Keep XP
Dying in Minecraft is already painful enough. You lose your position, your items scatter across the ground, and if you were deep in a mining session or grinding mobs for hours, you also lose every level you earned. That last part stings the most. Keep XP is a lightweight plugin that softens the blow by letting you decide exactly how much experience a player keeps after death. Whether you run a survival server where death should matter or a casual world where losing 30 levels feels unfair, this plugin hands you the dial.
What Keep XP Does for Your Server
At its core, Keep XP gives you a single, powerful setting: the percentage of a player's total XP that survives death. Set it to 100 and nobody ever loses a level again. Set it to 50 and death costs something without wiping out an entire evening of progress. Set it to 0 and you have vanilla behavior back, which is useful if you only want the plugin's other features.
The plugin does not just change the math silently. Players see the active retention rate in-game, so there is no confusion about why they kept or lost experience. After a death, the plugin also reports how much XP they actually retained. That feedback loop matters on public servers, where players often assume the worst when something invisible changes.
Commands and Permissions
- /keepxp — displays the current retention percentage, so anyone can check the active rate.
- /keepxp reload — reloads the configuration file without restarting the server. Requires the keepxp.admin permission.
- Tab completion — suggests reload to admins, which keeps the command line clean and fast.
Configuration Made Simple
The entire setup lives in config.yml, and there are only two things to worry about. The retain-percent value accepts anything from 0 to 100, and the feedback message is fully customizable, so you can match your server's tone or translate it for your community. Once you save your changes, run /keepxp reload and the new values apply instantly. No restarts, no downtime, no players kicked mid-session.
If you are wondering how to install it, the process is refreshingly short. Drop the plugin file into your server's plugins folder, restart once, edit config.yml to your liking, then reload. That is the whole workflow. It works across modern Minecraft versions, including the 1.20.x and 1.21.x release lines, and it is built for Spigot and Paper servers, which means it plays nicely with the vast majority of survival and SMP setups already running those loaders.
Server owners who manage several worlds often keep a small toolkit of quality-of-life plugins, and Keep XP fits that role perfectly. It is the kind of add-on you configure once and forget about until a player thanks you in chat for not losing their hard-earned levels.
Where to Download Keep XP
You can download Keep XP from the usual plugin repositories and community resource pages. Always check that the file matches your server version and loader before installing, and read the changelog if you are updating an existing setup. A quick version check saves a lot of troubleshooting later.
If you prefer a smoother path, the foxygame.net launcher bundles Keep XP into its add-on catalog, letting you enable it with a single click instead of manually moving files between folders. The launcher also handles auto-updates and version compatibility checks, so your retention settings keep working even after Minecraft pushes a new release.
Who Should Use Keep XP
Survival servers with long grind sessions benefit the most. Losing 30 levels to a creeper ambush can push players toward quitting, and a partial retention rate keeps the challenge intact without the frustration. Casual servers and family worlds can set retention to 100 and remove death anxiety entirely. Even hardcore-adjacent communities can use a low percentage to reward careful play while still punishing recklessness.
Because the plugin is small, permission-based, and reload-friendly, it slots into almost any server philosophy. It does one job, does it clearly, and tells players exactly what happened. That transparency is what separates a well-liked plugin from one that quietly changes the rules.
Final Thoughts
Keep XP solves a specific problem with minimal fuss: experience loss on death. With a single percentage setting, in-game feedback, and instant reloads, it gives server owners full control without adding bloat. Install it, pick your retention rate, and let your players keep what they earned. For Minecraft servers that value player retention as much as XP retention, this one earns its place in the plugins folder.
===ARTICLE===