So what happens when a character dies?
The spirit is sent to limbo. There you will meet your own personal ‘Guiding Light’ who will explain the options to you – a chance to run through the Paths of the Dead and return to life, or complete and eternal death.
Complete and eternal death?
It’s will be a way that players can choose to retire characters, simulate perma-death worlds or just delete the character from the server vault. Don’t worry too much – it isn’t implemented yet.
And the Paths of the Dead? This is the respawn option – it’s a mini puzzle adventure that includes a flexible death penalty element. You are chased through the paths of the dead by lost souls who try to steal your gold and experience points. You have to find the exit to the ‘lands of the living’.
And the complete death penalty?
Respawning will cost you either one Life Stone or one Character level, as well as the XP and gold that the lost souls will try to suck out of you. Currently tests indicate that the lost souls manage to steal about 1% of your XP and only mange to steal occasional items.
And what are these ‘Life Stones’?
They embody a sacrifice to the Goddess Wee Jas, who is a death goddess who can interfere with the journey that a dead soul makes to its ‘Final Destiny’. You can earn a life stone (once per level) by doing some tasks for Chanah (a priest in Troyka) or you can sacrifice money to buy a stone, either from Chanah or your personal guiding light when you are in limbo.
How much do they cost?
That varies. The price will depend on the level of your character and how often you have died before in this level. The Guiding light is more expensive than Chanah is, and if you don’t have enough cash the guiding light will buy equipment from you - but his prices aren’t good.
And if I don’t have one of these stones?
You can still run the paths of the Dead - but as you step through the portal Wee Jas will take one of your character levels as a sacrifice.
And this applies to everybody?
More or less. At L1 you shouldn't suffer any XP penalty, but may lose some items. At L2, there is no need for a Life Stone as you will not lose a level if you don't have one, but you will suffer XP loss as you run through the Paths of the Dead. From L2, the full penalties apply for everyone.
