Metal Slime: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

* The enemy is an uncommon encounter, whether by means of [[Random Encounters|rarely spawning]], appearing only in out-of-the-way locations, or only appearing a fixed number of times.

* The enemy has an unusual reward, such as bonus cash, bonus [[Experience Points]], a higher chance for an item that [[Randomly Drops]], or a unique (though not necessarily useful) item.

* The enemy has a reasonably reliable way to end combat without the player being defeated or getting the reward, whether through the normal "flee" mechanic, a special ability, or a feature of the zone that it appears in. In games with [[Preexisting Encounters]], this trait may manifest as the enemy avoiding the party in order to prevent the beginning of combat proper. As a result, it is difficult to obtain the reward from the enemy.

 

 

 

 

 

{{examples}}

* The Takkuri in ''[[Majoras Mask]]'', which drops a lot of money, but may decide to steal one of your items and run away with it, forcing you to wait until nighttime and buy it back from its owner. Yeah.

** And, of course, Tsuchinoko requires that you go back into a boss room, which you have no reason to do. And it doesn't always show up, either, potentially making this a [[Guide Dang It]].

** Don't forget the damn thing spits poison at you if you're not careful, reducing your attack power.

** ''[[Dawn of Sorrow]]'' has three enemies which can only be found by deciphering tabloids you find lying around. One will only appear if you use a certain weapon in it's area, at which point it will jump into the foreground and almost immediately jump back, meaning you have about one hit to kill it.

** ''[[Order of Ecclesia]]'' has the Sasquatch (which is basically the same monster mentioned above). Once it sees you, it panics and leaps into the background. Getting a picture of it for a villager mission is easy enough, but killing it for the Bestiary is another story.

** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'', one of the sidequests involves you searching the whole of Hyrule Field for Big Poes. You can only find each of them in ''very'' specific spots, you have to be riding [[Powerup Mount|Epona]], and you have all of 5 seconds to kill them with arrows before they vanish and you have to try again. Hope your aim is good.

 

* ''[[Need for Speed]]: Most Wanted'' has Sergeant Cross himself. A normal undercover Corvette will net you around the $20,000 in bounty. Destroying Cross's car, however, will net you a whopping $200,000!

** Depending on the circumstances under which you take out Cross's car, it is also a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

 

* ''[[Cross Edge]]'' has Lujit, a small, pink, Level 120 monstrousity from hell. It appears in a few normal dungeons, is about 70+ levels above what you will probably be at first potential meeting area, has ridiculous HP, sickingly large range attacks, does ludicrous damage, is very fast, almost impossible to run away from, regenerates, can take a metric ton of moves a turn, and if it gets first attack can clear your group in a single round. However it does have horrible defense and is VERY valuable to kill.

 

* ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]'' has the Fallen Survivor in The Passing. They have as much health as a Witch, making it hard to take down. They are also fire proof and they always choose to run away (although sometimes there's no good escape options). The reason you would bother fighting this zombie is because it can hold a mix of either first aid kits, pills, pipe bombs, or molotovs. A single hit from a melee weapon is still enough to take them down, but their habit of running away usually puts of wall of zombies between you and their wonderful loot. Especially annoying because sometimes they're just carrying two grenade items... which would normally be nice, but The Passing has lockers filled with infinite supplies of grenades scattered throughout the first two chapters (the final chapter has neither the lockers no the Fallen Survivors).

 

* ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]'' has the Thief, a ''very'' fast enemy who runs up to your strongest player and steals potions, keys or even points from him/her. If you manage to kill him you can loot up a 500-point gold bag from his body; otherwise you'll have to get back your loot on the next dunegon level.

* Fugitives in the third ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' game. Each map has one, they have a random chance of appearing every time you start the map, they appear on a few predetermined and out-of-place locations on the map (and unless you bring a max level [[Hattori Hanzo]], you won't know where) and run away about a minute after appearing. Fugitives only block and counter and have an extremely powerful block, making them impossible to kill without using a Basara art, Hero time or by loading your weapon full of Golden Centipedes. Each map's fugitive grants a permanent attack, defence or luck bonus when defeated, but only once for each character.

