The Needless

"[The sage] drew his sustenance from the universe itself, plus the occasional para-drop of Martian spice pudding from well-meaning admirers."

— TuMok, Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space

A character that doesn't require the same physical or mental needs to survive or remain healthy as humans. Or, at least, they lack one need. It could be anything from eating, "waste excretion", heat/warmth, sleep, breathing or even companionship (we're talking an entire lifetime of complete isolation here, not just being The Stoic). They just don't need it, unlike those poor old Homo sapiens. They may still choose to do these things (if they can, for that matter), but it's not a requirement.

Subtropes include:

• Batman Can Breathe in Space
• Bottomless Bladder
• Eating Optional
• Perpetual-Motion Monster
• The Sleepless
• Super Not-Drowning Skills

Not to be confused with manga and anime NEEDLESS.

Common character types that fit this trope:

• Anthropomorphic Personification
• Artificial Human
• Transhumans
• Merfolk
• Aliens with Bizarre Biologies
• Cosmic Being
• Physical God
• Plant People
• Ghosts, Vampires, and other supernatural beings.
• Mechanical Lifeforms and just about every robot in fiction.
• Eldritch Abominations
• Energy Beings

See also Ideal Illness Immunity. A character with Complete Immortality will generally also be needless.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Attack on Titan: Even though Titans spend all their time trying to devour humans, they don't actually need them for nutrition. Once a titan's belly is full, is spits up everyone it ate and goes looking for more. They only seem to need sunlight, as they become inactive at night.
• Buso Renkin: Individuals undergoing Victorization no longer need any food or oxygen as their bodies are sustained by their ability to absorb Life Energy from the surrounding area. Even when removed from a source of life energy, such as on the Moon, Victor-type beings can survive without sustenance for time, merely becoming exhausted.
• Dragon Ball Z:
  • The Namekians don't need food, only water, as they're actually a type of humanoid, sapient plant species. Piccolo does eat — apparently he got in the habit of it while on Earth. He may need to eat while living on Earth because he doesn't get as much sunlight (Namek is close enough to multiple suns that it never has night).
  • Frieza (and presumably the rest of his family/species) can survive in the vacuum of space for long periods of time. As a result, if he ever encounters an opponent he can't beat in a fair fight, he can simply blow up the planet.
• Played for Drama in Fullmetal Alchemist. Alphonse Elric, whose soul is currently bound to a suit of armor, cannot eat or sleep and it brings him much sadness and frustration on his quest to get his body back.
• Angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion are said to have eaten from the "Fruit of Life" (metaphorically), thus they require nothing to continue living, and will never die of old age or disease. Their Core, the S2 Organ, provides an inexhaustible amount of energy for them. NERV is able to control the Evas because they don't have S2 Organs. If the Evas go out of control NERV can simply cut off the power. Problems arise when Eva-01 eats an Angel to claim the Angel's S2 Organ for itself.
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
  • Rimuru does not need to eat, drink, sleep or even breathe due to being a slime. It actually takes him about a week to learn this; he realized after about a week of eating plants that he hadn't defecated at all, and that he wasn't drowning after accidentally falling into a lake.
  • Most spiritual-based lifeforms transcend the need for food, drink, sleep, or air, only requiring magicules to survive (and sufficiently powerful ones can ignore even that for some time). Monsters can evolve to such a state with enough power. Even humans get in on this once they become Saints, though unlike monsters who get the benefits near-instantly once they fulfill the conditions, human bodies under normal conditions need time to acclimate to this new state.
• The Data Weapons in GEAR Fighter Dendoh, justified as they are living data.
• The title character Anpanman doesn't seem to eat anything at all whenever the other characters eat or drink. Some viewers think it's based he's based on bread, but the other main heroes that are based on bakery goods don't really seem to have that problem as there's times they eat and drink normally. This was even joked on this fan comic.◊
  • The official website stated that the anko filling in his head makes him sustenance, which makes sense in a way. Though one of the early edutainment specials from the early 90s shows him that he's about to eat a soft-served ice cream cone, until he trips over and cries about it.
• Apparently the case for Dragoons in Coffin Princess Chaika, as the main characters are clued into the fact that something isn't right with their host Dominica when they discover that her mansion has no food in it at all and that no one has used the kitchen in what seems to be years, and eventually realize she's actually a Dragoon named Fredrika who shapeshifted to look like her after the real one died.
• In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Sephiroth was deliberately animated so that he never breathes or blinks to highlight his inhuman nature.
• A subversion in Delicious in Dungeon: Captain Mithrun of the Canaries is a lethal fighter who feels no bodily needs such as hunger and fatigue... but he still has them. Without a chaperone to remind him to eat, drink, and even use the toilet, he'd quickly kill himself through neglect, especially since he doesn't even have a survival instinct. Since he can't feel tired, he needs magical or medical inducement to fall asleep, and has trouble regulating his magic usage because he can't tell how low his mana is. This is the result of a traumatic encounter with a demonic Emotion Eater — the only desire he has left is the desire to get revenge for what it did to him.
• In The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village, youkai have no real need for food or drink, though they do enjoy it. This becomes a plot point with a time travel method which will cause anyone aside from the main target to instantly experience the full passage of the travel time, which would be fatal to anything mortal. The youkai he brings with him experiences the passage of time but is unharmed due to its nature.
• Downplayed in One Piece. Dr Vegapunk created six satellite bodies and split his consciousness between them, with each fulfilling a certain role. The final of them, York, is specifically in charge of handling all bodily functions like eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom, which allows the original and the other five satellites to devote themselves to scientific endeavors 24/7.

