Health Aegis

The Health Aegis is a system of "Life" for specific characters in Problem Sleuth. The Aegis is a container that holds a measurement of the character's well being. When the Aegis empties out, the character has been slain and is sent to the Afterlife to meet Death. Not all characters have a Health Aegis available to them, and operate on a different system. Characters with larger Vim tend to hold more in their Aegis, and therefore can live longer.

Problem Sleuth has a Pluck Reliquary which contains Vitality Carats. He can pick up Cured Fiend Muttons and Brutesteaks to restore the Carats which turn from blue to red as he takes damage, as a result of "Significant Carat loss".

Ace Dick has a Grit Ciborium, which holds Gumption Wafers. The wafers deplete when he takes damage from attacks, such as bullets, grenades, and the like.

Pickle Inspector has a Mettle Samovar, which contains Spark Ash. Pickle Inspector has not been in an encounter for him to lose any of the Spark Ash in the Samovar, as he was immediately toasted upon creating an explosion wiping him and the Honeybee Professor.

Fiesta Ace Dick has a Frijole Aegis, which contains some beans. He has about a million of them, and when suffering an attack as powerful as the Cinder Ablockalypse from DMK and only losing two beans, it's quite obvious that he won't perish from his Health Aegis emptying out.

Other characters that seem to operate in other ways would include Hysterical Dame, who has an unknown but extremely high Vim on account that she could carry all three weapons, the Gun, the Tommy Gun, and the Machine gun. Hysterical Dame has no known Health Aegis, and is surprisingly resilient to damage. She can be knocked out on occasion, only being able to regain consciousness in the event that Problem Sleuth takes damage, raising the meter on their Clemency Owl.