Program Heart

Legacy Lore

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This page contains many lore elements that are not considered part of the new, official lore. It's very unlikely that it will still be considered canon for new lore, but will maintain relevance in old lore.

Program Heart
A Virus holding a Program Heart with malicious intent.
Food Type	Heart
Heals	15 health + 8 seconds Overheal

Program Hearts are organs that act as brains for Programs and food items that are dropped when a Program dies in Battle Zone. Program Heart belongs to the "Super Healing Item" category and is the only consumable item in this category.

Databrawl Battle Zone

When a player eats a Program Heart, it restores 15 HP and gives a short Overheal which boosts player's auto-heal for 8 seconds. Unlike other consumables, Program Hearts can be eaten at full health. Only Corruptions and Edgygram can use Program Hearts. If a player dies while holding one in their inventory, they will drop it.

They can be held in a Player's inventory alongside regular food, including golden super food, but two Program Hearts cannot be held at the same time.

Once a player eats 5 Program Hearts as a corruption, they will earn the Heart Breaker badge.

Lore

Program Hearts give Programs life. They are embedded in a Program's head as opposed to their torso (unless the Program is an Anthro, where in that case it will be embedded in their torso as opposed to their head due to Anthros generally having bigger torsos than heads). Programs usually cannot live without their hearts.

Program Hearts can come in different sizes depending on the class of a Program. For example, Program Bytes have small, shrimpy Program Hearts, meanwhile Chubbs have big, succulent Program Hearts. Then, Bloatware have Program Hearts that have a thicker, yet softer exterior.

An illustration made by DuncanDunclub which depicts a shattered Program Heart with Program Essence leaking out of it.

Program Hearts are mostly made out of Genatorium Crystals. The Hearts have a solid shell which encases and protects a glowing, honey-like fluid called Essence, which is the Program's main code. It essentially acts as the brain of the Program.

When a Program gets infected by a Corruption and goes through the corruption process,"[...] the outer shell of the program heart starts to crack and leak inside the program, allowing the essence to seep into the flesh of the program and come into contact with the corrupting force within. Once the essence starts to be consumed by the corrupting force from inside the program, corruption is accelerated and memories of past life are wiped. This is the point of no return, and the program soon becomes a battle ready corruption." -DuncanDunclub

Corruptions hunt Programs for these hearts, as they help them survive, provide them with lots of energy, and also taste good to them. These hearts are said to taste like blood and gristle. The Program Hearts' energy has to be used up by Corruptions after eating them, and Corruptions do this by doing high levels of activity, such as fighting. Due to the special energy that the hearts provide, if Corruptions overconsume them or don't use up the hearts' energy, they will explode and die. At the same time, if Corruptions do not eat enough Program Hearts on a regular basis, they will also probably die, as without the hearts it's easy for them to run out of energy and begin to wither away. It is also possible for Corruptions to survive without consuming Program Hearts, but it is extremely hard. Corruptions get stronger by using up the hearts' energy over long periods of time.

If Corruptions do not age or prepare Program Essence before consuming it, it will have a strange metallic taste to it. Additionally, different Programs can have different kinds of Essence. For example, according to DuncanDunclub, the very fatty Program Essence from a Bloatware's Heart tastes better than typical Essence, but eating too much can cause some pain to Corruptions. Thus, Bloatware are,"[...] more known for their meat" than their Essence. Meanwhile, Motherboards have Program Essence that is extremely strong to the point that is can only be consumed in small portions at a time.

Corruptions don't only use Program Hearts for consumption. Program Hearts are also used in the ritual that is done to create a Corruption Host, such as a Virus or Malware Host.

While Corruptions are able to consume Program Hearts, Programs cannot consume Program Hearts because according to DuncanDunclub, if a Program,"[...] attempts to consume program essence it's immensely painful and can result in death". However, if the Program is Corruption-infected, consuming Program Essence will be less painful, and will accelerate their transformation into a Corruption.

