Can you lose all progress in Icarus? Is there permadeath?

Although beautiful, Icarus is not exactly a tourist destination. The deceptively lush planet of this co-op survival game might lure you into thinking that you are safe, which can not be further from the truth.

From the very first second of the game, everything around you poses danger to your survival, from wild animals (known and unknown) to the environment, weather conditions, and most important - time.

Each mission in Icarus is time-limited, sometimes it's a few days of work, but more complicated missions will give your around three weeks of time. Failing to meet the time limits will have dire consequences not only for the mission but for your character as well.

Can you permanently die in Icarus and lose everything?

In Icarus, in terms of survival elements, there are four main things to worry about - your health, oxygen, water, and food.

Just like in real life, you will need to stay hydrated and well-fed in order to survive, and of course, you will need that precious oxygen to keep your brain working.

When it comes to water, lakes and rivers are your best friends, so a wise player would build their home near a source of fresh water (like our ancestors did), but when it comes to oxygen, you will need to look for the bluish ores called Oxite. You simply put them into your suits and they provide breathable air, and later, you will have a machine called Oxidizer, which will make this process more efficient. For food, hunt anything you are able to kill and make food out of it.

So, how can you die? You can either starve to death, be dehydrated to the point of death, deprive yourself of oxygen, or get killed by nature.

The good news is that all these deaths will not make you lose your character and everything you own because you can be revived by other players. Other players can heal your wounds caused by alien beasts, or bring you back from death in case of dehydration, starvation, or oxygen deprivation.

Still, there is one thing that will cause permadeath. If you fail to complete a mission on time and be back for dropship's return to orbit, you will be left behind to die, and that's game over for that character. All progress, tools, gear, structures, everything you've made with that character is being removed.

So there you have it, you can survive everything, but you absolutely need to complete the mission's goal before the timer runs out, or you will permanently lose that character.

• Read more: Icarus: Minimum PC system requirements, recommended

And for more guides, news, tips, and tricks, visit our dedicated Icarus page.

Featured image courtesy of RocketWerkz