 

* In ''[[Wizard of Wor]]'', the Worluk appears once per level, moves quite fast, and can escape through the side doors. If it is shot before escaping, points will be doubled on the next level.

 

* Don't even ''start'' on the monsters that drop the [http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Ultra_Rares Ultra Rare Items] in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]''. The odds of encountering one are so slim as to be meaningless. For each of them, one player per day gets a shot at the fight, and it's determined by some byzantine step-measuring system that gives that one shot to the first player who's there during the right time of day and has the step counter that no one's allowed to see in the exact right position. In theory. Wait, no, that's how it ''used to work'', and now nobody's got a clue. Essentially, if you're aware these things exist but haven't been informed that you'll never see one, you could waste ''weeks'' on one of these before giving up. Most veteran players have never seen one; fighting one is a once-in-a-lifetime event unless you search obsessively (read "search for it with all your turns every day for years").

** At least one person had defeated an Ultra Rare and come away with nothing, not even a consolation ribbon. The [[Self-Imposed Challenge|Black Cat familiar]], which is specifically designed to hinder you has many wonderful effects one of which is randomly destroying dropped items at the end of combat. Ultra rare items are not immune to this, at least one person has had the cat knock a one in a billion item down the drain.

** 11.6 CL. The landshark has 11.6 CL. That's higher than the player.

 

* Gold Beetles in ''[[Sonic Adventure Series|Sonic Adventure 2]]'' only appear for a brief moment in one specific part of each level, and vanish just as quickly. Destroying it nets you a huge amount of points for your score, which go a long way to earning a better rank for certain level requirements.

* Golden Mice and certain rare blue ghosts in ''[[Luigi's Mansion]]''. They all appear only in certain areas, after doing [[Guide Dang It|some random and senseless task, such as coming into the corridor from a certain room, examining a certain lamp a number of times, getting hit by the bat that is next to that lamp and then going to the place where the mouse spawns]], and if you don't catch them right when they appear (they move like greased lightning) they'll be [[Lost Forever]]...but if you manage to suck them up, they'll drop ''tons'' of money.

** Also, Golden Waddle Dees from ''Squeak Squad'' and Sneak Sacks in ''Epic Yarn''. The former is unreasonably fast and will [[Too Dumb to Live|sprint straight over the edge of a bottomless pit]] if you don't trap it quickly enough, while the latter moves at a speed slightly faster than Kirby can run at and will disappear if not killed in time. They leave behind treasure chests and dozens of beads, respectively.

 

* Iridescent Flint Beetles in ''[[Pikmin]]'' are invincible, randomly appear, scurry around, then burrow back underground. But if you can make a thrown pikmin land on its back, it will drop pellets and nectar. Skills players can get multiple payouts from the same bug.

** The sequel keeps the Flint Beetle and adds two cousins. The Iridescent Glint Beetle has a shiny golden shell and drops a Treasure or multiple sprays when hit. There is also the Doodlebug, which can drop sprays, pellets, or nectar, but periodically releases poisonous gas that can kill Pikmin.

 

* ''[[ADOM]]'' has the fast and powerful giant boars, which are only encountered in the wilderness, where it is possible for enemies to flee. If killed, they sometimes drop a giant boar skull, which is required for an [[Multiple Endings|Ultra ending]].

** Filk, the quickling bard also in ADOM fits the bill. He lives in (usually) a deep level of the infinite dungeon, has the highest speed in the game is extremely good at dodging your attacks. Killing him is also required for an Ultra ending.

* Smeagol in ''[[Angband]]''. He moves fast, is hard to hit, and can teleport away after stealing gold (or, in previous versions, items). Very difficult to kill when you're first likely to encounter him. Wormtongue is not as fast, but is also very difficult to hit when you first meet him, steals your gold and items then teleports away, and makes traps. This means that you might kill him, then fall through to the next level before you pick up the awesome artifact he just dropped. Hope you have preserve mode set. Many of the thieving monster in this game fit this to some extent.

