The Best Games With Permadeath That Will Make You Extra Cautious

Most games go with the philosophy that if you die, you should retry from a designated checkpoint, or they offer ample opportunities to revive fallen comrades. However, there are a select few that are more realistic. It’s particularly harsh when your game features permadeath tied to party members permanently perishing in battle. Goodbye, Rich! So long, Miranda! We hardly knew ye, Steve! Your carefully crafted custom crew is unceremoniously slain like that bit in Game of Thrones where several people are locked in a vault with dragons. But you’ll remember them, and you’ll curse the enemy who cruelly took them from you. Well, either that or you’ll reload an old save in a desperate act of defiance.

There are a variety of genres here, as permadeath has a way of seeping in where it’s least expected, nipping at your ankles like a plague-ridden rodent. Roguelike games are a common way to impose permanent death by ending runs immediately. There are a few here, but making it the entire list would be cheating. Instead, in our list of the best games with permadeath you’ll see titles with permadeath baked into their DNA, as well as those with permadeath modes as an unlockable or DLC update to add extra challenge.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

• Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5
• Developer: Square Enix
• Release date: September 30, 2025

It took way longer than it should if we’re being brutally honest, but Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is the definitive version of the classic PlayStation Tactical RPG. You begin this epic adventure as the rookie squire-in-training Ramza, one of the younger nobles from the Beoulve family, who finds his destiny tied to the fate of the land. Full of twists and turns that draw many comparisons to the very best that books and films offered at the time of its original release in the 1990s, Final Fantasy Tactics has been a fan favorite ever since.

With this port’s quality-of-life changes–such as rebalanced experience systems and lower requirements to progress through its job system–it’s easy to forget that there are frequent moments of peril for those who don’t save often. Random encounters are now optional, but you don’t get a preview of the enemies beforehand. This leads to common scenarios–four seemingly harmless Chocobos pecking your team to death, while also healing each other for all the damage you deal to them, being one of the more egregious.

However, it’s worth persevering through all the hardship for one of the best JRPG stories and the most satisfying implementation of the Final Fantasy Job system. The best part is being able to take this adventure on the go if you have a Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, or one of the many other handheld hybrid devices available.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch
• Developer: Intelligent Systems
• Release date: July 16, 2019

Fire Emblem Three Houses isn’t the first time we’ve seen diverging paths during a story in this long-running tactical RPG series, but it’s by far the best and doesn’t require buying multiple versions to experience the full story. It begins with your character (hereon named Byleth for the sake of this entry) rescuing three nobles who attend a school for officers-in-training. Hired as a teacher, you gain the trust of the three heirs to the nations of Fódlan, before eventually siding with one of them against the others.

Normally, anime-style art codifies who the heroes and villains are, but Fire Emblem Three Houses manages to skirt the line between these roles for every faction, making all of them sympathetic and relatable. Even when compared to Fire Emblem: Fates, another game in the series that tried this approach, the choices you make are agonizing because you genuinely bond with several members of a faction that you could now be at war with. If you’re not careful, you’ll begin losing vital characters for good, including those with rare Fire Emblem Three Houses classes that are tough to replace.

On top of that, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a culmination of everything that worked in the 3DS era of Fire Emblem games, with the series’ staple permadeath system being tweakable to your preference. Everything is optional, so if you’d rather not cheat the system, you can play at your own pace instead. Once you’ve eventually exhausted all of the possible scenarios, the DLC adds a fourth, completely unrelated scenario that turns the game’s story on its head. You don’t need to play any other game in the series to get the most out of Three Houses, and it’s sure to keep you entertained for at least a few dozen hours.

XCOM 2

• Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, Linux, OS X
• Developer: Firaxis Games
• Release date: February 5, 2016

The narrative hook of XCOM 2 is a massive part of what makes the series’ reboot so appealing: what if the aliens won? Human society in the subsequent years has largely been assimilated into the collective fold. As the appointed commander of the XCOM resistance, it’s your duty to face these almost impossible odds, break the chains that suppress humanity, evict these parasitic invaders, and reclaim Earth once and for all.

