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Auto-Revive

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A game item, spell, or effect which activates automatically upon your death to revive your character from KO, giving you a second chance. It may heal you partially or fully, but either way it is invariably depleted, lost, destroyed, or put on a lengthy cooldown in the process of reviving you.

Expect Artificial Stupidity to really hit your partners if Auto Revives work on them as well (especially if they're shared between the whole team), as they'll invariably be the ones getting KO'ed first, and might use up your supply of them first (when it's you who needs them the most).

In any fantasy game, this tends to be a natural ability of the mythical Phoenix.note  However, they can either only do it once, or they do so by turning into an egg (which can potentially be destroyed before they hatch again).

Subtrope of Death-Activated Superpower. Overlaps with Death as Game Mechanic when other effects coincide with auto-reviving, like using a special attack or regaining a resource. Compare 1-Up.note  and Last Chance Hit Point.note 

Examples:

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Video Game Examples

    Action-Adventure 
  • The Heart Of Darkness in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Came back as a Chekhov's Gun in a much later title with the exact same ability as Gameplay and Story Integration.
  • In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night the fairy familiar will automatically use a Life Apple to resurrect you if you have one in your inventory. A contributing factor to the game's infamous lack of challenge.
  • In Cowboy Kid, the Meat you buy can restore up to ten hearts if your health is fully depleted to nothing.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • If you have a certain special ability, called an Atman Principle(s), equipped in The Matrix: Path of Neo if you die you can be revived.
  • Ōkami has the Astral Pouch. It gradually fills with food and empties itself to revive Amaterasu if she dies. You can gain up to four of them, and they refill your health completely, making actual Game Over very unlikely. Justified in that Amaterasu is a goddess.
  • "Dream fluff" candies can be bought in Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2; they'll activate when you die and fully refill your health.
  • In Romancia, the Fruit of the Life Tree will revive you after death with a Fission Mailed message, up to five times.
  • In Singular Stone, the Emergency Recovery item fully recovers your HP after it hits 0 once and, if your current character has their Armor item, activates a special effect that's different for each character. It can be restored by going to the tent, which also removes said effect.
  • In Super Metroid, Samus can collect reserve tanks and then set them to automatically activate if she runs out of energy, healing her by up to 400 points of energy. You can also use them manually if you want, making them both this and Emergency Energy Tank.

    Adventure Games 
  • In Enchanter, there is the black OZMOO spell scroll that can help you "survive unnatural death". If you memorize and cast it at just the right time, you'll survive the Human Sacrifice ritual in the temple.

    Beat ’em Up 
  • In Castle Crashers, potions are used that way in multiplayer. You can use them as regular healing item though. And you must use them like that on solo mode.

