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Lowered Monster Difficulty: Difference between revisions
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* '''Newfound respect for [[Mook Chivalry]].''' If the menace is a pack of creatures whose teamwork was what let them prevail over the victims, they may suddenly decide to engage the main characters one by one and get taken apart piecemeal.
If the monster becomes less difficult when there are many of them, that's [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]] - of course, contrast with the fourth clause above. Related: [[Strong
In video games, this may [[Degraded Boss|downgrade bosses]] into regular encounters. If the monster's difficulty decreases over a long series, it may be because the characters are getting stronger and the monster [[Can't Catch Up
Compare [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]], [[Third-Act Stupidity]], [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him]], [[Villain Decay]].
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* Major 'boss' fights in the ''[[Claymore]]'' anime take several episodes to defeat, and as a result the weakening of each boss fits every bullet point of this trope to a tee. Even the obligatory constant taunting.
** Perhaps justified, in that they usually use superior numbers and delaying tactics to prolong the battles and wear the opponent out. In effect, they're invoking this trope.
* In ''[[
** Especially odd in Gilgamesh's case. Canonically, he is the single most powerful Servant, PERIOD. It's generally agreed that, while not the most powerful character in the [[Nasuverse]] (Zelretch and Archetype Earth can probably beat him), against any other Servant there is no reason he should ever lose. The only reason Enuma Elish is survivable at all is because he's deliberately holding back its full strength. The guy is deliberately lowering his own difficulty, mainly due to his ''galactic''-sized ego. If he was a bit less arrogant and a bit more of a [[Combat Pragmatist]], he'd wipe the floor with everyone.
*** However, he could potentially destroy himself if he used more power, Ea being an Anti-World Noble Phantasm and all.
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* The mechas used in [[Utawarerumono]] were at first very destructive and nigh invincible. Later they are defeated so easily that they are brought down off screen. They didn't even bother showing how they were taken down. Hakuoro destroys one with a single stroke.
** Somewhat justifiable; by this point, {{spoiler|a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] that formerly served Kunnekamun had joined with Tusukuru and provided firsthand demonstration of the mechs' weak points. Why the armies of the many nations steamrolled by Kunnekamun never thought to shoot or slash the ''giant, unarmored, fleshy areas'' on the Avu-Kamuu is... not elaborated on.}}
* Done intentionally in ''[[
* In ''[[Kikaider]]'', he fights a new [[Monster of the Week]]. Fighting one alone is usually no easy task for him, but in the OVA series, Gill is creating an entire army of duplicated copies of all the robots he ever fought. He managed to kill all of them, with lightening speed. Though this isn't to show the monsters got weaker as much as Jiro became an unstoppable killing machine.
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* A few of the monsters from the [[Godzilla]] series suffer from this (notably King Ghidorah), but none worse than Hedorah. In ''Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster'', he's arguably Godzilla's most powerful foe in the entire original series (with the possible exception of Mechagodzilla). Decades later, in ''Godzilla: Final Wars'', he's killed in about 20 seconds.
* In the second ''[[Alien vs. Predator]]'' film, the Aliens are severely weakened. While the other films (include the first ''[[Alien vs. Predator]]'') tended to vary exactly how powerful they were and the precise nature of their abilities, this one kneecapped them almost entirely for the sake of the [[Predator]] protagonist.
* ''[[Ip Man]]'' shows the fourth clause in his fight against ten Japanese pugilists. Immediately before that, in Master Liu's {{spoiler|final}} 3v1 fight, the Japanese pugilists were clearly working together to prevent him from comboing any of their number down. However, when the titular hero goes to bat, none of them interfere when he pulls off his [[Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs]] [[Finishing Move]] on any of them. It would perhaps have made the fight more "realistic" to have them interrupt. It would also have further increased Ip Man's [[Badass]] quotient if he had done [[The Bourne Series (
* One of the most jarring cases of this occurs in ''[[Jurassic Park]] 2''. Dinosaurs who are ruthlessly efficient and accurate when taking down most of their victims do mind-baffling stupid things when facing the lone woman and little girl in the area such as patiently waiting for the little girl to finish her gymnastics routine which ends with the Raptor kicked away somehow, despite how small she is and how little momentum she had accumulated or fighting amongst each other for the 'right'(?) to kill the fleeing woman.
