Line #40 Main/DeathAsGameMechanic


1	Gaming, being an interactive medium, offers many possibilities that other media simply cannot replicate, including what comes after death. So many games now have the possibility of affecting gameplay based on player death. Death is not an interruption of gameplay, it is an actual event with consequences and ramifications. The death of the player character is not the end, it opens the door to new things.
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3	To qualify for this trope, the game needs to meet the following criteria:
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5	* It should include a CharacterDeath or a direct subtrope, not PlayingPossum or similar.
6	* It is the player character that dies. Loads of games have mechanics change based on [=NPCs=] dying, but few actually have the death of the player character themselves affect gameplay.
7	* The player character's death is, [[TrialAndErrorGameplay to an extent]], avoidable. If the death is a PlotlineDeath or a ButThouMust moment, it's not this trope. However, the game ''might'' have both instances apply to the character (i.e. some of the game's puzzles require you to die, but throughout most of the game it's avoidable).
8	* Dying does not end the game, but instead triggers different game mechanics to come into play. This means that NonStandardGameOver is NOT a version of this trope. A NSGO may be different from regular dying, but it still ends the game.
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10	Many games which use Death As Mechanic make it an integral part of gameplay by to an extent, making it an attractive option to die or being so insanely NintendoHard that it is only a matter of time for the player to die and have the issue forced on them. For the most part, though, skilled players can delay the inevitable or outright avoid death through skillful play, and may choose to die based on story ramifications or gameplay possibility. Some games tie Death as a Mechanic to a broader {{Macrogame}}, allowing a new character to inherit skills, perks, or other benefits from their predecessor. Death may be also the action that changes worlds in games with DualWorldGameplay. The bottom line is that, whether voluntary or not, death affects gameplay instead of merely ending it.
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12	Since player character death often allows for a player to easily warp to different places, 'deathwarping' is a pretty common practice in SpeedRunning, where every millisecond shaved off the total run time is important.
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14	MercyMode is a fairly common sub-trope of this, where death opens up the possibility of making the game far less challenging in any number of ways. ContinuingIsPainful is the opposite sub-trope, where dying results in mechanics that make the game ''more'' challenging. Compare DeathActivatedSuperpower and DeathIsTheOnlyOption, both of which, though more general, can easily coincide with this trope. AutoRevive may overlap with this trope if you get back resources upon death, do a special attack when you're revived, or if you can delay the revival to achieve a similar effect to PlayingPossum.
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16	See also JustifiedExtraLives, an in-universe explanation for [[OneUp 1-ups]]. Contrast with tropes related to deaths ending the game with no further impact on gameplay, like VideoGameLives, GameOver, and {{Checkpoint}}.
17	----
18	!!Examples:
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20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	!!!'''Video game examples:'''
23
24	[[folder:Action Adventure]]
25	* Sam Bridges from ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' is a [[ResurrectiveImmortality repatriate]] who can come back from dying, but not before his soul pays a visit to the Seam, the realm between the Beach and the land of the living. While in the Seam, he can collect the items that he dropped upon dying as well as interact with the souls of other players who died in the same area in order to form a contract with them, increasing the chances of those players' structures and lost items appearing in the world. Furthermore, if Sam was killed by a Catcher-type BT, a voidout occurs and creates a crater that he won't be able to traverse once he repatriates.
26	* In ''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver]]'', Raziel gets thrown into the underworld when he dies and can come back out. There's puzzles which require doing within the underworld to proceed.
27	* ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions'': If playing as the [[Series/DoctorWho Twelfth Doctor]], dying will result in him turning into the First Doctor. Dying then will result in changing to a later incarnation of The Doctor until you have lapsed back to the Twelfth. However, this mechanic only happens after completing the Doctor Who level pack. Otherwise, the Twelfth Doctor will just respawn like any other character.
28	* In ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia2: The Shadow and the Flame'', in order to obtain the titular Flame (which will allow the Prince to kill the BigBad), the player must willfully kill the Prince in a certain room halfway through and ''not'' do anything when the camera lingers on the Prince's corpse as with every time the Prince is killed elsewhere, because otherwise it will just be YetAnotherStupidDeath.
29	* One of the core mechanics of ''VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice'' is Sekiro's Resurrection ability, which lets him come back to life moments after his death. That isn't enough to qualify for the trope, except that being a corpse has strategic value. Enemies will stop being aggressive and go back to their routines once you do, so dying can be a great way to sneak past a group of enemies or to catch them in a surprise attack.
