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City of Heroes: Difference between revisions
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** Hinted at with the main game, after all the reason the War Walls exist is to keep the Rikti Invaders out...and even then they sometimes fail...so just what is going on outside Paragon City?
*** Mainly because they would be really hard to tear down they also act as containment so if something is going badly in one area it doesn't spill over.
* [[AI Roulette]]: Found in more recent{{when}} [[Mook]]s.
** Deliberately added to the {{spoiler|Flawed Clone during the battle with Ajax}}. Some players have reported the {{spoiler|Flawed Clone}} to be amazingly competent. Others just watched as it performed the chicken dance in the corner during the whole fight.
** Possibly deliberately lampshaded in a bit of NPC dialogue, wherein a Circle of Thorns Spectral Demon demands a Thorn Wielder turn over his magic knife because he's too stupid to use it properly.
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* [[And This Is For]]: The minor NPC villain known as Shock Treatment, whom you can find an Arachnos Base, trying to get vengeance on behalf of her appliances.
{{quote|'''Shock Treatment:''' For my toothbrush!}}
* [[And Your Reward Is Clothes]]: Perhaps the most eagerly pursued rewards too, despite their purely aesthetic effect. Averted since the 2019 revival, which among other changes made ''all'' costume parts available to players from the start.
* [[Animal Motifs]]: [[Meaningful Name|Arachnos really likes spiders]]. We're not kidding, damn near ''every single unit type'' is named after a kind of spider, up to [[Evil Overlord|Lord Recluse]] himself.
** And he's got robot spiders as a common minion.
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* [[Animate Inanimate Object]]: Possibly the Radio contact in Port Oakes and definitely the Television contact in Grandville. Radio is either some [[Voice with an Internet Connection|DJ with a lot of contacts]] or a sentient machine that keeps tabs on you. Television appears to be the [[Avatar]] of this form of media, as it speaks to you using the characters in various TV shows. It's deliberately left ambiguous, though.
** Definitely the Slot Machine contact in Saint Martial—it's {{spoiler|An artificially-intelligent slot machine trying to get you to rescue its inventor.}}
** HD
* [[Another Dimension]]: Portal Corp runs on this, as do the Praetoria and Rikti factions...
* [[Antagonist in Mourning]]: According to a short story on the now-defunct official website, Lord Nemesis
* [[Anti-Hero]]
** A few of the redside contacts are [[Anti-Villain]]s. Most notable is a demon hunter who gives you missions where rescuing the demons' victims is mandatory.
* [[Arc Words]]: Any arc involving Ghost Widow will usually have the phrase "The Dead can't change."
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* [[Artifact of Doom]]: Lots, but the most important one is {{spoiler|the Well of the Furies -- i.e., ''the source of Incarnate powers''. It doesn't like [[Big Good|Statesman]] because he protects the status quo, and it thinks [[Evil Overlord|Lord Recluse]] is a ''poser''.}}
* [[Artistic License Geography]]: Rhode Island has no place on its coastline that has ocean access to the ''north,'' the way Paragon City does.
* [[Ascended Extra]]: The entirety of [[Mirror Universe|Praetorian Earth]], in a way; these
** There's also the Yin family; they began as largely background NPCs in the Faultline zone's redesign, though Penelope was known as a very powerful psychic, with a nebulous connection to the Clockwork King. Later on, Penelope Yin reappeared in the Lady Grey Task Force, as possibly the most powerful psychic on Earth. Come ''Going Rogue'', we met her Praetorian counterpart, a questionably
*** {{spoiler|And now she's taken Sister Psyche's place in the Freedom Phalanx -- and as the contact for what used to be the Sister Psyche Task Force.}}
* [[Asteroids Monster]]: Clockwork Princes and Devoured Earth rock and crystal monsters randomly spawn Underling-class enemies after death.
* [[The Atoner]]: As of ''Going Rogue'', villains can receive missions that allow them to repent and change alignment. Of course, heroes can receive [[Start of Darkness]] missions to switch sides, too.
