History Main / FriendlyFireproof

* ''VideoGame/FreedomFighters'' makes soldiers immune to their own side's bullets, but not explosives. The best way to deal with a crowded alley battle can be to whip out a machine gun and unload indiscriminately into the middle of it.

** One fun thing to do is set up three computers vs you and turn on {{Friendly Fire|Index}}. Most of the time, all you have to do is stay out of range and watch as HilarityEnsues. Of course, the console may do it by itself: [[GangUpOnTheHuman At some difficulty levels, free-for-alls with computers actualy behave like team battles with friendly fire on.]]

* Not only ''Videogame/JakIIRenegade'' and 'Videogame/Jak3Wastelander' averts this for you, but if you hit someone with weapon, such as Sig or Wastelanders in Spargus, they will shoot back at you.

* ''[[TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy Warhammer]] VideoGame/TheEndTimesVermintide'', which is essentially a Warhammer version of ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' initially plays this trope straight for most difficulty levels, but averts it on nightmare difficulty, where the friendly fire is turned on for all ranged and area attacks (but not melee attacks).
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' disables friendly fire only on Easy difficulty and it's only for bullets while everything else still causes some damage. The sequel does the same thing.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Usually averted, as a mage who's less-than-careful with his fireballs can quickly become the least popular member of the party. However, there have been exceptions over the years:

** Some special abilities let you do this, regardless of alignments. For example, in 3.5 Edition, the Archmage prestige class offers an ability called "Mastery of Shaping," which essentially lets you carve out spaces for your allies in your [=AoE=] spells.
** The Evasion class feature of Monks, Rangers and Rogues makes it possible to avoid any damage from spells allowing a Reflex save; thus it is envisageable to exploit this as a tactic in combat, the party Wizard aiming such a spell at a melee, knowing all allies involved have Evasion. It is a risky gambit, however, as they'd better not fail their Saving Throws.

** In 5th Edition, Evocation wizards can sculpt their spells so that friendly creatures within a spell's area-of-effect are not affected by them. Sorcerers get a lesser version of this with their Careful Spell metamagic option, which lets friendly creatures within the spell's area-of-effect automatically succeed on the saving throw against it; it won't protect them completely, but it ''does'' ensure that they take reduced damage.

* ZigZagged in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''; normal shooting cannot hit your own units (the justification being that the units find the right lines of fire to not shoot their comrades). Template weapons such as frag missiles, certain heavy weapons and grenades, on the other hand, can hurt friendly units if they scatter into their ranks -- except in 8th edition, which does away with templates entirely.

* Creator/RobertHeinlein's ''Literature/SixthColumn'', written long before DNA testing, had a racially-based version of this. The US was conquered by a "Pan Asian" military force, and was subjugated fully except for a secret research facility in the Rockies. At almost the exact same time, the research facility discovered an energy that killed most people but left some entirely untouched, resulting in a weapon which could kill or do nothing depending upon the race of the target. As the invaders were Asian and had methodically killed all Asian Americans they could find, this resulted in a weapon which could only kill the invaders, which they manufactured in bulk. Slightly subverted when one of the scientists went mad, decided he was a god, and tried to take over the headquarters. Armed with a powerful adjustable projector he had reset to kill only white people, he attempted to capture the leaders, only to have one of the last living Asian Americans take his fire long enough to jump him.resu

[[folder: Action Adventure]]
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZeld'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'': Old men, old women, bribing Moblins, and shopkeepers cannot be injured by your sword or items, since they just pass right through. Old men in labyrinths, for some reason, ''can'' be hit (but it's ''real'' bad idea).
** Averted to the tune of much hilarity in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker''. One moblin can be a pain in the ass unless you're paying attention. Multiple moblins are actually ''easier'' to beat, because they'll regularly hit each other when they miss Link. The moblin(s) hit will be knocked flat, and the one that did the hitting will stop and stare at its bowled-over brethren, which basically gives Link a free attack. It's even more hilarious if it's a moblin and one or more bokoblins; the bokoblin gets BlownAcrossTheRoom by the moblin's swings. About the only ally moblins ''aren't'' dangerous to is [[BossInMooksClothing darknuts]], and then only because their armor is [[MadeOfIndestructium impenetrable]].
[[/folder]]

