History Main / OxygenMeter

* In the first ''FarCry'', your SprintMeter doubles as a Oxygen meter. It makes sense, because if you sprint for an extended period of time, ''what'' are you going to have to catch?

* Most 3D ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games have one (With the exceptions being ''[[VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand 3D Land]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld 3D World]]'' which allow the player to swim indefinitely since they play closer to the 2D games). The original ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' makes the odd decision of using the LifeMeter in lieu of a separate oxygen meter, while still allowing you to catch your breath when surfacing, which basically means that you can refill your health for free by swimming around at the surface of any deep body of water, or continue holding your breath as long as you gather coins (which heal your life meter). ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' and both ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Galaxy]]'' [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 games]] use a separate oxygen meter (though coins still refill it when underwater, and in ''Sunshine'', it basically replaces your health meter while you're underwater).

* ''SteelBattalion: Line of Contact'' adds one in the form of your view whitening up when the cockpit hatch is closed and your VT is shut down (either manually by toggle switches, the Rapier's Stun Rod, or the Earthshaker's Gauss emitter). Go without oxygen for too long and the pilot asphyxiates, taking you out of the match even if you have enough sortie points for another VT and deleting your pilot data.

** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' have "Breath" meters; if the breath meter empties, the player's health begins to drain rapidly. Can be circumvented using a Water Breathing spell or playing as the [[LizardFolk Argonian]] race. ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' keeps the meter, but makes it invisible -- so the only indication that you've been underwater too long is when your health starts draining. ''Skyrim'' also removed the ability to cast spells underwater, so you can't just infinitely cast and re-cast water breathing spells to stay underwater longer. Unless you have a ton of waterbreathing potions or are playing as an Argonian, your oxygen meter ''will'' limit your time underwater. (Just don't think about how you're managing to drink potions underwater.)
** In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', there is a quest which requires you to [[FissionMailed drown yourself]]. Even [[GuideDangIt if you manage to figure out that you are meant to do this]], your character takes a fixed (and minor) amount of damage for each second that they are underwater without air, meaning that it can take a high-level character at full health a ridiculous amount of time to finally drown. You'd also better make sure to take off any health-regenerating items first.
** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', which use the same engine, inherit this effect from Oblivion as well. It drains worryingly quickly, followed by massive health loss. Although a character in New Vegas can gain SuperNotDrowningSkills with [[spoiler:the unique rebreather]], again based on the very same effect as Water Breathing in Oblivion.
** An interesting variation on this is that the meter is more and more forgiving as you increase your Endurance attribute.
** Amusingly, some creatures in New Vegas will follow you underwater, despite having their own oxygen meter.

* The first four 3D ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games have one (''[[VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand 3D Land]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld 3D World]]'' allow the player to swim indefinitely since they play closer to the 2D games). The original ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' makes the odd decision of using the LifeMeter in lieu of a separate oxygen meter, while still allowing you to catch your breath when surfacing, which basically means that you can refill your health for free by swimming around at the surface of any deep body of water, or continue holding your breath as long as you gather coins (which heal your life meter). ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' and both ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Galaxy]]'' [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 games]] use a separate oxygen meter (though coins still refill it when underwater, and in ''Sunshine'', it basically replaces your health meter while you're underwater).

** Two-dimensional games give the character an invisible oxygen meter, with a countdown from 5 to 0 followed by automatic death when it runs out (the indication of how much time remains is based on a [[NightmareFuel infamously-chilling]] [[ScareChord background music]] that plays gradually faster).

* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' has an air meter that appears and depletes gradually when your character enters water (or lava, but if you're swimming around in that you generally have [[ManOnFire other problems]]). It allows you a decent amount of time, and if you're doing a long stint of underwater mining, you can always dig into a wall to create your own air pockets. Certain pieces of equipment like the Diving Helmet or the Breathing Reed make the meter deplete more slowly (the Breathing Reed also allows breathing if the end is still above the surface). The game also provides the Gills Potion, which makes you start drowning in air instead of water, and Neptune's Shell, which turns you into a FishPerson and allows you to swim and breathe. Amusingly, if you attempt to equip a Fish Bowl as a helmet, you start drowning as if you were underwater. Which you kind of are, as far as breathing is concerned.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', diving while swimming normally only lasts for a few seconds before Link resurfaces. Equipping the Iron Boots in the former game lets Link stay underwater longer, in which case a timer based on how much health you have appears (unless you also equip the Zora Tunic, which lets you breathe underwater). These two items are important in the Water Temple. ''Majora's Mask'' merely requires Link wearing the Zora Mask to eliminate the swimming restrictions.