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* [[The Chosen One]]: Framing device in ''City of Villains.'' Before ''Freedom'', new villain characters were broken out of the Zig due to their potential to become the Destined One. {{spoiler|Turns out you ''are'' the Destined One. And so is ''everyone else''. But by the end of the story arc, you aren't anymore.}}
** You are a hero in a city of heroes. And you are The Chosen One. And so is everybody else out there.
* [[The Chosen Many]]: In addition to the whole "Destined One" thing, there's the issue of "Incarnates", characters with a fragment of divine power. At first, it appears that Statesman and Lord Recluse are the only Incarnates. Then, it turned out several other characters (such as Sstheno and Trapdoor) can claim Incarnate powers. Then, as of Issue 19, player characters began acquiring Incarnate powers by drawing upon the Well of the Furies. (Sadly, the instant super-power-up Statesman, Recluse and the others got is no longer available, so you're forced to [[Level Grinding|slowly acquire divine power a little at a time]].)
* [[Circus of Fear]]: The Carnival of Shadows.
* [[City Guards]]: The invincible Police and Arbiter drones, as well as Longbow and the Paragon Police Department in ''City of Heroes''; the Rogue Island Police and ''some'' Arachnos members in ''City of Villains''.
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* [[Clock Punk]]: 99.9% of all Clockwork enemies.
* [[Cloning Blues]]: In the story arcs added for Issue 17, the player villain takes over {{spoiler|a cloning factory}}. It eventually ventures into [[Me's a Crowd]] territory. See [[Doppelganger]] for the "blue side" equivalent.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Penelope Yin. Her Primal Version seems oblivious (at least the first time you encounter her, apparently in her mid-teens) to the fact that she's the most powerful psychic in existence. She sees the personal guard of Clockwork following her around as a perfectly normal thing, and acts confused and upset when she can't mentally communicate with her father like she can with most people. (Later in the game, she's more mature and quite aware of her abilities.) Her Praetorian version on the other hand, consistently calls the player "Rusty", seems convinced that she's the princess of "The Mirror Kingdom" and uses amusing childish terminology when giving missions. (Clockwork become "Teddy Bears", Seers become "Playtime Friends"...) {{spoiler|Considering that she's in the "tender care" of Mother Mayhem, many believe that this is [[Obfuscating Insanity]] on Praetorian Yin's part. (This is at least partially confirmed by Dark Watcher near the end of her mission arc.)}}
** Also, a minor NPC villain known as Shock Treatment. At one point, you find her fighting in an Arachnos Base, trying to get vengeance on behalf of her appliances.
{{quote|'''Shock Treatment:''' For my toothbrush!}}
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* [[Cognizant Limbs]]: Lusca has cognizant tentacles. The Hydra has cognizant tentacles with faces on them. The Hamidon has cognizant ''mitochondria''.
* [[Colon Cancer]]: Rikti communication: in this manner, with the Mark II translators. Mark III translators, the first time they're used, cause the Rikti using it to comment on our adorably primitive causation structures.
* [[
** Other neutral zones will also color the designated hero and villain exits in blue and red, respectively. The Midnighter's Club is one example. An exception probably occurs in The Rikti War Zone: the exits have "PARAGON CITY" and "ROGUE ISLES" painted on the walls because the Vanguard base is too well lit to accommodate the blue and red color code.
** The Vanguard organization's colors are grey (white + black) and purple (blue + red), indicating they work with both sides.
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** Because large quantities of gemstones being readily available to the market lowers their value.
* [[Cutscene]]: Implemented as of Issue 6. Some hate them, others wish there were more.
** Interestingly, many cutscenes were rendered in realtime at the moment they displayed using the game engine. Consequently, if a toon emitted his battle cry or other hotkeyed dialogue during a cutscene, it would appear on-screen as part of the action. Some players who ran certain task forces (like the
** In the Lambda Sector incarnate task force, it is possible to position your toon in the same location as the villain will appear in for his cutscene, allowing you to "augment" it with your own contributions and comments.
* [[Cyberpunk]]: The Freakshow.
* [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]]: Not literally, but one of the Incarnate components was actually ''called'' Forbidden Technique!
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** Later updates added "patrol XP" which doubles-ish your XP gain for a time proportional to how long you'd been logged off—dying while you have any will reduce that time, and you won't even accrue debt.
** There's even a "Debt Paid" line of badges, so dying a lot earns you a [[Cosmetic Award]] or six.
* [[Degraded Boss]]{{context}}
* [[Determinator]]: Many characters in-story, of course. The Willpower set is an example of just showing true grit while not technically being related to super powers.
