Compatibility
Minecraft: Java Edition
Platforms
Tags
Creators
Details
๐ DeathPenalty (Free Edition)
The Ultimate Death Consequence, Economy Sink & Survival Balancing Plugin
Reward tactical survival, stabilize your server economy, and give real meaning to every death without frustrating your players.
๐ Why DeathPenalty?
In vanilla Minecraft and casual SMP servers, death often feels either completely meaningless (with /gamerule keepInventory true, where dying is used as a free teleport back home) or overly punishing (losing hours of hard-earned gear into lava or despawning items).
Furthermore, server economies suffer from constant inflation: players accumulate millions of currency with very few natural sinks to keep money circulating.
DeathPenalty solves both problems with surgical precision:
- Dynamic Economic Balance: Introduce fair, scalable currency deductions (flat rate or percentage) upon death.
- Rebalancing KeepInventory: Keep item inventories safe while still enforcing real consequences through EXP loss, respawn fatigue/debuffs, or physical dropped cash.
- Immersive Survival Stakes: Death matters again. Careless play incurs consequences, encouraging smart preparation, team strategy, and cautious exploration.
- Modern, Lag-Free Architecture: Built from the ground up for modern Paper and Folia regional multi-threading (1.16.5 up to PaperMC 26.2), with dual HikariCP connection pooling for SQLite and MySQL.
๐ Key Features Breakdown
๐ฐ 1. Dynamic Economy Sink Engine
- Flexible Deduction Models: Choose between a fixed flat cost (e.g.
$250.00per death) or a percentage of player wealth (e.g.5%of current balance). - Minimum & Maximum Floors: Protect impoverished newcomers with minimum balance safety thresholds while ensuring wealthy veterans face meaningful deductions.
- Physical Cash Drops: Lost funds can optionally drop as physical collectible items on the ground with customizable item materials, display names, and loreโallowing killers or passersby to scavenge the bounty!
- Full Vault Compatibility: Works out of the box with EssentialsX, EconomyShopGUI, TheNewEconomy, and any Vault-backed economy.
๐ 2. Smart Inventory & EXP Loss Mechanics
- Selective Slot & Stack Drops: Drop or permanently delete a configurable number of item stacks or inventory slots on death instead of wiping everything.
- Full KeepInventory Harmony: Functions seamlessly on servers with
keepInventory true, injecting controlled consequences without breaking world rules. - Soulbound Item Immunity: Protect special lore-tagged gear (e.g. donor items, quest artifacts, soulbound equipment) from ever being dropped or destroyed.
- Authentic Vanilla EXP Scaling: Precise vanilla leveling calculations ensure experience penalties match genuine Minecraft level formulas rather than arbitrary flat numbers.
๐ 3. Respawn Vitals & Debuff Status Effects
- Custom Health & Hunger: Control the exact amount of hearts, hunger bars, and saturation players respawn with.
- Debuff Status Effects: Temporarily inflict atmospheric potion effects on respawn (e.g. Slowness, Mining Fatigue, Weakness, Blindness) to discourage reckless "kamikaze" gameplay.
- Custom Durations & Amplifiers: Set individual durations and potencies for every potion effect directly via in-game menus.
๐ง 4. Revenge Revenant Mobs
- Vengeful Guardians: Automatically spawn an aggressive custom mob (Zombie, Skeleton, Piglin, etc.) directly at the player's death coordinate.
- Sunlight Protection: Mobs can spawn wearing protective helmets to prevent daylight burning.
- Loot Defenders: Forces players to earn back their dropped loot by confronting the guardian that watches over their grave.
๐ 5. Dynamic Per-Player Multi-Language (10 Languages)
- 10 Built-in Language Files: Automatically generated and translated:
- ๐บ๐ธ English (
en_US) - ๐ฎ๐ฉ Bahasa Indonesia (
id_ID) - ๐จ๐ณ Simplified Chinese (
zh_CN) - ๐ฏ๐ต Japanese (
ja_JP) - ๐ช๐ธ Spanish (
es_ES) - ๐ฎ๐น Italian (
it_IT) - ๐ธ๐ฆ Arabic (
ar_SA) - ๐ฉ๐ช German (
de_DE) - ๐ซ๐ท French (
fr_FR) - ๐ท๐บ Russian (
ru_RU)
- ๐บ๐ธ English (
- Instant Per-Player Toggle: Each player can switch their personal language independently via
/dp infowithout affecting other players. - Zero Reload Required: All 14 GUIs, death notices, actionbars, and chat prompts update instantaneously.
๐พ 6. Dual Database Engine (HikariCP)
- SQLite & MySQL Ready: Store death counts, lifetime money lost, and player settings in lightweight local SQLite or centralized MySQL networks.
- 1-Click In-Game Migrator: Easily transfer your entire database from SQLite to MySQL on the fly via
/dp convertor directly through the GUI. - Zero-Lag Asynchronous Pooling: Powered by native HikariCP with a 20-tick debounce buffer, ensuring a 0.00ms tick impact even under heavy player traffic.