    Eastern RPG 
  • 3D Dot Game Heroes has Wonderdust. Only one can be held at a time (though it can be repurchased from a shop if used) and resurrects the player when their hearts run out.
  • The Doll of Life in Arcus Odyssey.
  • Atelier:
  • Baten Kaitos Origins has the rare Cross Pendant, which will revive a character if it's equipped when the character dies. It takes a bit of luck to use it.
  • In Breath of Fire III: Soul Rings are a single-use Limited-Use Magical Device full revive piece of equipment.
  • Boktai 2 and 3 both use the Judgement tarot card for this purpose. Lunar Knights, its Spiritual Successor, has something similar in its Wild Cards.
    • There was also an equip item (Burning Headband) that automatically used a healing item from your inventory whenever your Life ran out while it was worn. Its counterpart (Cool Bandanna) used a restorative when your Energy was completely depleted.
  • Chrono Trigger includes the Green Dream accessory, which can be acquired in a Side Quest, and the Life Line triple tech, usable by a party of Chrono, Marle, and Robo.
  • In Dawn of Mana, you can collect chalices that will fully restore your HP and MP upon death.
  • The Dragon Quest series had items called Life Stones, which wouldn't save you from all kinds of death, but would take the fall if an instant-death spell was cast upon you and worked.
  • In the Final Fantasy series, the spell name (and effect) is either Auto-Life, Life 3, or Reraise, depending on the game.
    • In Chocobo's Dungeon, Phoenix Downs were modified to work like this. Using one on yourself while still alive would give you a status effect that would cause you to rise from the dead upon falling... but it would go away as soon as you'd enter the next floor.
      • Crisis Core's Phoenix Downs work similarly, but the effect never goes away, short of dying. It's possible to get said reraise status at the earliest possible moment in the game and keep it throughout the entire game.
      • The Phoenix Downs in Dirge of Cerberus worked the same as in Crisis Core.
    • A classic combo in Final Fantasy VII is to pair the Phoenix summon materia with Final Attack support materia—the one that activates when you die (it can't be done infinitely in the same battle, however; it's dependent on the level of the both Materias, and can activate a maximum of 5 times). It is also possible to pair Final Attack with the Life Materia, but it's not as efficient as Phoenix.
    • It was once possible in Final Fantasy XI to lose Reraise due to a Status-Buff Dispel, which was often very annoying in a pinch. The game was eventually patched to make it impossible to lose unless it wore off with time, zoned into certain areas, were placed under a level cap, or changed jobs.
      • The popularity of the Twilight Mail/Helm received from the Big Bad of Abyssea is due to the combination having a perpetual Auto-Revive.
    • Final Fantasy IX has the summon, Phoenix, which can revive all fallen allies when used. However, if the entire party is wiped and Eiko (who is the only character that can use Phoenix) is in the lineup, there's a small chance Phoenix will come on its own and revive the entire party, giving you a second chance. This can happen multiple times in a single fight, but the odds of it happening diminish each time. Additionally, Quina can cast Auto-Life as Blue Magic, and there's an equippable support ability on all characters that is also called Auto-Life. It brings a character back with 1 HP after being knocked out.
    • The Final Fantasy Tactics series has Angel Rings that give Reraise when equipped. Tactics also has the all-powerful Chantage perfumes that gives the Always: Reraise, Regen buff when equipped. Only female characters can wear Chantage, though.
      • Final Fantasy Tactics Advance also has the Blue Magic spell Angel's Whisper, and the Dragoon reaction command Dragonheart. In addition, zombies and other undead enemies always revive after a few turns unless the battle is over or a specific ability is used on their corpse.
      • Undead monsters in the original FFT also have a chance to auto-revive when their corpse-timers run out (everyone else just crystallize or drops an item), unless turned to stone via the Seal Evil ability. Only one character (or two in the remake) can use that ability, so otherwise you just have to kill all the zombies, ghosts etc quickly so that the battle ends before they can revive.
    • And in Final Fantasy X, the final battle is quintessentially unloseable because all of your characters always have Auto-Life buffed on them automatically.
      • Armour with Auto-Phoenix would essentially provide this to the wearer's allies, by allowing said wearer to fling a Phoenix Down their way when they fell. Entire parties with Auto-Phoenix can take a ferocious amount of killing, but be really, really expensive.
    • In Final Fantasy XIII-2, the Cactaurama's feral link can bestow this buff on your party (though it wears off fairly quickly). It's also used by Caius in almost every single one of the fights against him, though more for story-line purposes since the battle usually ends anyway once it kicks in (unless you have the Paradox Scope).
    • In Final Fantasy XIV the last boss of the hard mode version of the Lost City of Amdapor dungeon has a buff that lets it revive itself twice. Each time the boss is revived, it gains increased defense and it changes attack patterns. In the deeper parts of the Palace of the Dead, there's an item that gives the party an auto-raise, but it only revives the first player to die and the effect cannot stack since the effect can only be applied once per use.
    • In lieu of his usual party-wide Reflect spell, Carbuncle becomes this in Final Fantasy XV if you complete the Platinum Demo and import the save into the full game. He only assists you this way on Easy mode, though, and obviously only when Noctis is killed, but he affects the whole party.
    • In the first Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, the player can equip Phoenix Downs (normal revive items) on their command menu to have this effect; this is the only way to actually use these items in single player.
  • Game Master (RPG Maker): The Phoenix Chick is a key item that allows Elsa to revive from KO once, resulting in the item being consumed.
  • The Medicine in Hydlide.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Kingdom Hearts: The Tinker Bell summon works differently from the rest in that your party members don't disappear and she can stay around indefinitely, only disappearing when she resurrects you or you dismiss her. And in addition to resurrecting you, she constantly heals you — basically the Regen and Reraise status.
    • In Chain of Memories, Vexen's enemy card grants Auto-Life if it's in your deck.
    • Kingdom Hearts II: If Sora dies while the Peter Pan Summon is active, Tinker Bell will revive him to full health. It only works once per Summon, and she stops healing Sora once she's revived him.
    • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days: The Auto-Life Ability Panel will revive the user once per mission. The Level 1 version revives them with 1/3 of their total HP, the Level 2 version revives them with 2/3 of their total HP, and Level 3 version revives them with full HP.
    • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: The Aqua D-Link's Level 2 Ability is Auto-Life, which will revive the user with 25% of their total HP if they die. It only works once per D-Link.
    • Kingdom Hearts Re:coded has Auto-Life as a level 3 Clock Ability on Oathkeeper, which revives Data-Sora but resets his clock level. This is much loved by players going for the 1 HP challenges.
    • Some of the endgame dream eater allies in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] can bestow this buff upon you.
    • Kingdom Hearts III introduces the Kupo Coin, an item that you can buy from the Moogle Shop. You can only have one Kupo Coin at a time, but if it's in your inventory, it will protect Sora from fatal damage one time and heal back half of his HP. Once the M.O.G. Card is obtained, it instead fully restores Sora's health and 100 MP or half of the MP Charge gauge.
    • In the Re Mind DLC, the Secret Episode boss, Yozora, can steal Sora's items, including the aforementioned Kupo Coin, and if they get ahold of the Kupo Coin, defeating them triggers a fake death animation before the Kupo Coin activates and revives them to half of their health. Keep in mind they already have 20 freaking health bars and are considered one of the hardest, if not the hardest, Superboss in the franchise.
  • In Legacy of the Wizard, the Elixir fully heals you if you die with it as your selected item.
  • The Lunar games have Angel Rings - rare, equippable accessories that resurrect the user once, then vanish. Falls firmly in the Too Awesome to Use category for almost all of the game.
  • Pamela has a passive skill in Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis that does this, though it takes a few turns to kick in. In this case it's an example of Gameplay and Story Integration; she can't die because she's already a ghost.
  • Mother 3 has the Magypsy mementos.
  • Monster Hunter: Palicoes, which were introduced in Freedom Unite, can get knocked out, but just burrow under the ground and pop back up again a few minutes later good as new. Their Prowler variants in Monster Hunter Generations can do this too using acorns, but only twice before they cart upon losing all their health.
  • Nocturne: Rebirth has the Phoenix Feather accessory, which revives a fallen character with 100 HP and their buffs intact.
  • The "Ancient Crystal" item in Odin Sphere provides this effect when equipped. It is also the only way to remove "Curse" (delayed One-Hit Kill) status.
  • Paper Mario:
    • The Life Shrooms in the series would revive you upon death, but only with a pathetic 10 HP. Enemies may also occasionally spawn carrying these, which means that they revive when you kill them. Better hope you can steal it from them first.
    • In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, where each of Mario's partners have their own HP, Life Shrooms automatically revive them too. There is no way to turn off this behavior; you can't save these valuable items for use on Mario only, even though a dead partner is a minor inconvenience and a dead Mario is a Game Over.
  • Parasite Eve has the Revive medicines, which automatically revives you back to half your max HP if you're defeated in battle. There's also an ability that grants the same effect, but its energy cost is very expensive.
  • Since the game ends when the Protagonist is killed in Persona 3 and Persona 4, the Game's Easy Mode grants you 10 Plumes of Dusk (Or Moon Tsukubame in Persona 4) that will fully heal the party upon the protagonist's defeat. (You get 20 Plumes of Dusk in Beginner Mode in the PSP Edition). In addition, one can create Homunculi to protect party members from Hama and Mudo skills.
  • Sacred Earth - Alternative: When the final dungeon unlocks, Konoe can learn a passive skill, One Last Gift, which lets her automatically revive once per battle.
  • The SaGa series has Revive starting with Romancing SaGa 2.
  • In Secret of Evermore, an item could revive the main character upon death, but it had a limited duration.
  • Solatorobo: Red the Hunter has the rare Revive parts. If installed when your health hits 0, they do exactly what you'd expect, then vanish forever. Actually fairly useful for the Boss Rush side-missions.
  • The Suikoden series has, by various names known, the "Sacrificial Jizo" item or accessory that, when equipped, allows the character to come back (once) with a few hundred hit-points.
  • Some of the Tales Series series games have the buff Revive which activates instantly when the party member is KO'ed while under the effect of the spell. There are also revive rings which revive character upon KO with a minuscule chance of not breaking upon usage.
  • In Valkyrie Profile, the Auto-Item skill lets party members use an item automatically with requirements you can set. You can set everyone to use a Union Plume at 100% chance to have them revive other party members whenever they die. Late game, this and maxed out Guts becomes literally the only way to survive boss fights.
  • Vay has the Life Stone, which instantly and completely brings your party back to life (restoring their HP and MP) if everyone gets knocked out. Since this is a potential Game-Breaker item, there is exactly one Stone to be found in the entire game.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 2 characters, Reyn and Dunban, have aura arts that can restore their life one time if their life reaches zero. They are effective for as long as the aura lasts.

