Beef Gate: Difference between revisions
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[[File:BEEFgate1.jpg|frame| Either wait until Level 35, or mess with this guy and get cut into 35 different pieces. Your call. [[A Load of Bull|Also:]] [[Stealth Pun]]!]]
{{quote|''"Overall responsible for the most novice explorer deaths. Skilled explorers need not fear it."''|'''Monstrous [[Flavor Text|Codex entry]] on the Great Lynx''', ''[[Etrian Odyssey]] III''}}
[[No Except Yes|You can go wherever you want...]][[Sequence Breaking|but if you try to go anywhere out of order]], ''the game will kill you.'' You must be this strong to enter.
Later areas are guarded by disproportionately powerful enemies that will beat you down for approaching them too early. As a player, you're supposed to recognize that as a sign that you should just come back later. With any luck, you'll be ready for those challenges by the time the game actually mentions them.
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The good news is that if you're somehow miraculously able to pull it off early, via some sort of [[Outside the Box Tactic]] application of the [[Useless Useful Spell]], clever strategy, or sheer luck, then you get to learn why there's nothing quite like enjoying amounts of experience and equipment drops that you probably [[Disc One Nuke|weren't intended to have until fifteen hours later]]. It can also sometimes be fun to beat them for [[Sequence Breaking]] purposes, depending.
The other way to defeat a Beef Gate, of course, is [[Level Grinding]]
Note that if the way is guarded by an enemy that is simply invincible until you get a specific upgrade and you cannot sneak past another way, it's not a
{{examples}}
== Newspaper Comics ==
* A strip from the ''[[FoxTrot]]'' [[Newspaper Comics|newspaper comic]] featured Jason trying to fight his way through one of these, only to have his sister discover that [[Sheathe Your Sword|if you don't attack, it will let you pass by in peace]]. "The biggest, most dangerous monster in the whole game, and you're ''not'' supposed to take him on?"
== Tabletop Games ==
=== Board Games ===
* The board game ''[[Talisman]]'' is made of three rings, the easy outer ring, harder middle ring, and the final stretch ring. One method to get from the easy ring to the hard ring is to fight the sentinel guarding the only bridge. In fact, the vast majority of the game is spent powering up so you can take the next area, making the game one big grind to beat the Beef Gates (and screw over the other players).
=== Tabletop RPG ===
* Many a DM in most tabletop games rely on a combination of this and [[Broken Bridge]]s to make sure the players go where the DM leads them. [https://web.archive.org/web/20081103085410/http://atrocities.primaryerror.net/rpgcliches.html One site with a tabletop RPG cliche list] mentioned "T-Rex on the Plains", where the DM puts a ''T. rex'' in an area just to keep the players on rails.
== Video Games ==
=== Action Adventure ===
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' was completely wide-open, with nothing stopping players from entering any area on the map (except the last dungeon) and fighting enemies which can kill them in one hit. Of course, [[Sequence Breaking|it is possible to survive if the player is]] [[No Damage Run|skilled enough.]]
* ''[[Shantae]]'' - Going directly left of the [[First Town]] results in your being assaulted by a pack of nagas—they move quickly, shoot homing [[Make Me Wanna Shout|screech attacks]], and they have huge amounts of health (moreso at night). You'll need powerful attack items, more health, and possibly one of the optional strong attacks to survive. {{spoiler|Or you can sneak by with Vanishing Cream, but you'll meet a [[Broken Bridge]] anyway.}}
* In ''[[Castlevania]]: [[Castlevania II: Simon's Quest|Simon's Quest]]'', going left initially is an easy way to get butchered by way-too-powerful enemies.
* In [[Star Control II]], if you try to leave the solar system without first visiting the starbase near Earth, you are forced to fight off enemies continuously everywhere you go. (About every 5 seconds on average). ''This did not stop people from managing to beat the entire game in this state'', a task which is even harder than it sounds due to the fact that, among other things, no starbase means no speed upgrades or weapon upgrades, and the game has a time limit.
* [[Rune Factory]] 2 and 3 will give you access to all but the final dungeon from the start of the game, but unless you want to die, stick to the spring themed one.
* You can ''try'' a speed run through ''[[Quest for Glory I]]''. If the ogre doesn't kill you (you can run past him with speed or the right magic), then the kobold will. And if you somehow manage to kill the kobold (possible as a magic user with a ''lot'' of mana potions), then you'll get slaughtered when you get to the Brigand Fortress. And if, through some miracle, you manage to get through the Brigand Fortress, Baba Yaga's quest, which sends you to the graveyard at midnight, will likely cause you to run into some difficulties from the incredibly tough monsters that lurk in the night.
* ''[[Dark Souls]]'' has a brutal example of this at the start of the game. After the tutorial, you're dumped into Lordrand, with no map or any indication of where to go first. You're ''supposed'' to go right, into the Undead Parish, but you just as easily could go left, into the graveyard, where you'll likely get smashed quickly by skeletons that you ''cannot'' destroy until you have much better gear. Of course, this ''is'' a game that is notorious for being [[Nintendo Hard]], but the problem is, many beginning players ''know'' the game's reputation, ''expect'' to have such trouble, and just can't figure out that you're not supposed to go that way.
