History ConservationOfNinjutsu / VideoGames

** 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.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', battling hostile mobs without any weapons, armor, or potions equipped versus battling them ''with'' weapons, armor, and potions equipped [[InvokedTrope invokes]] and [[JustifiedTrope justifies]] this trope. The former prospect makes killing lone hostile mobs a significant challenge. The latter prospect makes killing entire swarms of hostile mobs fairly easy, especially with enchanted battle-gear and high-tier potions equipped.

* ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' takes this into effect with its "ratio" system: Either player can pick a team consisting of 1 to 3 characters, but the more you have, the less health each individual character gets.
* ''VideoGame/SeraphicBlue'' has [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] known as Gaia Cancers that have a total amount of power that never decreases even if some of them are killed. What that means is that every time one dies, the remaining Cancers get even stronger.
* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', "horde" encounters seem like they'd be able to mow your party of five (at best) effortlessly...however, the horde only gets two Press Turns instead of as many turns as there are individual enemies, shares its HP with the whole group, and all-targeting attacks will hit the horde multiple times, depleting its HP much faster than a single-target spell of the same tier can. Likely justified in that the horde lacks a commander, so their attacks aren't as coordinated, and sometimes they argue amongst themselves, wasting one of their turns.
* A variant of this appears in many different sorts of First-Person Shooter titles based on historical or modern settings, such as ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' or ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' in regards to bullets. The fewer the bullets in the magazine, belt or what have you, the more powerful the weapon is, even if all three weapons use the same type of ammunition. While realistically speaking, the power of a bullet and the lethality of a weapon are dependent on several factors, most of these games will separate them based on a strict hierarchy, with sniper rifles having the most power, and light machine guns having the least. Guns of the same category also tend to have more or less power depending on how many bullets are in a magazine, i.e. an [=MP5=] firing 30 rounds does more damage than a [=P90=] firing 50. Usually, this is for reasons of balancing. A light machine gun with the same one-shot killing power as a sniper rifle would be a very overpowered weapon, so naturally, it's less powerful even if both it and the sniper rifle fire the same kind of bullet, while conversely [[CherryTapping a sniper rifle that requires four or five shots to kill an enemy player]] would be seen as hilariously underpowered by most.

** An early mission in boiled down to "Storm the enemy base alone. Have fun." Of course, it should be noted that your character is explicitly a SuperSoldier.

* The Naga faction in ''[[VideoGame/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.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'', the mass-produced Joes are basically ArmCannon fodder. Only the unique Robot Masters are a challenge. Gemini Man from ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'' 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]].

* In ''Comicbook/SpiderMan: 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.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront'':
** A mission in the single player ''VideoGame/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.
** In general gameplay, this applies to command posts instead of individual units. While it's generally better to have more command posts under your control than your opponent (as the losing side loses reinforcements over time), it also means your forces are spread out further, and if too many units are concentrated in one area, an infiltrator from the opposing side can slip past them and take less-covered command posts back with little trouble, potentially resulting in the previously-winning side having to fight on two fronts. Conversely, if the enemy is low on command posts but still has plenty of reinforcements, expect those last few command posts to be a pain to capture as those reinforcements [[ZergRush stream out of them faster than you can kill them]].
* Another ''Franchise/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:
--> '''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. Not because the Reborns are weaker, but because both Kyle and the player are so much stronger.
* In the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series, certain stages in Classic Mode pit you against a "Team" of a large amount of characters. The members can be flung 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 with the very occasional ally. Entire game modes, such as the TropeNamer for MultiMookMelee, are based around this principle, giving you challenges such as defeating 100 opponents, or holding out for as long as 15 minutes against a never-ending tide of {{mooks}}. However, a devastating subversion is the aptly-named "Cruel Melee/Brawl/Smash", where every single mook is far ''more'' powerful than you, and they still spawn in three at a time.
* ''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.
** This just as much applies to the Sniper. One or two skilled Snipers can wreak utter havoc by taking out enemies from afar, especially Medics, to deny the enemy team healing and ubercharge. But due to how the game is balanced, a bunch of Snipers without the protection of teammates playing other classes can be quickly overwhelmed by classes more suited to close combat, or a Spy exploiting tunnel vision.
** The Mann vs. Machine Mode: Six mercenaries, hundreds and hundreds of giant robots and tanks. Guess who wins? (Well, hopefully you.)