* Jetpack [[Santa Claus]] in ''[[Toejam and Earl]]'' will occasionally appear, fussing over his sack. If you're lucky to see him from far away enough, you have a chance of sneaking up on him from behind (a mechanic no other enemy in the game uses) and get a few presents for your trouble. Otherwise, off into the wild blue yonder he goes.

 

** The Platinum King Jewel deserves a special mention here- not only does it have the highest HP, defense, agility, and XP of the Metal Slime family, it also can use Dazzle to blind your party, making them miss so much that doing any damage to it is virtually impossible.

** Amusingly, the Metal King Helmet is so strong that it's even better than the ''Legendary Hero's'' helmet, which is part of [[Sword of Plot Advancement|the armor you spent the better part of the game looking for]]. Many of the ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' games have Metal Babble/Metal King equipment as [[Infinity+1 Sword|infinity-plus-one equipment]], aptly named after the creatures with enough durability to take only 1 damage from most attacks.

** In ''[[Dragon Quest III]]'' there's a [[Peninsula of Power Leveling|magma cave area where Metal Slimes are so common]] it is possible to find yourself swarmed by up to ''seven of them at the same time''. You probably won't be able to kill all of them, mind, but with so many of them, its very easy to off at least one or two before they all run away.

*** If your other caster in the party casts the agility spell on the bedragoned character it will be fast enough to act first before any of the metal slimes, torching up any of those who did not flee in the first turn with 100% certainty.

** Likewise, ''[[Dragon Quest IV]]'' had the Royal Crypt, where you could get swarmed by Metal Babbles (which gave 7.5x the XP of Metal Slimes). However, in this game you had the lovely [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|BeDragon]] spell, which could hit all enemies with a never-miss, defense-ignoring flame attack. So, while you had to spend a round casting it, the next turn any Metals that were still around were dead. Nothing like getting 50k+ experience from a random encounter. Unfortunately, the DS remake nerfs the equivalent spell Puff (not to be confused with [[Relax-O-Vision|Puff-Puff]]) so that the metal blobs are immune.

** Most Metalys encountered in the first ''[[Dragon Quest Monsters]]'' have an attack which deals heavy defense-piercing damage to a random [[Mon]] on the field. Including the Metaly using said attack. Suddenly they're not so hard to kill.

** Notably, several games offer special weapons or abilities specifically designed to guarantee 1 or 2 points of damage against metal slimes.

* ''[[Shining in the Darkness]]'' features the closely related "ooze" family of monsters, the last of which is the oh-so-shiny [[Palette Swap|crystal ooze]]. Satisfies virtually all of the listed criteria for this trope at the same time; appears only on the final level (and even then, is rather uncommon), inflicts heavy damage and attacks quickly (and can call other monsters for assistance), is prone to flee from battle about 25% of the time, and has only a few HP, but also extremely high defense; high-level magic typically inflicts no more than one point of damage (if any), and physical attacks usually do no damage at all. The game offsets this by providing a number of "instant kill" items which the oozes cannot avoid, but these items themselves are "secret" and difficult to find. The reward for killing a single ooze is a whopping ''thirty thousand'' EXP, and they can appear in groups of half-a-dozen or more, resulting in the potential for multiple level-ups for even experienced adventurers; the sheer numbers involved reportedly cause the game to become unstable for players who even ''encounter'' the monsters.

* ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' has the Rush virus, which has low HP, only takes one damage per hit, and will flee if not defeated in time. It pops out of the ground, and needs to quickly be struck before it submerges again, much like a game of whack-a-mole. If you do beat it, you get a useful chip that makes you invincible as long as you aren't attacking, which lasts much longer then the standard form of invincibility from the Invis chip.

