Elite Mooks: Difference between revisions

[[File:EliteMooks.jpg|link=The Venture Brothers (Animation)|frame|<small>One of the Monarch's Black Guards telling a lesser henchman to go to his room without supper.</small> ]]

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', near the end of the "Enies Lobby" arc, Captain level Marines attacked the Straw Hats at the Bridge of Hesitation. The Straw Hats had spent the rest of the arc taking out several thousand standard [[Mooks]], as well as fighting the government's resident assassin team, [[Psycho for Hire|CP9]] so these [[Elite Mooks]] did pretty well against the worn out Straw Hats. Still got their butts handed to them, though.

** The [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]] is justly used here, as well. The more and more "dangerous" the Straw Hats become, the more and more stronger marines they're gonna send out. When before, fighting a captain or commander could be the Big Bad of an arc, they're now just [[Elite Mooks]] for Luffy and the crew...except Smoker, who's more of a [[Boss in Mook Clothing]]. Throughout his time as a captain and a commodore, he's still handing Luffy his butt solely from the [[Made of Air|benefits]] of his [[Elemental Powers|Logia]] [[Super Smoke|powers]].

* Akuma of ''[[D .Gray Man (Manga)|D Gray Man-man]]'' have levels, so that every time the exorcists get strong enough to [[Red Shirt]]-ify the current strongest akuma, they can just introduce a new strongest type.

* [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|The Espada]] from ''[[Bleach (Manga)|Bleach]]'' all tend to have a few lesser Arrancar that they keep around to serve this purpose, called their Fraccion. And frankly, the [[Big Bad]] considers ''all'' Arrancar to be this, at best. {{spoiler|In the end, he pretty much considers them to be plain old [[Mooks]] after almost everyone but Harribel dies without killing a single shinigami. At this point he [[Dropped a Bridge On Her|cuts her down himself]], while claiming that he alone is greater than all of the Espada '''''combined.'''''}}

** Harribel's Fraccion fit this trope best of all. Why? They're by FAR the most effective of ANY''any'' Fraccion shown. While most of the Fraccion are defeated by, at best, the [[Number Two|Number Twos]]s of the various Gotei divisions, [[Amazon Brigade|Harribel's trio]] manages to take out a grand total of ''FOUR'' Lieutenants (Matsumoto, Hinamori, Shuuhei, and Iba--inIba—in that order, and Kira was ''next'') by summoning their pet [[Giant Mook]]. It took the [[Badass Grandpa|Commander General]] ''himself'' to get fed up and [[Kill It Withwith Fire|take them out.]]

* ANBU from ''[[Naruto]]''.

** Intergang itself sometimes has elite mook squads of its own, like the "[[Wall Crawler]]" assassins seen in some ''[[Superman]]'' stories.

** For more conventional criminals like [[Spider -Man]] and [[Daredevil]] archfoe the Kingpin of Crime, [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja|the Hand]] frequently serves as a group of killers and enforcers a cut above the average mob wiseguy. The Hand usually [[Hidden Agenda Villain|has its own plans]], though. Unsurprisingly, the Hand and HYDRA share a history and have alternately served as elite mooks for one another on separate occasions.

== Fan Fic[[Film]] ==

** Supers become downgraded to regular mooks after ''AOTC''. The B-1s become [[Evil Minions]].

** Well, at least they can kick [[Redshirt Army]]'s ass. This can be enough to make them Elite...Mooks.

** For those that consider the [[Expanded Universe]] material to possesses canonical relevance, Stormtroopers have multiple levels of "elite", others including storm commandos, space troopers and environment-specific ones (Snow/Sand/Forest Troopers) along with the above-mentioned Royal Guards (within which there were also varying standards of "elite"). Just to make the "elite mookdom" more hilarious, the "true" mooks at the Imperial Army -- whoArmy—who, except in the form of the walker crews in Episodes V and VI, don't even appear in the movies. (The West End Games ''Star Wars RPG'' using a d6 system was responsible for a lot of what is known about the Imperial Army.) And don't forget the literal "Elite Stormtroopers"...who appear to just patrol the Core Worlds.

* [[Batman (Filmfilm)|Batman]]: The mook at the top of the bell tower smacks Batman around pretty well for a little while.

* Both ''[[Equilibrium]]'' and ''[[Ultraviolet (Filmfilm)|Ultraviolet]]'' feature the hero battling a group of several unique-looking Mooks armed with katanas, just before the final fight with the [[Big Bad]]. These guys are either [[Elite Mooks]], or complete idiots, for fighting only with swords in a world where pretty much everyone is equipped with automatic weapons. In any case they don't do noticeably better against the hero than all the previous Mooks...i.e. they all get killed in about 6 or 7 seconds.

