Low-Level Run: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Variation of the [[Self
This challenge is just impossible in some games, but others are well-suited for it. These include games where tactics or reaction time outweighs raw power, as well as games where characters' statistics can be raised to a competitive level without [[Level Grinding]].
Compare [[Minimalist Run]], where the objective is to finish the game using as little equipment as possible.
{{examples|Examples}}▼
* ''[[
* ''[[
** There is a title for Lloyd obtained by getting to a certain point in the game with a party level total below a certain number.
** The [[New Game
* ''[[
** There is, in fact, a [http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/588739/24216 walkthrough] available on [http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/game/588739.html GameFAQs] detailing steps to complete the game without having Mario advance beyond Level 3. The Level 3 Run is possible mostly because it is possible to turn Mario's standard 3 FP Jump attack into a [[Disc One Nuke]]. For later portions of the game, usage of [[Guide Dang It|some hard to find]] items such as the Star Egg and Lazy Shell is necessary to turn Bowser into a [[Stone Wall]].
* It is possible to go through the ''[[Paper Mario]]'' games with the starting stats of 10HP and 5FP. Level-ups are given to the Badge Points (which do nothing [[Exactly What It Says
* Every ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' game has had someone do this, including the ones that don't actually use levels:
** Performing a
** Of the [[Final Fantasy]] games, ''[[
*** While conversely, a high-level but no-Junctioning game is the hardest self-imposed challenge in the entire series. It's impossible. Early in the game, by killing a few water monsters and junctioning their items, you can get 60 strength; at maximum level, unjunctioned, you get a max of 50. No items, no magic, no summons, and no card games either, without a junction.
*** Ironically, ''Final Fantasy VIII'' is the only game that makes it ''easy'' to get through the game without earning Experience Points. Bosses don't provide EXP; and random-encounter monsters can be turned into playing cards using a special ability (don't ask), which likewise averts EXP gain. Using this method, it is possible to beat ''[[
** The level 1 challenge in ''[[
** ''[[
*** Uniquely for ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', since experience in X doesn't net you anything until you spend it on stats and abilities, you can fight (and win) all the battles you like and still be playing "low level" (NSG). This has obvious use in farming.
** A
** At least one person has attempted to get as far as they could in ''[[
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' games do everything in their power to make a Low-Level Run impossible, with the specter of [[All Deaths Final|permanent character death]] always looming and untrained characters becoming increasingly (and mathematically) unable to stand up to enemies the more you neglect them. However, each game usually gives you several pre-promoted powerhouse units to recruit that are weaker over the long run, but ensure that you won't become [[Unwinnable By Mistake|completely stuck]] (excluding the very early Famicom installments).
** [http://www.youtube.com/user/DD151/videos This guy] has many videos that demonstrate the next best thing to a Low-Level Run in ''Fire Emblem'': the games are hacked to reduce all stat growths to 0% (stats never increase except from stat boosters and promotion), while usually recruiting all characters, keeping everyone alive, and to really drive the point home, [[Beyond the Impossible|does all of this on the hardest difficulty settings.]] Suddenly those pre-promotes are a whole lot more valuable to your survival when they're the only people you've got with decent stats. Finishing maps quickly also becomes paramount to avoid having to fight strong reinforcements. The only game in which he lets units die is ''[[Fire Emblem Akaneia|Shadow Dragon]]'', since the sidequest chapters in that game [[Violation of Common Sense|require you to let enough people get killed to unlock them]].
* ''[[
* ''[[Castlevania]]: [[Portrait of Ruin]]'' has a mode where you can stop your characters from gaining more levels after a certain point. This even allows you to stay at Level 1 the entire game. Since this can only be activated when playing the hardest difficulty level of the game, it can make for an almost impossible challenge when playing as certain characters.
