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Poison Is Corrosive

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"A drop of venom fell on his naked thigh, and the feel of it was like a white-hot dagger driven into his flesh. Red jets of agony shot through Conan's brain, yet he held himself immovable; not by the twitching of a muscle or the flicker of an eyelash did he betray the pain of the hurt that left a scar he bore to the day of his death."

A fairly common trope, where any particularly potent poison is incredibly corrosive as well. This is often used to let a hero identify an attack as poisonous without actually getting poisoned. Alternatively, it can be used to show just how strong a poison is (somehow) by having it dissolve the spoon being used to mix it.

Frequently bundled into a single damage type in games featuring Elemental Powers to explain how can it deal damage to both living creatures and constructs or The Undead.

Note that this may be justified (or Hand Waved) in non-contemporary or fantasy works, as the characters might not understand that there even is a difference between acid and poison, or might not have a word for acid, or something. (Incidentally, not all acids are corrosive and substances on the other end of the pH spectrum, bases, can be dangerously corrosive as well.)

Obviously, any liquid that is normally that corrosive will be toxic to ingest. This trope is for the case when a liquid billed as a straight toxin is inexplicably reactive.

Compare Ate the Spoon, Gargle Blaster, Hollywood Acid.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Apothecarius Argentum: Argent is a "Basilisk", a type of Super-Soldier who has been exposed to various toxins from birth to the point they're integrated into his body chemistry. In one chapter, in order to escape from a dungeon, he bites open the palm of his hand and uses his blood to weaken the stone walls to the point he can punch through them.
  • According to Beastars, Komodo dragon venom is corrosive, and this isn't even the half of the series' breaks from real-world biology.
  • Bleach
    • The Arrancar Loly Aivirrne's Resurreccion has centipede-like tentacles which have a poison that erodes whatever it touches.
    • Gin Ichimaru's bankai has the ability to completely break down the opponent, as Kamishini no Yari is made of potent poison, and it turns to dust for a millisecond during expansion, meaning Ichimaru can leave a small piece of it inside the enemy and vaporize then at any second after piercing them.
  • In Fairy Tail, Cobra claims his Poison Dragon Slayer Magic will cause the flesh of his foes he strikes to start to die and melt into mush with each successive hit (and Natsu does mention that his skin feels number with each strike). His Breath Weapon, on the other hand, is described as unleashing a host of dangerous viruses that invade the body and cause his foes to fall sick and die.
  • In Inuyasha, Sessoumaru's poison claw attacks can dissolve bones. In a story late in the series, Sango also uses a poison strong enough to melt bone, causing significant damage to her weapon in the process.
  • In Kaiba, a poison disguised as wine spills and eats through whatever it touches.
  • Little Witch Academia (2013) has a small vial of poison melt a huge monster, and the resulting sludge bores a clear round hole through the floor it was standing on.
  • In a flashback in Muhyo and Roji, Rio shows her apprentice Biko how to brew an elixir that restores tempering but can be poisonous. To demonstrate the latter property, Rio spills a drop of the elixir, which burns a hole in the stone pavement at her and Biko's feet.
  • One Piece has several examples of this, most notably Magellan, whose powers allow him to create any type of poison he pleases, especially the corrosive variety. His ultimate techniques are so corrosive they could actually melt the entire prison he guards if he isn't careful.
    • First seen in Alabasta when Crocodile tries to kill Luffy with a poisonous hook and winds up melting a boulder with it.
    • The Giant Pit on the Skypeia Arc bites trees and pyramids, melting them with its "acid".
  • In Pokémon Adventures, the poison from Koga's Arbok can corrode walls early in the RBG arc.
  • In Ronin Warriors, the Poison Warlord Sekhmet/Naaza can use the bright pink poison emitted by his Snake Fang Swords to melt his enemies and the surrounding environment, turning a whole concrete building into a half-corroded mess with one strike. Said venom is powerful enough to leave marks even in the Armors of the other Warriors.
  • In Toriko, Coco can produce this type of poison after evolving his Gourmet Cells and learning Food Honor.

    Card Games 
  • Arkham Horror: The Card Game: In The Labyrinths of Lunacy standalone scenario, the second obstacle for Group B is a room filled with highly corrosive poison capable of quickly dissolving human flesh, unless you have an antidote.
  • Magic: The Gathering: Poison the Well shows a kithkin carrying water in wooden pails, but where it has spilled out it's eaten holes in the ground. Apparently it's acid poison that only dissolves dirt.

    Comic Books 
  • A Chuck Billy story had the hillbilly visiting a Monster Mash that offers him poisoned coffee. Once he drops the cup following the werewolf startling him, the coffee opens holes in the table.
  • Lone Wolf: In The Skull of Agarash, a giak throws a vial at Lone Wolf that he blocks with his axe, the weapon getting melted in the process. Despite this, Lone Wolf identifies it as poison and not acid. (It does seems to produces toxic fumes, though, forcing him to use his Psychic Powers to protect himself.)
  • In The Scorpion, Several of Master Poisoner Mejai's poisons are shown to be acidic. Armando uses one to burn through the ropes holding him at one point.

