Graves store the items a player drops on death, so they don't scatter, burn or despawn. Graves can be turned off on the Administration page, in which case items drop on the ground like in vanilla.
A grave is placed at the last safe position the player stood on before dying. This prevents graves from appearing in lava, in the void or inside blocks. The grave shows the name of the player it belongs to.
The look of the grave depends on the Grave Appearance setting:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Random | A random appearance for every grave. This is the default. |
| Candle | A candle. |
| Skull | A skull. |
| Chest | A chest. |
| Bundle | A bundle. |
| Tombstone | A tombstone. |
| Player Head | The head of the player who died. |
Right-click or hit a grave to open it. All stored items pop out at the grave's position and the grave disappears. By default, any player can open a grave. If the player died while wearing a chestplate with Deathlock, only they can open it.
If Nice Actions is installed, players can see the position of their most recent grave and whether it has been opened through Show Death Coordinates in the Quick Actions menu. Admins can see it with Inspect Player from Nice Admin Tools.
Graves disappear after the Grave Duration set by the admin, 5 minutes by default. Gravehold doubles this time. Setting the duration to 0 keeps graves forever.
The Grave Timer setting decides how this time is counted. With Only While Loaded (default), the countdown pauses while no player is near the grave. With World Time, the countdown keeps going while nobody is around, and the grave disappears exactly when its time runs out. If no player is nearby, the grave's chunk is loaded for a moment to remove it.
When a grave expires, the items inside are lost.
The owner of a grave gets a chat message with the grave's position when another player loots it or when it expires. Opening your own grave sends no message. If the owner is offline at that moment, the message is shown the next time they join.
With the World Time timer, the owner is also warned when less than a minute is left, unless the grave only lasts one minute in total. The warning is only shown to players who are online.