Pain & Gain

"Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Have you ever heard anyone say, "No pain, no gain"? This trope is when that saying is taken literally.

Pain and Gain is when characters get power-ups from taking physical damage from others. Whether this is a raw power boost or having new effects or abilities activate, the more hurt these people are, the more dangerous they become. While most people would instinctively try to avoid taking damage in a fight, for these characters it is often a cornerstone of their strategy to soak up hits to dish out even more damage right back. Naturally, this also comes with the drawback of needing to be hurt to access their full power, which can prove difficult if faced with attacks they can't withstand.

Given how badly this conflicts with most people's innate desire to minimize pain and harm to oneself, characters with these kinds of powers tend to be the Determinator, Made of Iron, a Combat Sadomasochist, The Berserker, or any other character who throws themselves into battle, without fear of taking a hit. When heroes use it, it's often to showcase their Heroic Resolve and willingness to suffer enormous punishment for the sake of others. Conversely, villains with this power present a unique challenge for the heroes, who have to try to either end the fight quickly to minimize the villain's powers or figure out a way to defeat them without letting them power up. Either may use a Deliberate Injury Gambit to get their opponent to hit them, especially if their opponent knows of their power and is trying to avoid activating it. Attack Backfire is a common outcome.

For when an attack brings power because of some sort of specific resistance or immunity, see Feed It with Fire and Elemental Absorption. When the power is absorbing incoming energy in general, see Energy Absorption. Compare Cast from Hit Points when the user must sacrifice Life Energy in some form as a requirement to use their powers and Attack Reflector, in which damage from an attack is partially or completely rebounded back at the opponent. For when the pain in question is less specific than just physical pain, see Power at a Price. Contrast Full Health Bonus, in which the character gains power from not taking damage at all.

See Critical Status Buff and Turns Red, video game tropes where characters and enemies respectively become more powerful at the verge of death. Some Limit Breaks are charged by taking damage.

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Examples:

Beat-em Up

• Fairy Bloom: The Angst Nuke-type Limit Break gets charged just by waiting, or if the plant being defended takes damage.

Fighting Games

• Bloody Battle's Jersey is a special item that gives the player a whole new set of moves, some moves requiring something called TP. It is usually obtained in one of two ways: inflicting pain on others, and getting hurt yourself. Your TP increases no matter how you're hurt, whether it be naturally like fall damage, or from another player.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • Introduced in Brawl. Fighter Lucario takes some creative liberties with how aura is used in Pokémon. In Smash, Lucario becomes stronger the higher his percent is (or lower his HP is in stamina mode), becoming ludicrously powerful when he reaches the cap at 190%.
  • Starting in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, the rage mechanic gives a smaller version of the aura boost to every single character.

First Person Shooters

• Vermintide II:
  • The heroes get a boost to their career ability's cooldown whenever they take damage, proportionate to how much damage they suffered.
  • As a Zealot, Victor gains a percent-based Power boost that scales in proportion to how much health he's lost. Level-based perks also extend the bonus to attack rate, movement speed, and Damage Reduction.

Gacha Games

• In Fate/Grand Order, Hijikata Toshizou's Noble Phantasm, Shinsengumi - Immortal Sincerity, scales in power based on how much HP he's missing. If he's at 1 HP, his Noble Phantasm will deal an additional 600% damage at minimum. Luckily, his Strengthening quest upgrades his Disengage skill to grant a Last Chance Hit Point effect that leaves him at 1 HP should he take otherwise lethal damage, letting him unleash his full damage potential.
• Granblue Fantasy: The Enmity family of skills provide increased damage the lower the party's HP (e.g. Oblivion's Enmity provides "a big boost to dark allies ATK based on how low HP is", with each element having a similar description). While primarily granted via weapons, several characters also possess similar skills as well as skills to maximise their chances of survival while at low HP. Some examples include...
  • Dark SSR Jeanne D'Arc has skills that allow her to survive with 1 HP as well as boost her damage.
  • Dark SSR Kolulu similarly has skills that allow her to survive with 1HP as well as boost damage, and additionally a skill that allows her to fill her Charge Bar instantly allowing her to unleash a Charge Attack at once.
  • Dark SSR Zooey not only gains benefits from low HP (her Resolution skill does more damage based on how low her HP is), but her Conjunction skill reduces the whole party's HP to one and grants them DMG Immunity for one 1 turn, allowing a party to survive a single combat round. This is a high-risk high-reward strategy and part of the reason Dark SSR Zooey is considered a top tier character for an Enmity build no matter the element.
  • Seox of the Eternals is a dark element melee character with multiple "dodge enemy attack" skills. As the Celeste Claw Omega is one of the earliest weapons a player can farm (and has the Mistfall Enmity skill that grants a small DMG boost the lower the HP), this means that he can dodge and counterattack to do huge damage in a Melee Weapon build. SSR Dark Predator has a similar setup.