    Fan Works 
  • Fate/Harem Antics: Assassin/Hassan of Serenity is a Poisonous Person. Her poisons dissolve almost anything she touches, including stone.
  • Memoirs: The spider venom dissolves Akagane's armor and bodysuit and severely burns his skin.
  • Pokémon Wack: The Poison-type move Corrosive Spray can damage Steel-type Pokemon (who are normally immune to said type).
  • The Steep Path Ahead: The Hydra's toxic is corrosive enough to turn trees into wilted matchsticks.
  • Poison can melt stone in Farce of the Three Kingdoms, much to the shock of the doctor who prepared it.
    Ji Ping: I have a degree in chemistry. That makes no sense.
    Cao Cao: Sorry, this book runs on the laws of drama, not physics.
  • Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse: The Super Spit of Lilith, who has the Monocled Cobra Zoan Devil Fruit, is a venom that is shown melting flesh like acid on simple contact, causing it to slough wetly away from the bone.

    Film — Animation 
  • In Asterix and Cleopatra, the Special Iced Arsenic Cake make by Artifis is so toxic that the batter Ate the Spoonbefore he adds the acid.
  • FernGully: The Last Rainforest: During his song, the sapient gas cloud Hexxus spits what he refers to as "poison sludge" onto a nearby pipe, causing it to hiss and release noxious fumes.
  • In The Pagemaster, Dr. Jekyll offers Richard a bright green beverage which, when knocked out of his hand, dissolves through the wooden floorboards in a matter of seconds. Moments later, the liquid is revealed to be the potion that turns Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • In 9 to 5, Violet imagines poisoning her boss's coffee with something that dissolves the spoon. Averted when his coffee really is (accidentally) poisoned later.
  • Back to the Future Part III. Marty gets poured a free shot of whiskey by a bartender that wants to make sure he knows what they serve in his bar. Strong stuff all right — the bar top smokes from the overpour. Marty wisely leaves it alone. (While not billed as poison, one shot of the same whiskey puts Doc on the floor.)
  • Clash of the Titans: The Stygian Witches say that Medusa's blood is a deadly poison, and after Perseus cuts off her head her blood spews out and melts Perseus' shield, which was a gift from the gods.
  • Curse of the Golden Flower: It's strongly suspected by various characters that the queen's chronic illness is due to the "medicine" that the king puts in her tea and forces her to drink. In the end, she tosses the tea aside and it burns into the cloth it lands on.
  • The Dark Knight: When the commissioner's poisoned highball glass gets knocked over it starts eating a hole through his desk. Although in this case, it's reasonable to assume that the commissioner's whiskey was actually spiked with acid, not poison.
  • In Enchanted, a poison apple eats through a biker's helmet.
  • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: While not explicitly described, the poisonous fog causes intense, immediate pain on contact, pain that lingers until the fog is washed off in water. This makes it somewhat similar to a blistering agent, though a water-soluble one (which makes very little sense).
  • Jurassic Park: When the Dilophosaurus spits venom into Nedry's face, he's blinded and a sizzling sound is heard, suggesting the poison is burning through his eyes.
  • King Cobra: Once fully grown, Seth's venom is so potent that it dissolves half a person's face after being bitten once.
  • Legend of the Black Scorpion: Wu Luan's hand starts to rot after he grabs a poisoned blade.
  • Mindhunters: The poison-laced cigarette eats through a metal floor and the victim's boot... with her foot still inside... before killing her. It's not until later that one character states it's "some kind of acid" rather than poison, and even then it's based on assumption.
  • Murder by Death. One of the glasses of wine served to the guests is poisoned. When the wine is poured onto a cloth napkin, it burns holes through it.
  • Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: The poisoned robe corrodes its wearer's flesh as well as the hands of the poisoner, but somehow not its own cloth or the cloth it's wrapped in when presented to the victim. Perhaps it reacts with sweat.
  • In The Rock, we see what VX2 does to bare skin. One thing that's not addressed is how atropine can counter a blister agent. note 
  • Skyfall: Raoul Silva's malfunctioning cyanide suicide capsule somehow dissolves his teeth and upper jaw but fails to kill him. The result is a sunken left cheek (which he hides by wearing a dental prosthesis), bloodshot eyes, damaged gums, and slurred speech. Hydrogen cyanide doesn't work this way; it causes death by cutting off cell respiration, but it's possible the writers were confused by its alternate name of "prussic acid".
  • Twice-Told Tales: In "Rappaccini's Daughter", one of the plants in Rappaccini's poison garden is so toxic that it burns a hole in his glove when he attempts to take a cutting from it.
  • Wonder Woman (2017): Dr. Poison's new gas can break glass, somehow.

