Pacifist Run: Difference between revisions

 

== [[Action Adventure]] ==

 

== [[Action Game]] ==

== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==

* In the ''[[Halo]]'' trilogy, not counting bosses in 2/3 you can kill 0 enemies and win.

** the game acts as if you killed the first character even if you circumvent her, due to the game's intent of railroading you into killing. However, given the nature of the game and one could always claim that she was killed by someone else for her failure and/or knowing to much after you escaped and were being framed for the killing.

** ''[[The Nameless Mod]]'' lets you avoid all enemies, including bosses. With some endings, you can finish the game as an [[Actual Pacifist]].

** The game is also notable for there being scenarios that have made players willingly ''abandon'' their Pacifist Runs. It's kind of hard to keep using limited force when witnessing atrocities like {{spoiler|the Belltower massacre at the Alice Garden Pods}} or {{spoiler|Malik's murder}}. Some players reported that {{spoiler|finding Malik's corpse in the Harvester den}} led to a complete murder spree against them.

** However, you can cheat by playing most of the round as another class, getting a high enough scoreboard position, switching to Medic, and then getting a single point without hurting anyone directly.

** Then again, if you have a good team that covers for the medic it's not really that difficult, although on most random pub servers you won't have such a team.

* In ''[[Perfect Dark]]'', the player has the ability to disarm opponents. Most enemies who get disarmed will give up, but some may pull out another gun, pick up the dropped weapon, or attempt to punch the player, in which case you can simply knock them unconscious with a punch or [[Pistol-Whipping|pistol whip]].

* Despite its reputation for [[Ludicrous Gibs|spectacular violence]], ''[[Soldier of Fortune]]'' allows the player to pull this trope off by [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands|blowing weapons out of the enemies' hands]], rendering them non-threatening.

 

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

* There is one player in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' who is actually attempting to level to 70 [http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/01/08/15-minutes-of-fame-noor-the-pacifist/ without killing anything.]

** This also inspires a debate as to whether a player limiting themselves to "only" healing allies really counts; if the allies kill enemies you still get the rewards.

== [[Platform Game]] ==

* In the original ''[[Prince of Persia]]'', it was possible to get past the guards by careful use of parrying and moving forward. Of course, this meant they were still there if you had to go back the way you came... You still had to slay Jaffar, though he came back in the sequel.

* Some of the challenges in ''[[Contra]] 4'' are pacifism challenges, which strip you of all weapons.

** It's actually one of the selling points of the game that you can finish the entire thing without firing a gun at anyone, which is pretty much unique among first-person-perspective games (discounting medieval and fantasy games and the ''Myst'' series and its clones).

** Doesn't stop you punching/kicking the snot out of the opposition, though it's not like you stop to break their necks, so they probably are really just unconscious. Apart from the poor guys that get kicked/thrown/punched off buildings. Besides, those blasted {{spoiler|Pursuit Cops}} deserve it, they're like ninjas, but without the [[Conservation of Ninjutsu|inverse law]]!

** For even more of a challenge, try to get the Test of Faith achievement/trophy on the hardest difficulty setting. It's very satisfying.

** Doing a pacifist run sometimes adds new challenges to a stage. The third stage, for example, has a requirement of not coming into contact with any Tasen soldiers. Otherwise, you won't be able to [[Skippable Boss|skip]] {{spoiler|Krotera}}, and will be forced to kill them.

** From version 1.3 onwards, it is possible to have a perfect zero number of kills in all but the hardest difficulty due to not being able to [[Skippable Boss|skip a boss.]] {{spoiler|Given that the boss is Asha and he nearly killed her brother and called her being upset about it trivial, at least he's the most deserving example.}}

** Version 1.6 also allows a "[[Technical Pacifist|technically]]" pacifist game that can still have a high death toll, as reflecting enemy projectiles back at them no longer counts as a kill. Also, the player can deliberately get hit by rockets so that nearby enemies get killed by [[Splash Damage|friendly fire]].

