I don't wake up after being knocked out

[EZM]

I watched a Lets play for many many hours and that persons Character would wake up eventually after being knocked out.

My characters seem to just bleed out and die. I have lost two game files this way, and I have been playing on Default settings in the advanced options sections.

it there something i am missing?

PS: I understand that if a body part goes into the negatives the character is knocked out but still seems like i have been having a hard time.

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

toughness determines your ability to wake up
once you pass the level you don't get back up.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

You actually don't have a very good chance of surviving a critical wound until around 40 toughness.

If you hover over any of the attributes in the status menu (STA) you can learn enough info to suss out what's going on.

Also, if you notice little < Arrows, that means you're wounded and the condition of the body party is deteriorating. < Denotes a minor wound, which neutralizes the normal healing regen, or in very low toughness characters, can actually continue to degenerate.

<< Means a serious wound, all but the toughest characters may die from such a wound. <<!! Means an imminent life-threatening injury.

[That Guy]

Originally posted by EZM:

My characters seem to just bleed out and die. I have lost two game files this way

I have some advice, first tip would be to get your ability to run and sneak up.

Next tip, that's more helpful for the specific issue you're having, would be ready to run and do some first aid. Even if they catch up and beat you down if you have your vital areas bandaged up it can be enough to recover from being downed. If they have a weapon doing bleed damage you can still heal up enough after as long as you did enough first aid before being downed, the bleed works against the first aid so if you have enough first aid on you then you can get up before it bleeds through your first aid.

Another tip would be that having a high skill in sneaking & lockpicking makes it a lot less difficult to escape being enslaved, which opens up using the slavers for beatings in order to gain toughness exp with minimal risk.

My final tip would be that if you see something you can't fight and can't out run, don't make it angry because you can't fight or outrun it unless you have a plan like luring them to guards or the foe of your foes.

[ahueonao]

If you get your wounds tended in time, you'll survive the vast majority of beatings as long as there's nothing around that wants to eat you. If you don't get your wounds tended in time, your chances of death are pretty high, and more so if your toughness is very low.
Some ways of getting around this:
1. Change the areas you're playing in. There's a reason why most players start in the borderlands, holy nation and United Cities territories - either there's no particularly strong enemies, or there's patrols that will patch you up if they find you half-dead on the road, even if they do it so they can enslave you.
2. Don't be by yourself. Have at least one more person in your party that you can get to a safe distance, so they might rescue you and patch you up in case things go south.
3. Slavery: Good for you. Starting as a slave(s) of the Holy Nation in Rebirth is a popular start, because even if you don't cheese it in order to gain an absurd increase in stats (as you can do), you're still likely to gain a decent amount of toughness levels from the beatings you'll take before you manage to get away. That will at least make recovery from future beatings out in the open world more likely.
4. RUN AWAY. In the earliest stages of the game, you're really better off avoiding every fight. Instead, focus on building your athletics and stealth, so you can get away from most threats. Being able to run at 20+ mph should allow you to outrun a lot of foes, though there's some enemies (like beak things) who are much faster than that. In those cases, just keep an eye on the map and swerve before you get close to them.
5. Armor. This one's harder to do when you're just starting, but an extra layer of protection will save you a few precious points of cutting damage, which can be the difference between waking up from a KO or not.