Much like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, your options are rather meager to begin with. As you acquire new technology, your roster of freedom fighters will become far more formidable, but your group’s mere presence will also increase in notoriety. With the ever-present threat of a doomsday countdown, rushing into perilous situations is easily done, and losing even one unit can be catastrophic. That said, the puzzle of solving each scenario is what makes XCOM 2 so special.

Things get even better with the War of the Chosen expansion, which is more of a pseudo-sequel. It adds a bunch of new factions to bolster your rebellion’s capabilities, as well as enhancements to the strategy layer, new environments to explore, and ways to customize your game for near-endless replayability. However, it also adds an elite task force, known as The Chosen, whose sole purpose is to quash your revolution in whatever ways they can: murder, kidnapping, or manipulation. Finding their strongholds and putting an end to their operations is the only way to survive, if your resistance can live long enough, that is.

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Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

• Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, iOS
• Developer: Capcom
• Release date: January 24, 2017

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard brings new life to a long-running survival horror series that was starting to show signs of decay. With a new first-person perspective, it amplifies the creepiness with its unsettling bayou setting, a cast of unhinged and cannibalistic misfits, and a claustrophobic house where the next scare is likely around the corner. It’s by far the scariest Resident Evil game, and the horrors are even more unsettling if you turn it into a VR game via a compatible headset.

But why is Resident Evil 7: Biohazard in a list about games with permadeath? After its release, a minigame fittingly named “Ethan Must Die” was released alongside the Banned Footage Vol. 1 DLC, which gives him 12 item slots, a codex watch, and a knife. There are no checkpoints, altered enemy placements, and many new traps in the house. To assist Ethan, there are randomized crates that either contain valuable loot or trigger an explosion upon opening.

Dying is particularly brutal, as it will set you back to the beginning of the game, with a statue epitaph placed where you perished that contains a random item from your previous run’s inventory. It also redistributes and relocates all the crates, even though the enemy and trap placement is otherwise fixed, so while you do have the advantage on many things with each subsequent run, gathering loot is a sadistic lottery that may not be worth playing the further in you get. As the hardest challenge Resident Evil 7: Biohazard has to offer, we recommend mastering the main campaign first before committing to finishing this nightmare scenario.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn

• Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4
• Developer: Square Enix
• Release date: November 11, 2022

For those who think that Final Fantasy Tactics is easy, you should probably give Tactics Ogre: Reborn a shot. Directed and written by Yasumi Matsuno, who would later do the same for Final Fantasy Tactics, this fantasy epic tells the tale of siblings Denam and Catiua as they rise in resistance against an oppressive kingdom.

What makes Tactics Ogre: Reborn so appealing is the fact that your choices truly matter. While Final Fantasy Tactics had an epic, albeit linear campaign, this RPG has pivotal moments where you can side with or rebel against key factions, sometimes facing impossible decisions that test your morals to their limit. This dynamically changes which enemies you’ll face in upcoming battles, and ultimately the game’s eventual ending.

As for the permadeath, it’s a notable part of Tactics Ogre: Reborn and why it’s one of the hardest RPGs ever made, but not the main focus. Instead, the crux of the challenge lies in preparing your army by recruiting like-minded individuals and having them participate in mock battles, which eliminates the risk of permadeath while they’re training. However, the main reason that Tactics Ogre: Reborn is significantly harder is the introduction of mandatory level caps before key battles. While there should be an option to turn it off, those who relish in more tactical fights and careful preparation will appreciate the challenge.

You also have a rewind feature in case you make a short-term blunder, swinging the difficulty in your favor a little bit. Other quality-of-life features, such as showing turn order and a simpler progression system, also make it a bit fairer. We reckon this is the most difficult game on this list, but it’s immensely gratifying when you overcome near-impossible odds.

Darkest Dungeon

• Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
• Developer: id Software
• Release date: January 19, 2016

While it combines both roguelike and RPG gameplay, Darkest Dungeon is very much its own beast. You begin with a motley crew of adventurers as you begin exploring a manor estate. Unbeknownst to you and your fellow party members, it’s filled with cultists and monsters beyond human understanding, along with memoires that eventually lead them to discover the source of all the corruption in the land.

