Hi! This is my first post in this category and I want to ask something about speedrunning, dying and continues. In general without speaking of specific games. What if after dying I try to continue the run, even if the final time isn't the best. Is there a problem with that? Are there specific rules per game? What if that game doesn't have a rule about dying or continues? Thank you for your help.
There are specific rules for each game/category. Some games dont allow dying and continuing depending on the category, others are fine with it.
I’d wager that most games are fine with death warps to save time and would definitely be fine with it if it didn’t save time.
As an example, Zelda 1 and I think ALTTP treat it this way - dying to save time in overworld travel is not allowed, but dying unintentionally when it doesn’t save time is fine. But it ultimately comes up to the discretion of the mods for the game.
Generally speaking dying in a run is not an issue. It'll lose time obviously, but unless the rules say otherwise it's fair game.
Thank you very much for your answers. Now I don't have any escuse, I will find a game to speedrun.
I'll use Castlevania: Lament of Innocence as an example of dying not being allowed. in LoI your time is tracked using in-game time. The time not only stops, but resets back to the last save when you die. So you can theoretically do a segmented run in real time, simply by doing sections over and over till you have the best in-game time. Which sounds stupid (cause it is) but that's why LoI restricts deaths.
Dying generally does 1 of 2 things.
- purposeful death warps, which can be allowed or disallowed depending on the category. typically any% will let you use these while an any% [glitchless/warpless] category will have problems with it.
however in my limited experience, dying isnt a problem in terms of rules, but in terms of the 2nd thing it does.
- dying, most often, will lose time. thats it. maybe only a few seconds, maybe minutes, but you can have as many of them as you like. your time will typically reflect it.
another thing to keep in mind is that rules are very game specific. in some games, im sure a deathless category would make sense. however in others, it would be pointless. so if you have mpre questions/concerns on rules for a run, it is usually best to ask the specific games community if it is allowed or not. (as well as the rules are posted for every run as a clickable button)
I play a game called "Operation Neptune" where you can move faster around the map by strategically "dying" (it's a children's learning game, so you can't really die).
That said, I'm pretty sure there are some games out there that require you to die. Not in like a "Red Dead Redemption" / "Halo Reach" / "LA Noire" / "Bioshock Infinite" kind of way, but there's at least one game I know of where dying is required to access the area to upgrade your character. I don't remember the name of it though...