Kid Icarus: Uprising/Game Breaker

(Game Breaker page for Kid Icarus: Uprising. Will not adopt the one on vanilla TV Tropes because that mess is a mess.)

Kid Icarus: Uprising generally involves the divinity to begin with, but even so, blatantly dominant options provide easy ways out.

Weapon modifiers
There is a 7000 word blog post that points out why weapon modifiers in general are more powerful than they should be. These particular weapon modifiers, however, stand out. (MKDH's note: mods like Shot DEF+ and Freezing+ are absolutely tempting to list and I'd be wanting to add them myselves with Shot DEF+ being objectively more powerful than Overall DEF+ in a range-centric metagame while involving that bloody division defense, and Freezing+ interfering with Grid Reading (look within the Powers folder for an idea about that); but this is about the stand-outs. Only add them if they do enough to warrant it anyway.)


 * EVASION+ is the single most broken tool in the game. To put in perspective what puts this on top, a player who commonly uses a burst damage weapon type complains about this far more than Bumblebee. Evasion+ earns top spot by having dodge moves, which can have followup actions done on frame 26, provide AN ADDITIONAL 24 FRAMES OF INTANGIBILITY PER POINT. This results in a quarter of a second worth of surplus invincibility that can go right into other actions and even prevents Powers such as Interference or Virus from managing their jobs on them. Dodge moves in Kid Icarus Uprising have given conditions on when they can be used, but those conditions just result in the only halfway reasonable answer to it being long range burst damage, which is going to be blunted by the aforementioned Bumblebee on top of likely easily exploited Necessary Drawbacks, even turning Powers such as Mega Laser and Heavenly Light against themselves. Even worse, Evasion+ is only 30 Value for max level--and keep in mind that +2, which is enough for the indefinite intangibility on the Dasharound (which has less intangibility at base), is only 18 Value. Equivalent to Double Team from Pokemon in that it makes matches boring just to hope to be able to deal with it alone while being readily available to anything with little issue beyond dealing with a weapon making system that already blatantly favors Munchkins, Evasion+ is so game-breaking as to turn the game into a mutated mess of determining viability well before creativity.
 * Shot Range+ comes close to being just as bad. The range boost max level, which is 35 Value, provides is SIXTY PERCENT. Although this isn't an objective boost to every weapon type since damage changes over distance depends on the maximum range and some weapon types deal more damage over distance, there are just as many, if not more, that, in the interest of balance, deal less, most notably Capricorn Club, and Shot Range+ mitigates this by stretching out the base damage. Additionally, if a weapon has high enough homing to have its shots be able to loop, Shot Range+ provides more opportunity for just that for added and/or easier damage, including AT MID RANGE. Weapon properties can also make Shot Range+ downright overbearing to the point of easily overcoming any distance bonus being weakened, such as Guardian Orbitars and Ancient Staff having increased lifespans on their charged shots, or Atlas Club having more shot deceleration for their homing to work with. Perhaps the most damning issue, however, is that because of the aforementioned homing, certain attacks such as Predator Cannon's Back Shot can be made impossible to dodge when fired from within about 40 meters, forcing players to carry particular setups to be able to deal with it. All of these issues make Shot Range+ a weapon modifier that provides ridiculously easy offense.
 * The Speed+ modifiers, including Full Health Boost+, are able to provide speed boosts with excessive effect. Full Health Boost+ is perhaps the tamest, but even then, for 30 Value at max level, it's easily protected by Bumblebee, which already protects Energy Charge as well, and the heightened mobility will protect Bumblebee in turn. Running Speed+, and regular Speed+ by extension, is also capable of allowing for outspeeding Black Hole's vacuum effect if the weapon type is fast enough. Of course, the most broken is Walking Speed+, which for 17 Value has the user generally walk about as fast as they run, making the stamina mechanic and other drawbacks to running such as delayed dodging pointless for the user. In all of its variants, the Speed+ modifiers fail to cost nearly enough to keep from being overcentralizing about mobility standards.