Comic Books

• In comic books, "Self-sustenance" (on varying levels) is an actual superpower for many characters.
  • Here is a list of DC Characters with that ability.
  • And a list of Marvel characters with it.
• Shazam!: Captain Marvel and everyone else with his power-set are a notable case, given they not only don't require food or air but don't age (Billy is a little boy who's growing up, but the adult Captain Marvel he becomes will never grow a day older). This was most memorable in Black Adam's first appearance in the Golden Age; Black Adam was the Wizard's previous champion in Egypt, but his poor behavior caused Shazam to just teleport him to a distant planet countless lightyears away from Earth as punishment. Being able to fly and functionally immortal, Black Adam just spends several eons flying back. When tricked by Billy into saying the magic word and going back to his civilian identity, he crumbles into dust.
• Superman:
  • Superman, Supergirl and other Kryptonians are a subversion. In most continuities they don't need to eat, sleep or breathe because they draw energy directly from the Sun... but they do it anyway for several reasons: the act make them feel "normal"; and even if their bodies can go without resting, their minds need to have a breather lest they become deranged and aggressive.
  • In Pre-Crisis days, Bizarros were always described as being made of "non-living matter." We saw them eating regularly enough, but even non-super powered Bizarros (like the Bizarro-Loises) could survive in the vaccuum of space without needing to breathe.
  • The Planet Eater Trilogy: When Superman and Brainiac are getting ready to attack the Planet-Eater, the former asks the latter if he will be all right flying across the space void without a helmet. Brainiac replies he does not need to breathe because he is a human computer.
  • In Superboy (New 52), the titular character states that he doesn't need to eat or sleep.
• New X-Men: Academy X: Mercury has a body entirely composed of metal. Therefore, she doesn't need to eat or drink, but does so anyway because it makes her feel human.
• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: In the Uncle Scrooge story "The Twenty-Four Carat Moon", the ducks encounter an alien named Muchkale who does not age, nor does he need to eat. That doesn't mean that he doesn't desire such things, thus he has been perpetually suffering ever since he got stuck on the titular world full of nothing but gold 800 years ago.
  Muchkale: I've lived here ever since, eating nothing, drinking nothing! Growing not a day older in all these centuries!
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942): In several continuities the Amazons of Paradise Island are functionally immortal—they don't age and don't need to eat while on Paradise Island—they are otherwise humans who have achieved Enlightenment Superpowers due to their many years of training.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): After the Olympians modified Themyscira into a floating paradise the Amazons, who in this coninuity already didn't age, didn't need anything to survive and were unable to be harmed by conventional weapons while on the islands though god touched weapons could still do the trick.
• In Runaways, Alex Wilder eventually comes Back from the Dead. However, while he looks alive, he's still a reanimated corpse (and feels like cold dead flesh when people touch him). As a result, he lacks bodily needs such as eating. He can't eat either - food just comes right back up.
• As a living cartoon character, Loony Leo from Astro City does not need to eat, drink, or sleep, and is effectively immortal.

Fan Works

• Last Child of Krypton: Shinji eats food but he’s never hungry, he sleeps although he doesn’t really need to, and he doesn’t need to breathe. Justified because he is Superman, and his body is a living solar battery.
  Asuka was already heading out the door when he popped a piece of toast in his mouth (he wasn't hungry, and it fact couldn't remember being hungry, but liked toast)
• Quicken: After getting regenerative powers, Emma doesn't get tired, and she doesn't need to sleep or breathe.
• Paul in With Strings Attached and especially in The Keys Stand Alone. When he's at “low” strength (i.e., when he can only lift 15,000 lbs or so) he has occasional, if sporadic, need to eat, sleep, and pee. At “high” strength (where he can lift at least 90 tons) he is truly self-sustaining. He doesn't particularly appreciate being self-sustaining in Keys, given how boring it is not to sleep and not have anything to do or be able to go out when everyone else is asleep.
  • He discovers by accident in Keys that he also doesn't need to breathe, even at low strength.
• The Forsaken in Wizard Runemaster 2 don't need to eat or sleep and one of them notes to herself that she'd gone a year or two without even removing her armor since becoming undead.
• Penny Polendina in A New World on her Shoulders doesn't require any sustenance to survive due to being an android. This includes, food, sleep, heat, and oxygen. This creates a problem for her since she's unable to enjoy things like tasting food due to not having the ability to taste things. After her teammates learn the truth, they request that Ironwood and Pietro work on giving her the ability to taste food, which they do after two weeks.

