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Not Completely Useless: Difference between revisions
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** The throwing knives are actually significantly stronger than shuriken, and can hit sufficiently large enemies twice (they go through most enemies). it's just that shuriken have a (usually) far superior movement pattern. And you can throw more shuriken at once than you can knives.
* The last boss of ''[[Mystic Defender]]'': it could be trivially defeated by using the weapon that bounces balls off walls and crouching in the lower right hand corner of the screen. The balls would bounce and hit the boss in just the right spot. The weapon was otherwise useless for most of the game.
* In ''[[Wild
* Completing a sidequest involving [[No Sense of Direction|directing an easily-lost scholar home]] in ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story]]'' earns you a stick called the Funny Slayer that [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|instantly slays any enemies with "Funny" in their name when you hit them.]] Of course, the only enemies that fit that description([[Funny Thieves]]) are [[The Goomba]] and pretty much go down in one hit even if you were Level 1 and unarmed. That is, until you hit the middle floors of the [[Bonus Dungeon|Cave Of Trials]], which contain [[Metal Funnys]] and [[Funny Thieflvl 99 s]] (one of which is a floor boss.)
* Vulcan Raven in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'': it is implied you must use your missile weapons for this battle, which he can easily shoot down if you don't use them carefully. Alternatively, you can lay claymore mines around the arena and wait for him to step on them; this is one of the only good uses of claymore mines in the game.
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* ''[[Final Fantasy V]]''; Segments with large amounts of damage floors are pretty much the only areas where Geomancers are useful.
** The same game has numerous other almost-useless classes with useful abilities; mastering those classes will confer those abilities on the Freelancer and Mime classes. For this reason, many players will level-grind with those classes and then never use them again.
** Geomancers themselves are not very useful, but their special skill "Gaia" is incredibly useful for the first half of the game, thanks to it giving you a wide variety of potent attacks, all of which requires 0 MP.
* Richter in ''[[Castlevania]]: [[Portrait of Ruin]]''; His weakness is darkness element. Johnathan's Cream Pie subweapon is Dark element, and actually deals massive damage when mastered, although it's a bit awkward to handle. A lot of players ended up beating Richter with pie to the face, just because it's one of a few most efficient ways to handle the bastard.
** In ''[[Aria of Sorrow]]'', there is one enemy, the Iron Golem. 9999 life and only takes 1 damage from any attack. It's also the same game that has a soul that (allegedly) swaps the target's HP and MP values. Take a guess how much mana the Iron Golem has...
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** [[Circle of the Moon]] features the Zombie Dragons: A [[Dual Boss]] that easily earns [[That One Boss]] status. One of the reasons for this is that they are both above you (and a lack of platforms and good attacks doesn't help). But you may recall the Ax, the subweapon that you stopped using because it goes in an overhead arc...
*** More in line as a subversion. Those axes still do not do enough damage to outclass the cross. To be even more frank, if you do not catch the cross, the rebound can score a free hit or two on the OTHER dragon. It's useful, but you still won't touch it. The knife on the other hand...
* Mondo Mole in ''[[
** Master Belch can either be fought the easy way, with the Jar of Fly Honey, or [[Self-Imposed Challenge|the really hard way]], which involves the otherwise-meaningless HP Sucker and exploiting his weaknesses to Hypnosis and Paralysis. (You have to drain his HP from him because he won't take damage from attacks without the Fly Honey.)
** Shroooom! can be a rather tough boss...unless you use the otherwise nigh-useless PSI Flash Beta against him, which will either paralyze or kill him in one shot.
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* "Magic Bullet" cards are fairly common in [[Collectible Card Game]]s. In response to cards and game mechanics that could potentially unbalance the game, designers often include cards specifically to counter these effects. If done poorly, such cards are useless ''except'' if your opponent employs the tactic it's meant to counter; in this case it rarely works, because it generally just isn't worth putting a card in your deck that is only useful in one specific circumstance.
** The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game]]'' had a few blatant examples of this, such as Gryphon Wing, White Hole, and Anti-Raigeki, whose ''only uses'' were to negate specific overpowered cards. Then they discovered banning, and these counter cards quickly became dead weight. A less blatant example is Kuriboh, a mostly-underpowered card that for a while was the only effective way of stopping several one-turn-KO combos.
