History Main / ImmunityAttrition

** When the League of Villains storms the school, they unleash Nomu, a creature designed to counter All Might by being heavily attack-absorbent. However, All Might deduces that Nomu being absorbent doesn't mean completely nullifying, and hammers blow after blow into him faster and more than Nomu can contain.

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'': The Scarecrow has developed a partial immunity to his own fear toxin. Keyword "partial" as he can take one dose with no effects, a much larger dosage will cause him to hallucinate his worst fear (a demonic version of Batman) just like everyone else.

* In ''Old Virginia'' by Creator/LairdBarron, government scientists are studying the titular old crone who is a servant of an EldritchAbomination, including having her MindControl TestedOnHumans (with [[WeHaveReserves often fatal results]]) until the scientists develop a mental shield that can protect them. Turns out the closer they get to the EldritchAbomination the more her powers increase, so their technology is useless.

* In ''Old Virginia'' by Laird Barron, government scientists are studying the titular old crone who is a servant of an EldritchAbomination, including having her MindControl TestedOnHumans (with [[WeHaveReserves often fatal results]]) until the scientists develop a mental shield that can protect them. Turns out the closer they get to the EldritchAbomination the more her powers increase, so their technology is useless.

** In the ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' comics, Kryptonite is highly lethal to Kryptonians, but has no immediate effect on humans. Thus, they can easily handle it without consequences. However, prolonged exposure to Kryptonite will eventually cause aggressive forms of cancer in humans. Lex Luthor discovered this the hard way after years of wearing a kryptonite ring as a protection against Superman.

->'''The Flash:''' I thought you couldn't read their minds?
->'''Martian Manhunter:''' I'll just have to try... ''[[GlowingEyesOfDoom harder]].''
-->-- '''[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E24To26Starcrossed Starcrossed]]''', ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''

* ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'': Episode "Fire and Ice", during the battle between Ash's Kingler and Pete's Cloyster, Cloyster closes his shell, rendering Kingler's punches ineffective. Ash, however, orders Kingler to keep hitting Cloyster, and sure enough, after enough hits, it becomes too much for Cloyster and his shell cracks open.

* ''Anime/SonicX'': In episode 73, Shadow storms through the heroes' spaceship to pursue Cosmo, handily disposing of any of their attempts to stop him. After a tense fight with Knuckles however, he stands the winner....only to faint in turn, finally succumbing to exhaustion. It's revealed he even had to take off his energy rings to finish Knuckles before he gets back up and continues unfettered. Interestingly the English edit omits this scene entirely, making Shadow seem genuinely unstoppable.

* ''Literature/DoYouLoveYourMomAndHerTwoHitMultiTargetAttacks'': Medhimama uses a spell to make Medhi's classmates fall asleep. Masato isn't affected and explains his armor protects him from status effects. Medhimama simply turns up the power on her spell until it overrides his armor's protection.
* ''Manga/FullMetalAlchemist'': Homunculi can heal any damage so long as the Stone that is their core remains intact... but they only have a finite amount of energy to do so. It's a ''large'' amount of energy--enough to [[FromASingleCell replace their entire body]] more than once--but not unlimited. They can be killed simply by [[RasputinianDeath forcing them to take lethal amounts of damage over and over and over again]].
* One chapter of ''Manga/SleepyPrincessInTheDemonCastle'' has Syalis inadvertently wearing an artifact that makes her immune to status effects - including sleep. She continually exposes herself to status effects, trying to force herself into sleep, until finally the artifact breaks. Unfortunately, she's sleeping on a ''massive poisonous mushroom'' at the time...

[[folder:Comics]]
* ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Season Nine'': During the events of the ''ComicBook/AngelAndFaith'' series, Angel calls Spike in to help him deal with Eyghon the Sleepwalker, reasoning that while Eyghon can [[DemonicPossession possess the unconscious]] or [[PossessingADeadBody dead]], their status as vampires with souls would make them immune, since Angel ''did'' defeat Eyghon way back in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E8TheDarkAge The Dark Age]]" in that manner. However, they're proven wrong; Eyghon has regained [[OneWingedAngel his true form and power]], and successfully possesses Spike.

