Power Drain

Power Drain removes a certain amount of power from the affected character(s)' power bars, preventing the use of Special Attacks. Unlike most status effects, blocking only reduces its effectiveness, while all other status effects are either completely negated or completely unaffected by block.

For normal power drain specials, hitting an opponent with them gives you a small amount of power. The power given to the target for being hit (if not blocked) is given after the power drain is calculated.

Power can be converted into points, more power values at more points. According to the drain/steal power objectives in Phantom Zone, a bar of power is equal to 50 points, and Harley Quinn/Suicide Squad's power trick on SP2 also gives 50 points of power, equal to a bar.

Special Attacks

Special 1

Special 1 Power Drain usually drains 75 units of power (1.5 bars).

• Some versions of Nightwing (Prime, Regime, and New 52) (Ground Spark)
• All versions of Lex Luthor (Lance Blast)
• Some Green Arrow cards (Insurgency, Arrow, and Rebirth) (Electric Arrow)
  • Note that Green Arrow's special 1 drains less power (50), contributing to his lack of popularity.
• Green Lantern/Red Lantern Hal Jordan
• Superman/Blackest Night
  • Note that Superman's special 1 drains less power (about 25).

Special 2

Special 2 Power Drain drains more power, but is obviously less versatile. They drain 100 units of power (2 bars).

• Sinestro/Regime
• Sinestro/Prime
• Black Adam/Regime
• Black Adam/Prime
• The Flash/Wally West Rebirth

Passives

• Sinestro/Antimatter has a passive that drains 2 bars of power on SP1.
• Martian Manhunter/Prime's combo ender has a chance to power drain.
• Raven/Regime's basic attacks will power drain when her health falls below 40%.
• Raven/Teen Titans's specials have a chance to drain power after the special ends.
• Catwoman/Ame-Comi's combo ender has a 25% chance to slowly drain power over time.
• Raven/Rebirth can siphon the opponent's power if it is greater than her's.
• Aquaman/Regime's passive allows his super move to drain all power from the enemy team. This power drain used to be unique in that it ignored all forms of power drain immunity and invulnerability, but this was later changed and now they will prevent his power drain as well.
• Black Adam/Kahndaq is able to power drain upon using both of his specials and his combo-ender.
• Zatanna/Prime may randomly pick "Power Drain" with her special 2, which is tied to her passive.
• Green Arrow/Rebirth has a Power Drain not only on his SP1, but also on his Trick Arrows and Trap Arrows. His Power Drain Trap Arrow is a special case, which will drain the exact amount of power of the Special the opponent attempts to use. It will work even on Power-Drain immune characters.
• Nightwing/Batman Ninja allows all teammates to drain 50% of enemy power upon tag in.
• Catwoman/Batman Ninja's basic attacks inflict massive power drain while RAGE is active.

Power Drain Gear

Power Drain on Combo Ender

• Ra's Al Ghul's Scimitar
• Overpowered 5-U-93-R

Power Drain on Specials

• Heart of Darkness puts a power draining DOT on specials.
• Fourth World Godly Mace grants a chance to power drain on special 2.

Other Power Drain Gears

• Mother Box power drains at the start of match.
• Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth is able to power drain upon tag in.

Certain pieces of signature gear allows the character to have a chance to power drain on a certain special.

Characters with SP1 power drain on gear

• Cyborg

Characters with SP2 power drain on gear

• Bane
• Deadshot
• The Joker

Counters to power drain

Immune Characters

• Static/Prime
• Lobo/Prime
• Hal Jordan/Red Lantern
• Batman/Arkham Knight can choose power drain immunity out of the six buffs offered by his passive.
• Shazam/Prime is immune to power drain from specials while his passive is active. However, he is still vulnerable to power drain through basic attacks (Black Adam/Kahndaq, Raven/Regime, etc.).
• Invulnerability effects (Militarized Batmobile, Astro-Harness as well as Green Lantern/John Stewart's passive) will also prevent power drain. Superman/Injustice 2 can also prevent power drain if his Kryptonian Fortitude is active.
• LexCorp Set
  • When a character equipped with 2/3 of the LexCorp Set is hit by a power drain attack, instead of losing power, they gain power equivalent to a percentage of what would have been drained, as stated on the gear.