๐ฅ๏ธ 7. 100% NMS-Free GUI & Interactive Chat Prompts
- Full Visual In-Game Admin: Configure every penalty, percentage, and limit visually with
/dp config. - Safe Chat Input System: Enter numbers and text directly through intuitive chat promptsโno fragile Anvil packets, no NMS dependencies, and completely crash-proof across Minecraft updates.
๐ธ In-Game Preview
Player Stats & Language Menu (/dp info) |
Admin Visual Editor (/dp config) |
|---|---|
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| Potion Respawn Effects Editor | Limits & Drop Controls |
|---|---|
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๐ Installation & Quick Start
- Verify Requirements:
- Server: Paper, Purpur, Folia, or Spigot (1.16.5 up to PaperMC 26.2).
- Java: Java 17, Java 21, or Java 25.
- Economy Provider: Vault + any economy plugin (e.g. EssentialsX).
- Download & Place:
- Download the latest
DeathPenalty-1.9.1.jarand place it into your server'splugins/directory.
- Download the latest
- Start Server:
- Start your server to generate default configuration files and language templates in
plugins/DeathPenalty/.
- Start your server to generate default configuration files and language templates in
- Customize:
- Modify settings in-game via
/dp configor adjustconfig.ymldirectly. - Run
/dp reloadto apply file changes instantly!
- Modify settings in-game via
โจ๏ธ Commands & Permissions
Commands
| Command | Alias | Description | Default Permission |
|---|---|---|---|
/dp info |
/deathpenalty info |
Opens personal death statistics & language selector GUI | Granted to all players |
/dp config |
/deathpenalty config |
Opens the full visual administrative configuration editor | deathpenalty.admin |
/dp reload |
/deathpenalty reload |
Hot-reloads configuration, language files, and caches | deathpenalty.admin |
/dp convert |
/deathpenalty migrate |
Launches the database migration wizard (SQLite โ MySQL) | deathpenalty.admin |
/dp help |
/deathpenalty help |
Displays the help manual and available commands | Granted to all players |
Permissions
| Permission Node | Description | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
deathpenalty.admin |
Full administrative control over configs, reloads, and migration | Server Operators / Admins |
deathpenalty.bypass |
Complete bypass: immune to all penalties, drops, and debuffs | Staff / VIP Godmode |
deathpenalty.bypass.money |
Exemption from all currency deductions and cash drops | Donors / Rank perk |
deathpenalty.bypass.exp |
Exemption from experience loss upon death | Donors / Rank perk |
deathpenalty.bypass.items |
Exemption from random inventory drops and item deletion | Donors / Rank perk |
deathpenalty.group.<group> |
Assigns custom group-specific penalty overrides defined in config.yml |
Tiered Ranks (VIP, MVP) |
๐ PlaceholderAPI Integration
DeathPenalty provides rich PlaceholderAPI identifiers (%dp_...%) for scoreboards, TAB lists, chat formats, and holograms:
| Placeholder | Output Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
%dp_deaths% / %dp_total_deaths_raw% |
14 |
Total number of deaths for the player |
%dp_total_death% |
14 deaths |
Formatted death count string |
%dp_money_lost_player% |
$1,250.00 |
Formatted total money lost by the player |
%dp_money_lost_raw% |
1250.00 |
Raw numeric money lost by the player |
%dp_total_money_lost% |
$48,500.00 |
Server-wide total money lost across all players |
%dp_total_money_lost_<world>% |
$12,300.00 |
Total money lost within a specific world (e.g. world_nether) |
%dp_top_death% |
Steve |
Name of the player with the highest death count |
%dp_top_money_lost% |
Alex |
Name of the player who has lost the most money |
%dp_lang% |
en_US |
Active language code of the player |
๐ก๏ธ WorldGuard 7 Integration
Want to disable death penalties inside PvP arenas, minigame lobbies, or spawn regions?
DeathPenalty registers a custom WorldGuard flag:
# Disable death penalty inside a specific region:
/rg flag <region_name> deathpenalty deny
# Re-enable death penalty inside a specific region:
/rg flag <region_name> deathpenalty allow
๐ Check Out DeathPenalty Premium
Looking to transform death into an immersive RPG gameplay system? DeathPenalty Premium adds:
- ๐ Soul Stability System: Dynamic soul instability points, escalating multipliers, and restorative survival rituals (sleep, survival timers, soul shards).
- ๐ง Multi-Cleric NPC Management: Place persistent cleric NPCs in towns and villages with customizable treatment fees, dialogue, and insurance policies.
- ๐ก๏ธ Death Insurance System: Players can purchase tiered insurance policies to safeguard inventories and recover lost assets.
- โ ๏ธ Death Curse System: Terrifying soul afflictions inflicted on death requiring herbal cleanses or sacred rituals.






