Did someone say COMPLETE DATA ANALYSIS OF ALL THE DEATHS IN THE LIFE SERIES? No? Well. I did it. Here are some neat graphs for you guys to look at so that you don’t have to deal with the gigantic spreadsheet I did!
Let’s start off with the big bad question: what gets people killed in this game, anyway?
Note that a CAUSE OF DEATH is not the same as a KILL. Cause of death is what pops up in the chat when someone dies (ex. PearlescentMoon was slain by Smallishbeans, BdoubleO100 fell from a high place). The cause of death does not always account for player responsibility (ex. TNT traps). Generally, a player is only considered to be someone’s cause of death if the death occurs through direct PvP combat. HOWEVER, responsibility for an indirect kill such as a trap still goes toward a player’s total kill count—for example, Joel has 14 kills overall, 10 of which are direct enough for him to be considered the actual cause of death. After all, axes don’t kill people without being swung by someone.
A few other whacky things about kill counts:
Self-inflicted deaths do not count toward a player’s kill count (ex. Grian doesn’t get a kill for jumping off Monopoly Mountain at the end of 3rd Life, Scott doesn’t get a kill for blowing himself up at the end of Double Life).
When it comes to Double Life, soulmates are considered to share their three lives. No distinction is made between Soulmate A's life and Soulmate B's life, and each death only counts as one kill (ex. Joel gets one kill for killing Scott with fireworks, even though that also killed Pearl (however, Pearl’s cause of death is still Joel, as her life is considered the same as Scott’s)).
Using the /kill command does not count toward your kill count. Grian.
With that cleared up, let’s look at kill counts.
By the skin of his teeth, Grian leads the pack in total kills. The top three you see on that graph are the only players who have a KDR (kill-to-death ratio) of more than 1—for you folks who are unfamiliar with those, a KDR of more than 1 means you kill other people more often than you die. Less than 1 means you die more often than you kill other people. Here are the highest and lowest KDRs in the series:
“What’s this?” I hear you say. “Jimmy Wet-Paper-Bag-of-a-Man Solidarity DOESN’T have the lowest KDR in the series?”
No. No, he does not, and it’s actually really funny you should ask.
Because of Last Life’s mechanic of life transferring, even players that have been in all three installments of the Life Series don’t have the same death count. Eight players died more than three times in Last Life. Another eight died exactly three times. And one player only died twice.
By virtue of starting on yellow and never receiving any extra lives in Last Life, Jimmy holds the record for fewest deaths in an installment of the Life Series with just two deaths in Last Life. He is the only player to ever die less than three times in a game. This means that although he has just one kill, he has fewer total deaths than BigB (who has died a very standard nine times), the only other player with one kill, so his KDR is higher. Congrats, Jimmy, you’re not last in everything. But you are still the only player without a PvP kill.
Speaking of PvP, it’s time to look at how people do that! Here’s a graph of the top five weapons that tend to land PvP kills the most in the series:
And now here’s weapon preferences by game:
[Double Life not depicted due to lack of PvP deaths—only 4 occurred, using a diamond axe, a diamond sword, fireworks, and an iron axe respectively.]
Despite 19 more deaths occurring in Last Life than 3rd Life, the two actually have the exact same amount of PvP kills (28). It’s interesting to note the strong preference for bows in 3rd Life, which was a much more warlike game and had several fairly formal battles where people fought from a distance. Last Life required an overall sneakier strategy, resulting in a higher use of traps. In combat, non-ranged weapons like swords and axes were generally preferred due to fights often starting in close proximity and without warning, courtesy of the Boogeyman curse. Comparatively, Double Life saw remarkably few PvP kills, likely due to each person being twice as accident-prone by virtue of being linked to another player—in fact, with a total of 12, accidents accounted for three times as many deaths as PvP in Double Life and overall for more than half (57%) of the deaths in the game.
