Double-Edged Buff

Of Corset Hurts, but it's worth it for a defense buff, right?

There's Status Effects, there's Status Buffs, and then there's the Double-Edged Buff. While most status effects are exclusively positive or negative, these types of effects are a mixture of both. Sometimes it's a singular status effect, sometimes it's both a positive and a negative effect being applied at the same time. These are usually applied by an ability, item, or food buff. Weapons can also do this if the player has to use it to activate the effect. It can also apply if the status effect is inflicted on both the user and the enemy at once.

If a status effect has both a positive and negative impact, it's usually done to balance out its utility to keep it from being overpowered. For example, if an effect raises your attack, it may lower your defense to compensate. Some games may allow you to "cure" this status, but if the effect both helps and hinders a player, they may think twice about using a status-healing item or ability. Some recurring examples include the Berserk status, which usually raises the target's attack power in exchange for making them uncontrollable, or the Sleep status, which typically immobilizes the target but may restore their HP/MP over time.

Keep in mind that status effects are temporary, which means they only last for a limited period of time, for the duration of a battle/level, or at least until the target takes damage or cures the status with an item or ability. If it's something that can be equipped like armor or lasts indefinitely, then it's not this trope. If the drawback is that it can be replaced with another then it's Discard and Draw. Also, if the only downside is "you lose the buff if you perform a certain action or take damage" then it doesn't count.

Compare Power at a Price, except in that case, the effect lasts for an indeterminate amount of time, while a status effect is only temporary, and Diverting Power, where multiple systems share one limited power source. Also compare Stance System and Multiform Balance, where different forms have different strengths and weaknesses, but the effect can last for as long as the user wants. A Cast from Hit Points buff can qualify as this if it's activated by the user. A Booze-Based Buff also sometimes qualifies as this depending on the game. See also One Curse Limit, where having one negative status effect prevents being inflicted with another.

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Examples:

Action-Adventure Games

• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2: Raziel can manifest his spectral sword, the Soul Reaver, which increases the power of his attacks and grows more powerful with every blow landed. However, the sword and Raziel both hunger for the souls of those they kill and using the sword to kill someone will destroy their soul and prevent Raziel from feeding on them. Also, if Raziel uses it too aggressively, it will become strong enough to turn its hunger on him, stealing a portion of his lifeforce.
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice:
  • Yashariku's Sugar and Yashariku's Spiritfall temporarily increase the damage Wolf does at the cost of decreasing his Vitality and Posture.
  • Red Lumps prevent flinching from enemy attacks but also prevent the use of Resurrection while they're active.

Adventure Games

• In the adventure game adaptation of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, AM gives Benny (who AM turned into an ape previously) back his intellect, but to make the scenario "interesting," throws him down a flight of stairs. He spends the vignette with both legs and his jaw broken, unable to climb stairs or eat without pain (he's desperately hungry) but is able to think up ways to succeed.

Card Games

• Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft:
  • Power Overwhelming gives a friendly minion a +4/+4 buff until the end of the turn. Then it dies. Horribly.
  • Cryostasis gives a minion a +3/+3 buff, then freezes it, preventing it from attacking until it thaws out on a future turn.
• Sentinels of the Multiverse:
  • The hero Lifeline has a very simple one. The card Cosmic Immolation increases all damage he deals by 2 but also increases all damage he receives by 2.
  • The hero Daedalus from the Sentinels Of Earth-Prime spinoff has a similar card, Like Son, Like Father, which increases all damage dealt to and by him by 1.
• Slay the Spire:
  • The Silent card Wraith Form grants you a few turns of Intangible, which reduces all damage to Scratch Damage. However, it also gives you a debuff that gradually drains your Dexterity, sapping your ability to block. If the fight goes on for long enough after Intangible wears off, you'll be defenseless.
  • The Defect card "Biased Cognition" buffs your Focus by 4 (5 when upgraded), but also gives you a debuff that saps one Focus at the beginning of each turn.
  • The Defect card "Reprogram" buffs your Strength and Dexterity by 1 each (2 when upgraded), but you lose the same amount of Focus. This makes you better at using "normal" attacks and blocks while making your Orbs weaker.
  • Downfall (Slay the Spire): The Hermit card "Gestalt" gives him 2 stacks of Rugged, a buff that decreases the damage of one unblocked hit to 2. However, it also gives him two turns of the Damage-Increasing Debuff Vulnerable (one when upgraded), which means that any incoming hits not blocked by the Rugged stacks will be more dangerous.
• One Step From Eden:
  • Blessing of Susano'o Anchors the user, preventing them from moving, but adds 100 shield and allows them to fire a huge laser.
  • Cold Medicine heals the target but inflicts Frost, which will damage the target if 3 stacks of Frost are inflicted.
  • Corset deals 40 damage to the user, but they gain 100 Shield.
  • Entrench allows the user to gain 80 Shield but also inflicts Root for 2 seconds, which prevents the user from moving.

