History Main / PoisonedWeapons

[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin When a weapon is poisoned]] for added lethality. The weapon is frequently a dagger, but often an arrow, dart, or even a sword. Expect from such a weapon to ooze a [[TechnicolorToxin purple or green]] and possibly [[PoisonIsCorrosive stone-melting]] liquid. The poison is likely to either act instantly, or be [[AlmostDeadGuy timed to]] the FinalSpeech.

Poisoned weapons are typically [[PoisonIsEvil used by villains]] (and HungryJungle natives, who get a free pass), since they allow an easy victory or a spiteful revenge despite losing, especially in a duel. TheHero is usually too {{honor|BeforeReason}}able or [[LawfulStupid stupid]] to use it himself. Heroes down the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism and {{Combat Pragmatist}}s sometimes use poison. A literary device as old as time is to have a confrontation involving a poisoned weapon which the audience knows is poisoned, but the [[DramaticIrony characters involved do not]].

It should be noted that the poison being ''fatal'' isn't always the case. Often times, the poison will be nonlethal and merely intended to weaken, paralyze, or disorient the target instead. Reasons why vary from wanting to capture them alive, to avoid accidentally killing oneself, to wanting to actually kill them with their own hand but knowing they only stand a chance against them if they're weakened. It's almost never for safety's sake, where the villain doesn't want to risk killing themselves with an accidental nick of their own blade outside of combat. If the poison is actually lethal, it normally depends on who is hit with it whether or not the poison will actually kill them. If a hero is infected, the poison will normally be slow acting enough to permit a FindTheCure by his allies, but not always. If it's the villain, they're more likely to die. If an [[TheUndead undead]] is infected, they are immune to poison so it doesn't matter.

** In the same fashion, Don Krieg's most powerful weapon is a cannon ball filled with (oddly) white coloured poison Gas.

** In a non canon example, Wapol's brother Musshul ate the Noko Noko fruit (stands for kinoko, mushroom) and can manipulate poisonous spores. This includes bullets, a [[ThisIsADrill drill like fungus on his arm]] and poison clouds.

* In ''Manga/AkameGaKill'', Akame's katana Murasame is coated with a deadly poison that has no antidote. It only takes one nick to kill a man in seconds. She mentions that maintaining the sword is a real pain, because she risks getting cut herself. However, the poison only affects living beings. If Akame faces robots or zombies, her sword is just a sword.

** A neatherthal prepares for the next day's festivities by trying small poisonous frogs to the face of his clubs.
** A jungle explorer urgently warns his snacking collegue "Don't eat those! ..Those are ''poison'' arrows!"

* In ''Film/TheWolverine'', some moronic hunters attack a bear with illegal poisoned arrows. The bear kills several of them and escapes, but is left in agony. After Wolverine gives it a MercyKill, he angrily confronts the remaining hunters and stabs one of them with one of the arrows. Later, Wolverine is attacked by several ninjas with poisoned arrows.

* ''Film/TheWildGeese''. The mercenaries have to kill the soldiers in the guardtowers without alerting the 200 soldiers in the barracks. They use a crossbow firing hardwood quarrels with cyanide phials attached to the tip, in order to kill them quickly so they won't make a noise. It works, but one dying man falls out of the tower, alerting another guard -- fortunately a cyanide-quarrel kills him before he can pull the trigger on his rifle.

** The first book has Paul facing Feyd Rautha at the end duel. Feyd has a poisoned spring needle in his belt. They both also have poisoned blades, Feyd's with a soporific and Paul's with acid.

* ''This Immortal'' by Creator/RogerZelazny: assassin Hasan (who has been forcibly disarmed) is forced to fight [[ImplacableMan the Dead Man]] and spends the time filing his nails. To really sharp points. His bullets (which weren't taken away) had meta-cyanide on them. He scratched the Dead Man at the start of the fight, and stalled until it dropped. Then he got the leader too.

* ''[[Literature/MrsMurphyMysteries The Tail of the Tip Off]]'': A rather ingenious example is found in Rita Mae Brown's novel. When H. H. Donaldson drops dead after going to a basketball game, an autopsy shows he was poisoned through an injection in the neck, but the poison would have had to have been administered during the game for it to kill him when it did. No one saw anything despite the bleachers being packed, and Donaldson didn't react in any way as he would have had someone jabbed him in the neck with a needle. [[spoiler: It turns out the killer froze the poison into an ice dart, and was able to kill Donaldson by shooting it our of a noise maker into his neck. No weapon was found because the ice melted, releasing the poison.]]

