The Plopper: Automating Item Collection in Minecraft
What Is The Plopper?
In the vast world of Minecraft, item despawns can be a constant source of frustration. Whether you are clearing out a mob farm, mining in a dangerous cave, or simply tidying up after a building session, valuable drops often vanish before you can scoop them up. The Plopper is a clever block designed to solve this problem automatically. It acts like a vacuum for items that are about to disappear, snatching them from the brink of deletion and storing them safely until you are ready to collect.
This mod adds a single block with a straightforward purpose: pick up any item entities within a configurable cubic area just before their five-minute despawn timer runs out. It is not a general storage solution, but a specialized tool for preserving loot that would otherwise be lost forever. Think of it as a safety net for your farms, mob grinders, and accidental item spills.
How The Plopper Works
The Plopper scans its surroundings in a cubical shape, covering all six directions: north, south, east, west, up, and down. By default, its range extends two blocks in every direction from the block itself. When an item enters this zone and is close to despawning, The Plopper instantly pulls it inside. The process is silent and efficient, though you can enable visual and audio cues if you prefer feedback.
One of the best things about this mod is its compatibility with other tech mods. If you are playing a modpack with pipes, hoppers, or item ducts, you can extract collected items from the bottom of The Plopper by default. This makes it perfect for automated sorting systems. For players who love tinkering, the block’s output side can be toggled in the configuration file to allow extraction from any side, giving you total control over your piping layout.
Installing mods like The Plopper is straightforward; for instance, the foxygame.net launcher offers a flexible, modern interface where you can download and manage mods right from its menu. This makes it incredibly easy to add new functionality to your game without digging through folders or worrying about version compatibility.
Upgrading the Range
The default two-block radius is handy for small setups, but larger farms demand more coverage. The Plopper can be upgraded using a special Range Upgrade item. Each upgrade adds two blocks to the range in all directions, and you can apply up to seven upgrades. That means the maximum reach is sixteen blocks from the center, creating a massive 33x33x33 cube of protection. This scaling lets you cover an entire mob farm or a large quarry area with a single Plopper.
Crafting the upgrades is simple and shapeless, requiring only a few basic materials. The exact recipe is displayed in-game, but it involves combining The Plopper itself with some additional components. Because the recipe is shapeless, you can arrange the ingredients in any pattern on the crafting grid, which is a nice quality-of-life touch.
Accessing Collected Items
Retrieving the items from The Plopper is just as easy. Right-click the block to open its interface and take whatever you need. If you prefer automation, you can attach a pipe or hopper to the bottom face (or any side if you changed the config) and pull items out. Keep in mind that The Plopper is a one-way street: you can only extract items, never insert them. It is not meant to replace your storage drawers or chests. This design keeps the block focused on its core job and prevents accidental clutter.
Visual and Audio Feedback
When The Plopper snatches an item, it can emit a small particle effect and a distinctive sound. These are enabled by default, but you can turn them off in the configuration file if you prefer a quieter, less flashy experience. The particles are subtle enough not to cause lag, even in heavily modded worlds. The sound is a satisfying little pop that confirms the block is doing its job, which can be reassuring when you are monitoring a complex farm from a distance.
Crafting Recipes
Both The Plopper and the Range Upgrade are crafted using shapeless recipes. This means you can place the required items anywhere on a crafting table grid. The Plopper itself is made from a combination of a hopper, a chest, and some redstone components, reflecting its item-collecting nature. The Range Upgrade uses The Plopper along with a few extra resources to extend its reach. Because the recipes are shapeless, you do not need to memorize a specific pattern; just toss the ingredients in and craft.
Configuration Options
The mod comes with a small but useful set of configuration options that let you tailor its behavior to your playstyle:
- bypassOutputSide: When set to true, items can be extracted from any side of the block, not just the bottom. Default is false.
- displayParticles: Toggles the particle effects that appear when an item is picked up. Default is true.
- playSound: Enables or disables the sound effect upon item collection. Default is true.
Changing these settings requires editing the configuration file, which is generated automatically after you run the mod for the first time. No in-game GUI is needed, keeping the mod lightweight and easy to manage.
Integration with Modpacks
The Plopper is designed to play nicely with other mods, especially those that add item transport like Thermal Expansion’s Itemducts or BuildCraft pipes. Because it only picks up items that are about to despawn, it does not interfere with normal hopper chains or vacuum hoppers that grab items immediately. This makes it a complementary tool rather than a replacement. The author explicitly allows the mod to be used in any modpack, so you will likely encounter it in many community-curated packs. Its small footprint and focused functionality make it a favorite for tech-oriented and skyblock packs where every resource counts.
Conclusion
The Plopper fills a specific niche in Minecraft automation: preventing item loss from despawns without overwhelming your storage. Its upgradeable range, simple crafting, and configurable feedback give you plenty of flexibility. Whether you are building a massive mob grinder or just want to stop losing diamonds in a cave, this mod is a reliable addition to your toolkit. The ability to pipe items out and integrate with other mods ensures it scales with your world’s complexity. If you have ever watched a pile of blaze rods or wither skeleton skulls vanish into thin air, The Plopper is the block you never knew you needed.
--- **Update Jul 18, 2026:** Added 2 files for version 26.2 (Fabric, NeoForge).