Coin pickup in Expert Mode

From Expert Mode upward, dropped coins are not safe where they land. When an enemy hitbox touches a stack of loose coins it takes a share, plays a distinct sound, and starts giving off a sparkle colored by the most valuable coin it now carries. That sparkle is the warning: kill it before it leaves the screen or the money leaves with it. This matters most immediately after a death, since a Classic character drops three quarters of their coins in Expert and every coin in Master.

An enemy only takes from a pile worth more than what it already holds, and only if the combined value stays under 999 platinum. The amount is the stack multiplied by a random factor between 0.50 and 0.75, rounded down, never fewer than one coin and never more than the whole pile. Low denominations fare worse: a Copper Coin stack adds up to another 0.50 to that factor and a Silver Coin stack up to 0.25, so those are frequently taken in full. Twenty five silver on the ground is untouchable to an enemy already holding thirty, while an empty handed one walks off with somewhere between twelve and all of it.

The coins do not simply vanish. If an enemy escapes with more than ten silver, the game stores its position, its remaining health percentage and the exact amount taken, then marks the spot on your minimap with a coin icon. Hovering that icon tells you how much is waiting. Come back within roughly 163 tiles horizontally and 115 vertically of the marker and the thief respawns holding the money, with its health topped back up to half if it had fallen below that. Bosses never do this, and neither do invulnerable enemies or anything the game flags as rare.

Recovery has conditions and failing them is silent. If you approach a marker at a moment when that particular enemy cannot legally exist in that spot, the save is deleted and the coins are gone permanently. That is the most common way to lose a marked pile.

• Demon Eyes and Wandering Eyes will not return in daylight unless the spot is underground or inside a Graveyard.
• Worm types refuse to respawn above the surface, which covers the Digger, the Leech, the Dune Splicer, the Bone Serpent and the Giant Worm.
• Tomb Crawlers need the Underground Desert, Reapers need an active Solar Eclipse, and Dripplers need night.
• Most walking enemies will not come back above ground during the day, and event enemies only return while their event is running.
• Wall Creepers and Black Recluses are the exception in The Constant and Zenith worlds, where they can always respawn.

Even a valid marker has a clock attached. The stored enemy is discarded after a period based on how much it took, measured in raw copper value, so a small theft is forgotten quickly while a large one waits a long time. Event thieves are the harsh case: anything belonging to the Frost Legion, the Old Ones Army, Martian Madness, a Pirate Invasion or a Goblin Army goes invalid the moment its event ends, Pumpkin and Frost Moon enemies expire at dawn, and Solar Eclipse enemies expire at dusk. If serious money walked away during an event, go and get it before the event finishes.

• Fight over ground you can walk back to. Coins lost down a shaft or into lava are worse than coins in a pocket you can chase.
• Kill the sparkling enemy on sight during invasions. One of them can consolidate several piles and then leave with all of it.
• After dying, clear the area before you start collecting. Picking coins up one stack at a time while enemies still walk through the pile is how most of it disappears.
• A Piggy Bank or Safe is the real fix. Money deposited before a risky fight cannot be stolen, dropped, or lost to a marker you never went back for.