=== First Person Shooter ===
* In ''[[STALKER|S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' heading into the restricted area of The Bar without authorization will result in you getting marked as an enemy of [[Right-Wing Militia Fanatic|Duty]] followed by being quickly gunned down by guards.
* ''[[Borderlands]]''
** If you go the wrong way during the introductory missions against Nine-Toes you'll run up against [[Badass]] Skags twice your level.
** The DLCs you can visit pretty anytime. It is possible to go shoot some zombies in the first DLC with a low-level charater. You might be able to speed run right through it, but expect to use many revives.
=== Four X ===
* ''[[
=== Interactive Fiction ===
* A very old example: in the text-based game of ''[[The Hobbit]]'', your path is blocked briefly by trolls, who will eat you if you try to fight them. Normally, one waits for daybreak so that they'll turn to stone, but very rarely they can be killed by Thorin and Gandalf. It's also possible to get into their cave early without the key by breaking the door, though by the time you get Sting, they'll have petrified.
=== MMORPG ===
* ''[[City of Heroes]]''
** There is nothing to stop level one players from entering the higher-level city
** The sidekicking system, which
** Unfortunately, since dying sends you to the geographically nearest hospital and not the last one you visited, there are areas (Independence Port, for one) where you can be take two steps in, be cut down, and wake up halfway across the zone with 40+ high-level mobs between you and safety.
* ''Pandora Saga'''s game world opens up between level 20-25 (out of 50). Only the monsters in the shared maps between the factions' capitals are anywhere below level 40 while those in the open PK regions and the faction exclusive maps are massively overpowered for their level. Needless to say even a full party of capped players can wipe against world trash on a bad day.
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** The high level zone of Plaguelands located right next to the undead starting zone. There is a gate that separates the zones and some high level NPCs guarding it, so most players should probably realize they shouldn't go there, but nothing prevents them from doing so, and running into [http://www.wowwiki.com/Welcome_Bear Extremely Pleasant Bears.]
** Redridge Mountains (one of the early zones for Alliance players) is similarly connected (via a big intimidating-looking gate) to the much-higher leveled Burning Steppes.
** On the other hand, there are a number of zones when there's no such forewarning. Ashenvale is a particularly notable offender, since that zone is smoothly connected to a much higher-level zone (Felwood) with no obvious "danger ahead" signs.
** Similarly, don't try going from Duskwood into Deadwind Pass at less than level 40, unless you have a deathwish or can run very fast. Ironically, there's a quest available around level 40 that requires you to do exactly that
** Doubly so on a Horde character: There's an Alliance town in your way that's tricky to bypass. The horde actually have quests to go there around level 30, (better get that mount you could get when you dinged 20, you'll need it!) and having to run from far south through an Alliance Zone, completely through a hostile town, and then through Deadwind. On top of that becomes the quest you get from there to Kargath which either requires you to go back through that town, up through the opposing faction's starting areas, and then through level 50 zones with far more mobs than deadwind, or you get the longest run in the game. The horde is not happy.
** The infamous "Wetlands death run," a route that night elf and draenei players originally had to take in order to get to the Alliance capitals in the Eastern Kingdoms for the first time. It was called that because most players go there at fairly low level, since Darnassus and the Exodar are practically ghost towns, and the zone they had to go through is filled with mobs roughly twice their level. Patch 3.0.2 eliminated the death run once and for all by redirecting the Auberdine-Menethil ship to the newly implemented Stormwind Harbor.
** Anyway, it was always possible to avoid the whole thing by swimming. Assuming you avoid the [[
** Don't ever try to leave Moonglade by way of Timbermaw Hold on a low-level character. ''You will die.'' This particular
** Ashenvale and Duskwood (both mid-20s zones), and the Hinterlands and Feralas (both mid-40s zones), each contain a little side area in which a raid-boss-level dragon is guarded by several level 62 elite dragonkin. If you're a young'un out exploring the zone to see what's there, you'll be in for a nasty surprise.
** This is basically the function of "gear check" bosses that appear at the start of some dungeons, such as [http://www.wowhead.com/npc=24882 Brutallus] or [http://www.wowhead.com/npc=13020 Vael]. These fights require the raid to put out a very high amount of damage in a very short amount of time while not getting killed by periphery attacks. The message is if you aren't well equipped enough ''and'' coordinated enough to beat this thing, you have no business being in the
** Back in Vanilla [[WoW]], Alliance warlocks were basically forced to run through a Beef Gate at Level 20 to get their succubus summon; the questline was found in the Barrens and Ashenvale, leading to the following wonderful options: either you had to run the length of Loch Modan and the Wetlands to get to Menethil Harbor and take the boat to Ashenvale, then run through the Barrens (a Horde zone at about your level), or you could run though Duskwood and Stranglethorn Vale to the very south tip, dodging Level 40+ mobs and players as you went to get to a boat that way.
** Prior to the Cataclysm, starting Tauren had two choices once they arrived at Camp Taurajo in the Barrens: Either take the long and insanely boring walk north to the Crossroads (Without deviating from the road), or head south and die painfully.