* ''[[Repo! theThe Genetic Opera]]'' has Rotti's shotgun-weildingwielding henchgirls, and the faceless Repo Men.

* In ''[[The Matrix|The Matrix Reloaded]]'', this is the excuse for Neo still having to get into martial arts battles with the Agents, despite apparently transcending hand-to-hand combat at the end of the first film. After an exchange with the new agents, we says, "Hmm, upgrades!" The agents don't actually seem to be any tougher than the previous set in comparison to anyone else.

* The Cardinal's Guard in the [[The Three Musketeers (1973 film)|1973-4 film versions of ''The Three Musketeers'']] probably qualify. Although the novel depicts them as more or less equal to the king's musketeers in training and prestige--andprestige—and in the first fight sequence the musketeers hesitate before taking them on at 1-2 odds--byodds—by the final fight sequences, the heroes are dispatching them by the dozen.

{{quote| '''Bride:''' "So, O-Ren, any more subordinates for me to kill?" <br />

'''Go Go:''' "Hi!" }}

* The [[Faceless Goons|Social Police]] in ''[[The Acts of Caine (Literature)|Blade of Tyshalle]]'' could nail scouts between the eyes as said scouts were peeking through window slats at them. "Say what you like about Soapy, but [[Improbable Aiming Skills|those bastards can shoot]]."

* ''[[The Wheel of Time (Literature)|The Wheel of Time]]'' has the Myrddraal.

** Myrddraal were actually the ''first'' enemies the heroes encountered and held them all in terror for about the first book or so. Shows you the benefits of debuting your [[Elite Mooks]] early.

* Source material notwithstanding, the ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]: [[GauntsGaunt's Ghosts]]'' novels after Necropolis had them fighting the Blood Pact, the retinue of the Chaos warlord they were fighting against, who were supposedly better than the generic heretics and zealots that came before. ''The Guns of Tanith'' also introduced Loxatl mercenaries that could take lots of lasfire.

* The Steel Inquisitors in ''[[Mistborn]]''. A little more elite than most [[Elite Mooks]], in the first book only [[Badass Bookworm|Sazed]] and [[Magnificent Bastard|Kelsier]] can take them on, and it's still not very advisable. Oh, and they have literal [[Spikes of Villainy]]...[[Eye Scream|through both of their eyes]].

** Hazekillers (who are warriors specially trained to kill [[Functional Magic|allomancers]]), and [[Our Orcs Are Different|koloss]] are [[Elite Mooks]] who are more powerful than regular [[Mooks]], but less powerful than Inquisitors.

* The Iron Guard and Shadow Guard in ''[[The Grimnoir Chronicles]]'' books are born superhuman, given [[Training Fromfrom Hell]] and ''then'' enhanced even more.+

* The Sardaukar from ''[[Dune]]''.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

** In "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E7/E07 A Good Man Goes to War|A Good Man Goes To War]]", the Headless Monks are the [[Church Militant]]'s equivalent of special forces.

* Red Series in ''[[Dark Angel]]''.

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' sometimes has a multiple tier grunt system, such as normal Kelzaks and their red [[Palette Swap]], [[Power Rangers Ninja Storm|Kelzak Furies]], followed by Styxoids, [[The Dragon|Koragg]]'s badder (and speech-capable!) versions of the [[Power Rangers Mystic Force|Hidiacs]]. [[Power Rangers SPD|Blueheads]] started out as [[Giant Mook|Giant Mooks]]s who led regular Mooks, but started being sent in small groups themselves on occasion. Then [[So Last Season|gold, spiky]] ones, imaginatively named Orangeheads by the Rangers, arrived and were even ''more'' elite (that first one gave them a ''lot'' of trouble, being stronger than [[Monster of the Week]] level) until the same [[Lowered Monster Difficulty]] problem that affected the blue ones set in.

** The original ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|Mighty Morphin']]'' series did this regularly, with [[So Last Season]] existing before the changing-teams-every-year phenomenon, with each set of [[Mooks]] being considered "elite" as compared to the last, until reaching the standard [[Mook]] success rate about five episodes in. Z-putties are elite until the Rangers find out they can just hit the ''big giant Lord Zedd Z symbol'' on their chests and the Putties will lose power and shatter (though the fights still last a while because it has to be a hard direct hit). Then Tengas were elite until...they weren't. [[Power Rangers ZEOZeo]]'s [[Mecha -Mooks]], the Cogs, were equally hyped and actually tougher than Putties or Tengas...but that just meant the Rangers had to actually suit up to fight them. Rita also had a short-lived line of Super Putties who were tougher, stronger, and would pull a starfish and regenerate into two Super Putties if smashed, which forced the Rangers to retrieve special blasters in order to break them. These were not used again because Rita had only so much of the special clay used to make them.

