Death & Item Loss

What you lose depends on where you die. The prison, Forgotten Polis, the Pit, and the Sacred Way have different rules. "Everything except your pickaxe" only describes part of the prison rule, not the whole server.

Quick reference

The details below explain the exceptions. An area being guarded or PvP-protected does not, by itself, mean every item is protected from death.

The prison: tools survive, their contents do not

On a normal full-loot death:

• Ancient pickaxes are kept, including their upgrades. Their stored energy is emptied and dropped as Ancient Energy after the applicable extraction tax. The tax depends on your rank and modifiers; it is zero in safe zones.
• Shard, contraband, and dust satchels are kept, but their contents spill out. Keeping the container does not protect what is inside it.
• Other carried items and equipment can drop, including loose valuables, weapons, and armour.

Protected tools return on respawn. These extraction and spilling rules do not apply to ordinary keep-inventory deaths such as boss arenas.

Prison guards confiscate the drops from a guard death. Do not expect to run back and recover the gear, energy, or contents they confiscated. Pickaxes and satchel containers already protected by the tool rule are still kept. Erebus Guards in the Pit use the Pit's separate death rules.

Forgotten Polis: your alignment matters

Your chosen alignment lasts for that visit. Every Polis death gives you a 5-minute re-entry ban, including deaths to mobs and deaths as a Pilgrim. This is a temporary lockout from Polis, not a server ban.

Pilgrim

You keep everything you had on you when you died, including loot collected during the visit. You cannot take part in normal PvP, but mobs can still kill you.

Wanderer

You drop loot acquired during the visit. Items you brought into Polis and still possess are kept.

For example, bring in a sword and collect three new drops: dying costs you the new drops, while your original sword stays with you. Items you used up, traded, deposited, or gave away are not recreated.

Defiler

You drop loot acquired during the visit. When the Defiler penalty applies, each retained weapon or armour piece independently has a 25% chance to drop. This can lose you no pieces, one piece, or several; it does not mean exactly a quarter of your equipment is taken. Eligible spare gear in your inventory is included, not only what you are wearing. Pickaxes are not part of this gear roll.

For PvP, gear risk is limited by both players' alignments:

See PvP Basics for combat and alignment details.

Pit of Erebus: protect what you brought, escape with what you find

The Pit records what you carry when you enter. On death, you keep those entry items that you still have and drop the inventory loot gained during that visit. This applies to deaths to players and mobs.

Leave the Pit alive to secure your haul. On your next visit, those items are part of what you brought in. Merely disconnecting does not count as safely leaving: your combat logger can still be killed.

Pickaxe energy, satchel contents, and money credited directly to your balance are not part of the Pit's inventory-loot comparison. A full inventory also does not send new Pit loot safely to /stash: overflow drops at your feet.

The Sacred Way: carry the haul back to the meadow

You keep your equipment on death, but all Ichor and fragments you carry outside the safe meadow are at risk, including any you brought with you. Dying there drops that haul. Already-banked resources remain safe.

Walk back into the safe meadow to bank the haul. Warping away, teleporting out, or disconnecting outside the meadow can also drop it; these are not a substitute for bringing it home. A death inside the meadow keeps the haul.

This is different from the Pit: the Sacred Way checks carried Ichor and fragments, not every new inventory item.

Events and special fights

• Boss arenas: death keeps your inventory and XP. This protection belongs to the boss arena; fighting a dangerous mob elsewhere follows that area's rules.
• KOTH: gear stays with you, but KOTH Lootbags drop. Dying locks you out until the next KOTH starts.
• Duels: check the confirmation settings. The winner receives the agreed wagers. With inventory risk enabled, the winner also receives the loser's entry inventory. Without it, each player gets their own entry inventory back. Collect your items with /duel collect.
• Cell raids: deaths inside the raid instance allow personal gear and ordinary items to drop. Stolen raid loot is handled separately during the attacker's escape phase rather than becoming ordinary death drops. Do not treat a raid as a keep-inventory event.
• Skywars: your normal inventory is stored before the round and restored afterward. Elimination concerns the temporary arena inventory.

Jewels, XP, and logging out

Socketed jewels are currently kept on death, including in Polis. A loose jewel or Mystery Jewel carried as an inventory item still follows the area's item-loss rules.

Normal deaths preserve XP under the current server settings; keeping XP does not imply keeping your inventory. Special activities manage their own inventory and respawn flow.

Logging out is not a safe escape. Outside safe zones, you can leave a vulnerable combat logger for about 20 seconds, even without an active combat tag. If it dies, you can lose items under the area's rules. Duels have their own disconnect-forfeit rules, and the Sacred Way can drop your carried haul on disconnect.

Before entering danger, store valuables you do not need, check your alignment or duel settings, and know how that area's loot becomes safe.