    Literature 
  • Conan the Barbarian: In The Scarlet Citadel, Conan faces a giant snake with venom so acidic it burns without even breaking the skin, leaving a scar for life.
  • Cradle Series: Discussed. Lindon is given an Iron body specifically designed to counter poisons, and asks if he's truly immune to poison now. Eithan shrugs and says that anything that attacks the body can be a "poison;" at higher levels, poison madra corrodes physical objects almost as easily as flesh. What Lindon's new body actually gives him is an overpowered Healing Factor. Which is a good thing, because he soon gains a power that corrodes his body from the inside, and the damage is mitigated by his healing.
  • Discworld plays with this a lot, but most noticeably in Interesting Times, where the poison not only smokes upon contact but causes the imbiber to explode.
  • Dune Encyclopedia. The plant known as inkvine contains a liquid that is a mixture of hydrochloric acid and poison. When used as a whip, inkvine injects the liquid into the victim's body, causing long term pain and skin discoloration.
  • The Eyes of The Dragon features Flagg preparing a poison which burns away and twists the bowl of the spoon with which he stirs it. The corrosive power killing before the poison is addressed however, as when mixed with water or wine or ingested by the human body the poison stops burning holes through stuff — it just kills you in an extremely unpleasant manner a day or two later.
  • Gesta Danorum: As Thorkill and his companions sail away from Utgard in flight, flying demons rain poisonous slaver down on them. The voyagers take shelter under animal hides, but one man accidentally thrusts out his hand, and it withers from touch of the poison; a second man peeks out from under his cover, and goes blind; a third man then sticks out his whole head, which is taken clean off at the neck "as if it had been severed with a sword".
  • Harry Potter. Venom from the Basilisk's fangs is a corrosive substance. Justified since the delivery method is through a bite. Also by the fact that it's highly magical, as evidenced by its ability to destroy a horcrux
  • In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy there is a bit where Zaphod is drinking what is implied to be a Pan-Glactic Gargle-Blaster. "Zaphod giggled into his drink, which frothed over and began to eat its way through the marble bartop."
  • The poison of Satha, the giant serpent from Robert E. Howard's stories:
    • In "The Valley of the Worm", Niord, in preparation for fighting the titular Eldritch Abomination, slays a Satha to use enhance his arrows with the poison. after a few hours of dipping, the bronze starts to show corrosion, and the shafts would have been eaten through outright had Niord not been careful to keep them out.
    • In "The Scarlet Citadel", a drop of poison drops on Conan's skin as he stands in front of it, not daring to move. The pain is described as fierce, and the scar remains for the rest of his life.
  • Humanx Commonwealth: Alaspinian minidrags spit an incredibly potent neurotoxin that has been shown to eat through metal. Minidrags have no teeth, so they rely on their toxin's corrosive properties to get it into the bloodstreams of their enemies.
  • Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard describes Loki as having a face marred by scars from the venom of a snake dripping onto his face from the periods when his wife Sigyn has to empty the bowl that normally catches the venom.
  • River of Teeth: When Houndstooth suspects that Hero may try to poison him when they first meet, he pointedly knocks the glass of sweet tea off Hero's porch rail, only for the tea to hiss and immediately eat through the rosebush it lands on.
  • Sorcerer Conjurer Wizard Witch: A drink that the heroes suspect has been poisoned is knocked out of the hand of the person who's about to drink it, and the liquid starts eating into the floor.
  • Temeraire: Certain species of dragon, such as the British Longwings, are capable of spitting highly corrosive acid. They are stated to be descended from naturally occurring poison-spitting dragons, which were selectively bred for stronger poison until this became so concentrated as to act like an acid. While some characters early in the story refer to Longwing spit as poison, neither the dragons nor their handlers make the mistake, making this an in-universe example of the trope.
  • The Wandering Inn: The protagonist's most terrifying weapon, besides her pan, is the acid, she extractes from Acid Flies, which corrodes easily flesh, when it comes in contact with it. Not that she does it by herself, she rather lets her undead barmaid do the work.
  • Wraeththu: The title creatures' semen is a caustic poison. This is also true in the Tabletop Game based on the novels.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 24: The nerve gas in Season 5 can eat through door seals. Handwaved in that it's mixed with a corrosive element.
  • In the pilot of Forever (2014), a chemist has been growing Monkshood plants and using them to create a concentrated poison. When confronted in his lab by an armed homicide detective, he throws a beaker with purple powder onto her gun hand and flees. She's able to get off a couple of shots, but the poison is painfully and visibly eating into the back of her hand. The doctor she is with warns her the poison is working its way into her bloodstream, and proceeds to neutralize it by spraying alcohol onto the area and then setting it on fire for several seconds before dunking it in water to put it out. Possibly justified in two ways; first, aconite can be absorbed through the skin, even in non-concentrated form, enough to cause toxicity and even death, and second, we don't know what else might have been in that beaker. If the aconite was mixed with something corrosive, then aconite is known to pass through damaged skin quite quickly.
  • In Grimm, the spider-like tarantella's venom dissolves (digests) its victim from the inside-out.
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981): The sequence demonstrating the effect of drinking a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster ends with a close-up of the stuff, having been spilled when the drinkers succumb to unconsciousness, eating a hole in the floor.
  • In Mahou Sentai Magiranger, the Hades God Toad used corrosive poisons as part of his power set.
  • The Mandalorian: Krayt dragons can spit acidic venom, which will dissolve flesh on contact but can also be dried to be used as a regular poison.
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers:
    • The original series does this a lot when a poison attack is used on the Megazord. It can also shock, as Scorpina's sting does.
    • Power Rangers Mystic Force does this twice in two different episodes. Once, a poisoned apple, seconds after Chip suspects it's no good, instantly blackens and deflates like a balloon. Later, a goblet of poisoned tea eats through a book on the table after it's knocked from the intended victim's hand. All the usual Fridge Logic applies.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series: In "The Way to Eden", the plant life of the planet Eden is full of acidic poison.
  • Warehouse 13: In "The Ones You Love", when Myka's sister Tracy is affected by a cord that makes you murder your siblings, she slips something in Myka's tea. When Myka spills the tea, it eats through the carpet.