** But noticeably and notably easy for the main characters, even with the Level 1 restriction, because the money you can grind for, and the variety of vital sub-weapons that can be developed to maximum power, makes all the difference in one's survivability; for example, stock up on lots of potions each time you make a little progress and (ab)use them all together in the same boss fight to take down many earlier bosses. The hardest boss would be {{spoiler|Death}} at around halfway because after that point, start fighting Old Axe Armor enemies until they drop a suit of armor named Ancient Armor, which causes any attack that hits you to only decrease your HP by 10%. The rest of the mode becomes cake among Low Level Runs.
*** The most difficult challenge in the game is to beat Hard mode with a level 1 restriction with the [[Joke Character|Old Axe Armor]]. You can't use any of the items you'd normally be able to use with the main characters and your less powerful than Richter and Maria. Dracula takes forever to beat, but it's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xZgsjfsj14 possible].
** ''[[Order of Ecclesia]]'' has level caps in its Hard Mode as well. Presumably, this would be fairly simple for Shanoa (as simple as [[Nintendo Hard|that game]] can get) thanks to the Villager sidequests, but may the Ruinous Powers help you if you try it on {{spoiler|Albus}} Mode.
* In ''[[Diablo (
** An allegedly popular set of challenges in ''[[Diablo (
** There's also the literal lowest-level-possible challenge, which can be attempted only using outdated patches. And we have the Ironman challenges of various difficulty, the impossible no-items-no-skills-no-stats challenge, and of course any build or item choice less than optimal will be challenging at least to defend against hecklers.
* ''[[
* ''[[Star Control]] II'' is the most extreme example of this. Although there's no such thing as levels, you can play through the entire game without ever visiting the Rebel Base at Earth. From there you have no upgrades to your flagship, a ''very'' short supply of fuel, very few combat ships (gained via alliance pacts, which are rare in themselves) and to top it all off, [[Beef Gate|a new enemy appears every day (about five seconds in real time) headed right at you]]. You are ''screwed''. The worst part is that even if you can consistently fight off the enemies with 0 damage, each battle resets your ships direction, and due to lack of upgrades, you're forced to travel everywhere with the slowest possible rotation rate and ship speed. Did I mention there's a time limit in the game?
** This was discovered ''more than ten years'' after the game was released, and was not an intended feature. Unfortunately, playing the game like this made it crash immediately before [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] (where, in the normal course of things, there's a sequence involving the Rebel Base). Fortunately, by the time it was discovered, the game was already open source and the bug could be fixed easily.
* The ''[[City of Heroes]]'' version is to create a 1st level character and race numerous other first levelers through three increasingly dangerous zones. It is an exercise in aggro management, where any villain could kill you with a sneeze and drawing attention is instant death.
* The first ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (
** Not really much of a challenge because this only applies to your main created character. Feel free to powerlevel your two lackeys to your heart's content. Not to mention grenades can carry you through Taris pretty easily.
* Speaking of [[
* ''[[
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'':
** In the Final Mix+ rerelease of ''[[
** This can also be done in the original [[
** In ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
** Likewise in ''[[Kingdom
* The closest thing you can do in "Pokemon" to a more conventional low-level run is the "
** Behold: [http://www.megavideo.com/?v=CR3CGTHZ Level 7 Mew takes on the Elite Four.]{{Dead link}} The input wasn't recorded in real time, but no cheats were used. Of course, the Elite Four gives so much experience to a battler that it's hardly a low-level run by the end.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkVT1KjojCk Cynthia has now been beaten by a team of level 1's.]
** To prevent people from downloading the newest games, [[Pokémon Black and White|Black and White]], a "no experience" security patch was added. A lot of people actually use said patch to challenge themselves.
* Since you only gain a level in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] [[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
** ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] [[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has two different forms of this; Level 1 Gnome (or Tauren) races often end in an opposing faction's capital, and making your way through is an exercise in aggro management and sheer patience. On the other hand, it's possible to enter many raid dungeons five levels before you are supposed to (the game simply refuses anyone of lower level than that).
** There are videos of people solo-ing 25-man raid bosses using just the right combination of exploits. Iin particular, someone figured out that a warlock could kite one of the bosses in Serpentshrine Caverns by throwing instant-speed dots and running up and down stairs a lot.
