Deadly Upgrade: Difference between revisions

* Goku's transformation into a giant, mindless ape in ''[[Dragon Ball]]''. Also, the "Kai-Oh-Ken" technique from ''Dragonball Z'' risked permanent damage to Goku's body whenever he used it -- especiallyit—especially when he overclocked it. However, thanks to [[My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours]], by the time he's fighting against Freeza, he can multiply it by twenty-fold.

** [[Naruto]] also has Rock Lee, whose power revolves solely around the [[Deadly Upgrade]], in that he can open up certain chakra gates to gain large power boosts at the expense of damaging his body. The more gates he opens, the more injured he becomes, and if he were to open up all gates, he would become extremely powerful for a short time and then die.

* People who possess the ''[[Death Note]]'' in the anime of the same name can give up half of their remaining life span to gain the ability to discover the true name (which, [[Magic A Is Magic A|by the rules]], they need to know to kill a person) of anyone whose face they can see. An even larger downside is that if they lose their Death Note, they lose the power-- butpower—but also the half of their remaining life they sacrificed. If they find their Death Note again, they have to sacrifice half of their remaining life again to regain the power, meaning they'd only have 25% of their original remaining life span left.

** Tezuka Kunimitsu, widely regarded as one of the best players in the series has several [[Deadly Upgrade|Deadly Upgrades]]. The Zero-Shiki Drop Shot and the Invincible Tezuka Zone place considerable stress on his left arm, but he still manages to go into a 37-35 tiebreaker, which is ridiculous for tennis. Later on, these both get upgraded into a serve version, making it literally unreturnable, and a Reverse Zone, which places SIX times the burden on his arm, making it bleed a deep purplish hue by the end of the match. Obviously, none of his teammates want him to sacrifice his arm for the sake of victory, seeing that he has a promising professional career in his future. Ironically, in the matches where these are first unveiled, he loses, creating blots on an otherwise perfect official record.

** In ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'', the Beast Spirit evolutions ended up being [[Deadly Upgrade|Deadly Upgrades]] in a sense because the kids couldn't control the power at first and went berserk, wrecking areas and nearly killing each other. Of course, they eventually got over this problem. Only Zoe and {{spoiler|Koichi}} were able to control their Beast Spirits right away ({{spoiler|in Koichi's case, when he gained his true Spirit forms}}).

** ''[[Digimon Savers]]'' and its associated tamagotchi introduces Burst Mode, a [[Deadly Upgrade]] version of Season 2's Mode Change. In the tamagotchi, if the Digimon runs out of "Burst Points," it dies. {{spoiler|1=In the anime, Masaru combines Takato and Taichi's mistakes, and mis-activates Burst Mode, changing his partner ShineGreymon to Ruin Mode, who quickly ran out of energy and died. Though, since the Minions of [[Story Arc|The Arc's]] [[Big Bad]] died first, he got better.}}

** In 4 and 5, the player can gain certain "Dark Chips". They are a variation of normal chips (there's Dark Fan, Dark Vulcan and so on), but with immense power and ability to change the tide of a fight. There are, however, two drawbacks. One is that every time Mega Man uses the chip, his HP lowers by 1 permanently. Also, the more he uses Dark Chips, the faster he will be placed under "Dark Mega Man" state. He becomes a super-powerful rampaging machine that randomly uses Dark Chips, moves chaotically and doesn't stagger when being hit, but he also slowly loses HP until he reaches 1, at which point he goes back to the normal state. It's made a bit better in BN5, where you sacrifice a chip of a certain type to go into a cross form.<br />Later on, Mega Man gets the ability to do this with Dark Chips. Chaos Unisons (as they're called) allows Mega Man to use (most) effects that he can use in a regular Cross, with the addition of being able to use the Dark Chip sacrificed as a [[Charged Attack]]. Fail the charge, though, and Dark Mega Man will show up-- onup—on the enemy's side. In addition, you only have the ability for one turn, the failure window for the charge doubles each time you use the Dark Chip, and you lose the ability to use the corresponding normal Cross for that battle.

