Status bar face

The status bar face in its "normal", full-health appearance. This is what the protagonist of Doom and Doom II looks like without his helmet.

In the Doom games the center of the status bar displays the face of the player character. This face reacts to the environment in the game as follows:

• The face bleeds as the player's health diminishes. The health ranges corresponding to each face type are as follows:

Player health	Default face appearance*
80% - 300%	Completely healthy
60% - 79%	Bloody nose, hair slightly mussed
40% - 59%	Face swollen, grimacing
20% - 39%	Eyes bloodshot, face dirty and bleeding
1% - 19%	Similar to 20-39%, but even bloodier
0% (Dead)	Similar to 1-19% but with eyes closed

• In the Sega 32X and Game Boy Advance ports, the status bar face does not bleed at all when the player's health status worsens, although the rest of the effects of damage (progressively messier hair, closed eyes when dead, and so on) are there. Conversely, in the Super NES port, the blood on the face is much more pronounced, and the cutoffs for the next-worse-looking face are higher; the state that would normally appear from 20% to 39% health approximately appears at below 50%, for example.

Status bar face exploding

• In most versions, should the player die, the head becomes bowed, hair completely disheveled, eyes closed, and about as bloody as the 1% - 19% face. The face explodes when the player dies in the 3DO port, and when the player experiences a gibbing death or being crushed in the PlayStation port.

• If the player is attacked from the side, the face will turn to the direction of the attack. This gives a helpful visual cue as to the direction attacks are coming from (the face does not turn if the attack came from behind). This feature does not appear in the Super NES port, possibly due to memory limitations.

• If the player picks up a new weapon, the face momentarily displays a malicious grin. This also happens when a player opens a previously saved game at the first item he picks up (at this point it doesn't have to be a weapon).

• If the player holds down the fire button for more than 2 seconds, the face grits its teeth until the player ceases fire. The face also grits its teeth briefly if the player takes damage.

• In the original PC version the face will grit its teeth when it first takes damage on a damaging floor and each time afterward. On the PlayStation and Saturn ports, should the player run onto a damaging floor, the face will grit its teeth right away regardless of whether or not the player took damage.

• If the player is hurt, yet has a net gain of more than 20% health during the damaging event, a rarely displayed "ouch face" expression of shock and pain is shown (originally intended to represent a net loss of 20% health or more; this has been fixed in many source ports and even through a binary hack). This face also appears in the Doom press release beta when the player enters a damaging floor, and sometimes in the PlayStation and Sega Saturn ports when the player is hit from behind.

• If the player is invulnerable (because "god mode" is active or the player has picked up an invulnerability powerup), the player has glowing golden eyes, similar to the demon's.

• In the various ports of Doom, the eyes of the face will look left, right, and straight ahead arbitrarily, changing direction every second or so. However, due to limitations with the SNES 16-bit cartridge, the face looks around in a specific manner (left, right, left, left, right, left, right, right) over and over in a more rhythmic fashion, looking ahead every half-second.

Technical

The names of the face graphics use the root STF (status face), plus some text specifying one of several conditions currently being experienced by the player, followed by a digit from 0 to 4 denoting the approximate current health, and possibly an extra digit from 0 to 2 for an alternating animation sequence that makes the face gaze in different directions (forward or to either side) when idle. In the graphic STFST01, for example, the root STF is followed by ST (standard face), then 0 (full health), and finally 1 (looking forward). Face graphics that do not vary with the character's health, such as the invulnerable and dead faces, always carry a single 0 after the specifying text.

The text that specifies what type of face is used includes:

Face type	Condition	Animation
ST	Glancing around warily (default)	0-2
TL	Looking to his right (attacked from left side of screen)	0
TR	Looking to his left (attacked from right side of screen)	0
KILL	Gritting teeth	none
EVL	Grinning wickedly	none
OUCH	Ouch face	none

Additionally, STFGOD0 appears while an invulnerability powerup or the iddqd cheat code is in effect. Note that STFOUCH4 is but rarely displayed, and in only unusual circumstances, due to the ouch face bug.

The health values correspond to the player's health percentage:

Health range	Player health
0	80% - 200%
1	60% - 79%
2	40% - 59%
3	20% - 39%

The graphic STFDEAD0 takes over when the player is killed.

Trivia

"GameHOG" magazine in Doom 3.

• The face appears several times inside Doom 3, including on the cover of "GameHOG" magazine and as part of Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3.
• Due to the fact that the Marine's facial features are usually hidden by his helmet, the status bar face is the only way how his facial appearance is known in Doom I/II.
• If the player is gibbed while playing the classic maps in Doom (2016), the visor on the helmet will show this particular face.
• A 3d version of the face is just barely visible behind the translucent visor of the Praetor Suit in Doom (2016).

See also

• Status bar face hysteresis
• Ouch face