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: Gravestone will remain if player logs out or loses connection, but the timer will continue to run down.

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, Camelot or Soul Wars. 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 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, they will respawn, meaning they will be transported back to their respawn point with full life points 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. Completing Nomad's Requiem allows players to respawn in Soul Wars.

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 in the Abyss, 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. 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.

When someone dies you can bless their grave stone. This allows their gravestone to last longer, approximately sixty 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.

Grim Reaper


Due to a recent 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's 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.

The office where the Grim Reaper is the first time a player dies, is the same used for the Random Event of 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.

Trivia

 * 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.
 * During "The Fremennik Trials" quest, being killed by Koschei the Deathless after killing him twice will give you a message saying: "Oh dear, you are...still alive somehow?" instead of the normal message: "Oh dear, you are dead!".