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{{trope}}
[[File:477px-YangDS_4309.jpg|link=Final Fantasy IV
{{quote|''"He can't use [[Functional Magic|Ninjutsu]] or [[Master of Illusion|Genjutsu]]. That's why...he spent all his time on [[Good Old Fisticuffs|Taijutsu]]. He worked hard and [[When All You Have Is a Hammer|concentrated everything on Taijutsu.]] Even if he can't do any other Jutsu, he won't lose to anyone. He's a Taijutsu specialist."''|'''Might Guy''' talking about Rock Lee, ''[[Naruto]]''}}
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Compare with the [[Power Fist]], which is a piece of equipment that augments unarmed attacks. Not to be confused with [[Good Old Fisticuffs]], which is when the ''lack'' of a fighting style and weapons defeats people who have both.
Subtrope of [[Weapon of Choice]], and pretty much exclusively the province of [[Warrior Monk]]s (sometimes, even those [[All Monks Know Kung Fu|from Western religions]]). Not applicable when ''everyone'' fights unarmed, of course -- there's nothing surprising about [[Rocky (
{{examples}}
== Anime & Manga ==
* Almost all the cast from ''[[Kenichi:
* Kenshiro of ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' can fight well with nunchucks if he has to, but prefers his bare hands. The better to [[Your Head Asplode|pop heads with!]]
* Virtually all ninja from the series ''[[Naruto]]'' are trained in unarmed combat, but there are characters that are specialists.
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{{quote| ''Actually, we already carry various weapons on us at all times. That’s why there’s no point in carrying other ones. A student who gets in a fight on his way to school can use his backpack… you can use a fan you just happen to have in your pocket… in a pinch, maybe a belt too… your shoes are also ok…at the most, is acceptable to use a knife in your attacker hands. Those are all the thing you might end up using. But nothing else is allowed! Even a pencil… or a fistful of sand… as soon as you arm yourself in preparation for a fight, you’re tipping the scales! And tossing away your pride in the process!''}}
** Half a minute after that, he cuts a [[Razor Floss|4-micres wire]] with the side of his hand to save two of his students from being sliced with it. Just to make his opinion stand.
* Kuu Fei in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''; she [[Never Bring a Knife
* Ryohei Sasagawa from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' is this. Y'know, unless you count hand bandage wrap things as weapons.
** Averted when {{spoiler|his TYL self gets [[Cool Pet|Kangaryu]] to make him some [[Power Fist|super healing boxing gloves]] for the occasion of fighting against a giant storm snake.}}
* Sagara Sanosuke and Anji Yukyuzan from ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]''.
* There are several unarmed melee users in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', but the best example here is probably [[Catgirl|Lieze Lotte]], Chrono's close combat teacher. As shown during {{spoiler|her stint as one of the [[Mask of Power|masked men]] in ''A's''}}, she fights using unarmed combat exclusively, never using offensive spells even once.
** Also, all of the fighting until now in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
** The main contributors to the [[Bare-Fisted Monk]] department in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
* Scar from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' was a monk before he became a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|counter-genocider]]. He still fights with his bare hands after forsaking God in favour of revenge, but [[Touch of Death|adds in destructive alchemy to the mix]].
* Minai from ''[[Shikabane Hime]]'' fights Shikabane using hand-to-hand combat and [[Power Fist|spiked gauntlets]], unlike her fellow Shikabane Hime who all use guns, swords or other weapons.
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* Thunderlord from ''[[Global Guardians]]'' is what you get when mixing Buddhism, martial arts and mutant powers of the [[Make Me Wanna Shout]] variety.
* In the [[Marvel Universe]], the [[Incredible Hulk]] is just so big, mean and strong that his fists are all the weapons he needs, a trait that applies to many other super-strong characters, albeit on a lesser scale.
** More traditionally, there's Shang-Chi, [[Exactly What It Says
* Marv from ''[[Sin City]]'' is a non-martial arts example. While many of the mooks he fights use guns, he typically uses fisticuffs. This is despite the fact that he does have a gun which he [[I Call It Vera|named Gladys]].
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*** Given that Taekwon means "hand and foot/punching and kicking" in Korean, this is slightly silly. Presumably the (Korean) developers thought it more catchy than "Kwondo" (Roughly translatable as "Way of Foot" or "Way of Kicking").
