History Main / ChunkySalsaRule

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': Brought up and defied in the article on SCP-138, a 4000-year old man who suffers from CompleteImmortality. The article states that although 138 has suffered all kinds of wounds, burns, and other trauma from failed MercyKill attempts, he is somehow resistant to any injury that would completely destroy his body.

* Although there are many ways to die in ''VideoGame/NetHack'' irrespective of how many HP you have, most involve poison, disease, magic, or oxygen deprivation. Some purely physical deaths that come to mind involve being decapitated by one artifact sword, [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bisected by another]], crushed by an opening or closing drawbridge, or pulped by an exploding one. The castle drawbridge is so dangerous, in fact, that many players destroy it with a force bolt and take their chances with the moat. If a mindflayer eats your brains, you will be unable to do anything but quit, even if you're playing in Wizard mode. One of the more literal examples is "sliming"--a green slime can [[BalefulPolymorph dissolve you into a green slime]], which technically doesn't kill you, but ends the game because there's no way to un-dissolve or to complete the game as a living puddle of goo.

* 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.

** Getting caught by a Reaper ([[BigCreepyCrawlies giant roach]]) in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' is an instant kill, as it will proceed to shove its other legs into your abdomen frantically. Wesker can reduce your ''heart'' to chunky salsa. Getting knocked into lava? Dead. (Chainsaws have an alternate attack in this one that reduces your health to Dying, too, from one hit.)
** There's also the hunters in previous games, which can decapitate the player, some faqs say that this can only happen when your health is at "Caution" level. Not true, it's just far more likely to happen at "Caution," but they can do it anytime.
** The plant monsters in ''RE 2'' can also bite/dissolve your head off.

* In ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'', Witches can knock down a survivor in one hit, leaving them bleeding out or dead. On the other hand, zombies are extremely vulnerable to having their limbs blown off, though the lethality of this depends on the limb in question. Headshots will kill anything but the Tank or Witch though.

** Warhammer Fantasy's (debatable) replacement, Age of Sigmar, has swung the other way entirely. The stripped-down system is dependent upon weapon profiles, not standardized rules, and as such rules like the insta-kill double strength would not fit in the style of the game. The multiwound weapons are still a thing, they they too can be different depending on who is using them -- but they are much more common. Models also have more wounds than they did before. The former cap was 10 wounds, but now some large figures have over 30. Having originally (or so the rumors go) been designed as a skirmish game to run in tandem with a new edition of WHF, it makes sense that the models would be less disposable, and that larger models would be more resilient.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Arduin}}'', one of D&D's oldest competitors had a rather infamous critical hit table. While there were several rolls which would give your target a lethal head wound, rolling a perfect 100 would result with: "Entire head pulped and spattered over a wide area, ''[[DeaderThanDead irrevocable]]'' death ensues."

* [[https://youtu.be/8SlWegS2sS0 One skit]] on ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' addressed the consequences of lacking a Chunky Salsa Rule: It starts with a werewolf confronted by a man who shoots it, and the werewolf declares that only a silver bullet can kill him. The man breaks out a mini-gun and reduces the werewolf's body to chunky salsa, and then subjects the resulting mess to various other abuses.[[note]]He sweeps it into a garbage bin, takes it home, burns it down to ash, rolls the ash into "rails" like one might with cocaine, SNORTS the rails like one might with cocaine, shits it out a day later, flushes it down the toilet, where it flows to a sewage treatment plant, where it gets FURTHER incinerated.[[/note]] It cuts to some kids playing a table-top game, with the dungeon master saying "he's still not dead, it ''has'' to be a silver bullet", as one of the players protests "that's a bunch of crap!"

* TropeNamer: ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' has a rule named "the chunky salsa effect", although it deals with the effect of explosives in enclosed spaces rather than massive head trauma. The end results are similar: if you take enough damage to get turned into the consistency of chunky salsa, you die. Doesn't matter what any other rule says, either; you're dead, and that's that. Note that the "chunky salsa effect" is named after a WWI/WWII tactic in which fragmentation or concussive grenades would be [[InsertGrenadeHere thrown into a tank]]. The armor of the tank causes the force or shrapnel to "rebound" within the chamber, drastically increasing the effectiveness of the grenade. What's left inside the tank afterward resembles chunky salsa.

