History OneHitKill / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/MissionImpossibleKonami'': Aside from the expected BottomlessPits that instantly kill your agent, there are several other hazards that will eliminate them no matter how much health you have. Slamming into solid structures in the second stage will destroy the boat, and slamming into almost anything (Stumps, buildings, snow banks) in the fifth stage will bring the level to an end. The first stage, a city street, also has occasional traffic. Getting hit by a car will send your agent spinning in the air off the screen before eliminating that agent for the level.

* In ''VideoGame/Bomberman64'', during the boss fight with Hades (the giant robot fought at the end of Red Mountain), there's steps you can do to expose the cockpit where Orion is. If you throw a Pumped-Up bomb in there (which also nets you a Gold Card), when Hades next emerges, it loses all of is health, even if no prior damage has been done to it.

* The [[Platform/PlayStation2 PS2]] ''VideoGame/{{Transformers}}'' RPG had a minicon which gave you the headshot ability. OHKO to mooks, 3HKO to the Heavies.

** There's also the Jumbo Cactuar's "[[DeathOfAThousandCuts 10,000 Needles]], which hits for 1 damage 10,000 times in a series where the HP {{Cap}} is 9,999. One game has an ability that allows you to exceed this cap, but the same game has a super boss called the Cactuar King with a 99,999 Needles attack. Guess what the boosted HP cap is.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0'' No matter how high the enemy's Lv is, the heroes of Perestylium Suzaku can strike them down with one one quick work of their equipped weapon or the skills that are mapped to the 4 buttons. Provided the red symbol has been tagged onto the enemies. This' known as the Kill Sight system. It can be easily activated anytime the player evades the enemy's attack. Sort of like the game's version of ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope'' Blind Side attack. However, this does not work on mid-bosses or bosses associated with the current mission that your characters are undergoing.

** Paul Phoenix has a move called "Burning Fist" (Back+ both Punch buttons) which will not only take a second to charge up, but will take out the opponent in one hit (and send them flying backwards). Some Website/YouTube videos show Paul playthroughs comprising of nothing BUT Burning Fists.
** Jack has an attack called "Dark greeting". He takes a step forward, with sparks flying from him, and makes a quick chop downwards with his hand. If the opponent is in range, they're down. Ditto for the [[MegatonPunch Wind-up Gigaton Punch]].
** Kuma's [[{{Fartillery}} "Fatal Wind"]], which is extremely difficult to hit with.
** Miguel in ''Tekken 6'' has an unblockable move. He puts his hand over his mouth and laughs, then he winds up and punches the opponent. It's easy to stop him during the laugh or the wind-up, since they both take a while. But if he does manage to land the move, it's an instant K.O.

*** After obtaining the [[ArrowsOnFire Fire]] and [[KillItWithIce Ice Arrows]], Link is granted the option of using the latter arrows to freeze enemies solid, then can instantly kill the frozen enemy by either throwing its body or using the [[DropTheHammer Skull Hammer]] to smash it to pieces, even on ''Darknuts'' if you're quick enough. The Fire Arrows, meanwhile, can be used to kill Mothulas (which have a MiniBoss tier) instantly.

* ''Videogame/{{MORDHAU}}:'' Different amounts of armor will save you from different weapons even in the case of headshots. However, there just isn't enough armor in the world that will let you survive a [[DropTheHammer maul]] to the skull; it's the only guaranteed killing strike so far in the game. Unless you count siege engines, in which case it bears noting that impalement by a giant ballista bolt, crushing under a catapult boulder and getting blown up by a mortar shell is ''also'' about as instantly lethal as one could expect.

** The side story manga also contain this. In one of the early chapters of ''Inaba Of The Moon, Inaba Of The Earth'', Tewi goes for the phrase [[CallingYourAttacks "One Hit Kill"]] brandishing [[DropTheHammer a giant mallet]] [[MundaneMadeAwesome in order to make mochi.]] (She coincidentally also smashes [[ButtMonkey Reisen's]] fingers.)

* The Harvesters in ''[[VideoGame/{{Cultic}}]]'' wield a chainsaw, among other weapons. If they get close enough to hit you with it, it won't kill you ''instantly'', but it ''will'' kill you, guaranteed. Having more health just means it takes longer to die.

*** After obtaining the [[ArrowsOnFire Fire]] and [[KillItWithIce Ice Arrows]], Link is granted the option of using the latter arrows to freeze enemies solid, then can instantly kill the frozen enemy by either throwing its body or using the [[DropTheHammer Skull Hammer]] to smash it to pieces, even on ''Darknuts'' if you're quick enough.

