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Mana Meter

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"These ancient symbols of power contain raw magical energy, which increases my own capacity to summon energy for the spawning of spells."
Kain, about collecting Rune Pyramids in order to increase his Magic Meter, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

The partner to the Life Meter, the Mana Meter describes the amount of power, often called Mana, a character has remaining for his special abilities. It is commonly associated with spell-casting characters in action RPGs and Real-Time Strategy titles.

In colour-coded games, this meter is most often blue, as a handy contrast to the Life Meter, which is most often red, yellow, or green (or green that turns red when low on health). Whether the Mana Meter recovers on its own, or needs to be replenished by items, is much more variable than it is for the Life Meter or the Sprint Meter.

This does not necessarily need to be magical in nature. It can represent an auxiliary power reserve, or other quantity that must be recovered between uses of a special ability. Sometimes it's a catchall, and Ki Manipulation, Psychic Powers, Functional Magic, or even Wave Motion Guns all drain the same "stuff".

A Mana Potion can restore all or part of it, or it can restore on its own with Regenerating Mana.

Sub-Trope of Status Line (a display element showing the current disposition of the player, e.g. score, health, ammo, etc) and Mana.


Examples:

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    Action 

    Action-Adventure 
  • BioForge: The Cyborg character's battery meter is used to regenerate health and to power their built-in gun.
  • Eternal Darkness uses a magick meter for spells and it regenerates as you walk around or use items.
  • Legacy of Kain: You have one for your Dark Gift. Blood Omen puts an interesting spin on the Respawning Enemies trope, by making the indoor NPCs respawn as ghosts whose attacks only affect your mana instead of HP. By contrast, consuming their now-blue blood replenishes it.
  • The Legend of Spyro: Spyro and Cynder's elemental attacks are powered by an energy meter represented by a green gauge below the red health meter in the HUD. Refilling it requires absorbing green gems dropped by defeated enemies or green energy gem clusters, although in The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon some armor pieces allow it to passively regenerate. In addition, the powerful fury attacks are powered by a separate, purple meter that fills much more slowly, and which in DotD the two dragons share instead of each having their own.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Various games have green meters that are consumed when Link uses spells and magical items. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds uses instead a purple one that is consumed for most items, and regenerates over time.
  • Ōkami has an Ink pot meter, as you frequently need to literally draw brush techniques to solve puzzles. It also recharges over time.
  • Scrabdackle: One of these comes in the form of a "magic condenser", a Magic Tool that collects magic from the surrounding atmosphere. Blue can't cast spells while it's empty, but thankfully it quickly regenerates on its own.
  • Severed: This is used to power Sasha's magic spells, and appears as a purple bar underneath the life meter once she gets her first one. It can be extended by collecting Brain Pieces. Also, it refills rapidly outside of combat, so the player can just wait a few seconds to ensure they're good to go for the next encounter.
  • Shadow Man: The health bar, charge meter, and mana meter are stacked in a single circle. Your remaining voodoo (mana) is the middle circle.
  • Star Fox Adventures
    • The Staff Energy Meter indicates how much energy Fox has available for the Staff Powers. It is refilled by collecting Magic Gems, and it has three upgrades that can be found in the world.
    • Tricky has a meter that tells how many Grubtubs' worth of energy he has available for the Sidekick Skills that require it. It is refilled by feeding him Grubtubs.
  • System Shock has the PSI meter, which is consumed when the player deploys psionic discipline powers.
  • ToeJam & Earl has the Funk meter, which powers the Funk Move and Funk Radar.
  • ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal: Mana is required to cast spells, but interestingly enough, the mana meter is attached to the spell itself, not to the fairy who casts it. So if you, for example, take a spell that has 3 uses left from one fairy and put it on a different fairy, it will still have only 3 uses.

    Beat 'em Ups 
  • Princess Edge Dragonstone: Such a meter powers Princess' magical attacks, and can be recharged either at checkpoints, or by hitting enemies with combos.

    Card Battle Games 
  • Artifact: Each lane's tower starts off with three mana, to be used on spells in that lane alone. It is refilled and has its capacity increased by 1 each turn. Some cards and effects also affect a tower's mana.
  • Hearthstone: Players gain one new mana crystal at the start of each turn, capping off at ten, and fully refresh their spent mana every turn. Mana can be used to play cards and use your hero power. Druids have ways to accelerate mana growth through cards that generate extra crystals or grant temporary mana.

    Driving Games 
  • Metal Drift: You have an energy meter that slowly builds over time but builds much faster if you damage enemies. It is used for Nitro Boost, Quad Damage and certain abilities. The Power ability makes the meter much longer, allowing you to store additional energy.

