History Main / NonLethalKO

* In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' the enemies are non-sentient robots, and when destroyed a woodland critter of some kind is released, which merrily dashes away. So, not only are you not killing your enemies, but [[VideoGameCaringPotential you are actually doing a kindness]]. Most later games in [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog the franchise]] do roughly the same thing, though some of those entries have had some or all of the robots instead drop [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD flower seeds]], [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 robot]] [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 parts]], or absolutely nothing upon defeat.

* In VideoGame/RomancingSaga and its successors, your characters automatically recover HP after every battle. However, should they lose all of it in battle, they will get KO'd and lose one of their LP. If a character loses all their LP, {{Permadeath}} ensues and they will die permanently.
* Both played straight and averted in VideoGame/SagaFrontier2 - your characters, if they are taken to 0 HP in battle, will simply collapse and get up with a small number of HP and one less LP after the battle. However, there are attacks that do LP damage, and if a character's LP hit 0, they're dead. Permanently. FOR THE REST OF THE GAME.

** Averted in Days of Ruin, with [=COs=] actively trying to kill each other, and often succeeding.

* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', the "defeated" message depends on the type of enemy you fight. Animals become tame, zombies and ghosts dissolve away, possessed plants or objects stop moving, and some enemies explode upon dying to deal massive damage to your party.

* Games using the Gamebryo engine (e.g. VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion and VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}) have an NPC flag called "Essential." Since some [=NPCs=] are vital to the main quest, they are set to essential so they can't die; when their HP is reduced to zero, they fall down and a message displays "(NPC) is unconscious." The NPC will wake up after a short time.

** Also, in the ''VideoGame/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' games, both options exist along with the option or whether or not officers can die in battle; in turn, Historical or Fictional gameplay options determine whether or not PlotlineDeath intrudes.

* ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'' characters have both health and endurance; damage affects both, but total health is always substantially higher than total endurance. Characters are "knocked out" when they reach 0 endurance, but endurance recovers automatically when out of combat. Characters are "maimed" when they reach 0 health, and then only [[{{Permadeath die outright]] if they are damaged while maimed (though some players may enable an option to skip the maiming step and go right to death).

* The eariler games in the ''VideoGame/RuneFactory'' you would have to restart from a save point if killed in one of the dungeons. Running out of HP outside of a dungeon resulted in fainting and waking up in the town hospital (or equivalent). Starting with ''VideoGame/RuneFactory3'', getting taken down would result in waking up in Marjorie's clinic, short some gold.
* Both played straight and averted in VideoGame/SaGaFrontier2 - your characters, if they are taken to 0 HP in battle, will simply collapse and get up with a small number of HP and one less LP after the battle. However, there are attacks that do LP damage, and if a character's LP hit 0, they're dead. Permanently. FOR THE REST OF THE GAME.

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* For a non-gory fighting game example, in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'', [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Mega Man]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX Zero]], and Roll die as they would in the ''Mega Man'' games when knocked out.
** On a similar note, Strider Hiryu also dies at the end of a round like he would in his native game.

* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' has some really over-the-top super moves (Superman's involves uppercutting an opponent so hard that it blasts them ''above the Earth's atmosphere'' followed on by him flying up and smashing them back down) but not only does no one (human and metamhuman alike) die from this kind of abuse, matches end simply with the defeated character dropping to one knee and trying to recuperate, completely conscious. The story attempts to HandWave this by saying the non-metas have taken some kind of pill that [[PowerCreepPowerSeep gives them relative durability to the more empowered individuals]] they have to fight.
** The sequel, Injustice 2, has similarly destructive super moves (for example, Supergirl's involves punching them into space, dragging them around the sun, then throwing them through an asteroid and heat-visioning them until they're knocked back to Earth) with a similar lack of death. But this time, the super-pills from the previous game aren't being used so characters like Deadshot and Green Arrow are supposedly no more durable than the average human.
* ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive'' matches end somewhat similarly to the ''Injustice'' example above (in that even after a "KO", the defeated character is just lying on the ground trying to rouse themselves back to their feet, not actually knocked out). This is after things such as being thrown down a ten-story building or into a container of explosive material has happened in the previous round.

