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* Both of the first two ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' games have a badge called Power Plus, which provides a free +1 boost to all of your attacks without any drawbacks. Typically, you find one Power Plus fairly late in each game, but there's also a vendor that sells a second one in exchange for [[CollectionSidequest Star Pieces]]. While the one in [[VideoGame/PaperMario64 the first game]] is expensive, the one in [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor the sequel]] only costs 15 Star Pieces... a price that you can afford before the ''second chapter'' with enough searching.
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** The regular Halberd can be found near the same location as the Black Knight Sword. Though not as powerful, it benefits from having lower stat requirements, meaning that most classes can use it almost immediately, as well as being much stronger ''[[LightningBruiser and]]'' faster than most other normal weapons up to that point. And unlike the Black Knight and Dragon weapons, it can be upgraded with regular titanite so you don't have to wait until later in the game. The standard attack has the speed and range of other spear weapons but with more damage, and the heavy attack [[DifficultButAwesome compensates for its slower speed]] with a swing with both the range of a full thrust and an approximately 270 degree arc attack. Both of these can one-shot almost any low-level {{Mook}} with upgrades. There's a reason you'll find it one of the most commonly used weapons among early-mid game spectres.
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** Many of the above can't even hold a candle to a couple of the powerful staves which you can acquire at extremely low levels, even at level 1 if you so desire:
--> The Atronach Forge in the Midden area underneath the College of Winterhold allows you to craft a ''Staff of the Storm Atronach'' at any level, with no skill requirements. The Forge is very easy to gain access to, guarded only by a lone draugr, and all of the staff's ingredients can be found quite readily with no combat needed, most of them inside the College itself (the orichalcum is probably the only thing you'll need to find outside its walls; conveniently, there is an orichalcum ore vein located very close to Saarthal, the first dungeon you travel to for the College's questline). The College also contains a small supply of soul gems which you can take for free in order to keep it charged.
--> Snapleg Cave is a small, unassuming dungeon on the road between Whiterun and Ivarstead. It contains a guaranteed Staff of Paralysis (a spell which is normally Expert-level), and while the cave's boss is a hagraven, the Staff of Paralysis is located in the very first room and only requires fighting a witch and a couple skeevers (easy enemies even for a low level character). Have fun with your unlimited use, double-duration Serpent Stone power.
--> The Atronach Forge in the Midden area underneath the College of Winterhold allows you to craft a ''Staff of the Storm Atronach'' at any level, with no skill requirements. The Forge is very easy to gain access to, guarded only by a lone draugr, and all of the staff's ingredients can be found quite readily with no combat needed, most of them inside the College itself (the orichalcum is probably the only thing you'll need to find outside its walls; conveniently, there is an orichalcum ore vein located very close to Saarthal, the first dungeon you travel to for the College's questline). The College also contains a small supply of soul gems which you can take for free in order to keep it charged.
--> Snapleg Cave is a small, unassuming dungeon on the road between Whiterun and Ivarstead. It contains a guaranteed Staff of Paralysis (a spell which is normally Expert-level), and while the cave's boss is a hagraven, the Staff of Paralysis is located in the very first room and only requires fighting a witch and a couple skeevers (easy enemies even for a low level character). Have fun with your unlimited use, double-duration Serpent Stone power.
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** In ''Might and Magic VIII'' if you head straight to Garrote Gorge and into the Dragon Cave, you can recruit Ithilgore, a level 5 Dragon. You only need to increase his Dragon skill to buff up armor class, hit rate and damage, and give him access to Fly. His standard dragon breath attack is far stronger than normal arrows and never misses. If you have him in your party, you're nearly invincible.
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** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' gives us the Locust SMG, obtained during [[DownloadableContent Kasumi's loyalty mission]], which is a fast-firing weapon that is accurate enough to be used at long range, and is great for stripping shields or barriers. It can also be obtained just before [[ThatOneLevel Horizon]], where every single enemy you fight has barriers.
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** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' gives us the Locust SMG, obtained during [[DownloadableContent Kasumi's loyalty mission]], which is a fast-firing weapon that is accurate enough to be used at long range, and is great for stripping shields or barriers. It can also be obtained just before [[ThatOneLevel Horizon]], where (on [[HarderThanHard Insanity]], at least) every single enemy you fight has barriers.
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** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' gives us the Locust SMG, obtained during [[DownloadableContent Kasumi's loyalty mission]]. Said weapon can be obtained before [[ThatOneLevel Horizon]].
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** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' gives us the Locust SMG, obtained during [[DownloadableContent Kasumi's loyalty mission]]. Said mission]], which is a fast-firing weapon that is accurate enough to be used at long range, and is great for stripping shields or barriers. It can also be obtained just before [[ThatOneLevel Horizon]].Horizon]], where every single enemy you fight has barriers.
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* Obscure Game Boy Color RPG ''LilMonster'' has a Disc One Nuke from the first boss, Gyro. You don't have to beat him to advance the game, but if you do, he drops the one-of-a-kind Dowser gem. Dowser's power isn't that impressive, but it can be used to summon a different monster, who, while difficult to beat at an early stage, is still defeatable with SaveScumming... and the gem ''he'' drops ''doubles your damage delt.'' Plus, the Dowser gem itself can be used to make Gyro your {{mon}}, and his power is decent for that early game stage.
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* Obscure Game Boy Color RPG ''LilMonster'' ''VideoGame/LilMonster'' has a Disc One Nuke from the first boss, Gyro. You don't have to beat him to advance the game, but if you do, he drops the one-of-a-kind Dowser gem. Dowser's power isn't that impressive, but it can be used to summon a different monster, who, while difficult to beat at an early stage, is still defeatable with SaveScumming... and the gem ''he'' drops ''doubles your damage delt.'' Plus, the Dowser gem itself can be used to make Gyro your {{mon}}, and his power is decent for that early game stage.
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* In ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', leaving the game running in sleep mode allows you to rebuild various shops in the hero's DoomedHometown, which may begin selling very high-level items after a while. The most notable example is the Angel Bow. If you can grind for the 3000 pg it costs (rather high, but not impossible to get with a bit of patience), you'll have one of the strongest weapons in the game rather early on.
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* In ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', leaving the game running in sleep mode allows you to rebuild various shops in the hero's DoomedHometown, which may begin selling very high-level items after a while. The most notable example is the Angel Bow. If you can grind for the 3000 pg it costs (rather high, but not impossible to get with a bit of patience), you'll have one of the strongest weapons in the game rather early on.on.
* In ''VideoGame/PlanetAlcatraz'', as soon as you get to the Cannibal Village, you can exploit the AI and kill the [[NPC guards]] carrying Kain Machineguns. They make subsequent fights significantly easier, provided that your party has at least 2 characters strong enough to hold them. The Achtung Machineguns are even more powerful and can be acquired at the same location, but ammo for them are so rare that they are only good for selling.
* In ''VideoGame/PlanetAlcatraz'', as soon as you get to the Cannibal Village, you can exploit the AI and kill the [[NPC guards]] carrying Kain Machineguns. They make subsequent fights significantly easier, provided that your party has at least 2 characters strong enough to hold them. The Achtung Machineguns are even more powerful and can be acquired at the same location, but ammo for them are so rare that they are only good for selling.
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** The Idol Chime is a very power weapon you can get early in the game as a magic user. From Majula, go to Heidi Tower of Flame and fight the Dragonrider, one of the bosses of that area. After defeating him, go up the stairs where there is a bonfire. You'll also see a NPC named Licia who sells miracle magic. Buy the items you need from her, then kill her. She is actually one of the toughest NPC's to kill, but there are ways of making the fight easy, such as physically hitting her before she can cast a spell. After killing her she drops the Idol Chime and a key item needed to reach another area. She'll charge you souls to use the item if you let her live. She also isn't worth keeping alive, because she secretly tries to kill the player a couple of times as the Nameless Usurper. Her clothes will also become available when the player buys from Melentia the old hag. Buying and wearing Licia's hat will give the player a boost in magic uses.
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** The Idol Chime is a very power weapon you can get early in the game as a magic user. From Majula, go to Heidi Tower of Flame and fight the Dragonrider, one of the bosses of that area. After defeating him, go up the stairs where there is a bonfire. You'll also see a NPC named Licia who sells miracle magic. Buy the items you need from her, then kill her. She is actually one of the toughest NPC's to kill, but there are ways of making the fight easy, such as physically hitting her before she can cast a spell. After killing her she drops the Idol Chime and a key item needed to reach another area. She'll charge you souls to use the item if you let her live. [[spoiler: She also isn't worth keeping alive, because she secretly tries to kill the player a couple of times as the Nameless Usurper. Usurper.]] Her clothes will also become available when the player buys from Melentia the old hag. Buying and wearing Licia's hat will give the player a boost in magic uses.
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** The Idol Chime is a very power weapon you can get early in the game as a magic user. From Majula, go to Heidi Tower of Flame and fight the Dragonrider, one of the bosses of that area. After defeating him, go up the stairs where there is a bonfire. You'll also see a NPC named Licia who sells miracle magic. [[spoiler: Buy the items you need from her, then kill her. She is actually one of the toughest NPC's to kill, but there are ways of making the fight easy, such as physically hitting her before she can cast a spell. After killing her she drops the Idol Chime and a key item needed to reach another area. She'll charge you souls to use the item if you let her live. She also isn't worth keeping alive, because she secretly tries to kill the player a couple of times as the Nameless Usurper. Her clothes will also become available when the player buys from Melentia the old hag. Buying Licia's hat will give the player a boost in magic uses.]]
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** The Idol Chime is a very power weapon you can get early in the game as a magic user. From Majula, go to Heidi Tower of Flame and fight the Dragonrider, one of the bosses of that area. After defeating him, go up the stairs where there is a bonfire. You'll also see a NPC named Licia who sells miracle magic. [[spoiler: Buy the items you need from her, then kill her. She is actually one of the toughest NPC's to kill, but there are ways of making the fight easy, such as physically hitting her before she can cast a spell. After killing her she drops the Idol Chime and a key item needed to reach another area. She'll charge you souls to use the item if you let her live. She also isn't worth keeping alive, because she secretly tries to kill the player a couple of times as the Nameless Usurper. Her clothes will also become available when the player buys from Melentia the old hag. Buying and wearing Licia's hat will give the player a boost in magic uses.]]
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** The Idol Chime is a very power weapon you can get early in the game as a magic user. From Majula, go to Heidi Tower of Flame and fight the Dragonrider, one of the bosses of that area. After defeating him, go up the stairs where there is a bonfire. You'll also see a NPC named Licia who sells miracle magic. [[spoiler: Buy the items you need from her, then kill her. She is actually one of the toughest NPC's to kill, but there are ways of making the fight easy, such as physically hitting her before she can cast a spell. After killing her she drops the Idol Chime and a key item needed to reach another area. She'll charge you souls to use the item if you let her live. She also isn't worth keeping alive, because she secretly tries to kill the player a couple of times as the Nameless Usurper. Her clothes will also become available when the player buys from Melentia the old hag. Buying Licia's hat will give the player a boost in magic uses.]]
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* ''MegaManXCommandMission'' has Massimo and his second-best weapon, the Interceptor. After the second (technically third) chapter, you can send Mechaniloids to cleared areas to find hidden money and items. Send some to the first chapter's location, Lagrano Ruins, and then proceed to the current chapter's location, Gaudile's Laboratory. Grind levels and Zenny for a while, then return to base and check your Mechaniloids. They should have found the key to a secret room in Lagrano along with Zenny. Return to the Laboratory and keep grinding Zenny, then head to Lagrano and use the key to find a secret weapon shop that has the Interceptor. You now possess Massimo's best weapon until Chapter 10, and it also has a chance to cancel an enemy's turn, ''which even works on bosses''.
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* ''MegaManXCommandMission'' has Massimo and his second-best weapon, the Interceptor. After the second (technically third) chapter, you can send Mechaniloids to cleared areas to find hidden money and items. Send some to the first chapter's location, Lagrano Ruins, and then proceed to the current chapter's location, Gaudile's Laboratory. Grind levels and Zenny for a while, then return to base and check your Mechaniloids. They should have found the key to a secret room in Lagrano along with Zenny. Return to the Laboratory and keep grinding Zenny, then head to Lagrano and use the key to find a secret weapon shop that has the Interceptor. You now possess Massimo's best weapon until Chapter 10, and it also has a chance to cancel an enemy's turn, ''which even works on bosses''.bosses''.
* In ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', leaving the game running in sleep mode allows you to rebuild various shops in the hero's DoomedHometown, which may begin selling very high-level items after a while. The most notable example is the Angel Bow. If you can grind for the 3000 pg it costs (rather high, but not impossible to get with a bit of patience), you'll have one of the strongest weapons in the game rather early on.
* In ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', leaving the game running in sleep mode allows you to rebuild various shops in the hero's DoomedHometown, which may begin selling very high-level items after a while. The most notable example is the Angel Bow. If you can grind for the 3000 pg it costs (rather high, but not impossible to get with a bit of patience), you'll have one of the strongest weapons in the game rather early on.
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This example is also on the associated Game Breaker page, and it\'s much more apt there.
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** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', the N7 Crusader shotgun is a perfectly accurate semi-automatic slug shotgun. It's essentially an unscoped sniper rifle, and while it's eventually surpassed by other weapons, it's an excellent weapon for quite a while. In fact, each of the N7 weapons qualifies as a solid DiscOneNuke. The Eagle combines the high fire rate and light weight of a burst fire SMG with the accuracy of a pistol. The Valiant deals nearly as much damage as a single-shot sniper rifle, but has a 3 shot magazine and much faster reload time. The Hurricane, while not very accurate, has extremely high DPS for an SMG. All of them are very good weapons in their own right, and all are available within a few hours of starting the game.
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* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', when guiding Jeff out of Winters to join Ness's party, you'll notice that the store outside of the Snow Wood Boarding School sells the T-Rex's Bat, Non-Stick Frying Pan, and Coin of Silence at insanely high prices, yet you don't have access to the ATM (since Jeff doesn't own an ATM card). Meanwhile, the various enemies appearing throughout Winters during this portion sometimes drop food items that can be sold at varying low prices. If you have enough patience, you can earn and sell enough items to raise enough money to obtain any of these items, so that when Jeff actually JOINS the main party, he can equip these items to Ness and/or Paula to make them ''insanely'' overpowered for this early in the game. Most people go for ''just'' the T-Rex's Bat, since at $698, it's the cheapest of these overpowered items. However, some people are patient enough to raise an additional $1490 for the Non-Stick Frying Pan and $2500 for the Coin of Silence. Regardless, if you're up to the challenge, you can potentially overpower at one or more party members.
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* PaperMarioStickerStar also has this in the form of Paperization block, which is hidden, but once uncovered can be used to upgrade your weaker stickers into its more powerful forms. These blocks are available as early as the ''first world''.
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* PaperMarioStickerStar ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' also has this in the form of Paperization block, blocks, which is are hidden, but once uncovered can be used to upgrade your weaker stickers into its their more powerful forms. These blocks are available as early as the ''first world''.
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* In ''{{Sudeki}}'', a sufficiently savvy or even just sufficiently ''nosy'' player can find all four characters' ultimate weapons well before the halfway point of the game. (They also tend to end up overleveled, thanks to one weapon requiring completion of ThatOneSidequest which requires 21 of a rare [[RandomlyDrops randomly dropped piece of loot]].)
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* In ''{{Sudeki}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Sudeki}}'', a sufficiently savvy or even just sufficiently ''nosy'' player can find all four characters' ultimate weapons well before the halfway point of the game. (They also tend to end up overleveled, thanks to one weapon requiring completion of ThatOneSidequest which requires 21 of a rare [[RandomlyDrops randomly dropped piece of loot]].)
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*** Not to mention that it's pretty easy as it is to synthesize a Rank A monster by the third island if you've scouted a good amount and already synthesized a couple times. I managed to get a King Bubble Slime early on without even needing four King Slimes. Once you really dig into the mechanics of the game it's possible to have a team of Rank A/B monsters by the time you hit Infern Isle, which is mostly comprised of C/D monsters.
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*** Not to mention that it's pretty easy as it is to synthesize a Rank A monster by the third island if you've scouted a good amount and already synthesized a couple times. I managed It's possible to get a King Bubble Slime early on without even needing four King Slimes. Once you really dig into the mechanics of the game it's possible to have a team of Rank A/B monsters by the time you hit Infern Isle, which is mostly comprised of C/D monsters.
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Both games are platfomers, and so will be moved to that folder
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* Savvy players of ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' can get X's Ultimate Armor and/or Zero's Black Armor early; they simply need to [[spoiler: fire the Enigma cannon and/or launch the shuttle at the space colony]] before striking out on any of the eight Maverick levels, then [[spoiler: go through the first three Sigma levels and slide down to where the armors are being held]].
** Of course, doing this is pretty much a one-way ticket to the bad ending, and usually makes it impossible to get Zero's upgrade unless you're '''insanely''' lucky.
** [[TakeAThirdOption I'll just input the]] CheatCode at the character select screen, thanks.
** A better, more "legal" example would be Zero's C-Sword skill, [[PowerCopying obtained from Grizzly Slash]]. It has good range, and can strike multiple hits. To top it all off, defeating Slash also rewards you with the DoubleJump ability, which, as many fans would know, is ''very'' useful. What makes it a Disc One Nuke is that Grizzly Slash is the easiest boss (and level) in the game, and a good choice to start on the 8 bosses.
* In ''Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X'', Storm Tornado is the most powerful weapon in the game, able to destroy nearly every enemy that gets hit with it. You can easily obtain this if you destroy Storm Eagle first.
** Of course, doing this is pretty much a one-way ticket to the bad ending, and usually makes it impossible to get Zero's upgrade unless you're '''insanely''' lucky.
** [[TakeAThirdOption I'll just input the]] CheatCode at the character select screen, thanks.
** A better, more "legal" example would be Zero's C-Sword skill, [[PowerCopying obtained from Grizzly Slash]]. It has good range, and can strike multiple hits. To top it all off, defeating Slash also rewards you with the DoubleJump ability, which, as many fans would know, is ''very'' useful. What makes it a Disc One Nuke is that Grizzly Slash is the easiest boss (and level) in the game, and a good choice to start on the 8 bosses.
* In ''Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X'', Storm Tornado is the most powerful weapon in the game, able to destroy nearly every enemy that gets hit with it. You can easily obtain this if you destroy Storm Eagle first.
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** Of course, doing this is pretty much a one-way ticket to the bad ending, and usually makes it impossible to get Zero's upgrade unless you're '''insanely''' lucky.
** [[TakeAThirdOption I'll just input the]] CheatCode at the character select screen, thanks.
** A better, more "legal" example would be Zero's C-Sword skill, [[PowerCopying obtained from Grizzly Slash]]. It has good range, and can strike multiple hits. To top it all off, defeating Slash also rewards you with the DoubleJump ability, which, as many fans would know, is ''very'' useful. What makes it a Disc One Nuke is that Grizzly Slash is the easiest boss (and level) in the game, and a good choice to start on the 8 bosses.
* In ''Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X'', Storm Tornado is the most powerful weapon in the game, able to destroy nearly every enemy that gets hit with it. You can easily obtain this if you destroy Storm Eagle first.
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** The game has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The most prominent are the Fire Longsword and Heide Knight Sword. Both weapons can be found in The Forest of the Fallen Giants, which is one of the first major areas the player explores in the game. The Heide Knight Sword you get by killing a hollow Heide Knight early in the game. The sword has a built in lighting effect, which can later get improved upon with a lighting stone after you find the Dull Ember. Or you can add another effect and have two of them on the same sword for added benefits. For example: a poisoned Heide Knight Sword. The Fire Sword is in a chest you find by exploring the area. Both weapons are very helpful in dealing with most enemies and bosses, since a lot of them are either weak against fire or lighting damage. Another benefit of both swords is that it doesn't take much strength or dexterity to use them. So you can build a long ranged character and use both swords as a secondary weapon for close encounters.
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** The game has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The most prominent are the Fire Longsword and Heide Knight Sword. Both weapons can be found in The Forest of the Fallen Giants, which is one of the first major areas the player explores in the game. The Heide Knight Sword you get by killing a hollow Heide Knight Knight, who you encounter early in the game.area. The sword has a built in lighting effect, which can later get improved upon with a lighting stone after you find the Dull Ember. Or you can add another effect and have two of them on the same sword for added benefits. For example: a poisoned Heide Knight Sword. The Fire Sword is in a chest you find by exploring the area. Both weapons are very helpful in dealing with most enemies and bosses, since a lot of them are either weak against fire or lighting damage. Another benefit of both swords is that it doesn't take much strength or dexterity to use them. So you can build a long ranged character and use both swords as a secondary weapon for close encounters.
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* ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The most prominent are the Fire Longsword and Heide Knight Sword. Both weapons can be found in Forest of the Fallen Giants. The Heide Knight Sword you get by killing a hollow Heide Knight early in the game. The sword has a built in lighting effect, which can later get improved upon with a lighting stone. The Fire Sword is in a chest you find by exploring the area. Both weapons have elemental effects which are very helpful in dealing with most enemies and bosses, since a lot of them are either weak against fire or lighting damage.