** The Arachnos Soldier and Arachnos Widow classes are ''so'' determined that {{spoiler|according to Kalinda they warped reality. They weren't originally Destined Ones, but they ''become'' them by sheer force of will}}.
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Ancient goddess rousing her people to revolt and conquer the world? Go beat her up. Alone if you have to. She won't even be as powerful as that one guy possessed by a space alien.
** See also the ''Cherry Tapping'' entry above.
* [[Die, Chair, Die!]]: Mayhem missions in ''City Of Villains'', where you get extra time for destroying scenery. There is even a powerup available that has an amount of property damage among its prerequisites.<ref>100 cars, 25 hydrants, 25 mailboxes, 25 newspaper stands, 25 pay phones, 10 bank vaults, 10 burned buildings, 1000 cops, 1000 Longbow and 25 hero NPCs</ref>
* [[Door to Before]]: The "Exit Mission" button.
* [[Doppelganger]]: In the story arcs added for Issue 17, every player hero has one. {{spoiler|Two, actually; one's your standard [[Evil Twin]], the other is nobler than you from a [[Mirror Universe]].}} See [[Cloning Blues]] for the "red side" equivalent.
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* [[Enemy Civil War]]: Warburg breaking off from the Rogue Isles and the Rikti's clash between the Traditionalists and the Restructurists.
** Also, the Council splintered off from the 5th Column, and there was a civil war in-game when the group was introduced. With the return of the 5th Column in a later update, the two groups occasionally go at it again in some zones.
* [[Enemy Chatter]]: A wide and often entertaining variety of enemy dialogue can be overheard.
* [[Enemy Mine]]: Heroes and Villains can fight together during various special events in [[Bad Guy Bar|Pocket D]], as well as in the Rikti War Zone against [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|the Rikti]] and in the ancient Roman peninsula of Cimerora.
** Issue 19 also saw an invasion of Primal Earth from Praetoria, giving both sides of the alignment spectrum (and everyone in between) an enemy that could only be fought off by pooling resources.
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* [[Escort Mission]]: With varying degrees of [[Scrappy Level|scrappyness]]; most of the time the escort-ee cannot actually be attacked, sometimes they are a powerful ally and capable of taking care of themselves, and sometimes [[Artificial Stupidity|they run off and attack]] [[Leeroy Jenkins|every foe in sight like an idiot.]]
** Hi, Lady Jane! My completely full team on the lowest difficulty level is here to help you, even with the [[Demonic Spiders|Circle of Thorns being absolutely ridiculous at this level]], I hope we ca—Oh. You've died.
*** Thankfully, they managed to tone her down in a
** On the Lady Grey Task Force, you got an escort mission of two superhero sisters—Infernia and Glacia—whom you had to lead back to the door for successful mission. However, Infernia was such a [[Expletive Deleted]] chatterer ''who won't shut up'' that a good number of teams simply allowed the ambushes to kill her and be done with it.
*** "Die, Infernia, DIE!!!"
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* [[Expanded Universe]]: Comics and novels.
* [[Expansion Pack]]: ''City of Villains''; marketed as an "expandalone", since it could be played as a separate game. The game's major updates (known as Issues) fall in this category as well, happily adding a full pack's worth of content for free each time. ''Going Rogue'' was a traditional paid expansion pack, though it was also be available in a ''Complete Edition'' with the base CoX game, [[And Your Reward Is Clothes|bonus costume pack]], and 30 days of game time that you'd get even if you already own the base game.
* [[Face Heel Turn]]
** Within the game storylines, the heroine Flambeaux (found outside the Atlas Park Wentworth's and in the Shining Stars arc) eventually becomes a villain because she's not getting enough recognition as a hero; she becomes a frequent antagonist in hero tip missions.
** The 2019 revival introduces Null the Gull, a contact in Pocket D who (among other things) can change your alignment on demand, allowing you to run the entire spectrum from hero to villain and back again in a matter of minutes.
* [[Faceless Eye]]: Some of the inhabitants of the Shadow Shard.
* [[Faceless Goons]]: Some of them literally so!
* [[Fan Disservice]]: The default female Zombie costume is [[Stripperiffic]].
* [[Feelies]]: Available occasionally during the original release of the game, including [[Hero Clix]] of the signature characters.
* [[Fetch Quest]]: Plenty of them, the repeatable ones often revolve around "Beat up this many members of a gang" but many also require you to be some kind of FedEx service between researchers, even though you'd be better off fighting crime. There are some seriously lazy people living in that city—and apparently a distinct lack of faxes, email, and courier services.
