History Main / FixedDamageAttack

* In ''ExitFate'', a certain boss has the spell "Annihilation Ray", which always deals 5000 damage (which is more than your characters are expected to have at any point of the game), regardless of defense or buffs, and can be avoided only by the StatusBuff 'Blink'.

* The ''FinalFantasy'' series is replete with examples, not the least of which is "One Thousand Needles", a FlechetteStorm that inflicts exactly 1,000 points of damage every time it is used; it is the signature move of the "Cactaur" (anthropomorphic cacti) species. Often, the player can acquire this as a [[MegaManning Blue Magic skill]].
** There are also a few stronger versions, like "10,000 Needles" and even "[[UpToEleven 100,000 Needles]]", which inflict more damage than the player's ''maximum HP cap''.
** In ''FinalFantasyVI'', "10000 needles" is executed as "1000 Needles" ''10 times in a row'', each of which can strike the same or different party members.

Unfortunately, if the player can acquire one of these skills themselves, it will usually become a UselessUsefulSpell because many RPG systems give [[HealthDamageAsymmetry monsters more HP than the players]], and the fixed amount of damage ceases to remain useful as the player progresses to stronger monsters -- though if acquired ''very'' early on, it could also double as a DiscOneNuke. ([[ReviveKillsZombie Ironically]], it could also provide a OneHitKill against the MetalSlime's infamously low HP and impenetrable defense).

* ''LeagueOfLegends'' features several True Damage abilities. These ignore an enemies Armour and Magic Resist, as well as any damage reduction abilities, but can still be stopped by abilities that cancel or totally absorb an incoming attack.

** ''FinalFantasyX'' prpbably had the strongest Poison, removing ''25 percent'' of a character's maximum HP per turn, guaranteed to kill him in four turns unless healed.

* ''SuperMarioRPG'' contains an attack called "Geno Whirl" which, if properly executed, will always cause 9999 damage to all non-boss ([[spoiler:plus Exor]]) enemies in the game. Oddly enough, the highest HP user in the game only has 8000 HP, making this attack [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill almost humorously over the top]].

** No mention of [[BossInMookClothing Tonberry's]] Karma/Grudge or Step Mine moves? The former does damage proportional to number of enemies that the target killed (or the number of Tonberries the party killed), while the latter does damage equivalent to the number of steps the player has taken divided by 32. And then there's their [[OneHitKill 9999]] damage knife attack...

** No mention of Tonberry's Karma/Grudge or Step Mine moves? The former does damage proportional to number of enemies that that target killed (or the number of Tonberries the party killed), while the latter does damage equivalent to the number of steps the player has taken divided by 32.

** The Fifth generation adds "Desperation", which causes the user to faint but inflicts damage equal to however much HP the user lost (maximum - current) before using it.

* Cactrot Rapido in ''FinalFantasyXI'' also has the above version of 10000 Needles. 1000 damage per hit is still a heavy amount, but players can band together in large groups (up to ''eighteen players'', in fact; and that's not counting whatever pets, NPCs, or summons that each player can bring alongside them to soak up damage while the humans keep their distance)

As a means of averting this, some systems may link to amount of damage to the user's experience level in some way, allowing the attack to grow stronger as they do. However, it is still exempt from the normal damage mechanics (including {{Standard Status Buff}}s that affect attack or defense powers), and still inflicts a set, predictable amount of damage every time it is used.

* In many RPGs, characters suffering from the [[StandardStatusEffects "Poison" status]] will often receive a fixed amount of damage at regular intervals; this may be a specific number, or a fixed percentage of their maximum HP. In either case, damage from Poison is exempt from the rules governing attacks and defense.
** ''FinalFantasyX'' prpbably had the strongest Poison, removing ''25 percent'' of a character's maximum HP per turn, guaranteed to kill them in four turns unless healed.

** In ''FinalFantasyVI'', "10000 needles" is executed as "1000 Needles" ''ten times in a row'', each of which can strike the same or different party members.

** "Psywave" is a strange one: It inflicts a ''randomly-selected'' amount of damage ranging from 50% to 150% of the user's level, regardless of all other factors, against anything but Dark types who are immune to its element.