** In ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', the Cactaurs inhabit a tiny island you can't access without a plane and wouldn't think of landing on [[Guide Dang It|without a guide]]. They are also incredibly fast and hard to hit and would just as soon run as look at you: fortunately enough, all of Squall's gunblades have maxed out accuracy and thus never miss, as does Selphie's best weapon, and with the Initative passive skill, you can always be more or less guaranteed to kill at least one. For doing so, you get a whopping 20 AP in a game where more than a few bosses give just 5 or 10 AP. This is essential if you're trying to keep your levels low because they only give a tiiiiny amount of EXP.

** Flowering Cactuars in ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' fit this trope perfectly: they're only encountered in a relatively out-of-the-way location, (one only accessible during a certain sidequest, and even then, you have to take a specific path) flee from battle at the first opportunity and give 15000 CP when killed. (And bearing in mind they always come in groups of 3 or more, that's a pretty big deal.) However, if they ''don't'' flee, they'll bombard you with devastating "-Ga" magic, quite capable of a [[Total Party Kill]]. What makes them unique among other examples of this trope is that they're actually very ''easy'' to kill (they have one of the lowest [[Break Meter|stagger]] thresholds in the game), it's just that it needs to be done ''VERY'' quickly: in literally 5 seconds either [[Rhymes on a Dime|they'll have fled, or you'll be dead.]]

** Some games also have treasure chests appear in battle. Not strictly metal slimes, but they certainly are rarer than most enemies.

* The ''[[Pokémon]]'' series has no true Metal Slimes, but it does have a number of Mons that have the ability to escape from battle before you can capture them:

** The Abra species are commonly encountered and have fairly high catch rates (comparable to [[Com Mons]], in fact), but their sole combat skill is to Teleport out, ending the battle on turn one. Unless you can put it to [[Standard Status Effects|Sleep]] before this or use a skill or ability to block its escape attempts (Mean Look, Arena Trap, etc.), you can only attempt to catch it at full health before it runs off. Abra also comes with a lesser extent of [[Magikarp Power]], learning no actual ''attacks'' without the aid of a TM (Teleport being their only naturally learned move) until it evolves into [[Glass Cannon|Kadabra]].

** Starting in [[Pokémon Gold and Silver|Generation II]], some legendary Pokemon roam the region, and when encountered, they [[Cowardly Boss|immediately flee from battle]]. However, their HP doesn't regenerate between battles, so catching one involves wearing them down through repeated encounters.

*** When hunting for Entei, Raikou, or Suicune, even if you do use Mean Look to prevent them from escaping, they can just blow ''you'' out of battle with their Roar.

** Shiny Pokemon of any species that learns moves like Roar, Whirlwind, or Explosion. Because, yes, they ''will'' invariably use the battle-ending move. Especially frustrating are shiny Pokemon encountered in the Safari Zone, as they combine two forms of rarity at the same time.

* Crowned Monsters in ''[[Romancing SaGa]]'' (only appears after long rounds of trading with a specific class of monster).

** And you'll need to hunt and kill these little cretins, for completing Elizabeth's requests. In the [[Updated Rerelease]] ''Persona 3: FES'', the Hands now occasionally drop "empty" weapons, which are used in the new item forging system.

** By far the worst part is that, when you find them before entering the battle, you have to sneak up on them. Failure to do so (and sneaking is ''extremely'' picky) will result in the creature running away from you just as fast as you run after it. And if you manage to corner it? It ''disappears''.

** In ''FES'', they also did away with their immunities, which makes hunting them ''marginally'' less irritating. They're horribly annoying to hunt, though, because of their tendency to run away at the slightest provocation.

