History SuperDrowningSkills / Videogames

* In ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'' npcs instantly die the second they try to pick something up that 47 threw into water, no matter how shallow. This includes in puddles so small they can otherwise walk right through them.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' does this, but with a hint of LampshadeHanging. While Snake swims very well, his enemies don't, and can be killed easily by knocking them into water. Interrogating one can often result in a perky, "The lot of us! We can't swim!"
* Raiden can swim extremely well in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohDvQGGZzfI&feature=related In fact, Raiden is quite proud of his ability to swim.]] However, the bacterial tank in which the Vamp boss battle takes place is filled with a special kind of water in which he will sink instantly and drown. Vamp himself can swim like a dolphin in it, though.

** The first two ''Thief'' games even drew the line between enemies drowning themselves and Garrett actually making them drown by knocking them unconscious and then leaving them in water. He could swim carrying unconscious bodies without having them die, possibly through means that are [[KissOfLife best not thought too much about]], but dumping an unconscious body into a pool would eventually cause it to drown, and you'd fail the mission if Garrett wasn't allowed to kill anyone.
** Instant drowning became a bug in one of the first game's missions. When you had to rescue the high priest of the Hammerites, he would instantly die if he contact water. The intent of the mission was to use the raft, but the game would sometimes detect water contact if you placed him on the raft while it was moving.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'': Every Pikmin (except for the blue ones) will drown in seconds if they enter a body of water. Olimar has a chance to rescue them, by calling them back to him, but the chance that a Pikmin still drowns is pretty high. Also, the blue Pikmin can help save its drowning brethren. Olimar himself can't drown, since he's wearing a spacesuit. In the games after the first, their aversion to water is shown to be so strong that if some enemies simply splash them with it, it'll send them scurrying about in such a panic that they'll soon ''die'' if you don't calm them down by whistling at them.

* The first NES ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' game have ALL the turtles drown in any contact of water on the ground. As WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd sums it up...

** In ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'', ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU Wii U]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'', every character has an individual limited amount of time they can swim in water, with Sonic having the shortest swimming time by a fair margin. In ''Ultimate''; Sonic, Inkling, Charizard and Incineroar now take damage in water.

** In ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'', ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU 3DS/Wii U]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'', every character has an individual limited amount of time they can swim in water, with Sonic having the shortest swimming time by a fair margin. In ''Ultimate''; Sonic, Inkling, Charizard and Incineroar now take damage in water.

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' and subsequent games allow the protagonist, Ezio, to swim perfectly no matter how much armor he's wearing. However, none of the guards and civilians possess this ability and a very effective way to subtly murder people is to tackle, push, or throw them into water -- although this can also cause you to fail missions where the objective is not to kill anybody. This becomes doubly amusing when you realize that part of II is set in Venice.

* In ''VideoGame/Hitman2016" npcs instantly die the second they try to pick something up that 47 threw into water, no matter how shallow. This includes in puddles so small they can otherwise walk right through them.

** In the main games, the shoreline represents a ledge to you: you can't so much as wade in the shallow area of water. [[AbilityRequiredToProceed You need to have a Pokémon with Surf in order to get past it.]] Yet there are numerous Swimmer trainers populating every sea route. And [[SuperNotDrowningSkills they never leave the route.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'' everyone, both Crypto and his enemies, dies instantly if they fall in water. You can drop cars, trucks, and tanks into what must be fairly shallow ponds and streams all day long, but they just never seem to get full.

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness]]'', if a mage casts a [[ForcedTransformation
Baleful Polymorph]] spell, which changes living beings into sheep (if over land), and targets a dragon or Griffin Rider over water, the sheep is never shown, it instantly drowns. No units in a sunk transport ever survive, not even unarmored units like peasants or mages. Or the many people presumably manning battleships or dreadnoughts.

** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow'' has Soma, who can not only swim but also walk ON water and UNDER water, if he has the right Souls equipped.

** Same in ''[[SequelDifficultySpike Shattered Soldier]]''. Drowning into water in Stage 4 instantly kills you if you don't land on floating pads right. And the [[WaterfrontBossBattle boss fight section]] makes this trope even nastier.

* Inklings and Octolings in ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' die the second they even touch the water, despite being descendants of squids and octopi, respectively. [[LampshadeHanging The games make a bevy of jokes to remind the player of that fact whenever the topic of water comes up]]. Fan justification comes from players assuming that Inklings are, well, made of ink, while WordOfGod additionally theorizes that both species could also have thinner skin that doesn't handle the pressure change of entering water that well. [[spoiler:It's also {{deconstructed|Trope}}. The rising water levels of the world meant that there would be little room for both species to comfortably live on the surface, leading to the Great Turf War over remaining territory in the game's backstory.]] They retain this weakness to some extent in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', as falling in water damages them rather than instantly dissolving them.

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness]]'', if a mage casts a BalefulPolymorph spell, which changes living beings into sheep (if over land), and targets a dragon or Griffin Rider over water, the sheep is never shown, it instantly drowns. No units in a sunk transport ever survive, not even unarmored units like peasants or mages. Or the many people presumably manning battleships or dreadnoughts.

* In ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'', your characters can freely swim as long as their SprintMeter doesn't run dry, but most enemies will instantly keel over if they go into water deep enough. This is a bit more believable for [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent hilichurls]] and other primitive monsters than it is for the clearly human Fatui, Treasure Hoarders, and Nobushi, who should logically be better swimmers but will flail about and perish all the same. The only normal-sized land-based enemies who can't be killed this way are Cryo Slimes and Cryo Abyss Mages, as their [[AnIcePerson ice powers]] cause water under them to freeze, and Hydro Mimics, who just hover over it.

* Downplayed in ''Videogame/LegendOfKay'' where the title character has a gauge limiting his time spent in the water, despite the fact that he only swims on the surface. When the gauge runs out Kay drowns, only to respawn on the closest surface with health lost.

** ''VideoGame/LEGOStarWars''''II: The Original Trilogy'': if Luke (or any other character who's not an astromech droid) step in Dagobah's waters, immediately sinks and dies. Later games would add a proper swimming mechanic.

* Pior to ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'', any game in the ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' series treats any reasonably deep body of water as a bottomless pit, with shallow water being safe but speed-unfriendly. Even in ''Mario Kart 7'' and ''[[VideoGame/MarioKart8 8]]'', there are some courses where water is a no-no (such as Daisy Hills and Electrodome). In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'', players have only a few seconds to drive out of deep water before Lakitu is forced to pick them up.

* If you send Batman jumping off a cliff into water in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'', it cuts to a short clip of him grumpily getting back up and out. If you send Batman into the water while in Killer Croc's lair, it's game over for you and dinner time for Croc.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' this doesn't exist for you, it exists for everyone else. NPC’s die on contact with water, conscious npc’s can be knocked in with wind blast level 1, walking a possessed person into water or throwing them in with 'pull'. Unconscious NPC’s can also die if they are being carried when the player goes into the water as the player automatically drops whatever they are carrying at this point. If a badly placed unconscious NPC falls in water it will kill them,failing a Clean Hands ([[PacifistRun no kill]]) run, something a player may only find out at the end of a level.