* TropeNamer: ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' has a rule ''named'' "the chunky salsa effect", although it deals with the effect of explosives in enclosed spaces, rather than massive head trauma. The end results are, of course, similar. Note, though, that the "chunky salsa effect" is actually named after a WWI/WWII tactic in which fragmentation or concussive grenades would be [[InsertGrenadeHere thrown into a tank]]. The armor of the tank causes the force or shrapnel to "rebound" within the chamber, drastically increasing the effectiveness of the grenade. What's left inside the tank afterward resembles... chunky salsa.

*** There's a grenade that uses the force wave mechanic classified as a [[BlatantLies nonlethal weapon]], it releases a force wave that does stun damage that reflects off of a surface 10ft away or less with diminishing returns reducing the distance of the next reflection but NOT damage. One going off in a small space 5ft or less space is so high that nothing that fits in those spaces can reasonably survive. They renamed this grenade a flashbang. [[HilarityEnsues Yes, really.]]

* Though noted for a system that increases hit points for every level, ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has a Massive Damage rule.
** In 3rd Edition it forces a Fortitude save if a character suffers massive damage, which is any single attack or other source of damage (such as a long fall) that does fifty or more HitPoints of damage to a character. Failing the save kills the character regardless of hit points. Of course, by the time any character reaches the point where 50 HitPoints of damage isn't sufficient to kill them, they're likely to have a fairly decent fortitude save.

*** Frequently ignored in high-level play, when just about every hit is likely to do at least fifty damage, since saving throws have at least a 5% chance of failure (except for a handful of rare situations when they don't).
*** There's also the Coup De Grace rule, which states that attacks against a helpless target in situations where non-combat skills could Take 20 are instantly lethal, no ifs, buts, or maybes. As the rulebook puts it, it doesn't matter how powerful or well-equipped you are, "[[EyeScream a dagger through the eye]] is still a dagger through the eye".

** Assassins were a character class in 1E, with a %tile chance of achieving an instant kill if they attack with surprise. In 3E, they were a prestige class with a "death attack", which could either paralyze ''or'' kill, whichever the character preferred. Other editions' assassins could inflict greater damage with their specialized attacks, but not an instant-kill.
** The game also has Vorpal Blades. Regardless of how many hit points you have, removing your head will kill you (Unless you're a zombie or golem or something else that isn't strictly speaking alive to begin with or have extra heads).
*** There were a ''lot'' of instant-kill cursed magic items in 1st Edition, many of which didn't even allow a saving throw for anyone [[SchmuckBait gullible enough to attempt to use them]]. These were phased out or downgraded in later editions for fostering KillerGameMaster attitudes and sore feelings at the gaming table.

** 5th Edition's Dungeon Master's Guide has an optional "System Shock" rule, stating that if a creature takes at least as much damage as half their hit point total, it must make a Constitution save, and if it fails, a roll on a table gives an additional effect. 10% of the time, that roll will simply reduce its hit points to 0.
*** Fifth Edition's massive damage rule says that if a player character's hit points are reduced to 0, and the remaining damage from an attack is at least equal to their maximum HP, the character instantly dies. There's also a few spells like Disintegrate which prevent normal resurrection spells from working by completely reducing the target's body to ashes, preventing Raise Dead from working.

** 5th Edition's Dungeon Master's Guide has an optional "System Shock" rule, stating that if a creature takes at least as much damage as half their hit point total, it must make a Constitution save, and if it fails, a roll on a table gives an additional effect. 10% of the time, that roll will simply reduce its hit points to 0.