** Kryptonite is highly lethal to Kryptonians, but has no immediate effect on humans. Thus, they can easily handle it without consequences. However, prolonged exposure to Kryptonite will eventually cause aggressive forms of cancer in humans. ComicBook/LexLuthor discovered this the hard way after years of wearing a kryptonite ring as a protection against Superman.
** *In the second volume of the ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'' Elseworlds trilogy, ''Bloodstorm'', the now-vampiric Batman is revealed to be immune to crosses and holy water, since he's abstained from drinking human blood, which works to his advantage when Joker lures him into a church filled with crosses as part of a DeathTrap. However, Batman soon succumbs to his bloodlust and sucks the Joker dry, losing his immunity.
** ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'': In ''Franchise/TheFlash'' tie-in "Rogues Revenge", after declining Libra's offer to join his army, he created his own version of the Rogues, who eventually battle the original ones without success. The most notable case in which this trope applies is [[PyroManiac Heat Wave]] against Burn, Libra's counterpart, which is also a pyromaniac, just like him. When the two fire their weapons at each other, Heat Wave barely sweats and notices to Burn his weapon isn't powerful enough and his suit also of poor quality. It ends with Burn [[KillItWithFire burning to the death]].

* ''Film/UnderworldAwakening'': Quint Lane was modified to be an [[CanisMajor Uber-Lycan]] via Eve's blood, making him largely immune to silver. Key word being "largely": Selene takes him out by [[InsertGrenadeHere jamming a silver nitrate grenade into his body]] just as his wounds heal; when the bomb goes off, the sheer amount of silver released directly into his organs and bloodstream blasts him into LudicrousGibs.

* ''Literature/TheTommyknockers'': due to a metal plate in his skull, Jim Gardener is initially unaffected by the alien spaceship, while everyone else around him slowly starts to "become" (mutate into aliens). It also prevents his mind from being read when everyone else gains telepathic powers. But after several weeks of working day in, day out to dig up the ship, and thus being extremely close to the source, Gardener too starts to display the symptoms of "becoming" (like losing his teeth) and realizes it's getting more and more difficult for him to keep the telepaths out of his mind.
* Played for horror on the ''Creator/StephenKing'' short story "Night Surf": the teenager pack that is the protagonist of the story survived the rampage of a super-virus called "Captain Trips" and, in the face of the fact that the super-flu has a 100% infection and casualty rate, they only assume that they did so because they were immune. The final couple of paragraphs of the story has them discovering that "Captain Trips" has evolved and their immunity, if they ever really had one, is completely useless.
* ''Old Virginia'' by Laird Barron. Government scientists are studying the titular old crone who is a servant of an EldritchAbomination, including having her MindControl TestedOnHumans (with [[WeHaveReserves often fatal results]]) until the scientists develop a mental shield that can protect them. Turns out the closer they get to the EldritchAbomination the more her powers increase, so their technology is useless.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'' Plays with this trope. Since Jessica grew immune to his mind control powers, Kilgrave eventually tries to invoke this trope by giving himself a power boost in hopes that this will cancel out Jessica's immunity. Unfortunately for him, it fails. Jessica is still immune.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In the episode "Bliss" a telepathic nebula tries to lure the ship into itself so it can eat it. Seven of Nine believes herself to be immune to it because she is a former Borg drone with many cybernetic implants. However, she was only immune to the initial attack because she didn't have the desire to return to Earth that the rest of the crew shared. Once the nebula tried to fool her into thinking something had happened that she did want, i.e. that she had succeeded in escaping it, it turns out that she was as vulnerable as anyone else.
* In ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', Nate Heywood/Steel is a ChromeChampion who is ImmuneToBullets, but even he has limits. In the episode "Freakshow", he is tied up and repeatedly shot at, which appears to strain him and by the end he's begging for it to be over.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'': Cheshire attacks Aqualad with jellyfish toxin-coated weapons. He says he's "largely immune" to it, but he is slowly weakened with each cut.

[[folder:Toys]]
* {{Toys/BIONICLE}}: The Pit Mutagen is a powerful substance that can mutate any being exposed to it. However, organic creatures are affected by it so slowly that the effects are unnoticeable, while Brutaka's species have a slight resistance to the point of changing physical appearances slowly.
[[/folder]]

Supertrope to DentedIron, where the damage a MadeOfIron character takes starts to take its toll over the years, and UntouchableUntilTagged, when a single bruise/crack/etc in your immunity makes you easier to be beaten down. Compare and contrast ScissorsCutsRock.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Episode "Fire and Ice", during the battle between Ash's Kingler and Pete's Cloyster, Cloyster closes his shell, rendering Kingler's punches ineffective. Ash, however, orders Kingler to keep hitting Cloyster, and sure enough, after enough hits, it becomes too much for Cloyster and his shell cracks open.

