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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Get close enough to death, and you will become Death himself."''|''[[Team Fortress 2
▲{{quote|''"Get close enough to death, and you will become Death himself."''|''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|The Equalizer]]'s publicity blurb''}}
In real-life, [[Combat Breakdown|most physical fights get less dramatic as time goes on]]. What started out as two guys in their physical prime going at each other, if it goes on for ten minutes, becomes two guys bearing the accumulated injuries of ten minutes of fighting going at each other. Big hits become fewer and farther between, there's a lot more slow grappling, and it just [[Wimp Fight|starts to look sloppy]]. Similarly if one opponent at any point becomes significantly more injured than the other, [[Unstable Equilibrium|that disadvantage persists throughout the remainder of the fight.]]
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The problem with video games, though, is that the progress of the hero is directly tied to the skill of the player. And a player who's bad enough to start losing is probably bad enough to continue losing. [[Critical Existence Failure|While video games rarely simulate the negative effect that injuries have on fighting prowess]], this still makes video game fights more similar to reality than the heroic mano-a-mano battles seen in movies.
The solution is to make characters more powerful when they're near death, to make the [[Comeback Mechanic|dramatic comeback]] a possibility. Hence the '''Desperation Attack''', abilities or equipment that power up as the player character starts losing. Which, for most games, usually means when their health gets really low.
Occasionally, this leads to a situation where the best strategy is to run around on the edge of death for the massive bonuses it gives you.
Related to the [[Limit Break]], which is frequently accessed by taking damage but does not strictly require the user to have critical HP before use. Can also be a [[Sub
{{examples}}
== [[Action Adventure]] Games ==
* In ''[[The Minish Cap]]'' Link learns, in addition to his normal full-health [[Sword Beam]], a beam attack that only works when his health is at or below 1 heart.
* ''[[Prototype (
* In ''[[The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction]]'', when Hulk's main life bar is depleted, he enters Adrenaline Rush mode, which reveals the last of his life, increases his strength and gives him unlimited [[Limit Break|Critical Attacks]]. It's not easy to get or maintain an Adrenaline Rush as Hulk will [[Healing Factor|regenerate]] to 75% of his main life bar when he's not getting hit and gets health from any enemy he defeats, meaning any situation that puts him into it will likely kill him before he can use a Critical Attack. Unsurprisingly, it's made by the guys who would go on to do aforementioned ''[[Prototype (
* [[Alice: Madness Returns]] has 'Hysteria Mode', which is activated when Alice's health is down to one rose. Time slows down and she is able to deal more damage to enemies. However, it only lasts for a short while.
== [[Action Game
* In ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'', the Unlabored Flawlessness becomes the most powerful weapon in the game if your health is at critical levels.
* One of the few things most ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' fans admit to liking about the otherwise [[Fanon Discontinuity|non-existent]] ''Devil May Cry 2'' was the Desperation Devil Trigger. When Dante's health was in the critical, activating his Devil Trigger [[Super Mode]] would cause Dante to shift into a towering alternate devil form with [[Nigh Invulnerability]] and dramatically improved power.
== [[Beat'Em Up]] ==
* ''[[Final Fight]]'' started the staple of a desperation attack taking a little of your health. [[Streets of Rage|Many]] [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time
== [[Fighting Game
* ''[[Art of Fighting]]'' and ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' introduced the Desperation Move, which can only be used when the player's health is under about 1/3rd. This was retained in future SNK [[Fighting Game
** ''The [[King of Fighters]]'' combined this with the [[Limit Break|Super Move]] to form the Super Desperation Move, which was performed with both low life and a full super meter.
** Also, some SNK games (and certain Grooves in [[Capcom vs. Whatever|Capcom vs. SNK]]) would allow the player to perform unlimited Supers if their health was critical.
* In [[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl, [[Pokémon|Lucario's]] attacks get more powerful as he gains percentages, peaking out at 168%. This is invoked in an event match where you have to play as Lucario starting out with high percent (182%).
** Related: If a character is down several points or stock, they automatically gain [[Limit Break|Final Smash]] powers the next time they drop down onto the stage.
