History Main / AntiRegeneration

* In ''Manga/SoulHunter'', Chou Koumei's OneWingedAngel allows him to regenerate and, at the same time, grow even more by spreading his seeds around. Taikoubo ultimately does him in by using his reborn [[BlowYouAway Dashinben]] to freeze him with incredibly icy winds from beyond the stratosphere.

** [[spoiler:Deadpool vs. Deathstroke]]: Both fighters had regeneration, but the former's was far superior to the latter's. And even discounting that, the [[spoiler:Carbonadium sword of Deadpool's is capable of removing Deathstroke's healing factor, allowing the Merc with a Mouth to decapitate him]].

** [[spoiler:Venom vs. Bane]]: While both combatants have healing factors, [[spoiler:Bane's comes from his Venom tube, which the Venom Symbiote punctures, disabling the healing factor]].

** [[spoiler:Shadow vs. Ryuko]]: The latter's BioAugmentation gave her a healing factor that allowed her to recover from the likes of impalement and bisection near-instantaneously. [[spoiler:Fortunately for Shadow, he had the speed and the destructive output to bypass her regenerative abilities and completely vaporize her.]]
** [[spoiler:Lex Luthor vs. Doctor Doom]]: [[spoiler:Lex's Warsuit is powered by a Mother Box, which is able to reform the Warsuit instantly should it be destroyed. Doom ends up siphoning the Mother Box's power, allowing him to destroy the Warsuit for good.]]
** [[spoiler:Steven Universe vs. Star Butterfly]]: The former is [[spoiler:capable of accelerated healing thanks to his part-gem physiology. However, Star's magic powers are capable of overcoming his healing, allowing her to disintegrate him and shatter his gem]].

** A way of "distracting" the healing factor could be used, as in many instances, the regeneration power focuses on the most grave threat and moves on to lesser threats when those are dealt with. A powerful toxin, disease, or radiation poisoning might take the full strength of the healing ability to combat, leaving the body vulnerable to more mundane damage like wounds, contusions, and bone breaks.

* Lina in ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' once killed a bunch of trolls by casting a spell on them to reverse their regenerative abilities, then have Gourry throw small rocks at them because since their regeneration is so fast when reversed even the tiniest injury would destroy their body.

** The games have the Disease status effect, where healing items and spells will not work on afflicted characters until you cure it.
** ''VideoGame/WildArms3: [[spoiler: Leehalt infects Virginia with nanomachines. When she's part-way recovered, she's unable to use the vitality gauge to heal herself after battle in the next level.]]
** Also in ''VideoGame/WildArms3'' [[spoiler: Siegfried will regenerate health after every turn, unless you steal the Tear Drop from him first.]]

* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', all players and NPCs continuously regenerate health at all times. Against foes with very large HP pools, such as Giant Monsters and Archvillians, debuffs that reduce regeneration are an extremely effective tool.

* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', this was an unlisted (and often unnoticed) feature of the basic Dark Miasma attack/healing power, Twilight Grasp. In addition to its blatant effects (damaging weak enemies to heal allies, and debuffing the accuracy of enemies too powerful to easily hurt that way), it slips in a regeneration debuff too weak to be easily spotted. However, the debuff scaled upward with maximum health and regeneration rate, making it visibly impact giant monsters or bosses whose powersets emphasized that.

* PoisonousPerson: Toxins or pathogens can kill or [[PoisonIsCorrosive dissolve]] the target quickly or thoroughly enough to limit or stop regeneration entirely.

* ''Literature/TheCityOfBrass'': The {{poisoned|Weapons}} {{flam|ingSword}}es of ''zulfiqar'' blades kill with the slightest cut and can't be stopped by a Nahid HealingFactor or HealingHands. They're the signature weapon of the Geziri [[OurGeniesAreDifferent djinn]] tribe and were instrumental in overthrowing the Nahid bloodline's ruling dynasty.

** The Control Devil has a contract that shifts the injuries from any attack [[LiquidAssets onto another random person]]. A SWAT team keeps them temporarily incapacitated with ''rotating shifts'' of [[MultipleGunshotDeath automatic gunfire]]. Denji uses [[spoiler:a chainsaw made of Power's blood]] to disable them, and exploits [[SemanticSuperpower the wording of the contract]] by [[spoiler:butchering and ''[[EatingTheEnemy eating]]'' the corpse, which ([[AchievementsInIgnorance at least to Denji]]) does not qualify as "an attack" as he saw it as a way to "become one with [them]"]].

** Attacks that inflict SensoryOverload are highly usually effective. Exposing a target to bright lights, strong smells, or loud noises can be disorienting or outright painful enough to make a target surrender or flee just to make it stop. Particularly intense or sustained assaults may even render a target unconscious. Regenerators are particularly vulnerable to these methods: since they heal away injuries that these sensory overload can cause, [[ImmunityDisability they end up suffering the full effects of the attack for longer and with more intensity than a normal person would]].

** [[UltimateLifeForm Cell]] is the {{Trope Namer|s}} for FromASingleCell; he can regenerate from any amount of damage so long as a certain part of him remains at once[[labelnote:note]]What and how much depends on the version: In the manga and the Japanese version of the anime, it's a cluster of cells in his head, [[PlotHole even though Cell once regenerated everything above his torso]]. In the English dub of the anime, he says he can regenerate from ''any'' cell in his body. [[/labelnote]]. So the one way to beat him is to disintegrate him all at once.

