Poison

Poison is one of the basic statuses, as well as an elemental attribute, found in the Castlevania series.
In most games, when the hero is poisoned their health will drain by a small amount every second. The amount of damage taken scales as a hero's HP maximum arises, making poison as much a threat in later levels as it is early on.
In some games in the series, Poison status does not inflict damage, but simply weakens the hero's stats. In these cases, it's usually the hero's offensive strengths which take the penalties inflicted by poison, although it is not uncommon to also weaken one's defenses in this manner.
Special care should be taken in Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia, however, as the effects of poisonings in these games are a combination of the two effects detailed above.
Most of the time, while poison can reduce a hero's HP to dangerous levels, it alone will never actually cause them to die. The method of treatment for poison, for the most part, comes from anti-venom potions that can be consumed to rid the drinker of the ailment. There are exceptions to both of these rules, which can be seen below.
==Game specific information==
===Castlevania II: Simon's Quest===
During his travels, Simon will come across various poisonous swamps. If he steps inside, his movement will be drastically reduced, while his health is being drained rapidly. To counteract these effects, he will have to make use of a laurel, which will protect him from all harm while its effects are still active. He must be fast in crossing the marsh, though, as if the effect from the laurel ends and he doesn't have another one to consume, he could end up in the middle of a poisonous swamp, being overwhelmed by ghastly leeches and mudmen.
===Castlevania: Symphony of the Night===
If one is afflicted with poison during the events of Symphony of the Night, they will take twice as much damage, and deal half as much damage. Alucard can reduce the duration of this effect by increasing his constitution, however. Poison cannot do damage by itself, and thus, it alone cannot kill a hero.
===Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness===
When a player's status becomes "Poison", they will look pale and start losing small amounts of health. The longer they remain poisoned, the more health they will lose, so it's best to get this status treated quickly. Unlike "Vampire", where characters' traits are affected by in-game time, the Poison status plays no favorites, and causes all characters to lose health equally in real time. The amount of health lost is determined by this formula:
{100 HP\over256 s}=0.38 HP/s
Where:
*100 HP: Maximum amount of health points a character can have.
*265 seconds: Longest amount of time a character at full health can survive before Poison knocks their HP down to 0.
*0.38 HP/s: Average amount of health points being lost per second.
Again, this is affected by real time, and not by game time. Having the game on pause will, of course, put the damage on hold, but it will continue the instant the game is resumed. You can restore lost health by consuming a Roast Chicken or a Roast Beef, but it won't stop the poison from doing its work.
No matter the situation, however, in this game, if left untreated, poison can and will kill the hero by itself. Because of this, it's best to get treatment for this status as soon as the opportunity presents itself, to prevent a slow and painful death.
====Treatments====
*Use a Cure Ampoule, an item designed to cleanse the venom from the body.
*Use a Healing Kit, an item that cures all status ailments and restores health to its maximum level.
*Cornell can cure status effects by transforming into a werewolf.
*Can also be cured by entering or exiting to the next stage.
===Castlevania: Circle of the Moon===
If Nathan is afflicted with poison over the course of his journey in the castle, he will lose 1% of his maximum HP per second. This, while relatively harmless early on compared to other forms of harm, can most certainly add up if left untreated. The main source of poisons often comes from some enemies, be it through contact or certain attacks, but the Jupiter + Black Dog DSS combination will also poison him for the duration of the effect. Otherwise, the ailment wears off after a short time, and can be removed early by consuming an Antidote potion.
Poison status from the DSS combination will overwrite any status Nathan has previously, and will be removed once Nathan deactivates the shield. As a result, this method can be used to heal him from Poison and Curse status.
In addition, in this game, If Nathan has a low percentage of his maximum health and is poisoned, refusing to cure its effects can and will lead to a slow and painful death. For this reason, it's best to get the status treated as soon as possible, and to avoid overusing the aforementioned DSS combination above.
===Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow===
Instead of draining HP, poison status will reduce Soma's STR, CON and INT by ¾ of his original stats. If he equips the Zombie Body (stolen from zombies) soul, instead of reducing the stats, poison will increase them by 37.5%. Strangely, the reduced stats are not displayed although the increased stats do. Note that the status only affects ATK boost from STR, and DEF boost from CON (e.g.: Claimh Solais will give Soma 100-101 instead of 106 ATK, and 0-1 instead of 3-4 DEF). Julius is immune to poison status.
====Treatments====
*Aside from equipping the aforementioned soul above, Soma can also switch his enchanted soul with Resist Poison (stolen from poison worms). He will be cured from poison once it has been equipped, even before the player exits the start menu.
*Use an Anti-Venom (although this will be unnecessary if Soma manages to get one of the two aforementioned souls above).
*Use a Save Room. It cures Soma's status and in addition replenishes any lost HP and MP.
*Wait for a period of time. It wears off after a certain amount of time has passed, although sometimes Soma must find a safe place to do that.
====Poison on enemies====
Poisoned enemies will have their DEF reduced to 0, and their STR reduced by 25%. Due to damage calculation formula, having poison elemental tolerance is redundant.
===Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow===
Poison status works quite different in Dawn of Sorrow. Instead of gradually losing HP, Soma will only have his attack power severely reduced for a brief time due to the STR and INT stats being reduced to 0. This means the damage output will be based on the weapon's raw attack power. The effect passes very quickly, though, sometimes making its treatment more inconvenient than just waiting for the effect to wear off.
===Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin===
===Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia===
The poison status is worse in Order of Ecclesia, since it combines both the negative effects of draining HP, as well as severely reducing Shanoa's attack power. Many enemies can poison her. Fortunately, the Anti-Venom is a common drop from these enemies and it can also be bought from Jacob's shop after completing Abram's second quest: "Medicinal Ingredients Needed".
===Castlevania: Harmony of Despair===
===Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls===
Poison reduces HP as usual in Grimoire of Souls. In the absence of healing items that can be used during gameplay, the only way to recover from it is to wait for the status to wear off.
==Gallery==
Harmony Of Dissonance - Poison - 01.jpg|Juste poisoned by a Poison Lizard in Harmony of Dissonance.
help 002 01.png|Alucard afflicted with Poison in Grimoire of Souls.
==See also==
*Antivenom
*Damage Types (category)
**Curse
**Stone
es:Veneno
Category:Damage Types
Category:Status