* '' VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** The game includes one zone, Lake Wintergrasp, dedicated to world (i.e. not instanced) [[PlayerVersusPlayer 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. However, the 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.
* In ''Videogame/TheWitcher'', 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.
* Avoided in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'' When the Wild Hunt goes up against the witchers of Kaer Morhen and [[spoiler: Yennefer, Cirilla and]] (depending on your decisions) some, all, or none of the following: Triss Merigold, Kiera Mertz, Zoltan Chivay, Vernon Roche, Ves, Letho, Hjalmar an Craite, Vigi, Folan, and Ermion, all with financial backing from Sigmund dijkstra. They lose, pretty hard; [[spoiler:in fact they only survived thanks to Ciri cracking under the pressure of her imminent capture by the Wild Hunt after Vesemir's HeroicSacrifice, and they only survive ''that'' because an elven sage was there to stop Ciri from becoming a human black hole]]. Sure they fought them off, ''barely'', but in the process they lost Kaer Morhen '''''and''''' one of their most knowledgeable and experienced people ([[spoiler:Vesemir]]), while the bad guys lost around 50 grunts out of the ''hundreds'' they have. And most of the people who were on defense were either superhuman, magical, or both.
* 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!"

* In all the ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' series a large army can be hard to properly control. Most notable in ''[[VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar Medival II]]'' when a single unit of properly micromanaged heavy cavalry can devastate thousands of peasants. It is just too hard for a human opponent to reorganise their line to take the charge properly.
* ''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.
** ''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.
** Unown present a ([[InformedAbility supposed]]) inversion. Their power in numbers is stated to be greater than the sum of its parts, though [[GameplayAndStorySegregation this doesn't manifest in any actual gameplay]].

* ''VideoGame/{{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 ''Franchise/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.

* Parodied in ''VideoGame/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. They originally had a hidden passive where each "Flippin' Ninja" (the actual passive effect) in Rift resulted in a loss of 1 Attack Damage in a more direct homage to the trope. However, after seeing that this had a very noticeable effect on the outcome of games, it was changed to the current.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed II'', Darth Vader sends an army of Starkiller clones against Starkiller himself, who destroys them all.
-->'''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.

* ''VideoGame/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.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' plays this trope straight by the end of the game. To slow Link down, [[TheHeavy Ghirahim]] summons his whole army of minions, most of whom die in one hit by this point in the game. Ghirahim himself and FinalBoss are a different story.
** ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'', being a {{Crossover}} SpinOff with ''Dynasty Warriors'', naturally plays this straight. The very numerous Bokoblins go down in droves, whereas the more infrequent Lizalfos and Dodongos take longer to bring down.
* A memorable moment from the original ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' has Ryo and a partner fighting off seventy attackers and succeeding.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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. Salvador, the Regenerators, the Garradors or 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 overpower you because the tactics you use tend to backfire against two such enemies[[labelnote:example]]if you're facing two Garradors, you don't have the usual breather when one is flinching from pain, as the other has just heard you shoot or your grenade exploding and will immediately beeline straight towards Leon's sorry ass[[/labelnote]].
* In ''VideoGame/KickBeat'', your character stands in the center of a circle while mooks swarm around you, attacking to the beat of the level's music.

* ''VideoGame/TheBannerSaga'' has this as a core gameplay mechanic. The combat is turn based, but turns are alternating between individual characters of the two opposing sides one after another. This means if you have twice as many fighters, they have individually half as many turns.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** A MagicAIsMagicA example. 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 the other Spartans are the only humans that are physically strong enough, technologically augmented enough, and technically skilled enough to take down thousands of alien warriors (many of whom are physically comparable to the Spartans). 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 ''VideoGame/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 takes on seven of their best in an all-out brawl, killing over half before he bites the dust.
* In the third installment in the ''VideoGame/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.

* 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.
* ''VideoGame/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.]]