* ''[[
** Kithicor Forest to Highpass Hold was, in the early days, a killer. Kithicor is a newbie zone in the daytime, but at night swarms with level 45+ undead.
** The run from Steamfont Mountain to Greater Faydark ran through the Lesser Faydark - an extremely treacherous zone that is mainly low-to-mid level but roamed by some extremely strong higher level monsters, including of course the [[Demonic Spiders|brownie scouts]] which have a habit of "snaring" (lowering the run speed) of players they attack.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** If you want to go anywhere after the first twenty levels on a new character, you'll be needing to make a [[Stealth Run]] through a
** It gets easier once you hit Lv.20 and are able to apply for your Chocobo License. Although the amount of time you can spend on a Chocobo is limited, enemies won't attack you; the only way to die on a Chocobo is to be caught in an Area Of Effect spell aimed at another player.
*** Additionally, there are areas that Chocobos will refuse to enter, and you must dismount and enter on foot. These are usually the interior areas, like castles and caves.
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** It is/was difficult to enter Bass'ken Lake if not close to the recommended level because the Outlaw Pup den was near the entrance and spawned mobs of the beasts.
* ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' can be like this if you happen to enter the wrong map. It doesn't help that the higher a monster's level is, the more likely it is to attack you on sight. Then there are mini-bosses and MVPs, which spawn intermittently on what could otherwise be fairly safe maps. Turn the wrong corner without expecting it, and you'll be dead before you can even register what hit you.
* There is a notable example in ''[[Maple Story]]''
** An Enforced example, the Arcane River. By the time you reach Level 200, you will likely be able to one-shot any enemy you have previously encountered, including most bosses. Your first mission in the Arcane River is to kill ten mobs in order to receive an Arcane Symbol. This seems easy, seeing as this is a game full of quests where you have to kill 250 monsters (or more!) but the mobs in the Arcane Road are obscenely powerful. Your combos that could previously flatten Magus or Hilla in one swipe will barely scratch even one Mook on Arcane River, and their attacks will likely crush ''any'' overconfident character (even at level 200) forcing you to be careful. After managing to kill ten of them, the Arcane Symbol helps you survive easier, but there's still an uphill challenge ahead.
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'' has North Chetwood, a rather low-level area with Mooks that range from levels 10-14 (and an easily avoidable [[Boss in Mook Clothing]] at 15). However, there is a path that leads to the Weather Hills, filled with regular Mooks with levels around 20, and [[Elite Mooks]] which are at level '''55'''.
** The game later almost breaks this trope in Angmar. If you attempt to cross a certain part of the swamp, your character literally gets scared to death (translation: your "dread" gets so high that it paralyzes your movement and decreases your "morale" until you have none left). A certain quest in the storyline has to be beaten before you can cross this area. Of course, you can still power-level your way through the storyline quests if you so choose, but that does mean there's virtually no way a player can get there without leveling up.
** To gate content that hasn't yet been added to the game, the east bank of the Anduin is lined with level 65 raid-calibre stealth-breaking archers. Characters with the highest Morale in the game last 2-3 hits against them, and it's seemingly impossible to aggro just one, keeping players on the west bank, in Lorien.
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* ''[[Guild Wars]]'' doesn't do this often, but there is one point early on in the slow-building Prophecies campaign that stands out. From the last town in the second major area, you can continue on into the next area and continue fighting level 8 and 11 enemies; or you can take a side exit into the back end of the penultimate major area, which is full of level 24 enemies packing elite skills, level 28 bosses, [[Sand Worm|giant ice wurms]], etc. If you're playing through the campaign normally, you'll have tier 2 of 7 armor, no elite skills, limited access to normal skills, no access to other campaigns, and be considerably below the player max level of 20. Oh, and you'll have a max of six party members to take into an eight-man zone. Of course, there are players you can pay to [[Sequence Breaking|run]] you down to the town down there with no risk to yourself...
** The [[Elite Mooks|Mursaat]] are a better example, since facing them without infused armor would mean a quick death (unless you bring a lot of healers and/or send you heroes to the front), only after getting infused armor on a story mission (or alternatively, by going to the northernmost part of Mineral Springs, which requires to fight hordes of [[Demonic Spiders|tengu]]) you would have a chance against them.
* ''RF Online'' has its fair share of these. It does impose a level 40+ restriction on most areas, but even if you meet the minimum level requirement, you're still gonna get your ass kicked pretty hard. Why? Not only do most monsters here can do enough damage to rearrange your face and a good portion of your upper torso, but they come in swarms. It also doesn't help that there is usually no alternative route, and the fact that they have either a slow-spell or have ridiculously ranged guns
Beast Mountain and Elan are the worst cases. In the former, there is a must-do quest to find a tiny little tube. sounds moderately challenging? When you get there, you are faced with flying hornets that kill you in one hit (and are only a few pixels big from normal distance) that comes wholesale, as well as numerous other bugs that lurk in the tall grass (who alert stronger, more docile mobs nearby).
