Respawn Choices

Respawn Choices expands Minecraft's death screen by giving players multiple ways to return to the world after dying.

Instead of every death leading to the same respawn behavior, players can choose between returning near where they died or using their normal Minecraft respawn point.

The mod is designed with modpacks and multiplayer servers in mind. It relies on Minecraft and NeoForge's normal respawn systems wherever possible rather than replacing the entire respawn process.

Respawn Choices

After dying, players are presented with two options:

Respawn Nearby

Respawn at a randomly selected safe location near where you died.

Server owners can configure:

• Minimum respawn distance from the death location
• Maximum respawn distance
• Vertical search range
• Number of safe-location search attempts
• Whether water is considered a valid respawn location
• Whether the mod should attempt a surface-location fallback

The nearby respawn system checks potential locations before placing the player there.

It avoids locations such as lava, blocked spaces, unsafe footing, and positions outside the world border.

If a safe nearby position cannot be found, the mod falls back to Minecraft's normal respawn behavior instead of forcing the player into an unsafe location.

Respawn at Spawn Point

Respawn using Minecraft's normal respawn system.

This allows the game to continue handling:

• Beds
• Respawn Anchors
• World Spawn
• Dimension-specific respawning
• Compatible modded respawn points

This option intentionally keeps Minecraft's existing respawn behavior intact for improved compatibility with other mods.

Configurable XP Loss

Respawn Choices includes a fully configurable XP penalty system.

Server owners can independently configure:

Base Death Penalty

XP that is lost whenever a player dies.

Nearby Respawn Penalty

Additional XP lost when selecting Respawn Nearby.

Spawn Point Penalty

Additional XP lost when selecting Respawn at Spawn Point.

Each penalty supports:

• Percentage-based XP loss
• Flat XP-point loss

This makes it possible to make different respawn options have different costs.

For example:

Death penalty: 20%
Respawn Nearby: Additional 20%
Respawn at Spawn Point: No additional penalty

A player dying with 1,000 total XP and choosing Respawn Nearby would retain:

1,000 → 800 after the death penalty → 640 after the nearby respawn penalty.

Additional XP Options

The configuration also supports:

• Completely disabling Respawn Choices' XP system
• Respecting the keepInventory gamerule
• Optionally dropping the base XP loss as XP orbs
• Configurable XP orb drop limits
• Keeping respawn-specific XP penalties from becoming dropped XP

Disabling the XP system is useful for modpacks that already use another grave, corpse, or death-management mod to control experience loss.

Configuration

Respawn Choices uses a server configuration file:

respawnchoices-server.toml

Settings include:

Nearby Respawning

minRadius
Minimum horizontal distance from the player's death location.

maxRadius
Maximum horizontal distance from the player's death location.

verticalRadius
Distance above and below the death location that can be searched.

attempts
Number of candidate locations checked before falling back.

allowWater
Allows water to be considered a valid respawn location.

surfaceFallback
Allows the mod to search surface positions if no safe location is found near the original Y level.

Experience

enabled
Enables or disables Respawn Choices' XP system.

deathLossPercent
Percentage of total XP lost on death.

deathLossFlat
Flat XP points lost on death.

nearbyLossPercent
Additional percentage lost when respawning nearby.

nearbyLossFlat
Additional flat XP lost when respawning nearby.

spawnPointLossPercent
Additional percentage lost when using the normal respawn point.

spawnPointLossFlat
Additional flat XP lost when using the normal respawn point.

respectKeepInventory
Prevents Respawn Choices from removing XP when keepInventory is enabled.

dropBaseDeathLossAsOrbs
Controls whether the base death penalty can appear as XP orbs at the death location.

maxDroppedXp
Limits the amount of XP that can be emitted as dropped XP.

Modpack Compatibility

Respawn Choices was designed to minimize interference with other mods.

The mod:

• Does not replace the entire Minecraft respawn system
• Uses Minecraft's normal respawn process for spawn-point respawning
• Uses NeoForge events to modify the destination for nearby respawning
• Falls back safely when a nearby location cannot be found
• Allows its XP handling to be completely disabled
• Does not require custom blocks, items, dimensions, or world generation

This makes it suitable for lightweight installations as well as large modpacks.

Mods that completely replace Minecraft's death screen or respawn system may require additional compatibility work.

Multiplayer

Respawn Choices is designed for multiplayer and dedicated servers.

The server determines:

• Valid respawn locations
• Respawn type
• XP penalties
• Configuration values

Both the client and server should have the mod installed.

Requirements

Minecraft 1.21.1

NeoForge

No additional library mods are required.

Modpack Usage

You may include Respawn Choices in modpacks.

Configuration changes are encouraged so pack creators can make respawning fit their progression and difficulty systems.

Credits

Created for the Arcane Horizons project.