Backpacks

What it is

A backpack is extra room you carry. What’s in it stays in it wherever the backpack goes: in your hand, on your back, in a chest, on the ground, or dropped when you die.

Backpack	Holds	Made from
Backpack	2 rows, 18 slots	Leather, String and a Chest
Reinforced Backpack	3 rows, 27 slots	A Backpack, a Chest, Iron and Leather
Runewoven Backpack	4 rows, 36 slots	A Reinforced Backpack, a Mana Crystal, an Echo Shard, Amethyst and Blank Runes

Backpacks don’t stack. The tooltip shows how full it is and the first few things inside.

How to get it

Backpack

Crafting grid: top row empty · String · empty; middle row Leather · Chest · Leather; bottom row Leather · Leather · Leather

A String over a Chest, with 5 Leather round the sides and bottom.

Reinforced Backpack

Crafting grid, any layout: a Backpack, a Chest, 4 Iron Ingots and 2 Leather

A Backpack, a Chest, 4 Iron Ingots and 2 Leather, anywhere in the grid.

Runewoven Backpack

Crafting grid, any layout: a Reinforced Backpack, a Mana Crystal, an Echo Shard, 4 Amethyst Shards and 2 Blank Runes

A Reinforced Backpack, a Mana Crystal, an Echo Shard, 4 Amethyst Shards and 2 Blank Runes, anywhere in the grid. It doesn’t burn in lava or fire.

Upgrading keeps everything: the contents, in the same slots, plus the colour and name.

How to use it

Opening it

In your hand: use it (right-click), from either hand.
Worn: press B (Open backpack in Controls, under Wildercord). Works in the world and in your inventory.

It opens like a chest. B, E or Esc closes it. While it’s open from your hotbar, its slot is locked so you can’t drop or swap it.

The Backpack slot

The survival inventory with a tray on top holding a staff, a focus, the tome and, in the fourth slot, a backpack The Backpack slot, the fourth on the gear tray

Your inventory has a Backpack slot, the fourth slot on the tray above it, after the gear slots. Shift-click a backpack to put it there (and again to take it off). A backpack in the slot is worn: B opens it, and everyone sees it on your back.

A player seen from behind wearing a red Reinforced Backpack with a Fire Staff strapped across it A dyed Reinforced Backpack, with a staff strapped over it

A staff in your Staff slot is strapped across it.
It sits over a chestplate or cape, and tucks between elytra wings while you glide.
It’s hidden while you’re invisible. Others never see what’s inside.

What can’t go inside

Nothing that holds items: no other backpack, no shulker box, no bundle, and no chest or block picked up with items still in it. An empty chest or furnace is fine. A backpack can’t go in a shulker box or bundle either, but it can go in a chest, barrel or ender chest.

Dyeing

Put a backpack in a crafting grid with one or more dyes, like leather armour. What’s inside stays. Use it on a water cauldron to wash the dye out.

Tips and counterplay

Dropped with Q, it keeps everything. Pick it up and it’s all there.
Chests, hoppers and dispensers move it whole.
When you die, a backpack in your inventory or Backpack slot drops with everything in it (unless the server keeps inventory).
Burnt up or blown up, a Backpack or Reinforced Backpack spills its contents on the ground, like a shulker box. Upgrade to Runewoven before trips to the Nether.
Logging out with it open loses nothing.