** Various rules for suffocation, garroting, and/or drowning usually impose the same principle as the chunky-salsa rule on victims who need to breathe after several rounds without air.
*** In effectively all editions, there's one particular rule: if the body is gibbed, burned beyond recognition, or otherwise destroyed, [[BackFromTheDead Raise Dead]] won't work. You need more powerful magic (like Resurrection or True Resurrection) to revive the deceased (for instance, in the 3E period Raise Dead ''only'' brought you back to life and did some minimal hit point restoration. Any actual damage to bodily parts remained... meaning that while you could raise someone missing their arms or legs and they'd be alive if maimed, if you tried doing it with someone missing their head or torso they'd just die again from lacking their head or torso). Gibbing someone helps make sure their trip back from the afterlife is a lot more costly.

** Averted in ''Donkey Kong Jungle Beat'', 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.

* ''VideoGame/UnrealTournamentIII'' has a Helmet pickup, which protects the wearer from a single headshot. Since the sniper rifle, the only stock weapon capable of inflicting headshots, does 200 damage or so with a headshot, you're paste if you don't have that helmet. That said, all of the VideoGame/{{Unreal}} games do have the all-over shields (the only armor pickups in [[VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004 UT2003 or UT2004]], special pickups on top of conventional armour in all other games) which absorb damage, including headshots, until depleted.

** In ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', instant death results from falling onto the nastier variety of SpikesOfDoom or having something sufficiently heavy fall on you. (Technically, it only inflicts 127 damage, but that's more than twice as many HitPoints as you'll ever have.)

** In ''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. And in the original version, bombs did 10 damage ''per frame'' of the explosion, in a game where you will almost never have more than 10 health in the first place and no enemy does either.

** Getting caught by a [[DemonicSpiders Reaper]] ([[BigCreepyCrawlies giant roach]]) in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' is an instant kill, as it will proceed to shove its other legs into your abdomen frantically. Wesker can reduce your ''heart'' to chunky salsa. Getting knocked into lava? Dead. (Chainsaws have an alternate attack in this one that reduces your health to Dying, too, from one hit.)

* In ''VideoGame/{{Elona}}'', dying in one piece is the ''exception'' rather than the rule, with a high probability that both yourself and your foes will be reduced into a chunks of meat from being [[MadeOfExplodium poisoned to death]], perhaps leaving a bone or two recognizable behind if you're lucky. Certain enemies turn this into a tactic, exploding upon death to deal damage to anyone within a certain radius.

* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', there are 2 attacks that cause instant death (excluding the "taunt attacks", below):
** The Spy backstabbing you. The back-stab deals twice victim's health and always crits for a total of six times the health of the victim.
** A fully charged sniper round to the head. The fully-charged headshot always deals 450 damage, the health of an overhealed Heavy, which is also the highest amount of health anyone can normally have.
*** Now, because this damage follows the normal damage formulas, ''technically'' a character can survive these attacks if they have obscene amounts of damage resistance. In practice, the only source of so much damage resistance was the Spy's [[FakingTheDead Dead Ringer]], which (pre-{{Nerf}}) gave 90% universal damage resistance, allowing them to comfortably survive a charged headshot and barely squeak by a backstab if they were already healthy. The current version of the Ringer can still survive the headshot, but just barely. On the other hand, a fully overhealed Heavy with the Fists of Steel had a lesser degree of resistance to ranged attacks, but given he already has 450 health, any resistance by itself would be enough to let him survive one shot to the head.
*** Snipers also used to have a kit that explicitly turned all headshots into HPToOne attacks, charged shots included. This was later removed.
** Each class has at least one "taunt attack", which deals 500 damage. The nature of each taunt attack varies from class to class but is always impractical and humiliating.
*** For example: the Soldier's taunt attack (he holds a grenade and [[SuicideAttack detonates it]]) where any foe standing in the immediate vicinity of the player pulling the pin will find his spleen on the underside of another player's boot. However, if using a Rocket Jumper and the Gunboats, ''the Soldier himself'' can survive the blast ''and'' landing damage.
** Environmental kills (which include huge-ass sawblades and freight trains) and [[TeleFrag telefrags]] can kill someone even if they have an [[LimitBreak Ubercharge]] active. Nothing short of hacking can help a player survive this.

* In ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'', enemies can take headshots at you too, resulting in OneHitKill, needless to say.