** Two-dimensional games give the character an invisible oxygen meter, with a countdown from 5 to 0 followed by automatic death when it runs out (the indication of how much time remains is based on a background music that plays gradually faster).

** Two-dimensional games give the character an invisible oxygen meter, with a countdown from 5 to 1 followed by automatic death when it runs out (the indication of how much time remains is based on a background music that plays gradually faster).

* An example without water: ''LEGO Franchise/RockRaiders'' had a meter measuring the remaining oxygen in the various caverns. Some levels had infinite oxygen, but in others it would be gradually consumed by your Rock Raiders. In those levels, building at least one Support Station is critical[[note]]also the victory condition in one level[[/note]], as it provides enough oxygen for up to nine miners to work worry-free.

** The first game, even though there is ''no'' reason to backtrack all the way to the heliport after acquiring the gas mask, took the time to distinguish between water and gas just in case [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything the player decided to take the gas mask all the way back to that briefly flooded air vent to see what happens if you wear it.]]

* DoujinSoft developer Creator/FoxEye takes this UpToEleven by having this mechanic in every last one of their games. This is mainly out of [[AuthorAppeal its lead designer's huge fascination with underwater exploration and the risk of drowning thereof.]]

* DoujinSoft developer Creator/FoxEye takes this UpToEleven by having this mechanic in every last one of their games. This is mainly out of AuthorAppeal.

* ''VideoGame/{{Holdover}}'' gives Marie a meter that can be upgraded by collecting blue hearts around the facility. You'll need it, too. She spends a lot of time underwater.
* ''VideoGame/AquaCube'' makes you handle two. One for the sibling you're playing as, and one for the trapped sibling you're rescuing. The controlled sibling has a bubble that shrinks while they're underwater, while the trapped sibling has an animated portrait that gets more and more dire the closer they are to drowning. An UnderwaterKiss is all you can do to keep the trapped sibling's oxygen full besides dropping the water level, but it comes at the cost of your own and this becomes impossible to do if the sibling is trapped in a cage.
* ''VideoGame/BlueGuardianMargaret'' has one that gets affected by the titular character's "[[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 Excitement Meter]]". The higher it is, the faster her oxygen drops underwater. The player can manually lower the Excitement Meter before or after taking a dive to prevent her from drowning too early.
* ''VideoGame/HadesVanquish'' has one that is also Mana's health meter (similar to the next example below). So how long she can hold her breath underwater from a dive depends on how much damage she took beforehand. So in some cases, diving underwater at low health can be [[{{Unwinnable}} borderline suicide]] without any items to recover her health or revive her after drowning.

** Averted in some levels, where Sonic displays SuperDrowningSkills, dying if he so much as touches the rippling water at the very bottom of the game world (if you're lucky, he may only lose rings, and bounce back onto land). On others, water is a relatively benign substance, merely reducing your running speed and jump height (swimming is out of the question), and in ''some'' cases (where it takes up a significant portion or even all of the level) requiring you to find air to breathe. Worse, there are even some places where the two are mixed; go too deep on, say, the (GameGear, Sonic 1) Jungle zone or the Aquatic boss fight, and you'll instantly pop your clogs.

Somewhere in between SuperDrowningSkills and SuperNotDrowningSkills lies the '''Oxygen Meter''', which indicates the PlayerCharacter's capacity to hold their breath. If the Oxygen Meter depletes, one of two things will happen: instant death by asphyxiation, or the player character's actual [[LifeMeter health]] will begin to drain.

[[folder:Platform]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' gives you an air meter that appears and depletes when you're submerged in liquid (water/tar/poison/lava) or if [[AvertedTrope you're]] [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace in space]], damaging the player rapidly once it fully empties. Equipping the [[ArtificialGill Survival System]] removes this oxygen meter. Strangely enough, even the [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Glitch]] and [[FishPeople Hylotl]] races still have this oxygen meter when underwater.

* ''VideoGameDistortedTravesty 3'' has a blue bar on the left side of the screen that appears whenever your head is below the water. Additionally when it's within five seconds of running out, [[https://youtu.be/xTkDI0cUj_4?t=1m28s big green numbers]] [[ShoutOut straight from]] ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' appear right above the player's head and start counting down.

* ''VideoGameDistortedTravesty 3'' has a blue bar on the left side of the screen that appears whenever your head is below the water. Additionally when it's within five seconds of running out [[https://youtu.be/xTkDI0cUj_4?t=1m28s big green numbers appear]] right above the player's head and start counting down.

