Mugging the Monster/Video Games

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Examples of Mugging the Monster in Video Games include:

Visual Novels

Other Video Games - need sorting by genre

  • Several RPGs feature highwaymen (or similar) as an encounter/enemy. Once you get powerful enough, they start following this trope.
  • In Oblivion, merely being the Hero of Kvatch, Archmage of the Mage's Guild, Guildmaster of the Fighter's Guild, Champion of the Arena, the Divine Crusader, Champion of Cyrodiil and, (in the expansion) Sheogorath's heir, the new God of Madness, isn't enough to make highway robbers leave you alone.
    • It could be a bit of a subversion: thanks to the feature that makes the enemies level up with you, bandits can still be quite tough for a while (although most NPCs have their levels capped, so at higher levels this trope is still in effect).
    • Though the robbers get downright silly at high levels. They always ask for 100 gold, no matter when it is that you face them. At low levels, this can be a burden to pay. At higher levels, 100 gold is practically spare change. Plus, since the robber's equipment levels with you, the people demanding one hundred gold are wearing glass armor that's worth thousands.
    • In Skyrim, you can actually respond to a random highwayman ambush by telling the moronic robber that "I don't have time for this" and walk away.
      • Or intimidating them into letting you go. Or pointing out that you run the Thieves' guild...
  • Random brigands attack all through Baldur's Gate I and II, despite the fact that you're equipped with glowing weaponry, armor made from dragonscales, and frequently outnumber them.
    • They finally get wise in the Throne of Bhaal expansion, when the closest thing to random bandit encounters is when a group of vampires lure you in, then realize who you really are, and their leader gives a Rousing Speech that includes something about her and her allies being mercilessly slaughtered.
      • Also, while in Saradush you can make thugs and ruffians piss their pants by announcing that you are a Bhaalspawn.
    • In Baldur's Gate II you will occasionaly encounter thugs while moving around in the city, who will try to kill and mug you. If you are strong and well-known enough, the thugs will have half the brain to say "It's CHARNAME, run for your lives!!!"
  • Grand Theft Auto IV has serial killer Eddie Low have much hype about being a terror in Liberty City (he's killed a dozen people, most either unsuspecting joggers or hitchhikers). The optional encounters with him ends with his trying to kill Niko, who fought in the Balkans and is now a freelance "problem solver" (read:he's killed a few hundred people, at least, most of which include armed thugs and police). It's pretty obvious how this one turns out.
  • Somewhat averted in World of Warcraft: The range from which NPCs attack you depends on the level difference between the attacker and the "victim". With enough levels, players practically have to walk into enemies to get them to attack. The mechanic also works the other way around, creating a powerful incentive for low-level characters to stay away from high-level areas.
    • Similar rules in City of Heroes, where an opponent of sufficiently low comparative level will simply pretend you aren't there unless you attack them first. (Presumably your heroic reputation precedes you and they're thinking "Oh shit, it's Hyperman; please don't see me mugging the old lady, PLEASE don't see me...")
      • Although in some cases a player would be ambushed by mooks following certain missions, who would follow the player until defeated or left behind by zoning. Usually at a player-appropriate level. Sometimes...not so much. Leading to scenes involving a group of high level (30+) characters standing around as their players chat, surrounded by mooks of level 1 attacking them relentlessly and futily.
    • And in Fusion Fall, where the difference in level between you and a monster directly relates to the range at which they will become agressive. Naturally, if a monster is ten levels tougher than you are, he'll chase you down and grind you into paste, but won't so much as notice you if the reverse is true.
  • The Darkness has a hilarious example. Whilst walking relatively peaceful streets of New York City, the player, a mafia hitman turned world killing god of darkness with Combat Tentacles and worse, can be attacked by a simple mugger. The results are... predictable.
  • Deus Ex Invisible War has this at the very beginning. You encounter a group of thugs who then threaten you into handing over some money. You are an augmented super agent, armed with at least a few guns. Leads to one of the best lines in the game. "You picked the wrong person to mug, punk."
    • There is another part later on that might count as this. You need to buy tickets to gain access to the laser guarded WTO HQ. The main ticket seller has been killed and replaced with a thug who grossly overcharges. You can sneak in through a vent, kill all the thugs, and press the button to deactivate the lasers yourself.
  • Whenever you have to backtrack far in Pokémon, the wild mons hit this. "Oh my, a Level 5 Caterpie. Do your thing, Level 62 Charizard."
