Slap-On-The-Wrist Nuke: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A
Partner in crime to the [[Overly
Using a [[Summon Magic]] [[Mons
Explanatory rule of thumb: If dropping an asteroid the size of Russia on the Boss does less damage than slashing him once with the [[Infinity
Sometimes it's mostly because of programming issues. An attack may indeed be programmed to be powerful; but due to a problem with calculating the formula or some other factor, it's severely weakened.
----
{{examples}}
=== Fighting and Shooters ===
* In ''[[
* ''[[Shadow Warrior]]'' is one of the few FPSs with nukes. Since the game is pretty silly to begin with, the nuke's ability to kill everything in the game's largest rooms is reasonably impressive.
** [[Contractual Boss Immunity|But it still won't kill a boss in one hit]].
* ''[[Battle Tanx]]: Global Assault'' features a tactical nuke weapon whose blast wave will generally cover the entire level. Most tanks will be wiped out by the blast, however, the game's [[Mighty Glacier]]
** Averted in [[Spiritual Successor]] ''War Jetz'' as the nuke WILL vaporize everybody within range at power levels 2 and 3. Drop it, turn, and RUN. Even then you'll sustain about half damage to a third damage if you didn't drop it from high enough.
* ''[[Turok (
* The Redeemer in the ''[[
** Its destructive power is about what you'd expect for anyone caught in it though.
* Smoke's [[Finishing Move]] in ''[[
* The Tactical Nuke in ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2''. Getting a 25 killstreak in multiplayer with this equipped allows you to call in a nuclear warhead to end the match in your favor regardless of the current score. While it does kill every player on field regardless of team, ''the entire map remains intact and untouched''.
** Back again in ''Modern Warfare 3'', this time called the M.O.A.B. (Mother of All Bombs). Unlike the Tactical Nuke, the M.O.A.B. only kills everyone on the opposing team upon detonation, as well as having an EMP-like effect on the other team for one minute and giving everything onscreen an orange tint. More importantly, it doesn't end the round, meaning everyone can still be fighting on a radioactive ground zero with everything intact.
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* [[Fallout 3]] introduces the Fat Man, which ballistically launches a miniature nuclear warhead that produces an explosion that a conventional explosive the size of a satchel charge could produce. But it mushrooms!
=== [[Real Time Strategy]] ===
* The nukes in ''[[Command
** Averted in ''Tiberium Wars'', wherein a nuke will obliterate half of the enemy base.
*** The Ion Cannon is also arguably an example. An FMV in the first game the thing destroys a small base, in actual gameplay it's nowhere nearly that powerful. Subverted with Tiberium Wars where it's as powerful as the nuke.
** Also averted in ''Red Alert 2'', where a single nuke {{spoiler|destroys Chicago in a cutscene.}}
** The Chinese in ''[[Command
*** It is more likely based on Atomic Annie, the [
** China's superweapon in ''Generals'' is also surprisingly weak, given it's an ICBM launched nuke. It's weaker than the GLA toxin-laced ''Scud Storm'', has a longer cool-down timer, and (unlike the ''Storm'') requires power.
*** The GLA scud storm is arguably a case since the missiles do nowhere nearly as much damage as they should for their size.
** In ''[[Command
** Also played straight in the third of the [[Dune II|sister series]] ''Emperor, Battle For Dune'', where the Harkonnen family atomics are only enough to topple a single building. and irradiate the ground beneath it for a while.
* Played straight in ''[[World in Conflict]]'', where multiplayer nukes are underpowered compared to their real counterparts, even if they do kill anything in the large blast radius barring [[Mercy Invincibility]] and radiate the area. In the campaign, meanwhile, it is averted: Launching a single one is treated as toying with the fate of the planet. The chronologically next mission features bands of rabble in ruined or smoldering forests, with the last mission's location visible in the distance through the enormous cloud of black smoke as it's still on fire. Characters are horrified for the rest of the campaign.
* Some of the spells in ''[[Defense of the Ancients]]'' are like this - even though they might take away a significant number of HP, from the spell descriptions there ought to be no way the target can survive.
* [[Hand Wave|Handwaved]] in ''[[
** Not that it really matters when the Protoss do pretty much the same thing to sterilize Zerg-infested planets.
** The nukes in the sequel, ''[[Star Craft 2]]'', are even weaker. This is [[Competitive Balance|justified]] by them being easier to research and produce.
* Played straight with the Allied nuclear strike in ''[[War Front Turning Point]]'''s [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|alternate]] history [[World War II|WWII]]. Despite the nuke's magnificent visual effects, it is wide enough only to conflagrate a tight nest of buildings and leave a glowing slagpile. The ''earthquake bomb'', however, topples more, but does little to infantry. German [
* The Orbital Bombardment ability in the ''[[Dawn of War]]'' games, in which the Space Marine faction directs an orbiting Battle Barge/Strike Cruiser to fire its weapons on a target. The ability is impressive and can kill almost anything in one shot, even the bosses in the second game's campaign suffering tremendous damage, except the weapons of these vessels are known to take entire chunks out of planets (and can render a planet lifeless when enough vessels fire them at once), so it is incredibly implausible that anything survives at all, including the Space Marines that ordered it.
