Permadeath

A game mechanic in which the death of the player's character is permanent; there is no respawning at a checkpoint, no save reloading, and no second chance. When the character dies, the run (or the entire save file, in its strictest implementation) ends, and the player must start over from the beginning. Permadeath is the defining feature of the roguelike genre, where it serves a specific design purpose: every resource decision, whether to use a healing item now or save it for later, whether to engage or retreat, carries real weight because the consequences are irreversible. This creates a quality of tension and focus impossible to replicate when death has no cost. In some games, permadeath exists as an optional mode: Diablo IV Hardcore, Minecraft Hardcore, XCOM's Ironman mode, and The Binding of Isaac all offer permanent death as a challenge layer on top of a game that normally allows retries. Some narrative games use permadeath for named companions (Fire Emblem's classic mode) where the emotional attachment to characters makes their loss genuinely impactful rather than mechanically inconvenient. A common beginner mistake is assuming permadeath makes games 'unfair'. In well-designed permadeath games, deaths are almost always the result of a learnable mistake, not random bad luck.