Difficulty
How hard combat is: enemy accuracy, damage, effective weapon range and starting Bond levels.
It does not decide whether an Operator can be lost permanently.
Mechanics / Permadeath
How Permadeath Works in STAR WARS Zero Company
Permadeath is not “0 HP = death”. It turns the Injury system into a permanent-loss threshold: the third current Injury removes the Operator, and healing those Injuries restores the safety margin. This page covers the rule, the exception, and what the setting locks in before the campaign starts.
How this page labels what it says · game version 1.1
- Exact rulePrinted in the shipped game text, or stated in the official rules or patch notes.
- Derived strategyThis site’s reading of the rules for a campaign decision. Not a game rule.
- Community observationReported by players. Useful context, never a rule.
The rule sentences on this page are the shipped settings and mechanics strings. Anything this site reads on top of them is marked as derived, and nothing here is presented as a rule on the strength of community reports alone.
Difficulty, Permadeath and Beskar Are Different Settings
Three settings sit next to each other before a campaign starts, and the most common mistake is treating them as one ladder. They are not: each one answers a different question.
Permadeath
Whether a third current Injury removes an Operator permanently. By default it is enabled, and disabling it prevents that permanent death.
It does not restrict saving, and it does not change enemy stats.
Beskar Mode
How permanent an outcome is: one persistent save file, constantly updated, with no manual save to fall back on.
It is not a fifth combat difficulty, and it does not replace the third-Injury rule.
The shipped Permadeath option text◆ Exact rule
- The STAR WARS Zero Company experience was crafted with the intention that Operators can die.
- By default it is enabled. Disabling this feature will prevent Operators from permanently dying when they receive a third Injury.
That is the rule and its default in one place: enabled unless you switch it off, and the third Injury is the threshold.
Combat difficulty ratings◆ Exact rule
- Story — For players who want some challenging moments with lots of room for error. Enemies are easier to fight. An ideal experience for players new to this style of gameplay.
- Normal — Intended for players new to tactical games. Enemies deal normal damage with normal accuracy. Weapon ranges are generous and mistakes are easy to recover from.
- Hard — Intended for players familiar with playing tactical games or players seeking a more challenging experience than normal. Enemies are tougher and deal more damage. Effective weapon ranges are reduced requiring more maneuvering and more risk. Initial bond levels between Operators are lower. The Bacta Tank is disabled.
- Expert — Intended for players with great expertise playing tactical games or players seeking the highest level of challenge for STAR WARS Zero Company. Careful tactics and planning are crucial on Expert difficulty. Enemies are tougher and deal greatly enhanced damage. Effective weapon range is greatly reduced requiring aggressive maneuvering and careful planning. Initial bond levels between Operators are much lower. The Bacta Tank is disabled.
- Absolute — The highest bar of difficulty. Every battle is a brutal fight for survival.
The shipped string table carries 6 difficulty slots: two read Story, then Normal, Hard, Expert, and one tier above Expert. This page uses the ratings the game presents as combat difficulty; the full breakdown of what each rating changes belongs to the Difficulty mechanics page.
What matters here is only that difficulty is a separate choice: no rating turns Permadeath on for you, and no rating turns it off.
Does an Operator Die at 0 HP?
No. Zero health is not death — it is the start of the Injury path.
The shipped tooltip◆ Exact rule
When an Operator's Health drops to zero, they are Injured.
- 01Health reaches 0The Operator is not killed. They are Downed.
- 02DownedA Downed Operator is incapable of continuing to fight and suffers an Injury. An Operator who suffers enough Injuries is permanently killed.
- 03+1 InjuryThe Injury is added to the Operator’s current stack.
- 04RallyRallying a Downed Operator will restore them to the fight and allow them to take actions again.
- 05Third InjuryAn Operator who suffers a 3rd injury is Killed-In-Action and lost forever.
Health reaching zero is the step that adds the Injury. The permanent-loss threshold is a separate, later step that only fires when Permadeath is enabled — which is why GAME OVER is not what a routine down looks like.