    Mythology 
  • Classical Mythology: Heracles (AKA Hercules) is slain when his wife is tricked into giving him a tunic to wear which has been soaked in the poisonous blood of the Lernean Hydra (a monster Heracles had previously slain as one of his famous Twelve Labors). The poison doesn't just somehow penetrate his skin and make him sick (with symptoms like nausea, dizziness, shortness of breath, or convulsions). The "poison" burns away his flesh. On the one hand, the Lernean Hydra is a mythological creature, so who is to say it doesn't have blood like a "xenomorph" from the Alien movies. On the other hand, the Hydra is described as distinctly serpentine, and of course snake venom doesn't generally work like this. This makes this trope Older Than Feudalism.
  • Norse Mythology: Another example of snake venom that is implied to be corrosive: After Loki is imprisoned by the other gods for his role in the death of Baldur, he is not only bound, but a serpent is placed above him that drips venom onto his face. His wife collects the venom in a bowl, but when she goes to empty the bowl, the venom drips onto Loki's face, which causes him to writhe in pain (as one would do if a caustic or corrosive substance were being dripped onto your face, but not as you would likely react to real life snake venom merely touching your skin).
  • The Seps, a small serpent described in a 1st Century CE bestiary, had venom which could dissolve flesh and bone.

    Tabletop Games 
  • 2300 AD: The animal life on Aurore makes use of acids in attacking its prey; some of the plants produce similar substances. Because of incompatible biology, these acids are also poisonous to humans.
  • Amber Diceless Role-Playing, Shadow Knight supplement:
    • The standard form of the Envenom spell is a poisonous acid that prevents rapid healing and regeneration of wounds.
    • Demons can have a bite which injects a highly caustic poison. It has the same effect on healing/regeneration as the Envenom spell.
  • Arduin:
    • A black dragon's tail stinger injects an acid-like venom that does 3-30 Hit Points of damage.
    • The Greater Demon Calyandagg has an acid-like venom that can do up to 100 Hit Points of damage when he injects it into a victim.
    • The Greater Demon Groak can spit a ten-foot diameter blob of slimy acid up to 60 feet away. If it isn't treated within three minutes, the victim will start taking 6 Hit Points of poison damage per melee round for the next 1-10 melee rounds.
    • A Sluggoth can Super Spit a foaming green acidic venom up to 40 feet away that does up to 48 Hit Points of damage.
  • Ares:
    • In issue #3, the Feedback section describes "Attack of the Giant Ants", a board game that SPI was considering creating. Inspired by the 1950's B movie Them!, it has hordes of giant ants with "acidic ant venom", based on the formic acid in Real Life ant venom.
    • In issue #6, in "Voyage of the BSM Pandora" the expedition can encounter a mushroom that sprays anyone who touches it with a deadly corrosive poison that can cause ongoing damage.
  • Atlantis The Lost World: Demon Locusts have acid-like venom, and a Fire Salamander's skin exudes a caustic venom.
  • Chaosium: In All the Worlds' Monsters, the longlicker's tongue exudes a paralysis poison that causes the cells of the victim's body to break down and dissolve into a fluid.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • 1st Edition
      • Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia: The skin of the troglodyte deity Laogzed oozes an acidic poison.
      • Mayfair Games' Role Aids supplement Dark Folk: The troll deity Lirabyth can spit a deadly poisonous stream that paralyzes the victim as well as doing 10-80 Hit Points of damage due to its caustic acid base.
      • The Megalo-centipede has a poison bite. If the victim's saving throw succeeds, the poison burns the victim's skin for 1-8 Hit Points of damage instead killing them.
      • Crystal oozes secrete a corrosive poison that paralyzes its victims and allows the ooze to consume them.
      • Dragon magazine #46 adventure "The Temple of Poseidon": Devil Wyrms can Super Spit an acidic venom at a single target up to 30 feet away that does 3-18 Hit Points of damage.
      • Dragon magazine #69 article "More Pages from the Mages": Belpren is a luminescent blue acidic poison that instantly does 1-12 Hit Points of damage upon contacting skin or internal tissues.
      • Dungeon magazine #14, adventure "A Question Of Balance": A "demon" summoned during a magical lightning storm has saliva and sweat that are both poisonous and acidic.
      • Judges Guild supplement The Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde: Bouyan Isle is in Lenap Idyllic Isles hexes 4018-4019. It has blue lizards with poisonous fangs whose venom is so corrosive that it can dissolve metal.
      • Judges Guild adventure Operation Ogre. One of the substances the Player Characters can find in the Alchemist's laboratory is magical nitroglycerine. It is a lethal poison that does 3-18 Hit Points of damage to anyone who drinks it, if it doesn't kill them.
    • 2nd Edition
      • Monstrous Manual: The Eyewing weeps an acidic, poison fluid from its 4-foot wide eye.
      • Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix 1 Terrors of the Desert: The So-ut's claws secrete an acidic poison that damages targets and their armor.
      • MC4 Dragonlance Monstrous Compendium: The Jarak-sinn is a type of lizard man. Its spittle is an acidic venom that burns all creatures it touches.
      • MC13 Al-Qadim Monstrous Compendium Appendix: The bite of a Winged Serpent injects a corrosive, acidic poison that does 2-16 Hit Points of damage.
      • Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 1. The garbug has two tentacles which secrete a poison that causes paralysis. The poison is mildly corrosive and inflicts 1 Hit Point of damage every ten minutes of exposure for two hours. The bite of the abyss ant has an acidic poison that does an additional two Hit Points of damage.
      • Elminster's Ecologies Appendix 1, booklet "The Hill of Lost Souls": The Four Petal White Flower sprays an acidic poisonous liquid toward targets.
      • Dragon magazine #223 article "Primal Rage": The monster Vertigo can spit a glob of poisonous acid up to 100 feet away. It affects a circular area with a radius of 20 feet, and causes up to 150 Hit Points of damage.
      • Dragon magazine #237 article "Dragon's Bestiary — Venomous!": 40% of cobras can spit their venom up to seven feet away, aiming at their target's eyes. If the venom hits the eyes it starts to dissolve them as if it were an acid. This causes blindness in 2-5 minutes unless the eyes are washed with water or some other liquid.
      • Spelljammer supplement Greyspace: The horg secrete a corrosive, poisonous liquid from their teeth and claws. Any creature they bite or claw takes up to 20 Hit Points of damage per minute for 10 minutes.
      • Forgotten Realms: In the "Campaign Guide to Myth Drannor", the Poisonstar spell creates a magical venom that inflicts 1 Hit Point of corrosive damage on living creatures and 2 Hit Points on undead.
    • 3rd Edition: Sword and Sorcery's Creature Collection:
      • The High Gorgon envenoms its weapons with an acidic poison partially derived from the poison injected by its snake heads.
      • The Narleth's bite injects an acidic venom that causes paralysis. Multiple bites will cause the victim's flesh and bones to dissolve.
    • Multiple editions:
      • Green dragons breathe a corrosive gas their breath weapon, which is stated to be similar to (or actually is) chlorine gas. Read down in the Real Life section if you need an idea of what that means.
  • Earthdawn supplement Dragons. A dragon's venom is corrosive and can cause damage to living targets. It can possibly even cause blindness if spat into a creature's eye.
  • Heart Of The Sunken Lands by Midkemia Press:. The Bombing Bird's droppings are a powerful acidic poison. Anyone hit by them is at risk of dying within 1-20 minutes. The birds deliberately use their droppings as weapons against prey they want to feed upon and against any creature attacking them.
  • Hollow Earth Expedition supplement Secrets of the Surface World. A wasp in the Amazon rain forest has a sting with venom so caustic it causes 2nd degree burns.
  • Middle-Earth Role Playing supplement Rivendell: The House of Elrond. One of the poisons listed in the 9.1 Herbal Chart table was Camadarch Acid. When mixed with alcohol, it inflicted Heat critical hits on the victim.
  • Pathfinder:
    • A tarn linnorm's venom deals acid damage. This is explicitly magical— other linnorms have venom that deals other types of elemental damage, including fire, cold and electricity.
    • This is averted with bilebearers, as their attacks are purely poisonous and deal no acid damage. The gutragers, described as a more developed form of the bilbearers, are however purely focused on producing and fighting with acid.
  • RuneQuest:
    • Supplement Dorastor: Land of Doom. The claws of the powerful evil Chaos being Cacodemon inject a potent corrosive venom that can inflict up to 114 Hit Points of damage. The claws of his Fiend minions inject a similar poison that can do up to 20 Hit Points of damage.
    • Supplement Trollpak, "Book of Uz" part 2. Trolls control a type of giant whip-scorpion called a vinegaroon. It can spray a liquid poison that is highly acidic.
    • White Dwarf #45 article "Dealing With Demons". A sraim demon can spit acidic venom up to 10 meters away with a 50% chance of hitting.
  • Stormbringer. In the Stormbringer Companion supplement the Kyrenee monster's Combat Tentacles are covered with an acid-based poison that causes serious damage to its victims and corrodes weapons that strike it.
  • Traveller: In the Aurore Sourcebook, the Bladehood plant stabs its victims with blades covered by a highly acidic poison.
  • Tunnels & Trolls: In one room of Solo Dungeon #4 Naked Doom there's a mist that's a dangerous acidic poison.
  • Warhammer 40,000: The bioengineered implants and organs most Space Marines have includes the Betcher's Gland, which connected to salivary glands and creates a highly acidic contact poison. Marines are able to spit the poison at opponents to damage and blind them, though this is usually a moot point since they typically wear full helmets. It's been noted that this isn't always the case, and if they're captured it typically lets them escape captivity if given time.