When you have sufficient level you can simply walk across the map, but that's only at levels 60 and above, whereas the aforementioned Quest caps you at level 50. Elan also has such a quest, where you must kill a mob that only spawns one at a time, surrounded by equally strong but useless to you mooks. In addition, even if you have hit the maximum level and are wearing the best set of equipment, and is the tanker class, you'll still have a hard time trying to survive in that place.
* Most content in ''[[Billy vs. SNAKEMAN]]'' can be attempted before you're strong enough to actually get through it. An excellent example is the Discords, about a third of the way through the r00t plotline. Being able to breeze through the entirety of older plotlines isn't enough to guarantee a full 1% chance to defeat Discords.
=== Real Time Strategy ===
* ''Anno 1602'' gives the three CPU rivals ships equipped with more cannons than the player's one has, thus making it impossible to swiftly dispose of all competition before the game really starts. In addition, two opponents also have much larger ships than the player's default one (resulting in even more cannons and better storage capacities), although this is made up for by their slow speed.
The player might be able to sink the ship of the opponent sized as their own one, but even being successful in that will cause the player's ship to be heavily damaged making it sail at a much slower pace, thus crippling any kinds of vital trade and exploration processes.
On the other hand, something the game does not prevent is saving right at the start of the game, seeking out the best islands, reloading the save and then colonising them before the CPU has a chance to.
* ''[[Dawn of War|Dawn of War: Dark Crusade]]''. Once you grab the Pavonis territory, you can attack any territory you want, however the stronghold territories still require you to control one of the bordering territories first. It's still a wise idea to attack the other territories for additional troops, though. [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|You're gonna' need all the help you can get.]]
** Dark Crusade and Soulstorm both had the final fortress with some sort of beef gate in the actual missions. In theory you can just go straight up and kill whatever is the target for that mission. In practice, this is suicidal, as not only does the opponent have a horde of units (almost five times the amount you are allowed to have in said mission) guarding the damn place, it also has numerous "attack waves" that are apparently independant of it's normal cap AND usually the relic unit already at said gate. You can, however, subvert it all by playing as an artillery-heavy army (namely Imperial Guard) and just lobbing shell after shell at the target until it's good and dead. Made easier by the fact that some maps have your base located almost right next to the enemy base, separated by a wall and a semi-convoluted maze (which the artillery bypasses).
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=== Roguelike ===
* ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery]]'' is made of this trope, in many different guises. For instance, there's the Tower of Eternal Flames, the steel golem(s), the Eternal Guardian, the ancient karmic wyrm, the assassins' lair, the underwater cave ...
** The small cave is an [[Inverted Trope|inversion]], scaling its difficulty based on player level. The ''higher'' your level, the harder it gets
Some other twists on the trope: the bug-ridden temple (which will not open until the player has died many times), and the pyramid and minotaur maze (which only open for certain level ranges, closing again when you get too tough).
=== Role Playing Game ===
* [[Digimon World 3]] has this all over the place. The very first one happens as soon as you leave the town you start in; take the left path on the central park and you'll end up near a shore where you find mostly Coelamon around. They will attack first and defeat anything you throw at it with one attack.
** Later on, our hero encounters Zambamon, a very high leveled boss whose attack is so strong that your Digimon flees after the first hit. You have to find a special item in a long [[Fetch Quest]] in order to scare him away. Far later on in the game, you can find Zambamon again and battle him for real. This time your Digimon should be at a high enough level to put up a good fight.
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** Made even worse in the GBA remake, where Diglett and Dugtrio have the ability Arena Trap, which prevents you from running away or switching out.
* ''[[Breath of Fire II]]'': You can theoretically return to Gate almost immediately after getting Spar in your party. You are only actually ''supposed'' to return to Gate much ''much'' later, and the encounters in that area prove it.
* ''[[
** The bucket at the End of Time, which you can reach about three or four hours into the game. Using it takes you to the final boss. Odds are you don't actually ''want'' to use it until you've made it through the actual plot, unless you're using a [[New Game
On the other hand, using this gate to access the final boss earlier than you "should" is key to seeing most of the dozen or so alternate endings.
** To get to the final boss even earlier (it can be the first battle of your game!) in the [[New Game+]], all you have to do is step on the other side of Lucca's teleporter. This isn't available outside of [[New Game+]], however- and unless you did a lot of [[Level Grinding]] the first time around (or went through the first few [[Bonus Dungeon]]s in the [[Video Game Remake|DS remake]]), you might not be up to the challenge then as you ''only have two party members'' at that point.
*** Or even just ''one'' party member if you progress slightly further in the story.
* In ''[[
** You don't even have to go that far to get slaughtered. Just start the game and walk south.
* ''[[
** This game in general has an extremely steep enemy growth rate (which, with the insane enemy encounter rate and coupled with [[Artificial Stupidity]] in Chapter V, accounts for it's [[Nintendo Hard
** In Chapter IV, you are placed on a large continent on which you can go anywhere you please from the start, though you can't fight the Chapter Boss until you've done everything else first and you can't leave the continent until you've beaten the boss. Problem is, you're going to die really horribly if you stray too far from where the plot tells you to go.