    Fighting Games 

    First-Person Shooter 
  • In Paladins, Terminus' ultimate ability, Reanimate, can be triggered within 5 seconds of dying with a full Ultimate meter. After a short channeling period, he regains all of his health and unleashes a shockwave that causes enough damage to one-shot most non-Tank characters that get too close.
  • The Last Breath tarot card in Painkiller revives you with 33 health points the first time you die in a level.
  • PAYDAY 2: Two available skills (both under the Fugitive tree's Revenant subtree) allow you to automatically get back up after being downed:
    • Feign Death (tier 3) gives you a 15% chance to automatically get back up after being downed. Acing it increases this chance to 45%.
    • Messiah (tier 4) lets you automatically revive yourself if you kill an enemy after being downed, but gives you only one charge. Acing it lets you refill that charge via a Doctor Bag.
  • Rage (2011) has a nanomachine-enhanced super-defibrillator. Think of it as a pacemaker that kills almost everyone within ten meters of you when you have a heart attack. Each time you die with a defibrillator charge, your character goes into a small minigame to get their heart restarted, the resulting nanomachine lightning reviving you and zapping everyone else with electricity. You even need to use it at one point early on - your character is captured early in the game and fatally stabbed. Luckily, your torturer is standing in liquid. It has two upgrades: double the charging capacity (story quest), and increased recharge rate (you need to trade a lot of feltrite to a local adventurer who hit this jackpot).
  • In the single-player mode of Red Faction 2, you can carry up to three health kits, which function like this. If you're already carrying the max number of health kits, then you can still pick them up to gain instant health like in other first-person shooters.

    Hack and Slash 
  • Devil May Cry has Yellow Orbs, but until the third game they were only an automatic revival in the Japanese versions, and in the American versions they just allowed you to continue one room before where you died.
  • The Xbox Ninja Gaiden has Talismans of Rebirth. If Ryu is killed while carrying one, it gets used up to fill his health to the max. There aren't many to find in the game, and they're expensive to buy, so many players would rather restart and save them for the tougher bosses.