30	* The Bio-Electric Instincts perk from ''VideoGame/SpiderManMilesMorales'' gives Miles a DeathActivatedSuperpower where any time he dies, he explodes in a Venom Blast and regains full-health.
31	* Whenever you die in ''VideoGame/SuperTimeForce'', you respawn at the start of the level and an NPC representing your past life spawns that takes every action you did in your previous life. So if you kill an enemy and then die, this NPC will kill that enemy and die and you can move on and do other stuff.
32	[[/folder]]
33
34	[[folder:Adventure Game]]
35	* Creator/QuanticDream:
36	** ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'': Getting either Kara or Markus killed results in their portions of the game ending and becoming unplayable. Killing Connor, however, simply results in him coming back in the next chapter. His deaths are commented on and the player might not initially realize anything is different, but every time Connor dies [[spoiler:it becomes more difficult for him to turn deviant]], eventually locking the player out of the choice if he dies too many times.
37	** ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' doesn't end with a player character's death, instead acknowledging it and including the repercussions of the character's death in the storyline.
38	* Several of the achievements in ''VideoGame/AchievementUnlocked'' require the elephant to die a lot or in specific ways.
39	* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/TheCatLady'' is a {{resurrective immortal\|ity}} who returns to life in perfect health whenever she dies. One particular puzzle sees her blinded by the villains and requires her to find a gun and commit suicide to restore her vision.
40	* In the FMV game ''VideoGame/StarTrekBorg'' you need to make the right sequence of choices. If you don't already know them, you have to die over and over again until the right choice is made. However, at one point you have to choose the "wrong" path so you can learn important information from the Borg before you die, information that will be necessary to succeed later on in your next chance at life.
41	* In the (semi)text adventure ''[[VideoGame/ChzoMythos Trilby's Notes]]'', you can kill yourself by typing the command "die". For most of the game, it's nothing more than a particularly stupid way to get a game over. However, there's a specific point in the plot where the villain needs you alive for their plan, so at that point you have to type "die" to foil them and win the game.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Beat-em-Up]]
45	* In ''VideoGame/{{Sifu}}'', when you die, your magic talisman will revive you at the cost of [[CastFromLifespan aging you]]. As you get older, your gain slightly increased damage, but lower health. Also, you can only upgrade your skills after dying. Dying too frequently increases the rate at you age, and at Age 70+, you become too old to revive, leading to {{Permadeath}}.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Fighting Game]]
49	* It's only a specific character example, but in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'', if Phoenix ([[ComicBook/XMen as in Jean Grey]], [[Franchise/AceAttorney not the lawyer]]) is defeated with 5 hyper bars, she'll be revived to full health, transform into Dark Phoenix and become much more powerful.
50	* The 3D ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' games made by Creator/BandaiNamco and Dimps (''Chronicles'', ''Brave Soldiers'' and ''Soldiers' Soul'') have the option to revive for a last battle after being defeated, in which just like in the series, the fallen Saint is on the ground and the spirit of Goddess Athena (Saori Kiddo) as well someone loved by the Saint encourage him/her to get up and continue living, with the player smashing buttons to make energy to the Saint can get up. If the player achieves it, the Saint comes back to the battle with a portion of energy to finish the battle. But if it's beaten again, the mashing buttons would be harder in the next intent until the Saint can't get up again.
51	* In ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown IV'', you've the secret move called "Honorable Death", in which the player can commit a HeroicSuicide (being a "Samurai" game, it's usually a {{Seppuku}}) and depletes all their energy bar to start the next round with their [[ManaMeter power bar]] full.
52	* One of the options in ''VideoGame/{{Towerfall}}'' allows dead players in multiplayer pvp to come back as ghosts who can attack the remaining players.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:First-Person Shooter]]
56	* Dying in ''VideoGame/{{Deathloop}}'' causes Colt to teleport back to a safe location far away from where you died. This ability makes dying a viable strategy for going back into stealth, escaping other players invading your game, and quickly returning to certain locations after luring enemies away.
57	* The ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' franchise has extra lives as a mechanic, and if you die you respawn at the same location you started the level in, although almost all of your weapons, ammo, and powerups are left floating around the area where you died. Notably, though, any color-coded keycards you may have picked up are not dropped, but remain with you after you respawn.