** Considering that the Strike Cruiser and Battle Barge are optimized for orbital bombardment and are using their secondary weapons, they probably just turned they power down a bunch.
* [[Hearts of Iron]] features nuclear weapons. To access them, one faction has to research enough technology to build a nuclear reactor to a high enough level to produce a bomb, and then one is automatically added to your stockpile once a certain amount of time passes (which decreases the more technology you invest into it). Nuclear weapons have the following effects: they destroy all enemy troops in a province; they cause an amount of dissent directly proportional to the target country depending on the population levels, industry, infrastructure, etc.; they completely deplete all improvement levels (infrastructure, industry, etc.) to 0% and make it so it takes years to repair. And that's it. There is no fallout, nuclear winter, global warming, or anything else. Troops that occupy a province that was just nuked suffer no ill effects. Furthermore, most provinces have such a low population that it's nuking them isn't effective enough to change anything. The best cities to nuke are state capitals and some high-population provinces in China, and that's it. While the no fallout may be excused when you consider this depicts early nuclear weapons in the WWII era, the technology tree allows you to advance and develop better nuclear weapons that existed in the [[Cold War]], but the basic effects stay the same. Nukes also do not affect diplomacy when one would think they really should. Finally, not only can the AI not handle nuclear weapons, there is no concept of 'deterrence': a country without nukes is just as likely to attack a country with nukes as without.
* Subverted in ''[[Total Annihilation]]'' and its [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[
=== [[RPG
* ''[[
** Sephiroth's Supernova in ''[[
** Given how deep underground the final dungeon is, summoning Bahamut ZERO while inside it (which results in a giant dragon appearing in space and doing an orbital bombardment of the enemy) should logically cause much more damage to the planet than Sephiroth's plot-based Meteor spell.
** Another one would be Bahamut Fury's Exa Flare from ''[[Crisis Core]]''. You'd think ''melting the moon'' and causing a dust cloud covering half the planet would do some terrain or ally damage... though to be fair it does regularly do 9,999 to all enemies.
** The third form of ''[[
*** There's also one of Squall's [[Limit Break
** Ark, from ''[[
*** Nearly every summon in that game is a city-destroying weapon [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|in cut-scenes but not in combat]].
** Any of the Aeons' overdrives in ''[[
*** Subverted by Sin, whose Giga Graviton attack ''blows off half the planet'' if it's unleashed, [[Nonstandard Game Over|resulting in an immediate Game Over.]]
*** In the international version, one of Penance's attacks is "Tera Gravitron", which, logically, should be even stronger than Sin's Giga Gravitron. But, here, it only does ''percentage-based'' damage! His other "ultimate" spell, Judgment Day, isn't much better either, since you can avoid it by summoning an aeon, unlike Sin's attack, which is an instant game over.
** ''[[
** The Emperor's Starfall attack in ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[
** In Tactics, the [[Apocalypse How|Meteor]] spell is almost as large as the battlefield, while [[Sphere of Destruction|Ultima (angelic version)]] engulfs the entire battlefield in "absolute energy" and Divine Ultima's explosion radius would probably cover fields twenty five times their size. This, despite their actual effect range being 3, 3 and 4 panels, respectively.
* [[Square Enix]] in general seems to like the trope. In ''[[
* Isaac's most powerful summon in ''[[
** Same could be said for the Meteor summon. Also done with the final boss's most powerful attack in the sequel, but the damage seems to be random, though deadly most of time.
*** The latter could be considered [[Cool but Inefficient]] since it's technically a [[Beam Spam]] in which only one of the beams actually hits you.
** Also in ''[[
*** The same summon also had the ability to fully restore your HP AND revive fallen members, even though there was nothing showing it. How a
** In addition, the unleash of the game's most powerful weapon, the Sol Blade, drops a miniaturized sun on the enemy. This doesn't even do triple the damage of a normal attack with the weapon, which is just a sword swing...
*** And for extra fun, it's ''another'' reference to Armageddon.
* The Fireball, Blizzard, Lightning Storm, and Earthquake spells (the last one in particular) in [[Dragon Age]] seem like they ought to cause a lot of collateral damage when used inside the rotting wooden shantytown of the Alienage in the latter part of the game, and Earthquake really ought to cause some complications underground of the collapsing tunnels sort in Orzammar.
