Half-Life 1 - No Kill (Pacifist) Run - Full Playthrough
4Final kill count: 1 (Big Tentacle)
This playthrough was completed by me and Sir Kotok on July 21, July 22 and July 27 of 2024 as a challenge. Nihilanth section was re-recorded on August 4 2025 since we didn't realize we could kill Nihilanth with snarks during initial sessions.
Rules:
1) Playthrough was done on "Hard" difficulty.
2) We had to kill the least amount of enemies (or other NPCs) possible. We were allowed to damage and shoot at enemies, as long as the damage we made wasn't lethal. Using our own mines counted as killing. Tranquilizer crossbow kills were not allowed either, since it technically kills an entity in terms of how the game engine interprets it. Killing turrets was not allowed.
3) Direct (single-action) and deliberate use of the environment to kill an enemy counted as killing and was no allowed. For example, damaging an explosion box near an enemy was not allowed. Activating electricity to kill an enemy sitting in the water was not allowed. Etc.
4) Using guards or other enemies to kill each other or themselves did not count as killing. So if an enemy damaged explosive box and died, it was not against the rules.
5) Luring enemies into mines (non-player placed), or other hazards did not count as killing. Basically, if the enemy walked into a hazard themselves, by their own will, it was allowed.
5) Killing with snarks did not count, because the snarks are killing the enemies, not the player. Killing with Hivehand, however, was not allowed, as it works more like a bullet than an entity, and it would be too easy otherwise (as it has infinite ammo).
6) Technically we did not count cockroaches as kills in this, but for the sake of the spirit of the challenge, we decided to try to prevent killing them too when possible, and I don't think we killed a single one!
7) The playthrough was done on a Legacy Steam version of Half-Life (because the Anniversary Edition has really terrible grenade physics).
8) No major section skipping was allowed unless absolutely necessary. That's why we did not skip chapters that can be avoided as long as we could complete them without killing enemies. That said, smaller (non-full chapter skips) were allowed.
This is a re-do of similar challenge we did in 2018: https://www.reddit.com/r/HalfLife/comments/9fv33u/i_did_a_nokill_run_in_halflife_without_killing
I also want to shoutout Max_The_One, his video really helped us find some of the strategies, even though we ended up beating him in terms of the kill count in the end: • Can You Beat Half Life Without Killing A S...
I also want to thank Tony Allen ( • HALF-LIFE PACIFIST RUN (stolen idea) - fin... ) and shatackoz ( • Half-Life: Killing Nihilanth With Snarks ) for showing how to kill Nihilanth with snarks.
This videos shows a complete game playthrough from the beginning to end and lets you trace complete progress from save file to save file. Recordings were split into parts, that's why you may sometimes see rough cuts, though we have tried to only do them in menus. I have also cut out a couple of sections in which we experimented with mechanics and failed to find a solution, so we reloaded to an earlier save anyway (trust me, those sections were a total waste of time). Otherwise, this recoding should be quite comprehensive.
Edge case: on 1:26:06 a houndeye jumps onto an elevator after being hit and gets crushed. We ruled that this does not count of violation of the rules since a) the houndeye's jump does not appear to be deterministic and b) the elevator button brings it down, but it goes up on a timer; meaning that the houndeye jumped by its own will into an elevator ascending on its own.
Weird event: on 4:32:12 there should be a turret in this truck (as seen earlier in the video). It has disappeared and I have no clue why.
Chapters:
0:00:00 Black Mesa Inbound
0:05:58 Anomalous Materials
0:13:00 Unforeseen Consequences
0:20:13 Office Complex
0:42:09 "We've Got Hostiles"
0:52:59 Blast Pit
1:14:45 Power Up
1:49:50 On A Rail
2:52:40 Apprehension
3:14:14 Residue Processing
3:25:40 Questionable Ethics
3:43:35 Surface Tension
5:41:27 "Forget About Freeman!"
6:01:36 Lambda Core
7:01:56 Xen
7:07:14 Gonarch's Lair
7:14:30 Interloper
7:45:41 Nihilanth