Items Kept on Death

When players die an unsafe death, some or all of their items will become lost or broken. The page lists the various rules that determine what happens to each item. Players should frequently familiarise themselves with what items they are risking by navigating to the Worn Equipment interface tab and clicking View items kept on death. This interface has more comprehensive coverage of the rules listed below.

Important note: Ultimate Ironmen follow different item-loss rules to standard Ironmen and will drop all tradeable and untradeable items on the ground upon unsafe death. They are also unable to benefit from Protect Item despite being able to activate it. They have 60 minutes in game time to reclaim the items either on the tile they died on, or if that was in an instance, the tile other players would find their gravestone.

Below are a few loose rules of what happens to items upon an unsafe death. Players should be aware that many exceptions to these rules exist.

When players die an unsafe death:

1. Items kept on death are calculated. This is usually between 0 to 4 items depending on circumstance.
   • If a player is not skulled , they keep the three most valuable items they are carrying, this is based upon the highest effective Grand Exchange or alchemy value in gold.
   • If a player has the Protect Item prayer active at the time of death, they keep one additional item, even if they are skulled.
2. Other items depend on the location of death. When dying...
   • In most PvM
     • Potions and food are dropped on the ground as a Supply pile for other players. This behaviour can be disabled in the "Gameplay" section of the settings interface with the "Food/Potions can form supply piles on death" checkbox.
       • All other items are placed in a Grave at the death location. These items can be reclaimed for a fee by running back to this location within 15 minutes.
         • After 15 minutes, these items are stored indefinitely in Death's Office and are typically more expensive to recover. Players may also pay this recovery fee to have death retrieve the items immediately without waiting.
         • Enabling the "Gameplay" setting "Auto-equip worn items from gravestone" can make recovering gravestones in frustrating locations much simpler.
         • If a grave already exists, these items will be placed in the preexisting grave, and its 15-minute timer will be refreshed.
   • In a PvM instance with an Item Retrieval Service
     • All non-protected items are stored in that associated interface, usually retrieved by paying a fee to a specific NPC or Chest nearby the entrance.
     • Warning: Items already in any Item Retrieval Service anywhere in Gielinor are deleted upon any unsafe death. Always recover these items before entering dangerous locations!
   • In PvP below 20 Wilderness
     • Most untradeable items go to a player's Grave at the death location.
     • Warning: All other non-protected items are lost to the player that killed you. Untradeable equipment may be converted to coins or tradeable components and dropped for the killer.
   • In PvP above 20 Wilderness
     • Warning: All non-protected items are lost to the player that killed you. Any untradeable item without any combat use is kept on death. Untradeable items that have use in combat may become broken or mangled requiring coins to repair, and some may be converted into the item's tradeable components and dropped for the killer.

Whenever an item is not in the limited amount of protected items (four without skull and with protect item, three without either skull or prayer, one with both skull and protect item, zero with skull and without prayer), it will be subject to varying rules, depending on what type of item it is. In this table, an overview of different item types is given and their behaviour when not protected on death. The first entry in this table an item qualifies for will be the behaviour that item follows. For example, an undamaged Barrows item will be subject to the Degradeable items rule, not the Tradeable items, because only topmost rule these items qualify for applies.