    Video Games 
  • Armory & Machine: Implied with the Giant Hogweed enemies. They have a "Venom" attack that deals heavy damage to your mechanical fighters, meaning that the attack is most likely corrosive for it to affect machines.
  • Borderlands: In-name-only. There are prefixes like "Pestilent", "Vitriolic" and so on, and the symbol for corrosive damage is a biohazard trefoil, but corrosive effects only work as Hollywood Acid and even deal less damage against fleshy enemies as opposed to armor (which it's very strong against), including robots that obviously cannot be poisoned.
    • Played somewhat straight in the first game, in which enemies who are suffering from a corrosive Damage Over Time effect take increased damage from all sources. Later games moved this effect to other elements, most infamously slag in Borderlands 2.
  • In Command & Conquer: Generals (and the Zero Hour expansion pack), the GLA's "anthrax" (implied to be more chemical cocktail than just a viral agent) can and will eventually wear down armored tanks and fortified buildings.
  • Darkest Dungeon: Blight is all over the place. Some disease-based attacks such as Plague Grenade cause it, but so do poison-related ones like Poison Dart and a select few like Digestion that imply corrosive activity. The swine folk are said to resist it due to their filthy living conditions, implying a strong immune systemnote , while Animated skeletons are especially weak to blight despite having no living tissue to poison, and similarly, Husks from the Color of Madness DLC are very weak to Blight because it allegedly corrodes their stony shells, implying all manners of poison are reactive.
  • Divinity: Original Sin II downplays this: the Poison damage type isn't corrosive by default, but several Poison spells inflict the Acid Status Effect, which destroys physical armour over time.
  • The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: Acid attacks and spells (like Acid Splash) count as a variety of Poison when it comes to calculating resistances.
  • Enter the Gungeon has a generic green goo usually referred to as "poison" that can be dumped onto the floor in various ways — green Blob Monsters and the Gorgun leave a trail of it behind them, mutant bullet kin puke it up, you can roll or break barrels of it, and various items let you emit some yourself. One of these, the Poison Vial, lampshades this in its description.
  • Fallout: New Vegas: In the Dead Money DLC, the Sierra Madre Hotel and Casino is blanketed by a cloud of metal-corroding toxic smog. Possibly justified: The Cloud's purpose was to force people to use the experimental auto-docs that were on-site to test their surgical programming; it makes sense that it would be more corrosive than poisonous.
  • Final Fantasy and similar RPGs can be assumed to use this trope with their poison-elemental attacks. Otherwise, they shouldn't deal any damage to mechanical or otherwise non-living targets. In some entries, such as the first, machines are indeed immune to poison.
  • Grim Dawn draws a minor distinction, in that Acid damage is just the instantaneous version of Poison damage; the game prefers to keep its damage-over-time and instantaneous damage versions of the same element separate and differently-named.
  • Hollow Knight: The poisonous orange gas does damage on contact, as does the yellow gas you can emit when you heal if you have the right Charm equipped. Could be considered a Justified Trope if you assume that, since it's a gas, it's being inhaled.
  • League of Legends: Cassiopeia has an ability called Miasma, which creates a circular pool of poison. It damages anything that walks over it, including robotic entities.
  • LEGO Adaptation Game: "Toxic Waste" in LEGO Batman and LEGO Marvel insstakills most characters, with only characters already previously affected by toxins like Hulk or The Joker being able to No-Sell and walk through it.
  • Might and Magic VI, VII, and VIII have the weapon modifiers "Of Poison," "Of Venom," and "Of Acid," which add various amounts of the same type of damage to a weapon: Poison damage in VI or Body damage in VII and VIII.
  • In MS Saga: A New Dawn, the trope is subverted by being reversed: when you're dealing with Humongous Mecha, the "poison" Status Effect takes the form of acid, meaning that Corrosive Stuff Is Poison.
  • Persona Q, in-battle banter uses this to justify why the poison ailment still works on Robot Girl Aigis.
  • Pokémon plays with this. While moves such as Acid are classified as Poison-type attacks, they are among the only Poison attacks that don't have a chance of poisoning the opponent. But Ground- and Rock-type Pokémon resist Poison-type attacks (Poison-type Pokémon are also weak to Ground-type attacks), and Steel-types are completely immune to Poison.
    • Acid and Acid Spray both lower the opponent's special defence drastically (Acid Spray is guaranteed to do so) which is supposed to represent the corrosive aspect. Gets kinda gross with Gastric Acid — literally stomach acid that negates the opponent's ability. There are no actual acid Pokemon, as all Poison types are variations on piles of sludge/garbage or animals with poisonous features (like snakes).
    • Gulpin and Swalot, due to being giant stomachs, can be said to be acid Pokemon, as there is no other reason for them to be poisonous other than their acid-spitting abilities, which constitutes poison in the Pokeverse. However, they do learn sludge, filth, and gas based moves as well, but these are probably to round them out as Poison-types, rather than leaving them with three attacks.
    • Apparently, Dragalge's poison is strong enough to eat away at tanker hulls. However, it can't have Corrosion as its Ability.
    • Salandit and its evolution, Salazzle, downplay this with their ability, "Corrosion". It negates the immunity to the poison status effect inherent to Steel-type Pokemon, and lets it poison other Poison-types. However, it doesn't allow them to deal base Poison-type damage against Steel-types, they're still immune to it.
    • The move Corrosive Gas destroys all held items on the field except for the user's.
  • Runescape has a salesman who sells 'all purpose-poison'. In one quest, you learn that it's used for things like polishing family crests and cleaning fountains.
  • Vindictus has an Acidic Poison Pouch item that contains an acidic poison.
  • World of Warcraft has poisons and acids in the Nature category of magic. And many times if it's poison it's also acidic and vice versa. Though when it comes to some things, how close the two are is weird (mechanical enemies especially, some can be poisoned by a Hunter's Serpent Sting but others are immune, while they can all be harmed by acids; some enemies that are caustic piles of goo can be poisoned but are immune to other types of Nature damage; if you get hit by an acid attack chances are you'll also be poisoned for a duration of time; there's also poison attacks that don't actually poison but only do instant damage, acid attacks that don't do damage but lower your armor and poison that doesn't damage but lowers your speed [in fact one boss battle in the Trial of the Crusader involves having to remove one Jormungar Worm's Paralyzing Poison with another Jormungar's Burning Bile, an acid countering a poison]).