Fan Games

• Pokémon Reborn:
  • Normally, holding the correct seed on the appropriate field will raise one of the holder's stats by one stage while also applying some kind of positive effect. However, some field effects will raise more than one stat or raise a stat by more than one stage, at the cost of some downside.
    • An Elemental Seed on a Burning Field will raise the user's Attack, Special Attack, and Speed by one stage, but also applies the effect of Fire Spin (damaging them at the end of every turn while preventing them from switching out) for the next 4 turns. A Telluric Seed on a Desert Field will have similar effects, raising the user's Defense, Special Defense, and Speed by one stage while applying the effects of Sand Tomb, which works just like Fire Spin.
    • A Telluric Seed on a Swamp Field will raise the user's Defense and Special Defense by one stage but also applies Ingrain to the user. The Swamp Field causes Ingrain to damage the bearer instead of healing them (unless they are Poison or Steel type) on top of preventing them from switching out.
    • A Telluric Seed on a Corrosive Mist Field will raise the user's Attack and Special Attack by one stage, at the cost of badly poisoning them.
    • An Elemental Seed on the Murkwater field will raise the user's Speed by one stage and will apply Aqua Ring to them, slightly healing them every turn. However, it will also poison the user.
    • A Telluric Seed on a Mountain or Snowy Mountain will decrease the accuracy of the user by one stage but also raise their Attack or Special Attack (respectively) by two stages.
    • A Magical Seed on a New World or Inverse Field will raise all of the user stats by one at the cost of forcing them to skip their next turn.
    • A Magical Seed on a Psychic Field will raise the user's Special Attack by two stages but confuses the user.
    • Holding an Elemental Seed on the Icy Field will raise the user's Speed by two stages but will hurt the user with Spikes damage: 1/16.
    • Holding a Telluric Seed on the Rocky Field will raise the user's Defense by one stage (which on this field also grant the user immunity to flinching), but will also cause Stealth Rock damage to them. In a Cave, the effect is the same, except this time the Defense is raised by two stages (since it no longer prevents flinching).
  • On a Rainbow Field, sleeping Pokémon will regain a bit of HP every turn.
  • On a Fairy Tale Field, Sweet Kiss will cure the target from Sleeping, on top of still confusing them.
  • In a Dragon's Den, Shed Skin will always activate if it can. On top of curing the user's status condition, it restores 1/4th of their HP and raise their Special Attack and Speed by one stage, at the cost of lowering their Defense and Special Defense by one stage.
• Touhou Lost Branch Of Legend:
  • Base Tiny Hitbox gives 2 Graze, a.k.a. avoid non-Accurate attacks, while giving the Damage-Increasing Debuff, Vulnerable. Upgrading the card removes the vulnerability.
  • Base "Fantasy Seal -Blink-", deals 16 damage to an enemy, gives the user an Extra Turn immediately, but also applies the Time Limit debuff that increases mana cost of cards by 1.
  • Event Horizon causes the player to enter Burst (Gain 3 Philosopher's Mana and deal double damage). At the start of the player's next turn, they lose the game.

Fighting Games

• Super Smash Bros.:
  • Shulk's neutral special is Monado Arts, which are five different status effects that give him a buff with an added weakness. The Jump Monado increases Shulk's jump height while making him take more damage, the Speed Monado increases his walk speed while making him deal less damage, the Shield Monado decreases the knockback that he receives while also decreasing his air height and speed, the Buster Monado increases the damage he deals, while also increasing the damage that he receives, and the Smash Monado increases the knockback he deals while decreasing the amount of damage that he deals. Kirby can also copy Shulk's neutral special, which also gives him access to the same buffs.
  • Super Smash Bros For Nintendo 3 D Sand Wii U: One of Palutena's alternate Down Specials is Lightweight, which, like in her own game, increases her movement speed in exchange for increasing her damage intake.

First-Person Shooters

• All of Captain Blade's Cursed weapons from Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty have a buff and a nerf taking place at the same time:
  • The "Orphan Maker" Shotgun has increased damage, but deals 5% of all damage caused with the weapon to the player.
  • The "Manly Man" Shield gives bonus damage to explosive attacks, but makes its user vulnerable to all elemental-based attacks.
  • The "Rapier" Assault Rifle deals +200% melee damage, but makes the user more vulnerable to melee attacks.
  • The "Otto Idol" Relic restores health for every enemy killed, but reduces the total "Fight For Your Life" time.
  • The "Midnight Star" Grenade Mod has increased child grenade damage, but all child grenades fly towards the user.
• In Bulletstorm, getting kills while drunk gives you a score bonus. But being drunk will cause your character's aim to go awry, and his vision to blur.
• Primal Carnage: The Novaraptor's roar greatly increases its attack speed and strength for several seconds but at the cost of completely depleting its stamina, preventing it from running or jumping for a few seconds, making it harder to escape if the attack fails.
• The Scout rune in Quake III: Team Arena and OpenArena increases the carrier's movement speed, at the cost of not being able to gather armor.
• System Shock has a reflex boost that slows down time. When the acceleration expires, the player experiences visual distortions afterwards.

Hack-and-Slash

• In Astral Chain, there are three drinks that heal the player in addition to providing a buff, but there's also a downside:
  • Bone Potage raises your defense and armor but lowers your attack.
  • Fishy Water raises your attack and critical chance but lowers defense.
  • Golden Tea raises attack and defense but lowers energy refill rate.
• Hyrule Warriors: The Glass Cannon fairy magic multiplies the warrior's damage output by 8, but getting hit once will leave the warrior with one-quarter of a heart.
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity: Four of the meals that you can create before a level will temporarily increase your stats but also lower your health for the duration of the level.
  • The Monster Cake raises your stats by 5% but lowers your health by 10%.
  • The Monster Curry raises your stats by 10% but lowers your health by 25%.
  • The Monster Stew raises your stats by 15% but lowers your health by 50%.
  • The Dubious Food doubles the amount of rupees you earn but reduces your health by 20%.
• The DLC character Sam in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance can taunt his enemies, which causes them to glow red, attack more aggressively, and makes their attacks do block damage along with making them uncounterable, but it also makes them more predictable and greatly lowers their defense, allowing Sam to do double damage to most enemies and cut weaker enraged enemies apart with his normal attacks.

Interactive Fiction

• Wizards Castle: If you become blinded, you'll be unable to see the map, use lamps or flares, and becomes harder to hit enemies, however, it does prevent you from potentially being hurt from gazing into orbs but gazing into orbs is also the primary way to find the Mineral MacGuffin of the Orb of Zot.

Metroidvania

• The Castlevania franchise:
  • Castlevania: Circle of the Moon: Surrounds you in a black hole that both protects you and drains 1% of your HP per second like poison does.
  • Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia: Dominus Agony is a Back Glyph skill that raises all your stats by 66 when activated, but in exchange, drains 66 HP per second.