Party members are extremely vulnerable, and it’s not just your health that you need to keep an eye on. Sanity plays a huge part in Darkest Dungeon, as witnessing the death of another party member or becoming affected by blights will mess with their minds. If their stress reaches dangerous levels, they may become mad and act against the player’s instructions or have heart attacks that leave them on the brink. You don’t even need to be fighting for a character to drop dead suddenly.

With 14 different classes in the base game to choose from, each with attacks and skills that only work in specific slots, you’re going to have to plan each battle strategically to keep your party mentally stable and physically fit. You’ll want to train a second or third team, as your primary squad will likely need to recover in town after a run. Patience will be a virtue after all.

Doom Eternal

• Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Linux, macOS, iOS
• Developer: id Software
• Release date: March 19, 2020

Now for something a little more mainstream that comes with a dedicated hardcore mode. Doom Eternal marks the peak of id Software’s ultra-violent reboot of the 90s FPS game. As the legend of the Doom Slayer resonates across the universe, the forces of Hell unleash a full-on invasion of Earth, corrupting its citizens and spreading its influence at an alarming rate. Desperate, humanity calls upon the Slayer to rid the planet of this demonic presence.

Sure, Doom: The Dark Ages, the prequel of this modern trilogy, is also a decent way to blast the time, with two different takes on permadeath. Yet, with its more melee-focused combat, it loses some of what made Doom Eternal such a blast to play. Eternal’s arsenal of explosive weapons each has mods, allowing you to tinker with the functionality of your gear. For example, the Combat Shotgun can become a fully automatic revolving blaster that minces anything unfortunate to meet you, or a grenade launcher with highly volatile explosive rounds. It’s a fun playthrough with many collectibles on offer, so consult our Doom Eternal full walkthrough for everything you need to know.

So, what about Ultra-Nightmare difficulty? This is the permadeath mode, where the entire campaign progress is at severe risk of being wiped out. You don’t have to complete it all in one sitting, but should you get a bit too cocky, you’ll likely become Cacodemon chow before long. Once that happens, it’s back to the beginning for you, and the forces of Hell will laugh at your incompetence. At least you can vent by unloading all your guns into their demonic hides.

Minecraft

• Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
• Developer: Mojang Studios
• Release date: 18 November 2011

There’s a good chance that you have at least seen gameplay of Minecraft before. Its reach is wider than many of the other games on this list combined. As with a lot of survival games, you need to initially make a base to weather the oncoming hordes of enemies that can attack you in the night, but aside from that, you’re free to explore. Eventually, you’ll be smelting Minecraft resources, discovering where Nether Portals lead, and discovering how to find The End.

And then there’s Hardcore mode. This allows experts who know everything about the game, from how to craft all the Minecraft armor types to what you need to make a Minecraft lava farm, to take on a new challenge. By understanding how all the mechanics work, you’ll waste less time flapping around aimlessly, thus improving your survivability. However, if you are unprepared for the next major area or get unlucky by encountering an unexpected foe, that could spell the end.

Even though you can repair Minecraft tools, there’s no coming back from death here. So when you do eventually fall too far, get blown up by a Creeper, or ambushed by an Enderman, that’s it. Every fortress you’ve built. All your Minecraft crops. Every vista, village, temple, and ruin. Gone. It works slightly differently if you’re playing Minecraft multiplayer with friends, as if you die in-game, you cannot rejoin that server, but your friends can carry on in their attempts to slay the Ender Dragon and beat the game.

Diablo 4

• Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
• Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
• Release date: June 5, 2023

Diablo 4 is the latest in Blizzard’s action RPG series that was more than six years in the making. It has your chosen hero become corrupted and bound to the demon Lilith, who now walks the mortal plane after being summoned by cultists. To rid yourself of your curse, you must pursue Lilith while masterfully upgrading your class’s ability tree to make powerful builds, to defeat the many monsters that infect the land of Sanctuary. Veterans will recognize the classes: axe-wielding Barbarians, dead-raising Necromancers, and spell-slinging Wizards, among others, and all play very differently from each other.

