Knockback: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{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.''|[[
The first and foremost reason why players hate those [[Goddamned Bats]], and the means by which many [[Ledge Bats]] send players plummeting to their doom....
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Knockback can also be used strategically, as a weapon of its own: A player on the losing end of a [[Fighting Game]] may be able to [[Instant Win Condition|trigger a surprise victory]] by [[Ring Out|knocking their opponent out-of-bounds]], and (by extension) the [[Ring Out Boss]] lives or dies by who gets knocked outside the arena first. A [[Get Back Here Boss]] may defend himself by knocking the player out of their attack range, and on the other hand a player can scatter a [[Zerg Rush]] with it, to engage and defeat foes individually. And then there's the [[Good Bad Bug]] known as the [[Rocket Jump]], exploiting the knockback of an explosive weapon to send the ''user'' airborne.
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
And speaking of strategic uses, knockback is all-too-often remembered for occuring during precision maneuvers, such as when making timed jumps across [[Floating Platforms]]; every videogame character has at some point been sent plummeting into [[Spikes of Doom]], or down the nearest [[Bottomless Pit]] due to taking a hit at the wrong moment; it's the culprit for many a [[Game Over]] screen (as well as a few [[Rage Quit|broken controllers]]).
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== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==
* As mentioned, [[Rocket Jump
* ''[[
** The ''[[Medal of Honor]]'' games also have hit-stun. If an enemy catches you off-guard at close range with an automatic weapon on Hard difficulty, you may be stunlocked. Conversely, due to the use of [[Hit Scan]], the knockback [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|doesn't affect the enemy's aim]], so they can continue shooting at you while apparently flinching. The snipers in ''Allied Assault'' not only deal the most damage and knockback of all mooks, but they also fire at a higher rate than the rifle infantrymen.
* Shotgun Z-Secs and Pinky Demons in ''[[Doom (
* In ''[[
== [[Platform Game]] ==
* ''[[La
* In the sidescrolling ''[[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
* In the ''[[
** 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]]''. :cough: [[Goddamned Bats|Medusa Heads]] :cough: [[Bottomless Pits]] :cough:.
** ''[[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 first ''Flintstones'' NES game made the player fall back and be stunned for a second when hit, often down the pit. The second game removed the knockback, although the stun effect remained.
* The protagonist in [[
* The large knockback in the original MSX ''[[
* The NES ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' trilogy. Like ''Mega Man'', it always occurs opposite the direction you're facing. This can be a problem if [[Cycle of Hurting|constantly assaulted]] by [[Goddamned Bats]] during a platforming sequence.
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* Many fighting games feature "grapple" and "throw" moves, and knocking an opponent out-of-bounds can trigger a [[Ring Out]] in various titles.
* Some fighting games like [[Guilty Gear]] have a pushblock mechanic that allows a defender to enter a state where the opponent is pushed away when their physical attack is blocked.
* The ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' series is based ''entirely around'' [[Ring Out
* Some games such as later ''[[King of Fighters]]'' entries take Knockback to an extreme, making some attacks capable of bouncing an opponent off the wall/floor in order to extend combos.
* A key game mechanic in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'', in the form of Wall/Floor/Ceiling Rush.
** In fact, Cloud's fighting style is aggressively dependent on Wall Rushing. Almost all of his skills have a high chance of Wall Rush, and his most basic attacks will generally send the opponent flying into a wall (or enable a chase scene, if the wall is too far away). Abusing this mechanic is his ''raison d'etre'': he's not just hitting you hard, he's hitting you hard, then slamming you into a wall for more damage while he rushes after you to rinse and repeat.
== [[Action Adventure]] ==
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' has various enemies whose main power is having more knockback than most, and the ''Oracle'' games featured a [[Ring of Power|ring]] that reduced knockback.
* The final segment of the [[Final Boss]] of ''[[Beyond Good
* ''[[
== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==
* While ''[[
* [[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
* ''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
== [[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
** Humorously, they can get so annoying in dungeons (they disrupt positioning and can knock enemies into reinforcements) that several classes have the ability to turn off the knockback aspect of the spell through the use of a glyph (Mages, Druids, and Shaman, for those who care.)
