Deadly Droplets

Don't get wet!
^{Clockwise from top left:} Bee 52, Mega Man 2, Yo! Noid, Garlic 2021

"While submerging yourself in water is fine and dandy, you wouldn't want to get bonked on the head with a nasty water droplet! That kind of thing causes injuries, you know. And death."

—A sign, Clarence's Big Chance

In video games, even very mundane things can become hazards. One such thing is a droplet.

Droplets as an obstacle usually appear in indoor levels, dripping down at regular intervals from the ceilings, stalactites, broken pipes or ends of pipes. Droplets can be of various substances. In the sewers, they are usually sludge or Grimy Water. In fire-themed stages, they're droplets of lava. In laboratory stages, they're unspecified liquid or green acid. In most egregious cases, even droplets of blood or just plain water can hurt the player, veering into Everything Trying to Kill You territory.

These droplets tend to defy the laws of physics, usually retaining the shape of a teardrop without splitting even during the fall. Moreover, to adhere to Rule of Perception, those droplets are abnormally large, often nearly the size of character's head or larger. Any smaller than that and they'd risk becoming too small to notice beforehand, resulting in many cheap hits.

Why does this type of stage hazard exist? First, they're simple to animate and during the early days of gaming, they were less taxing on sprite limits, especially the horizontal sprite limit. That's one of the reasons this trope is seen most frequently in games released during the 3rd and 4th gaming console generations. Once the hardware limitations became less of a problem, this obstacle also became much less common. It still occasionally pops up in retro-style platformers from time to time.

This trope is almost exclusive to 2D games with platforming. With three dimensions, it is much harder to compromise the size of droplets being in between either ridiculous or too hard to notice. It would also be much easier to evade the droplets in games with 3 dimensions.

A subtrope of Death from Above. See Stalactite Spite for a solid version that also responds to the player's proximity.

See also:

1. Everything Trying to Kill You - In cases of this trope where the droplet's lethality makes no sense.
2. Malevolent Architecture
3. No OSHA Compliance

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Video Game Examples:

• Action 52:
  • Ooze: Drops of ooze are common and they appear in seemingly random places. They come in three colors: green, fuchsia and cyan, although the last could be water.
  • Bubblegum Rosie: Large droplets of water fall down on levels 1 and 3 that Rosie must avoid.
• The Addams Family on the NES: Fire section features drops of lava dripping from the ceiling.
• Adventure Island IV: Cave areas have clear water droplets dripping from the ceiling that damage Higgins on contact. In contrast, Higgins can swim underwater without taking damage.
• Afterimage: Laternlings are plant-like creatures that hang from ceilings and spew poison droplets directly below them, damaging you upon contact.
• Alex Kidd:
  • Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars: One of the stages as small pipe ends hanging from the ceiling that leak deadly water droplets much larger than the pipe itself.
  • Alex Kidd in Shinobi World: Lava cave stage has lava droplets dropping down from the ceiling.
• ANNO: Mutationem: In the battle against The Varanus, it launches an Acid Attack towards the ceiling, causing droplets to fall from above and inflict damage.
• Antz on the Game Boy Color: Falling water droplets are a common hazard in underground levels.
• NES port of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!: Sewer level has two types of droplets dripping down from the ceiling and pipes: Brown liquid made of human waste and green liquid made of Grimy Water. Womb Level has pink droplets. All these hurt on contact.
• Batman:
  • Stage 2 of Batman on the NES has drops of acid falling from the ceiling.
  • Batman Returns (Genesis): In the first stage, which takes place across the Gotham City rooftops, in some parts of the rooftops a green effigy spews fire drops.
• Bee 52: Green faucets leak green droplets that damage the bee.
• B.I.O.T.A.: Some pools of boiling liquid have pipes above them where drops of damaging liquid drops down to the pool every several seconds. Substance is unknown due to the game's limited color palette.
• Boomerang Kid from Quattro Adventure: Caves levels have a hazard in form of very large water droplets that periodically drip down from a cave ceiling.
• Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse features large, clear drops that fall from the ceiling in some areas. They're acidic enough to instantly melt any blocks they land on, making it pretty obvious that the player will be wanting to avoid them.
• Cave Story: The "Last Cave" features lava as a stage hazard, in the form of both pools below and droplets falling from the ceiling.
• Clarence's Big Chance: Droplets of water fall in Clarence's bathroom, removing one heart if they fall on his head. Lampshaded by a sign.
• Code Name: Viper: Area 5 includes green droplets dripping from the ceiling.
• Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure: In some of the Eternal Engine levels, there are pipes from which droplets of toxic waste fall down. Cosmo must avoid them as he's exploring those segments.
• Cyber Shadow: Chapter 3: Mekacity Ruins has one section where green sludge/acid droplets fall down from the cracks in the ceiling.
• Donkey Kong:
  • Donkey Kong Junior: The Coleco Adam port has green drops of water rain from four mouths of upper spigots and three cracks in the ceiling in Mario's Hideout. Touching any results in DK Jr. dying instantly and their frequency increases in later loops.
  • Donkey Kong Country Returns: In one of the volcanic levels found in World 8, there are pieces of lava that fall off the ceiling like enormous droplets (even borrowing their shape). This being lava, touching any of those pieces will spell instant death for Donkey and Diddy.
• The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy: Many sections have locations where black drops fall, taking away some of Dizzy's health.
• In Downland, the main hazard to the player is droplets of acid falling from ceilings at random intervals. Their placement is not random; some droplets are deliberately placed so close to the ropes that the player must shift to the other side to avoid them.
• Dwarf Fortress has a non-platformer example. Evil biomes often have rain of "nauseating slime" or similar unpleasant things. (But the zombifying "creeping clouds" are MUCH worse.)
• Ex Mutants: In lava caves, drops of lava drip down from the cave ceiling, hurting the player upon contact. When the droplets reach the ground, they split into two, each half producing a jet of flame.
• Flashback: Broken pipes leak acid droplets that hurt on touch.
• The Flintstones on the Sega Genesis: Stage 5 has a cave section with damaging lava dripping down the ceiling. The said drips also leave fire-y trail.
• Garlic: Droplets that hurt are the main obstacle in level 2. They're highlighted by exclamation marks.
• Glean: Small Lava Globules fall on volcanic planets, causing damage to the drill and raising its temperature if it touches them. Unfortunately, you need to do so to collect them.
• In the Glider series, deadly drops of water occur in all games; in Glider 4.0 and Glider PRO they can appear more or less anywhere.
• The Lion King on the SNES and Sega Genesis: In "Be Prepared" level, there are damaging lava droplets periodically falling from the ceilings in some sections.
• Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D: In the first level, large water droplets from from some sections of the ceiling. Touching these will hurt.
• Judge Dredd: Harmful black droplets ooze out in some parts of the ceiling in the laboratory level.
• Kenny's Adventure has toxic drops appear as a common hazard underwater, often in places where it forces the player to wait.
• Kirby Star Allies: In the 2nd phase of the battle against the Final Boss, there'll be harmful droplets falling from above at intervals.
• Krusty's Fun House has purple droplets almost as big as Krusty's head. Touching these hurts.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: Some of the Temples have pillar tops that leak red droplets that harm Link upon contact. Occasionally, a blue one will fall instead, which spawns a gelatinous Bot enemy on hitting the floor.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: When Link becomes Minish-sized in an area where it rains, then ordinary drops of rain become the size of boulders and will deal damage if they hit him.
• Lester the Unlikely: Turquoise-colored droplets drip down from stalactites in the cave level and they hurt as much as any other obstacle.
• LOVE, LOVE 2: kuso and LOVE 3: White single-pixel droplets drop down from many ceilings, causing death on contact. There is a Hitbox Dissonance of collision detection being more lenient than it seems. Also, the environment shows that the white droplets are corrosive, etching away terrain below.
• Downplayed in Math Blaster: In the first game, one of the levels is a vertical cave with laser walls and droplets of water, which the player must use to navigate the cave (the gates only open for certain numbers, the droplets contain numbers and symbols like +7, -3, x2, etc.) While the drops themselves aren't deadly, they have an annoying tendency to drop on Blasternaut just before he can cross a gate, briefly stunning him.
• Mega Man:
  • Mega Man 2: The final Wily stage has Mega Man navigate through a corridor consisting nothing but Red Liquid dripping from the ceiling. That liquid causes a lot of damage on contact.
  • Mega Man (DOS) also has red liquid dropping from the ceiling in Dyna Man's stage.
  • Mega Man 3: The Robots Are Revolting on the DOS has Red Liquid hazard present in 4 of the robot master stages.
• Monster Party: The second round has drops of blood falling from a ceiling that hurt the player.
• The NewZealand Story: After getting eaten by the whale boss, Tiki has to avoid fluids that drop from above.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (NES): Some indoor areas have places where damaging grey or red droplets fall.
• Noah's Ark: Unlike most of the examples, the droplets of two sizes are spawned from the floor and then fall down. They're present in North American stages.
• Normy's Beach Babe-O-Rama: The alien spaceship features green ooze droplets that hurt on contact.
• Ōkami: One level is set in the stomach of the Water Dragon, which of course has pools of stomach acid here and there. At the end of the level, the acid starts to seep through the stomach walls, and the player needs to sort him/herself out while dodging droplets of falling acid.
• Predator on the NES: In Big Mode sections, eventually, there are droplets dropping down from the top of the screen. Being on contact with these hurts Alan.
• Purple features drops of harmful purple substance that drop constantly in pipe tunnels.
• Radical Rex: In caves level, there are circular water droplets dropping down the ceiling or bamboo pipes. These hurt Rex.
• Rendering Ranger, in the Womb Level, there are dark green sludge droplets dripping down the ceiling. These droplets hurt upon contact.
• RoboCop 2 on the NES: In the lab levels, there are a handful of places where pink droplets fall that hurt.
• Silver Surfer: Sector 2 has lava droplets, dropped from the ceiling and statues. Final stage has grey droplets instead.
• Skeleton Boomerang: A few levels have ceiling where large damaging dark green droplets periodically fall down from.
• The Smurfs (1994): Act 6 "The Field" shows big droplets making their ways down leaves as wide as a smurf is tall before dropping. If you're under them as they fall, they'll damage you.
• In Soap Bubble, water dripping from the cave ceiling and pipes will instantly kill the player. Justified as you play as a soap bubble.
• Space Quest: There's a good reason why the droplets are deadly, and the same reason why you shouldn't drink from the pool in the same cave that they're both in. They're viciously acidic, as a death dialog box intones:
  Dialog Box: You are unpleasantly surprised by a drop of searing acid that bores its way to your feet.
• Speedy Gonzales: There deadly dripping water in the Ice Zone and Mexico Zone, dropping down from the ceilings.
• Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six: Sandman's stage has pipes that leak green liquid that hurts on contact.
• Second level of Star Wars on the NES has green droplets dropping down from stalactites above.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: During the Prince Froggy boss fight, yellow droplets of stomach acid drip from the boss's throat and damage Yoshi on contact.
  • WarioWare: Move It!: The Boss Stage, Poison Apple, has drops of stomach acid periodically drop through some areas. If any hit the poison apple you're navigating through the princess's guts, it'll be digested and put the princess to sleep, losing the microgame.
• In The Terminator game on the NES, droplets are a common hazard. They leak from pipes in the first stage, they drop down from ceilings at apartment stage, and there are green droplet emitters in the laboratory stage.
• Vice: Project Doom: In the Womb Level, there are locations where damaging purplish droplets fall down from the ceilings at regular intervals.
• Wally Bear and the NO! Gang: Droplets of Grimy Water drop down from the ceiling in the sewers at regular intervals.
• Warlock on the SNES: Introduced in the caves, there are grey droplets that fall from the ceiling, blocking bullets and damaging the player on contact.
• Wayne's World on the SNES: Streets level has fire hydrants. Some of these spray water droplets that hurt.
• The Wizard of Oz: In Navy Village, there are taps at the sides of some trees. These taps leak droplets of water that hurt the player on contact. Interestingly, in this game, player can walk on shallow water without a problem.
• Wolverine: Adamantium Rage: Later level has pipes that leak green droplets that hurt on contact.
• Xexyz: Area 5 has a section where red droplets fall from the ceiling.
• Yo! Noid: Harmful water droplets fall down in the sewer level.
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: In the final level, droplets appear as a harmful obstacle.

