Knockback: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Any outdoorsman will tell you the most frustrating part of hunting is when a deer simply '''FALLS DOWN''' when shot, and doesn't '''FLY BACKWARDS''' into the forest.''|[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]] [http://www.teamfortress.com/scoutupdate/force-a-nature.htm advertisement] of a weapon with high knockback}}

Of course, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|some enemies]] won't suffer any knockback ([[Immune to Flinching|or even flinch]]) when struck by the player's attacks -- forattacks—for [[Boss Battle|Bosses]], which are typically larger than the player already, this may be considered a standard part of their [[Contractual Boss Immunity]]. Likewise, players may sometimes be given this advantage via a [[Status Buff]] (or as a property of certain moves), and sometimes it is the only way to survive [[That One Attack]]. In [[Fighting Game|Fighting Games]]s, being immune to knockback is sometimes referred to as having "Super Armor".

If the protagonist is a [[One -Hit -Point Wonder]] then knockback is rarely a concern (except for some of the aforementioned uses), but may still occur if the hit cost the player their current powerup of their [[Video Game Lives|current life]].

{{examples|Examples}}

== [[First -Person Shooter]] ==

* As mentioned, [[Rocket Jump|Rocket Jumping]]ing is a common technique exploiting the blasts from explosive weapons.

* ''[[GoldenGoldenEye Eye007 (1997 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Golden Eye 1997]]'' and ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' have a knock back for the player if they get shot. This also stops the player from shooting for a brief second. Combine this with several enemy soldiers and you're bound to lose more than half your health while unable to to fire back. Luckily, the enemy AI is programmed to stop firing for a moment and then resume.

* Shotgun Z-Secs and Pinky Demons in ''[[Doom (Video Gameseries)|Doom 3]]'' both deliverable sizable knockback, the former bordering on [[Blown Across the Room]], and can result in [[Stun Lock]].

* In ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' regular attacks have an amount of knockback generally proportional to damage and only something like the Heavy's minigun does enough damage for this knockback to impede movement instead of just messing with aim. There are some special cases which do much more: explosives, the Scout's Force-A-Nature, sentry guns (which can be even harder to deal with than its damage, especially since the default [[Limit Break|Ubercharge]] does not protect against knockback), melee [[Critical Hit|Critical Hits]]s, and the Pyro's [[Attack Deflector|airblast]] (which does nothing ''but'' knockback). Probably the most bizarre thing is that damage over time (fire, bleeding) causes ''upward'' knockback for the sake of messing with the user's aim. The Soldier's Mantreads and the Quick-Fix's Ubercharge, respectively, reduce 3/4 and all knockback from sources that also inflict damage (i.e. everything but airblasts).

* ''[[La -Mulana]]'' utilized significant knockback. Touch even the slightest enemy or brush up against a spike and Lemeza is sent sailing across the room at full velocity, with no ability to alter his trajectory until he lands.

* In the sidescrolling ''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mega Man]]'' titles, knockback always occured relative to the direction Mega Man was facing, regardless of the direction of attack. In the "classic" series, it also interrupted charged Mega Buster shots (starting in ''5'', ''4'''s Mega Buster was more stable), and in ''9'', Proto Man suffered double the knockback of Mega Man.

* The sidescrolling ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' games generally provided [[Mercy Invincibility]] without knockback, which allowed players to short-circuit the fights with Bowser simply by running through him and grabbing the axe at the far end of the arena. This was changed in ''[[New Super Mario Bros (Video Game)|New Super Mario Bros.]]'', where coming in direct contact with Bowser knocks Mario back, away from the switch at the opposite end of the arena.

* In the ''[[Wonder Boy (Franchise)|Wonder Boy]]'' series (as well as its many ports), [[Mercy Invincibility]] only protected the player from further HP loss; it did not protect the player from being knocked back or juggled by repeated attacks.

** The rocks in the first game, which were the only non [[One -Hit Kill]] hazard, tripped Wonderboy when he ran into one, potentially bouncing him into an enemy or [[Bottomless Pit]].

** ''[[Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin]]'' has an equip that negates your character's stun animation (and by extension, knockback), [[Awesome but Impractical|but with it equipped, you may not notice that you're taking damage until it's too late.]]

** ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]'' has two distinct types of knockback. Usually, taking damage just shoves Alucard back a couple of steps, but if he takes one hit that depletes half or more of his maximum HP, [[Blown Across the Room|he goes flying and won't stop until he hits a wall]], at which point he briefly sticks to it before falling down. In the special Luck Mode, this severe knockback is what lets you skip the screen where Death steals Alucard's equipment thanks to his greatly lowered stats: in normal gameplay, the only time you're likely to see it happen is if Galamoth hits you with one of his more damaging attacks.

* The protagonist in [[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]] receives knockback only based on the direction he was hit from. This is an interesting case because while the character receives knockback, you're still in full control, enabling you to affect the distance of the knockback to a certain degree. In fact, the character rarely gets knocked ''back'', but often forward or forward and up. Furthermore, abusing vertical knockback from crashing into a flying enemy is the only way to get a certain item without backtracking (or grabbing the [[Recoil Boost|Machine Gun]]).

* The large knockback in the original MSX ''[[Valis (Video Game)|Valis]]'', combined with the lack of [[Mercy Invincibility]], frequently caused Yuko to be stunlocked and [[Cycle of Hurting|juggled to death]].