What Does “Three Injuries” Mean?
Three current Injuries on the same Operator. The ladder below is the whole rule: the states are the countdown, and only the last two entries are permanent-loss territory.
No Injury
The Operator is at full effectiveness. Three Injuries would have to land before this becomes a permanent-loss question.
1 Injury
One buffer remains. This is a warning, not a countdown that survives the Medbay.
2 Injuries
The next Injury is the permanent one while Permadeath is enabled. This is the state the shipped text warns about by name.
3rd Injury
Killed in action and lost forever while Permadeath is enabled. With Permadeath disabled the same third Injury does not remove the Operator.
The exact rule◆ Exact rule
An Operator who suffers a 3rd injury is Killed-In-Action and lost forever.
- Operators can suffer 3 Injuries. Aurelio now has 2.
- An Operator who suffers a third Injury will be Killed In Action (when Permadeath is enabled.)
Are Injuries a Lifetime Counter?
No — and this is the misunderstanding that costs players a campaign plan. The threshold is the stack the Operator is carrying now, not a running total of every down across the run.
What players often assume
- Downed once in Cycle 5, once in Cycle 20, once in Cycle 35 → death.
- An injury history that keeps accumulating for the whole campaign.
What the system does
- The counter that matters is the Operator’s current, untreated Injuries — not the number of times they have been downed across the campaign.
- A healed Operator does not carry a hidden “used up” Injury towards the threshold.
- STAR WARS Zero Company has permanent death. If an Operator with 2 injuries is downed again, they are gone forever. You may toggle this in the campaign options.
How Healing Resets the Risk
Treatment is what removes the countdown. The Medbay is the page for how that is done — Beds, the Bacta Tank, Credits and Cycles all live there — so this section only states what treatment does to the rule.
2 Injuries
Next Injury is the permanent one.
Medbay treatment →
No Injuries
Full margin restored.
Treating the Injuries resets the immediate permadeath countdown. What is left is the cost in Cycles and Credits — never a permanent mark towards death.
- The Medbay allows Operators to recover from Injuries sustained during dangerous Missions or Operations.
- Standard beds require one cycle to heal, while the Bacta Tank provides instant recovery.
- Injuries negatively impact combat stats and must be treated carefully— accumulating three Injuries results in permanent Death.
Medbay Beds take a cycle to heal an Operator. The Bacta Tank heals Operators instantly but costs more. You can add more at the Upgrade Facility.
Can Hawks Die Permanently?
Hawks does not go through the three-Injury path. This is the one place where the answer changes completely, so it gets its own section rather than a footnote.
Hawks — exception
Hawks is not on the normal Operator rule◆ Exact rule
Hawks is handled as an exception to the three-Injury path: a defeat in combat fails the mission immediately, whether or not Permadeath is enabled.
What the shipped Beskar text says◆ Exact rule
If disaster befalls the team the consequences are not reversible. When Operators die they cannot be recovered. If Hawks dies, any other critical squad member dies, or a crucial mission is failed in Beskar Mode the game is over.
What that means before you choose◇ Derived strategy
In a normal campaign the consequence is mission failure and a retry. With Beskar Mode enabled there is no rollback to fall back on, so the same defeat is campaign-ending.
Read together: a Hawks defeat ends the mission, and with Beskar Mode enabled there is no save to undo the campaign-level result of that defeat.
Which Operators Can Be Lost Permanently?