Horror Games

• In the early Resident Evil games one of the monsters the player would fight were the Tyrants, humanoid creatures created by the Umbrella corporation to serve as biological weapons. When a Tyrant is seriously injured, the T-virus would trigger a secondary mutation which would increase their strength and durability to the point that only heavy weaponry could reliably destroy them.

Metroidvanias

• Hollow Knight: "Fury of the Fallen" is the first charm available to you upon starting a new save file. It gives you a 75% increase to the damage of your nail while you only have one mask.^note Masks are what Hollow Knight calls Hit Points

Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas

• DOTA 2
  • Huskar is built around this trope, his Burning Spears add stacking damage over time to his basic attacks at the cost of a small amount of his health with each cast, and Ultimate, Life Break has him leap at and greatly slow an enemy hero while dealing massive percent health damage to both them and himself. This is then taken advantage of by his passive, Berserker's Blood, which grants him increasing attack speed, magic resistance, and health regeneration the lower his health is, which just lets him throw more Burning Spears
• Heroes of the Storm:
  • Zul'jin is all about being at low health to gain bonuses. His trait Berserker passively increases his attack speed the lower his health is, and one of his heroic abilities lets him throw a gigantic axe that deals damage based on how much health he's missing. This pairs nicely with the rest of his kit, which is all about spending his health to power himself up as well as several ways to heal himself or prevent himself from dying.
  • Garrosh has a low health pool for a tank, but his trait Armor Up gives him 1 Armor for every 2% of his health that he's missing, which decreases the amount of damage he takes. This is further played into with his ability Bloodthirst, which heals him for a percent of his missing health, effectively making it heal for more the lower he is. Ideally, Garrosh wants to be at a medium amount of health so he can absorb high-damage abilities instead of his teammates, nullifying a lot of the damage in the process and reducing the strain on his team's healers.
• League of Legends:
  • Dr. Mundo's Blunt Force Trauma ability increases his attack damage for his next attack based on how much HP he's missing. Maximum Dosage's health boosting effect also scales based on how low his HP is, making him especially good at acting as Schmuck Bait for those expecting an easy kill on a weakened Mundo.
  • Olaf's passive, Berserker Rage, grants him bonus attack speed and life steal the lower his HP gets, capping once he loses 70% of his HP. The shield value of Tough It Out also increases as his health drops. This means he gets increasingly more dangerous to fight in close quarters the lower his health gets, as he can rapidly outsustain many melee fighters who can't burst him down.
  • Sett's Haymaker ability scales in power with how much HP he's lost in the last few seconds, allowing it to do colossal true damage in a line AOE if he isn't killed immediately. Conversely, the power of this skill is neutered if he's whittled down overtime instead.
  • Tryndamere's Bloodlust ability grants him increasing attack damage based on his missing health. When combined with his tendency to build large amounts of damage, life steal, and critical hit rate, this means he becomes increasingly lethal the lower his health gets. His ultimate Undying Rage also allows him to prevent his HP from dropping to 0 no matter how much punishment he takes, letting him attack with reckless abandon for a short time if not pinned down with crowd control.
  • Warwick's passive, Eternal Hunger, heals him for the damage the passive deals via his auto attacks while he's below 50% HP. This healing is increased by 250% while he's below 25% of his maximum health, allowing him to rapidly heal up if left unchecked.