* Loopers from ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]''. They actually mildly subvert this in that you'll encounter them anywhere in numbers of about one or two per battle, but the location where you encounter nothing ''but'' them (usually in groups of five to seven) is near-inaccessible. Also, they have a good chance of dropping Moonberries and will occasionally drop an item that, when equipped, permanently stops enemies from being able to run away from you ever again. The obvious problem is that you have to beat some of these guys first before you can get a hold of that. Magic of the appropriate element, Rain of Swords, Cutlass Fury and the Skull Shield's counterattack are all options. {{spoiler|There are 2 other versions; The Giant Looper and Elcian.}}

* The Gold Eggs from ''[[Breath of Fire]] 3''-- {{spoiler|you can steal Diamond Rings from them, increasing your defense against Death Attacks.}}

** Kudan in ''Devil Summoner'' also ABSORBS gun attacks (i.e. Raidou's revolver) and can fully heal itself with the best single-target healing spell available in the game. This editor has yet to actually kill one of these bastards without Belial (who is the first familiar that can learn the best combination attack in the game, "Astral Burst")...and Raidou has to be Level 66 to be able to fuse and summon him.

** All ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games had a group of monsters known now as Fiends. Exceedingly rare, exceedingly powerful, they could show up at any time in certain dungeons and wipe out a party. Subverted [[Guide Dang It]] because, despite the hidden nature, they were purposely left out of guides for the longest time, to fuel the mystery. (Ironically, they ''throw'' themselves at you in ''Nocturne''.)

** There are regular Metal Slimes in ''Mother 3'' as well. Chapter 1 has the Soot Dumpling, an enemy with very high defense that can only be beaten with two 16-hit combos. If you don't kill it quickly enough, it blows away in the wind. Later on, you'll find the Black Beanling, which has powerful PK Fire attacks and can run away to boot. Beating it gives you a whopping 16,000 experience points. There's also the Top Dogfish, which gives 800 DP and always drops Meteotite which can be sold for 2500 DP, effectively making it the richest enemy in the game. It's very rare like the others, but it's very tough and hits hard, so it blurs the line between this and [[Boss in Mook Clothing]].

** Also, in ''Earthbound'' you can wander through any of the two deserts present in the game and beat the Criminal Caterpillar or the Master Criminal Worm (two randomly encountered enemies) in order to get A LOT of experience points. Even though they can easily defeat your party if they get to fight, most of the time you'll end up catching them from behind, getting an automatic victory.

** ''Mother 1'' has the Red Snake, which usually runs away the first chance it gets.

** And of course there were Starmen Super in ''Earthbound'' - appearing only in one location, having the ability to teleport, being stronger than usual enemies there and indistinguishable from normal Starmen without entering the battle. [[Guide Dang It|To make matters worse, they were the only chance for Poo to get a weapon and they dropped it extremely rarely... and they were impossible to encounter after defeating the area boss.]]

* Three enemies in ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' qualify... Though they go by different names and use different sprites, they are functionally identical. They have enough HP to (usually) take two hits before dying, use 'Lock All' (also called "Omnilock") to disable every combat function except basic attacks (which takes effect regardless of any status-locking items you may be wearing), and have such an absurdly high dodge (despite being ''rocks and turrets'') that hitting them is basically luck. To add insult to injury, they run after a short time. They also don't EVER reappear, so you only get one chance per encounter. There is one Rubble near the middle of the mountain on the right side that will respawn. But only the one. Defeating them grants 1000 Exp and 100 Tech Points; the XP is above average but not insane like the TP is. Another area introduces a palette-swapped version of the Son of the Sun and his little winged eyeball buddies. The smaller ones run away after enough time passes, and if you ignore the big one and go after them, he starts punishing you with a small version of Flare. Not terribly damaging at higher levels, but damned annoying. Especially in the point of the Black Omen where you face two of the bigs and four of the littles all at once.

** The expanded DS version adds another. Instead of using Lock All/Omnilock, it fights back instead, but it still runs on a whim and pisses you off royally. It also appears totally randomly, instead of being a set spawn that never comes back. They're also the only things that can drop a certain material for having an item crafted. Of course, you can just have Ayla Charm (steal) it, too, which ups the chances of getting that item greatly.