* In ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' and ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'', there's a Strogg called the Medic who can revive any corpse he finds, from a grunt to a [[GoddamnedBats dog]] to a miniboss (or worse, another medic). The only way to counter this is to go around with the pistol or shotgun gibbing every corpse.

->''"After a while all I'm doing is punching wet chips of bone into the floorboards. So I stop."''
-->-- '''John Hartigan''', ''Film/SinCity''

-->--'''John Hartigan''', ''Film/SinCity''

*** Now, because this damage follows the normal damage formulas, ''technically'' a character can survive these attacks if they have obscene amounts of damage resistance. In practice, the only source of so much damage resistance was the Spy's [[FakingTheDead Dead Ringer]], which (pre-{{Nerf}}) gave 90% universal damage resistance, allowing them to comfortably survive a charged headshot and barely squeak by a backstab if they were already healthy. The current version of the Ringer can still survive the headshot, but just barely.

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The Chunky Salsa Rule may also refer to rules specifically describing the effects of [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill taking much more damage than is required to kill a character]], which is to say [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill reducing the entire character]] [[LudicrousGibs to the consistency of chunky salsa]]. In addition to the grotesque visual, this may also negatively impact attempts to bring the character BackFromTheDead.

** A critical hit to ammunition holds will cause the remaining ammo to cook off. For weapons that get very few shots of ammo, it's possible to deplete the ammo under normal conditions. And then there's the machine gun. A single ton of MG ammo holds 200 shots worth of ammunition. It's unlikely, unless you have multiple MG's pulling from the same ammo bin, that you will run out in a single engagement. Or even get down to less than 100. And since each shot is worth 2 damage, when it gets hit... well, 'Mechs aren't designed to take 400 points of damage, ''especially'' directly to their internal structure. The damage will propagate from location to location until it reaches the center torso. This is typically also destroyed, thus doing well more than the necessary 3 engine hits to kill the unit. A non-instantly fatal ammo explosion can cause critical hits to ''other'' ammo bins, causing them to cook off and add to the carnage.
** This problem still exists with non-MG ammo bins. Lower caliber Auto-cannons, which might only do 2 or 5 damage each shot, still carry plenty of ammo per ton in most cases to last most of a battle or two, unless you're "gunboating" with multiple autocannons, or using the [[GatlingGood Ultra or Rotary Versions]]. The same applies to any of the Missile Launchers. AC/10s and 20s, you really don't even want one or two rounds of ammo of those cooking off, as anything short of an Assault class 'mech can't take more than 2 rounds hitting their internal structure. Gauss Rifles are no exclusion to this rule, as being hit causes their capacitors to discharge dealing a 20 point hit on the location they are mounted on. This is why C.A.S.E. equipment is used often in ballistic and missile using 'mechs, to help minimize the damage from an ammo explosion by preventing such explosions from going beyond the location C.A.S.E. is mounted in.

* One episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' involves Bobby going up against an okami, which can only be killed by being stabbed seven times with a bamboo dagger blessed by a Shinto priest. Bobby, lacking a bamboo dagger, goes for the next best thing and puts it through a wood chipper. As it turns out, being reduced to LudicrousGibs is enough to bypass the normal rules involved in killing it. Rufus later lampshades this trope when he learns it worked.

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** Environmental kills (which include huge-ass sawblades and freight trains) and [[TeleFrag telefrags]] can kill someone even if they have an [[LimitBreak Ubercharge]] active.

'''Randall Munroe:''' If you were standing in the path of the beam, you would obviously die pretty quickly. You wouldn't really die ''of'' anything, in the traditional sense. You would just stop being biology and start being physics.\\
Actually, a surprisingly large fraction of What If? articles involve ''something'' "becoming physics", like the relativistic baseball, or the asteroid made of diamond striking the Earth at lightspeed, or the moon being replaced by an equivalent mass of electrons, or ...

'''Randall Munroe:''' If you were standing in the path of the beam, you would obviously die pretty quickly. You wouldn't really die ''of'' anything, in the traditional sense. You would just stop being biology and start being physics.