Attribute Keeper
Dying in Minecraft is a rite of passage, but losing your carefully built character progression can feel like a punishment. Whether you are running a hardcore survival server, a roleplay world, or a custom adventure map, the default respawn mechanics can wipe out all your hard work. This is where the Attribute Keeper mod steps in. It gives you complete control over what happens to your attributes, experience, and hunger every time you respawn. Instead of a blank slate, you can define a unique death penalty or even preserve everything exactly as it was.
What Does Attribute Keeper Do?
At its core, Attribute Keeper for Minecraft is a server-side mod that modifies how player statistics behave after death. It is not just about keeping your health bar full; it is about defining a persistent rule set for your world. The mod is highly modular, allowing you to toggle each feature individually. If you only want to manage experience, you can turn off the attribute and hunger systems entirely. This flexibility makes it a fantastic tool for server admins who want a tailored experience without bloating their modpack.
Attribute Persistence and Decay
The primary feature is attribute persistence. In vanilla Minecraft, when you die, your base attributes—like movement speed, attack damage, and maximum health—are reset to their defaults. Mods that add permanent upgrades to these stats often see their effects wiped out on death. Attribute Keeper changes this. You can define a specific attribute value that persists through respawn. Even more interesting, you can set up a decay system. For example, you could configure the mod so that a player loses half a heart of maximum health each time they die, down to a minimum of five hearts. This creates a tangible, escalating consequence for failure without making the game unplayable.
This system works with any attribute, from swim speed to reach distance. The configuration is handled through a JSON file, and you can reload it without restarting the server using the /attributekeeper_reload command. This is perfect for live-tuning your server's difficulty.
Experience and Hunger Keepers
Beyond attributes, the mod includes dedicated systems for XP and food. The Experience Keeper allows you to decide what happens to a player's levels on death. Your options include retaining all experience, losing a set amount, losing a percentage of total experience, or capping the maximum experience a player can respawn with. This is ideal for servers that want to slow down progression without punishing players too harshly.
The Hunger Keeper works similarly. You can transfer food stats unchanged, reduce them by a set amount, or reduce them by a percentage of current hunger. You can also set minimum and maximum hunger levels for respawning. This ensures players never spawn in with zero hunger on a hardcore server, or conversely, that they always face a challenge to find food after a death.
Integration and Commands
For those using mods like Simple Difficulty or Tough As Nails, Attribute Keeper offers seamless integration. It includes a Temperature Keeper, so body temperature remains unchanged after respawn, and a Thirst Keeper, which functions exactly like the hunger keeper but for hydration. It even fixes HUD updates for thirst and temperature when changing dimensions or logging in.
Managing player stats is also easier with the built-in commands. You can use /playerattribute <target> <attribute> get to check a value, add to increase it, set to define it, and mult to multiply it. For instance, running /playerattribute @p generic.movementSpeed add 0.1 will make the nearest player run faster. These commands give you immediate, granular control without needing to edit files mid-game.
If you are looking to get started quickly, you can download Attribute Keeper from popular mod repositories. The installation process is straightforward, but if you want a hassle-free setup, consider using the foxygame.net launcher. It offers a one-click install for mods like Attribute Keeper, ensuring you get the correct version for your loader without manual file placement. The launcher also keeps your mods updated automatically, so you always have the latest fixes and features.
Compatibility and Installation
Attribute Keeper for Minecraft is available for recent versions of the game, including 1.20.x and 1.21.x, and supports both Forge and NeoForge loaders. Before you download Attribute Keeper, make sure you have the correct loader installed for your server. The mod is designed to be server-side, meaning clients do not need it installed to connect, though having it on the client can help with configuration previews.
To understand how to install, the process is simple: download the jar file, place it in your server's mods folder, and restart the server. Once loaded, the mod will generate a default configuration file that you can edit to suit your needs. Remember to use the reload command after making changes to avoid downtime.
Known Incompatibilities
There is one notable conflict to be aware of. Scaling Health is not directly incompatible, but its health modification system directly conflicts with Attribute Keeper's attribute handling. You can use both mods together, but you must avoid defining any behavior using the generic.maxHealth attribute in Attribute Keeper. As long as you stick to other attributes, the two mods will coexist peacefully.
Conclusion
Attribute Keeper is a powerful tool for any Minecraft server admin who wants to fine-tune the death penalty. Whether you are creating a brutal roguelike experience or a forgiving casual server, the modular design lets you dial in exactly the right balance. With support for attributes, XP, hunger, and even temperature and thirst, it covers all the bases. The command system and JSON configuration make it easy to manage, and the reload feature means no restarts are required for tweaks. If you are tired of death resetting everything, this mod is the solution you have been looking for.