Gamebooks

• The Fighting Fantasy book Legend of Zagor have a system where you'll need to consume food at certain areas, or else suffer loss of Stamina points. You could however obtain a magic ring which can keep you alive without food or sustenance (and you can still obtain Stamina from eating food) - you obtain said ring from a knight who's stranded in the castle's dungeons for weeks with the ring keeping him alive all these time.

Literature

• Bog Standard Isekai: Hogg takes a magic pill of unbreathing before diving into water full of undead — not to be confused with a pill of underwater breathing, which he also has access to, but which isn't as suitable for a combat situation.
  If he'd taken one of those, he'd be breathing that rotten blood right now.
• In Dragon Bones, Oreg is implied to not have to eat or breathe - he's immortal unless he's killed by the current owner of the ring to which he's bound. Suicide is not an option, so implicitly starving and drowning can't happen. He probably doesn't need sleep, either.
• This is the case for the mechs in Robin Wasserman's Skinned trilogy. Being human consciousnesses uploaded into mechanical bodies, they're unable to eat, sleep, and breathe, have bodies that are self-healing and cleaning, and are unable to die. Of course, they think of it as Blessed with Suck.
• In the Land of Oz, the Sawhorse is a saw horse which Pip brought to life using Old Mombi's life-giving powder. Later Jim the (real) Cab Horse comes to Oz, and tries to convince the Sawhorse that being a meat and bones horse is better than being a wooden horse magically brought to life, but all the examples that Jim gives actually come out in the Sawhorse's favor: for example Jim says that he can bleed and that's good because people can know where he's hurt - the Sawhorse points out that he doesn't get hurt, so he doesn't need to bleed. Jim is the only animal from our world who, having come to Oz where he can talk, begs to go back to the real world where he's just a dumb animal.
  • In general a decent number of Oz characters are inanimate beings who've been brought to life being magical means (The Scarecrow, Tin Man, Patchwork Girl....) and they all have this benefit. Naturally it comes in handy in many adventures, such as in the first book where Dorothy and The Lion are knocked out by the poppy field, but the Scarecrow and Tin Man (who don't breathe) are conscious enough to get them out.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Melisandre, the red priestess of R'hollor, needs no food and barely any sleep. However, she keeps up the pretense of needing a bed and eating breakfast so as not to unnerve her companions. Moqorro, another red priest, also survived several days in the sun without food or water. Their magical powers seem to sustain them, at least for short periods.
  • Cersei's champion and newest member of the Kingsguard, Ser Robert Strong, has never been seen eating, drinking, sleeping, or even using the privy. Unlike Melisandre, he doesn't even make a token effort to fit in (being, most likely, a mindless automaton), which deeply disturbs the people around him.
• Twilight: The vampires don't need to breathe, sleep, or eat (except blood). In fact, if a vampire does consume human food in an attempt to hide their true nature, their body will be completely unable to digest it, so they'll need to vomit it up eventually.
• In Wedge's Gamble, Ooryl Qrygg, a Gand, reveals that the inhalant nerve gas in the room they need to get into will have no effect on him because he doesn't breathe. Turns out Gand get all the oxygen they need from their food. When asked how he talks, he responds that the air goes in, crosses the vocal cord equivalent, and goes right back out.
• Trapped on Draconica: Kalak doesn't need to sleep. He doesn't need to rest. He used less water than his companions when crossing a desert, though Daniar put her foot down on that last one.
• In Elantris, Elantrians are a Blessed with Suck version of this. They are immortal and cannot die even if gravely injured or deprived of food and water indefinitely, but they also cannot heal, meaning that any wound they take, from a stubbed toe to a sword through the guts, perpetually hurts exactly as much as it did when it was new. Most of them go mad relatively quickly. Even though they don't need to eat, they still feel hunger, and they have no way of getting food other than stealing the small amount given as part of each new Elantrian's funerary rites. Somewhere between a third and half of them have gone mad just from hunger. They've even tried eating each other, but for some reason Elantrian flesh tastes so horrid that not even they could stomach it.
• Blood Meridian: Judge Holden never seems to sleep. He also doesn't seem to age. It's implied that he's some sort of malevolent, supernatural being, or possibly even the personification of human evil.
• Exotes/Gragals in Moon Rainbow series don't really need neither food, nor oxygen, because they have an intracellular symbiotes that are essentially living nanomachines, which provide all cellular need by direct matter-to-energy-and-back conversion. Unfortunately, convincing one's body that it doesn't need to, say, breathe is an another matter, and is a rather significant problem for the uninitiated.
• In Tales of MU, the half-demon Mack doesn't need to defecate because her body completely processes whatever she eats as a side effect of her demonic nature.
• My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister has a monster that was imprisoned for several years without any food, water or oxygen, yet doesn't seem to be weakened at all. Said monster used to be a normal human, who was altered through unknown means to become the ultimate hunter of monsters.
• Villains by Necessity: One of the many things about Blackmail that raises questions from the rest of the group. He never sleeps, never eats, never tires.
• In the Magic: The Gathering novel Planeswalker, Urza no longer requires food or sleep since he became an immortal planeswalker. He still needs to dream to let his mind rest, however, so he does sleep on occasion.
• World War Z: General D'Ambrosia gives a long lecture along these lines at one point. The way he explains it, no war in human history has been a war of total annihilation. All armies need to be bred (born and trained), fed (receive adequate logistical support) and lead (given directions and unit cohesion), and as long as any of these can be disrupted, you can force a victory without needing to kill every last one of your enemies. Then the zombies, who have none of these needs, show up. They replenish losses from enemy dead, have no command structure or leadership, but will individually attack anything worthwhile in large numbers, and have no physical needs and can survive near-indefinitely unless killed. Humanity being forced to throw out the entire playbook on how to wage war is a major part of the plot.
• The Legend of Sun Knight: The undead Roland no longer needs to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom, and has long since forgotten the details. The people around him often note that he doesn't drink much water, and Adair recounts an incident where he spent a whole afternoon squatting over a toilet because a subordinate informed him that it can sometimes take that long. He can, however, get drunk.

