Death occurs when the protagonist runs out of health, falls into a pit, touches spikes, or is crushed between moving platforms in a stage. It should be noted that death in this case is more akin to being simply knocked out and defeated; this is different than true, permanent death, a fate that befell some characters during the story, such as Luan and Donovan, the latter being subsequently transformed into the undead revenant Specter Knight.
Treasure Trove[]
The Four Main Campaigns[]
Upon dying in one of the four main campaigns, a 25% of the protagonist knight's accumulated wealth is dropped as winged Treasure Bags of money, with a slightly different design for each knight, that float around where he died, while he is forced to start again from the last Checkpoint he activated. The amount of money lost upon death is halved if the knight is wearing protective gear like the Final Guard, the Treasure Trappings, the Cloak of Clemency, or the Rodent Regalia. The Treasure Bags can be retrieved after restarting at a Checkpoint, but if the playable knight dies before he can do so or finishes the level without collecting the bags, the treasure inside is lost for good. Some items, like the Fishing Rod, some Curios, or the Horns of Heralding can be used to retrieve hard-to-reach bags.
Should death occur during a boss battle, even a challenge, there is a slight chance that a blow initiated before a demise, usually from a Relic-like item, will defeat the opponent; should this happen, the death is considered voided, a point of Health is restored and victory is rewarded.
In Shovel of Hope's Co-op Mode, it is possible for one of the players to resurrect themselves from death by leeching off half of the surviving player's Health, although this will fail if the latter has only half a bubble of Health; only once both players are knocked out simultaneously one effective death is counted and they are forced to retreat to the last Checkpoint.
Across the campaigns there are some cases of unconventional deaths, such as drowning in the Troupple Pond, falling from the Tower of Fate, receiving Gall's Kiss of Death or taking Horzio's offer at the Void Crater without the necessary protection of a Decree of Rejuvenation.
In Shovel of Hope finishing a level without dying will award the I'm Alive! Feat, while finishing the entire game without dying will award the Impossible! feat. The other campaigns lack feats that limit the number of overall deaths allowed. In King of Cards there is however a similar Feat to I'm Alive!, Heartless, in which both dying and healing are forbidden during a Joustus Judge stage.
Showdown[]
In Showdown the death system, alongside the Health Capacity, is tweaked: during a Treasure Clash or Showdown-type match a certain amount of Life Stocks is usually assigned to each contestant; should they run out of them during the match, they are eliminated from the active battle, meaning that unless that particular match is a team battle and their teammates are able secure victory they are considered defeated (this does not apply in Story Mode). Should the time limit of the match reach an end without a definitive winner, the battle could either enter an overtime period or enter Sudden Death, in which walls of lava encroach the arena, shrinking it progressively; if an opponent touches the lava they are immediately eliminated regardless of their remaining stocks.
During Story Mode a number of Continues is assigned at the beginning, their number depending on the difficulty selected, with a total of 10 for Easy, 6 for Medium, and 5 for Hard. Should all Continues being consumed, the Story Mode run is forced to start again from the beginning. Various feats involve not losing any stock or continue for their completion.
Also, in Co Op during certain types of matches, such as Story Mode, if one of the teamates of the main player are downed, they will eventually respawn as a Fairy in a Bubble. If freed, they will stay as a Fairy for a short time, before returning to their normal state with just one Life Stock.
Pocket Dungeon[]
In Pocket Dungeon, how death function depends on which Stock Mode is chosen, of which there are two possible options:
- In Single Stock Mode, death occurs when the playable knight falls in battle or the Dungeon's board fills up; in this case the adventure is considered over and the player will return to the camp.
- In Infinite Stock Mode, when the playable knight falls in battle, they’ll instead respawn; the lost wealth will occupy a space in the form of three Treasure Bags of gold that can then be recuperated. When the Dungeon's board fills up, the adventure is over, and the player will return to camp.
Upon death, the playable knight will return to the campsite. Doing so will result in the loss of any Items and Relic equipped as well as the overall progress towards the end of the Pocket Dungeon, but any Gems hoarded or other playable characters recruited will be retained. The return to the campsite is the perfect opportunity to spend the stashed Gems in useful features for subsequent Dungeon runs. The Fenix Feather Relic can resurrect the playable character, but not only it can be found just once per run, but also works only one time.
Due to the fact that while inside a Dungeon, damage is traded each time a blow is delivered to an enemy, death can be very common for the more careless. Infinite Stock Mode is considered beginner friendly, and should be considered as the ideal starting mode for a new playthrough. Each mode can be changed at any time from the menu.