** In Chapter V, once you get the boat, you're free to travel the world map - only a few areas can't be accessed. This can be exploited to get some overpowered equipment for your characters. Just be sure not to walk to far inland on continents you aren't supposed to be on, because the random encounters will make you die really, really fast. Some areas on the map will pit you against the [[Demonic Spider]] Chillanodon, a group of which is capable of wiping out even properly leveled characters in a single turn, if you get on the wrong side of the [[AI Roulette]].
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[MOTHER 1
** There is a very significant difference between the level at which you ''can'' {{spoiler|wake the dragon in [[Magicant]] and fight it}} and the level at which you ''should''.
** Another example that's half this and half [[Broken Bridge]]: you ''can'' try to simply walk through the tunnel from Merryville to the next area without clearing the path for the train. You just ''[[Demonic Spiders|really]]'' don't want to. (It's even [[Lampshaded]] by a talking skeleton you find halfway through the tunnel.)
* In the sequel, ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Romancing
* ''[[Romancing
* ''[[Fallout]]'' series
** ''[[Fallout]]'' had this as a consequence of being fairly non-linear. 60-80% or so of the towns will be hard for a few levels if you don't visit the starter towns first, but they are all about the same level of difficulty to get to in the first place. Thus, most of the game is unlocked as of level eight or nine, except for the very end-game parts.
** ''[[Fallout 2]]'' has a strategy for sneaking into one of the end-game areas and doing the sidequests there by employing talking skills and running away from any actual fight. This can get you very advanced weapons, the second-best armor in the game, and a mountain of XP that would be a fair reward for near-end game characters, but is utterly insane for starting characters. (One quest gives you 20,000 XP. Starting characters can get five levels from that.)
** In ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' your goal is to head to the titular town from your starting point - Vegas can even be seen clearly from your starter town. However if you travel directly there, you'll get ripped apart by deathclaws or stung to death by Cazadors. Going the long way round through other towns and grinding levels is the route you're meant to take
This, and many other BeefGates in the game, is due to the principal modder responsible for [[Game Mod|Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul]], one of the most illustrious mods for [[The Elder Scrolls Four]] being a member of the development team.
* ''[[Final Fantasy II]]'' seemed to have some sort of unnatural hatred for cohesive world map design, and ended up combining a serious case of this trope with incredibly poor directions. The people in town A say that you should visit town B. Outside of town A lie featureless plains and forests in all directions and nothing preventing you from going anywhere, leaving you to have to take a wild guess which way town B is. If you guess wrong, you will be first-turn ''annihilated'' by the very first random encounter in the area surrounding towns M, N, and O that you just accidentally approached. .
It is not at all unlikely for a new player who, quite understandably, doesn't know which squares house which monsters, to have their ''very first encounter'' in the ''entire game'' be with a ''Behemoth.'' [[Nintendo Hard|On the other hand, maybe that's fitting for this game.]]
Not only that, there were definite ways to get significantly out of your league even in places you ''were'' supposed to be. At one point, you have to sneak into an occupied town to rescue someone. The way the game handled the occupation is that it looked and acted like a normal town, except that talking to ''anyone'' led to their calling you [[You Rebel Scum|"Rebel Scum!"]] and triggering a normally impossible battle. This battle is key to the games many [[Disc One Nuke|disc one nukes]] by defeating them for decent equipment to fuel your grinding (and after a bit, using it's higher level to increase your stats faster). .
Even worse, going too far immediately south of the starting town activates a [[Peninsula of Power Leveling]] filled with high-level [[Demonic Spiders]]. You ''will'' die if you attempt to fight them at game start since they largely only take magical damage and you don't get real spells until the third or so town.
* ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' has Eblan Castle. You can go to it the first time you get an air ship. If you can actually survive the stuff inside, you get some very powerful equipment meant for closer to the end of the game.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''
** The game more or less ends with this, with the final dungeon accessible almost immediately into the second half of the game. You'll probably want to {{spoiler|find the rest of your scattered party}} and build some levels first, though.
The fact that the game demands you split into 3 separate four-character teams when you try to go in should serve as sufficient warning (if you only have enough people to put 1 or 2 on each team, you definitely aren't ready).
** In the same game, it is possible to get a relic that completely disables random encounters. The Final Dungeon also happens to lack mandatory boss fights on all but one of the routes (until near the end), and is filled with tons of goodies...
** The same game also has a part with Locke in the occupied Town of Figaro, with his way constantly being blocked by the powerful HeavyArmr monsters. It is ''technically'' possible to beat them, but would need extensive grinding and loads of healing items. Using the Genji Glove relic makes it doable without all the obscene grinding and good luck.
* ''[[
* Similarly to ''[[
* ''[[
** Of course, taking advantage of Quina's [[Desperation Attack|Limit Glove]] spell can render this plateau to be a fantastic location for level-grinding. Plus, one of Freya's later abilities deals more damage based on the total number of dragons you've defeated over the course of the game...
* ''[[
** Assuming you haven't [[Guide Dang It|opened one of the totally random chests that prevents it from spawning]], it is possible to find and enter the Necrohol of Nabudis much earlier than recommended to grab the [[Infinity
** Many of the optional Espers are likewise protected. It's theoretically possible to fight Adremmalech or Cuchulain shortly after Belias, but the enemies in their areas will kill you before you even reach them without massive [[Level Grinding]].
