Death messages

Death messages are broadcast to everyone upon the death of a player, and to the pet's owner upon the death of a pet wolf, cat, or parrot. $$, death messages are also produced upon the death of a pet horse, donkey, mule, llama, or skeleton horse. These messages communicate how the entity died, and some are intended to be humorous.

Java Edition

 * Arrows
 *  was shot by Arrow
 * Appears when the player is killed by an arrow shot from a dispenser or summoned with.
 *  was shot by 
 * Appears when the player is killed by an arrow shot by a player or mob using a bow or crossbow.
 *  was shot by  using 
 * Appears when the player is killed by an arrow shot by a player or mob using a renamed bow or crossbow.


 * Snowballs
 *  was pummeled by 
 * Is coded to appear when the player is killed by a snowball, egg or ender pearl shot by a player or mob. This is technically impossible, as these projectiles do not deal damage. However, because of, a Snow Golem's snowballs are able to hurt and kill wolves, after which the message would appear to the owner of the tamed wolf.


 * Cactus
 *  was pricked to death
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were touching a cactus.
 *  walked into a cactus whilst trying to escape 
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by touching a cactus.


 * Drowning
 *  drowned
 * Appears when the player runs out of air underwater and is killed from drowning damage.
 *  drowned whilst trying to escape 
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then took drowning damage.


 * Elytra
 *  experienced kinetic energy
 * Appears when the player is killed by hitting a wall while flying with elytra on.
 *  experienced kinetic energy whilst trying to escape <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then hit a wall while flying with elytra on.


 * Explosions
 * <player> blew up
 * Appears when the player is killed by TNT activated by redstone mechanisms, fire, dispensed out from a dispenser or by an end crystal.
 * <player> was blown up by <player/mob>
 * As a variant of the previous one, appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by TNT activated by redstone mechanisms, fire, dispensed out from a dispenser or by an end crystal.
 * As a death message by itself, appears when the player is killed by an entity that exploded.
 * <player> was blown up by <player/mob> using <item>
 * Appears when the player is killed by an entity holding a renamed item that exploded.
 * <player> was killed by 
 * Appears when the player is killed by a bed exploding in the Nether or the End, or by a charged respawn anchor exploding in the Overworld or the End.
 * Includes a click-event link to.


 * Falling
 * <player> hit the ground too hard
 * Appears when the player is killed by a less than 5 block fall, ender pearl damage, or falling while riding an entity that died due to fall damage.
 * <player> hit the ground too hard whilst trying to escape <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by one of the aforementioned fall damage types.
 * <player> fell from a high place
 * Appears when the player is killed by a greater than 5 block fall.
 * <player> fell off a ladder
 * Appears when the player is killed by falling and the last block they touched before reaching the ground was a ladder.
 * <player> fell off some vines
 * Appears when the player is killed by falling and the last block they touched before reaching the ground was a vine.
 * <player> fell off some weeping vines
 * Appears when the player is killed by falling and the last block they touched before reaching the ground was a weeping vine.
 * <player> fell off some twisting vines
 * Appears when the player is killed by falling and the last block they touched before reaching the ground was a twisting vine.
 * <player> fell off scaffolding
 * Appears when the player is killed by falling and the last block they touched before reaching the ground was a scaffolding.
 * <player> fell while climbing
 * Appears when the player is killed by falling and the last block they touched before reaching the ground was a climbable block that isn't one of the aforementioned ones.


 * Falling blocks
 * <player> was squashed by a falling anvil
 * Appears when the player is killed by an anvil falling on their head.
 * <player> was squashed by a falling anvil whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by a falling anvil.
 * <player> was squashed by a falling block
 * Appears when the player is killed by a falling block (other than an anvil) modified to inflict damage.
 * <player> was squashed by a falling block whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by a falling block modified to inflict damage.


 * Fire
 * <player> went up in flames
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were in a fire source block.
 * <player> walked into fire whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then entered a fire source block.
 * <player> burned to death
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were on fire, but not in a fire source block.
 * <player> was burnt to a crisp whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed because they were on fire.


