History Main / FriendlyFireproof

* Averted in ''TotalWar'': Archers firing on units in combat will not only kill those on their own side, but also hurt their morale.
** Ditto for artillery, which is why putting cannons behind your infantry in ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'' is not the best idea. Unfortunately, the AI will occasionally fire cannons at targets, even if there are friendlies in the line of fire. This may be actually used against the enemy.
* ''Inverted'' in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' RTS ''DawnOfWar'': Imperial Guard Commissars can raise the morale of all nearby friendly units by executing one of their own men during battle. In addition, certain artillery units also do damage to nearby friendly units.
** Used...randomly in ''DawnOfWar 2''. Frag grenades harm friendly squads but the grenadier's squad is impervious. Stun grenades do not affect allies at all. Explosives and artillery harm everyone, but rocket launchers are safe, as well as plasma guns (but not plasma cannons) and flamers. All bolter weapons are safe. Area-effect concussion attacks, like a squad of Assault Marines plummeting from the sky, or a slam on the ground by a huge Dreadnought (that levels ''buildings'') are also inexplicably selective.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' also uses the teleportation effect. In fact, it's standard for summons in the whole ''FinalFantasy'' series.

** To say nothing of [[LimitBreak Hi-Ougi]]. You can become a whirling torrent of massive energy blades, fire a gigantic laser across the battlefield, call down comets from space, [[SummonMagic call out an elemental]], and all sorts of other very impressive flashy things. But, like ''FinalFantasy'', your allies disappear beforehand so it's okay! Then again, normal weapon attacks and spells treat allies like they just don't exist.

'''Rosalind''': You missed.\\

* In ''Videogame/BioshockInfinite'', shooting at the Luteces simply cause them to remark that you missed, even if you hit them at point-blank range. [[spoiler:It's justified in that they exist outside of reality due to a FreakLabAccident and are essentially {{Physical God}}s.]]

* ''StarWarsBattlefront II'' gives you the option to turn off friendly fire. Do it, and watch as the AI units on your side suddenly become more effective.

* Averted in ''StarCraft''; if a nuclear strike is launched, the explosion heavily damages everything in range, friendly or not. Siege tanks in siege mode also hit allies caught in close combat with their targets. Strangely, Reaver scarabs do not, despite the guide saying that they do. This is usually used as a balancing agent, as skilled play can cause Siege Tanks to kill each other. This involves rushing them with melee units; shots meant for the melee attackers have unpleasant consequences for the nearby Tank. And blind use of Psi Storm can have equally unpleasant consequences. Because the AI on Reaver scarabs is perhaps the dumbest AI ever put into a game, they decided to go easy on you and keep it from killing your units. However, single-targeting ranged attacks onto enemies which are literally next to allies has no chance for friendly fire.
** Friendly Fire is almost a racial trait in SC. The Terrans, a more rugged, down-to-earth species with barely functional equipment, can't really make explosions that discriminate. The Protoss, a more enlightened, evolved race, can and does.
** However, all friendly fireproof splash damage attacks will damage units owned by allied players.
** The sequel has an upgrade for tanks in the campaign which reduces friendly splash damage by 75%

** ''CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'' has three OneHitPolykill units in the form of Ghoststalker with his handheld railgun, the Mammoth Mark II with it's mecha-sized railgun and the disruptor's sonic beams which will not discriminate fellow GDI units in their firing lines, save for the distruptors which are immune to other distruptors, making a rush with them quite viable.

* Dominator guns in {{Psychopass}} automatically change settings (Executioner or Nonlethal Paralyzer) or lock up depending on the target's Psycho Pass. Most of the plot is set in motion by Makishima creating a way to bypass this.

** One fun thing to do is set up three computers vs you and turn on {{Friendly Fire|Index}}. Most of the time, all you have to do is stay out of range and watch as HilarityEnsues. Of course, the console may do it by itself: GangUpOnTheHuman At some difficulty levels, free-for-alls with computers actualy behave like team battles with friendly fire on.]]

** One fun thing to do is set up three computers vs you and turn on {{Friendly Fire|Index}}. Most of the time, all you have to do is stay out of range and watch as HilarityEnsues.

* Somewhat unusually for the series, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII: RevenantWings'' has this. No ReviveKillsZombie for you!

** However, non-area-of-effect ranged attacks have the two options of either hitting an enemy or missing, even if targeting enemies engaging with allies in a melee.

