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Health

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Revision as of 00:10, 17 May 2018 by GHB (talk | contribs) (Old games like KDL2 also have a situation where dealing damage that is at least 1 unit actually deals varying loss of bars.)
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Artwork of a Vitality Heart, an item which increases maximum Stamina from Kirby: Squeak Squad.

Stamina (also referred to as HP, Health, Life or Vitality) refers to the amount of damage Kirby or another entity can sustain before being defeated or otherwise losing. The concept of stamina has been in the series since its first iteration and has recurred in nearly every game since then. It usually appear on the top or bottom of the screen on the Heads-up display.

Stamina by entity

Kirby and other playable characters

In early games in the series, Kirby had distinct bars of stamina, 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, 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' stamina 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 stamina.

In most games in the series, a high-pitched beeping noise plays when Kirby reaches a significantly low threshold to his stamina, warning the unknown reader of the situation. In later games, such as Kirby's Return to Dream Land, having sufficiently low stamina would also cause Kirby or his friends to adopt an exhausted look when standing still, and cause their portraits to sweat and exhibit sad expressions.

Some titles, including Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, allow Kirby to extend his maximum stamina by collecting special items in the levels. Other titles have Extra Games which reduce Kirby's maximum stamina to increase the challenge.

Standard enemies

Apart from a select few games in the series, enemies' stamina is not shown to the unknown reader. However, each enemy has a specific amount of stamina, just like Kirby or a boss, and the enemy is defeated when its stamina 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 stamina is displayed to the unknown reader on the HUD, often overlapping a previous display to avoid taking up extra space on the screen. Despite earlier bosses showing their stamina as discrete units, it may in fact take several hits to deplete one unit of their stamina, 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 stamina than the game could display, thus representing them as approximate health percentage to the nearest unit. Bosses in particular typically have a very high stamina, and will take numerous hits to defeat. Some of them may not necessarily be defeated when their stamina 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 stamina they have remaining.

In Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Kirby Star Allies, bosses will have more Stamina if more friends are fighting. Additionally, Bosses almost always have less stamina when fought in The Arena and The True Arena.

Other

Some other entities in the series have stamina, 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