Save The Hotbar!
by Miki-Liki
After a death, Save The Hotbar! lets a player keep selected inventory slots, while the rest of the items and experience drop or are stored in a grave.
What it does
Save The Hotbar! is a Fabric mod that changes what a player keeps after dying. By default the hotbar, armor, offhand slot and, when the Arsenal mod is installed, its back slot stay with the player. Other items drop as usual, and a grave can hold the rest so the player can recover them later. Each of these behaviors is set in the config file, and the mod sets the keepInventory game rule to true while it is active.
The config is opened from Mod Menu. It sets which slots are kept, and whether experience is dropped, stored in the grave block, or kept with the player. Experience can be kept in full, kept as a fraction of the current amount, or recalculated with the vanilla formula to a new value based on a level of 7. Another option adds a random chance that a kept item drops instead, and that chance can be lowered by an item's rarity or by the player's luck effect.
Gravestones is an optional dependency, and Cloth Config API, Fabric API and Mod Menu are required. The mod is released under the Apache License 2.0, and its source code and issue tracker are public. Files cover game versions 1.20.1 – 26.2, and the latest is 1.3.0-alpha+26.2 for 26.2, published 2026-07-03 on the alpha channel. Both the server and each player need the mod to run.
Key features
Kept hotbar and armor
The hotbar, armor, second hand and Arsenal back slot are kept after death by default, and each can be turned off.
Grave-based recovery
Items that are not kept can be stored in a grave, which pairs with the Gravestones mod when it is installed.
Experience handling
Experience can drop, be stored in the grave, or be kept, with a fraction setting or a vanilla recalculation.
Random drop chance
A kept item can still drop with a set chance, reduced by its rarity or by the player's luck effect.
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
26.x2 of 2 versions with builds
1.21.x4 of 4 versions with builds
1.20.x5 of 5 versions with builds
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Requirements
Dependencies declared by the latest file for each loader.
Required 3
Optional 1
Use cases
Who it’s for: Players and server owners who want a partial keep-inventory setting rather than a full one, with the rest of the loot recoverable from a grave.
How it compares
Balanced KeepInventory is a Fabric server-side option with versions 1.21 – 26.3, under All rights reserved and not open source. Ticket of Eternal Keep is also server-side only, with Fabric files for 1.20.1 – 26.3, under the MIT License and open source. Save The Hotbar! needs both sides, which is different from either of them.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Save The Hotbar! | Fabric | 1.20.1 – 26.2 | Client and server | 2026-07-03 |
| Balanced KeepInventory | Fabric | 1.21 – 26.3 | Server-side only | 2026-09-17 |
| Ticket of Eternal Keep | Fabric | 1.20.1 – 26.3 | Server-side only | 2026-09-15 |
Questions
Does Save The Hotbar! need Fabric API?
Must Save The Hotbar! be installed on the server?
What happens to items that are not kept?
In the catalog
Save The Hotbar! is one of 17,631 Equipment mods on ModsFinder, and one of 8,894 Equipment mods for Fabric. 13,894 mods support Minecraft 26.2.
More from Miki-Liki
Similar mods
What the author says
keepInventory GameRule should be set to true for the mod to work SaveTheHotbar! is a balanced alternative to keepInventory and gravestone type mods. It allows you to keep the armour or the hotbar after death and drop the rest of the inventory, so that you don't lose the armament required to get the rest of your loot…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/savethehotbar
- Owner
- Miki-Liki
- Published
- 2024-10-16
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-07-03
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15