Status effects are a recurring element of the Dragon Quest series.

Status ailments damage, immobilize or otherwise debilitate a combatant. Almost every status ailment can be lifted with the help of a spell specific to that ailment. Many status ailments disappear immediately after a battle, while others can only be removed with a spell or a visit to the church.

Some spells exist expressly to inflict status effects, and some weapons have a small chance of inflicting a status ailment after a successful hit. Occasionally, a special move may have a chance of causing a status effect. Some equipment bestows positive or negative status effects.

List of recurring status effects

Negative Status Ailments

• Confused - Attacks its fellow party members or, in their absence, itself
• Cursed - The character's statistics are set to 0 as a result of wearing cursed equipment. They can only remove the equipment by visiting a church.
• Dead - Cannot act in any way until revived by a spell or the church.
• Fizzled - Cannot cast spells until the end of the battled
• Knocked Down - Must waste a turn standing up again.
• Frozen with Fear - Cannot act whenever it next would.
• Rolling about Laughing - Cannot act whenever it next would.
• Sleep - Cannot act until woken by an attack or until a random number of turns have passed.
• Sapped - Defence is decreased.

Positive Status Enhancements

• Buffed - Defence is increased.
• Insulatled - Damage from breath- based attacks is decreased.
• Veiled - Magical attacks have no effect on the target from now on.
• Spell Checked - Magic attacks do less damage.