** The card game ''[[Doomtown]]'' was especially bad at this. In one of the later expansions, the cards in question really ''were'' Magic Bullets--"Bullet" type cards were designed to insta-kill various character types.
** ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' had the card One With Nothing, whose entire effect was "discard your hand." It was completely useless until a competitive deck came out that relied on giving the opponent a stream of cards and using spells that dealt damage based on the number of cards in an opponent's hand compared to yours.
** The [[Pokémon (game)|Pokémon Trading Card Game]] uses "Magic Bullet" cards in place of banning. One recent example is Machamp, who could [[One-Hit Kill|instantly KO]] any non-evolved Pokémon at a time when non-evolved Pokémon was the norm in tournament play. Most cases are subtler than this, however.
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** Though the Sorceress's Blaze (which makes fire appear where you walk) is mostly useless, it makes an effective [[Hit and Run Tactics|kiting tactic]] against [[That One Boss|Duriel]]. More than most classes, the Sorceress desperately needs to stay out of his [[Instant Death Radius]]; with Blaze, you can get him to [[Artificial Stupidity|chase you around in a circle in your trail of fire]] until he eventually dies.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' you eventually fight Seymour on Mount Gagazet, where he is one of less than a handful of enemies to use the Zombie attack. You can fight this battle the long and hard way with Aeons and Overdrives, or you can just keep a few vials of otherwise useless de-zombify medicine handy.
** Yuna's Nul-spells, a low-cost spell that hits the entire party and will protect them from one attack that matches the nulled element (NulBlaze will protect you from fire, NulTide will protect you from water, et cetera), are considered useless by some players. However, they can be very handy indeed when you know exactly what kind of elements are coming. Flans and Elements, in particular, will attack with specific elements, and if you cast the appropriate Nul- spell in time you won't be hurt at all. They're also very helpful the first time you fight Seymour, since he repeatedly casts each elemental spell in a specific order. If you know what's coming next (and the Sensor ability will explain the sequence to you), you can make what would be [[That One Boss]] much more bearable.
** Petrifying enemies doesn't usually count for much in many Final Fantasy games, but in Final Fantasy X it's another matter entirely:
*** Having Rikku use Petrify Grenades on underwater fiends will instantly kill them, as they [[Literally Shattered Lives|sink to the bottom and shatter]].
*** In the desert on the way to the Al Bhed Home, you'll run into these weird plant fiends that will automatically cast Confusion on you every time you hit them...unless you use Kimahri's Stone Breath on them. Who'd have guessed that it would be so hard to confuse someone when you're petrified and about to shatter?
* ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]'': Null Sleep/Avoid Sleeper (avoid any attack so long as you're affected with Sleep status) is completely useless against nearly every boss in the game. Except one, where it is, in point of fact, absolutely ''required'' to succeed. Oh, and that one specific fight? That would be {{spoiler|Demi-Fiend}}, most definitively on the short-list for hardest boss ever in the history of gaming.
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** X-zone is a spell that removes enemies from combat. Like most instant death spells it rarely works on anyone you'd care to kill instantly. It works a lot better if you cast vanish on an enemy first (this may be unintentional), but it also works on the boss known as Wrexsoul, ensuring a quick end to an otherwise annoying boss fight (though you miss out on a reward).
** Not to mention the Imp status from the same game. Normally it makes you very weak and you don't want to keep it on you, but [[Oh Crap|if you equip the Imp-specific items while Imped...]]
** A character that fits this trope is Umaro. He's generally not considered very useful because he's [[The Berserker]] and you can never control him. However, that lack of control can actually be a blessing in disguise:
*** Any character you send into the Coliseum to fight ends up being controlled by the computer. This leaves you at the mercy of the [[AI Roulette]], which can be hair-pullingly frustrating as your idiot characters heal themselves while at full HP or cast low-level spells that barely scratch the monster they're fighting. Since all Umaro does is attack, if you send him into the Coliseum he'll actually do very well if you equip him with the right Relics.