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: Since they're undead, it's stated on multiple occasions that vampires don't actually need to breathe. Angel survived being sealed in a coffin and trapped underwater for the three month Time Skip between Seasons 3 and 4 because of this, and later was able to go to a demon dimension with an atmosphere toxic to humans as well.
• Red Dwarf: Rimmer being a hologram means he doesn't need to eat or breathe and isn't affected by extremes in temperature. When he and Lister are trapped on a crashed Starbug in "Marooned" the pair have lengthy arguments over whether it's really necessary for Lister to burn Rimmer's personal effects to keep from freezing to death.
• Star Trek:
  • Vulcans are always immune to some disease or can do things "illogical humans" can't do. Played for Laughs in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Muse". Tuvok says that like all Vulcans he can go for weeks without sleep, then ends up snoring loudly on the bridge after falling asleep in the command chair.
  • In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Jem Hadar, soldiers of the Dominion, don't need to eat or sleep. Instead they need a very specific chemical (Ketracel-White or "the White") for the rest of their lives, or they'll die. One episode features a single Jem Hadar who was marooned without a supply of the white and somehow overcame his physiological "addiction" to the substance as a result. The plot centers around his (failing) efforts to repeat this process for his kinsmen so that they too can be "free". In the end, its theorized that he was actually born that way: though he had taken the drug all his life as a matter of course, he never actually needed it.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine also has Changelings, a race of shapeshifters who do not need food, water, or oxygen who happen to also be the masters of genetic engineering that created the Jem Hadar in the first place. Laas travels in space without the aid of a ship, suggesting that they do not need heat or pressure to survive. Subverted with Odo, who needs to rest in his default liquid form every sixteen hours or suffer ill effects.
  • In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Borg are also an example, as we see them travel around in the vacuum of space with no difficulty. It's left vague what food sources they need to sustain their biological components.
  • Data, being an android, also doesn't need the regular biological necessities to sustain himself. Side material explains that Data does require a kind of special nutrient compound to fuel himself. It is much more energy efficient than typical biological food, and even without it he does not "die" but only shuts down and can be reactivated later (as seen in "Time's Arrow"). He requires nothing else to function, like air or rest. He can't self heal however, so any damage to his body needs to be manually repaired. His lack of sleep factors into a few episodes, and because of it he always takes command of the night shift.
  • Q, being one of a race of omnipotent aliens that are practically godlike, has no need for food or rest. When he is temporarily made mortal in one episode, he is perplexed and thinks himself ill when he feels his stomach rumble, with Dr. Crusher having to explain that he is not sick, just hungry.
• Both angels and demons on Supernatural have no apparent physical needs, as neither are really physical beings (demons are souls twisted by the torments of Hell and angels are "multidimensional wavelengths of celestial intent") and require human bodies to possess if they want to actually accomplish anything on Earth. They can enjoy food and drink all they want, but don't require it and don't have to eliminate any waste products. Neither need sleep like humans do, but angels in particular may go comatose if they sustain enough damage, the rest allowing them to recover and heal any wounds.