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* ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII''
** The game has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The most prominent are the Fire Longsword and Heide Knight Sword. Both weapons can be found in The Forest of the FallenGiants.Giants, which is one of the first major areas the player explores in the game. The Heide Knight Sword you get by killing a hollow Heide Knight early in the game. The sword has a built in lighting effect, which can later get improved upon with a lighting stone.stone after you find the Dull Ember. Or you can add another effect and have two of them on the same sword for added benefits. For example: a poisoned Heide Knight Sword. The Fire Sword is in a chest you find by exploring the area. Both weapons have elemental effects which are very helpful in dealing with most enemies and bosses, since a lot of them are either weak against fire or lighting damage.damage. Another benefit of both swords is that it doesn't take much strength or dexterity to use them. So you can build a long ranged character and use both swords as a secondary weapon for close encounters.
** The game has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The most prominent are the Fire Longsword and Heide Knight Sword. Both weapons can be found in The Forest of the Fallen
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* In ''DarkSouls'', the Drake Sword, easily the strongest Straight Sword without upgrades or scaling in the game (and one of the strongest sword type weapons period), can be acquired very early in the game if you have a ranged weapon, tons of ammo, and know that [[spoiler:severing a dragon boss' tail always gives you a powerful weapon]].
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* In ''DarkSouls'', ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', the Drake Sword, easily the strongest Straight Sword without upgrades or scaling in the game (and one of the strongest sword type weapons period), can be acquired very early in the game if you have a ranged weapon, tons of ammo, and know that [[spoiler:severing a dragon boss' tail always gives you a powerful weapon]].
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* ''DarkSoulsII'' has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The weapons are the Fire Sword and Heidi Knight's Sword. Both weapons can be found in Forrest of the Fallen Giants. Heidi Knight's Sword you get by killing a hollow Heidi Knight early in the game. The sword has a built in lighting effect, which can later get improved upon with a lighting stone. The Fire Sword is in a chest you find by exploring the area. Both weapons have elemental effects which are very helpful in dealing with most enemies and bosses, since a lot of them are either weak against fire or lighting damage.
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* ''DarkSoulsII'' ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The weapons most prominent are the Fire Sword Longsword and Heidi Knight's Heide Knight Sword. Both weapons can be found in Forrest Forest of the Fallen Giants. Heidi Knight's The Heide Knight Sword you get by killing a hollow Heidi Heide Knight early in the game. The sword has a built in lighting effect, which can later get improved upon with a lighting stone. The Fire Sword is in a chest you find by exploring the area. Both weapons have elemental effects which are very helpful in dealing with most enemies and bosses, since a lot of them are either weak against fire or lighting damage.
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** The Vocation system in ''DragonQuestVI'' is determined by the number of successful battles fought as that vocation, but most areas prevent these areas from counting after the character reaches a certain level. If you have the patience for it, the first area with a cap of 99 is the Spiegelspire, where you can Whistle for monster battles just outside the door (this also prevents the much tougher second-floor enemies from appearing). you will then be able to face monsters and bosses with ease, having a massive arsenal of extremely powerful spells even if your level isn't that high.
*** The Boomerang is a lifesaver in the early game, as it allows you to attack every enemy at once. It's worth keeping even when single-target weapons would do more damage (and since changing equpment is a free action...).
*** The Boomerang is a lifesaver in the early game, as it allows you to attack every enemy at once. It's worth keeping even when single-target weapons would do more damage (and since changing equpment is a free action...).
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* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', it's possible to level grind by sparring with your friends before the Heartless attack. Tidus is ridiculously easy to parry. You get EXP for parrying attacks and grinding enough this way makes the early game much easier.
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* It is also possible to grind in the first KingdomHearts game by sparring with your friends before the heartless attack. Tidus is ridiculously easy to parry. You get EXP for parrying attacks and grinding enough this way makes the early game much easier.
* ''KingdomHearts358Over2Days'' gives us its [[Funny/VideoGames hysterical joke weapons,]] which can be obtained after the tutorial missions by going back via Holo-Missions and earning their respective Challenge Sigils. JokeWeapon or not, they're more powerful than the basic Kingdom Key you start with, and make some of the earlier missions much easier.
* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3D'', repeatedly allowing the easily reobtained AR card dream eaters to die off and harvesting their dream pieces can allow to you make some dream eaters normally available only in the endgame at the very start of the game and take advantage of the powerful commands they provide. The Ryu Dragon is probably the most notable in this regard, providing both the highly destructive Meteor Crash and the screen clearing Mega Flare, on top of being a very competent fighter in its own right.
* ''KingdomHearts358Over2Days'' gives us its [[Funny/VideoGames hysterical joke weapons,]] which can be obtained after the tutorial missions by going back via Holo-Missions and earning their respective Challenge Sigils. JokeWeapon or not, they're more powerful than the basic Kingdom Key you start with, and make some of the earlier missions much easier.
* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3D'', repeatedly allowing the easily reobtained AR card dream eaters to die off and harvesting their dream pieces can allow to you make some dream eaters normally available only in the endgame at the very start of the game and take advantage of the powerful commands they provide. The Ryu Dragon is probably the most notable in this regard, providing both the highly destructive Meteor Crash and the screen clearing Mega Flare, on top of being a very competent fighter in its own right.
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* It is also possible to grind in the first KingdomHearts game by sparring with your friends before the heartless attack. Tidus is ridiculously easy to parry. You get EXP for parrying attacks and grinding enough this way makes the early game much easier.
* ''KingdomHearts358Over2Days''''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358Over2Days'' gives us its [[Funny/VideoGames hysterical joke weapons,]] which can be obtained after the tutorial missions by going back via Holo-Missions and earning their respective Challenge Sigils. JokeWeapon or not, they're more powerful than the basic Kingdom Key you start with, and make some of the earlier missions much easier.
* In''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3D'', ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', repeatedly allowing the easily reobtained AR card dream eaters to die off and harvesting their dream pieces can allow to you make some dream eaters normally available only in the endgame at the very start of the game and take advantage of the powerful commands they provide. The Ryu Dragon is probably the most notable in this regard, providing both the highly destructive Meteor Crash and the screen clearing Mega Flare, on top of being a very competent fighter in its own right.
* ''KingdomHearts358Over2Days''
* In
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* PaperMarioStickerStar also have aDiscOneNuke in the form of Paperization block, which is hidden, but once uncovered can be used to upgrade your weaker stickers into its more powerful forms. These blocks are available as early as the ''first world''.
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* PaperMarioStickerStar also have aDiscOneNuke has this in the form of Paperization block, which is hidden, but once uncovered can be used to upgrade your weaker stickers into its more powerful forms. These blocks are available as early as the ''first world''.
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* ''MegaManXCommandMission'' has Massimo and his second-best weapon, the Interceptor. After the second (technically third) chapter, you can send Mechaniloids to cleared areas to find hidden money and items. Send some to the first chapter's location, Lagrano Ruins, and then proceed to the current chapter's location, Gaudile's Laboratory. Grind levels and Zenny for a while, then return to base and check your Mechaniloids. They should have found the key to a secret room in Lagrano along with Zenny. Return to the Laboratory and keep grinding Zenny, then head to Lagrano and use the key to find a secret weapon shop that has the Interceptor along. You now possess Massimo's best weapon until Chapter 10, and it also has a chance to cancel an enemy's turn, ''which even works on bosses''.
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* ''MegaManXCommandMission'' has Massimo and his second-best weapon, the Interceptor. After the second (technically third) chapter, you can send Mechaniloids to cleared areas to find hidden money and items. Send some to the first chapter's location, Lagrano Ruins, and then proceed to the current chapter's location, Gaudile's Laboratory. Grind levels and Zenny for a while, then return to base and check your Mechaniloids. They should have found the key to a secret room in Lagrano along with Zenny. Return to the Laboratory and keep grinding Zenny, then head to Lagrano and use the key to find a secret weapon shop that has the Interceptor along.Interceptor. You now possess Massimo's best weapon until Chapter 10, and it also has a chance to cancel an enemy's turn, ''which even works on bosses''.
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* In ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireII'' it's possible to recruit the optional character Bleu as soon as you have access to the Whale, roughly halfway through the game and before you've even recruited Spar. She comes in at level 35, at a point when the rest of your party is probably about level 20, with a great array of damaging, buffing and debuffing spells, and her stat growths remain extraordinarily high even after level 60. And as if that wasn't enough, her in-battle ability Shed allows her to regain all her health at no AP cost (albeit lowering her defence in doing so), making her nearly unkillable.
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* In ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireII'' it's possible to recruit the optional character Bleu as soon as you have access to the Whale, roughly halfway through the game and before you've even recruited Spar. She comes in at level 35, at a point when the rest of your party is probably about level 20, with a great array of damaging, buffing and debuffing spells, and her stat growths remain extraordinarily high even after level 60. And as if that wasn't enough, her in-battle ability Shed allows her to regain all her health at no AP cost (albeit lowering her defence in doing so), making her nearly unkillable.
unkillable.
* ''MegaManXCommandMission'' has Massimo and his second-best weapon, the Interceptor. After the second (technically third) chapter, you can send Mechaniloids to cleared areas to find hidden money and items. Send some to the first chapter's location, Lagrano Ruins, and then proceed to the current chapter's location, Gaudile's Laboratory. Grind levels and Zenny for a while, then return to base and check your Mechaniloids. They should have found the key to a secret room in Lagrano along with Zenny. Return to the Laboratory and keep grinding Zenny, then head to Lagrano and use the key to find a secret weapon shop that has the Interceptor along. You now possess Massimo's best weapon until Chapter 10, and it also has a chance to cancel an enemy's turn, ''which even works on bosses''.
* ''MegaManXCommandMission'' has Massimo and his second-best weapon, the Interceptor. After the second (technically third) chapter, you can send Mechaniloids to cleared areas to find hidden money and items. Send some to the first chapter's location, Lagrano Ruins, and then proceed to the current chapter's location, Gaudile's Laboratory. Grind levels and Zenny for a while, then return to base and check your Mechaniloids. They should have found the key to a secret room in Lagrano along with Zenny. Return to the Laboratory and keep grinding Zenny, then head to Lagrano and use the key to find a secret weapon shop that has the Interceptor along. You now possess Massimo's best weapon until Chapter 10, and it also has a chance to cancel an enemy's turn, ''which even works on bosses''.
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** You also get the Crush spell fairly early in the game, which is fairly weak but is cast with 1 limestone and 1 wax, two of the cheapest most common elements in the game. Since it's so cheap to grind, you can level it up to 99 in about an hour of acquiring it, making it strong enough to one-shot all the enemies on the screen in one cast and most ''bosses'' until you reach Omnipota.
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** The Merchant's Hat, obtainable from one of the first merchants, increases item drop rates. Take it to Heide's Tower of Flame, which has hugely powerful but very slow knights (the aforementioned Heide Knight Sword or Fire Longsword helps here). They drop the Old Knight equipment, which has excellent stats but extremely low durability. Of particular note is the Old Knight's Shield, which has massive stability and fantastic damage reduction. While the required stats are rather high, the sizable amounts of souls dropped by the knights can help you quickly reach them.
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** The Merchant's Hat, obtainable from one of the first merchants, increases item drop rates. Take it to Heide's Tower of Flame, which has hugely powerful but very slow knights (the aforementioned Heide Knight Sword or Fire Longsword helps here). They drop the Old Knight equipment, which has excellent stats but extremely low durability. Of particular note is the Old Knight's Shield, which has massive stability and fantastic damage reduction. While the required stats are rather high, the sizable amounts of souls dropped by the knights can help you quickly reach them.them, and if you practice some dodging, the low durability won't trouble you too much.
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* ''DarkSoulsII'' has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The weapons are the Fire Sword and Heidi Knight's Sword. Both weapons can be found in Forrest of the Fallen Giants. Heidi Knight's Sword you get by killing a hollow Heidi Knight early in the game. The sword has a built in lighting effect, which can later get improved upon with a lighting stone. The Fire Sword is in a chest you find by exploring the area. Both weapons have elemental effects which are very helpful in dealing with most enemies and bosses, since a lot of them are either weak against fire or lighting damage.
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* ''DarkSoulsII'' has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The weapons are the Fire Sword and Heidi Knight's Sword. Both weapons can be found in Forrest of the Fallen Giants. Heidi Knight's Sword you get by killing a hollow Heidi Knight early in the game. The sword has a built in lighting effect, which can later get improved upon with a lighting stone. The Fire Sword is in a chest you find by exploring the area. Both weapons have elemental effects which are very helpful in dealing with most enemies and bosses, since a lot of them are either weak against fire or lighting damage. damage.
** The Merchant's Hat, obtainable from one of the first merchants, increases item drop rates. Take it to Heide's Tower of Flame, which has hugely powerful but very slow knights (the aforementioned Heide Knight Sword or Fire Longsword helps here). They drop the Old Knight equipment, which has excellent stats but extremely low durability. Of particular note is the Old Knight's Shield, which has massive stability and fantastic damage reduction. While the required stats are rather high, the sizable amounts of souls dropped by the knights can help you quickly reach them.
** The Merchant's Hat, obtainable from one of the first merchants, increases item drop rates. Take it to Heide's Tower of Flame, which has hugely powerful but very slow knights (the aforementioned Heide Knight Sword or Fire Longsword helps here). They drop the Old Knight equipment, which has excellent stats but extremely low durability. Of particular note is the Old Knight's Shield, which has massive stability and fantastic damage reduction. While the required stats are rather high, the sizable amounts of souls dropped by the knights can help you quickly reach them.
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* {{Telefang}} is a strange example: to get a monster on your side, you phone them up. If you know a powerful monster's phone number, then you can get it early.
* The Red Eagle in ''TreasureOfTheRudras''. You can get this badass weapon for Surlent at the start of his scenario in the Sakkara Desert by killing a certain enemy, not only is it powerful but you can immensely level grind by killing that enemy and the Red Eagle sells for around 2000 Ragu. Only problem is that you need an very powerful Lightning Mantra to toast that enemy.
** Of course, some experimenting with random Mantra entry can result in this sort of nuke as well, assuming you have the MP for it. And most players are likely to be willing to play with that system anyway...which can result in hideously powerful spells of every element that cost only 1 MP to cast.
** Also from the same game are the Axis Shields which sell for 200 Ragu a pop and Beze wings which sell for 480 Ragu each also the Bezeweigns that drop those wings give a solid amount of Experience, but are very quick and can escape without speed/power/critical buffs on your characters.
* ''MetalSaga'' has the Abrams tank, costs a bundle (20K+ Gold), but it does pay off as being one of the best tanks in the game up until you get the Red Wolf or Whitemuu and even then it still is useful.
* One of the most ridiculous examples was also patently deliberate- in the obscure PS1 RPG ''VideoGame/TheGranstreamSaga'' the most powerful weapon in the game, the Onimaru, could ''only'' be acquired right at the ''very'' beginning, even before your first battle. You have 1 chance to get it by using a secret-revealing item on a seemingly random piece of wall to find it. Once you have it, you can basically trash the entire game without raising a sweat- it has almost twice the power of any other weapon in the game and is easy to use too (compared to the next strongest weapon which is unwieldy and tough to use).
* In ''VideoGame/LufiaTheLegendReturns'', the game's strongest weapon, the Alumina sword, is sometimes dropped by normal enemies very early in the game.
** In ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals'', about halfway through the game, the party is able to go visit the Ancient Cave. The Ancient Cave has 99 RandomlyGeneratedLevels, your party stripped of all equipment and items and reduced to Level 1, and you have to find items and equipment in randomly placed chests while dealing with increasingly strong monsters. In addition, there are blue-colored treasure chests, many of which bear some of the most powerful weapons and equipment in the game. And when you leave, you lose everything gathered in the cave ''except'' what you find in blue chests. Should one spend enough time in the Ancient Cave, their party becomes [[NighInvulnerability Nigh Invulnerable]] until the end of the game.
* ''VideoGame/{{Albion}}''
** This game has an instance of this. Careful exploration and talking to [=NPCs=] in the prologue will allow you to find a powerful gun, with ammo. However, you must also figure out how to smuggle it past the guards. Once you do, you have a limited but extremely powerful gun, perfect for the difficult early battles.
** Another example of this is the ultimate "freeze everyone" spell Frost Avalanche, which can be acquired for free on the first island if you reach level 9. This is possible if the player skips through most fights during the main quest of this island to acquire the spellcaster, and then wipes the island almost clean of monsters. If this is done successfully, the Frost Avalanche spell will enable player to freeze every group of monsters anywhere in the game (except some bosses); and because the spell also damages enemies significantly, the combat becomes reduced into a repetitive casting of F.A. If the player does not acquire the spell on first island, he or she can buy it some 20 hours (of gameplay) later on the third island.
* ''VideoGame/{{Faxanadu}}'' had a magic store early on, which sold one of the most powerful spells in the game - Death. Unfortunately it was set at such a high price that affording it would require several hours of LevelGrinding (which, again, would take as long as it'd be to get it "honestly") or a cheat code (in which case, why don't you just cheat up the Death spell itself?).
** Not to mention it's far cheaper later on as well. Though it's only two hours, not several, if you know the correct spots.
** Said store also sold the Magic Shield, the best shield in the game.
* The Playstation RPG ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'' is a perfect example of this. Using a bit of LevelGrinding to gain skill points, you can acquire an item early on called the Mischief. This item drops a random item into your inventory every 15 seconds, one of which is called the Forged Medal. The Forged Medal reduces the EXP needed for a character to reach the next level to 1. With a bit more grinding, you can get the ability to replicate the Forged Medal, allowing you to level your characters insanely high in little time at all. Of course, if you spend just a tiny bit more time grinding, you won't need to copy Forged Medals until the game's second disk...it's entirely possible to gain the most powerful sword in the game before you're even halfway finished with the game's first disc!
** Getting as far as you can in the tournament in Disc 1 nets you a sword which can only be obtained this way. All you need after that is two Mithrils, which you can get randomly by using particular items made via item creation. Customizing using the two Mithrils yields the Eternal Sphere, possibly the best weapon in the entire game, which renders Disc 1 a joke and everything up to the final boss (not including the BonusDungeon) at least easily doable.
** It is also possible to obtain at least 2 copies, possibly 3 of the second most powerful armor during the first disc. Get Ernest to join your group and you can pickpocket one from him in two specific towns. You can also pickpocket one from one of the soldiers on Claude's dad's ship (assuming you chose Claude as the main character). Any character equipped with this armor will be invincible throughout the first disc and probably throughout the entire second disc except the Final Dungeon and the BonusDungeon. The BonusDungeon is the only place you can find even better armor.
** If you get your pickpocketing skill high enough in Disc One, you can pickpocket an item called the Treasure Chest from a guy in Mars Village. The Treasure Chest produces three items at random when used. It can potentially give you the Marvel Sword, which Claude won't have to replace for a stronger sword until halfway through Disc Two. It raises your offense ''and'' defense to extreme levels, effectively turning one character into a super tank.
** And on the subject of skills, a lot of other ones can fall under this trope on their own, even before they combine into abilities. Some of the best examples would be Biology (A boost of (skill level squared times 10) to your HP, meaning a 1000 HP boost at maxed level), Herbal Medicine (+ 3% to the effect of Blue/Blackberries per level, which start off restoring 22% of your max HP and MP respectively, but at max level will recover a much more useful 52%), Danger Sense (+ 3 Stamina per level, Stamina will recover HP and MP after battles, which is INSANELY helpful), and Playfulness (gives some cash upon gaining a level in the skill, giving HUGE amounts at the higher levels; maxing out this skill for ONE character will take care of your money problems for the entire first disc). The better ones are balanced out by extremely high SP costs, but by leveling the Perseverance skill and doing a bit of grinding, they can be easily be bought before leaving the first continent.
* The tradition continues in the Playstation 2 RPG ''StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime''. It might be considered a GuideDangIt, but some stumble upon it on their own. In ''Star Ocean 3'', you get bonuses for [[CartographySidequest "completing" a map]] (walking every single portion of it), which is a rather tedious process. The rewards range from ostensibly lame to quite good. Early on, the rewards err on the side of lame. However, even the ones that suck sell for quite a bit of currency. If you complete all of the areas which can be completed up until a certain town not particularly far into the game, and fight the encounters that result from wandering around the map to complete it, you will have enough money to purchase one or two items that would otherwise be teaser gear in an improbably powerful shop. Normally, you would have to wait until later in the game to come back and buy the high-powered items. Needless to say, the difficulty takes a rather sharp dive at that point, and it could even be considered a sequence error due to sloppy programming under a liberal definition.
