Fake Ultimate Mook: Difference between revisions

A monster whose massive, terrifying appearance is offset by such a massive, terrifying ''handicap'' that it rarely presents any actual threat at all. Essentially, they're regular [[Mooks]], just [[Giant Mook|bigger]] (and slower, [[Square-Cube Law|much slower]]). Later, you may encounter fully-powered versions of the [['''Fake Ultimate Mook]]''', or you may fight many of them at once, but a single one is of minimal threat.

Contrast with [[Giant Mook]], which is proportionally stronger ''because'' of its size; and the [[Boss in Mook Clothing]]. Polar opposite of the [[Killer Rabbit]], which is an extremely cute or otherwise harmless-looking creature that will grin and hand you your ass if given the opportunity. When it comes to [[Mook|Mooks]]s, its opposite is [[Invincible Minor Minion]]. Compare [[Surprisingly Easy Mini Quest]] for other situations where a tough fight or problem gets resolved with surprising ease. Subtrope of [[Paper Tiger]].

* The Giant Smiles in ''[[Killer 7Killer7]]'' can be considered these, since despite being somewhat annoying, they can be easily dispatched by walking up to them to set them off, then running away and watching as they very slowly topple over and explode.

* In certain ''[[Kirby]]'' games (''Squeak Squad'' and ''Amazing Mirror'', to be specific), there are giant versions of the Waddle Dees. The only way they're more powerful than their smaller kin? You need to hold the inhale button for a second or two to build up enough power to eat one. Oh, and they take slightly more damage to kill any other way--includingway—including simply running into them and taking the hit.

* In ''[[Fire Emblem]]: [[Fire Emblem: theThe Sacred Stones|The Sacred Stones]]'', the Cyclopses are really huge, but do <s>relatively small amounts of damage</s> quite a bit less damage than you'd expect... and to add insult to injury, their attacks are easily evaded. Add their low resistance or vulnerability to a [[Infinity+1 Sword|Sacred Twin]] weapon, and they go down like rocks.

*** The fact that they use axes also contributes to that whole "easily evaded attacks" thing, as axes are the strongest, but heaviest and least accurate (physical) weapons in the game. <ref>The hierarchy of power/accuracy for the physical weapons goes in order from axes to lances to bows to swords, with swords being the weakest but lightest and most accurate.</ref> Too bad for the Cyclopses that the power of axes is insufficient to compensate for their surprisingly low Strength... though they do have high Constitution, so it's not like even the bigger axes slow them down much. (But they're already plenty slow and inaccurate without being weighed down by their weapons.)

* With the development of circle-strafing and mouse-aiming, even the mighty [[Doom (series)|Cyberdemon]] has become this, at least in the original ''Doom''. Later games based on the engine (i.e. Plutonia Experiment, Doom 64) usually used level design (i.e. small rooms, tight corridor mazes) to prevent you from simply circle-strafing him to death.

** Similarly, in the original ''Doom'' the Spider Mastermind (Episode 3 endboss) was far easier to defeat than the Cyberdemon (Episode 2 endboss) not least because Episode 3 allowed the player to use the original [[BFGBig Freaking Gun]]. In addition, the Cyberdemon has more hitpoints (4000 vs. the Spider Mastermind's 3000). 3000 hit points, incidentally, is ''less'' than the maximum possible damage done on a close-range BFG shot, so unlike the Cyberdemon, the Spider Mastermind can be a [[One-Hit Kill]] for a lucky space marine.

== [[Role -Playing Game]] ==

* ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has its own [[Fake Ultimate Mook]] in the ''Honest Hearts'' DLC. [[Everything's Worse with Bears|Yao Guai]] return from ''Fallout 3'', and the locals seem to think that they're Hell on wheels. While they're competent enemies, they lack any kind of ranged attack and have merely decent damage and hit points. Already significantly weaker than the Mojave's Deathclaws, Yao Guai are ultimately rendered Fake Ultimate Mooks by the geography of ''Honest Hearts''--it—it takes place almost entirely in meandering canyons, meaning that shooting them from high ground makes them drop with ease.

** A tribal even comments that you probably don't have anything as bad as Yao Guai where you're from, despite Yao Guai being considerably easier to deal with than about 80% of the enemies in the Mojave--andMojave—and being no match whatsoever for the armed tribals you fight for most that very DLC.

* Battle alphas were some of the most powerful monsters in the first ''[[Geneforge]]'', so it's a bit of a surprise in the beginning of the third game when, after a whole bunch of them kill most of your teachers, one of them attacks you. Not to worry, though--itthough—it's already badly wounded, and you can finish it off in a couple of hits. (Full-strength battle alphas don't appear for quite a while longer, and make for much more respectable foes.)

* In ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'', being bigger is only a nominal advantage at best, and can also be a notable disadvantage. While many very difficult monsters (dragons, for example) ''are'' large, oversized zombies are not really any harder than regular ones.

** Weirdly, no rule explicitly states that larger beings are inherently stronger. Almost every size-increasing effect ''also'' explicitly increases Strength, and adding hit dice to animals and animal-like monsters will increase size and Strength simultaneously. Being larger ''does'' grant automatic bonuses to other things--notablythings—notably, it increases the difficulty of most combat maneuvers (grappling, tripping, etc.), improves Intimidate checks, grants access to larger size categories of weapons (which are ''slightly'' more expensive but typically have noticeably increased damage), and extra reach (which is ''priceless''). It also carries some built-in ''penalties''--the—the most noteworthy are penalties to Hide checks, attack rolls (since everything is, relatively speaking, smaller to you), and Armor Class (since you're a bigger target to everyone else). Small characters get all of this in reverse. The end result is that a 10 foot tall Orge berserker is typically easier to deal with than a 3 foot gnome assassin as the Ogre is typically reduced to swinging wildly and destroying anything it actually manages to hit.

* In [[EveEVE Online]], frigates (the smallest combat ships in the game) are often used against battleships (the largest non-capital combat ships in the game) with great efficiency. The battleships guns are unable to track and hit the small, fast frigates and end up doing no damage most of the time. Mind you - should you stop just for a few seconds, you'll be torn apart very quickly - battleships with low refire guns are often quite capable of taking an immobile frigate in a single volley. In fact, when in a gang, frigates are often used as "tacklers" - to stop the enemy from fleeing. It's not that uncommon to have a single frigate prevent a capital ship from jumping away for long enough to get reinforced by a friendly fleet. This means that your friend who just created an account can be ready for battle in just a few days - flying the "weakest" ship with great efficiency. Also, comparing the price of a frigate and battleship...

== Non-gaming examples: ==

=== [[TelevisionLive-Action TV]] ===

* An example from [[Demon Eater]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100403113119/http://www.drunkduck.com/Demon_Eater/index.php?p=418561 Tremble in fear!] Oh, wait... [http://www.drunkduck.com/Demon_Eater/index.php?p=432607 Never mind.]{{Dead link}}