History Main / SplashDamage

* ''VideoGame/WingCommander II'' and ''Wing Commander IV'' have the Mace, a tactical nuclear missile that can be used to take out groups of sufficiently close targets, detonated either by shooting the missile ([=WC2=]) or on command ([=WC4=]).\\
\\
''Wing Commander IV'' also has the Starburst and Coneburst missiles, which effectively act like player-controlled grenades. As the names suggest, the Starburst's shrapnel field is omnidirectional, while the Coneburst's damage is aimed forward in a conical pattern. Unlike with the Mace, though, the damage is constant within the damage area.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' uses Blast Templates for weapons like rocket launchers, Ordinance, and certain Psyker spells. The templates have a small hole in the center, which is placed over the intended target. Against Infantry, a direct hit and a splash damage hit deal the same damage. However, as of Fifth edition, splash damage against Vehicles is half the Strength of a direct hit. The way damage against vehicles is calculated, this means a splash damage hit will do absolutely ''nothing'' to a vehicle 99 times out of 100.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': the fire specialization Mage has the aptly named Living Bomb ability, which spreads fire from one enemy to more enemies upon exploding. The fire damage on the secondary enemies is less than the damage to the initial enemy: but the fire debuff lingers on them for a while. Other fire spells for the mage also have splash damage. Shadow specialization Priests also have splash damage on many of their spells, and one baseline Priest spell called Penance also does splash damage OR healing (WoW is strictly FriendlyFireProof, but it has a small number of spells that either do damage or heal depending on the target).

* Exploited with Kunkka from ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncientsAllStars''. One of his skill, Tidebringer, periodically makes his next attack deal splash damage equal to 100% of his attack damage in a large radius. Splash damage in ''Warcraft III'' had a quirk where it ignored the enemy's armor value, so the splash damage ended up dealing ''more'' damage than the primary target. This bug was intentionally kept in ''VideoGame/Dota2'' specifically for Tidebringer for a while, until it was changed to check armor values, but made the splash damage have larger attack scaling anyway.

* High-Explosive shells in ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'' do splash damage, though most tanks use ammunition with a very short radius of effect and relatively low damage. [=SPGs=] (Self-Propelled Guns aka artillery), however, can do significant damage with a near miss and even knock out crew members or damage tank modules.

* ''VideoGame/WingCommander II'' and ''Wing Commander IV'' have the Mace, a tactical nuclear missile that can be used to take out groups of sufficiently close targets, detonated either by shooting the missile ([=WC2=] or on command ([=WC4=]).\\

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'': alongside the various [[StuffBlowingUp explosives]] there are some attacks that have hitboxes that extend farther than what you'd expect, and are capable of hitting multiple opponents. [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} King Dedede's]] and [[SuperMarioBros Yoshi's]] ground-pound moves, for example, deal damage to people standing close enough to the point of impact, not just the ones that you land directly on top of.

* If a ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}}'' cabinet is malfunctioning, hitting one panel may cause adjacent panels to set off as well. This is a [[TropesAreNotGood bad thing]] because this can result in nearby notes being hit too early, resulting in potential misses.

* ''VideoGame/WorldofWarcraft'': the fire specialization Mage has the aptly named Living Bomb ability, which spreads fire from one enemy to more enemies upon exploding. The fire damage on the secondary enemies is less than the damage to the initial enemy: but the fire debuff lingers on them for a while. Other fire spells for the mage also have splash damage. Shadow specialization Priests also have splash damage on many of their spells, and one baseline Priest spell called Penance also does splash damage OR healing (WoW is strictly FriendlyFireProof, but it has a small number of spells that either do damage or heal depending on the target).

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* TowerDefense Games: this is one of the common anti swarming-{{mook}} towers.
* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'': along side the various [[StuffBlowingUp explosives]] there are some attacks that have hitboxes that extend farther than what you'd expect, and are capable of hitting multiple opponents. [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} King Dedede's]] and [[SuperMarioBros Yoshi's]] ground-pound moves, for example, deal damage to people standing close enough to the point of impact, not just the ones that you land directly on top of.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaMan4'', to defeat Dr. Wily you have to use Drill Bombs. However the bombs themselves bounce off his ship. To win you must detonate the bomb before it hits so that the Splash Damage of the [[SplashDamageAbuse explosion hits his weak spot]].

''Wing Commander IV'' also has the Starburst and Coneburst missiles, which effectively act like player controlled grenades. As the names suggest, the Starburst's shrapnel field is omnidirectional, while the Coneburst's damage is aimed forward in a conical pattern. Unlike with the Mace, though, the damage is constant within the damage area.

* ''VideoGame/{{Age Of Empires|I}}'' has catapults and juggernauts, while [[VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII the sequel]] introduces mangonels, onagers, bombard cannons and cannon galleons. However said SplashDamage is very dangerous as it can damage your own soldiers en masse.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Tribes}}'' series, being a game where players are zipping across the map on {{Jet Pack}}s at 400kph, relies primarily on explosive weapons to deal damage. The famous Spinfusor - a weapon that shoots what are essentially [[AbnormalAmmo exploding blue frisbees]], is the staple bread-and-butter weapon that almost all players carry with them. Regular 'ol projectile based guns are sidelined, and used mostly just for killing flying players.

** Explosive ammo makes your gun have splash damage capabilities. allowing you to shred common infected as long as the splash damage area hits them. Shotguns are extremely powerful with this ammo since a clustered group of zombies can killed in a single shot. However, explosive ammo can harm you as well if you are too close and if you get too close to your explosive shots with a shotgun, you will stumble backwards.

