Kerbals are Tanky

[srbbnd]

After realizing I forgot to pack chutes on my mobile processing lab/rocket on both duna and minimus it seems as long as you EVA after entering the atmosphere and land in water with your kerbals you will survive. Or if for some reason you land on ground with your head you will survive. Saved me a lot of Kerbal cash that is for sure.

[Venusgate]

Works for single Kerbal craft ;P

[annallia]

Yes landing on their heads still works.

You can also try going EVA just before you crash... You can bounce em that way.

[clivman]

Firing there jetpack before landing at sea level will always result in them falling over but living. I wouldn't test it in the mountains though....

[Guest]

I had a Kerbal who ejected from 12,000 meters on Kerbin, hit the ground, and walked away from it. I noticed him standing in the middle of the debris field after the explosions were finished.

[waterlubber]

Kerbals are so draggy they hit at 20 m/s and are tough so they don't exolode when bumping into crap

[mikegarrison]

I did have a Kerbal outright die on me one time when I was jetpack-flying on Duna and ran out of propellant. My horizontal velocity was cooking right along, and when the Kerbal touched down it bounced and bounced and bounced and bounced.... When it finally stopped, the Kerbal was dead. IIRC, the face mask was all starred or broken out or something.

[Rath]

I did have a Kerbal outright die on me one time when I was jetpack-flying on Duna and ran out of propellant. My horizontal velocity was cooking right along, and when the Kerbal touched down it bounced and bounced and bounced and bounced.... When it finally stopped, the Kerbal was dead. IIRC, the face mask was all starred or broken out or something.

unless you had mods installed that do this you are a troll. This is impossible in stock. The kerbal may homage gone rag doll permanently (a glitch) but the stars/cracks do not exist.

[mikegarrison]

unless you had mods installed that do this you are a troll. This is impossible in stock. The kerbal may homage gone rag doll permanently (a glitch) but the stars/cracks do not exist.

Did you notice the "IIRC"? I probably didn't recall correctly. But I do remember that the Kerbal outright died, not just ragdolled. I remember it did something strange. Maybe it exploded? It was something that surprised me, anyway.

[Guest]

When Kerbals die they explode into a puff of smoke. There are no dead bodies in KSP.

[mikegarrison]

When Kerbals die they explode into a puff of smoke. There are no dead bodies in KSP.

Thanks, that must have been what I was misremembering. I was just shocked because while I had had whole ships get destroyed before, I had never had an individual Kerbal outside of a ship die. I had been wondering if they even could do so.

[RyanRising]

I find that 1. Kerbals can survive ejecting from a supersonic jet and landing on their head and 2. Kerbals will spazz out for a couple of seconds and then explode once they fall down on the ground from, say, tripping over an I-beam. So Kerbals' crash tolerance is directly related to their adrenaline level. Hm.

[Senormeens]

one time i was jet packing on the greater minmus flats and wasn't paying attention, and hit the ground, rag dolled, and continued to slide a flip about for two minutes or so.

[BoomShroom]

Thanks, that must have been what I was misremembering. I was just shocked because while I had had whole ships get destroyed before, I had never had an individual Kerbal outside of a ship die. I had been wondering if they even could do so.

Well sometimes (although only really triggered with external seat crashes) the kerbal will be classed as debris and will not respond to input. In rare cases they will stand but still not respond to input. These could be considered dead bodies since they just stay there doing nothing for eternity unless you put in a bugfix modlet for it.

Speaking of command seats I've discovered that no matter the speed if you aren't commanding the vessel, a kerbal in a command seat will survive any crash (excepting the bug above). I discovered this with a 4v4 BDA AI biplane dogfight. The AI never really went off full throttle so when they lost their wings they kinda drove themselves into the dirt. Record speed was 120m/s.

[bonyetty]

When Kerbals die they explode into a puff of smoke. There are no dead bodies in KSP.

Kerbals should go splat!