Multiple Media

• In BIONICLE, the Makuta race lost almost all their needs (food, sleep, even air) after their evolution into Energy Beings. The only thing they do need to survive is an intact vessel (whether it's an empty armor/body, a robot, or even a large container) to house this energy, as without a container the energy will eventually disperse completely and kill them. Willpower can stave it off by keeping the energy collected together, as Teridax proved multiple times, but it's a temporary measure at best.

Tabletop Games

• The Dark Eye: Demons do not need to eat, drink or sleep. Many still hunt and kill prey as a matter of course, but simply because they enjoy doing so.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Many types of creatures do not need food or sleep, such as Constructs, Elementals and Outsiders (beings from other planes).
  • Elves meditate instead of sleep (even when hungover).
  • Players can take advantage of some spells for the same effect, and there is the tattooed monk whose Ocean Tattoo causes him not to have adverse effects from not eating, drinking, or sleeping. They still can, but they don't need to.
  • The Vow of Poverty from The Book of Exalted Deeds restricts a character from owning almost anything but also gradually gives advantages making sure they don't need to, including freedom from the need to eat.
  • Elans, a psychic race, can spend one Power Point to sustain themselves for twenty-four hours.
  • Like elves, thri-kreen don't need to sleep. It's an important part of their psychology.
  • Warforged (a playable race) and other constructs don't need to eat, drink, sleep or even breathe. Neither do vampires or other undead races. While generally rarely played, there are numerous races that qualify as The Needless.
  • The Ring of Sustenance is a commonly-purchased item that prevents the need to eat or drink, and reduces sleep requirements. A psionic power does the same thing.
  • The 3.5 Shadowcaster gradually develop towards this. They start out as anyone else, but after a few levels they can persist perfectly fine on one meal a week, some levels after that their health and sanity only requires 1 hour of sleep a night, and at its culmination neither breath nor food nor sleep is needed.^{For their health}They do still need 8 hours of rest a night to renew their spell-equivalents, in line with other cutting-down-on-rest methods such as being an elf.
  • The reborn, an undead race from Ravenloft, don't need to eat, drink, sleep or breath. The time they would normally spend sleeping are used to try and regain the memories they lost from, well, dying.
  • A fairly nasty example is eternity of torture. When this is cast on you, you become immortal, as well as no longer needing food, drink, air, or sleep. Sounds great, right? Well, the catch is in the name - you get to spend the rest of your endless life in indescribable agony.
  • In Fifth Edition, when dragons become greatwyrms, they're sustained entirely by the magical potential of their hoards and no longer require food or drink.
• Exalted: Various Adorjan charms will remove an Infernal's need to eat, sleep, and breathe (most of these charms are Powered by a Forsaken Child, requiring that the Infernal kill someone every so often to use them).
  • Malfeas can also remove your need to sleep, except to recover Willpower; sadly, when you do, you suffer hellish nightmares.
  • Yozi charms have 'transhuman transcendence' theme in them. By learning those charms (most of which are permanent), one can far exceed the limitation of humans while getting closer and closer to the nature of the source Yozis. And all Yozis are sustained by existing according to their nature (e.g. by being a wind, or a desert, or an ocean, or a backstabbing super-dick).
  • Most of the Abyssal charms to do this have names like "Corpse Needs No Food"; they can be used in temporary form, or taken as Taints to have permanent effects and equally permanent drawbacks (in the listed case, you don't need to eat - but that's good, because you physically can't).
• GURPS: A number of advantages, such as Doesn't Eat/Drink, Doesn't Breathe, and Doesn't Sleep, can confer this in whole or in part.
• In Nomine: Khalid, the Archangel of Faith, can grant an attunement to his human followers which, provided that they maintain a very strict fast, will put all their biological functions on hold. As long as the fast is maintained, they will not nor need to eat, drink, urinate, defecate, menstruate or sleep.
• Pathfinder: Extraplanar creatures, such as elementals, ethereal beings, fiends and celestials, do not need to eat, drink or sleep. Most undead are likewise unburdened by physical necessities, and in addition do not need to breathe — a demon, angel or elemental can still suffocate. Despite this, many fiends and undead make a habit of hunting down and devouring creatures; they do not need to do so, but simply enjoy the feeling of hunting terrified prey, killing it and chewing on its flesh.
• Warhammer: Vampires who successfully drink a dragon's blood — a feat only two have ever managed — permanently lose their need to feed, and thereafter exist as Perpetual Motion Monsters. Downplayed with the Necrarchs, who still need to consume blood every now and again but for the most part subsist upon dark magic alone and are largely free of the ties binding other vampires to their bloodthirst and human society. Many Necrarchs seek to become this in full, and put a great deal of work in researching ways to purge the last traces of their thirst from themselves.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Space Marines are men upgraded with special organ implants which either severely reduce or eliminate altogether many human needs. To wit, they only need a couple of hours sleep a night to be fully rested, and that's in ideal conditions - in battle, they can continue fighting for hundreds of hours nonstop by resting parts of their brains in sequence, although long-term use of the ability can be deleterious; they can breathe underwater and in most poisonous atmospheres; they have limited needs for eating and drinking, as their body/armour is capable of recycling waste; and they are generally immune to nearly every disease and toxin that wasn't specifically designed to target them and their heightened immune system. Basically, Space Marines are capable of surviving just about anywhere, under any conditions.
  • The Chaos Space Marines are even more extreme examples thanks to being warped by Chaos. Some of them don't even need to eat anymore, being sustained by the Warp. The Thousand Sons' Rubric Marines aren't even capable of eating anymore, being little more than Animated Armor.
• In the New World of Darkness:
  • Vampires, being undead, don't need to breathe and need only blood to survive, no food or water necessary. However, if they don't drink blood for too long, they eventually "starve" into a state called torpor, a nightmarish coma-like sleep. They do sleep during the daylight hours, but it's more a mystical response to the rising of the sun - they can resist it, but the less Humanity they have, the worse they are at things during the day.
  • Prometheans need no water or other fluids. They do require food, but can subsist on damn near anything organic. They do need to breathe, but it's because they're powered by the Divine Fire, and fires need oxygen. As for sleep... it's complicated.
  • Princess: The Hopeful: Darkened or Darkspawn with the Hunger Means Nothing Umbra won't die from hunger or dehydration. Of course, since this power comes from The All-Consuming Darkness, it comes with some pretty hefty costs. The Darkened cannot taste or derive nourishment from food or drink, and the Umbrum does not completely protect against deprivation. The Darknened won't die, but he will waste away to a degree, becoming weaker and more sickly.
    • On the side of Light, the Princesses of Clubs have access to a Charm that will let them go without food or water indefinitely, as long as they have enough Light to sustain them. Moreover, when they do let the Charm lapse, they will feel no hungrier or thirstier than they were when they first invoked it. At higher levels, this Charm also lets them fall into a trance in which they have no need to breathe.
    • Similarly, there is a Charm any Princess can learn to cast (either on herself or her friends, or both) that will delay (though unfortunately not entirely remove) the effects of going without sleep.
  • Genius: The Transgression: The various Wonders of artificial life that can be derived from the Axiom of Automata have this as their default state. The Genius can choose to make the Wonder have the same requirements for food, air, etc, as a living creature, in exchange giving the Wonder the power to heal from damage as living things do.