** Used...randomly in ''DawnOfWar 2''. Frag grenades harm friendly squads but the grenadier's squad is impervious. Stun grenades do not affect allies at all. Explosives and artillery harm everyone, but rocket launchers are safe, as well as plasma guns and flamers. All bolter weapons are safe. Area-effect concussion attacks, like a squad of Assault Marines plummeting from the sky, or a slam on the ground by a huge Dreadnought (that levels ''buildings'') are also inexplicably selective.

* The ''GundamVsSeries'' averts this. You can't directly target your partner, but friendly attacks still cause harm. This can be a problem if, for example, your AI partner decides to nuke the enemy with whom you are currently exchanging melee blows.

* In ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' double battles (ones in which each trainer uses two Pokemon at once) some attacks hit only one opponent, some hit both opponents but with the power divided amongst each other, and some hit both opponents and the other Pokemon on the same side for full power (and you can tell this by which ones are glowing when you pick the attack).
** Some players can use this to their advantage, if one of their Pokemon has an ability that would make it benefit from or immune to its ally's attack. If you can hit your enemies at the same time, well...
*** There are some ways to actually benefit from this. Pairing a Flying-type with a Pokemon that knows Earthquake allows to you damage both opponents, but Flying-type Pokemon are immune to Ground-type attacks. In a similar vein, Flying-types can use Fly to avoid attacks like Surf, which damages everyone but the user.
*** In another similar vein, Pokemon with the ability Levitate are immune to ground attacks,also allowing the pairing with an Earthquake user to work. Probably the best known example of this is Bronzong.
*** The Telepathy ability specifically makes a Pokemon impervious to attacks that target both friend and foe.
*** Abilities that absorb a certain element of attack, such as Flash Fire or Water Absorb take it one step farther, where instead of just missing your teammate your attack with buff them up instead of doing damage. Two Fire types with both possessing Flash Fire and Lava Plume is a very scary thing.

* Present in ''VideoGame/Warframe'', flame weapons and AOE uber attacks cause no damage to Tenno. In the recent Gravidius Divide event, this extends even to factions the Tenno are temporarily allied with.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' has no friendly fire because, as the game designers said in an update note, "the game breaks fundamentally with it turned on." One main reason for this is the fact that the only way to root out Spies that may be disguised as teammates is to shoot every ally you find and see if they die. And, let's face it, everyone would HATE the Soldiers and Pyros on their team.
** ''Team Fortress 2'' has the same friendly-fire switch as Counter-Strike does; it's just disabled by default. Flamethrowers and flare guns, as well as any items that are ''supposed'' to be used on teammates for beneficial effects, are always immune to causing friendly fire. As is the Huntsman, presumably because it could theoretically be used to set a teammate on fire as well.
** However, players can hurt themselves. It's what allows players to RocketJump. If the projectile/explosion/bullet belongs to you, you take damage from it, though it may be reduced (rockets, stickies), full (sentry guns), or even ''increased'' (Detonator). Reflected enemy projectiles are treated the same way, so a Pyro can theoretically kill himself with a reflected rocket or pipe bomb.
*** With the weapons in the Engineer update, the Engineer can control his sentry and fire rockets with secondary fire. This allows the engineer to rocket jump and access places that only Demomen and Soldiers could rocket/sticky jump to. A clever Spy can also trick a Sentry into killing its own Engineer, who does take damage from it even with Friendly Fire turned off.
** There are even a couple weapons that can hit allies, but have completely different effects: the Crusader's Crossbow acts a normal weapon or HealingShiv depending on the target, while the Jarate, Mad Milk, and airblast extinguished allied characters on fire.

This is largely an [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Acceptable Break From Reality]] because it'd be cumbersome to hold off your team's strongest attacks for fear of blowing one of your members up. It could also be considered as keeping you in-character; the person you're playing as wouldn't shoot their squadmates, so giving the player that ability would be a matter of GameplayAndStorySegregation. Still, it can get ridiculous at times, as some of the examples below testify; this is especially true if you ''are'' allowed to kill civilians or other friendly targets (including ''yourself''), and ''only'' your squadmates are immune to your idiocy.

** VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon has some attacks, like Earthquake, that hit everyone in the same room.
*** Of course, there are IQ powers that make it so you cannot hurt allies unless confused.

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** In the ''{{Disgaea}}'' series, characters are incapable of damaging themselves with their own area attacks, but anyone else is free game. However, there's an evility in 3 and 4 makes the user friendly fire proof.