Death or Glory Attack: Difference between revisions

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

{{quote| '''Guardsman:''' How many tanks have you destroyed?<br />

'''Militia:''' Twenty-four, I think.<br />

'''Guardsman:''' How many men did you lose?<br />

'''Militia:''' ''(shrugs)'' Twenty-four, of course. }}

* A large number of feats and combat styles in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', at least in the third edition, is centered around lowering your stats for extra damage. The classic one would be Reckless Offensive, a feat that allows you to trade armour class for extra accuracy on your strikes -- another one would be Robilar's Gambit, a feat that lets you counter-attack anyone who melee attacks you that round in return for a greatly reduced armour class.

** The Bravura Warlord has a lot of moves like this, though it also encourages your buddies to do so too.

** Also, it's a setting where [[No Sell]], both dodge and parry, is ''very'' cheap. It's a very good representative of [[Awesome but Impractical]]

* The priests of Kor, the god of war and slaughter in [[The Dark Eye]], have the power to harness all the damage their first eight strikes would do and use it all on the final ninth strike. While they are doing this, they will start [[Calling Your Attacks|counting from one to nine]], so any enemy familiar with this cult will know what's coming.

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Sometimes if the sniper kills the driver too close to himself, the jeep does not have enough time to come to a full stop and it smashes into the sniper anyways. Due to a somewhat buggy kill scoring system, the driver may or may not get credit for the kill.

** Similarly: The C4 packs. If you manage to stick a few of them to a vehicle and detonate, you have a guaranteed kill. Of course, this requires you to be in close range of a tank (which will kill you pretty much as soon as one of the occupants notices you) or a jeep (where either machine gunners or getting run over will kill you). Against infantry they are also like mines or grenades you can control, but holding the detonator leaves you completely defenseless if they see you. Not to mention the high chance of getting caught in the explosion yourself.

* In [[Halo]], going for a Mongoose Mowdown often [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKP2O_Fy_2M results in this]. Likewise, this includes [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huDj4BgGcq0 any sort of attempted splatter] that involves holding the [[Idiot Ball]].

** Reach has the "If They Came To Hear Me Beg" achievement. To get it, you must assassinate something while falling from a height that would have killed you. If you succeed, you get the achievement and survive (the assassination breaks your fall). If you fail, your target gets to see your body slam into the ground next to them.

* In ''[[Puzzle Quest]]: Galactrix'', the Bola Mine attack can [[One-Hit Kill|one-shot]] lesser opponents and severely damage more powerful ones. But since [[Unpredictable Results|the placement of mines is random]], it can also leave your opponent with a board full of mines to hit you with. (Especially if your opponent also has Bola Mine). The Deathbringer spell in ''Challenge of the Warlords'' works the same way.

* Instant Kill Moves in the ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' series. Connect - it's an instant KO. Miss - your super bar is gone for the rest of the round.

** Paul's straight punch comes to mind. Amusingly though, the slight lean backwards as he winds up made it possible to use this as a dodge/counter against someone who was trying to land a ridiculously powerful attack on you, which generally resulted in a confused and/or enraged opponent pausing for a half-second before being blasted across the screen.

** Miguel has a hugely telegraphed move where he casually walks up to his opponent and laughs before winding up a punch and [[One-Hit Kill|laying them out in a single hit.]]

* From the [[Super Smash Bros]] series:

** Jigglypuff's "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cfqRFU1ZyY&feature=related Rest]" attack and Luigi's "Super Jump Punch" can both easily inflict a [[One-Hit Kill]], but '''only''' if they are used at absolutely point-blank range. Otherwise, they inflict [[Scratch Damage]] ''at best''. Jigglypuff's Rest also puts it to sleep for about two full seconds (whether it connects or not), and Luigi's Jump Punch is also his mid-air recovery move, which makes it risky to use anywhere that isn't above solid stage ground.

** Toon Link's downthrust aerial attack sends him plummeting straight down, sword first. The attack is a very powerful spike, but like Luigi's Super Jump Punch, if you don't have solid ground to land on, you could be giving yourself a one-way ticket off the stage.