* ''Literature/TheCityOfBrass'': The Geziri tribe of [[OurGeniesAreDifferent daeva]] use [[BifurcatedWeapon forked]] copper ''zulfiqar'' swords as their signature weapon, which exude a deadly poison when they [[FlamingSword erupt in flames]]. Their fighting style emphasizes mobility and shallow slashes to exploit this, since a cut doesn't need to be deep to be lethal.

** Centauri actually have jeweled hypodermic needles. In other words they treasure poisons the way humans treasure swords.

* In ''Series/{{Sliders}}'', Remy is shot by a Kromagg particle weapon. The wound isn't fatal, but the radiation poisoning that come with being shot would have been had he not been healed by a friendly Kromagg half-breed.

** ''Series/IronFist2017'': Said poison ends up getting into Colleen's body when she gets nicked in the shoulder by a ninja during a fight at one of Madame Gao's factories in China. It doesn't take effect until after she and Danny are back in New York City. Fortunately for Colleen, Bakuto is there to teach Danny how to use the Iron Fist to suck out the poison. That he knows the Iron Fist cures the Hand's poison is justified, since he is one of the Hand's Five Fingers.

* ''Theatre/WesterosAnAmericanMusical'': Oberyn uses a poisoned spear while championning in TrialByCombat, during the other side is represented by a man he has wanted dead for years.

* Players in ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' can create poisons to use on daggers, arrows, spears and a few throwing weapons using the Herblore skill. There are three poisons, each stronger than the previous, and they're made from a herb and a dragon scale, a cactus spine and spider eggs, and poison ivy berries and belladonna respectively, from weakest to strongest. Belladonna is potent enough to strongly damage the player just when it's touched with bare hands.\\\

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', in a more traditional use of the trope, lets you apply poisons to your weapons which will deliver the poison's effects on the next enemy it strikes. Poisons can be found or purchased, and you can also create them yourself through the [[AlchemyIsMagic Alchemy]] PotionBrewingMechanic. This causes [[FridgeLogic some confusion]] as to how a [[DropTheHammer warhammer]] - [[CarryABigStick or other blunt weapon,]] which [[MindScrew has no method of actually transmitting the poison into the host's body]] - can be poisoned in the same manner as, say, [[HeroesPreferSwords a sword]] or [[AnAxeToGrind an axe]]. (It can also be applied to a ''bow'', although its implied that you're actually applying to the next arrow fired.) Further, "poisons" can have effects beyond simply dealing damage. Poisons can drain [[{{Mana}} Magicka]] and Stamina, or inflict "weakness to" [[ElementalPowers certain elements]], or inflict other StandardStatusEffects such as Silence or Paralysis.

* ''VideoGame/{{Exile}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Avernum}}'' give players the ability to poison melee weapons or arrows. Handy for taking out that nasty spellcaster hanging out in the back, as multiple hits from poisoned weapons makes the poison worse. There's also the Alien Blade, which constantly drips poison.

* In ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' [[BadassAdorable Teemo]] uses a blowgun with poisoned darts, [[RodentsOfUnusualSize Twitch]] uses poisoned crossbow bolts, and [[{{Pirate}} Gangplank]] soaks his blades in grog - which is apparently pretty strong stuff, because it deals damage over time and slows enemies it hits. [[SnakePeople Cassiopeia]] and [[MadScientist Singed]] cut out the middleman and simply blast people with contact poison or gas.

* Certain ''VideoGame/BattleRealms'' units have weapons that have poisoned. The Serpent Clan's Zen Master Shinja dual wields poisoned swords, while the Crossbowman and Bandit can have their crossbow bolts tipped with poison. Lotus Clan Diseased Ones exude a poisonous gas to attack.

* One of the targets in ''VideoGame/HitmanCodename47'' and it's "remake" ''VideoGame/HitmanContracts'' (The same target) wields a poisoned sword that he will use in combat if he spots 47. This acts as a one hit kill in the first game, and deals a lot of damage in the remake. In the remake, 47 can take the sword, and use it against guards, although it's not a very good idea, as the sword cannot be hidden or taken into other levels. In addition, the target's personal bodyguard is immune to the sword, either for unexplained reasons or [[Kevlard]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'': Dionysus, God of Wine, grants Zagreus' weapons the ability to inflict stacks of 'hungover' on enemies when they hit, [[DamageOverTime which deals a set amount of damage per second per stack on that enemy]]. It functions like a poison effect in all but name, and was referred to as such during the game's early access before being renamed.