** ''[[Denji Sentai Megaranger]]'' has both this and a [[Giant Mook]] in the same episode -- Bossepisode—Boss Kunekune is the [[Monster of the Week]], and in lieu of the standard giganification has a bunch of Kunekune cover it to form King Kunekune.

** ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (TV)|Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'' has the Sugormin, evolved from regular Gormin with the addition of chunky blue armor. They can [[Make My Monster Grow|go giant along with the monster]] as well as [[Transforming Mecha|turn into plane-like vehicles]]. They get a red [[Palette Swap]] called the Dogormin, used only by the king and his court.

* The Kull Warriors in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' areare—watch -- watch this -- Anubisthis—Anubis' [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Frankenstein's symbiotically enhanced super-zombie cyborg]] [[Implacable Man|Implacable Men]].

* ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' plays with this concerning the Borg. The Borg start out as chump Mooks. The problem is...once you knock off a few of the chump Mooks, ALL of them basically become Elite Mooks, or at least elite enough that they can kick ''your'' ass. New foe, wash, rinse, repeat.

* ''[[Nikita (TV series)|Nikita]]'': Division has several ascending levels of Elite Mooks:

** Necron Immortals have also moved to the troops slot as of 5th edition, although they still fit the spirit of the trope. Destroyers and Triarch Praetorians still probably fit pretty well though. Lychguard, on the other hand, straddle the line between [[Elite Mooks]] and [[Praetorian Guard]].

** All the Chaos Gods except Nurgle have daemons like this, although Slaanesh's elite mook daemons are classified as fast attack rather than elite choices. If you take a look in the Daemonic Gifts section for the appropriate mount for the Khorne and Slaanesh ones, you'll realise that the elite mooks are literally their normal counterparts with the added bonuses of the steed tacked on. Flamers are simply upgraded Horrors (which was an actual option in an older edition).

* Similarly, Special and Rare choices in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]''. Every army has at least one unit that is effectively one unit of normal infantry, just better trained, better equipped, less likely to run, [[Spikes of Villainy]] for the evil races, and with a [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|badass sounding name]]. Compare Chosen to normal Chaos Warriors, Stormvermin to bog-standard Clanrats, Phoenix Guard or White Lions to ordinary High Elf Spearmen...etc.

* Most ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' mooks have an elite mook variant. Gnolls have the nunchuk-wielding flinds, goblins have the militaristic hobgoblins and bullying bugbears, lizardfolk have the fiendish Lizard Kings, and orcs have numerous variations.

* Koopatrols and the [[Bonus Boss]] Anti-Guy in ''[[Paper Mario (Video Gamefranchise)|Paper Mario]]''.

** The Hammer Brothers in most other ''[[Super Mario Bros.]].'' games.

** It's bosses (who are that on top of being elites) that are a challenge for a whole party. Regular dungeon elites go under the "might be killed by a single character of the same level" -- though—though only one at a time, and emphasis on "might" as with all elites, so dungeons themselves are very much impossible without a party.

* Combine Elites in ''[[Half-Life]] 2'', who wear white uniforms instead of the grey and black variety found in others, and have weapons with an "alternate fire" mode which can instantly disintegrate...um, [[NPC|NPCs]]s, whether [[Red Shirt]] or [[Mooks|Mook]] (in the player's hands), but which do 15 or so points of damage to the player.

** ''Halo 2'' has the even more 1337 Ultra Elites, aka silver or platinum elites, which are ubiquitous on Legendary. They have much stronger shields and more health than other Elites (e.g., can take four or five sniper shots to the head), [[Walk It Off|regenerate their shields]] much faster, often have [[Guns Akimbo]], and can [[Turns Red|go berserk]] and wield instant-death Energy Swords. Also introduced are Heavy and Ultra Grunts, experts with grenades and [[BFG|BFGs]]s, and the jetpacking Ranger Elites.