Not every named character is on the same rule, and this page refuses to flatten them into one. The table separates what is stated from what is not.
| Operator kind | Permadeath behaviour | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Regular / custom Operators | The standard Injury system: health reaching 0 downs them, and a third current Injury removes them while Permadeath is enabled. | ◆ Exact rule |
| Named story Operators | No shipped rule exempts a named Operator from the third-Injury rule. Treat them as regular Operators unless their own mission states otherwise. | ◇ Derived strategy |
| Hawks | A defeat fails the mission instead of feeding the three-Injury path. | ◆ Exact rule |
| Droids | Droids follow the same Injury system: they can be Injured, and are repaired at the Medbay once the Droid Repair Bay upgrade is unlocked. | ◆ Exact rule |
| Scripted story outcomes | Some campaign events resolve a character by scripted outcome or mission state. Those follow the campaign script, not the Permadeath toggle. | ◇ Derived strategy |
Droid Repair Bay◆ Exact rule
Interact with the Astromech in the Pit to unlock this upgrade. Unlocks recruiting Droids at Recruitment and repairing Injured Droids at the Medbay.
That is what the records resolve: Droids can be Injured and repaired. The third-Injury rule for Droids is simply not stated, so it is not asserted here.
Story Deaths and Permadeath Are Not the Same System
Permadeath and a story outcome are two different systems.
What the toggle owns
The Permadeath setting controls the Injury-based permanent-loss rule: the third current Injury removes a regular Operator.
What it does not own
It does not author the campaign script. A mission outcome, a scripted removal or a storyline state can resolve a character through rules of its own.
That is why “why did this character die with Permadeath off?” has a real answer: the toggle was never the system that decided it.
Losses are not one flag
Third current Injury
Handled by: Permadeath
incoming_injury_kia
Mission failed by a defeat
Handled by: The mission’s own rules
mission_failure
Scripted story outcome
Handled by: The campaign script
scripted_story
MIA
Handled by: Recorded as its own outcome
mia
Campaign over (Beskar)
Handled by: Beskar Mode
campaign_failure
The reason Memorial separates causes is that these are genuinely different outcomes. The LOST TO field is where the game records which one happened, and Friendly Fire and MIA are recorded outcomes in their own right rather than third-Injury deaths.
Permadeath OFF — What Does It Actually Disable?
Turning the setting off is narrower than it sounds. It removes the Injury-based permanent loss and nothing else, which is why “nobody can ever leave with Permadeath off” is not a safe assumption.
Permadeath OFF prevents
- The standard Injury-based permanent death of a regular Operator at the third current Injury.
It does not necessarily prevent
- Scripted story outcomes and mission-specific character states.
- A mission failing outright when a key Operator, such as Hawks, is defeated.
- The save-level permanence of Beskar Mode, which is a separate setting.
Only the first list is what the toggle owns. Everything else in a campaign is decided somewhere else, so “Permadeath is off” is not a guarantee that nothing can be lost.
Can You Turn Permadeath Off Later?
CAMPAIGN-LOCKED SETTING
Choose before you start
The Permadeath setting belongs to the campaign’s Challenge options, alongside difficulty and Beskar Mode. EA’s rules article states that it cannot be changed once the campaign has started.
The shipped options text offers a confirmation when you change the difficulty rating, and none for Permadeath — the difficulty row is the one the game explicitly lets you move outside of combat.
To change your mind: Start a new campaign.
Permadeath vs Beskar Mode
Permadeath makes losses possible. Beskar makes the outcomes those losses create harder to undo.
| Question | Permadeath | Beskar Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Affects the death rule | Yes — the third current Injury | No — it changes saving |
| Third Injury matters | Yes | Only if Permadeath is also on |
| Restricts saving | No | Yes — one persistent save |
| Manual save / reload | Normal campaign behaviour | Removed |
| Chosen at campaign start | Yes | Yes |
| Can be changed later | No — the campaign is locked | Treat as campaign-fixed |
| Usable without the other | Yes | Yes |
The shipped Beskar text◆ Exact rule
- Recommended for Advanced or Expert players. Beskar Mode maintains a single persistent save file that is constantly updated. This setting removes the option to manually save, making choices permanent.
- If disaster befalls the team the consequences are not reversible. When Operators die they cannot be recovered. If Hawks dies, any other critical squad member dies, or a crucial mission is failed in Beskar Mode the game is over.
The shipped save label in this mode is “Save - Unavailable”, which is the in-game way of saying the manual save step is gone.