* In the doujin [[Fighting Game]] ''[[Eternal Fighter Zero]]'', each character has a unique "Final Memory" move, which is a level 3 super that is only accessible when the character is down to their last 1/3 health. These range from extremely damaging attacks to special effects like freezing time or granting hyper armor. In many cases, the attack models the [[Canon]] scene [[Utsuge|in which the character dies]], hence the name.
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* ''[[Tekken]] 6'' has "Rage Mode", which activates when a player is near death, making them much stronger.
** Also a case of the [[Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]], as in arcade mode, and most modes, in fact, when you fight Jin, at the start of every round he will ''begin'' in Rage Mode. Even worse, the true final boss gets an upgraded Rage Mode, where both attack ''and'' defense increase dramatically. And it's ''also'' activated at the beginning of the round.
* In ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'', Phoenix has to be knocked out with the super meter at [[Memetic Mutation|le-le-le-le-MAXIMUM]] in order to turn into Dark Phoenix. When she does, she gains an enhanced moveset as well as regaining full health. This health is meant to be balanced, as: Phoenix and Dark Phoenix each have 420,000
** 3 introduces the [[Turns Red|X-Factor ability]], which is available to everyone on the cast. It can be triggered at any time but is best used as a Desperation Attack because the fewer characters you have, the stronger and longer the effect. Each character has a different effect suited to their style.
** In ''[[
* [[Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2]]: All characters have "Awakening Mode", whereupon they transform into their respective Kickass modes. To wit: Naruto-->[[Super-Powered Evil Side|4 Tails form]], [[Lethal Joke Character|Tobi]]-->{{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Mad]][[The Chessmaster|ara]]}}
* ''[[
* ''[[Kinnikuman: Muscle Fight]]''
** Kinnikuman has the Fu Rin Ka Zan New York Special combination and Muscle Docking.
** Warsman has the 12,000,000 Power Double Screw Driver, Scrap Screwdriver, and the Siberian Snow Storm.
** Pentagon, as an American Choujin, can [[Nuke'Em|nuke his opponent]] if he's knocked down at low health.
** Stecasse King has the 3-Minute Death super move. It can only be sone he's knocked down with low HP. It's the same move he used to force a stalemate with Kinnikuman at the end of their match.
** Brocken Jr. from the Scramble for the Throne arc has the Frankensteiner. It's a reference to the sacrifice made to defeat Prismman during the 3-on-3 Team Soldier vs. Team Super Phoenix match.
** The Five Fated Princes except Kinnikuman Soldier all have desperation supers. They can only be done if they're knocked down with low health.
** Robin Mask has the Ice Rock Gyro/Ropeworks Tower Bridge. If the opponent survives after that attack, you automatically lose the match.
** Kinniku Suguru<ref>Kinnikuman after his Burning Inner Strength was taken away by Mixer Taitei.</ref> has the 70 Million Muscle Spark. Fail the input and you lose the match.
== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==
* In ''[[
** The Mann-conomy update features the Battalion's Backup, which drastically boosts the defences of you and your party. It is charged by taking damage.
== [[Hack and Slash]] ==
* Both the ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' and ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' games have Musou attacks, [[Limit Break
== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]]s ==
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' gave the Blaster archetype the inherent ability of Defiance, which raises their attack power as their health drops (as of the eleventh update, this is no longer
** Amusingly, Defiance was originally called "Desperation" during beta testing of the update it was added in, but the name was changed due to player complaints. Considering how useless the original version of it was, the original name was much more fitting and remained as a derisive term for it until it was eventually changed to be much more useful.
* ''[[Star Trek Online]]'' Has the ability "Go down Fighting" which allows the player to do more damage the lower their ship's hull condition is.
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*** Honorable mention goes for this quote: "So much unstable energy... but worth the risk to destroy you!"