Somewhere in between SuperDrowningSkills and SuperNotDrowningSkills lies the Oxygen Meter, which indicates the PlayerCharacter's capacity to hold their breath. If the Oxygen Meter depletes, one of two things will happen: instant death by asphyxiation, or the player character's actual [[LifeMeter health]] will begin to drain.

Somewhere inbetween SuperDrowningSkills and SuperNotDrowningSkills lies the OxygenMeter, which indicates the PlayerCharacter's capacity to hold their breath. If the OxygenMeter depletes, one of two things will happen: instant death by asphyxiation, or the player character's actual [[LifeMeter health]] will begin to drain.

Frustratingly, your oxygen meter is sometimes invisible yet still just as real and waiting to bite you; this is most likely to happen in a first person shooter. This is probably just because the interface is already full and they don't want to waste space on something not even used in most levels...and surprisingly, not all games decided to only make it visible when in use.

An occasional alternative to the Oxygen Meter is to allow only for a finite amount of time underwater before the player character automatically floats back to the surface unharmed -- however, this also places a restriction on level design, to avoid the player getting stuck should their "swim timer" run out in the middle of, say, an underwater tunnel or cavern with no air on the surface.

A third way, of course, is to just prohibit underwater travel entirely -- either by limiting swimming mechanics to the water's surface (such as in ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}''), using SuperDrowningSkills, or by simply not allowing the player to interact with deep water in the first place using [[InvisibleWall Invisible Walls]]. (Sure, you can still splash around in puddles and knee-high streams, but to go jump in a ''lake''? Are you crazy?)

Characters with SuperNotDrowningSkills, by definition, rarely have need of an OxygenMeter.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' does not have any underwater breathing, but does have a stamina bar to prevent you from swimming from island to island (which can only be done by sailing on boat).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' has an oxygen meter as well, which is barely of note until you get the Water Dragon's Scale (Link automatically floats upward when he's not focused on swimming). Staying underwater depletes it, using your spinning attack depletes it faster, and whatever you do, don't inhale the purple-colored bubbles (they're toxic). There is a potion that slows the rate Link consumes oxygen, as well as a potion medal that prolongs the effects of potions (including the air potion); using the two at the same time makes the difficult Tadtone quest (which takes place underwater) much more manageable.

* In ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', when the Oxygen Meter runs out, you immediately drown. [[ThatOneLevel Rusty Bucket Bay]] has oily water that not only drains the meter twice as fast when submerged, but drains it at the regular speed ''when on the surface''. This is rectified slightly in ''Banjo-Tooie'', where once the OxygenMeter goes, your health starts to go down really quickly instead (this is also the case for areas where oxygen is depleted due to toxic airs or very naughty smells).

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' has an invisible one just for swimming. Some characters (e.g. Squirtle) could swim longer than others (e.g. Charizard), but anyone would sink eventually. In the Subspace Emissary, some stickers can increase the length, but there really isn't any need for it.

* The first four 3D ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games have one (''3D Land'' and ''3D World'' allow the player to swim indefinitely since they play closer to the 2D games). The original ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' makes the odd decision of using the health meter in lieu of a separate oxygen meter, while still allowing you to catch your breath when surfacing, which basically means that you can refill your health for free by swimming around at the surface of any deep body of water, or continue holding your breath as long as you gather coins (which heals your life meter). ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' and both ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Galaxy]]'' [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 games]] use a separate oxygen meter (though coins still refill it when underwater, and in ''Sunshine'', it basically replaces your health meter while you're underwater).

** This is the same case for the first ''Sonic Adventure'' game, but in its sequel, two-thirds of the cast dies upon falling into water (save the small patch in the Chao Gardens). This eventually became the case for everyone over the course of the 3D series while the 2D games retained the classic countdown. Such is the case of the underwater Knuckles level "Aquatic Mine", which can be quite dangerous until you find the infinite oxygen item.

* While you don't get a visible oxygen meter in VideoGame/TeamFortress2, stay underwater long enough and your character will make drowning-type noises and take damage, eventually drowning. As with the ''Half-Life'' series above, health lost from drowning is restored by coming up for air. Oddly enough, Medics and Dispensers can heal players faster than drowning can kill them, so they're sort of like oxygen masks or tubes.

[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mario_airmeter_6170.jpg]]]]

Somewhere inbetween SuperDrowningSkills and SuperNotDrowningSkills lies the OxygenMeter, which indicates the PlayerCharacter's capacity to hold his breath. If the OxygenMeter depletes, one of two things will happen: instant death by asphyxiation, or the player character's actual [[LifeMeter health]] will begin to drain.