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{{trope}}
[[File:ohpwimage_6294.png|link=Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
{{quote|''"It's like you touch the top of the building, you die, you touch the ceiling, you die, you touch the floor, you die, too far to the right, you die, too far to the left, you die, you die, you die, you die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, '''die'''!!"''|''[[
A character who dies from a single hit or other incident of damage. Needless to say, [[Contractual Boss Immunity|this rarely applies to bosses,]] unless they are of the [[Zero Effort Boss|Zero-Effort variety]]. In older video games, this was frequently true of ''the protagonist''; nowadays, the [[Player Character]] is usually only a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]] if the programmers/developers ''want'' the game to be [[Nintendo Hard]].
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{{examples}}
* Most sidescrolling ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' games did this. Unless Mario gained a powerup, he died with one hit. ''[[
** ''[[
** The final star in ''[[
* While not a Mario offshoot, ''[[
* ''[[Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story
* Hexers can become this in [[
* In ''[[Ultima Underworld]] II'', Krilner the Coward is a character who only has 1 hit point. You can confirm this by casting a certain spell on him to read his statistics.
* As quoted above, ''[[Silver Surfer (
** [[Everything Is Trying to Kill You|The rubber ducky will kill you.]]
* The ''[[Pokémon]]'' Shedinja is a unique example of this in a game that doesn't usually use it. While lifebars do exist in-game, Shedinja only ever has a single hit point, making its own life bar rather pointless. It's kept from being a [[Joke Character|novelty Pokémon]] by its ability, "Wonder Guard", which protects it from all damage that isn't super effective. Nonetheless, the first attack that damages it defeats it outright (see [[The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort]]). It's also completely vulnerable to indirect damage (including damage from things like [[Standard Status Effects]], recoil, weather, Spikes)... really anything but regular damage. Still, it gives Shedinja the odd honor of being not so useful in the standard metagame (due to the popularity of entry hazard Stealth Rock), yet fairly useful in the Ubers metagame, where few Pokémon even carry anything to KO it.
** Plus, any powerful Pokémon with a Focus Sash or Focus Band can survive a would-be fatal hit with exactly 1 HP. With enough luck, a powerful enough Pokémon can sweep through an entire opponent's team with just 1 HP. Blaziken and Heracross are the most known for this, gaining a bonus on an attack called Reversal that hits harder the lower your life is.
** Some tactics turn a 1 HP Pokémon into KO-ing machines. Like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye7b3bOQ6lY Magikarp], or a Level 1 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPdwIpvsv-8 Rattata]. No opponent worth his salt will fall for it, but it's still funny to see Level 1 Rattata banned from tournaments. Now that Sturdy acts as a Focus Sash, people now run a level 1 Aron with Sturdy, Endeavor, and a Shell Bell in a sandstorm. Sturdy prevents Aron from going down in one hit. Endeavor takes the foe's HP to equal the user's. Shell Bell restores 1/8th of the damage dealt by the holder's attack, so when Aron uses Endeavor it will heal up to full health so Sturdy will work again. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJxvmtCwAZY Shown in this video.]
* [[Older Than the NES]]: Every single [[The Golden Age of Video Games|classic 1980's arcade game]], from ''[[Space Invaders]]'' (released in 1978) to ''[[
** ''1943: The Battle of Midway'' (and in the 90's, the sequels ''1941: Counter Attack'' and ''1944: The Loop Master''.) gives you a life meter, but ''do'' note that these games give you just ''one'' life - lose it and it's game over.
** ''1942 Joint Strike'' gives you a life meter ''and'' multiple lives, but no continues.
** ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]'' (Atari Games) and Dragon Buster (Namco) were among the first arcade games to have a [[Life Meter]] system (though in the former, your health was displayed numerically, rather than as a bar, although the latter had both). Later, ''[[Rampage]]'' had a [[Life Meter]] as well.
** In ''Crazy Climber'', a falling object doesn't kill you if both hands have a secure grip. (It dislodges one hand.)
** Some games allowed you to take two (or more) hits before dying. Usually, the first hit destroys your shields/armor/whatever, and the second kills you. Arcade games of this type include ''Toy Pop'', ''[[Ghosts
** Some classic arcade games let you command multiple ships at once, or [[Combining Mecha|join ships into a more powerful ship]]. Each ship was a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]], but losing one ship didn't end your turn if you had another. The most famous is ''Galaga'', but ''Space Duel'', ''Moon Cresta'', ''Eagle'', ''Tac Scan'', and several ''Galaga'' sequels also worked this way.