** The very first time you visit the nomad village in the Giza Plains, you may or may not talk to a child that mentions that they are told to stay close to the village, lest werewolves get them. They ''are'' in fact out there, by the southern exit of the Plains, and will [[One
** In Golmore Jungle, don't go off the path. You will find ''numerous'' horrifying surprises, such as hellhounds that are ten levels or so above you. In packs.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy
* ''[[Suikoden I]]'' has the Kobold Forest. You are not supposed to go there until it is time to meet the elves, but the mobs there can be killed easily with a Fire Rune, leading to you characters being ''many'' levels ahead of the game. It really helps with the upcoming [[That One Boss]] in the next
Another example of this can be found at the very beginning of the game, in which your Level 1 main character can exit his home town without a party and encounter mobs 10-15 levels above his own. Most of these mobs can slaughter your hero in one hit, but there are some manageable, lower-level mobs mixed in that can set your character many levels ahead of the game. Then look at your feeble, Level 1 party members and laugh at them when you're whisked off to the first dungeon.
** It gets even better. You can climb the nearby mountain at the very beginning of the game—which is filled with enemies who will one shot the entire party. Make it to the top, and the NPC who normally gives you a fairly useless Rune will instead give you {{spoiler|A rune that doubles the EXP for anyone who equips it}} as a reward for your [[Sequence Breaking]].
* ''[[Suikoden II]]'' had an example of this that was strange enough that it [[Good Bad Bugs|might not have been intentional]]: near the beginning of the game, when you are still just an orphan with a couple of mercenary friends, you can approach the gate to one of the last areas of the game, Matilda. The gate is locked, and guarded to boot, but for some bizarre reason, you can ''push'' it. That is, you push the entire gate back a few feet, allowing you to slip through the sides, into an area significantly over your level. You don't have a chance against any of the enemies, but if you can run far and fast enough, you can make it alive to a small town you weren't supposed to reach for a few dozen hours, and there you can recruit a couple of characters you weren't supposed to meet until then. Said characters start at levels proportionate to the area, meaning you can use them to power-level your other characters to a ludicrous level before you pick up the main quest line again.
* ''[[
** ''[[
** In ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]'', there's a room in the Iselia Human Ranch where you can open a shutter and get a card key that will lead you to some new equipment, unfortunately, behind the shutter is also a random encounter that will curb stomp you with ease without a ridiculous amount of level grinding (or just coming back to the ranch later on in the game, though at that point your equipment's much better than what you get.) Fortunately, you're allowed to run away from the fight, at which point you can quickly grab the card key and get the hell out of the room before it starts chasing you again.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' series.
** ''[[The Elder Scrolls III
** ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV
The ''Oblivion'' expansion ''The Shivering Isles'' has the Gatekeeper, an enormous axe-handed golem guarding the gate into the main part of Sheogorath's island. It's nearly impossible to beat him in a straight-up fight, so you have to win a mini-quest in order to kill him and move on. {{spoiler|Later on, you rebuild him to fight off the invaders to the Isles, essentially making a Beef Gate ''on your side''.}}
** ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'' has these in the form of Giants, who are suicide to fight at low levels without a LOT of preparation. Also, on top of having Fallout 3 style scaling, the game will occasionally throw a much more difficult enemy or two in a dungeon with everything else leveled scaled, just to keep you on your toes. One particularly rough example occurs if you try to reach High Hrothgar early on, as several dangerous enemies (sabre cats, ice wraiths, or ice wolves) will appear at the base of the mountain, and further up you'll find a frost troll (a foe suitable to a character at level 15 or higher) blocking your path, which probably kick the crap out of you if you're on your own or not well-equipped. Some smart tactics will let you bypass the troll; you can even run straight past it and lead it to the [[Badass Grandpa|Greybeards]], [[Curb Stomp Battle|who will deal with it in short order.]]
*** One that most people don't see coming (and probably uses this trope the hardest) is the end room of the first major Companions quest. The entire dungeon leading up to it contains nothing more dangerour than a draugr wight (which is usually exterminated by your immortal questgiver ally). The last room, however, starts by spawning 8 lowish level draugr, plus a draugr scourge, which is a tough fight on its own for most low level players. Beating that, however causes the game to sic 5 more scourge, and a Deathlord (who can use the 'disarm' shout) at the player. The only real way to win the fight without having gone through a substantial portion of the game is to kite them around the edge of the room using the flames spell for about half an hour.
* The first two ''[[Gothic]]'' games are practically made out of this trope, with many areas filled with monsters which are too tough to fight until you are strong enough. In a slight twist, many of these areas aren't essential, and contain nothing more than the strong monsters and perhaps some nice treasure, meaning that you can avoid these obstacles by simply not going there - though you may need to XP gained by defeating the beef gates in order to beat stronger ones that are guarding plot-essential areas.
** The third Gothic game is somewhat more merciful about this, since it's possible to go almost anywhere in the game without some sort of barrier stopping you, but even though its possible to take advantage of terrain, archery, and magic to allow you to conquer some
** ''[[Risen]]'' does much the same, although the monsters are technically
* The SNES version of ''[[Shadowrun]]'' had the Caryards section. To move on, you had to either pay the King to let you leave, or challenge and kill the King in the arena. Which you ''could'' attempt to do at any time, but good luck on that without [[Good Bad Bugs|abusing that glitch that makes him freeze in place.]]
