Health
- This article is about the amount of damage Kirby and others can sustain in the games. For the heart-shaped item that increases Kirby's maximum health bar in certain games, see Vitality.
Health (also referred to as HP, Stamina, Life or Vitality) refers to the amount of damage Kirby or another entity can sustain before being defeated or otherwise losing. The concept of health has been in the series since its first iteration and has recurred in nearly every game since then. It usually appears on the top or the bottom of the screen on the Heads-up display.
Health by entity
Kirby and other playable characters
In early games in the series, Kirby had distinct bars of health, and anything that dealt him damage (and was not immediately fatal) took exactly one point away. The only exception were Gordos, which dealt a much more painful three bars of damage, and Dark Mind's (second form) laser attack, which can deal 2 units of damage. As such, some restorative items tended to also heal in these discrete fashions, with Energy Drinks restoring a small number of bars, and Maxim Tomatoes restoring all of them.
In later games, starting with Kirby Super Star, and most games since then, Kirby and his allies' health is represented not as discrete bars, but as one continuous bar. In addition, damage sources could vary in severity, with some hits dealing minor damage, taking only a small portion away, and others dealing a comparatively large amount of damage. In addition, smaller Food items such as cherries would appear in these titles, to heal minor amounts of health.
In most games in the series, a high-pitched beeping noise plays when Kirby reaches a significantly low threshold to his health, warning the player of the situation. In later games, such as Kirby's Return to Dream Land, having sufficiently low health would also cause Kirby or his friends to adopt an exhausted look when standing still, and cause their portraits to sweat and exhibit sad or tired expressions.
Some titles, including Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, allow Kirby to extend his maximum health by collecting special items in the levels. Other titles have Extra Modes which reduce Kirby's maximum health to increase the challenge.
In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, if Kirby is at full health and has not taken any damage for a certain amount of time, his health bar will temporarily disappear from the HUD until he takes damage.
The following table lists the health values of playable characters in some titles:
| Health of playable character | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game | HP | Notes | ||
| Kirby's Dream Land | 6 | Takes more damage in Extra Mode. | ||
| Kirby's Adventure | 6 | Becomes 3 in Extra Mode. | ||
| Kirby's Dream Land 2 | 6 | |||
| Kirby Super Star | 70 (Kirby) | Helpers' HP varies. | ||
| Kirby's Dream Land 3 | 10 | Shown as 5 bars, each containing 2 HP. Summoning Gooey takes 1 bar from Kirby, giving both players 4 bars (8 HP). | ||
| Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards | 6 | |||
| Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble | 6 (10 during boss fights) | Shown as 3 bars, each containing 2 HP. | ||
| Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land | 6 | Becomes 3 in Extra Mode and Meta Knightmare. | ||
| Kirby & The Amazing Mirror | 6 | Each Vitality adds 1 (+4 in total). | ||
| Kirby: Canvas Curse | 4 (Kirby and Waddle Dee) 7 (King Dedede) 3 (Meta Knight) 5 (Waddle Doo) |
|||
| Kirby: Squeak Squad | 36 | Each Vitality adds 4 (+16 in total). If the current HP is more than 1, Kirby will always survive at 1 HP when taking damage that is more than his current HP. | ||
| Kirby Super Star Ultra | 76 (Kirby) 72 (Rocky) 64 (Sword Knight) 62 (Bio Spark, Capsule J2 and Poppy Bros. Jr.) 58 (Birdon, Blade Knight, Bonkers, Burning Leo, Bugzzy, Gim, Knuckle Joe, Parasol Waddle Dee, Plasma Wisp, Simirror, Sir Kibble and Tac) 54 (Chilly and Wheelie) 50 (Meta Knight) 47 (Waddle Doo) |
Helpers' HP differs in Helper to Hero. | ||
| Kirby Mass Attack | 2 (each Kirby) | Kirby turns blue when 1 HP remains. | ||
| Kirby's Return to Dream Land | 40 (Kirby) 50 (King Dedede) 36 (Meta Knight) 40 (Bandana Waddle Dee) |
