Status Effects

EBF4 Status Effects, with a certain foe having immunity to all of them.

Status effects, commonly shortened to just statuses, are special conditions in the Epic Battle Fantasy series. They can be inflicted during battle, hindering or helping their prowess in a variety of ways. Since Epic Battle Fantasy 3, hovering the cursor over an inflicted status effect will show its description.

Negative status effects are often referred to as "ailments" or "debuffs", while positive status effects may be called "buffs". However, they should not be confused with abilities or equipment that modify stats (although some status effects also affect the target's stats).

Additionally,

• Most negative and many neutral status effects can be cured. Standard methods include Garlic (since EBF3) / Antidote (EBF1&2) as consumable items, Purify, Medipack (since EBF3) and Cleanse (EBF4) as ordinary skills, Heaven's Gate's and Seraphim's Unleashes (EBF3 only) as self-heals, and Kyun (since EBF2) as a Limit Break. Dying also works, unless the player has Auto-Revive on them when they die.
• Most status effects also fade/wear off over time/turns.
• All status effects will be cleared upon returning to overworld (since EBF3) or reaching a checkpoint (EBF1&2).
• Most of status effects can be stacked, e.g. inflicting tier 2 Poison three times on the same target will result in tier 6 Poison, not considering status fading. However, for most statuses it only increases their duration and not the strength of their effects.
• The division between positive, negative and neutral statuses is purely for user convenience and may not accurately reflect their technical category in-game.

Positive status effects

Auto-Revive / Autolife (Gold halo / white feather)

• 

  in 3+

  

  in 2

  Typical cause: Certain skills and the passive effects of some equipment.
• Effects: The target immediately comes back to life when its HP hits 0, retaining stat (de)buffs and most status effects except Auto-Revive itself, and regains a portion of its HP. In EBF2, only stat (de)buffs are retained, as with normal revival.
• Cure: Dispel (except in EBF3), defeat the target, or wait for it to wear off (except if on EBF2 Spirit).
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 2, under the name Autolife; renamed into Auto-Revive in Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Bless (Four-leaf clover)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: Certain healing skills and the passive effects of some equipment. Breeze weather.
• Effects: The target cannot be inflicted with status effects from enemy attacks, including (but not limited to) Dispel, Doom and Instant Death, as well as Wet and most instances of Berserk. Doesn't clear already inflicted status effects. Doesn't affect self-induced statuses, such as Bone Armor's Curse. Certain specific attacks can bypass Bless (ie the Hungry caused by Mammoths when they die). Doesn't affect stat debuffs.
• Cure: Bless cannot be Dispelled, but as of EBF5 v2.0 one stack of Bless is expended for each negative condition it blocks. Death and Doom use up 2 stacks, and Dispel removes 3 stacks.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Brave (Red axe)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: Certain buffing skills and the passive effects of some equipment. Sunny weather.
• Effects: The target has a greatly increased critical hit chance (base% * 2 + 20) and immunity to being struck by a critical hit (except in EBF4, where Stagger's guaranteed critical takes priority). As of EBF5 v2.0, it also prevents direct debuffing of Attack and Magic Attack.
• Cure: Dispel or wait for it to wear off.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Charge (Light blue / yellow spark)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: Certain skills and the passive effects of some equipment. On higher difficulties, some enemies enter the battle with the status on them already.
• Effects: Allows the target to launch certain powerful attack (i.e. Hyper Beam for Lance, Ion Cannon for Praetorian), expending the status. Doesn't vanish upon death.
• Cure: None; either defeat the affected foe or disable them (preferably with Stun or Freeze; Syphon and Berserk may or may not work, depending on the foe) and wait it out. On players, even death will not remove the status.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4, but similar effects existed since the first Epic Battle Fantasy.

Defend (Yellow shield)

For special effects of the "Defend" command prior to Epic Battle Fantasy 4, see Tactics#Defend.

• 
  Typical cause: Certain skills and summons, as well as the "Defend" command (for players).
• Effects: Halves non-status damage taken during the next turn. Cannot be stacked. Disables counterattacks.
• Cure: Dispel or wait a turn for it to wear off.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4, but similar effects existed since the first Epic Battle Fantasy.