* In ''Comicbook/SpiderMan: 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/MegaManClassic'', the mass-produced Joes are basically ArmCannon fodder. Only the unique Robot Masters are a challenge. Gemini Man from ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'' 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]].
* In the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series, certain stages in Classic Mode pit you against a "Team" of a large amount of characters. The members can be flung 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. Entire game modes, such as the TropeNamer for MultiMookMelee, are based around this principle, giving you challenges such as defeating 100 opponents, or holding out for as long as 15 minutes against a never-ending tide of {{mooks}}. However, a devastating subversion is the aptly-named "Cruel Melee/Brawl/Smash", where every single mook is far ''more'' powerful than you, and they still spawn in three at a time.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront'':
** A mission in the single player ''VideoGame/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.
** In general gameplay, this applies to command posts instead of individual units. While it's generally better to have more command posts under your control than your opponent (as the losing side loses reinforcements over time), it also means your forces are spread out further, and if too many units are concentrated in one area, an infiltrator from the opposing side can slip past them and take less-covered command posts back with little trouble, potentially resulting in the previously-winning side having to fight on two fronts. Conversely, if the enemy is low on command posts but still has plenty of reinforcements, expect those last few command posts to be a pain to capture as those reinforcements [[ZergRush stream out of them faster than you can kill them]].
* Another ''Franchise/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:
--> '''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. Not because the Reborns are weaker, but because both Kyle and the player are so much stronger.
* Lampshaded with dark hilarity at the end of ''VideoGame/MaxPayne''. As he continues to gun down the BigBad's Killer Suits in her penthouse suite, the PA system crackles to life:
--> ''"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. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Do. Your. Job.]]"''

* ''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.
** This just as much applies to the Sniper. One or two skilled Snipers can wreak utter havoc by taking out enemies from afar, especially Medics, to deny the enemy team healing and ubercharge. But due to how the game is balanced, a bunch of Snipers without the protection of teammates playing other classes can be quickly overwhelmed by classes more suited to close combat, or a Spy exploiting tunnel vision.
** The Mann vs. Machine Mode: Six mercenaries, hundreds and hundreds of giant robots and tanks. Guess who wins? (Well, hopefully you.)
* 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. More enemies can even make a fight easier because more enemies means more options. Don't wanna deal with the toughest enemy in the room? Just punch 5 easy guys once to build up your combo so you can use an instant takedown on the scary guy.
** The combat system makes this trope apply for the entire [[Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries franchise]]. The more enemies surrounding you, the easier it is to build up combo points and do awesome stuff. This also applies to other non-Batman games that use the Arkham combat system, for example ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' and ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar''.
* ''VideoGame/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.
* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'':
** This game 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.
** Similar powers include Energy Aura's ''Entropic Aura'' (improves your recharge for each foe within range while reducing theirs), Invulnerability's ''Invincibility'' (the more enemies are around you, the harder you are to hit and the easier it is for you to hit them), Radiation Armor's ''Beta Decay'' (improves your recharge like Entropic Aura, while reducing enemies' accuracy and making them easier to hit), and Shield Defense's ''Against All Odds'' (increases your damage for each nearby foe and reduces theirs).
* The second PSP installment of the ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' series, ''VideoGame/SecretAgentClank'', 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.

* ''VideoGame/CrisisCore: VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'':
** An early mission in 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 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 ''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.
* Two examples from ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 5}}'', both from the same fight.
** Seraphina's Prinny Squad are in hot pursuit of a single yellow prinny who made off with their sardine curry, specially made by Killia himself. Not only do they manage to corner said prinny, but they gang up on it by summoning an even larger horde. Who wins?
---> '''TBP''': [[spoiler:Ninja Rabbit Technique! Explosive Carrot Formation!]]\\
'''SPS''': [[spoiler:Gyaaaaaaaaah, doooooooood! *pwnd*]]
** When the group accosts the survivor of that match, [[spoiler:she uses Ninja Rabbit Technique: Multiply to split herself into multiple copies. The original has enough health for a single stage enemy, but the copies are punier in terms of HP. She still pulls one on the group by using Body Switcheroo with a carrot for a quick getaway.]]

