V Rising is filled with enemies and tough bosses that may catch you off guard making you wonder what happens when you die. Whether you’re getting swarmed by a bunch of skeletons or fighting a boss for the first time. Or perhaps you’re playing on a PvP (player versus player) server and have to worry about ganks and raids.
Our V Rising guide covers how the death penalty works in his vampire survival game. While it’s generous in some ways compared to RPG games, it’s also harsh in others. Especially if you’re playing alone and don’t have a friend to revive you.
What Happens When You Die in V Rising
Understanding the Different Server Settings
This is what the server settings look like when you’re customizing them yourself. However, you can click a server in the browser and then click a button the right side, “See Detailed Settings” to find more info.
The death penalty varies slightly depending on the server you’re playing on. This is because the host can customize the server settings to change what happens when you die. Even though there isn’t a lot of customization, it plays a major role in who can loot your body and how much you drop. The first set of server settings regarding looting is below:
- Anyone
- Clan Members
- Only Self
You can’t move when downed, so all you can do is wait for someone to pick you up or respawn instead.
By default, the Standard PvE Ruleset uses the Clan Members looting option. Which just means if you join a clan on your server, players in your clan can loot your body. Therefore, if you join a clan with this setting, make sure you trust the people you’re playing with.
The last thing you want to do is lose all your loot to a random player that won’t give it back. However, this can be a useful setting if you’re playing with a friend and they’re able to grab all your stuff. Especially if you don’t have a respawn point near where you died so you don’t have to travel all the way back. Whereas if the server setting is set to “Only Self”, then only you can loot your body.
By checking the tags under the name of an item you can see whether or not it’s Blood-Bound.
The second major server setting revolves around Blood-Bound Equipment. This is where understanding what happens when you die is important. If Blood-Bound Equipment is enabled, you’ll drop everything you have except for gear with the Blood-Bound tag. Chances are most if not all of your armor and weapons will have the Blood-Bound tag in their description.
This setting is enabled for many rulesets including the Standard PvE one. However, it’s disabled for full-loot PvP servers. This is why you should look at the server settings if you’re joining a random one. It’s worth mentioning that the host can customize these settings even if PvP isn’t enabled. For example, having “Anyone” set for looting and disabling Blood-Bound Equipment so full loot is on.
What Actually Happens When You Die
Your vampire servants aren’t able to revive you like a player can, unfortunately. Instead, I end up with a servant named Duke staring at me.
Now that we know how the server settings work, let’s dive into what happens when you die. Regardless of how you die in V Rising, you’ll drop to the ground where another player can revive you. This window lasts for around three to four minutes before you’re gone. However, you can also skip this and respawn somewhere else by pressing X. This is your only choice if you’re playing alone.
A quick overlay will then pop up saying “You were slain” alongside a time of death also showing the date. As previously mentioned, you’ll drop almost everything in your inventory onto the floor inside a container. This makes it easy to pick up and run when you return if it’s in a bad spot. Whether you keep your Blood-Bound Equipment or not depends on the server.
The map will appear after choosing to respawn so you can pick a place you’d like to spawn back in. Picking the closest spawn is usually the best option. But, you may want to spawn at a base if you’re playing with full-loot settings.
As explained in our guide on What Does Sleeping Do, there are three different spawn types. This includes the Wooden Coffin, Stone Coffin, and Vampire Waygates (not including ones you’ve built). Upon respawning, you’ll have a red coffin on the map showing where you died and a timer for how long you have to get it. By default, the timer is set to 45 minutes, but I haven’t tested what happens if it runs out.
The only other negative aside from dropping all your loot is that you’ll also lose your blood type. It switches to Frailed and you’ll only have 5 out of 10 blood liters in your Blood Pool. This can be a pain if you had a high-quality blood type with good buffs. Especially since the Frailed blood type doesn’t have any buffs to benefit from.
Frailed is the worst blood type to have since there are no benefits to it. Even though it can help in a pinch when you need some blood for Blood Mending to heal.
Otherwise, you don’t have to worry about losing durability from dying in V Rising or losing all your hard-earned experience. The only durability loss you’ll get is from the damage dealt to you. Which, fortunately, doesn’t include damage from the sun. And you won’t lose any experience since V Rising isn’t like an RPG where you’re grinding mobs to level up.
That’s all there is to what happens when you die in V Rising. If you read the entire guide you’ll have an idea of what I meant by the death penalty being generous, but also harsh. Losing the majority of your inventory is never a fun thing. At least you’ll likely still have your gear unless you’re on a full-loot server.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.
M
Wednesday 31st of August 2022
After 45 minutes your stuff just disappears completely. I didn't realise that the number next to it was a timer. Not used to m being short for minutes. Learnt that the hard way...
J
Friday 9th of December 2022
@M, Yikes, I just learned that myself. Ouch!
Daisy
Friday 3rd of June 2022
What do you mean you don't have to worry about losing your exp? I died and lost 12 levels lol.
Jeffrey Lerman
Friday 3rd of June 2022
Hey Daisy, levels are based on your gear and active weapon. So you won't lose any levels unless your gear broke or if you switched to a lower-level weapon. Or for example, switching to a fishing pole. Quick edit, I forgot about certain blood types giving you a level as well. So if you have that extra level, you'll lose that upon dying too.