As for individual player stats sheets, here’s an example of one of those:
If you want to see one of those for ALL 17 PLAYERS, you can go to this slideshow! More details about the stats can be found in the presentation notes of each slide. And, if you have a really specific question and want to get into the nitty gritty, feel free to send me an ask! Hope you guys enjoyed the data!
once upon a time, when I was in the process of calculating death stats, I was chatting with a friend about it and they asked me who the most innocent player in 3rd life was. an interesting question, but first we had to define what "innocence" was.
in the end, we decided that "innocence" was, more or less, "goodness." it was primarily based on whoever had the fewest kills, but to narrow things down further, other factors would be considered. did they ever try to kill people? were they loyal to their allies? did they steal? cheat? grief? who truly didn't deserve what happened to them?
according to that definition, the most innocent player in 3rd life was Jimmy. as you all know, he was also the first one out.
on to last life. Jimmy is out first again, yes, but someone actually narrowly beats him for the Most Innocent Player award.
it's Tango.
and then, in double life, the two of them are soulmates. it's as if the universe took the two players who would not play its game viciously enough, brutally enough, cruelly enough, and doomed them by giving them each other. it cursed them for their innocence because the life series is not meant to be a game of kindness and mercy. it is not a game of making vows with your ally. it is not a game of giving your life away to save others. it is a death match. and so, for their goodness, they will die first. together.
there's a parallel in last life that I don't see talked about as much as it deserves and so I'm going to dissect the ever-living hell out of it. remember the ghast farm incident? everyone remembers the ghast farm incident. Grian turns red, he starts knocking blocks of a bridge out from under Mumbo, "there's a way we can still be friends," etc etc etc. it's fantastic. WELL. two sessions earlier, there's a similar confrontation between Scar and Joel after Joel turns red, except the roles are reversed. Joel approaches and it's Scar who starts breaking blocks of the bridge, trying to put distance between the two of them. HOWEVER, the interesting difference here is that Scar is doing it not because he doesn't want to be Joel's friend anymore, but because he still wants to be. lets take a look at a transcript of part of that scene, shall we?
[Scar breaks several blocks of the bridge.]
Joel: Scar, what are you doing? I know you're not my friend anymore, but come on, Scar. Not the bridge.
Scar: I wanted to make an arrangement. Are- are we not friends?
Joel: We can't be friends, Scar. We can't be friends.
Scar knows that Joel is a red life and that he might hurt him, but he still wants to be friends, so he's providing a way that they can be near each other while he isn't in any danger by putting a gap in the bridge. he even breaks it again when he comes by to chat later. during that chat, Joel reminds him of how dangerous he is, Scar says he "gets it," and then proceeds to let him continue living under magical mountain. Scar doesn't "get" that he needs to be cautious of Joel—what he "gets" is that he's taking a risk by letting him stay and that he's already accepted something might happen. and he's OKAY with that. Joel is red. he gets it.
now compare that to this excerpt from the ghast farm incident:
Grian: Y'know, Mumbo, there's a way we can still be friends.
Mumbo: Yeah?
Grian: Yeah. [he starts breaking blocks at of Mumbo's feet] You could join me.
with Joel and Scar, it's a red life choosing to step away from his friend in order to protect him, while said friend tries to find a way that they can still be near each other without placing himself in danger. with Grian and Mumbo, it's a red life choosing to try to take his friend down with him so that they can be near each other because he can't accept not being his friend. the fact that in BOTH scenarios the friendship is symbolized by a bridge being broken is a perfect illustration of one of Grian's lines from the ghast farm incident: "it was a bad idea for the wrong reasons." those friendships should have been a good idea, those bridges should have been a good idea, but now they provide a connection that isn't safe, and they all know that.
and I'm not done talking about this. no no no no no. this offers a FASCINATING insight into why desert duo is Like That. Scar would sooner let Grian kill him than have to stop being his friend. Grian would sooner kill Scar than have to stop being his friend. which is all kinds of perfectly fucked up and explains exactly why 3rd life ended the way that it did. it also makes the cactus scene from double life very interesting to think about. remember the cactus scene? it's a doozy.
