EzLifesteal

Lifesteal features on your server how you want it

EzLifesteal is a configurable Lifesteal plugin for Paper, Spigot, Folia, and Bukkit servers. It ships with flexible heart rules, fast storage, hologram/scoreboard overlays, PlaceholderAPI hooks, and built-in smurf protection.

Highlights

• Works with Paper 26.1 (Java 25) and stays friendly with Paper, Spigot, Folia, and Bukkit. The jar includes the folia-supported marker.
• Saves player data asynchronously to YAML files or MySQL so leaderboards, profiles, and shutdown saves stay smooth.
• Control hearts per world: set default, minimum, and maximum hearts, adjust kill rewards and death penalties, pick zero-heart behaviour, allow or block worlds, make per-world overrides, and let mobs drop hearts with per-entity permissions.
• Optional kill streak rewards can hand out money, run console commands, give items, and broadcast wins when players hit streak milestones, with Vault support for economy payouts.
• Combat logout protection tags PvP combat for a configurable window and punishes quitters so duels stay fair.
• Built-in overlays show action-bar or boss-bar updates. /lifesteal top leaderboards, the hologram, and PlaceholderAPI placeholders share live standings anywhere.
• /lifesteal hologram place drops a self-updating leaderboard that survives restarts and can be cleared with one command. The scoreboard wildcard (lifesteal.scoreboard.*) makes it easy to hand out place/remove access.
• Need competitive seasons? Install the companion EzSeasons plugin for automatic heart resets, start/end scheduling, countdowns, and reminder broadcasts. EzLifesteal now hooks into its public API automatically, so no extra bridge jars are required.
• Smurf detection watches for players farming the same target or rotating killers, keeps history GUIs ready, and only alerts trusted staff.
• admin.yml lists staff by ops, permission nodes, UUIDs, or names, chooses if admins bypass heart gain or loss, and decides whether smurf alerts stay admin-only.
• Translate player messages quickly with built-in English and Dutch files in languages/*.yml.
• /lifesteal staff commands make it easy to add, remove, reset, revive, or reset all hearts without touching storage files.

Storage & reliability

• Storage tasks run on their own thread so slow disks or databases never freeze the main server.
• YAML mode saves each player to plugins/EzLifesteal/data/players/<uuid>.yml and upgrades old players.yml data the first time it loads.
• MySQL mode creates its table on startup (uuid/hearts) and uses ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE so repeat saves stay safe.
• Use /lifesteal reload to refresh configuration, messages, admin rules, storage backends, overlays, and PlaceholderAPI hooks without restarting.

EzSeasons & smurf defence

• EzSeasons lets you set a season length with length-days or pick exact start/end timestamps, including optional recurring windows.
• Broadcast reminders and show the countdown with /season from the EzSeasons plugin while EzLifesteal handles smurf protection and automatically resets hearts when the season rolls over.
• Smurf detection logs kills per killer and victim, watches for rotating killer rings, saves alert and kill history, and lets you exempt trusted players.
• Give moderators lifesteal.alert and edit smurf.yml to tweak thresholds or exempt trusted UUIDs.

Requirements

• Java 25 runtime (matches Paper 26.1 requirements).
• Paper, Spigot, Folia, or Bukkit 26.1 or newer.
• Optional: PlaceholderAPI for placeholders, MySQL 8+ for database storage.
• Optional: Vault plus an economy provider for kill streak currency rewards.

Quick start

1. Place the jar in your server's plugins folder and restart the server.
2. Choose YAML (default) or MYSQL storage in storage.yml. Set the default language in config.yml. Adjust heart rules in lifesteal-core.yml, world scoping in lifesteal-worlds.yml, and overlays in features.yml. Install EzSeasons if you want scheduled resets.
3. Review admin.yml to decide who counts as staff, whether they bypass heart gain or loss, and who receives smurf alerts.
4. Use /lifesteal reload after configuration changes and give your staff the permissions listed below.
5. Run /lifesteal test <kill|death> on a staging server to check kill and death flows before you go live.

Commands & permissions

Player commands include /lifesteal, /lifesteal top, /lifesteal transfer, and /lifesteal shop. Staff commands cover heart management, reviving players, reloading config, and moderation. Shortcut bundles — lifesteal.player, lifesteal.mod, and lifesteal.admin — cover the most common permission setups.

See the full Commands reference and Permissions list.

Configuration

Configuration is split across focused YAML files under plugins/EzLifesteal/. Heart rules live in lifesteal-core.yml, world scoping in lifesteal-worlds.yml, mob rewards in lifesteal-mobs.yml, and overlays in features.yml. Use /lifesteal reload to pick up changes without restarting.

See the Configuration overview for the full file list and per-file references.

Admin & smurf detection

Staff are defined in admin.yml by ops, permission node, or explicit UUID/name lists. Enable bypass flags to let them watch gameplay without losing hearts. Smurf detection watches kill patterns within a configurable time window and alerts staff with the lifesteal.alert permission.

Full details: admin.yml reference · smurf.yml reference

Configuration presets

Casual SMP

Raises the minimum hearts and disables zero-heart bans so everyone can keep playing.

# lifesteal-core.yml
default-hearts: 12.0
min-hearts: 6.0
max-hearts: 30.0
hearts-per-kill: 1.0
hearts-lost-on-death: 1.0
ban-when-zero-hearts: false

Hardcore grind

Every fight is dangerous — players lose two hearts on death, gain half a heart on kills, and get banned at zero hearts, with tougher rules in the Nether.

# lifesteal-core.yml
default-hearts: 8.0
min-hearts: 1.0
max-hearts: 16.0
hearts-per-kill: 0.5
hearts-lost-on-death: 2.0
ban-when-zero-hearts: true

# lifesteal-worlds.yml
world-overrides:
  world_nether:
    hearts-per-kill: 0.25
    hearts-lost-on-death: 3.0

PlaceholderAPI

• Install PlaceholderAPI alongside EzLifesteal. The expansion registers automatically and caches lookups briefly to stay responsive.
• Player-centric placeholders: %ezlifesteal_hearts% / %ezlifesteal_current_hearts% (stored hearts), %ezlifesteal_default_hearts%, %ezlifesteal_min_hearts%, and %ezlifesteal_max_hearts%.
• Leaderboard placeholders: %ezlifesteal_top_<position>_hearts%, %ezlifesteal_top_<position>_current_hearts%, %ezlifesteal_top_<position>_name%, and %ezlifesteal_top_<position>_uuid%.

Under the hood

• Hearts stay saved across restarts, reloads, and world switches, and reapply instantly on join, quit, PvP, or admin tweaks.
• Health scaling can be toggled separately from heart totals so you can keep the vanilla HUD or use scaled hearts.
• Background storage work and scheduled overlay updates keep the main thread responsive even during big migrations or resets.
• Mob rewards support fractional payouts, per-entity permissions, and world allow/deny lists so you can shape lifesteal progress everywhere.

Need support or want a new feature? Join our discord server and tell us what to add next!