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** Averted with the recurring 'fos' enemies. Wolfos and Lizfos aren't much of a threat in one on one combat, they telegraph their blows and take between 1-4 hits to kill (depending on your sword) but they're pretty agile so you have to wait for them to attack in order to hit them. The problem is that you almost never fight them one on one and they will always try to pincer you, Lizfos in particular as they appear in lava filled rooms and can easily come at you from behind and knock you into the lava. Stalfos though are a true nightmare: a single Stalfos can take a pretty reasonable beating and has a mean hit on him (and again you have to dodge his blows to attack him or he'll simply block or dodge) but when you fight two of them together they don't just flank you but can resurrect themselves if you don't kill the second one fast enough (which due to the counter attack nature of your fight might not be feasible). Same thing with the Darknuts in their 3-d incarnations: they hit hard and fast and tend to try to flank you or get in the way of you killing one by blocking your attack or blind siding you when you don't expect it.
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** Averted with the recurring 'fos' enemies. Wolfos and Lizfos Lizalfos aren't much of a threat in one on one combat, they telegraph their blows and take between 1-4 hits to kill (depending on your sword) but they're pretty agile so you have to wait for them to attack in order to hit them. The problem is that you almost never fight them one on one and they will always try to pincer you, Lizfos in particular as they appear in lava filled rooms and can easily come at you from behind and knock you into the lava. Stalfos though are a true nightmare: a single Stalfos can take a pretty reasonable beating and has a mean hit on him (and again you have to dodge his blows to attack him or he'll simply block or dodge) but when you fight two of them together they don't just flank you but can resurrect themselves if you don't kill the second one fast enough (which due to the counter attack nature of your fight might not be feasible). Same thing with the Darknuts in their 3-d incarnations: they hit hard and fast and tend to try to flank you or get in the way of you killing one by blocking your attack or blind siding you when you don't expect it.it.
***It should be noted that while most people prefer the counter-attack method of fighting Stalfos, they can also be easily defeated before they start their attack.
***It should be noted that while most people prefer the counter-attack method of fighting Stalfos, they can also be easily defeated before they start their attack.
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* Cranked up to ridiculous levels in DynastyWarriors and it's kin. ''Anything'' that comes on screen is going down effortlessly if they're not a) Lu Bu, b) the enemy commander, or c) a named officer in Hyper Mode.
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* Cranked up to ridiculous levels in DynastyWarriors and it's its kin. ''Anything'' that comes on screen is going down effortlessly if they're not a) Lu Bu, b) the enemy commander, or c) a named officer in Hyper Mode.
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* Averted in ''Demon Souls'' and ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' '''[[NintendoHard HARD]]''', making encounters of two or more mooks aggravating.
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* Averted in ''Demon Souls'' ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' and ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' '''[[NintendoHard HARD]]''', making encounters of two or more mooks aggravating.
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* Averted in ''Mass Effect 3''. Reapers don't get any easier to kill, even when there are hundreds to thousands of them. The whole game is basically buying time and gathering resources so that scientists can build the [[LostSuperweapon Lost Superweapon]] that might destroy them. Everyone who fights the Reapers directly learns very quickly that they have zero chance of winning in a straight firefight.
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** ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon X and Y}}'' introduces horde encounters, where the player may encounter a group of five Pokémon instead of just one. However, these horde Pokémon are always at around half the level of any other Pokémon in the area.
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* Virtually every videogame that uses {{Mooks}} and {{Boss}}es. The enemies faced throughout the level will be weaker than the stand alone enemy at the end of the level. The player who is usually a lone ranger, or a small group if there's co op can tear through most mooks and fight at least evenly with bosses, usually having to exploit a specific weakness.
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* Virtually every videogame that uses {{Mooks}} and {{Boss}}es.Bosses. The enemies faced throughout the level will be weaker than the stand alone enemy at the end of the level. The player who is usually a lone ranger, or a small group if there's co op can tear through most mooks and fight at least evenly with bosses, usually having to exploit a specific weakness.
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** Encouraged for the Indians, whose ability, Population Growth, causes them to take double the unhappiness penalty for number of cities but halves the penalty for overpopulation; in other words, their empire will be more efficient if they focus on maintaining a small number of densely populated cities rather than a large number of small ones.
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*In the third installment in the HeartsOfIron series, naval combat is based around "effectiveness" percentages. These are affected by unit experience, weather conditions, supply shortages, commander skill, etc. For each naval unit that is added to a fleet, the "Disorganization Penalty" stacks higher, bringing down the effectiveness (and by extent ability in combat) of all the ships in the fleet. While the effect is negligible for small and only a minor problem for medium sized fleets, massive armadas (50+ units) may find themselves being absolutely massacred when up against only two Captial Ships and their escorts, as the Disorganization Penalty has been stacked so high that even the armada's battleships are seemingly worthless.
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* One of the stages in ''{{Disgaea}}'' has you fighting a giant enemy (who is so big all you see of him is his foot) who divides himself into ten separate enemies. LoveFreak Flonne [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this by saying its [[PowerofLove love is divided by ten.]] However, as noted by the Prinny commentary on the DS version after you lose, [[HopelessBossFight love is not a battle stat.]] Even though all of these divided enemies are a presumed to be a a tenth the strength of the original, they are still the highest level enemy in the story line next to the FinalBoss. In other words, you're screwed.
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* One of the stages in ''{{Disgaea}}'' ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'' has you fighting a giant enemy (who is so big all you see of him is his foot) who divides himself into ten separate enemies. LoveFreak Flonne [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this by saying its [[PowerofLove love is divided by ten.]] However, as noted by the Prinny commentary on the DS version after you lose, [[HopelessBossFight love is not a battle stat.]] Even though all of these divided enemies are a presumed to be a a tenth the strength of the original, they are still the highest level enemy in the story line next to the FinalBoss. In other words, you're screwed.
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* This trope is actually quite necessary for many games in which one hero or a party of heroes must fight through a gauntlet of {{Mooks}}, especially of the RandomEncounter sort. If the mooks weren't so weak (and also weren't attacking [[MookChivalry one at a time]]), the heroes would easily be gang-slaughtered. But the RuleOfFun and RuleOfCool win over easily here.
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** The Ethiopians has a special combat bonus which is applied if they go to war with a faction that has more cities than they do.
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** The Ethiopians has have a special combat bonus which is applied if they go to war with a faction that has more cities than they do.
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* In ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} 5'', the Japanese are given the ability "Bushido," which lets their military units continue fighting at full strength even after taking damage. While not making them ''stronger'', per se, it does mean that a single, wounded samurai is just as deadly as an entire group of them. Although there is a civic that makes wounded units do more damage.
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* In ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} 5'', 5'':
** the Japanese are given the ability "Bushido," which lets their military units continue fighting at full strength even after taking damage. While not making them ''stronger'', per se, it does mean that a single, wounded samurai is just as deadly as an entire group of them. Although there is a civic that makes wounded units do moredamage.damage.
** The Ethiopians has a special combat bonus which is applied if they go to war with a faction that has more cities than they do.
** the Japanese are given the ability "Bushido," which lets their military units continue fighting at full strength even after taking damage. While not making them ''stronger'', per se, it does mean that a single, wounded samurai is just as deadly as an entire group of them. Although there is a civic that makes wounded units do more
** The Ethiopians has a special combat bonus which is applied if they go to war with a faction that has more cities than they do.
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* Both used and Averted in the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' games: If a mission specifically tasks you with killing two monsters, they will both be weaker than they are in hunts where you only have to take down one. But if another monster just happens to show up during a hunt (even if their appearance is scripted), then they'll be at full strength.
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* Both used and Averted in the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' games: If a mission specifically tasks you with killing two monsters, they will both be weaker than they are in hunts where you only have to take down one. But if another monster just happens to show up during a hunt (even if their appearance is scripted), then they'll be at full strength. strength.
* A dwarf in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' who is outnumbered will enter a martial trance, gaining huge bonuses to hit, block and parry. Even civilian dwarves will do this, and then [[LeeroyJenkins charge the invaders]] with surprising effectiveness.
* A dwarf in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' who is outnumbered will enter a martial trance, gaining huge bonuses to hit, block and parry. Even civilian dwarves will do this, and then [[LeeroyJenkins charge the invaders]] with surprising effectiveness.
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* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' plays this trope straight by the end of the game. To slow Link down, [[BigBad Ghirahim]] summons his whole army of minions, most of whom die in one hit by this point in the game. Ghirahim himself, and the BiggerBad that serves as the FinalBoss, are a different story.
