History Main / OneHitPolykill

** Produces amusing results when used with seeking arrows that hit the target, fly out the other side, and immediately turn around to have another go.
*** That was a bug that has since been patched. When it was still in effect, the "Burizon" build took full advantage of it.

* Gruesomely illustrated by Civil War era cannon (firing a 20 lb solid chunk of pig iron) in Mel Gibson's ThePatriot. Wherein a cannonball pulverized its first target, then proceeded to roll on the ground-crushing feet as it went, while coated with the entrails of its first target. It is arguable which soldier had the worse death: the one instantly reduced to chunky salsa, or the one that got to view the rest of the battle while screaming and trying not to bleed out from the stump where his ankle was, just to die from gangrene days later from the infected wound.

* Round-shot ("cannonballs") very often did that, often getting an average of more kills then rounds fired. As they had more heft then musket-balls, it isn't hard to imagine. Perhaps you do not wish to imagine [[BloodierAndGorier what it looked like]].

* ''{{Wanted}}'' uses this trope as [[spoiler:a means of suicide]] near the end: a bullet fired at an angle in a circular room goes through several people's brains before finally lodging itself [[spoiler:in the shooter's head.]]

More TruthInTelevision [[RealityIsUnrealistic than you might think, even without rifles using high-powered]] ArmorPiercing rounds.

** ''[[CallOfCuty]]: Black Ops'' ups the ante with an achievement for getting ''three'' kills with one bullet.

** Not to mention an [[CosmeticAward Xbox 360 Achievement for 10G]].

* Some musket-balls do this. Historically, given that they were shot at two and three rank lines(or even 8 deep columns) it doesn't seem all that hard to believe.

* Round-shot("cannonballs")very often did that, often getting an average of more kills then rounds fired. As they had more heft then musket-balls, it isn't hard to imagine. Perhaps you do not wish to imagine [[BloodierAndGorier what it looked like]].

** Another weapon that does polykills is the GDI sonic emitter, first used by GDI Disruptor tanks from the same game. Like railguns, sonic emitters deal lineal damage. The rules governing the sonic emitter is more sophisticated, though: the emitted sonic beam takes time to reach its target, hurts less to anything in between that's not an intended target, and hurts friends and foes alike, except targets of its own kind (including enemy Disruptors). In short, it's safe to cluster Disruptors among themselves, but not with other kinds of vehicles, buildings and infantry.

* [[ModernWarfare Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare]] has this in spades, and players die from the effects of this trope all the time. The body of a fellow player will weaken bullets, but it won't stop them unless they have already lost a lot of momentum. For the more powerful firearms, such as the sniper rifles and the light machine guns, overpenetration is the norm.

* In ''CommandAndConquer: Tiberian Sun'', Railguns would penetrate and instantly kill any enemy between the shooter and its target, even if the shot itself couldn't kill the target. Canny gamers would then set these weapons to force-fire ''behind'' the unit or structure they wanted to kill.
** The name of the unit escapes this troper right now, but there's a certain GDI tank that uses sonic waves which deal massive damage over the period of the attack. Anything caught between tank and target takes the same damage, but luckily the tanks themselves are immune to damage from this attack, so the can't friendly-fire each other. Watch out if you have other types of your own units mixed in, however.

* The fully ChargedAttack of MegaMan's Buster weapon is capable of doing this, provided it doesn't hit a durable target.

* The Variable Shoot attack Teana used in the third episode of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha [=StrikerS=]'', which takes an ordinary [[AbnormalAmmo magical bullet]] and coats it with a barrier, letting it penetrate a MechaMooks AntiMagic Field to shoot through the MechaMook itself, and then continues flying to shoot through another MechaMook behind it.

More TruthInTelevision [[RealityIsUnrealistic than you might think, even without rifles using high-powered]] ArmourPiercing rounds.

* In ''[[SchindlersList Schindler's List]]'', during the raid of the ghetto, a group of soldiers force several Jewish civilians to line up chest-to-back-to-chest-to-back...so they can see how many of them a rifle can penetrate. This happens in the BACKGROUND. It's incidental.

* While [[CutscenePowerToTheMax not possible in-game]] in ''TeamFortress2'', in the "Meet the Sniper" video, the Sniper fires a bullet through a Heavy's head and into the Demoman's bottle, shattering it and causing him to panic.

* While [[CutscenePowerToTheMax not possible in-game]] in ''TeamFortress2'', the Sniper pulls off a two-for-one in the "Meet the Sniper" video.

* [[spoiler: Also don't question how he pulled of this trick with a low-caliber hollow-point bullet]]

Happens all the time in the [[SarcasmMode completely realistic]] world of FirstPersonShooters.

* ''{{Warcraft}}'' units with the Missile (Line) attribute can do this.

* ''{{DungeonsAndDragons}} 3.5'' has a feat that allows an archer to do this as long as they can keep making the attack rolls.

* The original(pre-source) versions of Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat(and probably other half-life engine games) both exhibited this with some weapons, mostly Rifles. These weapons could penetrate doors, crates, ventilation ducts, and other 'thin' or 'soft' materials... including Players. With Day of Defeat's one-hit-kill (even in the TOES) bolt-action rifles, this occasionally resulted in two Players literally being killed by one shot. THREE with one shot was perfectly possible, but very rare and requiring more luck than skill.