    MMORPGs 
  • In City of Heroes, many Armor and Aura powersets feature powers that can revive the user after they've been defeated. The effects range from "Get up through sheer willpower" to "Explode in a burst of flames". Also, all characters have access to revive inspirations, also known as "Wakies". Unless the power has the added bonus of a Enemy Crippling Debuff (like the heavy damage and high-magnitude stun from the aforementioned "explode in a burst of flames" power), anything that can kill you with your toggles on can do so even more quickly without them.
  • A module for Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach added a Cleric spell called Death Pact, which will automatically resurrect the caster if necessary.
  • In EverQuest, a high-level spell called Divine Intervention give you a (rather small) chance to be revived (and healed) upon death. The short duration (and the expensive cost) of this spell means it is only used on a key player (the main tank) during raids.
  • Final Fantasy XIV doesn't have anything like this in standard play, but special zones with their own rules often include them:
    • The Deep Dungeons, Palace of the Dead and Heaven-On-High, contain special items that can only be used in that dungeon. The Podmander of Raising grants an auto-revive effect to the whole party and it only revives the first player that was defeated. The effect cannot be stacked.
    • The Adventuring Forays, Eureka and Save The Queen, have a special duty actions that grant a 70% chance that you'll be revived upon defeat, but it only works once per use. Save The Queen also has the Reraise spell, which can be used on allies as well as oneself and has an 80% success rate.
  • In Granblue Fantasy, Kaguya's Summon Aura grants this effect once at the start of a battle.
  • In Guild Wars, you can enchant yourself with Eternal Aura, which resurrects all party members in the area when it ends. If you die with it on, that counts as it ending. Also, you count as a party member. There's a similar effect with the ashes of Naomei, which trigger a wide-area rez when dropped (and if you die carrying them, they drop).
  • Phantasy Star Online introduced Scape Dolls to the series - if you die, the doll breaks and you revive on the spot. Rare as shit to find. Becomes a bit more common - and, in some cases, necessary - in the later games.
    • The Gamecube/Xbox/PC remakes also had the Ragol Ring, a difficult to obtain, Too Awesome to Use shield variant of the Scape Doll.
  • In Ragnarok Online, the Soul Linkers can learn an ability to revive them after their death and heal up to a certain percent of their life. Downsides? All previous enchantments are gone (like normally after death), loss of experience (so you might as well die and restore at your save point) and of course the fact that casting this Auto Revive spell takes few precious seconds. Considering that it takes some effort to kill a Soul Linker in the first place (they have an ability to auto-heal them every time they are hit, but it ALWAYS heals and it can drain MP fast), whatever managed to kill him while he was buffed, it will have little to no problems killing a "clean" Soul Linker again.
  • RuneScape 3 has a few examples:
    • The Sign of Life and Sign of Death items are consumable items that provide this effect with a one hour cooldown that starts on death (with the former healing 25% of your max health when you revive (50% with an upgrade from Death) and the latter only restoring 15% of your max health (30% with the same upgrade from Death), but damaging the enemy you're targeting on revival). Their upgraded forms, the Portent of Life and Portent of Death, work from the inventory. Finally, the Defence Skillcape has a perk that lets it act as an infinite Sign of Life...though it still shares the one hour cooldown the others do.
    • The Immortality ultimate ability gives damage reduction for 30 seconds, while providing this and removing the buff if you do happen to die. Some enemies (such as 1000%+ enrage Telos and TzKal-Zuk) can break through with their instakill attacks, however.
  • All Spiral Knights can revive for free once per level. Additional revives on the same level consume an aptly named Spark of Life, which can be bought for real money or (rarely) found.
  • World of Warcraft: Warlock soulstones and the Shaman Reincarnation ability allow users revive on the spot, even during combat. Hunter pets have a talent ability that also works like this. Also, the Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether has a 10% chance to revive the user after death.
    • The Death Knight starting zone has this with Val'kyr, who will resurrect you if you die, but only every ten minutes (assuming you should be competent enough not to die more than once in ten minutes). Although this can lead to a ridiculous moment where you'll die while riding a Frost Wyrm and the Val'kyr will resurrect you.... several dozen feet in the air, allowing you to fall to your death.

    MOBAs 
  • In Defense of the Ancients we have the Aegis of the Immortal, as well as Wraith King's ultimate, Reincarnation.
  • Heroes of the Storm:
    • Kharazim's Divine Palm heroic places a short-duration buff on an ally that triggers if they take fatal damage, preventing it and restoring a huge amount of health.
    • Uther, Johanna, and Fenix all have level 20 talents that do this. Uther revives on the spot at half health, while Fenix and Jo prevent death entirely and instead gain a massive shield. These have long cooldowns, of course.
  • The item "Guardian Angel" in League of Legends, as well as Zilean's ultimate (which works like the aforementioned Divine Palm). Zac and Anivia have a variant, where they leave behind an attackable target (four smaller blobs for Zac and an egg for Anivia.) If these aren't killed, then they revive with health based on the blobs'/egg's remaining health. Finally, Sion and the Chemtech Soul buff downplay this: they auto-revive your champion on dying, but provide constantly draining health that will eventually kill them again.
  • Demented Shaman in Heroes of Newerth can cast Unbreakable to give an ally hero or himself an attack damage buff which also sets their HP to a certain amount on lethal damage then dispels itself.

    Platformers 
  • In ActRaiser Renaissance, if you raise the Crystal meter to its maximum, you're granted the chance to revive once without losing a life, regaining 50% of your maximum HP and MP.
  • Adventure Island IV has a fairy (who fulfilled the role of Invincibility Power-Up in earlier games) who can revive Higgins and send him back right to where he died and disappear after use. She's acquirable at minigames found throughout the game.
  • Blender Bros has the Mini Bro Yooby, who can be evolved from Neon. Once per level, when you run out of hearts, he'll call in a friend to revive you.
  • Chester Cheetah: Wild Wild Quest (the sequel to Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool) has a bag of Cheetos that the player can keep on hand in case they get a One-Hit Kill, at which case the snack acts as an Auto-Revive.
  • Freedom Planet 2 allows you to use your extra lives to revive on the spot. However, your character will come back with just a measly single HP unless you have a certain item equipped. Certain enemies and hazards can also outright destroy your character's body, preventing you from using this mechanic.
  • Kero Blaster: Dying from regular damage (as opposed to pits/crushing) while holding a Heart Jar will revive you with four hearts. This powerful item can be bought at a shop, but you can only hold one of them at a time.
  • Mega Man X8:
    • There's a meter to the left of the characters' health in the HUD. Normally it's for the Double Attack Limit Break, but you can still fill up the meter even if you have a knocked out partner. Doing so will instantly revive your partner.
    • In a game that averts Lazy Backup, spikes are still an instant kill even if your partner is on standby. The Prickle Barrier ability protects the active character at the cost of depleting most of their HP (remedied by a brief Mercy Invincibility).
  • Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal has a hidden gadget called the Nano-pak, which allows the player to pick up additional health-restoring Nanotech while at full health. If Ratchet runs out of health, any excess Nanotech stored in the pack will be used to revive him once.
  • Spark the Electric Jester has sparkling items scattered around the levels that fill a yellow bar at the top of the screen. If it gets full your character will revive with full health when you next get defeated. The meter takes forever to fill, though, and is lost every time you die.
  • Wario Land: Shake It had the Recovery Potion, which restored health to max when health drops to zero. You could only carry two of them however.