** Averted in''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' with 'fos' enemies. Wolfos and Lizfos aren't much of a threat in one on one combat, they telegraph their blows and take between 1-4 hits to kill (depending on your sword) but they're pretty agile so you have to wait for them to attack in order to hit them. The problem is that you almost never fight them one on one and they will always try to pincer you, Lizfos in particular as they appear in lava filled rooms and can easily come at you from behind and knock you into the lava. Stalfos though are a true nightmare: a single Stalfos can take a pretty reasonable beating and has a mean hit on him (and again you have to dodge his blows to attack him or he'll simply block or dodge) but when you fight two of them together they don't just flank you but can resurrect themselves if you don't kill the second one fast enough (which due to the counter attack nature of your fight might not be feasible)
*** The pair of Iron Knuckles outside Gannon's tower can avert this or play it totally straight depending on when they decide to strike: if they both try to hit you at the same time you might as well be fighting one of them. If one tries to hit you but you're not in the others range (preventing him from trying to swing at you) their blows can cover each other from your attacks.
*** In the same vein Dark Nuts in their 3-d incarnations tend to subvert this trope: they hit hard and fast and tend to try to flank you or get in the way of you killing one by blocking your attack or blind siding you when you don't expect it.
** Averted in''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' with 'fos' enemies. Wolfos and Lizfos aren't much of a threat in one on one combat, they telegraph their blows and take between 1-4 hits to kill (depending on your sword) but they're pretty agile so you have to wait for them to attack in order to hit them. The problem is that you almost never fight them one on one and they will always try to pincer you, Lizfos in particular as they appear in lava filled rooms and can easily come at you from behind and knock you into the lava. Stalfos though are a true nightmare: a single Stalfos can take a pretty reasonable beating and has a mean hit on him (and again you have to dodge his blows to attack him or he'll simply block or dodge) but when you fight two of them together they don't just flank you but can resurrect themselves if you don't kill the second one fast enough (which due to the counter attack nature of your fight might not be feasible)
*** The pair of Iron Knuckles outside Gannon's tower can avert this or play it totally straight depending on when they decide to strike: if they both try to hit you at the same time you might as well be fighting one of them. If one tries to hit you but you're not in the others range (preventing him from trying to swing at you) their blows can cover each other from your attacks.
*** In the same vein Dark Nuts in their 3-d incarnations tend to subvert this trope: they hit hard and fast and tend to try to flank you or get in the way of you killing one by blocking your attack or blind siding you when you don't expect it.
to:
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' plays this trope straight by the end of the game. To slow Link down, [[BigBad Ghirahim]] summons his whole army of minions, most of whom die in one hit by this point in the game. Ghirahim himself, and the BiggerBad that serves as the FinalBoss, are a different story.
** Avertedin''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' with the recurring 'fos' enemies. Wolfos and Lizfos aren't much of a threat in one on one combat, they telegraph their blows and take between 1-4 hits to kill (depending on your sword) but they're pretty agile so you have to wait for them to attack in order to hit them. The problem is that you almost never fight them one on one and they will always try to pincer you, Lizfos in particular as they appear in lava filled rooms and can easily come at you from behind and knock you into the lava. Stalfos though are a true nightmare: a single Stalfos can take a pretty reasonable beating and has a mean hit on him (and again you have to dodge his blows to attack him or he'll simply block or dodge) but when you fight two of them together they don't just flank you but can resurrect themselves if you don't kill the second one fast enough (which due to the counter attack nature of your fight might not be feasible)
*** Thefeasible). Same thing with the Darknuts in their 3-d incarnations: they hit hard and fast and tend to try to flank you or get in the way of you killing one by blocking your attack or blind siding you when you don't expect it.
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', the pair of Iron Knuckles outsideGannon's Ganon's tower can avert this or play it totally straight depending on when they decide to strike: if they both try to hit you at the same time you might as well be fighting one of them. If one tries to hit you but you're not in the others range (preventing him from trying to swing at you) their blows can cover each other from your attacks.
*** In the same vein Dark Nuts in their 3-d incarnations tend to subvert ** ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'', being a {{Crossover}} SpinOff with ''Dynasty Warriors'', naturally plays this trope: they hit hard straight. The very numerous Bokoblins go down in droves, whereas the more infrequent Lizalfos and fast and tend Dodongos take longer to try to flank you or get in the way of you killing one by blocking your attack or blind siding you when you don't expect it.bring down.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' plays this trope straight by the end of the game. To slow Link down, [[BigBad Ghirahim]] summons his whole army of minions, most of whom die in one hit by this point in the game. Ghirahim himself, and the BiggerBad that serves as the FinalBoss, are a different story.
** Averted
*** The
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', the pair of Iron Knuckles outside
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* Both used and Averted in the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' games: If a mission specifically tasks you with killing two monsters, they will both be weaker than they are in hunts where you only have to take down one. But if another monster just happens to show up during a hunt (even if their appearance is scripted), then they'll be at full strength.
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Avert Word Cruft
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** Averted hard in''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' with 'fos' enemies. Wolfos and Lizfos aren't much of a threat in one on one combat, they telegraph their blows and take between 1-4 hits to kill (depending on your sword) but they're pretty agile so you have to wait for them to attack in order to hit them. The problem is that you almost never fight them one on one and they will always try to pincer you, Lizfos in particular as they appear in lava filled rooms and can easily come at you from behind and knock you into the lava. Stalfos though are a true nightmare: a single Stalfos can take a pretty reasonable beating and has a mean hit on him (and again you have to dodge his blows to attack him or he'll simply block or dodge) but when you fight two of them together they don't just flank you but can resurrect themselves if you don't kill the second one fast enough (which due to the counter attack nature of your fight might not be feasible)
to:
** Averted hard in''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' with 'fos' enemies. Wolfos and Lizfos aren't much of a threat in one on one combat, they telegraph their blows and take between 1-4 hits to kill (depending on your sword) but they're pretty agile so you have to wait for them to attack in order to hit them. The problem is that you almost never fight them one on one and they will always try to pincer you, Lizfos in particular as they appear in lava filled rooms and can easily come at you from behind and knock you into the lava. Stalfos though are a true nightmare: a single Stalfos can take a pretty reasonable beating and has a mean hit on him (and again you have to dodge his blows to attack him or he'll simply block or dodge) but when you fight two of them together they don't just flank you but can resurrect themselves if you don't kill the second one fast enough (which due to the counter attack nature of your fight might not be feasible)
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** The mystery dungeon games subvert this with Monster Houses: a single room that is filled with Monsters, usually between eight and a dozen. If your levels aren't a lot higher than theirs and you don't have type advantages the best bet is to fall back to a corridor to bottle neck them or they will over k.o. you before you've killed half of them.
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** Averted hard in''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' with 'fos' enemies. Wolfos and Lizfos aren't much of a threat in one on one combat, they telegraph their blows and take between 1-4 hits to kill (depending on your sword) but they're pretty agile so you have to wait for them to attack in order to hit them. The problem is that you almost never fight them one on one and they will always try to pincer you, Lizfos in particular are a nightmare as they appear in lava filled rooms and can easily flank you from behind and knock you into the lava. Stalfos though are a true nightmare: a single Stalfos can take a pretty reasonable beating and has a mean hit on him (and again you have to dodge his blows to attack him or he'll simply block or dodge) but when you fight two of them together they don't just flank you but can resurrect themselves if you don't kill the second one fast enough.
*** The pair of Iron Knuckles outside Gannon's tower can avert this or play it totally straight depending on when they decide to strike: if they both try to hit you at the same time the fight will last seconds at most. If one tries to hit you but you're not in the others range their blows can cover each other from your attacks.
*** The pair of Iron Knuckles outside Gannon's tower can avert this or play it totally straight depending on when they decide to strike: if they both try to hit you at the same time the fight will last seconds at most. If one tries to hit you but you're not in the others range their blows can cover each other from your attacks.
to:
** Averted hard in''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' with 'fos' enemies. Wolfos and Lizfos aren't much of a threat in one on one combat, they telegraph their blows and take between 1-4 hits to kill (depending on your sword) but they're pretty agile so you have to wait for them to attack in order to hit them. The problem is that you almost never fight them one on one and they will always try to pincer you, Lizfos in particular are a nightmare as they appear in lava filled rooms and can easily flank come at you from behind and knock you into the lava. Stalfos though are a true nightmare: a single Stalfos can take a pretty reasonable beating and has a mean hit on him (and again you have to dodge his blows to attack him or he'll simply block or dodge) but when you fight two of them together they don't just flank you but can resurrect themselves if you don't kill the second one fast enough.
enough (which due to the counter attack nature of your fight might not be feasible)
*** The pair of Iron Knuckles outside Gannon's tower can avert this or play it totally straight depending on when they decide to strike: if they both try to hit you at the same timethe fight will last seconds at most. you might as well be fighting one of them. If one tries to hit you but you're not in the others range (preventing him from trying to swing at you) their blows can cover each other from your attacks.