* In ''ExitFate'', a certain boss has the spell "Annihilation Ray", which always deals 5000 damage (which is more than your characters are expected to have at any point of the game), regardless of defense or buffs, and can only be avoided by the StatusBuff 'Blink'.
* The first ''{{Breath Of Fire}}'' game has the E. Key which is gained early in the game. It does 30 damage to all enemies. Very useful when you first get it because it does more damage than the {{Staff Chick}} does.
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** In FinalFantasyX where [[UniversalPoison Poison]] TookALevelInBadass counts as well. [[UselessUsefulSpell As long as you land the effect.]] Anything not immune to poison ''will die'' after four turns or less if not cured, as it takes off a whopping 25% of your Max HP after every turn. Things will go straight to hell very fast if your entire party is either asleep or confused and blinded while poisoned and the enemy just waits or uses magic only. [[BossInMookClothing You know what I'm talking about.]]

Unfortunately, if the player can acquire one of these skills themselves, it will usually become a UselessUsefulSpell because many RPG systems give [[HealthDamageAssymetry monsters more HP than the players]], and the fixed amount of damage ceases to remain useful as the player progresses to stronger monsters -- though if acquired ''very'' early on, it could also double as a DiscOneNuke. ([[ReviveKillsZombie Ironically]], it could also provide a OneHitKill against the MetalSlime's infamously low HP and impenetrable defense).

As a means of averting this, some systems may link to amount of damage to the user's experience level in some way, allowing the attack to grow stronger as they do. However, it is still exempt from the normal damage mechanics (including StandardStatusBuffs that affect attack or defense powers), and still inflicts a set, predictable amount of damage every time it is used.

Many games, especially {{RPG}}s, feature complex systems for determining how much damage is meted out in combat -- the attacker's physical strength and/or skill with a given weapon, the defender's armor, ElementalRockPaperScissors, even the LuckStat may play a part to determine what happens when a character is hit.

But a FixedDamageAttack ignores these calculations altogether, and instead causes a fixed, predictable number of damage each time it is used, regardless of who used it or who got hit. Because it ignores the target's defensive powers, it inherently becomes an ArmorPiercing attack.

Usually, the damage dealt is a ''very'' specific number, making the usefulness (i.e. threat) of this attack relative to the combatants' HitPoints and nothing else; if an EldritchAbomination casts a spell that always inflicts an exact 666 damage, this will be a dire threat to the SquishyWizard and his 777 HP, while the MightyGlacier's reserve of 10,000 HP will allow him to shrug it off as just a minor nuisance.

Unfortunately, in systems where monsters have [[HealthDamageAsymmetry higher HP totals than the player]], these attacks are invariably [[UselessUsefulSpell less deadly to monsters]] than to the player. (On the other hand, it may be provide a OneHitKill against the MetalSlime's infamous combination of low HP and otherwise-impenetrable Defense....)

Occasionally, the amount of damage may be linked in some manner to one of the user's stats (like their overall experience level, number of gameplay hours, or maximum HP), to prevent it from becoming a GameBreaker should the player [[DiscOneNuke acquire it early on]], and simultaneously allow it to remain useful even in the endgame. However, it is still unaffected by normal damage calculations, and status effects designed to affect attack or defense powers have no effect on a FixedDamageAttack. For example, a spell that always inflicts damage exactly equal to the user's current HP is a FixedDamageAttack, despite that it will become stronger as the character's maximum HP increases, and that it is obviously more effective if the user can be at full health before casting it.

Compare and contrast PercentDamageAttack, which is also exempt from normal damage calculations.

* ''FinalFantasy'' series:
** Cactuar (anthropomorphic cacti) toss a Fixed Damage Attack called One Thousand Needles at at you at times. Especially annoying if your HP is capped at 999. Some later games also have a 10,000 Needles attack. Guess what that does. Since the HP Cap in almost every game in the series is less then that. And even in the ''one'' game that can break the 9999 HP limit (up to 99,999), there is an enemy which uses "99,999 Needles." Needless to say, that's instant death, no matter your HP. And this entire attack series is armor piercing...\\
\\
In ''FinalFantasyVI'', 10000 needles is "1000 needles ten times", and each 1000-needles attack can target a different character. Cactrot Rapido in ''FinalFantasyXI'' will hit you with 10000 Needles. 1500 HP is quite a bit for a character in this game. Not quite so bad, though, as up to ''eighteen players'' can simultaneously fight an enemy in ''FFXI''; plus those players can all have pets, [=NPCs=], or summons. Effectively, you can intentionally have up to 36 characters to spread the damage across-- and that's if you don't throw pets at him and have humans stay back.