    Fighting Games 
  • Art of Fighting uses a meter to power the characters' Special Attacks. Taunting can be used to drop the opponent's meter, and it can be rapidly build it up by stopping and focusing the character's Ki.
  • Eternal Fighter Zero has Kano Kirishima, a character inspired by RPG magic users who is also the only one in the game that uses a magic meter. Her magic gauge must be manually charged in order to cast her tiered elemental spells. Different tiers of spells consume different amounts of the bar.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom, and by extention Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, has a stackable Hyper Bar that can be filled up to five times, allowing multiple Hyper Combos to be pulled off in succession. Depending on the game, a few to all of the characters have access to a Level Three Hyper Combo: A significantly more powerful attack that consumes three Hyper Bars instead of the usual one.
  • Melty Blood has Magic Circuits, 0 to 300%, or 200% if playing Actress Again and using the Half-Moon Style. Used for special shielding, EX Specials, Shield bunkering, and combos. Can also recover health (up to the limit mentioned above).
  • Mortal Kombat 9 and Mortal Kombat X have a 3-part gauge for each character filled by attacking and by being attacked. A single bar can be used to power-up a special move, two bars for breaking out of combos, and the whole 3 bars to trigger a brutal X-Ray attack. Mortal Kombat 11 splits it into two meters for offense and defense.
  • Psychic Force: Your titular powers are controlled by the Psy Meter. In the first game you have fixed amount but in the second game, the more life you lose, the more Psy you can use. You can also trade life for Psy and Power with a Hyper Charge.
  • The Rumble Fish has two different mana bars, one for offensive moves and one for defensive ones.
  • Street Fighter uses the Super Meter from Super Street Fighter II Turbo on, which increases by throwing attacks, and by inflicting and taking damage. In its original form, filling it allows the player to pull off a Super Move, and later games in the series added the ability to pull off powered-up EX maneuvers that only partially drain the meter. Later games also have a secondary gauge, such as the Ultra meter in Street Fighter IV, the V-Trigger gauge in Street Fighter V, and the Drive gauge in Street Fighter 6.
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: The Hero from Dragon Quest, unlike other spellcasters in the Smash Bros series, has a limited MP gauge to cast spells. He can recharge it by attacking, and it slowly fills up on his own, but the Hero still has to be careful not to spend all his MP when he might be needing to use a recovery move.
  • Tekken 7: Akuma is the very first character in the series to have a dedicated attack meter, as a nod to his origin as a crossover from Street Fighter. It is accumulated as the fight progresses, and can be spent on his special moves and Super Combo, though in exchange he doesn't have Rage Drive or 10-hit combos. Later, two more characters (Eliza and Geese Howard) were added that have the same mechanic.
  • Them's Fightin' Herds: All fighters have their own magic meter where one or more bars are used for special attacks. What the magic attacks do, how many separate bars everyone has, and how they refill them all varies on each character.

    First-Person Shooters 
  • Brink! gives each player a "Supplies" meter, an abstraction of your side's current logistical capabilities. The bar is divided into segments referred to as "Pips", one of each is consumed when the player uses a special ability. note  The default is three pips, but can be increased with upgrades to six; additionally, the team that owns the Supply Command Post gets one additional pip note  for every member, increasing the potential amount to eight. Also, soldiers can unlock an additional ability to scavenge Supplies from bodies.
  • First Encounter Assault Recon: All the protagonists have a "reflex" meter that allow them to enter Bullet Time mode, where they move much faster than their enemies until it drains. They are also capable of increasing the length of it by picking up reflex boosters.
  • Prey (2006) has a spiritual arrow meter, which is refilled with the souls of slain enemies.
  • Radix: Beyond The Void: Your primary weapons are tied to a regenerating energy meter. The only exception is the Vulcan.
  • Wolfenstein (2009): The charge on the Thule Medallion acts as one, since it governs his use of Veil powers.

    Flight Simulator 
  • X-Wing: All ships have a Deflector Shield meter, and every single laser has a Cooldown meter that slowly recharges after being used. The "mana meter" functionality comes from being able to consume the charge of these meters in order to pull off very fast evasive manuevers, whatever they are full or not.

    Hack & Slash 
  • Death's Gambit has one explicitly for spell-casting on top of its Sprint Meter for movement and physical attack, and calls it soul energy. Nearly every class has a unique way of recovering it. Soldiers do so through blocking, Assassins through dodging, Sentinels through parrying, and Acolytes of Death through killing. In contrast, Wizards only recover it by healing with phoenix feathers and Nobles by using items in general.
  • Rune has the Power meter that is expended when you use the powers of your weapon runes.

    Idle Games 

    Life Simulation 
  • Stardew Valley has the Energy Meter, which decreases with tool use, consumption of energy lowering foods, and other things. It is restored mainly through food and the Spa. In multiplayer, a character can also regain energy by laying in their bed.

    Mecha Games 
  • Steel Battalion has the Battery Meter, as battery power is the source of energy for sidestep maneuver and energy/melee weapons. Normally, they have a fixed recharge rate, but activating Override (see below) makes the recharge time near instantaneous; a massive boon in heated battles, especially involving energy weapons.

    Metroidvania 
  • Lila's Sky Ark: In the Banshee form, Lila's ability to use her "scream" attack is limited to a count specified by a little meter that appears under her health. This meter can be refilled either by exiting the form, or by drinking bottles of "Liquid Fear".
  • The Shantae series: From Shantae: Risky's Revenge on, Shantae needs magic to cast her spells.
  • Timespinner: Wearing necklaces allows Lunais to cast spells, which consume her Aura meter.