*** The pair of Iron Knuckles outside Gannon's tower can avert this or play it totally straight depending on when they decide to strike: if they both try to hit you at the same time
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** Averted hard in''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' with 'fos' enemies. Wolfos and Lizfos aren't much of a threat in one on one combat, they telegraph their blows and take between 1-4 hits to kill (depending on your sword) but they're pretty agile so you have to wait for them to attack in order to hit them. The problem is that you almost never fight them one on one and they will always try to pincer you, Lizfos in particular are a nightmare as they appear in lava filled rooms and can easily flank you from behind and knock you into the lava. Stalfos though are a true nightmare: a single Stalfos can take a pretty reasonable beating and has a mean hit on him (and again you have to dodge his blows to attack him or he'll simply block or dodge) but when you fight two of them together they don't just flank you but can resurrect themselves if you don't kill the second one fast enough.
*** The pair of Iron Knuckles outside Gannon's tower can avert this or play it totally straight depending on when they decide to strike: if they both try to hit you at the same time the fight will last seconds at most. If one tries to hit you but you're not in the others range their blows can cover each other from your attacks.
*** In the same vein Dark Nuts in their 3-d incarnations tend to subvert this trope: they hit hard and fast and tend to try to flank you or get in the way of you killing one by blocking your attack or blind siding you when you don't expect it.
*** The pair of Iron Knuckles outside Gannon's tower can avert this or play it totally straight depending on when they decide to strike: if they both try to hit you at the same time the fight will last seconds at most. If one tries to hit you but you're not in the others range their blows can cover each other from your attacks.
*** In the same vein Dark Nuts in their 3-d incarnations tend to subvert this trope: they hit hard and fast and tend to try to flank you or get in the way of you killing one by blocking your attack or blind siding you when you don't expect it.
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* Played with in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'': at first 5 or 6 villagers can be a pain to deal with but as their numbers increase so to do the upgrades the merchant sells allowing you to mow through them with ease. You can still be overwhelmed by their numbers if you're not careful and elite mooks like Dr. Salvidor, the Reginerators, the Garradors or the El Gigante are dangerous as hell on their own and when backed up by normal mooks they become a serious threat. When another elite mook backs them up they can easily over power you because the tactics you use backfire against two such enemies.
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* ''Videogame/KingdomOfLoathing'''s Ragamuffin Imp familiar is a variation; it grows progressively weaker the more players are using it as their active familiar at any given time.
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* ''Videogame/KingdomOfLoathing'''s Ragamuffin Imp familiar is a variation; it grows progressively weaker the more players are using it as their active familiar at any given time. Originally, its strength was inversely proportional to how many people ''had'' it, and when the puzzle required to get it was spoiled it quickly became useless as a bunch of people got one (1 point of hot damage, anyone?). Eventually this was changed to the present formula.
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** Really, a good player of almost any class (barring TheMedic, who requires others to be effective) can be this.
** The Mann vs. Machine Mode: Six mercenaries, hundreds and hundreds of giant robots and tanks. Guess who wins? (Well, hopefully you.)
** The Mann vs. Machine Mode: Six mercenaries, hundreds and hundreds of giant robots and tanks. Guess who wins? (Well, hopefully you.)
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* ''{{Half-Life}} 2'' has a similar scene, where the BigBad expresses his shock to his FacelessGoons that they, "the best humanity has to offer", are unable to stop or apprehend Gordon Freeman, a [[BadassBookworm theoretical physicist]].
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* ''{{Half-Life}} 2'' ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' has a similar scene, where the BigBad expresses his shock to his FacelessGoons that they, "the best humanity has to offer", are unable to stop or apprehend Gordon Freeman, a [[BadassBookworm theoretical physicist]].
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* Because of how turns work in VideoGame/{{Worms}}, when a team of worms starts to dwindle down, they "move faster" than they did before. The game always ensures that players alternate turns, and because there's fewer worms on the team to cycle through, they get to act more frequently. At the extreme end of 1 vs 8, the 1 worm is basically moving eight times as fast as all the other worms. This helps narrow the advantage the 8 might have in such a situation, making spectacular (and usually hilarious) comebacks more likely.
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* Slightly older ''Star Wars'' example is ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight]]: Jedi Outcast'', in which the player's initial skirmishes with the Reborn darksiders are virtually mini-boss battles, but as the game progresses and Kyle Katarn is pit against 3 or 4 at a time, the fights become easier.
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* Slightly older ''Star Wars'' example is ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight]]: Jedi Outcast'', in which the player's initial skirmishes with the Reborn darksiders are virtually mini-boss battles, but as the game progresses and Kyle Katarn is pit against 3 or 4 at a time, the fights become easier. Not because the Reborns are weaker, but because both Kyle and the player are so much stronger.
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* Discussed in ''VideoGame/{{Pirate101}} by El Toro while the player invades a ninja fortress. Also played straight game play with some fights when the player is greatly outnumbered enemies are much lower leveled while enemies that fight alone are strong enough and have enough tricks to wipe out the entire player's party.
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* Virtually every video that uses {{Mooks}} and {{Boss}}es. The enemies faced throughout the level will be weaker than the stand alone enemy at the end of the level. The player who is usually a lone ranger, or a small group if there's co op can tear through most mooks and fight at least evenly with bosses, usually having to exploit a specific weakness.
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* Virtually every video videogame that uses {{Mooks}} and {{Boss}}es. The enemies faced throughout the level will be weaker than the stand alone enemy at the end of the level. The player who is usually a lone ranger, or a small group if there's co op can tear through most mooks and fight at least evenly with bosses, usually having to exploit a specific weakness.
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* Virtually every video that uses {{Mooks}} and {{Boss}}es. The enemies faced throughout the level will be weaker than the stand alone enemy at the end of the level. The player who is usually a lone ranger, or a small group if there's co op can tear through most mooks and fight at least evenly with bosses, usually having to exploit a specific weakness.
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* A MagicAIsMagicA example is the {{Halo}} series. In the face of a horde of aliens that are both physically and technologically superior to anything Humanity has to offer, the Master Chief (and other SPARTAN-IIs) are the only humans that are physically strong, technologically augmented and technically skilled enough to take down thousands of 7-foot tall alien killing machines. JustifiedTrope in that he was trained to be a soldier from being a very small child, was physically (and very painfully) augmented by such procedures as having his bones coated in carbon fibre, and possesses a suit of powered armour outfitted with the best shielding and enhancement technology humanity has.
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* A MagicAIsMagicA example is the {{Halo}} series. In the face of a horde of aliens that are both physically and technologically superior to anything Humanity has to offer, the Master Chief (and other SPARTAN-IIs) [=SPARTAN-IIs=]) are the only humans that are physically strong, technologically augmented and technically skilled enough to take down thousands of 7-foot tall alien killing machines. JustifiedTrope in that he was trained to be a soldier from being a very small child, was physically (and very painfully) augmented by such procedures as having his bones coated in carbon fibre, fiber, and possesses a suit of powered armour outfitted with the best shielding and enhancement technology humanity has.
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* ''DynastyWarriors'' is probably the most (in)famous example in gaming of this trope. Players will be attacked with hordes of enemies that so pathetic they might as well not even attack while the player chops them down.
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* ''DynastyWarriors'' is probably the most (in)famous example in gaming of this trope. Players will be attacked with by hordes of enemies that mooks so pathetic they might as well not even attack while the player chops them down.down. Conversely, enemy officers tend to take more swings to chop down - especially 'legendary' officers like Zhang Fei and Lu Bu and, in later games, the enemy army's commanders themselves.
** Later games in the series subvert this somewhat, as improved AI and increased stats on harder difficulties have mooks coordinate their strikes with each other. Prepare to get stun-locked from all directions by fairly-strong spear pokes that quickly add up if you're not careful.
** Later games in the series subvert this somewhat, as improved AI and increased stats on harder difficulties have mooks coordinate their strikes with each other. Prepare to get stun-locked from all directions by fairly-strong spear pokes that quickly add up if you're not careful.
