Resting Recovery

A mechanic in tabletop and video games, particularly RPGs, where the players can have their characters rest (whether that means sleeping, eating, or simply relaxing) to rapidly restore their health, stamina, mana, prepared spells, etc. and reset any harmful Status Effects.

Resting is usually only allowed under specific conditions, such as not being in combat or in view of any enemies, or even only at fixed locations, such as inns. Since the only resource consumed by resting is time (and money, in case of inns), this mechanic is usually found in conjunction with an In-Universe Game Clock and may double as a Fast-Forward Mechanic. The necessity of resting may be enforced by characters suffering from negative status effects ("Tired", "Sleepy", etc.) after staying up for a while or by it being required to level up; alternatively, resting may confer temporary positive status effects for a short while.

Occasionally, the resting conditions (e.g. whether you rest outside or at an inn) affect the healing/restoration rate. Resting outside may run a risk of Random Encounters, as enemies sneak up on the resting party, but staying inside doesn't always make you safe, either.

Compare There Are No Tents, Trauma Inn, Healing Spring. Resting Recovery differs from a Healing Potion in that the former is a character ability that you can use as often as needed, whereas the latter is a consumable item that you run out of eventually (even if it's called "tent" or "sleeping bag"). Contrast Regenerating Health, After-Combat Recovery, and Plot-Powered Stamina. Regenerating Health in conjunction with a Fast-Forward Mechanic may appear like and be called "resting", but unless it confers actual healing bonuses, it is not an example.

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Examples:

Tabletop Games

• The Trope Maker is probably Dungeons & Dragons, where all characters get tired after a certain time in the field and need regular rest to restore combat efficiency. Resting also restores some health and lets wizards and clerics re-memorize their spells. In the 4th edition and later, there are two forms of rest. The shorter rest takes a small period of time but allows you to recover some hitpoints through a finite-day mechanic. The longer rest takes around 8 hours and effectively restores your character to peak condition (barring bonuses that last until said rest or persistent conditions.) In the 1st and 2nd editions of the game, player characters could also regain one hit point a day doing normal activities, or three hit points if they spent the entire day resting (e.g., staying in bed, and only getting up to eat and drink), plus their constitution bonus, if any. This system might sound bad, but in earlier editions of the game, characters had fewer hit points overall. Finally, any character that got four weeks of bed rest automatically got all their hit points back, regardless of how many they still needed to regain.
• In Ironclaw and Myriad Song, it takes almost a month to recover from an "Injured" status simply with bed rest. Though medical treatment can speed it up. And in Ironclaw many of the more powerful spells (such as Healing) are recharged after a "respite".
• In Eclipse Phase, normal humans heal about 5 hitpoints every 24 hours, while your bog-standard Transhuman can do that in 12. And that's not even getting into what Nano Machines can do.
• In Hc Svnt Dracones, Vectors heal 2 hit points per night, unless they're at less than 50% HP in which case they need medical attention to heal at all.
• In Numenera, player characters can roll their Recovery dice to restore as many of their spent/lost stat pool points as they roll. The first time they do so on a given day, it only takes one (combat) action; the second time, a full ten minutes, then one hour, then a full night's rest of ten hours. A ten-hour rest resets the Recovery counter, so you can heal as a combat action again the next time.
• The One Ring:
  • Adventurers recover some of their Endurance Points when they can take a half-hour's rest after combat and with every subsequent long rest, such as a night's sleep. If they've suffered a life-threatening Wound, they regain a more limited amount, and only with long rests.
  • The Fatigue score represents long-term strain of adventuring, so adventurers recover one point by taking a prolonged rest in a safe refuge like a town — not by resting on the road.
• Flying Circus features two methods of healing Injury (both of which cost one Thaler per Injury). Slow Healing is the more typical form, healing one Injury every three days. Alternatively, pilots may make use of Fast Healing. Whilst much faster (healing one Injury every 3 hours at the slowest), Fast Healing requires that the pilot undergo unusual, grotesque treatments, causing said Injury to be converted to Stress.

Action

• Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin has an option to retreat to Peter's apartment to recover your health. Time speeds up considerably when you do this and you'll be brought back to the start of the level when you're done, so you have to be careful not to overuse this feature. (The whole game is under a strict time limit since your goal is to find and disarm a bomb hidden under the city.) Despite this, resting is still a better choice than getting defeated and captured, which will end up taking several hours off the in-game clock and bring you back to the start.