Multiplied by 0.6 in Extra Mode. If the current HP is 50% or below, damage taken will be reduced by 20%. If the current HP is 25% or below, damage taken will be reduced by 40%. If the current HP is 12.5% or more when taking an otherwise fatal blow, the character will always survive at 1 HP. | ||
| Kirby: Triple Deluxe | 40 | Applies to both Kirby and King Dedede. If the current HP is 50% or below, damage taken will be reduced by 20%. If the current HP is 25% or below, damage taken will be reduced by 40%. If the current HP is 12.5% or more when taking an otherwise fatal blow, the character will always survive at 1 HP. Adds 2 for each time the character is defeated by a boss (up to +8; reset after leaving a stage). | ||
| Kirby and the Rainbow Curse | 4 (Kirby) 2 (each Waddle Dee) |
Scanning a King Dedede amiibo increases Kirby's maximum HP to 6. | ||
| Kirby: Planet Robobot | 45 | Applies to both Kirby and Meta Knight. If the current HP is 50% or below, damage taken will be reduced by 20%. If the current HP is 25% or below, damage taken will be reduced by 40%. If the current HP is 12.5% or more when taking an otherwise fatal blow, the character will always survive at 1 HP. Adds 2 for each time the character is defeated by a boss (up to +8; reset after leaving a stage). | ||
| Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn | 5 | Health indicated by Life Pieces; only in Devilish Mode | ||
| Kirby Star Allies | 45 (Kirby) 42 (King Dedede and The Three Mage-Sisters) 40 (Bandana Waddle Dee, Dark Meta Knight, Daroach, Magolor, Marx, Meta Knight, Rick & Kine & Coo, Rocky and Susie) 35 (Beetley, Bonkers, Bugzzy, Burning Leo, Taranza and Vividria) 30 (Birdon, Blade Knight, Broom Hatter, Chef Kawasaki, Chilly, Como, Driblee, Gim, Gooey, Jammerjab, Knuckle Joe, Parasol Waddle Dee, Plugg, Poppy Bros. Jr., Sir Kibble, Waddle Doo and Wester) 25 (Bio Spark and NESP) 20 (Adeleine & Ribbon) |
Kirby's HP amount is fixed at 45 in most modes and lvls. 1-4 and Soul Melter EX of The Ultimate Choice. Friend HP amounts differ between most modes and The Ultimate Choice difficulty levels. | ||
| Kirby and the Forgotten Land | 400 (Spring-Breeze Mode) 250 (Wild Mode)[1] |
Applies to both Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee. By using Life Up or getting a random effect from Deep Sleep, the character's HP is doubled via getting an extra life bar, but cannot exceed double the normal amount. If the current HP is 50% or below, damage taken will be reduced by 20%. If the current HP is 30% or below, damage taken will be reduced by 30%. If the current HP is 20 or more when taking an otherwise fatal blow, the character will always survive at 1 HP. Morpho Knight Sword can increase the threshold with the amount of lifesteal, the maximum threshold at 50. The threshold resets if Kirby uses Sleep or enters a different room. | ||
Standard enemies
Apart from a select few games in the series, enemies' health is not shown to the player. However, each enemy has a specific amount of health, just like Kirby or a boss, and the enemy is defeated when its health reaches zero. Most enemies have little constitution, but large or hardy foes like Rocky and Degout may take several hits to defeat.
Bosses and mid-bosses
In most every game in the series when a boss or mid-boss is encountered, its health is displayed to the player on the HUD, often overlapping a previous display to avoid taking up extra space on the screen. Despite earlier bosses showing their health as discrete units, it may in fact take several hits to deplete one unit of their health, as is the case with the boss Kabula or that the number of units loss from the same damage doesn't always lose the same amount of bars, this is because these bosses have more health than the game could display, thus representing them as approximate health percentage to the nearest unit. Bosses in particular typically have a very high health, and will take numerous hits to defeat. Some of them may not necessarily be defeated when their health bar is emptied, instead taking on a new form or phase and displaying a new bar to drain. Others, particularly in later games, will enter different phases of attacks depending on how much health they have remaining.
From Kirby's Return to Dream Land onward, bosses almost always have less health when fought in The Arena, The True Arena, The Ultimate Choice and the Colosseum, usually multiplied by 0.75.
