A list of statuses in-game. Not all statuses are listed however.
The following is a list of status effects in Final Fantasy VII.
Certain enemies absorb status attacks, similar to how elemental attacks can be absorbed. For example, Dragon Zombie, Ghost, Ghost Ship, and Zenene will absorb the Death status, gaining full recovery from being hit by it. Some enemies are weak to certain statuses and take double damage from any attack that attempts to inflict that status. Tifa's Master Fist weapon's damage output doubles for each status ailment she is under while it is equipped, and even outclasses several ultimate weapons if Tifa has numerous ailments afflicting her.
List of statuses[]
Death[]
Death
Death is the state of which a character or enemy's HP 0, whether by means of attacking or by inflicting Instant Death via abilities. If all characters HP reaches 0, the game is over, and if all enemies HP reaches 0, the battle is won.
Near-death[]
Near-death
Near-death is listed in the manual as both ANEMIC and CRITICAL. The party members' HP digits in the battle menu turn yellow when they hit critical health at below 25% max health, and the characters appear exhausted on the screen.
The sword Ultima Weapon and the megaphone HP Shout are weaker when their wielders are in Near-death, the Ultima Weapon turning blue.
Tifa's Master Fist and Powersoul weapons double in attack power when she is in critical health.
The final bosses use several attacks that reduce the party's health to critical.
Sleep[]
Sleep
Sleep is caused by the spell Sleepel and by certain enemy attacks. Sleeping units cannot act until awoken although their ATB is not frozen. They are vulnerable to magic damage as it doesn't wake them, but being hit by a physical attack removes the status.
Poison[]
Poison
Poison periodically inflicts Poison-elemental physical damage upon the afflicted unit and does not remain after battle. It can be cured using an Antidote and Remedy items, Poisona and Esuna spells and White Wind and Angel Whisper Enemy Skills, as well as Aeris's status healing Limit Breaks.
Sadness[]
Sadness
Sadness makes the affected target take 30% less damage from physical and magical attacks, but also halves the rate at which the Limit gauge fills. The effect can be positive or negative, depending on the party's situation. Sadness is the opposite of Fury. When a character is under Sadness status, their Limit bar is displayed in blue, rather than the normal pink.
Fury[]
Fury
Fury reduces the character's hit rate for both physical and magical attacks by 30%, but also doubles the rate at which the Limit gauge fills; it can be a positive or negative effect depending on the situation. When a character is under Fury status, their Limit bar is displayed in red, rather than the normal pink.
Confusion[]
Confusion
The afflicted player character loses control and randomly attacks allies, but carries out the last command the player input; if possible, it will always be against the player party. Confused enemies continue to use their AI script, but with the definition of allies and enemies reversed.
Silence[]
Silence
Silence disables Magic, W-Magic, E.Skill, Summon, and W-Summon commands. Afflicted party members are slouched over with a thought bubble with "..." above their heads. The item dedicated to healing Silence is Echo Screen.
Haste[]
Haste makes one's ATB gauge fill out twice as fast. As a downside all timed effects like Barrier and Slow-numb run out double the pace. If a target is immune to Haste, they are also immune to Slow.
Slow[]
Slow makes a target's ATB gauge fill out half the normal speed, but the pace of all timed effects, such as Barrier and Slow-numb, is halved as well. Linking Added Effect with Time in a character's armor makes them immune to Slow (but, curiously, also immune to Haste). The effect can be removed with DeSpell, White Wind and Angel Whisper.
Stop[]
Stop halts the time counter for the afflicted, preventing their ATB gauge from filling, but also halting time based effects such as Barrier or Regen. Linking Added Effect Materia with Contain, Time or Choco/Mog in armor makes the character immune to the effect. It can be cured by DeSpell, White Wind, Angel Whisper and Aeris's status healing Limit Breaks.
Frog[]
Frog
It decreases the unit's attack power by 1/4th of their base damage and, unlike most other status effects, does not disappear when a character is KO'd. Linking Added Effect with either Transform or Hades makes the character immune to Frog.
Small[]
Small
One afflicted with the Small status has their Attack Power reduced to 1, therefore never doing more than 1 damage with physical attacks. Unlike most other statuses, Small is not removed if a character is KO'd. The enemy Hungry can eat a character in Small status, removing them from battle and flagging them as defeated.
Slow-numb[]
Slow-numb
Characters with Slow-numb are petrified after 60 seconds. The effect runs faster if the unit has Haste, slower when they have Slow, and is halted when the unit has Stop. The effect runs during attack, summon and Limit Break animations if the battle mode is set to Active.
Petrify[]
Petrify
The Petrify status flags the target as defeated and is thus similar to the Death status. Petrified targets cannot change in any way, not gain or lose HP or MP, and not be applied with any other status effect besides Small. If the character gains All Lucky 7s right as they are about to petrify due to Slow-numb, they will keep attacking even after the Petrification takes effect as long as there are enemies present.
