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Healing Checkpoint

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Reaching a Checkpoint or Save Point refills your Life Meter, Mana Meter, ammo, whatever. Once you get to the checkpoint, you'll be fully replenished and ready for the next level.

Sometimes this is just a part of the same mechanic that's saving your progress—this is common when saving at a Trauma Inn, for example. Other times, the save point or checkpoint won't heal you directly, but it will be surrounded by strategically-placed Healing Potions and Mana Potions or a convenient Healing Spring. In games with infinite or Meaningless Lives, these kinds of checkpoints just make sense, as the player could choose to get themselves killed for a free refill anyway. Aversion of this may lead to the game becoming Unwinnable as a result of saving at an unfortunate time.

This is a Subtrope of Anti-Frustration Features. Sister Tropes include Level-Up Fill-Up, for when you heal up after levelling-up a Character Level, and After Boss Recovery, for when you heal up after a Boss Battle. Frequently overlaps with Suspicious Video-Game Generosity in those cases where you conveniently get a save point and a full heal right before a boss fight.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Action-Adventure 

    Action RPG 

    Eastern RPG 
  • In Cthulhu Saves the World, save points replenish all of your mana. (Health is automatically refilled after battles.)
  • Dragon Quest Save Points are the priests inside churches in towns. While these do not heal HP and MP, they do resurrect party members and remove status effects like poison and curse—although they do charge you money proportional to your level. In most of the games, this is the only real way to remove the curse status effect and remove any Cursed Equipment, as well as the only reliable way to resurrect party members until late in the game (the Trauma Inn won't do it, and the early resurrection spell "Zing" only works 25-50% of the time depending on the game).
  • Most save logs in Dubloon are located close to either trauma inns or red chests that replenish your crew's health and alcohol points. Ones that aren't are usually located somewhere within a dungeon.
  • Baten Kaitos had two varieties of this, in the original game. Red flowers which only saved your progress, and blue flowers which brought you to a church and you could level up as well.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • In the older Final Fantasy games, save points can be used to deploy a Tent indoors (a Tent is an item that works like a portable Trauma Inn and normally can only be used on the world map).
    • In Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII, Save Points heal you and remove negative status ailments, rendering the Trauma Inns and Healing Springs favored by previous titles obsolete.
      • Strangely, X still has Trauma Inns, while also having a save point near every such inn. The same applies to Final Fantasy X-2, where you can heal by sleeping in your bed in the Celsius despite it also containing a Healing Checkpoint.
    • In Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII's remake, Reunion, all Save Points have been upgraded to this, making certain stretches of the game much less gruelling. This also occurs when returning from completed side-quest Missions (which dump you back at the Save Point), meaning the player doesn't have to down all of their Potions and Ethers after completing a particularly tough one.
  • Most games in the Grandia series have save points that heal the party.
  • In Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Save points will restore your life and swords' soul meters in addition to their usual function.
  • Prayer of the Faithless: Some Save Points, like in Asala, Honneleth, and Mia's camp, are near places to heal, like inns or Mia's tent, respectively. This mainly applies to the beginning of the game, since facilities like inns aren't available in later parts of the game. However, Chaos Quest Settings can make it so that save points heal the party, but disappear upon use.
  • Shin Megami Tensei:
    • In some games in the series, save points can heal, but they charge you money proportional to the amount of mana and health restored. Most of these are known as Terminals.
    • Digital Devil Saga: Large Karma Terminals do this. Small ones normally don't, but some Small Terminals might have a Life Terminal next to them to do the same job. (Small Terminals can also transport you to a large one if you need healing enough that you're willing to walk back.)
    • In Persona 3 Portable, the Save Point in Tartarus' first floor will do this, for a fee, which depends on your level.
  • Tales Series:
    • In Tales of the Abyss, green save points completely restore your party's HP and TP in addition to letting you save. One showing up is a sign to be prepared for an upcoming boss fight.
    • Every save point in Tales of Innocence heals you.
    • Tales of Symphonia:
      • Some Save Points are near a healing point, like on the Sylvarant Base, where there's a Save Point, a chest, and a bed to rest and therefore heal, in a row of cells.
      • Raine (the game's best White Mage) can use which drops the Mana Meter cost of all her spells to 1 while standing on a save point, effectively allowing a similar effect as this.
    • Most savepoints right before major boss fights in Tales of Vesperia are green instead of the usual yellow, indicating they restore all HP and TP when you walk into them. But after you beat the said boss, they usually either disappear completely or turn yellow, which doesn't restore HP and TP.
  • The save points in the Ys series heal you on approaching them. Some of the games also have trauma inns.
  • Pokémon Colosseum did this so subtly that it seems like it might have been an accident. PCs are used as save points, but they also provide opportunities to switch out the Pokemon in your current team, and newly-switched-in Pokemon are always at full health. Somewhat of a moot point for the most part, as virtually all PCs are either in a Pokémon Center or have a healing machine nearby.
  • In Lost Odyssey, the save points don't heal you automatically, but loading a saved game does, so all you have to do is save and reload. Many — but not all — save points are nevertheless paired up with a healing orb, even though this ends up doing nothing but sparing you a quick reload.
  • Trials of Mana: Only fully intact golden Goddess statues (or equivalent) heal; the final dungeon feature headless statues who only have a save function.
  • Märchen Forest: Mylne and the Forest Gift: In the dungeoneering section, returning to the first room, where there's a Save Point, also heals Mylne.