** The raptors also suffer badly from this in the first [[Jurassic Park]] movie as well.
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* To an extent, the Kraken in the second ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' movie. In its first appearance, it snaps a (small) ship with its mighty tentacles while dragging it down in instant. In the subsequent appearances, menacing the heroes, its tentacles slowly curl around the (significantly larger) ships. Since Will Turner had been subject to an attack on the Kraken's second victim, he was able to quickly devise a plan to temporarily counter it. Perhaps because they couldn't find a way to have the heroes kill it without it being an even worse cause, in ''At World's End'' {{spoiler|Davey Jones kills it himself under orders of Beckett [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome|entirely offscreen]].}}
* The critters in ''[[Pitch Black]]'' are a prime example of this trope. At the beginning of the film, they are clearly crawling around while there's still sunlight visible. Later on, a dimly luminescent glass jar can send them screaming away.
* Roger Ebert called this the "Hero's Death Battle Exemption" and cited the movie ''[[Prophecy (
* The Arachnids in the film ''[[Starship Troopers (
* Averted in ''[[Tremors]]''. The first few victims were killed and sucked through the ground without giving them a chance to escape. By the middle of the film, we had two of of them going after a single person, and even one coming up directly under her and she still managed to escape. By contrast, a few Graboids learn and plan, and all refuges become either temporary or a second form of slow death as they work out how to get their prey.
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** That was actually a T-600. {{spoiler|In the climactic battle, the T-800 withstands a colossal amount of punishment.}}
* The only reason Indian Joe from the ''Tom and Huck'' movie with Jonathan Taylor Thomas doesn't come out on top is he acts like a spider: He surveys his prey, walking s l o w l y toward them, and if they run away, he follows at a leisurely pace. Even when he's trying to take revenge at the end, even when he momentarily catches Tom (who pulls free and runs off). This, despite the fact that he's been shown to vanish in a split-second when he confronts Tom halfway through the movie (so obviously he moves fast). He lost only to a sort of very odd hubris.
* The Demon in ''[[A Nightmare
* In ''A Lonely Place To Die'' the bad guys range from being crack shots with their rifles to being hopeless marksman depending on who they are shooting at; they are hopelessly unable to hit the fairly nearby heroine as she slowly climbs away from them in broad daylight but a few hours later one of the same gunman can effortlessly hit someone (twice!) through a window at night with fireworks going off around him.
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* The Ubervamps in season 7 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Took Buffy SEVERAL EPISODES to kill ONE of them... and in the finale, each of the newbie slayers takes down dozens.
** And even that one Ubervamp had lowered difficulty, going from stake-deflecting skin to being decapitated with wire. (Buffy's hands presumably got an upgrade to avoid having her fingers cut off in the attempt.)
** Not only Slayers, but normal humans Giles and Wood ([[Badass Normal|badass normals]]), Dawn (sort of a [[Badass Normal
** Writer/creator [[Joss Whedon]] even [[Lampshade Hanging|mentioned]] this in the episode's commentary, [[Hand Wave|handwaving]] the problem by saying that that "isn't what it's about."
** Normal vampires had similarly varying levels of capability. It would seem more likely the "ubervamps" weren't really any better than the earthly variety, just uglier. The first one was probably handpicked by the first so it was very hard -- like the vampire [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] in the early seasons -- while the rest were just common [[Mooks]].
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* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' has the Wraith. In early episodes, killing or even disabling a Wraith is insanely difficult. Later on, Wraiths become <s> almost</s> as easy to take out as humans. Unlike the Jaffa, no reason is given for this. During their first appearances, killing a Wraith requires emptying an entire magazine from a P90 and a some luck. By season 2, Wraiths die not only from a single burst from a P90, but are as easily killed by a few bullets from a 9mm pistol or a single stab from a knife.