* In ''[[Website/GaiaOnline zOMG!]]'', players who lose all of their HP are considered "dazed". They can still slowly shuffle around the screen they're on or send chat messages, but can't change screens or interact with anything. Oh, and the ability that lets a player revive another player on the field is called [[MagicalDefibrillator "Defibrillate"]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Firefall}}'' plays with this concept. Your [[PoweredArmor battleframe]] has a non-lethal setting, which makes your weapons target specific [=VIPs=] and deal non-lethal damage specifically to them, which means that at the cost of your enemies being stronger, you can capture them or leave them alive. Even if you hit their heads with a full-charge plasma burst. Or a toxic grenade. Or even a giant melding tornado. Seriously, the concept is ridiculous, but important for preventing the game from becoming annoying; you think people want to restart a mission every time your capture target is squished by a random terrorclaw? On your side, your character will usually bleed out instead of dying from regular wounds, but can be killed if enemies/melding finish them off. No matter what happens to them, they can always respawn at a safe zone.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has players labeled as "KO'd" if their HP reaches zero, even if they took an explosion to the face. When a revive spell is used on a downed player and thy have yet to accept the revive, the status buff describes it as "teetering on the brink of consciousness". Enemies whose HP is depleted are identified as being slain/killed unless the plot says otherwise. The in game lore also states that healing and resurrection spells can mend most wounds and bring people back from the brink of death in a pinch, but they can only do so much on their own compared to traditional medicines. The White Mage quests in the ''Stormblood'' expansion shows that if a person is gravely sick, no amount of healing magic will prevent them from dying.

** Gets rather silly in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' where a character that is hit with the Death spell or any variant of it shows the words "Death" appear in front of them and they simply pass out. There are also enemies that can eject characters from the battlefield and they can't come back until the fight is over. However, ejected characters are labeled as dead as far as the game is concerned, so you can still get a game over if your remaining characters are thrown out.

* Games using the Gamebryo engine (e.g. VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion and VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}) have an NPC flag called "Essential." Since some [=NPCs=] are vital to the main quest, they are set to essential so they can't die; when their HP is reduced to zero, they fall down and a message displays "(NPC) is unconscious." The NPC will wake up after a short time.
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has no essential [=NPCs=] except Yes Man and your current companions (and if you play in Hardcore mode, just Yes Man). It also incorporate non-lethal damage with a few weapons (boxing glove variants, cattle prods, and beanbag shotgun rounds), but unconscious enemies can't be looted and always get up after thirty seconds, which rather defeats the point; you may as well just sneak by them entirely. As these weapons all apply the same amount of fatigue regardless of enemy DT, they're really more useful for stunning your opponent [[CoupDeGrace to kill them while they're unconscious.]]
* Unlike ''3'' and ''New Vegas'', it's impossible for your current companions in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' to permanently die. Even in Survival mode.
* The original ''VideoGame/{{Gothic}}'' put an interesting spin on this trope: if you fight monsters, they always [[GameOver kill you good]], and you return the favor. However, when fighting humans, both sides deal a Non-Lethal K.O. first, with an option to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown execute the downed enemy]] later. The point is that a downed enemy can be looted like a dead body without incurring any penalties for murdering them--however, that also applies to the downed PlayerCharacter, so the enemies who don't immediately execute you will search your pockets and strip you of any valuables they find.
* In the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series, the Mario bros and any named characters merely get knocked out or hurt if they run out of health in battle, with the Elite Trio in Dream Team even mentioning it by name (saying that all three have to be [=KOed=] at once for Mario to win). Though bosses often [[TechnicolorDeath explode]] after being defeated, this merely seems to a fancy version of EverythingFades unless it happens to a BigBad like Cackletta and Fawful, who are usually [[KnightOfCerebus evil enough]] to warrant being KilledOffForReal.
* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''-based VideoGame/GoldBox games from SSI used the same rules on hitpoints as its tabletop basis: characters reduced to exactly 0 HP are knocked unconscious, characters dropped below 0 HP but above -10 HP go down and are "dying", losing one HP per round unless "bandaged" (which sets them to 0 HP) and a character reduced to -10 HP or less (either from bleeding out or from an powerful attack) are killed.
* ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'' characters have both health and endurance; damage affects both, but total health is always substantially higher than total endurance. Characters are "knocked out" when they reach 0 endurance, but endurance recovers automatically when out of combat. Characters are "maimed" when they reach 0 health, and then only [[{{Permadeath die outright]] if they are damaged while maimed (though some players may enable an option to skip the maiming step and go right to death).
* ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'' doesn't have Mario's allies die or even pass out; because Mario's partners don't have HP, being attacked simply injures them and they can't be switched or fight until the injury recovers. Changed up in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' where Mario's allies have their own HP and they simply become unconscious if they are defeated, although they recover 1 HP after the fight is over. It is also implied Mario simply falls unconscious when his HP reaches zero ([[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou but the game still ends if Mario is defeated]]), but there's several kinds of a NonStandardGameOver that show or at least imply that Mario actually dies.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'', if your entire party is defeated, the scene changes to show the party running back to the inn as if you quit the exploration yourself (with the same music, no less). Also the first Dragon enemy and the Woof-o'-the-Wisp enemies don't die when defeated, but simply come back to their senses and run off, respectively.
* ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'' is inconsistent about this. When a character's HP reaches 0, a window pops up saying "[Character] is dead!", but your MissionControl will say that the character is just unconscious. This is merely a carryover from ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'', where the game is taken from and does have that message.
* In ''VideoGame/TheAllianceAlive'', unconscious characters can be revived with standard healing items or magic, unless the effect is specified as "survivor heal" instead of just "heal". However, a character's HP cap lowers each time they faint or [[BeatingADeadPlayer are attacked while unconscious]], and you lose instantly if any character's max HP reaches 0.
* Your Servants in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' do die when their HP reaches zero, but since they have a Contract with you, this is a mild inconvenience and they recover between battles. The exception is Mash, a pseudo-servant formed in the present and therefore still capable of permanent death - if defeated, she's shown retreating from the frontlines instead of fading away like usual.

