Keep But Penalty

Keep But Penalty

Keep inventory on death while applying configurable experience and equipped-item durability penalties.

by
99 Downloads
neoforgegame-mechanicsutility
Rent Server with this Mod

Screenshots

Inventory retained after penalty
Death penalty test world

About this Mod

Keep But Penalty

Inventory retained after death penalty is applied

Keep your inventory. Pay a real death penalty.

Keep But Penalty is for modpacks and servers that want to avoid item drops, grave recovery loops, or corpse runs without making death free. Players keep their inventory, but death still removes experience and wears down equipped gear.

What it does

  • Keeps player inventory on death while the mod is installed.
  • Does not change the world's vanilla keepInventory gamerule.
  • Reduces vanilla experience after player death.
  • Damages selected equipped items after player death.
  • Covers armor, main hand, and off hand by default.
  • Supports equipped Curios items when Curios is installed.
  • Supports equipped Accessories items when Accessories is installed.
  • Can let death damage push items to 0 durability, making it pair well with no-break mods such as Keep My Sword.

Death penalty test world after inventory is kept

Screenshots above are captured in a Minecraft 1.21.1 NeoForge development client.

Default death penalty

The default settings are tuned for a simple keep-inventory survival loop:

  • Players keep their inventory.
  • Players keep one third of their total vanilla experience.
  • Players lose two thirds of their total vanilla experience.
  • Each selected damageable equipped item takes 80 durability damage.
  • Armor, main hand, off hand, Curios slots, and Accessories slots are included.

This makes death gentler than losing everything, but still expensive enough to matter.

Configuration

Configure the rules in:

config/keep_but_penalty-common.toml

Useful options include:

[death]
keepInventory = true
enableExperiencePenalty = true
experienceKeepRatio = 0.333333333
[durability]
enableDurabilityPenalty = true
durabilityLoss = 80
allowZeroDurability = true
damageArmor = true
damageMainHand = true
damageOffHand = true
damageCurios = true
damageAccessories = true

Compatibility notes

Curios and Accessories are optional. If either mod is installed, Keep But Penalty can include its equipped item slots in the durability penalty.

For 0-durability item preservation, pair this mod with a no-break mod such as Keep My Sword. Keep But Penalty applies the death cost; a no-break mod controls whether max-damage items remain as repairable stacks instead of breaking normally.

Requirements

  • Minecraft 1.21.1
  • NeoForge

Optional integrations:

  • Curios API
  • Accessories

Source and issues

Available Versions

Keep But Penalty 0.1.2 for Minecraft 1.21.1alpha
MC 1.21.1neoforge
May 16, 2026

How to Install Keep But Penalty on Your Server

1

Order Server

Order a Minecraft Java server with at least 3 GB RAM (4 GB recommended).

2

Set neoforge Loader

In the panel under "Egg", select the neoforge loader and matching Minecraft version (1.21.1).

3

Install Mod

Open the mod browser in the dashboard and search for "Keep But Penalty". Click "Install" – done! Alternatively, upload the .jar via SFTP to the /mods folder.

Compatibility

Mod Loaders

neoforge

Minecraft Versions

1.21.1

Server-side

Required

Recommended RAM

4 GB(min. 3 GB)

Frequently Asked Questions

Keep But Penalty server crashes on startup – what to do?

Most common cause: wrong neoforge version or insufficient RAM. Check the server log (latest.log) for "OutOfMemoryError" or "Mixin" errors. With Mado Hosting: ensure at least 3 GB RAM is allocated and the loader matches the mod version (1.21.1). You can switch loaders with one click in the panel.

Is Keep But Penalty compatible with neoforge?

Keep But Penalty officially supports neoforge for Minecraft 1.21.1. The Mado dashboard automatically detects incompatible loader combinations.

Server lagging with Keep But Penalty – how to optimize performance?

Recommended RAM: 4 GB (per 8 players). Use /spark profiler to check if Keep But Penalty consumes the most tick time. Common fixes: reduce server view-distance to 8-10, install "performant" or "starlight" as supplementary mods on Forge. With Mado Hosting, your server runs on NVMe SSDs with dedicated CPU cores for minimal latency.

Rent Modded Server

Install Keep But Penalty with just one click on your server.

Recommended RAM
4 GBab €8/mo
Min. 3 GB | +1 GB pro 8 Spieler
Create Server Now
1-Click Mod Install
NVMe SSD Storage
DDoS Protection included

Details

License
LicenseRef-All-Rights-Reserved
Server-side
Required

Supported Versions

1.21.1