* The Martial Arts powerset in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' exemplifies the superhero version of this trope, and is a favourite for [[Badass Normal|Natural origin]] characters. [[Super Strength]] is similar, except it has a ranged attack where you ''rip up a chunk of the ground and throw it''.
** More recently added was "Street Fighting", which contains quite a few more [[Everything's Better
* The Monk Class in ''[[Dungeon Fighter Online]]'' sheds his weapon in the battlefield (by implanting it into the ground for myriad bonuses), then goes on to use those fistcuffs. Doing so gives the Monk unparalleled [[Glass Cannon|speed and juggling capability]], and makes the class quite popular. However, one can still break their equipped weapon after shedding it like any other class.
** The [[Amazonian Beauty|Fighter]] excels in this as well, although she also uses [[Wolverine Claws]] and [[Dual Tonfas]].
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The Monk class in ''[[
** In edition 3.5, monks make up for their general lack of magic items by simply developing those powers naturally. By level 20, a monk can attack five times a turn with fists that deal more damage than any light/handheld weapon, punch through adamantium, teleport, avoid at least half of the damage from most magic attacks, heal himself, and has actually ascended to a higher state of existence, rendering him immune to several effects.
*** Which sounds completely awesome, [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards|until you realize...]]
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*** The 4e monk is a bit odd in by and large treating any weapons he is proficient with as ''implements''. Thus, when using any of his special monk attack powers, the attack roll, base damage, and other effects are set by the discipline used ''regardless'' of whether it's executed barehanded or with, say, a dagger or spear. A magical weapon still grants its specifically magical bonuses when used this way -- but since monks also get access to ki focus implements, which for game purposes leave the hands free and provide the same enhancement bonuses and their own special effects, such a weapon is never strictly needed just to remain competitive.
* Any player character from an Eastern-style [[Tabletop Game]] will probably know how to kick ass with his bare hands.
** Any character except the Killer, Techie or Sorcerer from ''[[
** ''Every'' player character from ''[[
== Video Games ==
* One example: ''[[The Bards Tale Trilogy]]''. I never figured how to finish, but eventually my monk got to having better armour class than my clanking paladin. Makes me want to try it out with a hit squad of monks sometime.
* In ''[[
* Monks in ''[[Nethack]]'' take massive accuracy penalties if they wear body armor, and can only advance in a handful of weapon skills. They even take an alignment hit for eating non-vegetarian food, though it's a slap on the wrist past the first minute of the game, given that you can get gobs of alignment just by all the kills you'll need to be doing anyway. However, they learn a wide variety of intrinsics (special abilities), can learn magic to a surprising degree, and, of course, can build their martial arts abilities to the highest level.
** They're still arguably the most difficult class to win the game with, even more so than the Tourist.
*** That's mostly due to Master Kaen, their quest nemesis, who is one of the hardest enemies in the game, ''and'' is practically designed to be strong against Monks in particular. After you beat him, the rest of the game isn't so hard.
* The Monk job in ''[[
** The Black Belt/Master of the original ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' (known as Monk / Super Monk in the original Japanese version). His first playthrough, he killed Kraken in the second encounter in ''one attack''.
*** A maximum level (50, in this case) Master in [[Final Fantasy]] will, in one attack, do enough damage to kill Chaos, the final boss, twice over. Cast Fast on him, and he'll double that.
** Most of the [[Final Fantasy]] games have Monk-type characters (Sabin from ''[[
*** Not Yang. His attack rating grows with him, and his claws are mostly for elemental properties and afflictions; even without those he will out-damage both Cecil and Kain. At a given level, he'll have more HP than anybody else (a good thing too, since he doesn't wear heavy armor) and his strength stat is always through the roof.
*** Yang's Daughter Ursula in the After Years is also a monk (though her class is listed as Princess during her debut chapter), but she has different commands from her father aside from the standard "Fight" and "Item", and the traditional Monk move "Kick".
** ''[[
** At one of the major points of ''[[
** Interestingly, {{spoiler|Vayne}} of ''[[
*** If you learn the "brawler" license ability, the game will calculate damage in line with how ''[[
** Monks in ''[[
** This also pops up in ''[[
*** Ayla is notable also because she is an exception to the "weakens by endgame" tendency. At higher levels she can still do more damage with her bare fists than ''Crono with his [[Infinity+1 Sword]].'' And at level 96+ <ref>Way higher level than you'll ever need to be in order to win the game, but whatever</ref>, critical hits with her fists do a ''guaranteed'' [[Cap|9999 damage]].
