You might be familiar with my Half-Life PermaDeath Runs (PDR); I wanted to write out how they work for newcomers of this run, I hope you find it valuable! This written guide comes years after my HL2 + EP1/EP2 PDR's, with my HL1 PDR's returning in mid-to-late 2026 (or 2027 if I encounter more delays), my goal is to increase accessibility so more folks will be open to attempting these runs, I hope this motivates you to give it a try! ✌️😁

A Half-Life PermaDeath run involves completing the game in one sitting without dying or loading a save state at any point. A Freeman Run is completing HL1+HL2+HL2 EP1/2 in one sitting with the same rules, but if you die or load a save at any point during the run in any of the games you return to HL1. Freeman survived it all without dying, can you? 👀

Categories are divided by difficulty played, glitches versus glitchless, skip vs skipless, and standard PDR vs PermaDeath SpeedRun (PDSR). Difficulty should preferably be shown in the game settings or console; however community members will be able to identify the difficulty played by your gameplay footage, so this is not mandatory.

Glitches and skips are viable in any run; if they incorporate loading a save state the run is void if they are used. Cheats may only be enabled for increasing game speed during "story moments" (saves time, will void a PDSR), beginning a speedrun timer or pausing the timer during loading the next/previous map (more info below), or displaying relevant information such as frame rates; all other cheats void the run (including noclip; I see you PurpleColonel 👀).

Runs should be preferably live streamed with VODs saved; however an unedited video of the complete run will also suffice; cutting out the beginning and end of the video/stream is acceptable so long as everything in between is left untouched (accounts for prep time and game credits).

You're going to have a run end by a glitch or "unfair" moment caused by the game (physics traps, moving too quickly through important game events with relevant triggers, mag dumping shotgunner, losing a required item like the Jeep, ect.). We get it; those don't feel like a fun way to end the run, but they do count as a run-ending event in the eyes of the community. Good news is it's usually hilarious when this happens, so even if you're not laughing in the moment the audience will be; I guarantee you'll look back fondly on those moments ✌️😎

Starting from the very beginning of any of the games is only required in a PDSR and is only required in the current state of running. If a commonly distributed save file or modification of the game becomes standard for these runs then those will become the preferred methodology. I hope to see a mod for HL2 that bypasses story moments without removing any combat, I also hope to see save files placed just before picking up the crowbar for the first time that can start the run in something like LiveSplit. This is why I currently do not run PDSR; it takes way too long to get through the intros of these games and discourages follow-up runs because of the long wait times, I hope we see someone come up with a better solution down the road!

Additional note on PDSRs; everyone has different hardware, some folks are still rocking spinning disc hard drives and will encounter longer load times, LiveSplit should be configured to ignore load times to best mitigate this issue. If someone is working towards a solution to the issues I've mentioned above with the current state of PDSR's, please ensure this is incorporated so we can mitigate this potential complication 🙏

And that should be everything you need to know to get started! Let me know if I've missed anything; I'll be sure to go back and edit this if needed. Hope to see you PDRing, have a blast! 💪😲💪