Non-Video Game Examples:

Anime & Manga

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Diamond is Unbreakable: Angelo uses his Aqua Necklace to cause a leak of droplets in Josuke's house to use them by way of getting his Stand to kill Josuke and Jotaro.
  • Stone Ocean: Pucci's Whitesnake can create a liquid that must be dropped from the ceiling to put people into a dream-like state so he can either slowly dissolve them.
  • Steel Ball Run: Blackmore's Catch The Rainbow allows him to stabilize raindrops in the air, letting them remain stagnant and sharp enough to pierce through bodies.
  • JoJolion: In the fight against Toru's Wonder Of U, Josuke and Rai end up trapped when it causes the rain itself to produce deadly droplets. Josuke uses the opportunity for a Deliberate Injury Gambit to plan a strategy.
  • The JoJoLands: Jodio's November Rain creates powerful droplets of rain that come down with crushing force.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: After Salthalls is corrupted, water falling from the ceiling causes monsters to arise. From the people that are hit by it.
• Played for laughs in Real-Time Fandub's take on Sonic Adventure 2; when Dr. Eggman pisses on the moon in retaliation for Shadow pissing on his wife, he announces that everyone has 23 hours before the "piss drrroplets" rain down on the earth.

Film — Animation

• In A Bug's Life, the climax takes place during a rainstorm where the droplets are far larger and more dangerous for the insect protagonists than they would be for humans. Interestingly, raindrops in its video game adaptation are harmless.

Film — Live-Action

• Aliens: Bishop is talking with Ripley after they evacuate LV-426, only for there to be a sizzling his and melting metal at his feet. Cue him being impaled by the Queen.
• The Blob (1988): A young man is trying to use the phone to call for help, when a drop falls from the ceiling, eating into the wooden desk. Then the Blob itself falls on the young man, killing him painfully and brutally.

Literature

• Various Fighting Fantasy books contain obstacles in the form of dark corridors constantly dripping with corrosive acid, which can damage your Stamina as you cross unless you have a shield to be used as a makeshift umbrella. In Trial of Champions, it's used as a Schmuck Bait near the end of the story; after overcoming Lexxus, the final wizard Trialmaster, you're faced with two exits, both of which are darkened corridors, which a hunchback will inform you to take the left side. The right tunnel is dripping constantly with acid, which will damage your health if you try to cross unless you have a shield, but will actually lead you out of the dungeon. The left, on the other hand, leads to a deadly trap that automatically kills you a few feet away from the exit.
• In Trial of Champions, the last obstacle you come across is a junction, one path leading to certain death and another dripping acid from the ceiling. The latter is the correct way to go; if you have a shield you use it as a makeshift umbrella and suffer no damage, if you don't you'll need to sprint across and take 1D6 stamina loss.

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