    MMORPG 
  • Earth Eternal: You get two separate pools: Might and Will. Might is used for physical skills, while Will is used for magical spells.
  • Forum Warz: All classes except Re-Res and Permanoobs have some sort of secondary meter in combat that's used for most of their attacks, displayed under your Life Meter.
  • Guild Wars has the energy bar, which powers characters' skills in the same manner mana would.
  • Happy Wars has the AP Meter, used to power each class' special skills.
  • Kingdom of Loathing has MP, which can be restored by resting, items, or certain familiars. If you're a caster, the game will call them "mana points", if you're a fighter-type, they'll be called "muscularity points", and if you're a rogue-type, they'll be "mojo points". Of course, everything that drains, restores or otherwise affects MP, does so in exactly the same way regardless of class.
  • Nexus Clash: Everyone has Magic Points representing their angelic/demonic powers, arcane magic level, personal willpower/badassery, or any number of other power sources depending on their class. The only exception is the Redeemed, who spend points from their Karma Meter to use their powers instead.
  • Tree of Savior: All classes use SP for skills and spells, represented by the SP meter.
  • World of Warcraft has quite a bit of variants.
    • First is the classic blue mana bar. It used to grow with increase of Intellect stat, but as of Mists of Pandaria it has been standardised to level and specialisation. However, while the bar remains the same, different classes use it differently
      • Most damage-dealing casters have a big bar and good regeneration, leaving them with few worries about filling it. Arcane mages stand in a separate niche among them — unlike others who regenerate it passively, they consume it much faster and actively use special regeneration spells to restore it. Failure to hold back on nuking may result in running dry before their refills are ready and being forced to do minimal damage for a time.
      • The healers typically are more involved with their meters than casters - they obtain regeneration from stats on their gear rather than passive abilities and running dry is a constant threat. Thus they have to balance the heals they dish out to both keep everybody alive and to not run out of mana before the fight is over.
      • Mana-using melee classes, such as paladins and enhancement shamans, have a much shorter mana bar and their abilities tend to take solid chunks out of it with every use - however, their regeneration refills them just as fast. They tend to not run out doing their usual damage rotation, but will run out fast if the situation forces them to throw out some heals. Paladins also have a separate "Holy Power" bar which is accumulated via use of select abilities and can be used on powerful effects or free heals.
    • Other classes have differently named and looking resource bars that fulfill the same function:
      • Warriors and Guardian Druids utilise a Rage mechanic, a red bar that fills as they deal or take damage. It has a cap of 100 or 120 and their skills usually cost a hefty chunk of it, sometimes emptying it out entirely and dealing more damage the more full it was. It also slowly drains out of combat and thus warriors typically move from one monster to another in a hurry, unleashing the stored up rage on the new target before it vanishes.
      • Rogues, Feral Druids, and Windwalker Monks use Energy, a yellow bar that refills fast by itself and limits them from spamming attacks at high speed. Rogues and Druids also use Combo Points, which are accumulated as red dots on their current target and allow them to unleash powerful finishers.
      • Introduced in Wrath of the Lich King, Death Knights use a double-type resource system: they have six runes, (originally two of each Unholy, Blood and Frost, but later simplified to only runes that match your spec) and a light blue Runic Power bar. A portion of their skills cost runes to use, which then refill themselves - and activation of runes gives them runic power to be used on other skills. Similar to rage, runic power drains out of combat.
      • As of the Cataclysm expansion, Hunters have switched from a mana bar to an orange Focus bar. It's similar to Energy, but it refills much slower and can be quickly restored with use of certain abilities.
      • In addition to using mana or Energy depending on their spec, the Monks introduced in Mists of Pandaria use a dual resource called Chi. They can up to five Chi on their character at a time, which are green dots built by using certain abilities and must be spent to use more powerful abilities. It's used most often by Mistweaver Monks, but is available to all three specs in some capacity.
      • Introduced in Legion, Demons Hunters use purple Fury, which is solely built up by using abilities, but differs slightly between the two specs. Havoc Demon Hunters build it quickly with their standard attacks and consume it in large chunks to use heavy damage abilities. Vengeance Demon Hunters slowly generate it over time from certain abilities, allowing their other skills to be meted out slower but more consistently. Prior to Shadowlands, Vengeance instead used a unique resource called Pain (which is why the two specs operate so differently), although this was deemed unnecessary.
      • As of Legion, Shamans and Balance Druids use a similar resource system. Shamans have a blue Maelstrom bar alongside mana, while Balance Druids have a lavender Astral Power bar instead of any other resource. Both are built by casting certain spells and spent by others.
      • The Evokers introduced in Dragonflight use mana for the majority of their abilities. However, their nukes or burst heals (depending on the spec) use a secondary resource called Essence. Evokers have five Essence, which regenerates slowly by itself. This serves a similar purpose to Energy for these abilities, letting them be low-cooldown but still making it a choice on what to use.
  • zOMG! has a blue, battery-shaped Stamina meter next to the Health meter. Stamina is consumed when using rings. Like Health, you restore a certain amount of Stamina per tick, though you can increase the rate by kneeling (at the cost of tripling all damage received) or by using certain buffs. Certain power-ups also instantly restore a portion of your Health and Stamina. Unlike Health, your maximum Stamina never increases, nor can you reduce the Stamina cost of a ring.