    • Also, grinding early on makes for funny situations. You can also skip some early trainers, who then say that you look pretty easy and challenge you, only to find that you have a team of Level 100's.
      • In Heart Gold and Soul Silver, the first Pokémon in yout party follows you around on the overworld, outside of its Pokéball. This trope approaches Too Dumb To Live levels when Youngster Joey decides to take on you and your Olympus Mons.
  • Fallout 2 averts this with the New Reno crime families. If you are a made man of a family the other families will attack you on sight - unless you are wearing a Power Armor, in which case they will treat you with respectful politeness.
    • Fallout 3 plays it straight, though. No matter how well armed, armored, and guarded by followers you may be, Talon Company or the Regulators (or both if you've been both good and evil) will not hesitate to attack you if you fast travel in certain locations. May be somewhat justified in that they are hired guns. Played even straighter with one of the Random Encounters, which features what has to be the most suicidal mugger in the entire freaking universe. He will try to rob you with a shotgun that isn't loaded. Although finding this guy early in the game would have made sense, being a random encounter means you're far more likely to find him when you've already beaten half the game. You have the choice of either turning him into hamburger or telling him to jog on, and you can even point out that his gun isn't loaded. Seriously, by the end of the game, any time pretty much anyone short of Enclave troops or Super Mutants attacks you would count as this.
    • Fallout: New Vegas takes this a step further with the Freeside Thugs. When you first show up, you are attacked by 2 or 3 unarmored and unwashed thugs armed only with pool cues. They pose very little threat even at low levels, yet they will attack the Power Armored wearing bad ass with an Avenger Minigun, followed by a Nightkin Super Mutant with a BFS and heavily modified Eyebot. They last roughly the amount of time it takes for you to decide which of the numerous means of killing them you feel like using at that moment in time.
      • The first mission for the Kings, with the bodyguard who runs scams on tourists, is even worse. The mission involves hiring the bodyguard to protect your 'tourist' selves for a trip through Freeside. For some reason the guy wearing a metal armor vest and armed with a hunting revolver will still believe that you're harmless tourists needing his protection to make it across Freeside alive even if you're, oh, two women wearing Brotherhood of Steel power armor and carrying Gatling lasers, backed up by an Enclave-issue war robot.
  • Early in Return to Krondor, two random muggers attempt to rob legendary thief Jimmy the Hand—who in fact scolds them for not recognizing a dangerous mark when they see one, yet they try it anyway.
  • Early in Dragon Age: Origins, you come across some bandits trying to extort "tolls" from refugees. When they try to pull this on your group (typically at that point consisting of a mage, a mage-hunter, a war dog and whatever the player character rolled as) one of your possible responses is basically "Are you serious? Look at us!"
    • You can actually turn the situation on its head, and demand that the bandits pay up.
    • You can, alternately, reveal to them that you're a Grey Warden. The Grey Wardens are, by the by, wanted for treason and apparently murdering the king, which you can point out to the bandits, at which point the leader will immediately crap himself, stand aside and bid you a good day and to "continue on with your king-killing ways."
    • And, if you're playing a mage, you can make this known to them. Cue the whimpers of "I don't wanna be a toad!"
    • Much later on in Dragon Age, when you've leveled up a lot more and your personal reputation has been well established, you can talk to a city guardsman named Sgt. Kylon in Denerim. Although there's still a bounty on your head for your supposed treason, he explains that he has no interest in attempting to arrest you. "If I asked my men to apprehend you, they'd all run and cry big, sobby tears in their courtesan's bosoms and leave me all alone to be skewered." You can then discuss collecting bounties on bandits. He asks you incredulously: "And people actually voluntarily attack you? Are they just stupid?" Finally, one of the side quests he can give you involves roughing up a local criminal organization. "I said beat down, not kill. Let me make that really clear. Not on fire, or exploded, or Maker knows whatever type of grisly death you can dream up... Sorry, used to giving orders to my boys."
    • If you imported your Fereldan Warden in Awakening, any non-Darkspawn trying to kill you will pretty much be trying this out, especially Bann Esmerelle and her lackeys. From before the start of the expansion, half the nation of Ferelden led by a hero, the Antivan Crows, (a faction of) the Blackstone Irregulars, some Orlesian assassins, a dragon-worshipping cult (and their dragon), the Witch of the Wilds, some Tevinter smugglers, a forest full of werewolves, a dwarven political faction, some maleficars, some golems, some demons and Maker only knows what else have all tried to kill you and all have failed. This isn't counting the countless darkspawn that all but died by your hand, and the archdemon itself, and some ass-headed jokers from Amaranthine think they could do any better?