Permadeath ON · Beskar OFF
Permanent Operator loss exists, but a manual save can still roll an outcome back.
Players who want death to matter without committing to an ironman run.
Permadeath OFF · Beskar ON
The run is committed to a single persistent save, but the standard third-Injury removal is switched off.
Players who want commitment and consequence without the Injury-based permanent loss.
Permadeath ON · Beskar ON
Both pressures apply at once: permanent loss and no rollback. A Hawks defeat can end the run.
The hardest combination the settings allow.
What Do These Settings Mean for My Run?
Set the campaign up the way you are considering, then add the state the Operator in front of you is actually in. The answer changes on both: the settings decide what is possible, and the Injury count decides how close it is.
Combat difficulty
Campaign modifiers
Current Operator Injuries
Your campaign rules◆ Exact rule
- Permanent Operator loss
- Enabled — accumulated Injuries can permanently remove an Operator
- Third current Injury
- Permanent KIA
- Save flexibility
- Standard save / reload behaviour
- Hawks
- A Hawks defeat fails the mission
- Recovery
- Beds take a Cycle; the Bacta Tank recovers instantly for a higher cost.
Combat pressure
Normal
Roster loss
Permanent on the third current Injury
Save rollback
Standard save / reload
Instant recovery
Bacta Tank available, at a higher cost
Next actions
- Heal at the Medbay →Reset the Injury stack before the next deployment.
The difficulty ratings on this page are Story, Normal, Hard, Expert, Absolute, and Hard and Expert disable the Bacta Tank, so instant recovery is not on the table there.
What Can You Change Mid-Campaign?
Not everything is locked at the start, and knowing which setting can still move is what makes the locked one a real decision rather than a guess.
| Setting | Change later? | What the game states |
|---|---|---|
| Combat difficulty | Yes — outside combat | Adjusts the overall challenge of STAR WARS Zero Company. Difficulty can be changed at any time outside of combat. |
| Permadeath | No | EA’s rules article states the setting cannot be changed once the campaign has started. Changing it means a new campaign. |
| Beskar Mode | Treat as campaign-fixed | The mode establishes a single persistent save from the start; no shipped text offers a way to turn it back off. |
| Operator builds | Yes, where the game supports it | Respeccing is handled by the build and respec systems, not by the campaign settings. |
| Current Injuries | Yes — through treatment | Injuries are temporary state. Recovery is what removes them from the permadeath countdown. |
Changing difficulty has a cost of its own◆ Exact rule
- Changing difficulty level will result in losing eligibility for any difficulty-based Achievements.
So the difficulty rating is movable, but moving it is not free. Decide the rating before the run if a difficulty achievement is part of the plan.
When Is Permadeath Risk Highest?
Risk here is a state, not a score. These are the campaign situations where the permanent-loss threshold is closest, and every one of them is something you can act on.
0 Injuries
No permanent-death threshold is close. Three Injuries would have to land.
◆ Exact rule
1 Injury
One buffer remains before the permanent Injury.
◆ Exact rule
2 Injuries — critical
The next Injury is the permanent one while Permadeath is enabled.
◆ Exact rule
This page reports the state an Operator is in, not a death chance. The game states the rule — a third current Injury — and does not publish a tactical down probability, so no percentage here would be real.
An Operator already carrying 2 Injuries
This is the threshold state. One more Injury is the permanent one.
Medbay and recovery →No instant recovery available
The Bacta Tank is disabled.
Combat difficulty and recovery →A required Operator is needed soon
A story or objective mission can lock an Operator into the squad before they are healed.
Mission priority →A thin roster with no replacement
With nobody to cover the jobs the injured Operator carries, benching them has a real cost.
Best squad →Operations that carry injury risk
Risky Operations apply their own Injury chance, and an already-injured Operator goes in with less margin.
Missions and Operations →Beskar Mode
Permanent loss exists and the outcome cannot be rolled back with a manual save.
Den and recovery →
Should You Deploy an Operator with Two Injuries?