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* A MagicAIsMagicA example is the {{Halo}} series. In the face of a horde of aliens that are both physically and technologically superior to anything Humanity has to offer, the Master Chief (and other SPARTAN-IIs) are the only humans that are physically strong, technologically augmented and technically skilled enough to take down thousands of 7-foot tall alien killing machines. JustifiedTrope in that he was trained to be a soldier from being a very small child, was physically (and very painfully) augmented by such procedures as having his bones coated in carbon fibre, and possesses a suit of powered armour outfitted with the best shielding and enhancement technology humanity has.
** The legendary status of the Spartans is such that the military refuses to officially acknowledge their deaths, instead listing them as Missing In Action.
** A dramatic moment at the end of the campaign of HaloReach sees Noble Six's final moments from the perspective of his suit's helmet camera, which he had just dropped on the ground; as a company of Elites closes in, he manages to take down no less than 7 of them in an all-out brawl before he bites the dust.
* This can happen in online multiplayer FPS games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield when small teams are outnumbered by large contingents of players from the other team. While objective based game modes can be easily thwarted by numerical superiority, Team Death Matches tend to play out the opposite way. In, for example, a 1v12 Battlefield 3 TDM, the severely outnumbered player may well take down two or more players before he/she is spotted by the other team and eliminated - at which point he/she spawns randomly somewhere else on the map. This results in the lone ninja gaining substantially more kills in the target rich environment than the team of regular ninjas can simply fighting one player.
* Played with in the ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' series, most notably in the NES ''Double Dragon 3'' and the SNES ''Super Double Dragon''. Noteworthy in that one '''normal''' {{Mook}} can fuck you up real bad if you're not careful. A bunch of mooks, on the other hand... well, they can still fuck you up real bad, but the gameplay provides several ways in which you can use their numbers against them, especially in Super Double Dragon - such as grabbing one mook and throwing him at another, [[DeadlyDodging tricking them into throwing their weapons at each other]], crowding two or more mooks into a corner, thus limiting their attacks and enabling you to beat 'em all up at ONCE (a trick that works '''really''' nice when one of the baddies is a Level Boss), etc.
* ''BadDudes Versus Dragon Ninja''. Armies of brightly dressed HighlyVisibleNinja rush at the one (or two) good guys in broad daylight then each one falls down (and vanishes) after being struck a single blow (in fact in the case of the chi punch several ninja can be killed by the same blow).
* Dragonest has the Priest class which is exceptional when dealing with multiple enemies due to the large area of his spells (some actually hit more times if there are more enemies, especially Inquisitors) but utterly horrible when faced in single combat.
* A noted problem with ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'': fighting thirty Metal Gears is significantly ''less'' dramatic than the usual finale of fighting ''one'', because of the greatly reduced significance of each foe; in fact, Metal Gear RAY's require only a handful of missiles to destroy, while their REX predecessor (Which they were designed specifically to be able to defeat) required some 20-30 of those missiles [[spoiler: and a lone ninja (himself taking full advantage of this very trope) to perform a HeroicSacrifice. This may be {{justified|Trope}}, as it was well established that the Metal Gears involved in that fight were designed to be cheap, mass-produced, and be piloted by an AI.]]
* No ninjas or robots either and applying to main characters, but still: In ''DevilMayCry 3'', Dante or Vergil alone can use their full powers in the first phase of the fight against Arkham. When the second phase rolls in, bringing Vergil or Dante (respectively according to character used) with it, the player loses his Style-based moves and Devil Trigger transformation, while the interloper also cannot fight at full power.
** The Agni and Rudra boss fight from the same game pits Dante/Vergil against a pair of demons armed with enchanted swords. If you defeat one of them and don't finish the other off quickly enough, the survivor grabs the other demon's sword and starts DualWielding, unlocking some nasty combo attacks and becoming a much bigger pain to defeat.
* In the ''{{Terminator}} Salvation'' video game the player kills tons of terminator robots with grenades, M16, shotguns, pistols and even by punching them. This is in contrast to the movies where bullets/{{RPG}}s/exploding gas tankers/ firetrucks did almost nothing to the lone pursuing robot.
** Then again, these are model T-600s, not the 800s and higher seen in the movies. Further, each T-600 you face takes a ''lot'' of punishment to bring down, even if every round hits their weakpoint, and if you don't have cover, you ''will'' be shredded by their miniguns. The first few encounters you just don't have enough firepower to bring them down, and you're forced to run the hell away.
* In ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}: The Game of TheMovie'', one level relies heavily on stealth, and if you are spotted or trip an alarm it brings out a couple Super Soldiers, giant robots that are extremely formidable opponents. Even one is a handful, and if you run into more than one, your only hope is to run and hide. A couple levels later you have to fight your way through dozens of Super Soldiers, which are notably easier to get past.
* In ''VideoGame/MegaMan'', the mass-produced Joes are basically ArmCannon fodder. Only the unique Robot Masters are a challenge. Gemini Man from ''3'' himself follows this trope. He starts the battle by doubling himself, and only attacks with a weak blaster (in response to your fire) and by CollisionDamage. Only when you destroy the clone does he break out the [[SignatureMove Gemini Laser]].
* Played very straight in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros. '' and sequels. Any level with "Team [==]" or the Fighting Alloys lets you fling them off the screen with one solid hit. Even heavy characters like Bowser [[ATwinkleInTheSky blast off]] when part of a team. Meanwhile, some stages can give you hell with just 1-3 opponents and even with the very occasional ally. But subverted in the well-named ''Cruel Melee''/''Cruel Brawl''.
* A mission in the single player ''StarWarsBattlefront 2'' has your clone trooper attack force and one Sith going up against a horde of Jedi, who unlike the Jedi hero characters, die in a couple shots ([[GlassCannon though their lightsabers hurt just as much]]). This is some kind of cosmic and cruel irony.
* Another ''StarWars'' example, in Republic Commando, when Delta Squad (essentially the ninjas of the ''Clone Wars'') splits up to take down the Core Ship on Geonosis, Delta-38 (the player's character) [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this trope, [[strike:almost]] making it into a CrowningMomentOfAwesome:
---> '''Delta 38''': Alone against all these droids? Heh, ''they'' don't stand a chance.
* Slightly older ''Star Wars'' example is ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight]]: Jedi Outcast'', in which the player's initial skirmishes with the Reborn darksiders are virtually mini-boss battles, but as the game progresses and Kyle Katarn is pit against 3 or 4 at a time, the fights become easier.
* Lampshaded with dark hilarity at the end of ''VideoGame/MaxPayne''. As he continues to gun down the Big Bad's Killer Suits in her penthouse suite, the PA system crackles to life:
--> '''Big Bad''': What do you mean 'he's unstoppable'? You are superior to him in every way that counts. You are better trained, better equipped, and you outnumber him at least twenty-to-one. Do. Your. Job.
* ''{{Half-Life}} 2'' has a similar scene, where the BigBad expresses his shock to his FacelessGoons that they, "the best humanity has to offer", are unable to stop or apprehend Gordon Freeman, a [[BadassBookworm theoretical physicist]].
* In the multiplayer shooter ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' the Spy, one of the nine character classes, has the potential to singlehandedly wreak havoc across the entire enemy team. A lone Spy can cripple defenses, take out high priority targets and even ninja-capture objectives when no-one's looking, all while causing paranoia among enemy teammates. Multiple Spies, on the other hand, don't work so well: if one Spy messes up, the enemy team will be alerted and will plan accordingly, making life much more difficult for the other Spies. They also tend to interfere with each other's plans, particularly when trying to take down the same target or Sentry Gun nest. When a team has three Spies or more, chances are high none of them is doing well at all, which in turn hampers the others' effectiveness, especially as Spies aren't cut out for head-on combat.
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' and ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', large armies of mooks present little more challenge than a single mook, except that they take more hits. But dodging/countering works the same. Just beware guys with [[NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight knives and guns]], while pummeling one to twenty men with baseball bats or their own fists for protection. On the other hand, when only one guy shows up in a room, you can bet it's either a BossBattle or a BossInMookClothing.
* ''NinjaGaiden'': Ryu, a lone ninja, can take on a seemingly endless horde of ninjas, demons, and fiends of all sizes and colors - and the endless hordes of ninja that come after him can barely touch him. Granted, higher difficulties on the Xbox game require that the player [[NintendoHard EARN]] every iota of their ninjutsu.
* ''CityOfHeroes'' actually has this as a player's power. The more enemies that are nearby (Capped at 10 to balance things a little), the stronger a character possessing such a power will be in battle against all of the enemies. Also carries over to a few of the optional powers accessible to anyone, which can improve offense, defense or other stats across a whole team.