Role-Playing Games

• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy II: The stat system works by improving the more you use it. Building up the HP and Defense stats requires you to take damage. A common tactic is for your characters to intentionally hit themselves in combat to abuse it.
  • Auron from Final Fantasy X has an ultimate weapon that works off this principle. While most of the group has ultimate weapons that are at their strongest when the members have fully charged hit points or Mana, Auron's becomes more powerful as Auron's health is depleted due to injuries. When he's wielding it, any monster or boss that hits him hard enough to cause damage quickly comes to regret it.
• Helen's Mysterious Castle: One of the enemies roaming the Bonus Dungeon is Masochist Kanza, whose attack grows stronger as you inflict more damage. However, this property is based on his maximum HP compared to his current HP — hitting him with the Max HP-reducing Freezing Yasha means his attack power stays the same. (Perhaps the freezing blade numbs the pain?)
• In Mega Man Battle Network, ShadowMan.EXE possesses the Muramasa Blade, a katana whose power is equal to the amount of HP he's lost. This makes him increasingly dangerous as his boss fight draws on, as he can potentially inflict massive damage on Mega Man with a single hit once Shadow Man is brought to low HP. This sword is also available to Mega Man in the form of the Muramasa battle chip. The weapon makes a reappearance in the sequel series, Mega Man Star Force, as an obtainable battle card.
• TP works like this in LISA: The Painful RPG. Most party members who use this instead of SP will usually start fights with a pittance of it, and while there exists ways for you to gain it for free^note  Lucrative Tea and Mad Dog's Taunt tend to give a lot of it, and basic attacks also give a small amount of it. Exclusive to the remaster is the ability to drink alcohol before a fight to start with more TP., the most common way is to get hit by an enemy, which gives more TP the more damage you've taken.
• Octopath Traveler series:
  • Octopath Traveler: The Apothecary skill "Last Stand" deals more damage the lower your HP is. The Warmaster support skill "Fortitude" increases the physical damage you deal to enemies the lower your HP is, and it synergizes very well with Last Stand.
  • Octopath Traveler II: Alpione's Amulet increases damage when the user's HP is low.
• Paper Mario 64 and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: When Mario is equipped with the Power Rush badge, his attack power increases by 2 if he's in danger (has 1-5 HP left). The Mega Rush badge will increase his attack power by 4 if he's in peril (has 1 HP left).
• Pokémon:
  • Pokémon Red and Blue: The move Rage increases a Pokémon's attack power if they get hit while using it.
  • Pokémon Gold and Silver: The moves Flail and Reversal get more powerful the closer your HP is to 0, up to 200 base power.
  • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire:
    • The Guts ability will double the wielder's attack stat if they get afflicted with a status condition like poison or burning.
    • The move Endeavor takes the attacking Pokémon's HP and sets the opponent's HP to the exact same level. This has prompted the famous FEAR strategy: a level 1 Pokémon that knows Endeavor can hold a Focus Sash to tank the first hit at 1 HP, use Endeavor to bring their opponent's HP to 1 as well, and then finish it off by going first with a high-priority move like Quick Attack.
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon:
    • The Stamina ability increases its user's defense stat every time it's hit with an attack.
    • Upon collecting enough Zygarde cells, Zygarde will gain the ability Power Construct, which will transform it into its Complete Form upon dropping below 50% Max HP.
• Prayer of the Faithless: Aeyr's Death Wish attack adds his lost Hit Points to the damage it deals.
• In Runescape, Dharok the Wretched's armor set provides the Wretched Strength buff, increasing the wielder's strength proportional to their missing health.
• Shadows Over Loathing: The Irritable trait some enemies have increases their stats every time they take damage.