* 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/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 ''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 Ethiopians have a special combat bonus which is applied if they go to war with a faction that has more cities than they do.
** 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.
** In general, this is referred to as the debate of "long or tall" - building a lot of cities versus building only a few and focusing on them. Both having lots of cities and having too many people in a city will increase Unhappiness, and a number of strategies favor one or the other. Founding new cities will also greatly increase the cost of social policies, and require a lot more micromanagement. Notably, the Tradition and Liberty social policies are designed to specialize in one or the other - Tradition mostly gives bonuses to controlling a small number of cities, while Liberty gives bonuses to quickly settling a large number of cities.
* 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.

* In ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' the MG-42 gets bonuses to accuracy and suppression when facing larger number of troops.

* ''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.
* ''VideoGame/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.

* The Naga faction in ''[[VideoGame/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.
* ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' 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.

* ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' is probably the most (in)famous example in gaming of this trope. Players will be attacked by hordes of mooks so pathetic they might as well not even attack while the player chops them down. Conversely, enemy officers tend to take more swings to defeat - 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 on higher difficulties, as improved AI and increased stats have mooks coordinate their strikes with each other. Prepare to get stunlocked from all directions by fairly strong spear pokes that quickly add up if you're not careful.

* 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.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'':
** If a mission specifically tasks you with killing multiple monsters, they will be weaker than they are in hunts where you only have to take down one, in order to keep the quest beatable within the time limit. 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.
** Rampage Quests in ''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterRise Rise]]'' task you with [[HoldTheLine holding the line]] against an entire ''horde'' of large monsters, each of which would be the sole target of an ordinary hunt. Naturally, these monsters fall far more quickly than usual (as they [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere flee after taking a beating]] instead of fighting to the end).
* 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.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloII'': 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 an interesting note, players can make the game think they're in a party while in Single Player thanks to console commands. While this makes the monsters tougher, it also causes them to drop more items and yield more experience. With a good build, it is entirely possible to beat the game solo in a difficulty setting meant for up to 8 players.

* In ''Videogame/{{Fallout 4}}'', gaining [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 maximum affinity]] with Preston Garvey will award the [[PlayerCharacter Sole Survivor]] with the "United We Stand" perk, giving them +20 damage resistance and +20% damage whenever they are in combat with 3 or more enemies at once.
* In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder,'' Minamoto-no-Raikou is considered to be the peerless swordmaster and oni slayer of the Heian era, cutting down oni like flies and slaughtering a 10,000 man army of battle-tested samurai on her lonesome. However, since she's so used to taking on swarms of enemies at once and never had an equal to match her swordsmanship against in her lifetime, she's significantly less-suited for one-on-one duels and is defeated by the equally-skilled Musashi despite fending off five Servants at once in Onigashima. This is also reflected in [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration Raikou's gameplay]], as she shows her full potential against groups of enemies she can produce crit stars off of with her [=AOE=] Noble Phantasm.
* ''VideoGame/Doom2016'': The first Hell Guard you fight is one-on-one, and it's a tricky fight that relies heavily on its shield and some high-damage attacks. ''Immediately afterwards'' two more show up; they're still tough, but neither of them will use the forcefield and some of the nastier attacks seem to have been unique to the first one.
* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'':
** Usually plays this straight, with the lone player character and maybe a few squadmates going up against much larger enemy forces and winning, while one elite enemy ace and a few squadmates of his own will cut down the RedshirtArmy equally easily. Inevitably, it falls on the player character's shoulders to take down his equally elite foe.
** Inverted in ''VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'''s mission 12, "WMD Convoy". After completing the first phase of the mission, Garuda Team find themselves pinned down by overwhelming numbers. Survive long enough, however, and in flies TheCavalry with [[MacrossMissileMassacre Electronic Support Measures]] to gloriously turn the tables.
** Reaffirmed in ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'' on the enemy's side. After the big battle to take down the second Arsenal Bird in mission 19 - which is itself an example as it takes a much larger allied force to down - in fly [[spoiler:two AI-controlled Raven superfighters that are not only technically superior to anything else in the skies, but also trained on the flight data of the HeroKiller enemy ace.]] Time for the BossOnlyLevel that is mission 20, and true to this trope, they slaughter their way through the allied forces, which if the player is too slow will include [[spoiler:the face-turned Dragon of said enemy ace]], until Trigger finally manages to beat them.