    MOBA 
  • Bloodline Champions: While Cooldowns are used to limit abilities, hitting with them charges an energy meter that can be consumed to use other more powerful ones.
  • Heroes of the Storm plays around with its resource system quite a bit. Most heroes have mana, but very few are expected to run out in anything less than several prolonged fights. There's a handful of heroes who use nonstandard resources, like Chen's brew or Sonya's fury. Many heroes have no resource at all, or a non-resource stat taking the place of the resource bar (such as Fenix's Deflector Shields or D.Va's Self Destruct charge). It's one of the mechanics making it such a fast-paced MOBA.
  • League of Legends: Most champions use mana as a casting resource, with a few variations. Some use Energy, which has a fixed cap and regeneration rate, some are Cast from Hit Points, some use Fury which builds when they attack, one uses Heat which builds when he uses an ability, and some use no resources at all and are completely cooldown reliant.

    Platformers 

    Puzzle Games 
  • WizOrb: Cyrus' spells are limited by the size of this meter. Some blocks drop magic potions which refill it.

    Real-Time Strategy 
  • StarCraft: Units have "energy meters" that can indicate either the unit's remaining energy reserve (Terrans), psionic power (the Protoss) or bioweapons (the Zerg). They are depleted as that unit's special abilities are used and recover with time (with the exception of several zerg units that can restore their energy by consuming another friendly unit). This system can lead to some weirdness when the terran EMP drains psionic power and bioweapons in addition to energy and shields, but that's game balance for you.
  • Super Robot Wars: Most games in the series have an EN bar, which is usually reserved for energy attacks, energy shields, and significantly-powerful melee attacks or Limit Breaks. Moving while flying also reduces EN by 2 per tile. Missiles, guns, and other ammunition-based weapons usually have their own separate ammo counts, as do Alpha Strike-style attacks.
    • In Super Robot Wars UX, instead of the usual EN bar, all Deus Machina have an MP bar instead. It has a variety of quirks, such as scaling up through leveling skills rather than upgrades.
    • Then there's Spirit Points or SP. This one is tied to the pilot and co-pilot. SP is consumed whenever you use Spirit Commands that buff you or your allies, debuff your enemies, or some unique commands like Self Destruct.
  • Warhammer:
    • Total War: Warhammer: Wizards power their spells by using up Winds of Magic, whose levels are tracked through a gauge at the bottom right of the screen. This is a finite resource that's only reset between battles; there's a secondary gauge that slowly refills the primary one, but once the sum of the two gauges is completely used up no more spellcasting will be possible for the rest of the battle.
    • Warhammer: Dark Omen: There's a fluctuating Winds of Magic gauge at the bottom of the screen to indicate how much magic is available for a wizard to tap into.

    Roguelike 
  • Dicey Dungeons: In the Witch's Parallel Universe and Bonus Round episodes, some of her spells have additional powers that need Mana points to activate. Mana can be charged by using certain spells that do so, but they only last for the duration of the battle.
  • Dungeons of Dredmor has a fairly typical mana meter for casting its wide selection of spells.
  • Elona: Reading from a spell book grants you spell charges. To cast a spell, you need to consume some spell charges, some mana, and pass a casting skill check. Once a spell runs out of charges, you cannot cast it until you read its spellbook again.
  • Fairyside: Referenced in the "Mana points" note:
    The fuller the mana bar is, the faster the mana regenerates.
  • Tales of Maj'Eyal has a lot of different resources spread over the different types of classes. Mages, and a couple of hybrid classes, have Mana, which regenerates over time. Warriors, Rogues, and most of the Magic Knights have Stamina, which also regenerates more slowly over time but is harder to restore otherwise. Psionic classes have Psi, which regenerates very slowly over time but can be gained quickly by using abilities that suck energy out of enemies. Corrupters have Vim, which does not regenerate over time but can be regained by killing creatures or from a few specific talents that all rely on enemies. Afflicted have Hate, which decreases over time, and can be gained by killing enemies or by being in a high-damage battle. Celestials have Positive and Negative, which both decrease over time but have talents whose cost to use is negative. Wilders have Equilibrium, which starts at 0 and increases with talent cost, and gives a chance of failure to associated talents once it gets high enough. Chronomancers have Paradox, which works similarly, but high Paradox increases the power of your abilities and also has a chance of causing random unintended effects or just backfiring on the caster.

