Death penalty

Death penalty (commonly abbreviated as "DP") reduces your maximum health and energy values by the current % amount of the penalty. Every time you earn a penalty, it is added to your current total; this total cannot exceed -60%. A Death Penalty is the opposite of a Morale Boost, although both are added together for a cumulative effect.

Note: The terms "morale boost" and "death penalty" are also used to describe whether this cumulative effect is positive or negative.

Sources

Death Penalty is caused by death, whether through being killed or suiciding. Each death increases your DP by -15%.

Under certain conditions, you will not receive death penalty when you die. These include:

• Dying due to the effects of Vengeance, Unyielding Aura (PvP), or Death Pact Signet.
• Dying due to instant-death effects such as Sulfurous Haze, the crushers in Sorrow's Furnace or Fahranur, The First City, or giant snowballs and boulders in Eye of the North.
• Dying within 5 seconds of being resurrected.
• Dying in Pre-Searing Ascalon.
• Dying in certain PvP gameplay types, including Alliance Battles, Competitive Missions, and Kill Count arenas.

Removal

There are currently six known methods to remove DP:

1. Earning XP. Every 75 XP earned will reduce DP by 1%.
   • You need 1125 XP to remove a 15% DP and 4500 XP to remove the maximum DP of 60%.
   • Capture of an elite skill by a level 18 character earns enough XP to remove all DP. Claiming quest rewards can also quickly reduce the penalty.
2. Earning Morale Boosts.
   • PvE: You can earn +2% morale for killing bosses, killing special mobs, or performing special tasks.
   • You earn a +7% morale boost for every 25 kills in a dungeon. (this is reduced to 5% if you have maxed your Deldrimor reputation title).
   • PvP: You can earn +10% morale for holding the flag stand for two consecutive minutes (GvG), holding the altar for two consecutive minutes (king of the hill maps in Heroes' Ascent), or killing the enemy Ghostly Hero (other maps in Heroes' Ascent). When an enemy player dies while you are alive your DP will be reduced by 2%, but you won't gain morale boost.
3. An "Offering to Courage" yields a +2% morale bonus to the player (in Tyria, the bonus applies to the entire party, including Heroes and Henchmen). Note: Blessings are only available when the world has the Favor of the Gods.
4. Using special items in PvE can provide a morale boost, reduce DP, or eliminate DP completely:
   • Morale Boosts: Honeycomb (5%); Rainbow Candy Cane (5%); Elixir of Valor (10%); Pumpkin Cookie (10%)
   • DP Reduction: Refined Jelly (15%); Wintergreen Candy Cane (15%); Four-Leaf Clover (random 5-15%);
   • Complete DP Removal: Peppermint Candy Cane; Powerstone of Courage (also adds 10% morale boost).
5. Going back to town or outpost will completely remove a character's DP.
6. Exiting (failing or resigning) certain missions like The Elusive Golemancer will remove all DP, especially if the mission is started from an explorable zone.

Notes

• Quest rewards will not remove DP for henchmen or Pets, since they do not receive the XP.

• Death Penalty applies to the maximum health and energy before the effects of upgrades are applied.
  • Example: a character with 220 health starting from a base of 200 with a 10% DP will lose only 20 health (0.1 * 200) rather than 22 (0.1 * 220).
  • Example: a character with 60 energy starting from a base of 50 with a 10% DP will lose only 5 energy (0.1 * 50) rather than 6 (0.1 * 60).

• Death penalty will never reduce health or energy below 1.
  • Example: A character with maximum health of 480 using three Superior runes will have 255 health (480 - 3*75). Normally, 60% DP would reduce their health by 288 points (60% of 480) to -33 health, which would mean permanent death. Instead, the character will have 1 health.

• Characters with high DP resulting in a maximum health of 1 can have trouble being resurrected or removing their DP:
  • Some resurrection skills restore characters to 50% of health, rounded down. For a single health point, that would be zero health, so the character will resurrect and immediately die again.
  • Characters with 1 health resurrected by these skills will not remain alive long enough to gain XP (to reduce the DP) or to remove the equipment reducing their health.
  • This can be used to the player's advantage when death leveling pets.
  • The relevant skills are: Rebirth, Resurrect, and Light of Dwayna

• Consider DP when choosing skills, especially for professions that typically have low energy. For example, warriors with 20 maximum energy and more than 50% DP will not be able to cast skills that cost 10 energy.

• In Hard Mode, parties must return to their last outpost if all members reach 60% DP. Each player will see the message, Your party has been defeated.