*** The Fanatics' Tower messes with your character's command windows so you can only use magic spells or items in combat. Since Umaro doesn't have a command window, he completely ignores this restriction and will simply attack anyway. This can be a lifesaver-when fighting the [[Magi Master]] in the Fanatics' Tower, most players will Berserk him to stop him from constantly changing his elemental weakness. Unfortunately, you might end up Berserking him when he's only vulnerable to an element you can't target with your magic. If you don't have a spell like Flare, and you don't have the ability, much less the patience, to use Rasp, the fight can become [[Unwinnable]] unless you can find some other way to damage him. Even if he has to do it all himself, Umaro can still destroy the [[Magi Master]] for you.
*** Cyan is frequently seen as a [[Crutch Character]] because you have to charge up his Bushido attacks before he can use them. You can't input any commands for your other party members until Cyan is ready...but since Umaro has no command window, he can and will attack while Cyan is powering up.
* Across the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series in general, there are many enemies that trigger [[Taking You with Me]] attacks - either machines that self-destruct, or living bombs that blow up when hit with enough attacks. These enemies are, across the board, rather vulnerable to Slow and Stop, which do [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], allowing you to take them out without having to worry about them taking out your party.
** Similarly, the status buff, Reflect can get this treatment. Reflect returns most magic spells back at the caster/caster's party. However, some enemies will cast Reflect on the player's party so that their healing or buffing spells are reflected back at the enemy party. Not only that, but most enemies that use elemental magic absorb what they are casting, thus reflecting magic back at them would just heal them. That is the main reason why Reflect is hardly used by the player, but if enemies cast Reflect upon themselves, the player party can cast Reflect on themselves and cast magic on themselves to bounce it back at enemies without a counter reflect (except for [[Final Fantasy VII]] where if the party and enemies have reflect, the spells will keep bouncing back and forth until Reflect fades for someone).
*** Alternately, sometimes you can dispel the enemies' Reflect spells and let them get blasted by their own spells. One particularly funny instance is against the fight against Seymour on Mt. Gagazet in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', where he tries to bounce a Flare spell off his Reflect barrier to hit you. If you dispel his barrier before he gets the chance, he'll hit himself and then the game will snarkily note that the "Combination Failed".
*** In both ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'', you can actually cast ''four'' spells on the enemies for the price of one. If all your characters have reflect status (through Wall Rings, casting Carbuncle, etc.) and you cast something like a Firaga-All or a Cura-All spell on them, every single one of those spells will be bounced back and hit the enemies. If there's only one enemy, he or she will take the full effects of all four spells at once. So much for [[That One Boss]]...
* The emerald swords of ''[[Lands of Lore]]'' cause little to zero damage to all enemies and seem to be of no use until you enter the White Tower, there they're pretty effective against the ghosts, who are impervious to normal weapons.
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* ''[[Champions of Norrath]]'' and its sequel have several spells that either only work on undead, or are much more effective on undead. For example, the dark elf shadowknight's Convert Undead is absolutely useless ''unless'' you're fighting a horde of undead. The high elf cleric has several [[Holy Hand Grenade]] spells that are only useful against undead.
* There's a Disney game for the Sega Genesis called ''The Great Circus Mystery.'' In it you get several suits that allow Mickey and/or Minnie to solve puzzles, get items and open pathways. You know how you tend to forget about the first one or two weapons you get as the game progresses? Well, nothing will take down Level 5's boss except for the vacuum cleaner-suit from WAY back.
* ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' has Ipsen's Castle, a dungeon where nearly everything is reversed; stairs and ceilings swapped places and your current weapons actually inflicts [[Scratch Damage]] in this area. Most of the treasures you find here are the lousy starter weapons for your party that they came with. [[Guide Dang It|While there are no clues on how you can get around the sudden drop in your weapon damage]], the castle has [[Statistically Speaking|crappy weapons]] because they actually do full normal damage like your more current weapons, due to the castle having the properties of reversing stuff. Luckily, your magic spells are not affected and the reverse properties are only for this dungeon. However, if you are planning to learn abilities while in the castle, you'll be stuck with a party that can't do a lot of melee damage...unless you use special abilities like Throw, Jump, Thievery and Darkside, since the castle's power-reversing actually only affects your Fight command.