* ''[[Paper Mario:
* ''[[Arcanum]]'' utilizes this in the main quest, which if you've proceeded as straight-forward as the story appears to be, will lead through the familiar rats and wolves smack into a high level golem that will shatter your weapons and armor. The main quest's difficulty levels off and evens out for quite awhile after rather than starting lower and increasing gradually, but this spike in difficulty forces you to engage in [[Level Grinding]] by searching out and undertaking dozens of wholly irrelevant quests, and/or trolling for random encounters.
* The Super Nintendo ''[[The Lord of the Rings|The Lord Of The Rings, Vol. 1]]'' places Hobbiton and Bree two small screens away from one another: cross a bridge, turn north at the crossroads, and you're in Bree. However, to force you to go through the Old Forest and Barrow-downs, the game places a Ringwraith at the crossroads. By time you've finished going through the roundabout route, the Ringwraith is gone. Arguably brilliant, because, why did Frodo and company go through the Barrow-downs in the book? To avoid the Ringwraiths!
The PC version did this as well, but there was a way to get past the Ringwraith and leave by the road. Following the book up to that point had you encounter some Elves and learn the command word Elbereth, which caused a Ringwraith to flee from battle.
* The Undernet works like this in most ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' games. The first game makes it particularly easy to kill yourself this way; the Undernet looks like the regular Net, and most of it's accessible starting about one-fifth of the way through the game. If you're determined and lucky enough, you can penetrate to the deepest Undernet zone at this point, getting tons of money and some ''murderous'' chips for your trouble.
** In ''Battle Network 6'', you can access a very dangerous part of the Undernet from a secret entrance about halfway through the game. There is even a [[Bonus Boss]] there, one whose stats are so high that he (and the enemies in the entire area he resides in) might as well be considered post-game material. It is very possible to defeat him as soon as you gain access to the area, but you will need very good reflexes (his attacks consist of [[Stuff Blowing Up]] almost everywhere).
** In ''Battle Network 2'', the Undernet has these stone things. Later ones get up around 500 HP at least. To kill them, you have to hit them with at least as much damage as their HP. If you leave one standing, the others come back. They also have a countdown from 10. When they hit 0, they go boom and rock your world, and two hits will delete you.
* In the Playstation game ''[[
* ''Geneforge 5'' had these on almost every single map, usually guarding alcoves of treasure and upgrades. These creatures so spiked in difficulty for the area even combat oriented characters would have to progress elsewhere, then backtrack (if they remember) just to see what could be hidden there, and by then the XP rewards were insultingly meager. There were a few early areas prowled or populated by the terrors of the world so overpowered it would take half the game before the characters could feasibly quest there
''Geneforge 1 & 2'' also had these, as opposed to the [[Broken Bridge]] style of 3 and 4. Going the wrong way from the early zones would swiftly lead to being up to one's ass in clawbugs and other mid-game enemies.
* In ''[[Ultima IX]]'' there is a dragon in the serpent spine mountains, who tries to prevent you from wandering too far off track until you can handle it. The area past him isn't actually particularly high level- he's more there for plot reasons.
* The ''[[Avernum]]'' series has plenty. Your party is basically capable of wandering wherever they feel like going. If they head into an area they aren't prepared to enter, a roving monster is likely to kill everyone in a few turns, maybe even in ''one''!
* Technically, in ''[[Freelancer]]'', once you get past the initial [[Broken Bridge]] you can go wherever you like between missions. Surviving is another matter.
* In the ''[[
* ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' - Once you get your spaceship, for a time the original game will not attempt to police you with anything but this trope, including things like "directions", "subtle clues" or "the slightest hint whatsoever". Unfortunately, it has not "locked the gate" with very high level monsters, and the spell you need to get into (but not beat) the final dungeon is unlocked at a very low level. If you don't know where to go, you'll soon be able to go everywhere, which makes it even harder to go in the right direction.
* ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' placed a very nasty band of bounty hunters in the narrow path leading to the gates of Orzammar, since it was intended by the developers to be the last main quest to be completed.
** This was a problem, however, because an important NPC in a character's personal quest is waiting outside the Orzammar gates.
*** Worse yet, the sword you receive as the reward for that personal quest seems like it would be very nice early in the game, but is ''not even good enough for [[Vendor Trash]]'' by the time you can access it without resorting to exploits.
* [[Might and Magic]] is heavily policed this way, and doubly so in the classic games. You can get almost anywhere right at the beginning (though forests and mountains act as [[Broken Bridge
* ''[[
** At Gaia Rock, you can head straight to the lair of the Serpent with only Move and Growth. However, it will regenerate all HP at the end of every turn unless you clear the maze inside of the mountain so sunlight will shine in and weaken it. This requires, among other things, Whirwind and Reveal.