** One such power, ''Rise to the Challenge'' in the Willpower set, not only boosts your health regeneration rate higher as more foes surround you, but it also gives those foes a medium to-hit debuff.
* The second PSP installment of the ''RatchetAndClank'' series, ''Secret Agent Clank'', has a skill point challenge that references this trope. Titled "Inverse Ninja Law", it requires you to defeat 99 ninja mooks during a boss fight where they spawn endlessly, far, ''far'' more than you need to defeat to beat the level.
* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' small groups of Heartless or Nobodies can usually pose a significant threat to Sora and his party, but during the aptly-named ''[[TheWarSequence Battle of the 1000 Heartless]]'', Sora is able to [[OneManArmy steamroll right over a group of 1000 Armored Knights and Surveillance Robots without any support from Donald and Goofy]]. Helped along by the [[ActionCommands reaction commands]] for said enemies, both of which are wide-area attacks capable of hitting large numbers of targets at once.
* An early mission in ''VideoGame/CrisisCore: VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' boiled down to "Storm the enemy base alone. Have fun." Of course, it should be noted that your character is explicitly a SuperSoldier.
** And then of course you have [[spoiler: Zack's final stand]] against practically the entire [[spoiler: Shinra army.]] Despite [[spoiler: eventually dying in the end, Zack]] canonically takes out all but three or four of them before finally reaching his limit. Based on what you see in the scene just prior, we're talking about [[BadAss single-handedly destroying a good 100-200 rifleman, backed up with missile-shooting battle copters]], all using [[BigFuckingSword a single sword]].
* One of the stages in ''{{Disgaea}}'' has you fighting a giant enemy (who is so big all you see of him is his foot) who divides himself into ten separate enemies. LoveFreak Flonne [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this by saying its [[PowerofLove love is divided by ten.]] However, as noted by the Prinny commentary on the DS version after you lose, [[HopelessBossFight love is not a battle stat.]] Even though all of these divided enemies are a presumed to be a a tenth the strength of the original, they are still the highest level enemy in the story line next to the FinalBoss. In other words, you're screwed.
* '' VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' includes one zone, Lake Wintergrasp, dedicated to world (i.e. not instanced) PvP. In an effort to make it more fun on servers where one faction or the other is underpopulated, it features a mechanic called Tenacity that buffs whichever side has fewer people - the greater the disparity, the stronger the buff.
** Notably, the Tenacity buff, was hilariously weak as it did nothing against CC effects, so if 3 or 4 people with 20 stacks of tenacity (full power, 500% EVERYTHING) encountered the other faction's main group... they got obliterated very easily, averting this trope.
** And in other cases of World PvP, the side that brought 80 people destroys the organized group of 5 or 6, because players are all fairly equal, so WoW actually averts this trope pretty hard... until you go into PvE, where it's in full effect.
** Played hilariously and probably accidentally post-Cataclysm, where mobs and {{Non Player Character}}s will be found fighting each other in perpetual battle. It's entirely possible to find and especially to set up scenarios where one NPC or mob is fighting ''dozens'' of mobs or [=NPCs=], with that one person fighting on equal footing to the entire small army that's descended upon them.
* Justified in ''Videogame/TheWitcher'', where one of the three fighting styles Geralt is trained in has been specifically tailored to allow him to engage a horde of up to nine enemies at once. If you invest an equal amount of points in all fighting styles, it is possible that some enemies, such as cemetaurs, will be more of a challenge to bring down on their own with the 'Strong' style than a group of them would be if engaged with the Group style.
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', Raven [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this trope in one of his battle quotes: "The bigger the bunch, the weaker the monster!"
* The fight against the first boss in ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' was well... a boss fight. And then those same exact bosses show up as EliteMooks to be killed like EliteMooks.
* In ''{{VideoGame/Diablo}} 2'', this works against the players. The more players are playing in the same game at the same time, the more powerful the monsters become -- thereby making each player proportionately weaker than if he was playing on his own.
** With a good team setup, synergy means the players still come out ahead in that race.
* In ''Shogun: TotalWar'', default unit sizes are subject to this rule, the extreme being the sword master that's just [[BadAss one guy]] that can take on dozens of lesser men. On the other hand during actual battle this trope is averted. The most blatant example is that 96 ninjas (yes actual ninjas, this is feudal Japan so [[JustifiedTrope maybe?]]) can and will wipe the floor with 1 ninja.
* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}} 2'' has an interesting variation where it's the heroes that have the disadvantage in numbers. When the Hiigarans show up to claim an ancient Precursor artifact, they come across a guardian boss known as a Keeper. The Keeper is a strange looking medium-sized warship which sets off to engage the entire Hiigaran fleet solo. You know you're in serious trouble when you're commanding a massive armada to fight a single enemy unit.
* Applies to ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' as well. Trainers with a five or six-member party are usually Bug Catchers or Fishermen, and will use lots of lower-leveled Pokémon, or weaker Pokémon in general (like Caterpie and Magikarp). A trainer with only one Pokémon will be substantially higher-leveled.
** Subverted with late game champions, who have six pokemon that are very high levels.
* In ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'', there is an enemy which is composed of 100 (previously 1000) ninjas. There is also a ninja enemy named Shadow Mistress Elizabeth. Guess which is the tougher to beat.
* In ''Rome TotalWar'', bringing large numbers of poorly-trained, poorly-equipped and unmotivated soldiers to a battle, with the intention of crushing the enemy through sheer weight of numbers, was not always wise. If these men were attacked and routed by the enemy, their fleeing would have a highly deleterious effect on the morale of your remaining troops, rendering them much more susceptible to breaking under pressure.
** In all the Total War series a large army can be hard to properly control. Most notable in Medival 2 when a single unit of properly micromanaged heavy cav can devistate thousands of pesants. It is just too hard for a human opponent to reorganise their line to take the charge properly.
* Cranked up to ridiculous levels in DynastyWarriors and it's kin. ''Anything'' that comes on screen is going down effortlessly if they're not a) Lu Bu, b) the enemy commander, or c) a named officer in Hyper Mode.
** Hard and Hardest/Extreme difficulties, however, try to counter this trope with even more ridiculous ArtificialDifficulty - Koei's "solution" was to give even random soldiers higher stats than a ''maxed-out'' player character is able to achieve.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} 5'', the Japanese are given the ability "Bushido," which lets their military units continue fighting at full strength even after taking damage. While not making them ''stronger'', per se, it does mean that a single, wounded samurai is just as deadly as an entire group of them. Although there is a civic that makes wounded units do more damage.
* The GrandFinale of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' has the capital city of Ferelden attacked by Darkspawn. When you get inside the city, you'll find that you're vastly outnumbered, but are only fighting against grunt versions of the normal darkspawn, meaning that they go down in one or two hits to balance things out.
** Although there ''are'' EliteMooks, mixed in with them. If you're trying to kill the Darkspawn General based in the alienage, you will have to fight through a ZergRush of EliteMooks, at least on higher difficulties.
* ''{{Vindictus}}'' probably has the most realistic use of this trope. Enemies use a variety of tactics, including mass mob attack, and single flanking and circling attacks. When enemies do attack in mobs, they predictably cause a lot of [[FriendlyFireIndex collateral damage]], getting in each other's way as one would normally expect. This is even true for [[DualBoss multiple boss missions]]. In fact, on the Gnoll Chieftain mission, the standard tactic is to keep running from the boss for the first few minutes of the fight, to allow his wild attacks to take out all his mooks before fighting him.
* Can happen to the ''enemies'' in the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series. Certain regular enemies will resort to ''much'' more dangerous attacks if they are alone, which means that you should take them out first if they're in a group.
* In the ''Videogame/FireEmblem'' games, your army is traditionally outnumbered 2:1 most of the time, though sometimes as bad as 5:1, or more. However, most of these enemies, if the [[ElementalRockPaperScissors weapon triangles]] are utilized, are hilarious pushovers. But if you get into a room in a castle mission with only one guy sitting on a throne, perhaps with a [[TheDragon Swordmaster, General, or Bishop]] at his side, get ready for a hell of a fight.
** Not always, due to HardLevelsEasyBosses.
* Due to the limitations of the hardware, as the number of SpaceInvaders left in the game decreases their speed of attack increases.
* Parodied in ''LeagueOfLegends'', where the four ninjas (Kennen, Shen, Akali, and Zed) all have a hidden passive which reduces their maximum hp by 1 point for every other ninja, resulting in a possible reduction of -3 hp. The effect is unnoticeable upon gameplay, and acts as an homage to the trope.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars: TheForceUnleashed II'', Darth Vader sends an army of Starkiller clones against Starkiller himself, who destroys them all. Justified in that they were imperfect versions, had less battle experience, and were mindless berserkers.
