Death of a Thousand Cuts: Difference between revisions

Usually used by the [[Fragile Speedster]] or the [[Stone Wall]], the former is fast enough to avoid being hit, but has abysmal attack compared to others, and the latter is durable enough to take the damage with a straight face, but unlike the speedster, has a weak offensive.

 

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* [[Naruto]]'s {{spoiler|Rasenshuriken}} attack does this also quite literally, cutting and killing {{spoiler|Kakuzu}} with so many cuts that Kakashi's Sharingan couldn't count them all (it counts really fast). If {{spoiler|Kakuzu}} wasn't [[Made of Diamond|highly durable]], [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|nothing would have been left]] of him (like it's later shown with another foe).

** You could define {{spoiler|Rasenshuriken}} as "death of a thousand cuts ''all at once''".

* ''[[After War Gundam X (Anime)|Gundam X]]'' gives us the Correl, a [[Monster of the Week]] [[Humongous Mecha|mobile suit]] that was made ludicrously fast by stripping it of all non-essential parts ([[Fragile Speedster|including most of its armor]]). Its only weapon is a [[Laser Blade|beam knife]], which means this trope is its preferred method of attack (in fact, the pilot uses that very phrase to describe it).

* In one early volume of ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma 1/2]]'', Ryouga trains a technique with the side effect of making him almost invulnerable to normal attacks, something Ranma wasn't expecting and thus only training his speed. Ranma's tactic? He hit Ryouga a hundred times in the time normally used for ''one'' hit.

** In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' when you hit with an attack, you ''always'' deal at least one point of damage barring damage reduction, so an epic-level fighter could theoretically be killed by a sufficient amount of pebbles, or even a house cat. Made even worse when you consider that, due to the dexterity bonuses house cats receive, they are an extremely dangerous opponent to Commoners and even first-level characters, killing them at least 50% of the time in a theoretical battle. However, only a very bad (or very humorous) DM wouldn't compensate for this.

*** It gets worse when you factor in a cat's bonus to Hide and Move Silently checks. The cat will almost always get a surprise round, and that makes the cat vs commoner matchup come out clearly in the cat's favor.

** The book ''Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition for Dummies'' uses this trope by name while describing a fighter power that can still deal a little damage on a miss ("If you're fighting an enemy that you just can't seem to hit, you may have to settle for the Death of a Thousand Cuts.")

* In ''Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition'', there is actually a class that has this ability. It's called ''Dervish'', and the ability is literally called "A Thousand Cuts". It doubles the number of attacks a person gets for one round. And when combined with the Warblade maneuver ''Time Stand Still'', which makes it so you get two rounds worth of attacks in one...[[No Kill Like Overkill|well]]

** Plus, even though your unit can have a 100% resistance against a particular type of attack, the attack will always deal 1 damage. So you can nibble that target to death with 1 dmg, assume that there's no way for that target to heal and the attacker don't die first.

** The experience mechanic on the other hand serves to partially counter this. Trying to nickle and dime a tough enemy unit to death can backfire because the target gets a small amount of experience for each attacker engaging it, potentially resulting in a [[Level Up Fill Up]] undoing all the previous effort.

** ''[[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X]]'' has an ability that lets you break the HP limit so you can go over 9999. A bonus monster called the Cactuar King has an attack called 99,999 Needles and it does exactly just that, so don't think you can outwit it by having 99,999 HP.

** At least in ''[[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII]]'', you can learn 1000 needles. It's actually quite helpful in taking down bosses whose defense increases as their HP decreases.

*** The attack is also able to be learned in Final Fantasy VI and IX, with the same benefits.

** Also, in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'', you can contract the Jumbo Cactuar as a Summon Mon, and its attack (1,000 Needles) deals 1,000 HP damage ''PER 10 OF HIS LEVELS''. So by the end of the game, once you've finished leveling your Cactuar Summon to level 100, it can break the damage cap by dealing exactly 10,000 damage. Essential to killing some of the strongest bosses out there, including the Red Giant in the final boss castle. Plus, since this attack deals a completely fixed (and guaranteed!) amount of damage, getting Cactuar to level 100 is usually a '''VERY''' good idea.