Action Adventure

• In Ōkami, there's a Holy Artifact called Wood Mat. As its description reads: "Make a cash offering and sleep on this mat, and your wounds will heal." In practice this means that you need to stay perfectly still while waiting for your health to regenerate, losing money every second. Amaterasu's Idle Animation is to sit down, yawn, then curl up for a nap (at which point the Wood Mat item kicks in). You can even do this during combat (you can still defend yourself with brush techniques).
• The Legend of Zelda
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: The 3DS remake adds in the ability to sleep in Link's bed to refill his health and magic power, along with reliving past boss battles in his dreams.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games: Link can approach the bed in Nayru's house in Ages and at Impa's Refuge in Seasons to take a brief nap that restores his health.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: Link can return home to restore his health by sleeping in his bedroom upstairs. Humorously, he sleeps with his companion, the talking hat Ezlo, tucked under the covers next to him.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword primarily uses sleeping in bed as the means of advancing between day and night, but it will also restore Link's health in the process. Curiously, this isn't limited to Link's own bed. You're welcome to sleep in any bed, in any house, that doesn't already have someone sleeping in it. For a much more expedient version of the trope, sitting down for a spell on a chair, stool, or bench will also refill Link's hearts slowly over time.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, sleeping in a bed functions similarly to in Skyward Sword, being a way to restore health as well as pass the time. While beds are found all across Hyrule, Link is typically only able to plop down and use ones that don't explicitly belong to anyone else, unless he's given permission first. Inns and stables advertise beds that can be rented for the night, charging more for select soft beds that bestow bonus hearts and stamina.
• In Cave Story, various houses you visit have beds you can sleep in to fully recover health. Resting also causes time to pass, but this is only meaningful at two points, where resting triggers an Event Flag.

Action RPG

• Brandish (at least the first game) lets the player rest anywhere. However, while doing so the defense stat drops to 0 and the environment darkens, leaving the character extremely vulnerable to enemies that might be lurking nearby.
• In the Ys series, if you don't move for a bit, Adol will recover HP, but only outdoors for some reason. In some of the games, there are items that allow you to break this rule. In the newer games, party members get resting recovery too.

Fighting

• The Healing Field item in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has this mechanic. Characters inside the field will heal damage and will continue to do so as long as they stay inside. The catch is that you must remain inside the field to heal and enemies can also be healed if they enter, so you have to keep enemies from coming in while at the same time you have limited movement if you want to maximize your recovery.

Hack-and-Slash

• In Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, the Meditation technique allows Ryu (and the other playable characters) to use his ki to refill his life bar. He will slowly crouch with one knee and one fist on the ground while a yellow glow heals him. You can technically do it in the middle of a fight, but don't expect the enemies to just sit and watch while you're completely open.

Metroidvania

• The Legend of Tian-ding have tea-stations where you can stop, take a sip, and restore your health to normal. Some of their placements can be odd though, especially in the middle of some sewers or an underground crypt filled with traps.

Platform Game

• Banjo-Tooie features the Snooze Pack, an ability Banjo has where he jumps into his backpack and sleeps, slowly recovering his health. This can be used anywhere under any situation. The only conditions in order to use it is to separate Banjo from Kazooie (which won't be possible until you learn Split Up in Witchyworld), and to have Banjo speak to Jamjars in Grunty Industries with at least 525 musical notes in possession.
• Kirby:
  • In Kirby: Squeak Squad, Kirby's otherwise useless Sleep ability could be upgraded to restore his health when used.
  • Kirby and the Forgotten Land allows Sleep to regenerate health by default. In its upgraded form, Deep Sleep, Kirby can go to sleep when he chooses to (complete with pulling out a full bed to sleep in), and not only does it fill Kirby's health completely but it also grants him a random Status Buff (increased speed, increased attack power, or double health bars).

Real Time Strategy

• Warcraft III has an item called the Staff of Sanctuary. Using it on an allied unit will teleport it to your highest-level town hall, with a strong regeneration buff at the cost of remaining stunned until fully healed. Obviously, inappropriate use falls squarely into Unwanted Assistance.

Roguelike

• In Angband, resting makes HP and MP regenerate twice as fast. You can take a rest for any given number of turns until HP and MP are refilled, or "as needed" (full HP and MP and the expiration of timed status effects). You can be disturbed out of the resting state in any case.

