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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|Are you, are you ''[[Violation of Common Sense|scanning me in]] [[Free-Fall Fight|freefall now?]]'' How do you even do that?! What are you, ''[[Talking Is a Free Action|readin'?!]]''
|'''Ridley''', [[Slowbeef]]'s [[Let's Play]] of ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3''}}
An item, ability, or spell that when used provides the player with otherwise hidden information about the current enemy. This will often reveal the enemy's [[Hit Points]], [[Mana Meter]], attacks, [[Achilles' Heel|weaknesses]] (in [[RPG
Some games feature a [[Monster Compendium|Monster Encyclopedia]] of sorts that may be filled if the player wants [[100% Completion]] (in turn requiring the player to traverse the world and [[Gotta Catch Em All|perform this on every single enemy]]). Frustratingly, this can result in a [[Lost Forever]] if the enemy (or a [[Underground Monkey|specific variation of it]]) only appears a limited number of times.
This may [[Contractual Boss Immunity|or may not work on bosses]], especially the [[Final Boss]]. But it usually does work on [[Helpful Mook
Can become a [[Useless Useful Spell]] if it can only scan weak enemies you don't need to know much about to defeat.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* The Pokédex in the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime.
* Chopper in ''[[One Piece]]'' is capable of doing this in his intelligence oriented form, Brain Point, while under the effects of a Rumble Ball.
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* The R.E.A.D. software installed into the cellphones of the ''[[Air Gear]]'' universe allows people to check the statistics of nearby [[Rollerblade Good|A-T]] riders. These include their power level, class and the number of tricks they have performed.
==
* ''[[Airwolf]]'' features a similar system, which shows a line drawing of the attacking aircraft (or ship) with basic info on its weapons. As it finds the info, images of other aircraft are seen in a "searching display", including the Tu-95 "Bear" and the Tu-22M "Backfire".
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons
▲* [[Dungeons and Dragons]] 4th edition even has an item called the "Goggles of Aura Sight" which tells you how many HP the monster has, and any diseases or disease causing effects on him.
** In at least some of the editions there are the knowledge skills, some of which will tell you information about a creature you encounter upon a successful roll. How much info depends on the roll.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The Scan/Libra ability in ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' tends to reveal an enemy's current health and elemental weaknesses, among others. Depending on the incarnation, you may have access to this information for the rest of the battle.
** A boss from ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' actually used Scan on your party, which made little sense since the boss' attack patterns never changed after that. Plus, you can scan your own party. Scan can also be equipped to your characters in ''VIII'' for a stat increase, but the gain is ''maybe'' a 1% boost, so one would pretty much only do this if they were bored.
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** Libra is also vital in ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]''. It is a technique so it costs no MP to use and it lasts quite a while. Libra will show a targeted enemy's HP, reveals any weaknesses they have, and also reveals any traps in the field. Some accessories grant Libra status automatically.
** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' doesn't have abilities that let you read enemy HP since you can see their HP at all times, but it did have abilities that let you scan enemies for what kinds of loot they were carrying.
* Jeff's Spy ability in ''[[
** Its predecessor ''[[MOTHER]]'' had Check, which worked the same, but could be used by anyone and also provided a comment about the enemy.
** Likewise, Boney in ''[[Mother 3]]'' can Sniff an enemy to deduce their type and vulnerabilities. Some enemies have no scent, and some are too pungent for Boney to handle sniffing them.
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* ''Angband'' has the "Probing" ability, which gives the current hit-point total of monsters; in some variants it also gives information about resistances, vulnerabilities, and attacks.
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' has a version of this that's more useful than normal, mostly because it's [[Talking Is a Free Action|on/off]] rather than take a turn to use it once.
** Much more useful than you think at first. Unlike most
* ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' had the "Sight Scope" item (equipped to Lucca at the start of the game), which allowed the wearer to see all enemies' HP.
** [[Chrono Cross]] has the green elemental spell Infoscope, with the same effect.
* In ''[[Sly Cooper]] and the Thievius Raccoonus'', the Binoc-u-com can be upgraded to provide an
* As in the anime (see above), the Pokédex in the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games acts as this, with varied usefulness. A prominent use for it is to see where one could catch some of the rarer Pokémon.
** In terms of actual battle mechanics, Pokémon with the ability Frisk will reveal the opponent's held item, and the abilities Anticipation and Forewarn can give clues on the opponent's moves.
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* The Scan spirit command in ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' lets you see an enemy unit's statistics and only costs 1 SP to use, but since you can see the exact same information after you've traded blows with the enemy once, it's generally not worth it.
** Later games make it more useful by also decreasing the enemy accuracy by 10% for one turn.
* Enemy scanning is an important part of ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games. Once you have encountered an enemy, you get its basic data, like name, type and usually HP and MP. By attacking it with different attacks, you get to know (and keep info on) its strengths and weaknesses. This info is kept if you ever meet any more of it (and usually applies to any of its [[Palette Swap
** ''[[Devil Survivor]]'' averts this by giving you all the info you need straight off the bat.
** [[Mission Control|Fuuka]]: Give me a sec, I'll scan the target.
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* The power Surveillance from ''[[City of Villains]]'' and ''[[City of Heroes]]'', which not only lowers the defense and resistance of a single target, but allows you to see the scanned enemy's "real numbers".
* ''[[Xenosaga]]'' games have the "Analyze" Ether.
* ''[[Wild
* ''[[Blue Dragon]]'' has a magic book which lets you do this. Surprisingly, it's often the best (or only) way to find out the boss's weakness.
* ''[[Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al
* Tohsaka gives Shirou an unnamed book in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' that scans the abilities of a Servant and puts it into a form that the reader will easily understand if they look at it. Shirou's mind apparently puts things into RPG stat formulas with letter ranked abilities and bizarre numerical descriptors for Noble Phantasms.
* The PKE Meter and [[Goggles Do Something Unusual|Ecto Goggles]] in the modern ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' video games have this feature. The more thoroughly you scan a ghost, cursed artifact, spectral emanation, or any other from an assortment of supernatural entities, the more gameplay hints and quirky trivia you will discover in the [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|Tobin's Spirit Guide]].
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* The magic ring in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (video game)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]'' lets you scan everyone giving details of their health, wealth, alignment and other stats
* ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery]]'' has stethoscopes, which can be used on enemies to measure various stats. [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|Doesn't work on undead and constructs, because they're not alive.]]
* ''[[Desire Dungeon]]'' has the Wild Sense skill, gained by defeating the Werewolf. It is a passive skill that causes the enemy's HP and MP to always be displayed.
* This is a vital skill in ''[[Lust Grimm]]'', allowing you to view an enemy's stats, elemental weaknesses and resistances, drops, special abilities and profile.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Fishlegs develops (or already has) this skill in ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (animation)|How to Train Your Dragon]]'', being instantly able to identify a dragon's major abilities and weaknesses in a single glance (and doing so in hilariously familiar [[Tabletop Games|Tabletop Gaming]] terms).
** He's actually the resident dragon geek; he's not coming up with this stuff [[Sherlock Scan|with but the merest glance]], he's reciting from memory something he taught himself by rote years ago. Notice that he's less definite regarding the Red Death; they've never even heard of this thing before, so the best he can do is hazard an educated guess based on what the Vikings collectively know about the dragons they have encountered.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Technology is under development that will use radar to recognize specific types of weapons concealed on a person.
* Google's Project Glass is attempting to create this for real life by linking live recorded images to information about them on the internet.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Videogame Effects and Spells]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Sensory Tropes]]
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