Death

Death by falling.

“

It's a good day to die!

— The Demolitionist

Death occurs when a player's health reaches zero. A death message is displayed dependent on how the player died. For example, "<Player name> tried to swim in lava." is one that is displayed if the player died from lava damage.

When a player dies, a Tombstone is dropped at the location of their death. When it finds a suitable space, it will become a 2×2 tile. It stores text, much in the way the Sign functions, with the player's death message, (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) and the real-world date. Being affected by physics, a Tombstone will fall after the player's death if they were moving at the time. If there is no flat 2-block space for a Tombstone, it will get stuck before it despawns.

(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) If the player holds more than 10 GC when they die, the spawned Tombstone will be one of the five following golden Tombstones:

Upon death, a large red text saying "You were slain..." will be displayed on the center of the screen. (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) The amount of dropped coins will be shown underneath, (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) and a timer will display showing how long until the player respawns.

Causes of death

Death may occur from:

• Damage inflicted by enemies, bosses, and, during PvP, other players
• Drowning
• Lava
• Traps, explosives, and explosive weapons that cause damage to the player, such as Exploding Bullets
• Fall damage
• Debuffs, typically causing damage over time and being inflicted by enemies
  • Suffocation (being below Silt/Slush/Sand)
  • Burning (contact with certain blocks)
  • Horrified (only causes death when trying to escape the Wall of Flesh)
  • Chaos State (only causes death when using the Rod of Discord too often while affected by the debuff)
• Damaging buffs: Paladin's Shield and Companion Cube(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
• Failing to destroy an Altar too often

Difficulty differences

A Classic (Softcore (Old-gen console version)) character will drop half, three-quarters, or all of each stack of coins a player is carrying at the moment of death in each inventory slot (always rounded up). Coins stored in storage items are not affected.

A Mediumcore(Desktop, Console, Old-gen console and Mobile versions) character will drop all carried items, including money and ammo. Maximum health and mana will be kept, and will not be reduced back to the default.

A Hardcore(Desktop, Console, Old-gen console and Mobile versions) character will also drop all carried items. Furthermore, the character is permanently deleted upon death and the player turns into a ghost, unable to interact with the environment, but still able to observe, move about, and chat with other players.

Death messages

Default

Default death messages

• "<Player name> was slain."
• "<Player name> was eviscerated."
• "<Player name> was murdered."
• "<Player name>'s face was torn off."
• "<Player name>'s entrails were ripped out."
• "<Player name> was destroyed."
• "<Player name>'s skull was crushed."
• "<Player name> got massacred."
• "<Player name> got impaled."
• "<Player name> was torn in half."
• "<Player name> was decapitated."
• "<Player name> let their arms get torn off."
• "<Player name> watched their innards become outards."
• "<Player name> was brutally dissected."
• "<Player name>'s extremities were detached."
• "<Player name>'s body was mangled."
• "<Player name>'s vital organs were ruptured."
• "<Player name> was turned into a pile of flesh."
• "<Player name> was removed from <world name>."
• "<Player name> got snapped in half."
• "<Player name> was cut down the middle."
• "<Player name> was chopped up."
• "<Player name>'s plea for death was answered."
• "<Player name>'s meat was ripped off the bone."
• "<Player name>'s flailing about was finally stopped."
• "<Player name> had their head removed."
• "<Player name> lost his/her head." ()

PvP

PvP death messages

PvP death messages will use the default death messages from above, but will additionally state the name of the player's murderer along with the weapon or projectile with which the killing blow was landed.

Example:

• "<Player name 1>'s face was torn off by <player name 2>'s Ball O' Hurt."

Enemies

Enemy death messages

Enemy death messages work like PvP death messages.

Examples:

• "<Player name> was removed from <world name> by Hellbat."
• "<Player name>'s entrails were ripped out by Phantasmal Deathray."

Falling

Falling death messages

• "<Player name> fell to their death."
• "<Player name> didn't bounce."
• "<Player name> fell victim of gravity." ()
• "<Player name> faceplanted the ground." ()
• "<Player name> left a small crater." ()

Drowning

Drowning death messages

• "<Player name> forgot to breathe."
• "<Player name> is sleeping with the fish."
• "<Player name> drowned."
• "<Player name> is shark food."

Lava

Lava death messages

• "<Player name> got melted."
• "<Player name> was incinerated."
• "<Player name> tried to swim in lava."
• "<Player name> likes to play in magma."

Buffs/Debuffs

Debuff death messages

Buff/Debuff(s)	Messages
On Fire! Burning Cursed Inferno Frostburn	""
Inferno(from another player in PvP)	"<Player name> was consumed by the inferno."
Poisoned Acid Venom	"<Player name> couldn't find the antidote."
Suffocation	""
Electrified(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)	""
Stoned(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)(fall damage)	"<Player name> shattered into pieces." "<Player name> can't be put back together again." "<Player name> needs to be swept up." "<Player name> just became another dirt pile."
Chaos State(using the Rod of Discord)	"<Player name>'s legs appeared where their head should be." (male character) "<Player name>'s legs appeared where their head should be." (female character) "<Player name> didn't materialize"
Starving(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)(in the Constant seed)	""

Others

Other death messages

When the Wall of Flesh reaches the far boundary of the world and the player is in front:

• ""

When killed by Paladin's Shield:

• "<Player name>"

When attempting to teleport away from the Wall of Flesh with a Magic/Ice Mirror, Recall Potion, Teleportation Potion, Cell Phone, or Teleporter:

• "<Player name> tried to escape."