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}''. As if the game wasn't hard enough with just one player, in co-operative play it's almost impossible to avoid hurting and inadvertently killing your partner, making the game practically unplayable in co-op (and very literally {{unwinnable}} near the end too due to a glitch).
** Fortunately, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF5heewzYa0 this video]] proves it's very much possible, and playing 2 players in [[ThatOneLevel Rat Race]] is helpful.
** Level 2 (in which the 'toads rappel down a cliff) is particularly unreasonable. A normal attack has melee range, but if a player hits the same attack button when there is an enemy on the other side of the screen, they'll turn into a wrecking ball and swing to the other side of the screen. This wrecking ball will kill your ally in one hit. Did I mention that when you hit the attack button, the game counts your ally as an enemy when deciding what to do? Oh, and if one of the 'toads runs out of lives, it's game over. For both players.

* The ''VideoGame/GundamVsSeries'' averts this. You can't directly target your partner, but friendly attacks still cause harm. This can be a problem if, for example, your AI partner decides to nuke the enemy with whom you are currently exchanging melee blows.
** Artdink's Gundam Battle series plays this mostly straight. However, there are settings for versus matches that can determine if allies can be targeted and/or damaged by friendly fire.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/MagicalBattleArena''. Thankfully in some cases, since this meant that there's a chance that [[MultiMookMelee your enemies might accidentally blow their companions up]] trying to get at you, but be very wary if someone like, say... [[{{LightNovel/Slayers}} Lina]] or [[Franchise/LyricalNanoha Nanoha]] is your ally. If you hear the [[KamehameHadoken Dragon Slave]] chant or the words "[[CatchPhrase Zenryoku Zenkai]]", that should be your signal to fly [[SphereOfDestruction far away from their target]].

* ''VideoGame/AmericasArmy'' sends your character to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Leavenworth Fort Leavenworth]] if you hit anyone friendly.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', where the game generally ends your character's life if you hit any friendly character beyond a few strays.
** ''World at War'' plays the trope straight (at least in single player). Especially bad when you can shoot napalm straight through your squad to hit the enemies on the other side... And with one of the Death Cards, you can heal teammates in co-op by shooting them.

* Friendly fire is usually turned on in ''VideoGame/DayOfDefeat: Source''.

** Averted in the arcade version's bonus stage.

* Averted in the original ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', where shooting some of the friendly characters would cause a NonStandardGameOver. Also, firing at a security guard would cause him to shoot at (and damage) Gordon, provided he did not die. [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 The second installment]] changed this by making Gordon automatically lower his weapon when aiming at friendlies. You could still fire at them, for some reason, but the bullets would inexplicably not harm them.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** Averted in a chillingly realistic fashion in ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', where a squad of highly aggressive Marines will hunt you down and terminate you with extreme prejudice if you should happen to accidentally [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace discharge a fully loaded firearm in Captain Keyes' face.]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverKill Twice.]]
** This is averted in a more annoying fashion in most of the series. This can make certain gametypes hard to play, especially to completion, since the games from ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' onward have the boot-button which many players will use whenever it appears; lengthy gametypes in particular can be a pain, especially with incompetent teammates. In general, friendly fire and the boot-button can be a kick to the nads, especially during Invasion, or any match where you're kicking ass.
** This aversion is why most ''Halo'' players play with enough friends to fill up a whole team for certain gametypes. Mostly Team Slayer, where the friendly casualties are highest, and teams are usually 4-5 players (which can screw you over even if just one teammate quits/gets booted).