Example item		Item type	PvM death	PvP death
	Burnt meat	Tradeable items (even those not available on the GE)	Goes to the gravestone.	Dropped to the PKer.
	Weird gloop	Untradeable items	Goes to the gravestone.
	Old school bond	Items always kept on death	Automatically protected (does not count towards the limited amount of kept items).
	Looting bag	Items always lost on death	Disappears completely
	Dharok's greataxe	Degradeable items	Goes to the gravestone without breaking.	Dropped to the PKer as the item's broken version.
	Dharok's greataxe 50	Degraded items
	Infernal cape (l)	Locked items above 20 Wilderness	Automatically protected because it has had a trouver parchment used on it. Keeps its (l) status.	The victim keeps it in their inventory in mangled form and keeps its (l) status. The PKer receives (500,000).
		Locked items		The victim keeps it in their inventory in broken form and keeps its (l) status. The PKer receives the item's repair cost.
	Infernal cape	non-Locked items above 20 Wilderness	Goes to the gravestone without breaking.	Turns into a tiny pile of coins that is dropped to the PKer.
		non-Locked items		The victim keeps it in their inventory in broken form. The PKer receives the item's repair cost.
	Fire cape	PVP-Breakable items that cannot be locked	Goes to the gravestone without breaking.	Kept by the victim in their inventory as its broken version, and the PKer receives the item's repair cost.
	Barrelchest anchor	Purchasable quest reward items with notable combat stats	Goes to the gravestone.	Dropped to the PKer as coins.
	Green slayer helmet (i)	Slayer helmets (imbued or non-imbued, recoloured or not)	Goes to the gravestone.	Dropped to the PKer as a black mask. The imbue cost is refunded to the victim. The other parts are lost.
	Magma helm	Tradeable items with untradeable modifications	Goes to the gravestone, still as the modified version with its untradeable modification (e.g. magma mutagen or twisted ancestral colour kit) still attached. As a charged item, it uncharges itself, but the scales go to the gravestone too.	Dropped to the PKer as the tradeable uncharged unmodified version. The PKer gets the charges stored in the helm as well. The untradeable modification goes to the victim's gravestone.
	Serpentine helm	Chargable items	Goes to the gravestone as an uncharged version, and drops the items that would result from uncharging the item to the gravestone too.	Dropped to the PKer as the tradeable uncharged item, and drops the items that would result from uncharging the item to the PKer too.
	Armadyl godsword (or)	Tradeable items with tradeable ornament kit	Automatically protected (counts towards the limited amount of kept items only if of sufficient value[M 1]) because it has a tradeable ornament kit attached to it.	Dropped to the PKer as the tradeable, non-ornamented item. Also drops the tradeable ornament kit to the PKer.
	Graceful hood (Trailblazer)	Untradeable items with tradeable ornament kit	Automatically protected (counts towards the limited amount of kept items if of sufficient value[M 1]) because it has a tradeable ornament kit attached to it.	Drops the tradeable ornament kit to the PKer. The untradeable item goes to the gravestone.
	Elite void top (l)(or)	Locked items with tradeable ornament kit above 20 Wilderness	Automatically protected because it has had a trouver parchment used on it. Keeps its (l) status.	The victim keeps it in their inventory in mangled form and keeps its (l) status. The PKer receives the tradeable ornament kit and Trouver cost (500,000).
		Locked items with tradeable ornament kit		The victim keeps it in their inventory in broken form and keeps its (l) status. The PKer receives the tradeable ornament kit and item's repair cost.
	Rune defender (t)	PVP-Breakable items with tradeable ornament kit that cannot be locked	Automatically protected (counts towards the limited amount of kept items if of sufficient value[M 1]) because it has a tradeable ornament kit attached to it.	Drops the tradeable ornament kit to the PKer. The untradeable item is kept by the victim in their inventory as its broken version, and the PKer receives the item's repair cost.
	Volcanic abyssal whip	Tradeable items with tradeable recolour	Automatically protected (counts towards the limited amount of kept items only if of sufficient value)	Dropped to the PKer as base item, recolour is destroyed.
	Imbued zamorak cape (deadman)	Items recoloured via NPC interaction	Goes to the gravestone.	Dropped to the Pker as the base item or Pker receives the repair cost of item, recolour is removed.

Certain items cannot be kept upon an unsafe death. This is regardless of whether the item is the most valuable item, or if Protect Item prayer is used. When the player dies, the item is lost forever and will not appear to other players. Some of these items include:

• Clue box, even if its effect would be useless or redundant, such as outside the Wilderness.
• Chronicle (teleportation charges are kept whenever the chronicle is re-bought though)
• Looting bag, and its contents are treated as unprotected items.
• Rune pouch (if death is a PvP death)
• Bolt pouch (if death is a PvP death)
• Any League trophies
• Items with no ground state (i.e. cannot be dropped), including Flamtaer bag, lunar equipment, ring of charos, chronicle, steel gauntlets and its enchanted forms, the magic butterfly net and jar generator, and the degraded version of the amulet of the damned.
• Most untradeable event rewards
• Living creatures such as Salamanders run away and will not be left in gravestones
• Ancient artefacts

The untradeable items in the following list are kept on death in the inventory on PvM and PvP death, regardless of if they were one of your 3 most valuable items.