* The lead character of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has a tendency to do things that are really bad for her, especially in the second series. This goes from using the dangerously explosive Cartridge System to using her [[Wave Motion Gun]]'s full-power form, Excelion Mode. It's revealed in the third series, ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Strikers]]'', that {{spoiler|at some point during the [[Time Skip]] this all caught up with her, and what should have been a [[Only a Flesh Wound|minor injury]] in battle caused such extensive damage that she had to spend months learning to walk again.}} She later has her Excelion Mode replaced with a weaker Exceed Mode, which is a more traditional [[Super Mode]]. At the end of the series, however, she deploys a new Blaster Mode, which [[Cast From HP|causes direct physical damage to herself and her weapon as a result of drastically boosting her power]]. Of course, by the time she receives this, she already has a known tendency to use techniques and upgrades that pushes her body to the breaking point, so instead of telling her not to use it, her [[The Lancer|long-time partner]] tells her not to ''over''use it.

* Ryoga from [[Ranma ½|[[Ranma ½]] learns a very powerful, depression-fueled [[Ki Attacks|technique]] called the [[Kamehame Hadoken|Shi Shi Hokodan]], which becomes more powerful as the user gets depressed and/or miserable. This makes using it in battle rather risky, as its most powerful form basically requires the user to be so depressed that they don't care if they live or die -- whiledie—while the technique doesn't influence the user's mood itself ([[Fanon]] to the contrary), that does make using it against an opponent capable of [[Super Speed|outrunning]] or [[Nigh Invulnerable|withstanding]] it not the brightest idea tactically. Not to mention that, when using the 'perfected' form (which fires the energy upwards as a [[Pillar of Light]] so that it drops down on the user like a [[Sphere of Destruction]]), it's possible for the attack to ''hit the user'' if they get snapped out of their moment of emotional hollowness.

* In ''[[Tekkaman Blade]]'', D-Boy/Blade's constant transformation from human to Tekkaman and back is disintegrating his central nervous system (the other human-based Tekkamen were also going to die as a result of incompatabilities). When he gets his [[Super Mode]] upgrade, in at least the Australian version "Teknoman", the main villain comments that this upgrade causes death within a few months, and it is shown to cause D-Boy/Blade to lose memories as a result of transformation instead of having its previous deletorious effect on the central nervous system.<br />So long as a Tekkaman was fully converted with an intact crystal then they could switch between forms with no penalty. The problem was that early on in the series D-Boy's crystal was broken and although the shards were placed on Pegas to allow transformation it was flawed and and repeated use of the flawed transformation was what caused nervous system damage to him. It also meant that so long as he used the broken crystal he'd have a time limit before going berserk. It was also true that if a human and Tekkaman plant weren't completely compatible, then they'd eventually die (which is what happened to D-Boy's sister).

** And the same goes for Son Goku of the same series, much like the ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' example above-- fittingabove—fitting, since they're based on the same character from mythology.

* This is the key premise of ''[[Strikeforce: Morituri]]''. The process that grants humans super powers against the [[Alien Invasion]] ensures that the empowered humans would also die within a year (if not sooner).

* Paul in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' actually starts out with his [[Deadly Upgrade]]: he's made so strong that he can't even walk without soaring into the air and causing massive damage when he lands. He manages to shed much of the power by casting a small light spell and pumping energy into it until he explodes like a small nuke. Thereafter he is VERY wary of returning to high strength (which he finds he can do later) and practices constantly to get control of it when he does.

* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20131022020617/http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Leanan_Sidhe Leanan Sidhe] of Irish folklore does this. She grants inspiration to the artistic at the cost of sanity or even life.

** In the latter case, {{spoiler|the more dangerous version was the ''original'' source of the High Mage's power. They figured out how to tap the mana of [[Muggle|mugglesmuggle]]s in order to keep thier power without burning themselves out and over the generations forgot about the old ways.}}

* Also ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' -- Lt—Lt. Ford is addicted to a Wraith enzyme that gives the user superior strength and durability, but causes a kind of madness. Ford's men eventually die in Wraith custody from withdrawal. McKay takes an obscenely-high amount of the enzyme, becoming a small colossus; he overpowers his guards and races back to the stargate, collapsing on the Atlantis control room floor and has to ride out the withdrawal in the infirmary.