System fact
With Permadeath enabled, the next Injury can permanently remove an Operator who is already at 2 Injuries.
Strong reason to heal first
- → A replacement can cover what the Operator was carrying.
- → The mission can wait — it is not expiring and nothing about it is one-Cycle.
- → The Operator is hard to replace, or is the only source of a job the squad needs.
- → The mission is the high-risk kind that routinely downs somebody.
Reason you may still deploy
- → The mission is critical to the campaign and cannot be deferred.
- → The Operator is required by the mission itself.
- → The content expires this Cycle.
- → There is nobody else who can do the job at all.
Neither column is the correct answer. This is a campaign trade-off between a temporary delay and a permanent loss, and the page refuses to make it for you.
- 01Two-Injury Operator
- 02Heal for a Cycle?
- 03Upcoming mission
- 04Does it expire?
- 05Required Operator?
- 06Replacement?
How to Reduce Permadeath Risk
No combat-tip list. These are the campaign levers that move how often the threshold is reached, in the order that matters most.
01Heal current Injuries
Recovery is what removes Injuries from the permanent-loss countdown.
Medbay overview →02Never ignore the 2-Injury state
That is the state the rule turns on. Treat it as a decision point, not a status icon.
Den and recovery →03Keep roster depth
An overlap in coverage means an injury costs a slot instead of a capability.
Best squad →04Spend Medbay capacity on purpose
More Beds heals more Operators per Cycle, which is the cheapest way to keep the threshold away.
Best Den upgrades →05Carry the right recovery Utilities
Rally and healing Utilities change what happens at 0 HP.
Recovery Utilities →06Read the Operation risk before assigning anyone
Risky Operations apply an Injury chance of their own.
Missions and Operations →07Use a replacement when it is the better trade
A covered mission is worth more than an exposed favourite.
Squad Builder →08Check mission urgency before benching someone
Some content expires, which changes whether healing can wait.
Mission priority →
Utilities That Help With Injury Risk
Recovery Utilities change what happens at and after 0 HP. These are the families whose own effect text is about surviving, healing or not being downed in the first place.
Bacta Stim◆ Exact rule
Fully Heals this Operator.
Self-healing, so an Operator can answer their own bad turn.
Hyperinsulated Underlay◆ Exact rule
Grants Burning Immunity and Shock Immunity while worn.
Immunity to Burning and Shock damage over time.
Impact Underlay◆ Exact rule
Reduces Melee Damage dealt to this Operator by 50%.
Cuts melee damage taken, one of the ways a squad gets downed.
Medpac◆ Exact rule
Heals 30% of the target ally's Health. Cannot be used on Droids.
In-combat healing that does not need the Den.
Reinforced Underlay◆ Exact rule
Increases Defense by +1.
Raises Defense, which reduces how often the threshold is reached at all.
Stabilizing Underlay◆ Exact rule
Grants Daze Immunity and Stun Immunity while worn.
Immunity to Daze and Stun, so control does not strand an Operator in the open.
Trauma Kit◆ Exact rule
When this Operator Rallies a Downed ally, that ally returns to action Fully Healed.
Changes what a Rally does: the rallied Operator returns fully healed.
This page does not reproduce the Utility database. It names the families whose effect text touches survival and leaves the rest to the Utilities page.
Den Upgrades That Reduce Permadeath Pressure
Medbay capacity is the cheapest way to keep Operators off the threshold, because recovery is what resets the countdown.
Medical Bed II◆ Exact rule
The Medbay gains a 2nd Bed allowing you to remove Injuries from up to 2 Operators at the same time.
Two Operators can recover at once instead of one.
Medical Bed III◆ Exact rule
The Medbay gains a 3rd Bed allowing you to remove Injuries from up to 3 Operators at the same time.
Three at once, which matters most after a bad Cycle.
Medical Bed IV◆ Exact rule
The Medbay gains a 4th Bed allowing you to remove Injuries from up to 4 Operators at the same time.