More Facts

Lore

Canon

• The shells of the Program Hearts of younglings are much thinner than the shells of adult Program Hearts, causing the essence within to be visible through the head.
• Corruptions will often use essence from fresh kills to "learn from their prey", as well as keep themselves alive.
• Only corruptions and infected Programs can eat the essence of a Program. Anything else trying to do so will die soon after.

Non-Canon/Scrapped

• There was once a concept for corrupted variants of Program Hearts called Corruption Hearts. Program Hearts would've turned into them when the Program itself got corrupted. It is no longer canon.
• Originally, the program hearts of different programs had different tastes. This was decanonized on an unknown date. The former tastes of program hearts are as follows:
  • Home Computer Program Hearts tasted like cheeseburgers.
  • Prettygrams' Hearts tasted sweet like candy.
  • Retrograms' Hearts tasted like sloppy arcade pizza.
  • Lovegrams' Hearts tasted like seafood.
  • Musclegrams' Hearts tasted like beef.
  • Utopigrams' Hearts had a magnificent taste that could not be described in words.
  • Paingrams' Hearts tasted like pork.
  • Governgrams' Hearts had a mysterious taste.
  • Shygrams' Hearts tasted like salty chicken ramen.
  • Smartgrams' Hearts had many conflicting tastes.
  • Pumpkrins' Hearts tasted like pumpkin spice.

Game

• Program Hearts make a unique sound effect when eaten. Unlike most food items which simply make a "chomp" sound when eaten, Program Hearts have an additional sound effect combined with the "chomp" that sounds like elegant glass shattering.
• When Program Hearts were first implemented back in 2018, they were originally planned to be able to revive dead teammates if a Program or Firewall used them. As a result, Programs and Firewalls could use Program Hearts for the first few days after Program Hearts' implementation. When using Program Hearts, Programs and Firewalls did not play an eating animation nor regain health from using them. Additionally, when Program Hearts were used by Programs and Firewalls, a "revive" sound effect (which sounded slowed down slightly in-game) would play instead of the usual "eating" sound effect. Since the revive feature was unfinished, Program Hearts used by Programs and Firewalls would be deleted from their inventory, however, the dead teammate associated with the used Program Heart would not be revived. This feature was quickly scrapped, however, remnants of the feature (i.e. the revive sound and code dictating what should happen if a Program or Firewall uses a Program Heart) still lie within the game's code.
• Program Hearts originally had a less than 100% chance of dropping when a Program died. This meant that originally, Programs were not fully guaranteed to drop a Program Heart upon death, and would only drop a Program Heart some of the time.
• During Databrawl's 2018 Easter event, all Program Hearts in the Databrawl Battle were replaced with golden eggs.
• Program Hearts used to heal 60 HP and not boost any stats. This was changed on February 21, 2021.

More Images

A diagram made by DuncanDunclub of the anatomy of a Program and a Program Heart.

A drawing of a Malware cooking a Program Heart, which was made by DuncanDunclub.

Program Heart information sheet drawn by DuncanDunclub. Shows the information for various types of Program Hearts.

Modeled versions of the alternate types of Program Hearts made by DuncanDunclub.

The "Golden Egg" version of the Program Heart that appeared in Databrawl's Battle Zone during the Easter 2018 event.

An outdated drawing DuncanDunclub made of several Corruption volunteers taste testing various types of Program Hearts. Dates back to July 3, 2020. (Note: This image has been edited by Cryebral due to the original image containing characters created by someone who has left Databrawl and requested for all their characters to be removed.)

A somewhat outdated drawing DuncanDunclub made of a Program being forced to taste test a Program Heart, showing what happens when a Program eats a Program Heart. Dates back to July 3, 2020.

Program Heart as it appeared in a Databrawl Character anatomy drawing made by DuncanDunclub. This drawing is outdated, no longer canon, and no longer accurately reflects non-Anthro Databrawl character anatomy.

Program Heart as seen on an old, outdated "hearts" concept drawing by DuncanDunclub.

A Pumpkrin Heart from the Halloween Event.

The program heart in all its glory.