Epic (Golden flame)

• 
  Typical cause: Fight against God.
• Effects: A powerful aura gives crazy buffs every turn (all stats increased by 25%, 20% after buff fading is taken into account). Status cannot be removed.
• Cure: None.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Good Luck (Golden horseshoe)

• 
  Typical cause: Certain skills and summons. Sacred Land weather.
• Effects: Attacks have 25% more accuracy, 25% more critical hit chance and 25% more chance to cause status effects and debuffs. Incoming attacks have 10% less accuracy, 30% less critical hit chance, 25% less chance to cause status effects and debuffs. Incoming Instant Death becomes Stagger. Can either reduce the likelihood of capturing foes (on foes) or make them easier to capture (on players).
• Cure: Wait for it to wear off, Dispel, inflict Bad Luck.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Haste (Blue watch)

• 
  Typical cause: Encore skill and Viking Monolith summon. Cherry Blossom weather.
• Effects: The target can perform an additional action per stack of Haste.
• Cure: Dispel, wait for it to wear off (enemies will only ever take one additional action, regardless of how many stacks of Haste they have).
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Lovable (Pink hearts)

• 
  Typical cause: Cherish, Loving Aura and 7th Heaven skills, Rescue Dog summon, certain foes' skills.
• Effects: Prevents the afflicted from being targeted by most single-target attacks. If all players have it active, foes may either use multi-target attacks exclusively or surrender (only if their catchscore is currently >55).
• Cure: Wait for it to wear off or Dispel.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Morale (Green helmet)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: Passive effects of some equipment and the Kitten Fort summon. Sunny weather.
• Effects: The target cannot be killed in one hit if their HP is above or equal 49%; a lethal blow will only reduce them to 1 HP. This includes Instant Death, Doom and the "overflow" attack, but not the Sacrifice skill. As of EBF5 v2.0, it also prevents direct debuffing of Defense and Magic Defense.
• Cure: Dispel or wait for it to wear off.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Regen (Green cross)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: The effects of some equipment, skills, and summons. Sacred Land weather
• Effects: Restores some of the target's HP at the beginning of their side's turn (EBF4), or during the foes-to-players turn transition, before Poison (EBF2&3).
• Cure: Dispel or wait for it to wear off. Alternatively, a damage-over-time effect like Poison may offset the HP gain.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 2.

Negative status effects

Bad Luck (Black/Red horseshoe)

• 
  Typical cause: Some spells and summons.
• Effects: Attacks have 20% less accuracy, 20% less critical hit chance, 20% less chance to cause status effects and debuffs. Incoming attacks have 10% more accuracy, 30% more critical hit chance, 25% more chance to cause status effects and debuffs. Incoming Doom becomes Instant Death. If applied on a target who already has Doom, reduces its counter to 1. Can either reduce the likelihood of capturing foes (on players) or make them easier to capture (on foes).
• Cure: Inflicting Good Luck or standard methods.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Blind (Pricked out eyes)

• 
  Typical cause: Shiny attacks and particle sprays.
• Effects: Target's Accuracy is halved.
• Cure: Standard methods.
• Appears In: Epic Battle Fantasy 2, replaced in next installments by Accuracy debuff.

Brimstone (Double cross on infinity symbol)

• 
  Typical cause: Fight against Annabelle.
• Effects: Buff effects are reversed, causing them to act as if they were debuffs. Debuffs are still bad. Flybot summons have no effect. Buffs from the Turtle Gi are unaffected. Status cannot be removed.
• Cure: None.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Burn (Orange embers/flames)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: Fire-based skills.
• Effects: Target takes Fire damage at the end of their side's turn; damage affected by Fire resistance but not the # of Burn inflicted (except in EBF5).
• Cure: Hitting the target with a Water- or Ice-based skill (including non-damaging Cloudburst), in EBF5 it also can be cured by hitting them with attacks that inflict Wet or Chill, otherwise standard methods.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Confuse (White question mark)

• 
  Typical cause: Some foe's skills.
• Effects: The affected player becomes uncontrollable and uses a random skill each turn.
• Cure: Standard methods.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Curse (Black vortex/Three dark circles)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: Dark-based skills. Some equipment inflicts this on the user.
• Effects: Target's Defence and Magic Defence are debuffed by 10% each turn, with the usual stat (de)buff fading (by 5%) going afterwards — in total, the debuff would be 15% per turn when the affected has corresponding stat buffs, or 5% otherwise; in EBF5 the debuff is increased to 15%, resulting in a 20% decrease if the foe is already buffed or 10% otherwise. Also increases Holy-elemental damage taken by 50%, which consumes one stack of Curse per hit.
• Cure: Standard methods.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Delete (Red "X")