Four at once — enough to rotate a whole squad.
Cheaper Medical Supplies I◆ Exact rule
Reduces the cost of assigning an Operator to a Bed or the Bacta Tank by 150 Credits.
Makes recovery cheaper, so healing competes less with upgrades.
Cheaper Medical Supplies II◆ Exact rule
Reduces the cost of assigning an Operator to a Bed or the Bacta Tank by 150 Credits.
The second reduction, stacking on the same recovery cost.
Droid Repair Bay◆ Exact rule
Interact with the Astromech in the Pit to unlock this upgrade. Unlocks recruiting Droids at Recruitment and repairing Injured Droids at the Medbay.
Adds repair for Injured Droids and unlocks recruiting them.
These reduce pressure on the roster. None of them changes the death rule itself, so they lower how often the threshold is reached — they do not raise it.
Permadeath and Operations
An Injury does not only come from combat. Dangerous Operations apply an Injury chance of their own, and the shipped risk bands are fixed numbers.
Low risk
20%
Medium risk
33%
High risk
50%
Always risk
100%
An Operator who is already carrying Injuries goes into an Operation with less margin, which is the part combat planning alone does not cover.
The full risk bands and the Operations they belong to are covered on the Injuries page so the two pages cannot disagree.
Does Permadeath Affect Achievements?
Of 5 difficulty achievements, the highest asks for Expert plus Beskar Mode. None of them names Permadeath.
| Achievement | Requirement | Difficulty | Beskar | Permadeath |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hired Gun | Beat the game on Story or higher | Story+ | — | — |
| Veteran | Beat the game on Normal or higher | Normal+ | — | — |
| Operator | Beat the game on Hard or higher | Hard+ | — | — |
| Captain | Beat the game on Expert | Expert | — | — |
| Legend | Beat the game on Expert and Beskar Mode | Expert | ✓ | — |
The short version
Difficulty achievements are lost if you change the difficulty rating mid-campaign, so the honest answer is to pick the rating before the run rather than to toggle Permadeath for a trophy.
Checked across all 53 shipped achievements, none of them names Permadeath.
Current Beskar and Save Notes
Beskar Mode and saves — version 1.1◆ Exact rule
Included in patch 1.1
- → Beskar saves being temporarily deleted.
- → A Beskar Mode crash.
- → Save corruption.
Those were fixes, not a way around the mode. This page does not document how to work around the single-save restriction; save problems belong to troubleshooting.
Should You Enable Permadeath on Your First Playthrough?
This page will not decide it for you, because the setting decides what kind of run you are playing rather than what skill level you are at.
Turn it ON if you want
- → You want roster consequences: losing an Operator should mean something.
- → You want more tension around every Injury.
- → You are comfortable with permanent character loss as part of the campaign.
- → You want the run to carry campaign pressure rather than to be replayed freely.
Turn it OFF if you want
- → You want to learn combat, builds and systems without irreversible loss.
- → You would rather not lose an Operator you enjoy using while you are still learning.
- → You are playing for the story and want the roster to stay largely intact.
Whichever you pick, you cannot change it after the campaign starts.
Neither answer is the “right” one for a new player. The setting decides what kind of run you are playing, and both kinds are supported by the game.
Permadeath FAQ
How does Permadeath work in Zero Company?
With Permadeath enabled, a regular Operator who suffers a third current Injury is killed in action and lost permanently. Healing the Injuries before that happens removes them from the countdown.
Do Operators die at 0 HP?
No. When Health reaches zero the Operator is Downed, and being Downed adds an Injury. Death is a separate threshold, not the moment health hits zero.
How many Injuries before death?
Three current Injuries. The shipped text also puts the warning at two: if an Operator with 2 injuries is downed again, they are gone forever while Permadeath is enabled.
Is it three Injuries in one mission?
It is three untreated Injuries on the Operator, not three in a single mission. What matters is the stack they are carrying, wherever it was picked up.
Are Injuries permanent?
