Basic Trope: A particular creature can't die by dehydration, starvation or similar deaths that affect living things.
- Straight: Monster X doesn't need to eat, drink or sleep.
- Exaggerated: Monster X is also immune to aging and physical harm.
- Downplayed: Though Monster X doesn't need to eat or sleep as frequently, going without those things slows him down.
- Justified:
- Monster X is under the effects of a prototype immortality spell.
- Monster X is a robot.
- Monster X is a zombie.
- Inverted:
- Mook X is killed by things that shouldn't hurt it.
- Monster X is defined by it's all-encompassing Horror Hunger
- Subverted:
- Monster X is just in a temporary 'overdrive', and soon needs to take a 20-hour nap.
- Monster X can't eat, drink or sleep, but it still needs to; as such, it fights for about 20 days straight, and then dies of starvation.
- Monster X needs Nano Machines to maintain its state - which means effectively they do the eating, drinking, and sleep repair for it.
- Double Subverted: The overdrive bolsters strength rather than combating fatigue; the nap is meditation, during which Monster X devours the dreams of people to power up, but the process isn't necessary unless overdrive has been engaged.
- Parodied:
- Monster X is terrified of the idea of eating, drinking or sleeping, because it fears it will start doing those things constantly if it tries.
- Monster X gained it's abilities through training, and "If you pick up my exercise routine, you too can kick your crippling food addiction!"
- Zig Zagged: While Monster X is The Needless, it weakens as they day goes on, being at it's lowest point right before midnight; Whenthe Clock Strikes Twelve, it returns to full power and the cycle restarts. Also, It Eats Babies, but only for the sheer sadistic joy of it.
- Averted: Monster X is a anatomically-normal being, and has no such abilities.
- Enforced: The writer wants the monster to be especially scary, and decides that having it be able to go on forever without eating or sleeping is a good way to make it both a constant threat and very alien to human experience.
- Lampshaded: "Is there seriously no way to kill that thing without directly fighting it?"
- Invoked: Evulz demand an army that never tires, so that they have a massive supply advantage over his merely-mortal opponents.
- Exploited: Evulz creates an army of Monster X, and has them work to power a generator to give him limitless power.
- Defied: Monster X looks for a cure for it's condition so that it can enjoy food and drink again.
- "...That stupid thing is going to need to eat eventually, and I don't want to be near it when it does. Screw This, I'm Outta Here"
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "Hey, why does Monster X never have to eat, sleep, or shit."
- Deconstructed:
- Monster X can still experience hunger, thirst and exhaustion. In practice, to avoid going insane, it must continue to eat, drink and sleep like most living things.
- Even it's The Needless, Monster X is still subject to entropy: after years of constant marching and combat, it's become the monster equivalent of Dented Iron because it's worn it's joints to nubs.
- Monster X needs to store a vast amount of dispatachable energy within. Not only will it eventually run out but it makes them very vulnerable to fire as it will either blow them up or cause them to flash-burn to cinsders in an instant.
- Reconstructed:
- Monster X is given a neurological tweak to place an upper limit on the strength of it's biological urges.
- It's pointed out that while Monster X will eventually erode itself into oblivion, it will kill thousands if it's not stopped before then. Never sleeping or eating means it has a lot of time to kill, after all...
- Implied: Monster X never seems to eat, drink, or sleep, but it's not clear if it doesn't need to or is just doing it offscreen.
Back to Perpetual-Motion Monster