Powers
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: due to the nature of weapon modifiers, Powers may only be listed in this section if they do not need weapon modifiers to be unreasonable to combat. This especially applies to Bumblebee, which forces clockwise movement around the opponent who hit the user if they get hit with it active, preventing it from being foolproof protection of Energy Charge, and only becomes broken with modifiers such as Full Health Boost+ or especially Evasion+. The game's Grid Inventory system must also be accounted for; while there could be powers that would have transcendent efficiency even for price, the Grid Inventory system can make powers that seem powerful have workable weaknesses, a notable example being how any power that requires a full line, such as Super Speed or Bumblebee, will immediately conflict with powers that themselves necessitate a full row and column, notably leveled Slip Shot (note:this means Super Speed and Bumblebee on range setups can be blunted by terrain cover), Aries Armor, and Trade-Off (note:Aries Armor and Trade-off, which by the way can't even fit with Slip Shot at ANY level and thus reduce their potential on non-melee sets, will have their lack of presence given away by powers such as Power Thief or Virus, and without weapon modifiers, both Aries Armor and Trade-off are already survivable one-shots stuck with an effectively 5x5 grid the rest of the time); and chunky enough powers such as Energy Charge, by clogging the center 4 spaces or outright costing more spaces, reduce room for powers that could be used for defense against any setup that can shake the powers off.


 * Celestial Fireworks more than makes up for a pitiful attack with a ridiculous number of charges for its cost that exploit the mechanics of Powers that have the user go into a caster animation. To clarify, the caster animation provides intangibility for both the full animation and then a further 2/5 of a second. Similar to the surplus intangibility that Evasion+ provides (note:Evasion+ actually doesn't affect the casting intangibility), Celestial Fireworks' can go right into other actions. What makes Celestial Fireworks particularly stand out about the intangibility as far as Powers go is the low cost, needing only 4 spaces for Level 1, which already has 5 charges, and can have as many as TEN charges for Level 2's 7 spaces, which allows for marginalizing attempts to punish using Bumblebee to protect Energy Charge. As a final insult, the fireworks attack itself can completely destroy shots regardless of their power, further preventing any ability to trap a halfway alert user. A panic button made easy to use casually by either a low effort fit on the grid, an absolute overabundance of charges, or perhaps both, Celestial Fireworks is Evasion+'s equivalent in Powers and all that implies.
 * Brief Invincibility, while not as glaring as Celestial Fireworks, is too efficient at its job of providing a moment of invincibility per charge. One big reason to have the invincibility is to have the momentary vacuum immunity to neutralize the effect of Black Hole, with no way for the opponent to respond offensively while the invincibility is in effect, making it easy for the user to mulligan a bad situation. A mobile melee weapon can also use the invincibility to shrug off any attempt to stop distance closure with a counterattack free of charge, and consequently close the distance and all that implies. What really pushes Brief Invincibility is that its space usage on the Power Grid involves clearly different shapes and above average cost-effectiveness as a panic button, severely complicating attempts to decipher the rest of a player's Power Grid. Capable of too many abuses for little justifying factor, Brief Invincibility gives way to only bad gameplay.
 * Lightweight provides a clear excess of mobility. When active, it doubles the user's movement speed, which already lets enough weapon types overwhelm Black Hole's vacuum effect among other benefits from the insane mobility; in addition to halved stamina depletion that significantly reduces the point of walking beyond the occasional stamina recovery. The duration difference between its levels is 4 seconds, providing some leeway to figuring out the user's Lightweight level, but the space difference between levels is small enough that this provides little benefit to the opponent. What really breaks Lightweight, however, is that it can cause enough lag even on good connection and consequently provide the user with lag armor that nullifies hits that should otherwise register. Providing mobility boosts so obscene that they cause connection latency issues just by being used, Lightweight proves that the implications of the game's Grid Inventory aren't everything.
 * Warp involves its own clear surplus of evasion ability. What it does is teleport the user out of where they are, and though the destination is randomized by being a spawn location, this just makes it a panic button to let the user escape, with the add-on that they also get a full second of respawn invincibility. What really breaks Warp is that it can be used at any time, including when they're in tumble from being hit or even under given statuses, while the teleportation itself is instantaneous, preventing comboing from working. Also adding to the aggravation is that Warp is one of only two powers where a user of Playing Dead is able to shift without losing the latter's duration. (Note: the other is Jump Glide, which in its own right is worth a suspect test, though Playing Dead wouldn't directly cause if it were to be listed or anything.) A cost-effective panic button with little drawback and a lot of benefit, Warp causes no shortage of degenerate gameplay.

Weapons
DISCLAIMER: once again, weapon modifiers muddling standards makes certain weapons seem more overpowered. Multiplayer examples are only allowed if they do not need weapon modifiers or already listed Powers to be overpowered, and single-player examples must avoid needing an overabundance of weapon modifiers or outright broken ones for higher-end challenges to be permitted for listing.