Grian starts session by dropping a stalactite on Scar's head as a prank and (unintentionally) taking them down to two and a half hearts. Scar then retaliates by leaning against a cactus until Grian breaks it. he then leans against Yet Another Cactus until Grian breaks that one too, at which point they are at only one heart. a question I've been asking since that day is this: if Grian hadn't broken the cactus, would Scar have stepped away before it was too late?
using bridge theory, we can find an answer to this.
the answer is no.
this isn't necessarily because Scar is actively trying to get them killed—it's more because he knows with absolute certainty that Grian will break the cactus. he's not prepared to step away because he isn't worried he needs to. see, the difference between Grian and Scar is that Grian is willing to throw around the lives of other people to get what he wants, and Scar is willing to throw around his own life to get what he wants (the fact that what they really want out of all this is often the other's trust is an issue I will dissect another day). once again, last life is the perfect example of this. Grian steals a life from Scar right off the bat and gets another one out of him by force a few episodes later. meanwhile, Scar makes a business out of selling his soul and threatens Team BEST that he'll kill himself in order to go red life crazy on them. and they don't doubt him! and they SHOULDN'T doubt him, because Scar is the kind of guy that would do that! the same way that Grian is the kind of guy who will drop a stalactite on his soulmate's head but break the cactus he's leaning against.
Grian is willing to risk Scar's life, but he's not okay with Scar risking his own life, because he knows that he's completely willing to stand against a cactus until he dies if it makes a point. so Grian breaks it.
but Scar knows Grian as well as Grian knows him. Scar knows that this is hardly a risk at all. so he leans against the cactus a third second time.
what's interesting about Grian is that his trust in people is defined almost entirely by the person themselves rather than the color of their name. in session four he stood directly between Skizz (a red name) and a steep drop and didn't so much as comment on it. he even asked Skizz (who is, once again, a red name!) to watch his back. and he didn't even think twice about any of it because he trusts Skizz, regardless of how many lives he has.
alright with wild life ep. 4 coming out soon it's time for me to start talking winner predictions. in order to understand my bet, let's first understand why past winners won—and, for bonus effect, why another player who I think really had a shot ultimately lost.
GRIAN. The traffic crown typically falls on the head of whichever player is most able to bend and break the rules to their advantage. 3rd Life, as the archetypal Life Series with the fewest rules to manipulate, was won by the man who understood (and broke) them best—their inventor. Throughout the series, I think Impulse demonstrated a similar cunning and could have been able to pull off a win. His error was failing to establish trust with his allies in a series that was defined by its faction loyalty.
SCOTT. With the introduction of the Boogeyman, Last Life demanded a winner with a level head. With favorable relationships paving the path to regaining lives, there was very little wiggle room for more aggressive, risk-taking players, making this season favor players with high survivability. Continuing the trend of rule breakers, Scott was the only player to weigh the odds and refuse to act on the Boogeyman curse—which ultimately paid off for him. Similarly calculating and loyal is Etho, who lost this win by aligning himself with a volatile group that failed to lend him the stability Scott had throughout the series.
PEARL. It was so, so much easier to die in Double Life than any other series, and so its winner was the player who proved to be able to survive without a soulmate at all. The thing about Life Series gimmicks is that they are always, always the thing that kills you—as such, refusing to engage with them as intended elevates one's chances of victory. Such is the case with Pearl. Cleo also failed to engage with the Double Life mechanic as intended, but lost (ironically) due to her ability to forgive and the endgame belief that aligning with her soulmate was the wisest move.
MARTYN. Limited Life introduced the ability to live longer by killing, and as such encouraged players to pursue maximal violence with minimal risk through traps (namely, falling TNT minecarts). If playing by these rules led to a win, the victor would have been crowned on Skynet. Instead, Martyn broke the season-long strategy and a few series expectations along the way to opt for an absolutely brutal PvP win, which he pulled off by being the only one crazy enough to try. A good few other risk takers had a solid shot of winning this season—namely Joel. Unlike Martyn, however, Joel was unwilling to gamble with the permanent death of his teammates, and this soft spot led to his demise.
SCAR. On the surface level, Secret Life's gimmick asked its contestants to be good at the game—to be good at keeping their mouths shut, good at following directions, and good at reading other players. The kicker with all of the tasks, however, is that the gimmick is the thing that kills you, and what the tasks actually asked was for players to be bad at the game in one way or another. This made earnest attempts at success by far the most risky path forward (especially once yellow names started being able to guess tasks), and as such, Scar's continually baffling behavior worked in his favor. Similarly incomprehensible, Skizz's playstyle lent itself well to this series—however, he was simply too likable. The secretive nature of the tasks in this season brewed a hostile atmosphere in which trustworthiness made one a threat, and the Heart Foundation painted a target on him that he was unable to shed.