** In the middle of the first disk, after obtaining the second best alchemist in the game, you can obtain some Orichalcum. It looks useless, until you forge it into a weapon. It adds 500+ attack and gives you a 50% chance of surviving a fatal blow if you have Fury. They're also not that expensive to make (10,000 Fol)... Well you can probably afford four-five at most, but still, 2000+ attack to go around in that point is pretty darn impressive. They were likely put in for the sake of playing on Universe and 4D difficulty, where things like abusing selling the model bunnies and Orichalcum become rather necessary. Though one has to wonder if that is the case, why didn't they just lock them out in Galaxy mode...?
*** Said Orichalcum is available behind a hill you can access incredibly early. The theory is that you'll die a horrible death if you go there before the game expects you to. In reality, one of the random encounters there is a ball type enemy that does nothing but damage your MP. By rushing in and killing that enemy, you can gain dozens of levels in no time at all, then move on to beating up the enemies for the Orichalcum and other rare ores in the area behind the hill. And all of this is absolutely required on the NintendoHard higher difficulty levels.
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', near endgame weapons are sold early on at shops for ridiculously high amounts of Gald, but become cheaper and affordable as the plot progresses and your characters actually build up to that level. However, the ability to transfer Gald to a new record once you complete the game allows you to afford the weapons at that point, which is very useful if one chooses to play the game using a NintendoHard difficulty level.
* In the first ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' game, the player can finish the tutorial for the game's HumongousMecha system without actually using the [=AGWS=] mecha to gain the rare points used to level up [[LimitBreak Limit Breaks]]. Grinding the tutorial [[DoomedHometown while it's available]] lets the player have access to very potent attacks much earlier than what would be possible by playing "fair".
* Also present in its spiritual predecessor ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''. If you grind up enough cash early in the game, you can purchase an Ether Doubler from Nisan, which powers up your magic attacks in exchange for increased {{Mana}} cost. Once [[BlackMagicianGirl Elly]] joins your party with her [[HumongousMecha Gear]], she can use [[ReverseShrapnel Aerods]], which are basically a multi-target magic attack that costs fuel instead of ether but still counts as an ether attack. With an Ether Doubler, Elly goes from mediocre SquishyWizard to [[GameBreaker Goddess of MT Death]], and can tear through most enemies in the early-mid game (including bosses) with only one or two rounds of aerod abuse.
* ''ValkyrieProfile'' gives the player a number of staves that allow mages to use Great Magic early in the game, though they have a high chance of breaking after each use.
** Except, they only break if you do regular attacks with them. If you keep your mages only using magic attacks, they can use ludicrously overpowered weaponry way before you should get it, and you keep getting better overpowered ones til the end of the game.
** The Character Arngrim easily falls under this category, considering he has the highest stats out of any Heavy Blade, and is quite literally the first party member you acquire.
** Also except if you do some roundabout moves, you can acquire the Unicorn's Horn, which is an unbreakable Great Magic staff, in Chapter 4. And it's more powerful than all but one of the breakable ones. Expect to hear the invocation to Celestial Star (by far the spell with the most hits and the fewest enemies that resist it) and Meteor Swarm (second-most hits and hits everything that resists Celestial Star) repeatedly after acquiring it. Quite a GuideDangIt, though.
* A little grinding on the tutorial of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' will increase your stats enough to make the initial gameplay ridiculously easy - even though you don't ''have'' stats during the tutorial.
** Additionally, stepping on to a save point and going to the world map while in a Drive Form will reset you to normal with a maxed out Drive Gauge(even if it was nearly empty), making it possible to stay in Drive Form nearly continuously and level up much more quickly than is intended.
* It is also possible to grind in the first KingdomHearts game by sparring with your friends before the heartless attack. Tidus is ridiculously easy to parry. You get EXP for parrying attacks and grinding enough this way makes the early game much easier.
* ''KingdomHearts358Over2Days'' gives us its [[Funny/VideoGames hysterical joke weapons,]] which can be obtained after the tutorial missions by going back via Holo-Missions and earning their respective Challenge Sigils. JokeWeapon or not, they're more powerful than the basic Kingdom Key you start with, and make some of the earlier missions much easier.
* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3D'', repeatedly allowing the easily reobtained AR card dream eaters to die off and harvesting their dream pieces can allow to you make some dream eaters normally available only in the endgame at the very start of the game and take advantage of the powerful commands they provide. The Ryu Dragon is probably the most notable in this regard, providing both the highly destructive Meteor Crash and the screen clearing Mega Flare, on top of being a very competent fighter in its own right.
** Abusing the Flick Rush can result in a simmilar case. Simply spent your hard earned medals on Slot Edge, each can be bought for 150 Medal, and sold for 600 Munny each, rendering the majority of the prize being worthless in comparison. With enough munny, you can make a Star Rank Spirit with +20 level with almost every one of their abilities unlocked that can last you through the entire game right after finishing the first world.
* The first special attack you have access to in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' can potentially be a Disc One Nuke. Mario's standard Jump attack actually makes a slight gain in power every time it is used. This can be done up to 255 times, and by that time, Jump will be the most powerful skill in the game by far (with the possible exception of 100 Super Jumps, and this is much easier). Of course the very first dungeon contains Spinies, which are immune to Jump attacks, which make them the perfect candidates to practice the move on. Unsurprisingly, this strategy is one of the major keys to a Low Level challenge in SMRPG.
* The very first level of ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' contains a creature that spits out infinite numbers of projectiles that the player can jump on to gain points. Because the points earned increase with each successive jump, with the only limit being the end of the screen (at which point you have to start all over, but you can easily make several thousand jumps before then), it's possible to level the character up far past what it would take to beat the game's toughest BonusBoss... in less than an hour. Did I mention you can do this on the very first level?
** The classic "infinite 1-Up trick" is also performable. However, the experience starts going negative after a certain amount of jumps.
* PaperMarioStickerStar also have aDiscOneNuke in the form of Paperization block, which is hidden, but once uncovered can be used to upgrade your weaker stickers into its more powerful forms. These blocks are available as early as the ''first world''.
* In the third chapter of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'', it is possible (though very time-consuming and even more boring) to obtain a sword that is by far the strongest weapon available in the chapter before fighting even a single battle, if you're willing to sit through hours upon hours of running a weapon shop until somebody sells you the sword ''and'' you earn enough money to buy it (the player character doesn't own the store, he's just hired help). Saving up the money is by far the more time-consuming part of the process. An added complication is that customers may try to buy the sword before you have enough money for it, and sometimes [[ButThouMust they stubbornly refuse to take no for an answer]]. By the time the chapter 3 character returns in chapter 5, his once-overpowered sword has become mediocre in the face of much tougher enemies. All in all, it's ''far'' more trouble than it's worth; conventional LevelGrinding would be more efficient and less boring.
** You can get the money in other ways, though; in fact, you're ''required'' to earn several times the cost of the sword in order to beat that section of the game, and many fast-money tricks are specifically provided to this end. So if you happen to have the weapon appear, you can just call it a lucky break, leave your job, and come back halfway through the chapter to buy it... when it's nice to have, but not that overpowered. In later chapters you can just buy it from stores anyway.
*** But then again, the main reason to get the sword to appear isn't so that you can use it yourself, it's because it's also the most expensive weapon in the chapter and thus makes it a prime subject for the most effective of these in-game money tricks. So in other words, ultimately you'd want to buy as many of these swords from the original weapon shop as possible, sell them at your own weapon shop for 50% profit and repeat until your BagOfSharing is filled with 99 copies of every item you can possibly acquire in the chapter. And after that's done, give yourself a huge amount of cash and use that to buy all the casino tokens you could ever need. If you're wondering why just not amass a huge fortune and not screw around with buying excessive amount of equipment to sell, that's simply because while money doesn't carry over between chapters, equipment will.
** A much better example from ''[=DQ4=]'' would be SaveScumming at the casino to win 4 Metal Babble Shields, 8 Meteorite Armbands, and a couple dozen Wizard Rings in Chapter 2.
*** You might also consider the fact that you can leave behind one of the Broad Swords in the Silver Statuette cave for the hero to pick up in early Chapter 5.
** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV,'' by contrast, allows you to obtain the Metal King Sword from the casino, reachable not long after getting clear of the game's prologue. If you have the patience to win the tokens for it at the casino, it really ''is'' the best sword in the game.
** In the {{Mons}} spinoff games, there are often several examples of powerful early or mid game monsters that are available if you understand the breeding system.
*** For example, in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters Joker'', capturing the first enemy you see, the humble Rank F [[MascotMons Slime]], opens up the option to breed 4 of them together across two generations. ([[GuideDangIt not that it mentions this in game, mind you.]]) 2 Slimes bred together that both have 2 Slime parents results in a Rank C King Slime, a reference to how they appear in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' (8 slimes all jump together and merge into a King Slime). The King Slime will dominate the early game due to it's "Cleric" skillset (which is a mistranslation of "Hero", aka the ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' hero's skillset of Cure spells, Lightning spells, and outrageous sword techniques).
*** Even better, if you do the same thing with 4 King Slimes, you get a Rank B King Cureslime, which will inherit the Cleric skillset, as well as the most powerful healing skillset in the game. Taking a Rank B King Cureslime and breeding it with a Rank F Bubble Slime (easily available early in the game, or breed-able using a slime and a platypunk, which is available right next to the slimes) will lead a Rank ''A'' King Bubble Slime, which gets Bad Breath, one of the best debuff skillsets in the game -- as well as Cleric and Heal-All. In addition, these powerful Rank C/B/A monsters also play hell with the game's monster recruitment system, allowing you to catapult past the Rank F/E/D part of the early game. Of course, going all the way to Rank A would take an incredibly huge amount of work to do, but you could still do it literally within hours of the game starting.
*** Not to mention that it's pretty easy as it is to synthesize a Rank A monster by the third island if you've scouted a good amount and already synthesized a couple times. I managed to get a King Bubble Slime early on without even needing four King Slimes. Once you really dig into the mechanics of the game it's possible to have a team of Rank A/B monsters by the time you hit Infern Isle, which is mostly comprised of C/D monsters.
* In ''SwordOfMana'' on the Gameboy Advance, playing as the girl gives you Light magic at the start of the game, bats are weak against Light magic and are found in the first cave area you come across. Grinding until you kill 1000 bats transforms them into Doomy Bats of Doom which can be hit with Light magic, which in turn grinds up your Light skill until it's powerful enough to kill them, thereby allowing you to level up really easily and quickly, making the rest of the game a breeze.
* In ''CrisisCore'' you can do optional side missions (300 in total!). You can access the missions from any save point but some are locked until you progress in the story. If you do a lot of missions, you will gain a lot of levels and some pretty good equipment. The problem is that the main story does not scale with your level.
** Not even to mention how the game's Materia Fusion system acts, in a particularly creative player's hands, as a massive GameBreaker factory. With shrewd materia fusing (there are guides to teach you how) you can have your six equipped materia provide you the + 999% HP bonus twice (combined with the HP Break ability, you have 99,999 health instead of the standard maximum of 9,999) as well as + 100 on your attack, agility, vitality and luck stats, making you a living god when combined with the game's best armor. In fact, this is pretty much the ONLY way to face the game's ultimate optional boss and not being killed by her first attack (never mind the hundreds of attacks she'll use as you try and whittle away her TEN MILLION HP)
** There's also a hidden shop you can get fairly early in the game through the side missions. It sells materia that let you attack with and defend against any statuses attached to the other materia you have equipped. The same shop sells the Hell elemental materia, which are essentially the top Ice/Fire/Lightning spells, with Death/Stop/Poison/etc. slapped on. With enough cash, you'll be simultaneously immune to and dishing out half of the most debilitating status effects in the game.
* In Digimon World, it is technically possible (though very difficult) to raise your first Digimon into an Ultimate; start with Agumon, get him to evolve into Centarumon, and then try to go for Giromon. The only reason this is at all possible is because of Giromon's relatively lenient requirements for Digivolution in comparison to other Ultimates, which by all means you should be unable to obtain until later when you have more things unlocked to help you train Digimon. If you manage to get a Giromon (and teach it some good moves) you can go through the tougher areas and get a lot of the stronger recruitable Digimon into the city fairly early, completing the game much faster than normal.
* In later ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' games, you gained fairly early access to a thing called the Number Trader, which you input a set code into to gain items, including ridiculously powerful chips and Navi Customizer parts you shouldn't have yet. VideoGame/MegaManStarForce does this too, with Cipher Codes. The Chip Traders in Battle Network can be used for this too, although those are fairly random and luck-based.
** In Battle Network 1, simply acquiring the Pop Up chip can make you nigh unbeatable to most enemies and bosses because you remain invisible for the duration fo the turn. As long as you just use a charged buster attack (which deals a fair amount of damage), you can attack without being hit back unless you get careless. This tactic works best on the final boss when your effort is not timed.
** By the same token, in Battle Network 3, Mega Man has to fight [=FlashMan=], the very first boss in the game. With a little trial and error, one can create a folder based around the chip and effectively destroy every boss in the game.
*** Also in 3, a Life Sword folder is pretty easy to make early in the game if you know where to look ([=SciLab=] GMD and Swordies), and lasts though most of it.
** BN5 had Dark Invisible, a Dark Chip obtained through the Number Trader using a code you can easily find on [=GameFAQs=]. The chip itself is pretty powerful since it provides an 8-second invincible berserker mode, but if you're playing Team Colonel you can use it to activate [=ShadowMan=]'s Chaos Unison after the 4th Liberation Mission (where you regain control of Mega Man and he gains [=ShadowMan=] and [=TomahawkMan=]'s Double Souls). Combine with proper timing and abuse of pausing and you've got yourself a recipe for easy victories.
** The most ridiculous example though is in the DS version of BN5. In it, you can import your folder from the GBA version. If you have beat the cartridge version and import it to the DS version, You now have a folder that can beat the end boss and you may use it on the first area.
** In ''Star Force 2'' (both versions) one can go overboard with this if you know what you're doing:
*** You can register [[PowerOfFriendship Brothers]] VERY early in the game. The trick comes up when you know you can register the other version on the same card as a Brother; if you've completed that version, you can get a good number of pickups when you first reach them earlier than you're supposed to, and you can send end-game cards via mail from your completed game.
*** There are in-game, legitimate codes that can be entered to grant you various cards, abilities, etc, which can be entered as soon as the opening cutscenes finish. One category of these is known as the 'leveling' codes, which give [=MegaMan=] more HP, a stronger buster, etc. The strongest of these gives you an HP count around what you might have endgame without it (+ 990, you start with 100), a standard buster that renders a fifth of your starting folder obsolete, and as many Giga Card slots as you can EVER (reasonably) have without it, among other things. At the START OF THE GAME. The kicker is that those loosened card restrictions and extra ~1000 HP are just as useful against the strongest version of the final boss, making this a bit of a GameBreaker.
*** In the most literal example, there are cards called Blank Cards in the game that can be overwritten with essentially any card in the game. You get the first one fairly early on. There are cards in the game that, unmodified, can nuke the entire enemy area of the battlefield for about 400-500 damage. Most end-game bosses have less than six times that, so...
* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' features the ability to evolve existing pins into more powerful forms. Pins require one of three types of experience points to do so. While the selection of pins is rather limited, it is nonetheless possible to get the Yoshimitsu pin (the most powerful Shockwave pin), as well as the most powerful versions of the Natural Puppy energy blast pins... during the first week (chapter) of the game. It's not even that hard-Shutdown and Mingle PP aren't affected by what point of the game you are at, so a game-end player with 100% Completion will get those points in the same amounts that a newbie just starting his game will. If only pin evolutions weren't such a GuideDangIt...
** Speaking of Mingling, using it around other players allows you to buy powerful pins and threads sooner than you'd normally obtain them. The catches? If you buy the entire [[InfinityPlusOneSword Darklit Planet set]], you can't fully utilize its power until you have six pin slots (you need all six pins equipped at once for them to inflict lots of damage), and in the case of threads, many powerful threads have a high Bravery requirement.
* Savvy players of ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' can get X's Ultimate Armor and/or Zero's Black Armor early; they simply need to [[spoiler: fire the Enigma cannon and/or launch the shuttle at the space colony]] before striking out on any of the eight Maverick levels, then [[spoiler: go through the first three Sigma levels and slide down to where the armors are being held]].
** Of course, doing this is pretty much a one-way ticket to the bad ending, and usually makes it impossible to get Zero's upgrade unless you're '''insanely''' lucky.
** [[TakeAThirdOption I'll just input the]] CheatCode at the character select screen, thanks.
** A better, more "legal" example would be Zero's C-Sword skill, [[PowerCopying obtained from Grizzly Slash]]. It has good range, and can strike multiple hits. To top it all off, defeating Slash also rewards you with the DoubleJump ability, which, as many fans would know, is ''very'' useful. What makes it a Disc One Nuke is that Grizzly Slash is the easiest boss (and level) in the game, and a good choice to start on the 8 bosses.
* In ''Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X'', Storm Tornado is the most powerful weapon in the game, able to destroy nearly every enemy that gets hit with it. You can easily obtain this if you destroy Storm Eagle first.
* ''VideoGame/{{Contact}}'' features Blue Pillbugs, which show up in one room on the second island and are definitely something you'll want to avoid engaging normally until you're strong enough to kill them so that you can grab the Armor Breaker weapon, which increases the odds of triggering the Armor Break ability (if you have it) by twenty percent. However, thanks to [[GameBreaker a trick involving ]][[NoodleImplements a nearby stairwell and some tricky maneuvering]], it's possible to repeatedly kill one of them, allowing you to quick level offensive stats, and, if you grind for long enough [[RandomNumberGod or just get lucky]], you can get it to drop the Armor Breaker. Said weapon has an offense of ''twenty-seven''. The highest offense for a weapon that you could ostensibly get at that point in the game normally? ''Eight.'' The boss of that island gets turned into a joke, taking three hits [[CognizantLimbs for each hand and the head.]] It also tends to render enemies rather frightened, allowing you to progress relatively unmolested and smash anything stupid enough to attack you.
* ''InfiniteUndiscovery'' released a few DLC (downloadable content, from Xbox Live's Marketplace) "vouchers" that allow you to purchase exceptionally rare materials from merchants anywhere in the world. Coupled with several profitable alchemy recipes to choose from, a player could raise the money for expensive components and craft themselves some of the best armors and weapons in the game before even finishing Castle Prevant (the third dungeon).
** Understatement. With Edward in your party, buy as many Sheep Hides as you possibly can, and turn them into Smiley Charms. Sheep Hides cost 120 fol apiece, and Smiley Charms sell for 1500, do the math. It gets even more ridiculous if you can download the ''free'' vouchers that let you buy practically every single material needed for item creation, from every merchant in the game, hrmm... Well, if you are stocking up on materials and feel as if the Smiley Charms aren't going fast enough, never fear, most likely during the process Edward will have become a level 6(max)smith, while you only have to be level 3 to make Horseshoes. They sell for 2600 fol, while you need one granite and 2 iron metal to make(which you can buy ANYWHERE after you download the vouchers)which collectively costs 750 fol. So, with the vouchers, you can legitametaly get pretty damn near getting the last equipment for all of your characters, in the first or second town. So while the ''vouchers'' help, you don't even need them if you want ridiculous amounts of money, all you need is a TV and some extra batteries.
* Obscure Game Boy Color RPG ''LilMonster'' has a Disc One Nuke from the first boss, Gyro. You don't have to beat him to advance the game, but if you do, he drops the one-of-a-kind Dowser gem. Dowser's power isn't that impressive, but it can be used to summon a different monster, who, while difficult to beat at an early stage, is still defeatable with SaveScumming... and the gem ''he'' drops ''doubles your damage delt.'' Plus, the Dowser gem itself can be used to make Gyro your {{mon}}, and his power is decent for that early game stage.
* ''PaladinsQuest'' has the Gomutai, a sword which can be found in the middle of the game and which has an attack power of 300 when the next best sword (found much later) has 100. It seems to be a Disc One Nuke, but ends up not imbalancing the game despite performing exactly as advertised, since you have a four character party and doubling the power of one character doesn't double the power of the party.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'', it is possible to level up Dart's additions to max early on. This gives a huge heads up. Early disc 2 you have a chance to fight 00Parts, a high level minion that can [[OneHitKill insta-kill]], but also gives absurd cash on defeat, which can be used to buy the best armor and helmet in the game, and an accessory which makes the Additions automatic.
* ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'' has a way two ways to level to 20 in the first town. The first is beating a certain type of ghost near the graveyards, and the second is a random room which has a priestess that gives levelups to the party (up to level 20).
** Stealing from the second boss in the game yields a Dark Sword which is much more powerful than any of the current weapons before this point.
** Since few enemies drop actual money in the more recent updates, money is usually made selling VendorTrash. It is possibly to make money very fast though, by selling {{Blackmail}} pictures of one of the party members [[WholesomeCrossdresser crossdressing]].
* ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'' allows you fast access to several very powerful weapons very early in the game. The most spectacular of these? At the beginning of Asellus' quest, she starts out in the village of the craftsman of the InfinityPlusOneSword which means, for a small sacrifice of life points, you can have the second strongest sword in the game available to you roughly thirty minutes in. To balance this, however, there is an essentially optional boss battle near the end of this quest that is extremely difficult to beat, even with this sword.