 * Firework rockets
 * <player> went off with a bang
 * Appears when the player is killed by the explosion of a firework rocket.
 * <player> went off with a bang due to a firework fired from <item> by <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is killed by the explosion of a firework rocket shot from a renamed crossbow.


 * Lava
 * <player> tried to swim in lava
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were in lava.
 * <player> tried to swim in lava to escape <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then entered lava.


 * Lightning
 * <player> was struck by lightning
 * Appears when the player is killed by a lightning bolt.
 * <player> was struck by lightning whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by a lightning bolt.


 * Magma Block
 * <player> discovered the floor was lava
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were standing on a magma block.
 * <player> walked into danger zone due to <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by magma block damage.


 * Magic (Instant Damage / Evoker Fangs)
 * <player> was killed by magic
 * Appears when the player is killed by a potion of Harming shot from a dispenser, by Instant Damage given with or by an evoker fang summoned with.
 * <player> was killed by <player/mob> using magic
 * Appears when the player is killed by a potion or arrow of Harming shot by a player or mob, or by an evoker fang summoned by an evoker.
 * <player> was killed by <player/mob> using <item>
 * Appears when the player is killed by one of the aforementioned ways but the player or mob is holding a renamed item during the player's death.
 * <player> was killed by magic whilst trying to escape <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by Instant Damage or an evoker fang that didn't originate from a player or mob.


 * Players and mobs
 * <player> was slain by <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob and killed.
 * This death message is actually two different death messages:  was slain by  and  was slain by .
 * This means they can be customized completely independently of each other using resource packs.
 * <player> was slain by <player/mob> using <item>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob holding a renamed item and killed.
 * This death message is actually two different death messages:  was slain by using  and  was slain by using .
 * This means they can be customized completely independently of each other using resource packs.
 * <player> was fireballed by <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is killed by a fireball shot by a player or mob.
 * <player> was fireballed by <player/mob> using <item>
 * Appears when the player is killed by a fireball shot by a player or mob that was holding a renamed item during the player's death.
 * <player> was stung to death
 * Appears when the player is killed by a bee (not from its poison).
 * death.attack.sting.item
 * Appears when the player is killed by a bee that was holding a renamed item during the player's death.
 * This death message is untranslated due to.
 * <player> was shot by a <player/mob>'s skull
 * Appears when the player is killed by a wither skull shot by a player or mob (only possible with the Wither).
 * death.attack.witherSkull.item
 * Appears when the player is killed by a wither skull shot by a player or mob that is holding a renamed item during the player's death.
 * This death message is untranslated due to.


 * Starving
 * <player> starved to death
 * Appears when the player plays in hard or hardcore and is killed by hunger damage because their hunger bar was at 0.
 * <player> starved to death whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player plays in hard or hardcore and is hurt by a player or mob then killed by hunger damage.


 * Suffocation
 * <player> suffocated in a wall
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were inside of a non-transparent block.
 * <player> suffocated in a wall whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by suffocation damage.
 * <player> was squished too much
 * Appears when the player is killed by the maxEntityCramming gamerule.
 * <player> was squashed by <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by the maxEntityCramming gamerule.


 * Sweet Berry Bushes
 * <player> was poked to death by a sweet berry bush
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were in a sweet berry bush.
 * <player> was poked to death by a sweet berry bush whilst trying to escape <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then entered a sweet berry bush.


 * Thorns enchantment
 * <player> was killed trying to hurt <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is killed because they hurt a guardian, elder guardian, or a player or mob wearing armor enchanted with Thorns.
 * <player> was killed by <item> trying to hurt <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is killed because they hurt a guardian, elder guardian, or a player or mob wearing armor enchanted with Thorns and holding a renamed item.


 * Trident
 * <player> was impaled by Trident
 * Appears when the player is killed by a trident shot from a dispenser or summoned with.
 * <player> was impaled by <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is killed by a trident shot by a player or mob.
 * <player> was impaled by <player/mob> with <item>
 * Appears when the player is killed by a trident shot by a player or mob that was holding a renamed item during the player's death.


 * Void
 * <player> fell out of the world
 * Appears when the player is killed by being below Y=-64 or by using.
 * <player> didn't want to live in the same world as <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by the void or.


