Level-Up Fill-Up

So you're playing your favorite RPG. It's been a while since you hit the inn, and your character is feeling it: his HP is pretty low. He can't take much more...

Level Up!

What happened? Whence come these new found Hit Points? You didn't use a potion or heal spell, so it must be... a Level-Up Fill-Up.

Commonly occurs either after defeating an enemy or at the end of a battle when Experience Points are distributed. Depending on how scarce healing is, and when hit points are restored, this can be a major factor in your strategy. Usually though, its just a perk. Frequently averted in more "realistic" games where a level up gives additional health, but no heal is given.

A similar phenomenon is the Healing Checkpoint. Not to be confused with After Boss Recovery where your health is restored after a boss fight, regardless of experience point totals (although boss fights do frequently cause characters to level).

Examples of Level-Up Fill-Up include:

• Science Girls! for the PC has this trope kick in for whichever of your characters levels up after combat. Due to the general scarcity of healing items, this can be a real life saver.
• Mega Man X Command Mission not only refilled your LE, but also removed negative status conditions and restored your Hyper Mode turns.
• Partially used in Batman: Arkham Asylum, every time you get EXP, it refills your health gauge an equivalent amount. Since you only get EXP after defeating all enemies in an encounter it won't save you in the middle of a fight, but it's convenient to heal you immediately after.
• While HP in The World Ends With You always fills up between battles (counting chain battles as a single battle), Exp is earned when you defeat an enemy (there's also another way: if you get the Technical [EXP] sticker, you get [EXP] related to how high you can make your [HITS] counter go), so you can level up in mid-battle. Useful if you're getting low and one or more of the remaining enemies is pretty tough.
• The Paper Mario series restores Mario's Heart Points when he levels up. The first two games 1) also restore Flower Points at this time, and 2) defer Star Point (exp) gains, and therefore level ups, to the ends of battles. It's the more reliable way of recovering HP in dungeons without using many items or if you can't find heart boxes. The Thousand-Year Door also restores your partner's HP during level ups. Super Paper Mario is more platformy, and takes each enemy as a separate deal.
• Averted in Pokémon, when a mon levels up, its current HP is increased by the same rate as the increase of its maximum HP, so it's not much in most cases, and your Pokemon will keep the same percentage of damage as before.
  • It is, however, played straight in the spinoff game Pokémon Ranger, and its sequels.
  • This happens even if a Pokémon is fainted (where it is still possible to use a Rare Candy), which causes the Pokémon to revive.
• Rare strategy example: Civilization
  • In Civilization IV promoting a unit heals it partially, frequently allowing the player to attack multiple consecutive turns with the same unit if it has leveled. This can frequently be the difference between capturing a city or being unable to move forward, too injured to continue.
  • Civilization V exchanges this for a different mechanic: one can choose to completely restore the health of a leveled-up unit in exchange for not selecting any permanent bonus for them that level.
• Units in Battle for Wesnoth regain all their hit points when they level up... leading to a dilemma of whether or not to attack a wounded unit that's about to fill its XP bar.
  • Once a unit has reached it's highest class, further level ups only provide a few additional hitpoints, making the free heal the most significant benefit.
• In Fire Emblem a few games have HP restored when a character classes up, but averts it with normal level ups, leaving a character with 1 hp of damage (if at full health). This usually comes into play as a free chance to allow your staff wielders heal and get XP themselves.
• In Elder Scrolls you are required to sleep to level up, so you are healed regardless.
  • Well, in Morrowind and Oblivion at least. Skyrim on the other hand lets you level up at any time, which naturally allows you to use a level up in the middle of a fight for cheap, one-time healing.
• In World of Warcraft leveling up restores all health and mana. Very handy if you happen to level up while fighting lots of tough enemies.
• Leveling up also restores all HP and MP in Final Fantasy XI. It's actually employed as a strategy in certain fights by using an EXP scroll with your EXP towards the next level at the minimum for leveling up.
• Also occurs in Diablo and the sequel, where both your health and mana is restored on leveling.
• Happens in Free Realms when you level up a combat job.
• In the game Sailor Moon Another Story, characters are given all their HP back when they level up, unless they're knocked out which means they don't level up with the others.
• In subsequent The Legend of Zelda games, when you get a new heart container, all of your hearts fill up.
• In Knights of the Old Republic, leveling up restores all hit points and Force points. Some players will actually not level their characters up in certain circumstances, so they can have "free instant healing."
• In Castle Crashers, HP is refilled to full after a level up.
• Phantasy Star Online plays this trope straight.
  • Heck, it's even a recommended strategy for beating challenge mode in the fastest time possible. Timing your level ups so you can restore your TP at the right times is an art in this game.
  • As does its sequel, Phantasy Star Universe
• Happens in Secret of Mana and Dawn of Mana.
  • Also in Sword of Mana, but with a twist: You don't get healed until you've opened the Ring Menu and picked the level-up path your character is to take. It's possible to "stock up" levels in this way and only use them when your health is low to save on resources and time.
• Super Mario RPG also exhibits this trope.
• Nethack does this to a certain extent. It's not a complete fill up, but Hp remain proportional to Max Hp. For an early character that gains Hp quickly when leveling up this can be the difference between life and death in a fight with a group of monsters.
• In Beyond Good and Evil Jade gets fully healed whenever she gets a new PA-1. PA-1s are "Physiological Accelerators", literally "Your energy gauge increases by one heart."
• Final Fantasy Adventure had a pop-up message when the main character leveled up, which basically said "Level up - HP and MP restored".
• Disgaea completely averts this: Not only you get no full heal, but you don't get a "percentage heal" either. So, a character at full HP looks damaged after leveling up.