Damage reduction/reflection/deflection

• The effect of power drain can be reduced with blocking gear or gear that reduces damage from special or basic attacks without blocking (Killer Croc Companion Card EVOLVED, etc.)
• The effect of power drain can be negated if the power draining hit is reflected/deflected whether it is a special reflected by gear (blocking or not) or a basic attack deflected from gear (Fourth World Godly Chest Plate, etc.).
• Nightwing/Regime and Nightwing/Prime's passives allow them to reduce basic damage taken, and will also take reduced power drain through basic attacks, such as Ra's Al Ghul's Scimitar or Overpowered 5-U-93-R.

Power Drain damage

Many traditional forms of power drain are denoted by a small amount of additional damage, an extra hit of flat damage that indicates the amount of power drained, in "units" rather than bars. Despite being displayed, damage is not actually dealt, but it is counted in the match-end damage dealt statistic. This is particularly noticeable for Nightwing/Prime or Lex Luthor/Prime with very low stats, as this "damage" would have constituted a significant portion of their damage dealt.

This can never crit and is not increased by special damage boosts (not even bleed), increasing the character's stats, special minigame performance, or the special's upgrades. It is not reduced by special damage reduction or special reflect, but is reduced by universal damage reduction (Batman Ninja Helmet reduces it, according to the power level before the drain) and negated by Invulnerability or anything that completely negates a special. This extra hit is also removed when the target has power drain immunity, but not if power drain is reversed by the 2-piece LexCorp Set effect. It is reduced by block, which also reduces power drain accordingly - although the reduction is 25%, same as for basics, not the 50% for specials. Unless otherwise stated, this is the mechanism precise amounts of power drain is derived, since it is impossible to physically measure it directly.

• Nightwing, Lex Luthor, and Red Lantern Hal Jordan's SP1 does additional 75 damage - drains 1.5 bars.
• Green Arrow's SP1 (except Green Arrow/Prime) does additional 50 damage - drains 1 bar.
• Superman/Blackest Night's SP1 does additional 25 damage - drains 0.5 bars.
• Regular SP2 power drain (e.g. Sinestro/Regime), as well as The Joker/Suicide Squad and The Joker/Unhinged Suicide Squad when they get the random power drain effect on SP1, does 100 damage additionally - drains 2 bars.
• Green Arrow/Rebirth's tag in electric arrow does 75 flat damage and no other damage - drains 1.5 bars.
• Zatanna/Prime's Hermit card does additional 150 damage - drains 3 bars. Unlike others, this is not nested within the special, but appears after it as an additional hit that staggers opponents if they are not power drain immune.
• While Regime Raven's passive is active, 15 flat damage is added to all her basic attacks (30 for combo enders)
• Aquaman/Regime's Super Move drains all power from the entire enemy team - and an Area Effect would be displayed on his tagged-out opponents (an extra hit is displayed normally for the current opponent). Unlike other power drains, this additional damage display changes depending on how much power they have (e.g. 100 for 2 bars).
• Deadshot/Arkham Origins's Power Drain assist does 60 units.
• Boss Black Adam/Regime is an oddity in that he can use Black Magic with only 1 bar of power, which can be a 125 or 75 unit drain/damage.
• Martian Manhunter/Prime's Combo Ender has a chance to do 50 units of power drain. Although the "damage" is not actually dealt, it can trigger Life Drain from Overpowered 5-U-93-R and Gauntlets of Azrael as if it is dealt.
• Exceptions include certain gear (Ra's Al Ghul's Scimitar, Overpowered 5-U-93-R, Heart of Darkness) or passives (Black Adam/Kahndaq, Raven/Teen Titans, Nightwing/Batman Ninja, etc.).

Trivia

• In older versions of the game, a card's rarity locks its power drain capacity, on both special 1 and 2.
  • A Bronze character drains 50.
  • A Silver drains 75.
  • A Gold drains 100.