* The ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' series is based ''entirely around'' [[Ring Out|Ring Outs]]s; characters do not have depletable HP but instead receive greater knockback as they take damage, until they are inevitably thrown from the arena.

* A key game mechanic in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'', in the form of Wall/Floor/Ceiling Rush. Essentially--manyEssentially—many attacks send the opponent away from the fighter at high velocity. If an attack has the ability to wall rush, and there's a wall somewhere along the victim's trajectory, they'll slam into it for extra damage (base value of one-half of the damage done by the original hit in ''Dissidia'', one-quarter in ''Duodecim''). Interestingly, various attacks have various 'likelihoods' of wall rush--arush—a lot have zero chance of rushing, no matter if your opponent is right up next to the wall/ceiling, some have wall rush for a certain amount of distance (e.g. Bitter End can wall rush, but the opponent recovers if there's no wall for a long way), and a very amusing few (Nightglow, Shadow Bringer, and Cross Slash, for few) basically have guaranteed wall rush--sorush—so long as there ''is'' a surface to slam into, the opponent ''will'' do it--evenit—even if the closest wall is [[Punched Across the Room|hundreds and hundreds of meters away]].

* The final segment of the [[Final Boss]] of ''[[Beyond Good and& Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' suddenly ramps up the effects of the game's knockback--whileknockback—while present-but-negilible before, even a small attack will now result in the heroine getting totally decked. During one sequence of attacks, it is entirely possible to get "stunlocked" and make the fight [[Unwinnable]] until you inevitably die and get sent back to the checkpoint.

* ''[[Deadly Towers (Video Game)|Deadly Towers]]'' has Prince Myer get knocked in whatever direction is opposite the way he's facing quite a distance without a way to stop himself. Unfortunately, this game also features [[Bottomless Pits]]...

* While ''[[Warcraft (Video Game)|Warcraft]] III'' doesn't feature knockback, the trope's omnipresence is such that it's a very rare (custom) map that doesn't have this mechanism (such as ''[[Defense of the Ancients (Video Game)|Defense of the Ancients]]'' and its variants).

* [[Dawn of War]] has knockback for artillery and some units. Justified for some ([[Super Strength]], [[Psychic Powers]], etc), but it does get a bit ridiculous when the Kroot (lanky hollow-boned ''bird''-men) are upgraded to knockback units such as seven-foot-tall [[Power Armor|Power Armored]]ed [[Space Marines]] with the same ease as [[Made of Plasticine|ordinary Guardsmen]] and [[Our Goblins Are DifferentWickeder|Gretchin]]. Also a fallen unit ordered to move will do so while playing their "get up" animation, so they end up gliding majestically along the ground before getting up.

* ''Myth'' 1 and 2 have a flinch mechanic that is fairly central to gameplay as it allows certain rock-paper-scissors balancing. For example, the fast but unarmored Berserks can often kill heavily armored Warriors by whaling on them fast enough that the Warrior can't get a swing in from all the flinching. However, the same Berserks have a tough time against archers, as being hit causes the Berserk to stop running while he flinches--makingflinches—making him an easier target. Those heavily-armored Warriors are less likely to take damage from arrows, and still less likely to take enough to flinch.

== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] ==

* [[World of Warcraft]] featured knockbacks by various NPC mobs and bosses from when the game was first released, but players didn't get access to them until Patch 3.0, the ''Wrath of the Lich King'' expansion, when a small handful of abilities were given to various classes that would knock NPCs or other players back. [[The AI Is a Cheating Bastard|NPCs don't take falling damage and can run up some sheer cliffs]] so [[Knockback]] abilities are generally underpowered against them, but in certain limited circumstances [[Knockback]] effects can be very, very powerful in [[Pv PPvP]].

* ''[[City of Heroes (Video Game)|City of Heroes]]'' has three versions: knock back, knock up, and knock down. Almost all melee classes have a power that resists these effects. There also exist enhancements that provide the player with resistance to it, which are in very high demand as most players hate being knocked around by enemies. There also exist enhancements for increasing the knockback in your own powers.

* As an action MMO, ''[[Dragon Nest]]'' practically requires players to exploit the various forms of this trope as even [[Mook|Mooks]]s can easily do the same. Resistance to this trope can be a [[Game Breaker]] especially in PVP.

* [[Star WarstheWars: The Old Republic]] has it in various forms. From the simple 'interrupt' ability that interrupts abilities being cast or channeled (and preventing it from being cast again in a few seconds), then there are 'stun' and knock down abilities that is as good as it sounds (but also on very long cooldown), to knockback abilities that sends the enemies flying.

== [[Third -Person Shooter]] ==

== [[Turn -Based Strategy]] ==

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

** In [[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim|Skyrim]], a power attack will cause an opponent to stagger, and the Unrelenting Force shout will stagger an enemy, or send them flying at it's highest level.

== OtherSimulation Game ==

* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' has knockback as a possible effect of blunt attacks, launching the enemy a short distance calculated according to [[Loads and Loads of Rules|a staggering number of different variables]]. In previous versions this was [[Game Breaker|insanely]] but [[Good Bad Bugs|hilariously]] overpowered, with even fairly unremarkable warriors able to [[Punched Across the Room|launch opponents six or seven tiles]]. The recentlater combat mechanics overhaul makes knockback possible with ''all'' weapons, now that slashing or piercing attacks are re-rolled as bludgeoning ones if they fail to overcome the target's armour check, but [[Your Mileage May Vary|for better or worse]] it also severely nerfed it.

[[Category:Knockback{{PAGENAME}}]]