  • Not completely; one of the Wood Golem's evilities is "Fresh Green Sprout", which invokes this trope, but given that it's a later evility, it's up to the player as to wether they use it or not.
• In Metal Gear Solid when you defeat a Boss Fight Snake smokes a celebratory cigarette. Although smoking normally drains your health, on these occasions it expands your health gauge and fills it. This is very helpful when trying to beat the game with low ration use in order to get the higher codename rankings.
• At least one of the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles games do this. Somewhat bizarre if you're familiar with the regular Final Fantasy games, which don't even bother to heal you you by the amount your HP increased.
• Occurs in City of Heroes, although this is a relatively new addition to gameplay. If your character levels up while defeated (i.e. killed) due to team shared experience, they will be revived during their Level Up Fill Up.
  • It was added in a deliberate move to make leveling up even more rewarding - both health and endurance are fully restored and the character receives the effects of all the strongest inspirations in the game - essentially boosting all their stats for a short time. Especially stylish if you can time it to occur during a boss fight by killing a mook.
• In every Ratchet and Clank game starting with the second, you have two kinds of fill-ups. When Ratchet's health levels up, he gets fully healed (in most games) and emits a flash of energy that kills every nearby enemy. When a weapon levels up, its ammo gets refilled.
  • Leading to the odd effect that it's often easier/better to be lower levels than be full-up, due to the rate of growth; especially Egregious is the Harbinger weapon in the 4th game that pretty much doesn't run out of ammo until you reach max level with it, at which point it's often Too Awesome to Use.
• Taken up to twelve in the first Luminous Arc. To elaborate: Your HP and MP refill whenever you level up. If one of your units heals or buffs any of your other units, it gets 30 EXP; if one of your units heals or buffs itself and any other unit (enemies included) at the same time, it gets 30 EXP. You level up at every 100 EXP. You can see the infinite loop where you can get your White Mage to Lv.99 in a single battle as soon as she's able to cast a multi-target heal spell that heals as much damage as the weakest enemy in the game can deal (for the record, the basic multitarget heal spell heals about 4x the caster's level); if she's too weak to take out enemies on her own at the time, bring a unit that can buff her for even more levelling. Yes, you can level up by being a nice guy and healing enemies (as long as you heal the caster with the same spell). Why is this Up To Twelve instead of Up to Eleven? If you repeatedly cast healing spells on a character enough times, they'll get an Anti-Magic shield that lasts for 3 hits. And the next time you cast a heal spell on them after the shield disappears? They'll probably get another one, even if it's not in the same battle. Yes, this makes preparations for the Final Boss much easier: did I mention its primary attacks are magic? So, in short, not only does Luminous Arc give you a Level Up Fill Up, it rewards you for abusing it.
• Castlevania II: Simon's Quest does this and gives you more health as per the level up.
• In Dragon Age Origins, leveling up restores health and mana/stamina. Note that you can't select new abilities or stats (as per usual leveling up) while still in combat.
• A vital strategy in roguelike Desktop Dungeons, where natural regeneration is very finite and arranging to level midbattle is almost necessary to defeat strong monsters.
• Main Shin Megami Tensei games except Nocturne, where this happens sometimes.
• La-Mulana doesn't actually have character levels, but it does have an EXP bar. When you fill it up, it replenishes your life meter.
• No matter where you put the stat point gained for an Omega Factor entry in Astro Boy Omega Factor, you get your HP restored.
• Games from the Digimon World franchise usually feature this. In Digimon World 2, though, it's quite welcome, since you don't have that much space for healing items, anyway.
• Dokapon Kingdom, the RPG party game, maxes your HP at a level up. Given that you move around the board based on a spin of a dial, it can be frustratingly difficult to heal yourself on a whim, so this HP handout is a welcome gift.
• Maple Story both plays this trope straight and averts it. Leveling up increases your HP and MP to their max base values. Have equipment that grants you extra HP or MP? The level-up fillup doesn't care; you'll have to gain those points through standard gameplay means. However, leveling up also kills every non-boss monster on the current map.
• Dragonball Z: Legend of the Super Saiyan does this upon leveling up without having to go to an inn or using an item card. It helps that leveling up heals and if HP reaches zero, the character's dead.
• The Scott Pilgrim game has this, which is a life-saver, since unless you've grinded 500+ dollars or found the secret shop, there's only 1 extra life in the game.
• Muramasa: The Demon Blade employs this trope... unless you're playing in Shigurui Mode. Due to Dynamic Difficulty and Level Scaling, the game is always intended to be a challenge, so just to keep up, one must be overlevelled for the last Bonus Dungeon. Not to the level Cap of 99, however, due to this trope. It's a recommended tactic to level to the mid-nineties or a little lower, and use level ups in place of healing items, which you can only carry a limited amount of at any time.
• Occurs in Borderlands, upon levelling up.
• Resonance of Fate characters will be healed when they level up, especially useful as they will typically level up mid battle rather then after.
• Rondo of Swords doesn't have it by default, but certain characters can learn and set the Eternal Rage skill, which completely restores HP and MP upon leveling up.
• Radiata Stories.
• In Recettear, you get an HP and SP refill when you level up, as well as when you exit a dungeon. Once you hit the level cap, you can still earn EXP to fill up the level progress ring; doing so gets you another free refill and empties the ring again.
• In Payday: The Heist, when you get a Reputation Level increase, your health gets reset back to maximum, you get placed back on your feet if you're downed (and it counts as being helped up for the purposes of challenges), and if you just unlocked your first secondary weapon, you also get that weapon at however much ammo you would've had at the start of the mission. Very handy, but if you hit level 145, you won't be getting another one until another skill tree gets added.
• Rune Factory games do this with both Health and Rune Power (magic).
• In Dungeons of Dredmor, leveling up fully restores both your Life Meter and your Mana Meter.