* For Light Side players, the Drain Health Force Power in ''[[Star Wars]] [[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' is near useless for the brunt of the game, [[Karma Meter|handicapped as it is]]. {{spoiler|In the final bossfight against Darth Malak, however, it is the only way to make use of the comatose Jedis he has strewn around the room. While using the power on one of them does kill them, it also completely replenishes the player's health, and keeps Malak from using them.}}
** The sequel had Mira's unique power: while she was your active character, your party wouldn't trigger mines. Normally mines in the KotOR series are widely-spread and easy enough to simply walk around (or ''through''—they don't do very much damage). However, precisely one area in the game, not long after you recruit Mira in the first place, has ''dozens'' of mines in thick clusters, entirely unlike the usual arrangement.
** The sequel also emphasized this with skills through the crafting mechanic. Usually you could rely on your party's skills, rather than your own—and a few, like Awareness and Stealth, were not very useful to begin with. However, they were the basis of the crafting system, and most of the time you were forced to use your own skills when determining what upgrades you could make.
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' in general has many cards that are useless until you find a combo they work in.
** One With Nothing. Goes from useless to [[My Hero Zero]] if you are against an Owling Mine deck (force opponent to draw cards, deal damage for them having too many cards. Was popular enough once that EVERYONE sideboarded One With Nothing) have cards with madness (when you would discard a card with madness, you can play it instead; sometimes for a lesser cost but sometimes for a greater cost); consider also that One With Nothing is an Instant so it can be used even if it isn't your turn.
** Lifegain cards are almost completely useless, unless you have a card like [[Game Breaker|Yawgmoth's Bargain]], which lets you turn life into cards (though [[Deal with the Devil|you can't draw cards the normal once-per-turn way]]). Lifegain also became nasty when they began adding specific cards that let you win the game if your life passed a certain extent. [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=185743 Felidar Sovereign] springs to mind. Additionally, due to lifegain's percieved weakness, you can gain ''tons'' of it for very cheap with a number of black, green, or especially white cards. Then you have certain creatures like Serra Ascendant and Divinity of Pride, which both become ENORMOUSLY overpowered for their costs if you have 25-30 life on hand, and both have the powerful lifelink ability to convert any damage they do into more life. Combine that with an artifact recently spoiled from Innistrad that can tap every turn for 5 damage if you managed to get to 30 or more life and the aforementioned Sovereign...
* ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' - The two hour ability (a supposedly extremely valuable job specific ability that can only be used every two hours) for Ninjas is Mijin Gakure. This ability kills the Ninja and deals damage based on their current HP. Due to the amount of health enemies have, this ability is basically useless. It does not inflict enough damage to be worth using in any situation where a two hour is justified. There are two uses for it.
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* Fina in ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'' has a special move called Lunar Glyph that does a little damage and has a chance of petrifying the enemy. As you'd expect, all the enemies worth petrifying are immune to it...except for ''one boss'' that it's almost 100% effective against.
* In theory, [[Arrows on Fire]] are an advanced attack in ''[[Trine]]'', doing more damage in return for a bit of magical energy. In practice, normal arrows make up for quality with quantity. However, max-level fire arrows explode to damage nearby targets, allowing you to quickly take out the [[Goddamn Bats|bat swarms]] that are hard to hit with most other attacks.
* ''[[
* * The 'mutate' perk in the ''[[Fallout]]'' universe. You can re-pick your traits, how grand. Too bad you pick your traits yourself in the beginning of the game and there are few, if any, traits that it would be worth a perk switching to mid-game. Meanwhile, in ''[[Fallout Tactics]]'', your team-mates have pre-picked traits, and getting [[Game Breaker|Gifted]] ''is'' worth the perk slot.
* Some people complain that [[Final Fantasy X|Kimahri Ronso]] is redundant because there's no need for a multitasker, but those people forget several things:
** He can make a useful backup mage or provide additional status effects, which can complement the party member who is supposed to specialize in these things, or even take their place if that party member isn't available;
** His Ronso Rages can be very useful indeed. Stone Breath and Thrust Kick, for instance, can be used to get instantly rid of enemies that are normally [[Demonic Spiders]];
** He's the only character besides Auron whose weapons normally have the Piercing trait. This is especially helpful at the start of the game, before Auron actually joins the party.
** Similarly, Kimahri can be used as a thief as soon as the first level one unlock is found for the Sphere Grid, which is a lot sooner than when Rikku is found.
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