    Real Time Strategy 
  • Iron Marines: The "Mutagenesis" upgrade in the Tech Tree gives a chance for an Army or Empyrean unit in a squad to respawn instantly upon being killed, as long as the whole squad isn't killed off.
  • Warcraft 3:
    • The Tauren Chieftain's ultimate skill lets him auto-revive with full health and mana every four minutes.
    • Carrying an Ankh of Reincarnation allows a hero to auto-revive once with 500 hitpoints.
    • The Blood Mage's ultimate summons a Phoenix which turns into an egg on death, from which will spring another Phoenix if it isn't destroyed after about 10 seconds. However, the Phoenix also has negative health regeneration, so it will die (and if it dies over water or unpassable terrain, has to be summoned again).

    Rhythm Game 

    Roguelike 
  • Ancient Domains of Mystery has the Amulet of Life Saving. You can actually give it a certain NPC before he starts his Final Speech, effectively sacrificing your extra life to save him. This is required to unlock the Golden Ending.
  • The Binding of Isaac has several, starting off with a small number before adding more in Rebirth.
    • In the original game and Wrath of the Lamb-
      • The 1UP item is the most simple, being a green mushroom, which revives the player with full HP and all of his hearts intact.
      • The Dead Cat gives Isaac nine extra lives- However, this comes at the cost of only reviving with a singular heart container each time, as well as reducing the player's heart containers to one upon pickup.
      • Wrath of the Lamb introduces the Ankh, which revives the player as ???/Blue Baby, making you unable to collect red hearts. Additionally, since the player is Blue Baby, all character-specific completion marks are given to ???.
    • In Rebirth:
      • Guppy's Collar has a 50% chance to revive the player upon death, though they only have half a red heart (or in the case of ???, half a soul heart) upon revival.
      • Judas's Shadow revives the player as a unique character, Dark Judas, who revives with two black hearts and a higher base damage than most characters. Like the Ankh example above, all character-specific unlocks will be attributed to Judas, rather than the previous character.
      • Lazarus's Rags, which Lazarus starts with, are unique in that they revive the player on the spot, rather than the previously cleared room. They also revive the player as Lazarus (more specifically, Lazarus Risen), which attributes all character-specific unlocks to him.
      • The Broken Ankh, while a trinket rather than an item, still serves the same purpose, acting similar to the item but only working 22% of the time- However, unlike the regular Ankh, it can trigger multiple times.
      • While initially not one, the Missing Poster trinket was turned into one in Afterbirth, thanks to the unlock process for The Lost being simplified, now reviving the player (and unlocking, if they haven't already) The Lost instead of providing a puzzle piece for how to unlock them. If the player is already The Lost, then it provides a simple extra life. Again, all character-specific unlocks will be attributed to The Lost.
  • Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has the god of chaos, Xom, who might intervene and revive you if you die. Said god is equally likely to troll you and just hasten your death with extra enemies however.
  • Enter the Gungeon has two items which do this. First, there is a Ration, which is a blue-tier active item that heals two hearts when eaten, and will also be automatically consumed upon death. Then, there's a much rarer Pig, who follows the player once they find its sash in a golden chest, but doesn't do anything at all...until the character's HP runs out, after which the Pig jumps in front of the bullet, reviving the character with full health at the cost of his own life.
    • Notably, if you happen to have both a Ration and a Pig, they'll both be consumed at death, so you should seek to just heal up normally with a Ration to avoid that very scenario happening.
    • Moreover, an unusual bonus of having a Pig around is that he won't just protect you, but your Ring of Miserly Protection as well. Said Ring is relatively common item that does a huge favor to the player by providing them with two extra hearts, but immediately takes it away if they purchase anything afterwards. A so-called "Porkulent" synergy prevents the Ring from shattering as long as the Pig is around, no matter how many purchases you make.
  • For the King: Sanctums are overworld features that a character can attune to gain an ongoing stat boost and a single automatic revival with partial Hit Points and Focus points. Each Sanctum can only be attuned once and crumbles when the character is revived.
  • Hades lets you choose between two kinds. Death Defiance can be stacked up to 3 times and restores you to 50% health, while Stubborn Defiance only revives once to 30% health, but refreshes every time you enter a new chamber. Skelly's keepsake, the Lucky Tooth, gives you one extra revive for 50 to 100 HP.
  • Inscryption: If you combine the Undying sigil (card returns to your hand on death) with the Corpse Eater sigil (card automatically plays itself when another card dies) you get a creature that will automatically revive itself whenever killed, forever.
  • Jupiter Hell:
    • Scout's Second Wind trait saves them from death and heals them to 50% once per run.
    • Marine has a downplayed version of that with Die Hard, which prevents death once per level, but only if the HP amount at the time was already higher than 25.
  • NetHack:
    • The game provides the old Trope Namer, Amulet of Life Saving. If its wearer were to die, it crumbles to dust and revives them with full HP.
      • The only exceptions are if the player was careless enough to use a scroll of genocide to wipe out their own species (which is guaranteed to happen if you read the scroll while confused), or if they took too long dealing with mind flayers, whose tentacle attacks literally consume bits of the victim's brain if they connect with their head (a helmet offers a good chance of protection, but it is only foolproof if greased, and the grease may wear off anyway), making the player character forget the things they have already discovered and reducing their intelligence stat. If the intelligence stat goes below 3, the player is considered brainless, and it is instant death regardless of life saving. ("Unfortunately, your brain is still gone.")
      • The "wearer" does not necessarily mean the player - any intelligent humanoid in the dungeon who happened to find this amulet will also put it on, and be saved from certain death once. This may not seem like it matters much, until you happen to stumble onto a nymph, since they love jewellery and worn amulets are one of the first things they steal. If you failed to keep out of her embrace, then even if you do manage to kill her twice to get the rest of your stolen stuff back, your precious amulet will be gone for good. Only exception
    • If you have made it to the middle floor of Vlad the Impaler's tower in Gehennom, there will be a guaranteed amulet of life saving in a chest. The only problem is that all of the amulets are generated unmarked at first, so if you do not already know what an amulet of life saving looks like, there is every chance that you'll instead put on an amulet of strangulation in a chest opposite it...Since you are in the game's version of hell, you can't even pray (normal response to being stuck with cursed items) to have it taken off, and in all versions newer than 3.6.0, it's impossible to cast spells if you are being strangled either, so a spell of remove curse will not work either. You are well and truly screwed unless you happened to possess a scroll of remove curse or a spare bottle of holy water to dip the amulet into. There are a few other ways to save yourself in that circumstance, but they are increasingly unlikely, or carry steep costs. A potion of polymorph may change the amulet into a useful/less harmful one, but it's rare, will not be used on something else by the players by then, and may fail to work outright. A wand of cancellation will depower the amulet of strangulation but it will also strip magical properties from all of your worn armor, which you have likely been painstakingly enchanting for a long time & render any scrolls or potions in the open inventory useless. Having a really rare ring of polymorph control equipped will allow the player to escape the amulet through polymorphing themselves with either a potion, wand or a spell of polymorph into an air elemental (which will both remove the amulet and only make all the worn armor fall to the floor instead of getting destroyed, as would have been the case with most other self-polymorphs.)
  • The Reviver Seeds in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. After use, they become Plain Seeds, which are absolutely useless... except in Explorers of Sky, where you can have Spinda make them into drinks that may boost your HP.
    • Well, not completely useless — like most seeds, they fill the belly a little bit when consumed, so they can be used to stave off hunger for a little while (though not nearly as long as an Apple would).
    • Subverted with the lookalike Reviser Seeds. Unless the user's IQ is high enough, it'll revive them... and then they immediately faint from spontaneous laughter.
  • The Roguelike Ragnarok has the aptly-named potion of second life, which will save you even if you genocide your own species. However, it can only be created once, and doesn't stop monsters from immediately killing you again.
  • Spelunky features the Ankh which returns dead spelunkers back to level entrance with 4 Hit Points. This item is actually necessary to get to the City of Gold.
  • Streets of Rogue has fancy shampoo which applies the "resurrection" status until you die, at which point you'll come back with some of your health missing. These are rather rare items but can be cloned to generate an absurd number of lives, although you will need to rapidly apply the shampoo upon recovery before the thing that just killed you kills you again. The same status can also be granted by pools of tainted water and randomly gained during a disaster that gives everyone on the floor a new status every 10 seconds, although in the latter case it will only help if you happen to die during that 10 second period.
  • Tales of Maj'Eyal:
    • The Ring of the Dead and the Blood of Life only work once. The Lichform spell can be used this way, but it's generally a better idea to complete your apotheosis quickly and under controlled circumstances.
    • The "Second Life" skill lets you do it repeatedly, but it returns you with low life and can only activate once in a while.
    • Permadeath difficulty settings below "Roguelike" give you "extra lives," which manifest as a being called the Eidolon intervening to save your character at the last minute.
    • The Master, boss of the Dreadfell, has the ability to come back at full power after dying once.

