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Learn how long it takes for items to despawn in Minecraft and how to prevent them from disappearing with this helpful guide.
Knowing how long it takes for items to despawn in Minecraft is crucial in many ways. It’s frustrating to lose all your items after you die because you did not pick them up in time. This happens mostly in the early game, where you are still gathering resources.
Minecraft is a game focused on exploration, building, and survival. Throughout your adventures, you will often find yourself in dangerous situations. Sometimes, you could die because of accidental drops or get ambushed by hostile mobs. Other times, you simply want to clear out your inventory. Needless to say, there are many reasons why your items might drop on the ground. This is why it is important to know how long items last before they disappear for good.
In this article, we’ll discuss how long items take to despawn. Additionally, we’ll also share the factors that affect item despawn and ways to prevent losing your valuable items.
How Long Before Items Despawn in Minecraft?
Most dropped items in Minecraft despawn after five minutes or 6,000 in-game ticks if they are not picked up. This applies to all item types, whether it’s a diamond, a stack of dirt, or rare loot from mobs.
However, there are exceptions to this rule. If an item is dropped in a chunk that is not currently loaded or no player is nearby to check it, the despawn timer will pause until the chunk is loaded again. This means that if you die and your respawn area is far away from your death location, your items should not despawn until you are close enough to see them.
Keep in mind that items that fall on lava are basically destroyed. This means you will lose that item permanently. Make sure you don’t drop your items on lava if you want to retrieve them later.
How To Prevent Item Despawn in Minecraft
Losing valuable items to despawning can be frustrating, but there are several ways to prevent it:
Use Chests or Shulker Boxes
Instead of dropping items on the ground, store them in chests, barrels, or shulker boxes to keep them safe. Keep in mind that dropped shulker boxes can still despawn, even if they contain items.
Don’t Load Chunks
If you drop an item and leave the area, the chunk may unload, which pauses the despawn timer. If you want to make preparations first before retrieving them, make sure that the chunks they are in are not loaded.
Use Hoppers
If you are building an automated farm, use hoppers to collect dropped items and transfer them into storage. This prevents item despawning and reduces lag.
Turn On Keep Inventory Game Rule
If you play with cheats enabled, you can use the command “/gamerule keepInventory true” to prevent losing your items upon death. Alternatively, you can set this before starting out in a new world.
Be Prepared for the Worst Scenarios
Since items despawn after five minutes, rushing back to where you died or dropped them is crucial. Having a bed nearby to set your spawn point or using an Elytra can help you grab your items before they disappear.
Looking For More?
Thank you for reading the article. We provide the latest news and create guides for Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield, ARK Survival Ascended, and more. Also, watch Deltia play games on Twitch or visit his YouTube channel!