• 
  Typical cause: The Devourer's "Delete Earth" attack, used when it reaches roughly 30% HP.
• Effects: Earth has been deleted. Players will take more and more damage every turn. Status cannot be removed. Also stops the Flee command from working.
• Cure: None.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Disable (No icon in game; EBF1 Syphon image used for reference)

• 
  Typical cause: Some foe's skills.
• 'Effects: Each of the user's skills has a chance to be put on cooldown. This can affect skills that would not normally have a cooldown.
• Cure: Wait a few turns for the cooldowns to expire, or use Food or skills that reduce cooldown duration.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Dispel / Debuff (Broken yellow disk)

• 
  Typical cause: Certain skills. Stormy weather.
• Effects: The target loses any buffs and "positive" status effects it had. The status isn't lasting, thus doesn't prevent applying the buffs again. Doesn't affect neutral status effects, EBF3 Berserk and EBF3 Auto-Revive.
• Cure: Re-buff.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy, under the name Debuff (not to be confused with stat debuffs); renamed into Dispel in Epic Battle Fantasy 3.

Doom (Black/gray skull)

• 

  in 5

  

  in 4

  

  in 3

  Typical cause: Dark-based skills, Cursed Land weather.
• Effects: Applies Instant Death onto the target when the status expires (its "timer" reaches zero), OR light non-elemental damage if Death was resisted. Cannot be stacked. "Timer" will jump to 1 if Bad Luck is applied while active, and will immediately cause Instant Death if inflicted on a target already suffering from Bad Luck.
• Cure: Standard methods except waiting it out. During the "countdown", you can apply Bless, change equipment to get Death immunity or apply Auto-Revive.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 3.

Freeze (Ice crystal)

• 

  in 5

  

  in 4

  Typical cause: Ice-based skills, being hit by a skill that causes Chill while Wet, Blizzard weather.
• Effects: Target skips their turn as long as they are Frozen. They take increased damage from the next attack that hits them (except for Fire-elemental damage), which cancels Freeze. Poison and Burn will not cause damage, yet continue to tick down.
• Cure: Damaging (including cases when damage is nullified by elemental resistance) or healing the target; Purify and Cleanse will not help. For players, "forced" movement also helps, such as catching items, intro animations of certain summons and Limit Breaks (except in EBF3), and in EBF2 cheering after clearing a wave. Additionally, EBF3 Freeze lasts forever until disrupted, thus waiting it out wouldn't work.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 2.

Hungry (Fork and knife)

• 
  Typical cause: Some foes' skills, caused by Mammoths upon dying.
• Effects: The affected becomes uncontrollable and eats random food from a private stash.
• Cure: Wait it out, become Stuffed, prevent it with Bless.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Instant Death / Death (Black skull)

• 
  Typical cause: Some foe'skills, being hit by a skill that causes Doom when Bad Luck is active, the Annihilate Limit Break.
• Effects: The target dies, regardless of its health remaining. The status isn't lasting. Good Luck status will cause incoming Instant Death to become Stagger instead.
• Cure: Revive.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 3, but similar effects existed since Epic Battle Fantasy 2.

Poison (Green bubbles)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: Poison-based skills. Some equipment inflicts this on the user.
• Effects: Target takes Poison/Bio damage at the end of their side's turn (EBF4), or during the foes-to-players turn transition, after Regen (EBF1-3). Damage affected by Poison resistance and the # of Poison inflicted.
• Cure: Standard methods (although prior to EBF4, Poison did not wear off naturally).
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy.