* Generally speaking, poisoned weapons were not very commonly used in warfare, as they were an unreliable and overly complicated way of killing a person. Any injury inflicted with a poisoned weapon is more than likely to bleed out faster than the poison could be absorbed; even if were to be absorbed in sufficient amounts, it would take some time before the effects actually come into play. Typically, poisoned weapons were mainly used for hunting, in which case the poison can be given enough time to take hold and debilitate an animal, so that a hunter can catch up and deliver the final blow. For obvious reasons, this requires a poison that is relatively benign and/or destroyed by the heat of cooking.

* Prior to the 20th century, most casualties in warfare were not caused by enemy action, but rather by secondary causes. Wounds could easily get infected, leading to illness and eventually, death; insanitary conditions in cramped conditions allowed for illness to spread easily. Some people realized that the risk of infection through injury could be increased [[DungFu by smearing their weapons with feces]], which was employed by the Viet Cong during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar in combination with traps using [[SpikesOfDoom sharpened bamboo poles]], commonly known as Punji sticks. Likewise, [[GrievousHarmWithABody corpses were often used as projectiles]] during medieval sieges, in hopes of spreading disease.
* In 1973, an African-American school superintendent by the name of Marcus Foster was shot multiple times by the Symbionese Liberation Army. During the coroner's examination, it was discovered that all eight bullets contained cyanide. Somewhat unsurprisingly however, [[RealityEnsues the cause of death was from being shot eight times]].

* Taken UpToEleven with the God Warriors from ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'', biomechanical HumongousMecha designed as [[NukeEm radiological weapons platforms]] to sterilize all industrialized nations in order to prevent GlobalWarming. Their main armament consists of what appears to be a Casaba Howitzer ([WaveMotionGun a nuclear bomb whose blast is focused entirely in one direction]]) in their mouths, backed up by a pair of X-ray lasers in their foreheads. And the flashbacks depicting the apocalyptic war known as the Seven Days of Fire also show them carrying gigantic polearms made from naked fuel rods. It doesn't get much more poisonous than that.

** Oberyn Martell (aka The Red Viper) is infamous for using poisoned weapons, and it allows him to deliver an ultimately fatal wound to the [[TheBrute Brutish]] Gregor Clegane.

* In ''VideoGame/Dota2'' any hero can buy the Orb of Venom to add (very minor) damage-over-time and (minor, but still useful) slow effects to their auto-attack. Some heroes have their own venomous abilities, most notably [[PoisonousPerson Venomancer]], an alchemist who turned himself into a snake-like creature. Literally all his abilities inflict poison in some form or another, it's not uncommon for him to get killed early in a fight, only to score multiple kills shortly thereafter as the enemies succumb to the damage-over-time effects.

[[caption-width-right:320:6.5% increase in total damage dealt? What do you mean "it's not deadly"?]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'': Dionysus, God of Wine, grants Zagreus' weapons the ability to inflict stacks of 'hungover' on enemies when they hit, [[DamageOverTime which deals a set amount of damage per second per stack on that enemy]]. It functions like a poison effect in all but name, and was referred to as a 'Blight' during the game's early access.

* [[KarmaMeter Possible]] hero example: [[Franchise/MassEffect Commander Shepard]] can equip his/her weapons with Polonium rounds (if you can handle enemies breaking down into [[NightmareFuel green vapor]] after death). Noticeably, polonium rounds are unavailable in the sequels due to them being banned by the Citadel Conventions.

* [[KarmaMeter Possible]] hero example: [[Franchise/MassEffect Commander Shepard]] can equip his/her weapons with Polonium rounds (if you can handle enemies breaking down into [[NightmareFuel green vapor]] after death).

* The Silent from'' VideoGame/SlayTheSpire'' has several poisoned weapons in her arsenal do dispatch her foes. Most notable are the cards "poisoned stab", which deals both normal and poison damage and "envenom", which makes '''all''' attacks to deal poison damage.

* The Bandar Pygmy tribe, allies of ComicStrip/ThePhantom, are infamous for their envenomed arrows. A [[FantasticSlurs less polite term for them]], used by their neighbours, is The Poison People.

* Arrows in ''VideoGame/NetHack'' can be poisoned, which can lead to much frustration since poison can sometimes cause instant death.

* In ''WesternAnimation/WesternAnimation/SandokanTheTigerOfMalaysia'', one evil tribe uses poisoned spears.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Sandokan}}'', one evil tribe uses poisoned spears.

** ''Series/DoctorWho'': Leela's trademark weapon is the Janis thorn, a thorn from a poisonous plant from her homeworld with paralytic properties. How she keeps a supply of them without returning is unclear.