*** Thousand Needles itself is often learnable as a Blue Magic skill. Its upgrades have yet to be.
** In ''FinalFantasyVI'', in addition to Thousand Needles, you can teach the resident Blue Mage Strago the Step Mine/Traveler spell. Its damage is always equal to 1/32nd of the number of steps the party has taken throughout the game. Eventually that will add up to a very respectable spell. You could ''possibly'' grind it up to deal 9999 every time, but that would require about ''320000'' steps. And considering that the ''cost'' of the spell increases based on your total time playing the game...
** In ''FinalFantasyVIII'', the BonusBoss Omega Weapon has two attacks that do a set amount of damage. One deals 9998 damage to your entire party, bringing everyone down to 1 HP if they have maximum health, and KO'ing them otherwise. Another [[OneHitKO always deals 9999 damage]], but fortunately only hits a single target.

** Similar to the Thievery example above, ''FinalFantasyVII'' had a status effect (for lack of a better term) called All Lucky 7s where any character with exactly 7777 HP would unleash a barrage[[hottip:*:lit: 62-64 depending on how many characters had it at the time and it was completely uninteruptable]] of attacks all hitting for 7777 damage and would continue to hit for 7777 damage so long as their HP remained at 7777. To make sure this would only last for one battle at most, the character's HP would drop to 1 afterward [[hottip:*:In the event that players applied just the right amounts of HP Growth (+HP Max) and Magic/Summon (-HP Max) Materia so that a character's max health was 7777, this meant that ''each battle'' would begin in the lucky state, end shortly after, and after some Cures, the process repeats.]]

** "Sonicboom" inflicts a fixed 20 points of damage (on anything but Ghosts, who are immune to Normal-type attacks), while "Dragon Rage" inflicts a fixed 40 points of damage.
** "Night Shade" and "Seismic Toss" inflict a fixed amount of damage equal to the user's level, although Normal types are immune to Night Shade and Ghosts are immune to Seismic Toss.

** Similar to the Thievery example above, ''FinalFantasyVII'' had a status effect (for lack of a better term) called All Lucky 7s where any character with exactly 7777 HP would unleash a barrage[[hottip:*:lit: thirty-two, uninteruptable]] of attacks all hitting for 7777 damage and would continue to hit for 7777 damage so long as their HP remained at 7777. To make sure this would only last for one battle at most, the character's HP would drop to 1 afterward [[hottip:*:In the event that players applied just the right amounts of HP Growth (+HP Max) and Magic/Summon (-HP Max) Materia so that a character's max health was 7777, this meant that ''each battle'' would begin in the lucky state, end shortly after, and after some Cures, the process repeats.]]

** Many, many enemies in the series have attacks that take off HP equal to a specific percentage of the target's HP remaining, or in some cases, their ''maximum'' HP. Gravity-based attacks, in particular.

* In a rare player character example, ''{{Persona 3}}'' has a [[CombinationAttack Fusion Spell]], available if the Protagonist has both Helel and Satan in his Persona roster, called "Armageddon" that does exactly 9999 HP worth of damage. This is often regarded as being a rather major GameBreaker. However, it's one of the few ways, if not the ''only'' way, that one can even beat the BonusBoss, as said boss is fond of spamming full-heal spells and character annihilation spells when the character's HP reaches 10,000 or less.
** Not so much a game breaker as your reward for LevelGrinding to Level 90 (Helel's level).

** ''Radiant Dawn'' has the crossbow-type weapons, which ''are'' affected by the enemy's defense but not by your unit's strength. The ballistae work like that too.

