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Useless Useful Stealth: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Many [[Role Playing Game|Role Playing Games]] that are mainly based on combat also have a "stealth" mechanic that can ostensibly be used to get past monsters without fighting, thus enabling another choice of strategy. However, this stealth often turns out to be close to useless, for the following reasons:
* There are many enemies that players [[But Thou Must!|must kill to complete key objectives]], such as [[Boss Battle|bosses]], that are harder to kill than enemies that you can stealth by. Hence, if your character or party is powerful enough to kill the bosses (as is necessary in order to progress in the game), it is also more than powerful enough to kill the grunts, so it is unnecessary to stealth by them.
* Stealthing by enemies leaves them in place, so if you were to stealth by them and later end up in a situation where you had to run away, you would be sandwiched between two sets of enemies.
* Stealthing by enemies prevents you from [[Level Grinding|getting the experience and loot rewards that you would have received had you killed them]], so it leaves you handicapped for later in the game.
* [[The All
Similarly, [[Real Time Strategy]] games often have a few units with stealth capabilities. These are typically useless for anything but scouting, because:
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* There's no strategic benefit to infiltration. Things that are expensive to build are generally hard to destroy, and a lone infiltrator can only do so much damage before being spotted and killed. Base structures usually aren't highly interdependent anyway, so there are no "weak links" that can be targeted to cripple a base.
* There's no tactical benefit to ambushes. RTS units generally suffer no drawbacks for being surrounded, taken by surprise, caught in bad terrain, or attacked at point-blank range, and (like base structures) there usually isn't a particular unit that can be taken out first to gain an advantage. (Except hero-type units, in games that have those, but heroes generally have too many hit points to be killed quickly.)
* In addition, since [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]], they are often useless against AI opponents. They may be restrained by the same attack rules, but [[The All
See also [[Stealth Run]].
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== [[Action Adventure]] ==
* In ''[[Overlord]]'', there is a temple guarded by ghost elves that attack anyone they see. Your advisor instructs you to avoid being seen and the level is built with a stealth mechanic in mind, including doors behind which you can trap the patrolling ghosts in certain rooms. However, it's far easier to just take a group blue minions and kill all the ghosts. They don't even count for the [[Karma Meter]].
* In the original ''[[Wizards and Warriors]]'' for the NES, the [[Invisibility Cloak|Cloak of Invisibility]] only turned your character invisible to ''you''; the [[The All
== [[Action Game]] ==
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** That's not to say it's completely useless though. Within the large community, tactics have arisen for "stealth runs", which generally consist out of sneaking through large parts of an instance, therefore saving time, to kill a specific target for valuable [[Randomly Drops|drops]]. Since druids are passable stealthers in addition to also being able to tank and heal, even tougher bosses can be done in that manner. Rogues can also use ''Vanish'' to stealth in combat for a nearly guaranteed survival in dire situations.
** To say nothing of PvP, where it is the furthest thing from uselessness conceivable.
** Once upon the time when the game was new, stealth runs were feasible in many dungeons. Dungeons in the original, vanilla game were huge, taking hours for even a dedicated, competent group to completely clear. Some had potential shortcuts built in, some didn't. So if a group of rogues and/or druids could go for just two or three predetermined bosses, quests or other goals and get that in a fraction of the time it would take without stealthing. However, that has been scaled back more and more in later expansions of the game. Almost every dungeon from the Burning Crusade on has at least one early boss which [[Load-Bearing Boss|makes a gate open when it dies]], can't be skipped because it patrols a chokepoint, or calls all previous [[Elite Mooks]] you haven't already killed them, and/or some guards with [[The All
** This is also averted for many quests. A Rogue can do certain gathering quests very very easily by stealthing, using Sap on any nearby mobs, looting the item, and restealthing. You miss out on XP and loot this way, but it lets you get the quests done much faster than they would be if you fight every enemy,<ref>(and XP rewards for questing generally outweigh XP gained from grinding mobs, as a function of player time invested so it tends to balance out in the player's favor)</ref> and stealthing also lets you fight enemies on your terms and control the opening.
