History Main / FriendlyFireproof

* Friendly units in ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' are immune to any friendly attack, including [[KillItWithFire fire]], [[AnAxeToGrind axe attacks]], [[CarFu being run over by an armor-plated hot rod]], and flaming zepplin explosions.

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* In ''Videogame/BioshockInfinite'', shooting at the Luteces simply cause them to remark that you missed, even if you hit them at point-blank range. [[spoiler:It's justified in that they exist outside of reality due to a FreakLabAccident and are essentially {{Physical God}}s.]] Elizabeth can also not be shot, but she does ''not'' like having a gun pointed at her.

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* In the original SNES ''VideoGame/StarFox'' as well as ''StarFox Assault'', your teammates are immune to your own blasts. This might not seem like a problem, but when they fly into your line of fire and start taking the shots meant for the enemy, chances are you'll want to hurl your controller through the screen. The other games in the series do make it possible to harm your allies.

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* Played straight in ''Videogame/CallOfCthulhuTheWastedLand''. It is impossible for the Investigators to mutually attack themselves, as using any aid item on a party member is technically the same action as attacking an enemy (right click on the target). Also, they can shoot through their comrades without injured them and can't be hurt by their artillery strikes.

* During Church's time-travel escapades in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', he attempted to prevent his death by auto-fire tank blast by tinkering with Sheila the tank's friendly fire setting. However, the friendly fire was turned ''on'' by default, so Church actually disabled it by accident. Before he could correct it, Caboose took the tank out to attack the Reds and Church's death still happened as before.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' has this present in [[JustifiedTrope an unusually justified case]]. Each team has their own ink color, and all your weaponry is able to coat the ground and walls in said ink. Your team's ink aids you (you can swim through it, and even just submerging speeds up ammo and health recovery) since you're effectively made of it, while the ink of the opposing team greatly restricts your movement and damages you.

* In ''VideoGame/StarshipTroopers'', the only thing that can harm your fellow grunts (allies) were Arachnids and scripted events, meaning that you are free to shoot them as target practice without consequence. Taken UpToEleven too; Not even nukes can harm them.

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/ProjectXZone'' where you have ''up to five people'' attacking the same enemy yet none of them will hit your allies. [[VideoGame/SpaceChannel5 Ulala]] takes this one UpToEleven where she summons Sega cameos to the point you have ''eight'' people attacking the same enemy!

Prevents FriendOrFoe becoming an issue, as well as needing an ArbitraryMinimumRange when shooting near allies. Subtrope of DamageDiscrimination.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' has this present in [[JustifiedTrope an unusually justified case]]. Inklings in both teams are equipped with a different color of ink, and the ink the player fires happens to be the same ink their teammates bodies are made of, and that they are able to merge completely into in their squid form. It makes sense that only opposing ink could harm them.
** It's a ''little'' less justified in the case of the Killer Wail, a WaveMotionGun in the form of a giant megaphone (it kills players with sound and doesn't ink any territory, implying that it isn't ink-based unlike all other forms of weaponry in the game). A suitable explanation probably exists (or at least is easily made), but the justification for it isn't as obvious.

** In 4th Edition, [[ReligionIsMagic divine magic]] is distinguished by AreaOfEffect spells that harm only the caster's enemies, aid only their allies, or both at the same time. Apparently the gods are looking out for you and your allies, whereas arcane spells almost never have this feature.

* Usually played straight throughout the ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'', as big area-of-effect spells only target the opposing party, but there's one aversion in ''VideoGame/ShiningForce'' which is in the player's favor. In Chapter 3, you're tasked with crossing a natural land bridge which is guarded by a machine called the Laser Eye, which periodically fires a large cannon down the bridge. It hits ''everything'' in its path, and the battle starts with several enemy units waiting in its line of fire. That said, you'll have to [[CuttingTheKnot make use of your flyers]] if you want to cross unscathed, yourself.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* During Church's time-travel escapades in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', he attempted to prevent his death by auto-fire tank blast by tinkering with Sheila the tank's friendly fire setting. However, the friendly fire was turned ''on'' by default, so Church actually disabled it by accident. Before he could correct it, Caboose took the tank out to attack the Reds and Church's death still happened as before.
-->'''Church:''' Oh ''no''! '''[[YouAlreadyChangedThePast I'm]]''' the team-killing fucktard!
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** In 4th Edition, a signature feature of [[ReligionIsMagic divine magic]] is AreaOfEffect spells that harm only the caster's enemies, aid only their allies, or both at the same time. Apparently the gods are looking out for you and your allies, whereas arcane spells almost never have this feature.

** In 4th Edition, ''all'' divine magic operates this way, and arcane magic almost never does. (Apparently the gods are quick to spare your allies, while raw power doesn't care.)

* [[SelfDemonstrating/Darkseid Darkseid]]'s Omega Effect is almost infinitely versatile, and one of its properties is that Darkseid can pick and choose what it actually hits, as it will simply phase through everything else in the way to its target. A few times a character has attempted to [[DeadlyDodging lead the homing beams back towards Darkseid himself]], only to react in shock when [[OhCrap they harmlessly pass through him and continue pursuing them]].

** Friendly Fire is almost always on in competitive play to prevent horribly abusive strategies (especially involving firing projectiles through your partner). It can be used as [[https://youtu.be/6Ao4_syqHWU a last second save]] by skilled players (for example a hit player can do another recovery move), but sometimes it just ends up [[https://youtu.be/s8vwj56Db8Y badly]].