* In the 2000 ''[[The Invisible Man (TV series)|The Invisible Man]]'' TV series, Darien Fawkes can make himself invisible by the means of "Quicksilver", a substance secreted by an artificial gland implanted in his brain -- butbrain—but the gland also secretes toxins that will drive him mad and kill him, if not neutralized with a shot of "counteragent."

** In ''[[Kamen Rider Faiz|Kamen Rider 555]]'', the Orphenochs seem to be the embodiment of [[Deadly Upgrade]]: they are dead humans who either become Orphenochs after suffering some accidental death, or are "sired" by other Orphenochs. The process requires the human to die either way. Not only that, but they {{spoiler|are subject to physical degeneration over time}}. The way to prevent this decay, however, {{spoiler|destroys any remaining vestige of their prior humanity}}.

*** The PuToTyra Form, the ultimate form of OOO, is this. Eiji is forcibly changed to this form and he has no control over its power (or himself, by extension). If all the enemies are defeated by him, don't expect him to change back yet... ''he'll kill anyone who's with him during the fight (as in anyone that he can see, be it friend, foe, or non-powered civilian)'' and Birth must fight him to keep those around him safe. Luckily, Eiji got better as he managed to control this form later on.<br />We find, though, that there's something to the warnings about the power of OOO, though: Eiji's predecessor indeed went berserk, and those dinosaur medals {{spoiler|are having a cumulative effect on Eiji, giving him the qualities of a Greeed}}. However, none of these come from simply using the suit, even with combos: {{spoiler|The first OOO went nuts after activating ALL the medals at once, and the dinosaur medals are ''buried in Eiji's body, in the vacuum left by Eiji's lacking desires of his own,'' and as mentioned earlier, used him before he learned to use them}}. Using Tajador in almost every episode for a while, though, never did him any harm.

* The ''Complete Mage'' supplement for the [[Dungeons and& Dragons|3.5th Edition of D&D]] features the spell [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|"Transcend Mortality"]] for the [[Elemental Powers|Wu Jen]]. It gives [[Nigh Invulnerability|DR 30/epic]], [[Power Nullifier|SR 21+CL]], [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|resistance to all five energy types]], [[Standard Status Effects|immunity to abilitiy damage/drain/disease/poison/death effects]], and [[Super Not-Drowning Skills|negates your need to breathe]]. The catch? The spell lasts for roughly 2 minutes (depending on the mage's level), after which [[Disintegrator Ray|you immediately die and turn to dust]]. Said death cannot be prevented by ''any'' means.

* Eversor Assassins in [[Warhammer 4000040,000]]. These drug-crazed killing monsters are called the Latin word for 'Destroyer' for a reason, enemies (or walls) don't last long when they are around. Eventually all of the genetic alterations, combat drugs, and bionics with which they are equipped overwhelm their hyperactive immune system and they overheat rather explosively. The only thing that keeps them alive between missions is that they are kept in cryogenic stasis.

* ''[[EarthboundEarthBound]]'' has the party ({{spoiler|become robots in order to time travel, because time travel does not work on organic matter. No guarantee exists that the characters' souls will find their way back from the robots afterward, though naturally they do.}})

* ''[[Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume]]'' has the titular Destiny Plume - when used on an ally, it multiplies their base stats by 10, makes them immune to status aliments and elemental damage and uses an extremely powerful character-specific ability [[The Hero]] learns permanently after the battle, but it [[Killed Off for Real|costs them their life]] at the end of the battle. It could almost count as a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], except the choice is never theirs to make.

* Ragna the Bloodedge from ''[[Blaz BlueBlazBlue]]'' has his Blood Kain mode, which improves the properties of his Drive attacks and allows him to use the Devoured by Darkness Distortion Drive, but it saps his HP while active. And since he's a [[Glass Cannon]] already without it...

* It's not quite ''deadly'', but the Mega Mushroom in ''[[New Super Mario Bros.]]'' has the side effect of returning you to Super Mario form when its period of invincible [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever]] wears off. Thus, if you picked it up as Fire or Blue Shell Mario, it has the net effect of stripping Mario of one of his maximum three [[Hit Points]].

* In ''[[BioshockBioShock (series)]]'', the first Plasmid power you recieve causes Jack to temporarily go mad and black out.