* ''[[SaGa2 SaGa II]]'' (known in the states as ''Final Fantasy Legend II'') randomly awared new mutant powers at the end of battles based on the level of the monsters fought. One particular boss encountered relatively early in the was a class "9", more or less meaning that a little bit of SaveScumming would net you a power far more advanced than you were meant to have at that point in the game.
* The second and third parts of the ''{{Lufia}}'' series have those, in the second you need a bit of grinding to beat [[BonusBoss Gades]], but his blade [[OneHitKill onehits]] every critter for some time, and it's special ability is among the very best in the entire game. The third game needs a bit more grinding, and [[GuideDangIt a certain strategy]], but you can get a few very nice items by beating a few {{Bonus Boss}}es early. And then there is [[InfinityPlusOneSword Alumina Sword]], which you can get early just by a lot of luck (or grinding again, of course).
* In ''SuikodenI'', if you enter the forest beside Seika early you will meet Kobolds, monsters FAR stronger then what you should be facing. However you can wipe them out in one fire spell. Because you get more experience the bigger the difference in levels between you and the enemy, ten minutes of fighting can set you FAR ahead of the curve before you even have your fortress, which just happens to be where one of the hardest fights in the game is.
** In ''SuikodenII'', you have the opportunity to get through a gate into one of the later areas, Matilda, and pick up two characters that import from the first game. Your levels will jump significantly, making much of the rest of the game, at least until well beyond that area, nearly trivial.
* In the Gameboy Color RPG ''MagiNation'', a basic healing item could be sold for considerably more (taking into account the low max-money cap) than it cost to buy it. It doesn't take half a brain to figure out the consequences of this.
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', you reach a town run by monsters (Medina) fairly early in the game. The weapons and armor shop has very good equipment, but [[TeaserEquipment the shopkeeper sells them at ridiculously high prices]] because he hates humans, preventing you from buying it (you can purchase the same equipment at reasonable prices in 12,000 BC, but you get there much later on). It is possible to raise enough money to buy it early, making combat a bit easier for a while. The best way is by buying weapons and armor in 65,000,000 BC (where they trade it for random items you get after beating enemies instead of gold), and then selling it.
* ''VideoGame/LightCrusader'' has two examples. First, you can get the best armour in the game from the Lily pad enemies, which are all over the place in the first two levels of the dungeon. Second, you can fill up your magic completely if you find the hidden green potion in the second level.
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfInnocence'' Guild Dungeons' chests give randomly generated loot. However, some of the items in the tables are very, very good. Therefore, it is possible, in a rank 2 dungeon, to obtain a "Mythril" Sword with 110 attack and a casting speed bonus at a time where the normal swords you can buy in shops and/or loot in dungeons have maybe 18 attack.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' has the Megaflare command, a massive and massively powerful fire-based attack that pretty much wipes the field, plus, using it is practically a guarantee of entering a [[SuperMode Command Style]], in case anything survived that blast. When can you get it? At the latest, after beating two of the first bosses. The Megaflare command is only available via the game's [[ItemCrafting "command melding"]] system, but even if the longest, most round-about way is chosen (for the benefits of passive abilities, which can also be used to increase the damage your fire attacks do), it still boils down to only needing three individual commands (3 Aero commands, 6 Fire, and 3 Stop/Slow) all of which can be bought in any shop after beating the second boss. Sure, the commands have to be "leveled up" before being melded, but if you're not fond of fighting monsters, there's a minigame that can be played that will level them up FOR you. And the self-same minigame is home to yet ''another'' nuke, if you're decent with the Shotlock system. Sufficiently determined players can have Megaflare before the third world, and if you're playing as Terra, it's even easier: In the early Snow White world, Fission Firaga, the final ingredient, falls ''into your lap'' and from that point can be bought in stores. The only semblance of balance is the time involved leveling the commands and the fact that some enemies resist fire.
** Through a series of tricky jumps in Disney Town, [[SequenceBreaking it's possible to get Ven Superglide before he even learns regular Glide.]] Not only does this help greatly in combat and general exploration, it lets you access many more chests you weren't supposed to get until late-game.
* ''MagnaCarta2'' allows you to [[BribingYourWayToVictory buy a complete collection of gag weapons for the small price of 400MS]]. Not only are these weapons given to you (almost) straight away, but they're the most powerful weapons in the game and will destroy any semblance of challenge right up until the final boss.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Grandia}}'' using healing magic in the field generates water magic experience points. Since the game features both MP restore at save points and damage-dealing traps in the field, all it takes is one near the other to level water magic as high as you want (and since levelling magic improves stats, this is nothing to shake a stick at). This can also be done with earth magic and a poison trap, though this is so slow as to be useless to any but the most persistent munchkin.
* Grandia III features Magic Eggs, which can be equipped to boost magic of certain elements or consumed to gain access to certain magic spells...and you soon gain the ability to combine them together to make better eggs. The game gives you quite a few eggs from the get-go, which can be combined into the best eggs in the game. Equipping them is gated by level, but the spells are only gated by mana cost, with the very most powerful/expensive ones using 99 MP...and your mages start with at least 200, and there are plenty of mana-restoring items. Also, while the eggs that give stats such as +3 in multiple elements are too high to equip early, you can easily get a +3 (which is the max) in one element that anyone can equip early. While this can't be spammed all over the place on random encounters due to mana costs, the random encounters are easy anyway...its real value is in making boss fights complete jokes by spamming enormous nukes that do ~3000 damage on bosses that have about 6000 HP. Also, your character can equip skills to reduce the mana costs and regen their own mana, and the most damaging spell learnable isn't even 99 MP, it's 84, with the caveat that it's only single-target.
* In the SNES version of ''[[VideoGame/{{Ys}} Wanderers from Ys]]'', the outdoor areas of Ilvern Ruins have flocks of birds that respawn at a high rate, allowing you to grind up to 65535 EXP when you're barely a third of the way through the game.
* In RecordOfAgarestWar, there's a means of getting this without [[BribingYourWayToVictory DLC]]. Simply save up 250 TP, and buy 10 Vessels of Life from the Adventurer's Guild. Grab the title...and then sell them all. You now have 250,000 gold as early as Generation 1, and can easily get a few other titles with ease...and 3 pieces of Mithral. And the smithing guide for Mithral gear, which in turn means that you can create a few Mithral items as soon as Platinum gear is available. A bit of a late example, but it helps with trashing late Generation 2/Early Generation 3. Some of the actual items from the Adventurer's Guild can be this as well, provided you save up for them in lieu of manuals.
** In terms of characters, there's the [[DecoyProtagonist first generation protagonist]] Leonhardt Raglen. Once you get him to level 10, he gets his first Willpower: Unleash All. What this does is that by having him at 25% HP or less, he gets a ''massive'' boost to his attack, defense, magic, and magic defense. Needless to say, any boss battle consists of having Leo killed (or at 25% HP), have an [[LimitBreak EX Skill]] handy and watch the fireworks. After his generation though, you lose him and you get his replacement, his son Ladius until you can find a Forbidden Tome to revive Leo.
* In ''[[VideoGame/TouhouOmenTrilogy The Genius Of Sappheiros]]'', it is possible to recruit Byakuren and Mokou, normally the last two characters unlocked, before starting Chapter One. Head to the Myouren Shrine and wait for an hour (of real time) to get Byakuren, and go to the Bamboo Forest Of The Lost and enter the KonamiCode to trigger Mokou's arrival. Having five characters plus a commander makes the first handful of chapters much easier.
* ''PhantasyStarIV'' has this in the form of its [[CombinationAttack combo system]]. Set up a macro to use the techniques [[KillItWithFire FOI]], [[KillItWithWater WAT]] and [[ThunderboltsAndLightning TSU]]. TRIBLASTER can carry you through most of Motavia although it's inefficient against later bosses.
* ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptunia'' has dungeons ranging from level 1 to up to level 1000. There's nothing stopping you from going into a high level dungeon with a lot of care and grabbing a powerful weapon very early. There's also no level system with equipment so there's no reason not to equip it.
** ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaVictory'' has an accessory available at the start of chapter 2 that gives +2500 HP, more than doubling a character's health at that stage of the game. It's not even hidden, being up for sale at the shop for a substantial, but not unrealistic price. This may well have been deliberate to ease the grinding required to pass the BeefGate the game suddenly throws at you.
* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSun: The Lost Age'', if you held on to those Lucky Medals, you can win the powerful Water/Wind summon Eclipse from Lemuria's Lucky Fountain as soon as you arrive. Most of the significant boss enemies in ''The Lost Age'' are Fire/Earth-aligned, including two of the {{Bonus Boss}}es and nearly all the significant dragons. If your play style involves using the summons at all, Eclipse is a game-breaker.
** In the first game, by using glitches to skip recruiting Mia and her Djinni and acquiring the rest of the Djinn normally, you can end up with twenty-seven Djinn and three characters to divide them between, instead of twenty-eight Djinn and four characters. This will give you nine Djinn per character instead of seven, and [[GuideDangIt understanding how the Djinn are used]] in Golden Sun's ClassAndLevelSystem will allow your remaining characters to access some of the most powerful class tiers that would normally be inaccessible until ''The Lost Age'''s endgame.
** In ''GoldenSunDarkDawn'', there's an item acquired about a third of the way through the game called the Ice Queen Gem, which enables all stages of the Cold Snap Psynergy, including its pricy-but-powerful final form, Frostbite. [[WhiteMage Rief]], otherwise despised for his CripplingOverspecialization, has very high Psynergy Points and Mercury affinity, and can comfortably spam Frostbite to great effect, from the moment you get the Gem until weapons outclass Psynergy altogether.
* ''MightAndMagic VI'' actually has one as an intended feature. In the starting town of the game, you can find a hidden fly spell scroll, in the wall of one of the town's buildings, which you can use to fly atop another building, which, in turn, features a hidden portal to another map (Dragonsand), which is filled with the toughest foes of the entire game: dragons. This portal places you near the shrine of the gods, which greatly ups your stats (you can normally access the area, with extensive travelling through dangerous territories). It's not gamebreaking but it gives you a fair advantage to make things much easier, at least at the very beginning.
** ''Might and Magic VII'' gives you the opportunity to kill a dragon, in the first map of the game. You can either do it with a spell staff, which you can conveniently accept from one of the peasants (although this has implications, later on) or you can go by the process of exploiting the AI and employ the tactic of shoot and hide. This is a freakishly time-consuming process but dragons give of the best loot. Given the fact that you can multiloot the dragon, you can outfit your entire party with the best gear in the land!
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'' allows you to generate your character with an ebony dagger (second-best material in the game). It is very difficult to find, requiring the player to generate their character via questionnaire and hinges upon one of the twenty or so questions.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' it is possible to get one of the most powerful swords in the game with a little swimming, a little gold and a lot of waiting.
** In the town Balmora, you can easily steal a magical ebony broadsword by jumping just out of line of sight of a nearby guard. So, you can have a very powerful weapon only minutes after character creation!
** Two other of the most powerful items in the game are easily available by starting characters: The Amulet of Shadows gives you 80% Chameleon (effectively invisible) for a decent amount of time and is found in the custody of an easy to kill archer in the middle of the wilderness. The Masque of Clavicus Vile is a very strong helmet that boosts your personality by 30 points (making everybody like you) and is owned by a relatively low-level wizard.
** In the first version of the game, one could obtain a game-breaking item very early on. There is a cave near the starting town where you'll find a robe with constant effect of health regeneration, making you almost invincible for the rest of the game. The cave contains some relatively powerful enemies, but you don't have to fight them. As long as you have a couple lock-pick scrolls and buy some levitation potions, even a Level 1 character could potentially get it. Bethesda seems to have noticed this, as the robe was heavily nerfed in a later patch.
** Thorough players may notice that the three houses in Vivec (Hlaalu, Redoran and Telvani) each have their own vaults. The lower Redoran vault is easily openable when you have the key, which is located in dresser on the top floor of the manor across the street. Stealing it doesn't get you a bounty, even if you're seen, and the items you can get there are made of Ebony and Glass, making it highly profitable if one repairs them and takes them to the mudcrab merchant (alternatively, one could use them, but glass and ebony are [[ShownTheirWork inferior]] to a number of also easily obtainable weapons).
** ''Morrowind'', featured a very easily stolen Grand Soul Gem with the soul of a daedra in it in the Mages Guild of the second town. It could be used to either create a perma-enchanted item (provided you also had piles of cash), or alternatively was worth 50.000 gold by itself. Two catches however : no merchant in the world had that much cash on him (but that could be circumvented through outside-the-box bartering) and, more importantly, because of the way the "stolen" flag worked in that game, stealing that gem flagged ALL Grand Soul Gems as stolen, meaning you could later lose all of those you earned honestly just by talking to a guard.
** In ''Morrowind'' the amount of easily obtainable magic rings you can pick up just after the start of the game can also help make early levels a breeze. Denstagmer's Ring gives you 30% resistance to Fire, Ice and Shock. Mentor's Ring boosts your Intellegence and Willpower by 10 and the Ring of Phynaster grants 20% resistance to Poison, Magicka and Shock. All of them can be found in caves just outside of towns and are not too badly guarded.
** And of course, there are wonders of [[GameBreaker Alchemy]], being able to cyclically boost your ability to make better and better potions right at the start of the game, culminating in utter unstoppability [[note]](or {{unwinnable}} game if you boost some wrong stats, such as [[TooFastToStop running]] or [[InASingleBound jumping]])[[/note]]. Disc One Nuke comes in form of a second-best alchemy set available for free in a town not far from the start of the game.
* Spellcrafting and object-enchanting abilities in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' can be exploited by low-level characters to craft OneHitKill weapons and highly unbalancing spells.
** The Honorblade of Chorrol can be obtained through the "Separated at Birth" questline which can be started as soon as you leave the tutorial. It's as powerful as a standard Ebony Longsword and unenchanted, meaning that you don't need a Repair of 50 to fix it. And since it's a quest item, it's '''completely weightless''' until you hand it in.
** In ''Oblivion'' it's possible to get one of the strongest swords (if not the strongest) in the game very early. It's held by a very strong NPC and it would normally require an intense battle with her to get it, but all one really has to do is attack her, and then hop on a horse and lure her to the nearest city and let the guards kill her for you.
*** There's also an area of the battleground you're supposed to fight her in that, if reached, makes you impossible to hit. You can then spam arrows at her at your leisure, as long as you've got enough to kill her with.
** In the ''Shivering Isles'' expansion, one of the early quests gives you an enchanted sword which self-repairs its damage and its enchantment, along with having a fire or ice power (depending on whether it's day or night), and can become more powerful as long as you've killed a good amount of enemies. You can access the expansion world anytime you want, meaning those with a GOTY edition can easily get the sword quickly.
*** Although, the sword is leveled, and it will become useless if you get it too early.
** Weapons aside, in Oblivion you can create enchanted armor that renders you invisible at all times, thus making you almost unbeatable.
*** Or, the very first time you encounter a enchantment pedestal you can create multiple items enchanted with continuous heal making you very nearly unbeatable. If there was an enchanting thingy sitting outside the prison you could pretty-much do it then and there.
** The Weak Fireball spell (5 damage in for 3 seconds) in ''Oblivion'' is very easily obtainable (start the Skingrad recommendation quest for the Mages' Guild and you get it for free), is reasonably powerful, and has an extremely low magicka cost compared to other comparable spells, making it extremely useful for the first 10 levels or so.
** Of note: One does not ''need'' to level up in either. Doing so allows you to raise your stats. But it's possible to max out your skills while remaining at a very low level. Since skill level and not stat progression is what makes the adventurer, and all enemies "level" according to your level and not skills, this ''can'' mean your "weak fireball spells" and "simple on-hit nuke daggers" remain useful indefinitely. As long as you [[TheInsomniac never went to sleep in-game]], anyway.
* In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', joining the Companions, likely the first guild you'll encounter in the game, and going through their quests nets you a Skyforge Steel weapon, which is as powerful as an equivalent Elven weapon but weighs less and is easier to upgrade via smithing. The Companions also give you the opportunity to [[spoiler:become a Werewolf]], and their final quest gives you access to a powerful shield and a unique two-handed axe with ''Daedric'' stats (though it can't be upgraded).
** Even earlier in the game, Bound Weapons. [[AnAxeToGrind Three]] [[HeroesPreferSwords are]] available, the first two being on sale in the second town visited for the storyline, Whiterun. All three are on par with Daedric weapons, and the Sword is a Novice Conjuration spell, allowing any player to use it. They also cannot be confiscated by [=NPCs=] due to being generated by spells, allowing a character in prison to use them against guards, and preventing disarmament.
** Another easy one, once you reach Whiterun, just take the carriage to Solitude. Then just follow the road over that goes near the harbor and to the lighthouse. Before the lighthouse, there is a pirate ship, that is also marked on the map. Some of the pirates carry Scimitars, which is every bit as good as the skyforge sword, though it don't sell for a good price.
** Not to mention Soul Trap, which, whilst only effective against living enemies still gives you XP when used on dead ones. The fact that its a high level spell that's obtained very early on lets you grind an easy 50 conjuration skill levels in about 30 minutes, meaning that it gives you a minimum of 10-20 player-levels if you use the exploit early on. Given that your health is replenished to max whenever you level up, this makes it very hard to die even in the harder dungeons, so long as you're paying attention. The fact that it gives you access to a LOT of perks and high-level summons helps a fair bit as well.
*** A bit of FridgeBrilliance with the stats similar to Daedric weapons, considering they are shaped like the Daedric weapons you can smith yourself later in the game.
** Also, by completing an early Main Storyline quest, you are made Thane of Whiterun and given Lydia as a Housecarl. She serves rather impressively as a melee tank and can be relied on to deal with troublesome foes.
** Forsworn Bows can also be easily obtained by immediately heading to the Reach and fighting the random Forsworn in there. It is about equal as a Dwarven Bow.
** Dawnguard DLC gives you two. First is crossbow though you need to be of enough level to initiate it. Then there is Zephyr, the unique Dwarven Bow with faster draw rate that can be obtained at level 1.
** The Mace Of Molag Baal is the only Daedric item who's quest you can literally initiate at level one and have an expectation of completing before level 5. It's enchantments aren't very notable, barring the ever useful soul trap, but that's not what makes it a nuke. It's raw physical attack with no upgrades is on par with a base Ebony weapon, and while you won't be able to improve it's base attack until you have smithing at level 60, it's still plenty powerful, and armor enchants to boost attack damage will still work to boost it. Plus, with the perks that allow maces to ignore enemy defenses, this makes it an incredibly useful weapon until you can make your own ebony and daedric weapons.
** The Oghma Infinitum can be [[GoodBadBugs exploited]] into an unintentional DiscOneNuke. While only obtainable after level 15, it doesn't take long to reach the level, especially if you're of the Thief class. Once awarded to you, the tome can effectively be used to empower your character to absurd levels so early in the game, future quests will seem trivial from a story perspective.
** The basic conjuration spell RaiseZombie is this plus a GameBreaker. You can buy it cheap in the first town you come across, and you can buy Bound Sword in the second town. Together, they will allow you to build your conjuration to 50 by the end of Bleak Falls Barrow. Simply cast the spell on any basic enemy corpse (Skeever, Bandit, or Drauger), regardless of whether you killed it or not, cast Bound Sword, then use either your bare hands, or if you are a Khajit, an iron dagger to strike the zombie until it becomes hostile. Your Conjuration will go up at least on level, maybe two if your level is low. There are enough enemies and already killed corpses available to raise your conjuration to level 50. Before the end of the first official dungeon in the game.
*** For even more fun, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential one can abuse their horse]] by using a Fork (a weapon with a damage rating of 1) to sneak attack the beast repeatedly, or one can cast Soul Trap to boost Conjuration, or one can combine Flames and Healing Hands to boost Destruction and Restoration... the possibilities are endless, for the low low price of 1,000 gold!
** On the subject of questlines that give big rewards, there's the Dark Brotherhood, your best friend if you are the sneaky thief/assassin type. Initiate the questline, and by the end of the quest With Friends Like These, you'll be able to get a suit of light armor AND a suit of clothes/robes that carry enchantments. The most important? The shoes, which carry the Muffle enchantment, an enchantment that you normally won't find until you have reached much higher levels. While you can't break them down for their enchantment, you can wear them any time you need to sneak, negating any noise you make by moving, allowing you to sneak MUCH easier.
** The Dawnbreaker sword. A unique enchanted weapon that can be obtained relatively early in the game, when an item from a random drop appears to guide you to its location. Its effects will kill all undead in the game easily making any quests involving tombs with skeletons and draugrs (zombies) a breeze. More than that, it has a very large amount of charges before it loses its powers, which means you can use it as your primary weapon for a very long time before collecting soul gems to replenish it, which is difficult to do in the early game. You will eventually find or make stronger weapons with better enchanted effects, but for the early game it is the ultimate weapon. This is sort of balanced by the fact it's guarded by very powerful mooks and a truly difficult boss battle.