** That makes perfect sense, really - [[AWizardDidIt it's the Force!]] [[DoingInTheWizard Or...]]

* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' averts this. There is ''no'' option of turning friendly fire off, and it's easy to shoot a teammate because you jumped after some infected suddenly appear.
** The amount of damage you do to your teammates is determined by the difficulty level. On easy, you're immune to damage, but the game still keeps track of friendly fire (and your teammates will yell at you for it). On expert, a single shotgun or hunting rifle shot is an instant incapacitation.
*** Being shot by the AI will never damage you, but your screen will shake from the hit and throw your aim off. Shooting through a wall will also preclude friendly-fire damage.
** There's a term ''scraping'' which is the careful removal of Common Infected swarming a Survivor (say, after a Boomer hit) while not hurting him or her in the process. Snipers and Assault Rifles are good for scraping. Shotguns, not so much.
** Special Infected are also not immune to friendly fire damage from their own zombie friends. HilarityEnsues when an overzealous Tank smashes a Hunter that pounced a survivor, killing the Hunter while freeing the survivor.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' and its sequels. The second game introduces a feature commonly thought to have made its FPS debut in Halo: your allies will turn on you if you attack them. What's interesting is that humans don't take it personally if you injure them, but will consider you a traitor for the rest of the level if you kill them in a way that the AI deems to be deliberate treason. On the other hand, your rare alien allies turn on you when you damage them specifically.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'', to the point where shooting a ''monkey'' will result in a NonstandardGameOver with an "unacceptable simian casualties" message. The civilians will also cower if you approach them with a drawn weapon.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{SWAT 4}}'', where not only can you shoot and kill allies, it only takes one or two bullets to kill anything. Not checking your aim can result in killing a civilian or an enemy who's surrendered, killing your squadmates, or (in worst cases) your squadmate shooting you in the back of the head.

* Averted in ''[[VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh Tron 2.0]]''. Though, if you screw-up and de-rez a non-hostile character, the game immediately protests "Illegal Program Termination" and gives you a NonstandardGameOver.

[[folder: Real Time Tactics ]]
* ''VideoGame/BattleBugs'', despite being a kind of silly game, avoids this pretty well. Bombs, gas grenades and cheeses hit every unit, except those specifically immune to it. It is still often a good tactic to let multiple enemies attack one of your units and then bomb them, but the friendly unit is not going to survive the ordeal. the only straight use of the trope is with the spider, which attacks multiple enemy units at the same time, but does not accidentally punch nearby allies, despite looking like a swirling ball of legs when it fights. I guess those eight eyes are good for something after all.
* ''VideoGame/WarhammerDarkOmen'' also averts this without mercy. When you have a ranged unit fire at an advancing enemy, ''always'' switch them to another target if you send your melee fighters to finish the job, cause the shooters will not hesitate to fire into the fray (Unless you aim for the aforementioned trick with sacrificing your melee units to tie the enemy up and give your shooters a still target). Not only that, but since ''every'' projectile in the game is an actual object with its own trajectory, it's entirely possible to have a situation when you send a unit to flank an enemy who's engaged in a shoot-out with your shooters, [[EpicFail only for your shooters to miss the enemy and hit your flankers behind them by mistake]].
[[/folder]]

* Averted in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'', 'siege weapons' that hit stuff in an area can damage your units, but they are otherwise immune to their own forces.
** Particularly frustrating in the second game, where they suffered from a severe case of ArtificialStupidity and would auto-fire on enemies even if allies were in the way. (And they'd often end up killing more allies than enemies like this.) One of the advertised changes in the expansion pack was "Siege weapons don't auto-fire if it would harm allied units." AndThereWasMuchRejoicing.
** However, non-area-of-effect ranged attacks have the two options of either hitting an enemy or missing, even if targeting enemies engaging with allies in a melee.
** This trope is then played straight in the spin-off ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology''. Becomes a bit more laughable when you have myth units spraying poison, fire, and also making the earth quake with no more then their steps.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'', at least [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn the first one]], does a terrible (to the player) work at averting this trope. With several units that deal splash damage, you may try a mass attack, but a mass attack of grenadiers or flamethrowers is going to hurt you more than the enemy.
** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'' has three OneHitPolykill units in the form of Ghoststalker with his handheld railgun, the Mammoth Mark II with its mecha-sized railgun and the Disruptor with its sonic beam attack, all of which will damage friendly units if they happen to get in between them and their target (though Disruptors are immune to the beams of friendly Disruptors which makes them less of a problem).
** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'', Spies and Sudden Transports ([[DressingAsTheEnemy units that can disguise themselves as enemy infantrymen or vehicles, respectively]]) will never be accidentally targeted by friendly forces, even when their disguises are active. The game itself, however, has a force-attack option, which allows the payer to order their units to attack friendly units and structures.