Random (Rainbow question mark)

• 
  Typical cause: Certain weapons.
• Effects: Has an equal chance of becoming various status effects (see the specific article for a comprehensive list).
• Cure: Depends.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Repulsion (Red circles)

• 
  Typical cause: Fight against Lancelot.
• Effects: Summons and automatic skills cannot be used. Status cannot be removed.
• Cure: None.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Scorch (Dark red flames)

• 
  Typical cause: Rare Fire-based skills, the Chili Pepper item. Some foe skills inflicting Burn become Scorch on harder difficulties.
• Effects: Similar to Burn, but does twice as much damage and also debuffs Max HP by 10% each turn it is active.
• Cure: Same as Burn.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Shroud (Dark gray cloud)

• 
  Typical cause: Some foe's skills.
• Effects: It prevents the player from viewing the afflicted's HP bar, stats, and status conditions except for Shroud itself.
• Cure: Standard methods, be hit by a Wind or Holy-based skill, or use Reflex.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Slimed (Green slime)

• 
  Typical cause: Being hit by a Slime; occurs rarely and at random.
• Effects: Target is transformed into a Slime, unable to take turns and catch items. Damage taken is doubled. The status cannot be inflicted again as long as any player is currently Slimed.
• Cure: Waiting for the effect to wear off, or having the afflicted target die (even with Auto-Revive). Other standard methods will not work.
• Appears only in Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Stagger (Exclamation mark)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: Bomb-, Wind- and Earth-based skills. Earthquake weather.
• Effects: Target is guaranteed to suffer a critical hit from the next attack to hit them. Attacking an enemy with both Brave and Stagger will not cause a critical hit and will also not consume Stagger stacks (except in EBF4, where Stagger had priority over Brave).
• Cure: Standard methods.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Stuffed (A barred fork)

• 
  Typical cause: Caused by Squids on death, side effect of using potent healing tems (e.g. Burger, Pizza).
• Effects: The affected becomes stuffed and can't eat any food. As of EBF5 v2.0, it also prevents direct Max HP debuffs.
• Cure: Wait it out.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Stoned (Brown stones)

• 
  Typical cause: Fight against Matteus.
• Effects: Cannot use Limit Breaks, and it's Game Over when time runs out (removes Morale, Auto-Life, Enchant, and Invisible before inflicting unavoidable damage equal to ten time's the player's max health). Status cannot be removed.
• Cure: None.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Stun (Yellow circle with a lightning arc)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: Thunder-based skills and strong physical attacks (such as stabs or body slams). Electric weather.
• Effects: Target skips their turn as long as they are Stunned. In EBF4, it also increases Earth-elemental damage taken by 50%, which consumes one turn of Stun per hit.
• Cure: Standard methods.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 2.

Syphon / Seal (Six-pointed star in a circle)

• 

  in 5

  

  in 2+

  

  in 1

  Typical cause: Certain skills.
• Effects: For players, blocks all skills other than Normal Attack from use (Limit Breaks are still available, and magic spells that are auto-cast by certain equipment still work); for enemies, switches them to an alternative pattern for varying effects, usually restricting the affected to regular physical attacks.
• Cure: Standard methods.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy, under the name Seal; renamed into Syphon in Epic Battle Fantasy 3.

Target (Red target)

• 
  Typical cause: Some foe's skills. Some Flairs inflict this on the wearer when defending.
• Effects: The afflicted becomes the target of all single-target attacks.
• Cure: Standard methods, or apply Lovable.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Tired (White/green arrow/Car tire)

• 

  in 5

  

  in 4

  Typical cause: Earth-based skills. Some equipment inflicts this on the user.
• Effects: Target's Accuracy and Evade are debuffed by 10% each turn, with the usual stat (de)buff fading (by 5%) going afterwards — in total, the debuff would be 15% per turn when the affected has corresponding stat buffs, or 5% otherwise; in EBF5 the debuff is increased to 15%, resulting in a 20% decrease if the foe is already buffed or 10% otherwise. In EBF5 also increases Bio damage received by 50%, consuming a turn of Tired per hit.
• Cure: Standard methods.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Undead (Grey tombstone)

• 
  Typical cause: Fight against Natalia.
• Effects: Fire and Holy resistance is decreased by 100%, and healing magic has no effect; Revive can still be used but will leave the revived player with 0 health. Status cannot be removed.
• Cure: None.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Virus (Purple blob)

• 
  Typical cause: Rare Poison skills.
• Effects: Deals twice as much Bio damage per turn as Poison, and has a chance of inflicting Virus on anyone else on the field each turn. Does not go away with time.
• Cure: Standard methods, but will not wear off on its own- in fact it will actually stack with itself. The condition may spread back to a previously cured target, requiring all allies and foes so affected to be cured in order to keep it from coming back.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Weaken (White explosion/Broken bone)

• 

  in 5

  
  Typical cause: Holy-based skills.
• Effects: Target's Attack and Magic Attack are debuffed by 10% each turn, with the usual stat (de)buff fading (by 5%) going afterwards — in total, the debuff would be 15% per turn when the affected has corresponding stat buffs, or 5% otherwise; in EBF5 the debuff is increased to 15%, resulting in a 20% decrease if the foe is already buffed or 10% otherwise. Also increases Dark-elemental damage taken by 50%, which consumes one turn of Weaken per hit.
• Cure: Standard methods.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4.