Item
	Amulet of the eye
	Butler's uniform (top)
	Butler's uniform (bottom)
	Crystal chime
	Dark squall hood
	Dark squall robe top
	Dark squall robe bottom
	Door key (Witch's House)
	Emissary hood
	Emissary robe top
	Emissary robe bottom
	Emissary sandals
	Giantsoul amulet
	Old school bond
	Sapphire lantern
	Skavid map
	Steel key ring
	Strange old lockpick
	Captain's log
	Spyglass
	Crowbar
	Current duck
	Boat bottle (full)
	Jeweller's chisel

There are several items to which the above rules do not neatly apply.

• The magic shortbow (i) only loses its imbued status from PvP deaths.
• The ring of wealth (i) will always lose its imbued status on death even when it is protected, and 50,000 coins will be dropped to the killer if it is a PvP death.
• The dragonfire shield, dragonfire ward and ancient wyvern shield will lose their charges if not protected.
• The herb sack and gem bag will always empty their contents on death.
• Stacks of amulet of glory (6) worth over 100,000 will have a 10% fee to reclaim from death's office.
• The Ash sanctifier and Bonecrusher are always kept in inventory in PvM death. They are still sent to the gravestone on unprotected PvP death, with charges intact.
• The Max cape and cosmetic versions with no (broken) state (i.e. Ardougne max cape) are always kept in inventory in PvP death. They are still sent to the gravestone on unprotected PvM death.
• Items attached with Bounty Hunter ornament kits are automatically protected in PvM deaths, following the same rule as items attached with tradeable ornament kits in PvM deaths.

Upon death to another player within the Wilderness or outside a safe zone on a PvP world, all non-protected items will drop for the killer, and can be looted by them.

In addition, certain untradeable items will break if not protected, and are still kept on death this way. These items can be repaired by using them on Perdu, Chris, or an armour stand at a respawn point on PvP worlds. A repair fee must be paid in order for the items to be usable again.

However, for some of these breakable items that have high combat bonuses, if a player dies past level 20 Wilderness, they are lost completely. However, this can be avoided by bringing the item and a trouver parchment to Perdu, who will lock the item to the player. He will charge an additional 500,000 coins to do so. Once an item is locked, it will have an (l) suffix added to its name. Upon dying a PvP death, unprotected locked items will still become broken up to level 20 Wilderness, but will now become mangled above level 20 Wilderness instead of being lost completely. The repair fee of a mangled item is 500,000 coins. In all PvP death scenarios, the locked items keep their locked status.

Upon death outside of the Wilderness in PvM encounters (including instances), any locked items will stay in the player's inventory. If any of those locked items are equipped, they will stay equipped after respawning; meaning the player will not have to re-equip them. As well, the item(s) will not lose its locked status. This is very useful in certain PvM situations. For example, if one died while equipped with a full set of locked elite void, the player would respawn with the full set already equipped and the items would keep their locked status.

Players who kill another player with unprotected breakable items will receive coins equivalent to the repair cost for their broken items, or 500,000 coins each for mangled items.

Players who die in PvP with unprotected breakable items that have a tradeable ornament kit attached to them will lose the tradeable ornament kit to the killer. The same mechanics apply to the breakable items as outlined above.

Using a single item (usually weapon) to minimise risk when player-killing is called 1-iteming. As long as a skulled player has Protect Item and doesn't get Smited, an item will be protected.

3-iteming refers to a player limiting themself to only three items when going out into the Wilderness. In order for this to work, said player must remain unskulled, which means they cannot be the aggressor in combat towards another player, nor enter the Abyss without wearing an abyssal bracelet. Since Items Kept on Death allows the three most valuable items to be kept upon death based on their Grand Exchange values, players can effectively 3-item (or 4-item with Protect Item activated, where the 4th item is colloquially referred to by players as a "+1") and retain their items as long as they are not skulled.