58	* ''VideoGame/Prey2006'': After a certain point in the game death no longer brings up a game over screen. Instead, Tommy enters the spirit realm and battles wraiths. Killing red ones increases the health you respawn with, the same for blue wraiths and mana. After a short time the player is thrown back into the land of the living.
59	* Getting killed in any ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' installment is an easy way to return to your base quickly from the other side of the map, if you don't mind losing your weapons and getting a death in score tab. This is a viable strategy especially in Bombing Run matches, where you have to prevent the enemy ball-carrier from reaching your goal. For the currently offending team, killing the enemies makes it actually harder for the ball-carrier to deliver their "payload" as every killed enemy will just get in their way again.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:MMORPG]]
63	* ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' had a strange emergent case of this. There was an effective limit on leveling up in the tutorial area because eventually you reach the point where enemies stop giving XP. But some enterprising players discovered that ''enemies'' can also gain XP by killing player characters. Thus, with an absurd amount of grinding to level up the enemies and then killing them, it became possible to reach the game's level cap without ever completing the prologue (it helps that the game has an AbsurdlyLowLevelCap). The developers eventually acknowledged this by granting a special title to those who did it.
64	* Dying in ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' can allow you to travel through the world as a ghost, talk to other ghosts, and even go to locations unavailable to the living.
65	* ''VideoGame/UrbanDead'' revolves around this. As a survivor, you ''will'' die more often sooner than later. You get turned into a zombie then, where you must learn the player made language from zombie moans, you move much slower, and your attacks aren't as powerful. In comparison, players who start as a zombie have more potential to become quite powerful, but survivors can revive you and return you back to life. Your skills as a survivor won't be as powerful as anyone who started as a survivor.
66	* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
67	** Several quests can only be [[http://www.wowwiki.com/Death#Quests_accessed_while_dead accessed while the player is dead]] because the {{NPC}}s that start the quests are only visible to ghosts/wisps.
68	** In the Gorefiend boss fight in Hellfire Citadel, players who die are absorbed by the boss and go into his stomach, which has additional mechanics. These are necessary to successfully beat the encounter, so if no one dies "normally" they can deliberately kill themselves with other mechanics.
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Racing Game]]
72	* On ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS'', dying early while playing multiplayer Balloon fight or the shine runners results in your character turning into a ghost until the end of the battle. The ghost can't interact with the alive players, but they can summon item boxes and get a dose on revenge by purposely putting them near fake boxes.
73	* Losing all your balloons in ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'' has you transform into a mobile bomb, allowing you to get revenge on the player who eliminated you or blowing up someone else out of spite. Players who are bombs can interact with item boxes, but they cannot use them.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Party Game]]
77	* Dying in ''VideoGame/AmongUs'' lets the player keep playing as a transparent ghost who can interact with the ship, but not the players. So they can complete tasks or sabotage the ship, but they can't speak during meetings or kill innocents. A later update added another type of ghost called Guardian Angels, who can prevent the Imposter from killing other players if they time their protection right.
78	* ''VideoGame/GooseGooseDuck'': Dying in general does not end the game, as players can observe the game as ghosts or even enter a Spectator Mode. Some roles, however, have dying as an inherent part of their function.
79	** The Canadian Goose role automatically forces the player who kills them to report finding the body, when their plan otherwise might have been to kill and hide or kill and leave. If other players know who the Canadian Goose was, it essentially exposes them as the killer.
80	** When the Celebrity Goose dies, all other Goose players are alerted to their death. Non-Goose players (Ducks, Vultures, Falcons, etc) are not alerted. This can cause a careless player in a non-Goose role to accidentally expose themselves due to not being aware of the Celebrity's death.
81	** The Medium Goose can regularly check to see how many dead players there are. Earlier versions of the role allowed them to see the ghosts of dead players themselves.
82	** The Mortician Goose can study a player's dead body and determine what role they had been while alive.
83	** The Dodo Bird role is unique in that their goal is not to survive. A Dodo wins the game by deliberately getting voted out of the game, something that would simply kill any other player.
84	* Dying in the ''VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack'' game Trivia Murder Party lets you continue playing as a ghost. Ghosts are out of the running for getting a head start in the final mini-game, but get to be in charge of punishing other players for getting questions wrong and they get no penalty for guessing incorrectly themselves. Ghosts also can move slightly faster in the final mini-game, at the price of being unable to win unless they steal the life-force of the last man standing.