* Appears very visibly in the finale of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', wherein there are thirteen bad guys and seven good guys. First round: 7 good guys vs. 1 bad guy. Bad guy wins, until an eighth good guy comes in to win in 1v1. Second round: 7 good guys vs. 13 bad guys. Good guys win. Competence on both sides - diversity of techniques used, damage done, hits taken - visibly swings dramatically based on whether they currently have numeric superiority.

** No ninjas or robots either and applying to main characters, but still: 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.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 3'':

** The combat system makes this trope apply for the entire [[Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries franchise]]. The more enemies surrounding you, the easier it is to build up combo points and do awesome stuff. This also applies to other non-Batman games that use the Arkhamm combat system, for example ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' and ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar''.

** The combat system makes this trope apply for the entire [[Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries franchise]]. The more enemies surrounding you, the easier it is to build up combo points and do awesome stuff. This also applies to other non-Batman games that use the Arkhamm combat system, for example [[''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' Shadow of Mordor]] and [[''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar'' Shadow of War]].

** The combat system makes this trope apply for the entire [[Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries franchise]]. The more enemies surrounding you, the easier it is to build up combo points and do awesome stuff. This also applies to other non-Batman games that use the Arkhamm combat system, for example MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor and MiddleEarthShadowOfWar.

** The combat system makes this trope apply for the entire [[Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries franchise]]. The more enemies surrounding you, the easier it is to build up combo points and do awesome stuff. This also applies to other non-Batman games that use the Arkhamm combat system, for example ShadowOfMordor and ShadowOfWar.

* 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]].

* 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:

** Rampage Quests in ''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterRise Rise]]'' task you with [[HoldTheLine holding the line]] against an entire ''horde'' of large monsters, each of which would be the sole target of an ordinary hunt. Naturally, these monsters fall far more quickly than usual.

* In the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' games, if a mission specifically tasks you with killing multiple monsters, they will be weaker than they are in hunts where you only have to take down one, in order to keep the quest beatable within the time limit. 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.

** Also inverted in ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown''. After the big battle to take down the second Arsenal Bird in mission 19, in fly [[spoiler:two AI-controlled Raven superfighters that are not only technically superior to anything else in the skies, but also trained on the flight data of the HeroKiller enemy ace.]] Time for the BossOnlyLevel that is mission 20, and true to this trope, they slaughter their way through the allied forces, which if the player is too slow will include [[spoiler:the face-turned Dragon of said enemy ace]], until Trigger finally manages to beat them.

** Usually plays this straight, with the lone player character and maybe a few squadmates going up against much larger enemy forces and winning.

** Also inverted in ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown''. After the big battle to take down the second Arsenal Bird in mission 19, in fly [[spoiler:two AI-controlled drones trained on the flight data of the HeroKiller enemy ace and using Raven superfighters better than anything else in the skies.]] Time for the BossOnlyLevel that is mission 20, and true to this trope, they slaughter their way through the allied forces, including [[spoiler:the face-turned protege of said enemy ace]], until Trigger manages to beat them.

* ''[[Videogame/AIWarFleetCommand AI War 2]]'' has an inversion in Harmonic turrets. The more of them a single planet has, the more each individual turret will hurt. They pair very well with anything that lets you build more like Military Command Stations, easily snowballing to a cap so high it might as well not be there.

* The ''{{Videogame/Borderlands}}'' franchise is a prime example of this. A group of 1-4 [[AnAdventurerIsYou Vault Hunters]] can tear through entire [[BanditClan clans of psychopathic bandits]], galaxy spanning [[MegaCorp megacorporations]] and [[EldritchAbomination otherworldly abominations]] that have destroyed entire alien civilisations in the past, all in one adventure. The only way that an antagonist can inflict any actual damage to the Vault Hunters' faction is through CutsceneIncompetence and PlotArmor.

** 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.

** Unown present a ([[InformedAbility supposed) inversion. Their power in numbers is stated to be greater than the sum of its parts, though [[GameplayAndStorySegregation this doesn't manifest in any actual gameplay]].

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', "horde" encounters seem like they'd be able to mow your party of five (at best) effortlessly...however, the horde only gets two Press Turns instead of as many turns as there are individual enemies, shares its HP with the whole group, and all-targeting attacks will hit the horde multiple times, depleting its HP much faster than a single-target spell of the same tier can.