Death (mechanic)



Death occurs when a player's life points 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.

Note: A gravestone will remain if player logs out or loses connection, but the timer will continue to run down and the gravestone can not be blessed while logged out!

Fortunately, the player will respawn. If a player is in the duelling arena or any other safe activity when they die, they will not lose any of their items and will not respawn at any hub, but rather they will respawn at a specified respawn point, usually related to the specific activity. However, some activities are concidered Dangerous. If a player dies in a Dangerous activity, they will respawn at their chosen hub, and their gravestone will either be at the place of death or at the entrance to the activity.

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 10×1/4 of that player's maximum prayer level (only in a multi-combat area). Also if the Wrath curse is active when a player dies, it deals damage of up to 250% of your max Prayer to all nearby enemies life points in a 5x5 radius. Note that this curse will not hurt other players outside of PvP areas, and it won't hit multiple targets in non-multicombat zones.

Respawning


When players die a normal death, they will respawn, meaning they will be transported back to their respawn point with full life points and restored stats. When players die, an interface will appear that will let them choose which three items he or she would like to keep in addition to the items you automatically keep (coins, elemental runes, tools, quest items, etc.). Also, the player can choose a location to respawn. They can choose between all basic respawn points the player has unlocked, or the last hub he or she has visited. The only basic respawn point every player unlocks automatically upon account creation is in Lumbridge. However, if a member has completed the Recruitment Drive quest, they may choose to respawn in Falador instead. Completing the Knight Waves Training Grounds unlocks the ability to respawn in Camelot. Completing Nomad's Requiem allows players to respawn at Soul Wars. Members have more hubs than free players.

Items lost
When a player dies, they will lose all items they were carrying at the time of their death except for the three or four items the player may select whilst in Limbo.

However, if the player dies in the Wilderness, only their three or four most-valuable items are kept, and non-tradable items either dissappear, or are replaced by a set ammount of coins based on the item. Tradable items that degrade fully break upon being dropped.

Outside of the wilderness, the three (or four, depending on whether or not Protect Item was used, or if the effect of a fury shark is activated) items that the player chose to keep will appear in their inventory, and most of the remaining items will be under a gravestone for a certain amount of time. Players will also keep some other items which will not count towards the three item limit, they include most quest items, common low value items (such as fishing rods) and any coins in their pouch. NOTE - '''Any and All coins not in the players money pouch will be dropped! '''If the player manages to return to their gravestone before it crumbles, they will be able to reclaim their items; if they do not manage to return to their gravestone when it crumbles, their dropped items will be visible to nearby players to loot for one minute. If a player was skulled at the time of their death, because they were player killing in the Wilderness or they had entered the Abyss without wearing a Forinthry bracelet before hand, then they will be unable to keep their three or four items upon respawning.

Previously, in the 16 October 2007 update, players who dropped items on death would have one minute within which no one could see or loot their dropped items. After that, they would became visible to other players. Once two minutes had passed from time of death, the dropped items would despawn. The gravestone update on 10 December 2007, rendered the previous update obsolete.

Since 1 February 2011, the timers on all gravestones have been doubled, with the exception of the Royal Dwarven gravestone - the timer for this grave has been increased by a factor of 2.5.

Item anomalies
The default items kept on death are based on their Grand Exchange values, although players can also select what they want to keep if they died outside the Wilderness. Prior to the April 19 2011, update, the precedence for retaining an item depended 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) were items vulnerable to this problem.

Because lent items are kept above all other items on hand, some players borrow an item in return for lending the same item to another player so that it may be kept upon death. NOTE - It is possible to be scammed by this. A player may ask you to trade your item instead of lending it, and in return lend their item, essentially leading to them obtaining a coppy of virtually any item they have. The most popular items for this scam are rares such as Party hats and Santa hats, and spirit shields.

Other uses
Deposit everything in the bank and ensure that any items that will always be lost on death are not equipped or still in the inventory.

Transportation
A player can use death as a means of transportation, often at remote areas with no transportation methods available. Dying will transport the player to their chosen respawn point.