      • While going as an Orlesian Warden means you have no such accomplishments under your belt, the conspirators and everyone else are forgetting something: (1) you're a Grey Warden and (2) you're Orlesian. Orlais is known for its Deadly Decadent Court, where assassinations, conspiracies and backstabbings are the order of the day, alongside some fancy new shoes and a cleavage enhancing dress, if we're to take Leliana's word, and you could strike back at your enemies like an Orlesian (like by taking people hostage). And being a Grey Warden is never something to take lightly, as there is a reason you were made one. And putting those aside, your first feat in Vigil's Keep is to near-singlehandedly take it back from the darkspawn, where everyone else was pretty much getting slaughtered until you pulled their bacon out of the fire.
    • And in Dragon Age II, if you wander around Kirkwall at night, you are routinely set on by muggers from various gangs. Sort of makes sense when you're a penniless refugee, less so when you're the champion of Kirkwall having singlehandedly dealt with dozens of threats to the city, and even less so near the end of the game when you are so ridiculously powerful that the local Knight Commander treats you with kid gloves.
      • Noteable for being able to actually wipe out all the criminal gangs, essentially ending the problem completely.
      • It actually sort of makes sense as the game progresses; in the first act, they're just standard bandits. But by the third act, the gangs have been replaced by brainwashed cults and slaver bands led by demons and blood mages.
    • The DLC Mark of the Assassin has Baron Arlange foolishly attempt to murder Hawke for being the first person to kill a Wyvern, when Arlange had bribed the competition so that he would be the winner. Lampshaded as everyone points out how idiotic this move is and warn him that he is nothing in comparison to the Wyvern you just killed, particularly if Hawke at this point is The Champion.
  • In Far Cry 2 randomly encoutered enemies may cower in fear and flee when they realize that their intended target is the legendary mercenary who is said to slaughter whole camps and maim opponents just for laughs. Provided your reputation is high, of course.
  • An unintentional version used to happen in City of Heroes. Certain missions would spawn an ambush waiting for the players when they exited the mission. What was supposed to happen is that the spawned mob would be at the appropriate level for the characters. On rare occasions, however, the ambush would be composed of critters of a rather lower level than the player(s). Like Level 1. Even if the player or group was level 50.
    • This bug was in or around Issue 5. All ambushes would spawn at the minimum level available for that group (Council - Level 1, Circle of Thorns, level 5). This also lead to an unintentional spoiler for anyone who hadn't completed the level 35-40 Rikti story arc if they got an ambush, as the game would through level 5 Lost at them.
  • Notably averted in EarthBound, where enemies will actually run away from you instead of engaging you in combat if you're powerful enough.
  • In Splinter Cell: Conviction, there is a flashback to 20 years ago when three of the world's unluckiest home invaders try to rob Sam Fisher's house. This flashback also serves as the tutorial to the "Mark and Execute" ability.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption this is how, after spending a thousand years asleep, your character gets his modern day clothes. He was lucky enough to be targetted by a mugger of similar size to him.
    • There's also an amusing encounter in the Middle Ages: as you get ready to storm the Big Bad's castle you are ambushed by three generic mooks, the leader of which snarls that he's going to avenge the True Deaths of more or less all of the ancient and powerful vampires you've defeated so far. As he's done enumerating them (which takes some time), his cronie wonders aloud if this is such a good idea after all...
  • Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines includes a similar scene much later with an unofficial patch: the PC gets mugged by a member of the local gang in Chinatown down a dark alleyway, with no witnesses... One dialogue option is to Dominate him into giving you all of his money. Otherwise, he makes a good snack.
  • In The Witcher Geralt of Rivia is lured into an abandoned house by a thug who attempts to ambush him with a small pack of friends. Right before he butchers them all, Geralt points out that it was pretty stupid of them to pull that scheme on a Witcher.
  • The first groupings of mooks you fight in Tales of Eternia tend to be bandits and rogue mages. Why they choose to mug a kid carrying a two-foot long bowie knife and a buckler and his buddy who clearly knows several forms of karate is a mystery.