MMORPG

• Final Fantasy XIV:
  • The Blue Mage spell Diamondback offers a massive 90% damage reduction buff and nullifies most draw-in and knockback effects while in use. But it also prevents the user from moving or using any actions, leaving them stuck in place until the buff wears off.
  • Another Blue Mage spell, Moon Flute, offers a huge 50% damage bonus to all of the blue mage's spells and abilities for 15 seconds. But once those 15 seconds are up, the blue mage is locked out of using any actions besides moving around for the next 15 seconds.
  • The ultimate defense skill of the Gunbreaker, Superbolide, drops their HP to One while making them invincible for 10 seconds.
• Mabinogi has whiskey and gin as consumable food items, and if you know how to cook, you can use them to mix up cocktails. Consuming any of the alcoholic drinks gives a strong Health and Strength buff, but also leaves you with an Intelligence and Dexterity nerf to emulate the drunken state of the consumer.
• In RuneScape a variety of ales can be brewed via the Cooking skill. These provide temporary boosts to specific skills when drunk. However, alcohol of all types reduces your chance to hit in close combat and tends to sap their physical Strength as well. In addition, while the benefits of drinking multiple of the same beverage do not stack, the downsides do (in addition to typically lasting longer than the buffs) — to the point where excessive use can actually temporarily leave even a high-level player's combat skills weaker than someone just starting out.
• Temtem:
  • Rage raises the user's attack but lowers its defense.
  • Madness Buff raises the user's special attack and special defense, but damages it by a third of its total HP.
  • Both of Volarend's traits raise one stat and lower another; Aerobic raises its speed and reduces its special defense when it uses a Wind-type attack, while Anaerobic raises its special defense and lowers its special attack when it uses a Toxic-type attack.
• World of Warcraft:
  • Some types of alcohol will increase your stats temporarily, but they also blur your vision, make your character walk crooked, and make you misjudge enemies' levels if you drink enough of it.
  • The "Elethium" anima powers in Torghast work this way:
    Elethium Alembic: Your mastery is increased by 30%, but your arcane damage and healing done is reduced by 25%.
    Elethium Beacon: Your critical strike chance is increased by 25%, but your fire damage and healing done is reduced by 25%.
    Elethium Censer: Your healing received is increased by 100%, but your Holy damage and healing done is reduced by 25%.
    Elethium Lantern: Your leech is increased by 15%, but your shadow damage and healing done is reduced by 25%.
    Elethium Muzzle: Your abilities cool down 25% faster, but your physical damage and healing done is reduced by 25%.
    Elethium Teardrop: Your critical strike damage and healing is increased by 30%, but your frost damage and healing done is reduced by 25%.
    Elethium Veil: Your ability costs are reduced by 25%, but you are no longer able to view your map.
    Elethium Weights: Your strength, agility, stamina, and intellect are increased by 30%, but you are no longer able to jump.
• Kingdom of Loathing: The Bad Moon run is built around trade-offs and buffs that will raise one stat while decreasing another. Some of the skills you can buy are based on the Seven Deadly Sins: for example, Gluttony will give you more stomach space to get more adventures a day, but lower your stats gained per battle, while Wrath increases your attack power but makes you take more damage in return. The run also opens up unique adventures with the same trade-off idea for temporary status effects, such as one in the Icy Peak that gives your spells extra cold damage but makes you take a bit of chip damage each turn.

MOBA

• Heroes of the Storm:
  • Whitemane can activate her trait "Zeal" to give herself 25% increased spell power but also lower her armor by 15 for a few seconds. Given her role as a Combat Medic, this increases both her healing and damage output, but only if she's willing to take a risk.
  • Fenix can pick up the Divert Power: Weapons talent, which gives him a massive damage boost but instantly destroys his innate shield when the buff runs out. Fenix is normally Armored But Frail, making this potentially quite risky to use.
  • Mal'Ganis can use the talent Blind as a Bat to temporarily remove the cooldown and mana cost of Fel Claws but also set his vision range to 0 and remove the ability to see allied vision for the duration. This can be very powerful if you know where your enemies are but can also make you look silly swiping at absolutely nothing for six seconds.
• League of Legends:
  • Briar has an extreme case of a tradeoff through her "Blood Frenzy" ability; when she enters a frenzy, she gains bonus movement and attack speed, extra on-hit damage, and an area of effect on her attacks. But in exchange, she's completely uncontrollable by her player save for ending her frenzy with another ability. So, the decision is a matter of extra damage potential in exchange for the game's AI making all the decisions.
  • Rammus's "Defensive Ball Curl" grants him greatly increased armor and magic resist, and any enemies that hit him will take damage back due to his spiky shell. The tradeoff though is his drastically lowered movement speed, slowing down his mobility to a literal crawl.

Platformers

• In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, you can't use the special moves of the fire, thunder, and water shields if you are invincible.
• In Super Mario 64, the Metal Cap temporarily turns Mario into Metal Mario, making him invincible but making him unable to jump as well or swim at all, and making him sink faster in quicksand.

Real-Time Strategy

• Age of Mythology: Ra's god power, Rain, summons a rainstorm that increases the gathering rate of Farms to every player, including the enemy, for a minute. However, the player who cast Rain and their allies receive 200% gather rate, while every other player receives 100% gather rate.
• In Command & Conquer: Generals, China can "overcharge" its nuclear reactors, giving them extra power while causing continuous damage.
• Nintendo Wars: Weather affects both enemy and ally units when it's active. However, some Commanding Officers have powers that allow them to summon weather at will, and their units are unaffected by weather. For example, Olaf makes snow with his CO power but his units are unaffected by snow and, in Dual Strike, they gain a firepower bonus when fighting while it is snowing.
• Red Alert 3: The Emperor's Rage/Revenge/Retribution power greatly increases the defense of the units in it, but it slows them down as well. It also affects enemy units in the same way.
• Warcraft III:
  • Unholy Frenzy increases movement and attack speed at the cost of steadily draining health.
  • The Berserk ability increases the caster's attack speed but also increases damage taken.
  • The Banish ability can be cast on friend or foe, makes the target immune to physical attacks, but also slows them, makes them unable to attack, and increases their vulnerability to spells and the Magic damage type.
  • The Purge spell removes all buffs and debuffs from a target but slows their movement speed afterwards.
  • The Defend ability greatly reduces Piercing damage taken and can even send a Piercing attack back in the attacker's face, but greatly slows movement.
  • The Druid of the Claw's Bear Form spell turns him into a bear, making him a heavy melee unit, but greatly reducing mana regeneration and preventing him from casting its Rejuvenation spell. The Druid of the Talon's Storm Crow Form similarly turns him into a purely Anti-Air flyer that can't hit ground units or cast Cyclone. In the original game, both are unable to cast their first buff spell (which increases ally damage/decreases enemy armor) while the expansion lets them do so with another upgrade.
  • The Tinker's ultimate transforms him into a Tank-Tread Mecha, increasing his damage (especially against buildings) and making him immune to a number of spells by making him a Mechanical unit. However, this includes healing spells, requiring the use of healing items or a Worker Unit to slowly repair him.
  • The Crypt Fiend can burrow in the ground to become invisible and heal much faster, but can't move or attack.