Stat recovery
Sometimes when a player is low on life points, prayer, special attack, or diseased, it might be easier, better, and faster to die. After death you'll be cured, and everything restored. Make sure to store everything in your bank first.

Poison removal
It might also be more economical to die rather than to cure a poisoning. Just simply die with nothing, but do not wait for the poison to kill you if your life points are high.

NPCs useful for the above
In addition, you can also go into the Wilderness and get attacked by a Player Killer.
 * All types of dragons
 * Barrows brothers
 * Chaos elemental
 * Corporeal Beast
 * High levelled demons
 * Ogress Warriors
 * Ogre shamans
 * Revenants
 * Vyrewatch

Grim Reaper


Due to an update, the realm of the Grim Reaper is accessed when new players die for the first time. The Reaper will explain about death, item losses, and gravestones. The player may exit at any time through the exit portal. One's gravestone timer is paused whilst one is within the dimension of the Reaper. The player is, at this time, "dead". The player is only allowed this one time, the first time they die, though they apparently pass through this every time upon death. This occurs only once per player. Currently, there is a glitch making it so you die there. After you die there, you will still be there, just with all your tabs unlocked allowing you to teleport out. If you die again after doing this glitch you will go back to the realm.

During Halloween events, when a player dies, an NPC named "Death" appears and takes them away to their respawn point. If the player is in a minigame, Death will still take them away to their respawn point. Death is just another name for "The Grim Reaper".

The office where the Grim Reaper is for the first time a player dies is the same design used for the Random Event where the Certers ask the player to identify an item, except that the Grim Reaper variation seems darker, colorless and lacks a Bank Deposit Box.

Killed In Escape
Killed In Escape is an occurrence where a player dies as they escape from the monster they are fighting. Attack animations that have already started will follow the player through the teleport and hit them.

When a player fights a monster and decides they want to escape before they die, but they are killed as they teleport out, their grave will appear at the location they have teleported to. The player will still get a grave but will reappear at their respawn point immediately after escape. It should be easy to recover any lost items since the player can just bank at their respawn point and get another teleport to that same location, especially if the place is Varrock. The best scenario is if the player's respawn point is Lumbridge and they teleport to (and die) right there. Then, they respawn right next to their own grave.

Also, If you use the house teleport and die inside your POH, you will respawn outside the POH portal without losing your items.

Common Occurrences

The most common place to see this happen would be in a multi-combat zone with aggressive monsters or bosses. Some players stumble across these monsters and only realise they are in danger in time to click their teleport out. If they are a fraction too late, then they will have been killed in escape.

Trivia

 * If you look really close at a dying player, it seems like after their head hits the ground it "bounces" a little.
 * If a player casts a Blood spell from the Ancient Magicks spellbook shortly before their 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 cases, if something kills you but at the very second you eat, you will die with positive health.
 * If a player dies in RuneScape Classic, the message in their chatbox says "You have been granted another life. Be more careful this time! You retain your skills. Your objects land where you died."
 * Sometimes, in cases of extreme lag, NPCs will stay in their positions after death, without performing the death emote, and later disappearing.Gargoyle attack.gif with full health.]]
 * During The Fremennik Trials quest, being killed by Koschei the Deathless after killing him 3 times will give you a message saying: "Oh dear, you are...still alive somehow?" instead of the normal message.
 * Before it was removed, during the quest Romeo & Juliet, if the player were to drink the Cadava potion, he/she would have performed the death animation and the chatbox will say: "Oh dear, you are nearly dead!" before waking up in the Apothecary.
 * In one glitch, if you die while playing a safe activity such as Fist of Guthix, the NPC Death might say "let me escort you to Lumbridge (player name)" even if the player is supposed to respawn somewhere else.
 * Unlike the players, any NPC in the game that dies (namely during quests) do not have the benefit of a resurrection.
 * Lucien from the Temple of Ikov quest and NPCs from other quests have the ability to respawn after you have killed him/her, though this may be because of the inherent nature of their surroundings, or species.

Morir Death