* If a ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}}'' cabinet is malfunctioning, hitting one panel may cause adjacent panels to set off as well. This is a [[TropesAreNotGood bad thing]], because this can result in nearby notes being hit too early, resulting in potential misses.

* ''VideoGame/FreeCiv'' has [[NukeEm Nuclear (missile) units]]. It may be [[InfinityPlusOneSword very expensive and require much research on the]] {{Tech Tree}} but its attack destroys all units within a 3x3 radius. It is most often used to clear out cities containing large numbers of defending units, but becomes even more legendary when they can nuke up to 4 cities with one blast, provided you detonate the nuke between the 4 cities and those cities are all located within a 3x3 area. To discourage [[ILoveNuclearPower liberal use of nukes]], [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment nuclear winter will start if enough of the world has been hit by nukes]]. Its only weakness is that if your enemies have SDI defense buildings or [[CoolBoat AEGIS cruisers]] near your intended detonation sites, in which case your nuclear unit is shot down and disappears into thin air.

* High-Explosive shells in ''MultiTrackDriftingWorldOfTanks'' do splash damage, though most tanks use ammunition with a very short radius of effect and relatively low damage. [=SPGs=] (Self-Propelled Guns aka artillery), however, can do significant damage with a near miss and even knock out crew members or damage tank modules.

* ''VideoGame/WorldofWarcraft''the fire specialization Mage has the aptly named Living Bomb ability, which spreads fire from one enemy to more enemies upon exploding. The fire damage on the secondary enemies is less than the damage to the initial enemy: but the fire debuff lingers on them for a while. Other fire spells for the mage also have splash damage. Shadow specialization Priests also have splash damage on many of their spells, and one baseline Priest spell called Penance also does splash damage OR healing (WoW is strictly FriendlyFireProof, but it has a small number of spells that either do damage or heal depending on the target).

* ''VideoGame/{{FreeCiv}}'' has [[NukeEm Nuclear (missile) units]]. It may be [[InfinityPlusOneSword very expensive and require much research on the]] {{Tech Tree}} but its attack destroys all units within a 3x3 radius. It is most often used to clear out cities containing large numbers of defending units, but becomes even more legendary when [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome they can nuke up to 4 cities with one blast]], provided you detonate the nuke between the 4 cities and those cities are all located within a 3x3 area. To discourage [[ILoveNuclearPower liberal use of nukes]], [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment nuclear winter will start if enough of the world has been hit by nukes]]. Its only weakness is that if your enemies have SDI defense buildings or [[CoolBoat AEGIS cruisers]] near your intended detonation sites, in which case your nuclear unit is shot down and disappears into thin air.

* ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'' employs splash damage with its siege weapons, as well as bomber planes (especially [[NukeEm atomic bombers]]) and one [[HumongousMecha the Pandora, an anti-infantry cyber]].

Related tropes include: ClusterBomb, AreaOfEffect, SpreadShot, HitBoxDissonance, SplashDamageAbuse. Frequently an effect of the {{BFG}} and WaveMotionGun. Sometimes allows players to RocketJump. Often used for a HerdHittingAttack.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' in all its editions, and ''TableTopGames/{{Pathfinder}}'' (basically D&D 3.75), both feature "grenade-like weapons" or "splash weapons" depending on the edition. These weapons are usually a case of the [[UselessUsefulSpell useless useful weapon]], as their effects are often available by other means at lower cost and with more impressive effects. Direct hits did more damage. Pathfinder introduces the Alchemist class, which specializes in dealing devastating damage with these weapons. Some spells, such as various editions of Meteor Swarm, had a similar mechanic where a direct hit may disallow a saving throw or do more damage.

* The Energy Explosion power works like this in HeroClix. It acts like a normal ranged attack, but anyone next to a target is also dealt damage equal to the number of targets the attack could have had.

* If a ''{{jubeat}}'' cabinet is malfunctioning, hitting one panel may cause adjacent panels to set off as well. This is a [[TropesAreNotGood bad thing]], because this can result in nearby notes being hit too early, resulting in potential misses.

* ''{{Quake}}'' series: the rocket launcher. Against fast targets, it's actually more effective to aim at the ground near rather than trying to hit directly.
* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': rocket launcher, same as ''{{Quake}}''.

** The Demoman actually has as MELEE WEAPON that deals splash damage (a WW2 stick grenade he is using as a club), that can kill most of the classes in a single hit and does damage to himself.

* ''StarCraft'' features various units in both one and two, not including the powerful AOE spells.

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona Q}}'', using Etrian Odyssey IV's engine, also uses this for Zen's Fire Spray skill and the enemy-exclusive Fire Dance.

* In [[IronKingdoms Warmachine/Hordes]], some attacks can cause splash damage. When such an attack is aimed at a main target, it'll do full damage to said main target and reduced damage (called blast damage) to everything else in range if the attack hits, but if the attack misses, the AOE will fly off elsewhere while still doing blast damage. This fly-off-elsewhere rule [[SplashDamageAbuse can be used to "extend" the distance of the attack]].

This quality usually makes a unit very valuable in RTS games, where even [[DeathOfAThousandCuts very weak attacks]] can be highly effective in the right circumstances or in sufficient numbers, because a particular unit or tactic involves tightly bunching up a cluster of units, meaning that even a weak attack does that damage to ''every single unit in the cluster'', making it a rather powerful attack. Examples of such weapons usually have an ArbitraryMinimumRange, so that you don't hit yourself or your own men.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]