Roguelikes

• The Binding of Isaac:
  • Adrenaline gives you a damage boost for every empty heart container you have.
  • Samson starts with the item Bloody Lust, which (from Rebirth forward) gives him a boost to his damage for the floor whenever he takes damage.
  • One of Samson's unlockable items, Bloody Gust, functions identically to Bloody Lust, but for speed and tears instead of damage.
  • Brittle Bones replaces your heart containers with bone hearts, and makes it so you get a permanent boost to your tears upon losing bone hearts.
  • Cambion Conception tracks the damage you've taken since picking it up, granting you a demonic familiar upon reaching certain thresholds.
  • "It Hurts" sews Isaac's mouth shut in exchange for giving him a tear ring burst and tears up upon taking damage.
  • Lazarus, true to his biblical counterpart, is very good at dying. He has an extra life that resurrects him as Lazarus II, with far superior stats. He was reworked in Repentance to get an extra life every floor instead of one and done. He reverts upon descending to the next floor, but gets a permanent damage up for respawning. This effect also applies to other characters if they hold Lazarus' Rags.
  • Marbles gives you a chance to swallow trinkets when taking damage, permanently infusing the effect into Isaac while freeing up your trinket slot for something else.
  • The Red Patch trinket functions similarly to Bloody Lust, albeit for only one room and is luck based.
  • Vengeful Spirit gives Isaac a red wisp orbital for the floor upon taking damage, up to 6 times.
• Dead Cells:
  • The Spite Sword deals critical damage for 8 seconds upon recieving damage.
  • The Frantic Sword is an unlockable weapon that deals critical damage when The Beheaded is below half maximum health or above 50% Malaise infection.
  • The Vengeance mutation gives you 30% damage reduction for 3 seconds and a 60+% damage boost for 8 seconds when you get hit.
• In Dungeon Crawl, demonspawn characters may gain the Powered by Pain mutation, giving them a chance of regaining extra MP or getting a buff when they're injured.
• Hades:
  • One of the bosses Zagreus can be forced to fight at the end of Tartarus is the fury Alecto. Her primary gimmick is that she has a constant rage meter that builds from the damage she takes, drastically increasing her attack and movement speed and giving her access to all of her attacks once it fills to max. She even enters "Perma-Rage" below 25% health.
  • Most deities have a "Revenge" boon that activates upon taking damage. Zeus calls a lightning strike, Ares inflicts doom on surrounding enemies, Demeter freezes, Aphrodite weakens, and Athena reflects projectiles.
  • From Poseidon you can get the "Boiling Point" boon, which increases the charge rate on your God Gauge (allowing you to use your ultimate ability sooner/more often) in proportion to the amount of damage you take.
• Risk of Rain 2: The Void Fiend's transformation meter can be increased by taking damage, you can even prolong the transformation by intentionally damaging yourself with your special skill.
• The Ironclad from Slay the Spire has a power card called Rupture, which increases his power when he loses HP from a card, like Hemokinesis, Brutality, or Combust. Since some of these cards also provide powerful buffs at the cost of some HP at the start of a turn, they make very good synergies.

Third-Person Shooter

• Sunset Overdrive: The Combat Sadomasochist-based Sadomasochist Amp:
  The less health you have, the more damage you do.

Tower Defense Games

• Bloons TD 6:
  • Bottom Path Bomb upgrade 5, Bomb Blitz launches a screen nuke whenever you lose a life.
  • Sniper's Elite Defender upgrade gains a massive boost to attack speed for 7 seconds whenever a bloon is leaked.
  • The Bottom Path Druid has an upgrade called Heart of Vengeance that makes it fire 1% faster for each missing life.
• Bunny Invasion 2 introduces the "Rage" mechanic, which is obtained via an upgrade purchase. It involves a gauge that fills up whenever the base takes damage, and once it's full, Mr. Frost gets angered, to which the player gets a temporary bonus in damage and fire rate. Further upgrades make the gauge fill faster and increase the extent of the bonus.

Wide Open Sandbox

• Elden Ring: The "Seppuku" skill does exactly what you think it does, it causes you to stab yourself. You inflict blood loss on yourself in exchange for a boost to your physical damage and increased blood loss buildup on your attacks. This also procs the "Lord of Blood's Exulatation" talisman and the buff from the White Mask, basically turning you into a nuclear bomb for 60 seconds.