* [[Flying Face]]: The Banished Pantheon spirit masks.
* [[Flying Firepower]]:
* [[Fighting a Shadow]]: The "shadows" are actually a ''basic boss'' for the Nemesis faction—being the [[Magnificent Bastard]] that their titular leader is, his [[Power Armor]]s have a very advanced AI that can work on its own. "Fake Nemeses" are, as one might guess, spare suits that have been activated to serve as field commanders/doppelgangers.
** One arc ends with the party literally fighting shadow versions of themselves in the lower level of Paragon City Hall.
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* [[Hammerspace]]: Characters draw their weapons from thin air. Occasionally, enemies already with a weapon will put it away or leave it slung across their back, and draw another, different weapon from nowhere. Valkyrie is the primary example of the latter.
* [[Hand Blast]]: The Blaster archetype runs on this. For at least half of the power sets, the first few powers involve firing fire, ice, radiation, energy, etc. from the hands.
* [[Handwraps of Awesome]]:
* [[Hello, Insert Name Here]]
* [[He Knows About Timed Hits]]
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** Also happens for NPCs. The default is punching a fist into a palm and the odd "bring it on!" gesture, but some enemy groups have their own, like standing at attention, sitting on boxes and cleaning weapons, or ''reading books and making tea.''
* [[I Did What I Had to Do]]: A lot of the reasoning that shows up in Vigilante tip missions. Also the default justification for the Loyalist/Responsibility path in Praetoria.
* [[I Got a Rock]]: A [[Shout-Out]] during the Halloween events is that one of the "treats" you can get is [[Peanuts|a rock]]. Description: "You got a rock". Deals minor damage, and is prized by some for [[Cherry Tapping]].▼
* [[I Just Want to Be Loved]]: Motivation and frequent line of dialogue for NPC ex-heroine Flambeaux.
* [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]]: Your chance of hitting with ranged attacks is determined by your accuracy stat, and if you miss, the projectile physically misses the target. If you're firing at point-blank range, this can result in you shooting sideways, or straight up in the air.
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{{quote|Now you're going to walk off and leave me alone, 'kay? Thanks, bub-bye.}}
* [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]]: Villain missions undertaken as a Vigilante are this, to a hilarious degree—blowing up a Longbow base to teach them a lesson about being complacent, destroying a charity event because no one in the Rogue Isles deserves charity, ''murdering a kidnapped girl, faking a distress call with a promised reward, and then killing any heroes who try to come rescue her since they were probably doing it for the reward''...
** Issue 19 added new tip missions for Vigilantes trying to become Villains and Rogues trying to become Heroes, which are much better written while still playing this trope straight—that is to say, Vigilantes jump off the slippery slope in a much more realistic and believable manner (along with Rogues...
* [[Jump Physics]]
* [[Justified Tutorial]]: Originally the tutorials were containing a viral outbreak in ''City of Heroes'' and breaking out of jail in ''City of Villains''. These were retired when ''Freedom'' launched and replaced with an evacuation from Galaxy City as it's hit by Shivan meteors during which you learn the interface and must make a moral choice that sets you on a heroic or villainous path. With ''Going Rogue'', Prateorian characters found themselves going through Powers Division training and choosing to side with the Resistance or Loyalists.
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* [[Leet Lingo]]: The Freakshow tend to speak in l33t. Nobody really knows how they can actually pronounce it. Lampshaded on a regular basis.
* [[Legacy Character]]: The current Manticore took up his father's role after his murder.
** Also, in a Villain-
*** Well technically the mother is Miss Liberty, her daughter is Ms Liberty. Yes, they're confused all the time.
* [[Level Five Onix]]{{context}}
* [[Level Grinding]]: Although the devs do their best to minimize it.
* [[Level Scaling]]: While enemies in open world areas have fixed levels, most missions are instanced, and the instances are scaled to player levels and group sizes. In case of the flashback system that allows high-level heroes to revisit low-level missions, the ''player'' is scaled in level to match the mission difficulty.
** This was especially visible in Architect Entertainment missions: unless the creator overrode the default setting, missions would scale from level 1 to level 54 with the player. (Making it possible under the right circumstances for your level 1 hero to face a ''level 1 Archvillain''.)