 * Wither effect
 * <player> withered away
 * Appears when the player is killed by the wither status effect.
 * <player> withered away whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob then killed by the wither status effect.

NOTE: These death messages are technically able to appear, but their conditions cannot be met in vanilla Minecraft.
 * Unsendable death messages
 * <player> was pummeled by <player/mob> using <item>
 * Is coded to appear when the player is killed by a snowball, egg or ender pearl shot by a player or mob that is holding a renamed item during the player's death. This is impossible, as these projectiles do not deal damage.
 * <player> was roasted in dragon breath
 * Is coded to appear when the player achieves a death that is assigned to the  damage type.
 * Was added in 15w31c, appeared when the player was killed by a fireball shot by the ender dragon, but since then it has been unused, because dragon fireballs no longer deal impact damage.
 * <player> was roasted in dragon breath by <player/mob>
 * Is coded to appear when the player is hurt by a player or mob then achieves a death that is assigned to the  damage type.
 * Was added later on to accompany the previous one.
 * death.attack.dryout
 * Is coded to appear only when a fish dies because of being on land. However, in this case, the message cannot appear as fish are not tameable so that a message would be sent to their owner.
 * Does not even appear in the en_us.json file, and as such, it is untranslated.
 * death.attack.dryout.player
 * Is coded to appear only when a fish is hurt by a player or mob then dies because of being on land.
 * Does not even appear in the en_us.json file, and as such, it is untranslated.
 * <player> died
 * Is coded to appear only when the player achieves a death that is not assigned to a damage type (,  etc.) or is assigned to the   damage type. As such, it is only achievable via mods or plugins.
 * <player> died because of <player/mob>
 * Is coded to appear only when the player is hurt by a player or mob then achieves a death that is not assigned to a damage type or is assigned to the  damage type.

NOTE: These death messages have no code to make them appear, so they appear only in the en_us.json file.
 * Unused death messages
 * <player> was doomed to fall
 * <player> was doomed to fall by <player/mob>
 * <player> was doomed to fall by <player/mob> using <item>
 * <player> fell too far and was finished by <player/mob>
 * Was intended to show up when the player took fall damage and was killed by another player or mob.
 * <player> fell too far and was finished by <player/mob> using <item>
 * Was intended to show up when the player took fall damage and was killed by another player or mob holding a renamed item.
 * <player> was stung to death by <player/mob>
 * The " was stung to death" should have a <player/mob> variable, but the vanilla translation does not include it.
 * <player> went off with a bang whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * The " went off with a bang" should have a <player/mob> variable, but the vanilla translation does not include it.
 * <player> was killed by even more magic
 * Has a hover event, with text Actually, message was too long to deliver fully. Sorry! Here's stripped version: [message]
 * Appears when the regular death message is too large to send. This situation is almost impossible to trigger normally.

Temporary
These death messages existed only in Java Edition 3D Shareware v1.34.
 * <player> was too soft for this world
 * Appeared when the player was in Obligatory nightmare mode and was killed by the constant damage they took there.
 * <player> was too soft for this world (<player/mob> helped)
 * Appeared when the player was in Obligatory nightmare mode, was hurt by a player or mob and was killed by the constant damage they took there.

Removed
In snapshots 13w02a through 13w04a, a complicated system existed to show death messages for when the player fell to their death or fell and was killed by something else. There were two types of messages, "<player> <first>" and "<player> <first> and <last>".

<first> could be:
 * fell (off a ladder|off some vines|out of the water|from a high place)
 * was (shot|pummeled|blown|fireballed|knocked) (off a ladder|off some vines|out of the water|from a high place)
 * was (shot|pummeled|blown|fireballed|knocked) (off a ladder|off some vines|out of the water|from a high place) by <player/mob>

<last> could be:
 * into a pool of lava
 * fell out of the world
 * into a patch of fire
 * into a patch of cacti
 * got finished off by <player/mob>
 * got finished off by <player/mob> using <item>
 * got finished off using <item>

There were 352 different death messages. (Technically 416, because the verb "blown" existed twice in the en_US.lang file.)