Roguelike

• Beacon (2018): Mutations are changes applied to Freja's body that last about 3 lives and can randomly occur when a new clone is made with non-human DNA. For example:
  • Gaseous Sack replaces her legs with said sack, exchanging max Hit Points for jump height.
  • Shard Cluster, in exchange for 80 Speed, gives 20% resistance and a chance to make a Counter-Attack when damaged.
  • Reactive Flesh actually involves status effects. It exchanges 40 Hit Points for 40 Stamina and when damaged, Freja might grow or shrink. Growth gives 100% Resistance but removes 100 Speed, and Shrinking gives 300 Speed while taking 33% Resistance.
• The Binding of Isaac:
  • Berserk! gives Isaac a massive speed, tears, and damage boost temporarily, but limits him to a melee weapon for the duration. This typically mows through normal enemies but can make Bullet Hell bosses a lot trickier. Tainted Samson is built around this item, having extremely poor base stats but involuntarily going Berserk after dealing enough damage.
  • The Reverse Sun card turns Isaac into a ghost that can fly and shoot spectral tears and gives him a damage up for the rest of the floor but also applies an unbreakable Curse of Darkness and replaces his Heart Containers with Bone Hearts that can be permanently destroyed.
• Bonfire has two examples, one a Status Effect and one a type of equipment:
  • The Berserk status massively boosts Attack and Speed, but also heavily reduces Armor. The Tiger Blood item gives you access to a similar buff, Bloodlust, which provides the same bonuses but makes the character uncontrollable.
  • Each hero's unique stat booster rune provides twice the bonus of standard runes, but also penalizes another stat, giving them the same net total as standard stat booster runes.
• Hades:
  • Boons of Chaos force Zagreus to endure a debuff for several encounters but will transform into a buff when the debuff wears off. For example, Maimed Strike would start off by making Zagreus take damage every time he attacks, then evolve into a buff to his attack damage later on.
  • The Claws of Enkidu can inflict the maim status effect on enemies, increasing the damage they do to Zagreus by 50% while also causing them to take 25% more damage.
  • Daedalus Hammer upgrades:
    • Cursed Slash cuts Zagreus' HP by 60% but allows him to heal 2 hitpoints with every successful attack.
    • Double Nova allows the Stygian Blade's special attack to hit twice per use, but it no longer knocks enemies back.
    • Serrated Point allows the Eternal Spear's dash attack to hit 3 times but cuts dash range by 25%.
    • Twin Shot reduces the Heart Seeking Bow's range but allows it to fire 2 arrows per attack.
    • Pulverizing Blow makes the Shield of Chaos lose its knockback effect in exchange for attacking twice per swing.
    • Hazard Bomb increases the damage of the Adamant Rail's explosive shots by 300%, but turns off Friendly Fireproof, meaning that Zagreus can hurt himself if caught in the blast radius.
    • Spread Shot transforms the Adamant Rail into a Short-Range Shotgun - it does more damage than the base form and can hit multiple enemies with a cone of fire, but loses some maximum range and ammo capacity.

