Deathmatch start

Deathmatch starts are positions defined on a level by the designer to designate where players start (and respawn) in a deathmatch game.

Normally, there are four to ten per level. One of them is chosen at random each time a player starts or respawns. A respawned player will telefrag any player or monster who happens to be standing on that deathmatch start.

In the WAD file, deathmatch starts are denoted as Things. However, since they have no associated sprites, they are not visible.

Multiplayer mode allows up to four players, so a level needs at least four deathmatch starts in order to be used for deathmatch games, and will shut down the game with an error message if there are less than four. MAP28: The Spirit World, for example, had only two (in version 1.666), and therefore could not be played in deathmatch mode.

The maximum number of usable deathmatch starts (in vanilla Doom) is ten. If a map contains more than ten deathmatch starts, only those with the ten lowest Thing numbers are used during play.