* In ''DefenseOfTheAncients'' most spells are reduced by magic resistance, but a few do pure damage, which ignores magic resistance, and always does a fixed amount.
* MMORPG CityOfHeroes has an odd example of this. While, normally, [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality psychic attacks can be dodged]] by effectively moving out of their way (prompting comments like "I guess my brain pulls to the right"), certain enemies have psychic attacks that must be protected against with explicit psychic defence, rather than all-purpose "ranged" defence. Ironically, ''not'' being able to dodge other people's mind powers comes as a shocking surprise whenever it occurs to characters who otherwise can.
* In ''DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.x a few rare spells do "divine" damage, which can't be reduced in anyway.

Usually, the damage dealt is a ''very'' specific number, making the usefulness (i.e. threat) of this attack relative to the combatants' HitPoints and nothing else; if an EldritchAbomination casts a spell that always inflicts an exact 666 damage, this will be a dire threat to the SquishyWizard and his 999 HP, but barely a scratch to the MightyGlacier's reserve of 50,000 HP.

Other times, the amount of damage may be linked in some manner to one of the user's stats (like their overall experience level, number of gameplay hours, or maximum HP), to prevent it from becoming a GameBreaker should the player [[DiscOneNuke acquire it early on]], and simultaneously allow it to remain useful even in the endgame. However, it is still unaffected by normal damage calculations, and status effects designed to affect attack or defense powers have no effect on a FixedDamageAttack. For example, a spell that always inflicts damage exactly equal to the user's current HP is a FixedDamageAttack, despite that it will become stronger as the character's maximum HP increases, and that it is obviously more effective if the user can be at full health before casting it.

Usually, the damage dealt is a ''very'' specific number, making the usefulness (i.e. threat) of this attack relative solely to the combatants' HitPoints; an attack that always inflicts 777 points damage, for example, is a dire threat to someone with only 999 HP, but someone with 20,000 HP at their disposal will be able to shrug it off as a minor nuisance. Unfortunately, in systems where monsters have [[HealthDamageAsymmetry higher HP totals than the player]], these attacks are invariably [[UselessUsefulSpell less deadly to monsters]] than to the player. (On the other hand, it may be provide a OneHitKill against the MetalSlime's infamous combination of low HP and otherwise-impenetrable Defense....)

Usually, the damage dealt is a ''very'' specific number, making the usefulness (i.e. threat) of this attack relative solely to the combatants' HitPoints; an attack that always inflicts 777 points damage, for example, is a dire threat to someone with only 999 HP, but someone with 20,000 HP at their disposal will be able to shrug it off as a minor nuisance. Unfortunately, in systems where monsters have [[HealthDamageAssymetry higher HP totals than the player]], these attacks are invariably [[UselessUsefulSpell less deadly to monsters]] than to the player. (On the other hand, it may be provide a OneHitKill against the MetalSlime's infamous combination of low HP and otherwise-impenetrable Defense....)

A special attack that does the same amount of damage each time, ignoring the game's defence mechanics.

Many games feature complex systems for determining how much damage is meted out in combat. When a character is hit, a myriad of defensive factors can be applied, each reducing the damage suffered. The defender's armour, defensive skill levels, and even their LuckStat can all save a defender from the full force of a blow. Sometimes ElementalRockPaperScissors reduces or even negates the damage.

This trope is for the special attacks that are exempt from these calculations. A Fixed Damage Attack delivers a predictable amount of damage every time. Because it ignores an opponent's defense power, it is inherently a PiercingAttack.

Many games feature complex systems for determining how much damage is meted out in combat. When a character is hit, a myriad of defensive factors can be applied, each reducing the damage suffered. The defender's armour, defensive skill levels, and even their LuckStat can all save a defender from the full force of the blow. Sometimes ElementalRockPaperScissors reduces or even negates the damage.

Many games feature complex systems for determining how much damage is meted out in combat. When a character is hit, a myriad of defensive factors can be applied, each reducing the damage suffered. The defender's armour, defensive skill levels, and even the LuckStat can all save a defender from the full force of the blow. Sometimes ElementalRockPaperScissors reduces or even negates the damage.

[[redirect:OneThousandNeedles]]