support. Run /epitaph reload to apply changes without a restart. Updates add new config keys without touching your existing settings.

Requirements

• Minecraft 1.21 to 26.1.2.
• Paper, Spigot, or Bukkit.
• Java 21.

Installation

1. Put Epitaph-1.0.0.jar in your plugins folder.
2. Start the server once to create config.yml and messages.yml.
3. Edit the config if you want, then run /epitaph reload.

Try it first
Epitaph is live on our test server, hosted here on BuiltByBit. Use the test server link on this page to connect, die on purpose, and see the grave and claim menu for yourself before you buy.

Support
Questions and bug reports are welcome. Join the No Click Studios Discord at https://discord.gg/drBwA958bn.