** This is made ''slightly'' easier in versions where the Siren item (or the Alarm item, depending on the translation) was not dummied out, as it can summon a group of Pink Puffs in the single room where they can appear. They still have a very low chance of dropping the Pink Tail, though. In some of the earlier versions of the game, by the time you reach the Pink Puff room, the Sirens can no longer be bought or stolen from enemies. You have to stock up beforehand.

** In the original SNES version and some of the early remakes, since each enemy has a 1 in 20 chance of dropping an item and therefore a fight against multiple enemies can result in multiple item drops, it is technically possible to get two or more Pink Tails in the same battle (the odds of this are nearly 1 in 82,000). But not in the DS remake, where the item drop slots for Pink Puffs is exactly 1 - so you will ''never'' get more than 1 pink tail from any set of Pink Puffs. Worse, they can possibly drop several items (including the pink tail) and if a lower probability drop is given by another pink puff, it'll ''override'' the rare pink tail. So, the only way to get a pink tail is to defeat all 5 pink puffs and hope ''only'' pink tails are dropped (one or more, it makes no difference).

* Cores in ''[[Lufia]]: The Ruins of Lore'' have high def/low hp, but most are slow, and there are plenty of attacks that can easily defeat them. The exception is the Anti-Core, which is insanely fast, capable of taking many turns before your party gets one, with "flee" getting a high priority. By using another monster with a confuse ability, it is possible to capture one, gaining a valuable ally (especially if you boost its dismal attack with [[Randomly Drops|power sources]]).

** Cores in ''Lufia 2'' are also very fast and usually they flee before the players get a turn. sometimes when rng is merciful one of them will not flee the encounter and player can kill it for huge amount of xp. Danger level of the encounters is pretty low so its it a very safe level grinding trick.

** For the gamer looking for money, the games also provide Melchom. Elemental magic heals the creature, and in doing so, increases the money it drops by that amount x3. And unlike the aforementioned Apples, it isn't nearly as fond of running away. Or, if you want to make money much easier, just steal from Rat Monkey. The loot you pilfer off of him can be sold for 999,999 gella. However, a character who can steal is only available late-game, so the Melchom method is usually used before then.

** There's also the Creeping Chaos enemies; while they're generally very difficult to defeat and don't run away, they appear very randomly and generally drop a ton of experience and/or [[Interchangeable Antimatter Keys|Duplicators]].

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'':

** ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'' features Bulky Vendors: a variant of Metal Slime. While they appear randomly, run away, and can't be killed by conventional means, they are killed extremely easy with Reaction Commands. Rather than giving large amounts of experience, they drop rare items. The rarity of the item is directly related to its health, which is constantly depleting as soon as it spawns. But there's a catch: it's relatively slow when it first spawns, but as its health goes down, its speed goes up, and this thing almost literally bounces all over the place. So you're better off [[Guide Dang It|looking for Orichalcum]] then trying to get one from a Bulky Vendor. Regardless, when you smack them with a Reaction Command they drop a crap ton of materials used for synthesis with their rarity depending on how much health they had when you used a Reaction Command. Also, good luck trying to hit one with the Reaction Command when it's got a sliver of health left; when they've got next to no health left, they are probably the fastest enemy in the game.

** Amazee Dayzees also show up in [[Super Paper Mario]]. Due to the mechanics of the game, they work differently, but they still fulfill the role; they have a powerful attack that puts you to sleep, but more often they'll turn tail and run at stupidly fast speeds as soon as they spot you, then flip between dimensions, forcing the player to flip as well if they want to pursue them. They give a lot of points, and drop Golden Leaves, which can be turned into Gold Bars, which can be sold for ''100'' coins, in a game where 999 coins is the maximum you can carry. They can also be turned into cards and sold for a 200 coin profit.

* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'''s Pig Noise. The pigs have high defense, and run after about ten seconds. Later variants can be invisible, invulnerable to all but one specific pin, or need to be erased in a specific order. At least they're easy to find.

** On the plus side, finding two of them at once lets you get experience point totals in the five- to six-digit range [[Mook Maker|if you let them keep resurrecting each other.]]