* ''[[Borderlands (Video Game)|Borderlands]]'' has a good example of this with the player's ability to Knife any of the Runners (the game's standard vehicle) to the point of it Exploding. Made even worse is the fact that one of the character classes (Brick) can PUNCH a car to ''[[Every Car Is a Pinto|make it explode]]''.

* Prior to getting the Mega Buster chargeable [[Arm Cannon]], several ''[[Mega Man (Video Game)|Mega Man]]'' games had a weapon that was no more ''effective'' in damage than the normal gun, but had such a fast rate of fire that players would use them exclusively unless they were out of power or not effective against a given enemy. Examples include the "Metal Blade" (''[[Mega Man 2 (Video Game)|Mega Man 2]]'', aimable) and "Needle Cannon" (''[[Mega Man 3 (Video Game)|Mega Man 3]]'', full-auto in three round bursts).

** Vulcans in the ''[[Battle Network]]'' series are probably some form of subversion. They dealt between 10 and 20 damage and hit 3-5 times, which is decent. The trick was that any attack-increasing chip attached to one powers up each bullet. Entire folders were created based on boosting up a Super Vulcan as high as it would go, resulting in a chip with an attack strength of around 150 - ''times twelve''. The same applies to any multiple-hitting chip, actually - Tornado, Twister, and even Bubbleman.

** Similar to Model H is the very first of ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]]'s'' [[Power Copying]] attacks, Storm Tornado, considered a [[Game Breaker]] due to the fact that one use can score mulitple hits on multiple enemies.

* Wanna know what's the best short-range weapon in most if not all ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' games? The ''machine gun''. You're supposed to mount one or two to fight infantry, because they do piddling damage individually, but stats-wise (that is, considering ammo load, heat generation and damage) they're the most efficient weapon in the game. Take a large ballistic-weapon-based Mech and load as many machine guns as it can take, and you make it into the ultimate close-range brawler. If more range is needed, small autocannons like the AC2 work well.

** Ghosts are your friend. It's possible to take out EVERYTHING DESTROYABLE in that game with these nimble machines. Problem is, they're not too durable themselves... but you can take on a Phantom and disable ALL of its guns without dying.

** ''Halo Wars'' has this, specifically with the Elephant Tank. This tank can train its own infantry, allowing you to set up small bases of power independent of your main base. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your mood), most players just park a handful of Elephant Tanks near the enemy and use their production capabilities to feed cannon-fodder into the nearest battle, conveyor belt style.

* In ''[[Age of Empires I (Video Game)|Age of Empires I]]'' and ''2'', a large enough number of guys with swords can storm a castle. ''[[Age of Empires III (Video Game)|Age of Empires III]]'' has all characters who can damage a building use a separate siege attack -- an inexhaustible supply of torches.

** Doesn't even need to be a large number - if the building can't shoot arrows at you (or sometimes even that, as towers need technology to shoot at their feet) one swordsman is enough!

* Averted somewhat in ''[[Fallout (Video Game)|Fallout]] [[Fallout 1 (Video Game)|1]]'', ''[[Fallout 2 (Video Game)|2]]'' and ''Tactics'': final attack damage is calculated first by subtracting any Damage Threshold offered by a character's armor from the attacker's rolled damage, then subtracting from any leftover damage the character's Damage Resistance, a percentile: for example, [[Powered Armor]] in the first game had 12/40 protection against normal damage, making the sniper rifle the only weapon guaranteed to cause damage outside of critical hits. Bethesda's ''[[Fallout 3 (Video Game)|Fallout 3]]'' eliminates DT and only uses DR for armor, meaning that even the toughest hombre wearing heavy-duty powered armor can still be stabbed to death with a kitchen knife.

