Gauges

Various types of Gauges appear throughout the Kingdom Hearts series.

HP Gauge
The HP Gauge shows the total amount of a character's remaining Hit Points. When a character's HP is at 100%, the gauge is completely green. When damage is taken, the picture of Sora on the meter flinches momentarily and part of the green becomes black, signifying that HP has been depleted. When HP reaches a very low level, Sora goes into critical mode. The HP gauge will then flash red and an alarm will go off. This is to warn the player that Sora is low on health. This carries on into Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II and also applies to both Roxas and Riku when they are playable. In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, the character portraits do not flinch, but merely flash red when taking damage. The HP Gauge also flashes yellow when picking up Mission Point prizes in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. As in past games, an alarm still sounds when low on health.

The HP Gauge is often located on the bottom-right or top-left corner of the screen, grouped with all other gauges displayed during gameplay. In Kingdom Hearts II, the HP Gauge appears next to the MP and Drive Gauges. It only appears next to the MP Gauge in Kingdom Hearts, and in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, it appears next to Riku's DP Gauge in Reverse/Rebirth. In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, it appears next to the Focus and D-Link Gauges. In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, no other gauges appear, but the Limit Gauge serves as, at most, half of the player's HP Gauge.

In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, there is a second HP Gauge that is blue. The blue HP Gauge must be depleted before the green one begins to run out. This second bar is based off that of bosses in that game, in which the second HP Gauge was blue.

Enemy HP Gauges have several appearances. In Kingdom Hearts, the standard meter was green. A second bar was yellow, then orange, followed by red and purple. If an enemy had more health than could be displayed in five gauges, then it would appear as if no damage was occurring, until the amount of health could be displayed in the fifth gauge.

In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, HP was displayed in a similar way. The first gauge was green. On top of that could be blue. Above that was yellow, and then red. In Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories , Kingdom Hearts coded, and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, the style was completely different. All meters were green, and additional meters were represented by green squares underneath the HP bar. The same thing was done in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, except little ovals were used instead of squares to represent multiple HP bars.

Drive Gauge
The Drive Gauge is a bar introduced in Kingdom Hearts II like that of HP and MP. It is located above the MP gauge. It is used for Drive Forms and Summons in Kingdom Hearts II, which will deplete the gauge. You can replenish the Drive Gauge by dealing damage to enemies, picking up Drive Orbs or from the Drive Recovery or High Drive Recovery items. If Sora has the Damage Drive ability equipped, damage dealt to Sora will proportionally replenish Sora's Drive Gauge. In Kingdom Hearts II, you can get your Drive Gauge up to 7. In Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, you can get it up to 9, since three more battles are added and one is removed. When a Drive Form is triggered, the Drive Gauge's function changes. The Drive Gauge becomes grey and the gauge starts depleting, this means it has a time limit. The same thing happens when you use a summon. The more damage is dealt, the faster the gauge depletes. When the gauge hits zero, Sora will revert to his normal form or the summoned character will disappear, depending on which is used.

Focus Gauge
The Focus Gauge is a gameplay element exclusive to Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. Its shape resembles the Drive Gauge, and it is located to the left of a character's portrait on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. The more focus Terra, Aqua, and Ventus have, the more time they have to lock-on for their Shotlock. The gauge can be refilled by hitting enemies, much like the Drive Gauge, and by using Ethers. It can also be filled with the Focus Block and Focus Barrier commands, where the gauge is filled on successful blocking of enemy attacks, and the Damage Syphon ability, where the gauge is filled when taking damage from enemy attacks.

Drop Gauge
The Drop Gauge is a gameplay element exclusive to Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Its shape resembles a longer version of the Drive Gauge, and it is located to the left of the character's portrait on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. It gradually decreases as the player progresses through a world's story and once it is empty, Sora goes into a mode of sleep and the player is put in control of Riku in the world he or she was last in. As before, if the gauge empties while playing as Riku, the player will again take control of Sora. This process of switching playable characters can be done manually by pressing and choosing Drop from the menu. The Drop Gauge is now majorly a gradient of indigo-to-teal-to-blue with an underlining gradient of pink-to-cream. The gauge's second bar is colored bright yellow.

The Drop Gauge was initially colored with a gradient of indigo-to-pink-to-cream.