Unique Enemy: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A video game trope you've [[Seen It a Million Times|seen a million times]]: an enemy, just a plain old enemy that inexplicably turns up only once in the entire game. You wonder why the developers coded it; you wonder if it was partially [[Dummied Out]]. Sometimes it's just there to provide a special challenge for anyone trying for [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]. Sometimes it's there because it exists to fit a unique circumstance in a level or sidequest.
There are two types of
Please try to avoid listing
▲Please try to avoid listing minibosses and so forth here; these enemies are notable primarily because they're regular enemies who could by all rights turn up at various points in the game but don't.
{{examples}}
* ''[[Super Metroid]]'' has a few in Maridia, mostly for functional reasons: In one corridor, a bizarre walker carves a path through a wall for the player. Later in the same segment, a corridor contains a squirming pile of white...things to help show off one of the abilities of Samus' new found equipment.
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** Also from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening|Link's Awakening]]'' is a monkey that lives in one tree on the beach and throws coconuts at you.
*** ''Link's Awakening'' also has... Kirby. Yes, ''that'' [[Kirby]]. As an enemy. He only appears in a single room in the Eagle's Tower dungeon.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina Of Time]]'' has the Composer Brothers,
*** The [[Kill It with Fire|Anubis]] enemy is only seen in one or two rooms of the Child Link half of the Spirit Temple, and the Tailpasaran is only found in one corridor of Jabu Jabu's Belly.
** In ''Zelda II'', just before you fight the final boss battles you walk through a room with in which a giant 'Bot' will appear from nowhere above your head. Given by this point in the game you've learned to upthrust with your sword, and the thing can be broken up with one hit, I imagine most people killed it before they'd fully processed what it was making for a unique enemy with a closely associated sensation of 'wait... what the heck just happened?'
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*** Strangely, the last special level features a single winged yellow Koopa
*** The blocks that Magikoopa hits with his spells turn into yellow Koopas as well.
** The single Red Snifit in ''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]'' as well. Got [https://web.archive.org/web/20120304201907/http://www.progressiveboink.com/archive/redsnifit.html its own page]!
** ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' had the lone Grand Goomba, which was too big to jump on.
*** Galaxy also features only two giant jellyfish enemies in the whole game.
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** There are extremely few shark mobs in the entire game.
** Undead Quilboar are only found in Razorfen Downs.
** Gastropods. These creepy snails cannot be harmed by the first attack on them, and they pursue whatever player ''makes'' that first attack. While very slow, they can OTK said player with one touch unless you kill them first. Only found in the Throne of Thunder raid.
** Lord Marrowgar is the only Bone Wraith ever shown.
*** As of Cataclysm, Marrowgar has received a brother bone wraith. Earthrager Ptah.
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** ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]'' has an NMPD officer who turns on the Rookie because [[He Knows Too Much]] on Data Hive. This is the only time you fight an NMPD officer in the game and also the only non covenant enemy in the game.
* In every level of ''[[Halo: Reach]]'', there is a special hidden Elite who will randomly appear out of nowhere in certain areas if you're fast enough in playing the level. These elite, nicknamed "BOB", give you a load of points when killed (to add to your credits if scoring is turned on) and a special medal if your Xbox Live account is linked to Bungie's site, but if you don't kill them fast enough they will disappear. BOBs come in two flavors: Gold Spec-Ops Rangers and completely white, random model Elites, similar to the aforementioned Honor Guard Councillor. The second variety's white coloration is due to a spawning error where the game "forgets" to add the correct color to the Elite character model.
** There's one point early in the game where you fight a pair of King Kong-sized lizard-gorillas, apparently a form of local wildlife on the planet. They're tougher than normal infantry, but not so tough that you could call them a boss battle or anything. They're never seen or heard of again afterwards, making the whole encounter something of a [[
** Similar to the BOB's, the first level contains a lone Stealth Elite (different color than the cloaked Spec-Ops Elites encountered later) nicknamed "Bill", which can be spotted just before the moas first appear. If killed, it drops a data pad that can be read. This also may be a leftover from a dummied-out objective.
** Zealots are only fought three times in ''Reach'', as a group of three at the end of Winter Contingency, as a singleton on Tip of the Spear, and another trio on The Pillar of Autumn accompanying the [[King Mook|Field Marshal]] (not including the two killed in a cutscene).