** The most 1337 of ''Halo 3'''s Brutes are [[King Mook|Brute Chieftains]], who are heavily armored, can't be stuck with grenades on their armor, wield Gravity Hammers or [[BFG|BFGs]]s, are equipped with temporary invincibility shields, and can also take about three fucking grenades to the face before dying (and that's if you're not killed when they go berserk when their armor comes off). Other elite mooks include Brute Captains, Brute Bodyguards, which replace the Honor Guards, and Jump-Pack Brutes.

** For the humans there's Spartan Super Soldiers, whom are basically bipedal [[Terminator]] ninja tanks. Or better yet [[Franchise/Rambo John|Rambo]], [[Commando (Filmfilm)|John Matrix]], [[Terminator|Sarah Connor]] and, [[Alien|Private Jenette Vasquez]] in power armor, with the speed and agility of ninjas, And the strength of [[Luke Cage]].

** ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' has two additional Elite ranks, the General and Field Marshal.

** Cerberus has this in the form of the Nemesis and Phantom units, elite specialists designed to work perfectly in tandem with one another: while one keeps you pinned down with the threat of sniper fire that can instantaneously destroy your shields, the other closes the distance so they can [[One-Hit Kill|insta-kill you]] with their fancy swords. Phantoms also have the benefit of crazy-powerful handguns that can kill you long before they close the distance if you don't take cover, in addition to [[Invisibility Cloak|cloaking devices]] and [[Dodge the Bullet|fancy acrobatics]].

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' has the Hi-Tech Soldiers, who are members of Solidus Snake's private guard and appear only during the alert phase during the latter half of the Plant Chapter (specifically after Raiden contacts Ames). Later, when the player reaches Arsenal Gear, they'll encounter the Tengu Commandos, who are armed with ninja-like gear.

** The Ocelot Unit in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'', as well as the flamethrower unit.

** The all-female Haven Troopers/F.R.O.G.S in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', who are basically [[Distaff Counterpart|female versions]] of the Tengu Commandos.

* Heavy Armor troopers in ''[[Army of Two]]'', who are immune to most gunfire from the front -- thoughfront—though grenades and rockets can hurt them, and a well-placed shot with a sniper rifle can knock them down, allowing one to [[Groin Attack|snipe them between the legs]].

* ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]'' featured [[The Men in Black|Men in Black]] agents, who mostly carried auto-shotguns, could survive more than 3 times as much damage as standard Mooks, and who exploded when killed.

** The sequel ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War (Video Game)|Deus Ex Invisible War]]'' had Illuminati Elite for the Illuminati faction, who looked like Mr. Freeze, carried railguns, and released clouds of poisonous gas from their corpses after dying. The opposing Templar faction countered them with [[Powered Armor]] Mooks equipped with rocket launchers.

* Mexican Army [[Elite Mooks]] appear in Tom Clancy's ''[[Ghost Recon]]: Advanced Warfighter'', in the form of Aguila 7 Special Forces soldiers. Realistically, although they're better trained and equipped than standard infantry, they still go down after a couple assault rifle hits.

* In ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]]'', Replica Elite soldiers, wearing black uniforms and white hockey masks, show up in one of the game's final levels. They can survive more bullets than standard Mooks, but several carry [[BFG|BFGs]]s.

** The Replica Heavies, tall heavily-armored cyborgs who carry Penetrators, Particle Beam Guns, or other [[BFG|BFGs]]s. Slow but lethal. Can be a [[Boss in Mook Clothing]].

* ''[[Revenant]]'', the Hierarchy's ''regular soldiers'' are strong, smart, skilled and resourceful enough to fight toe-to-toe with enemies up to the level of a Shinigami ''lieutenant''. Fortunately, there are only 100 of them for each division, each spearheded by a Director, managed by a Commissioner and led by a Marshal. The most elite members of the Hierarchy's various divisions are called Praetorians ([[Praetorian Guard|oddly enough]]), who continue their duties within their division, unless called to assemble as a group by their ringleader, the Imperator.

* ''[[Crysis (Video Gameseries)|Crysis]]'' actually has 2 kinds of [[Elite Mooks]]. North Korean Special Forces are simply regular Korean soldiers with better accuracy and equipment, whom you probably won't even notice unless you're looking for them (they wear dark armor, black facepaint, and have laser-sights). There are also a handful of North Korean Nanosuit soldiers, who wear the same [[Powered Armor|superpowered Nanosuits]] that the player does. Enemy Nanosuit soldiers feature increased durability, a recharging energy "shield", regenerating health, super-powered punches and jumping ability, and a cloaking device.