Bedrock Edition

 * <player> was slain by Arrow
 * Appears when the player is killed by an arrow shot from a dispenser or summoned with.
 * <player> was shot by Arrow
 * Appears when the player is killed by an arrow shot by a player or mob.
 * <player> was pricked to death
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were touching a cactus.
 * <player> drowned
 * Appears when the player runs out of air underwater and is killed from drowning damage.
 * <player> experienced kinetic energy
 * Appears when the player is killed by hitting a wall while flying with elytra on.
 * <player> blew up
 * Appears when the player is killed by TNT activated by redstone mechanisms, fire, dispensed out from a dispenser or by an end crystal.
 * <player> was blown up by <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is killed by an entity that exploded.
 * <player> hit the ground too hard
 * Appears when the player is killed by a less than 5 block fall, ender pearl damage, or falling while riding an entity that died due to fall damage.
 * <player> fell from a high place
 * Appears when the player is killed by a greater than 5 block fall.
 * <player> was squashed by a falling anvil
 * Appears when the player is killed by an anvil falling on their head.
 * <player> was squashed by a falling block
 * Appears when the player is killed by a falling block (other than an anvil) modified to inflict damage.
 * <player> went up in flames
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were in a fire source block.
 * <player> burned to death
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were on fire, but not in a fire source block.
 * <player> went off with a bang
 * Appears when the player is killed by the explosion of a firework rocket.
 * <player> tried to swim in lava
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were in lava.
 * <player> was struck by lightning
 * Appears when the player is killed by a lightning bolt.
 * <player> discovered floor was lava
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were standing on a magma block.
 * <player> was killed by magic
 * Appears when the player is killed by a potion of Harming shot from a dispenser, by Instant Damage given with or by an evoker fang summoned with.
 * <player> was killed by <player/mob> using magic
 * Appears when the player is killed by a potion or arrow of Harming shot by a player or mob, or by an evoker fang summoned by an evoker.
 * <player> was slain by <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is hurt by a player or mob and killed, or killed by a trident shot by a player or mob.
 * This death message is actually two different death messages: <player> was slain by <mob> and <player> was slain by <player>.
 * <player> was slain by Small Fireball
 * Appears when the player is killed by a fireball shot from a dispenser.
 * <player> starved to death
 * Appears when the player plays in hard difficulty and is killed by hunger damage because their hunger bar was at 0.
 * <player> suffocated in a wall
 * Appears when the player is killed because they were inside of a non-transparent block.
 * <player> was killed trying to hurt <player/mob>
 * Appears when the player is killed because they hurt a guardian, elder guardian, or a player or mob wearing armor enchanted with Thorns.
 * <player> was slain by Trident
 * Appears when the player is killed by a trident shot from a dispenser or summoned with.
 * <player> fell out of the world
 * Appears when the player is killed by being below Y=0.
 * <player> withered away
 * Appears when the player is killed by the wither status effect.
 * <player> died
 * Appears when the player is killed by.

NOTE: These death messages appear only in the en_US.lang file.
 * Unused death messages
 * <player> was shot by <player/mob> using <item>
 * <player> walked into a cactus whilst trying to escape <player/mob>
 * <player> drowned whilst trying to escape <player/mob>
 * <player> was fireballed by <player/mob>
 * <player> was fireballed by <player/mob> using <item>
 * <player> was killed by <player/mob> using <item>
 * <player> walked into fire whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * <player> tried to swim in lava to escape <player/mob>
 * <player> walked on danger zone due to <player/mob>
 * <player> was burnt to a crisp whilst fighting <player/mob>
 * <player> was slain by <player> using <item>
 * <player> was pummeled by <player/mob>
 * <player> was pummeled by <player/mob> using <item>
 * <player> fell off a ladder
 * <player> fell off some vines
 * <player> fell out of the water
 * <player> was doomed to fall
 * <player> was doomed to fall by <player/mob>
 * <player> was doomed to fall by <player/mob> using <item>
 * <player> fell too far and was finished by <player/mob>
 * <player> fell too far and was finished by <player/mob> using <item>

Trivia

 * Death messages obtained through PvE means are generally grammatically incorrect due to the lack of a preceding "a" before the name of the killer.