Health and death
You have health and air, and you can die.
Your health
You have 25 health points. The red heart bar above the hotbar has one segment per point
and shows the exact value, such as 18/25. You can also check Tab → Character → Health.
Next to it, the apple bar shows one segment per hunger point and an exact value such as
19/20. You can also check Tab → Character → Hunger. On mobile, the movement and action
controls sit above these bars so you can read them while moving or eating. Recent chat messages
appear above the controls.
As long as you have food reserve, you recover 1 health point every 4 seconds without taking damage. Losing health resets this timer; a hit absorbed during the half-second damage grace period does not. Move out of danger before trying to heal. Going from 1 to 25 health takes just over a minute and a half if you have enough food reserve.
A full food reserve lasts one hour online if you do not heal or mine. Each health point recovered uses an additional 108 seconds of reserve, or 0.6 hunger points. An empty reserve does not cause starvation damage, but healing stops and its timer pauses, and mining takes twice as long. The reserve does not decrease while you are dead. It is saved when you disconnect or the server restarts.
When you take damage, the screen edges flash red and the segments you lost flash white. At 5 health or less, the heart pulses until you recover.
Your health is saved with your account: disconnecting while injured means returning injured.
What causes damage
| Hazard | Damage |
|---|---|
| Falling | 1 point for each block beyond a 3-block fall |
| Lava | 2 points every half second while touching it |
| Cactus | 1 point every half second while touching it |
| Running out of air | 2 points per second |
Falls. Falling 3 blocks or less is safe. Each block beyond that costs one point: a 10-block fall takes 7 health, and a fall of 28 blocks or more kills you even at full health. Landing in water prevents fall damage.
Lava. At full health, you last about 6 seconds in lava. In caves, it appears below y = 10.
Cacti. They hurt when you touch their sides or stand on top.
Air. Keeping your head underwater uses air. You have 10 bubbles, lasting about 15 seconds: one bubble every second and a half. The bubbles appear above the hunger bar while you are submerged and while refilling. At zero air, you lose 2 health per second until your head is out of the water. Air refills from empty in 3 seconds. Swimming with your head above water does not use air.
Half-second grace period. For half a second after a hit, only a stronger hit can hurt you, and it deals only the difference. If several hazards hit at once, the strongest determines the damage.
Hunger
The apple bar holds 20 hunger points. A full reserve lasts one hour online without healing; each point lasts about three minutes. Healing one health point uses an additional 108 seconds of reserve, or 0.6 hunger points. At zero hunger, healing stops but you take no starvation damage. The bar rounds up, so the last segment may hold less than three minutes of reserve.
To refill it, equip an apple or cooked mushroom and hold right-click or Place for 1.5 seconds. An apple restores up to 4 points; a cooked mushroom restores up to 6. See how to eat and what cancels eating.
Your reserve is saved between sessions. Death restores the full reserve; it does not drain while you are dead.
Dying
At 0 health, you die. The screen darkens with a red border and shows You died, the cause, the coordinates of your dropped items, their remaining time, and Respawn.
You cannot move, build, or open the inventory while dead, and Escape does not close the screen. Chat remains available through T or the Chat button below Respawn. Respawn stays visible above the chat. New messages do not appear over the death screen; open chat to read them.
Your items
Everything in your hotbar and backpack falls where you died, with one stack per slot spread around your body. The stacks last about 15 minutes. After one second, any player can pick them up, including you. The timer runs even when nobody is nearby and pauses while the server is offline. If the world has reached its dropped-item limit, the stacks with the least time left disappear to make room for yours.
Items do not burn if you die in lava: they sink to the bottom. They are too far down to collect from the shore; recovering them means entering the lava and taking damage.
Respawn
Respawn returns you to spawn with full health, air, and hunger, and no items. Chat confirms with Returned to spawn. If spawn is unsafe at that moment, you stay on the death screen and can press the button again.
Disconnecting does not revive you. If you leave while dead, you return dead in the same place, with the death screen and item countdown up to date. The same applies after a server restart.
The gravestone on the compass
After respawning, the compass shows a red gravestone in the direction of your last death, with the distance in blocks beside it. If the location is outside the compass view, the gravestone stays at the edge you need to turn toward, with a small arrow and no distance.
It disappears shortly after you get within 3 blocks of the location, or when the 15 minutes expire, even if someone has already taken your items. Only your latest death is marked: dying again replaces the marker.
What other players see
Other players see your body lying face up where you died until you press Respawn. They can walk through it.
Tips
- Before entering a deep cave, consider what you are carrying: if you die, your items stay where you fell and other players can take them.
- If you die far away, follow the gravestone as soon as you respawn. You have 15 minutes.
- To descend a cliff without steps, look for water below.
- Watch your bubbles underwater and surface before your air runs out.
- If injured, move away from danger and wait. With food reserve, you recover one point every 4 seconds without damage.