* Absent from the grand strategy game ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'' -- in naval engagements, at least. There's a small chance that one of your ships will fire on a friendly vessel, which actually did happen a couple times in WWII.
** Since most combat other than sea battles takes place on the scale of infantry divisions, with the minimum "tick" of time being an hour, this is probably [[JustifiedTrope justified]]. There were lots of times in air-to-air or land combat where two units on the same side attacked each other. But it's hard to imagine two entire infantry divisions of several thousand men, with tanks and artillery, getting into a firefight with each other for an entire hour without anyone realizing that they were both on the same side.

* Averted in Bungie's ''VideoGame/{{Myth}}'' games, where [[ArtificialStupidity over-eager ranged units]] tend to lob attacks right into melee battles, wounding friend and foe alike. But at least they apologize.
** Magic users are generally immune to their ''own'' explosive attacks, but not teammates'.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/StarWarsGalacticBattlegrounds'', in which the easiest way to lose mounted troopers is to put them in the same group as an Assault Mech (which does vast amounts of splash damage), and then order the group to attack a specific target. (Fortresses seem to be large enough that Pummels can rip them apart without being hurt by Assault Mechs that are also firing on the fortress, though).
** In ''Franchise/StarWars VideoGame/EmpireAtWar'' and its expansion, it is 100% impossible to hurt your own units with anything. Which is a good thing, considering how often units are packed right up against each other. Especially in Space combat, where fighters often fly around capital ships during battle, as said capital ships attempt (and fail) to shoot down the fighters with their turbolasers. It would be quite annoying if these turbolaser shots then damaged your own capital ships.
*** If you're in a heated ground battle with the enemy, one tactic is to call in a bombing run ''right on top of you''! The end result is that your enemies will be decimated and you'll be completely unscathed.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' and its 3D spin-off ''VideoGame/{{Spring}}'': explosions will damage everything. However, friendly fire will actually go ''straight through'' friendly units (though this is mod-dependent in Spring), which means that technically you can fire at a friendly unit all you like and it will go unharmed so long as the missiles / lasers / whatevers don't explode on the ground next to them.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/TotalWar'': Archers firing on units in combat will not only kill those on their own side, but also hurt their morale.

* Completely averted in ''VideoGame/{{NetHack}}'', whether it's your own attacks, those of your pets, or those of the enemies. Moreover, your pets lose tameness if you accidentally hit them, and may eventually abandon you, or outright turn hostile, and hitting peaceful bystanders also turns them hostile. Unfortunately, those same bystanders are far more forgiving of the enemies trying to kill you with a thrown dagger, but missing and hitting them instead. Even if those "bystanders" happen to be the Mine Town Watch.

* ''VideoGame/BetrayalAtKrondor'': Averted. Miss, and your spell or arrow WILL hit an ally.
** Practically inverted with the Bane of the Black Slayers spell: that's a spell that is supposed to specifically damage only one type of enemy in the whole game (Black Slayers), and to make up for this, it deals much more damage per stamina than other comparable spells. But if that spell misses and hits a party member, that party member will take full damage, despite the fact that they're not black slayers! Your party is ''more'' vulnerable to the spell than the vast majority of enemies are!

* Friendly [=NPCs=] in ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' can be hit with any of your weapons. Fortunately (and/or gamebreakingly), most of them will hold off retaliating before you deal significant damage to them. On the other hand, you can't hurt Blue Phantoms, so Friendly PC Fire is off.

* Annoyingly absent in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' where three accidental hits will turn allies into enemies, usually because they keep getting in the way. However, you can "yield" to them and if their disposition to you is high enough they will back off. However, AI characters cannot yield to each other, and even AIs in the same faction will fight each other to the death if they hit each other 3 times. Some players take advantage of this by crafting a spell or bow of Command Humanoid up to Level 25, to make the enemies take each other out while you laugh and point from the shadows.
** In the ''Dragonborn'' [[DownloadableContent DLC]] of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', there is a perk [[spoiler:obtained through the use of a [[TomeOfEldritchLore Black Book]]]] that makes it so that followers don't take damage from your attacks, spells, and shouts while in combat.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'', where friendly/neutral [=NPCs=] are immune to your melee attacks (unless you're locked on to ''them''), but not to your arrows/magic. This can be frustrating when [=NPCs=] get between you and your target, and they will.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/GrandKingdom'', as all damage-dealing skills will hurt ''anyone'' in range, including your allies. Even {{healing potion}}s cause a negligible amount of damage, so if you toss one directly at an ally on the brink of death, the impact will most likely kill them.

* ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'' averts this for ranged weapons but plays it straight for all melee weapons. Once your army gets large enough, you WILL get shot by your own forces at least once a battle.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/SuikodenIII'' - area effect spells hit in the area of effect, and if your friends happen to be standing right next to your target, then that's just too damn bad for them. Spells that are 'Hit All', however, will still only target foes...

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}}'', where the effects of spells are described in the manual rather than shown due to the primitive graphics of the time. In the description for the most powerful spell, Tiltowait, the manual specifically mentions that the spell also creates a force field to protect the party from the tremendous explosion created.

* In the original SNES ''VideoGame/StarFox'' as well as ''VideoGame/StarFox Assault'', your teammates are immune to your own blasts. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but when they fly into your line of fire and start taking the shots meant for the enemy (and they will), chances are you'll want to hurl your controller through the screen.
** The other games in the series do make it possible to harm your allies. In ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', you can damage your teammates if you shoot them, though if you're going for a medal you're going to want to keep them as far away as possible from dying. Also while your teammates aren't usually good for much, you're going to want to have them around as meat shields if you happen to be going into a fight with Star Wolf.

[[folder: Simulation Game ]]
* Averted in the ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}}'' series unless playing a custom mission using custom scripts.
* Averted in ''F/A-18 Hornet'', where if you damage any friendly planes or structures, you will be court-martialed as a NonstandardGameOver.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/FreeSpace''. Aside from specific mission that have the special no-traitor flag, allied spaceships will give you a warning after a few shoots on them ("Whose side are you on, pilot ?!"). If you persist, all your allies will suddenly turn against you (and of course, your enemies will stay enemies), which kind of result in a Game Over.
** When becoming a 'traitor' and returning back to base, you get a game-over debriefing, common to all missions ("you are hereby stripped of your wings and... blah blah.")
* Averted in space-sim ''VideoGame/{{Starlancer}}'' - while you'd ordinarily have to actually be trying in order to shoot down a friendly, God help you if you catch one of your buddies in the blast when killing one of the game's many, many, MANY torpedoes. Even an obviously accidental teamkill results in a nonstandard gameover complete with firing squad. Some of the more chaotic missions get really hairy because of this.
* Averted in the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series. You really have to be careful when using AreaOfEffect weapons; a Firestorm Torpedo fired at the wrong time can wipe out an entire squadron of expensively equipped fighters. And don't even bother trying to do fleet or carrier operations if your ship is equipped with [[SplashDamageAbuse Phased Shockwave Generators]]; when they're firing you'll kill everything in a [[InstantDeathRadius one-kilometer radius]]. (They were {{nerf}}ed to capital ship-only from ''X3: Terran Conflict'' on for exactly that reason.)
* Averted in the original ''VideoGame/XWing'', but not in the Windows remake. In the remake, there is at least one training mission that is significantly harder because of this.
[[/folder]]

* Completely and often infuriatingly averted in ''VideoGame/DeadRising''; your attacks can and will hurt the [[EscortMission Survivors in your group]]. Combine this with the game's [[ArtificialStupidity Infamous AI]] and you have a recipe for disaster.
** It gets better since certain weapons do a downwards swing that will crush a zombie skull. It gets worse when you attempt to save a survivor using that weapon. Why? Let's just say that survivors can't take a 2x4 [[spoiler: (or at times sledgehammers)]] to the face.
*** In ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'' most attacks won't be a survivor deadly as the first one.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Oni}}'', and enemy mooks will not shoot if there is another blocking their line of fire. However, seeking weapons are indiscriminate and it is quite easy to lead them into another mook, who will be too dumb to get out of the way. Enemies are also rather indiscriminate with the sole SplashDamage weapon (a grenade launcher) and will happily fire it into melee.
* Completely averted in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' You can kill your EscortMission package in ONE hit by ANYTHING including one knife swipe. And even the merchant. However the ENEMY can't hurt each other AT ALL, even if the person obviously had stabbed his partner in the back. However people with dynamites can still kill the other ganados, and Jj can also shoot his own military.
** Of course, there is the option to turn on friendly fire. [[SarcasmMode Good times will be had by all.]]
*** Thankfully present in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', where your bullets and those of your partner can't hurt each other. It's still annoying, though, that your partner will gladly stand right behind you and keep shooting you in the back to get at the enemy in front of you.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars''. Your ships can damage each other. The Smart Nanites upgrade exists to allow you to play this straight with Nanite Missiles.
** A player with fast enough cloaking or intangible ships can use this to their advantage, given the AI's tendency to keep firing at empty space when enemy ships vanish and failure to realize their own vessels are in the way.