* In ''VideoGame/FableI'', the player is given the opportunity to gamble in certain areas, with a 2-1 return on their wager should they be victorious. This doesn't seem like a big deal at first, given that the games are largely luck-based and you're just as likely to end up broke as you are to strike it rich... except in one case, where you are required to win a childishly simple card-pairs style game. There is no element of chance involved whatsoever here, making the game a sure win once one gets the hang of it. A patient player can easily rack up hundreds of thousands of gold in very short order, allowing them to purchase the strongest equipment that money can buy and enough health and mana potions to last for the entire game. This is presented to you in the ''very first city you come across'', to boot.
** An even faster way to gain money is by exploiting the game's economy, specifically the "Buy/Sell Maximum" buttons. Merchants in ''Fable'' adjust the price of an item based on how many of them they have in their inventory at the moment, without taking into account how many you're buying or selling. Gather a few dozen of any item, then sell them to a merchant all at once. The merchant now has many of them, so he sells them low. Buy them for a song. Now he has none, so he buys them high. Sell them for huge profit. Repeat until sufficiently wealthy.
** Compounding the ridiculous simplicity of getting gold here is the fact that the Slow Time spell affects the timer in the game, meaning that you would have to be in a coma to fail at the game.
*** A word of caution though, this doesn't work in the expanded ''Fable: The Lost Chapters''
** Also, it is possible to abuse the Hero Save feature, which resets the player to the beginning of a quest, up to and including resetting all item spawns, conversations and Hero doors opened during the quest, every time they save, to attain both a ridiculous amount of money and enough silver keys to open every chest in the game. Including the one in the Hero's Guild, which contains a legendary weapon.
** Also of note is the Magic Shield spell. Playing the game normally, delivering large combos without being hit raises the Combat Multiplier, which multiplies any experience gained. This means that players who fight well and avoid getting hit will level faster, right? The catch is that in Fable, "being hit" is defined as "taking HP damage". Magic Shield redirects any damage taken into MP, thereby preventing the Combat Multiplier from being cancelled and allowing the character to level up much faster than he could without it. Turn it on, wade into a crowd, and take out the trash with no skill involved. Then once the CM gets high enough, use those super-experience potions you've been saving up and KillEmAll.
** It also has Skorm's Bow, the most powerful ranged weapon in the game and if you play your cards right (and are not too [[ChaoticEvil squeamish]]) it can be yours before your first mission.
** There's also Wellow's Pickhammer, which you can get literally in the first 30 minutes of the game if you know what you're doing. It has about four times the damage of anything you can afford when you start the game, and remains the best weapon up to and including the Arena quest, which is about two-thirds of the way through the game. All you have to do to get it is murder one or two people in front of the Demon Door guarding it...or just eat 15 or so crunchy chicks.
** If one feels like it, it is entirely possible to get a character fully decked out in the best purchasable arms and armor before even completing the first quest. With a little more time, you can even go into this quest with a fully maximized character.
** In ''VideoGame/FableII'' it is possible to make obscene amounts of money early in the game. Your character starts out with a cheap house as an adult, which you can set to rent out. Save, exit the game and wind your system clock forwards. Your character still makes money from real estate even when you're not playing (though it's a fraction of the amount you would while playing you're just winding a clock forwards anyways). Repeat this process by buying more houses with the money you've made. With a bit of patience your character can be making more money every five minutes than you can possibly spend.
** In ''VideoGame/FableII'', you can create a guest account, sell all of its stats and quit; all the experience will go back to your main character. you can then use that exp to buy more stats, create a guest, sell those stats, quit, and repeat over and over again. before to long all your stats can be maxed out before you even meet the first boss.
** In ''VideoGame/FableIII''', you can do something similar by having somebody join your game as a friend. You can send that friend money and items, and they can send it back. After disconnecting from the game, that gold is returned, along with the money already returned. 100 Gold turns into 200, then 4, 8, 16...
* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Gothic}} Gothic 3]]'', after you gain control of the unnamed hero, you had the opportunity to buy a flaming sword for a ridiculously low price. This could be accomplished after rescuing a blacksmith (he's the one selling it). This was unfortunately fixed in a patch.
* In ''NeverwinterNights'' you had the option of using a created character in a character battles optional side-game. However one of these arena's required level 10 characters or higher, and if you were less than that, it would automatically increase your level to level 10. So create a 1st level character, import, export and then load him into the game and you'd begin the game with 10 levels ready to go.
** In Hordes of the Underdark, the player was immediately given enough XP to hit level 15. Which could be used in the same fashion. Almost as egregious as making a module consisting entirely of user-created ubergear and weak monsters with a massive challenge rating, giving XP through the nose. Not that anyone would ever do this.
** You could easily make a custom module that did nothing but shot you up to an arbitrary level and gave you great gear. The developers were canny enough to prevent you from linking a script to any of these items to do ''whatever you wanted'', although those of us who wanted this power for good, not evil, were bummed. By far the worst, though, was the [[GameBreaker Appraise skill]]. It decreased the amount you paid for items from vendors and increased how much they'd give you for 'em. If you had enough Appraise skill (which was by no means easy, but quite possible) you could make money by buying and selling an item ''ad nauseum''.
* Not quite a nuke but useful early game. In ''VideoGame/TheDarkSpire'', from the tower entrance go north 6, east 9, south 4. You should be in front of a locked door. Save, open it, follow very short path to basement. Once there go north 1, west 2, south 1 and face the east wall. Behind a secret door you find a very good weapon you normally can't obtain for another 25% of the game or so. Careful though, as the enemies in the basement can easily annihilate you, especially if you're heading here at game start. Save anywhere comes in handy here.
* In ''{{Sudeki}}'', a sufficiently savvy or even just sufficiently ''nosy'' player can find all four characters' ultimate weapons well before the halfway point of the game. (They also tend to end up overleveled, thanks to one weapon requiring completion of ThatOneSidequest which requires 21 of a rare [[RandomlyDrops randomly dropped piece of loot]].)
* ''SecretOfEvermore'' features a glitch which can be exploited for Disc One Nukedom-if you save the game while a character is buffed and quit, when you start the game again you'll still be buffed, but your actual stats will be at their unbuffed level. Since the game still thinks you're buffed, when the buff wears off it'll reduce your stat...and if it's low enough, it'll wrap around to be super high, and you'll be able to one-shot almost anything. Balancing this is the fact that if you level up your stats will increase as normal, meaning if you're not careful you could wind up with stats even ''lower'' than your starting baseline.
* There happens to be a fellow running a shop in a secret underground passage in the Docks district of Kirkwall in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' who sells a ridiculously powerful bow for a reasonable price in the second chapter. Makes the game a lot easier, actually. Also, all you have to do to receive Hanlon's Razor, easily the best greatsword until Act II, is to beat the demo. Most of the DLC equipment and unlockable Extra equipment is this as well. Items such as the Staff of Parlathan, which can be obtained by registering for the newsletter, are powerful in Act I but are eventually outclassed in Act II. One exception is Hindsight -- its "Enemies drop better equipment" property makes it useful for the entire game.
** In terms of abilities, the rogue's "Pinpoint Strikes" functions as this. It guarantees critical hits for a time, which dramatically increases the character's damage output. With the right build, you can have both the base ability and the duration upgrade (meaning that you can auto-crit for 20 seconds of every 40, boosting overall damage output by about half) by late act 1. It qualifies as a DiscOneNuke rather than a proper GameBreaker because high level rogues have high critical hit chances naturally: 100% crit chance is a much bigger improvement over 20-35% than 50-75%.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' has similar items. Completing (or simply having, in some cases) the various DLC packs gives you one of the better two-handed weapons, a pretty-good massive chestpiece, the best longbow, the best mace, a decent longsword, the second-best amulet, the best light armor, the best mage robes, and two great belts. The best mace can also be sold for 339 gold (or even more, if you're a Dwarf Noble) - enough to buy any two Cash Gated items. You get these items in your inventory right at the start of the game.
** Not to mention the two new Talents you can gain by drinking the diablery potion in the ''Warden's Keep'' DLC. The Mage's are particularly potent--a very powerful nuke and a mana regenerator that cost [[ScratchDamage about a papercut's worth]] [[CastFromHitPoints of HP to activate]].
** One exploit in ''Dragon Age: Origins'' allows the player to sell an item for twice it's sell value by putting it in the junk tab and then quickly pressing the Sell and Sell All Junk buttons, then buy it back for the original sell cost. This can be repeated ad nauseam, giving the player an infinite source of money as soon as they reach the first shop and allowing them to buy anything they want as soon as they come across it. Since most of the (non-DLC) best gear in ''Origins'' is on vendors rather than in dungeons or as quest rewards, this allows you to potentially get some of the best items in the game right off the bat. Sure, some of it has level or stat requirements to use, but most players will reach those long before they'd had the money to get around the CashGate, and even settling for the [[InfinityMinusOneSword Infinity-1 Swords]] will make you broken at the beginning of the game. And ''this glitch also works in the second game''.
* ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsTheThirdAge'' makes it possible, if insanely tedious, to grind ability points in single battles, purely by focusing on defensive abilities throughout combat, and healing whenever necessary- or not, since Berethor's awesome Leadership party buffs can regenerate health and power points. What follows is Berethor using a speed buff for more turns before enemy turns, followed by an action point regeneration buff, followed by a hit point regeneration buff- rinse and repeat until you have everything you need.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', on Eden Prime, you can encounter some colonists hiding from the geth. If you talk to them, they reveal they have some smuggled weapons. You can confiscate a pistol from them, which turns out to be powerful enough to last you for quite a while.
** As soon as you get Tali, max out her 'Quarian Machinist' skill and give her a shield boosting armor mod. Doing so will give her enough shielding to turn her into a shotgun-wielding StoneWall for the next few hours.
** Completing Pinnacle Station allows players to get most of the best equipment in the game at the maximum grade at any level for less money than it legitimately costs to buy it from a merchant. This allows a low level player to get equipment that isn't possible, under normal circumstances, to get without beating the game once to change the level cap from 50 to 60.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' gives us the Locust SMG, obtained during [[DownloadableContent Kasumi's loyalty mission]]. Said weapon can be obtained before [[ThatOneLevel Horizon]].
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', the N7 Crusader shotgun is a perfectly accurate semi-automatic slug shotgun. It's essentially an unscoped sniper rifle, and while it's eventually surpassed by other weapons, it's an excellent weapon for quite a while. In fact, each of the N7 weapons qualifies as a solid DiscOneNuke. The Eagle combines the high fire rate and light weight of a burst fire SMG with the accuracy of a pistol. The Valiant deals nearly as much damage as a single-shot sniper rifle, but has a 3 shot magazine and much faster reload time. The Hurricane, while not very accurate, has extremely high DPS for an SMG. All of them are very good weapons in their own right, and all are available within a few hours of starting the game.
* In ''VideoGame/TaskMaker'' for the {{Mac}}, you're given an Ethereal Potion in the (optional) Tutorial level. It can either be sold for a high price to a shop, or used to phase through a wall and access a passageway with ''three'' of the most powerful weapons in the game — and while one of the three is in the same chamber as some highly powerful monsters, they will spawn far enough away for you to grab it without being hit.
* In ''DarkSouls'', the Drake Sword, easily the strongest Straight Sword without upgrades or scaling in the game (and one of the strongest sword type weapons period), can be acquired very early in the game if you have a ranged weapon, tons of ammo, and know that [[spoiler:severing a dragon boss' tail always gives you a powerful weapon]].
** The Zweihander in the graveyard is another borderline example; the skeletons are quite difficult to kill, but can be killed with even your starting weapon and magic with enough skill and patience, and it can even be acquired by running past the skeletons and grabbing it. While it has slow attacks, it can one-shot or stun many enemies and has very high base damage, making it rather rapidly superior to the Drake Sword once you get to the first blacksmith and start upgrading it. It can stun most of the enemies in the Darkroot Garden and Basin as well, which gives access to a fair bit of solid equipment. The weapon remains good through the end of the game, if using a heavy weapon is your thing.
** The Stone Armor set in the Darkroot Garden can be acquired either by buying a (pretty expensive) unlocking item or simply by legitimately beating the garden and basin fairly early in the game; the main issue is the enemies in the back end of Darkroot Garden being extremely dangerous. However, the stone armor set is one of the better heavy armor sets in the game, requires no upgrading, and can be acquired before going to Darktown, meaning that someone who is willing to be slow moving but extremely tough can put on the armor and be extremely resilient to damage long before they are "supposed to" be.
** It is possible to run through the Catacombs early and get weapons comparable to the Drake Sword, but which scale better later in the game. You can join the Gravelord Servant covenant very early to get the Gravelord Sword. While it needs some stat investments, you'll likely have enough souls to 2-hand the Gravelord Sword after you defeat Pinwheel. Another alternative is to find Vamos and upgrade a weapon of choice to a Fire +1 weapon. Also, taking out Pinwheel early is fairly trivial with a good melee weapon, and gets you the Rite of Kindling, letting you get up to 20 Estus Flasks out of bonfires. However, it's easier said than done; this involves rushing through hordes of respawning skeletons and dashing through a big open room full of [[DemonicSpiders Skeleton Wheels]].
** If you're [[RandomDrops lucky enough]] to find one, Black Knight weapons have great physical damage, deal extra damage to demons, and are useful through the entire game and even New Game +. The Black Knight Sword is perhaps the most egregious; its stat requirements are fairly low (20 strength and 18 dexterity), and it drops off of a (fairly difficult to beat, but possible to kill cheesily with ranged weapons) enemy just beyond the first save point in Undead Burg. It is more powerful than the Drake Sword (or indeed, anything else you will be able to make or find until late in the game), scales with your stats, and can be upgraded to a +5 weapon very early in the game due to its upgrade material being readily available. Additionally, many of the early bosses in the game are demons, which it gets a damage bonus against, making it even better. Only slightly later, the Black Knight Halberd is fairly easily obtained as well (if you get lucky enough to get the knight to drop it) by forcing a black knight off a cliff or simply killing it; it is debatably the best halberd in the game, and one of the best weapons in the game, period.
* ''DarkSoulsII'' has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The weapons are the Fire Sword and Heidi Knight's Sword. Both weapons can be found in Forrest of the Fallen Giants. Heidi Knight's Sword you get by killing a hollow Heidi Knight early in the game. The sword has a built in lighting effect, which can later get improved upon with a lighting stone. The Fire Sword is in a chest you find by exploring the area. Both weapons have elemental effects which are very helpful in dealing with most enemies and bosses, since a lot of them are either weak against fire or lighting damage.
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', the Profiteer's Purse, obtained by checking the stairs in the mansion in Another Termina, is this in two ways. You can either disassemble it to its base components (letting you forge far better equipment than would otherwise be possible) or give it to Serge for a 33% bonus to all money gained from battles (which adds up very quickly).
** The same game has the Plasma Pistol, wielded by Norris or Starky. It has the power of a late-game weapon, but can be obtained far earlier than other weapons of its power (right after recruiting Starky, in fact).
* ''VideoGame/{{DragonFable}}'' has the [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom Doom weapons]], available from the Mysterious Stranger outside of Falconreach. While prohibitively expensive at 28000 gold, if the player grinds a lot of gold, they can have one of these as soon as level 8, and can upgrade them to higher level versions by grinding materials from various quests. Regardless of how far they are upgraded, these weapons are MUCH stronger than anything remotely close to their level, and if the player stays on top of their upgrade path, they're a viable option until shortly before the level cap. They also have a light-based variation, the Destiny weapons, which are obtained by taking a Doom weapon to Artix in Doomwood and purifying them, takes this even further, as they reach their maximum level much quicker than the Doom weapons (and, in fact, are stronger than a Doom weapon of a similar level), but aren't as viable towards the level cap as a result.
* It's possible in ''VideoGame/{{Vagrant Story}}'' to get the ultimate dagger early on. As soon as you reach the section of the Undercity entered via Shandras Park, all the doll enemies carry knives (the Khukuri, Hatchet, and Baselard). If you have the patience, you can win these items, and combine them at the nearest workshop into the Jamadhar, the best dagger.
* ''VideoGame/{{Robopon}}'' has quite a few of these.
** In the first game, you can find a [=LostCode=] in the first town, which acts as a free evolution. Depending on what TV remote you have or what button you press, you can also find a hidden treasure chest with a Shortcut in it, which acts as a free level up.
** Pegs in the first game; it is practically one robot that most players will have in their party due to its reliability. It became even better in the sequel with an evolution, [=PegSS=]... but sadly wasn't available til near the end of the game due to its rare sparking combination.
** Replacing Pegs in the sequel is Hexbot (Cross), which you can immediately spark after getting all of the batteries from the Cave, including the hidden one. It can use instant death software and has decent growth compared to other Robopon you can spark early on in the game.
** Gigapon and its evolutions fill this role in Ring, and is useful even in the endgame.
* In ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireII'' it's possible to recruit the optional character Bleu as soon as you have access to the Whale, roughly halfway through the game and before you've even recruited Spar. She comes in at level 35, at a point when the rest of your party is probably about level 20, with a great array of damaging, buffing and debuffing spells, and her stat growths remain extraordinarily high even after level 60. And as if that wasn't enough, her in-battle ability Shed allows her to regain all her health at no AP cost (albeit lowering her defence in doing so), making her nearly unkillable.
* The Red Eagle in ''TreasureOfTheRudras''. You can get this badass weapon for Surlent at the start of his scenario in the Sakkara Desert by killing a certain enemy, not only is it powerful but you can immensely level grind by killing that enemy and the Red Eagle sells for around 2000 Ragu. Only problem is that you need an very powerful Lightning Mantra to toast that enemy.
** Of course, some experimenting with random Mantra entry can result in this sort of nuke as well, assuming you have the MP for it. And most players are likely to be willing to play with that system anyway...which can result in hideously powerful spells of every element that cost only 1 MP to cast.
** Also from the same game are the Axis Shields which sell for 200 Ragu a pop and Beze wings which sell for 480 Ragu each also the Bezeweigns that drop those wings give a solid amount of Experience, but are very quick and can escape without speed/power/critical buffs on your characters.
* ''MetalSaga'' has the Abrams tank, costs a bundle (20K+ Gold), but it does pay off as being one of the best tanks in the game up until you get the Red Wolf or Whitemuu and even then it still is useful.
* One of the most ridiculous examples was also patently deliberate- in the obscure PS1 RPG ''VideoGame/TheGranstreamSaga'' the most powerful weapon in the game, the Onimaru, could ''only'' be acquired right at the ''very'' beginning, even before your first battle. You have 1 chance to get it by using a secret-revealing item on a seemingly random piece of wall to find it. Once you have it, you can basically trash the entire game without raising a sweat- it has almost twice the power of any other weapon in the game and is easy to use too (compared to the next strongest weapon which is unwieldy and tough to use).
* In ''VideoGame/LufiaTheLegendReturns'', the game's strongest weapon, the Alumina sword, is sometimes dropped by normal enemies very early in the game.
** In ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals'', about halfway through the game, the party is able to go visit the Ancient Cave. The Ancient Cave has 99 RandomlyGeneratedLevels, your party stripped of all equipment and items and reduced to Level 1, and you have to find items and equipment in randomly placed chests while dealing with increasingly strong monsters. In addition, there are blue-colored treasure chests, many of which bear some of the most powerful weapons and equipment in the game. And when you leave, you lose everything gathered in the cave ''except'' what you find in blue chests. Should one spend enough time in the Ancient Cave, their party becomes [[NighInvulnerability Nigh Invulnerable]] until the end of the game.
* ''VideoGame/{{Albion}}''
** This game has an instance of this. Careful exploration and talking to [=NPCs=] in the prologue will allow you to find a powerful gun, with ammo. However, you must also figure out how to smuggle it past the guards. Once you do, you have a limited but extremely powerful gun, perfect for the difficult early battles.
** Another example of this is the ultimate "freeze everyone" spell Frost Avalanche, which can be acquired for free on the first island if you reach level 9. This is possible if the player skips through most fights during the main quest of this island to acquire the spellcaster, and then wipes the island almost clean of monsters. If this is done successfully, the Frost Avalanche spell will enable player to freeze every group of monsters anywhere in the game (except some bosses); and because the spell also damages enemies significantly, the combat becomes reduced into a repetitive casting of F.A. If the player does not acquire the spell on first island, he or she can buy it some 20 hours (of gameplay) later on the third island.
* ''VideoGame/{{Faxanadu}}'' had a magic store early on, which sold one of the most powerful spells in the game - Death. Unfortunately it was set at such a high price that affording it would require several hours of LevelGrinding (which, again, would take as long as it'd be to get it "honestly") or a cheat code (in which case, why don't you just cheat up the Death spell itself?).
** Not to mention it's far cheaper later on as well. Though it's only two hours, not several, if you know the correct spots.