* The first ''VideoGame/BangaiO'' game plays this for laughs, since recurring bosses tend to survive their mechs exploding (to Riki and Mami's confusion). Bangai-O's pilots aren't as lucky.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'', if your creature's ship explodes in the Space stage, you don't die, but is revived through cloning.
* Speaking of immortal wingmates, in ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/RogueSquadron'' wingmates who are downed will land on the surface but never will die. This even occurs during the ''Death Star'' level.
* ''VideoGame/DeadInVinland'', being a survival management sim with RPGElements, has this in effect for battles, but {{Permadeath}} otherwise. However, a character who is reduced to 0 hit points in battle is likely to acquire a nasty StatusEffect injury like "Head Trauma" or "Deadly Wound," and will take serious damage to their [[MultipleLifeBars Injury]] meter, leading to {{Permadeath}} if it hits 100%. (Lesser amounts of damage cause less serious injury if they take the character below 10 HP.)

* In the ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]'' series, Commanding Officers are apparently off-limits for either side's troops to shoot at. At first you might think this is because the [=COs=] are far behind the front lines coordinating the battle by radio, but multiple "mission failed" cutscenes in story mode make it clear this was ''NOT'' the case. Hell, many story mode scenes have named characters storming into each other's offices, guns drawn, yet the loser almost always escapes without a shot being fired by either side.
** Averted in Days of Ruin, with [=COs=] actively trying to kill each other, and often succeeding.

* ''VideoGame/HauntingGround'': No matter how many times they stab, shoot, stomp or KickTheDog, Hewie will only make a sad noise then collapse for a few minutes. [[KilledOffForReal Unless you're in Hard Mode...]] The same goes for all of Fiona's stalkers.
* ''VideoGame/ClockTower'': Bobby being a supernaturally empowered demon child, anything Jennifer does to him (poison gas, using a murder of crows to attack him, tricking him into falling down a hole) will only have him down for a minute or so, or until she leaves the map (whichever comes first).

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' Battle Royale, nobody sheds a drop of blood at any point. Completely "eliminating" a player causes a drone to appear and the eliminated player being scanned out with fading holographic projection effect, leaving behind only their items. The "Fly Explosives" Limited-Time Mode outright mentions blasting your opponents "back to the lobby."

* Franchise/{{Tamagotchi}} don't die. They simply return to their homeworld after some time. How well they are cared for determines when they leave: the better you care for it, the longer it will take for them go home. The same idea applies to the [[VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} Eevee]] versions of Tamagotchi: they also don't die, but rather retreat back into their Pokeball and never come back out.

