LifeStealZ

LifeStealZ turns a Paper or Purpur server into a lifesteal SMP. Killing another player steals one of their hearts, a player who runs out of hearts is eliminated, and getting back in means a teammate crafting a revive crystal to bring them back. Paper and Purpur builds stay current through Minecraft 26.2, while the plugin's original Spigot build has not moved past 1.20.1 since 2023.

How the heart-steal mechanic works

Every player starts with a configurable number of hearts, ten by default, and can bank up to a maximum, twenty by default. Killing another player transfers one of their hearts to the killer, and dying to fall damage, mobs, or other natural causes costs a heart too. A player with zero hearts is eliminated and stays out until someone spends a revive crystal, crafted from diamonds and a heart, to bring them back with one heart. Extra hearts can be crafted, held as items, or withdrawn from a player's max pool, and server owners can disable totems of undying and end crystal PvP separately so elimination actually sticks.

• startHearts sets how many hearts a new player begins with, ten by default.
• maxHearts caps how many hearts a player can bank, twenty by default, and a lifestealz.maxhearts.[amount] permission can override it per player.
• heartsPerKill and heartsPerNaturalDeath control how many hearts change hands on a PvP kill versus an environmental death.
• Every heart, revive crystal, and other custom item can be swapped for a different item, and every message can be reworded through the plugin's language files.

Installing LifeStealZ on Paper or Purpur

1. 1.Download the current lifestealz-2.21.1.jar (or newer) from the plugin's Modrinth, GitHub, or Hangar page. The developer flags copies on unrelated download sites as unauthorized.
2. 2.Drop the jar file into the server's plugins folder, following the same steps as installing plugins on a Minecraft server.
3. 3.Restart the server so the plugin loads.
4. 4.Run /lifestealz help or /pl to confirm LifeStealZ is active.

Permissions and commands

LifeStealZ ships its own permission nodes rather than requiring a separate permissions plugin. Admin actions sit behind nodes like lifestealz.admin.reload, lifestealz.admin.setlife, lifestealz.admin.eliminate, and lifestealz.admin.revive, while everyday actions such as lifestealz.withdraw, lifestealz.revive, and lifestealz.viewhearts default to true for regular players.

• /hearts checks how many hearts a player currently has.
• /withdrawheart turns one of a player's banked hearts into a physical item.
• /revive brings an eliminated player back without spending a revive crystal, for admins with the right permission.
• /eliminate manually eliminates a player.
• /lifestealz reload, /lifestealz recipe, and /lifestealz giveitem cover reloading the config, viewing crafting recipes, and handing out custom items.

Compatibility with PlaceholderAPI and WorldGuard

LifeStealZ runs standalone. Nothing else needs to be installed for the core lifesteal loop to work. It adds PlaceholderAPI placeholders for heart counts and elimination status when PlaceholderAPI happens to be on the server, and registers its own WorldGuard region flags so admins can turn off heart loss inside protected areas like spawn. Both integrations are optional extras, not requirements.

Storage and languages

Player heart data saves to SQLite by default, with MySQL available for larger networks. Every user-facing message supports legacy color codes and MiniMessage formatting, including HEX colors and gradients, and the plugin ships translations for twelve languages, including English, German, Spanish, French, and Japanese.

Watch LifeStealZ in action

LifeStealZ plugin overview and install walkthrough

Watch on YouTube