However, the main appeal of Diablo 4 is the hunt for the best loot. Plenty of side activities have the chance to drop weapons, armor, and trinkets that give unique effects. Some change your skills’ properties, such as the number of shots a fireball blasts per use, while others affect the type of damage you deal to enemies. In fact, there’s so much going on, including an expansion and a brand new season every few weeks, that you can consult all of our Diablo 4 guides to find the latest best builds for your chosen class.

Just like previous games in the series, for the ultimate challenge, there is the Hardcore mode. Much like Doom Eternal, you get access to the full game, all of the same upgrades, spells, classes, you name it. However, should you get surrounded by enemies and shanked, or a boss monster claps you with a devastating attack, that’s it: your save is permanently deleted. Obviously, we only really recommend this if you’ve absolutely exhausted all other modes and expansions and still feel you’ve not had enough punishment.

Hunt: Showdown 1896

• Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
• Developer: Crytek
• Release date: August 27, 2019

Hunt: Showdown 1896 (formerly known as just Hunt: Showdown) is one of a few FPS game spinoffs dubbed ‘extraction shooters’. The idea of this subgenre is that all of your loot that you gather is fair game upon your death. If you were loaded with top-tier guns and somehow get careless, allowing yourself to get ambushed and killed by another player, your loot is likely now theirs. This known peril keeps you on your toes, and it’s the reason games like Escape from Tarkov are popular among fans of this concept.

However, we feel that Hunt: Showdown 1896 goes further. What it does differently is put it in a gritty Bayou setting with guns you’d see in a Western film. Therefore, instead of modern firearms that fire plenty of rounds a second, you’ll need to time your shots carefully. On top of that, monsters roam the area, from giant spiders to reanimated corpses with their heads stuck in spiked vices. You can play this one with a trusted ally or two who have your back as you track down the target beast. Just be careful once you manage to take it down, as there could very well be other players lurking in the shadows, waiting to take the bounty for themselves.

If you fancy giving some gunslinging in the Wild West a try, but are scared that you’ll get snuffed out immediately, we have a Hunt Showdown Beginners Guide that’s filled with tips to keep you alive. We recommend that you sneak around, play with a friend, and organize a trap or two to get the jump on would-be assassins. After all, going in all guns blazing is only going to get you killed out there in the sticks.

Spelunky 2

• Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
• Developer: Mossmouth, Blitworks
• Release date: September 15, 2020

Spelunky 2 is as tough a roguelike as it can get when it comes to how it handles death. Having survived Olmec’s Cave in the first game, Guy Spelunky (yes, that’s his name) married a woman named Tina, and they both had a daughter called Ana. In some rather questionable parental logic, Ana’s parents answer a ‘calling’ to the moon with an ominous dread that maybe Olmec isn’t gone after all, and set out without their child.

However, now playing as a slightly older Ana, you set out to find your parents. Structurally, it’s similar to the original in many ways, including every death resulting in a harsh penalty of having to start from the beginning. It’s somewhat harsh, but there are a few things you can do to mitigate the risk, such as throwing unconscious enemies into the path of an arrow trap. If you can make it through each level with your dog you’ll gain an extra heart, but it’s all over once you run out of life entirely. It’s not all doom and gloom, as each run can bring discoveries that Ana logs in her journal, which you can read at any time in case you don’t recognize a trap or hazard.

It can be tough going if you’re not an Aztec temple-raiding expert, so we have a Spelunky 2 Beginner’s Guide filled with tips and tricks to ensure your runs don’t immediately conclude within seconds. Oh, and don’t resort to petty crime either, unless you really want your run to end with some shotgun pellets to the face.