** In addition, there are the Djinn. About half of them join without a fight. The other half either require you completing a puzzle or [[Guide Dang It|finding them in random encounters on certain areas of the world map]]. Each of these creatures is the embodiment of one of the four elements, meaning they have some of the strongest abilities of that element (fire blasts for the fire ones, extreme healing for the waters, etc.) and, of course, can also run, requiring you to do the puzzle again or keep searching the map. However, defeating them is definitely worth it, as you keep them permanently, they give you stat boosts when activated, allow you to use a unique attack, and can combine with others to unleash powerful summons.

* ''[[River City Ransom]] EX'' brings the Entrees gang, who are all named after food items, and come rushing into battle with... weird weapons. They give out about five times more money than the game's most powerful gang, the Plague, but are also the quickest to run away.

** But it's so worth it to get the chance to beat the crap out of someone by swinging a ''ladder''.

* The Silver Kelolons from ''[[Lost Odyssey]]''. Give out huge amounts of XP & some fairly rare pieces for the game's [[Item Crafting]] system, but nearly always run away & have tremendous defense. Fortunately there's a trick involving the defense-ignoring spell Gamble & the Casting Support skill that allows you to waste the little fuckers just about every single time. Coupled with the fact that there's an area where the only enemies that appear are Silver Kelolons & one other type of monster & you get a relatively painless way to level your party up to obscene heights in fairly short order.

** And then there's the Diamond Kelolons in the DLC only Experimental Staff Remains. They don't run away 100% of the time, as they may choose to cast [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Death]] with a 3-turn charge-up first. However, that 3 turns window isn't much when they're immune to all magic and items, and complement their expected high evasion rate with a high chance to counter physical attacks, negating the damage. You can increase your chances with the Counter Seal skill, which allows a character to strike an enemy once without activating its counterattack but it remains a [[Luck-Based Mission]] trying to kill one. They're a guaranteed level up until about the mid 90's, and give the most SP in the game.

** They reappear in ''[[Tales of Xillia]]'' in normal, bronze, silver, and golden varieties. They can take the place of seemingly any enemy in certain areas starting early on in the game, and give a healthy sum of EXP. They only attempt to flee prior to engaging them in battle, but are surprisingly capable fighters for featureless blocks, and have sky high defense.

* ''[[Demon's Souls]]'' has Crystal Geckos. These shiny blue lizards don't attack you at all, and will immediately run away once they're aware of your presence. If you're not quick enough, they'll run themselves straight off a ledge, or run into a wall and then burrow into it to escape. If you can kill one and loot its corpse, you'll get at least two different kinds of ores, the type depending on the level where you found the gecko. The best way to kill them is to use the Thief's Ring to make yourself harder to detect, be in soul form so your footsteps don't make noise, and snipe at them with a bow.

* ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'' has Mecha Scumbag, a more powerful version of the common Scumbag enemy that runs away when low on HP. Defeating one earns you a Battle Trophy.

* They return in ''[[Star Ocean: The Last Hope]]'' as the Metal Scumbag, who can only be found once on a single floor of a single dungeon, and possibly appearing as an unexpected fifth wheel beside a group of normal enemies (there are about 30 of these on the floor and no way to guarantee which group he'll appear in)). Upon being seen, he immediately runs away. Killing him nets a boss-sized EXP increase, his Monster Jewel is capable of increasing Fol spoils by 25%, and Lymle has a Battle Trophy for killing 99 of them.

