History Main / LifeDrain

* ''[[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/72301/1-lifesteal/ 1% Lifesteal]]'' was a gamble on Freddy's part, but it turns out to be quite a useful power. Healing for 1% of the damage you have inflicted is too small to be very useful during combat, but harming enemies is so broadly defined that he can repair a broken bone just by cutting grass and smashing branches. He even gets a small healing pulse by ''eating raw fruit''.

* ''Literature/{{Tempest}}'': In ''Tempest Revealed'', Tempest does a life drain on her own allies in order to gather enough energy for an attack on [[BigBad Tiamat]].

** Absorb (as well as its upgrades, Mega Drain and Giga Drain), Dream Eater, Drain Punch, Horn Leech, Leech Life, Leech Seed, Draining Kiss, Parabolic Charge, and Oblivion Wing all give their user health while damaging the enemy,

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'': Ragna the Bloodedge's [[ArtifactOfDoom Azure Grimoire]] requires living souls in order to function. In a case of GameplayAndStoryIntegration, his drive's name is called "Soul Eater" and any time he strikes an opponent with his drive attacks, he drains their health and adds it to his own.

** Like in [[VideoGame/Borderlands1 the prequel]], Transfusion grenades explode into a cluster of projectiles that [[{{Roboteching}} home in on enemies]], deal damage (in ''[=BL2=]'''s case, with the grenade's elemental effect), and spawn heal orbs that home in towards the thrower or their allies.

* In the third ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' game, Nevan the succubus-like witch has a special move that she only uses when her health is low, which has her teleport behind Dante for an attempted KissOfDeath that deals high damage to Dante and recharges hea health to almost full in a single move.

* ''VideoGame/Dota2'': Couple heroes have abilities like this, but any hero can enjoy Lifesteal and Spell Lifesteal effects with appropriate items.
** Pugna's ultimate ability is named exactly this and functions appropriately. While it requires channeling, if uninterrupted can easily drain all but the beefiest of heroes from full health to 0 and switch to another sorry fool thanks to its low cooldown (which is completely nullified with Aghanim's Scepter). Its healing values are tied to damage at a rate of 1 to 1 (and even better with a talent), so using it on magic resistant enemies yields almost nothing, but Life Draining targets weak to magic damage, such as those affected by Decrepify (another of Pugna's abilities) or Dagon's active ability, means Pugna can outheal less coordinated attacks while in turn killing those trying to kill him. Also converts gained health to mana if Pugna is already topped off on [=HP=].
** Bane's Brain Sap used to be an ability that simulated the life drain effect by simply healing Bane at the same moment it damaged a target enemy, but it's been changed to actually depend on damage dealt as well. Brain Sap is instant, putting him at less risk compared to Pugna, but with less rewards.
** Death Prophet has Life Siphon, which somes with multiple charges and is not channeled, but still requires time and proximity to deal its damage and requires different targets - you can't just blow all of them at one target at once. Its design encourages her to go deep into the fight and spend its 4 casts on enemy heroes while ripping them apart with Exorcism, balancing on the knife's edge. Exorcism itself also heals based off of damage it deals, but the "harvest" only comes into play after the ghosts return to Death Prophet and the Exorcism cannot be ended prematurely for emergency healing.

** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'': You can learn the Drain Vitality [[MakeMeWannaShout Shout]] (which absorbs the Health, Magicka, and Fatigue of the target) as part of the ''Dawnguard'' DLC.

* In ''Videogame/EarthBound'', [[GadgeteerGenius Jeff's]] HP-sucker machine does this to a single enemy, though it has a chance of failure each time it's used. Its souped-up version, the Hungry HP-sucker, does this to ''all'' enemies in a battle, though like the previous model it also has a chance of failure.

* ''VideoGame/{{Onmyoji}}'':

Subtrope of LiquidAssets. Related to ManaDrain. The exact opposite of CastFromHitPoints. For the non video game mechanic version, see VampiricDraining. This may fall under BadPowersBadPeople, given that it involves destroying other people to empower oneself.

* ''VideoGame/BloodKnights'' sees you playing as Jeremy a {{dhampyr}} and Alyssa the vampire. Both of you can execute enemies by draining blood, which increases your own health in the process; for the latter draining life is literally the ''only'' method of health gain for her.