Partner revival ties two boss bodies to one completion rule. A defeat leaves a readable downed state, the survivor spends a visible action to restore the partner, and the player has a finite response. The encounter ends only after its explicit pair condition is met.

Open boss builder
Show the downed body and first revivalTavi drops the echo at 0.55 seconds. Its body and health remain visible while Kern channels from 0.90 to 1.55; the echo returns with 40% health. This first completed cast teaches the relationship.
Read and interrupt Kern's partner revival covenant Two stone bosses share a tether. The left body falls, the right one completes a visible revival, then the left falls again. Tavi interrupts the second channel, defeats the survivor during the lock, and one completion seal appears only when both are down. Boss Boss Player

Tavi drops the echo at 0.55 seconds. Its body and health remain visible while Kern channels from 0.90 to 1.55; the echo returns with 40% health. This first completed cast teaches the relationship.

Implementation checklist

Define both identities, downed and final states, who may revive whom, cast cue and duration, interruption requirements, restored health, revive cap, simultaneous death handling, completion authority, retry reset, accessibility, and telemetry.

Core checks

Three questions for the mechanic

  • What persists when the first body falls?

    Keep the downed identity, location, remaining revive allowance, and survivor health visible. Distinguish downed, revivable, and final states; decide whether damage can still reach a downed body and whether the survivor's action queue changes immediately.

  • How can the player read and contest the revival?

    Give the survivor a distinct pose, tether, progress cue, and committed cast duration. Specify whether a stagger, qualified hit, interaction, line-of-sight break, or finishing blow stops it. Budget travel and attack recovery so the response is possible from a normal position.

  • When does the encounter actually end?

    Resolve simultaneous defeats and an interrupt on the last cast deterministically. Grant completion once only when the authored pair condition is true, cancel pending revival events, persist a bounded revive count, and restore the starting pair on retry.

Design mistakes

  • Revival happens off screen without a promise

    The player sees one boss die and then inexplicably return. Preserve the fallen body, connect it to the caster, expose a countdown, and show the health fraction that will be restored.

  • The cast and completion rules disagree

    A delayed callback can restore a boss after victory or pay the encounter twice. Resolve events by stable pair and attempt IDs, cancel pending casts on final defeat, cap grants, and make completion idempotent.

Tuning

Tune the attack

  • Budget the loop in attempts, not frustration

    Choose a finite revive allowance or a clear alternate finish rule. Set restored health, channel length, lock duration, and travel distance together; test low-damage and high-damage builds without forcing an exact damage threshold.

  • Keep two bodies readable

    Separate silhouettes and positions, show who is down and who is channeling, and prevent overlapping attacks from hiding the cast. Give the interrupt cue shape, light, text, and sound equivalents.

  • Test race conditions explicitly

    Simulate both bosses dying in one frame, interrupt and cast completion on the same frame, reconnect during a channel, a revive cap, a phase handoff, and retry. Record attempt IDs, outcomes, grants, and completion count.

Arena

  • Kern lends his echo one more heartbeat

    The echo collapses on the left seal. Kern plants his hands and the tether glows until the echo stands again. When it falls a second time, Tavi cuts the channel and the covenant holds both stones still long enough for one final strike.

Player upgrades

  • Keep the response available across abilities

    Allow more than one qualified interrupt or a synchronized finish; give enough time to cross the arena at ordinary speed; avoid requiring one build's stagger value; make the downed and casting states legible without color or sound alone.

Do not confuse this with

  • A relationship between bosses, not ordinary self healing

    Self healing restores the caster's own health. Partner revival changes a second entity from downed to active and therefore needs pair identity, cast ownership, completion authority, and simultaneous-death rules.

Bosses that use this mechanic

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