    Role-Playing Games 
  • Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura borrows Diablo's liquid-filled vessels, with a unique twist on the local type of mana: It's called Fatigue and represents exactly that. In addition to being used for casting spells, it can be drained by carrying too much gear or getting hit with blunt weapons.
  • The Bard's Tale: Summoning someone to help you requires expending energy from this meter.
  • Born Under the Rain: As shown in this official screenshot of a battle, Mana Points are represented numerically where the current number of them is at the right of a blue bar.
  • In Cyberpunk 2077, RAM serves this function: quickhacks require a minimum amount of RAM to activate, and RAM needs to recharge after being used.
  • Dark Souls III adds a blue Mana Meter, called a "Focus Meter," to the previous two games' red Health Meter and green Stamina Meter (though the series' predecessor, Demon's Souls also had all three). Previous titles used Vancian Magic castable a certain number of times per rest and cost stamina (as do attacking, sprinting, and dodging). Now spells deplete the Focus Meter, which is replenished with a new Ashen Estus Flask. Andre the blacksmith can reallocate your Estus between red and blue in the Firelink Shrine. It's called a "Focus Meter," not a "Mana Meter," because all weapons and casting implements now have a "Weapon Art," special ability, most of which cost Focus to use. Similarly to the other meters, the size of the Focus Meter is governed by a stat, in this case, Attunement.
    • This entire system was ported to Spiritual Successor Elden Ring, with the only change being that Mind, the stat replacing Attunement, only increases the size of the Focus Meter and doesn't grant extra spell slots.
  • Deltarune has a Mana Meter based on Tension Points (TP), which are gained by grazing during the Bullet Hell pattern sequences or by setting a character to defend on their turn.
  • Diablo uses round glassy "vessels", whose level of fullness varies. In Diablo II, the mana orb for spells is blue and held by a statue of an angel. Diablo III has different power-meters that are used in different fashions, and which are replenished with generator attacks (left click attacks with the mouse). Barbarians get Fury, Monks get Spirit, Wizards get Arcane Power, Witch Doctors get Mana, Crusaders get Wrath, and Necromancers get Essence. Demon Hunters are the only class that get two power-meters which share a globe; Hatred, on the left-hand side, powers their attacks and recharges quickly; while Discipline on the right-hand side powers their defensive abilities and recharges more slowly.
  • Dungeon Siege, being heavily influenced by the Diablo series, features a mana bar in the first two installments, but changes up the name and function in III, splitting it into the Focus bar and Power Orbs. Both are used for special attacks/abilities, but refilling them is no longer a matter of simply waiting or drinking a potion; to restore focus attacking and defeating enemies is required, and power is restored by using focus abilities, with certain talents and other abilities affecting the refill as well.
  • The Elder Scrolls has the Magicka meter, which is a mana meter in all but name, being consumed when using any kind of magical ability. There's also a Fatigue meter which is drained by various physical activities, such as running, jumping, and attacking.
  • EndCycle: The special gauge fills on its own and each VOC requires a certain amount of bars to be used. The player and enemies alike can attack, heal and steal territory with alarming frequency, giving the game a very hectic feel.
  • The Epic Battle Fantasy series features a mana bar in the first four games, appearing as a thin bar under a character's Life Meter. It is white in the first game,and green in the second, third and fourth. It is absent entirely in Epic Battle Fantasy 5, due to mana being replaced by a cooldown system.
  • Fable has the Will Gauge, which limits spellcasting for the player. The series foregoes this meter from Fable II onwards, making magic, gunplay and swordplay being equally spammable.
  • Final Fantasy has MP, which stands for Magic Points (Or Mist Points in Final Fantasy XII). Aside from certain actions (such as regular attacks, stealing, and items to name a few) most attacks drain MP.
    • Played with in the original release of Final Fantasy: instead of having an MP gauge from which all spells draw, magic-using classes have magical charges for each spell.
    • Final Fantasy XIV gave players both an MP meter for magic and a meter for "Tactical Points", or TP, which has a fixed maximum value of 1000 and is used by physical combat classes. As of Shadowbringers, TP has been retired while MP is capped at 10,000 across all classes. Meanwhile, Red Mages have a secondary mana meter for their unique abilities: casting white or black magic will lead to an accumulation of white or black mana (with non-elemental spells increasing both incrementally) which can be used to strengthen their melee combo attacks and activate their more powerful spells. If there is a large imbalance of their accumulated mana, however, it will become harder to build up whichever mana gauge is lower until balance is restored.
    • Dissidia Final Fantasy has a unique variation of this in the form of "Bravery". Landing Bravery Attacks reduces the opponent's Bravery while adding to the attacker's, while landing HP Attacks inflicts damage to the opponent's Life Meter equivalent to their current Bravery count. After landing an HP attack, the attacker's Bravery is reduced to 0 and gradually returns to its default value (the speed at which it recovers decreasing the more Bravery they had when landing the HP Attack). If a fighter's Bravery is reduced to below zero, they are put into a state of "Break", where they are unable to inflict any HP damage until their Bravery returns to its default value.
  • Eternal Senia: Hydrangea After The Rain: It's displayed below Senia's skills and is divided into 2 10-point segments. It's refilled by attacking with Senia's normal slashes. An additional 10-point segment can be added with the Eternal Mana rune equipped.
  • Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: The Turbo Meter gives you a close area attack good when surrounded by enemies when yellow, and a deadly forward wave/straight shot attack when red. Otherwise it merely powers up your regular attack (such as the Archer firing a stronger arrow, or the Jester dropping a crate of chickens).
  • GREED: Black Border has an energy meter. It is smaller then most examples, but it also regenerates quickly. One of The Marine's active skills taps into it to replenish his shields, while a passive one causes it to act as a second shield meter.
  • Jade Empire features the Chi meter, used for healing, magic attacks and transformations, as well as powering up your Martial and Weapon styles. It also has the Focus meter, which is sort of a combination of this and a Stamina meter. It's used to either power weapon attacks or invoke Bullet Time.
  • Kingdom Hearts has become rather infamous for gratuitously littering the screen with all sorts of gauges all over the place.
    • Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-, and Kingdom Hearts III use an old fashioned MP gauge used for Magic and (barring KHII and 0.2) Summons. KHII also includes a Drive Gauge that allows Sora to transform into powerful forms and use Summons, and 0.2 and KHIII bring back the Focus gauge for Shotlocks.
    • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days has no meters, as it uses a Vancian Magic system where you slot spells in.
    • Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories only showcases your HP and enemy HP on screen, with no meters for mana or anything else. This is tweaked in Re:Chain of Memories , as Riku's DP system is re-designed with a gauge, though functions the same as the GBA game.
    • Kingdom Hearts coded has a Debug gauge, which is used to trigger special abilities and magic. Re:coded has a Clock gauge that simply buffs Sora with helpful status effects whenever it fills, culminating in a Finish attack.
    • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep shows you three gauges to keep track of aside from your HP. First is the Focus gauge, for your Shotlock attacks. The second is a D-Link gauge, for your D-Link abilities, and the last is the Command gauges, for Finishes and Command Styles. Every Command Style has its own unique gauge, and deck commands are in and of themselves gauges.
    • Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] scales things down a notch. The deck commands are back, but gone is the rest. All you have are your Dream Eater Link gauges (found under their own tiny UI's), and a rather humongous Drop gauge which is nothing more than a fancy looking timer.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky has the EP Bar (Energy Points), which is used in Arts (read: spells). It also has a separate meter for Limit Break and character-specific skills.
  • Loser Reborn: Unlike most games, characters are automatically stunned when they run out of MP. Worse yet, this stun effect counts as a KO for the sake of game over conditions.
  • Luxaren Allure: MP for spells is depicted with blue bars that deplete from right to left.
  • Night of the Full Moon: You have one of these, and there are cards that restore or spend mana. These are requirements for when you play certain classes, especially for the Little Witch and the Magician, while you don't generally need to bother with this as the (Action-oriented) Ranger or (Attack-oriented) Lady Knight. To a lesser extent, Actions are also locked this way, where you're only allowed to play a certain number of Action cards per turn (and all Classes use this), and which can even be drained or given extras of with certain cards.
  • Paper Sorcerer: Your party's stats are displayed at the bottom of the screen, and at the bottom is the silver Energy bar, used to fuel your attacks.
  • Operencia: The Stolen Sun: Mana is called energy, but the meaning is the same, it's also used to power the spells of Mages and Rangers.
  • Parasite Eve uses Parasite Energy or PE, which serves as power source for Aya's abilities. Aya's PE recharges over time during battle, but the more often she uses her abilities in the current fight, the slower her PE refills unless you swap armor. Parasite Eve 2 uses a more traditional MP system where each ability has a cost associated with it and said MP can only be restored through items, certain armor, or after certain events.
  • Phantasy Star has unique takes on Mana Meters. For most games in the series, magic is described as Powers as Programs, with actual magic being a lost art in Phantasy Star IV, and new spells being learned from using "Discs" starting with Phantasy Star Online. Throughout the series, spells have been commonly referred to as "Techniques", and most early games thus referred to MP as "Technique Points", or TP. The aforementioned PSIV used charges for "real" magic, similar to Final Fantasy. Starting with Phantasy Star Universe, TP was rebranded as "Photon Points", or PP, to account for the addition of non-tech classes' special attacks, known as "Photon Arts".
  • Pokémon uses Power Points, or PPs, which indicate how many times a move can be used, with each move having its own PP. When depleted, they can be filled with an item, or by fully healing the Pokemon at a Pokemon Center.
  • Ravensword: Shadowlands combines it with Sprint Meter, in that it is affected not only by magic, but also melee attacks and parrying with a shield. If you get yourself into a fight with multiple enemies and don't have any energy potions at hand, then prepare to see the "You're exhausted" message a lot. Thankfully, it recharges fairly quickly if you just stop attacking for a few moments.
  • Silverfall: Every character starts with one. It can either grow if you empathize magic and nature, or shrink if you develop your character as a technology user instead.
  • Spore Creatures has the Energy meter. Energy allows the player to use Bio-Powers in combat and cross dangerous terrain provided they have the right immunity. Energy can be restored by eating flowers or passively regenerated by having a high Energy Refresh stat.
  • Star Ocean uses Magic Points for spell-casting. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time introduces the unusual mechanic of being able to die from losing MP. With Physical attacks using HP and Magic attacks using MP, different attacks cause different amounts of damage to one of them, or to both. In essence, they function as two separate meters that both were a hybrid of Hit Points and Mana Meter. Note that this applies to both your party and enemies. This opens up things like seemingly tankish characters with high HP end up having low MP and therefore easier to kill with MP damage. And if you use certain skills (for instance, the Convert MP Damage or Convert HP Damage skills, which converts one damage type to the other, like 1 HP damage for 4 MP damage) can create really resistant characters — that Black Magician Girl Sophia can suddenly survive physical attacks because all the supposed HP damage is instead transferred to MP damage, and she has a lot of MP.
  • Super Mario Bros.: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and the Paper Mario games have Flower Points, in keeping with the mushroom/flower/star theme usually seen in the Super Mario Bros. series, that are consumed when using special attacks and abilities. Uniquely, in Paper Mario FP is shared among all characters rather than each having their own separate FP meter. The Mario & Luigi series use Bros. Points instead of Flower Points for the same purpose.
  • Tales Series: Technical Points are consumed when using techniques. Although still technically a mana meter, Tales games by Team Destiny (Tales of Destiny and Tales of Rebirth) get rid of Technical Points in favor of some other mechanic that usually regenerates whatever it is you need to do special attacks quickly.
  • The Vagrant: Vivian can use her strongest skills by filling up her Rage Meter, which is done through either attacking enemies, finding food, or by using special Rage potions.
  • Vampires Dawn: Mana is represented by the vampires' blood. Casting spells costs blood points, and if they suck an enemy for blood their mana meter fills up accordingly. If their mana/blood points fall below a certain percentage they will go berserk.
  • WarpForce: Using technology drains down the blue Energy Meter. There is also the green SP bar, which is used for certain skills and running away in battle.