* ''[[Red Faction]] 2'' is an interesting case, as [[Elite Mooks]] are fought in the very ''beginning'' of the game(the prologue mission), and oddly disappear completely after the first few levels, where they're replaced by weaker, but more heavily armed, standard infantry. These "Sopot Elite Guards" wore metal armor and faceplates, could survive about twice as much damage as a standard Mook, and talked like Darth Vader.

** The original''Red Faction''s Elite Guards, first seen in the Administration level, and later in Capek's lair and other high-security areas, had a different voice, spoke more aggressive catch phrases, moved and dodged faster and had much tougher armor than the standard Mooks, and frequently wielded [[BFG|BFGs]]s.

* The Emergency Defense Squad troops in the Agency Biolab Escape mission in ''[[Syphon Filter]]''2 who have full armor and can be killed only with grenades. The [[Final Boss]], Chance, is a [[King Mook]] who has [[Nigh Invulnerability|nigh-impenetrable]] armor that is completely impervious to normal weapons including grenades, making him a [[Puzzle Boss]] (his [[Achilles' Heel]] is the helicopter's tail rotor).

* Essentially [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] inside [[Borderlands (Video Game)|Borderlands]], with the [[Elite Mooks]] being labelled "[[Badass]]" in front of their enemy type. Your first [[New Game+]] with a character has these enemies labelled [[Bad Mutha]], a second time labels them as "Superbad".

* The Big Daddies and Houdini, as well as other special kinds, Splicers from ''[[BioBioShock Shock(series)]]''.

* ''[[GoldenGoldenEye Eye007 (1997 (Videovideo Gamegame)|GoldenEye]]'' and ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' often broke out the Elite Mooks during a high-alert situation, for example, in ''GoldenEye'', once the [[Scripted Event]] alarm goes off after hacking the mainframes in Severnaya, endless waves of smart, quick, heavily armed elite guards are spawned (get the hell out of there!). Near the end of the Datadyne Extraction level in ''Perfect Dark'', Cassandra kills the lights and you have to fight her [[Bodyguard Babes]] in the dark, which is quite frustrating on Perfect Agent difficulty. PD also has the Datadyne Shock Troops (better health, better AI, and sometimes better weapons) and female Datadyne guards (better AI and almost always better weapons).

* ''[[STALKER]]: Shadows of Chernobyl'' has Spetznaz special forces soldiers and Military Stalkers, who have the two best non-exosuit armors in the game.

* ''[[Dragon Quest I (Video Game)|Dragon Quest I]]'''s [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon|final dungeon]] is guarded by the deadliest, [[Demonic Spiders|most demonic]] variations of the Mooks you've faced: Axe Knights, Armored Knights, Blue Dragons, Red Dragons, etc. They have high defense stats, deal massive damage, and have the most devastating spells, such as Sleep(Axe Knights have both this and Stopspell, preventing you from using your own Stopspell), Healmore and Hurtmore(the Armored Knight has ''both Healmore and Hurtmore''). If you aren't sufficiently [[Level Grinding|leveled up]], you can kiss your ass goodbye here. Some of these are invincible to magic. And sometimes, the only winning move is not to fight.

* The [[Demonic Spiders|much-maligned Laser Soldiers]] in the final area of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Videovideo Gamegame)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' NES.

* The ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series feature tougher, faster, [[Palette Swap]] (or not) versions of the enemies in certain areas (or when you're sucked into the mirror version of the town/area). For example the Night Flutterers (Air Screamers, but more human-like and with their faces covered in worms), Worm Heads (upgrade of Groaner, the ubiquitous zombie dogs, but with a worm for a face), and Shadow Children(transparent version of gray children) in [[SH 1]]SH1, "nightmare nurses" in [[SH 2]]SH2, and "advanced Closers" in [[SH 3]]SH3.

* The ''[[Ace Combat]]'' games have these in the form of the enemy aces, both individual and ace squadrons such as Yellow Squadron (''04'') or Strigon Team (''6''), who in a first playthrough will be flying better planes (until late game when the player can afford better) and are better pilots; in ''04'''s "Shattered Skies" mission Yellow Squadron are [[Invincible Minor Minion|Invincible Minor Minions]]s, so multiple-target missiles are a bad idea due to the chance of inadvertently targeting one of them and wasting a missile. Subverted in the final mission which emphasizes the Mook half (since [[Ace Pilot|Mobius One]] {{spoiler|killed off the elites who hadn't already left the unit}})]], but usually in the games when you can shoot them down these guys are [[Sub Boss|boss-level pilots]]. The Mook half partially comes from the fact that these pilots are usually never individually identified (in ''04'' {{spoiler|whichever Yellow is shot down at Stonehenge is deemed to be Yellow 4, and Yellow 13's fate is sealed at Farbanti by the player having to shoot down all the Yellows there}}), but the ''Ace Combat 6'' Assault Records subvert this by having individual Strigon profiles unlock after you shoot down Strigons in certain missions.