** [[
** ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'' is a strange case. ''All'' characters can learn to tear enemies apart with their bare hands by attacking without weapons often enough and fists are one of the faster 'weapons' to [[Cap]] if the player focuses on them.
** Among the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] in [[
* In all [[SaGa]] games, all characters have the ability to Punch (or Kick.) In ''[[SaGa]] Frontier'', using nothing but punch techniques leads to one of the most [[Game Breaker|game breaking]] skills in the series.
* ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'' has Falsetto, who despite using no weapons, is still capable of dealing massive damage.
* The Fighter class in ''[[
** ''[[
** There's also one in ''[[
** All the playable characters in ''[[
** [[
*** One common way to avoid doing massive damage to your own party when one or more of your characters are confused is to deliberately leave fisticuffs undeveloped and then simply unequip the weapons as necessary.
* [[F
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series: J.E. Sawyer of the canceled Van Buren project said that he intended unarmed fighters to be 'like mobile grenades'. And that's a good description for them in Fallout 2 and 3. In both of those, barehanded attacks have a quicker attack rate and markedly higher crit rate. In both of them, a single strike to the head has a good potential for instant kills, even against tougher opponents. In both, the unarmed fighter was somewhat left behind at the finale, against Frank Horrigan in Fallout 2 and during Liberty Prime's march in Fallout 3, but the form is still a viable game-finisher.
** Bare fists took a nerf in favor of 'unarmed weapons' in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', and the critical rate is no longer significant. Hence, the most tightly optimized barehanded fighter will not reach the fighting potential of a fist-weapon wielder.
* For all the complaints regarding the uselessness of Unarmed/Unarmored skills in ''[[Morrowind]]'', they were anything but. Unencumbered for maximum maneuverability, with high speed no fatigue cost strikes a monk build could render any opponent useless from fatigue loss in the first second, then take them down at leisure. Their weakness was finishing an opponent due to inability to deal health damage unless the opponent was unconscious, so at times it was a tedious exercise keeping an entire room knocked down while slowly chipping away at their life. But the final Boss was unkillable through combat, so keeping his fatigue low was a more workable strategy than direct damage hits.
* Fei, Citan, and Rico from ''[[
** All the barehanded fighters seriously lose out in attack strength towards the end of the game, even to Elly who is a mage. Fei more than makes up for it with his ridiculously powerful techniques that makes him the most powerful in non-[[Mecha]] fights.
* ''[[Avernum]] 3'' has this ''accidentally''. Nobody thought to apply the damage cap to punches.
* The Monk class in [[Diablo III]] is this, unless you have his using a bo staff or brass knuckles. Any other weapon you put on him, while you will get all the stats form it, will remain at his hip while he punches fools to death.
** For added points, he learns a technique that has him [[Ludicrous Gibs|channeling]] [[Fist of the North Star|Kenshiro]], [[You Are Already Dead|of all people]].
* In ''[[
* By cross-training your dwarves in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' with various tasks like mining, crafting professions and bookkeeping (yes) they can become legendarily strong, agile and tough. Then train them as wrestlers and they will literally scatter limbs and body parts of their enemies across the landscape with their bare hands.
* In ''[[Rune Factory 3]]'', the main character can Brawl when {{spoiler|he learns to transform into a Golden Woolly}}. He cannot wield weapons when Brawling, but with practice can deal a huge amount of damage.
* Rena Lanford from ''[[
* [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]] in ''[[Sengoku Basara]] 2''. [[Took a Level In Badass|Tokugawa Ieyasu]] in the third game.
* This is becoming a common element of the ''[[Tales
** Bruiser Khang from ''[[
** Farah Oersted from ''[[
** Regal Bryant from ''[[
** Tytree Crowe from ''[[
** Senel Coolidge, the main protagonist from ''[[
** Anise Tatlin from ''[[
** Hermana Larmo from ''[[
** Sophie from ''[[
** Jude Mathis, the main character from ''[[
* ''[[Battle Realms]]'' has a monk unit which can be trained in the keep.
* The Monk class of ''[[Desktop Dungeons]]'' takes a 50% physical damage penalty due to the HAND-TO-HAND attribute.
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== Western Animation ==
* Ty Lee from ''[[
* In ''[[Thundercats 2011
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