How do I detect right before the player dies?

[KorpCan (k0rp)]

Hey, I wanted to find out how I could detect right before a player dies. And yes, I’ve tried plr.CharacterRemoving but that’s not what I’m looking for because it detects right after the player respawns and not before it dies.

If you have any ideas, please let me know.

[1_Lukeskyiwalker]

Your best bet would be humanoid.Died() which is an event that triggers everytime a character dies. You cannot know before it dies, but right at the moment when it dies.

[KorpCan (k0rp)]

Thank you, this worked exactly how I wanted it to.

[StrongBigeMan9]

For most circumstances, @1_Lukeskyiwalker is correct that Humanoid.Died would probably be the best option.

However, depending on your use case, there are a bunch of different events and functions that can be used in order to create what you’re envisioning.

---

Example #1

For example, if you wanted to add custom behavior when the Character dies (to replace the default functionality of respawning after a few seconds), you could use Humanoid:SetStateEnabled() to disable the Enum.HumanoidStateType.Dead state. This would prevent the Character from dying when it reaches 0 Health.

-- (Part 1) Server Script placed into the ServerScriptService
local Players = game:GetService("Players")

Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(function(player)
	player.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(Character)
		
		local Humanoid = Character:WaitForChild("Humanoid", 5)
		if Humanoid then
			Humanoid:SetStateEnabled(Enum.HumanoidStateType.Dead, false)
		end
		
	end)
end)

-- (Part 2) LocalScript placed into the "StarterCharacterScripts" container
local Character = script.Parent
local Humanoid = Character:WaitForChild("Humanoid")

if Humanoid then
	Humanoid:SetStateEnabled(Enum.HumanoidStateType.Dead, false)
end

*I originally thought that it was only necessary to call Humanoid:SetStateEnabled() from the client-side since that’s typically all that is necessary for many of the HumanoidStateTypes, but during my testing with Humanoid:SetStateEnabled(Enum.HumanoidStateType.Dead, false) in particular, I observed the following:

• Only calling it from the client / LocalScript prevents the Character from dying when the player tries to reset their Character.

  • However, when enough damage has been applied from the server side for Humanoid.Health to reach 0, it will still cause the Character to die and respawn.

• Only calling it from the server side prevents the player’s Character from being able to naturally respawn after the RespawnTime has elapsed.

• However, when you use Humanoid:SetStateEnabled(Enum.HumanoidStateType.Dead, false) on the same Character model from both the Client and the Server side, it works as intended, keeping the Character alive even if its Humanoid reaches 0 Health.

---

Example #2

Something else that would be useful to use alongside that would be the Humanoid.HealthChanged event, which allows you to keep track of every time the Character’s Health changes.

If you turned off the Enum.HumanoidStateType.Dead state, you could use this to check when Humanoid.Health is equal to 0, and when that happens, you’d be able to run the desired code / create a custom animation or effect, etc. to replace the default sequence of the Character breaking apart and respawning after a few seconds.

local Players = game:GetService("Players")

Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(function(player)
	player.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(Character)
		
		local Humanoid = Character:WaitForChild("Humanoid", 5)
		if Humanoid then
			Humanoid:SetStateEnabled(Enum.HumanoidStateType.Dead, false)
			--[[
			For reasons explained during Example #1,
			make sure Humanoid:SetStateEnabled() is also called from
			the client / a LocalScript to ensure it works properly
			--]]
			
			Humanoid.HealthChanged:Connect(function(newHealth)
				if newHealth <= 0 then
				-- If the updated Health is 0 or lower...
				
				-- Run desired code / custom functionality
				end
			end)
			
		end
		
	end)
end)

Example #3

But even if you didn’t turn off any of the HumanoidStateTypes, the Humanoid.HealthChanged event could still be used to change something within the game when a Character’s Health is low.

So if you wanted some sort of visual effects on screen, or a debuff to be applied when the Character has less than 25 health, such as decreasing Humanoid.WalkSpeed, that would be possible. Here’s how you could achieve the latter:

-- Code for a Server Script placed in the ServerScriptService
local Players = game:GetService("Players")

Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(function(player)
	player.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(Character)
		
		local Humanoid = Character:WaitForChild("Humanoid", 5)
		if Humanoid then
			
			Humanoid.HealthChanged:Connect(function(newHealth)
				if newHealth < 10 then
				-- If the updated Health is less than 10...
					Humanoid.WalkSpeed = 5
					warn(newHealth)
					
				elseif newHealth <= 25 then
				-- If the updated Health is less than or equal to 25...
					Humanoid.WalkSpeed = 10
					warn(newHealth)
					
				elseif newHealth > 25 then
				-- If the updated Health is greater than 25...
					Humanoid.WalkSpeed = 16 -- Default walkspeed
					print(newHealth)
				end
			end)
		end
		
	end)
end)

---

Example #4

If none of the previous examples would work for your use case (or if you want to combine it with something else that can actually predict when a player’s Character is about to reach 0 Health before it happens), then the last solution I can think of at the moment would be to review the Scripts in your game that handle damage (e.g. lava bricks, swords, etc.) and to have the Script calculate what the Character’s Health would be before actually applying the damage.

If it would be 0 or lower after applying the damage, you could have the Script perform another action and / or avoid applying the damage entirely if it’s necessary for the Character to remain in-tact for the feature you’re trying to create (for example, cutscenes where the Character model would need to be present).

local Players = game:GetService("Players")

local lavaBrick = script.Parent
local damage = 10

local debounce = false

lavaBrick.Touched:Connect(function(otherPart)
	if debounce then return end
	debounce = true
	
	local model = otherPart:FindFirstAncestorOfClass("Model")
	if not model then return end
	
	local player = Players:GetPlayerFromCharacter(model)
	if not player then return end
	
	local Humanoid = model:FindFirstChildOfClass("Humanoid")
	if not Humanoid then return end
	
	local currentHealth = Humanoid.Health
	local updatedHealth = Humanoid.Health - damage

	if updatedHealth <= 0 then
		warn("The Character is about to be at 0 Health!")
		-- Run desired code here before applying damage to the Humanoid
		
		--[[ Or you could use this to avoid applying damage to the Humanoid
		(by adding an "elseif" statement here to only apply damage if the
		"updatedHealth" is greater than 0) so that you could fully rely on
		the custom functionality of your choice without making the
		player's Character automatically respawn
		--]]
	end

	Humanoid.Health -= damage
	print(updatedHealth)
	
	task.wait(0.5)
	debounce = false
end)

[KorpCan (k0rp)]

Thank you so much! This is really useful for my project I’m working on. If I could give two solutions I would.