Theatre

• In Jasper in Deadland, the corpses in Deadland still need to drink water (or at least they choose to drink water), however it's implied that they don't need food or sleep, and it's shown that they don't need blood or organs.

Video Games

• In Code Vein, the Revenants don't need to eat or drink anything except human blood (or Blood Beads which act as a substitute) thanks to the BOR Parasites bonded to their hearts. Some like Yakumo still eat and drink regular food and drink both because they enjoy it and because it helps them hold on to their humanity.
• The Protagonist of Darkwood doesn't feel normal needs, due to an "accident" a few days prior to the game's events. On the other hand, since then he's grown to crave the odd poisonous mushrooms that grow in the forest,^note which heal when eaten if you have the "Mushroom Healing" positive perk and he can eat and drink (normal food like bread and potatoes give him a stamina boost, while other foods heal him and grant a variety of good buffs, and clean water and alcohol are powerful healing agents). Sleep, on the other hand, is totally out of the question.
• Devil May Cry: Devils, demons, and other supernatural creatures tend not to require food, water, sleep, or other things for survival, although this can vary depending on the type—at the very least, many of them can still get stronger by eating humans, cannibalizing other demons, or consuming materials of great power, such as the Fruit of the Qliphoth.
• Inverted in Diablo III. Tyrael, an Angel who was The Needless originally became mortal and found out what it's like to have to worry about biology.
  Angel: My stomach feels strange.
  Lorath: Did you forget to eat again?
  Angel: No. In fact, I decided to get the day's eating out of the way all at once. I kept at it until I couldn't take another bite.
  Lorath: Oh, it sounds like you ate too much then.
  Angel: Being a mortal is very complicated.
• Dragon Age:
  • The Darkspawn have no known physical needs thanks to the dark magic that sustains them. They are still known to eat people and each other for what can only be assumed to be sadistic pleasure.
  Fenris: (in the Deep Roads) How can anything live here? What do the darkspawn feed on?
  Anders: They don't eat. The Taint sustains them.
  Fenris: Hmph. Perfect.
  • Cole from Dragon Age: Inquisition is a Fade spirit who somehow manifested a human body rather than possessing one. As with all spirits, he doesn't need food, water, or sleep. Although this may change if you pick "person" over "spirit" in his personal quest.
• Dwarf Fortress has a number of tags deciding if a creatures needs to breath, eat, drink, sleep or stop exerting themselves. Goblins, for instance don't need to eat or drink, but still sleep and get physically exhausted while a number of inorganic creatures are full Perpetual Motion Monsters.
• Most player characters don't have normal needs but Fallout: New Vegas has a optional hardcore mode where you need to eat, drink and sleep to stay healthy.
• FTL: Faster Than Light has the Lanius, who do not need to breathe and, in fact, drain oxygen from the rooms they are in. They do however eat scrap metal.
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: Congruence is an A.I. program, and if asked if she can eat and poop, she says that she technically eats electricity, which is different from how humans eat. Because of this, she doesn't need to poop, but she imagines that it's a nice experience to have.
• Kerbal Space Program's heroes can go without food, drink, companionship, or (if you're particularly cruel) a chance to get out of a command chair to stretch their legs for literal decades, and won't even lose their goofy grins. Notable because this game is otherwise much more realistic and unforgiving than most space sims. They do have to wear space suits when out and about, but since they never run out of oxygen, this is apparently just to protect them from low-pressure environments or something.
• Master of Orion: This is the racial ability of the Silicoid faction. They breed at a phenomenally slow rate and are completely incapable of engaging in diplomacy with other factions, but their population is fully capable of thriving on the worst planets in the galaxy, completely ignore pollution mechanics, and can eat rocks so have no need to farm food. In terms of custom race design, either of their Tolerant or Lithovore abilities can be picked up, and they're among the best in the game.
• Normally averted in The Sims where the main point of the game is to juggle your needs with your Sims' training, social life (itself one of the needs), and Relationship Values (required for promotion and marriage) but some of the later (and most costly) rewards in the sequels negate one or more deeds from decaying, or quickly refill them.
• Slime Rancher 2: Yolky Slimes the only slimes that don't eat anything.