Warning: When players are 3-iteming, they should also keep their ammo and any stackable items down to a minimum. It is highly recommended that players using this strategy should toggle on the PK Skull Prevention setting in order to avoid accidentally clicking on players. Additionally, such players should not use any multi-hitting weapons, spells, or ammunition (e.g. burst/barrage spells, chinchompas, etc.) inside the Wilderness. Players using a spell that cannot be autocast, such as the god spells using their respective god staves, should take extra care to not cast these spells on players, even those dressed similarly to the NPCs in the arena. Abiding by these suggestions virtually eliminates the risk of falling victim to various skull tricking strategies.

Most items worth less than 100,000 can be reclaimed for free, but items worth more have a fee depending on the item's value:

• No fee for items worth less than 100k
• 1,000 for each reclaimed item between 100k and 1m
• 10,000 for each reclaimed item between 1m and 10m
• 100,000 for each reclaimed item equal to or above 10m
• The total combined fees are capped at 500,000
• Ironmen get a 50% discount when reclaiming items from their grave.

Players have 15 minutes after respawning to return to their grave and collect any items inside. The 15-minute timer does not count down when a player is logged out, idle for more than 10 seconds, or has the grave interface open.

After 15 minutes have passed, items are sent to Death's Office where the reclamation fee is 5% for items worth 100,000 or more. These items will be stored indefinitely. Ironmen get a 50% discount when reclaiming items either from their grave or Death's Office; putting the reclamation fee at 2.5%. This stacks with other discounts. Players can opt to have death collect these items immediately without waiting.

Varies widely, see the Item Retrieval Service page.

Some content has a discount that reduces death fees (usually by 75%), which is lifted once the player has reached a certain success threshold:

• Desert Treasure II bosses: 75% until 5 successful kills, then standard fee applies
• Doom of Mokhaiotl - 75% until 20 total attempts across all floors, then standard fee applies
• Fortis Colosseum - 75% until 100 waves are successfully cleared, then standard fee applies
• Maggot King - 75% until 5 successful kills, then standard fee applies
• Yama - 75% until 10 successful kills, then standard fee applies
• Zulrah - Free until 50 successful kills, then 100,000 fee

• Theatre of Blood - Unlimited deaths in Entry Mode, otherwise 100,000 fee
• Tombs of Amascut - Unlimited deaths with no death invocations on, otherwise standard fee applies

When players die an unsafe death, they will lose everything except for designated Items Kept on Death. These items are decided selected in order of value, with the highest value determined first by effective Grand Exchange value, and then by alchemy value if the item lacks an effective Grand Exchange value.

By default, the number of protected items is three. If a player is skulled the number of protected items is zero. The Protect Item prayer always protects an additional item, no matter the skull status of a player. Players may modify certain untradeable items with a Trouver parchment to automatically protect them on death both inside and outside the wilderness. Additionally some Ornamented items automatically count as protected when outside the wilderness.

Some untradeable items such as the Giantsoul amulet or Bonecrusher will also always be kept in a non-PvP death. If an item is both one of the three highest valued and an untradeable item, it will still take up one of the three slots for tradeable items.

Should a player die outside the Wilderness in the shared overworld to a monster, and the player has not suffered any player-versus-player damage recently, they will keep their three most valuable items. All the remaining items will be stored in a grave where they died. Food and potions may instead appear as a supply pile underneath the grave, if the option is enabled in the "Gameplay" section of the settings.

The grave will be visible for 15 minutes of the player being logged in, during which time players can reclaim the items from it for a fee. After 15 minutes lapse, the grave will despawn and any items left in it will be sent to Death's Office. Items worth less than 100,000 are free to reclaim, but items worth more come with a 5% reclamation fee. Ironman accounts get a 50% discount when reclaiming items from both graves and Death's Office. Players can also pay the item retrieval fee using any items they don't wish to keep.

Should a player die a second time with an active grave, all items dropped on the second death will be added to the current grave.