* In ''[[
* 'Prophecy' from ''[[
** There is also Galcian's special: Terminal, which involves him diving at you with his sword and destroying armada ships along the way and plunging the sword into you creating a large explosion that shakes the Hydra. The targeted character is unlikely to die from this.
* Games made by [[Nippon Ichi]] tend to have plenty of these.
** Also subverted in the original ''[[Disgaea]]''. Don Joaqina's Galactic Power summons a meteor {{spoiler|which is pathetically weak, and is accompanied by a sound affect which sounds something like "plop"}}.
* One character's ultimate attack in ''[[
** ''[[
* The nuke powers from ''[[City of Heroes]]'' top tier Blast powers look like they'd be rather impressive, and canonical uses treat said powers as being impressively deadly. They're called nukes by players. They still won't kill a same-level minion on their own, though.
** Not only do nearly all of these "nuke" powers consume all of your endurance to use them and have some of the longest recharge times in the games, they can also
*** The whole "use all your endurance and be useless for the next minute or two" is fine for a Blaster with a team backing him/her up, but for a Defender or Corruptor who is also there to buff, debuff, and heal could end up getting teammates killed by taking themselves out of action like that. Hence why the nuke powers are common on Blasters but often skipped by Defenders and Corruptors.
** A little work in the Warburg zone can also earn you the (one-time, until you earn it again) ability to call down an ''actual nuclear missile''. It makes a depressingly small explosion and isn't much more powerful than the aforementioned Blaster nukes, but it can still help out in a pinch.
* ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]'' gives you the ability to summon dragons capable of dealing far more damage than any other single spell, but given the mana requirements only one of them is actually any better then spamming the next most powerful spell, or the non-magical dragoon additions. Hell even entering dragoon mode at all means you'll deal less damage than with your strongest regular additions. Some bosses even impose further penalties on the use of these powers. They are still the most visually impressive moves in the whole game though. Also, a select few bosses need the defense boosts of that dragoon mode gives to be even remotely beatable.
* Certain powerful spells in ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' games, especially those used by late game bosses, tend to have impressive animations involving planets, black holes, six foot pillars of light and other such eye candy. However, even if after all that your opponent doesn't outright ''dodge'' it, it may or may not be fatal and is guaranteed to only affect one person on the entire battlefield at a time.
** You know what's awesome? Rexflame in ''Radiant Dawn''. Turn off animations, and you'll still see the river of freaking lava swallow up the entire screen, but the only thing hurt is the enemy you were aiming at. Singular.
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* In the ''[[Might and Magic]]'' series, the nuke spell (also called Armageddon) will do tremendous damage to ''everything'' in the same area, including the caster, and will kill all civilians instantly. Due to engine limitations it has no effect on buildings and terrain though.
** The spin-off ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' has the same spell, and the icon for the spell is even a mushroom cloud. Despite this, it's quite easy to get hit by it and only lose half your forces. (Oh, and it can't touch Dragons. Apparently dragon-scale is nuke-proof.)
* Toyed with in the later ''[[
* ''[[Phantasy Star IV]]'' features combination attacks that play this trope straight. One of them is even called "Holocaust," which tries to kill every enemy you're fighting. The most powerful combo is appropriately called "Destruction," and is basically a huge bomb. It's powerful enough that one of the characters in the combo has to cast a shield spell to protect the party, but it still can't break the damage limit.
* In ''[[
** This will change in the next expansion. Doomsdays will become a single-target weapon, instead of affecting everything on-grid (within 250
* One of the [[Limit Break
** [[Epic Battle Fantasy]] likes it a lot, in fact. Lance especially. Besides the aforementioned Nuke he also possesses an [[Wave Motion Gun|Ion Cannon]] which also plows through the ground, obliterating it with no damage to the party at all and only decent damage to enemies. Natalie herself is not one to be outdone. Her attacks include a massive beam of Holy power visible from space itself (pardonable, since it's Holy after all) and a BLACK HOLE which does deal heavy damage to all enemies and players with a chance to kill, but does not do what black holes are meant to do, which is destroying the world.
* ''[[Monster Girl Quest]]'' has this on both the heroes' and villains' sides. Daystar apparently involves dropping a miniature star on the target, which then explodes. Late-game enemies can survive more than one Daystar. The final boss's Big Bang is supposedly capable of destroying the entire world, yet your characters can survive it.
=== Other ===
* An odd example: the video game of ''Spider-Man 2'' had a spinning pile driver attack that Spidey could pull on thugs. He could do this from any height, including from the top of the ''Empire State Building'' (provided he swung up this high, first). It would seldom kill any thug one shot, no matter how high you were.