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Platform Game]]
88	* When you die in the ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvoltSeries'', there's a chance that your support partner will appear and activate her Anthem Septima, resurrecting the player with [[SuperMode a massive power-up strong enough to completely tear your way through the rest of the stage.]] The one caveat is that it drops your score to 0, preventing you from earning a good rank or any of the benefits that come with it.
89	* The "death-warping" exploit in the first three ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' games make collecting stage PlotCoupons easier. To elaborate, you won't lose any of the stage collectables when you die, and you'll be put on the last CheckPoint you opened. This allows for tricks that allows you to get more than 1 collectables in a single stage run. One example: In the Spaced Out stage in the second game, there's a special platform that leads you to another path of the stage, and the end of that path is the stage's second "gem"... and another exit. Players will usually open a checkpoint in the stage's main path, then go to the side path to get the second gem, then die (by falling into a pit) and then respawn to the main path to collect the other collectables (the "crystal" and the "box gem"). This saves more time than if you exit through the stage's second exit or if you backtrack to the start of the fork.
90	* In ''VideoGame/EverybodyEditsFlash'', dying is often a hazard purely to be avoided, but because the game is a flexible LevelEditor, levels can easily be designed so they are useful. {{Checkpoint}}s can be placed anywhere and activated instantly, and [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist respawning is nearly instant]]. Here are some ways respawning can affect the player:
91	** Sometimes [[AbilityRequiredToProceed new abilities]] or opened {{Locked Door}}s can be used to either reach new areas from the checkpoint, or make them unreachable. In an area of Mount Uonegatscil, dying with a [[PowerUp jump boost]] allows you to [[EasyLevelTrick skip a large part of the level]]. Death doors and gates also [[LockedDoor open and close]] when the death count is high enough.
92	** Dying resets momentum and the number of [[DoubleJump mid-air jumps]] used. Since checkpoints can be activated while moving, this can be used in physics puzzles.
93	* ''VideoGame/{{Karoshi}}'' is ''all'' about finding a way to kill yourself, something the level design deliberately wants you not to do.
94	* Some user created levels in ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'' require Sackboy to trigger a checkpoint, use a mechanism to move the checkpoint past an otherwise impassable obstacle, and die to respawn from the checkpoint at its new position.
95	* In ''VideoGame/{{Malice}}'', dying on a normal level sends you to the Underworld where you can return to the beginning of the level you died on (basicaly use a continue) by speaking to the Grim Reaper. However the Underworld can also be explored and there are items to collect hidden in it. So while it is possible to beat the game without visiting the Underworld, to achieve 100% completion you have to die at some point since that's the only way to reach it.
96	* Dying in ''VideoGame/KirbyFightersDeluxe'' causes Kirby to become Ghost Kirby, who can fly around the stage freely and can attack with a short-ranged punch. Punching a living Kirby deals damage and brings you back to life to fight again. The more times you die, the longer you stay down before turning into Ghost Kirby and the less health you resurrect with later.
97	* In the indie platformer ''VideoGame/RespawnMan'', the title PlayerCharacter's defining power is endlessly coming back to life--but his bodies remain behind, which is key to defeating most levels, as you have him die on top of a button to keep it pressed, stack his bodies as a ladder to reach higher places, use his bodies to cushion long falls, etc.
98	* You play as a block in ''VideoGame/SometimesYouDie'' that must die so you can use its corpse as a platform to reach the end of each level.
99	* In ''VideoGame/{{Verge}}'', death only means being respawned underneath the level with flipped gravity. Respawning in the main area is done by entering one of many doors in the area of the dead.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Puzzle Game]]
103	* One of the actions you can perform in the ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}'' games is make one of your lemmings explode. It isn't just a simple VideoGameCrueltyPotential, as the poor creature will open a path with the blast radius of its [[SuicideAttack Suicide Bombing]]. Most of the levels are designed to include at least some explosions, some even requiring to explode [[SuicideMission every single lemming]] [[SoleSurvivor minus one]] to finish them.
104	* ''VideoGame/LifeGoesOn'' centers around the mechanic of you having an unlimited supply of [[SuicidalOverconfidence overly]] [[TooDumbToLive confident]] knights and being able to use their bodies to solve puzzles.