*** This kind of thing is considered an exploit by Blizzard and can easily get your account banned. However in ''[[
** Not to mention various people ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHWyJT2QRMM succeeding]'' in getting a bunch of level one Gnomes to kill Hogger. Needless to say, they are an amusing spectacle.
*** The Warcraft Hunters Union downed Ysondre (balanced for 40 level 60s) with level 2 hunters, as well as Gnomeregan with a party of level 19 hunters.
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** A recent addition promoted Low Level Runs to officially-endorsed status by allowing players to disable experience gain altogether
* There are people crazy enough to take on ''[[God Hand]]'' on Hard Mode, with only the starting moves, while still keeping their Kick-Me Sign on. By the end of the game, your starting moves are practically [[Scratch Damage]]. Hard Mode locks the [[Dynamic Difficulty]] on its highest level, "Level Die". The Kick-Me Sign falls off if you use either the [[Super Mode|God Hand]] or [[Limit Break|God Reels]]. People have beaten the game this way.
* Many a [[Speed Run]] in [[RPG
* Some [[Platform Hell]] ''[[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]]'' ROM hacks enforce a
* This is easy to do in ''[[
* The introduction of "instanced" areas, where difficulty is determined by a given player's level, has made joining groups with a much lower-level player into a viable tactic in [[Gaia Online]] MMO ''zOMG!'' The low-level player is sent in first to set the difficulty of the enemies, and then his high-level buddies come in, walk all over the enemies, and revive their sacrificial victim if necessary. Side effects may include situations where the low man is the last person standing against Queen Lorelei... and wins.
* The ''[[Soul Blazer]]'' trilogy has different amounts of success with low-level runs. Soulblazer requires the vast majority of monster lairs to be sealed in each level in order to finish that level (as the NPCs do aid you in your quest by supplying items or opening pathways to let you continue). Some can be avoided. But to kill the final boss, Deathtoll, you need the Phoenix magic and the Soul Blade, which requires a bare minimum of level 24 (out of 50); anything less and you can't even touch him , never mind hurt him.
** ''Illusion of Gaia'' has a very unique levelling system, wherein clearing each room of a level gives you a permanent stat increase in either HP, Str, or Def. But when it comes time to face a boss, you get the stat increases anyway, so you underlevelling is actually pointless.
** ''Terranigma'', on the other hand, has very few monsters that actually have to be killed. Aside from the bosses of course, only a handful of monsters throughout the game have to be killed in order to open certain hitherto blocked gateways, making underlevelling very possible. The game has now been completed at a measly '''level 13''' (out of 50)...giving critical hits of 2 points damage to the final boss (who has like 1200HP or something).
* A version of this exists in ''X-Com UFO Defense'', in which one uses only default equipment except for the ship needed to get to the final battle. No lasers, no plasma, no stun bombs or blaster launchers...
* Trying to beat the game with only three hearts is a perennially popular challenge for all ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' games.
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* ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' has a varation of this with a No Merchant, No Attache Case run. No Merchant meaning you can never buy new weapons or upgrade your current ones and No Attache Case meaning you can never access your inventory. This means the only weapons you can still use are your combat knife and the basic handgun and you can only use healing items when you find them, so you can never use Yellow Herbs to increase Leon's or Ada's maximum health.
** ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'' has something similar, although the inventory is accessible by default.
* A ''[[River City Ransom]]'' tool-assisted [https://web.archive.org/web/20110614065327/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6837837618559851663
* ''[[
* The soullevel 1 challenge in ''[[
* The ''[[Gothic]]'' expert "[[The Wonderer]]" has beaten Gothic II with Expansion with level 6. You can download the videos [http://www.worldofgothic.de/dl/download_207.htm here] (in german).
* The [[Epic Battle Fantasy]] series (as well as [[Spin
* ''[[
* ''[[Nethack]]'' has an unusual example where
* ''[[Wild
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