-->'''Excerpt from the novelization''': It quickly became apparent that the first to rush in were the wildest and weakest both. In their eagerness to do battle, they didn't stop to plan their strategies. What they possessed in speed, they lacked in forethought. He was armed and they were not, so for being headstrong beyond all reason these brutish beings paid the ultimate price.
* In ''CompanyOfHeroes'' the MG-42 gets bonuses to accuracy and suppression when facing larger number of troops.
* In ''Videogame/SpiralKnights'', the more members there are in your squad, the harder enemies and bosses become. It's a well-implemented method of balancing the co-op with the soloing, but it can also mean that sometimes soloing is easier than playing in a group. Sometimes.
* ''Videogame/KingdomOfLoathing'''s Ragamuffin Imp familiar is a variation; it grows progressively weaker the more players are using it as their active familiar at any given time.
* Averted in ''Demon Souls'' and ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' '''[[NintendoHard HARD]]''', making encounters of two or more mooks aggravating.
* GuildWars invokes this with a [=PvP=] effect called "Inverse Ninja Law." A player does less damage for each nearby ally, and more for each nearby enemy.
* Simulating this effect in an MMORPG was a major design goal in ''StarWarsTheOldRepublic''. In order to get the most out of being one of the universe's signature badasses the game tends to pit you against mobs of three to five enemies who die quickly, making you feel as strong as a jedi/sith should. When it's down to two or one enemies though, it usually means you're fighting an elite or boss mob, making the fight much harder.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/BattlestarGalacticaOnline'', where swarms of [[TacticalRockPaperScissors "rocks" can beat a "paper"]], and a bunch of low-level players defending their own can force a {{Griefer}} who would {{Curb Stomp| Battle}} any one of them if caught alone to retreat or die.
* The Naga faction in ''[[HeroesOfMightAndMagic Might and Magic: Heroes VI]]'' has a racial ability called honor which gives them a defensive boost. The honor gauge charges whenever an enemy stack is attacked that hasn't been attacked yet that turn; if you want to use the honor ability efficiently, you need to attack enemies one-on-one instead of sending all your troops to gang up on a single stack.
* One form Asura has in ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' is his Mantra form. This form starts off by having Asura Grow over 1000 regular Golden Vajra arms. They then fuse back together into big Metal Gauntlets for other battles after the initial campaigns final battle. Somewhat justified, as it would be hard to control Asura in the 1000 arms state in Game mechanics. When uses the form later, while still as powerful as before, the amount of arms that sprout is reduced considerably, proof that Asura can use the form at will instead of help from his daughters mantra charge.
** The same applies to his [[spoiler: Destructor form]]. In this form, he gains four more massive Mantra form arms, butwhen they eventually break in the final battle against [[spoiler: Chakravartin]], he eventually starts using the power obtained from the form with much more precision, and defeats the first form of [[spoiler: Chakravartin]] after said character breaks off the arms in a fist fight with ease.
** Asura's Wrath is a huge example of this trope. Whole Shinkoku and Ghoma armies? Harmless. Asura even takes an army of Ghoma after losing his arms and using a broken sword. Single bosses like the Seven Deities or Vlitra? That's trouble.
* ''NoMoreHeroes'' is a case of this with BossDissonance. The game's generic enemies don't pose much danger, the main challenge comes from the game's bosses.
* ''DynastyWarriors'' is probably the most (in)famous example in gaming of this trope. Players will be attacked with hordes of enemies that so pathetic they might as well not even attack while the player chops them down.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' plays this trope straight by the end of the game. To slow Link down, [[BigBad Ghirahim]] summons his whole army of minions, most of whom die in one hit by this point in the game. Ghirahim himself, and the BiggerBad that serves as the FinalBoss, are a different story.
* A memorable moment from the original ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' has Ryo and a partner fighting off seventy attackers and succeeding.
* The iOS game ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAllTheBravest'' inverts this - you have an army of up to 40 warriors of varying classes (and heroes from different games) up against a handful of monsters per round. The monsters and bosses have a load of HP, your characters are {{One Hit Point Wonder}}s.
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* A MagicAIsMagicA example is the {{Halo}} series. In the face of a horde of aliens that are both physically and technologically superior to anything Humanity has to offer, the Master Chief (and other SPARTAN-IIs) are the only humans that are physically strong, technologically augmented and technically skilled enough to take down thousands of 7-foot tall alien killing machines. JustifiedTrope in that he was trained to be a soldier from being a very small child, was physically (and very painfully) augmented by such procedures as having his bones coated in carbon fibre, and possesses a suit of powered armour outfitted with the best shielding and enhancement technology humanity has.
** The legendary status of the Spartans is such that the military refuses to officially acknowledge their deaths, instead listing them as Missing In Action.
** A dramatic moment at the end of the campaign of HaloReach sees Noble Six's final moments from the perspective of his suit's helmet camera, which he had just dropped on the ground; as a company of Elites closes in, he manages to take down no less than 7 of them in an all-out brawl before he bites the dust.
* This can happen in online multiplayer FPS games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield when small teams are outnumbered by large contingents of players from the other team. While objective based game modes can be easily thwarted by numerical superiority, Team Death Matches tend to play out the opposite way. In, for example, a 1v12 Battlefield 3 TDM, the severely outnumbered player may well take down two or more players before he/she is spotted by the other team and eliminated - at which point he/she spawns randomly somewhere else on the map. This results in the lone ninja gaining substantially more kills in the target rich environment than the team of regular ninjas can simply fighting one player.
* Played with in the ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' series, most notably in the NES ''Double Dragon 3'' and the SNES ''Super Double Dragon''. Noteworthy in that one '''normal''' {{Mook}} can fuck you up real bad if you're not careful. A bunch of mooks, on the other hand... well, they can still fuck you up real bad, but the gameplay provides several ways in which you can use their numbers against them, especially in Super Double Dragon - such as grabbing one mook and throwing him at another, [[DeadlyDodging tricking them into throwing their weapons at each other]], crowding two or more mooks into a corner, thus limiting their attacks and enabling you to beat 'em all up at ONCE (a trick that works '''really''' nice when one of the baddies is a Level Boss), etc.
* ''BadDudes Versus Dragon Ninja''. Armies of brightly dressed HighlyVisibleNinja rush at the one (or two) good guys in broad daylight then each one falls down (and vanishes) after being struck a single blow (in fact in the case of the chi punch several ninja can be killed by the same blow).
* Dragonest has the Priest class which is exceptional when dealing with multiple enemies due to the large area of his spells (some actually hit more times if there are more enemies, especially Inquisitors) but utterly horrible when faced in single combat.
* A noted problem with ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'': fighting thirty Metal Gears is significantly ''less'' dramatic than the usual finale of fighting ''one'', because of the greatly reduced significance of each foe; in fact, Metal Gear RAY's require only a handful of missiles to destroy, while their REX predecessor (Which they were designed specifically to be able to defeat) required some 20-30 of those missiles [[spoiler: and a lone ninja (himself taking full advantage of this very trope) to perform a HeroicSacrifice. This may be {{justified|Trope}}, as it was well established that the Metal Gears involved in that fight were designed to be cheap, mass-produced, and be piloted by an AI.]]
* No ninjas or robots either and applying to main characters, but still: In ''DevilMayCry 3'', Dante or Vergil alone can use their full powers in the first phase of the fight against Arkham. When the second phase rolls in, bringing Vergil or Dante (respectively according to character used) with it, the player loses his Style-based moves and Devil Trigger transformation, while the interloper also cannot fight at full power.
** The Agni and Rudra boss fight from the same game pits Dante/Vergil against a pair of demons armed with enchanted swords. If you defeat one of them and don't finish the other off quickly enough, the survivor grabs the other demon's sword and starts DualWielding, unlocking some nasty combo attacks and becoming a much bigger pain to defeat.
* In the ''{{Terminator}} Salvation'' video game the player kills tons of terminator robots with grenades, M16, shotguns, pistols and even by punching them. This is in contrast to the movies where bullets/{{RPG}}s/exploding gas tankers/ firetrucks did almost nothing to the lone pursuing robot.
** Then again, these are model T-600s, not the 800s and higher seen in the movies. Further, each T-600 you face takes a ''lot'' of punishment to bring down, even if every round hits their weakpoint, and if you don't have cover, you ''will'' be shredded by their miniguns. The first few encounters you just don't have enough firepower to bring them down, and you're forced to run the hell away.