    Run & Gun 
  • Cuphead: Landing shots and parrying pink attacks allow you to stack up energy cards. Also, Coffee Charm also gradually grants you energy cards over time. You can then either use one card for your bullets' extra ability, or save up five for your Limit Break.
  • RosenkreuzStilette has the Weapon Energy that powers your selected weapons' special attacks, represented in a handy gauge.
  • Silhouette Mirage: Your health is called Mana, while the meter that is actually used to power abilities is called Spirit Meter, dubbed Fatima in the English version.
  • Soul Knight has the energy bar that serves as a Mana meter for various projectile-firing weapons, be it a staff, a bow, or a gun.

    Shoot 'em Ups 
  • Enigmata has an energy meter that is consumed for your special abilities.
  • Solar Jetman: The meter below the fuel gauge shows how much energy you have left for your special weapons.
  • Star Control: In The Ur-Quan Masters, every spaceship has a red battery meter that indicates how much energy they can expend on their primary attack. Most races' ships also have special abilities that will also consume energy from the meter, but a few others' abilities refill them instead, from the Pkunk's psychic insults to the Druuge throwing their crewmembers into the engine to instantly refill the meter, so that they can keep firing their powerful, but hugely energy-intensive gun.
  • Trouble Witches has the conventional MP meter. Ten MP is roughly equals to one second for your character's barrier.

    Simulation Games 
  • Freelancer has the power meter, which is consumed by firing your weapons. Usually, you consume power only slightly faster that it regenerates, which keeps you from just holding the button down forever. The stolen Nomad weapons are awesome because they consume no power, which means that having a few can free up infinitely regenerating power for your other guns.

    Stealth-Based Games 
  • Dishonored has a mana meter for your supernatural powers. Some of the used mana recovers over time when you spend it, and lower cost powers like Blink and Dark Vision will recover the full amount of mana you've spent to cast them, as long as you don't spend any more while recovering them. You can use consumables to recover lost mana. Death of the Outsider does this differently; your mana bar has three segments and there are no consumables that restore mana, but your entire meter fills up over time.

    Survival Horror 
  • BioShock: The blue EVE gauge in the first two games, where you need EVE in order to use Plasmids. BioShock Infinite has its equivalent in the Salts gauge to use Vigors.
  • The "dark matter" meter from The Persistence depletes the more you use paranormal abilities. If it runs out, you can't teleport or see through walls until it fills back up.

    Third-Person Shooters 
  • Bloodrayne and its sequel have a 'rage' meter which fills by attacking enemies using Raynes wrist blades. It is used to power "bloodrage" and other attacks.
  • MorphX has a meter for using your alien abilities. It is replenished by absorbing the biomass of defeated swarm creatures.
  • Splatoon: Your Ink Gauge functions moreso like a mana meter than the "ammo" counter it actually is. Firing or using the main weapon consumes ink; different weapons consume ink at different rates, with weapons with more punch to them generally eating through it way faster. The gauge is also used for sub weapons, which they consume a significant part of when thrown or used, from about a third of the gauge to three-quarters depending on the weapon. Ink is refilled by having swimming in your own ink as a squid or octopus, slowly over time by simply not firing, or filled immediately when triggering a special weapon.

    Tower Defense 
  • Orcs Must Die!: Such a meter fuels your spells and some weapon attacks. It recharges by itself slowly, but can be sped up by standing near the Rift or refilled instantly from a Mana Well. The last upgrade from the "elemental" weaver allows you to regain a portion of mana from crossbow and bladestaff attacks.
  • Protect Me Knight has the conventional MP meter that is used by the mage characters.
  • RWBY: Amity Arena: Each player has an "Aura" progressively filling as the match goes on, and a deck of 8 cards prepared before the match and appearing in a random loop four cards at a time. Each card costs a set amount of Aura, with usually the most powerful ones being the most expensive to play.

