Scratch Damage: Difference between revisions

** ''[[Mario & Luigi: Partners In 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 the NES game ''Crystalis'': if you have strong enough armor and/or a high enough character level, the game's weaker enemies will simply bounce right off you without damage.

** Of course, the inverse of this is that if you haven't reached an entirely arbitrary level, you will be completely unable to hurt bosses, and unable to run away from the battle, making most of the game a [[Guide Dang It]].

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' decreases accuracy and damage per level of difference between player and critter: while there's always a 5% chance for a given attack to hit (or miss, on the other end), the damage they do decreases so much there's often no chance for it to register before the player's health regenerates. Aside from that, the game deals with the issue by having the critters ignore the player if the difference in levels passes a certain threshold. They'll only attack (ineffectively) if they or a member of their spawn take damage from the player or a teammate first. At a great enough difference, they'll all run and not even try to attack back. It, also, of course, works the other way - and much higher-level critters generally will be ''more'' aggressive toward player characters (based on distance to first aggro) than even-level critters.

* ''[[Champions Online]]'' applies this rule. Especially in the case of the defensive ability of [[Nigh Invulnerability|invulnerability]], which directly subtracts a flat value from all incoming damage, even enemies tens of levels below you will still be able to hit you for one damage.

* All the [[Metroidvania|RPG]] ''[[Castlevania]]'' games have a minimum damage of 1 regardless of the attack and defense values involved, unless you use an item that has the absorb or nullify properties for the attack's element. Monsters aren't immune either, and a determined player can eventually kill any enemy with a series of 1-damage attacks.

** The extreme examples of these being Aria/Dawn of Sorrow's iron golems, who always take only 1 damage from attacks, and Dawn of Sorrow's Dead Crusader soul, which reduces damage by a flat number, making you invincible to weaker enemies. Their attacks still connect, but it does 0 damage and you don't flinch. Comically, the hit effects still occur, which means Soma will still bleed like a stuck pig when hit by an attack that does no damage.

* In the ''[[Atelier Series|Atelier]]'' games, much like ''[[Earthbound]]'', if you can get the drop on enemies sufficiently weaker than you, you won't even get into a battle with them (you have a chance to get treasure from them, but not experience).

* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' has your characters completely ignore attacks if they do zero damage.

* ''[[Jagged Alliance]] 2'' has break lights, when thrown at a character do one point of damage... and cause him (or her) to bleed, requiring basic medical attention to prevent continuing health loss.

** ...'''and''' it's possible to pester NPC's without aggravating them by trying to throw an object (a toolkit, a bottle, a ''bit of string'', or whatever) ''through'' them. The thrown object will conk them on the noggin for -1 HP instead. They may eventually even die from bleeding out of their bit-of-string-induced injuries if you stay in that sector long enough.

* ''[[Shining in the Darkness]]'' gives enemies that can't overpower your defense an increased chance to miss and do no damage, but they may still hit for 1 damage every so often. Annoyingly, this does not work in reverse: early on, when your [[Squishy Wizard|mage]] is still puny, enemies with sufficient defense will be said to 'shake off the attack' and never take damage.

** ''[[Shining Force]] Feather'' sees a lot scratch damage as well: due to the vastly increased HP counts, the ability to grind yourself stupid with little effort and the fact that attacks never miss completely, any enemy is able to consistently hit you for 1-3 damage per turn since everyone has multiple physical attacks per turn. It's ultimately helpful though, since [[Action Command|Action Commands]] allow you to gain some extra Force Points this way, which are used up when doing anything except moving around and using items.

* In ''[[Kirby]] [[Kirby Super Star|Superstar]]'', both Kirby and his helpers can guard, but depending on the nature of the attack they'll still take some damage or full damage from certain boss moves. A few copy abilities like the parasol gives him an improved guard mode that fully cancels out damage except for the boss moves. In fact, these guards damage enemies on impact, making it possible to beat some bosses purely by [[Scratch Damage]].

* [[Starcraft]]: If a units armor meets or exceeds the attack of whatever hits it, it will take one half point of damage. The game doesn't actually have any kind of half damage mark, so in effect it takes one damage from every other hit. Very few units are heavily armored enough to make this happen. This therefore makes more of an impact on custom games.

 

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