Vitality gel is a substance used to represent the hit points of characters in Sburb, particularly Heroes and their enemies, such as underlings 
and rogue Dersites.
These hit points are displayed on a health vial above a combatant's head, which satirises conventional "health bars" in video games; rather than the gel depleting from a stationary bar as the character takes hits, the vial itself is suspended in a prism of gel and is gradually dislodged from the gel as the character takes hits. (The part of the vial that overlaps with the gel is however filled with colour in a way that mimics a traditional health bar). As such, the “GEL VISCOSITY” stat that can be improved through climbing the echeladder allows a character to take more hits by making the vial harder to dislodge from the gel[1]. Much like a traditional health bar however, collecting cubes of vitality gel restores the vial; it is possible the gel also acts as a foodstuff.
Gel associated with different characters appears in different colours, with John Egbert's gel being light blue (and his health vial bright green), Rose Lalonde's being purple, Vriska's being deep blue, underlings and Jack Noir both having dark grey gel with a purple and black vial respectively, and the Peregrine Mendicant having white or light grey gel. It is not known whether characters can only be restored with the correctly coloured gel, if the gel appears a different colour to different players, or if the colour has any bearing on gameplay whatsoever. In all known cases, Heroes' gel colour resembles the colour of their associated sprite, which may be in some way connected to the ability of some sprites to heal their players both through in-combat abilities and through combining their own gel-like ectoplasm with food items.
The Brain Ghost Dirk Strider's Fakeness attribute used a vial identical to that used to display health, suspended in slime of a maroon color matching that of his Heart aspect.
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- ↑ Andrew Hussie. "In this Flash, I think some people didn't quite understand the "health vial" gauge system. Some thought it was a glitch or something. It was really just a style of gauge that defied typical game convention in a way that was... I guess we'll just call it satirical. Instead of the guage remaining stationary with the contents depleting, with each hit, the entire gauge itself would move, withdrawing from the stationary blob of "gel" signifying the player's vitality. Hence "gel viscosity" was a health upgrade, making the gauge more difficult to withdraw from the thick gel when taking damage." Homestuck: Book 1: Acts 1 & 2, p.266.