** Said store also sold the Magic Shield, the best shield in the game.
* The Playstation RPG ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'' is a perfect example of this. Using a bit of LevelGrinding to gain skill points, you can acquire an item early on called the Mischief. This item drops a random item into your inventory every 15 seconds, one of which is called the Forged Medal. The Forged Medal reduces the EXP needed for a character to reach the next level to 1. With a bit more grinding, you can get the ability to replicate the Forged Medal, allowing you to level your characters insanely high in little time at all. Of course, if you spend just a tiny bit more time grinding, you won't need to copy Forged Medals until the game's second disk...it's entirely possible to gain the most powerful sword in the game before you're even halfway finished with the game's first disc!
** Getting as far as you can in the tournament in Disc 1 nets you a sword which can only be obtained this way. All you need after that is two Mithrils, which you can get randomly by using particular items made via item creation. Customizing using the two Mithrils yields the Eternal Sphere, possibly the best weapon in the entire game, which renders Disc 1 a joke and everything up to the final boss (not including the BonusDungeon) at least easily doable.
** It is also possible to obtain at least 2 copies, possibly 3 of the second most powerful armor during the first disc. Get Ernest to join your group and you can pickpocket one from him in two specific towns. You can also pickpocket one from one of the soldiers on Claude's dad's ship (assuming you chose Claude as the main character). Any character equipped with this armor will be invincible throughout the first disc and probably throughout the entire second disc except the Final Dungeon and the BonusDungeon. The BonusDungeon is the only place you can find even better armor.
** If you get your pickpocketing skill high enough in Disc One, you can pickpocket an item called the Treasure Chest from a guy in Mars Village. The Treasure Chest produces three items at random when used. It can potentially give you the Marvel Sword, which Claude won't have to replace for a stronger sword until halfway through Disc Two. It raises your offense ''and'' defense to extreme levels, effectively turning one character into a super tank.
** And on the subject of skills, a lot of other ones can fall under this trope on their own, even before they combine into abilities. Some of the best examples would be Biology (A boost of (skill level squared times 10) to your HP, meaning a 1000 HP boost at maxed level), Herbal Medicine (+ 3% to the effect of Blue/Blackberries per level, which start off restoring 22% of your max HP and MP respectively, but at max level will recover a much more useful 52%), Danger Sense (+ 3 Stamina per level, Stamina will recover HP and MP after battles, which is INSANELY helpful), and Playfulness (gives some cash upon gaining a level in the skill, giving HUGE amounts at the higher levels; maxing out this skill for ONE character will take care of your money problems for the entire first disc). The better ones are balanced out by extremely high SP costs, but by leveling the Perseverance skill and doing a bit of grinding, they can be easily be bought before leaving the first continent.
* The tradition continues in the Playstation 2 RPG ''StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime''. It might be considered a GuideDangIt, but some stumble upon it on their own. In ''Star Ocean 3'', you get bonuses for [[CartographySidequest "completing" a map]] (walking every single portion of it), which is a rather tedious process. The rewards range from ostensibly lame to quite good. Early on, the rewards err on the side of lame. However, even the ones that suck sell for quite a bit of currency. If you complete all of the areas which can be completed up until a certain town not particularly far into the game, and fight the encounters that result from wandering around the map to complete it, you will have enough money to purchase one or two items that would otherwise be teaser gear in an improbably powerful shop. Normally, you would have to wait until later in the game to come back and buy the high-powered items. Needless to say, the difficulty takes a rather sharp dive at that point, and it could even be considered a sequence error due to sloppy programming under a liberal definition.
** In the middle of the first disk, after obtaining the second best alchemist in the game, you can obtain some Orichalcum. It looks useless, until you forge it into a weapon. It adds 500+ attack and gives you a 50% chance of surviving a fatal blow if you have Fury. They're also not that expensive to make (10,000 Fol)... Well you can probably afford four-five at most, but still, 2000+ attack to go around in that point is pretty darn impressive. They were likely put in for the sake of playing on Universe and 4D difficulty, where things like abusing selling the model bunnies and Orichalcum become rather necessary. Though one has to wonder if that is the case, why didn't they just lock them out in Galaxy mode...?
*** Said Orichalcum is available behind a hill you can access incredibly early. The theory is that you'll die a horrible death if you go there before the game expects you to. In reality, one of the random encounters there is a ball type enemy that does nothing but damage your MP. By rushing in and killing that enemy, you can gain dozens of levels in no time at all, then move on to beating up the enemies for the Orichalcum and other rare ores in the area behind the hill. And all of this is absolutely required on the NintendoHard higher difficulty levels.
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', near endgame weapons are sold early on at shops for ridiculously high amounts of Gald, but become cheaper and affordable as the plot progresses and your characters actually build up to that level. However, the ability to transfer Gald to a new record once you complete the game allows you to afford the weapons at that point, which is very useful if one chooses to play the game using a NintendoHard difficulty level.
* In the first ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' game, the player can finish the tutorial for the game's HumongousMecha system without actually using the [=AGWS=] mecha to gain the rare points used to level up [[LimitBreak Limit Breaks]]. Grinding the tutorial [[DoomedHometown while it's available]] lets the player have access to very potent attacks much earlier than what would be possible by playing "fair".
* Also present in its spiritual predecessor ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''. If you grind up enough cash early in the game, you can purchase an Ether Doubler from Nisan, which powers up your magic attacks in exchange for increased {{Mana}} cost. Once [[BlackMagicianGirl Elly]] joins your party with her [[HumongousMecha Gear]], she can use [[ReverseShrapnel Aerods]], which are basically a multi-target magic attack that costs fuel instead of ether but still counts as an ether attack. With an Ether Doubler, Elly goes from mediocre SquishyWizard to [[GameBreaker Goddess of MT Death]], and can tear through most enemies in the early-mid game (including bosses) with only one or two rounds of aerod abuse.
* ''ValkyrieProfile'' gives the player a number of staves that allow mages to use Great Magic early in the game, though they have a high chance of breaking after each use.
** Except, they only break if you do regular attacks with them. If you keep your mages only using magic attacks, they can use ludicrously overpowered weaponry way before you should get it, and you keep getting better overpowered ones til the end of the game.
** The Character Arngrim easily falls under this category, considering he has the highest stats out of any Heavy Blade, and is quite literally the first party member you acquire.
** Also except if you do some roundabout moves, you can acquire the Unicorn's Horn, which is an unbreakable Great Magic staff, in Chapter 4. And it's more powerful than all but one of the breakable ones. Expect to hear the invocation to Celestial Star (by far the spell with the most hits and the fewest enemies that resist it) and Meteor Swarm (second-most hits and hits everything that resists Celestial Star) repeatedly after acquiring it. Quite a GuideDangIt, though.
* A little grinding on the tutorial of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' will increase your stats enough to make the initial gameplay ridiculously easy - even though you don't ''have'' stats during the tutorial.
** Additionally, stepping on to a save point and going to the world map while in a Drive Form will reset you to normal with a maxed out Drive Gauge(even if it was nearly empty), making it possible to stay in Drive Form nearly continuously and level up much more quickly than is intended.
* It is also possible to grind in the first KingdomHearts game by sparring with your friends before the heartless attack. Tidus is ridiculously easy to parry. You get EXP for parrying attacks and grinding enough this way makes the early game much easier.
* ''KingdomHearts358Over2Days'' gives us its [[Funny/VideoGames hysterical joke weapons,]] which can be obtained after the tutorial missions by going back via Holo-Missions and earning their respective Challenge Sigils. JokeWeapon or not, they're more powerful than the basic Kingdom Key you start with, and make some of the earlier missions much easier.
* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3D'', repeatedly allowing the easily reobtained AR card dream eaters to die off and harvesting their dream pieces can allow to you make some dream eaters normally available only in the endgame at the very start of the game and take advantage of the powerful commands they provide. The Ryu Dragon is probably the most notable in this regard, providing both the highly destructive Meteor Crash and the screen clearing Mega Flare, on top of being a very competent fighter in its own right.
** Abusing the Flick Rush can result in a simmilar case. Simply spent your hard earned medals on Slot Edge, each can be bought for 150 Medal, and sold for 600 Munny each, rendering the majority of the prize being worthless in comparison. With enough munny, you can make a Star Rank Spirit with +20 level with almost every one of their abilities unlocked that can last you through the entire game right after finishing the first world.
* The first special attack you have access to in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' can potentially be a Disc One Nuke. Mario's standard Jump attack actually makes a slight gain in power every time it is used. This can be done up to 255 times, and by that time, Jump will be the most powerful skill in the game by far (with the possible exception of 100 Super Jumps, and this is much easier). Of course the very first dungeon contains Spinies, which are immune to Jump attacks, which make them the perfect candidates to practice the move on. Unsurprisingly, this strategy is one of the major keys to a Low Level challenge in SMRPG.
* The very first level of ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' contains a creature that spits out infinite numbers of projectiles that the player can jump on to gain points. Because the points earned increase with each successive jump, with the only limit being the end of the screen (at which point you have to start all over, but you can easily make several thousand jumps before then), it's possible to level the character up far past what it would take to beat the game's toughest BonusBoss... in less than an hour. Did I mention you can do this on the very first level?
** The classic "infinite 1-Up trick" is also performable. However, the experience starts going negative after a certain amount of jumps.
* PaperMarioStickerStar also have aDiscOneNuke in the form of Paperization block, which is hidden, but once uncovered can be used to upgrade your weaker stickers into its more powerful forms. These blocks are available as early as the ''first world''.
* In the third chapter of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'', it is possible (though very time-consuming and even more boring) to obtain a sword that is by far the strongest weapon available in the chapter before fighting even a single battle, if you're willing to sit through hours upon hours of running a weapon shop until somebody sells you the sword ''and'' you earn enough money to buy it (the player character doesn't own the store, he's just hired help). Saving up the money is by far the more time-consuming part of the process. An added complication is that customers may try to buy the sword before you have enough money for it, and sometimes [[ButThouMust they stubbornly refuse to take no for an answer]]. By the time the chapter 3 character returns in chapter 5, his once-overpowered sword has become mediocre in the face of much tougher enemies. All in all, it's ''far'' more trouble than it's worth; conventional LevelGrinding would be more efficient and less boring.
** You can get the money in other ways, though; in fact, you're ''required'' to earn several times the cost of the sword in order to beat that section of the game, and many fast-money tricks are specifically provided to this end. So if you happen to have the weapon appear, you can just call it a lucky break, leave your job, and come back halfway through the chapter to buy it... when it's nice to have, but not that overpowered. In later chapters you can just buy it from stores anyway.
*** But then again, the main reason to get the sword to appear isn't so that you can use it yourself, it's because it's also the most expensive weapon in the chapter and thus makes it a prime subject for the most effective of these in-game money tricks. So in other words, ultimately you'd want to buy as many of these swords from the original weapon shop as possible, sell them at your own weapon shop for 50% profit and repeat until your BagOfSharing is filled with 99 copies of every item you can possibly acquire in the chapter. And after that's done, give yourself a huge amount of cash and use that to buy all the casino tokens you could ever need. If you're wondering why just not amass a huge fortune and not screw around with buying excessive amount of equipment to sell, that's simply because while money doesn't carry over between chapters, equipment will.
** A much better example from ''[=DQ4=]'' would be SaveScumming at the casino to win 4 Metal Babble Shields, 8 Meteorite Armbands, and a couple dozen Wizard Rings in Chapter 2.
*** You might also consider the fact that you can leave behind one of the Broad Swords in the Silver Statuette cave for the hero to pick up in early Chapter 5.
** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV,'' by contrast, allows you to obtain the Metal King Sword from the casino, reachable not long after getting clear of the game's prologue. If you have the patience to win the tokens for it at the casino, it really ''is'' the best sword in the game.
** In the {{Mons}} spinoff games, there are often several examples of powerful early or mid game monsters that are available if you understand the breeding system.
*** For example, in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters Joker'', capturing the first enemy you see, the humble Rank F [[MascotMons Slime]], opens up the option to breed 4 of them together across two generations. ([[GuideDangIt not that it mentions this in game, mind you.]]) 2 Slimes bred together that both have 2 Slime parents results in a Rank C King Slime, a reference to how they appear in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' (8 slimes all jump together and merge into a King Slime). The King Slime will dominate the early game due to it's "Cleric" skillset (which is a mistranslation of "Hero", aka the ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' hero's skillset of Cure spells, Lightning spells, and outrageous sword techniques).
*** Even better, if you do the same thing with 4 King Slimes, you get a Rank B King Cureslime, which will inherit the Cleric skillset, as well as the most powerful healing skillset in the game. Taking a Rank B King Cureslime and breeding it with a Rank F Bubble Slime (easily available early in the game, or breed-able using a slime and a platypunk, which is available right next to the slimes) will lead a Rank ''A'' King Bubble Slime, which gets Bad Breath, one of the best debuff skillsets in the game -- as well as Cleric and Heal-All. In addition, these powerful Rank C/B/A monsters also play hell with the game's monster recruitment system, allowing you to catapult past the Rank F/E/D part of the early game. Of course, going all the way to Rank A would take an incredibly huge amount of work to do, but you could still do it literally within hours of the game starting.
*** Not to mention that it's pretty easy as it is to synthesize a Rank A monster by the third island if you've scouted a good amount and already synthesized a couple times. I managed to get a King Bubble Slime early on without even needing four King Slimes. Once you really dig into the mechanics of the game it's possible to have a team of Rank A/B monsters by the time you hit Infern Isle, which is mostly comprised of C/D monsters.
* In ''SwordOfMana'' on the Gameboy Advance, playing as the girl gives you Light magic at the start of the game, bats are weak against Light magic and are found in the first cave area you come across. Grinding until you kill 1000 bats transforms them into Doomy Bats of Doom which can be hit with Light magic, which in turn grinds up your Light skill until it's powerful enough to kill them, thereby allowing you to level up really easily and quickly, making the rest of the game a breeze.
* In ''CrisisCore'' you can do optional side missions (300 in total!). You can access the missions from any save point but some are locked until you progress in the story. If you do a lot of missions, you will gain a lot of levels and some pretty good equipment. The problem is that the main story does not scale with your level.
** Not even to mention how the game's Materia Fusion system acts, in a particularly creative player's hands, as a massive GameBreaker factory. With shrewd materia fusing (there are guides to teach you how) you can have your six equipped materia provide you the + 999% HP bonus twice (combined with the HP Break ability, you have 99,999 health instead of the standard maximum of 9,999) as well as + 100 on your attack, agility, vitality and luck stats, making you a living god when combined with the game's best armor. In fact, this is pretty much the ONLY way to face the game's ultimate optional boss and not being killed by her first attack (never mind the hundreds of attacks she'll use as you try and whittle away her TEN MILLION HP)
** There's also a hidden shop you can get fairly early in the game through the side missions. It sells materia that let you attack with and defend against any statuses attached to the other materia you have equipped. The same shop sells the Hell elemental materia, which are essentially the top Ice/Fire/Lightning spells, with Death/Stop/Poison/etc. slapped on. With enough cash, you'll be simultaneously immune to and dishing out half of the most debilitating status effects in the game.
* In Digimon World, it is technically possible (though very difficult) to raise your first Digimon into an Ultimate; start with Agumon, get him to evolve into Centarumon, and then try to go for Giromon. The only reason this is at all possible is because of Giromon's relatively lenient requirements for Digivolution in comparison to other Ultimates, which by all means you should be unable to obtain until later when you have more things unlocked to help you train Digimon. If you manage to get a Giromon (and teach it some good moves) you can go through the tougher areas and get a lot of the stronger recruitable Digimon into the city fairly early, completing the game much faster than normal.
* In later ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' games, you gained fairly early access to a thing called the Number Trader, which you input a set code into to gain items, including ridiculously powerful chips and Navi Customizer parts you shouldn't have yet. VideoGame/MegaManStarForce does this too, with Cipher Codes. The Chip Traders in Battle Network can be used for this too, although those are fairly random and luck-based.
** In Battle Network 1, simply acquiring the Pop Up chip can make you nigh unbeatable to most enemies and bosses because you remain invisible for the duration fo the turn. As long as you just use a charged buster attack (which deals a fair amount of damage), you can attack without being hit back unless you get careless. This tactic works best on the final boss when your effort is not timed.
** By the same token, in Battle Network 3, Mega Man has to fight [=FlashMan=], the very first boss in the game. With a little trial and error, one can create a folder based around the chip and effectively destroy every boss in the game.
*** Also in 3, a Life Sword folder is pretty easy to make early in the game if you know where to look ([=SciLab=] GMD and Swordies), and lasts though most of it.
** BN5 had Dark Invisible, a Dark Chip obtained through the Number Trader using a code you can easily find on [=GameFAQs=]. The chip itself is pretty powerful since it provides an 8-second invincible berserker mode, but if you're playing Team Colonel you can use it to activate [=ShadowMan=]'s Chaos Unison after the 4th Liberation Mission (where you regain control of Mega Man and he gains [=ShadowMan=] and [=TomahawkMan=]'s Double Souls). Combine with proper timing and abuse of pausing and you've got yourself a recipe for easy victories.
** The most ridiculous example though is in the DS version of BN5. In it, you can import your folder from the GBA version. If you have beat the cartridge version and import it to the DS version, You now have a folder that can beat the end boss and you may use it on the first area.
** In ''Star Force 2'' (both versions) one can go overboard with this if you know what you're doing:
*** You can register [[PowerOfFriendship Brothers]] VERY early in the game. The trick comes up when you know you can register the other version on the same card as a Brother; if you've completed that version, you can get a good number of pickups when you first reach them earlier than you're supposed to, and you can send end-game cards via mail from your completed game.
*** There are in-game, legitimate codes that can be entered to grant you various cards, abilities, etc, which can be entered as soon as the opening cutscenes finish. One category of these is known as the 'leveling' codes, which give [=MegaMan=] more HP, a stronger buster, etc. The strongest of these gives you an HP count around what you might have endgame without it (+ 990, you start with 100), a standard buster that renders a fifth of your starting folder obsolete, and as many Giga Card slots as you can EVER (reasonably) have without it, among other things. At the START OF THE GAME. The kicker is that those loosened card restrictions and extra ~1000 HP are just as useful against the strongest version of the final boss, making this a bit of a GameBreaker.
*** In the most literal example, there are cards called Blank Cards in the game that can be overwritten with essentially any card in the game. You get the first one fairly early on. There are cards in the game that, unmodified, can nuke the entire enemy area of the battlefield for about 400-500 damage. Most end-game bosses have less than six times that, so...
* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' features the ability to evolve existing pins into more powerful forms. Pins require one of three types of experience points to do so. While the selection of pins is rather limited, it is nonetheless possible to get the Yoshimitsu pin (the most powerful Shockwave pin), as well as the most powerful versions of the Natural Puppy energy blast pins... during the first week (chapter) of the game. It's not even that hard-Shutdown and Mingle PP aren't affected by what point of the game you are at, so a game-end player with 100% Completion will get those points in the same amounts that a newbie just starting his game will. If only pin evolutions weren't such a GuideDangIt...
** Speaking of Mingling, using it around other players allows you to buy powerful pins and threads sooner than you'd normally obtain them. The catches? If you buy the entire [[InfinityPlusOneSword Darklit Planet set]], you can't fully utilize its power until you have six pin slots (you need all six pins equipped at once for them to inflict lots of damage), and in the case of threads, many powerful threads have a high Bravery requirement.
* Savvy players of ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' can get X's Ultimate Armor and/or Zero's Black Armor early; they simply need to [[spoiler: fire the Enigma cannon and/or launch the shuttle at the space colony]] before striking out on any of the eight Maverick levels, then [[spoiler: go through the first three Sigma levels and slide down to where the armors are being held]].
** Of course, doing this is pretty much a one-way ticket to the bad ending, and usually makes it impossible to get Zero's upgrade unless you're '''insanely''' lucky.
** [[TakeAThirdOption I'll just input the]] CheatCode at the character select screen, thanks.
** A better, more "legal" example would be Zero's C-Sword skill, [[PowerCopying obtained from Grizzly Slash]]. It has good range, and can strike multiple hits. To top it all off, defeating Slash also rewards you with the DoubleJump ability, which, as many fans would know, is ''very'' useful. What makes it a Disc One Nuke is that Grizzly Slash is the easiest boss (and level) in the game, and a good choice to start on the 8 bosses.
* In ''Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X'', Storm Tornado is the most powerful weapon in the game, able to destroy nearly every enemy that gets hit with it. You can easily obtain this if you destroy Storm Eagle first.
* ''VideoGame/{{Contact}}'' features Blue Pillbugs, which show up in one room on the second island and are definitely something you'll want to avoid engaging normally until you're strong enough to kill them so that you can grab the Armor Breaker weapon, which increases the odds of triggering the Armor Break ability (if you have it) by twenty percent. However, thanks to [[GameBreaker a trick involving ]][[NoodleImplements a nearby stairwell and some tricky maneuvering]], it's possible to repeatedly kill one of them, allowing you to quick level offensive stats, and, if you grind for long enough [[RandomNumberGod or just get lucky]], you can get it to drop the Armor Breaker. Said weapon has an offense of ''twenty-seven''. The highest offense for a weapon that you could ostensibly get at that point in the game normally? ''Eight.'' The boss of that island gets turned into a joke, taking three hits [[CognizantLimbs for each hand and the head.]] It also tends to render enemies rather frightened, allowing you to progress relatively unmolested and smash anything stupid enough to attack you.