* ''[[City of Villains]]'' has an entire archetype, the Stalker, who gets the best stealth in the game at level one and relies on it as they are designed to be a sneak attack class. Unfortunately, anti-stealth powers become ridiculously commonplace in the late game amongst both players and [[NPC|NPCs]]. The Rikti War Zone is the worst example, as nearly every group of Rikti has Drones that can see through stealth, making Stalkers aggravatingly difficult to play. Recently, however, a patch increased the power of Stalkers, with increased damage, increased criticals, and status effects on their best attack while also increasing their base HP considerably.
** There is also the aggravation in that ambushes tend to be [[The All
* In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons Online (Video Game)|Dungeons and Dragons Online]]'', the Invisibility spell is mostly useless because, unless the player is actively Sneaking, enemies will hear them pretty much automatically. Sneaking slows the character's movement and only works for for characters who invest considerable resources in it. Some enemies, like spiders and oozes, automatically detect sneaking characters. Finally, once an enemy has noticed a character under any circumstances, that enemy will always notice the character once it's within range, even if he breaks line of sight and then successfully Sneaks.
* ''[[Perfect World]]'' puts a spin on this; all non-Assassin characters and mobs have an Awareness Level equal to their level if they're not using pots. Assassins have, as an added stat, a Stealth Level, which, discounting other skills/pots, is equal to Character Level+Stealth Skill Level. Any character that has an Awareness Level higher than or equal to an Assassin's Stealth Level can see and target the Assassin, but if it's lower, you're dead. However, making Stealth slightly more (and less, at the same time) useful are the Catlike Tread and Sharp Observer skills: the former increases Stealth Level by 2*Skill Level, and the latter increases Awareness Level by 3*Skill Level.
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== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==
* Averted hard in [[Achron]]. The units need energy to cloak, but being cloaked drains the energy so slowly that it doesn't matter most of the time. Each of the three races has one unit that can cloak and while those units are not the most powerful, they still pack quite a punch, especially the Grekim Tier 2 bomber unit. They all can attack without giving up their cloak and the enemy units can't see or attack them. They are still balanced because there's three units on each race that can detect cloak (one Tier 1 infantry unit, one Tier 2 aircraft and the turret equivalent).
* In ''[[War Craft]]'' and ''WarCraft 2'', Invisibility spells are useless against computer opponents due to [[The All
* The ''[[Command and Conquer]]'' series has some stealth units of questionable advantage. Stealth tanks are decent at scouting (as long as the gunner isn't stupid enough to shoot random enemies nearby), even against the AI. However, later games feature map obscurers. They might hide what's there, but there is the minor detail of a large (and often mobile) unknown region, which not even the computer falls for.
** Slightly more useful is the spy, which can disguise himself as an enemy unit and infiltrate buildings for a variety of effects. Though more useful against computer opponents, who can't detect spies unless they wander into a dog, the spy's abilities range from cutting the power in the enemy base for a while-- effectively halting production and disabling automated defenses-- to stealing tech and money.
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** It does, however, have one very useful application: If you play an evil assassin and {{spoiler|join the King of Shadows}} at the end, you have to {{spoiler|fight your entire party singlehanded}}. Hide in plain sight, Death Attack, lather, rinse, repeat.
** Stealth is further undermined by the extremely generous rest system, which can be used almost anytime you are not in direct combat. Spellcasters are much, much more effective than normal because they are no longer required to conserve spells for more difficult encounters. Normally, you wouldn't use a ninth level spell to take out a couple Mooks, but use lower level spells and hold the ninth level spell until you found a more difficult foe. In [[NWN 2]], you can spam ninth level spells in almost every encounter by resting after each fight, which only takes a couple of seconds. The only major downside is that if you are buff heavy, you have to recast them after every fight.