* [[Levitating Lotus Position]]: The lotus pose and lotus-with-levitation are stock poses, although the latter is more a fortuitous accident stemming from the various "sit" emotes unintentionally being available to a toon in flight.
* [[Liberty Over Prosperity]]: If you create your character in Praetoria, the squeaky-clean police-state, you defect to Primal Earth (the main game setting) at level 20. Either because you believe that liberty is worth the chaos that comes with it, or because it'll make being a villain easier.
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** And with the game's resurrection in 2019, just about everything from them but the [[Feelies]] is now available from the start.
* [[Load-Bearing Boss]]: The end of the last mission in the {{spoiler|Ernesto Hess}} Task Force is a nasty shock your first time through...
* [[Loot Boxes]]: The game never had anything along the order of in-universe Loot Boxes, but toward the end of its original run a "Booster Pack" mechanism was added to the game. Players could buy booster packs with real-world cash or in-game merits, and each would give five random drops ranging from common salvage to ultra-rare enhancements and recipes. With the revival of the game in a non-profit form in 2019, boosters became available for in-game currencies only.
** The Incarnate Salvage drops at the end of Incarnate Trials are effectively one-item Loot Boxes without the boxes. There are four tiers of salvage -- Common, Uncommon, Rare and Very Rare -- and the tier a player will be offered at the end of a trial is selected by a random draw weighted to favor the lower levels of rarity. (Interestingly, the player can choose which item they gain from the tier they receive). Incarnate salvage is locked to the character that earned it, though; it is untradeable and unsellable, although it can be broken down into or converted by the expenditure of the primary Incarnate currency, Incarnate Threads.
* [[Lost Forever]]: Formerly the badges from the tutorial missions. Ouroboros was added to the game for the explicit ''purpose'' of averting this trope; today, only the anniversary badges can truly be considered to be [[Lost Forever]].
* [[MacGuffin]]: Including a literal [[Fun with Acronyms|P.L.O.T. Device]].
** Steven Werner's precious item, which is never described in more detail.
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** [[Made of Diamond]]: Some of the Tier 9 moves skyrocket your defense for about 3 minutes. Moment of Glory takes this [[Up to Eleven]] by combining two Tier 9 effects, but only for 15 seconds.
* [[Mad Scientist]]: Several of them, from the Praetorian Anti-Matter to Dr. Aeon.
* [[Magikarp Power]]{{context}}
* [[Mana Meter]]: Called "Endurance" here.
* [[Meta Origin]]: The Well Of The Furies, a [[Broken Base|very controversial]] and often misunderstood bit of lore. Originally described as being a literal [[Applied Phlebotinum|Fountain of Phelebotinum]] that could grant anyone who tasted its waters [[A God Am I|the powers of a deity]], it has since been [[retcon]]ned to become a semi-sentient entity responsible for spreading superpowers throughout the world to fulfill its own mysterious agenda.
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* [[Painted-On Pants]]: ''Extremely'' easy to apply in the character creator.
* [[Parental Incest]]: Actually, make that ''Grand''Parental Incest, implied between Tyrant and Dominatrix (the evil versions of Statesman and Ms. Liberty), especially in the spin-off comic.
** Ironically and explicitly [[Author's Saving Throw|retconned]] as of the ''Going Rogue'' expansion. The official reaction to questions about this could be summed up as "wait, what? *looks* Oh, ewewewewewewewewewewewewewewwwww!"
*** Which suggests the current developers are woefully ignorant of their own setting's lore, the players (who've been joking about it for years) are perverts, or both.
* [[Patchwork Map]]
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** ''All'' of the {{spoiler|Circle of Thorns, thanks to their use of [[Grand Theft Me]].}}
* [[Power Creep, Power Seep]]: Necessary for game balance, but not handled so well in a certain mission available only to characters who are [[Badass Normal|explicitly highly-trained soldiers]], where they are sent to defeat a [[Flying Brick]] wielding the power of Zeus just to prove how tough they are.
▲* [[I Got a Rock]]: A [[Shout-Out]] during the Halloween events is that one of the "treats" you can get is [[Peanuts|a rock]]. Description: "You got a rock". Deals minor damage, and is prized by some for [[Cherry Tapping]].
* [[Public Domain Artifact]]: The hero trainer in Atlas Park had Excalibur on her belt.