** The flinching ability is available from the start however, in the form of various stuns as well as interrupts.
* ''[[
* As an action MMO, ''[[Dragon Nest]]'' practically requires players to exploit the various forms of this trope as even [[Mook
* [[Star
* ''[[Maple Story]]'' is infamous for this; once you get to Lvl 140 and unlock Hyper Skills, one of them gives you Knockback Resistance.
== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==
* ''[[Gears of War]]'' 2 and 3 implement a "stopping power" system where being shot slows the player's movement toward the shooter. This was added to prevent players from charging through a hail of machine gun fire for a close-quarters execution with a shotgun. In addition, smoke grenades in 3 (and post-patch 2) cause a flinch effect, while in 1 and pre-patch 2 cause full-on knockback, though they deal no actual damage in either case.
== [[Turn
* [[Hoshigami]] has an entire game mechanic centered around knocking enemies into a chain of allies to incur massive damage and have a chance at stealing an item, but unfortunately setting up such a chain leaves your party very vulnerable so it's only useful for eliminating the last enemy on a map.
== [[Role
* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' when your character is hit by "impact" attacks (Explosive or telekinetic powers) he or she will stumble and move back a step or two. [[Justified Trope|This is completely logical given that they are being hit by a physical force]], but this effect is rather [[Egregious]] when your character is hit while ducking behind cover. In this case, when you are already crouched down on the ground, your character will ''stand up'' before they stumble and take a step back. This means your character is ''deliberately'' moving out of cover, since they take an independent action (standing up) before they are uncontrollably knocked back by the force, instead of simply falling down or stumbling where they were.
* [[The Elder Scrolls]]: Oblivion has an effect that may apply to [[Charged Attack|power attacks]] called "knockback". Mechanics-wise, this is more like [[Ragdoll Physics|"go completely limp"]] where you then have to struggle to your feet and hope the enemy doesn't pull one off again.
** 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.
*** One of the higher tier archery abilities, Power Draw, introduces knockback to arrows, half the time. Needless to say, the [[Stun Lock|ability to stun an opponent at range over and over again]] is almost a [[Game Breaker]]. The only reason it isn't is because it only affects creatures that are about as big as the player; dragons, for example, don't care about knockback at all.
* In ''[[Diablo]] II'', knockback is a specific effect that can be either part of an attack, or a modifier on a weapon. Knockback is guaranteed to make an enemy flinch and interrupt their attack, but it may take longer to kill enemies in melee because you'll have to keep walking up to them.
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** Also present in the game is the Topple status, which knocks the victim off their feet, and makes them completely unable to act or avoid attacks. It's essential to defeating some early bosses that can't be hurt while standing on their feet, and also turns into a bit of a [[Game Breaker]] later on, as topple inducing attacks can potentially be chained together to the point where the enemy can ''never'' get up until they're dead.
==
* ''[[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
== Tabletop Game ==
* [[Dungeons & Dragons]]:
** ''Player's Option - Combat and Tactics'' upgrade (sometimes known as "AD&D 2.5") has knockdown value given to all weapons. There's also Retreat - when creature A inflicts damage on creature B without retaliation in melee, A may opt to force B to move one step back (or if it's impossible, e.g. due to an obstacle, choose flank) - and then have choice whether to follow or allow disengage; but retreat doesn't provoke attack of opportunity, as it's resolved in the end phase. Those who cannot retreat (due to obstacles) are knocked down instead, with saving throw to avoid; and there are special cases (fighting on the stairs, climbing). It does not apply to the victims of 4+ greater HD or 2+ greater size category. But also may happen as a result of [[Critical Hit]]s to head or tail, as a [[Random Event]] and optionally as a called shot effect (instead of damage).
* ''[[Villains and Vigilantes]]'', being a comic book game, of course has knockback rules -- every point of damage a character takes which isn't absorbed by armor or invulnerability, and isn't "rolled with", knocks that character back five feet (one scale map square).
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Video Game Physics]]
[[Category:Video Game Tactical Index]]
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