Role-Playing Games

• Arcanum: Getting drunk increases Strength and Constitution but lowers Intelligence, Charisma, Perception, and Dexterity.
• Borderlands:
  • Borderlands: Berserker characters have the Berserk ability which disables shooting and only allows the short-range attack of punching but gives "resistance to all damage" and Regenerating Health, for a time. The Mechromancer's Anarchy skill grants gun damage for each stack obtained (by killing an enemy or fully unloading a gun while in combat) but makes it less accurate by the same amount.
  • Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!: Fragtraps can get Gun Subroutines, which favor using one gun type with damage, fire rate, and reload speed increases while decreasing damage from the use of other gun types, and the gun type favored changes. The subroutine changes after the 100 Frag Stacks given with every Subroutine runs out, which "decrease over time".
• BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires: Rage, boosts physical attack damage by ~1.5, lasts for ~3 turns, uncurable by Boxxy's Love, which is the Anti-Debuff skill of the game's first healer. As the status effect explanation sign says:
  When you become enraged, you don't have any control over your actions — you'll attack your enemies on every turn, even if you would rather be doing something else. Also, your defence and intelligence stats will go down. However, Rage can have its benefits — your attack and speed stats will be drastically increased, turning you into a regular killing machine!
• Cassette Beasts:
  • The "Ghostly" status effect, given by the move "Haunt" makes a monster impervious to almost all attacks while it is active. However, once it runs out, it's an instant KO on the monster that was previously benefitting from the effect.
  • The "Gambit" buff, given by the move of the same name, greatly boosts all stats on the targeted monster while it's active. However, once it runs out, it's once again an instant KO.
• Code Vein: "Final Journey" is a non-transferable Gift exclusive to the Queenslayer Blood Code, your original Blood Code. It instantly restores you to full health, massively buffs your speed and damage, but will kill you in exactly one minute (certain buffs can extend this to 90 seconds) unless you finish a boss fight before that time elapses.
• Darkest Dungeon: The Leper can use Revenge to raise his accuracy, damage output, and crit rate, at the cost of reducing his dodge rate and augmenting the damage he receives. The effect lasts until the end of the battle.
• Dark Souls:
  • In the second and third games, The Iron Flesh spell increases the user's defense at the expense of increasing their weight and making them unable to dodge.
  • In the first and third games, the spell Power Within raises your attack power and stamina regeneration in exchange for 1% of your HP per second of duration.
  • Dark Souls II: The Numbness spell reduces the damage the user receives at the cost of narrowing their vision.
• Divinity: Original Sin II:
  • The Scoundrel skill Adrenaline gives the user two bonus Action Points on their current turn but subtracts two from their next turn.
  • The Warfare skill Enrage gives the target guaranteed Critical Hits but prevents them from using magic for that turn.
  • Elemental status effects tend to give percent-based resistances and vulnerabilities to elemental damage. For example, being set on fire grants some resistance to water damage.
• In Dragon Age: Origins, the Aodh waraxe gives its user increased fire damage and resistance to fire, as well as an increased melee critical chance, but also decreased resistance to cold damage.
• With the introduction of Domains in Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle, any buffs that applies to a certain category or class of characters will also apply to the enemy team if they fulfil those conditions. [Infinite Sanctuary] Infinite Zamasu can cause Super Class enemies to receive 30% more damage when his Domain is activated... but so will every other Super Class ally on your team.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the Fantastic Drug Skooma temporarily makes the drinker stronger and faster but harms their intelligence and agility. In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, it's a plain Stamina restorative, but Redwater Skooma causes slowness and screen blur as well.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: All the positive and negative effects of vampirism grow stronger the longer you go without feeding — it boosts several abilities and skills, grants Damage Reduction, and enables a series of powers, but inflicts fire vulnerability and causes Damage Over Time in sunlight. You can reset the effects to their lowest level by drinking blood, or stall the progression by not sleeping.
• Dragon Quest: The recurring Kaclang! ability grants the party complete invulnerability in exchange for not being able to act for a few turns.
• In Epic Battle Fantasy 5, the Invisible status effect makes you immune to physical attacks, in return for taking double damage from magical attacks. Enchanted works in the opposite way.
• In Fate/Grand Order, Lu Bu, Fergus, and Mori Nagayoshi each possess a skill that increases their attack power at the cost of rendering it nearly impossible to put further buffs on them. This means that any support they do get must be applied before their buff-nullifying skill goes off, lest they be a sitting duck against any counterattacks.
• Fallout 4: On Survival difficulty, Chems operate this way: They'll still confer their intended status buffs, but almost all of them wreak havoc on the player's survival needs, which in turn can cause debuffs to S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats if not treated. Even basic fixers like RadX and RadAway aren't immune to this; the latter having the unique effect of making you more vulnerable to Illness for a while if you pop one.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The Berserk status often raises the party member's attack power, but in exchange, it makes them uncontrollable and sometimes lowers their defense as well. It could be beneficial for physical fighters, who have high attack stats and don't use many abilities, but a hindrance for mages, who have low attack power and rely on magic to do most of the damage.
  • When a character is inflicted with the Zombie status, in addition to being damaged by healing items and spells, they often receive the same resistances and abilities as zombies. In some games, they are immune to Dark-elemental attacks and Instant Death. In others, they can become immune to certain status ailments such as poison and blindness.
  • The Reflect status can reflect any magic cast on the target back at the opponent. Unfortunately, that also includes healing and buffing spells, which means if a player attempts to cast Cure on an ally with Reflect, it will instead heal the enemy. The only way around this is to wait for it to wear off or use a healing item. Some enemies weaponize this by reflecting Black Magic off themselves to damage the party.
  • Final Fantasy III: The Warrior Job can use the Advance command to raise their strength and reduce their defense. Both effects scale with the job level.
  • Final Fantasy IV: In the DS remake, Cecil's Darkness skill increases his attack power in exchange for a portion of his HP.
  • In Final Fantasy VI, there is Vanish spell which turns target invisible, making all physical attacks miss. However, magical attacks will always land, even those with low accuracy. Plus, due to Good Bad Bugs in original release of the game, landing magical attack on invisible target caused said attack to bypass any status immunities the target had, so Vanish followed by Death, Doom or X-Zone was an instakill on almost everything including bosses.
  • Final Fantasy VII: The Sadness and Fury statuses both affect the player in positive and negative ways. Sadness raises the target's defense but lowers the Limit gauge fill rate. Fury raises the target's Limit gauge fill rate but lowers their accuracy.
  • Final Fantasy IX: The Blue Magic spell Night puts both allies and enemies alike to sleep.
  • Final Fantasy XII:
    • The Reverse status inverts healing and damaging effects. On one hand, it gives the player a cheap way of healing without using magic or items, but on the other hand, the player will only be able to damage enemies with healing spells.
