Finding out what happens when you die in Diablo 4 is a common question I often see for other games as well. It’s always helpful to know what the death penalty is just in case you find yourself struggling a lot. Especially when it can be extreme in certain games like losing all your gear or experience.
Fortunately, Diablo 4 is much more forgiving than other games. So if you’re debating trying tough content like Strongholds or even the world boss Ashava, don’t worry. And let’s be honest, if you randomly run into the Butcher, you’re probably gonna die as I have and so many others have.
What Happens When You Die in Diablo 4
Death Penalty For Normal Characters
Don’t forget to use potions to get your health back up if you’re close to dying.
There are two main negatives to dying in this action RPG as a normal character. First, you’ll lose 10% durability of every gear piece you’re wearing. Such as your helmet, your weapon, your pants, and so forth. This penalty doesn’t impact jewelry, however, since jewelry doesn’t have durability. Fortunately, you can prevent durability loss if another player revives you.
For those of you wondering if items in your inventory will lose durability on death too, they will not. This is nice to know so you don’t have to worry about repairing new loot you’ve gathered. Especially since the cost to repair gear can add up when you’re still early in Diablo 4.
Certain Diablo 4 events have other players around that may revive you even if you’re not in a party.
The second negative is situational since it only really applies to when you’re fighting a boss. Unfortunately, if you die while fighting a boss, you’ll teleport outside the instance and the boss will heal back to full. But, if you’re in a party, you’ll have to wait for a party member to revive you or for a complete wipe to happen.
Although, when you’re fighting the world boss Ashava, you’ll teleport to a checkpoint within the same instance. This allows for you to stay in the fight as long as your gear doesn’t completely break. Because at that point, you won’t be able to help your party much. Aside from those two negatives, you won’t lose experience or gear for dying on a normal character.
The checkpoint for fighting Ashava, The Pestilent only takes you out of the fight for a moment. Just make sure you don’t get hit on the way back in!
As long as you’re not on a hardcore character as the next section explains, your character will teleport to a checkpoint nearby. Otherwise, a player can revive you as well so you don’t have to teleport away. But, if you do teleport to a nearby checkpoint, you’ll get a marker on your map where you last died.
Death Penalty For Hardcore Characters
The worst death you never want to see is on a hardcore character with that red button saying, “Back to Main Menu”.
As you’d expect, what happens when you die on a hardcore character is significantly worse than on a normal one. Unlike Path of Exile where your hardcore character becomes a normal one, you’ll completely lose yours in Diablo 4. Therefore, once you die on a hardcore character, you won’t be able to play as them anymore.
The only point worth mentioning about hardcore characters in Diablo 4 is the Hall of Fallen Heroes. This is an area on the Collections page that keeps a record of dead hardcore characters. However, you’ll need to at least reach level 10 with that character for them to be recorded. Also, the Hall of Fallen Heroes only seems to keep a record of the last eight hardcore characters.
At least your deeds of valor will be remembered for your hardcore character if you made it past level 10.
Here’s a quick rundown of what information the Hall of Fallen Heroes stores for each character:
- Name and class
- Campaign Progress
- Level Reached
- Time played
- Total Gold
- What you were slain by
- Equipped gear and active skills
Enjoy looking at my Druid that I made specifically to get this screenshot after reaching level 10. At least it only took around an hour.
Death Penalty For PvP Zones
If you’re interested in trying out one of the PvP zones, it’s worth understanding how the death penalty works differently here. Similar to dying on a normal character, you’ll still take a 10% durability loss to equipped gear. However, you’ll also drop any Shards of Hatred you’ve gathered while fighting enemies in the area.
It doesn’t matter if a player or PvE enemy kills you, you’ll still drop all Shards of Hatred onto the ground. Fortunately, you can run back over and pick them up if nobody else grabs them first. Just be careful if you’re trying to extract from your shards when flagged players are around.
That’s all there is to this Diablo 4 guide on what happens when you die. I always like to look into game death penalties because you never know how severe they can be. And in this situation, I’m glad you don’t lose experience on death. Because that can set you back a bit when you’re trying to grind those levels.
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.