History Main / Permadeath

** The two heroes you can pick from each get a partner. If they die during the game, they don't come back. Chris' partner Rebecca can be killed by a Hunter after the [[PlotlineDeath death]] of Richard if you don't get to her in time. Jill's partner Barry can die during the final part of the game if you agree to split up with him in the underground passage instead of letting him go with her or having him wait at the entrance (this happens if you answer "no" to his two questions; answering any other way ensures his survival). Note that both Rebecca and Barry [[PlotArmor both survive in canon.]]
** The Platform/NintendoGameCube remake changes Barry's case; if Jill doesn't give Barry his gun back during a particular Boss fight, said Boss will launch him into an abyss.

* In the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series, a unit that falls in battle in the missions is generally gone for the remainder of the campaign. Plot-important characters are considered to have sustained a crippling injury so that they can never fight again (allowing them to interact with other characters during cutscenes), whereas less important characters simply perish. If a ''main'' character is killed, it is [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou game over]]. There is, however, nothing to prevent players from [[SaveScumming reloading the mission]] every time a character dies. Starting with ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem New Mystery of the Emblem]]'', the series includes a "Casual Mode" where this can be disabled, allowing defeated characters to be usable again in the next mission (or even the next ''turn'', in the case of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates''' "Phoenix Mode"). Some games also have items that can resurrect allies who have died, but these items tend to be [[TooAwesomeToUse difficult to find, few in number, and limited to one use.]] It's possible that this mechanic is what inadvertently created the [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Nuzlocke Challenge]].

* ''Series/{{Caprica}}'': New Cap City is a ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto''-like area of [[{{Cyberspace}} V-World]] that operates by these rules. If somebody's avatar dies in New Cap City, they are permabanned from it to reflect their character getting KilledOffForReal within the game world. However, since Tamara isn't actually a player but a VirtualGhost, she can't be killed, which she exploits to become an ActionGirl with near-godlike power.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho,'' a Time Lord is very LongLived, and can regenerate into a new body to avoid most brands of death. The rule is 12 regenerations for a total of 13 lives. As such, a Time Lord would enjoy a lifespan in at ''least'' five digits if s/he were to live a full life in each body. Even then, regeneration energy can be granted or stolen. However, Time Lords can be and ''are'' KilledOffForReal sometimes, either by taking so much damage that what's left can't trigger a regeneration (River Song says stopping both hearts at once would do it, the Master says that ''and'' the ChunkySalsaRule are a sure method), or certain poisons, or certain brands of punishment in the early, unstable days of a new body, or Time Lord weaponry. ''Trying'' to regenerate when OutOfContinues is a good way to evaporate on the spot, too (though the one time we see that comes from an unfinished episode whose finished portions have been released, so the canonicity of this is debatable.)

* The [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES video game adaptation]] of Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman starts with five sentais available from the start, but if any of them die they're gone for good. Which means you have to restart the level with one less sentai. The game will be over in a bad note if all five sentais die [[spoiler:and if the sentais lose the mecha fight against boss characters]].

* The UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} versions of ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict]]'' and ''X3: Albion Prelude'' have the Dead-Is-Dead game start, wherein if you die the game deletes your save. Both games feature [[ThatOneAchievement special achievements]] for completing plots in Dead-Is-Dead. Unfortunately the implementation is a little glitchy; a poor Internet connection can cause premature deletion.

** The UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube remake changes Barry's case; if Jill doesn't give Barry his gun back during a particular Boss fight, said Boss will launch him into an abyss.

* Unlike every other game in the series, the original ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' on the UsefulNotes/GameBoy has permadeath. It can get away with it because it has [[ExcusePlot the bare minimum of plot]], compared to the series' modern trend of [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover mixing tons of plots together]].

* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/{{Insanity}}''. Most of the time, getting killed simply results in a game over, but there a few occasions where certain characters can be permanently killed unless the player makes choices to avoid it.

