The combat inOnce Humancomes in a variety of flavors. There are ranged and melee weapons, and each can deal different effects, including ones that deal Status Damage. The type of effect you pick plays a big part in the game’s buildcrafting, and understanding how they work is the key to reaching those insanely high damage numbers.
However, Status Damage is defined a little differently in this game. It’s not too complicated, but it can be a bit puzzling at first glance. Something like aBurn build inOnce Humanbenefits greatly from stacking Status Damage, and if builds like that interest you, here are a few important things you should know about how this stat works.
Updated July 26, 2025 by Marc Santos:Status Damage in Once Human has remained more or less the same throughout the game’s patch versions. Apart from there now being more weapons that apply these damage types, the Status effects themselves are mostly unchanged. There’s still some confusion as to what these effects are and what they do, so we’ve updated this guide to include a list of all Status Damage types and their effects.
What Is Status Damage In Once Human?
In a nutshell,Status Damage is the damage you inflict with effects like Burn, Frost Vortex, Shock, and Unstable Bomber. The damage dealt by these effects also counts as Elemental Damage, so anything that increases your Blaze, Frost, Shock, and Blast DMG stats will also improve your outgoing DPS.
There’s been a lot ofconfusion regarding Status and Elemental DMG, but as of writing, as far as most players are concerned,they can stack both and enjoy a net positive to their damage outputwhen triggering the aforementioned elemental weapon effects. It’s a good idea to have both stats on your character if you’re usinga Power Surgebuild inOnce Human, as the bonus damage really adds up.
Status and Elemental DMG does not affect bullet effects like Bounce, Shrapnel, and Fast Gunner, as they scale off Weapon DMG. However, Elemental DMG may affect these in the future ifOnce Humanreceives weapons that deal base elemental damage.
However, the kicker with Elemental damage builds is that some enemies are immune to status effects. Hard mode Ravenous Hunter is one example — this boss is totally immune to all Status effects until it loses its gatling gun.Fighting the Ravenous Hunter in Normal modeis pretty simple, but in Hard mode, you’ll need a good secondary weapon or have a build that deals strong direct bullet damage to compensate for the boss' immunity.
How To Increase Status Damage
There are a few ways to increase the damage you deal with Status effects.increase your Psi Intensity statby upgrading your armor,use mods, orconsume food/whim potions. All Status effects scale off your Psi Intensity, so if you want to deal more damage with Burn, Shock, Frost Vortex, and Unstable Bomber,get your Psi Intensity upas much as you can.
Some mods and armor pieces outright provide extra Status and Elemental DMG bonuses. Some examples include:
Mods may randomly drop with either Status or Elemental DMG modifiers as part of their Attribute Effects. You can potentially improve these modifiers by upgrading your mods
Additionally, theWhimsical Drinkconsumable gives a 25% increase to Status DMG for 30 minutes. You can get this in the mansion in the Brewery Estate POI, located northwest of Tall Grass Inn in Chalk Peak.
All Status Damage Types in Once Human
As of writing, there are four types of Status Damage types inOnce Human. These are mainly applied byweapons like the M416 Autumn Equinox, though some may also be applied by Deviants, consumables, and base defenses.
Effect
Burn
Deals Status DMG of theBlaze elementevery 0.5 seconds for 6 seconds to affected targets.
Frost Vortex
Creates a field that dealsFrost elementdamage that harms all enemies inside.
Power Surge
Deals Status DMG of theShock elementupon triggering on a target, and applies the Power Surge status on them, reducing their accuracy by 40.
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