    • Decoy is a status that makes all enemies targeting only the party member that has it. This can mean said party member either drawing enemy fire from weaker party members, but it also can lead to their quick death in case of enemies with hard hitting single target attacks such as Omega mark XII, or with Instant death effects.
  • Final Fantasy XV: Two of the buffs provided by the food that Ignis cooks increase a stat at the cost of expending another. The Legendary Herb-Grilled Whopper increases the party's strength by 500 but reduces their magic to 0. The Memory Lane Pastry raises the party's magic by 500 but reduces their strength to 0.
• Genshin Impact:
  • Kokomi's "Flawless Strategy" talent gives you a 25% bonus to her healing ability, but at a 100% loss to Crit Rate, making her the one character who never benefits from any crit-enhancing stats unless one makes a meme build.
  • Weapons such as the Serpent Spine will deal increased damage the longer the character who wields it is on the field, but at the risk of taking more damage the longer they are on the field.
• Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass: Some status effects, which all are removed after battle:
  • Startled stuns a character for a turn, but to prevent stun-locking, they become Alert for a few rounds, which keeps them from being Startled. Repeatedly Startling a character will make them Alert for longer.
  • The "Hyper" status effect, which doubles speed, but also MP costs.
• Mario & Luigi:
  • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: If Bowser takes too much damage, it will activate the Fury status, raising his attack power but also lowering his defense.
  • Mario & Luigi: Dream Team: The Boo Biscuit makes the Mario Bros. invincible but prevents them from dealing damage. This is best used for practicing dodging and countering attacks.
• Might and Magic
  • Stat-increasing Black potions in VI raised one stat while lowering other(s). Each type worked only once per person, but the stat gain was bigger than the loss, so feeding one person all possible potions would result in a net stat gain. The next games revamp these potions to grant stat boost only (and much bigger at that) at the cost of them being much harder to make.
  • VI-VIII has Haste spell, which reduces recovery time of party members. However, once it ends it incurs Weakness to its target, and the spell has not that long duration even for (grand)master casters either.
  • Same trilogy has also Insanity debuff, which turns a person into vegetable by dropping their intellect and personality to tenth of their value, but doubles their strength and raises their speed and endurance. Not desired to have it on casters, but Knights as pure melee characters do benefit from it greatly. Similarly, Fear status also grants 20% bonus to strength and speed while halving intelligence, personality and accuracy.
• Monster Hunter: Many armors have two or three positive abilities and one negative. The latter is usually associated with an aspect of the monster the armor was made of, and is present to prevent the armor from being overpowered (for example, the Seregios armor makes the player take longer to sharpen their melee weapons with Whetstones, since the Seregios weapons can be sharpened automatically by performing a Rolling Attrack). It is possible to cancel out the negative ability by using charms or gems that give points of the opposite (thus positive) ability, however.
• Pokémon: Many effects are removed on switching them out from battle, resulting in both the buff and the tradeoff being temporary.
  • First, we have moves that gives its target benefit and drawback at the same time:
    • Swagger raises the target's Attack stat by 2 stages but also Confuses them. They can hit much harder, but they also hit themselves much harder whenever the Confusion kicks in. The Generation-2-exclusive Berserk Gene applies the effects of Swagger to the holder upon switching in, with the same benefits and risks. Later we also get Flatter, which is Swagger except that it raises Special Attack instead.
    • Scovillain's signature move, Spicy Extract, raises the target's Attack and lowers their Defense by two stages each, causing them to deal and take much more physical damage.
  • We also have moves that benefit its user but cost something else in return:
    • Curse, when used by a non-Ghost type Pokémon, raises the user's Attack and Defense but lowers Speed by one stage each.
    • Shell Smash lowers the user's Defense and Special Defense by one stage each while raising their Attack, Special Attack, and Speed by two.
    • Whenever a Pokémon with the Weak Armor ability takes physical damage, its Defense goes down by a stage, but its Speed goes up by two^note one prior to Pokémon Sun and Moon. This makes it faster and faster as it takes those hits, but it becomes less and less able to withstand them.
    • Klawf's unique ability, Anger Shell, boosts its offensive stats and speed at the cost of lowering its defenses after it gets down to half HP.
    • The ability Moody raises a random stat by two stages and lowers another by one stage at the end of each turn.
    • Belly Drum maximizes the user's Attack, but it also damages the user for half their maximum HP.
    • Kommo-o's signature move, Clangorous Soul, boosts all its stats by one stage at the cost of 1/3 of the user's max HP.
    • The Solar Power ability boosts the Pokémon's Special Attack by 50% in sunny weather, but it also drains 1/8 of its max HP each turn it's active.
    • The move Scale Shot increases its user's Speed but cuts its Defense every successful use.
    • Veluza's Fillet Away sharply boosts its Speed and offensive stats at the cost of half its HP.
  • Finally, we have moves that are detrimental to the targets but cost the user something.
    • Memento decreases the target's Attack and Special Attack stats by two stages each, but it also knocks the user out.
    • Pokémon Red and Blue: "Bide" makes the user unable to perform moves for two or three turns, but their trainer can still perform actions like usual. After the random number of turns, all the damage received during that time is dealt back to the attacker as an Always Accurate Attack.
• Prayer of the Faithless:
  • Some magic falls under this category:
    • Phantom Trick reverses the effect of buffs and debuffs on the targeted foe.
    • Power Dilation extends the length of all buffs and debuffs on all foes, by one turn.
  • Emotional Afflictions are usually applied by Abilities and are removed at the end of battle. Other than Despair and Joy, they have negatives and positives:
    • Rage: Drops Armor. Boosts Power.
    • Fear: Drops Power. Boosts Armor.
    • Panic: Drops Armor. Boosts Skill.
• Rune Factory 3: The Formulade restores 75% of your RP and boosts your strength, vitality, and intelligence for 12 hours. It also reduces your HP by 90% for the duration.
• Ruphand: An Apothecary's Adventure: The Flower status turns Brill into a flower, lowering her attack and defense, making her unable to move, and making her weak to Fire and Ice. The only positive effect is elemental absorption of Water.
• Shin Megami Tensei:
  • Several games have the skill "Taunt", which can lower the enemies' defense but in return increases their attack.
  • The Sleep ailment more often than not restores the HP and SP of those afflicted by it.
  • Persona:
    • Stagnant Air makes everyone, allies and enemies included, more vulnerable to status effects for three turns.
    • Revolution raises both ally and enemy critical rates.
    • Persona: The Balzac, Mador, and Wolvaan Skills can each cure one ally from their ailments, but give them Fury, Berserk, and Beast Status Effects respectively.
    • Persona 5:
    • The Sleep status prevents the target from acting, but also slowly regenerates their HP and SP.
    • The Rage status increases a target's attack power in exchange for making them uncontrollable and lowering their defense.
  • Soul Hackers 2: The Trance skill increases damage dealt by an ally's next Fire, Ice, Electric, or Force skill, but doubles its MP cost. Megido Trance does the same thing for Almighty skills.
• Slimes: Julius can empower himself for a few turns but weakens the healer's defense in exchange.
