Post
Dying on purpose because respawning at a checkpoint is faster than walking back the way you came.
Death warps exploit the fact that many games respawn you at a checkpoint or predetermined location when you die. If that respawn point is closer to your next objective than your current position, dying is literally the fastest route. Runners intentionally seek out deadly hazards (pits, lava, enemies) to kill themselves at precise moments. Some games checkpoint aggressively, making death warps a core routing strategy rather than a last resort. The technique requires careful health management: you need to be alive enough to reach the death trigger but dead enough to actually die when you get there.
Example
In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, death warps save significant time by resetting the player to the last save room instead of backtracking through completed areas. Runners plan their save points around where they intend to die later, creating a morbid save-then-suicide routing strategy.
Why it matters
Death warps exemplify the speedrunner mindset of treating every game system as a tool, even the failure state. They also highlight how checkpoint placement, something designers usually think about for player comfort, has massive routing implications.
Related concepts