Escape Battle Technique

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One of the Standard RPG Items, or sometimes a skill. Unlike your regular Escape command (which may or may not work, depending on player/monster stats like Agility or Luck or allow the enemy to beat you up without retaliation while your party is busy skidding in place), this is an item/skill that is a guaranteed escape from any Random Encounters.

You generally won't find this in games that don't make a distinction between "field" and "combat", and you can't use it to flee from predetermined battle encounters (or a Boss Battle).

If the game normally penalizes the player for escaping midbattle, this item/skill can be used to escape without penalty. Alternately, in games where experience/money is awarded only for defeating all monsters in battle, this item may allow the player to receive experience/money for whatever monsters were defeated before they fled.

Compare Escape Rope, which is used for escaping a Dungeon Crawl, and Hyperspeed Escape, which is running away very, very quickly. The Ninja Log and Smoke Out are often used to do this.

Examples of Escape Battle Technique include:

Board Games

• The submarine's special power in Axis & Allies.

Comic Books

• Marvel Universe
  • The Silver Samurai and Viper had teleportation rings that they could use to escape hazardous situations.
  • Alpha Flight: The original Guardian armor could cancel out the effects of the Earth's rotation, causing it to instantly move westward at the Earth's rotational speed (about 1,000 miles per hour). This allowed the armor's user to essentially vanish from combat in the blink of an eye.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons and Dragons
  • The Deck of Many Things. One of the cards was Fates, which allowed you to avoid any situation, once.
  • There were also items like Teleport rings or the Helm of Teleportation that could send you to another location.
• Munchkin has several cards that can work this way; however, many of them can also be used to force your opponents to escape from battles they're actually capable of winning, which is often the preferable option.

Video Games

• Pokémon: the move Teleport and the items Poke Doll and Fluffy Tail (when used in battle) and Smoke Ball (when held in battle).
  • Pokemon with the "Run Away" ability can escape from any wild Pokemon guaranteed just by using the normal "Run" command.
  • The "Roar" and "Whirlwind" moves are inversions: they end wild Pokemon battles by forcing the opponent away, rather than the user, therefore working in situations where the user is blocked from escaping. Starting with the second generation, they can also be used in battles against fellow trainers, though not to escape--instead, when the opposing Pokemon runs, one of the trainer's other Pokemon is sent out in its stead.
• A staple of the Final Fantasy series, usually in the form of the "Escape" spell, but also:
  • In Final Fantasy IV, Edge can use a smoke bomb to get the party out of a battle.
  • There was a similar item in Final Fantasy VI.
  • Final Fantasy X has the Flee command, found near Tidus' starting point on the Sphere Grid.
• Present in all three Etrian Odyssey games. In the first two, the Protector can learn the Flee skill, which always escapes the party from any battle where they aren't trapped, and has a chance of dropping them at the last staircase they used. In the third game, the Ninja's "Tonsou Jutsu" skill does the same, but it's no longer a guaranteed escape (merely an increased chance), while the Shogun's "Retreat" skill simply takes you out of the battle.
• The Shining Force series has the "Egress" skill, usually only given to the main character. Since you (usually) cannot replay battles after finishing them, using Egress is one of the keys to Level Grinding.
• Zan Zarah had the garlic extract that scared away any attacking wild faeries but you had to buy it beforehand and it worked only in the sort time between being attacked and the Fight Woosh. During a fairy duel, making your way to the miniature sun at the center of the area allowed you to escape random encounters (but not boss battles). In a particular bit of cruelty, the wild faeries could use it, too, if they were losing badly, robbing you of the XP you earned in blood (that is, faery hit points).

Western Animation

• On Challenge of the Go Bots, the "Astro-Beam" used for ultra-long-range teleportation reverses itself after a certain period, and the bad guys are simply not there any more.