* In the game [[Boktai]] 2: The Sun is in Your Hand, there is a rare chance that one of the enemies will be replaced by a crimson version of itself. While not particularly nasty, and the same movement patterns as the generic version, the first time you meet one your damage to it will probably be 1 regardless of weapon, it will kill you in one hit and make you restart the area. It also drops "normally" a weapon that is several times stronger than anything you can find (or make) at the time, with its rare drop being a (potentially) [[Game Breaker]] item

* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' Intangir... They spawn invisible, hasted, shelled, protected, and floating, absorb every single element, and are immune to every status effect in the game save for two: {{spoiler|Stop and Slow}}. If you manage to hit them, they become visible, and hit your entire party with a spell called Meteor, similar to the Lesser Lopros' Fireball. At the time you can first encounter them {{spoiler|right after you get the airship}}, this will 1-shot your entire party unless you have done an inordinate amount of grinding. Then they go back to being invisible again. They have 32,000 HP, and 16,000 MP. If their HP drops too low they run. And if you manage to kill them, they cast Meteor again, potentially on the entire party. And the reward, IF you manage to kill this monstrosity? 10 AP. The most AP you can get from any encounter in the game. Thanks to the [[Good Bad Bug|Vanish Doom Bug]], these could be farmed all day and night with [[Disk One Nuke|Gau's Rhodox Rage]] without fear of them killing your party since this rages' special ability kills targets in a fashion similar to X-Zone/Banish, denying them a [[Taking You with Me|dieing action]]. However, with the FFVI Advance release, this bug has been fixed. Have fun.

* Treasure Seekers fill this role in Diablo 3. If you hit them, they run away while gold spills out of the sacks they carry. If left alone for too long (while the player is fighting other monsters, for instance), it will summon a portal and vanish.

* The Totokos (Who resemble [[My Neighbor Totoro|a certain Studio Ghibli movie character]]) in ''[[Ni no Kuni]]'' give an absolutely huge amount of EXP or gold if you can defeat them, often much more then the bosses of a similar level, and also make good Imagen if you can capture them. However, they only show up occasionally, run away from you in the field, and will disappear if not caught quickly. Even after you catch them, you still have defeat them before they escape in battle, and the evolved forms of them frequently will use some manner of debilitating spell on the entire party to keep you from doing this.

 

 

** ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' has the Garradors. They drop a ton of cash upon their defeat. Upping the ante further, one Garrador that spawns in a cage actually guards a treasure chest with a very valuable piece of [[Vendor Trash]] in it, and predictably, it's pretty hard to get the item without killing the Garrador first. Garradors appear about four times in the entire game (one of which is a ''heavy Garrador''). Unlike Regenerators, who also share the aforementioned traits, defeating Garradors (or even damaging them) is almost never absolutely necessary, to the point where running from them is easier than fighting them thanks to the Garradors' crippling blindness.

** In the same game, Novistadors are also Metal Slimes. Earlier versions can turn completely invisible and have a one-hit-ko move that involves melting off your face, while later versions gain a pair of wings in lieu of being invisible, but still retains the same insta-kill move and are a pain in the ass to shoot. Their reward? Their eyes, which are precious gems that can be applied to another treasure you find which, if completed with all three different types of Novistador eyes, can be sold for an ''obscene'' amount of cash. The Gems themselves are also worth something too. They only appear in the bowels of the castle, and will completely disappear when you destroy their nest just a few scenes later, and the gem color is completely random (although there have been theories).

** Also, the Dr. Salvadors. They are fairly uncommon, take alot of damage, can [[One-Hit Kill]], and can be avoided most of the time, but taking one down nets you 10,000 pesetas.

 

* The Eridians in ''[[Borderlands]]'' appear in the last few levels in the game, give you ''shitloads'' of exp, are the fastest enemies in the game and have ''insane'' shields, but pretty low actual health. What's that, Mordecai? [[Game Breaker|One of your skills allows you to bypass shields ''completely?'']]. Score.

* ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' and its sequel ''Brotherhood'' feature pickpockets and Borgia Messengers who run away from you if they see you; if you manage to catch them, you get a hefty chunk of money as well as some rare trade items.

* ''[[Saints Row]]: The Third'' has Professor Genki, who can be found running around Steelport [[Ax Crazy|killing random people]]. He has tons of health but when defeated gives you tons of money and Respect.

 

 

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[[Category:Video Game Characters]]