What Happens If You Die in Ready or Not?

Aside from its online mode, Ready or Not has a single-player campaign that brings you through all of the game’s available maps, but what happens when you die? Time to find out the answer.

What Happens if You Die in Ready or Not Commander Mode?

Commander Mode is the single-player experience for Ready or Not, and it has a few key differences from online mode. As a story-driven experience, various mechanics are altered to fit the plot, and you won’t respawn automatically after death. If you die in the field in Commander Mode in Ready or No, the mission will be immediately over. You’re thrown back into the station and can make all the required preparations before trying the mission again. There are no other direct penalties for you specifically, aside from having to deal with the regular Commander Mode consequences.

In this mode, you play as the leader of a five-person SWAT team sent to various locations. As you don’t have a human team alongside you, you hire regular officers to accompany you instead. They’re the most unique part of this campaign, as you have to constantly deal with their mental state (which is affected after each mission and can impact their performance). But once they die, they’re permanently gone, forcing you to hire new staff to replace them.

While your team can be permanently killed off, the same won’t happen to you in Commander Mode. You’ll be fine to return and try again until you succeed, but any lost officers will stay permanently dead, and any traits and progression they had will be lost. So just like in any other game, avoiding death as best you can is always the wisest choice. Getting used to playing carefully will be necessary if you think about tackling the even harder challenge at a later point: Ironman Mode.

What Happens if You Die in Ready or Not Ironman Mode?

Ironman Mode is an extra difficulty layer you can apply to Commander Mode in Ready or Not. Stages are the same, but there’s a key difference: if you die, your save file will be automatically deleted, and you’ll have to start all over again. Simple as that. As usual, officers dying will still be a setback for you, as all of your time, investment, and progression will pass on alongside them. But you must pay even more attention, as any more serious mistake will cost you much more than that.

Related: All Soft Objectives in Ready or Not, Listed

Ironman is intended to be a “hardcore challenge,” bringing even more realism to your campaign. Once you’re dead, you’re gone for good. But if you feel bad about just losing your crew and being the sole survivor, even though you died in Commander, this is the mode for you. However, I wouldn’t recommend trying it out before spending some good time in regular Commander first, as you’ll need to get a bit used to the progression system before having a good chance against the harsh difficulty of this mode.

Keeping tabs on each of your members’ stress levels and knowing which traits you should focus on will be crucial, as they can and will save you in a pinch more than you would’ve expected. And with higher stakes on hand, this is a great mode for replayability.

So in summary, what happens when you die in Ready or Not single-player mode depends heavily on which game mode you’re playing. In Commander Mode, death is just another hindrance from which you can safely recover after a few more hours of gameplay. Ironman will permanently wipe all of your progress instead, so thread carefully.

Ready or Not is available for PC.