    Turn-Based Tactics 
  • Hard West: Luck mainly affects your accuracy and chance to avoid getting hit by the enemies' attacks. However, it can also be consumed to activate the abilities gained from the playing cards.
  • Heroes of Might and Magic: Spell Points are required to cast spells. Heroes have 10 maximum Spell Points per every 1 Knowledge stat they have, and spells cost anywhere from 3 to 24 points depending on the spell's power and your hero's proficiency in the spell's school. Heroes recover Spell Points naturally at the incredibly slow rate of one per day, and can increase this with artifacts or the Mysticism skill. You can also fully restore your Spell Points by visiting a Magic Well, Magic Spring, or Mana Vortex, or by staying overnight in a town with a Mage Guild built.
  • Phantom Doctrine' agents have a limited amount of awareness. This is required to perform certain abilities and allows agents to dodge potentially fatal shots during gunfights. A portion of awareness is restored each turn. Agents can also use the focus ability to quickly restore awareness once every three turns.
  • Sunrider:
    • Units have an Energy meter which depletes when they take any action: moving, firing weapons, turning to face a different direction, and so on. Energy is fully replenished at the start of each turn, but in Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return, units suffer an Energy penalty if they collided with another unit at the end of the previous turn.
    • The Command Gauge fills up as you destroy enemy units and carries over from one mission to the next. You can spend it to issue Orders, whose effects include such things as granting party-wide Status Buffs, resurrecting downed ryders, summoning Player Mooks, teleporting the Sunrider/Maray to any spot on the map, and firing the Sunrider's Vanguard Cannon.

    Web Games 
  • Thelast.io: Every player has one that caps at 100, and is consumed when they attack with the magic staffs. It regenerates on its own, but can also be restored faster through eating mana berries.
  • Sonny: Each unit has a Focus bar that fills up during a fight and lets them attack when full. Buffs/debuffs to speed affect how quickly Focus refills, which directly affects turn order during combat.

    Wide-Open Sandbox 
  • Destroy All Humans!: The first game gives Crypto a "concentration" meter that's used to fuel his Psychic Powers and Holobob and refills either over time or by reading people's thoughts.
  • Terraria: Mana is used as a Power Limiter for various items (usually taking the form of magic tomes or wands for flavour) that would be otherwise overpowered without a casting cap. You start with a very small amount, and are required to gather 5 fallen stars to craft into a mana crystal which expands it by 20 points. A player can also expand it by equipping certain accessories and armor which increase it until taken off.

Non-video game examples:

    Comic Books 
  • In Spawn, the eponymous antihero has a limited amount of time he can use necroplasm, the source of his hellspawn powers. This limitation is shown through a gauge that starts at [9:9:9:9] and decreases whenever he uses his magical powers. In a way, his necroplasm counter also functions as a Life Meter, since Spawn's soul would be condemned to return to Hell forevermore if the gauge reaches zero. Notably, this is retained in the SNES beat-em-up based on the comics; Spawn can perform various special moves, but they cost necroplasm, and if the player runs out it's an immediate game over.

    Fan Works 
  • Oversaturated World: Group Precipitation: "Mana Points, by Tophe and Masterweaver", in where "mana" is one universe's name for a magical-type of "granola bar", which gets the conversation to:
    Twilight: "all the video games use... mana bars..."

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons: While most spellcasting classes used Vancian Magic and spell slots, psionic classes used something called Power Points, which acted something like a Mana Meter. You'd use however many points based on the level of the spell you were casting.
  • Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution: Using psionic talents consumes "power points", making the mechanic similar to casting spells from a mana pool.

    Web Animation 
  • RWBY: All living beings have Aura, but Huntsmen are trained to use their Aura to protect themselves in battle, against harsh weather, and to power their Semblances. Their scrolls can be linked to their Auras to monitor levels, and teams of Huntsmen can link the Aura levels of every member of their team, enabling them to see at a glance how much Aura they all have remaining. The monitor switches the level bars from green to red when Aura drops below a critical level. When Aura runs out completely, it shatters around a person like broken glass, and they become as vulnerable as any ordinary person to being killed by things their Aura would normally protect them from. With rest, Aura levels naturally regenerate, but some Huntsmen can train their willpowers to forcibly regenerate their Aura levels much faster. All of this can be monitored on scrolls and other devices.

    Webcomics 
  • A Beginner's Guide to the End of the Universe: The Creativity stat is more or less the equivalent of mana in RPGs. The more the Everyman has left, the more he can modify the world around him.
  • DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything: Dicers can check how many unused Dice they have on their phone, which are spent when activating most abilities and often run out at inconvinient time.
  • El Goonish Shive: A wand shaped Mana Meter is shown in a fantasy panel as part of a visual to explain the mechanic of the magic power in a wand and a magic users magic power both being used when the former is insuffient to cast a spell but the combination is.
  • Yokoka's Quest: A Life Meter and Mana Meter are shown for each character in Yokoka's and Mao's parties on RPG-style status screens between chapters.

Alternative Title(s): Magic Meter

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