* ''[[Touhou]] Soccer''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlBWNGq72DY Earth-splitting] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kofnEdB8Blc attack animations] [[What Do You Mean
* In the [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Fate/stay
** Ea seems to have an adjustable destructive output depending on how much prana is put into the attack, {{spoiler|and almost all of the times Gilgamesh uses it are in the Fate route, when he's trying to ''subdue'' -- not ''atomize'' -- Saber. When Gil uses it to more lethal effect in ''Hollow Ataraxia'' and ''[[Fate
* Parodied in ''[[
* ''In [[Need for Speed]]: Hot Pursuit'' (2010), getting hit with an EMP or a spike strip will not ([[Critical Existence Failure|normally]]) end the car that is hit. Not a nuke-power thing, but logically a car should not run with knocked out tyres/electronics.
=== [[Turn
* Though Nukes in ''[[Civilization]]'' games are incredibly powerful, heavily damaging things and trashing the landscape, in ''IV'' they can't kill ''anything'' with 100% certainty. This doesn't stop your computer rivals from scorning your name should you use them yourself, however.
** Contrast with the ICBM in ''Civilization: Revolutions''. It will completely destroy anything in the region it is launched at and all units adjacent to it. If used against a capital, it will destroy everything except for the Palace and one unit of population. On the other hand, [[It Only Works Once|only one can ever be built]].
** Probably because nuclear shelters and bunkers are buildable long before nukes hit the table; completing the Manhattan Project unlocks nuclear weapons for ''everyone'', including your enemies. Therefore - if a nuclear war is inevitable - players will stall from building the Project and build up their defenses beforehand, significantly reducing the potential impact of nuclear weaponry when it does occur. On the other hand, throwing half a dozen nukes around will cause rampant global warming, rapidly terraforming random plains and grassland tiles into inhospitable desert tiles, and so on. The Fallout effect also reduces a tile's resource output until scrubbed by workers, so a city can suffer a gradual decline as an after effect even if it survives the initial attack.
** Heavily averted in [[Alpha Centauri]] however. Planetbusters do [[Exactly What It Says
*** Technically, the use of planet busters is a Major Atrocity. The other factions ignoring it is possible, but requires revoking the UN Charter. Revoking it requires a majority vote of the Planetary Council. Even Brother Pravin Lal of the Peacekeepers, the alleged "ethical" member, can vote to revoke and may threaten the other faction leaders into voting this way, and may commit any atrocity before or after doing so. Strangely, a lower Integrity rating carries no unique consequences for Lal, who may then go on to achieve all victory conditions and just plain win the game. Maybe their Integrity ratings weren't that high to begin with.
* ''[[Empire]]'' and its derivatives likewise have nukes kill everything in their blast radius, but cities are merely depopulated instead of being destroyed (the ability to destroy cities would be a [[Game Breaker]], since cities can not be built, only captured).
* In ''[[Advance Wars]]'', [[Big Bad|Sturm's]] CO Power drops a meteor onto the field. This power can only drop a unit 5 HP, whether it's an infantry or a battleship, and it cannot kill a unit, only making it drop to 1.
** Same in ''Advance Wars 2'', and in ''Advance Wars 2'' and ''Dual Strike'' there's the addition of giant cannons, lasers, and missiles that all have the same effect.
*** Also, in the final mission of ''2'', you can fail and let a doomsday missile be launched, but due to the game's [[Non
* ''[[Pokémon]] Battle Revolution'' turns Seismic Toss into this. While the other games had a more modest animation for this, Seismic Toss shows the opponent's Pokemon ''being thrown into space'' and colliding back into the ground. Despite such an animation, it's not very strong (it's level-based, meaning the best you can do with it is 100 damage). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6SxbINhhh4 Here's an example of it.]
** In the handheld games, the move is described as throwing the Earth at the enemy.
** In the main games, there are attacks like Earthquake and Surf, which are [[Exactly What It Says
*** The move Incinerate sounds like a devastating Fire move, and its animations are similarly dazzling, but it's weaker than Tackle or Pound, two moves most Pokémon begin with.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In ''[[Dungeons
** One monster has an attack in which they ''reach inside you and claw out your lungs'', dealing... 1d4 damage, which is on-par with what you take from a dagger wielded by someone with average strength.
* Used constantly on a smaller scale in ''[[Warhammer
* The default nuclear weapon in the second edition of the superhero RPG ''[[
* Thoroughly averted in ''[[GURPS]]'', where nuke damage (at ground zero) is determined by rolling several six-sided dice ''and then multiplying the result by a million -- or more''.
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* Mocked by ''[[Weebl and Bob]]'' in their ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Adventurers
** Also lampshaded in [https://web.archive.org/web/20090725033029/http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0141.html an earlier strip]. "You'd think that destroying the entire planet would be more damaging..."
* Spoofed in ''[[Flaky Pastry]]'', where a ludicrously overpowered spell called Omega Murder Blast literally obliterates all terrain in a huge radius, annihilates whoever it was aimed at, but does not affect any other living creature in said huge radius because "it is a single-target spell".
* ''[[Brawl in
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