  • The list of people who threaten Commander Shepard and crew and are obliterated shortly thereafter in Mass Effect could fill a short book. In the first game, it's excusable, as Shepard doesn't have much of a reputation outside of the Alliance. In the second game, after Shepard saved the Citadel and killed Sovereign, opposing him/her in any way is probably grounds for a Darwin Awards.
    • The Reapers are justified being ridiculously powerful, Cthulhu-esque ships of extinction. Others, not so much. The best example of this in Mass Effect 2 has to be Warden Kuril of Purgatory. When Shepard goes to pick up and recruit Jack, not only does he refuse to release Jack into Shepard's custody, he attempts to capture him/her, hold him/her for ransom for the Illusive Man or sell the Commander to the highest bidder on the black market as a slave. Can you say Too Dumb to Live?
    • Lampshaded by Doctor Chakwas saying the Commander "doesn't have many enemies, alive ones anyway"
      • Garrus does it again if you pick the Renegade options when recruiting Jack:

Shepard: I'm offering you the chance to be my friend. You don't want to be my enemy.
Garrus: They have a way of dying.

  • In Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, there are randomly encountered robbers who attack Ezio Auditore because he looks like a rich nobleman (which he essentially is, to be honest) and an easy mark (which he is hilariously not). This sometimes occurs even when he's on horseback, in which case he could just ride away... but him getting off of his horse only gives him more varied ways to butcher them. Worse yet for them, they somehow all have various baubles, trinkets and items he could make use of...
    • It only gets worse for the poor sods when Ezio starts recruiting Assassin apprentices, and as a result can wipe out the entire ambush party with a wave of his hand and a flurry of Hidden Blades or a storm of unseen arrows. (According to the community manager the apprentices are actually tailing Ezio discreetly, so they're actually ambushing the would-be ambushers.)
    • It's implied by the Thief Assignments (or rather that completing them all causes the attacks to cease) that the robbers are from the Cento Occhi ("Hundred Eyes") gang in Cesare Borgia's employ, though none of them seem to recognize Ezio as an Assassin despite him (and his apprentices) being the only one(s) in Rome to "show their colors."
  • In Mount & Blade, several of the unaffiliated wandering parties (read, bandits) can and will do this. The game seems to only read party size and occasionally the quality of troops in said party as the trigger for whether the bandits will pursue or flee from the player. This can lead to situations where Looters (the weakest NPC in the game, even below the much-abused peasant farmers and villagers), will attempt to pursue a lone player whose weapon alone is worth more than the belongings of the entire Looter party combined wearing armor that ignores an overwhelming percentage of the damage done by the Looters' bottom-tier weapons. Seriously. A handful of stones and a stick versus a guy in plate armor carrying a Sword of War. You might almost pity those Looters.
  • Occurs in the advertisement for Hybrid Heaven. The first page shows a little old lady about to be mugged. The next page shows the lady walking away from the mugger's remains.
  • Happens quite often in Red Dead Redemption. Even when people recognise Marston in the streets and his name is considered synonymous with badassery, people still love trying to mug him.
  • A frequent occurence in Pokémon games is for the enemy Mooks to demand your Pokemon if they win. Depending on how well you've trained and what Pokemon you have, this trope might apply more in some cases than others, but often their dialog consists of whining about how you were far stronger than they thought you'd be.
  • In Knights of the Old Republic a trio of Rodian punks start hassling the bounty hunter Calo Nord, who calmly tells them to go away and begins counting to three when they don't. Calo then blasts them all in under fives seconds and warns you to go away if you bother him as well.
  • In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, it's justified since the various bandit gangs in Amalur have no way of knowing their lone mark is a Back from the Dead Badass capable of beating them to death with their own Fate. It does get a little ridiculous if you happen to be completely decked out in full Prismere gear.
  • Khelgar Ironfist's backstory in Neverwinter Nights 2 features him picking a Bar Brawl with a group of what turned out to be traveling Sun Soul monks. Mainly because they were (in his mind) insulting the establishment by drinking water. (Yes, he was somewhat inebriated at the time.) Long story short, they beat the crap out of him. Ironically this inspired Khelgar to try and become a monk himself.
  • In Police Quest II when Bonds is pursuing Bains in Steelton Park, you encounter a mugger who will mug you with his bare hands. Radioing your partner will scare him away and get arrested.
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