Hello, I was in the aforementioned run and would just like to comment that I don't believe deaths are a bad thing, in a sense, unless the whole party wipes.

Yeah, there is an extreme where it becomes detrimental but come on. The only loss from dying is heat and hey, I was maxed out during this run. So why not play a little faster, a little less cautious, maybe die a bit more? Imagine if you were in a war and you could just up to your dead buddy, crouch down, and give him half your health. I'd be a lot more apt to turn that corner shooting instead of peaking around. There is no reason to be needlessly cautious when dying doesn't really matter.

The key is not to realize when you are alone. If everyone else is dead, stop fighting. Stop trying to attack the enemies and go find your allies. Because if you mess up now, it WILL cost you. But 4 players running around the arena are a lot less likely to get party wiped. What I dislike most in parties is seeing the last remaining party member try and rambo the enemies, eventually get surrounded, and die.

As such I believe that the 'smoothness' of a run is dictated by the time taken to complete the run along with the number of party wipes, because these are the things that actually cause profit margins to drop.