GraveCompass

When a player dies their things do not scatter on the floor: they stay in a grave with their name on it. And they get a compass that really points at it.

1.0Version
1.21+Minecraft
Spigot · PaperServer
NothingRequires
ES·EN·FR·ZHLanguages

Why another compass

Almost every grave plugin hands you coordinates in chat. Chat is gone the moment three players talk, and writing numbers down is not fun. Here the needle points at the grave, in the Nether and the End too, and its lore rewrites itself every second with the distance and the protection time left.

Nothing is lost to a plugin failure. If there is nowhere to place the grave, the items drop the vanilla way and you are told. Die in lava and the grave rises and floats above the surface with everything inside. And if the server dies hard and the world loses the block, the grave puts itself back on the next start.

Installation

One minute. It needs no other plugin.

  1. Copy GraveCompass-1.0.jar into the plugins folderWorks on both Spigot and Paper, 1.21 and up. No Vault, no dependencies.
  2. Restart the serverIt creates config.yml and the four language files. You can start dying now.
  3. Pick your languageIn config.yml, language: en, es, fr or zh.
  4. Give the teleport permission to your ranklp group vip permission set gravecompass.teleport truenobody has it by default, not even ops. Without it the compass still points at the grave and gives the distance, but they walk.
  5. Set your ranks and reloadIn grave-cooldowns and teleport-cooldowns, then /grave reload.

The grave

It is a head wearing the skin of the player who died, with floating text above it saying whose it is and how long it stays protected, counting down live.

Protection

For protection-seconds only the owner can open it. After that anyone can — and that is what makes dying out in the open cost something. Use -1 for owner-only forever, or 0 for never protected.

When it goes away

The despawn clock starts when the protection ends, not when you died: while the grave is still yours there is no reason for it to run. With despawn-drops-items: false it vanishes with everything inside, which is what keeps the world clean.

One grave per player. If you earn a new one while the old is still uncollected, whatever was inside moves into the new one. You never lose anything by dying twice, and you never leave graves scattered around the map.

The compass

It is handed over automatically on respawn, or by hand with /grave compass. Everything is in its lore, rewritten every second:

Grave Compass » World: world » At 120, 64, -30 » Distance: 47 blocks » Yours for 3m 12s ✦ Right-click to teleport there

That last line is the one that changes with rank. Whoever cannot teleport reads what they are missing and where to get it — you write that text, so it can name your rank or your store command.

If you run WorldEdit, read this: its navigation wand is a compass, so any staff holding its permissions would be thrown to wherever they look. GraveCompass takes the click first and prevents it, but if anything still fights you, switch the item to RECOVERY_COMPASS in the config: it exists since 1.19, it fits the theme and WorldEdit does not touch it.

What you can sell

Two things, and both are set up the same way: how often a player gets a grave and how often they can teleport.

How to set it up

grave-cooldowns: default: permission: 'gravecompass.cooldown.grave.default' minutes: 10 vip: permission: 'gravecompass.cooldown.grave.vip' minutes: 5 admin: permission: 'gravecompass.cooldown.grave.admin' minutes: 0
  • The block name (vip, admin…) is only a label for you. What counts is permission and the number.
  • Hand the permission out with your permissions plugin: lp group vip permission set gravecompass.cooldown.grave.vip true
  • The lowest number among the ranks a player holds wins. Stacking ranks can never hurt them.
  • Whoever holds none falls back to default. 0 means no wait.
  • You can add or remove ranks freely. Nothing else in the plugin needs to change.

teleport-cooldowns works exactly the same, but in seconds. And teleporting at all also needs gravecompass.teleport, which nobody has by default — not even ops.

Commands

Base: /grave · aliases /graves, /gc, /tumba

CommandWhat it doesWho
/graveThe helpEveryone
/grave compassGives you the compass to your graveEveryone
/grave listYour grave and where it isEveryone
/grave nearThe graves around youAdmin
/grave reloadReloads config and languageAdmin

Permissions

PermissionGrantsDefault
gravecompass.useGet a grave on death and use the compasstrue
gravecompass.compassAsk for the compass with /grave compasstrue
gravecompass.teleportTeleport to their gravenobody
gravecompass.cooldown.grave.*How often they get a grave (see Selling ranks)per rank
gravecompass.cooldown.teleport.*How often they can teleportper rank
gravecompass.bypassOpen someone else's grave while protectedop
gravecompass.admin/grave near and /grave reloadop

Configuration

Everything lives in config.yml, and the file updates itself: a new version brings its new options in with their documentation and keeps whatever you changed. All four language files are kept up to date the same way.

What you will actually change

OptionWhat for
graves.protection-secondsHow long it is yours alone. -1 always, 0 never
graves.despawn-after-protection-secondsHow long it lasts once unprotected
graves.despawn-drops-itemsWhether it drops its contents or takes them with it
graves.rescue-from-liquidLifts the grave out of the lava
compass.itemCOMPASS or RECOVERY_COMPASS (see WorldEdit)
worlds.never-inWorlds with no graves: arena, minigames…
GraveCompass / Changelog

Version history

Every release and what changed in it.

v1.0 2026-08-09 Latest
  • Graves that keep your things when you die, wearing the dead player's own skin, with a floating countdown showing how long they stay protected.
  • A compass whose needle actually points at your grave - in the Nether and the End too - with the world, the coordinates, the distance and the protection time written on the item and rewritten every sec
  • Teleport to your grave, sold per rank: it needs a permission nobody has by default, and players without it still see where the grave is and how far.
  • How often each rank gets a grave and how often they can teleport, both set up as named ranks in the config.
  • Dying in lava does not burn your things: the grave rises out of it and floats above the surface with everything inside.
GraveCompass / Discussion

Discussion

Comment and share your experience on each plugin version.

Log in to comment on this version.Log in

No comments on this version yet — be the first!

GraveCompass / Reviews

Player reviews

What server owners think of this plugin.

★★★★★
0 reviews
Log in to leave a review.Log in

No reviews yet.