105	[[/folder]]
106
107	[[folder:Real-Time Strategy]]
108	* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'' lets you take over playing as you character's heir when you die, as well as changing up the size and wealth of your kingdom depending on if your previous player character or his heir has a better reputation.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Rogue-like]]
112	* ''VideoGame/{{Crawl}}'': Up to four lost souls are competing for the chance to return to life and escape the dungeon. Only one player can be "alive" at a time, exploring the dungeon with typical roguelike mechanics, while the other three players activate traps or summon controllable monsters to slay the adventurer and take his place. Notably, the game begins with all four players alive, but they're trapped in a room and forced to murder one-another to decide who starts as the adventurer.
113	* In ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'', every time Zagreus dies, he returns to the House of Hades, where he gets to spend gems and darkness that he collected during his runs on house upgrades (gems) and personal upgrades in the mirror (darkness). He can also unlock weapons and make these weapons more powerful with other items collected during runs. Finally, both at the House and during runs, he can improve relationships with other gods by means of nectar and later ambrosia.
114	* In ''{{VideoGame/Inscryption}}'', if you lose a run, you get to create a death card, combining the cost, stats, and sigils of different cards in your deck, before your photo is taken and you are turned into a card. This card will be available in future runs.
115	* ''VideoGame/{{Returnal}}'': Every time the main character Selene perishes, [[GroundhogDayLoop time loops to the moment where her ship crashed]], albeit with the weapons and power-ups she collected and paths she unlocked still available.
116	* ''VideoGame/RogueLegacy'' plays with the concept of PermaDeath in this fashion. When your character dies, he's gone, you have to start with a new one. However, the new character is the child of the previous one, and inherits stats and equipment from the parent, but allowing you to change classes and pick different genetic conditions. There WILL be times when you'll purposely kill your character because of convenience or to see if you get a successor with a less crippling genetic trait.
117	* In ''VideoGame/ZettaiHeroProject'', you will die a LOT, but every time you do you add a little more to your overall stats, or a LOT more if you play well and manage to explore deeper into the dungeon.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Role-Playing Game]]
121	* ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' is set in a world with [[DeathIsCheap abundant in-universe resurrection magic]]. Most evident in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' where you can haul corpses around for safekeeping, [[InterrogatingTheDead cast Speak With Dead]] on temporarily-deceased party members, and hear previously-deceased party members complain about the stuff that got them killed.
122	* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireDragonQuarter'' allows you to "SOL Restart" or "SOL Restore" after a game over, which carries over any Party XP earned to either a new game or your last SaveToken save. It can also unlock new story scenes.
123	* In ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'', it is ''theoretically'' possible to not die ([[NintendoHard although not likely]]), but dying is not the end. When you're killed, you can play the game as undead and there are various different mechanics in play, both beneficial and detrimental. In fact, with the Soul Tendency system, death is actually a tool to get cooler loot by making the game harder. Also, the mechanics of multiplayer in the games revolve around death: undead players can become phantoms who assist living players, and get rewards for doing so including being resurrected. Undead players are also protected from invasion by other players, so it can be quite to one's benefit to not revive. Several of these mechanics were carried over into ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' as well.
124	* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': Godwoken like the PlayerParty are canonically less bound by mortality, hence why [[JustifiedExtraLives they can use Resurrection Scrolls]]. A PC can also gain [[SkillScoresAndPerks Talents]] that make them [[DefeatEqualsExplosion explode when killed]] and AutoRevive afterwards.
125	* Instead of a Game Over, dying in ''VideoGame/{{Hylics}}'' will send Wayne to the Afterlife, which serves as the game's fast travel hub and the way to redeem Meat, the game's equivalent to EXP.
126	* During certain battles in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', Mickey Mouse might show and give you the chance to play as him. You can fight the boss as Mickey (though you can't bring him to 0 HP) and build up energy to revive Sora. If Mickey loses all of his health, he will revive Sora with only half of his maximum health. He appears less frequently the more often he is used.
127	* ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'': Talion, the main character, can come back to life after being killed, and each death affects the world. The game has a political system for the different orc clans, and the orc who gets the killing stroke on you can earn promotion in the orc totem pole, causing a chain reaction of political intrigue, with some orcs seeking favor with the newly promoted one while others [[KlingonPromotion try to kill the promoted orc to take his place on the totem pole]]. Enemy orcs even ACKNOWLEDGE that you died and came back, and can actually [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech taunt and throw mocking nicknames at you]] if you keep getting repeatedly killed by them.