* In ''[[Guild Wars]]'', an elite Necromancer skill stole enough health from a target enemy to bring your own to 50%. Though double-edged (it could lower your health, and heal the enemy if used when you were above 50%), and originally intended as an "oh $(@#" skill, it was rarely used that way. The skill was used to destroy some otherwise very difficult bosses by pumping the Necromancer's max health as high as possible, having the Necro hurt themselves down to very low health, then hitting this skill to tear away a big chunk of a boss's health.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* [[Dungeon Fighter Online]]'s Asura's have the Deadly Enticer skill. While the requirement doesn't specify that they must be at low health, they have to have taken a certain amount of hits, and the most practical application is to use it when caught in an opponents [[Spam Attack
== [[Platform Game
* Six of the first eight bosses in ''[[Mega Mari]]'' have these. A notable one is Reimu's, which continually spawns high damaging yin yang orbs until defeat. The orbs (and most attacks for that matter) can [[Kaizo Trap|kill you even after the boss dies]] as well.
* The first eight bosses of ''[[
== [[Racing Game
* The ''[[
== [[Roguelike
* ''[[The Binding of Isaac]]'' has Whore of Babylon item which Eve starts with. When health drops to half a normal heart, the player turns into a demonic form with greatly increased damage which lasts as long as the player exits the room with half a normal heart. One strategy is to get an item which slowly refills spirits hearts and use a blood bank to get down half a normal heart to keep this ability going. This item is not a desperation attack for one of the unlockable characters because when he picks it up, the effect is permanent.
== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==
* In the popular ''[[
* ''Star Wars: Empire at War'' and its expansion have, for some units, the ability to self-destruct. The TIE Mauler was the only one to have this in the first game, and considering how pathetically weak its armour is, the self-destruct became useless unless the player managed to park ten of them at full health in the middle of an enemy formation first, just to ensure that at least ONE did some damage. The expansion gives this ability to the following Zann Consortium units: MZ-8 Pulse Cannon tank, Vengeance-Class Frigate, Aggressor-Class Destroyer. Much more effective for them since a. It's automatic and b. those units could actually survive long enough after taking a shitload of damage for the ability to be effective.
* In ''[[League of Legends]]'' there are several champions who get their stats boosted as they take damage. Karma gains ability power, Olaf gains attack speed and Tryndamere gains bonus damage. Poppy's innate ability will typically cause her to take less damage the lower her health is.
== [[Role
* The ''[[Pokémon]]'' games have several of these:
** Flail and Reversal are moves that get stronger the weaker the user is. When the user's HP are at less than 4% of maximum, these moves do the most damage.
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** Struggle is an [[Emergency Weapon]], as it only executes when the Pokemon has run out of normal combat moves. It also comes into play if the opponent's Pokemon has used Encore, thus blocking the player's Pokemon from using any moves other than the one it last used, and that move is out of PP. It is completely exempt from the usual [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]].
* One of these shows up in many of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games.
** ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', has a [[Power Copying|Blue Magic]] spell called [[My Name Is
** ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' introduced actual Desperation Attacks to the series, incredibly powerful attacks that can randomly occur when a character with critically low HP is given the "Fight" command. However, they occur ''so'' rarely that most people have never actually seen one. Plus the Valiant Knife which does more damage the lower Locke's HP gets.
** ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' has the ''[[Exactly What It Says
** ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'''s Limit Breaks. The availability of the Limit Breaks is predicated on how much HP there is left ''proportional to your total HP'', so if your health stats were high, you'd still be able to access your Limit Breaks with a reasonable number of points. The game lets you know exactly when you can use them by turning the stat display yellow, and you can reset the ''Fight'' option an unlimited number of times per turn with the circle button until it changes to ''Limit''. This feature makes them your ''primary'' mode of attack, not a desperation attack, and all but renders them [[Game Breaker|Gamebreakers]].
** ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' has Steiner's Revenge ability.
*** And the Blue Magic Limit Glove, an otherwise unremarkable spell which is guaranteed to do 9999 damage if (and only if) Quina has exactly 1 HP left when using it. Mostly useless because of this limitation, but with proper element cancellation...