* Most enemy types in the ''[[Wizardry (Video Game)|Wizardry]]'' games start off as regular Mooks, but upgrade to [[Elite Mooks]] in higher level areas, then eventually to [[Superpowered Mooks]]. Not to be confused with the actual Mook race in the game, which are approximately high-tech psychic Wookiees.

** Better examples are in the ''[[Pokémon Ranger (Video Game)|Pokémon Ranger]]'' games, where the original has Elite Mooks, the sequel has Mook-like Admins with higher ups, and ''Guardian Signs'' has {{spoiler|two levels of admin.}}

* The latter half of ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]] 8's'' final level gives us mass-produced copies of {{spoiler|'''''[[Big Bad|Sigma]]'''''}}.

* In the ''[[Wing Commander (Videovideo Gamegame)|Wing Commander]]'' series, most of the games have the elite opponents either named and with personalities, flying unique ships, or both. The exceptions:

** The Drakhai, in ''[[Wing Commander (Videovideo Gamegame)|Wing Commander]] II''. Slightly better defensive stats for their ships, and an AI set one level above the regular opponents were the primary distinguishing characteristics, aside from their specific taunt "You cannot defeat the Drakhai" (ignoring that you regularly did just that).

** In addition to the few named opponents (other than Seether, which ones depended on {{spoiler|when you defect}}, ''[[Wing Commander (Videovideo Gamegame)|Wing Commander]] IV'' also had nameless, generic "ace" pilots.

* In ''[[Dynasty Warriors]] 6'', enemy generals will sometimes be accompanied by nameless Lieutenants. This can lead to the odd situation where you [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb stomp]] the general himelf, and then immediately find yourself getting slapped around by his elite goons.

* ''[[Command and& Conquer]]'' Generals has the USA faction comprised entirely of these. The basic infantry, air and tank units are the US Army [[Ranger]], [[Glass Cannon|F-22 Raptors]] and M1A2 Abrams (called the [[AKA-47|Crusader]] in the game) and the more advanced units keep getting even better.

* ''[[Battlefield: Bad Company (Video Game)|Battlefield: Bad Company 2]]'''s singleplayer campaign actually points out the presence of Elite Mooks in the loading screen hints before the mission Zero Dark Thirty, warning the player that they are better equipped and have faster reaction time than average troops. They show up about midway through the level, in the form of [[Big Bad|Kirilenko's]] green-clad personal guards. They're no more durable than most mooks, but they are, indeed, faster, and carry some weapons that are normally available only to the player.

* ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online (Video Game)|The Lord of the Rings Online]]'' has signature, elite, elite master, and nemesis versions of mooks, each progressively more dangerous. Signatures can be found on the landscape; nemeses, with over 20 times normal health, are confined to raid dungeons, but are still nameless mooks.

** It's not really that indicative, though, at least between Elite Master and Nemesis. The player is about equal to a signature in health(Less for some classes, like lore-masters), but are pushed up to about the strength of an elite by their advanced human brains and their much larger array of moves. A normal enemy has about 50% of your hitpointshit points and a swarm has about 25%. Generally, each level is about twice as powerful as the last, up to Elite Master. The line between Elite Master and Nemesis is INCREDIBLY blurry. In the first part of the Great Barrows, a 6-man instance, you fight an Elite Master who's REALLY''really'' tough, and you'll probably wipe several times. In the 6-man version of the fourth skirmish, Thievery and Mischief, you fight three nemeses at once as a boss with relative ease.

* The Uncommon Commons of ''[[Left 4 Dead]] 2'' are Common Infected (the average zombie of the ''[[Twenty Eight28 Days Later]]'' kind) but with perks that make them tougher than average: riot cops in body armour, CEDA Infected in fireproof biohazard suits, mud-men who can follow you into tight spaces and throw mud at you, and Clowns whose squeaky shoes and noses attract other nearby zombies.

* In ''[[Rayman]] Revolution'', the [[Mecha -Mooks|robot]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|pirates]] got steadily more elite depending upon colour scheme: from weakest to meanest, it goes green->purple->yellow->red->those idiots in barrels. (They get steadily less elite as your main attack gets more powerful, however.)

