Hit Points: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Tyrantosaurus spanking 5546.jpg|link=Dragon Quest|frame|BAM!]]

 

 

'''[[Big Bad|Khrima]]:''' You know very well that by the definition of hit points that I haven't yet [[Critical Existence Failure|had enough.]]|''[[Adventurers!]]''}}

 

Rather than using actual wounds and damage, players have a number attributed to their health that clearly indicates how close to death they are. It's like a time-irrelevant take on [[Exact Time to Failure]] in that [[Critical Existence Failure|only losing the last one]] causes any real harm. It should be noted, however, that HP in many games (especially [[Tabletop RPG]]s) is supposedly a statistically concealed conceit of both [[Plot Armor]] and actual health. As your HP drops, it's ostensibly your talent/luck at dodging, deflecting and absorbing blows dropping as you get more tired and desperate until you actually get hurt (This explanation raises [[Fridge Logic|problems of its own]] all too often.)

 

 

In [[First-Person Shooter|First Person Shooters]], this number is often ''exactly'' 100, and is taken to be a percentage of the player's normal uninjured health, with "mega health"-type items that cause your health to go above 100 often resulting in your health slowly ticking back down to 100. Ever since ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|GoldenEye]]'', players and enemies often take multiples of damage based on where they are hit, but in the end, [[Boom! Headshot!|a bullet in the head]] is exactly the same as twelve in the foot, or what have you. It's a good thing there are so many [[Heal Thyself|water fountains]] and [[Healing Potion]]s spread about.

 

 

[[Call a Hit Point a Smeerp|They're not always called "Hit Points,"]] but if they have an on-screen abbreviation, it's almost always HP. If individual body parts have hitpoints, that's [[Subsystem Damage]]. Sometimes entities have [[Multiple Life Bars]], layered in combinations like [[Regenerating Shield Static Health]] or for different types of attacks.

** In ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', the ring counter functions more like a typical life bar: You lose 10 rings instead of all of them when struck.

** In ''[[Sonic Generations]]'', if Sonic has more than a certain number of rings in his possession, he will lose a considerable percentage of them. Less than that, and he will lose all of them.

== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==

 

== [[Roguelike]] ==

* The ludicrously detailed (and getting more so every day) Roguelike ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' instead has individual hit-point counts for ''each and every one of every single characters' limbs and organs'', even down to little things like fingers and toes. And separate tracks for 'blood loss', 'pain', and 'exhaustion'. The newest version can track each ''layer of tissue''. [[Stylistic Suck|ASCII graphics]] gives you a ''lot'' of extra space to play with.

 

* Several of Koei's ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' games give you "hit points" in the form of [[We Have Reserves|units]]: The modifier equals thousands of able-bodied soldiers fighting for your general.

 

== [[Survival Horror]] ==

[[Category:Older Than the NES]]

[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]

[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]

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