* ''InfiniteUndiscovery'' released a few DLC (downloadable content, from Xbox Live's Marketplace) "vouchers" that allow you to purchase exceptionally rare materials from merchants anywhere in the world. Coupled with several profitable alchemy recipes to choose from, a player could raise the money for expensive components and craft themselves some of the best armors and weapons in the game before even finishing Castle Prevant (the third dungeon).
** Understatement. With Edward in your party, buy as many Sheep Hides as you possibly can, and turn them into Smiley Charms. Sheep Hides cost 120 fol apiece, and Smiley Charms sell for 1500, do the math. It gets even more ridiculous if you can download the ''free'' vouchers that let you buy practically every single material needed for item creation, from every merchant in the game, hrmm... Well, if you are stocking up on materials and feel as if the Smiley Charms aren't going fast enough, never fear, most likely during the process Edward will have become a level 6(max)smith, while you only have to be level 3 to make Horseshoes. They sell for 2600 fol, while you need one granite and 2 iron metal to make(which you can buy ANYWHERE after you download the vouchers)which collectively costs 750 fol. So, with the vouchers, you can legitametaly get pretty damn near getting the last equipment for all of your characters, in the first or second town. So while the ''vouchers'' help, you don't even need them if you want ridiculous amounts of money, all you need is a TV and some extra batteries.
* Obscure Game Boy Color RPG ''LilMonster'' has a Disc One Nuke from the first boss, Gyro. You don't have to beat him to advance the game, but if you do, he drops the one-of-a-kind Dowser gem. Dowser's power isn't that impressive, but it can be used to summon a different monster, who, while difficult to beat at an early stage, is still defeatable with SaveScumming... and the gem ''he'' drops ''doubles your damage delt.'' Plus, the Dowser gem itself can be used to make Gyro your {{mon}}, and his power is decent for that early game stage.
* ''PaladinsQuest'' has the Gomutai, a sword which can be found in the middle of the game and which has an attack power of 300 when the next best sword (found much later) has 100. It seems to be a Disc One Nuke, but ends up not imbalancing the game despite performing exactly as advertised, since you have a four character party and doubling the power of one character doesn't double the power of the party.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'', it is possible to level up Dart's additions to max early on. This gives a huge heads up. Early disc 2 you have a chance to fight 00Parts, a high level minion that can [[OneHitKill insta-kill]], but also gives absurd cash on defeat, which can be used to buy the best armor and helmet in the game, and an accessory which makes the Additions automatic.
* ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'' has a way two ways to level to 20 in the first town. The first is beating a certain type of ghost near the graveyards, and the second is a random room which has a priestess that gives levelups to the party (up to level 20).
** Stealing from the second boss in the game yields a Dark Sword which is much more powerful than any of the current weapons before this point.
** Since few enemies drop actual money in the more recent updates, money is usually made selling VendorTrash. It is possibly to make money very fast though, by selling {{Blackmail}} pictures of one of the party members [[WholesomeCrossdresser crossdressing]].
* ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'' allows you fast access to several very powerful weapons very early in the game. The most spectacular of these? At the beginning of Asellus' quest, she starts out in the village of the craftsman of the InfinityPlusOneSword which means, for a small sacrifice of life points, you can have the second strongest sword in the game available to you roughly thirty minutes in. To balance this, however, there is an essentially optional boss battle near the end of this quest that is extremely difficult to beat, even with this sword.
* ''[[SaGa2 SaGa II]]'' (known in the states as ''Final Fantasy Legend II'') randomly awared new mutant powers at the end of battles based on the level of the monsters fought. One particular boss encountered relatively early in the was a class "9", more or less meaning that a little bit of SaveScumming would net you a power far more advanced than you were meant to have at that point in the game.
* The second and third parts of the ''{{Lufia}}'' series have those, in the second you need a bit of grinding to beat [[BonusBoss Gades]], but his blade [[OneHitKill onehits]] every critter for some time, and it's special ability is among the very best in the entire game. The third game needs a bit more grinding, and [[GuideDangIt a certain strategy]], but you can get a few very nice items by beating a few {{Bonus Boss}}es early. And then there is [[InfinityPlusOneSword Alumina Sword]], which you can get early just by a lot of luck (or grinding again, of course).
* In ''SuikodenI'', if you enter the forest beside Seika early you will meet Kobolds, monsters FAR stronger then what you should be facing. However you can wipe them out in one fire spell. Because you get more experience the bigger the difference in levels between you and the enemy, ten minutes of fighting can set you FAR ahead of the curve before you even have your fortress, which just happens to be where one of the hardest fights in the game is.
** In ''SuikodenII'', you have the opportunity to get through a gate into one of the later areas, Matilda, and pick up two characters that import from the first game. Your levels will jump significantly, making much of the rest of the game, at least until well beyond that area, nearly trivial.
* In the Gameboy Color RPG ''MagiNation'', a basic healing item could be sold for considerably more (taking into account the low max-money cap) than it cost to buy it. It doesn't take half a brain to figure out the consequences of this.
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', you reach a town run by monsters (Medina) fairly early in the game. The weapons and armor shop has very good equipment, but [[TeaserEquipment the shopkeeper sells them at ridiculously high prices]] because he hates humans, preventing you from buying it (you can purchase the same equipment at reasonable prices in 12,000 BC, but you get there much later on). It is possible to raise enough money to buy it early, making combat a bit easier for a while. The best way is by buying weapons and armor in 65,000,000 BC (where they trade it for random items you get after beating enemies instead of gold), and then selling it.
* ''VideoGame/LightCrusader'' has two examples. First, you can get the best armour in the game from the Lily pad enemies, which are all over the place in the first two levels of the dungeon. Second, you can fill up your magic completely if you find the hidden green potion in the second level.
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfInnocence'' Guild Dungeons' chests give randomly generated loot. However, some of the items in the tables are very, very good. Therefore, it is possible, in a rank 2 dungeon, to obtain a "Mythril" Sword with 110 attack and a casting speed bonus at a time where the normal swords you can buy in shops and/or loot in dungeons have maybe 18 attack.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' has the Megaflare command, a massive and massively powerful fire-based attack that pretty much wipes the field, plus, using it is practically a guarantee of entering a [[SuperMode Command Style]], in case anything survived that blast. When can you get it? At the latest, after beating two of the first bosses. The Megaflare command is only available via the game's [[ItemCrafting "command melding"]] system, but even if the longest, most round-about way is chosen (for the benefits of passive abilities, which can also be used to increase the damage your fire attacks do), it still boils down to only needing three individual commands (3 Aero commands, 6 Fire, and 3 Stop/Slow) all of which can be bought in any shop after beating the second boss. Sure, the commands have to be "leveled up" before being melded, but if you're not fond of fighting monsters, there's a minigame that can be played that will level them up FOR you. And the self-same minigame is home to yet ''another'' nuke, if you're decent with the Shotlock system. Sufficiently determined players can have Megaflare before the third world, and if you're playing as Terra, it's even easier: In the early Snow White world, Fission Firaga, the final ingredient, falls ''into your lap'' and from that point can be bought in stores. The only semblance of balance is the time involved leveling the commands and the fact that some enemies resist fire.
** Through a series of tricky jumps in Disney Town, [[SequenceBreaking it's possible to get Ven Superglide before he even learns regular Glide.]] Not only does this help greatly in combat and general exploration, it lets you access many more chests you weren't supposed to get until late-game.
* ''MagnaCarta2'' allows you to [[BribingYourWayToVictory buy a complete collection of gag weapons for the small price of 400MS]]. Not only are these weapons given to you (almost) straight away, but they're the most powerful weapons in the game and will destroy any semblance of challenge right up until the final boss.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Grandia}}'' using healing magic in the field generates water magic experience points. Since the game features both MP restore at save points and damage-dealing traps in the field, all it takes is one near the other to level water magic as high as you want (and since levelling magic improves stats, this is nothing to shake a stick at). This can also be done with earth magic and a poison trap, though this is so slow as to be useless to any but the most persistent munchkin.
* Grandia III features Magic Eggs, which can be equipped to boost magic of certain elements or consumed to gain access to certain magic spells...and you soon gain the ability to combine them together to make better eggs. The game gives you quite a few eggs from the get-go, which can be combined into the best eggs in the game. Equipping them is gated by level, but the spells are only gated by mana cost, with the very most powerful/expensive ones using 99 MP...and your mages start with at least 200, and there are plenty of mana-restoring items. Also, while the eggs that give stats such as +3 in multiple elements are too high to equip early, you can easily get a +3 (which is the max) in one element that anyone can equip early. While this can't be spammed all over the place on random encounters due to mana costs, the random encounters are easy anyway...its real value is in making boss fights complete jokes by spamming enormous nukes that do ~3000 damage on bosses that have about 6000 HP. Also, your character can equip skills to reduce the mana costs and regen their own mana, and the most damaging spell learnable isn't even 99 MP, it's 84, with the caveat that it's only single-target.
* In the SNES version of ''[[VideoGame/{{Ys}} Wanderers from Ys]]'', the outdoor areas of Ilvern Ruins have flocks of birds that respawn at a high rate, allowing you to grind up to 65535 EXP when you're barely a third of the way through the game.
* In RecordOfAgarestWar, there's a means of getting this without [[BribingYourWayToVictory DLC]]. Simply save up 250 TP, and buy 10 Vessels of Life from the Adventurer's Guild. Grab the title...and then sell them all. You now have 250,000 gold as early as Generation 1, and can easily get a few other titles with ease...and 3 pieces of Mithral. And the smithing guide for Mithral gear, which in turn means that you can create a few Mithral items as soon as Platinum gear is available. A bit of a late example, but it helps with trashing late Generation 2/Early Generation 3. Some of the actual items from the Adventurer's Guild can be this as well, provided you save up for them in lieu of manuals.
** In terms of characters, there's the [[DecoyProtagonist first generation protagonist]] Leonhardt Raglen. Once you get him to level 10, he gets his first Willpower: Unleash All. What this does is that by having him at 25% HP or less, he gets a ''massive'' boost to his attack, defense, magic, and magic defense. Needless to say, any boss battle consists of having Leo killed (or at 25% HP), have an [[LimitBreak EX Skill]] handy and watch the fireworks. After his generation though, you lose him and you get his replacement, his son Ladius until you can find a Forbidden Tome to revive Leo.
* In ''[[VideoGame/TouhouOmenTrilogy The Genius Of Sappheiros]]'', it is possible to recruit Byakuren and Mokou, normally the last two characters unlocked, before starting Chapter One. Head to the Myouren Shrine and wait for an hour (of real time) to get Byakuren, and go to the Bamboo Forest Of The Lost and enter the KonamiCode to trigger Mokou's arrival. Having five characters plus a commander makes the first handful of chapters much easier.
* ''PhantasyStarIV'' has this in the form of its [[CombinationAttack combo system]]. Set up a macro to use the techniques [[KillItWithFire FOI]], [[KillItWithWater WAT]] and [[ThunderboltsAndLightning TSU]]. TRIBLASTER can carry you through most of Motavia although it's inefficient against later bosses.
* ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptunia'' has dungeons ranging from level 1 to up to level 1000. There's nothing stopping you from going into a high level dungeon with a lot of care and grabbing a powerful weapon very early. There's also no level system with equipment so there's no reason not to equip it.
** ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaVictory'' has an accessory available at the start of chapter 2 that gives +2500 HP, more than doubling a character's health at that stage of the game. It's not even hidden, being up for sale at the shop for a substantial, but not unrealistic price. This may well have been deliberate to ease the grinding required to pass the BeefGate the game suddenly throws at you.
* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSun: The Lost Age'', if you held on to those Lucky Medals, you can win the powerful Water/Wind summon Eclipse from Lemuria's Lucky Fountain as soon as you arrive. Most of the significant boss enemies in ''The Lost Age'' are Fire/Earth-aligned, including two of the {{Bonus Boss}}es and nearly all the significant dragons. If your play style involves using the summons at all, Eclipse is a game-breaker.
** In the first game, by using glitches to skip recruiting Mia and her Djinni and acquiring the rest of the Djinn normally, you can end up with twenty-seven Djinn and three characters to divide them between, instead of twenty-eight Djinn and four characters. This will give you nine Djinn per character instead of seven, and [[GuideDangIt understanding how the Djinn are used]] in Golden Sun's ClassAndLevelSystem will allow your remaining characters to access some of the most powerful class tiers that would normally be inaccessible until ''The Lost Age'''s endgame.
** In ''GoldenSunDarkDawn'', there's an item acquired about a third of the way through the game called the Ice Queen Gem, which enables all stages of the Cold Snap Psynergy, including its pricy-but-powerful final form, Frostbite. [[WhiteMage Rief]], otherwise despised for his CripplingOverspecialization, has very high Psynergy Points and Mercury affinity, and can comfortably spam Frostbite to great effect, from the moment you get the Gem until weapons outclass Psynergy altogether.
* ''MightAndMagic VI'' actually has one as an intended feature. In the starting town of the game, you can find a hidden fly spell scroll, in the wall of one of the town's buildings, which you can use to fly atop another building, which, in turn, features a hidden portal to another map (Dragonsand), which is filled with the toughest foes of the entire game: dragons. This portal places you near the shrine of the gods, which greatly ups your stats (you can normally access the area, with extensive travelling through dangerous territories). It's not gamebreaking but it gives you a fair advantage to make things much easier, at least at the very beginning.
** ''Might and Magic VII'' gives you the opportunity to kill a dragon, in the first map of the game. You can either do it with a spell staff, which you can conveniently accept from one of the peasants (although this has implications, later on) or you can go by the process of exploiting the AI and employ the tactic of shoot and hide. This is a freakishly time-consuming process but dragons give of the best loot. Given the fact that you can multiloot the dragon, you can outfit your entire party with the best gear in the land!
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'' allows you to generate your character with an ebony dagger (second-best material in the game). It is very difficult to find, requiring the player to generate their character via questionnaire and hinges upon one of the twenty or so questions.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' it is possible to get one of the most powerful swords in the game with a little swimming, a little gold and a lot of waiting.
** In the town Balmora, you can easily steal a magical ebony broadsword by jumping just out of line of sight of a nearby guard. So, you can have a very powerful weapon only minutes after character creation!
** Two other of the most powerful items in the game are easily available by starting characters: The Amulet of Shadows gives you 80% Chameleon (effectively invisible) for a decent amount of time and is found in the custody of an easy to kill archer in the middle of the wilderness. The Masque of Clavicus Vile is a very strong helmet that boosts your personality by 30 points (making everybody like you) and is owned by a relatively low-level wizard.
** In the first version of the game, one could obtain a game-breaking item very early on. There is a cave near the starting town where you'll find a robe with constant effect of health regeneration, making you almost invincible for the rest of the game. The cave contains some relatively powerful enemies, but you don't have to fight them. As long as you have a couple lock-pick scrolls and buy some levitation potions, even a Level 1 character could potentially get it. Bethesda seems to have noticed this, as the robe was heavily nerfed in a later patch.
** Thorough players may notice that the three houses in Vivec (Hlaalu, Redoran and Telvani) each have their own vaults. The lower Redoran vault is easily openable when you have the key, which is located in dresser on the top floor of the manor across the street. Stealing it doesn't get you a bounty, even if you're seen, and the items you can get there are made of Ebony and Glass, making it highly profitable if one repairs them and takes them to the mudcrab merchant (alternatively, one could use them, but glass and ebony are [[ShownTheirWork inferior]] to a number of also easily obtainable weapons).
** ''Morrowind'', featured a very easily stolen Grand Soul Gem with the soul of a daedra in it in the Mages Guild of the second town. It could be used to either create a perma-enchanted item (provided you also had piles of cash), or alternatively was worth 50.000 gold by itself. Two catches however : no merchant in the world had that much cash on him (but that could be circumvented through outside-the-box bartering) and, more importantly, because of the way the "stolen" flag worked in that game, stealing that gem flagged ALL Grand Soul Gems as stolen, meaning you could later lose all of those you earned honestly just by talking to a guard.
** In ''Morrowind'' the amount of easily obtainable magic rings you can pick up just after the start of the game can also help make early levels a breeze. Denstagmer's Ring gives you 30% resistance to Fire, Ice and Shock. Mentor's Ring boosts your Intellegence and Willpower by 10 and the Ring of Phynaster grants 20% resistance to Poison, Magicka and Shock. All of them can be found in caves just outside of towns and are not too badly guarded.
** And of course, there are wonders of [[GameBreaker Alchemy]], being able to cyclically boost your ability to make better and better potions right at the start of the game, culminating in utter unstoppability [[note]](or {{unwinnable}} game if you boost some wrong stats, such as [[TooFastToStop running]] or [[InASingleBound jumping]])[[/note]]. Disc One Nuke comes in form of a second-best alchemy set available for free in a town not far from the start of the game.
* Spellcrafting and object-enchanting abilities in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' can be exploited by low-level characters to craft OneHitKill weapons and highly unbalancing spells.
** The Honorblade of Chorrol can be obtained through the "Separated at Birth" questline which can be started as soon as you leave the tutorial. It's as powerful as a standard Ebony Longsword and unenchanted, meaning that you don't need a Repair of 50 to fix it. And since it's a quest item, it's '''completely weightless''' until you hand it in.
** In ''Oblivion'' it's possible to get one of the strongest swords (if not the strongest) in the game very early. It's held by a very strong NPC and it would normally require an intense battle with her to get it, but all one really has to do is attack her, and then hop on a horse and lure her to the nearest city and let the guards kill her for you.
*** There's also an area of the battleground you're supposed to fight her in that, if reached, makes you impossible to hit. You can then spam arrows at her at your leisure, as long as you've got enough to kill her with.
** In the ''Shivering Isles'' expansion, one of the early quests gives you an enchanted sword which self-repairs its damage and its enchantment, along with having a fire or ice power (depending on whether it's day or night), and can become more powerful as long as you've killed a good amount of enemies. You can access the expansion world anytime you want, meaning those with a GOTY edition can easily get the sword quickly.
*** Although, the sword is leveled, and it will become useless if you get it too early.
** Weapons aside, in Oblivion you can create enchanted armor that renders you invisible at all times, thus making you almost unbeatable.
*** Or, the very first time you encounter a enchantment pedestal you can create multiple items enchanted with continuous heal making you very nearly unbeatable. If there was an enchanting thingy sitting outside the prison you could pretty-much do it then and there.
** The Weak Fireball spell (5 damage in for 3 seconds) in ''Oblivion'' is very easily obtainable (start the Skingrad recommendation quest for the Mages' Guild and you get it for free), is reasonably powerful, and has an extremely low magicka cost compared to other comparable spells, making it extremely useful for the first 10 levels or so.
** Of note: One does not ''need'' to level up in either. Doing so allows you to raise your stats. But it's possible to max out your skills while remaining at a very low level. Since skill level and not stat progression is what makes the adventurer, and all enemies "level" according to your level and not skills, this ''can'' mean your "weak fireball spells" and "simple on-hit nuke daggers" remain useful indefinitely. As long as you [[TheInsomniac never went to sleep in-game]], anyway.
* In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', joining the Companions, likely the first guild you'll encounter in the game, and going through their quests nets you a Skyforge Steel weapon, which is as powerful as an equivalent Elven weapon but weighs less and is easier to upgrade via smithing. The Companions also give you the opportunity to [[spoiler:become a Werewolf]], and their final quest gives you access to a powerful shield and a unique two-handed axe with ''Daedric'' stats (though it can't be upgraded).
** Even earlier in the game, Bound Weapons. [[AnAxeToGrind Three]] [[HeroesPreferSwords are]] available, the first two being on sale in the second town visited for the storyline, Whiterun. All three are on par with Daedric weapons, and the Sword is a Novice Conjuration spell, allowing any player to use it. They also cannot be confiscated by [=NPCs=] due to being generated by spells, allowing a character in prison to use them against guards, and preventing disarmament.
** Another easy one, once you reach Whiterun, just take the carriage to Solitude. Then just follow the road over that goes near the harbor and to the lighthouse. Before the lighthouse, there is a pirate ship, that is also marked on the map. Some of the pirates carry Scimitars, which is every bit as good as the skyforge sword, though it don't sell for a good price.
** Not to mention Soul Trap, which, whilst only effective against living enemies still gives you XP when used on dead ones. The fact that its a high level spell that's obtained very early on lets you grind an easy 50 conjuration skill levels in about 30 minutes, meaning that it gives you a minimum of 10-20 player-levels if you use the exploit early on. Given that your health is replenished to max whenever you level up, this makes it very hard to die even in the harder dungeons, so long as you're paying attention. The fact that it gives you access to a LOT of perks and high-level summons helps a fair bit as well.