So. Who do I think is winning (and almost winning) Wild Life?
GEM. Of all the players in the Snailpocalypse, Gem was the only one to doggedly refuse to fear and avoid her snail. Wild Life is designed to breed uncertainty and chaos in its players, and her refusal to give in to this makes her a good contender for the crown. However, other players have begun to notice this, which could place her in hot water. My second winner pick is BigB—although more willing to engage with the wildcards, BigB has always thrived in the strange and peculiar, making him less outright afraid of them and putting him in position to potentially rise above them down the line.
for the record I can't believe that King of Mezalea Slayer of Horses Ruler of Jeremy etc etc Joel "I actively choose to ignore all my problems" SmallishBeans got reduced to "guy who is confused about lore" a lot of the time because he pretended Xornoth didn't exist for the majority of the season. that take waters him down so much. we were given "guy who is in incredibly deep denial about the existence of a demon that he's previously seen and acknowledged because he just wants to live happily ever after with his wife and his palace and he never learned to properly cope with his problems so he just pretends they don't exist in the hopes that they'll go away on their own in a tragedy about being unable to hold on to the things you love and he LITERALLY DIES OF A BROKEN HEART AT THE END" but somehow that got lost in translation and turned into "guy who is confused about lore." season 1 Joel might not have had Pixlriffs or Sausage levels of lore or anything but he had lore aplenty and I will die on that hill.
I think we as a society should talk more about how there is both a mural and a statue of Saint Pearl at the catacombs of the Ancient Capital, which implies that she was associated with death in some capacity by the people that once lived there. And how the world was obliterated by the moon when Pearl joined Hermitcraft. And how so many people died both around and by the hand of the Scarlet Pearl in Double Life. And how death just seems to follow everywhere she goes.
But we should also talk more about how she's associated with sunflowers, which are symbols of joy and devotion. About how Saint Pearl wears green, the color of life. About how she's portrayed with the wings of an angel.
Saint Pearl is the light that the dead go into. And I, for one, am never going to shut up about that.
Martyn "Hand of the King" InTheLittleWood just won Limited Life by turning on his ally.
Martyn "Hallucinated His Dead Friends" InTheLittleWood just won Limited Life by turning on his ally.
Martyn "Desperate to Work Things Out With His Soulmate" InTheLittleWood just won Limited Life by turning on his ally.
THIS IS A BIG DEAL.
Martyn is the first winner to abruptly change strategies at the very end. The other three won by doing what they'd done the whole season. There was no last second change in Grian or Scott or Pearl's games. Martyn, on the other hand, did a full 180 on everything he'd stood for in every game in order to win.
And that's not out of character! It's character development. Martyn consistently outlives the allies he's so loyal to. Ren. The Southlanders. Cleo. They all died before him. Loyalty has never gotten him to the finish line.
Martyn has always reached the last episode of the season. This was the first time, though, that he'd gone to a finale with his sworn ally still standing in his way of the win.
Cleo was no obstacle to him in Double Life. He couldn't have won without her. But Scott? Previous winner Scott? Has been a threat the entire season Scott? For the first time ever, Martyn found himself facing an ally that could easily outlive him and, subsequently, win.
Martyn had never had to choose between loyalty and winning before. It's fascinating that he chose to win.
Honestly, it makes sense. He had no guarantees that Scott wouldn't go for him once the battle royale started. It was kill or be killed, and Martyn decided he'd rather be able to guarantee his win than risk being taken out by the person he'd ensured the survival of. Can you imagine if Scott had taken Martyn out fair and square? What a devastating way to lose. And, sure, it's possible that Impulse could've taken Martyn out instead. Scott could've won without ever hurting him. But Martyn decided that he wanted to win. He got tired of the niceties. He got tired of loyalty. He got tired of losing.
For the first time, Martyn listened to himself instead of someone else. And he won.