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • SCP Foundation:
    • SCP-875 ("War Criminals"): SCP-875-1 are small flying insects about six centimeters long. They have a sting which injects a venom that is highly acidic and does serious damage to tendons and nerves.
    • SCP-955 ("Mr. Sillybug"): If a specimen is threatened or startled, it will spray a corrosive mucus up to several meters away. The mucus contains a neurotoxin that causes severe pain on contact with flesh.

    Western Animation 
  • Classic Disney Shorts: In Mickey's Garden, Mickey prepares an insecticide in his backyard and the broom he's using to stir it "burns" from being inside it.
  • Futurama: In one episode, Bender drops some drinks he mixed and right after he leaves they eat through the floor.
  • Looney Tunes: A common visual identifier of a potent poison has a character stirring it, lifting the spoon and watching it dissolve. This most often happens with horrible poisons, but also mysterious brews of the Jekyll & Hyde variety and Gargle Blasters.
  • A Miss Mallard Mystery: At the end of the opening titles someone poisons Miss Mallard's drink, her nephew knocks it over, and the drink dissolves the wooden table.
  • The Real Ghostbusters: Overdone to the point of parody where a poisoned cup of milk eats through several floors. Given that they're living through a mystery author's last novel, the surreality of it is intentional.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): Spider Bytez spits globs of venom that quickly dissolve objects it hits (and greatly hurts one of his own legs thanks to Raphael).
  • Tom and Jerry: When Tom brews up a poison, he'll typically stir it for a while and then lift out a swiftly-dissolving spoon.

