Ori's Death Counter
| “ | '"Though they are gone from our forest, there is no time to grieve... Remember those who have passed and they will forever live on."' | „ |
| —Sein to Ori in Lost Grove |
Death, as most games usually include in their set of states, is a circumstance wherein Ori becomes inanimate (or "Dies"), due to a game object killing them through some course of action. In Ori and the Blind Forest, if Ori somehow comes in contact with a harmful object during gameplay, and they are on their final Life Cell, they will burst in a flash of light and immediately reappear at their last checkpoint or Soul Link. This will also increase Ori's "Death Counter" (located in the Pause Menu under "Statistics") by 1.
Instant Death[]
Ori will experience Instant Death when they interact with certain game objects, and instead of merely taking away a single Life Cell, those game objects will kill Ori unconditionally. The number of Life Cells Ori may have at any given time does not affect the outcome. For example, if Ori falls into the lava at Mount Horu, they will die instantly, even at full health.
Possible Deaths[]
| Death Type | Death Cause |
|---|---|
| Harm | Continuous Injury inflicted by one or more Enemies. |
| Harm | Repeated contact with Thorns. |
| Harm | Hit by Moving Clubs. |
| Harm | Poisoned by Unclean Water. |
| Harm | Drowning. |
| Harm | Shot with Enemy Projectiles. |
| Harm | Shot with Natural Projectiles. |
| Harm | Struck by Falling Rocks in Gumo's Hideout. |
| Harm | Burned by Hot Ground inside Mount Horu. |
| Harm | Landing on the spiky parts of Moving Platforms in the Misty Woods. |
| Harm | Landing on Fire during the escape from Mount Horu. |
| Instant | Crushed by Moving Rocks in Gumo's Hideout. |
| Instant | Crushed by Falling Rocks during the Forlorn Ruins escape. |
| Instant | Crushed by the Rolling Boulder in Black Root Burrows. |
| Instant | Falling into Hot Lava at Mount Horu. |
| Instant | Falling into Spikes. |
| Instant | Kuro's Lightning-Fast Strikes. |
| Instant | Drowning in Rising Water at the Ginso Tree. |
| Instant | Hit by Lasers. |
| Instant | Hit by Fire Beams. |
| Instant | Scalded by Hot Ground in Hollow Grove. |
| Instant | Scalded by Boiling Water in Hollow Grove. |
| Instant | Struck by Lightning in Sorrow Pass. |
One-Life Mode[]
One-Life Mode is a special game mode in Ori and the Blind Forest. It completely changes how death operates, because should Ori die while this mode is active, they must start over from the very beginning. Soul Link respawn is deactivated. (Basically, Ori is given one "chance" to save Nibel, so they can only die once before the game restarts.)
Lore[]
Death in lore varies greatly from the game mechanic. Characters who have actually died in Nibel include: Naru, Ori, the Gumon, Kuro, Naru's Father, and the Owlets. The Spirit Guardians present at the Light Ceremony when Kuro attacked were also killed or wounded.
In some special cases, death can be reversed with the power of the Spirit Tree's light. When Ori became too weak to survive after Naru's death, the Spirit Tree used the last of his power to save them. Naru's death was also reversed later, when Gumo used the Light Vessel to revive her.
While light in some cases prevents and reverses death, it can also cause it (as seen in the case of the Owlets and Kuro, who both perished in the full power of the Spirit Tree's light).
Trivia[]
- When Ori and the Blind Forest was first released, there were several reports of infinite death loops. This was because of players saving in bad locations, such as right in front of a laser or directly above spikes. This error has been corrected in a recent patch, creating "Unsafe Zones" where players cannot create Soul Links.
- The Immortal Steam achievement, where the player must play through the game with no deaths whatsoever, is one of the hardest ones to win, especially in such a dangerous environment that Nibel proves to be. Though it may be considered cheating, there are other means of how the player can eventually receive the achievement; if and when you do accidently slip up, you can quickly pause the game and exit out before the Death Counter registers, and returning will still leave you with zero deaths.
- Even if you don't leave the game quickly enough to prevent adding the death to the counter, you can return to an earlier Soul Link in the Slot Backup System, before the death took effect. This will return the counter to its original state of zero.