The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermDigital term

Nerf

To weaken an item, ability or character in a game update, usually for balance; the opposite of a buff. Players protest nerfs to their favorite builds as loudly as any policy change.

To weaken an item, ability or character in a game update, usually for balance; the opposite of a buff. Players protest nerfs to their favorite builds as loudly as any policy change.

Origin

From the Nerf brand of soft foam toys, which are designed to be harmless.

Quick answers

What does "Nerf" mean?
To weaken an item, ability or character in a game update, usually for balance; the opposite of a buff. Players protest nerfs to their favorite builds as loudly as any policy change.
Where does the term "Nerf" come from?
From the Nerf brand of soft foam toys, which are designed to be harmless.

Nearby in the archive

Buff & debuff

Digital term

A buff is a temporary effect that strengthens a character; a debuff weakens one. As a verb, buff (and its opposite, Nerf) also describes developers strengthening or weakening something in a balance patch.

Min-maxing

General term

Building a character to maximize strengths and minimize whatever the rules let you neglect, sometimes to absurd effect. Admired as system mastery by some players and derided as munchkinism by others, it applies equally to tabletop builds and online games.

MMORPGs

Digital genre1991

The massively multiplayer online role-playing game: a graphical world shared by thousands at once, where a guild, a raid schedule and a virtual economy can matter as much as the story.