** The arcade version of ''[[Rolling Thunder]]'' has a life gauge with eight hit points, but it's nothing more than a cruel joke. A single touch by an enemy will reduce the player's life gauge by four points, while enemy bullets and laser traps will kill him instantly. So in reality, the player only has two hit points. The NES port and the sequel had a more honest representation of the player's health, while in the Genesis-exclusive ''Rolling Thunder 3'', the player actually has three hit points on the Normal difficulty (allowing him to survive at least one enemy bullet per life).
* ''[[Bushido Blade]]'' is that rare [[Fighting Game]] where both you and your opponent are a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]]... at least in theory. In practice, only a couple of moves had this quality, and it usually took a few hits before the lethal blow.
** Talking about fighting game examples... [[
** ''Karate Champ'' on the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] also has this, in order to keep things more realistic... except it's the '''match''' or '''round''' that is over when you hit or get hit by the opponent... but '''not the opponent''' himself.
* The original ''Way of the Exploding Fist'' had this too, but it was emulating traditional martial arts tournament style, where any telling blow ended the round with a point for the striking opponent.
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* The "Heaven or Hell" difficulty in ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'' grants this quality to every single character - Dante and all of his enemies. Yes, even the bosses. What makes it tricky is that Dante can die from taking damage off environmental obstacles, which of course do nothing to enemies. And then there are some enemies which need to be struck at a weak point, whereas Dante has no such advantage.
** "Hell or Hell" mode in the fourth game plays this the traditional way, although to compensate for it, you get a stock of 3 [[Auto Revive]] items to help you that are replenished whenever you reach a checkpoint.
* Most early ''[[
** What makes this funny is that he could be one-shotted by bumping into ''balloons'', [[Everything Is Trying to Kill You|of all things]] (Granted they are cute monster balloons, but still...), making his case very obscure.
** "Standard" mode in ''Act Zero'' plays like this, with the added condition of only giving the player one life to go with it. Should you get hit by any bomb blast (including [[Hoist
* A late mission in ''[[Zone of the Enders]]'' sees Jehuty's AI Ada infected with a virus. While in this condition, any kind of damage will instantly destroy Jehuty, forcing the player to resort to sniping enemies from afar or risk a game over.
* The Eric Chahi game ''[[Another World (
* ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'', a freeware game made from various NES and SNES sprites, takes this as far as possible. Almost everything that touches the player character will cause him to explode [[Ludicrous Gibs|in a shower of red pixels]], except the [[Castlevania|Medusa heads]] and [[Super Mario Bros.|Cheep Cheeps]] which knock him around (usually into something dangerous). Being hit by a flying <s>apple</s> <s>giant cherry</s> Delicious Fruit or [[A Glass of Chianti]] is just as deadly as crashing into one of the innumerable [[Spikes of Doom]].
** Lampshaded in the [[Fan Sequel]] ''I Wanna Be The Fangame'', where the Kid is brought into a ''[[Pokémon]]'' battle screen, and his [[Life Meter]] starts at 1/1.
* Speaking of ''[[Castlevania]]'', ''[[Haunted Castle (
** There is also a way of becoming a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]] in ''[[Castlevania: Circle of the Moon]]'' - use the Black Dog and Pluto DSS cards together and you turn into a skeleton. However, while in this mode, one attack will kill you.
*** The advantage of this mode is that while Up + B will usually throw a skeleton bone, randomly it will throw a big skeleton bone. Anything it comes into contact with - mook, boss, whatever - gets a guaranteed 9999 damage, thus turning ''them'' into One Hitpoint Wonders.
** ''[[Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia]]'' has the death ring, an accessory which grants a massive attack boost, but turns Shanoa into a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]]. Very useful in a game that gives [[Bragging Rights Reward|Bragging Rights Rewards]] for defeating bosses without getting hit [[Nintendo Hard|once]]
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' actually plays this trope the other way around at one point. About halfway through the game, you will be controlling one character on a small island. The random battles consist of two monster types that have a single hit point each. On top of that, they start the battle with a [[Standard Status Effects|HP Sap effect]], meaning they often die before anyone gets a turn. They're almost completely useless for anything but decursing an item that requires you fight 255 battles with it equipped, but you can steal Elixirs or Megalixirs from them if you're fast enough.
** They do have one extremely useful benefit; if Gau ever ran into them in the Veldt (where almost every enemy in the game would reappear), he could imitate them. If Strago was in the party when Gau did so, he could learn a couple [[Game Breaker]] spells (like Mighty Guard, which made boss battles a complete joke).
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** The monsters, should they get a chance to hit you, do about average damage for this point in the game. So despite the lameness of their HP stat and their Seizure status, they can pose a challenge for a Level 1 character.
