Death (mechanic)





Death occurs when a player's hitpoints reach zero. A message in the chat box informs them of this: Oh dear, you are dead! and a gravestone will appear at the spot in which they died. Fortunately, the player will respawn. If a player is in the duelling arena or a safe minigame when they "die" they will not lose any of their items and will not respawn in Lumbridge, Falador or Camelot. However, if a player dies in a safe area, they will respawn at a specified respawn point.

If a player dies while they have the Retribution prayer active, all enemies that are in a 3x3 square grid centred on the dying player are dealt damage equal to 1/4 of that player's maximum prayer level (only in a multi-combat area).

Respawning
When players die, they will respawn, meaning they will be transported back to their respawn point with full hitpoints and prayer to live again. By default, players respawn in Lumbridge. However, if a member has completed the Recruitment Drive quest, they may choose to respawn in Falador instead. Completing the King's Ransom quest allows a player to start and complete the Knight Waves Training Grounds, which unlocks the ability to respawn in Camelot.

Items lost
When a player dies, they will lose all items they were carrying at the time of their death except for their three most valuable items. Other than those three (or four, depending on whether or not Protect Item was used) items that the player kept, most of the remaining items will be under a gravestone for a certain amount of time. If the player manages to get back to his/her gravestone before it crumbles, they will be able to reclaim their items. If a player was skulled at the time of their death, because they were player killing in bounty hunter, in PvP worlds or because they had entered the Abyss without wearing a Forinthry bracelet, then they would not get to keep any items upon respawning.

However, if a player has the Protect item prayer active, they will get to keep one extra item if they die (i.e. four items or one if skulled).

Previously, in the 16 October 2007 update, items dropped from players killed by monsters or NPC's remains visible only to the dead player for 1 minute, in case he/she wants to recover his/her items. After that, anyone nearby will be able to see and take them. Since the gravestone update on 10 December 2007, though, this update is rendered obsolete.

For more information on exceptions see Items Kept on Death.

Item anomalies
The precedence for retaining an item depends on its store or alchemy value, which can often be at considerable variance with the value to players. Rares such as party hats, (alchemy value: 1 coin), are items vulnerable to this problem.

When someone dies you can bless their grave stone. This allows their gravestone to last longer, approximately five minutes. This requires 70 Prayer. The different types of gravestones will last longer. You can change your gravestone with Father Aereck in Lumbridge after finishing The Restless Ghost and for members Blasidar the sculptor in Keldagrim after finishing The Giant Dwarf.

Trivia

 * If a player casts a Blood spell from the Ancient Magicks spellbook shortly before his health hits 0, the player will die and gain health, making it look like the player died with some health left.
 * Similar to the above, in most case, if something kills you but at the very second you eat, you will die with positive health.