Death & recovery
Find the protected chest that holds your carried items after death, then collect it before its timer expires.
When you die, you respawn at your bed if it is still available, or at world spawn, except on your first three deaths (below). A recovery chest holds what you were carrying near the death spot. Check /aclist for its location and timer, then plan your return before the chest expires.
Your first three deaths
Your first three deaths bring you back. If your things went into a recovery chest, you come back to life right beside it, facing it, with a few seconds of protection from damage and fire. Open the chest and you have everything again.
- The first time, chat explains how the chest works.
- The second and third times, you get a reminder: use a bed so you wake up near home, and the chest lasts 20 minutes. The third trip is the last one.
- After a death to another player, or when there is no safe ground next to the chest, you respawn as usual and chat gives you the chest's coordinates instead.
From your fourth death on, you wake up at your bed or at spawn and walk back.
What happens to your items
| At death | Result |
|---|---|
| Hotbar, main inventory, armor and off-hand | Go into the recovery chest |
| A pack you carried or wore | Goes with your carried items; its contents stay inside the pack item |
| Ender chest | Stays in your account, ready at any ender chest block |
| Experience | The vanilla amount is stored with the recovery chest and returned when you recover it |
| Coins | Five-coin death penalty, with a 30-second cooldown |
The usual recovery timer is 20 minutes, and it continues even if you log out. You can have up to five active recovery chests. If another death takes you past the limit, the oldest chest drops its contents on the ground early. Dropped items can then despawn.
Get back safely
- Run
/aclistafter respawning to see your chests and their remaining time. - Re-equip from your ender chest if the death spot is still dangerous.
- Walk back and open the chest to collect your items.
- Move recovered gear into safe storage before taking another risk.
A deep void, lava ledge or repeated fight can make walking back hard. Use /aclist to find your chest rather than assuming it will be at the exact block where you fell. Bring spare gear if the return path is unsafe.
Your ender chest is the reliable place for spare gear between deaths. A pack in your carried inventory depends on recovering the pack item before its chest expires.
See also
- Recovery chests — chest timers and how to collect your items
- Ender chest — items that remain after death
- Combat — the rest of the survival guide
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