Instadeath

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

The term instadeath can have several definitions, either in Crawl or in roguelikes in general. Of course, many people use it to describe a death which occurs instantly or very quickly, e.g. an early ogre killing a low-level spriggan in one shot. However, the term is often more formally used to describe deaths which occur regardless of a character's current HP, even if the death itself is not instant (so-called 'delayed instadeaths'). Such instadeaths are extremely rare in Crawl.

Player Instadeath

There is only one way for the player to be killed instantly: the Zot clock. However, you must be drained to at or below 10% maximum HP before Zot actually kills you - the vast majority of characters might as well be dead at that point. Otherwise, Zot "just" drains you. Plus, the player receives a significant amount of warning (at least 1000 turns) before this can begin to occur.

Of course, this does not include 1-turn KOs from a bunch of nasty monsters hitting you at once.

Dealing instadeath to monsters

There are only a few ways to kill monsters irrespective of their hit points. They all require specific setups to work:

• Monsters die if they fall in deep water or lava, assuming the terrain is inhospitable for them. Usually, this requires confusing them near such terrain.
• Banishment (through Lugonu's *** ability or a weapon of distortion) works regardless of a monster's current HP, although said monster may again be encountered in the Abyss.
• Uskayaw's Grand Finale ***** ability can instantly kill any monster.
• The spell Maxwell's Capacitive Coupling "instantly" kills the closest monster, after a short delay.
• Yara's Violent Unravelling will instantly and explosively dismiss any summoned monsters.

History

• Prior to 0.29, the Zot clock would instantly kill regardless of drain status.
• Prior to 0.26, players could face starvation and die, as opposed to the Zot clock.
• Prior to 0.19, players falling into deep water or lava (through flight expiring) would be subject to instadeath, instead of draining every turn.
• Prior to 0.17, it was possible for confused players to accidentally walk into deep water or lava. Intelligent monsters used to be immune to this type of death, but no longer are.
• Prior to 0.15, it was possible to sometimes scramble out of deep water or lava.
• Prior to 0.13, one could suffer statdeath: after a few dozen turns of a stat being at zero, the character would die. Presently, being at 0 in a stat will just apply some penalties. In addition, one could die by being level-drained to level 0 - that is, being hit by a draining attack at XL1 (removed due to the removal of XP draining)
• Prior to 0.8, statdeath killed the player as soon as the stat hit zero, as opposed to being a delayed instadeath.

Instantkills on monsters has its own history:

• In 0.28, Yara's Violent Unravelling now abjures summons, always and instantly dismissing them.
• In 0.27, Maxwell's Capacitive Coupling replaced Absolute Zero as the OHKO spell.
• Prior to 0.26, players could instantly get rid of summoned monsters by casting Aura of Abjuration.
• In 0.25, Absolute Zero was introduced as an instant, instant killing spell.
• Prior to 0.15, orange crystal and silver statues could be instantly killed by wands of disintegration.
• Prior to 0.14, Lee's Rapid Deconstruction could instantly kill brittle monsters.