** Ganondorf's "Warlock Punch" is actually stronger than Falcon's Punch, but requires even ''more'' time to execute before it hits. Either one is easy to mess up if against a skilled opponent , but [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYvh8AbGiqA&feature=related this] is what happens when you succeed in connecting the attack. The same happens with his Vulcan Kick. Again, it does a ''lot'' of damage and can kill very early. It has the longest charge of any one attack (88 frames in the NTSC version, so about 1.5 seconds), though, and Ganondorf's completely immobile during it.

** Marth and especially Roy from SSBM. Their B-button attack (when held down) is a charged sword strike. Marth's is quicker and not ''quite'' as powerful as Roy's, but it can KO an opponent if they already have decent damage. Roy's takes a ''ridiculously'' long time to power up, and if used at FULL POWER, can instantly KO pretty well ''anybody''. AND Roy takes 10% damage upon using it. Of course, the move is pretty strong when not at 100% power, so usually you can get it up to 80% and KO a damaged opponent.

** And in ''Brawl'' we have Ike, who combines Marth and Roy's charging attacks and counters with slow, Ganondorf-style attacks. His entire game is about timing and distancing, and if he gets them right, the game will be [[Curb Stomp Battle|very, very short.]]

* In most American football video games, calling an all-out blitz can result in nailing the opponent for a big loss. A successful blitz can swing a game's momentum in your favor. If you can't reach the ball carrier, it can swing the other way, as it leaves large gaps in the defense and plenty of uncovered players to act as blockers.

** "Hi Jump Kick" hurts the user by one-fourth of what damage would have been done. In an early Battle CD from ''Gale of Darkness'', you actually have to use this to your advantage - the opponent is ridiculously powerful and can knock you out in one hit, but [[Trial and Error Gameplay|the fixed pattern of attacks]] - it uses three elemental punches, then High Jump kick, and you have a Blissey (who has a [[Damage Sponge Boss|silly amount of HP]]) with a move that blocks any attack, but loses its chances of success with repeated use - means a single blocked attack is all it takes to finish the foe.

*** In Generation V, the damage from missing is changed from one-fourth the damage it would have done to one-half of the user's maximum HP. Probably because of the above scenario, and a boost in its base firepower (to 130, after already being boosted from 85 to 100 in Generation IV).

* Yoshimitsu of the ''[[Soul Calibur]]'' series has an attack where he stabs himself through with his own sword - akin to [[Seppuku|ritualistic disembowelment]] - losing the round, if he kills himself. If it kills an enemy conveniently standing behind him during the stab, however, the round win goes to Yoshimitsu, even if he dies from his own move.

** There are also attacks denoted by an exclamation mark on the character's move list. Said attacks are massively telegraphed (with the screen dimming and the character's weapon being covered in flames and [[Sucking-In Lines]]) and take a while to execute, but deal massive damage and smash right through guards.

** Of course, if you can time it just right, you can kill someone coming through a doorway with one of these taunts by standing out of their sight behind a wall. A guaranteed [[Oh Crap]] moment if there ever was one.

** The Pyro's taunt also has a distinctive charge-up sound and animation. The Spy is similar, although he says a generic line instead of shouting. The charge-ups for the other taunts are silent and usually less noticeable.

* In ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'', units with the Charge ability deal double damage when attacking, but take double damage in return.

* In ''[[Dokapon Kingdom]]'' and ''Dokapon Journey'', every character you control or fight has a move called "Strike", which usually does enough damage to bring down a full-health enemy of the same level as the person using it. However, should the character on the receiving end counter it (using a move of the same name), the ''attacker'' gets the damage instead. It doesn't necessarily kill, but characters can kill enemies of much higher level than themselves by getting a lucky counter on the defense and then finishing off the opponent with their attack.

** Similarly, facing a certain charge attack from the [[Final Boss]] will prompt you with "chance" and to press A, which enters you into a (completely optional) button-mashing [[Blade Lock]] event with him. If you miss the "chance" window and fail to get out of the way, then you get hit with the brunt of the attack. If you fail the [[Blade Lock]], he'll take away a chunk of your health. But if you succeed both of those, you're well on your way to killing him.

* Bald Bull's Bull Charge in the ''[[Punch Out]]!!'' series will end with a knockdown for one of you. You can try to dodge the attack, but Bald Bull will just reset and keep trying to charge at you until you try to counter him with a punch to the gut. Succeed, and he goes down. Fail, and ''you'' go down.

