That's the skinny on the Returnal reconstructor. You can find other reconstructors in other biomes, and use them as checkpoints, should you live to reach them. Once you've died and resurrected, you won't be able to charge that particular reconstruction for the rest of the cycle. It's also worth noting that reconstructors can only be used once per run. On top of that, any enemies killed between the reconstructor location and where you died will remain eliminated if you've already killed them. When you die after charging a reconstructor, you won't lose your weapons or upgrades as you normally would, letting you continue your cycle without much penalty, sans the loss of ether. You do not lose ether when you die and return to the Helios crash site. You find ether randomly in each of Returnal's biomes it appears as a purple drop in the environment, and it is often already on the ground once you enter an area. Each reconstructor 'charge' costs 6 ether. To use a Reconstructor, you'll need ether. It all depends on Returnal's RNG and how each biome is procedurally generated in a particular cycle. Some of these devices will be deep within a biome some will be relatively close to the beginning of a level. Reconstructor locations are completely random, though they're most often found behind the blue, triangular side-path doors on the map. You'll then return to the reconstructor when you die, saving some of your progress through a biome, whether that's the Overgrown Ruins or the Fractured Wastes. Once activated, you'll see a cutscene and be able to continue on your run. Walk up to them and press 'triangle' to activate them. These are large circular statues with a horned Xeno form imprinted in the middle. A reconstructor is equivalent to a checkpoint in Returnal.

Ophion returnal