Empty Levels: Difference between revisions

* Some racing games, eg ''[[Need for Speed]] Underground'', do this, making the opponents faster and cheaper the more your car is upgraded.

* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'' (And, by extension, ''[[City of Villains]]''), this basically happens every 5 levels. Rather than having actual equipment, you slot your powers with "upgrades", each of which has its own level. You can equip enhancements that are as much as 3 levels higher than your own level, which makes their effect greater - it then decreases as you level up, while they remain static. When their level becomes lower than yours, they begin to lose their effect. Enhancements of every level [[Randomly Drops]], but rarely the exact type ''you'' need. And the stores only sell enhancements with levels divisible by 5. The end result is that you're at your strongest when your level ends with 3 or 8 (since enhancements have a chance to merge for a +1 level bonus), and then steadily become weaker as you level up, until you're able to buy your ''next'' set of upgrades... putting you back at roughly the same level of strength you were at 5 levels ago. Fortunately, this has largely been superseded by the addition of craftable Invention Origin Enhancements, which don't degrade (instead, higher levels ones are stronger).

** A more conventional use of the trope is the way that some levels provide a new power choice, while others only provide you with a few enhancement slots. While enhancements are the key to building a truly powerful character, these levels are rather less interesting - especially at lower levels, when the only available enhancements are rather weak, or higher levels, when all of the most important powers will already be fully slotted.