No. Injuries are temporary state that the Medbay removes. What is permanent is the loss of an Operator who reaches the third one.
Does the Medbay reset the Injury count?
Yes. Treating the Injuries clears the immediate countdown, so a healed Operator is not carrying hidden progress towards permanent death.
Are Injuries a lifetime total across the campaign?
No. That is the most common misunderstanding about this system. Treating Injuries clears them, so an Operator downed once in Cycle 5 and once in Cycle 30 is at 1 Injury, not 2.
Can Hawks die?
Hawks is an exception to the three-Injury path. A defeat in combat fails the mission immediately, with or without Permadeath.
What happens if Hawks reaches 0 HP?
The mission fails. In Beskar Mode the shipped text goes further: if Hawks dies, or another critical squad member dies, or a crucial mission is failed, the game is over.
Can story Operators die?
No shipped rule exempts a named Operator from the Injury rule, but the campaign script can also resolve a character through its own mission outcomes. Those are separate systems.
Can my own Operators die permanently?
Yes, if Permadeath is enabled. The third current Injury is the permanent one.
Do Droids have Permadeath?
Droids can be Injured and are repaired at the Medbay once the Droid Repair Bay is unlocked. The shipped text does not state whether a third Injury removes a Droid, so this page does not claim it either way.
Can you turn Permadeath off?
Not mid-campaign. EA’s rules article states the setting cannot be changed once the campaign has started.
Can you enable Permadeath later?
No. Like switching it off, that means starting a new campaign with the setting you want.
Is Permadeath tied to difficulty?
No. Difficulty and Permadeath are separate settings. Difficulty changes combat; Permadeath changes whether Injuries can permanently remove an Operator.
Does Expert force Permadeath?
No. Expert and Permadeath are independent choices, and any combination of the two is valid.
What is Beskar Mode?
A campaign modifier that maintains one persistent save file, constantly updated, with the manual save option removed. Choices become permanent and outcomes cannot be rolled back.
Is Beskar the same as Permadeath?
No. Permadeath decides whether losses are possible. Beskar decides how hard those outcomes are to undo.
Can you use Permadeath without Beskar?
Yes. That is the combination for permanent loss with standard save and reload behaviour still available.
Can you use Beskar without Permadeath?
Yes. The two settings are independent, so a single-save run does not require the third-Injury removal rule.
Is Beskar a fifth difficulty level?
No. It is a campaign modifier. Combat difficulty remains Story, Normal, Hard or Expert, and Beskar and Permadeath sit alongside it as separate toggles.
What happens at two Injuries?
With Permadeath enabled, the Operator is one Injury from permanent loss. That is the state worth acting on, not the third Injury itself.
Should I deploy a two-Injury Operator?
Only if the campaign reason outweighs the risk. If a replacement exists and the mission can wait, healing is the cheaper option. If the mission is required, expiring or has no replacement, deploying is a legitimate trade.
Does Operation Injury count?
Yes. Dangerous Operations apply their own Injury chance, and an Operator already carrying Injuries has less margin going in.
Does Permadeath affect trophies or achievements?
No achievement in the shipped list names Permadeath. The highest difficulty achievement asks for Expert plus Beskar Mode.
Should I use Permadeath on my first playthrough?
It depends on the run you want. Enable it if you want roster consequences and permanent loss to be part of the campaign; leave it off if you would rather learn the systems without irreversible loss. Either way, it cannot be changed once the campaign starts.
What Should You Decide Next?
You know what the setting does and what it locks in. These pages answer the decisions on either side of it.
How Injuries WorkHow an Injury is treated, and where the risk comes from.Mission PriorityWhether the mission can wait a Cycle while someone heals.Difficulty OptionsWhat each combat rating actually changes.Trophy GuideWhich difficulty requirements the achievements carry.Den & MedbayBeds, the Bacta Tank and recovery capacity.Best SquadCover the jobs an injured Operator was carrying.
/mechanics/permadeath · rules from the shipped game text, priorities from this guide · version 1.1