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Warhammer Survivors Status Effects

What Burning, Poisoned, Oiled, Stunned, Frenzied, Healing, Berserk and Warded do, where they come from, and the one combo the developer confirms.

Last updated 2026-10-24 · Demo build

🚧 Demo-era build: Warhammer Survivors launches November 10, 2026. A demo is playable now on Steam and Xbox PC — pages are seeded from demo-era sources and completed at launch.

Some weapons, pick-ups and enemies apply temporary status effects on top of damage. Auroch Digital introduced the system in Learn more about the Status Effects system (May 13, 2026) and expanded it in Feature Focus: Status Effects (Aug 5, 2026). The developer calls these “just some” of the effects, so the full list is Pending launch. No durations, damage numbers or percentages have been published, and this page does not invent any.

Officially described status effects

Effect	What it does	Sources & notes
Burning	Fire damage over time; speeds up the burning enemy.	Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws pick-up applies it; Burning weapons combo with Oiled. (source)
Poisoned	Poison damage over time; slows the enemy.	Hellfire Ammo pick-up applies it. Death Guard units (Myphitic Blight-haulers, Miasmic Malignifiers) and Skaven Acolyte Globadiers poison the player. (source)
Oiled	From the cross-universe Nuln Oil weapon: afflicted enemies slow down and take more fire damage.	Pair with any weapon that inflicts Burning. (source)
Stunned	Temporarily halts movement but not attacks.	Suffocating Gravetide stuns, then makes struck enemies flee for a while; killing a Tyranid Synapse creature puts nearby lesser bioforms into a temporary stunned shock. (source)
Frenzied	Increases damage dealt, health pool and movement speed of whoever has it.	Given to some enemies by auras; the player can get it from items such as Frenzon. Ork Waaagh! makes enemies frenzied. (source)
Healing	Gradually regenerates lost health.	Works for champions and for enemies that have it. (source)
Berserk	For the player (Frenzon pick-up): more frequent weapon attacks. For Tyranids under Synapse: more movement speed and damage.	The May post lists Frenzon under Frenzied; the August post calls the Frenzon effect Berserk. Final naming: Pending launch. (source)
Warded	Makes enemies “resilient and tougher”.	Granted to nearby Skaven by the Bell of Doom (Toll of Doom) Endless Spell. (source)

Oiled + Burning: the confirmed combo

The only combo the developer spells out: douse enemies with Nuln Oil (Oiled), then hit them with a weapon that inflicts Burning. Oiled increases the damage of fire weapons, and Nuln Oil is a cross-universe weapon, so the combo is not limited to one universe’s roster. Nuln Oil is named after the real Citadel shade paint — a hobby joke the developer leans into.

Burning speeds enemies up, Poisoned slows them down

Both deal damage over time and are recommended for chipping down tougher and boss enemies, but they move enemies in opposite directions: burning enemies get faster, poisoned ones slower. Oiled also slows its targets, which takes some sting out of Burning’s speed-up.

Effects that hit your champion

Poisoned: the Death Guard poison the player through auras and weapon attacks; Myphitic Blight-hauler missiles and Miasmic Malignifier fumes apply it (June 10 post); Skaven Acolyte Globadiers leave poison clouds (Sept 3 post).
Berserk (buff): the Frenzon pick-up increases how often your weapons attack.
Healing (buff): regenerates lost health.
Some enemies are immune to status effects; which ones is Pending launch.

Status effects inside faction traits

Tyranid Synapse: critical bioforms such as the Hive Tyrant give nearby Termagants and Hormagaunts Berserk; kill the Synapse creature and the lesser bioforms fall into a temporary stunned shock (Faction Traits, Sept 17).
Ork Waaagh!: when the screen starts turning red, more Orks spawn and enemies become frenzied.
Skaven Bell of Doom: grants nearby Skaven Warded.

Practical takeaways

Prioritise Synapse creatures in Tyranid stages — removing them buffs you twice (no more Berserk, plus a stun).
Expect a burning crowd to close in faster; kite before you ignite, or Oil first.
Keep moving out of green fog and poison clouds; Poisoned stacks up damage over time.
Status effects pair with evolutions — check weapon evolutions and squad followers for weapons you can bring.

Terms such as Synapse, Waaagh! and Nuln Oil are explained in the glossary.