128	* In ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', the fact that you play robotic androids is driven home early in the game by its death mechanics:
129	** As you explore the game world, you encounter save points (disguised as derelict [[RuleOfSymbolism vending machines]]) where you can store a backup copy of your character's software components (like XP and weaponry)... but not the hardware (chips) installed on the current mobile platform (body). When you die, your physical body goes offline, and the last save point you accessed produces a spare body of the same model and installs your backed-up software onto it, allowing you to continue the game -- however, if you want your chips back, you will actually have to retrieve your old body.
130	** If you play with online connectivity enabled, you will regularly encounter other players' discarded bodies scattered where their characters died (which can accidentally spoil the locations of major boss battles later in the story). If you interact with them, you can choose between having the body fight for you as a mindless combat drone for a short while, or just getting a temporary stat bonus based on what chips they had installed when they died. This is justified in-story by the fact that the androids are fighting a war against machine lifeforms, and you are encouraged to retrieve fallen androids' frames in order to preserve resources for the war effort.
131	** Finally, [[spoiler:when the androids' HQ, the Bunker, is destroyed in Route C and the androids lose access to the spare body production line, every death from that point on simply [[GameOver dumps you into the main menu]], like in any other game]].
132	* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' features this as an integral part of both story and gameplay. Your character can die and, when he does, he remembers more of his past and recovers abilities. You can also use your death for puzzle solving.
133	* ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'': When Mysterion (AKA [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny McCormick]]) dies in battle, he remains on the battlefield as a ghost that can cast a variety of debuffing moves on the enemy. His LimitBreak also changes from a [[TakingYouWithMe suicide attack]] ("Cruel Fate") to a self-resurrection ability that heals his team-mates ("Mysterion Re-rising").
134	* In ''VideoGame/TormentTidesOfNumenera'', when the [[PlayerCharacter Last Castoff]] dies, they travel to the Castoff's Labyrinth--a strange extradimensional space where they can interact with fragments of their own psyche and with previous Castoffs, before finding their way back out, and coming back to life in the real world.
135	* In ''VideoGame/TrillionGodOfDestruction'', you train Overlords and send them out to fight the eponymous Trillion, a DamageSpongeBoss with one trillion HP. Your Overlords are ''intended'' to die during the fight; the first few won't be able to do more than whittle down Trillion's HP a tiny bit and weaken it. When your Overlords die, they can unleash a Death Skill that does things like disable one of Trillion's body parts or extend the time you have to train your next Overlord. The True Ending requires [[spoiler:every single Overlord to die fighting Trillion.]]
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Survival Horror]]
139	* Dying in ''VideoGame/{{Phasmophobia}}'' lets you continue playing as a friendly ghost who can clearly see the enemy ghost and hint living players to its location by moving objects like a poltergeist.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
143	* In the world of ''VideoGame/TheLifeAndSufferingOfSirBrante'', each person is granted three "lesser deaths" before their true death, except under certain circumstances. Accordingly, several events allow Sir Brante to die to accomplish some goal. In one route, even True Death isn't the end, but leads to a final challenge in the afterlife.
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	!!!'''Non-video game examples:'''
147
148	[[folder:Films]]
149	* ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'': Players who [[VideoGameLives lose a life]] while [[TheGameComeToLife inside the Jumanji game world]] drop [[ResurrectionTeleportation from the sky]] when they respawn. Martha {{exploit\|edTrope}}s this to [[spoiler:hand off the MacGuffin to Spencer]] on her way down.
150	[[/folder]]
151
152	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
153	* The death of your player character in ''TabletopGame/BladesInTheDark'' is one of the legitimate ways to play the special Ghost playbook, allowing the character to come back as a tormented, incorporeal version of their old selves. Playing as a Ghost, in turn, unlocks two other special playbooks, the [[{{Golem}} Hull]] and the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampire]].
154	* In ''TabletopGame/DeadOfWinter'', when a character dies, Morale goes down - as the game is lost if Morale ever gets to zero, this is usually bad. However, one character is so useless that if you kill him immediately, the group actually ''gains'' morale (though that player now has one less character to control). Also, if one player is [[SlidingScaleOfCooperationVsCompetition the traitor]] themselves, they can only win the game if the rest of the group loses, so 'accidentally' letting characters die can be a very useful way of achieving that.
