Metal Slime: Difference between revisions

* 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.

 

 

Assuming it's not of the "strip it bare before it dies" variant, there are many ways a [[Metal Slime]] can be difficult to kill. If the enemy has a very high chance of escaping, [[Luck Based Mission|it may be a feat to take action against it at all]]. It could also have high defenses, such as a 98% chance to dodge attacks, or defense power so high it reduces all your attacks to [[Scratch Damage]]. Alternately, some enemies can disable your party's attacks outright, leaving the player with no way to take effective actions against it. Depending on the combat system used, there may be methods of survival that are even more unusual, of course.

 

This trope is named after the Metal Slime from the ''[[Dragon Quest (Video Game)|Dragon Quest]]'' series. Despite being most common in [[RPG|RPGs]], a [[Metal Slime]] can appear in games of other genres. Not to be confused with a [[Metal Slug]], although finding ''those'' is a [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|fun reward in and of itself]].

 

== [[Action Adventure]] ==

* ''[[Cross Edge (Video Game)|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).

 

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

* 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").

** Ultra Rare monsters are also hard-coded to win initiative, and a few of them appear in early zones where they are considerably more powerful than normal monsters the player may be equipped to fight.

** One of them looks and fights the same as a common monster, except it has an animated avatar; better hope you don't run away from it by mistake...

* [[Trope Namer|Named]] for the Metal Slime (or Metaly as it's called in some games) from the ''[[Dragon Quest (Video Game)|Dragon Quest]]'' series. It's actually a [[Palette Swap|regular old blue Slime with metal coating]], but defeating one of them will get the party (or just the player in [[Dragon Quest I (Video Game)|the first one]]) lots and lots of experience. Actually doing so is a pain because despite its low HP, its defense is high enough that some attacks will outright fail, it is completely immune to magic, it's also lightning fast, and as noted, it likes to run given half a chance. It is not uncommon to encounter a large group of [[Metal Slime|MetalSlimes]] (and/or it's relatives) and have all of them flee before your party can kill even one; in fact, it isn't even that uncommon to encounter a number of them and have every last one of the cowards bolt ''before the party can even act''. Other variations of this monster appear in the later games, such as the Liquid Metal Slime (known as the Metal Babble or Metabble in some games) and the Metal King Slime.

** 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.

** The Gold Golems (originally Goldmen) are slow, but powerful by nature, and provide the most money out of any creature in the game. As of Dragon Quest VII, the amount of gold they drop has been eclipsed by the Gem Slime (formerly [[Gold Slime]]), a relative of the Metal Slime who acts much like any other Metal Slime. However, the Gem Slime can also use Magic Burst, which is the deadliest spell in the game, so if it doesn't flee immediately, it can deal serious damage to your party.

** The ''[[Dragon Quest (Video Game)|Dragon Quest]]'' games also feature, at least in one game, a [[Metal Slime]] with an incredibly rare [[Random Drops|random drop]]: In ''[[Dragon Quest III (Video Game)|Dragon Quest III]]'', the Metal Babble (or Liquid Metal Slime), which has a 90% chance of running every round, an agility high enough that it almost always gets first attack, and a defense so staggeringly high that often nothing but a [[Critical Hit|"tremendous hit"]] will take it out, has between a 1 and 5% chance of dropping the Happy Shoes, extremely valuable footwear that gives the wearer XP for every step in the field, which makes leveling in towns entirely possible. Needless to say, hours upon hours upon ''hours'' can be invested trying to get those shoes.

*** Fun fact: In III, the spell "BeDragon" ([[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|which will turn the caster into a dragon]],) still does normal damage. So while it takes two turns to do any damage (and several slimes will have run by then,) the rest get totally [[Kill It With Fire|burninated.]]