* Quite literally in ''[[Adventure Quest (Video Game)|Adventure Quest]]'': Elite enemies are 20 levels above the normal version.

* In ''[[Rise of the Kasai]]'', enemies wearing armor count as this; they're the same as normal enemies but are impervious to arrows, and take a few more hits to kill. Note that depending on which weapon you're using at the time and how lucky you are, "a few" can translate to "one" for a grand total of two hits.

* An unusual variation -- whilevariation—while hero units aren't intended to be killed, the larger unit limits of ''[[Starcraft]]'' are intended to create mass battles where units ''will'' die. However, there are elite versions of normal units available in some missions for opponents and even you to control. The sequel takes this further, with mercenaries who not only have better damage and health to start with, and benefit from upgrades researched in-game, but in the single-player campaign armory and lab upgrades apply to units of the appropriate type as well, so Hammer Securities troops you pick up benefit from your Ultra-Capacitors, Vanadium Plating, Concussive Shells, and Kinetic Foam, as well as any of your bunkers' Neosteel Frames and Projectile Accelerators.

** One example in the original ''Starcraft'' are the Zerg Hunter Killers. These are buffed up Hydralisks with twice as much health and firepower as any normal Hydralisk.

* The ''[[Fable (Videovideo Gamegame series)|Fable]]'' games have these. The [[Fable I (Videovideo Gamegame)|first]] has the "Minion" monster, large armored monstrosities that can give even an experienced fighter a run for his money, and the [[Fable II (Video Game)|second game]] has the Commandants, who can cast really damaging spells and are ''very'' hard to kill.

* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' has various grades of guards, with the best [[Heavily Armored Mook|wearing the most armour]] and possessing all the abilities of a full-powered Altaïr. [[Counter Attack]], grab, grab break...they can do it all. ''2'' diversifies it into the [[Fragile Speedster]] Agiles who can catch up in [[Le Parkour]] (normal guards can freerun but can't keep up when Ezio's going full speed), the [[Blade Onon a Stick]]-wielding Seekers and the [[Heavily Armored Mook]] [[Mighty Glacier]] Brutes who can smash through Ezio's defence. ''Brotherhood'' adds even more varieties. Arquebusiers have stronger ranged attacks than the normal crossbowmen, cavalry are difficult to fight in melee or counter - though they [[Weaksauce Weakness|fall off easily enough if you just stand your ground to defend]] -- and Papal Guards are [[Kung Fu-Proof Mook]] [[Lightning Bruiser|Lightning Bruisers]]s with a [[Sword and Gun]].

* [[State Sec|Blackwatch]] soldiers are this compared to Marines in ''[[Prototype (Videovideo Gamegame)|Prototype]]'', though functionally there's no differernce. However, Blackwatch later introduce ''their own'' elite mooks, literally called [[Super Soldiers]].

* ''[[Guild Wars]]'': In Prophecies, the Mursaat fill this role compared to the white Mantle. In Factions, Shiro'ken are elite mooks compared to afflicted. In Nightfall, Margonites (and torment demons to an extent) act in this role compared to normal Kournan soldiers.

* In ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'', we get the High Security inmates as well as the Titan Enhanced goons.

* In ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'', there is an entire team of [[Elite Mooks]] called Tyger, which are the top mercenary group of Ex-Special Forces that were specially trained to go head to head against Batman.

* Typically, the 2nd or 3rd in command of a gang in ''[[The Warriors (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Warriors]]'' will fall under this trope, having more health and strength than the common mook.

* ''[[Borderlands (Video Game)|Borderlands]]'' have several variants of this trope, using names such as Badass, Bad Mutha, Superbad, and other names.

* In most [[MMMassively OsMultiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMOs]], there is some form of elite mook to keep the challenge up. Most of the time they will be either mini/sub bosses or named/colored/giant mooks, such as "Deadly spider" for a generic name that you might see, that show up at a certain place or mixed in with the normal mooks.

* The Arch-Viles of ''[[Doom]]'' are Elite Mook that can summon or resurrect lesser mooks.

* Each enemy group in ''[[Saints Row: the Third (Video Game)|Saints Row theThe Third]]'' has its own particular Elite Mooks, often carrying unique weapons such as riot shields or bomb launchers.

