Flamed and Burned (damage types)

Flamed and Burned are related damage types in Deus Ex, and are among the most common damage types in the game. "Flamed" damage is caused exclusively by fireballs launched by the flamethrower and WP rockets of the GEP gun, and is the on-hit damage caused by the projectiles of these weapons. "Burned" damage is inflicted by the damage-over-time effect resulting from "flamed" damage, as well as by the plasma bolts launched by the plasma rifle and the PS20.

When "Flamed" or "Burned" damage is taken by the player, the HUD will display a flaming damage indicator icon. This icon is the same as the icon used for the "Exploded" damage type.

Special properties

On-fire effect

"Flamed" damage, of any amount, will caused animals and human NPCs to enter the "on-fire" state, during which they will continually take 5 damage (of the "burned" damage type) every second for 30 seconds. All animals and humanoid enemies can be set on fire, with the exception of MJ12 Commandos and Grays (the latter of which is immune to both damage types). Robots also cannot be set on fire.

Weapons that only inflict "burned" damage (and not any "flamed" damage) are not capable of triggering the on-fire effect on animals and humanoids.

Against non-player targets, the on-fire effect directly deducts 5 HP of torso health per second over a period of 30 seconds.

• The damage-over-time effect is not eligible for the 2x torso-hit damage multiplier that is typically applied to humanoid enemies. It is also not affected by weapon skill and other weapon-damage bonuses. Nonetheless, due to the long 30 second effect duration, the damage-over-time effect alone is sufficient to defeat any common trooper.
• Targets set on fire will run around (and will also be screaming, in the case of humanoids) for the 30 second duration. Enemies will not attack the player while on fire.
• Animals (including transgenic creatures) do not take torso-health damage (for an in depth discussion of health mechanics, please see the article for the health attribute). However, for purposes of the on-fire effect, which is hardcoded to deduct only torso health, the game will treat animals as having the default torso health of 100 HP, even if their default overall health is much higher.
  • For example, although the Karkian has an overall health of 400 HP, it is treated as having a torso health of only 100 HP. Since the on-fire effect recalculates overall health based on the percentage of torso health that has not been lost, in the case of the Karkian, a loss of 5 HP in torso health will scale to a loss of 20 HP in overall health.

The player character (JC Denton) also incurs the on-fire effect when hit by "flamed" damage. Similar to non-player targets, the player character also takes 5 base damage to the torso every second for 30 seconds. However, unlike non-player humanoids, this damage is subject to the 2x torso damage multiplier that is applied to the player character. Therefore, the player will take 10 damage per second, rather than 5 damage per second.

The on-fire effect can be cancelled by use of a fire extinguisher. If the player character is on fire, use of the fire extinguisher will immediately cancel the on-fire effect. Halon gas emitted by the fire extinguisher will also cancel out the on-fire effect of any non-player target. The fire can also be extinguished by other methods, such as entering into water.

Resistance

• Robots take only 25% of "flamed" and "burned" damage and cannot be set on fire.
• MJ12 Commandos take only 50% of "flamed" and "burned" damage and cannot be set on fire.
• Grays are fully immune to "flamed" and "burned" damage.
• For the player, resistance is provided by the Energy Shield augmentation.
• Emitters of laser tripwires are fully immune to "flamed" and "burned" damage.

Damage sources

Flamed and Burned

• Weapons
  • Flamethrower
  • GEP Gun (WP rockets)

Burned only

• Weapons
  • Plasma Rifle
  • PS20
  • Mini-crossbow (flare darts)
• Game environment objects
  • Burning Barrels
• Game environment hazards
  • Steam hazards

Notes

• For animals such as the Karkian, since the on-fire effect recalculates overall health based on the torso health percentage without considering the animal's current health, the on-fire effect will override any previous or additional damage taken by the animal upon each tick of the effect. For example, the animal will be set to 95% health at the first tick of the on-fire effect, regardless of any previous damage that has been taken.
• The on-fire effect is also applicable to flammable game environment objects, such as wooden crates.
  • Game environment objects can catch on fire from both the "flamed" and "burned" damage types (rather than only by the "flamed" damage type). Therefore, plasma bolts are capable of setting crates on fire, even though they are not capable of setting humanoids and animals on fire.
  • The damage-over-time effect is 2 damage per second, rather than 5 damage per second.
• As the damage-over-time damage is done with no instigator set, any kills done due to this won't count against the player for story purposes and NPCs won't react to their carcasses.