• Angels, in Tales of Symphonia, although this can be altered with the correct Key Crest on their Cruxis Crystal, since said crystals are a powered-up form of Exsphere. Causes some dismay from a character who just wants to be normal feeling that she's losing her humanity as a result.
• In Touhou Project, magicians who are turned into youkai don't need food or sleep, though they do both out of habit or leisure. They don't age, either.
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: Thanks to being a vampire, the Player Character doesn't need food, drink, or air, and can rest comfortably underwater or in a room of carbon monoxide. In-game, they only consume blood to heal and fuel their special abilities, not for sustenance, though the game's timeframe is vague and there's no day-night cycle.

Webcomics

• Sluggy Freelance: Though Aylee the alien certainly needs to eat, and has quite an appetite, there are some funny-unless-you're-the-human moments when she forgets that unlike her, humans need to do things like sleep and breathe.
• Jones from Gunnerkrigg Court doesn't need to eat, sleep, or breathe, and also can survive immersion in lava or encasement in ice. She probably doesn't strictly need social interaction either, but she does engage in relationships with men, apparently just because she wants to.
• Matilda of DMFA doesn't need air to breathe, but does need it to talk and breathe fire.
  • It is reveal Matilda's bonus story that she is from a species that builds their villages around crystals that sustain them so they don't need food to live. When she was exiled from her tribe and sent to the surface, she experienced hunger for the first time and ended up getting sick from Refeeding syndrome when she was fed.
  • Cubi from the same comic do not need food or sleep due to being Emotion Eaters, when Dan discovers that he is a cubi, his half sister reveals that she knew all along that he probably was a cubi because he didn't suffer any health problems from living on a diet consisting mostly of ale, which he mistakenly believed was healthy.
• In Slightly Damned, the power of Heaven and Hell prevents angels, demons and souls from needing to eat or drink, and keeps souls from feeling the pain of their cause of death (apart from souls in the inner rings of Hell, which do suffer those things). When Buwaro was brought to Medius after growing up in Hell, he thought he was getting sick when his stomach started hurting, and had to have hunger and eating explained to him.
• Nebula: The main characters are Anthropomorphic Personifications slash Genii Locorum of planets, and don't need to eat, sleep, or, as they live in the void of space, breathe. They're certainly capable of the first two and a few do so out of choice, but most think those who do are pretty weird for it.
• In Suihira, Wahida is on a Mission from God for water goddess, who takes care to not let her most zealous believer die of thirst. Notably, she's not at all dehydrated after getting lost in the desert.
• Tellurion has the Robot, who lacks the need for sleep, food or air. This makes it convenient to walk from island to island by itself, but eventually must make some provisions for its companions.
• The Order of the Stick: After Roy Greenhilt dies, he is shocked to learn that he's been in the afterlife for about three months. It's not an actual difference in how time passes; it's just that it's very easy to lose track of time when the sun never sets and you never need to eat, drink, sleep, or go to the bathroom.
• Kill Six Billion Demons:
  • Angels do not need to breathe, eat, drink or sleep. 82 White Chain and 6 Juggernaut Star both drink tea for the sake of the ceremony, but it burns away upon touching the spiritual flame of their bodies. Late in the story, when White Chain gets a humanoid body, she loves properly eating and drinking.
  • Devils require soul energy (obtained through making deals or eating souls), but otherwise do not need to breathe, eat, drink or sleep. They highly enjoy the sensation of eating and drinking, however, and therefore do both, often to excess.
• Darken: The pact between Gort and the archdevil Mephistopheles that released Gort from Hell also provides for his physical needs. When he enters an Anti-Magic zone that suppresses some of its effects, he quickly passes out from exhaustion, since he hasn't eaten or slept in a very long time.
• Aurora: Kendal isn't quite a god, but he's not human either. ^note Long story short, the god Vash lost his soul while he was occupying his physical avatar, and the empty shell woke up and called himself Kendal Since nobody has ever seen anything like him before, neither he nor his companions know what his needs are. So far, they've figured out that he doesn't need to sleep unless exhausted in battle, doesn't breathe except when talking or fighting, and has never felt the sensation of hunger.

