Character automatically returned to nearest aetheryte after dying during hunt train

My brother-in-law (Shadow Blade) landed his mount near mudman in Il Mheg and died before he even got off his mount.

Normally, at this point, he would wait for a raise. However, he received an error message, "Returning to nearest beacon" and he was automatically teleported to a aetheryte in Il Mheg. He was still dead and that aetheryte is NOT his home point. Fort Jobb is his home point which he had NO choice but to return there as nobody is going to raise him right there.

We BOTH witnessed this so I Googled 'returning to nearest beacon' but ONLY results about people asking why the game does not have that feature came up. There is literally nothing regarding it doing it on its own

Throwing quotes around "Returning to nearest beacon" made Google say "no results for" "searching without quotes" and the same results as before

There seems to be absolutely zero information on why this is doing this.


I told him that I would ask on the forums for him


Does anybody know what the problem could have been?

He got shot down while in flight.

If they were in route to a hunt on Mudman, it is very common to get caught in one of his AOE Insta-Kill attacks before you land, assuming Mudman was already engaged.
The timing of the AOE's can also mean you are already 'dead' before the visual effect of the AOE happens.... So, even if it appears you have landed just before the AOE visual effect happens, you had already been 'killed' just before you landed.
This is why you still die after it seems you have already moved out of the way of some monster's attack marker, you had taken too long to get out of it's range or had a bit of lag.

If you are killed while you are in a spot were you can't just fall over, like when you are in flight, in a place were you can not land at all, or over a bit of terrain you can't walk/stand on (some structures are like this, you try to land or jump onto them, but are immediately 'push off' them... NOTE: Avoid getting into a spot near these, as knock-backs or such can boost you 'on one' making you start to 'bounce' and then if/when you die you get relocated), the game relocates your body to the closest 'safe spot' which would be the closest in-zone aetheryte or Sanctuary.
To add, the AOE's effect goes up very high off the ground in relation to it's ground effect area, so it is generally not possible to avoid them by being 'higher than the AOE's range'.

To help avoid this, either get to the hunt before it is engaged or approach ones, that are known to cast wide AOE insta-kills that may or may not have ground markers, unmounted or while mounted but on the ground.

I think it's actually because he died while mounted, likely as a safeguard for if you were to be hit by, say, a ranged attack while flying over a bottomless pit where there's nowhere for your body to land, or at least, that's my best guess.

yeah that's supposed to happen. just don't get KO'd in the sky very often.

if you are on a two-person mount and they cancel the flight i.e. teleport away, then the passenger will be returned to nearest crystal. it does the same if you die midflight or crash. its an error-handling method.

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