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Scratch Damage: Difference between revisions

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Scratch Damage (view source)

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* The ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' titles calculate damage simply as "Attack minus Defense", for both Mario and all opponents, making [[Spam Attack|Spam Attacks]] (such as Bow's Slap) rarely useful against opponents with even 1 point defense. On the other hand, certain techniques such as Mario's Power Bounce can hit an arbitrary number of times (by [[Action Command|Action Commands]]) but with reduced damage after each successive hit -- if the initial hit inflicted any damage, all subsequent hits are guaranteed to inflict a minimum 1 point per hit.
** ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'' generally permitted [[Scratch Damage]] both ways, but precise timing on the game's Action Commands made it possible to completely block enemy physical attacks with 0 points damage.
* The [[Mario and Luigi|Mario & Luigi]] series has any enemies always do at least one damage. Also, Mario and Luigi always do at least one damage to enemies. This does mean, however, that the first few hits of multi-hit moves can do 0 damage, but the last one will always do 1. ''[[Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga|Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'' has an example of this, but it's deliberate. There is an optional boss called Jojora near the end of the game. You have to defeat her friend (a giant snow-doll creature), but it it not necessary to beat Jojora. Many players believe it is actually impossible to kill her; she has the highest defense in the game and every attack only does 1 damage. However, the designers actually intended vigilant players to be able to beat her - she only has 50 HP. A multi-hitting attack will wear her HP down in no time, and she drops a rare item and gives decent experience for your trouble.
** Other examples of enemies that only take scratch damage from attacks include the tree thing on Trunkle's head (killing it is actually the quickest way to defeat said boss, presuming you use attacks that hit multiple times) and Boos (which have something like a thousand for their defense stats and can only be fought 'normally' at really high levels).
** ''[[Mario and Luigi Partners In Time|Mario & Luigi: Partners inIn Time]]'' has the Gold Koopeleons, which also have the highest defense in the game. They only have 10 HP, and every attack, again, only does 1 damage, with the exception of counters and First Strikes, which can do considerably more, for some reason (even killing them instantly at high enough levels). These enemies have a high speed rating, so they usually move first at normal levels when you first reach them, and they have a high chance of running from battle. However, they drop the most coins of any enemy in the game (80 in the European version and 100 in the US version), which can be doubled, or even TRIPLED with a certain badge. They usually appear in groups of two or three, and if only two appear it is possible to run from the battle and re-engage them, and three might be present! A multi-hitting Bros. Item such as a Red Shell can defeat all three of them in one turn (in the hands of a skilled player); hence it is highly recommended to come back and defeat these creatures once the player's speed rating is high enough to always move first--the rewards are very worthwhile. Using the aforementioned coin-tripling badge, this is easily the fastest way of earning money in the game.
* ''[[Earthbound]]'' gets around this by skipping battles against enemies that are far enough below you. You still earn experience and items.
** In ''[[Mother 3]]'', they replaced the battle skipping with the dash attack: if you dash into an enemy far enough below you, they disappear. You don't gain any experience or money, probably to give people an incentive to fight higher level monsters as opposed to grinding on low risk enemies.
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* In ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'', the police, who have a weak little pistol that you can't even obtain due to its uselessness, will always cause at least a bit of damage to a fully-armored Alex. Averted with Alex's powers: punching a tank, even with your superhuman strength, is quite pointless. Only certain powers or combat moves can damage armor. The same goes for hunters, who are immune to bullets and Alex's baseline strength.
** [[Prototype 2]] will avert this, however. James Heller ''can'' become completely bulletproof.
* Averted in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2A2|A2]]'': the most basic part of the damage formula is adding Attack/Magick to an ability's attack power (which for a basic attack is 0) then subtracting half of the target's Defense/Magick Defense. It's possible for an attack to do no damage even without [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] in account, though that requires a defensive stat at ''least'' twice as high as the enemy's attack.
 
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