    Shoot ’em Up 
  • Judgement Silversword has a form of this. If you lose your last life while a 1-Up is on the screen, the 1-Up moves to your ship's spawn point and becomes your next life.

    Stealth Games 
  • In Dishonored 2, Paolo possesses a severed, mummified Evil Hand that means the first incapacitating injury he takes on a given day instead causes him to disperse in the form of a Swarm of Rats, to revive at a set location some time later. Only if he's attacked again before sundown can he truly be killed (or knocked out).
  • Metal Gear:
    • Rations for most of the series have this effect if currently equipped, outside of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, where food only increases your stamina to give you Gradual Regeneration rather than outright healing you.
    • Vamp turns this against the player when you fight him in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, as after his health is drained, he will simply stand back up slowly and regain his health and/or stamina after a moment. One of the game's reveals is that his immortality is brought about by nanomachines, so the trick is to grab him before he fully revives and use the syringe on him, which disables those nanomachines.

    Survival Horror 
  • Unique in Eternal Darkness, Anthony is under the effect of a curse which progressively zombifies him, but by the same token, having his health fully depleted by monsters makes him temporarily fall to the floor, only to groan in agony as he gets right back up again, restored to fighting strength. This carries over into Paul's chapter, where Anthony is still "alive" centuries later, and he must be struck down by Paul twice before he finally dies for good.
  • Fatal Frame games have the Stone Mirror. You can only bring one with you at any time.
  • The first aid spray in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles.
  • Don't Starve has three methods of revival, the Life-Giving Amulet, the Touch Stone and a Meat Effigy. The former two only have one of each for each playthrough, while the latter is technically replenishable but takes a lot of time and valuable resources. The amulet also has to permanently take up an inventory slot, since it needs to be worn to be used.