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** In ''Blazing Blade'' most enemies are male, apart from representatives of classes that are [[Always Female]] like Troubadors. There are three exceptions to this in the entire game: a lone female Sniper in "Valorous Roland" and a pair of female Druids seen in the Hector Hard Mode and ''only'' the Hector Hard Mode version of "Cog of Destiny." The Sniper isn't anything special, but the Druids are real [[Boss in Mook Clothing|bosses in mook clothing]], as they're packing status-ailment inflicting staves and have suck a high Magic stat that their attack range for them is ''20 tiles''!
* There is only one giant moth in the entirety of ''[[Resident Evil 2]]'', in an optional out-of-the-way room in the lab basement. Screenshots of the beta (not ''RE 1.5'') showed more of them in other locations, such as the power room.
* In ''[[Resident Evil 3: Nemesis]]: Nemesis'', there are only two of the Gamma-type Hunter (the froglike ones).
* In ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]] 2: Durandal'', the "[[King Mook|mother of all Cyborgs]]" only appears once, on the level "Sorry Don't Make It So". In ''Infinity'', it became a recurring (but rare) enemy, and they were even more common in the ''EVIL'' [[Game Mod]].
** In the first ''Marathon'', the Drinniols were only used twice in the entire game, on "The Rose" and "Blaspheme Quarantine". They also had a [[Dummied Out]] orange [[Palette Swap]], which may have been the source of the "[[Urban Legend of Zelda|A Good Way To Die]]" [[Secret Level]] rumors. Better yet are the hostile [[Attack Drone]]s with grenade launchers, that only appear in one level, "Beware of Low-Flying Defense Drones".
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* In the 2009 ''[[Wolfenstein (2009 video game)|Wolfenstein]]'', [[Elite Mooks]] are ''extremely'' rare, especially when you consider that they're only slightly tougher than regular enemy soldiers. For example, there are only about 8 Elite Guards in the entire game, or only about 9 Flamethrower Soldiers in the entire game.
* ''[[Odium]]'' has the Hornets and Harvesters - mundane enemies in every respect, save that they only pop up in one combat. The Hornets attack you while you enter the sewers and the Harvesters pop up in the laboratory at the end of the game.
* ''[[Resident Evil Code: Veronica]]'' has the [[Demonic Spiders|poison moths]] in [[That One Level|that one corridor]], which you unfortunately have to traverse multiple times. When you revisit the area as Chris, they're gone, replaced by zombies. Earlier, in the passage to the seaplane port, there's a group of zombies that inexplicably have [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]. Cyber-zombies?
* In ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]'', only 12 enemy [[Superpowered Mooks|Nanosuit Soldiers]] appear throughout the entire game. While this somewhat makes sense from a storyline perspective (Nanosuits costs about 1 million dollars each), it's a bit underwhelming from a gameplay perspective since they're only about as tough as a [[Halo|Covenant Elite]], so they could have easily been used more often without being unbalanced, especially in the later levels.
** There's a type of alien trooper that has a different head crest and is equipped with a freeze ray instead of an ice gun. There are only about 3 or 4 of them in the entire game. Again, they're a fairly standard enemy, so it's not like they make up for their rarity by being much tougher than normal or anything like that.
* The "Bouncer" Big Daddy enemy that serves as the mascot of ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' is actually only fought twice; once on the second level and once on the final level. All other Bouncer-type Big Daddies encountered in the game are the Elite variant, which uses a different character model.
* Lots of things in [[I Wanna Be the Guy]] only show up in one particular place, usually to punishing you for a completely logical action with a [[
* Neo Garula from ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' counts, as it can only be encountered once in the game (and even then, not guaranteed).
* Sp Forces/Imperial Elite in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' only appear if you agree to test your strength against Gestahl's bodyguards during the banquet scene.
* ''Final Fantasy VI'' also has Dobermans, which only appear in the Imperial Camp if you try to open a chest by kicking it. They're not too tough.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' has a fair number of them all over the place. Although many are [[Palette Swap|palette swaps]], special mention should go to the unique Elfadunks and Heavy Tank. Elfadunks are tiny elephants found [[Fridge Logic|only on the beaches]] near the Chocobo Ranch, somewhere you'll never need to go. Heavy Tanks are found only in a single screen near the Gongaga Reactor, but at least you can find [[Summon Magic|Titan]] there.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' has enemies called Slappers, monsters in hockey gear that only appear on the hockey court in Galbadia Garden. They don't even get a trading card.