Regen[]
Regen
A unit under Regen will gain HP continually while they glow orange until the status wears off. Unlike most games with Regen status, which restore 1/32 of a character's max HP every 4 seconds, Regen causes HP to continuously rise until the effect wears off. This negates weaker enemy attacks, as the unit will regenerate too fast for the damage to register. If a target has Regen and not enough HP to survive an attack the time an enemy's attack is cast, but gains some HP from Regen during the cast animation, they will still die when the animation is finished, resulting in a KO with HP still remaining.
Barrier[]
Barrier
Barrier halves physical damage taken. Barrier's duration is indicated by a depleting gauge in the battle menu. The effect runs faster under Haste, and is slowed down by Slow and halted by Stop. When an affected unit is attacked with a physical attack a transparent shield blocks it, getting smaller as the effect runs out.
MBarrier[]
MBarrier
MBarrier halves magical damage/healing taken and its duration is indicated by a depleting gauge in the player's battle menu. MBarrier depletes faster with Haste and slower with Slow and is halted entirely by Stop. When struck by a spell, a transparent shield blocks it, shrinking as the effect runs out.
Reflect[]
Reflect
Reflect bounces magic back to the caster for up to four times. Spells bounced off Reflect will continuously bounce back and forth between the targets if they both have Reflect up, until a target's Reflect status runs out after four hits. With Auto-Reflect (Reflect Ring and the enemy Mirage) the spell is bounced only once.
Dual[]
Dual is a dummied status effect that does nothing. It does not visually change the player model and lasts until the end of battle. As with most other statuses, the only things that protect a player from it are Peerless, Petrify, and Resist.
There is nothing that may suggest what the status was originally meant for left in the data.
Shield[]
Shield is a positive status effect given by the spell of the same name. When under its effect, the target voids all normal attacks and absorbs all elemental damage, though they can still be damaged by items (not when used in W-Item) and non-elemental special attacks.
Death-sentence[]
Death-sentence
Death-sentence is applied through the E.Skill Death Sentence, which sets the timer to 60 seconds (30 if the target is in Haste). The accessory Curse Ring also applies Death-sentence to the wearer, and will not reset if they are KO'd and then revived.
Tifa's Powersoul weapon doubles in power if she is near death, and quadruples in power when she is under Death Sentence, making equipping her with Curse Ring potentially beneficial.
Manipulate[]
Manipulate
The Manipulate status is induced through the Manip. command. It cannot be applied on allies and one character can control only one enemy at a time. Enemies under this status turn cyan and face the opposite way, the same way the players are facing. The status lasts for the duration of the battle unless removed by being attacked with a physical attack or via White Wind. Units in the Petrify, Resist, Sleep, Stop, or Paralyzed statuses cannot be manipulated. Petrify, Sleep, Stop, and Paralyzed also cancel out the Manipulate status.
Manipulate is the lowest status on the color priority chart, meaning that if an enemy has another color-affecting status, it will not be cyan. If they have more than one other color-affecting status, the one with the highest priority will show. It has the lowest priority due to it being more obvious to the player besides the color due to other visual differences. Also, in this status, it is more useful to know what other statuses the unit has contracted.
Some enemies need to be manipulated to learn the Enemy Skills Big Guard, White Wind, Death Force, Angel Whisper, and Dragon Force.
The SOLDIER:2nd enemy is susceptible to the status. If there is more than one left in battle, and the manipulated unit is commanded to attack another unit of the same kind, the second unit will retaliate, relinquishing the status, but triggering the first unit to attack the second. This will continue until either one dies, or the player attacks them.
The Manipulate status can be used to have full control during a battle. It is commonly used so players can damage themselves so their last two digits of a character's HP are 77. Doing this, they can restore themselves with a number of Potions to initiate the All Lucky 7s status.
Berserk[]
Berserk
Berserk increases the unit's physical attack damage by x1.5 at the cost of losing control, only physically attacking a random enemy at every chance they get.
An amusing glitch results with some enemies that are not immune to Berserk but do not have a specified attack to use when Berserked: the game has them use a spell that costs more MP than they will ever have, and thus gives the message "[Enemy]'s skill power is used up".
Peerless[]
Peerless
Peerless makes characters immune to all physical and magical attacks for a short time, and effectively works as a Resist status regarding status attributes, locking any previous statuses in and preventing the application of new ones. The status also gives immunity against MP remove attacks.
The target glows yellow. The effect can be used from Aeris's Limit Breaks, Planet Protector and Great Gospel.