* ''VideoGame/Psychonauts'' rarely has these, but they do come up in a few levels:

** Final bosses in this series often have a spell that deals a ludicrous amount of damage or simply has a K.O. effect. ''VideoGame/LunarEternalBlue'' started the trend with Hell Wave, an attack that deals about 2,000 damage against characters who have 1/4 that number at most. Mercifully, the game broadcasts where the attack will fall a turn in advance. It also recurrs in the UsefulNotes/PlayStation remake.

* In the ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' RPG for the UsefulNotes/{{Super Nintendo|EntertainmentSystem}}, Fuu had a spell that made the target's next attack an instant kill. [[UselessUsefulSkill It doesn't work on bosses]] and is next to worthless on enemies because spells that deal lethal amounts of damage to every enemy in the formation are readily available.

** Also in ''Eternia'', and given a callback in ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' ([[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 PS3]]), bringing the Dhaos cameo from ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' down to half and pulling off Indignation is an instant kill in homage to ''Phantasia''. In ''Vesperia'', doing this is the only way to unlock Indignation for Rita.

* The [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2]] ''VideoGame/{{Transformers}}'' RPG had a minicon which gave you the headshot ability. OHKO to mooks, 3HKO to the Heavies.

*** [[DemonicSpiders Trap Doors]] in Sealed Cave have skill Ninth Dimension that kills target instantly. They indicate who they are going to target beforehand, but usually there is little you can do, though in DS version this can be neutered by giving Cecil Draw Attacks augment and Aegis Shield (if you visited Feymarch) that protects against Instant Death effects. [[spoiler: Casting Reflect/Wall on the target will cause the Trap Door's spell to reflect back and kill ''them''.]]

* The first two ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games feature notorious examples of this trope. Critical hits can do ridiculous amounts of damage, often killing the target instantly ([[ChunkySalsaRule and messily]]) by applying multiple multipliers and ignoring armour. A certain perk also makes it possible to get an instant kill regardless of damage -- ''even with zero damage''[[note]]The "instant death" result on the critical table does not automatically ignore armour[[/note]]. This can lead to strange situations: a character in full power armor might take zero damage from a critical hit and then die instantly from the pain.

** The "Repeater" {{gun accessor|ies}}y gives every shot from that weapon a tiny chance to "Execute" the target, regardless of health or armor or even shield. It also {{avert|edTrope}}s ContractualBossImmunity.
** There's also a {{non lethal|KO}} variety: [[TheMusketeer ADVENT Stun Lancers]] and [[TheBrute Muton Berserkers]] have a very small chance of knocking their target unconscious and essentially dead to the world for the rest of the mission. The [[KingMook Alien Rulers]] from the first DLC also have a chance to OHKO-ing targets with their special abilities[[labelnote:list]]the Viper King's [[PersonalSpaceInvader Bind and Crush]], the Berserker Queen's [[GroundPound Quake]] and the Archon King's [[MacrossMissileMassacre Devastate]][[/labelnote]] regardless of the operative's remaining hit points.

* ''VideoGame/GhostOfTsushima'': Jin doesn't start off able to stealth kill someone but he can learn the Assassination ability which lets him instantly and silently kill unsuspecting victims.

*** [[DemonicSpiders Trap Doors]] in Sealed Cave have skill Ninth Dimension that kills target instantly. They indicate who they are going to target beforehand, but usually there is little you can do, though in DS version this can be neutered by giving Cecil Draw Attacks augment and Aegis Shield (if you visited Feymarch) that protects against Instant Death effects.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' probably featured the largest variety of one-hit kill spells as standard black magic, several of which actually was very effective against specific monster types (even more as the party leveled up). There was also one enemy called 'Sorcerer' (named 'Mind Flayer' in the remakes) whose physical attacks inflicted only ScratchDamage but with a side effect of instant KO -- pray they don't get to strike first when you encounter a group of 5. The [=ProRing=], despite being obscenely expensive, protects against instant death and renders Sorcerers completely impotent, [[GuideDangIt but the game doesn't tell you that, ever.]]

** Some bosses in ''VideoGame/{{Sonic Rush|Series}}'' have a one hit kill attack, too, but Eggman's generous enough to give you an audio cue ("Get ready to be schooled!").

** ''VideoGame/MegaMan7 has an instance of this where Mega Man can fire a Noise Crush right before he enters Turbo Man's boss room, but you have to get the timing exactly right, and hit it in the right frame. If you do, the Noise Crush projectile will enter the boss room and rebound off the walls until Turbo Man enters the room, where the projectile will hit him (his life gauge may or may not be empty at this point) and kill him in one shot.