History Main / ChunkySalsaRule

* Many {{platform|Game}}ers with a hitpoint system (or a powerup system where you lose a powerup when hit) will have situations that instantly kill you regardless of circumstances. Apart from BottomlessPits, these situations usually involve getting crushed between solid objects thanks to MalevolentArchitecture.
** In the old ''Franchise/PrinceOfPersia'' games, falling damage was always fatal when the fall was three stories or more. Falling onto SpikesOfDoom also meant instant death, and so did taking a hit from a {{mook|s}} when your sword was sheathed.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', most weapons and attacks only do armor damage, and a few attacks can bypass the armor for health damage. The only guaranteed instant death attack is [[FinalBoss General Tor's]] Phantom Hammer, which fills half the screen with a massive laser and drops Iji's stats to zero on top of [[OneHitKill killing her instantly]]. (Luckily, you ''can'' dodge it, but it's not easy.) In a logbook before the final battle, it's mentioned that the Phantom Hammer is capable of completely obliterating a nanofield, which is presumably why it's so effective.
*** If you die normally, you scream and then collapse. If you get hit by the Phantom Hammer, your entire body instantly turns to dust and is blown away.
** In the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' games, lightly brushing up against a spike will kill you instantly, no matter how many [=HPs=] you have left. In the original ''VideoGame/MegaMan1'', they disregard MercyInvincibility as well.

*** In ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD Sonic CD]]'''s Stardust Speedway zone, the boss battle is a race against Metal Sonic, with Dr. Robotnik using [[AdvancingWallOfDoom a laser as a pacemaker]]. If you touch the laser, you die, ''even if you have rings left.''
** ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'':
*** Spikes will kill any dumb spelunker in a gruesome way even if he has [[{{Cap}} 99]] HitPoints. Shopkeepers and other {{mooks}} fortunately obey this as well.
*** There's also one enemy, the Mantrap, that can instantly kill regardless of health.
** Averted in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongJungleBeat'', where anything can be survived with enough points and fast hands. Even the classic "smashed between two walls" can be [[SuperStrength pushed apart]], since the challenge comes from a getting high score, rather than survival.
** In ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'', [[SmashingHallwayTrapsOfDoom crushers]], [[LaserHallway lasers]], [[ConvectionSchmonvection lava]], [[BigBad Kuro]], and certain kinds of [[SpikesOfDoom spikes]] all spell instant death for the titular hero.
* RolePlayingGames and SurvivalHorror games also feature this more or less frequently, though in [=RPGs=] it's usually the player who gets to use instakill technique, while in survival horror it's usually enemies. For example, in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' (and 5, for that matter) a chainsaw-wielding enemy can decapitate you in one swing independent of your health bar.
** Technically, having a lot of health makes a difference in ''Resident Evil 4'' when hit with a chainsaw: low health is instant decapitation, while high health means that the guy has to ''work the chainsaw'' to take off your head. Either way results in death, of course. There's also the second and third stage Plagas, and most of the cutscene-based ActionCommands.

* Roleplay/InsaneCafe: It's stated that [[GladiatorGames Dreadzone]] medical technology can cure any injury short of decapitation or being reduced to small fragments.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', most weapons and attacks only do armor damage, and a few attacks can bypass the armor for health damage. The only guaranteed instant death attack is General Tor's Phantom Hammer, which fills half the screen with a massive laser and is more than a mere OneHitKill-- it also ''reduces all of your stats to zero''. (Luckily, you ''can'' dodge it, but it's not easy.) In a logbook before the final battle, it's mentioned that the Phantom Hammer is capable of completely obliterating a nanofield, which is presumably why it's so effective.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/{{Fallout3}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fallout3headshot_447.jpg]]]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': The 3D games have a variant. Since the game calculates damage before actually showing you the effect, if something will kill a target, it will occasionally (especially if [[NoKillLikeOverkill it's in excess of the damage required to actually kill the target]]) [[YourHeadAsplode blow up the head]] or [[AnArmAndALeg blow off a body part]]. Laser and plasma weapons can disintegrate or gooify targets, respectively. This can lead to a [[GoodBadBugs mistake]] in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' when a con artist pretends to kill some thugs to make himself look good. A sufficient Medical check will tell you that the thugs are just faking, even if their heads are detached.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' has a variation. Its GodMode cheat doesn't quite make you impervious to damage, so much as it simply prevents you from taking damage from anything that deals less than 1,000 points. This means, in the base game, it is possible to survive anything the game can possibly throw at you - except a TeleFrag, which is coded to do ''10'',000 points of damage.[[note]]Damaging floors of a certain type also damage you by outright disabling god mode, but that's more a compatibility issue since that type of floor is supposed to end the level in question by killing you.[[/note]]

* In ''Film/GingerSnaps'', while werewolves do have the usual weaknesses like silver and wolfsbane, it turns out that [[CarFu vehicular manslaughter]] works just as well, as Sam runs over the werewolf that bit Ginger and leaves nothing more than a red streak on the pavement and bloody clumps of fur and flesh on the front of his van. Sam uses this knowledge to wonder if [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent there are other ways of killing werewolves that the myths don't talk about]], while Ginger uses it to conclude that [[ThisIsReality whatever attacked her couldn't have been a werewolf]].