** Played absolutely straight with ''World of Warcraft: Classic - Hardcore'' in 2023. Any death is permanent, which can be particularly frustrating if the player managed to get to level 60 or close (even moresore if well geared) and if it happened because of an Internet outage. One month after launch, [[https://twitter.com/Warcraft/status/1707523081932034183?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1707523081932034183%7Ctwgr%5E9b124d04722f002cbfe733e97e96e85e8cee86e7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamespot.com%2Farticles%2Fnearly-2-million-wow-classic-hardcore-characters-have-permanently-met-their-demise%2F1100-6518072%2F two million character players had died]].Â

* Spoofed in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' with the April Fools Day announcement of [[WillOTheWisp Wisps]] as a new player race. They would have the ability to explode, permanently sacrificing the character in exchange for draining 50 mana from all units nearby (the ability wisps had in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII''). This ability would not be even remotely useful if it caused a [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist normal]] [=WoW=] death, and there is naturally no ability in the game worth destroying your character in order to use.Â

* On ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', "dying" on Lyoko usually just meant being forced back to the real world (as the virtualization process transformed the heroes' bodies into computer avatars) but there were exceptions. Aelita was the biggest exception; she had no human body until season two, and until season three (her body in season two was virtual; in the season finale she regained her real one), she was at risk of ceasing to exist if her life points ever fell to zero, forcing the other heroes to act as a HeroSecretService for her much of the time. Also, [[BigBad XANA]] would frequently try to block off their means off access to the devirtualization process, hoping to trap them so that dying on Lyoko would mean actual death. (Fortunately, he never succeeded.) There was also the matter of falling into the Digital Sea, basically a representation of raw network data. Falling bodily into it was assumed to result in the virtual avatar being scrambled beyond recovery (there was one time when three of them were about to fall in, so they all [=DV'd=] each other to prevent it). When they developed a way to traverse this sea in order to locate [=XANA's=] replica worlds, the craft served as a link back to the Supercomputer. [=DV'd=] characters were held within, so the craft had to be protected to prevent a Final Death.Â

* ''[[VideoGame/CriticalMass1995 Critical Mass]]'', a game originally created in the mid-90s, would delete your file if you died without ejecting, or your pod was destroyed. And, given the nature of [[AIIsACrapShoot your AI allies to shoot you as much as the enemy]], it has become the main competition on the forum to see how many missions you can survive. (Don't worry about finishing, it's an EndlessGame.)Â

** The remake softens this, resurrections are easier to get and units don't die permanently until they've been incapacitated and not recovered three times.Â

This trope is specific to gameplay; the equivalent of this in other fiction is DeaderThanDead. The inverse of this is DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist. See also KilledOffForReal. Compare OutOfContinues. If it's completely optional, that's a FinalDeathMode if the game enforces it, or NoDeathRun if it's an entirely SelfImposedChallenge.Â
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* The Virtual Boy game ''Teleroboxer'' has a "Title Defense" mode in which you must fight all eight of your robot opponents at random (This mode can only be played if you defeat all of your opponents without losing once). If you lose a single match in this mode, that's it; you're no longer the champion, and you'll have no choice but to retire. The next time you go to the File Select screen, it will say "CHAMPION RETIRED" on whatever save file you played on, which means you cannot replay the game again on that same file and must erase the data in order to start a new game.Â

* In the arcade game ''Dangerous Seed'', if any of your three ships get destroyed, it's gone for good, which means you have to continue on with one less ship. If all three ships are destroyed, then it's game over.Â
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* In ''VideoGame/WarhammerDarkOmen'' you are given a set number of regiments at certain points: Have one wiped out (as opposed to routed) and it's gone for good. (especially annoying with your {{Squishy Wizard}}s) even worse, regiments that have suffered casualties will have to buy replacements, and cash is VERY scarce.Â

* ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper2'': Vampires normally lose a CharacterLevel and reconstitute in their Graveyard when "killed", only meeting final death if they die at Level 1. However, a vampire killed by a [[WarriorMonk Monk]] is gone for good -- hence why your first mission after recruiting vampires is to massacre the [[BeneathTheEarth underworld's]] largest monastery.Â
* In ''VideoGame/OgreBattle64'' sometimes, if a human dies, they ''permanently'' change class into an angel or a zombie. The angel's nice, but only happens to [[GamePreferredGender female]] characters who were extremely lawful in life. The zombie class can happen to any human, and is exceptionally spoony. (However, they could upgrade to a passable skeleton, only to turn into an even spoonier ghost.) In some games, there was a zombie dragon for dragons.Â
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