Install the PermaDeath System

Every other mod in this manual is cosmetic and reversible. This one is neither. It removes the campaign's safety net permanently, and when the twelfth soldier dies it deletes every save file you have. Read this whole section before you install it.

WarningThis plugin can permanently delete your saves

When all twelve squad members are dead, the PermaDeath System deletes every Deadly Dozen Reloaded save file — ddrsave_*.xml and their matching .png screenshots — from Documents\My Games\Deadly Dozen Reloaded\.

Mission unlocks in this game are derived from those save files. A full squad wipe is therefore a total campaign reset: progress, unlocks and all. There is no undo, no confirmation prompt and no recycle bin.

That is the intended behaviour, not a bug. The mod's author calls it Scorched Earth and warns about it in the largest letters a README allows. This manual repeats it here because it is the one thing in the whole install that can destroy something you cannot get back.

01 Decide whether you want this

Deadly Dozen Reloaded hands you twelve named soldiers and lets you feed them into the grinder for free — the dead come back next mission, and a quickload undoes anything. This plugin removes that safety net for the entire campaign, with no switches to soften it.

It is a good fit if you want:

Named soldiers who matter, because losing one is losing him for the rest of the campaign.
Loadout decisions with weight — a medkit in the pack is literally a life in the bank.
A run with genuine stakes, where the campaign can actually end in failure.

Skip it if you want:

To replay missions freely, or experiment with tactics without cost.
Any ability to undo a bad fight. Quickload still works; it just cannot bring anyone back.
Your save files to be safe under all circumstances. They are not, with this installed.

02 Back up your saves first

This is the one place in the manual where a backup is genuinely worth making, because it is the one thing here that can delete data. Copy this folder somewhere safe before you install:

Where Deadly Dozen Reloaded keeps its saves

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Deadly Dozen Reloaded\

Paste that into the Explorer address bar and press Enter.
Copy the whole folder to your desktop, another drive, or cloud storage.

A copy of that folder is a complete, restorable snapshot of your campaign. Put it back after a Scorched Earth event and you are exactly where you were — though doing so is, of course, entirely against the spirit of what you just installed.

03 Extract and copy

Download PermaDeath System v1.0.0 PermaDeathSystem_v1.0.0.rar 2.3 MB
RAR Mirror Get it from StixsworldHD’s Google Drive

Extract it into your staging folder. Inside:

PermaDeathSystem_v1.0.0.rar contents

PermaDeathSystem_v1.0.0\ wrapper — do not copy this folder itself
- BepInEx\plugins\PermaDeathSystem\
  - PermaDeathSystem.dll 50 KB — the whole plugin
- README.md the Iron Covenant in full, article by article
- source\ complete .NET 6 project — not installed
  - src\ 7 files; every rule constant lives in Covenant.cs
  - lib\ 9 interop reference assemblies from game v1.03

Copy the BepInEx folder from the archive over the BepInEx folder in your game directory and merge when prompted. One file lands:

The only file that gets installed

<game folder>\BepInEx\plugins\PermaDeathSystem\PermaDeathSystem.dll

04 Launch and confirm the oath

Start the game. With the console enabled from section 03, the plugin announces itself and reads the full rule set into the log:

The banner that means the rules are live

[Info   :   BepInEx] Loading [PermaDeath System 1.0.0]
[Message:PermaDeathSystem] PERMADEATH SYSTEM - the Iron Covenant is in force
[Message:PermaDeathSystem] StixsworldHD (StixsmasterHD4k) - v1.0.0

Your plugin count also goes up. If you installed all three mods it now reads 3 plugins to load.

05 The rules, in brief

The plugin calls these the Iron Covenant. The full text is in the archive's README.md; this is what you actually need to know before playing.

Art.	Rule	What it means in play
I	Death is instant and permanent	A death is written to disk synchronously, before the ragdoll settles. Killing the process a millisecond later changes nothing. Deaths in a mission you then abort or fail still count. The tutorial is exempt — deaths there are free.
II	Death transcends saves	Saving and loading stay fully functional, because they are useless as resurrection tools. On load, the system waits 0.6 s for the level to settle, then executes anyone the ledger lists as fallen. Quickload-scumming is not blocked; it is simply futile.
III	The fallen leave the roster	Dead soldiers' portraits are disabled and stained dark red on squad select, and refused at the input layer. If a scrub empties your selection, the system auto-drafts survivors — lowest roster number first, up to four — so the campaign always marches on.
IV	The Second Chance	Once per soldier per mission: a lethal blow while carrying a medkit destroys the medkit and leaves him at 25 HP with a 2-second grace window. It works for AI squadmates too. It always costs a Battle Scar.
V	Battle Scars	Finishing a completed mission at ≤ 35 HP, or surviving via a Second Chance, permanently reduces one random skill by 8% (multiplicative). Up to five per soldier. Three consecutive clean missions heal the most recent one.
VI	Scorched Earth	When the twelfth name is written, every save file and screenshot is deleted two seconds later. The ledger and memorial are archived as a war record and a fresh ledger opens.
VII	A New Game is a new ledger	Pressing NEW GAME archives the current ledger and opens a clean one. Save files are not touched. This is the only sanctioned way to abandon a doomed campaign.
VIII	The wall and the word	Everything speaks through the game's own HUD message line — roll call a few seconds into each mission, KIA notices as deaths commit, and a `F8` readout of roster, recent losses and walking wounded.

What it writes to disk

File in `plugins\PermaDeathSystem\`	What it is
`permadeath_registry.json`	The machine ledger. Data, not configuration — editing it is editing history.
`MemorialWall.txt`	Human-readable war record: roll of honour with full forensics, walking wounded, campaign stats. Regenerated on every change.
`Archive\`	Ledgers and memorials from finished campaigns, kept after a Scorched Earth or a New Game.

06 Removing it

Delete BepInEx\plugins\PermaDeathSystem\. The whole folder. Your soldiers stop dying forever and the game returns to its usual amnesia on the next launch.

The ledger and memorial go with it, since they live in that folder. If you want to keep them as a war record, move the folder somewhere outside the game rather than deleting it — but move it completely out of plugins\, because BepInEx scans recursively and would load the DLL again from a subfolder.

Before moving on

I have read what Scorched Earth does and I accept it.
I have copied Documents\My Games\Deadly Dozen Reloaded\ somewhere safe.
BepInEx\plugins\PermaDeathSystem\PermaDeathSystem.dll is in place.
No wrapper folder was copied in by accident.
The log shows the Iron Covenant banner.
I know that New Game resets the ledger without touching my saves.

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