When killed by failing to destroy an Altar, the Wall of Flesh's body, or a Jellyfish's shock attack (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions):

• "<Player name> was slain..."

When killed by the Companion Cube's(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) stab:

• "<Player name> was stabbed."

When killed by darkness in the Constant seed:

• "<Player name> was killed by something in the dark!"

Notes

• If a player is killed by a ranged attack, the death message will not include the name of the entity that launched the projectile, but instead the name of the projectile. Example: "<Player name> was slain by greek fire."
• There is a 15-second delay between death and respawn, which is doubled in duration during Expert Mode(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) and Master Mode(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) boss fights.
• PvP deaths will cause the player to respawn with full health. This also applies to self-inflicted deaths with items such as explosives.
• Because the number of dropped coins in Softcore is computed for each inventory slot, it may not be equal to 50% / 75% of the added total number of coins. For example, carrying a total of 40 CC as 1 CC in each inventory slot will always result in 40 CC being dropped (as 50% / 75% of 1 CC rounded up is 1 CC), instead of 20 CC / 30 CC.

Tips

• The Tombstone mechanic can be very useful for locating items/coins dropped after death, since the Tombstone will usually fall within the vicinity of where the player died.
  • (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) On the minimap, a cross symbol will display where the player died most recently, allowing the player to quickly find the location again.
• During multiplayer boss fights, the last surviving player should play defensively until the other players can return to the fight after respawning. The boss may despawn if all players are too far away from the fight.
• (3DS version) If the Worm Pet is active at death, it will say " Bye bye!", and will drop a Strange Looking Tombstone.

Trivia

• The text that appears after death saying "You were slain..." does not appear in the  Old-gen console version and Nintendo 3DS version of the game except on PS3.
  • On the  Console version, the "You were slain..." message will have a faded and translucent version of itself behind the opaque text that flickers around in an eerie twitching motion.
• Several death messages from 1.3(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) entities do not explicitly mention the cause.
• One of the death messages displayed when dying from the Stoned(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions) debuff, "<Player name> can't be put back together again.", is a reference to the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty, which has a verse: "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again".
• The death message displayed when the player is killed by a Paladin's Shield used to be displayed when the player attempted to destroy a Demon or Crimson Altar with an insufficient hammer power instead.
• The death message "<Player name> tried to swim in lava." may be a reference to a death message in the 3D sandbox game Minecraft, which says the same thing when the player dies in lava.
• Most death messages obtained in PvE circumstances are grammatically incorrect - there is no preceding "a" before the name of the killing monster or object, and the killer's name is always capitalized.

See also

• Coins § Drops upon death

History

 Desktop version

• Desktop 1.4.0.5: Fixed a message typo: "<Player name>'s plead for death was answered" to "<Player name>'s plea for death was answered".

• Desktop 1.4.0.1:
  • Tombstones now display the real-world date of the related death.
  • Fixed a message typo: "<Player name> cant be put back together again." to "<Player name> can't be put back together again."

• Desktop 1.3.5:
  • Fixed petrification death messages being broken for a long while now.
  • Death screen now has a timer until the player respawns.

• Desktop 1.3.4.4: Fixed death messages incorrectly mentioning Glowsticks and Piggy Banks.

• Desktop 1.3.4.1: Fixed certain new 1.3.4 weapons staying in use during the player's death.

• Desktop 1.3.3.1: Fixed death messages only showing player names under certain circumstances.

• Desktop 1.3.0.1: Now shows amount of money dropped under "You were slain".

• Desktop 1.2.4.1: The proper items will now drop on Mediumcore/Hardcore deaths.

• Desktop 1.2.4: Fixed a bug where the player would die on entering the world from fall damage.

• Desktop 1.2.3.1: Fixed bug where Hardcore characters couldn't open the menu after death.

• Desktop 1.2.3:
  • Fixed dying by Demon Altar having no message.
  • Players have a longer respawn delay after a non-PVP death with a boss alive in multiplayer.

• Desktop 1.1.1: Coins held on the cursor will correctly be dropped on death.

• Desktop 1.0.5:
  • More specific death messages added.
  • Players will now drop Tombstones upon death.

• Desktop-Release: Introduced.

 Console version

• Console-Release: Introduced.

 Nintendo Switch version

• Switch 1.0.711.6: Introduced.

 Mobile version

• Mobile-Release: Introduced.

Nintendo 3DS version

• 3DS-Release: Introduced.