* ''VideoGame/TheEndTimesVermintide'' has two tiers for {{Player Character}}s:

* ''VideoGame/WaterWarfare'' goes the opposite direction in terms of absurdity--you will inexplicably faint from ''getting too wet.'' It's nonlethal because it's only water, but we're still not sure why it suddenly makes you drop unconscious.
** Being drenched in extremely cold water, enough to make you pass out

* ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'' has an example in [[TapOnTheHead Artyom punching the daylights out of enemies with his knife's knuckles]]. The ''Redux'' UpdatedReRelease brings this ability back to ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'', and it carries over into ''VideoGame/MetroExodus''.
* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' and ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' can have your characters bleed out if they are not revived in time, but if they do bleed out completely, they get taken into police custody rather than dying and can get back in the game if the other players secure a hostage. One heist in the sequel takes this to a ludicrous degree where you have to jump out of a plane; if you somehow jump out of the plane with no parachute, you'll go splat into the ground and are taken into police custody anyway.

---> Avatar: "No! There's no one left who can fight! We've lost..."

** Starting with ''New Mystery of the Emblem'', players can follow this trope with their own units. "Casual" mode lets [=KO=]'d characters fight again in the next battle, while "Classic" mode utilizes {{Permadeath}}. The exceptions are Chrom and your player-created Avatar.
** This continues into ''Fates'', only this time Casual mode also affects the main character.

** And once again the Classic/Casual dynamic appears in ''Engage''. Additionally, similar to in the previous game, there are skirmishes labelled as "training", which take place in the castles of allied nations. These skirmishes do not kill characters whose HP are reduced to 0, even on Classic Mode.

* This is most explicit in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games, where every defeat is a KO, and when you're defeated you black/white out temporarily. You are also forced to give a portion of your money to the person who beat you. Oddly enough, in ''[=FireRed=], [=LeafGreen=], Diamond'', and ''Pearl'' versions, after being defeated your character is described as running to the Pokémon Center, so the fact that your character blacks out is now utterly pointless. Also note that in Generation I, being beaten by a wild Pokémon ''also'' cost you half of your money (which later games have explained as being lost in the confusion). A glitch in Generation I allows you to have a party consisting of only fainted Pokémon after depositing others into a PC, which causes the same "blacked out" effect after you take three steps.

* Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure denotes villains defeated non-lethally as "retired", not counting ones who pull a HeelFaceTurn.

* If your patient's vital levels reach zero during an operation in ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter: Under The Knife'', he or she ostensibly doesn't die; another doctor simply takes over and the player character is said to have quit in shame. Near the end game, however, this happens less and when it does it is implied that the other doctor will fail. These scenes also occasionally imply that the main character ''killed himself'' from the shame, instead of just quitting. ** There's a notable exception in the sequel, where you're forced to operate on an active bomb among a crowd of people. If you lose the mission there's a flash of white and the sound of an explosion before the game prompts you to retry, giving little doubt as to the fate of everyone in the room.

* ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'': Unlike the game's [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} predecessor]], every time an opponent is defeated violently, they merely flee or are launched away from the battle, or (in the case with some more plot significant characters) initiate a story cutscene. This makes it impossible to gain [[ExperiencePoints EXP]], since you can't actually kill anyone. The same is true if a party member has their health bar completely depleted in battle; they merely collapse and will eventually revive by themselves after a few turns. Getting your heath depleted by environmental hazards is immediately fatal, however, and [[spoiler:in Chapter 2, a character temporarily joins the party who can actually ''kill'' enemies in battle, which is required if you ([[VideoGameCrueltyPotential for some reason]]) want to reach Chapter 2's [[EarnYourBadEnding bad ending]].]]

* The player in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' can Non Lethal KO opponents with riot batons, cattle prods, and crossbow-fired tranquilizer darts. Although the tranquilizer crossbow averts the trope a bit, as while shooting someone in the body will render them unconscious, a shot to the head will [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome kill them]]. Your character's brother encourages the use of these non-lethal weapons [[spoiler:because he's working with the 'enemy'.]], while two of your co-workers encourage you to kill them all. [[spoiler: Surprisingly enough, they turn out to be the real bad guys.]] The game also hints you along that you should be doing this. The quartermaster will scold the character (read: you, the person controlling the character) for killing too many people in mission one if, in fact, you do go on a shooting spree. Incidentally, you won't get any ammo from him if you do.

** ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' subverts this, however, during [[spoiler:the escape phases and final boss of the [[DownloadableContent Octo Expansion]]]] .As confirmed in [[https://www.reddit.com/r/splatoon/comments/911jwz/splatoon_2_1st_anniversary_interview_with_the/ this interview]], being splatted here is the only time in the series that your character can actually die. If you continue after dying, you instead "go back in time" to when [[spoiler:Agent 8]] was still alive.