* Averted for the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' series where any attack can harm your own party if they just happen to be in the way. Summon magic can also harm your party as well, even though summons in other Final Fantasy games normally teleport your party to safety first. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' have Espers, a stronger version of summoning, that only targets enemies, but there is one Esper that will hit everyone regardless.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', "Target All" attacks are still mostly "Target all enemies" except for the Blue Mage's Night spell, which does indeed target everyone except the caster. And the Tinkers spells randomly target either the enemy or your own team.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has the Scholar, basically an Illusionist without Friendly Fireproof mechanics. Fortunately, the right equipment setup can negate the damage on part of your own party members or even [[HealingShiv turn it into healing]].
** In both ''Advance'' games, the basic SummonMagic doesn't discriminate. The stronger totema/scions however, do, despite their animations showing them blasting the entire battlefield.
*** With a few exceptions. One scion has a (generally) 50/50 chance of causing 999 damage to EVERYONE, making it possible to completely wipe out your team and the enemy team at the same time. Two other scions that target just one person can be chosen to hit friend or foe. Another (Ultima) nukes your enemies ''and'' fully heals your side.
*** The reason most Scions and Illusion spells don't hit your team is because teleporting the entire team away temporarily is apparently part of the spell. Much like how the characters vanish when using summons in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''.

* Averted in most of Creator/NipponIchi's {{Strategy RPG}}s, from ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'' on. All area effect spells and attacks hit EVERYTHING in their radius, including people you don't want it to. In later games, the number of friendly kills plays a role in determining which ending you get.

* In ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'', the area spells would usually hit anyone within range, and the enemy had [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the annoying habit of knowing when you were going to cast healing spells]].

* Averted in the ''VideoGame/{{Worms}}'' series. Inaccuracy can and will hurt your own team. Sometimes, however, it's worth it.
* Averted in the ''{{VideoGame/XCOM}}'' series. Explosives can do damage to friendly units too close to the blast, as do stray rounds from standard weapons.
** Notably, this works for the computer enemies as well. A Snakeman [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy accidentally shoot]] its [[DemonicSpiders Cryssalid]] ally while trying to kill a civilian.
** If one or more of your soldiers go berserk, they will start spinning and shooting, often hitting anyone near them. Since soldiers aren't usually facing one another, and side and rear armor is much weaker, those can result in one-hit kills.
** Averted with Torque in ''VideoGame/XCOMChimeraSquad'' - if she's binding an enemy, other agent can't shoot at them for fear of hitting her. Which is annoying as in [[VideoGame/XCOM2 the pervious game]] other enemies could shoot a Viper victim just fine.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}''. Most missions where Jimmy is working with someone else, it's imperative that they survive the whole thing, save for Halloween and rumbles. Kind of annoying when you're messing around and you kill a superfluous character because they're only slowing you down anyhow then you lose the mission.

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'': team damage is a known risk when dealing with heroes who can get a bit irresponsible (Sky-Scraper, Nightmist) or villains who hit all targets (Infinitor, team mode Plague Rat). This can be exploited in all sorts of ways: Sky-Scraper, for example, is good at triggering some of Captain Cosmic's constructs, which give heroes healing or power uses when damaged, while mass villain damage can be combined with damage redirection to get team mode Plague Rat repeatedly hit in the face by Greazer Clutch for mussing his hair, cause the Ennead to maul each other (since they all share a nemesis symbol, granting bonus damage), or toast most of the enemy field with the aid of Sergeant Steel's Arsonator minion.