• Super Mario RPG: Characters afflicted by the mushroom transformation regenerate a small amount of lost health every turn but are otherwise incapable of acting during combat.
• Tales Series: The All-Divide item halves all damage taken by everyone in battle, enemy or ally.
• Titan Quest:
  • The Spirit branch of the Skill Tree has the skills Dark Covenant and Unearthly Power, which grant the hero extra speed, mana regeneration, and damage but are Cast from Hit Points.
  • The Defender's Colossus Form ability makes a hero grow in size and grants increased health, strength, damage, and damage absorption, but penalizes their speed and makes it harder for them to pass through doors or tight corridors.
• A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky:
  • The Meditation status gives a massive spirit boost while reducing all other stats.
  • The Berserk status boosts Attack stat while removing player control:
• Workshop In The Ironwood Grove: Wash is a player-party-wide Anti-Debuff that gives the caster a Non-Elemental ~10%-of-max-HP-damage-at-end-of-turn status effect of Muddied, which deals damage for three turns.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • AD&D 2nd Edition:
    • While under the effects of the haste spell, a character can act twice in a round but also ages at accelerated speed.
    • There are two potions (Red and Violet) that can set one stat of yours to 25 (the maximum allowed in the game mechanics at the time) while putting two others at 3. Both are found in Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale.
  • 3rd Edition:
    • The Barbarian's signature Rage ability is a Super Mode which boosts their Strength, Constitution and Will saves for a short time, but also inflicts a penalty to Armor Class (making them easier to hit) and prevents them from using any skill or ability which requires concentration. While barbarian players typically won't have many such abilities in the first place, it does make the rage spell (which causes the target to enter a weaker version of barbarian rage) double as a way of shutting down enemy spellcasters. In addition, the barbarian becomes fatigued after their rage ends.
    • The Frenzied Berserker Prestige Class can enter a Strength-enhancing "frenzy" which stacks with Barbarian rage, but forces them to keep attacking nearby creatures even when the only ones left are their own allies.
    • Wizards and sorcerers have a number of powerful buff spells which allow them to emulate the abilities of another class, at the cost of losing their spellcasting abilities for the duration. These include Tenser's transformation (fighter), Nightstalker's transformation (rogue) and Mental pinnacle (psion). The latter of these is abusable by taking advantage of their ability to share buff spells with their familiar (since being a small animal doesn't make its psychic attacks any less dangerous).
    • The 9th-level Wu Jen spell transcend mortality is designed for a Last Stand - it grants incredibly potent defensive buffs for 1 round/level, and then kills the user as their life force burns out. Creative players have found loopholes, such as using the Jade Phoenix Mage's "explode then return to life" ability just before the spell kills them, or the Spellguard of Silverymoon's ability to cast personal buff spells on other people.
    • The psionic power psychofeedback can provide very large boosts to the user's physical ability scores, but requires them to take an equal amount of "ability burn" to other ability scores in exchange. This burn persists past the (relatively short) duration of the power and cannot be healed by magic, only by many days of rest.
  • 5th Edition:
    • The Reckless Attack feature for barbarians gives them advantage (roll two die and keep the highest result) on their attacks on their turn (making them more likely to hit enemies), but in exchange, enemies have advantage to hit them. One subclass grants a handful of temporary hitpoints when doing this, making it marginally more survivable.
    • The Haste spell allows the player to act twice in a round, but are left unable to act for a turn when the spell expires (or is dismissed).
    • Barbarians who take the Path of the Berserker can choose to turn their Barbarian Rage ability into a Frenzy — granting them all the abilities of a regular barbarian rage plus the ability to make an extra attack every turn. When the frenzy ends, they gain a level of exhaustion — a debuff that applies steadily worse penalties every level (culminating in death if 6 levels are stacked).
    • A warlock with the Tomb of Levistus invocation can encase their body in ice in response to taking damage — they gain temporary hitpoints that help absorb the damage but become Weak to Fire and incapable of moving or acting until the ice melts at the end of their next turn.
    • Tenser's transformation is a spell that allows a caster to temporarily become an excellent fighter but prevents them from casting spells while it's active. They also need to save against exhaustion at the end of the spell.
• Fabula Ultima: The Commander class has skills that produce effects which are beneficial, or harmful, to friend and foe alike. Their Bishop's Edict skill can either make anything that costs MP more expensive or make anything that deals damage hit harder, while their King's Castle skill either stops everyone from recovering health and MP or makes anything that restores MP more effective.
• Magic: The Gathering:
  • This is part of Black's Power at a Price ethos — buff your creatures, while paying some sort of ghastly penalty. While this often takes the form of Cast from Hit Points, examples of other "tradeoffs" include Animate Dead, where you can bring a creature back from any graveyard (even your opponent's) for just two mana at the cost of that creature having -1 power, and Summon Undead, where you discard three cards in order to place a creature from your graveyard back onto the battlefield.
  • White magic tends to be the exact opposite of Black. Instead of increasing power, it often sacrifices power in order to increase toughness in creatures it controls (Ex. Sworn Defender), making them more durable. It can also eliminate enemy creatures as threats for far less mana that the "creature destruction" cards of other mana colors, but instead gives something else positive to the controller of that player. (Ex. Swords to Plowshares, which exiles a target creature but gives its controller life equal to that creature's power.)
  • Final Fortune, the caster takes another turn after the current one, but at the end of that turn, they will automatically lose the game.
  • In the Vanguard variant of the game, each player starts with a special character card that grants the player a special ability but alters their starting/maximum hand size and their starting life. The better the ability, the fewer cards and/or life the character begins with. It is possible to get a better hand size or life to start with, but that means that the ability given is rather weak compared to others.
• Netrunner: The Lucidrine Booster Drug lets the Runner make a run and gain a significant amount of extra money, but after the run is over, they lose any of the bits that they didn't spend and take unpreventable brain damage.
• Pathfinder: A core feature of the Alchemist class is a Mutagen that temporarily boosts one of their physical attributes and penalizes a mental attribute. They can learn stronger versions (with even more penalties) and Cognatogens that hone their mind and harm their body.
• Vampire: The Requiem: A vampire in Frenzy is controlled by their inner Beast, granting a rush of power (in 2nd edition, a scaling boost to everything) but overriding their free will with animalistic impulses. At best, they can try to "ride the wave" to point themself at a preferred target.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • The Forbidden series of spells are all about this, providing both a buff and a debuff to a single monster. Because they can be used on either player's monsters, they are extremely flexible in how they can be used.
  • Some Equip Spells work like this, providing a buff and debuff to the equipped monster. Since Equip Spells can be equipped to the opponent's monsters, it's also possible to use these cards to either weaken their monsters or strengthen yours.