Non-video game examples:

Anime and Manga

• In Bleach, Ikkaku's Bankai, Ryūmon Hōzukimaru, is "sleeping" even when activating. But its power grows over the course of a fight as it slowly "wakes up". Any damage that Ikkaku receives or deals will help wake it up faster.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Part of Saiyan biology is the "Saiyan Power" (often erroneously referred to as "zenkai boost", after a line Goku said when referring to Vegeta's most recent energy boost in the Frieza saga) ability. Every time a Saiyan comes close to death, they will get stronger, and the closer they come to death without actually dying, the stronger the power increase will be. Plenty of characters have used the Zenkai boost to tactically gain a combat advantage. Vegeta introduces the concept, asking Krillin to mortally wound him because Dende is right there to heal him and give him the boost. Due to being partially made from Saiyan DNA, Cell also shares this power; it's what allows him to regenerate as his "Perfect" form after self-destructing in his "Semi-Perfect" form. Goku Black figures out the Zenkai intuitively, and applies it by stabbing his hand and pulling a ki scythe out of it.
  • Vegeta develops a transformation based on this principal when he unlocks Ultra Ego.
• Kill la Kill: Gamagori's life fiber uniform comes with a secondary mode, Scourge Regalia, that charges up an explosive blast from the damage he's received. He is also capable of charging it manually by striking himself with his whips. He really enjoys charging it himself.
• One Piece: Urouge's unnamed Devil Fruit works on this concept. The more damage he takes, the bigger his muscles become.

Comic Books

• The Incredible Hulk explicitly gets more powerful the angrier he gets, and if any of his foes hits him hard enough for Hulk to feel it he's only going to get angrier, and thus both stronger and harder to hurt. Protracted fights with the Hulk are never a good idea because of this, especially because he's never displayed an upper limit. Granted, pain isn't the only thing that can trigger this, but it's the most reliable method.

Literature

• Saintess Summons Skeletons: The [One With Suffering] skill increases strength and speed as health is lost, but healing reduces the bonus again. By using [False Immortality] runes, Sofia is able to push it much further than usual, up to a 399% buff, because dying and then reviving at full health with a rune doesn't count as healing.
• Witch King: The protagonist Kai can use his own pain as a power source for his magic. Combined with his demonic Healing Factor, this makes for several fights where he lets himself become a Human Pincushion for the power boost.

Tabletop Games

• Champions. The Absorption power allows the user to absorb Body damage done by attacks, change it into Character Points and add it to any of their powers or Characteristics. This allows the user to greatly improve their own abilities in combat. The more they're attacked, the stronger they get.
• Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition: The spell "Masochism" gives the user a bonus on attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks after they take damage. The bonus is directly proportional to the amount of Hit Points lost over the previous round.
• Exalted:
  • Lunars:
    • The Frenzied Bear Fortification charm increases the Exalt's Soak and Hardness the more damaged that they become.
    • Poison Blood Technique fires venomous blood from the Exalt's body, which deals more damage the greater the amount of damage they've taken.
  • Spells:
    • The Terrestrial Circle Spell "Blood Lash" has multiple powers associated with it; however, they require the wielder to be at a certain level of damage to activate.
  • Artifacts:
    • The bestial moonsilver armor known as Seven Furies Caged has multiple charms that increase strength, damage of attacks, and health restoration for the wearer depending on how damaged they are.
• Princess: The Hopeful: The Practical Magic of the Court of Storms allows a Princess or Sworn of Storms to invert wound penalties into bonuses. In addition, the Invocation of Storms can be applied for free if the user has taken lethal or aggravated damage.

Western Animation

• While Shushu Rubilax from Wakfu is normally confined in a small dagger, once he is released into his true form, he's revealed to have the ability to grow larger when someone hits him. And the harder they hit, the bigger he grows. Sadlygrove defeats him by using this ability against him, hitting him until he grows too heavy to be supported by the desert sand they were fighting on.

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