* With the appropriate weapons mods and ammunition, sniper rifles in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' can deal absurd amounts of damage- if you don't mind them overheating after one shot. You're not truly helpless, but you won't be shooting again for a second or two while your unfortunate victim's allies exact revenge.

* The Vanguard class in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' is described as being this, a "high risk, high reward" class that rushes the front lines. In ''[[Mass Effect 2]],'' the Vanguard's class ability is Charge, which biotically propels the player from anywhere (with a clear line of sight) to the enemy, ramming into them with incredible force. This can take them out, put a shot-gun wielding player in close- or it could lead to the player getting completely swarmed. It tends to go one way or the other, but this trope really shows when the player ''intentionally'' charges one enemy in the middle of an entire group. At higher levels, Charge also adds extra shield protection once it lands; since the shotguns have [[Averted Trope|a tighter spread]] than [[Short-Range Shotgun|in most games,]] a Vanguard with bad aim will be mowed down quickly. A Vanguard with ''good'' aim will splat entire enemy squads after they come out of Charge before their extra barriers fail.

* ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' has several of these. There are moves to immobilize opponents, instantly cause Break status on them, summon a giant meteor to fall on them, etc. Of course they all require you to charge up for several seconds with no defense for counter-attack. These moves are actually effective against the AI because they're liable to just stand and watch you charge up your kill move, or can be "tricked" in various ways into being unable to do anything about it, usually by exploiting the stage - human opponents know better of course, so don't expect to see any of these moves go off in a [[PvP]] match.

* [[Limit Break|Overdrives]] in [[Final Fantasy X]] have a very long recovery time, especially for aeons. Made even worse against the [[Bonus Boss|bonus bosses]]: if your aeon doesn't kill it off, your aeon is dead.

* ''[[Starcraft]]'' has the Nuke. Assuming you can get the Ghost into enemy territory undetected, and he can survive the ten-second call to target the Nuke, ''and'' you can afford the time and resources to build the Nuke itself, the Nuclear Strike is guaranteed to kill all units and severely damage all buildings within a considerable radius.

* In ''[[Dungeon Fighter Online]]'', the Asura class sports Ground Shaker and Agni Pentacle. Both can potentially end any duel should they hit, but if the Asura wiffs, they are left completely immobile and defenseless for a good 3-5 seconds in which time they likely '''will''' be killed.

* ''[[Fate Unlimited Codes]]'' has "Holy Grail Burst Super Attacks" for each character, which can only be activated when the character enters Burst Mode while 1) their [[Mana Meter]] is full, 2) the Holy Grail is full and 3) the player was the one who landed the hit that fills the gauge. If a character successfully connects with one of these, it can cause devastating damage to the opponent. This can be ruined by not activating the skill before the mana meter runs out (in which case you'll have to charge it up again by fighting), or activating the skill and missing (causing the Holy Grail to disappear for the rest of the round).

* In several ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' games, there are Devil weapons. They are extremely powerful weapons that look like handy and valuable weapons at first... until you realize that they will occasionally deal the damage that would have been dealt to the enemy to the user themself! If the Critical Hit animation plays before the attack hits, pray that the enemy will receive the buttload of damage, [[Final Death|or...]]

* In ''[[Spelunky]]'', killing shopkeeper [[Tele Frag|with a teleporter]] is like this. If you're lucky, you may kill shopkeeper ''without alarming other shopkeepers'' and steal his goods with impunity. If you're unlucky, you may end up in a wall or teleport out of the shop and anger the shopkeeper.

* ''[[Uplink]]'' has hacking a bank. Succeed, you can earn huge amount of money. Fail to cover your tracks, and your account is suspended, in gameplay terms you get game over. Can be turned to [[Disc One Nuke]] is player knows wealthy account and how to pull this off early in game.

** The "glory" part comes from the second half of the bank hack, if you do it early in the game. The first half, transferring the money to your account, is relatively easy. The glory comes when you use your ill-gotten gains to purchase the programs you need to hastily cover your tracks, along with re-hacking the bank and so on. As it can take literally a few ''minutes'' for banks to back-trace your net-link passively, you have to work very fast, and it's awesome when you pull it off. If you don't...

* ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' has AI techs. Researching them gives you massive bonuses. However, every turn spent on research gives a chance that you have a devastating [[AI Is a Crapshoot|AI Rebellion]].

* ''[[Clash of Heroes|Might And Magic: Clash of Heroes]]'' has Fiona's Spider Cloak accessory. It boosts the power of her individual units by 100%, allowing her to take on opponents of much higher levels. The drawback is that it knocks her lifepoints down to 10% of her max, so one solid hit will kill her.

* Wizard101 has a milder example with the storm spell Wildbolt. It has slightly less than a 25% base chance (up to a 33% with boost) of causing 1000 base damage, enough damage to kill any non-enemy until about the middle of the second to last world, to a single target for a fairly small cost. However, if it fails it only does a very small amount of damage and uses any boost cast.

* Ralf Jones of ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' has the Galactica Phantom, a super move that can be interrupted with a low attack (it makes him invulnerable to high attacks) and a very long start-up time. If the opponent gets close enough to sweep you, you're in trouble. ''But...'' It has a ''far'' longer range than it looks, and deals ''ridiculous'' damage. Either you're leaving yourself wide open or you're winning the round.

** Thankfully, this gets averted once he gets the Eagle Eye upgrade, which makes all his shots hit no matter what.

* Limit breaks in the Last Remnant can be devastatingly powerful, but requires staying in close combat with the enemy. The union will also avoid almost every attack, until the limit break is used. So using these attacks instead of healing while on low health will guarantee a huge amount of damage to your enemy, and then leave you completely open to counterattack.

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'s'' Tien has the Kikohou/Tri-Beam attack, one of the most high-level ki attacks in the series, capable of putting the hurt on even the most powerful of foes (It's also apparently nigh-undodgeable). Problem is that the attack is [[Cast From Hit Points|fueled by Tien's own life force]], so every shot weakens him. If the foe strong enough to take more than a couple of shots and keep coming, Tien will eventually either be too weak to fight back or drop all on his own.

* In [[Rurouni Kenshin]], the titular character's best attack, the Battojutsu, is an incredibly fast move, but if it is blocked, the user is vulnerable to a [[Counter Attack]]. However, Kenshin subverts this - his regular Battojutsu utilizes the sheath to deliver a second blow, and the [[Finishing Move|Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki]] creates a [[Rule of Cool|vortex that draws an opponent into a second blow using centrifugal force.]]

* Hiei of [[Yu Yu Hakusho]] has an hellfire version of this, the Ensatsu Kokuryuha. The unmastered version is near-guaranteed to incinerate the enemy (as happened to the first target, a powerful FIRE USER) but will cripple the user's arm; the mastered version is even more powerful, won't harm you and if the enemy somehow sends it back to him it will power up the user, but is so tiring Hiei will fall asleep in a couple minutes.

* The Moon Shot (or Shooting The Moon) in Hearts: Winning all thirteen tricks in a round (in a game where the usual purpose is winning as few as possible, to keep your score low). Succeed, and every other player gains 26 points. Fail, and you will gain more points the closer you came to completing the Shot, up to a maximum of 25 if you just barely fail.

** Actually Shooting the Moon only requires capturing all the points, (all hearts and Queen of Spades), not all the tricks. However, if someone figures out what is going on they'll slip a heart into a trick that you can't win, so it's safest when you take all tricks.

** Red in ''Magic'' has a particularly extreme issue. Generally speaking, red aggro decks either win on turn 5 or lose on turn 6-7.

* ''[[Net Runner]]'' has a good number of cards that do this sort of thing, but the most "traditional" is probably Lucidrine Booster Drug. It's a card that lets the Runner make a run with a significant amount of extra money, but after the run is over, they lose any of the bits that they didn't spend, and take unpreventable brain damage.

== Literature ==

* In Mercedes Lackey's The Black Gryphon, a pair of generals in Urtho's army are reknowned for these sort of maneuvers. Every time they come up in conversation, someone mentions their latest battle with the enemy, always bringing up the fact that the plan ''would'' have been a spectacular victory, except that the enemy general wasn't dropped on his head as a child, so it was fatally suicidal instead. Later it turns out that they're actually [[The Mole]], so they have in fact been doing this on purpose.

== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==