Metal Slime: Difference between revisions

** 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.]]

** Cactuars aren't the only ones: 5, 6, 7, and 9 at least feature movers--tiny, fast, absurdly evasive, and prone to escape at the drop of a hat, but if you can kill them they're worth the AP; then of course there are magic urns, with a [[Revive Kills Zombie|trick]]. Both of which predate the far more prolific Cactuar.

** 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:

** ''[[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.

** Bulky Vendors return in [[Kingdom Hearts: 358 Days Over 2|358/2 Days]], only without the reaction commands. This time, they have to be defeated quickly before they escape-- which is much harder.

* ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'' had Shy Guys in camo called Shy Rangers appear in one area of the game. Unless you have enough speed from armor and accessories, they'll escape before you can even act, and will still escape the moment their turn comes up (Unless they're poisoned, which makes them fight to the death for some reason). They don't even drop anything or give enough EXP to make it worth going through the trouble-- unless you throw a Yoshi Cookie to make Yoshi consume them; then you get a KeroKeroCola, the most powerful healing item in the game.

** In the first game, equipping the Dizzy Badge (a badge that causes [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Dizziness]] if you press the Dash button and collide with an enemy while dashing) and using it on Amazee Dayzee will make it dizzy, giving you a free turn-- it can't run and it can't attack. This makes them easy to the point where the only real challenge is finding more to milk for all the experience they're worth.

** 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 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.

** Infuriatingly, the enemy that spawns Golden Beanies appears later in the underwater area. When you kill them there, however, the Beanies (and their golden variants) just float away.

* The Lucky Minks from the last 3 ''[[Grandia]]'' games. Each one has an average of 15 HP, insanely high defense and evasion and a tendency to run from the drop of a hat. ''Grandia Xtreme'' had the coercion skill which prevented them from running, but killing them is still a challenge. Your reward? INSANE exp.

* ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' has the Bacura. "Hey, you can't fight the block thing in the mines!" Well, no, you ''can't'' fight it... in the mines. Instead, you have to fight it [[Guide Dang It|on the path by the SE Abbey, and due to their low spawn rate it helps to have a Dark Bottle active]]. It takes 1 damage from every single attack and runs away after a set amount of time. For defeating it, you get 11 to 35 Grade (depending on [[Guide Dang It|various things]]). For comparison, most enemies give you no Grade for merely defeating them (as the name implies, Grade is awarded for fighting ''well''), most bosses give you 10, and beating the game gives you a whopping 1000.

** 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.

* The Forbiddens in ''[[Xenogears]]'' fit this trope nicely. They appear in a location that's accessible only temporarily, give you 2 turns to beat them before they break loose, and will drop Gold Nuggets or Gold Bullion if you beat them before they break loose. Oh, and they take a ton of hits to kill. About the only way they differ from a traditional [[Metal Slime]] is that once they break loose, they're actually pretty deadly.

* ''[[Dragon Quest Heroes Rocket Slime]]'' has a few metal slimes that you have to save, but you don't fight them. There is, however, a monster called the Goody Bag. It appears in every level, albeit in very specific locations, very rarely. (There is a mid-game level where it is the only monster that appears.) It runs from you when you see it, and Elasto Blasting into it will cause it to drop money. If you can catch it and throw it back to town before it casts Zoom and warps away, do this ''30 times'', and go see it in front of its statue in the Museum, then you will have a [[Disc One Nuke]] that warps right into the enemy tank, steals the ammo, and walks back to your tank. There are other characters that do this, but this one is the best because not only is it available early, it also has the most HP of these characters and is fast. (Also, if you go to the enemy tank at the very beginning, you can sneak in as the Goody Bag sneaks out with the enemy's ammo and break the machine keeping you out, saving the trouble of bashing the barrier over and over for a few minutes.)