** Devils, fiends, and hybrids [[HealItWithBlood are healed by blood]], but they can't feed themselves if they're dead, so it's mostly only a problem when someone else is around to bring them back. But when [[spoiler:Makima kills Power in front of Denji]] to traumatize the latter, the victim is [[LudicrousGibs mostly disintegrated]] from the waist up so it's immediately obvious they can't be fed anything to recover.
** The Control Devil has a contract that shifts the injuries from any attack [[LiquidAssets onto another random person]]. Denji uses [[spoiler:a chainsaw made of Power's blood]] to disable them, and exploits [[SemanticSuperpower the wording of the contract]] by [[spoiler:butchering and ''[[EatingTheEnemy eating]]'' the corpse, which ([[AchievementsInIgnorance at least to Denji]]) does not qualify as "an attack" as he saw it as a way to "become one with [them]"]].

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', there's the Nichirin Blades, the signature weapons of the Demon Slayer Corps. Demons in this setting are supernatural creatures with healing abilities so potent that they recover from almost any injury quickly. One of the only things that can kill them is [[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]], forcing them to be active only at night or indoors. Nichirin blades are weapons made of special ore that mimics the properties of sunlight. A Nichirin weapon won't shut down a demon's regeneration entirely, but it can kill a demon if it [[OffWithHisHead cuts their head off]]. This is the only thing that lets the [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower highly trained, but [[BadassNormal otherwise normal]] Demon Slayers have fighting chance against their inhumanly powerful opponents. Later in the series a new tier of power is introduced to make the Nichirin Blades even deadlier, [[spoiler:the Crimson Blade state. In this state, the most powerful Demon Slayers can heat their swords at will to disrupt demonic regeneration no matter where the weapon cuts them. This is enough to seriously harm even the strongest demons in the plot.]]

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', there's the Nichirin Blades, the signature weapons of the Demon Slayer Corps. Demons in this setting are supernatural creatures with healing abilities so potent that they recover from almost any injury quickly. One of the only things that can kill them is [[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]], forcing them to be active only at night or indoors. Nichirin blades are weapons made of special ore that mimics the properties of sunlight, designed to allow the [[BadassNormal mostly normal]] Slayers to have a chance against their prey. A Nichirin weapon won't shut down all regeneration entirely, but can kill a demon if it [[OffWithHisHead cuts their head off]]. This is the only thing that lets the [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower highly trained, but [[BadassNormal otherwise normal]] Demon Slayers have fighting chance against their inhumanly powerful opponents. Later in the series a new tier of power is introduced to make the Nichirin Blades even deadlier, [[spoiler:the Crimson Blade state. In this state, the most powerful Demon Slayers can heat their swords at will to disrupt demonic regeneration no matter where the weapon cuts them. This is enough to seriously harm even the strongest demons in the plot.]]

** A way of "distracting" the healing factor could be used, as in many instances, the regeneration power focuses on the most grave threat and moves on to lesser threats when those are dealt with. So a powerful toxin, disease, or radiation poisoning might take the full strength of the healing ability to combat, leaving the body vulnerable to more mundane damage like wounds, contusions, and bone breaks.

** Containing body parts in a space too small for the full being to fit can often be enough to prevent regeneration. In the case of less fortunate regenerators, the body still heals, but only in a [[BodyHorror terribly mangled state]]. This assumes the target isn't strong enough to break the container in the process.

** Widespread cellular or molecular scale damage is often enough to cripple a more "mundane" regenerator as most biological healing methods do not address problems caused by such things properly.

** [[ForcedTransformation Transformation]] effects often bypass regeneration as no damage is technically being done to the body. Being TakenForGranite and shattered into shards of nonliving-but-[[AndIMustScream conscious]] stone is a common variation of this fate.

** Attacks that inflict SensoryOverload are highly usually effective. Exposing a target to bright lights, strong smells, or loud noises can be disorienting or outright painful enough to make a target surrender or flee just to make it stop. Particularly intense or sustained assaults may even render a target unconscious. Regenerators are particularly vulnerable to these methods: since they heal away injuries that these sensory overload can cause, [[ImmunityDisability they end up suffering the full effects of their attack for longer than a normal person would]].

** Attacks that inflict SensoryOverload are highly usually effective. Exposing a target to bright lights, strong smells, or loud noises can be disorienting or outright painful enough to make a target surrender or flee just to make it stop. Particularly intense or sustained assaults may even render a target unconscious. Regenerators are particularly vulnerable to these methods:[[ImmunityDisability their healing prevents damage to their sensory organs that would lessen the effect, prolonging their suffering]].

** Attacks that inflict SensoryOverload through bright lights, strong smells, or loud noises can be very effective. They ignore most regeneration effect and can prove to be so intolerable that the target would either escape or surrender just to make the pain stop. Particularly intense or sustained assaults may even render a target unconscious.
* Psychological assaults can be viable methods of attack as they ignore any physical defenses. This can be from using [[PsychicPowers psychics]] to [[MindRape attack the psyche directly]] or by using more mundane methods to attack target's senses or overall mental state until they are easily defeated with physical methods or outright surrender on their own without leaving a scratch on their bodies. In more benign cases, the "attack" may be a simple as [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking the regenerator into standing down]].