    Turn Based Strategy 
  • Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice: DLC character Hero Prinny has his "Red Scarf" innate Evility, which revives him at full HP in the Base Panel if he falls in battle. However, as a trade-off (and a Call-Back to his game's main mechanic), you will lose one dispatch count each time this happens.
  • Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny: Zed, being a zombie (albeit an unusually strong one thanks to Super Reincarnation) has "Zombie Revival" as one of his unique Evilities. When equipped, the user is revived with half-health inside the Base Panel if they fall in battle. However, it's only one time per stage.
  • In Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, the Rebirth buff will bring a unit back to life if they fall in battle. It doesn’t work if the unit was killed with Collect Pelt, Collect Bounty, or Collect Trophy, however.
  • Heroes of Might and Magic IV features the Potion of Immortality. It can be purchased in any town for only 1000 gold, and if you make your hero drink it, he will be resurrected and revived to full health if he dies. Combined with a high-level Barbarian, this is almost a Game-Breaker.
  • ''Operation Darkness': This is the purpose of the Auto-revive skill. It activates even if your characters take fatal damage.
  • Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return: Asaga and Kryska can, through Level-Up at Intimacy 5, unlock perks which will automatically revive them once per battle. Kryska's Second Wind perk only restores her to half health but is unlocked very early, while Asaga's The Hero perk restores her to full health but can only be obtained by maxing out her affection.

    Web Browser Games 
  • Epic Battle Fantasy: Introduced in the second game, this is a status effect gained primarily by casting Revive on a living player or having Natalie cast her Genesis Limit Break. There are enemies with Auto-Revive, but they are a rarity.
  • Lost Souls (MUD) has a variety of "life protection" effects that achieve this, with the most classic being the Amulet of Life Protection.
  • Characters with the Healing Factor passive in Marvel: Avengers Alliance, aside from the obvious Regenerating Health effect, have a chance to survive attacks that reduce health to 0; Fatal Blow attacks or the Despair debuff are the only ways to bypass this effect. Characters who don't have Healing Factor in-game instead have some substitutes with almost the same effect. Most of these passives (except the one used by Phoenix) are activated by chance; AI enemies with the same passives, on the other hand, can use these indefinitely at least once per battle (or round).
  • The equippable consumable omamori in Touken Ranbu which automatically revives a broken sword to 1 HP (regular) or full health (kyoku).

    Western RPGs 
  • Divinity: Original Sin II:
    • The Idol of Rebirth is a unique item that automatically casts Resurrect on whoever dies while holding it in their inventory. It's single use only, but can be recharged with a Resurrection scroll, even in combat.
    • Characters with the Talent "Comeback Kid" can automatically revive from a deathblow with 20% of their maximum health.
  • In Dragon Age: Origins, Wynne's plot-related ability gives her a chance of magically being revived when she falls in combat.
  • The Life Ward Potion in Dragon Age II instantly resuscitates a character who drank it before suffering a Non-Lethal K.O., with 40% of their health restored.
  • Necromancers in Dragon Age: Inquisition can do this with their Simulacrum*  passive coupled with Heal on Kill/Hit effects, to potentially Game-Breaking effect.
  • In Fable, you can carry up to 9 Resurrection Phials that instantly bring you back to life if you run out of HP. They still exist in Fable II, but serve only to make death even more of a slap on the wrist than it already was. Fable III says "screw it" and automatically resurrects your character no matter what, but each death means a permanent scar.
  • Atton's unique ability in Knights of the Old Republic 2 likewise gives him a chance of reviving, provided at least one of his allies is still standing.
    • Invoked by Darth Sion, whose unique force power revives him following each fight out of pure rage.
  • In The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, "Aura of the Valar" is a spell featured in Idrial's magic loadout. The effect of the spell lasts until it's activated or until the encounter ends. The effect of the aura will automatically revive the character instantly upon death (along with full HP and AP) and give the turn to that character.
    • If cast on the elf herself you can not lose the encounter since she can just cast it again when revived by its effect. This means that she cannot die no matter what. Winning the fight can still be a problem though, but Idrial has a second ability that allows her to cast two spells in the same turn. One of those spells can be Aura of the Valar. The second can be used to revive another party member, or it can be used for Idrial's strongest attack spell. Take your pick.
  • In Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, medi-gel is used to automatically revive yourself (and with a certain piece of equipment, other nearby players) when you are downed. Being sync-killed, executed, or bleeding out will make it impossible to be revived. The Alliance Infiltration Unit's Repair Matrix power will automatically revive the AIU if it is downed while the power is active.
  • StarCrawlers has multiple character classes with autorevive skills, particularly with the Force Psyker who can autorevive themselves once per battle as well as has multiple skills that specifically can nullify blows on party members if the damage would be enough to kill them. A.N.C.H. items can also be held by the party, which have an autorevive effect.

    Wide Open Sandbox 
  • Minecraft has the Totem of Undying, a rare item that is obtained by killing an Evoker either within a woodland mansion or as part of a village raid. When held in the player's off-hand when they receive fatal damage, the item revives the player, clears all status effects, and grants 5 seconds of Absorption II, 45 seconds of Regeneration II, and 45 seconds of Fire Resistance.
  • Way of the Samurai 3 has Ginseng, an item that activates if a blow would kill you, and heals 500 hit points on top of that. You can stockpile up to ten of these. A more powerful and more expensive option is the Arcane Potion, which heals 1000 health and can also be stacked up to ten times. These become very useful items to have in Instant Kill mode, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, turning everyone into the equivalent of a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
  • The Final Boss of Rune Factory Oceans has an inescapable, screen-filling One-Hit Kill attack that is only surviveable by an Auto-Revive granted by the power of the relationships with the inhabitants of Fenith Island. More specifically, each of the game's twelve marriageable candidates whose Relationship Values are at the max pre-romance cap of 6 grants an Auto-Revive in the Final Battle.