* Also averted in ''TabletopGame/TheWitcherGameOfImagination''. All sorts of projectiles, spells and signs will hit, hurt and kill whatever ended up as their final target or around it. Which renders area-of-effect spells - aka most of them - virtually useless in the heat of combat.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Averted viciously in ''Podcast/CriticalHit'', a real play ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign. In accordance with the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' tabletop game example below, a mage has to be very, very careful with the placement of the spells. Being the BigGuy in the party that consists mostly of arcane casters, Torq ends up being set on fire by allies so often that it becomes a RunningGag. But he is far from the only one to be caught in the area of effect spells cast by allies, and every party members experiences it at least once, some by their own spells. [[SquishyWizard Orem]] eventually took a feat that allows him to invoke Friendly Fireproof by giving his spells a penalty to attack rolls against allies (meaning that allies are less likely to be hit by the spell than enemies are), but, as the party quickly discovered, it does not help when the eponymous critical hit is rolled.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* While tanks ''really'' aren't this trope when referring to their main guns, they do count when talking about small arms not specifically designed to penetrate tank armor. For this reason, tanks carry [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canister_shot canister shot]] for dealing with infantry at close range, which they can use to "scratch the back" of another tank to [[ChunkySalsaRule utterly obliterate]] any infantry trying to climb onto it.
[[/folder]]

** In ''Literature/PeaceTalks'' we learn that [[spoiler: Fidelacchius will no longer harm human beings, though it cleaves monsters and inanimate objects with no difficulty. It's suggested that it might still carve up very evil humans.
And, yes, these Swords can make moral judgments like that.]]

** In ''Literature/PeaceTalks'' we learn that [[spoiler: Fidelacchius will no longer harm human beings, though it cleaves monsters and inanimate objects with no difficulty. It's suggested that it might still carve up '''very evil''' humans.
And, yes, these Swords '''can''' make moral judgments like that.]]

** In 5th Edition, Evocation wizards can sculpt their spells so that friendly creatures within a spell's area-of-effect are not affected by them. Sorcerers get a lesser version of this with their Careful Spell metamagic option, which gives friendly creatures within the spell's area-of-effect advantage on the saving throw against it.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Usually averted, as a mage who's less-than-careful with his fireballs can quickly become the least popular member of the party.
** However, there are several spells which only harm characters of a certain [[CharacterAlignment alignment]], which works out to "enemies only" or "allies only" in a Good vs. Evil game. Woe betide the [[TokenEvilTeammate evil character in a good party, though]]. The 3.5th sourcebook ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' has a Metamagic feat, "Purify Spell", which can add this property to any damage spell, which then cause no harm to good-aligned creatures (and half damage to neutral-aligned ones).

* In the [[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Trails Series]], you can cast offensive [[MagicFromTechnology orbal arts]] or offensive crafts without injuring or even giving your teammates any effect whatsoever despite them being in attack range. Casting tornadoes? only the enemies are lifted upwards. Casting freezing or flood water art that targets the whole field? No problem!

* Averted in ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks''. Your own shells will quite happily damage or destroy your teammates and poorly aimed or timed friendly artillery fire is also a danger. The occasional mishap is considered part of the game, but deliberate Team Killers are quickly flagged by the automatic system and it's open season on them from then on.

*** This is parodied in the ''Meet the Spy'' video, where the BLU Soldier nails the BLU Spy with a rocket because he thinks it's actually the RED Spy; unfortunately, this trope does not hold true in the videos. [[spoiler: The real RED Spy is the BLU Scout.]]

** However, non-area-of-effect ranged attacks have the two options of either [[StrayShotsStrikeNothing hitting an enemy or missing]], even if targeting enemies engaging with allies in a melee.

* Averted to the tune of much hilarity in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker''. One moblin can be a pain in the ass unless you're paying attention. Multiple moblins are actually ''easier'' to beat, because they'll regularly hit each other when they miss Link. The moblin(s) hit will be knocked flat, and the one that did the hitting will stop and stare at its bowled-over brethren, which basically gives Link a free attack. It's even more hilarious if it's a moblin and one or more bokoblins; the bokoblin gets BlownAcrossTheRoom by the moblin's swings. About the only ally moblins ''aren't'' dangerous to is [[BossInMooksClothing darknuts]], and then only because their armor is [[MadeOfIndestructium impenetrable]].

* Justified in ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'': Since you can swim through and recover health by swimming in your own team's ink, it makes sense that hitting your own teammates doesn't do any damage (although they can block your shots).