Paralyzed[]
When a unit is paralyzed they freeze on the spot and cannot act. Paralysis lasts a shorter while than Stop and, unlike in Stop, the characters' Limit Break gauges do not fill when they are attacked.
Darkness[]
Darkness
Darkness is mainly usable by enemies. The player only has access to the status through the Ink item, but Darkness is of no tactical use to players, as most enemies do not suffer from the status. Darkness halves the physical accuracy of weapon-based attacks, but due to poor programming the status only affects the commands Attack, Morph, Deathblow, Mug, Slash-All, Flash, 2x Cut, and 4x Cut. Because enemies do not use the above commands they are unaffected by Darkness, making inflicting opponents with the status pointless.
Seizure[]
Imprisoned (Waterpolo)
Seizure is inflicted by Bottomswell's Waterball attack, which places Seizure and Imprisoned statuses on a character (despite the status screen saying it places Death and Imprisoned). The victim can be cured by defeating the Waterball by casting magic on it.
Death Force[]
Death Force is cast via the Enemy Skill Materia, and although the Adamantaimai possesses the skill, it never uses it, meaning only the player can ever use it.
Death Force protects against all forms of Instant Death with the exception of Cait Sith's Death Joker (and Game Over if the enemy were to have Death Force). If Death-sentence is cast upon a character with Death Force up, although the timer will continue to count down, once it is finished, the character will not die.
Death Force is removable with DeSpell (but not Holy Torch) and White Wind.
No enemy is immune to Death Force.
Resist[]
Resist is granted by the spell Resist from the Heal Materia and by the Vaccine item. It locks in status effects for the target, both making them immune to all status effects including Instant Death, and locking any current status effects the character has on them, positive or negative. It does not protect against statuses granted as handicaps on the Battle Square, meaning that when applied, it is more detrimental than it is helpful as the player cannot then remove the negative status effects applied. It is removed with DeSpell (but not with Holy Torch) and White Wind.
The enemies Chocobo and Manhole are immune to Resist.
If the player casts Reflect on all enemies and all party members, and then applies Resist status on them all, and tries to cast a spell to a target, the game will freeze.
Lucky Girl[]
Cait Sith's Limit Break Lucky Girl allows the party members to deal critical hits every time they attack, whether it be a regular physical attack, a command attack, such as Slash-All, or a Limit Break. The Lucky Girl is a possible combination in Cait Sith's Level 2 Limit Break, Slots, and is executed by lining up three hearts.
Imprisoned[]
Imprisoned (Pyramid)
There are only three instances of this status, each being boss battles. The player's party lacks access to means of inflicting enemies with this status (aside from possibly hacking the game).
Imprisoned immobilizes the afflicted and flags it as defeated (although they retain their current HP). Thus a Game Over is triggered if all party members become Imprisoned. An entrapment (which is technically an enemy) is spawned in place of the affected party member. To remove this state, one must attack said entrapment until it is defeated.
Turks:Reno can trap party members inside a Pyramid. Characters imprisoned by the Pyramid are flagged as non-targets, meaning attacks and curative magic or items have no effect on them until they are freed.
Bottomswell imprisons party members inside Waterpolos that constantly drain the HP of those affected. (See Seizure.)
When fighting Carry Armor, its Right Arm or Left Arm attachment may imprison one or two party members. When the boss performs its spinning arms attack, imprisoned characters take damage.
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Arm Grab | Enemy Attack | Inflicts Imprisoned on one opponent. |
| Pyramid | Enemy Attack | Inflicts Imprisoned on one opponent, revives a Pyramid with full HP. |
| Waterball | Enemy Attack | Inflicted Imprisoned and Seizure on one opponent. Revives a Waterpolo. |
Back Row[]
Back Row halves the damage taken by party members but also halves the damage dealt. It affects all normal attack commands: the Attack, Morph, Deathblow, Mug, Slash-All, Flash, 2x Cut, and 4x Cut. This damage reduction is bypassed using the Long Range Materia, as well as several long ranged weapons (which can be wielded by Barret, Red XIII, Yuffie and Vincent). While enemies have defined rows, they do not have a set back row like characters do.
Defend[]
Defend halves all physical damage taken until their next turn begins, and is usable by any character via the Defend command.
All Lucky 7s[]
All Lucky 7s
An Easter egg state that is not considered a status effect game mechanics wise, All Lucky 7s triggers when a unit's HP falls on 7,777. Once the state is achieved, an "All Lucky 7s!" battle message will display, and every move the unit performs results in either 7,777 damage or 7,777 recovery. Player characters become uncontrollable and attack enemies repeatedly 64 times for a total of 497,728 damage, and following this, their damage/heal will always be 7,777. Enemies will continue with their normal AI but every attack deals 7,777 damage.
All Lucky 7s lasts for the duration of the battle, as once ended, the characters' HP becomes 1.