Handling Death
The death flow begins when fatal damage is received and no defense mechanisms (such as Last Stand) are available to prevent it.
Once initiated, it triggers the Death Ability, which manages the character's final actions and cleanup.
When the Death Ability ends, the character is destroyed and the death flow is completed.
Alternatively, a Gameplay Event can be sent manually, typically from a Death Animation Notify, to finalize the flow earlier.
As a fallback, you can set a maximum duration for the death flow in the Damage Data Asset, which forces cleanup even if the animation hasn’t completed.
The Damage Manager Component exposes the following delegates:
OwnerDiedDelegate: Triggered when the character enters the death flow.OwnerFinishedDyingDelegate: Triggered when the death flow completes.
Death Ability
The Death Ability should be granted by default to all combatants.
It interrupts any active abilities and handles the final phase of death, including animations and destruction logic.
Animation Setup
You can configure the death animation to either end naturally or loop in a specific animation state.
Looping is useful for holding ragdoll poses or “collapsed” states before cleanup.
In this example:
The Animation Montage supports directional deaths, with multiple montage sections.
Each direction section transitions into a loop section when the character has stopped moving.
A Ragdoll Notify is placed at the transition point to enable full physics simulation.
A Death Notify is placed just before the loop to trigger the final death step.
Interrupting Abilities
When a death occurs, other active abilities may need to be cancelled.
To do that, configure the Cancel Abilities With Tag container in the Death Ability to include the relevant tags.