* The stealth section on St. Marguerite Island in ''[[Shadow Hearts]]: Covenant'' is a rather funny example of this. It's a [[Let's Split Up, Gang!]] for Blanca, who must sneak into the heart of the base to free the rest of the party; if caught by the guards, he fights them. But by this point it's almost a given that Blanca can take out any number of guards by himself (especially with the right Crests), so there's no point in hiding -- and if you do use stealth, you miss several items that are only reachable if you kill certain guards.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' both uses and averts this with the Stealth skill, as well as spells for Invisibility and Chameleon. A basic Invisibility spell has always made you invisible to everything but the undead (and sometimes, Daedra), until you try to manipulate or attack something. Chameleon operates by giving your character a percentage of transparency and it sticks for as long as the spell lasts, even if you do stuff; less than 100% Chameleon, however, and enemies are liable to see you if you move around a lot or hit them. 100% Chameleon can double as invincibility and almost [[Game Breaker|break the game]].
** Immensely averted because none of the games feature an experience-based system (except the first, which has no stealth option), very few enemies must actually be killed to complete quests, and almost all great items are available very early through the five-finger discount. It makes money near-useless for anything but buying spells, which cannot be stolen.
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== [[Stealth Based Game]] ==
* In some sidequest missions in ''[[Assassin's Creed (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed]]'' it is necessary to assassinate people without being seen. If you have the stamina for it, you can often just slaughter your way through hordes and hordes of guards to get to your target without any stealth at all. However, this is also subverted with some missions that fail you for detection. Also, quite a few of the plotline assassination targets cannot be assassinated without a confrontation that results in them making a break for it and Altaïr or Ezio having to chase them. Starting with ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'', the devs try to avert this by making a [[Stealth Run]] of several missions necessary for [[One Hundred Percent Completion]].
** Interestingly, in Brotherhood and Revelations you will only fail a [[Stealth Run]] if a guard actually catches sight of the player character. As long as that doesn't happen you can be as unsteathly as you like, for instance by shooting everyone or throwing grenades. In fact, one of the easiest ways to complete many of these is to have mercenaries or your fellow assassins enter open combat and slaughter any enemies that get in your way.
* ''[[Rise of the Kasai]]'' averts this for the most part; generally speaking you can just run into combat head first with decent odds of coming out alive, but stealth is the suggested method of advancement, both for an added challenge and the satisfyingly brutal stealth kills. The only time the game truly falls victim to this is when your AI partner decides its time to run headlong into danger, disrupting your attempts at stealth. Its predecessor, ''Mark of Kri'', makes stealth a completely viable method in that your character always goes it solo.
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* While you typically don't get the opportunity to use stealth in the Jagged Alliance series, similar to the [[Army of Two]] example your meaty healthy gunner guys can draw fire with their machinegun bursts while your medic swaps to a rifle and spends extra AP on aiming. Amusingly, this can even work in an open field if the sniper is BEHIND the enemy soldiers and lying down. They will continue to spray&pray at your SMG squad while not noticing the entry wounds are coming from the opposite side.
* ''[[Fallout Tactics]]'' grants no XP for sneaking past enemies and most maps can only be solved by fighting: Sneak is (in the long run) only useful for positioning units before engaging in combat. While this is hardly that useful against your average raider or tribal, once you hit St. Louis and your enemies start toting rocket launchers or M2 brownings that can kill your entire party from halfway off the map with a lucky shot, you ''will'' learn to love a high stealth skill on every character you have.
** In addition, there's also a map involving a hostage situation (Springfield) where stealth ([[Luck
== [[Wide Open Sandbox]] ==
* This even shows up in ''[[Grand Theft Auto San Andreas]]''. There are two or three stealth-based missions, in which you can evade detection entirely by hiding in shadows. The game tries to tell you after the first one that you can also use stealth to hide from police, but [[The All
** There's also robbing houses, which the player is also introduced to through one of the aformentioned stealth-based missions. It's supposed to be an easy way for the player to make cash without actually playing the storyline, but in 90% of the houses you can try to infiltrate, its occupants are in the front room, ready to discover you as soon as you enter.
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[[Category:This Index Is Useless]]
[[Category:Useless Useful Stealth]]
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