* [[Punch Clock Villain]]: A number of mooks are just in it for the reliable paycheck.
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** Hilariously lampshaded in places like tram stations, where the bathrooms are divided into three categories ... Male, Female, and Huge.
*** [[Fridge Logic|So why is the Huge door the ''same size'' as the other two?]]
**** Sssh!
* [[Pyromaniac]]: Several flame-powered NPCs, both villains and, to a lesser extent, heroes.
{{quote|'''Pyra:''' I'm just here for the money. Well, the money and a chance to set people on fire.}}
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* [[Ranged Emergency Weapon]]: As an [[Obvious Rule Patch]], all custom enemies with a melee attack set now get Throwing Knives as a ranged attack power, to stop ranged characters from killing them with impunity from a position of perfect safety in midair.
** Similarly, after one early issue all player characters also received a minor ranged attack (which varied by Origin, but bore no relation to powerset selection) upon creation.
* [[Recurring Boss]]
* [[The Remnant]]: The Rikti, after their failed [[Alien Invasion]]; specifically, the Reconstructionist faction.
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* [[Run, Don't Walk]]: For over five years, you could take down anything from lowly street thugs to gods of alternate dimensions to next-gen SWAT teams and demonic mystic forces... but you could never ''not'' run. This has finally been changed with the addition of the Walk toggle, although it turns off all other powers, so you shouldn't use it in combat.
** The animation of female characters using the Walk toggle is a form of [[Fan Service]].
* [[Run the Gauntlet]]: In a couple of story arcs.
* [[Saving the World]]: Several different ways, as many times as you like. One such mission even [[Cosmetic Award|awards]] you with a "Saved the World" badge!
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* [[Sequel Escalation]]: If you consider each level tier to be sequels to the previous one, you go from fighting street level thugs with minor powers to [[Saving the World]] multiple times from threats that could [[Warhammer 40,000|flay those earlier thugs alive just by looking at them.]]
* [[The Shepherd (trope)|The Shepherd]]: New players, especially ones who come from other MMORPGs, seemed to be constantly surprised at the relative friendliness of the official forums, especially in the "Player Questions" board, whose motto was "Being a newbie is not a crime." Some half-jokingly treated such players like refugees.
* [[Shoot the Medic First]]: When in [[PVP]], kill off your enemy's healers first, obviously. And the same goes for any villains who can heal other minions. The Tsoo Sorcerers are one of the earlier examples of this trope, especially annoying since they'll heal any other faction you're trying to kill. Later on you may run into the Devouring Earth.
** Confounded by the Praetorian ghouls, who radiate healing energies (that affect only other ghouls) when they die—in other words, shooting them ''turns them into medics''.
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* [[Status Quo Is God]]:
** Averted somewhat, since several areas, such as Faultline and the Rikti War Zone, have seen permanent changes.
** ''Going Rogue''{{'}}s release also gave a modern update to the previous Praetorian Earth content, though the old story arcs are still playable through Ouroboros.
** Indeed, almost every mission that was ever available to do is still available.
** Also embraced mercilessly by at least a couple story arcs in ''City of Villains'', sometimes to the point of [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]]. At the same time, one Praetorian mission gives you the choice to avert this and permanently remove a major contact from the starting zone.
* [[Steampunk]]: Nemesis' favored aesthetic.
** Also, the [[Steampunk]] [[And Your Reward Is Clothes|Costume Part Pack]] makes it much easier for players to use this motif for characters.
* [[Story Arc]]: Dozens, if not hundreds. Most contacts, even the initial ones in the later years of the game, had one or more, and successfully completing them earned you Reward Merits and a "souvenir" which contained a write-up that recapped the events of the arc. The souvenirs were usually that arc's particular [[MacGuffin]].
* [[Stripperiffic]]: Technically it's the choice of the player, but once you've made a female Hero, even the costume options that are in both male and female show off a lot of skin. There's lots of options in leather too, and some ''very'' revealing costume options.
* [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler]]: The 5th Column.
* [[Suicide Mission]]: In the backstory, the Rikti War ended with a suicide mission led by Hero One to cut off the Rikti homeworld from Earth. For a long time, only one survivor, Ajax, was known; Lady Grey's task force reveals that three more survived on the Rikti homeworld: sisters Infernia and Glacia, and {{spoiler|Hero One, turned into a Rikti named [[Significant Anagram|The Honoree]]}}.