Should a player die in an instance with an Item Retrieval Service available, the player will keep their three most valuable items (out of both tradeable and untradeable items) and all the other items will be stored with the object or NPC that hosts the retrieval service. If the player dies while any of their items are in an item reclaimer, those items will be permanently lost. If the player dies in an instance without an item reclaimer (e.g. Skotizo, Kraken, Corporeal Beast and many quest bosses), they will keep their three most valuable items and untradeable items equipped or in their inventory, and all other items will be in a gravestone outside the instance.

If the player dies in the Wilderness without receiving any damage from other players recently, they will experience a normal PvM death as outside instances.

If the player dies anywhere within the Revenant Caves without receiving any damage from other players, their death will be treated as a player-versus-player death (see below), and they will keep only their three most valuable items. The rest of the items will be converted into their tradeable form or converted into a fraction of their value in coins if they have no tradeable form and will be visible to all players immediately. These items will sit for 60 minutes up for grabs by all players, after which point they will despawn permanently.

If the player dies after having taken damage from another player inside the Wilderness, they will undergo a death different from normal deaths listed above, with overall losses being much greater. If the player dies after taking any player damage below 20 Wilderness, the player will only keep their three most valuable protected items. Any untradeable items will either be converted into their tradeable form and be offered to the killer, or break, and the repair cost will be offered to the killer in coins and the broken item will remain in the victim's inventory. Some untradeable quest reward items with notable combat stats that are purchasable from an NPC or shop, such as the barrelchest anchor or barrows gloves, will also turn into coins for the killer. All other untradeable items that do not fit these special categories will be stored in a grave where the victim died. The rest of the tradeable items will only appear to the killer for one minute. After that period, they will become visible to all players for four minutes. After four minutes the items will disappear to everyone, and any remaining items will be removed from the game.

If the player dies after taking player damage above 20 Wilderness, almost the same type of death as above occurs. However, some high tier broken items will be permanently lost, while the repair cost will be dropped for the killer. If these specific items have been locked via trouver parchment, they will instead be kept upon death still locked but in mangled form, and the killer obtains the repair cost of 500,000 coins per mangled item. As is with under 20 Wilderness, low tier breakable items (which cannot be locked) will be kept in broken form, and other untradeable items will be stored in a grave where the victim died.

If a player receives damage from another player, but then exits the Wilderness and dies within 30 seconds after without banking, healing, or logging out either to a monster or poison, they will undergo a death that is considered a PvP death under 20 Wilderness. The dropped items will be visible to the killer for one minute, and then visible to all players for 60 minutes after.

If more than 30 seconds have passed since you were last attacked by another player and you are outside the Wilderness, then the death will be treated as a normal PvM death.

Dying to another player in a PvP world outside of the Wilderness has the same consequences as a PvP death, depending if they died above or below level 20 Wilderness, including out of the Wilderness.

On release of Old School RuneScape, players always kept only their three most valuable items, regardless of whether they are untradeable. Items that were dropped on the ground remained visible exclusively for the player for only one minute, and one additional minute for everyone before disappearing. Due to network issues with the game servers, at least partially caused by DDoS attacks, the time for the items to appear for others and despawn was incrementally increased to 60 minutes, and untradeable items were made always protected.^[1][2][3] As these changes were meant as a temporary relief, Jagex has since considered new ways to re-implement more punishing death mechanics.^[4][5] and eventually settled on the current paid gravestone system^[6], similar to the one used in RuneScape. This system makes deaths more punishing while largely ensuring players do not lose their items to disconnection issues.^[7]

• Metal gloves bought from the Culinaromancer's Chest were once always lost on death. Currently, they are added to the gravestone when lost in a PvM death and are turned into a cash drop when lost in a PvP death.
• When dying with two or more objects of the same value, the item kept on death is determined based on several aspects, among which is the location in the player's inventory.

• Worn Equipment
• Equipment bonuses
• Protect Item
• Wilderness
• Skull (status)
• Spawning
• Death

This article or section is incomplete and could do with improvement. Reason: See references list for some developers' blogs that reference changes that are not documented here You can give feedback, discuss this issue on the talk page, or edit this article to improve it.