* The Terran State in ''[[X (Videovideo Gamegame)|X3 Terran Conflict]]'' has the AGI Task Force (ATF) Elite Mooks. The ATF have their own fleet of entirely [[Cool Starship|unique ship designs]], carry ridiculously powerful missiles for their [[Macross Missile Massacre|missile frigates]], and ATF ships will ''never'' bail out or surrender. Other races typically have their plain "Military" ships making up their Elite Mooks - if you were to attack the [[Fish People|Boron]], for example, you'd mostly be attacking their poorly armed Police and Border Control ships before the military shows up with much better equipped ships.

** Likewise, the ''Bunnykill'' series features two ninja rabbits as [[Elite Mooks]] in the first installment (and are actually challenging), bunny 'agents' in the second (the first two are challenging, but then about ten are cut down easily in a display of [[Katanas Are Just Better]]), and the dark-grey (mercenary) and brown (techie) rabbits in the third installment (the techs provided extra challenge, the mercs not so much).

== Web[[Western OriginalAnimation]] ==

*** The General from "[[Avatar: The Last Airbender/Recap/Book (Animation)1/13 The Blue Spirit/Recap|The Blue Spirit]]" implies that the Yu Yan archers are used only for certain tasks.

** The Equalists from ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]'' appear to consist purely of these, though a few trainees and hangers on have gone down easily enough every single uniformed member of the group has been able to give the main characters a good fight. In their first appearance they actually beat the heroes in even odds!

* ''[[Star Wars: the Clone Wars (Animation)|Star Wars theThe Clone Wars]]'' introduced the BX-series Commando Droids, the Elite Mook version of the standard Battle Droids. They had enhanced armor, nearly General Grevious-level agility, and a number of neat tricks such as magnetized feet to resist Force pushes. They were a decent threat to clones, but still no match for the Jedi (although they were at least able to put up some resistance).

* The Monarch briefly employed Black Guards, who were much more menacing than his regular henchmen (despite the fact that the Black Guards all used to be regular henchmen...), as seen above, on ''[[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|The Venture Brothers]]''

* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider Man (Animation)|The Spectacular Spider -Man]]'', [[Big Bad]] Tombstone has a cadre of personal bodyguards, all of whom are [[Scary Black Man|Scary Black Men]] with [[Family-Friendly Firearms|taser guns]]. The irony is that he doesn't particularly ''need'' them, considering his [[Super Strength]]. Though being a mega-philanthropist in his [[Villain Withwith Good Publicity|civilian identity]], he probably has to keep up appearances.

* Regular Neosapien mooks in ''[[Exo Squad (Animation)|Exo Squad]]'' were gradually reinforced with more powerful [[Half-Human Hybrid|Neo Warriors]] and [[Super Soldier|Neo Lords]] in the second season. Not that any of them had a real chance to harm a recurring character...

* In ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 (Animation)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003]]'', the Foot Clan has Elite Foot Ninjas (the guys in the red robes and coolie hats). Unlike many [[Elite Mooks]], these guys actually ''were'' demonstrably better than the standard cannon fodder Mooks, able to fight evenly against the turtles and almost killing them in their first appearance.

* During one episode of ''[[Kim Possible (Animation)|Kim Possible]]'' [[Big Bad|Dr. Drakken]] discovers how worthless his Mooks are so he sends [[The Dragon|Shego]] to steal strength enhancing rings that transforms the wearer into peak condition. They didn't become any better so they were defeated quite easily by Kim (and still proved to be much more reliable than the [[Elite Mooks]] by herself...)

* The Fourth Mask shadowkhan from ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' could be considered Elite, as they nearly had super-strength and were almost impossible to beat without the strength talisman, or similar.

* After realizing that his regular mooks just weren't cutting it, ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' Season Three [[Big Bad]], [[Diabolical Mastermind|Brother Blood]], replaced them with completely mechanical copies of Titans member [[Genius Bruiser|Cyborg]]. The Titans still managed to take them down, of course, but it took a lot of strategizing and improvising where ordinary mooks would have just been effortlessly blasted through.

* [[Louis Cypher|Lucius]] on ''[[Jimmy Two Shoes (Animation)|Jimmy Two -Shoes]]'' as an entire supply of [[A Load of Bull|Minotaur]]-like enforcers, which are powerful enough to subdue even [[Enfante Terrible|Heloise]].

* Season 3 of ''[[Generator Rex (Animation)|Generator Rex]]'' features the "Black Pawns," elite soldiers brought in by Black Knight after she takes over Providence. They wear all-black versions of the standard Providence uniform, and are far more skilled at hand-to-hand combat than regular mooks, even giving [[Badass Normal|Six]] a run for his money. Later episodes imply that they're now the field commanders for Providence operations, even getting their own custom vehicles.