** At the end of the currents of the Sea of Time, Poseidon blocks the way to Lemuria. Poseidon has a forcefield that can only be broken by the legendary Trident of the Ankhol. '''[[Guide Dang It|The game does not tell you this]].''' Said trident is long lost and in pieces. First you have to find the pieces ([[Guide Dang It|again, no help from the game]]), and then you need to find an Ankhol blacksmith who can put them together for you (there is one, but [[Never Mess
* Due to the random generation of dungeons in the dotHack series, you can create end-of-this-chapter dungeons through simple experimentation. Magic used on those that are weak to it does immense damage, enough that a level 1 character can solo end-of-game creatures with enough MP restoratives. Make one and activate an encounter with a non-magic-using enemy weak to a spell you have aaaaand.... (If only real [[
* In ''[[
* [[Monster Girl Quest]] offers you a range of areas whenever you move to a new region on the map, each marked with the recommended level. It's possible to do them out of order, but very difficult, especially since grinding is impossible in this game. A notable example is Plansect Village, which begins with a battle against three enemies at once. Without first completing Yamatai (which upgrades Gnome to boost defense) this battle is almost impossible to win.
* [[Monster Girl Quest Paradox]] features the Lost Woods, easily within walking distance from the starting point of Ilias Village. Should you enter it before you're ready, the fairies and dark elves will quickly annihilate you.
=== Turn Based Strategy ===
* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics
** The worst part isn't even the levels of the Cinquleur clan; it's the fact that each one of them makes use of an ''extremely'' powerful combo of abilities and items, ranging from the Black King (a Moogle Black Mage who absorbs fire, ice, and lightning damage, can heal himself with his spells, and is immune to regular attacks) to the White King (a Nu Mou White Mage who has access to the [[Cast
* Starting from the second game, the ''[[Disgaea]]'' series features alternate versions of almost all of the storyline maps (Referred to as the Dark World in 2, and X-Dimension in 3 and 4) that feature enemies far stronger then the ones normally there, even earliest maps having enemies of levels comparable to those of the endgame chapters. These can be accessed very early in the game, but with proper tactics (Generally involving the application of [[Standard Status Effects]] and fusing monsters together via throwing), some of the maps can be cleared, and the equipment and EXP rewards they grant will allow one to breeze through the main storyline, and give them a fighting chance against the maps where tactics alone aren't enough.
* Beef Gates are very common in ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' series. The very first map in the first game, the Claw, specifically says "The griffons will protect you until you're ready to move on". The other three players (controlled by the computer) will never attack the griffons until you take them out, at which point they will freely attack and control your settlements. You can even get messages about two of your three opponents being knocked out of the game before you fight the griffons.
** On any map these usually guard a high level artifact spawn, a rare creature dwelling, or a extremely powerful mine (usually a gold mine). They tend to be a small number of extremely powerful end-tier creature. The good news is there is usually only one or two in the stack, meaning if you somehow have a hard counter for it or recruited enough people to form a large enough army, you could take the stack early on. The bad news is, if you wait till the point you can amass a army large enough to take on them normally, the stack would have increased in size since then, and the artifact is usually not worth it anymore.
=== Wide Open Sandbox ===
* While ''[[
** Of course, people find their way past the bridges. In 'Vice City', the docks have an open gap a bus can be pushed through. Jump on it, get to the docks and drive to the other side. Bazookas are now yours. Another 'Vice' example involves the military base. Soldiers don't like random civilians wandering around. However, a cop uniform is gained in a mission. Soldiers like cops.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** ''[[
* [[Prototype (
* ''[[Rune Factory]] 2'': Once the second generation begins, you have access to most areas of the four dungeons, including straight access to the bosses. The monsters are stronger, but you can run past them to the boss area. And once there, said bosses will swiftly murder you if you try to tackle them immediately.<ref>Trieste Forest is doable right away, if you happened to bring plenty of healing items with you and don't screw around fighting the suddenly upgraded mooks.</ref>
* ''[[The Godfather (
* Although you can take on gangs in any order in Saints Row 2, the Ronin are clearly meant to be the last you tangle with, as they are backed by a corporation, and their vehicles, though lightly armoured and small, are very fast ricers, and their 'top soldiers' have a higher ratio of automatic weapons. They can be upon you in seconds, and if you are tangling with them on foot, they might catapult you into the air with their cars. (The AI is designed to engage like with like, but the ricer compacts scream onto the scene so fast they might not be able to stop before they run you down.
* In ''[[Red Dead Redemption|Red Dead Redemption 2]]'', you can ''try'' to enter West Elizabeth (the setting of the original game) at any time, but trying to do so before the post-game will get you gunned down by bounty hunters rather quickly when you try to enter Blackwater. The in-game explanation for this is due to the huge bounty on the Van der Linde Gang due to the ferry heist (which occurred before the game) which is a problem until the post game when you're no longer associated with them.
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', Jack finds a portal through time that will allow him to return to the past. However it is guarded by an immortal sentry who will only let past someone who was prophesied. Jack was unable to defeat him, but after Jack had left, the Sentry said that Jack wasn't the one, "yet" and the portal shows a vision of a much older Jack who looks even more badass. The clear implication being that Jack will have become skilled and powerful enough to defeat the sentry.
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