* The NES version of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game]]'' had three unique enemies in one entire stage. The Shogun's stage had Robot Gorilla Ninjas, Robot Scorpions, and Robot Tigers that came to life out of door paintings. After beating these things they never show up again throughout the rest of the game.▼
** The snow level earlier in the game had some as well; the hopping mechs disguised as snowmen, snowball-throwing Foot ninjas, and an invincible snow plow.▼
* ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' has quite a few.
** The 80 rare game are exactly that—rare. Generally there is only one zone in the game they will spawn in, they will only spawn one at a time, and they have varying spawn conditions, ranging from simple ones like "30% chance on zone entry" to ridiculous ones like "spawn separate monster, aggro it, lure it to completely random and unmarked part of the map, and rare game will spawn." As for respawning them, a few simply require the normal monster respawn and then fulfilling their spawn conditions again, some require you to leave the entire area and return before you try again, and thirty of them ''do not'' spawn again. You kill them, that's ''it.''
** The Elementals and entites operate on the same principle.
** Then there are simply enemies who are completely normal, but for whatever reason, there's only one spawn point for them in the entire game—prominent examples are the Darkmare in the Stilshrine of Miriam, the Emperor Aevis in Paramina Rift, and most infamously, the Giza Plains Wildsnake. Weakest of the snakes, does not spawn until you get to its hiding point, completely unremarkable to fight—and its drop is required to [[Item Crafting|make]] the [[Infinity+1 Sword]].
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game]]''
▲** The NES version
▲** The snow level earlier in the game had some as well; the hopping mechs disguised as snowmen, snowball-throwing Foot ninjas, and an invincible snow plow.
** The original arcade version of the sequel, ''[[Turtles in Time]]'' had a weird robot with boxing gloves that only appeared in the second stage.
* Cassandra's [[Bodyguard Babes]] seen during Mission 1-3 in ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' and in the [[Bonus Stage]] "Mr. Blonde's Revenge". They make up a fairly large number of enemies in the former and are almost all the enemies in the latter, but otherwise are never seen.
* In ''[[Super Robot Wars W]]'' there's a variation of [[Robeast|Beastman]] [[GoLion|Deathhell]] that only appears in chapter 25 (And only one of them, surrounded by several normal ones). What makes him so special? Instead of having his [[Dual-Wielding]] attack, his Nipplebeams have a really high range. While it makes sense to face a sniper enemy on this chapter (The hero team is trapped in the Space Wolf planet's high gravity and thus can't move, leaving them unable to escape long-ranged attacks), this super-Deathhell is never referenced in dialogue and there isn't a need for him to exist (The battleships do his job fine).
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* The 8-bit version of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' has two enemies that each only occur once: Burrobot, in Labyrinth Zone, and Bomb, in Sky Base Zone.
* In the [[Brutal Bonus Level|Special Stage]] of ''[[Parodius|Gokujou Parodius]]'', just before the [[Bonus Boss|Robot Penguin]], you will encounter an enemy called the "16-Bit Block," which has 65536 hit points [[Invincible Minor Minion|and will scroll off the screen before you can do any significant damage]].
* In the original ''[[Final Fight]]'', Andore and Andore Jr are recurring mooks, but F. Andore, G. Andore, and U. Andore only appear in the second part of Stage 3, with U. Andore only appearing if there are two players.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'':
** The Marowak Ghost in ''[[Pokémon Red and Blue]]''. Due to its importance to the plot, it could be called a boss, but gameplay-wise, it is a regular Marowak that cannot be caught, thus making it a unique type of Mon.
** Furisode Girls in ''[[Pokémon X and Y]]''. In that game, this Trainer Class only appears in one location, the Sushi High Roller restaurant, and do not appear as opponents anywhere else in the franchise except the spin-off app game ''[[Pokémon Masters EX]]''. Even in that game, only two of the four sprites appear.
** Zigzagged with the Mystery Man Trainer Class. Eusine (from ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'') and River (from ''[[Pokémon XD|Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness]]'') could also be considered bosses due to plot relevance, but no other trainers in those or any other game have that Trainer Class.
* The "boxing robot" in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time]]''. This unnammed mook appeared only twice in the original game, in the "Alley Cat Blues" and "Neon Night Riders" stages. It was replaced by a Roadkill Rodney in the SNES port.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Video Game Characters]]
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