** Later it was explained that the Wraith were losing their food source and that almost works until they start wasting their energy reviving people.
* The Borg of ''[[Star Trek]]'' also had some of this. After adapting to the Enterprise's weapons in their first encounter, a Borg Cube is initially [[Nigh Invulnerable|completely impervious]] to all attacks by Federation ships, able to single-handedly destroy a fleet of 39 ships while taking no significant damage in return and is only stopped in the end by [[Hollywood Hacking]] the hive mind. Later depictions have toned down this perfect adaptation, such that in ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'', a large fleet of ships is capable of damaging a Cube and eventually destroying it by aiming at a weak point.
** Actually, during the first time they were immune to Federation attacks because they had just assimilated Picard, who knew all about Federation weapons, technology and tactics. By the time of First Contact, it stands to reason that the Federation had developed new weapons (and possibly tactics) specifically to fight the Borg, which Picard obviously couldn't know about during his assimilation a few years earlier.
** On the other hand the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' series finale averts this. Voyager could only defeat the Cubes because {{spoiler|of super-armor and weapons Admiral Janeway had brought from the future}}. Even then, the Borg adapt fast enough that the last Sphere is able to damage Voyager.
* In the ''[[Star Trek:
** Justified: Until the Enterprise arrives, no weapon has worked against it; in fact Spock even has to modify the Starfleet phasers to make them more effective. The ''first'' time Kirk meets the creature, he shoots instantly, and severely wounds it; thus, on their next encounter, the creature has learned to fear his weapon.
* ''[[Supernatural]]'' has moments like this in some episodes. The [[Wendigo]] in the same-titled episode is show to be a lightning fast, shadowy death machine and an expert hunter. Yet when the main characters confront it in its lair it just lumbers along casually despite the fact it ''knows'' they have weapons that can hurt it. It's not really surprising when it dies in one shot.
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** Played straight in the Monolith FPS with the Aliens.
** Averted in the Rebellion FPS games, where the Aliens are highly threatening and tricky.
* Igor, the second boss in ''[[
* ''[[
* Mendoza in ''[[Command and Conquer]]: Renegade''. He appears twice in the game before a climactic battle, only to be hurt a little and escape (even saying "I'll finish you later!" before flying off in a helicopter). He's invincible while escaping, and each time he returns, he's back to full health. When he finally fights a pitched battle against Havoc, he's at full health again, but as easily hurt as before.
* ''[[Crysis (
** Also, in ''[[Crysis (
* In ''[[Dead Space (
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', it is possible at certain points in the game to bump into the Guardian, which is an invulnerable boss. The only way to survive the encounter was to run from the battle. The Guardian then reappears in the final dungeon, with the Guardian switching to "Attack Mode" when you face it as a proper boss. Before that it was in the unbreakable "Defense Mode".
** Also [[Inverted Trope|inverted]] with Kefka, who turns from a comic relief pest who's [[Not Worth Killing]] when you first meet him, a wuss on the second encounter, a fairly difficult boss battle the third time, to curbstomping the Empire's finest warrior without even caring. And this is all before his ascension to [[A God Am I|godhood]].
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' you can recruit a [[Killer Rabbit|Tonberry]] that can inflict this trope on monsters.
* Videogame bosses are frequent victims of this: they can be damaged in the designated battle, but are [[Hopeless Boss Fight|invincible]] if the player encounters them before then. Two examples from the ''[[
** Ridley in ''Super Metroid'' subverts this. You briefly encounter him at the start of the game, and usually he'll end up reducing you to 20 energy before flying off. However, it's possible to deal him enough damage to cause him to flee.