* In ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}: The Game of TheMovie'', one level relies heavily on stealth, and if you are spotted or trip an alarm it brings out a couple Super Soldiers, giant robots that are extremely formidable opponents. Even one is a handful, and if you run into more than one, your only hope is to run and hide. A couple levels later you have to fight your way through dozens of Super Soldiers, which are notably easier to get past.
* In ''VideoGame/MegaMan'', the mass-produced Joes are basically ArmCannon fodder. Only the unique Robot Masters are a challenge. Gemini Man from ''3'' himself follows this trope. He starts the battle by doubling himself, and only attacks with a weak blaster (in response to your fire) and by CollisionDamage. Only when you destroy the clone does he break out the [[SignatureMove Gemini Laser]].
* Played very straight in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros. '' and sequels. Any level with "Team [==]" or the Fighting Alloys lets you fling them off the screen with one solid hit. Even heavy characters like Bowser [[ATwinkleInTheSky blast off]] when part of a team. Meanwhile, some stages can give you hell with just 1-3 opponents and even with the very occasional ally. But subverted in the well-named ''Cruel Melee''/''Cruel Brawl''.
* A mission in the single player ''StarWarsBattlefront 2'' has your clone trooper attack force and one Sith going up against a horde of Jedi, who unlike the Jedi hero characters, die in a couple shots ([[GlassCannon though their lightsabers hurt just as much]]). This is some kind of cosmic and cruel irony.
* Another ''StarWars'' example, in Republic Commando, when Delta Squad (essentially the ninjas of the ''Clone Wars'') splits up to take down the Core Ship on Geonosis, Delta-38 (the player's character) [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this trope, [[strike:almost]] making it into a CrowningMomentOfAwesome:
---> '''Delta 38''': Alone against all these droids? Heh, ''they'' don't stand a chance.
* Slightly older ''Star Wars'' example is ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight]]: Jedi Outcast'', in which the player's initial skirmishes with the Reborn darksiders are virtually mini-boss battles, but as the game progresses and Kyle Katarn is pit against 3 or 4 at a time, the fights become easier.
* Lampshaded with dark hilarity at the end of ''VideoGame/MaxPayne''. As he continues to gun down the Big Bad's Killer Suits in her penthouse suite, the PA system crackles to life:
--> '''Big Bad''': What do you mean 'he's unstoppable'? You are superior to him in every way that counts. You are better trained, better equipped, and you outnumber him at least twenty-to-one. Do. Your. Job.
* ''{{Half-Life}} 2'' has a similar scene, where the BigBad expresses his shock to his FacelessGoons that they, "the best humanity has to offer", are unable to stop or apprehend Gordon Freeman, a [[BadassBookworm theoretical physicist]].
* In the multiplayer shooter ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' the Spy, one of the nine character classes, has the potential to singlehandedly wreak havoc across the entire enemy team. A lone Spy can cripple defenses, take out high priority targets and even ninja-capture objectives when no-one's looking, all while causing paranoia among enemy teammates. Multiple Spies, on the other hand, don't work so well: if one Spy messes up, the enemy team will be alerted and will plan accordingly, making life much more difficult for the other Spies. They also tend to interfere with each other's plans, particularly when trying to take down the same target or Sentry Gun nest. When a team has three Spies or more, chances are high none of them is doing well at all, which in turn hampers the others' effectiveness, especially as Spies aren't cut out for head-on combat.
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' and ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', large armies of mooks present little more challenge than a single mook, except that they take more hits. But dodging/countering works the same. Just beware guys with [[NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight knives and guns]], while pummeling one to twenty men with baseball bats or their own fists for protection. On the other hand, when only one guy shows up in a room, you can bet it's either a BossBattle or a BossInMookClothing.
* ''NinjaGaiden'': Ryu, a lone ninja, can take on a seemingly endless horde of ninjas, demons, and fiends of all sizes and colors - and the endless hordes of ninja that come after him can barely touch him. Granted, higher difficulties on the Xbox game require that the player [[NintendoHard EARN]] every iota of their ninjutsu.
* ''CityOfHeroes'' actually has this as a player's power. The more enemies that are nearby (Capped at 10 to balance things a little), the stronger a character possessing such a power will be in battle against all of the enemies. Also carries over to a few of the optional powers accessible to anyone, which can improve offense, defense or other stats across a whole team.
** One such power, ''Rise to the Challenge'' in the Willpower set, not only boosts your health regeneration rate higher as more foes surround you, but it also gives those foes a medium to-hit debuff.
* The second PSP installment of the ''RatchetAndClank'' series, ''Secret Agent Clank'', has a skill point challenge that references this trope. Titled "Inverse Ninja Law", it requires you to defeat 99 ninja mooks during a boss fight where they spawn endlessly, far, ''far'' more than you need to defeat to beat the level.
* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' small groups of Heartless or Nobodies can usually pose a significant threat to Sora and his party, but during the aptly-named ''[[TheWarSequence Battle of the 1000 Heartless]]'', Sora is able to [[OneManArmy steamroll right over a group of 1000 Armored Knights and Surveillance Robots without any support from Donald and Goofy]]. Helped along by the [[ActionCommands reaction commands]] for said enemies, both of which are wide-area attacks capable of hitting large numbers of targets at once.
* An early mission in ''VideoGame/CrisisCore: VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' boiled down to "Storm the enemy base alone. Have fun." Of course, it should be noted that your character is explicitly a SuperSoldier.
** And then of course you have [[spoiler: Zack's final stand]] against practically the entire [[spoiler: Shinra army.]] Despite [[spoiler: eventually dying in the end, Zack]] canonically takes out all but three or four of them before finally reaching his limit. Based on what you see in the scene just prior, we're talking about [[BadAss single-handedly destroying a good 100-200 rifleman, backed up with missile-shooting battle copters]], all using [[BigFuckingSword a single sword]].
* One of the stages in ''{{Disgaea}}'' has you fighting a giant enemy (who is so big all you see of him is his foot) who divides himself into ten separate enemies. LoveFreak Flonne [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this by saying its [[PowerofLove love is divided by ten.]] However, as noted by the Prinny commentary on the DS version after you lose, [[HopelessBossFight love is not a battle stat.]] Even though all of these divided enemies are a presumed to be a a tenth the strength of the original, they are still the highest level enemy in the story line next to the FinalBoss. In other words, you're screwed.
* '' VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' includes one zone, Lake Wintergrasp, dedicated to world (i.e. not instanced) PvP. In an effort to make it more fun on servers where one faction or the other is underpopulated, it features a mechanic called Tenacity that buffs whichever side has fewer people - the greater the disparity, the stronger the buff.
** Notably, the Tenacity buff, was hilariously weak as it did nothing against CC effects, so if 3 or 4 people with 20 stacks of tenacity (full power, 500% EVERYTHING) encountered the other faction's main group... they got obliterated very easily, averting this trope.
** And in other cases of World PvP, the side that brought 80 people destroys the organized group of 5 or 6, because players are all fairly equal, so WoW actually averts this trope pretty hard... until you go into PvE, where it's in full effect.
** Played hilariously and probably accidentally post-Cataclysm, where mobs and {{Non Player Character}}s will be found fighting each other in perpetual battle. It's entirely possible to find and especially to set up scenarios where one NPC or mob is fighting ''dozens'' of mobs or [=NPCs=], with that one person fighting on equal footing to the entire small army that's descended upon them.
* Justified in ''Videogame/TheWitcher'', where one of the three fighting styles Geralt is trained in has been specifically tailored to allow him to engage a horde of up to nine enemies at once. If you invest an equal amount of points in all fighting styles, it is possible that some enemies, such as cemetaurs, will be more of a challenge to bring down on their own with the 'Strong' style than a group of them would be if engaged with the Group style.
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', Raven [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this trope in one of his battle quotes: "The bigger the bunch, the weaker the monster!"
* The fight against the first boss in ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' was well... a boss fight. And then those same exact bosses show up as EliteMooks to be killed like EliteMooks.
* In ''{{VideoGame/Diablo}} 2'', this works against the players. The more players are playing in the same game at the same time, the more powerful the monsters become -- thereby making each player proportionately weaker than if he was playing on his own.
** With a good team setup, synergy means the players still come out ahead in that race.
* In ''Shogun: TotalWar'', default unit sizes are subject to this rule, the extreme being the sword master that's just [[BadAss one guy]] that can take on dozens of lesser men. On the other hand during actual battle this trope is averted. The most blatant example is that 96 ninjas (yes actual ninjas, this is feudal Japan so [[JustifiedTrope maybe?]]) can and will wipe the floor with 1 ninja.
* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}} 2'' has an interesting variation where it's the heroes that have the disadvantage in numbers. When the Hiigarans show up to claim an ancient Precursor artifact, they come across a guardian boss known as a Keeper. The Keeper is a strange looking medium-sized warship which sets off to engage the entire Hiigaran fleet solo. You know you're in serious trouble when you're commanding a massive armada to fight a single enemy unit.
* Applies to ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' as well. Trainers with a five or six-member party are usually Bug Catchers or Fishermen, and will use lots of lower-leveled Pokémon, or weaker Pokémon in general (like Caterpie and Magikarp). A trainer with only one Pokémon will be substantially higher-leveled.
** Subverted with late game champions, who have six pokemon that are very high levels.
* In ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'', there is an enemy which is composed of 100 (previously 1000) ninjas. There is also a ninja enemy named Shadow Mistress Elizabeth. Guess which is the tougher to beat.
* In ''Rome TotalWar'', bringing large numbers of poorly-trained, poorly-equipped and unmotivated soldiers to a battle, with the intention of crushing the enemy through sheer weight of numbers, was not always wise. If these men were attacked and routed by the enemy, their fleeing would have a highly deleterious effect on the morale of your remaining troops, rendering them much more susceptible to breaking under pressure.
** In all the Total War series a large army can be hard to properly control. Most notable in Medival 2 when a single unit of properly micromanaged heavy cav can devistate thousands of pesants. It is just too hard for a human opponent to reorganise their line to take the charge properly.
* Cranked up to ridiculous levels in DynastyWarriors and it's kin. ''Anything'' that comes on screen is going down effortlessly if they're not a) Lu Bu, b) the enemy commander, or c) a named officer in Hyper Mode.
** Hard and Hardest/Extreme difficulties, however, try to counter this trope with even more ridiculous ArtificialDifficulty - Koei's "solution" was to give even random soldiers higher stats than a ''maxed-out'' player character is able to achieve.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} 5'', the Japanese are given the ability "Bushido," which lets their military units continue fighting at full strength even after taking damage. While not making them ''stronger'', per se, it does mean that a single, wounded samurai is just as deadly as an entire group of them. Although there is a civic that makes wounded units do more damage.
* The GrandFinale of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' has the capital city of Ferelden attacked by Darkspawn. When you get inside the city, you'll find that you're vastly outnumbered, but are only fighting against grunt versions of the normal darkspawn, meaning that they go down in one or two hits to balance things out.
** Although there ''are'' EliteMooks, mixed in with them. If you're trying to kill the Darkspawn General based in the alienage, you will have to fight through a ZergRush of EliteMooks, at least on higher difficulties.
* ''{{Vindictus}}'' probably has the most realistic use of this trope. Enemies use a variety of tactics, including mass mob attack, and single flanking and circling attacks. When enemies do attack in mobs, they predictably cause a lot of [[FriendlyFireIndex collateral damage]], getting in each other's way as one would normally expect. This is even true for [[DualBoss multiple boss missions]]. In fact, on the Gnoll Chieftain mission, the standard tactic is to keep running from the boss for the first few minutes of the fight, to allow his wild attacks to take out all his mooks before fighting him.
* Can happen to the ''enemies'' in the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series. Certain regular enemies will resort to ''much'' more dangerous attacks if they are alone, which means that you should take them out first if they're in a group.
* In the ''Videogame/FireEmblem'' games, your army is traditionally outnumbered 2:1 most of the time, though sometimes as bad as 5:1, or more. However, most of these enemies, if the [[ElementalRockPaperScissors weapon triangles]] are utilized, are hilarious pushovers. But if you get into a room in a castle mission with only one guy sitting on a throne, perhaps with a [[TheDragon Swordmaster, General, or Bishop]] at his side, get ready for a hell of a fight.
** Not always, due to HardLevelsEasyBosses.
* Due to the limitations of the hardware, as the number of SpaceInvaders left in the game decreases their speed of attack increases.
* Parodied in ''LeagueOfLegends'', where the four ninjas (Kennen, Shen, Akali, and Zed) all have a hidden passive which reduces their maximum hp by 1 point for every other ninja, resulting in a possible reduction of -3 hp. The effect is unnoticeable upon gameplay, and acts as an homage to the trope.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars: TheForceUnleashed II'', Darth Vader sends an army of Starkiller clones against Starkiller himself, who destroys them all. Justified in that they were imperfect versions, had less battle experience, and were mindless berserkers.
-->'''Excerpt from the novelization''': It quickly became apparent that the first to rush in were the wildest and weakest both. In their eagerness to do battle, they didn't stop to plan their strategies. What they possessed in speed, they lacked in forethought. He was armed and they were not, so for being headstrong beyond all reason these brutish beings paid the ultimate price.
* In ''CompanyOfHeroes'' the MG-42 gets bonuses to accuracy and suppression when facing larger number of troops.
* In ''Videogame/SpiralKnights'', the more members there are in your squad, the harder enemies and bosses become. It's a well-implemented method of balancing the co-op with the soloing, but it can also mean that sometimes soloing is easier than playing in a group. Sometimes.
* ''Videogame/KingdomOfLoathing'''s Ragamuffin Imp familiar is a variation; it grows progressively weaker the more players are using it as their active familiar at any given time.
* Averted in ''Demon Souls'' and ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' '''[[NintendoHard HARD]]''', making encounters of two or more mooks aggravating.
* GuildWars invokes this with a [=PvP=] effect called "Inverse Ninja Law." A player does less damage for each nearby ally, and more for each nearby enemy.
* Simulating this effect in an MMORPG was a major design goal in ''StarWarsTheOldRepublic''. In order to get the most out of being one of the universe's signature badasses the game tends to pit you against mobs of three to five enemies who die quickly, making you feel as strong as a jedi/sith should. When it's down to two or one enemies though, it usually means you're fighting an elite or boss mob, making the fight much harder.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/BattlestarGalacticaOnline'', where swarms of [[TacticalRockPaperScissors "rocks" can beat a "paper"]], and a bunch of low-level players defending their own can force a {{Griefer}} who would {{Curb Stomp| Battle}} any one of them if caught alone to retreat or die.
* The Naga faction in ''[[HeroesOfMightAndMagic Might and Magic: Heroes VI]]'' has a racial ability called honor which gives them a defensive boost. The honor gauge charges whenever an enemy stack is attacked that hasn't been attacked yet that turn; if you want to use the honor ability efficiently, you need to attack enemies one-on-one instead of sending all your troops to gang up on a single stack.
* One form Asura has in ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' is his Mantra form. This form starts off by having Asura Grow over 1000 regular Golden Vajra arms. They then fuse back together into big Metal Gauntlets for other battles after the initial campaigns final battle. Somewhat justified, as it would be hard to control Asura in the 1000 arms state in Game mechanics. When uses the form later, while still as powerful as before, the amount of arms that sprout is reduced considerably, proof that Asura can use the form at will instead of help from his daughters mantra charge.
** The same applies to his [[spoiler: Destructor form]]. In this form, he gains four more massive Mantra form arms, butwhen they eventually break in the final battle against [[spoiler: Chakravartin]], he eventually starts using the power obtained from the form with much more precision, and defeats the first form of [[spoiler: Chakravartin]] after said character breaks off the arms in a fist fight with ease.
** Asura's Wrath is a huge example of this trope. Whole Shinkoku and Ghoma armies? Harmless. Asura even takes an army of Ghoma after losing his arms and using a broken sword. Single bosses like the Seven Deities or Vlitra? That's trouble.
* ''NoMoreHeroes'' is a case of this with BossDissonance. The game's generic enemies don't pose much danger, the main challenge comes from the game's bosses.
* ''DynastyWarriors'' is probably the most (in)famous example in gaming of this trope. Players will be attacked with hordes of enemies that so pathetic they might as well not even attack while the player chops them down.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' plays this trope straight by the end of the game. To slow Link down, [[BigBad Ghirahim]] summons his whole army of minions, most of whom die in one hit by this point in the game. Ghirahim himself, and the BiggerBad that serves as the FinalBoss, are a different story.
* A memorable moment from the original ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' has Ryo and a partner fighting off seventy attackers and succeeding.
* The iOS game ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAllTheBravest'' inverts this - you have an army of up to 40 warriors of varying classes (and heroes from different games) up against a handful of monsters per round. The monsters and bosses have a load of HP, your characters are {{One Hit Point Wonder}}s.
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