Death & Resurrection

This page explains dying and coming back. For preventing death see Healing; for getting res’d specifically by bandage see Healing → Resurrecting with a bandage; for murderer/notoriety effects see Notoriety & PvP.

What happens at 0 HP

When your hit points reach 0, you die and become a ghost:

Your character turns into a grey, translucent ghost and can move freely.
As a ghost you cannot be easily heard by the living — your speech comes out as “Oooo” sounds to other players unless they have Spirit Speak active (which lets them hear ghosts).
You cannot attack, cast, or interact with most of the world while dead. You wander until you are resurrected.

Your corpse and loot

When you die, a corpse is left at the spot you fell:

It holds your loot — most items you were carrying and wearing drop to the corpse, unless they are blessed, newbied, or insured (see below).
Other players (and, in dungeons, monsters/looters) can take from your corpse, depending on the area’s ruleset and your notoriety. Recover your body quickly.
Your corpse decays over time, so don’t dawdle.

What stays with you vs what drops

Blessed items — never drop on death; they stay equipped/in your pack. Starting gear and many quest items are blessed.
Newbied items — like blessed for newcomers; remain on you.
Insured items — items you paid to insure stay with you on death (a fee is deducted on each death from your insurance funds). This is the modern way to protect valuable gear.
Everything else — drops to your corpse and can be looted.

Exact insurance cost/mechanics are shard-dependent and unverified here — confirm on the shard config. Manage and insure items via Vendors & banking and Items & inventory.

Ghost movement

As a ghost you can walk and run normally to reach a place where you can be resurrected. You pass freely and are not attacked. You generally cannot use doors, mounts, or most items while dead. Head for the nearest healer, shrine, or living friend.

Getting resurrected

Several methods bring a ghost back to life:

Wandering Healer NPCs — roving healers in the wilderness will resurrect you on approach (double-click them). They are the classic “walk your ghost to a healer” option.
Town Healer NPCs — healers stationed in towns and at healer buildings resurrect you. See the world / towns. Note: town/NPC healers will not resurrect flagged murderers (red characters) — see Notoriety & PvP.
Shrines — moongate/virtue shrines can resurrect a ghost who reaches them; see moongates & shrines.
A player’s Resurrection spell — a Magery caster (8th-circle Resurrection) can res you on the spot.
A player’s bandage — a healer with Healing ≥ 80 and Anatomy ≥ 80 can resurrect you with a bandage (verified in Bandage.cs; full procedure in Healing).
Chivalry / other — some systems (e.g. Chivalry’s Resurrect) can also res (unverified availability).

To accept a resurrection: you are shown a resurrect gump — click to accept and you return to life with low HP at that location.

Resurrection penalty

On modern AOS-and-later rules the penalty for dying is minimal — typically you come back at low HP/stat/mana and may take a short stat/skill dip that recovers, rather than the heavy permanent loss of early eras. The exact penalty is shard-dependent and unverified here; check the shard rules. (Resurrecting a dead pet does cost the pet a small permanent skill loss, ~0.1 per skill, per Bandage.cs.)

Retrieving your corpse and loot

After you are resurrected:

Return to your corpse (you respawned wherever you got res’d, which may be far away — you may need to travel back; see Movement & travel).
Loot your own corpse — open it and drag your items back. Anything insured/blessed never left you, so you only need to reclaim the rest.
Re-equip your weapon and armor, re-bandage/heal up, and you’re ready again.

If you cannot reach the body in time (it decayed or was looted), your dropped items are gone — which is exactly why insurance and blessed gear matter for valuables.