* [[Metal Gear]] RAY comes pre-decayed for your convenience. When introduced, they're introduced as a weapon built to destroy [[Metal Gear]] REX and its knockoffs. But Raiden can take out hordes of them more easily than Solid Snake could take out one REX. {{spoiler|And when you finally get a chance to pilot REX against the [[Super Prototype]] RAY the battle is still not that difficult.}}
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**** Actually, Snake does fare a little better each time he faces her. Compare his cut scene battle at the end of the game, where he actually keeps up with her for a while, with his battle at the start, where she completely destroys him.
* The SA-X in ''[[Metroid]] Fusion'' undergoes one of these. Early in the game, it is introduced as a sort of [[Badass]] that you must run away from very quickly and will liquefy you if you look at it too long, but eventually Samus winds up defeating the SA-X. {{spoiler|Well, one of them, there are apparently quite a number of SA-Xs by the time that you get to this fight.}} Can be justified, as Samus is slowly regaining her powers throughout the game. Plus, it's still not easy: in a straight firefight, Samus would get wiped out by the SA-X.
* In ''[[Paper Mario (
** Of course, Jr. Troopa's entire schtick is that he's a one man [[Terrible Trio]], being substantially weaker than the heroes every time they encounter him. He's a tough fight, but it's difficult to lose to him.
* The Necrons of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' demonstrate this trope on a race-wide scale: at first, they were enigmatic and virtually unknown, and also virtually unstoppable. Fast-forward a bit to when they're a known presence in the galaxy by everyone with much less mystery, and they're bordering on [[Chew Toy]] status.
** The last version of the game does not directly nerf them, but various rule changes hurt them so badly they are almost a joke now.
* An entirely different type of of "lowered monster difficulty" is in R&D games like ''[[X-COM]]''; you gain new technology that outclasses even the [[Big Bad]] aliens. This isn't [[Can't Catch Up
* The Brutes in [[Halo]]. In Halo 2 they had no shields, yet could shrug off tons of damage and attempting to melee them was pretty much suicide. In Halo 3 they have shields, yet once those are gone they are pretty weak (outside of [[Elite Mook]] versions) and they can be beat around in melee combat. In Reach they rarely have shields yet aren't much tougher than unshielded Halo 3 Brutes (and can be beat around just as easily), and even the [[Elite Mook]] versions go down in a few headshots (bar the few that do have shields). This also coincides with them having less influence on the plot; they start off very important but by Reach they are just another type of [[Mook]].
* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'', one of the main antagonists, Llednar Twem, has a law that makes him literally unbeatable (the in-game rules made it illegal to beat him, the actual gameplay simply made him invulnerable), there's a point in the game where a battle is won by surviving against him enough time. You actually watch as a judge nullifies this law and thus allows you to beat him.
* ''[[.hack GU]]'' has this with Tri-Edge {{spoiler|or rather, Azure Kite}}. He is invincible in the cutscene and effortlessly defeats level 133 "Terror of Death" Haseo, yet by the end of the game, you beat him while you are nowhere near your former glory. Of course, having teammates and healing potions probably helped.
* Done in ''[[
* The Black Knight in ''[[Agarest Senki]]'' is a blunt example. You faces him three times. The first where he has a full HP rocovery ability and chain more than 4 comboes, killing you in one attack. In the second time, he's still tough because of his HP recovery, but he can no longer kill anyone in one hit if you don't play on hard. In the third time, you must beat him to clear chapter 1, and he isn't even that tough if you upgrade and fight properly.
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== Western Animation ==
* Something of an inversion on this occurred in the Saturday morning cartoon of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''. In the first couple of episodes, the band of teenage/preteen adventurers are battling no less than Venger and Tiamat on a regular basis. Midway through the series they're having trouble with orcs and bullywugs. Near the end of the show's run, they had an episode where, in the process of helping some fairy-sized dragons escape to their homeland, they're overpowered and captured by a perfectly normal, two-bit human baron and his dozen or so men at arms....
* Done at times in ''[[Teen Titans (
** That might also count as [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]].
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