Checkpoints has been marked for a cleanup.
Checkpoints is marked for a cleanup to be consistent with the wiki's quality standards.
Feel free to discuss in the comment section below.
Checkpoints are areas where a player character respawns in a level after dying. Checkpoints can be glued to surfaces, attached to vehicles, or left loose. In LittleBigPlanet Karting, regular checkpoints are not placable, rather they are used as decoration when a player respawns and on the scoreboard, while Spawn Points are as the equivalent of entrances.
Checkpoints can be activated in all games except LittleBigPlanet PSP using logic wires. This was first introduced in an update to LittleBigPlanet, and was used in that game by players to facilitate teleportation by destroying all players using Horrible Gas, but came at the cost of preventing players from acing the level.
Starting in LittleBigPlanet 2, checkpoints can be changed to one of four types of materials, plastic (the new default), chrome, cardboard, and wood (the only available material in the original game), this is only a cosmetic difference.
In LittleBigPlanet 3 on PlayStation 4, checkpoints are significantly rounder than in the PlayStation 3 games, being rendered using a greater amount of polygons.
LittleBigPlanet PSP has a noticeably different appearance and texture for the checkpoints and entrances, with the front side of both being smaller than the rear side, resulting in a "ramp" that can be seen on the round edge.
Checkpoint Lives[]
There are three main types of checkpoint, which give different amounts of lives. The number of remaining lives are indicated by a glowing white ring around the edge, and except on infinite-life checkpoints (marked with an infinity symbol on it except on entrances), when a checkpoint is used to respawn, part of the ring will dim. Lives are shared among all players, and the amount each checkpoint has increases depending on the amount of players in the game currently.
When all lives are exhausted on the active checkpoint, the ring will glow red and an annoying warning buzz will sound until another checkpoint is activated, or all players are killed. If the latter occurs, the level must be restarted from the beginning, with an error message appearing asking the player to restart or quit the level in LittleBigPlanet, or showing a modal pause menu screen with the resume option removed in other games. It is possible to backtrack to a prior checkpoint if the active checkpoint runs out of lives to activate it, though this does not recover lost lives, and checkpoints that ran out of lives can't be reactivated.
In multi-player games, players will only respawn if the last activated checkpoint is on the screen. Sometimes it is easier to have one player pass an obstacle and activate the next checkpoint so that other players can die and respawn without having to complete the obstacle themselves.
The number of lives a standard checkpoint has when passed is decided by the equation (p + 2) - d = l, where p is the total number of players, d is the number of players that are dead when the checkpoint is passed (respawning dead players from a checkpoint when it is passed costs its lives), and l is the number of lives. Except in entrances, joining players contribute to d. In a double-life checkpoint, the number of lives is 2(p + 2) - d = l.
When a checkpoint is inactive, it is "unlocked" and will change its life count based on the total number of players. When it is active or has been passed in its lifetime, however, it gets "locked" and will not change the life count if players join or leave (though joining players do count as dead for a checkpoint). This can be exploited by players by logging in a guest profile (or more) to "hold" a checkpoint up so it has more lives. This means that with 3 extra controllers for guest accounts, a single checkpoint can hold up to 6 lives, and double-life checkpoints can hold 12.
In LittleBigPlanet PSP, all checkpoints and entrances have unlimited lives, and are not marked with an infinity sign.
Types of Checkpoints[]
There are four types of checkpoints for a level. They all can be found in the Tools Bag in Create Mode.
- Entrance - A special checkpoint; this is generally where players start out in a level. Other than that, it works just like an ordinary checkpoint.
- Checkpoints - This is the standard checkpoint. It provides three extra lives when playing alone, and pulses red when there is no extra lives.
- Double Life Checkpoints - This checkpoint has two rings which provide a total of six extra lives when playing alone, or twice the normal amount for multiple players. Useful for tricky challenges and before Boss Fights.
- Infinite Lives Checkpoint - The white activation ring never depletes. It was originally released in the downloadable Creator Pack 1, and comes automatically with games starting with LittleBigPlanet PSP.
- Scoreboard - The Scoreboard is a different type of checkpoint, which also acts as the ending point of a level. Like other checkpoints, if there are no checkpoints in a level, and there is only one scoreboard, the scoreboard acts like the only checkpoint in the level and cannot be deleted normally.
In Create Mode, you can add any of the four types of checkpoints, although only the first Entrance (or if no Entrances exist then the first other checkpoint) will be used per level.
Type | Description | m = | Individual Respawns*
|
Full Party Respawns**
| |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
Entrance | The start point of the level. Has a Sackboy emblem on the doors. | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 1 r 2*** | 1 r 2*** | |
Checkpoint | A basic checkpoint. | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 1 r 2*** | 1 r 2*** |
Double-Life Checkpoint | Contains twice as many respawns as a standard checkpoint. Often used before harder segments or boss fights, and used for every limited checkpoint in main story levels of LBP2 and LBP3. Has two narrow rings as opposed to one thick ring, as well as a unique activation jingle. | 2 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 4 | 3 r 1*** | 3 |
Infinite-Life Checkpoint | Contains an unlimited number of respawns for players to use. Has an infinity symbol (∞) on the doors. | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ |
Scoreboard | An in-built checkpoint respawns players who are dead or happen to die. | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ | ∞ |
Level Link | Acts as last activated checkpoint after using. |
* Where m is dependent on the checkpoint type, p is the number of players playing when the checkpoint was passed, and l is the total number of lives provided.
** Where l is the number of lives and p is the number of players playing when the checkpoint was passed.
*** Only this many players may respawn at the last release.
Trivia[]
- It is possible to shrink/enlarge a Checkpoint in the original LittleBigPlanet. If you capture a Checkpoint as an object and emit it at a larger/smaller size, you can then capture the emitted, larger/smaller checkpoint and use it in your level.
- If you were to destroy the only entrance in the game and change to play mode, the game will inform you that you have lost all your lives, and you are given an option to return to your pod or replay the level. If you choose to replay the level, you will return to find the same banner. Similarly, if the currently activated checkpoint gets destroyed, the game will act as if the active checkpoint has no lives. This technique was used in the LittleBigPlanet 2 level Fowl Play, in which its entrance gets destroyed by Copernicus, Clive Handforth's guard turkey.
- The original entrance is unable to be deleted before another checkpoint is placed, but having more than one checkpoint allows you to delete all but one, which can be destroyed manually using a heavy object.
- In LittleBigPlanet Karting, all of the Spawn Points (especially the Arena & Cinematic ones) have a similar style to the Entrance.