* This is the point of the missions involving the Spirit of Kindness in ''Yoshi Topsy-Turvy''. The less enemies you kill, the better Happiness Medal you get.

 

== [[Roguelike]] ==

* In ''[[Nethack]]'', 'pacifism' is one of the many voluntary conduct challenges that is tracked by the game (along with atheism, vegetarianism, breatharianism, illiteracy, etc). Put in scare-quotes since in ''[[Nethack]]'' '[[Technical Pacifist|pacifism]]' means that your ''pets'' do all the killing instead of you; you can attack the monsters all you want as long as it's not you that lands the killing blow. (You can also wear a ring of conflict to make the monsters kill each other, though then you have to make sure your (usually very powerful) pets don't kill ''you''.) There actually isn't a single creature in the game who must die (as you can steal any important items instead - this applies to Quest Nemesis, Vlad, Rodney, and the High priest), but winning without you '''or''' your pets killing anything is pretty much impossible.

** There's also the 'never hit with a wielded weapon' conduct, which holds a bit closer to the spirit of the thing (though barehanded martial arts and magic are still permitted). It can also be combined with the above for extra masochism.

 

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series is notable for the possibility of not needing to kill anyone, although you ''will'' be indirectly responsible for the deaths of quite a few people (and, in some cases, populations). In most of the series it is even possible (although very hard) to do an ''evil'' pacifist run.

** ''[[Fallout 3]]'' is, however, impossible to complete without directly killing anything. It starts with the requirement to kill a radroach to complete the second tutorial, and moves on from there.

*** You technically don't ''have to'' kill Mr. House, but simply disable him from the system of the Lucky 38. He eventually will die from it anyway, since he is now removed from his sealed capsule, but the player does not directly kill him, making it (kind of) possible to avoid killing anybody.

*** {{spoiler|Destroying the Brotherhood of Steel}} doesn't need to involve killing anybody. You certainly can go in, guns blazing, and slaughter the whole lot of them (though this isn't recommended as {{spoiler|the Brotherhood}} is almost entirely composed of high level [[Elite Mooks]]), but there is an alternate route in which their base's reactor can be made to self-destruct. Taking this route has the base computer tell the populace to evacuate in an orderly manner. Nevertheless, their faction is effectively destroyed due to their ''resources'' being annihilated, even if their personnel are just fine.

* Feros in [[Mass Effect]] has a mission where you can choose to simply knock out the colonists being controlled by the local [[Eldritch Abomination]] instead of killing them. While this makes the mission much more difficult it is definitely worth it for a Paragon Shepard.

* One player managed to do this in ''[[Might and Magic]] 7'' as shown [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg/msg/a9c3e4fb68765b6d here].

* ''[[Ultima IV]]'' encourages this somewhat, you still have to fight monsters to get Valor points, but letting them run away instead of killing them gives you Compassion points.

** Additionally, killing enemies that aren't evil (hungry or defensive animals and the like) will ''decrease'' your virtue points.

* It's possible to get to the final boss of ''King's Field II'' while only killing one monster: a red mushroom that you can't get past on a narrow path. You're still level 1.

* In ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'', it is possible to get through the entire game without ever using lethal force on any opponent, outside of a couple of armored vehicles and one cutscene-mandated kill (dropping al-Shaheed's bodyguard off the bridge). In fact, this method is quite viable, if Mike has specializations in pistols, stealth, martial arts, and toughness. Make use of tranquilizer darts, stealth with nonlethal takedowns, unarmed attacks, and nonlethal gadgets like shock traps and flashbangs, and Mike can potentially get through the whole game with no kills. The game even keeps track of this (with the "Orphans Created" stat) and rewards the player with perks that boost the effectiveness of his stealth and other nonlethal skills.