* In the NES version of ''Dragon's Lair'', the player actually has a life bar, but most hazards in the game kill him instantly, such as touching a stationary, ordinary door. In fact, the ONLY two enemies in the game that do not spell instant death are the bats and the skulls. Why did they bother?
* The actual [[
* In ''[[
* In the ''Delta Force'' games, you can only take one, maybe two shots if you have armor. However, the enemies also can't take more than 1 high-powered shot, even to limbs (which is more realistic than other games, if you think about it), and they tend to be uninteligent, relatively stationary, and terrible shots.
* The [[Shoot Em Ups|shmup]]/[[RPG Elements|RPG]] hybrid ''[[Sigma Star Saga]]'' is an odd example. Your ''character'' has a lifemeter, but the animation for getting hit shows his ship exploding and a new one flying in from offscreen, like in most shmups.
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** It is justified/handwaved by the plot: The Alien Empire for which the hero works has enough resources to build countless [[We Have Reserves|living ships]] but is lacking decent ''pilots'', so the pilots are teleported from ship to ship and can [[Life Meter|sustain]] the teleportations.
* The old [[Sega Genesis]]/Megadrive game ''[[Ristar]]'' featured this. The highest ([[Self-Imposed Challenge|secret]]) difficulty level not only turned the titular character into a 1HP Wonder, but also a One-''Life'' Wonder; one touch is literal instant death, and all health and 1ups are converted to gems. However, as compensation, the game gives unlimited continues in this mode, meaning death only sends one back to the start of the level.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Ice Climber]]'' had many strange creatures and things kill you in one hit, such as the Topis, falling icicles, and a polar bear with pink shorts and sunglasses! No, really!
* The very first ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' game had anything that was harmful kill you in one hit. Body Armor let you survive up to 3 bullets though.
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* Three of Apogee Software's early CGA games: ''[[Arctic Adventure]]'', ''Pharoahs Tomb'', and ''Monuments Of Mars''. One hit from anything would mean losing a life
** Not to mention that to run the game faster, enemies are circumscribed by their hitboxes to simplify collision detection, so you had to compensate for invisible death-squares around every bad guy. The game even calls this "F.A.S.T. technology" and brags about it in the instructions.
* ''[[
** To access any secrets, [[No Damage Run|No Damage Runs]] (thus, No Death Runs) are a necessity too.
* Another [[Harder Than Hard]] mode example - ''[[Rocket Knight Adventures]]''' hardest difficulty setting starts you off with one life, no continues, and everything kills you in one hit. Take any damage at all, and it's an instant [[Game Over]].
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** It should be noted, Jogurt has 7 movement, which is higher than most characters. Still, since you can't boost any of his stats nor level past 1 (other than by equipping Rings... leaving him still doing effectively 1 damage), he's still the most useless character. Unless you want to work super hard to earn lots of Jogurt Rings to sell for 'unlimited' chump change (less than earned from the defeated enemies...).
* ''[[Gaiares]]'', at least until you get a shield, then your a 6-or-so-hit-point-wonder. unless you die on the final stage, which has no such shield item, which is one of the reasons why that stage (which is ONLY a boss fight) is [[That One Boss/Shoot Em Up|That One Boss]]. Oddly enough, your TOZ can block some bullets.
* All the ''[[Glider]]'' games would make you lose a glider if you hit almost anything that wasn't a prize. Having aluminum foil in ''Glider PRO'' would [[Body Armor
* In ''[[Gradius]]'', if you don't have a force field, the only things your plane can touch without blowing up are power-ups.
* [[Bubsy]], though not in the sequel. [[The Many Deaths of You|At least every death gives you a different death animation]].
* Genzo from ''[[Hammerin Harry
* ''[[Metal Slug]]'' characters die in one hit from bullets, melee weapons, or getting run over by a tank. Unless you pick one particular character in ''Metal Slug 6.''
* If [[Harder Than Hard]] mode examples count, player aircraft in the ''[[Ace Combat]]'' go down with just one missile hit when played on the highest difficulty (except in ''X: Skies of Deception'' where a high enough defence allows you to get away with 90+ , maybe 80+ % damage taken... not that many planes are both that survivable and still good dogfighters). Enemy aircraft, on the other hand, remain just as durable as on normal difficulty.
* The infamously [[Nintendo Hard]] Flash game ''Owata'' (aka ''[[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[Adventure Island]]'' does this. Even though you have what looks like a [[Life Meter]], it's actually the timer. One hit kills you. Tripping on rocks also decreases the meter. Averted in ''[[Adventure Island]]: [[Wii Ware|the Beginning]]'', in which taking hits knocks time off the meter.