** Given rather odd forms sometimes with the ability to target specific areas on your enemies. The Deathclaw's weakness (in the first game) are its [[Go for The Eye|eyes]], but it's a tough enemy to beat even if you know that... so you'll end up shooting and hitting it in the eyes and severally damaging them again and again for several minutes before it actually has any effect (and the creature dies).

** Both of the ''[[Touhou]]'' fighters do this as well. Making this even more annoying in the first fighter is the fact that certain moves explicitly cannot kill a blocking opponent even if that block is incorrect and the blocker is guard crushed.

* In ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]'', the toughest single standard enemy is likely the military bot. These are like fifteen feet tall, and have chainguns and rocket launchers. Destroying them usually requires multiple hits from a rocket launcher. But one thing: they can only shoot forward, and they turn slowly. So it's not only possible, but ''easy'' to destroy one with a combat knife, as long as no other enemies are around: stand behind it and attack continuously for a few minutes, walking in circles to stay behind as it turns to face you. Eventually it will blow up. If you're not careful you'll lose a limb, admittedly, but at least you won't have wasted any ammo.

* One of the more ''resilient'' examples occurs in the Battle of Skyhook in the ''[[Shadows of the Empire]]'' game. At one point in the battle, a Star Destroyer shows up and starts unleashing TIE fighters. It is possible to damage the Destroyer with your single ship's lasers and ''unlimited'' missiles, but the damage is hardly noticeable. It takes pounding on it for hours before the damage registers from 100% to 99%.

** Compare that to how quickly they go down in the movies.

* One strategy for beating some Gym Leaders in the ''[[Pokémon (Franchise)|Pokémon]]'' games, especially with underleveled Pokémon, is to spam moves like Growl or Sand Attack with one's lead Pokémon, or Defense Curl, etc. with the strongest (though still underleveled) [[Mons]] on the team, or perhaps X Attack or X Defend. After that, it's usually a matter of slooooooowly taking down the leader's first Pokémon, and repeating Attack-stat debuffs when the next one comes out. This is notably used on the first Gym Leaders who use Rock-types: Brock, Roxanne, and Roark.

** Also, there's a [[YouTube]] video of a level 20 Shedinja vs. level 99 Blissey. Unless Shedinja has been specifically bred with Silver Wind, its most dangerous anti-Normal attack is Fury Cutter (since Blissey is immune to its devastating Shadow Ball).

* Because of this, ''[[Resident Evil]]'''s combat knife will soon find its eternal resting place in the storage box.

** ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', however, makes it possibly the most valuable weapon in the game since it doesn't take up inventory slots and it's a godsend against unshielded/helmeted Ganados. [[Good Bad Bugs|Plus it's a godsend against Krauser.]]

* In ''[[X (Video Game)|X3]]'' (all three games) the Kha'ak destroyer is one of the most fearsome ships you can face, having a whole lot of shields and hull points, and being armed with beam weapons. However, there's a small spot behind the engine where its turrets can't reach. You can't kill it with a light fighter, because the shields recharge faster than light weapons can bring them down, but a suitably armed heavy fighter can park itself behind the behemoth and pour laser fire in it until it dies. Assuming, of course, other enemy ships have been dealt with beforehand.

** Not totally true. One race's basic fighter mounts shield ignoring Mass Drivers. It requires a mere 54 crates of ammo, and the balls of steel to get behind it to pull this off.

* When you hear someone say "[[Predator|If it can bleed, it can die!]]", that person is likely referring to this trope.

* This can be seen in a less lethal light in [[Professional Wrestling]]--many wrestlers have had their careers ended by the accumulated effects of multiple relatively minor injuries rather than one major injury.

* Some criticise Wing Chun as teaching the use of reportedly weaker multi-hit combos rather than supposedly more decisive single blows, all other things equal. A detailed breakdown we will probably stay away from unless a troper with mastery in both WC and a "harder" style can correct this.

* Many predators will tear off flesh of their prey (while the prey is still alive) and follow the prey around until it dies of blood loss. Of course, this is isn't "death by tiny cuts" but more of "death by torn off chunks of flesh."