 

== [[Shoot'Em Up]] ==

** The original ''[[Star Wars the Arcade Game]]'' [[Vector Game]] gave a bonus if you 'used the force' and took no shots in the Death Star Trench except the single torpedo shot into the exhaust port, instead dodging the massive incoming fire.

* ''[[Ikaruga]]'', by virtue of inheriting twenty years of evolution in the [[Shoot Em Ups|shooter genre]], allows the player to complete the game without ever firing a single shot. Your reward is the rank of Dot Eater.

* ''[[R-Type]] Delta'' and ''Final'' both feature bosses which are automatically destroyed after a certain time; late in the game, bosses will instead kill you if the time limit expires, so the Pacifist Run is to destroy only these bosses. Can be made even harder if combined with a ''no-Force'' run, which severely decreases the defensive abilities of the player's ship.

** All ''[[Gradius]]'' bosses -- including the final bosses -- self-destruct after a certain time, as well. Of course [[Anticlimax Boss|most of them don't fight back anyway]].

** ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' also allows you to take out all of the bosses using non-lethal means. Unlike the other games though, it actually affects the cutscene afterward. The difference is really subtle leading to many players thinking Kojima was lying when he said you could save them.

** Even ''MGS4'''s online mode gets in on this, giving players the "Pigeon" ranking if they have a suitable ratio of kills to knockouts.

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'' lets you do a pacifist run one step at a time. Each of its stages are mission-based, letting you do a perfect no-kills stealth run once you're properly prepared, even against a missile tank supported by thirty troops.

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid Rising]]'' has [http://www.qj.net/qjnet/news/raiden-can-opt-not-to-kill-enemies-in-mgs-rising.html confirmed] it will have a Pacifist Run, and will award an Achievement for it.

* In ''[[Splinter Cell]]'', it is possible to complete the game with only one overt kill, which is a required mission objective. This is usually accomplished with liberal use of the "sticky camera" pseudoweapon to knock enemies out.

** Three mandatory assassination mission objectives aside, in ''Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory'' it is possible to complete the game without killing any enemies. Mission requirements aside (e.g. knocking out a guard so a helicopter will come) it is possible to complete the game without knocking out more than three enemies (Bathhouse boiler room), and perhaps fewer.

* ''[[Second Sight]]'' tracks your "morality" score for each level of the game, which starts at 100% and decreases with each enemy you kill. Players can avoid killing enemies by tranquilizing them, sneaking past, luring them into hazardous terrain features, allowing NPC allies to kill them, or tricking them into killing each other. It appears that only four enemies, (Not counting your involuntary initial manifestations of Psy-Attack, and improved telekinesis) actually have to be killed. {{spoiler|They're clones of the main character}}. Oddly, even without killing anyone else the big bad will still call you out for all the bodies you stepped over to reach him.

** He ''means'' stepped over. The game also keeps track of how many km of "muddy feet" you walked per level i.e.: how far you walked with your shoes covered in blood from enemies you killed. Yeuuchh...

 

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' doesn't normally lend itself to Pacifist Runs, since you need kills to level up. However, ''Thracia 776'' allows you to non-lethally KO enemies and hold capture them - in fact, you can steal their equipment and use it for yourself when you do! The only limitation is that, in order to capture a foe, the enemy's Build stat must be lower than that of the unit doing the capturing (Then again, Fin, who has ''20'' Build, is available from the start of the game), and when you use the capture command, the capturing unit will have his stats reduced for the turn.

* In ''[[Jagged Alliance]] 2'' you can finish the game without killing anyone except the queen and without liberating any towns just by cutting across country to the capital, sneaking past the soldiers there, and killing the queen before any of her guards arrive.

== [[Wide Open Sandbox]] ==

* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]''. You ''can'' minimize all killing in the game with your trusty lasso - aside from times you ''must'' kill, such as the gatling gun missions - but it's [[Nintendo Hard]] to do the ''entire'' game that way.

 

{{reflist}}