I've seen people say both yes and no to this question but I'm curious if anyone knows for sure now that the game's been out for over a year.

Can Lydia die?

They all can, if hit by the PC.

I sacrificed her to Boethiah. So yes.

Well, let me re-phrase this then. Can she die during battle from an NPC?

I know she can bug and not be killed period, by you, or another NPC

• There is a rare case when Lydia can't be killed at all—not even if you try to kill her yourself. Otherwise I am not sure.... I have never actually seen her die other than sacrificing her

Also, Chumbawamba

Well, according to a Wikia on her: Lydia is primarily a melee-type character and uses no spells. As with some other melee-oriented followers, she has tendency to simply rush into combat, possibly leading to her death.


So yeah, she can die.

Acording to the game mechanics. As long as a follower is "following" you they are tagged essential. Once they are released on their own, that tag is lifted until they are recalled as a follower. Now, does this same mechanic apply to HCs? I assume so.

The exception to this, being Mjoll as she is marked essential 24/7. So, in theory, you could release Lydia and engage a group of NPC and she should be fair game.

Yes she can die, but not that easily.

When her health is depleted, she will go to submit and recover mode, and enemies will not attack her until she gets up again. But she can still get hit by a crossfire or a blast of explosion during this time.

When she dies, I'm pretty sure that I dealt the last blow 80% of the time, but the other 20% I'm not sure. So it is possible that I kill her 100% of the time, although I'm fairly certain it's not the case.

I've read reports of people who claimed that she can die if you run away from the Frost Troll and leave her behind on the way up to High Hrothgar. But I have not seen this myself.

She can survive getting launched by a giant into space. I have seen this with my own eyes. She was launched by the giant's club, then landed like 10 seconds later, and she was fine a few seconds after that.

I have always wondered about that last bit. So NPC's don't follow the same distance of falling and then proceeding to die as the PC? Or how exactly does that work? You can obviously use Unrelenting Force off a cliff and kill anyone. But the giants launch just voids this fall damage?

Yes she can die but she's generally ignored in submit mode.

In my dad's game a Centurion did the steam attack and finished her off, my dad was several feet away from her when it happened and he had a waraxe. So yes she can die by someone else's hand.

Yes. While she's generally ignored while she's 'down', she definitely can be killed. I've had it happen to me, and it wasn't my character who hit her.