The roblox humanoid died script event is one of those fundamental tools that every developer eventually runs into when they stop just messing around with parts and start building actual gameplay mechanics. If you've ever played a game where a kill feed pops up, a player drops a bag of gold upon death, or a "Game Over" screen fades in, you're seeing this specific event in action. It's the engine's way of saying, "Okay, this character's health just hit zero, now what do you want me to do about it?"
When you're first starting out with Luau—Roblox's version of Lua—it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the different events and properties. But the .Died event is pretty straightforward once you get the hang of where it sits in the hierarchy of a character. It's tied directly to the Humanoid object, which is basically the "brain" of any player or NPC. Without that Humanoid, a character is just a collection of parts; with it, they can walk, jump, and, most importantly for our purposes today, die.
Why You Should Care About the .Died Event
Let's be real: death is a huge part of most Roblox games. Even if you're making a peaceful simulator, you still need to handle what happens when a player resets their character. If you don't hook into the roblox humanoid died script event, you're leaving a lot of functionality on the table.
For instance, if you're building a Round-Based system, the game needs to know when a player is out so it can check if the round should end. If you're making a shop system, maybe you want players to lose a bit of their "Street Cred" or currency when they get taken out. Without this event, the game just resets the player to the spawn point, and you lose that crucial moment where you can trigger scripts to change the game state.
Where Does the Script Go?
This is where beginners often get tripped up. Do you put the script in the character? In the server script service? In a local script? Well, it depends on what you're trying to achieve, but there are two main ways people usually handle this.
1. The "StarterCharacterScripts" Approach
If you put a script inside the StarterCharacterScripts folder, Roblox will automatically clone that script into the player's character every single time they spawn. This is super convenient for things that are specific to that one life. You can just write a few lines of code to find the Humanoid, connect to the .Died event, and boom—it works.
2. The "ServerScriptService" Approach
If you're running a more complex game, you probably want a single script in ServerScriptService that manages all players. This is usually better for performance and organization. You'd use the PlayerAdded event, then the CharacterAdded event, and then find the Humanoid to connect the .Died event. It sounds like a lot of steps, but it keeps your project much cleaner in the long run.
A Basic Breakdown of the Code
You don't need to be a math genius to script this. Here's a quick mental image of how the code looks. You find the humanoid—let's call it myHumanoid. Then you write myHumanoid.Died:Connect(function(). Inside those parentheses, you put whatever logic you want.
It's important to remember that the roblox humanoid died script event only fires once per "life." Once the humanoid dies, that specific object is basically "done." When the player respawns, they get a brand-new Humanoid object, which is why those scripts in StarterCharacterScripts are so popular for beginners—they refresh themselves automatically.
Common Use Cases That Make Your Game Better
Creating a Kill Feed
We've all seen them—the little text boxes in the corner that say "PlayerA obliterated PlayerB." To do this, you need the .Died event. However, there's a little trick here. The event itself doesn't tell you who killed the player. It only tells you that the player is dead.
To track the killer, most developers use something called a "creator tag." This is usually an ObjectValue placed inside the victim's Humanoid by the weapon that dealt the final blow. When the .Died event fires, the script checks for that tag, sees who it points to, and then sends that info to the kill feed.
Rewarding Players with Currency
If you're making a "Slayers" type of game, you want players to get gold or XP when they defeat an enemy. You'd attach a script to your NPCs using the roblox humanoid died script event. When the NPC dies, the script checks who dealt the damage (again, using those creator tags) and adds the reward to that player's leaderstats. It's a simple loop, but it's the core of almost every progression system on the platform.
Sound Effects and Visuals
Let's be honest, the default Roblox "Oof" sound (or whatever the current replacement is) can get a bit old. Maybe you want a dramatic explosion, a "game over" tune, or a shower of confetti. You can trigger all of that right inside the .Died connection. You can even instance a new explosion object right at the position of the character's HumanoidRootPart.
Avoiding the "Double-Death" Bug
One weird thing that happens sometimes in Roblox is that an event might seem to fire more than once, or things might get messy if the character is destroyed too quickly. While the .Died event is generally pretty reliable, it's always a good habit to add a "debounce" or a check to make sure the logic only runs once.
Actually, for the .Died event, a debounce isn't usually necessary because the Humanoid's state changes to "Dead" and stays there. But, if you're doing something like "Awarding Points," you might want to double-check that you haven't already awarded points for that specific death, just in case your weapon script is a bit messy and adds multiple tags.
Server vs. Client: The Big Debate
Should you handle death on the server or the client? Always the server if it affects gameplay. If you handle a "Kill Reward" on a LocalScript, a cheater could easily trigger that event a million times and give themselves infinite money.
Use the server for: * Updating leaderboards * Changing game states (ending rounds) * Giving items or currency * Logging kills
Use the client (LocalScript) for: * Showing a "You Died" UI * Playing a sound that only the player should hear * Desaturating the screen colors for a "death" effect
By splitting the workload, you keep your game secure while making it look "juicy" and responsive for the player.
What Happens After the Event Fired?
After the roblox humanoid died script event finishes its job, Roblox's built-in systems take back over. By default, the character will hang around for a few seconds (the RespawnTime) and then disappear, and the player will reappear at a SpawnLocation.
If you want to change this—like if you want players to stay dead until a teammate revives them—you'll have to dig into Player.CharacterAutoLoads. Setting that to false gives you total control, but it also means you're responsible for manually calling Player:LoadCharacter() when you want them to come back. It's a bit more advanced, but it's how the "pro" games handle custom death mechanics.
Final Thoughts for Aspiring Scripters
Don't overthink it. The roblox humanoid died script event is just a doorway. Once you step through it, you can do anything you want. The best way to learn is to just open Baseplate, throw a script into a dummy NPC, and try to make it print "I'm gone!" in the output when you kill it.
Once you get that working, try making it change the color of a part in the workspace. Then try making it give you +1 point on a leaderboard. Before you know it, you'll have a fully functioning game loop. Scripting in Roblox is all about taking these small events and stacking them on top of each other until you have something cool. Keep experimenting, and don't let a few "Attempt to index nil" errors get you down!