Dying

A frequently asked question is, "Do I lose anything when I die?" The short answer is that you might lose EXP or items. Below the cases where that could happen are explained.

Dueling

Dueling is special. Even if it looks like you should, you won't die in a duel.

There is normally no penalty at all to losing a duel, the duel will end with you still alive (but with 1 HP). If you have an HP charm equipped, it will tick after the fight (if your health was low enough). That, and the shame and humiliation of losing, is your only cost to a duel.

Death Penalties

Death penalties vary depending upon your level, who/what kills you, where you are, your PvP status, and whether or not you have the item Safety Lock engaged.

You can lose experience or items.

All loss is prevented by having a Guardian Scroll in your inventory, these can be purchased in the Boutique. If you are killed while carrying a Guardian Scroll then a Guardian Scroll is used up. Even if you had nothing to lose.

The exception is in certain instances like the Cube of Fate, Territory Wars, Rebirth, and Warsong City. In these instances there is never a death penalty and Guardian Scrolls are never consumed from dying.

Experience Loss

PvP

There is no experience cost to being killed by another player (PKed), however there is still a chance that you may drop, or shatter, an item.

PvE

When you die to monsters, you will lose a small fraction of your experience. This starts at 5% and decreases as your Spiritual Cultivation increases.

However, you can't go below 0% EXP this way, meaning you can't lose your current level. So, before starting something dangerous (like an FB run), many players choose to get to 0 EXP, either by leveling up or by feeding all of their EXP to their genie.

Cultivation	Level	EXP loss when dying
none		5%
Aware of Principle	19	4.5%
Aware of Harmony	29	4%
Aware of Discord	39	3.5%
Aware of Coalescence	49	3%
Transcendent	59	2.5%
Enlightened One	69	2%
Aware of Vacuity	79	1%
Aware of the Void/Aware of the Myriad	89	0.6%
Master of Harmony	99	0.4%

Experience loss due to dying can be partially prevented by having a cleric resurrect you. A higher level Revive skill recovers more of your lost experience than a lower level. Be kind to your clerics!

Item Loss

How PvP are you?	Chance of item dropping	Chance of items shattering (without Safety Lock)	Chance of items shattering (with Safety Lock)
Blue	0%	0%	1%
White	1%	0%	1%
Pink	5%	0%	1%
Light Red (1PK)	25% equipped item and 100% inventory item in the first row.	1%	2%
Red (2PK)	50% equipped item and 100% inventory item in any row.	2%	3%
Dark red (3+ hours)	100% equipped item drop and 3+ inventory item drop.	3%	4%

Dropping Items

You have a small chance to drop an item when you die, whether a monster or a player kills you. This chance increases the redder you are (the more you've been killing other players).

If the game decides that you have dropped something, you might drop an item from your inventory; a whole stack of items from your inventory (up to 20 of a single item); or an equipped item.

This can be prevented, either through Guardian Scrolls, through binding, or by turning on your Safety Lock.

If an item is bound (whether through use of a binding charm or through being a special quest item such as a charm) then you cannot drop that item. It will shatter instead (see below).

This also applies if you have the Safety Lock turned on (this is to prevent someone from stealing your items even though the safety lock is turned on by getting killed repeatedly). When you are Safety Locked, you will not drop items, you will shatter them instead (and at a higher rate than if you weren't locked).

Shattered Gear

See also: Shattered Gear

If you are blue or white and have the Safety Lock disabled, then you will not break items.

OK, if you're not a player-killer then skip to the next section. Otherwise, you have a small chance of an item shattering.

If the game decides that an item is going to shatter this way (and this completely ignores the endurance system) two things happen:

1. The item will be marked as shattered and will stop working. No bonuses from it, no flying (if it was aerogear), no nothing.
2. A small pile of stones (yijuan, perfect, even mirage) will drop next to your corpse.

To make the item work again, choose the 'repair' option at most NPCs (including, for some reason, FB pillars). This is the conversation option, not the one on a trade screen. The NPC will tell you how many stones you need, you go through the manufacture process, and get back your item.

Note: This repair will cost more stones than you dropped, or check the tooltip.

Note: Yes, you have a chance to drop an item and break an item as well. If this happens, then you are really unlucky.

Coming Back to Life

When you die, the screen changes to grayscale, and a dialogue box in the middle gives you your three options.

1. Release Corpse
2. Use Scroll
3. Resurrect

The first option is always available. You'll reappear back in the nearest town, just as if you'd used the Town Portal skill.

The second option is only available if you have a Resurrection Scroll in your inventory (purchase from any 'Merchant', under the 'misc' tab, for 50,000 coins) and it will return you to life where you died.

The third option is only available if a cleric has cast 'Revive' on your corpse or a mystic had cast 'Resurrect' on you prior to your death. You will appear where you died and lose less experience than if you took the other two options.

You don't have to come back to life as soon as a cleric casts on you, you can wait. You will get the experience recovery of the most recent resurrection cast on you.

When you come back to life you will have very little health or mana. So don't waste a scroll if there are still monsters around!

Notes

1. HP charms are a great way to avoid dying all the time. But they aren't 100% reliable.
2. You have to die at least once in the game. Your cultivation quest at level 39 asks you to experience existence as a ghost. And it doesn't give you a quest to explain what to do. So I'll tell you here, you've got to die. Then you get your next quest in the chain.