[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': When the League of Villains storms the school, they unleash Nomu, a creature designed to counter All Might by being heavily attack-absorbent. However, All Might deduces that Nomu being absorbent doesn't mean completely nullifying, and hammers blow after blow into him faster and more than Nomu can contain.
* Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu can turn his body into steel thick enough to block bullets. However, when he uses this to defend against Mustard's gun, Mustard just keeps shooting the same place over and over again, cracking the steel.

-->-- '''Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E24To26Starcrossed''', ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''

* ''LightNovel/DoYouLoveYourMomAndHerTwoHitMultiTargetAttacks'': Medhimama uses a spell to make Medhi's classmates fall asleep. Masato isn't affected and explains his armor protects him from status effects. Medhimama simply turns up the power on her spell until it overrides his armor's protection.

* ''Literature/TheTommyknockers'': due to [[TheHardHat a metal plate in his skull]], Jim Gardener is initially unaffected by the alien spaceship, while everyone else around him slowly starts to "become" (mutate into aliens). It also prevents his mind from being read when everyone else gains telepathic powers. But after several weeks of working day in, day out to dig up the ship, and thus being extremely close to the source, Gardener too starts to display the symptoms of "becoming" (like losing his teeth) and realizes it's getting more and more difficult for him to keep the telepaths out of his mind.

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[[AC:Literature]]

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[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

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[[AC:Real Life]]
* The pistol shrimp's method for getting through the shells of clams and oysters is to simply hit them really hard with its claw until they break.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': [[BountyHunter Cad Bane]] is [[GeniusBruiser intelligent and strong-willed enough]] to be totally immune to a JediMindTrick during an interrogation. So a second Jedi is brought in; Bane resists, but realizes what they’re trying to do and obviously feels pain from doing so. Then a ''third'' Jedi joins and Bane starts really feeling it. He ''still'' manages to resist, but doing so nearly tears his mind apart, [[KnowWhenToFoldEm and he tells them what they wnt to know so they don't do it again]].

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Episode ''Fire and Ice'', during the battle between Ash's Kingler and Pete's Cloyster, Cloyster closes his shell, rendering Kingler's punches ineffective. Ash however orders Kingler to keep hitting Cloyster, and sure enough, after enough hits, it becomes too much for Cloyster and his shell cracks open.

* {{Toys/BIONICLE}}: The Pit Mutagen is a powerful substance that can mutate any being exposed to it. However, organic creatures are affected by it so slowly that the effects are unnoticeable, while Brutaka's species have a slight resistance to the point of changing physical appearances slowly.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': [[BountyHunter Cad Bane]] is [[GeniusBruiser intelligent and strong-willed enough]] to be totally immune to a JediMindTrick during an interrogation. So a second Jedi is brought in; Bane resists, but realizes what they’re trying to do and obviously feels pain from doing so. Then a ''third'' Jedi joins and Bane starts really feeling it. He ''still'' manages to resist, but doing so nearly tears his mind apart, [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou forcing the Jedi to stop to avoid killing him]].

* One chapter of ''Manga/SleepyPrincessIntheDemonCastle'' has Syalis inadvertently wearing an artifact that makes her immune to status effects - including sleep. She continually exposes herself to status effects, trying to force herself into sleep, until finally the artifact breaks. Unfortunately, she's sleeping on a ''massive poisonous mushroom'' at the time...

* ''Manga/FullMetalAlchemist'': This is true of the Homunculi. They can heal any damage so long as the Stone that is their core remains intact... but they only have a finite amount of energy to do so. It's a ''large'' amount of energy, but not unlimited. They can be killed simply by [[RasputinianDeath forcing them to take lethal amounts of damage over and over and over again]].

* ''Manga/FullMetalAlchemist'': This is true of the Homunculi. They can heal any damage so long as the Stone that is their core remains intact... but they only have a finite amount of energy to do so. It's a ''large'' amount of energy, but not unlimited. They can be killed simply by forcing them to take lethal amounts of damage over and over and over again.

* {{Toys/BIONICLE}}: The Pit Mutagen is a powerful substance that can mutate any being exposed to it. However , organic creatures are affected by it so slowly that the effects are unnoticeable, while Brutaka's species have a slight resistance to the point of changing physical appearances slowly.

* {{Toys/BIONICLE}}: The Pit Mutagen is powerful substance that can mutate any being exposed to it, however organic creatures are affected by it so slowly that the effects are unnoticeable, while Brutaka's species have a slight resistance to the point of changing physical appearances slowly.