*** A bit of FridgeBrilliance with the stats similar to Daedric weapons, considering they are shaped like the Daedric weapons you can smith yourself later in the game.
** Also, by completing an early Main Storyline quest, you are made Thane of Whiterun and given Lydia as a Housecarl. She serves rather impressively as a melee tank and can be relied on to deal with troublesome foes.
** Forsworn Bows can also be easily obtained by immediately heading to the Reach and fighting the random Forsworn in there. It is about equal as a Dwarven Bow.
** Dawnguard DLC gives you two. First is crossbow though you need to be of enough level to initiate it. Then there is Zephyr, the unique Dwarven Bow with faster draw rate that can be obtained at level 1.
** The Mace Of Molag Baal is the only Daedric item who's quest you can literally initiate at level one and have an expectation of completing before level 5. It's enchantments aren't very notable, barring the ever useful soul trap, but that's not what makes it a nuke. It's raw physical attack with no upgrades is on par with a base Ebony weapon, and while you won't be able to improve it's base attack until you have smithing at level 60, it's still plenty powerful, and armor enchants to boost attack damage will still work to boost it. Plus, with the perks that allow maces to ignore enemy defenses, this makes it an incredibly useful weapon until you can make your own ebony and daedric weapons.
** The Oghma Infinitum can be [[GoodBadBugs exploited]] into an unintentional DiscOneNuke. While only obtainable after level 15, it doesn't take long to reach the level, especially if you're of the Thief class. Once awarded to you, the tome can effectively be used to empower your character to absurd levels so early in the game, future quests will seem trivial from a story perspective.
** The basic conjuration spell RaiseZombie is this plus a GameBreaker. You can buy it cheap in the first town you come across, and you can buy Bound Sword in the second town. Together, they will allow you to build your conjuration to 50 by the end of Bleak Falls Barrow. Simply cast the spell on any basic enemy corpse (Skeever, Bandit, or Drauger), regardless of whether you killed it or not, cast Bound Sword, then use either your bare hands, or if you are a Khajit, an iron dagger to strike the zombie until it becomes hostile. Your Conjuration will go up at least on level, maybe two if your level is low. There are enough enemies and already killed corpses available to raise your conjuration to level 50. Before the end of the first official dungeon in the game.
*** For even more fun, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential one can abuse their horse]] by using a Fork (a weapon with a damage rating of 1) to sneak attack the beast repeatedly, or one can cast Soul Trap to boost Conjuration, or one can combine Flames and Healing Hands to boost Destruction and Restoration... the possibilities are endless, for the low low price of 1,000 gold!
** On the subject of questlines that give big rewards, there's the Dark Brotherhood, your best friend if you are the sneaky thief/assassin type. Initiate the questline, and by the end of the quest With Friends Like These, you'll be able to get a suit of light armor AND a suit of clothes/robes that carry enchantments. The most important? The shoes, which carry the Muffle enchantment, an enchantment that you normally won't find until you have reached much higher levels. While you can't break them down for their enchantment, you can wear them any time you need to sneak, negating any noise you make by moving, allowing you to sneak MUCH easier.
** The Dawnbreaker sword. A unique enchanted weapon that can be obtained relatively early in the game, when an item from a random drop appears to guide you to its location. Its effects will kill all undead in the game easily making any quests involving tombs with skeletons and draugrs (zombies) a breeze. More than that, it has a very large amount of charges before it loses its powers, which means you can use it as your primary weapon for a very long time before collecting soul gems to replenish it, which is difficult to do in the early game. You will eventually find or make stronger weapons with better enchanted effects, but for the early game it is the ultimate weapon. This is sort of balanced by the fact it's guarded by very powerful mooks and a truly difficult boss battle.
* In ''VideoGame/FableI'', the player is given the opportunity to gamble in certain areas, with a 2-1 return on their wager should they be victorious. This doesn't seem like a big deal at first, given that the games are largely luck-based and you're just as likely to end up broke as you are to strike it rich... except in one case, where you are required to win a childishly simple card-pairs style game. There is no element of chance involved whatsoever here, making the game a sure win once one gets the hang of it. A patient player can easily rack up hundreds of thousands of gold in very short order, allowing them to purchase the strongest equipment that money can buy and enough health and mana potions to last for the entire game. This is presented to you in the ''very first city you come across'', to boot.
** An even faster way to gain money is by exploiting the game's economy, specifically the "Buy/Sell Maximum" buttons. Merchants in ''Fable'' adjust the price of an item based on how many of them they have in their inventory at the moment, without taking into account how many you're buying or selling. Gather a few dozen of any item, then sell them to a merchant all at once. The merchant now has many of them, so he sells them low. Buy them for a song. Now he has none, so he buys them high. Sell them for huge profit. Repeat until sufficiently wealthy.
** Compounding the ridiculous simplicity of getting gold here is the fact that the Slow Time spell affects the timer in the game, meaning that you would have to be in a coma to fail at the game.
*** A word of caution though, this doesn't work in the expanded ''Fable: The Lost Chapters''
** Also, it is possible to abuse the Hero Save feature, which resets the player to the beginning of a quest, up to and including resetting all item spawns, conversations and Hero doors opened during the quest, every time they save, to attain both a ridiculous amount of money and enough silver keys to open every chest in the game. Including the one in the Hero's Guild, which contains a legendary weapon.
** Also of note is the Magic Shield spell. Playing the game normally, delivering large combos without being hit raises the Combat Multiplier, which multiplies any experience gained. This means that players who fight well and avoid getting hit will level faster, right? The catch is that in Fable, "being hit" is defined as "taking HP damage". Magic Shield redirects any damage taken into MP, thereby preventing the Combat Multiplier from being cancelled and allowing the character to level up much faster than he could without it. Turn it on, wade into a crowd, and take out the trash with no skill involved. Then once the CM gets high enough, use those super-experience potions you've been saving up and KillEmAll.
** It also has Skorm's Bow, the most powerful ranged weapon in the game and if you play your cards right (and are not too [[ChaoticEvil squeamish]]) it can be yours before your first mission.
** There's also Wellow's Pickhammer, which you can get literally in the first 30 minutes of the game if you know what you're doing. It has about four times the damage of anything you can afford when you start the game, and remains the best weapon up to and including the Arena quest, which is about two-thirds of the way through the game. All you have to do to get it is murder one or two people in front of the Demon Door guarding it...or just eat 15 or so crunchy chicks.
** If one feels like it, it is entirely possible to get a character fully decked out in the best purchasable arms and armor before even completing the first quest. With a little more time, you can even go into this quest with a fully maximized character.
** In ''VideoGame/FableII'' it is possible to make obscene amounts of money early in the game. Your character starts out with a cheap house as an adult, which you can set to rent out. Save, exit the game and wind your system clock forwards. Your character still makes money from real estate even when you're not playing (though it's a fraction of the amount you would while playing you're just winding a clock forwards anyways). Repeat this process by buying more houses with the money you've made. With a bit of patience your character can be making more money every five minutes than you can possibly spend.
** In ''VideoGame/FableII'', you can create a guest account, sell all of its stats and quit; all the experience will go back to your main character. you can then use that exp to buy more stats, create a guest, sell those stats, quit, and repeat over and over again. before to long all your stats can be maxed out before you even meet the first boss.
** In ''VideoGame/FableIII''', you can do something similar by having somebody join your game as a friend. You can send that friend money and items, and they can send it back. After disconnecting from the game, that gold is returned, along with the money already returned. 100 Gold turns into 200, then 4, 8, 16...
* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Gothic}} Gothic 3]]'', after you gain control of the unnamed hero, you had the opportunity to buy a flaming sword for a ridiculously low price. This could be accomplished after rescuing a blacksmith (he's the one selling it). This was unfortunately fixed in a patch.
* In ''NeverwinterNights'' you had the option of using a created character in a character battles optional side-game. However one of these arena's required level 10 characters or higher, and if you were less than that, it would automatically increase your level to level 10. So create a 1st level character, import, export and then load him into the game and you'd begin the game with 10 levels ready to go.
** In Hordes of the Underdark, the player was immediately given enough XP to hit level 15. Which could be used in the same fashion. Almost as egregious as making a module consisting entirely of user-created ubergear and weak monsters with a massive challenge rating, giving XP through the nose. Not that anyone would ever do this.
** You could easily make a custom module that did nothing but shot you up to an arbitrary level and gave you great gear. The developers were canny enough to prevent you from linking a script to any of these items to do ''whatever you wanted'', although those of us who wanted this power for good, not evil, were bummed. By far the worst, though, was the [[GameBreaker Appraise skill]]. It decreased the amount you paid for items from vendors and increased how much they'd give you for 'em. If you had enough Appraise skill (which was by no means easy, but quite possible) you could make money by buying and selling an item ''ad nauseum''.
* Not quite a nuke but useful early game. In ''VideoGame/TheDarkSpire'', from the tower entrance go north 6, east 9, south 4. You should be in front of a locked door. Save, open it, follow very short path to basement. Once there go north 1, west 2, south 1 and face the east wall. Behind a secret door you find a very good weapon you normally can't obtain for another 25% of the game or so. Careful though, as the enemies in the basement can easily annihilate you, especially if you're heading here at game start. Save anywhere comes in handy here.
* In ''{{Sudeki}}'', a sufficiently savvy or even just sufficiently ''nosy'' player can find all four characters' ultimate weapons well before the halfway point of the game. (They also tend to end up overleveled, thanks to one weapon requiring completion of ThatOneSidequest which requires 21 of a rare [[RandomlyDrops randomly dropped piece of loot]].)
* ''SecretOfEvermore'' features a glitch which can be exploited for Disc One Nukedom-if you save the game while a character is buffed and quit, when you start the game again you'll still be buffed, but your actual stats will be at their unbuffed level. Since the game still thinks you're buffed, when the buff wears off it'll reduce your stat...and if it's low enough, it'll wrap around to be super high, and you'll be able to one-shot almost anything. Balancing this is the fact that if you level up your stats will increase as normal, meaning if you're not careful you could wind up with stats even ''lower'' than your starting baseline.
* There happens to be a fellow running a shop in a secret underground passage in the Docks district of Kirkwall in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' who sells a ridiculously powerful bow for a reasonable price in the second chapter. Makes the game a lot easier, actually. Also, all you have to do to receive Hanlon's Razor, easily the best greatsword until Act II, is to beat the demo. Most of the DLC equipment and unlockable Extra equipment is this as well. Items such as the Staff of Parlathan, which can be obtained by registering for the newsletter, are powerful in Act I but are eventually outclassed in Act II. One exception is Hindsight -- its "Enemies drop better equipment" property makes it useful for the entire game.
** In terms of abilities, the rogue's "Pinpoint Strikes" functions as this. It guarantees critical hits for a time, which dramatically increases the character's damage output. With the right build, you can have both the base ability and the duration upgrade (meaning that you can auto-crit for 20 seconds of every 40, boosting overall damage output by about half) by late act 1. It qualifies as a DiscOneNuke rather than a proper GameBreaker because high level rogues have high critical hit chances naturally: 100% crit chance is a much bigger improvement over 20-35% than 50-75%.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' has similar items. Completing (or simply having, in some cases) the various DLC packs gives you one of the better two-handed weapons, a pretty-good massive chestpiece, the best longbow, the best mace, a decent longsword, the second-best amulet, the best light armor, the best mage robes, and two great belts. The best mace can also be sold for 339 gold (or even more, if you're a Dwarf Noble) - enough to buy any two Cash Gated items. You get these items in your inventory right at the start of the game.
** Not to mention the two new Talents you can gain by drinking the diablery potion in the ''Warden's Keep'' DLC. The Mage's are particularly potent--a very powerful nuke and a mana regenerator that cost [[ScratchDamage about a papercut's worth]] [[CastFromHitPoints of HP to activate]].
** One exploit in ''Dragon Age: Origins'' allows the player to sell an item for twice it's sell value by putting it in the junk tab and then quickly pressing the Sell and Sell All Junk buttons, then buy it back for the original sell cost. This can be repeated ad nauseam, giving the player an infinite source of money as soon as they reach the first shop and allowing them to buy anything they want as soon as they come across it. Since most of the (non-DLC) best gear in ''Origins'' is on vendors rather than in dungeons or as quest rewards, this allows you to potentially get some of the best items in the game right off the bat. Sure, some of it has level or stat requirements to use, but most players will reach those long before they'd had the money to get around the CashGate, and even settling for the [[InfinityMinusOneSword Infinity-1 Swords]] will make you broken at the beginning of the game. And ''this glitch also works in the second game''.
* ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsTheThirdAge'' makes it possible, if insanely tedious, to grind ability points in single battles, purely by focusing on defensive abilities throughout combat, and healing whenever necessary- or not, since Berethor's awesome Leadership party buffs can regenerate health and power points. What follows is Berethor using a speed buff for more turns before enemy turns, followed by an action point regeneration buff, followed by a hit point regeneration buff- rinse and repeat until you have everything you need.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', on Eden Prime, you can encounter some colonists hiding from the geth. If you talk to them, they reveal they have some smuggled weapons. You can confiscate a pistol from them, which turns out to be powerful enough to last you for quite a while.
** As soon as you get Tali, max out her 'Quarian Machinist' skill and give her a shield boosting armor mod. Doing so will give her enough shielding to turn her into a shotgun-wielding StoneWall for the next few hours.
** Completing Pinnacle Station allows players to get most of the best equipment in the game at the maximum grade at any level for less money than it legitimately costs to buy it from a merchant. This allows a low level player to get equipment that isn't possible, under normal circumstances, to get without beating the game once to change the level cap from 50 to 60.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' gives us the Locust SMG, obtained during [[DownloadableContent Kasumi's loyalty mission]]. Said weapon can be obtained before [[ThatOneLevel Horizon]].
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', the N7 Crusader shotgun is a perfectly accurate semi-automatic slug shotgun. It's essentially an unscoped sniper rifle, and while it's eventually surpassed by other weapons, it's an excellent weapon for quite a while. In fact, each of the N7 weapons qualifies as a solid DiscOneNuke. The Eagle combines the high fire rate and light weight of a burst fire SMG with the accuracy of a pistol. The Valiant deals nearly as much damage as a single-shot sniper rifle, but has a 3 shot magazine and much faster reload time. The Hurricane, while not very accurate, has extremely high DPS for an SMG. All of them are very good weapons in their own right, and all are available within a few hours of starting the game.
* In ''VideoGame/TaskMaker'' for the {{Mac}}, you're given an Ethereal Potion in the (optional) Tutorial level. It can either be sold for a high price to a shop, or used to phase through a wall and access a passageway with ''three'' of the most powerful weapons in the game — and while one of the three is in the same chamber as some highly powerful monsters, they will spawn far enough away for you to grab it without being hit.
* In ''DarkSouls'', the Drake Sword, easily the strongest Straight Sword without upgrades or scaling in the game (and one of the strongest sword type weapons period), can be acquired very early in the game if you have a ranged weapon, tons of ammo, and know that [[spoiler:severing a dragon boss' tail always gives you a powerful weapon]].
** The Zweihander in the graveyard is another borderline example; the skeletons are quite difficult to kill, but can be killed with even your starting weapon and magic with enough skill and patience, and it can even be acquired by running past the skeletons and grabbing it. While it has slow attacks, it can one-shot or stun many enemies and has very high base damage, making it rather rapidly superior to the Drake Sword once you get to the first blacksmith and start upgrading it. It can stun most of the enemies in the Darkroot Garden and Basin as well, which gives access to a fair bit of solid equipment. The weapon remains good through the end of the game, if using a heavy weapon is your thing.
** The Stone Armor set in the Darkroot Garden can be acquired either by buying a (pretty expensive) unlocking item or simply by legitimately beating the garden and basin fairly early in the game; the main issue is the enemies in the back end of Darkroot Garden being extremely dangerous. However, the stone armor set is one of the better heavy armor sets in the game, requires no upgrading, and can be acquired before going to Darktown, meaning that someone who is willing to be slow moving but extremely tough can put on the armor and be extremely resilient to damage long before they are "supposed to" be.
** It is possible to run through the Catacombs early and get weapons comparable to the Drake Sword, but which scale better later in the game. You can join the Gravelord Servant covenant very early to get the Gravelord Sword. While it needs some stat investments, you'll likely have enough souls to 2-hand the Gravelord Sword after you defeat Pinwheel. Another alternative is to find Vamos and upgrade a weapon of choice to a Fire +1 weapon. Also, taking out Pinwheel early is fairly trivial with a good melee weapon, and gets you the Rite of Kindling, letting you get up to 20 Estus Flasks out of bonfires. However, it's easier said than done; this involves rushing through hordes of respawning skeletons and dashing through a big open room full of [[DemonicSpiders Skeleton Wheels]].
** If you're [[RandomDrops lucky enough]] to find one, Black Knight weapons have great physical damage, deal extra damage to demons, and are useful through the entire game and even New Game +. The Black Knight Sword is perhaps the most egregious; its stat requirements are fairly low (20 strength and 18 dexterity), and it drops off of a (fairly difficult to beat, but possible to kill cheesily with ranged weapons) enemy just beyond the first save point in Undead Burg. It is more powerful than the Drake Sword (or indeed, anything else you will be able to make or find until late in the game), scales with your stats, and can be upgraded to a +5 weapon very early in the game due to its upgrade material being readily available. Additionally, many of the early bosses in the game are demons, which it gets a damage bonus against, making it even better. Only slightly later, the Black Knight Halberd is fairly easily obtained as well (if you get lucky enough to get the knight to drop it) by forcing a black knight off a cliff or simply killing it; it is debatably the best halberd in the game, and one of the best weapons in the game, period.
* ''DarkSoulsII'' has a few powerful weapons you can get early in the game that could serve the player throughout the rest of the game, if the weapons are upgraded properly. The weapons are the Fire Sword and Heidi Knight's Sword. Both weapons can be found in Forrest of the Fallen Giants. Heidi Knight's Sword you get by killing a hollow Heidi Knight early in the game. The sword has a built in lighting effect, which can later get improved upon with a lighting stone. The Fire Sword is in a chest you find by exploring the area. Both weapons have elemental effects which are very helpful in dealing with most enemies and bosses, since a lot of them are either weak against fire or lighting damage.
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', the Profiteer's Purse, obtained by checking the stairs in the mansion in Another Termina, is this in two ways. You can either disassemble it to its base components (letting you forge far better equipment than would otherwise be possible) or give it to Serge for a 33% bonus to all money gained from battles (which adds up very quickly).
** The same game has the Plasma Pistol, wielded by Norris or Starky. It has the power of a late-game weapon, but can be obtained far earlier than other weapons of its power (right after recruiting Starky, in fact).
* ''VideoGame/{{DragonFable}}'' has the [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom Doom weapons]], available from the Mysterious Stranger outside of Falconreach. While prohibitively expensive at 28000 gold, if the player grinds a lot of gold, they can have one of these as soon as level 8, and can upgrade them to higher level versions by grinding materials from various quests. Regardless of how far they are upgraded, these weapons are MUCH stronger than anything remotely close to their level, and if the player stays on top of their upgrade path, they're a viable option until shortly before the level cap. They also have a light-based variation, the Destiny weapons, which are obtained by taking a Doom weapon to Artix in Doomwood and purifying them, takes this even further, as they reach their maximum level much quicker than the Doom weapons (and, in fact, are stronger than a Doom weapon of a similar level), but aren't as viable towards the level cap as a result.
* It's possible in ''VideoGame/{{Vagrant Story}}'' to get the ultimate dagger early on. As soon as you reach the section of the Undercity entered via Shandras Park, all the doll enemies carry knives (the Khukuri, Hatchet, and Baselard). If you have the patience, you can win these items, and combine them at the nearest workshop into the Jamadhar, the best dagger.
* ''VideoGame/{{Robopon}}'' has quite a few of these.
** In the first game, you can find a [=LostCode=] in the first town, which acts as a free evolution. Depending on what TV remote you have or what button you press, you can also find a hidden treasure chest with a Shortcut in it, which acts as a free level up.
** Pegs in the first game; it is practically one robot that most players will have in their party due to its reliability. It became even better in the sequel with an evolution, [=PegSS=]... but sadly wasn't available til near the end of the game due to its rare sparking combination.
** Replacing Pegs in the sequel is Hexbot (Cross), which you can immediately spark after getting all of the batteries from the Cave, including the hidden one. It can use instant death software and has decent growth compared to other Robopon you can spark early on in the game.
** Gigapon and its evolutions fill this role in Ring, and is useful even in the endgame.
* In ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireII'' it's possible to recruit the optional character Bleu as soon as you have access to the Whale, roughly halfway through the game and before you've even recruited Spar. She comes in at level 35, at a point when the rest of your party is probably about level 20, with a great array of damaging, buffing and debuffing spells, and her stat growths remain extraordinarily high even after level 60. And as if that wasn't enough, her in-battle ability Shed allows her to regain all her health at no AP cost (albeit lowering her defence in doing so), making her nearly unkillable.