    Fighting Game 
  • The last level in the Subspace Emissary story mode of Super Smash Bros. Brawl includes save points that heal you and revive fallen party members, this is because the gane changed from straightforward action levels to a huge sprawling metroidvania stage (with reused assets).

    First-Person Shooter 
  • Some inter-level checkpoints in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault do this, but most don't.
  • Hard Reset's checkpoints are almost always accompanied by jumbo-sized health and ammo pickups.
  • Dark Forces: Late in level 8 (the robotics facility on Anteevy), Kyle drops a fair distance that does quite a bit of damage to his health. Fortunately, there's a Revive waiting at the landing spot, which refills his health and shields... right before he heads into a room where he has to plant three sequencer charges, the last of which triggers the level's boss fight against a Phase II Dark Trooper.

    Metroidvania 
  • Afterimage: Confluences serve as this game's save points; resting on them fully refills Renee's HP, MP, and Primeval Glyphs.
  • Most Castlevania games of the Metroidvania type have save points that heal, for example, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.
  • Eastern Exorcist has shrines for you to save your progress via meditation, and restores your health in the progress.
  • Metroid:
    • Metroid: Zero Mission, save points in the second half of the game fully heal Samus and replenish her ammo. Save points encountered prior only save.
    • Save points in Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion only save; however in the latter game, they're often located right next to a room that fully heals you.
    • In the Metroid Prime Trilogy most save points restore health only, but Samus's gunship also restores ammo, and there are a few separate ammo replenishing stations. Metroid: Other M has save stations that double as replenishing stations.
  • In Cave Story, most save points are next to heal points or beds.
  • Save statues in An Untitled Story completely refill player character's health aside from saving, which is nice since aside from beating bosses or collecting hearts (which are limited), there's no other way to recover health.
  • Craz'd!: Simply standing next to a Save Statue will rapidly drain Loon's insanity back down to 0%.
  • Unusually for a game in this genre, save stations and health refill stations in Environmental Station Alpha are the only way to recover health.
  • Hollow Knight, similar to Dark Souls, restores the player's masks when they sit down at a bench but respawns all slain enemies. Benches are also the only way to fill out the in-game maps if the player has the quill item and that area's map. There are a few benches which you have to pay Geo to unlock, and one that is initially occupied by a boss. Stag Stations tend to have benches located conveniently nearby, but a few of these are broken and unusable.
  • Axiom Verge: Save points refill Trace's health. Crossed with Justified Save Point when he realizes the save points are cloning chambers that double as medical stations.
  • Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom has small save points that don't heal, and big ones that do. Those "save points" however are more akin to respawn points, as the actual saving is done more often (like whenever a chest is opened).
  • In Rabi-Ribi, standing on a save point rapidly refills Erina's HP and Amulet charges.
  • ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights: Rest stops act as save points, refilling Lily's HP and restoration charges when she sleeps on a nearby bench or bed.

    Platformer 
  • Fresh Minty Adventure: These are also Save Points and are marked by pedestals holding orbs that light up when used.
  • In Gamer 2, if Hailey loses her deflector plate she can get a new by touching a Checkpoint.
  • The Legendary Starfy: The Mermaid's shell found in various locations in stages will let you save your game, as well as healing you when you use it.
  • In Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, the vendors will refill your health, and are almost always placed at checkpoints. This means the player can backtrack to the last vendor to fill up all of their health, and on the later levels this is pretty much required.
  • Shantae:
  • Super Mario Bros.:
  • Some Sonic the Hedgehog games have the checkpoints reward you with rings, extra lives, or any other items, like shields, speed shoes, boost refills, etc. In games prior to Sonic Rush, you were required to have a certain amount of rings when crossing the checkpoints in order for them to give said bonuses.
  • Mainly averted in Shovel Knight, but in the Specter of Torment New Game Plus, reaching a checkpoint will restore your Will/Darkness. After all, they've been combined into a single trickling-down bar that would otherwise run out far before the even the best player could finish the level.
  • Skully uses clay pools as checkpoints, where you can absorb the clay and restore your golem's health. You can even swap golem forms while at checkpoints.
  • The Treasure Hunter Man series of the first and second games. Save Points, which are books, also heal the protagonists when activated.

    Real-Time Strategy 
  • In several singleplayer StarCraft II missions, the hero gets fully healed and regains full energy at each checkpoint, which also acts as a save point.

    Rhythm Game 
  • A shiny square near each checkpoint in Thumper restores your health if you were hit, and if you don't miss it.

    Shoot 'Em Up 

    Survival Horror 
  • Safe Havens in Alan Wake's American Nightmare heal you. In the original game you had Regenerating Health, but Safe Havens made you regenerate more quickly.
  • Glowing Structure Gel nodes in SOMA heal Simon Jarrett if he takes damage.
  • Silent Hill 4: The Room allows you to return you your apartment at certain points in levels, and hanging around in your apartment slowly replenishes your health. If you think this is too good to last you're absolutely right, because soon the ghosts begin coming back to your apartment too and it doesn't replenish your health any longer.

    Third-Person Shooter 
  • In Splatoon, touching a checkpoint in a single-player level restores one of the player's lives if they lost any.

    Western RPG 

Alternative Title(s): Healing Save Point, Save And Reload

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