* [[Summoning Ritual]]: The Circle of Thorns can be easily located from a distance by their summoning rituals and their habit of stealing souls.
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* [[Truce Zone]]: Pocket D, the Vanguard Base, the Rikti War Zone, Cimerora.
** Though the latter two are less [[Truce Zone]] and more "enforced [[Enemy Mine]]."
* [[Turned Against Their Masters]]: In a short arc available to characters in their early L30s, the Council accidentally improves their robot A.I. to the point that a group of rogue robots starts not only rebelling against them, but planning to wipe out all of humanity.
* [[Underground Level]]: The many cave maps; [[That One Level|some are hated]].
* [[The Unintelligible]]: Ricochet of the Crusaders part of the Resistance. The Resistance use their own slang but they can be understood. Ricochet uses slang that's so thick that the first thing you do after accepting her first mission is get someone to translate what she just said. The second mission has a question mark next to the mission objective. It doesn't get any better.
* [[Unobtainium]]: An actual [[MacGuffin]], made from Nonesuchium and Yeahrightium. Played straight with Impervium.
** Parodied by the bombs the Lost can be found fiddling with in the central trench of Terra Volta; rather than being matter or antimatter, the bombs are "Doesn't Matter."
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* [[We Buy Anything]]: Partially subverted, in that stores dedicated to [[Super-Hero Origin|origins]] other than your own won't pay you full price. Also, your contacts will purchase Recipes and Salvage, but not Enhancements, and no NPCs will buy Inspirations.
** Thanks to the auction house, though, players can and do buy anything that has an Inf prices on it.
** Expressed by the quartermaster at the Vanguard base, who will buy anything for maximum price.
* [[Wham! Episode]]: "Who Will Die Part 3". {{spoiler|The identity of [[The Dragon]] is revealed to be Malaise, and Statesman's daughter Miss Liberty is killed - possibly by the [[You Bastard|player villain.]]}}
** {{spoiler|Or [[The Chessmaster]], if the player villains [[Not What I Signed on For|declare they didn't sign up for]] [[Even Evil Has Standards|cold-blooded murder.]]}}
* [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]: See ''Playable Epilogue''.
* [[When All You Have Is a Hammer]]: Almost every mission in the game involves punching (or shooting or stabbing) someone in the face.
* [[The World Is Not Ready]]: Subverted, to an extent. There's proof that high technology/super science is relatively common among the populace of the Cities' world; however, many ''players'' tend to embrace this trope with Technology-origin characters.
* [[World Half Full]]: Yes, there's mystically powered, drug-fueled, technologically enhanced street gangs running rampant. There's [[Those Wacky Nazis|NeoNazis with werewolves and vampires]], members of an [[Animal Wrongs Group]] gone all [[One-Winged Angel]], [[Zombie Apocalypse|zombies of both scientific and magical nature]], employees of a corrupt [[Mega Corp]], and demons wandering the streets. The world is still recovering from a not-quite-over alien invasion. Oh, and there's a nation ruled by supervillains just off the coast of Virginia/North Carolina. But there are also [[superhero]]es. ''Lots'' of superheroes.
** [[Mirror Universe|Praetoria]] also presents a world where a totalitarian government is fought by [[La Résistance]]. Both sides have bad people trying to either grab power or having no qualms about harming the innocent. It also doesn't help that the ruler of the world is a power-mad supervillain going all [[A God Am I]]. But! There are some people that genuinely do good on both sides of the equation. And no matter who [[Player Character|you]] are and what you decide to become, hero or villain, one day you'll take the fight back to that ruler.
* [[You Break It, You Profit]]: Mayhem missions, Villain-side, allow you to get small rewards for blowing up cars and such.
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** One of the rewards for completing the Baby New Year mission is a temporary power that references Hannukah, while another reward temp power is called "Five Golden Rings". No Festivus or Kwaanza powers yet, though.
* [[Zombie Apocalypse]]: The Halloween 2008 special event, in which the city is besieged by waves of zombies even tougher than the usual, everyday Vahzilok and Banished Pantheon varieties. This has since become a recurring hazard, like the Rikti invasions.
** Featuring a [[Shout-Out]] to another [[Zombie Apocalypse]] in the "[[Resident Evil|Evil's Resident]]" badge, as well as to Michael Jackson's [[Thriller (song)|"Thriller"]](!).
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