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**** Savvy players will knock Quina out in a battle, then go to a save point and revive him/her repeatedly (resetting each time) until s/he has 1 HP. Perfect for taking out that tricky boss in one shot! It's also available extremely early (from the [[Disc One Nuke|moment you get Quina]], in fact), letting you lay the smackdown on the rest of disc 1 and most of disc 2 (by disc 3 more reliable means of violence become available). By extension, it's also a valuable skill to have when doing the [[Speed Run|Excalibur II challenge]].
** ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' has Auron's [[Infinity+1 Sword]], which does more damage as his health gets lower.
** Several items in ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'', such as the Sorcerer's Ring or the Rasetsu armor set, have effects that only activate when the wearer's HP drops below a certain percentage.
** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' has the Meatbone Slash Reaction Ability, which deals your max HP in damage when your HP is critically low. It also has several other Reaction Abilities that function on the "Critical HP" principle, usually bestowing healing or auto-life effects. Finally, there are several attacks that utilize differences in your HP or MP to do damage.
** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' has several "Last" abilities that cast a specific spell on the character at low health, such as Berserk.
** In addition, several of the games have skills that do a set amount of damage equal to a character's maximum HP minus their current HP.
** In a diversion from the usual [[Limit Break]] method of dealing with this for the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series, ''[[
** ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' has a variant of this with the Cosmos Judgment rules. When a player is in danger of dying in one more hit, their EX Gauge will instantly max out, giving them a chance to turn things around.
*** There's also the equippable support ability 'Back to the Wall' (which increases the player character's critical hit rate when their HP is in the red). 'Cat Nip' (which increases the player character's critical hit rate when they're at risk of losing in one HP attack) can often count as this as well, but the nature of the battle system means that the attacker can potentially [[One-Hit Kill|win with one HP attack regardless]], assuming their BRV gets high enough to allow this.
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] II'' has * two* of these, in the form of equippable abilities. One is called "Crisis Half" which halves any damage when your hitpoints are below 25%, the other is "Exp+ " which gives double EXP.
** Considering that this is Final Mix+ , those two really help with the Critical Mode.
** [[Kingdom Hearts (
** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358
*** All the same, as they can create a nearly minute-long attack that can deal upwards of hundreds of times your normal damage output, they will often be your method of choice for dispatching tough enemies. That said, the
* The Crisis Arm, one of Robo's final weapons from ''[[
** Then, there's the [[Combination Attack]] Grand Dream, which is a massive, impressive ''three-character'' Desperation Attack. It's surprisingly effective against the final boss, simply because he has a habit of near-flattening you. Grand Dream contains Frog Squash as one of it's components.
** The similarly insane Frog Flare (a Combination Attack of Frog Squash and Lucca's * Flare) is universally acknowledged to be ''the'' best way to take out the final form of Spekkio, who uses [[HP to One|Hallation]] a lot - particularly if you're playing the DS version and got the [[Game Breaker]] armour for Lucca, which renders Hallation Spekkio's only attack capable of damaging her - and you're never going to die from HP To One attacks.
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series of games have a few perks that reflect this ability, such as Adrenaline Rush (raising your strength if you drop below 50% hp), Die Hard (raising resistances to damage when you drop below 25% hp), and Nerd Rage! (increasing your strength to maximum if you dropped below 25% hit
** Unfortunately, by that stage of any of the games, your character was likely to be wearing items boosting strength to 10 (absolute maximum, no temporary bumps over it allowed), or 8-9 if the starting build was really puny. Add to that the fact that the most successful melee and unarmed builds only required and effectively used medium strength scores, and it really seems pointless (melee and unarmed being the only usable attacks utilizing strength score bonuses, only other uses of strength were max carry weight and min score to wield weapon, as well as the really rare and optional quest and the absolutely buggy and random throw skill). Also, unlike Dungeons&Dragons, strength bonuses were small and rather linear, with the average weapon in the second half of a game dealing 10 or 20 times more base damage than the strength bonus. Furthermore, since enemies were plentiful and came in groups, which were defeated by a combination of strategy and predictable/expected critical hits, these strength bonuses really meant nothing whatsoever. A temporary increase in carry weight, only in the heat of battle and at the brink of death, also obviously provided little benefit in a world without encumbrance-increasing magic.