* Zig-Zagged in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', flame weapons and AOE uber attacks cause no damage to Tenno. In the Gravidius Divide event, this extends even to factions the Tenno are temporarily allied with. But the StatusEffect Confusion, caused by the Radiation elemental damage types, causes its victims to ignore this (NPC even go to the length of actively attacking each other), for both their attacks toward their allies and those of their allies toward them. Also, the Warframe Mag, specialized in manipulating magnetic forces, can target an enemy with an ability that causes them to attract bullets fired near them by both their allies and enemies.

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' labels other people on the field as either friendly, hostile, or null: only friendlies can be hit with healing and {{Status Buff}}s, only hostiles can be hit with damage and [[StandardStatusEffects debuffs]], and nulls (some hostages, all civilians on the street) can't be helped or harmed at all by anyone. This allows you to unload indiscriminate explosions (or, for that matter, blanket healing) in a tight battle without fear of hitting the wrong person, hostages included.

* Zig-Zagged in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', flame weapons and AOE uber attacks cause no damage to Tenno. In the Gravidius Divide event, this extends even to factions the Tenno are temporarily allied with. But the StandardStatusEffect Confusion, caused by the Radiation elemental damage types, causes its victims to ignore this (NPC even go to the length of actively attacking each other), for both their attacks toward their allies and those of their allies toward them. Also, the Warframe Mag, specialized in manipulating magnetic forces, can target an enemy with an ability that causes them to attract bullets fired near them by both their allies and enemies.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Pyro__3333.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Heavy and Sandvich both passed their [[ExploitedTrope Spy Check]]. [[note]]Unfortunately, this means Sandvich can't be toasted.[[/note]]]]

* ''VideoGame/CannonFodder'' {{hand wave}}d this in the instruction manual by saying your little cartoon men fired “smart bullets,” though you could still inadvertently kill everyone with a misplaced grenade or rocket.

* In ''VideoGame/CryingSuns'', the Hammer-class battleship’s core systems make its squadrons immune to friendly fire. It also gives them a 100% damage boost whenever they get hit by friendly fire, encouraging you to shoot your own units.

* In ''VideoGame/FellSealArbitersMark'', the Wizard class’s Smart Casting passive makes friendly units take no damage, and hostile units receive no healing or buffing, from the Wizard’s area-of-effect spells. This trope is otherwise averted, and poorly-aimed spells and attacks ''will'' damage your allies or heal your enemies.

** However, players can hurt themselves with their own weapons, mostly explosives, taking a variable amount of damage: damage is reduced for rockets and {{Sticky Bomb}}s, full damage for (unguided) SentryGun rockets, or even ''increased'' in the case of the Detonator. Reflected enemy projectiles are treated the same way, so it is possible for a Pyro to kill himself even with a reflected rocket or pipe bomb. This makes explosive-jumping (sort of) balanced, which trades health for mobility.
*** With the Wrangler, the Engineer can take control of his SentryGun and fire rockets manually. This allows the engineer to rocket jump to places that only Demomen and Soldiers could have rocket/sticky-jumped to.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Iconoclasts}}'', both allies and civilians are utterly immune to Robin's attacks, including the stun gun's ChargedAttack that produces a small bomb. Equally, the enemies' attacks do not harm each other.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', Tasen-dispensed munitions harm Iji and Komato, Komato-dispensed munitions harm Iji and Tasen, and player-dispensed munitions harm Tasen and Komato. SplashDamage ignores all of this regardless of who pulled the trigger. In stages where both races are present, they will tend to take priority on killing ''each other'' over the Anomaly. This is useful if you need to get the hell clear of an Annihilator; let your Tasen friends draw its attention away from you.

** Used...randomly in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2''. Frag grenades harm friendly squads but the grenadier's squad is impervious. Stun grenades do not affect allies at all. Explosives and artillery harm everyone, but rocket launchers are safe, as well as plasma guns (but not plasma cannons) and flamers. All bolter weapons are safe. Area-effect concussion attacks, like a squad of Assault Marines plummeting from the sky, or a slam on the ground by a huge Dreadnought (that levels ''buildings'') are also inexplicably selective.

** Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' with Krieg, who has a skill that actually makes him susceptible to friendly fire in exchange for letting him recharge his skill by getting hurt. This goes with skills that buff him as he takes damage, and more levels in the skill that enables him to take friendly fire reduce the damage taken more and more. Fortunately, it does not cancel out Maya's ability to [[HealingShiv heal with bullets]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Area 51}}'' has your members jumping into your fire, and if you accidentally shoot them, your health goes down. However, if you do this at the beginning, you unlock a different mode, where you have to stop the mutant aliens, human or not.

* ''Inverted'' in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' RTS ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'': Imperial Guard Commissars can raise the morale of all nearby friendly units by executing one of their own men during battle. In addition, certain artillery units also do damage to nearby friendly units, but grenades target only enemies.

** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' has many [=NPCs=] capable of using automatic weapons, from [=SMGs=] to automatic shotguns to [[GatlingGood miniguns]]. Every last one of them will fire unhesitatingly into the little cluster of PowerFist -wielding maniacs surrounding you. The game tries to help by allowing you to talk to you allies and tell them when burst fire is acceptable. Options range from "don't use burst fire if I'm in the way" to "Use burst fire even if I'm in the way", and everything in between (that option being "only use burst fire if you're sure you won't hit me"). ''This does absolutely nothing to prolong your life''.
** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' both have friendly fire turned on, and the latter has a perk that makes you less likely to hit your allies. Non-essential [=NPCs=], however, can accidentally be hit and will subsequently turn hostile along with their allies.
** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout4}}'' adds a perk, Inspirational, that gives you immunity to friendly fire from your companion at rank one, and gives them immunity to friendly fire from you at rank two. It's very useful when you're fighting in narrow confines.

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