* ''[[Little Big Planet]]'' has Sackboy, who basically explodes if he comes in contact with any of the various hazards in the game. The exception is fire, which he can bounce on once before being burnt to a crisp.
* ''[[
** It also has Scaramanga's gun (from ''[[The Man
*** Though it wasn't programed as "this gun kills everything in one hit." It was programmed as "this gun does a ''lot'' of damage". Play with max health handicaps and a body armor pickup. If they shoot you in the foot, you live. A torso show will still kill you, though. Also, Janus is [[Fake Difficulty|immune to the effects of the Golden Gun]]. Janus can be killed from the golden gun on the last (non-bonus) level if you shoot him during one of the windows when he's vulnerable.
*** You could also play with no guns in license to kill mode with everyone running around judo chopping. This essentially turned multiplayer into a game of lethal bumpercars mixed with a [[Benny Hill]] sketch.
* In the ''[[Deadly Rooms of Death]]'' series, the player and everybody else has one hit point, with the exception of very large enemies that [[Asteroids Monster|shrink when you hit them]] (snakes and the rock giant). In addition, some enemies can't be killed with any of your own weapons. Added to this that it is a turn based tactical game with tiny turns, to the point of being a puzzle game, and it was designed by a bunch of total sadists, the series is one of the hardest around. DROD RPG uses HP for the player and the monsters, and employs deterministic statistic-based combat mechanics, which also cause a need for difficult strategizing.
* In ''[[System Shock]] 2'', if you play on Impossible difficulty as an OSA operative, you start with 10HP... which is coincidentally the exact amount of damage done by the very first enemy you encounter, a pathetically weak (on any other difficulty) pipe-wielding parasite zombie. While there are enemies that deal less damage, the fact that you're a one-hit-kill at the very ''start'' of the game means that the Impossible OSA path definitely qualifies for this trope.
* ''[[Jumper (
* ''[[
** You can still survive being shot with machinegun fire and hyper pulse. The good news is that enemies has the same health as you, even bosses.
* Your units in ''[[X-COM]]'' actually have life bars but, until they are experienced and get armor (and it takes a while), for practical purposes they might as well be one of these. The health bars average between 40 and 60 health points, and the weakest alien weapon (Plasma Pistol or Sonic Pistol) does 80 damage. An extremely lucky soldier will survive a single hit, be knocked unconscious from the pain, and then die the following turn from bleeding out. ''Apocalypse'' actually tends to avert this trope, however, as your soldiers start with basic armor that can actually resist a few shots.
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* The freeware game ''[[Mondo Agency]]'' is a rare modern 3D example.
* ''Alex Kidd''. One hit from something and he turns into a ghost, floating to the top of the screen waving his arms with a humorous "mwoop mwoop mwoop" sound. The [[Narm]] almost stops you from being pissed off at being killed from one hit by making you laugh.
* ''[[Dizzy (
* [[Konami]]'s ''Jackal''. Apparently being hit by a single bullet will destroy a jeep, every time.
* [[Crash Bandicoot]] ''lives'' ([[Pun|Or rather dies]]) by this trope (at least in earlier installments), sure you can get Aku-Aku masks to take up to two extra hits, but those tend to be rare unless you die several times in a row between checkpoints (where you're then given a freebie mask upon respawning). Regardless, when Crash is by himself, he croaks at even the slightest contact with an enemy or hazard... even seemingly harmless ones like ''turtles'' and ''skunks''.
* The freeware platformer ''Poyo'' by Lazrael plays this completely straight, but balances it out because the stages are all pretty short.
* The [[Harder Than Hard|Shigurui difficulty level]] in ''[[Muramasa:
* ''[[Crystal Quest]]'' has no armor, but its sequel has five different types as powerups. Most only protect against one kind of hazard, leaving you a One Hit Point Wonder to everything else.
* ''[[Spelunker]]'' is infamous as one of the easiest-to-die characters in video game history. If you don't jump or jump wrong when you get off the elevator, you die. If you step into a pit that's as deep as your ankles, you die. The obscure arcade and Famicom sequels averted this. The remake, ''Spelunker HD'', makes earning extra lives very easy, because you're expected to die so much.
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* The Risk debuff in [[Phantom Brave]] turns anyone into this: any attack, no matter how weak or strong, either kills them instantly or misses them.Quite annoying when a randomly-generated dungeon gives this debuff to a roomful of enemies that you would one-hit kill anyway...
* [[Sly Cooper]] was another example of this, even though you could get up to two horseshoes to withstand additional hits. The sequels actually gave you a health bar, though.