RPG — Eastern

• Bug Fables has certain Medals that the party members can equip that let them recover HP or TP when the "Do Nothing" command is chosen.
• Some Pokémon can use the move Rest in battle, which immediately restores their health, in exchange for having them spend a few rounds asleep. Giving a Pokémon a Chesto Berry will automatically wake it up, though Scarlet and Violet slashed the move's PP in half. A few Pokémon can also learn Slack Off, which restores less HP, but only takes one turn instead of making them sleep for several. Jigglypuff gets this ability in Super Smash Bros. as its Down Special, but outside of a customized version in the fourth game, it exclusively does damage there.
• The Defend command in The Legend of Dragoon functions similarly to resting, as it prevents the character from doing anything while defending but restores 10% of his health and blocks any status effects he would have suffered from an enemy attacking him.
• Tecmo's Deception allows you to build a bedroom to sleep in, restoring HP over time, but any invaders in the castle can attack you while you're napping.
• In The Tenth Line, using the Rest command during a fight will restore 10% of a character's HP. The resting player still has to worry about manually blocking incoming attacks, though.
• Miis in Miitopia can recover HP by napping, either on their own if they have the Airheaded personality, or with the help of another party member with the Mage job casting Sleep Tight.
• Final Fantasy XV: Noctis and his friends can only level up by sleeping and relaxing for a couple hours at a designated campsite, motel, or hotel. Doing so also fully heals you and allows Ignis to cook a meal that can give buffs to just about any of your character attributes for one day, at which point you'll need to rest or snack at a restaurant to regain the buffs. Characters will remark about being tired if you go a day without sleep and they'll even begin pestering you into the car to pull over by nearby hotels.
• In Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Beef Cloud will sleep during battle to restore HP in real time. Hit him hard enough, though, and he won't be able to fall asleep.

RPG — MMO

• In MapleStory, players can sit down on chairs and benches to increase the amount of HP and MP regained.
• In zOMG!, players can kneel to improve health and stamina regeneration. However, they take three times as much damage if attacked in this state.
• In Ragnarok Online, the player character can sit anywhere to regenerate HP and SP faster. It's a skill that must be learned at low level.
• Lineage 2 gives benefits to health and mana regeneration when sitting, but forces you to stand up if damage is taken.
• City of Heroes had a rest power that rapidly restored your health and endurance, but applied a heavy resistance and defense debuff and prevented you from moving or attacking while it was active, to discourage using it in combat.
• In Star Wars: The Old Republic uses its resting mechanic somewhat differently: staying at a cantina, whether logged in or out, gives characters bonus XP, though not for Free-to-Play accounts and it doesn't count towards Character Level thresholds until redeemed by regular XP gains. There are also active abilities like the Sith Inquisitor's Seethe, which quickly replenish your and your Non-Player Companion's health at the cost of immobilizing you for the duration of the ability.
• In Kingdom of Loathing, resting at your campsite restores some HP and MP, depending on the tent or house you have installed. The abilities Hibernate and Spirit Vacation also let you expend time to recover your HP, and give you a buff as well.