*** 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.

** 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.

*** Metalies were in fact ''not'' the penultimate metal slime in the game. Two breed together got you a Metable (a melted version of the metal slime, a [[Palette Swap|palette swapped]] Bubble Slime, "Babble"), and breeding two of those got you a Metal King, breeding two of ''those'' got you a Gold Slime. Now, doing this breeding the normal way meant your Gold Slime has all of 1 hit point (parents stats averaged, starting with a maximum of 8 HP), but there was another way to get a Metal King (breeding Metal Drake--a mechanical dragon--and King Slime) which could result in a ''400 hit point monstrosity'' that could never take more than 1 damage. And then you feed it the +max HP food items. Being a 14th (or higher) generation [[Mon]] it tended to learn every special move in the game, of which you got your pick of 8.

* Loopers from ''[[Skies of Arcadia (Video Game)|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.}}

* The Kudan in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' spin-off game ''Devil Summoner: [[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army]]'' is one such enemy. It not only runs away, but it randomly switches what types of attacks it is weak and immune against, making the act of defeating it very frustrating. Worse, in ''Persona 2'', a Kudan will often show up, depower any Personas your party has equipped to Level 1, and then disappear.

** 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.

** ''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 (Video Game)|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.

** The White Mushrooms, Black Fungus, and Rare Truffles from the first ''[[Kingdom Hearts (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts]]'' game. All three appear only at a few set locations... maybe. All three have a chance of dropping extremely rare items if you defeat them in ''exactly'' the right way. That's it for the White Mushrooms and Rare Truffles, which are completely harmless. The Black Fungus, on the other hand, complete their [[Metal Slime]] status by gushing poison at you and periodically turning completely invulnerable.

** ''[[Kingdom Hearts II (Video Game)|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.

** [[Kingdom Heartscoded (Video Game)|Re: coded]] has Gold Tricholomas, a [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|gold variant]] of the other mushroom Heartless that only appears in System Sectors. They love to teleport away from you when you're trying to attack, can spew a poison cloud that can [[Standard Status Effects|blind you]] on top of doing damage, and they'll flee the battle if you can't kill them quickly enough, but they drop tons of SP, which you can redeem for goodies like stat upgrades and equipment.

* ''[[Super Mario RPG (Video Game)|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.

* The Shiro Tail, a fluffy critter inhabiting the White Dragon Cave in ''[[Lunar]]: Silver Star Story Complete''. Runs away a lot, drops a rare item and a ton of EXP.

** ''Lunar: Eternal Blue'' had Ice Mongrels: two variants with each specific to a single location. Both had high dodge rates, a high tendency to run away and defense that rendered it near invulnerable to anything except the main character's sword skill attacks. The second type encountered actually gave 65534 XP divided amongst the party; if only the main character was in the party at the time (possible during the [[Playable Epilogue]]), any monsters defeated in addition to the Ice Mongrel would cause an overflow, and actually LOWER the total XP given for the battle (essentially negating the all of the XP from the Mongrel). Since levelling up never required more than 65534 XP, fighting them once powered up enough to defeat them reliably is a very efficient way to level grind.

* ''[[Tales of Hearts (Video Game)|Tales of Hearts]]'' have Apple, Peach, and Grape Gela. Found on one island in the game. Their HP is paltry, but they have 9999 defense and tech defense. They drop perfectly normal Apple, Peach, and Grape Gels, but their ''steal'' items are stat-boosting herbs.

* ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|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.

* 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.

 

* ''[[Video Game/Star Force|Star Force]]'' has the mysterious picture of Cleopatra, hidden only in certain areas. Destroying it (which takes more than one shot) wins you one million points, but since the game is a [[Vertical Scrolling Shooter]] it could easily pass off screen first.

 

** ''[[Resident Evil 4 (Video Game)|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).

* ''[[Opoona]]'' has the Star Human. In addition to being run-happy, it has both extremely high defense ''and'' high evasion, meaning that even ''if'' you can hit it with a physical attack, it's not likely to do much damage. The best way to defeat it is to spam it with Armagebbon, and pray to all that's good that it doesn't flee. To add insult to injury, it has a one-of-a-kind drop attached to it, too (as well as a [[Rare Candy]] attached to it).

 

[[Category:Video Game Characters]]

[[Category:Metal Slime]]