Web Original

• Various characters in Phaeton:
  • Lalita and food(as long as she has water)
  • Shine and her heartbeat
  • Russel Lazar and everything
  • Frost and water (to drink) and heat.
• Serina: As far as Eve the reaper can tell, Fellstar (an alien, robotic probe), doesn’t need to eat or sleep.
• Multiple characters from Worm:
  • A number of parahumans (called "Noctis" parahumans) do not need to sleep. Miss Militia is one example.
  • Legend requires less and less sustenance the faster he flies. By the time he's going relativistic, he requires neither food nor sleep nor rest and becomes unaware of (and unaffected by) the passage of time.
  • Night Hag can go without food or drink indefinitely without adverse consequences.
  • Defiant requires only a few minutes of sleep a day, and requires very little food. This is stated to be due to his cyborg enhancements, however, not his superpowers.
  • The Endbringers do not require sustenance or rest of any kind. They do hibernate for months at a time in between attacks, but scenes from their perspectives show that they don't actually need to do this: they're deliberately pretending to be weaker than they actually are. They do have a power source of some kind, but it won't run out for hundreds of years... and it's suggested in the sequel, Ward that at least one of them, the Simurgh, knows how to recharge it anyway.
• Glowfic:
  • Bells choose to become this whenever they can.
  • Daeva are this to an extent (they can get hungry, thirsty, or tired but it doesn't do them any real harm so it's just an annoyance, and the tiredness can be dealt with with caffeine alone rather than sleeping.

Western Animation

• In Men in Black: The Series, it's revealed that Jeebs (whose species can regenerate from being blown to pieces) and his Psycho for Hire brother don't need to eat. Then the former brags that they don't even need to breathe oxygen to live, only to regenerate. Since they're in space at the time, J promptly opens the airlock and shoots said brother.
• Action Man (2000): After assuming his metallic form in the series finale, Dr. X no longer needs food, water, or air to survive.
• Transformers Depending on the Writer and the continuity: sometimes they're portrayed as needing to consume energon and periodically go into stasis (sleep) to continue living, but at other times they just need energon for their equipment and stasis is only something they do to stave off death from injury long enough to be repaired.
• Gems in Steven Universe (with the exception of Steven) don't require food, water, oxygen (or any other material), or sleep to function though they do get tired from (at least particularly intense) physical exertion. After being brought Back from the Dead by Steven after he gets killed in an explosion, Lars seems to lose his physical needs—at the very least hunger and thirst—and the circumstances suggest the same is true for Lion.
• Kaeloo: One episode has the characters visit an alternate universe where the world is perfect in every way, and the inhabitants of said world are so perfect that they don't need to eat, drink, or even breathe to live.

Real Life

• Anaerobic organisms may qualify depending on how you define this trope, as they do not need oxygen in order to survive (and in fact it typically is toxic to them). However, they use other chemicals in place of oxygen (which aerobic organisms use as a waste electron acceptor), meaning that while they technically don't use oxygen, they use other chemicals to fulfill the same function.
• The olm is a type of cave salamander which is not quite needless, but gets about as close as a vertebrate animal might be able to, since it can go up to ten years without eating and can probably live over a century.
• Some people simply need less sleep. About 2% of living people don't need to sleep for more than a few hours per night, never feeling tired and not showing any health problems for staying awake most of their lives.
• Like olms spiders get also close to be needless, some tarantulas for example being able to live eating just once per week thanks to both a slow metabolism and a highly branched midgut.

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