RPG — Western

• In the 1974 dnd game, you only regain hit points and spell usages when you rest, but you can't safely rest in a dungeon infested with monsters. So, if you ever want to get your spells back, you gotta bail out of the dungeon, where you can relax and recover in safety.
• In the D&D-based Baldur's Gate series, your party can rest anywhere as long as it isn't in combat, although the best healing is achieved by renting expensive inn rooms. The second game added the "Rest until healed" and "Cast healing spells at rest" options, which turned the resting mechanic into a borderline Game-Breaker since resting would now instantly heal the entire party if they so much as put a door between themselves and the enemy.
• Like Baldur's Gate by the same developers, Neverwinter Nights has a resting mechanic that takes six seconds, fully heals you and replenishes spells, and only requires you to be sufficiently far from any enemies in the area. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (by a different developer) changes this a great deal, however. Each such rest now takes eight hours on the In-Universe Game Clock, raising the level of spirit-hunger from the curse the Knight-Captain is under. Storm of Zehir similarly makes resting take eight hours, you can't rest in dungeons, and depending on where you make camp, resting may put you at risk of surprise Random Encounters.
• Resting is a major mechanic in Pillars of Eternity, the successor to Baldur's Gate. It always takes 8 hours of in-game time and, if you rest outdoors or in a dungeon, consumes Camping Supplies (of which you can only carry a limited number). Resting fully restores the party's health (as opposed to Endurance, which regenerates on its own), spell slots, and "per rest" ability uses, and, if you rest in an expensive inn room, gives long-term stat boosts, which usually last until the next rest.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Throughout the series, resting rapidly restores health, magicka, and stamina. Prior to Skyrim, resting is also required to level up. That said, the Player Character never needs to rest and can stay awake for months at a time without penalty (as long as you have other means to restore health/magicka/stamina, like potions, and don't mind never leveling up).
  • Skyrim changes the resting mechanic so that it is no longer necessary for leveling up. Instead, resting bestows a "well-rested" buff which temporarily allows skills to develop more quickly. If you get married, resting next to your spouse bestows the "Lover's Comfort" buff, further increasing the effect. However, being a Werewolf disables both of these buffs.
• The Witcher restricts the available resting locations to inns and a handful of friendly NPC's homes. While at rest, Geralt's health regenerates quickly and it also allows him to get new Character Levels and create potions and poisons.
• Fallout and 2 had your health regeneration based on how long your character spent Resting. Sleeping healed all limbs and certain Perks allowed it to heal your radiation poisoning. Fallout 3 and New Vegas removed the 'time spent' aspect, and thus an hour's nap after being shot to pieces will set you to full health. Sleeping in a bed you own will give you the "Well Rested" Status Effect, which grants a 30% increase in EXP gain (10% in NV). New Vegas' Hardcore Mode makes sleeping a requirement (too little and first you'll suffer stat loss and eventually even die) but also makes it so that resting no longer fixes ailments like broken limbs, requiring the use of doctor's bags or finding a medic.
• In Sierra's Quest for Glory series, you have the option to rest in increments ranging from "10 minutes" to "1 hour" to "until morning". The game won't let you use this command if there's imminent danger nearby (such as a monster approaching).
• In A Dance with Rogues resting functions the same way as in Neverwinter Nights but you are very restricted in places where you can do so: apart from inns and your own and your allies' bedrooms, resting "on the ground" is permitted in a select few locations the Princess deems "safe"—everywhere else the resting button simply remains disabled. On one memorable occasion, a location is not flagged as "safe" until you close and lock the only door leading to it.
• Betrayal at Krondor allows you to rest to heal, but it reflects more realistic healing rates. It's faster in an inn, and if you've been critically injured then you will potentially take weeks or months of game time to recover. There are healing items, but they're not very effective (especially when you're in critical condition); while temples are effective but expensive.
• The later Might and Magic games all had this (no resting in combat, time moves forward a set amount, sleeping outside an inn risks random encounters), though with one additional quirk: sleeping in an inn costs money, but sleeping outside costs you supplies (generally represented by an apple, so it is presumably food), which can be bought from inns. This is enforced by the characters becoming weak if they spend too long without sleep, followed by going insane (and the spells that otherwise cure weakness and/or insanity does not work against sleep-deprivation-caused afflictions).
• In Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura resting recovers hit points proportionally to the character's Heal Rate (based on the Constitution stat), whereas simply waiting only recovers stamina. One of the rest timer options is specifically "Sleep until healed", which wakes you up when the character with the slowest Heal Rate in the party gets to full health again.
• Both Knights of Pen and Paper games allow your party to rest and rapidly recover any lost HP and MP. If done outside of the safety of a town, there is a random chance for the party to have their rest interrupted by monsters.

Wide Open Sandbox

• Propping yourself against a wall in The Getaway would gradually restore your health, depicted as Hammond catching his breath. And bloodstains on his clothes would magically fade away.
• A variation in Naev. The game averts Space Is Cold and heat buildup is a bad thing because it makes your weapons less accurate and you more visible to enemies. You can put your ship into a rapid cooling mode that acts like a resting mechanic in that it expels all built-up heat. It also immobilizes your ship for the duration, which can be dangerous.
• Upgrading Basic Campsite to Improved Campsite kit in Red Dead Redemption refills your ammunition when you set up camp and rest in the wilderness.
• Starbound allows players to recover health by sleeping in various beds they might come across in their travels. Different beds also have different health recovery rates — a sleeping bag isn't as efficient as, say, a royal bed.
• In Don't Starve, beds and tents usually work instantly, recovering a large chunk of health and sanity at the cost of hunger while skipping to morning (or evening, if you use a Siesta Lean-To in Reign of Giants). However, in Don't Starve Together, they work more akin to this trope, gradually restoring health and sanity while gradually draining hunger.

Non-Gaming Examples

• The comic book superhero Sleepwalker is an inversion. Sleepwalker is an alien from the Mindscape, an alternate dimension that links the minds of all humanity. Sleepwalker's race absorbs mental energy to survive, and when he manifests in the human world to fight crime when his human host is asleep, he can't access this energy. When his human host wakes up and pulls Sleepwalker back into his mind, Sleepwalker is actually able to rest and recover his strength. He can rest and recover while his human host is awake.

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