How to Track Down a Missing Backpack in 7 Days to Die

When you die, the game drops a bag where you fell, holding whatever the server's Drop On Death option says. These are the rules it follows, read from the game's own files; V3.2 and V3.3 behave the same.

How long does a dropped backpack stay?

60 minutes, but only while its area is loaded, which means while a player is near it, and only while nobody has it open. The count is not saved with the world, so once everyone has left and the area unloads, the bag starts a fresh hour the next time someone comes back.

It disappears straight away once it has been opened and emptied.

If it falls below the world, the server puts it back 5 to 25 blocks above the ground at the same spot and it drops from there, so it can come to rest on a roof or in a tree. Look up, not down.

Where is it?

Only the player who died sees it, as a backpack marker on the map and compass. Anyone else can loot it but gets no marker, so a friend searching for it needs your coordinates. Die twice and you have two bags, each with its own marker.

What it holds is a server setting

Drop On Death, under Sandbox Options since V3.0, decides what goes into the bag:

Drop On Quit offers the same choices apart from Delete All, for players who log out. V3.3 fixed Equipment duplicating gear on death. Since 3.3, "backpack" also means the item you wear for extra slots; the 3.3 page has its sizes and recipes.

Getting it back on a server

There is no command that returns a lost bag. An admin can do one of two things from the server console:

• Send you to it: teleportplayer <your name> <x> <y> <z> (short form tele) with the coordinates from your marker. A y of -1 lands you on the ground.
• Replace what was in it: give <your name> <item name> <amount> drops the items in front of you, and listitems finds an item's exact name.

Both need admin rights on the server.