Baldur’s Gate 3

• Platforms: PC, MacOS, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5
• Developer: Larian Studios
• Release date: August 3, 2023

Heralded as one of the best RPGs ever made and Larian Studios’ magnum opus, Baldur’s Gate 3 captures the spirit of what makes the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons so compelling. You, as one of the many classic classes, and your party of misfits, are brought together with one common purpose: getting the Mind Flayer parasites out of your head before you become one. Your recruited companions soon become friends that you get to know very well, sometimes very intimately. There’s a reason fans love Astarion’s sassy quips, Karlach’s enthusiastic outlook on life, and Lae’zel’s bluntness. Depending on what happens, you’ll experience one of many Baldur’s Gate 3 endings to cap off your lengthy adventure.

However, as with most turn-based RPG epics, your time with each character can be cut short. Permadeath in Baldur’s Gate 3 is a constant threat. Sure, you can use a resurrection scroll, Revive spell, or even pay a shrivelled husk to bring back your fallen party members. But for added spiciness, you could just, you know… not? On top of all that, there are key story decisions that can result in them dying, or even worse: leaving the party. The horror!

Of course, leaving some members to rot on the ground is unwise. For those who know why Gale’s demise is catastrophic, you now know why having him in your party during a self-imposed Ironman playthrough is essentially a death wish. Additionally, there is also the “Honour Mode,” where a full party wipe deletes your save file, adding to the peril. However, should you complete the entire game, you’ll get some neat dice to hoard away like a dice dragon.

Into The Breach

• Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, Linux, MacOS
• Developer: Subset Games
• Release date: February 27, 2018

From the creators of FTL: Faster Than Light, Into The Breach is a more roguelike take on the tactical combat seen from previous games on this list. You are humanity’s last hope against invading alien bugs known as the Vek, who are hellbent on destroying all of humanity’s power grids, plunging them into darkness and, therefore, vulnerable to a full-scale assault. With your mechs, tanks, and other units, you can disrupt their televised attacks by pushing them out of the way with punches or ammunition blasts. Knocking them into hazards or making them accidentally attack each other is the key to winning battles.

Each time you lose all your units or your power runs out, your Time Traveler will activate a rift, allowing them to return to the first day. Your selection of missions is random, including the layouts, side objectives, and enemy formations. Before long, you’ll be ending the war in a high-stakes raid on the Vek’s hive, hoping that all your hard work pays off.

Completing objectives is essential to unlocking new time travelers, unit types, and other critical upgrades to turn the tide. You can also spend Reputation earned throughout your time on an island to get extra power for the grid, reactor cores to improve your units, and new weapons to assist in battle. Since every battle only lasts a handful of turns, its snappy runs are almost endlessly replayable, even if you are likely going to lose a few helpful hands along the way.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

• Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
• Developer: BioWare
• Release date: May 14, 2021

This entry contains major spoilers for the end of Mass Effect 2.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is the complete BioWare Sci-Fi trilogy, widely considered one of the greatest epics of all time. As Commander Shepherd of the Normandy space frigate, you travel across the galaxy in pursuit of a rogue agent, all the while fending off alien threats and gathering allies with whom you develop close bonds. If you’re just starting, we have a roundup of Mass Effect guides for the entire trilogy in one place.

While all three games are now available in one collection, there was a time when all three were separate, with the Xbox 360 version allowing players to import their crew from the first game to the second. Between parts two and three, it’s a little more complicated. Ominously dubbed “The Suicide Mission,” this final level has you and your crew infiltrating a Collector base to thwart the plans of Harbinger, a Reaper who has brainwashed the Collector General. Tasks involve fighting the Collectors and destroying a “Human Reaper,” while liberating humans imprisoned by these aliens. However, and the mission name heavily hints at this, there is a good chance that some, if not all, of your crew will meet their maker by the end of the game.

The worst bit is that every death is potentially preventable, but only if you meet certain criteria throughout the game. Some are tied to loyalty missions or events occurring afterwards, as you probably expect. However, less obvious conditions include speaking with specific crew members to purchase ship upgrades, or knowing when to steal and install the Reaper IFF. Even if you do everything correctly with a fully upgraded Normandy and a 100% loyal crew, assigning the wrong squad member to a team can jeopardize their chances of survival. Remember, everyone in this mission can survive. It’s up to you to work out how.