* The player in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' can Non Lethal KO opponents with riot batons, cattle prods, and crossbow-fired tranquilizer darts. Although the tranquilizer crossbow averts the trope a bit, as while shooting someone in the body will render them unconscious, a shot to the head will [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome kill them]]. Your character's brother encourages the use of these non-lethal weapons [[spoiler:because he's working with the 'enemy'.]], while two of your co-workers encourage you to KillEmAll. [[spoiler: Surprisingly enough, they turn out to be the real bad guys.]] The game also hints you along that you should be doing this. The quartermaster will scold the character (read: you, the person controlling the character) for killing too many people in mission one if, in fact, you do go on a shooting spree. Incidentally, you won't get any ammo from him if you do.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' series, being "splatted" after sustained enemy team ink fire ([[SuperDrowningSkills or falling in water]]) is barely a mild inconveniece for the Inklings, who can easily go and restore themselves after GivingUpTheGhost. This extends to the Octarian enemies in single player, up and including the FinalBoss himself.
** ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' subverts this, however, during [[spoiler:the escape phases and final boss of the [[DownloadableContent Octo Expansion]].]] As confirmed in [[https://www.reddit.com/r/splatoon/comments/911jwz/splatoon_2_1st_anniversary_interview_with_the/ this interview]], being splatted here is the only time in the series that your character can actually die. If you continue after dying, you instead "go back in time" to when [[spoiler:Agent 8]] was still alive.

*** Also averted straight to hell by Cipher in ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'', whose idea of dealing with interlopers involves taking down their Pokemon, then ''beating the offender black and blue''! You can see it happen best when Dakim nails Vander in the solar plexus - a rare case of human-on-human violence in the franchise.
** If you try to use the Pokemon Refresh feature on a fainted Pokemon, it shows them sleeping but unable to be interacted with until they're revived.
** The trainer can faint in ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'' from taking too much damage or falling from too high a point. You get text saying “everything went black” and re-spawn at camp with text saying “apparently you were rescued”

* ''VideoGame/DCUniverseOnline'' likewise takes this approach due to their heroes (generally) also having a ThouShaltNotKill rule. Regardless of the weapon type or power being used on opponents they are always described as "knocked out." In many cases, the hero player can then apprehend or arrest the enemy after taking them down. Villain players also only knock out their opponents in the combat logs even when using lethal force would make more sense for them. Though in their case, they get more special interactions with non-player characters that explicitly harm or kill them such as knocking them off tall buildings, lighting them on fire, poisoning them, etc. Moreover, players themselves also never "die" as they too are always described as being "knocked out" when lose their HP and need to be revived within ten seconds or they're teleported out of the battle and depending on the difficulty, unable to participate any further.

* ''VideoGame/DCUniverseOnline'' likewise takes this approach due to their heroes also having a ThouShaltNotKill rule. Regardless of the weapon type or power being used on opponents they are always described as "knocked out." In many cases, the hero player can then apprehend or arrest the enemy after taking them down. Villain players also only knock out their opponents in the combat logs even when using lethal force would make more sense for them. Though in their case, they get more special interactions with non-player characters that explicitly harm or kill them such as knocking them off tall buildings, lighting them on fire, poisoning them, etc. Moreover, players themselves also never "die" as they too are always described as being "knocked out" when lose their HP and need to be revived within ten seconds or they're teleported out of the battle and depending on the difficulty, unable to participate any further.

* ''VideoGame/DCUniverseOnline'' likewise takes this approach due to their heroes also having a ThouShaltNotKill rule. Regardless of the weapon type or power being used on opponents they are always described as "knocked out." Villain players also only knock out their opponents in the combat logs even when using lethal force would make more sense for them. Though in their case, they get more special interactions with NPCs that explicitly harm or kill them such as knocking them off tall buildings, lighting them on fire, poisoning them, etc.

* In the ''Videogame/{{Yakuza}}'' series, defeated enemies are always shown holding their sides and begging for mercy but otherwise still very much alive. Even if you've impaled them with sharp objects, suplexed them into railings or even outright shot them with guns, no one dies in a fight. According to WordOfGod, Kiryu has never killed anyone; the fandom has, in turn, turned explaining how series antagonists survive some of the things Kiryu puts them through[[note]]such as smashing a urinal with a guy's face and then dropkicking him through a fourth story window, to just name one[[/note]] into a spectator sport, with the most overblown and ridiculous ones usually winning.