Neutral status effects

Berserk (Red "X"/cross vein / flame)

• 

  in 5

  

  in 4

  

  in 3

  Typical cause: Fire-based skills and passive effects of some equipment. Bears will go berserk when hit by a powerful attack.
• Effects: Players become uncontrollable and use their standard attack on random foes; starting from EBF4, they may occasionally use stronger physical skills instead. Foes switch to an alternative pattern for varying effects, usually blocking magical attacks from use or/and forcing to use certain attack over and over. Both sides receive a damage boost. In EBF3, players also gain Freeze immunity, while foes also half physical damage taken.
• Cure: Standard anti-negative methods, Dispel (only in EBF4), or hitting the affected with a Water- or Ice-based attack (Ice only in EBF3).
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 3.

Chill (White snowflake)

• 
  Typical cause: Ice based skills, Huge Hail weather
• Effects: Increases Ice and Water-elemental damage taken by 50%, halves Bio-elemental damage taken; all consume one turn of Chill per attack. Doubles chance to get inflicted by Freeze. Incoming Wet becomes Freeze instead.
• Cure: Wait it out, Cutie Worm summon, being hit by a Fire-elemental attack. Dispel will not work.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Dry (Yellow wavy lines)

• 
  Typical cause: Fire based skills, Sandstorm weather.
• Effects: Increases Fire and Bomb-elemental damage taken by 50%, halves Ice and Thunder-elemental damage taken; all consume one turn of Dry per attack. Doubles the chance of being Burned or Scorched.
• Cure: Wait it out, Cutie Worm summon, being hit by a Water-elemental attack, being inflicted with Wet. Dispel will not work.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Enchanted (Golden slime)

• 
  Typical cause: Some foes' skills, can be triggered by some equipment when defending.
• Effects: The target is immune to all magical damage but physical damage is doubled.
• Cure: Wait it out, Dispel, or Cutie Worm summon.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Heavy (Yellow arrow down)

• 
  Typical cause: Dark based skills, High Gravity weather.
• Effects: Increases Earth damage taken by 50%, halves Wind damage taken; all consume one turn of Heavy per attack.
• Cure: Wait it out, Cutie Worm summon, or be inflicted with Light. Dispel will not work.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Invisible (Black slime)

• 
  Typical cause: Some foes' skills, some pieces of equipment when defending.
• Effects: The target is immune to all physical damage but magical damage is doubled.
• Cure: Wait it out, Dispel, or Cutie Worm summon.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Light (Green arrow up)

• 
  Typical cause: Wind based skills, Low Gravity weather.
• Effects: Increases Wind damage taken by 50%, halves Earth damage taken; all consume one turn of Light per attack.
• Cure: Wait it out, Cutie Worm summon, or be inflicted with Heavy. Dispel will not work.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Surrender (White flag)

• 
  Typical cause: A scared foe either surrenders, flees immediately, or goes Berserk, depending on the type of foe. Can also be forced by certain skills such as Screamer or Bow Whack, or when an enemy is near death. See page for details.
• Effects: The foe will flee the battle on its turn. It will drop the same rewards as it would have if it was defeated normally, and its chance of capture is guaranteed (unless it's also heavily buffed).
• Cure: Wait it out.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

Wet (Blue water droplet)

• 

  in 5

  

  in 4

  Typical cause: Water-based skills, Rain weather
• Effects: Increases Thunder- and Ice-elemental damage taken by 50%, halves Fire-elemental damage taken; all consume one turn of Wet per hit. Doubles the chance of getting Frozen. Incoming Chill becomes Freeze instead.
• Cure: Standard anti-negative methods (only in EBF4), Cutie Worm summon, or be inflicted with Dry. Dispel will not work.
• First appeared in: Epic Battle Fantasy 4.