Multi-player modifier
Kirby Super Star / Kirby Super Star Ultra
In Kirby Super Star and Kirby Super Star Ultra, bosses will have their health multiplied by 1.3 if a helper is present before the boss health bar loads.
Kirby's Dream Land 3
In Kirby's Dream Land 3, damage taken by bosses will be multiplied by 0.8 if Gooey is present.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land
In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, bosses will take less damage if more friends are fighting, multiplied by a certain amount depending on how many players are present during the battle.
| Number of Players | Modifier |
|---|---|
| 1 | ×1.0 |
| 2 | ×0.8 |
| 3 | ×0.75 |
| 4 | ×0.7 |
Kirby Star Allies
In Kirby Star Allies, bosses will take less damage if more friends are fighting, multiplied by a certain amount depending on how many players are present during the battle. The multipliers differ depending on the mode.
| Number of Players | Main Modes | The Ultimate Choice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ×1.0 | ×1.0 |
| 2 | ×0.75 | ×0.875 |
| 3 | ×0.6 | ×0.8 |
| 4 | ×0.5 | ×0.75 |
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, damage taken by bosses will be multiplied by 0.6 if Bandana Waddle Dee is present.[1]
Handicap after losing to bosses
Starting in Kirby: Triple Deluxe and persisting in every main series game since then alongside spin-offs such as Kirby Fighters Deluxe and Kirby Fighters 2, every time Player 1 loses against a mid-boss or boss, the boss's maximum health decreases and their cool-down between attacks becomes longer to lower the difficulty. This handicap will be kept, even after continuing from a Game Over, until the boss is beaten or the player quits the game.
Kirby: Triple Deluxe to Kirby Fighters 2
| Number of Losses | Boss Maximum Health |
|---|---|
| 1 | 90% |
| 2 | 75% |
| 3 | 65% |
| 4 | 55% |
| 5+ | 45% |
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
| Number of Losses | Boss Maximum Health[1] | |
|---|---|---|
| Spring-Breeze Mode |
Wild Mode | |
| 1 | 90% | 100% |
| 2 | 75% | 90% |
| 3 | 65% | 75% |
| 4 | 55% | 65% |
| 5 | 45% | 55% |
| 6+ | 35% | 45% |
Other
Some other entities in the series have health, such as items and vehicles. In Kirby Air Ride, each vehicle has a set amount of HP, which can be drained or augmented in modes such as City Trial. When a vehicle's HP reaches zero, it explodes, which has various consequences depending on the mode being played.
Trivia
- So far, there are two games in the Kirby series which do not employ health for Kirby under any circumstance. The first is Kirby's Epic Yarn, as here, getting hit or falling in a pit simply results in losing beads. The second is Kirby's Dream Buffet, as Kirby merely gets bumped away by anything that hits him, and falling out of bounds (or getting Screen KO'd by Invincible Candy) will only result in lost time (or lost strawberries in Battle Royale modes).
- In Kirby: Triple Deluxe, when Hypernova Kirby inhales Flowery Woods and Flowered Sectonia, their Health meters also peel off, and fly into Kirby's mouth. This is breaking the fourth wall as intended to emphasize how strong the attack is and the 3D stereoscopic screen of the Nintendo 3DS.
- So far, the boss with the most health in Kirby series history is King D-Mind's Revenge from Super Kirby Clash, with 3,039,600 HP. Note that the Kirby Clash series uses a different health and damage system from the main series, with even the weakest boss, the Colossal Waddle Dee, having 13,000 HP.
- The boss with the most health in any single non-shoot 'em up battle from the main series is the first form of Chaos Elfilis from Kirby and the Forgotten Land, with 3,400 HP (for scale, a Star Bullet does 80 damage in this title).
- The boss with the most health in any single shoot 'em up battle from the main series is Zero from Kirby's Dream Land 3, with 4,080 HP (for scale, the Love-Love Stick does 32 damage).
Gallery
Kirby's health bar and a mid-boss's health bar at the bottom of the screen in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land.
Kirby's health bar in Kirby: Triple Deluxe
Dedede's health bar in Dededetour!
Kirby's health bar with the Smash Bros. ability in Kirby: Planet Robobot
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| French | Vitalité | Vitality |
| German | Vitalität | Vitality |
| Spanish | Vitalidad | Vitality |