155	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
156	** In high-level games where DeathIsCheap and players often have relationships with the gods, dying can simply be a useful (and possibly economical) means to reach divine planes and chat with gods and their dead worshipers. Books for high-level games or high-magic settings, like the ''Mythic Odyssey of Theros'' even make this explicit.
157	--->''"Whatever a character learns during their temporary death, they can carry with them back into the mortal world. Such might make dying one of the most helpful things to happen in a character's greater heroic career."''
158	** Many Epic Destinies from [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFourthEdition fourth edition]] include powers that trigger on death, generally providing an AutoRevive after some other benefit -- a stint in a powerful spiritual or undead form, a BoltOfDivineRetribution for nearby enemies, or simply an UnexplainedRecovery a few hours' walk away.
159	* ''TabletopGame/FateOfTheNornsRagnarok'': When player characters die in glorious battle their player's next character can take premium traits, with more powerful ones unlocked as the player sends more characters to Valhalla. Eventually they can play their old characters as einherjar in the afterlife.
160	* In the {{Adventure Board Game\|s}} ''Folklore: The Afflicted'', dead heroes come back as special ghost versions of themselves on the next turn and have a entire set of unique mechanics for interacting with the game and helping their living teammates.
161	* ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'':
162	** The Purified are a rare variety of immortal whose spirits can [[AstralProjection act independently of their bodies]]. Death merely forces them out of their bodies temporarily; they can [[FromASingleCell repair any physical damage]] with enough [[{{Mana}} Essence]], and many learn a [[SkillScoresAndPerks Merit]] to teleport the corpse to a safe location.
163	** ''TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters'': When a Sin-Eater dies, their [[SymbioticPossession Geist]] can restore them to life at the next dawn or dusk. Someone else [[BalancingDeathsBooks has to die in their place]], and their SanityMeter is [[ContinuingIsPainful permanently damaged]] -- but the decision isn't in the Sin-Eater's hands.
164	** ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': The [[{{Necromancer}} Death]] spell "Undying Zeal" allows a mage to escape death by [[DePower sacrificing their magic]] and transforming into a RevenantZombie. Revenants are [[DutyThatTranscendsDeath obsessive]] and [[LivingOnBorrowedTime inevitably lose their minds over time]], so the GameMaster is warned to confirm that the player and character are ''really'' prepared to go the distance.
165	* ''TabletopGame/TheOneRing'':
166	** If an experienced PlayerCharacter dies (or [[RolePlayingEndgame retires]]), the player's next character starts with bonus [[ExperiencePoints XP]] proportional to the old one's, as they're assumed to have been mentored by the deceased. They get extra if the dead character wrote them a [[IfIDoNotReturn Letter of Farewell]] beforehand.
167	** A Barding character with the [[SkillScoresAndPerks cultural virtue]] "Birthright" passes it down to their successor as a bonus, representing their HeroicLineage.
168	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'': Priests of the GodOfTheDead perform Doomings that foretell the circumstances of the recipient's death. If a PlayerCharacter receives a Dooming and later dies in a fashion that matches it, the player's next character starts with a hefty [[ExperiencePoints XP]] bonus.
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172	* ''WebComic/{{Homestuck}}'' has several [[TheGameComeToLife within the game world]] of Sburb (and its predecessor Sgrub):
173	** The dead or dying body of a player needs to be placed on their Quest Bed in order to reach god tier, which [[CameBackStrong resurrects them]] with a huge power boost and conditional immortality.
174	** A dead player's dream self can awaken as a BodyBackupDrive if another player [[KissOfLife kisses the fresh corpse]]. [[spoiler:Dirk]] {{exploit\|edTrope}}s this to escape the destruction of his planet by [[PortalCut teleporting his head]] to another player for a kiss.
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178	* In ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'''s [[WebVideo/CriticalRoleCampaignOne first campaign]], Matthew Mercer introduces his own homebrewed game mechanics about death into ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. When player characters die, sometimes gods and otherworldly entities will appear to them and offer to bring them back to life as part of a deal. Namely, one hero gains ResurrectiveImmortality from a god ([[spoiler:Vax from the Raven Queen]]), which he exploits to take suicidal risks and bargain with fairies who get off on choking people.
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Context Main / DeathAsGameMechanic