    Real Life 
  • Animal venom:
    • Averted with snakes and lizards: while their venoms contain a variety of powerful toxins that can damage cells (cytotoxins), nerves (neurotoxins), and blood vessels (hemotoxins), these are only effective against living tissue. Since the epidermis (skin) is dead tissue, the venom has to somehow get past the skin to do any damage at all. Snakes do this by injecting their venom via their fangs, while the venomous lizards (Gila monster, beaded lizard, and some of the monitor lizards) bite first and then inject venom into the open wound. Even the powerful venom of the infamous "spitting" cobras can't penetrate the skin; cobra venom is a powerful irritant when it gets in the eyes, but it rarely if ever does any permanent damage, and there are no known cases of cobra venom getting from the eyes into the rest of the body.
    • Some species of spiders have similar venoms, such as the brown recluse spider, which acts to dissolve the flesh of the victim, which is extremely painful.
    • Nearly any spit-poison is acidic, as its primary function is usually to blind, which a normal poison wouldn't do.
    • Formic acid is the main ingredient in ant venom.
  • Hydrofluoric acid is very corrosive and highly toxic. It can diffuse through skin and spread fluorine around, creating all kinds of havoc — mainly by precipitation of calcium fluoride. It leeches the calcium from your bones. In other words, it melts your bones from the inside out. It'll also take calcium from your blood, which is even worse. Losing calcium from your bones weakens them. Losing calcium from your blood slows or stops your heart. Direct skin contact with even a small amount of hydrofluoric acid is rarely survivable without prompt treatment. Treatment that you're unlikely to get, because the human body also needs calcium to transmit pain signals, leaving many victims entirely unaware that they've even been exposed until it's too late to do much more than say "poor bastard" and start making funeral arrangements. Treatment for HF exposure is to soak the exposed skin in a calcium-rich solution immediately. That way, the HF goes for that calcium rather than the calcium in your bones and bloodstream. And you'll still want to go to the hospital.
  • Some poisons, most notably arsenic sulfides, will tarnish metallic silver (due to the sulfur, not the arsenic). This led to some royal families using silver spoons to detect poison.
  • Concentrated potassium cyanide solutions are poisonous and corrosive for steel, copper and some other metals. With help of air, even gold may be dissolved.
  • Vesicants (blister agents) are poisons that are not normally corrosive to nonliving matter, but corrode and burn flesh, leaving nasty chemical burns and blisters. Typical examples are mustard gas and giant hogweed sap. It should be noted that the sap of various hogweeds creates burns when it comes into contact with UV light - chemicals in the sap can make one's skin hypersensitive to sunlight - a condition known as phytophotodermatitis. To make things worse, the same condition can be caused by celery, various citrus fruits, rues, wild carrots and other similar plants.
  • Chlorine gas is poisonous to inhale precisely because it's a strong oxidizer. Iron will burn in chlorine. Fluorine is an even more powerful oxidizer. Both are extremely dangerous in many forms because they are capable of oxidizing things which have already been oxidized - and some fluorine compounds can be used to set asbestos on fire. Metal-fluorine fires are impossible to extinguish until the metal or fluorine runs out. Chlorine trifluoride is used to process uranium and to make computer chips. It is worse than the pure halogens. It sets sand on fire — and often produces chlorine, fluorine, and hydrofluoric acid as byproducts of melting and burning its way through things. You handle it by keeping it inside specially-prepared metal containers. If the stuff gets loose, it will spontaneously react "with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers".
  • Bromine is a weaker oxidizer than fellow halogens chlorine and fluorine, but it's a liquid, which means it is normally much more concentrated and more easily absorbed by skin. It is toxic, corrosive and easily evaporated, which means your lungs are also in danger, just like with flourine and chlorine.
  • Oxygen is a very potent oxidizer and extremely toxic to organisms whose metabolism doesn't depend on it. Because of its abundance in Earth's atmosphere, most things which live on the surface, and most materials present on the surface, are already oxidized or resistant to oxidation. Even still, highly concentrated oxygen - about five times that of the partial pressure of oxygen on earth - is dangerous to living creatures over long periods of time, causing fluid accumulation in the lungs, likely due to the presence of free radicals, which, when excessively concentrated, overwhelm the body's natural ability to repair damage. Pure oxygen at atmospheric pressure can led to extremely vigorous combustion, including of materials which are not particularly flammable under ordinary conditions.
  • The synthetic narcotic "krokodil" (disturbing image warning). So called because the skin around the injection site often becomes dry and flaky, like the skin of a crocodile, because it is so acidic. note  This stuff can result in flesh rotting and corroding right off, right down to the bone. For more absolute horror, it is incredibly addictive, which means that using it once may prevent you from stopping even as your skin rots off. Most krokodil users don't live more than 3 years after they start using it, and those that do survive and manage to stop are often permanently disfigured. Note that the corrosivity of krokodil comes from the half-assed chemical technology used by the uneducated, unskilled addicts. The pure desomorphine alkaloid that can be extracted from raw krokodil has no such effects, it's essentially the same thing as heroin. One of the problems of krokodil use is that the high doesn't last very long, forcing users to keep cooking and injecting it again and again, exacerbating the damage.
  • Long-term methamphetamine use can damage teeth, cause skin lesions, and so on. These effects are generally not the result of pure methamphetamine — they are from the corrosive chemicals used to produce the methamphetamine that were not removed from the final product. Methamphetamine itself, however, is neurotoxic and can cause nervous system damage.
  • There's a reason why the bleeding nose is a sign of a cocaine addict – prolonged cocaine use through snorting can cause damage to the inside of the nose, including the dissolution of the nasal septum. Part of this is because cocaine is a potent vasoconstrictor, and part of it is because powdered cocaine is in the form of a hydrochloride salt and its dissolution can cause the freed hydrochloric acid to get to work on the user's nasal tissue.
  • Cashew nut shells are saturated with skin-irritating, phenolic oil. Which is only corrosive to skin, not metal, as some people claim for cheap shocks. And one of its numerous uses is in medicine. Thus says Paracelsus: Everything is poison, and nothing is, for it's the dose that makes a poison.
  • Hydrogen sulphide is a highly toxic gas which can also corrode many metals, especially steel, by reacting with them to form metal sulphides. This causes many problems is places such as sewers, where losses due to corrosion are estimated at $14 billion per year in the USA. However, this can also serve as a method of diagnosing H2S poisoning, as coins in the pockets of the victim will discolour when exposed to high levels of H2S. One of the most insidious things about H2S is how it quickly numbs your ability to smell it, so you may think that you've escaped to an area with fresh air when in actuality you are still breathing it in. As such, workers in environments where exposure can easily occur from leaking equipment (such as in oil refineries) are required to wear personal H2S detectors on them at all times.
  • The bloodroot plant is so named because of its bright orange-red sap, which contains a poison that kills animal cells, so like some other Real Life examples it outright rots living tissue. Some have made this plant's juices into a salve for treating such things as cancer or skin conditions, which predictably eats away at the user's flesh. This can easily cause permanent and gruesome damage.

Alternative Title(s): Poison Is Acid

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