 * Gemini Orbitars is a long range weapon that in multiplayer can harbor a clear excess of easy offense. Seemingly tame, Gemini Orbitars proves itself monstrous with Homing Boost allowing its charged shots to loop well enough to not only hound their target but also immediately stop changing altitude when not needing to. The result of this is charged shots being undodgeable or near undodgeable at around 40 meters or less, and unlike Predator Cannon's back shot, which without Shot Range+ already can barely even travel 30 meters at most, Gemini Orbitars' charged shots hit for full damage immediately on each half of the shot. Even worse, Gemini Orbitars is a weapon that deals more damage over distance, which means aimed up shots, in addition to confusing any attempts to shake off the damage with Shot Cancellation that wouldn't be overwhelmed with the addition of Quick Charge, will deal heightened free damage. In how dangerous it proves to be with just legal Powers, Gemini Orbitars sets the bar for multiplayer long range weapons overly high.
 * In Boss Battles, Artillery Claws have an easy time dealing overwhelming damage. Normally balanced by involving spreadshot effect on their rapid fire attacks, Artillery Claws don't have to worry about the side shots missing in light of the bosses' sizes. (Note: whether this is the result of bad execution with the weapon itself can be put into question--it should be noted that even for the Side Rapid, the angle between the 2 furthest shots is about 30 degrees. The bosses' sizes are still a factor though.) As a result, the insane DPS of the rapid fire attacks, which assuming base damage values even tops plenty of weapons' Melee Dash Attacks, is unmitigated until higher distances, by which point, the Artillery Claws user is safe and sound from being hit nearly as easily. Bosses that aren't big have to worry about charged shot attacks, which for Artillery Claws don't have their damage lowered over distance, giving Artillery Claws liberty in attack positioning, which won't be a problem as Artillery Claws, being a light weapon, is mobile. Though incapable of standing out nearly as much in multiplayer, Artillery Claws still showcases what happens with poor checking of a weapon type that mixes mobility with easy range damage.
 * Boss Battles additionally has the Lancer Staff. While Lancer Staff does have its share of noteworthy weaknesses compared to the Artillery Claws (low stamina, low mobility, and underwhelming projectile velocity), Lancer Staff has virtually the same DPS at close range with the disincentive for distance being lowered base damage instead of a spreadshot effect, the end result being that the DPS at mid-range is comparable to that of the Dark Pit Staff. The Lancer Staff additionally has the damage output on its charged shots being stronger than an Ore Club's shots with far less chargeup time required, when the charged shots themselves are slightly bigger than other Staves' charged shots in general, in addition to having minor homing to allow a slight bit of correction in aiming. At mid-range, the Lancer Staff still deals enough damage to hold its own, making counterattacking significantly easier. While not as broken as Artillery Claws, Lancer Staff still manages over-the-top efficiency that makes it a candidate for speedrunning.

Modifiers allowed
DISCLAIMER: This is the section where powers and weapons that rely on weapon modifiers being allowed for being broken may be listed. Please list accommodating modifiers nevertheless, as they tend to be responsible for what they can pull.


 * Bumblebee commonly exploits Evasion+'s only blind spot of long range burst damage to provide a synergetic combination of absolutely excessive evasion. Providing 2 dodges per charge that prevent the user from taking any other effects from being hit, Bumblebee makes sure that answering it demands rapid attacks that Evasion+ covers against, while itself protecting the user's Energy Charge and Free Health Boost+ should the user have those available. One dodge is all that is needed to start the chain of intangibility frames against any follow-up attacks, and the forced clockwise movement around the opponent means little when the abuser can just use dasharounds if they're close enough. Though providing very likely the only Counter Play involved against a min-maxed setup in that it can't be mixed with leveled Slip Shot, Bumblebee all the same contributes to Evasion+'s brokenness while having the aforementioned Counter Play be map dependent and heavily reliant on luck.
 * Eyetrack Orbitars are the picture of Shot Range+ getting out of hand. A case of the game's Idols failing to adhere to Show Don't Tell (note:Idols also claim that Chaos Kin is a mindless animal, but Chaos Kin's shown behavior suggests otherwise), Eyetrack Orbitars hit hard, and while their shots are supposed to have low velocity for their size, they more than make up for it with overwhelming homing as well as repeat hits. With Shot Range+, this results in looping from mid-range with an absolute abundance of fired shots that will melt any defense in a matter of seconds. Eyetrack Orbitars shots also deal less damage over distance, which Shot Range+ of course mitigates and even makes tacked-on statusing easier to pull off as a result. Perhaps a weapon type that would not be nearly as obscene without key factors, Eyetrack Orbitars are signs of a nightmare to run across on randoms.


 * Back to