Dying & Respawning
📺 What the death screen tells you
| Time dead | How long you have been lying there |
| Respawn timer | How long until you can give up and respawn |
| Medics on duty | A live count, so you know whether waiting is worth it |
| Who is responding | If a medic accepts your call, their name appears here |
| Your heart rhythm | On some themes, a live ECG trace of what your heart is actually doing |
⏱️ The respawn timer
5 minutes by default.
Once it runs out, hold E for 3 seconds to respawn.
There is no forced respawn by default. If a medic is on the way you can wait as long as you like. Server owners can set forceRespawnAfter if they want a hard limit.
💵 The respawn fee
Respawning costs $1,500 from your bank by default.
Servers can set a different fee, or none at all, per job. Out of the box, police and ambulance respawn for free.
🏥 Where you wake up
You respawn at the nearest hospital, lying in a bed, with a short recovery cinematic (12 seconds) before you can get up.
Servers can switch this to choose mode, where you pick your hospital with A and D on the death screen, nearest first. Some jobs can also be forced to always respawn at a specific place, for example police respawning at their own station.
🩹 What respawning does to your injuries
Respawning is first aid, not treatment.
Your bleeding is stopped and your blood is topped up, enough that you will not immediately collapse again. But your wounds, fractures, burns and illnesses stay exactly where they were.
So if you respawn with a broken leg, you still have a broken leg. You will still limp, you still cannot jump, and you still need a medic to splint or cast it.
Server owners can turn this off (keepInjuriesOnRespawn = false) so respawning heals everything, but the default is designed to make medics matter.
🎒 Your inventory
By default you keep everything.
If your server turns on inventory wiping, there is a keep list, usually phone, ID, licence and cash, and a safety rule: if no medic was on duty to save you, nothing is wiped. You are not punished for the department being empty.
Wipe rules can also be set per job, and separately for body bag deliveries.
🏃 Recovery
For the first 60 seconds after being revived or respawning, you cannot sprint or jump. You are meant to look like someone who just came back from the dead.
🚑 The AI medic
When no real medics are on duty, you get a second option on the death screen: press H to call an AI medic.
Here is what happens:
- After 60 seconds of being dead, the option unlocks.
- You pay a fee ($2,500 by default).
- An ambulance spawns about 120 m away on the nearest road, and drives to you with lights and siren.
- A paramedic gets out, kneels over you and treats you for 10 seconds.
- You are revived where you lie, and the ambulance drives away.
If the ambulance gets stuck in traffic, after 60 seconds it is simply placed on the road next to you so you are never softlocked.
Server owners can set it to walk in on foot instead of driving, turn the siren off, change the fee, or allow it even when a medic or two is on duty.
The AI medic hides itself if you run Envi-Medic, which takes over the role.
🎨 Death screen themes
Five built-in looks, chosen with Config.Death.screenTheme:
| Theme | |
|---|---|
modern | The default, clean, informative |
minimal | Text only, very quiet |
critical | Red, urgent, high contrast |
cinematic | Letterboxed and atmospheric |
monitor | Styled like a hospital vitals monitor |
You can also write your own as a JSON file in web/themes/ and select it with custom:<filename>. An example is included at web/themes/example.json.
See all five in the Preview.