Third-Person Shooters

• Kid Icarus: Uprising:
  • The Lightweight Power allows the user to move faster in exchange for taking more damage.
  • The Tradeoff Power depletes the user's health while greatly raising their other stats.

Tower Defense Games

• In Arknights:
  • Aak has two skills that do this: Type-y Stimpack, which increases DEF and Max HP, and Durian-Flavored Stimpack, which increases ATK and ASPD. Activating either skill will result in a rapid loss of 500HP for his chosen ally, which can kill them if used at the wrong time since there's no safety net in case their current health level is too low. Upgrading his skills only improves the buffs given and doesn't alleviate the HP loss.
  • Warfarin's "Unstable Plasma" ability increases the ATK stat of Warfarin and a random ally within range in exchange for scraping off 3% of their max HP per second. In total, each activation will result in a ding of 45% max HP, so for your own sanity's sake, do not put her together with an Ifrit specced for Scorched Earth, unless you have another Medic at the ready to hold both of their hands.
  • Several operators have skills that reduce their HP on use or on deployment. They are typically part of an archetype that benefits from or alleviates the demerits of being at low HP (e.g., Musha Guard or Dollkeeper Specialist) or has a talent to make use of the HP loss (e.g., Morgan).

Turn-Based Strategy

• Civilization VI: A civilization suffering a Dark Age can enact special Policies that grant a major boost to one aspect of its development at the cost of a substantial penalty or hindrance — for example, "Elite Forces" gives all your units double XP but raises their maintenance costs.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Some entries in the franchise have the skill Gamble, which reduces a character's hit rate in exchange for more Critical Hits.
  • Fire Emblem Fates: Shiro's personal skill, Noble Cause, augments the damages he inflicts by 3, but also the damage he takes by 1. However, the skill only activates if he is supported by a wounded unit.
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Frenzy spell reduces a target creature's defense to 0, but also increases its attack by the amount of defense lost (or up to double the amount if cast at Expert level). It's great for turning Stone Wall creatures into powerful attackers or lowering an enemy's defenses while you pick them off from range.
• Heroes Of Oakenhaven: Traits are randomly assigned on creation, and some constrain how the player can place their troops for maximum effectiveness:
  • Camaraderie bearers get a 25% boost to Attack and Magic Attack for the turn, if they start beside an ally.
  • Breathing Room bearers get a 25% boost to Attack and Magic Attack for the turn, if they start without being adjacent to any allies.

Web Games

• Board Game Online: As part of the various items and skills you can gain as you play, some of these items offer you both an advantage and a disadvantage. This mostly applies to various drugs, such as:
  • Crystal meth, which gives you immunity from being skipped or incapacitated, but also dehydrates you and gives you six turns to find a drink before you die.
  • GHB, which moves you a spot forward but incapacitates you.
  • The vague "syringe" item, which gives you two random positive effects and one random disease.
  • Cocaine, which makes you hyper (and thus faster) but also gives you an addiction, which can lead to severe side effects, such as burnout or death.

Wide-Open Sandbox

• The Turtle Master potion in Minecraft raises the player's defense but also reduces their speed.
• Terraria: Drinking alcohol will apply the Tipsy debuff, which increases your damage, attack speed, and crit chance, but also lowers your defense. Although this is downplayed, since all of the positive effects scale with the power of your weapon while the armor debuff is a negligible -4.

Non-Gaming Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Dragon Ball:
  • The Great Ape transformations make Saiyans ten times more powerful, but their minds are reduced to that of wild beasts. However, as shown with Vegeta, it's possible to remove the weakness with training.
  • The Super Saiyan Grade 3 transformation increases the user's strength in exchange for a downgrade in speed. The drawback is so great, that the form is considered Awesome, but Impractical.
• My Hero Academia: Mirio Togata's Permeability Quirk comes with a lot of downsides. While he's completely untouchable with it active, he can't breathe or see while intangible because light and air pass through him. Walking becomes nigh impossible because he'll simply sink into the ground, and he's violently ejected out of any material if he tries to rematerialize while inside it.
• Rurouni Kenshin: Enishi is able to activate his Frenzied Nerves, dramatically increasing his strength, speed, reflexes, and senses, making him incredibly strong and hard to hit. But due to his increased sensitivity, the pain he receives from any hits he does take is increased several times over.

Comic Books

• X-Men: Emma Frost is able to transmute her body into a diamond-like state, rendering her invulnerable to most forms of physical damage. But while in this state, her empathy is muted, and she loses access to her vast telepathic powers.

Literature

• Animorphs: At the end of the series, Ax is in command of an Andalite ship that comes across a derelict ship. He orders the ship's power to be shifted to its sensors to get a better idea of what's in it (not wanting to send a team in blind), but unfortunately this means its shields are weakened, leaving the ship exposed when the "derelict" opens fire, leading to Ax being infested by an alien entity and the rest of the Animorphs taking it out in a Heroic Sacrifice.
• A Budding Scientist In A Fantasy World: Chapter 81 reveals a triggerable effect that renders the user helpless, as part of a trance to improve magical ability.
• Deadworld Isekai: Chapter 45 has the Berserker Rage skill that gives a buff, then applies a debuff later:
  Berserker rage taps into your body's natural fat and glycogen stores, turning them into an especially pure form of quick-burning energy that provides a huge buff to all stats. This absurdly large enhancement comes with only one major drawback, a similarly massive debuff when the skill ends.
  Temporary buff: +100% to all physical stats. +100% physical damage resistance, +100 HP regen rate, unlimited STAM pool, +1 level to active sword skill, restoration of highest food-related buff held during the last 10-day period, and movement speed over any solid terrain is doubled.
  Temporary Debuff: -20% to all physical stats, -40% damage resistance, HP regen rate set to 0, STAM bar emptied, and STAM regen rate set to 0
• Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: In Princesses in the Darkest Depths, a tabletop game that's similar to Pathfinder has mutagens, which are concoctions that apply an effect to the imbiber, and described as "stressful to body and mind, but they were useful in a pinch". One example allows its user to Sizeshift to larger sizes, leaving her "slightly addled for hours to come" in exchange.
• Whateley Universe: Ebon Flow can shift his personal time to make himself go faster or slower. However, this causes a backlash where he has to spend the same amount of personal time in the opposite state.

Live-Action TV

• That's So Raven: Raven normally only has the ability to see into the future, but in "Leave It to Diva", she catches a cold, which temporarily gives her the ability to read minds.

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