* ''[[
** In ''358/2 Days'', equipping the Extreme ring sets your HP to one, but gives you infinite use of [[Limit Break|Limit Breaks]].
** re:Coded has an unlockable cheat that makes ''everyone'' into an example of this trope.
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* The classic Atari videogame ''[[Star Raiders]]'', the ship goes down in one hit from an asteroid or enemy photon. Fortunately the ship's energy can retain a shield which changes hits from fatal to merely damaging some key component of your ship (at easier levels, there's a chance it won't even hurt). The shield itself is a damageable component, so you are at least two photons away from death.
* Almost every enemy in the ''[[Time Crisis]]'' series can be killed with one shot anywhere, including the finger.
* ''[[Hotel Dusk: Room 215]]'', interrogation sequences. If even one answer you pick causes the person to [[Turns Red|turn red]], 90% of the time you're headed for a [[Game Over]].
* Willy, the protagonist in the classical platformers ''[[Manic Miner]]'' and ''[[
* ''[[Chocobos Dungeon|Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon]]'' has optional mind zones where both you and monster's max hp are dropped to 1. The latter stages are even worse since it only your max hp which is set to 1 while the enemies have more HP than you.
* Probably the [[Ur Example]] of this trope in video gaming was the 1961 game ''Spacewar!'' which was created for the PDP-1 computer, and which had its players dueling each other while maneuvering in the gravity well of a star. If you got hit with a missile from the other guy or hit the star, you were dead. There is only one PDP-1 still in existence, though the game has been ported to numerous platforms ever since.
* The arcade machine in the cantina segment of ''[[Starcraft II]]'' has the game Lost Viking, a [[Bullet Hell]] type shooter. Although you can gain power ups to give you additional "health" you are usually will die to one hit of anything.
* ''[[
** There is also a [[Poison Mushroom|trick power-up]] that temporarily reduces your health to 1. It will return to its previous total in a few seconds if you can survive.
* In the Wanted multiplayer mode of ''~Assassin's Creed~: Brotherhood'', everyone dies in one hit.
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* Duncan died in one hit from anything in the first ''[[Dark Castle]]''. ''Beyond Dark Castle'' combine the level timer with a [[Life Meter]] to allow Duncan to survive some hits at the expense of time.
* In [[FAST Racing League]] your vehicle can only hit any obstacle once before turning into a flaming wreck. Strangely this does not apply to hitting the course walls or other racers, who do no damage, only to flying to the side of the course, hitting walls set to block off your path or running into the flamethrowers which all kill you instantly.
* Hard mode for ''[[Metroid: Other M]]''. You only start with 99 energy (one Engergy Tank) and 5 Missiles; all extra Energy Tanks, Missile Expansions, and Accel Charges are gone. By halfway through the game, most enemies and bosses will do more than a whole energy tank's worth of damage, killing you in a single strike. {{spoiler|Good luck fighting the Metroid Queen this way.}}
** Thank goodness they added the checkpoint feature, so you don't go all the way back like most games, as well as the Sensemove dodge (completely avoid damage, similar to Smash Bros.). Not quite as Nintendo Hard as it otherwise would be, but still extremely hard. Of course, some attacks get past Sensemove (such as Metroid Queen's flames) by having simply too large/lasting of hitboxes to avoid.
** Also, probably nice that you don't have the Extra Final Boss, {{spoiler|Phantoom}}, in Hard mode. It's near enough to Nintendo Hard with all expansions, but trying it in a OHKO situation? Sure, it'd be neat and bragging rights...
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* Lolo of the ''[[Adventures of Lolo|Adventures of Lolo/Eggerland]]'' series is one, as well as Lala, when she's playable.
* Gilgamesh in ''[[The Tower of Druaga]]''.
* In the ''[[Indiana Jones and
* The eponymous chick in ''[[
* Chelnov from the Megadrive/Arcade game ''Atomic Runner'' is probably the wimpest example of this trope. Not only does any given enemy or bullet kill him, but so can the [[What an Idiot!|candles]] you [[Everything Trying to Kill You|obtain power ups]] from. So much for the Atomic Armor!
* In the puzzle game ''[[
* In ''[[Video Game/Killer 7|Killer 7]]'', every enemy in [[Harder Than Hard|Killer8 mode]] can kill the Smiths in one hit (except, luckily, most of the bosses, probably because of [[Puzzle Boss|the different ways they're fought]]).
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[Mega Man (
* In ''[[
* In case you thought the game wasn't [[Nintendo Hard]] enough, a special mode in ''[[
* The ''[[Choujin Sentai Jetman]]'' [[Licensed Game]] has two secret difficulty levels that reduce the life meter to one.
* In ''[[
{{reflist}}
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