* A number of clothes in ''[[
** Later in the story you can use the Lapin Angelique Suicide Special (LASS) strategy, which puts you in mortal peril at the start of battle. As the name suggests, all the gear you need is from the Lapin Angelique line, which tends to be oriented towards this trope anyways.
* The Hexer's Revenge ability in ''[[
* The Muramasa Blade in ''[[
** The Dark Cannon dark chip in ''Battle Network 4'' did damage equal to the amount of HP you lost as well, capping at 999.
** If you haven't already used quite a few dark chips, you're only able to use them when you're taking a hammering, albeit [[Power At a Price|at the cost of losing 1 maximum HP permanently for every battle you used them]].
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Also, Lloyd's Falcon Crest, his deadliest attack, can only be used when his health is at 16% or less. In addition, Sheena's most powerful techs, the Summon Spirits, can only be performed while she is in Over Limit mode (Double desperation?).
** Most of the other characters can also only use their most powerful attack when in Overlimit or at low HP.
* Atton Rand from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' has "Fighting Spirit," which causes his saving throws to increase as he takes more damage.
* [[Troubled but Cute|Fenris]] from ''[[Dragon Age 2]]'' has the Veneer of Calm ability, allowing him to do increased damage as his health drops.
** This ability is also on the Ravager talent tree somewhere.
* ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' has your characters attack faster when their health points are dwindling.
* ''[[Wild
== [[Shoot'Em Up|Shoot Em Ups]] ==
* In [[Touhou Project|Subterranean Animism]], the game throws a full powerup at you to boost your shot power to maximum as soon as you're on your last life.
* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' has at least desperation attack for most bosses. Some bosses, mainly in the first game, gained a [[One Hit KO]] when they were down to about half health.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Magic:
** The card [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193467 Near-Death Experience] causes you to instantly win the game if you have exactly 1 life on your upkeep.
== [[Turn
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' 9 and 10 have several abilities that improve stats when health is below a certain amount or percentage, usually only available to player characters and bosses.
** In a similar vein, ''Fire Emblem'' 4 has the skills "Wrath" and "Ambush", which activate when a character drops below 50% health, giving automatic critical hits and first strike, respectively. And "Prayer," which activates in the low single digits and greatly increased evasion.
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== Wrestling Games ==
* When your momentum gauge flatlines in ''[[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] Day of Reckoning 2'', you gain access to a powerful Momentum Shift attack, which swaps your and your target's momentum gauges.
* In ''[[Smackdown vs. Raw|WWE '12]]'' a character can have the "Comeback" ability. This allows a severely damaged character to get up and/or launch a flurry of attacks in a [[Press X to Not Die|quick-time event]] which leaves the character's momentum gauge full and their opponent dazed, ready for a [[Finishing Move]].
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* Adrenaline.
* When the battle became desperate for [[Imperial Japan|Japanese]] fighters in WWII, [[Honor Before Reason|rather than surrender]], [[Suicide Attack|they would fly their own planes]] into opposing [[The Alliance|Allied]] ships.
* In sports where points are gained by scoring goals, a team that only needs one goal late (generally [[The Beautiful Game|Football]] variations) in the game will send their goalkeeper to attack especially from corners. It's very risky as it leaves an open goal but when it works, it works well. The FIFA games in particular have implemented this behaviour for since '08. [[Down to
** A less extreme but still risky version of this is if a team has a tall defender, they will often be send to play up front of the attack as a target man. The team will attempt to punt, cross or lob the ball in a way that the defender can score a headed goal or knock the ball down to a team-mate. An example of the tactic is that Manchester United will often send their central defender Nemanja Vidic up front if they are down towards the end of the game.
*** An inversion of this tactic is when a team's attack has tall forwards who play the entire game as 'target men'. This is generally called the "long ball" tactic and considered to be a lower skilled and non-technical style that is often utilised by teams of inferior skill to others. It is often utilised in lower divisions where fast and technically skilled players are rare but physically strong and tall players are common.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Videogame Effects and Spells]]
[[Category:
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