Status effects are a recurring element of the Dragon Quest series.

Status ailments damage, immobilize or otherwise debilitate a combatant. Almost every status ailment can be lifted with the help of a spell specific to that ailment. Many status ailments disappear immediately after a battle, while others can only be removed with a spell or a visit to the church.

Some spells exist expressly to inflict status effects, and some weapons have a small chance of inflicting a status ailment after a successful hit. Occasionally, a special move may have a chance of causing a status effect. Some equipment bestows positive or negative status effects.

A number of these effects can be wiped out by Disruptive Wave.

List of recurring status effects

Negative Status Ailments

Image Name Effect
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Confused Attacks their fellow party members or themselves. May also do nothing at all. S
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Cursed The character's statistics are set to 0 as a result of wearing cursed equipment. They can only remove the equipment by visiting a church. In some installments, it is caused by certain attacks. S
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Dazzled Much more likely to miss with physical attacks, dropping accuracy to 3/8ths. M
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Dead Cannot act in any way until revived by a spell or the church. S
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Envenomated Takes damage after each round (becomes poisoned after battle). Reduces HP by 1/6th of maximum per turn in V, 1/8th in VI to IX. S
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Fizzled Cannot cast spells until the spell wears off or end of the battle.
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Poisoned Takes 1 point of damage while traveling on the field. Every four steps in I~IV, eight steps in V~VI, and every step since VII. S
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Sapped Defence is decreased.
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Sleep Cannot act until woken by an attack or until a random number of turns have passed. S
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Stunned Must waste a turn frozen in fear, rolling around laughing, knocked down, grinning after a Puff-Puff, etc. M

Positive Status Enhancements

Image Name Effect
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Accelerated n/a S
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Bounce n/a S
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Buffed n/a M
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Drsgon n/a S
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Insulated Cragravation S
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Kaclang n/a
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Oomph Necropolis S
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Reverse Cycle
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Veiled S
  • Accelerated - Agility is increased.
  • Bounce - Reflects magic spells.
  • Buffed - Defence is increased.
  • Dragon - Morphed into a giant dragon.
  • Insulated - Damage from fire- and ice-based attacks is decreased.
  • Kaclang - Turned into invincible steel.
  • Oomph - Attack power doubled.
  • Reverse Cycle - Reflects breath attacks.
  • Veiled - Magical attacks have no effect on the target from now on.