    Mobile Games 
  • Some characters in Dragon Ball Legends has this as part of their core skill set, as characters like Perfect Form Cell or Super Saiyan Teen Gohan can gain back a huge health pool after a perceived KO with an entirely new skill set to match.
  • Dragon Mania Legends has a sigil called Rebirth that immediately resurrects a knocked out dragon and restores a portion of health.
  • Fate/Grand Order: This trope is what the “Guts” buff does.
  • As Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is a Final Fantasy franchise, it's not surprising to see reraise in this game as both spell and effects from ability-based skills.
  • Jetpack Joyride gives you the ability to buy Quick Revives once you die and receive them in the jackpot.
  • Subway Surfers allows you to revive your character for one key the first time and doubles after that. Being revived in Subway Surfers allows you to continue your run. Likewise there are many other games that are similar to Subway Surfers that include the same feature.
  • Super Mario Run revives you with bubbles at the cost of setting you back a bit from where you would have died.
  • Temple Run allows you to purchase resurrecting wings with coins from the shop that allow you to continue immediately after getting caught by the monkeys.

Non Video Game Examples

    Literature 
  • A Certain Magical Index: Magic-users enrolling in the esper Power Development Program is normally unheard of, as once someone's body has been tuned for esper powers, casting spells causes their blood vessels to explode. One exception, the Double Agent Motoharu Tsuchimikado, was fortunate enough to develop the esper ability "Auto-Revive", which generates a protective sheath over his torn blood vessels that helps his body repair the damage. He's keen to stress, however, that casting spells is still extremely painful for him, that doing it multiple times in succession will still cause him to pass out from blood loss, and that his esper potential is low enough that his revival isn't 100% guaranteed (he usually needs some time in the hospital before it's safe to try again).
  • Harry Potter: Making a Horcrux sacrifices part of your soul and transfers it to a chosen object (including living things), so that if you die your soul continues to exist. Doing so is an insanely reckless and evil endeavor (requiring a murder or other heinous act), and Voldemort made seven of them, meaning he had no way of knowing when they were destroyed and he was down to his last hit poi- soul fragment.
  • In the book Ready Player One which mostly takes place inside a video game, the main character finds an easter egg inside the game that requires him to play a perfect game of Pacman. His reward is a quarter that attaches itself to his inventory that he can't figure out what it's for. Later he realizes that it gives the holder an extra life and it is the only object in the entire game that will do so.
    NICE RECOVER!

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • The Tarrasque is a legendary monster who typically has the ability to fully regenerate itself when "killed" (though not right away). In v3.0 and 3.5, one must reduce the monster to -30HP and then use the 9th-level Wizard spell Wish to halt its regeneration cycle (the method varies depending on the version being used).
    • Devils, when killed on any other Plane than the Nine Hells, automatically revive on the first layer of that plane. Demons sometimes will automatically revive in the Abyss if killed outside the Abyss, and sometimes will automatically revive only if killed in the Abyss (but on a different layer). Well, it's not like consistency should be expected from beings that are literally made of chaos and evil.
    • The 5th Edition Celestial Warlock eventually learns the ability to once per day revive themselves at half health (and inflict some moderate damage to all nearby enemies) if they fall to zero hitpoints without being outright killed.
  • In Magic: The Gathering, the Regenerate ability lets you pay mana to put a "Regenerate shield" on that creature, that would save the creature from destruction. They can be stacked, but not stored beyond the end of that turn. The way the game works, however, you don't actually need to put them on in advance.
    • A number of older spells that destroyed creatures bypassed regeneration, either disallowing it or bypassing it (such as by removing the target from the game entirely). Over time, the number of these spells was scaled back, but so was the regeneration ability.
    • The keywords Persist and Undying actually return dying creatures to play with a counter on it (-1/-1 and +1/+1 respectively), if it didn't already have one.

    Webcomics 
  • Every time Ethan kills himself in Suicide Noun, something brings him back to life.

    Web Animation 
  • Battle for Dream Island, they have iconic machines known as Recovery Centers. There are some Recovery Centers that automatically respawn certain characters. For example, the Ice Cube Recovery Center, and Bubble Recovery Center, as those two are the most prone to death.
    • Later on, future Object Shows will follow this gimmick, and have their own Recovery Machines

    Web Original 
  • One of the abilities of the Netrisca implant in Ask Serious Rainbow is reviving the Foundation agent a few seconds after death. Serious...tends to exploit that ability to gain an advantage.
  • In The Light of Courage, Link receives a heirloom ring from his grandmother that will protect its wearer from death, but it only works for women and cannot prevent natural death. He uses it to propose to Zelda before the final battle with Ganon, which saves her life after she is crushed by falling rocks.

    Western Animation 
  • Megatron of The Transformers has seemingly died and then revived several times during the course of the first two seasons of the cartoon. The most notable instance is in the third part of the three-part miniseries "The Ultimate Doom", where the starship Megatron is taking to Cybertron, all loaded up with energon cubes, explodes after being shot repeatedly by the Autobots which caused all that energon to detonate. After the ship is destroyed and nothing more than scattered debris, Megatron is floating in space, looking quite beaten up and with his optics shut. He suddenly revives and his optics open and glow bright red, and he utters his catchphrase, "I will be AVENGED!"

 
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Phoenix (FFIX)

Phoenix is an Eidolon that Eiko can summon with a Phoenix Pinion. When the party is defeated, there is a chance that it will use Rebirth Flame, where it revives all fallen party members. (Gameplay done by DB) (https://www.youtube.com/@DestructionBombx)

1-up mushroom TOK

Alternative Title(s): Amulet Of Life Saving

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Phoenix (FFIX)

Phoenix is an Eidolon that Eiko can summon with a Phoenix Pinion. When the party is defeated, there is a chance that it will use Rebirth Flame, where it revives all fallen party members. (Gameplay done by DB) (https://www.youtube.com/@DestructionBombx)

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Phoenix (FFIX)

1-up mushroom TOK