History Main / DesperationAttack

* In ''Ninja Gaiden III'' and ''Sigma+'' on the UsefulNotes/PlaystationVita you get the option for "Hero Mode" which activates at 30% or less health and makes guarding and evading automatic, rendering death almost impossible, and last for a fairly long time.

** The UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} version gives [[FinalBoss Mr. Sandman]] a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imDTsu5TA90&feature=youtu.be&t=5m50s brutal desperation attack]] when he's on the cusp of losing the match. He roars with anger, huffs with exhaustion and wipes sweat between throwing an onslaught of punches with no openings, and surviving long enough to land a counter-attack is the ''only'' time the game gives you a free star... and landing that star punch will knock Mr. Sandman out guaranteed. [[GeniusBonus Those familiar with Mike Tyson]], the man Mr. Sandman was based on, will recognize this as a reference to Tyson having a lung condition which made him tire quickly, forcing him to rely on a very aggressive fighting style in order to win before tiring out.

Related to the LimitBreak, which is frequently accessed by taking damage but does not strictly require the user to have critical HP before use. Can also be a SubTrope of a CriticalStatusBuff (or its enemy counterpart, TurnsRed; which in turn has a move-related subtrope, called LastDitchMove) as well as SituationalDamageAttack (if the attack gets more powerful the closer you are to death). Can also overlap with LastStand. This kind of attack might be unleashed if the GodzillaThreshold has been crossed in a story (usually of the NuclearOption variety) as the situation is now dire enough to allow the potentially massive destruction. Compare RubberBandAI. Contrast FullHealthBonus, an ability that works best when your health is full.

In RealLife, [[CombatBreakdown most physical fights get less dramatic as time goes on]]. What started out as two guys in their physical prime going at each other, if it goes on for ten minutes, becomes two guys bearing the accumulated injuries (and fatigue) of ten minutes of fighting. Big hits become fewer and farther between, there's a lot more slow grappling, and it just [[WimpFight starts to look sloppy]]. Similarly, if one opponent at any point becomes significantly more injured than the other, [[UnstableEquilibrium that disadvantage tends to persist throughout the remainder of the fight.]]

** At the end of the duel between Luke and Vader in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', after being driven back onto a walkway with no way to escape and being knocked onto his back by Vader, Luke tries his best to counterattack and manages to get back on his feet and land a shallow cut on Vader's shoulder. However this merely seems to make Vader angry and he swiftly defeats Luke in seconds afterward.

* In ''Literature/{{The Art of War|SunTzu}}'', Sun Tzu warns against a combination of this and LastStand. "Throw the troops into a position from which there is no escape, and even when faced with death they will not flee." In actuality, Sun Tzu was warning against this because desperation attacks can still be pretty effective even if the enemy dies while doing it; that is, if someone dies but takes out a decent chunk of your infantry while doing so, they've still won since you need time and manpower to replenish and must potentially stop your forward progress. His answer was to always leave an escape route for the enemy, thus allowing them to rout, making them easy targets... and allowing them to run into the ambush you set up on the escape route so you could take them out there.
** In modern amphibious assaults, this was one reason for their success. The attacking soldiers have nowhere else to go and so they have no choice but attack directly.

* ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel'': [[TankGoodness The Taranis]] is equipped with an ultra powerful WaveMotionGun dubbed The Soul Cannon, which becomes available to use when your health falls below 50% during boss battles. It instantly ends the fight upon using it, but as the name implies [[PoweredByAForsakenChild it requires a live sacrifice in order to power it up]]. After use, [[AllDeathsFinal the child chosen to fire The Soul Cannon is rendered dead and cannot be revived by any means]] until your start NewGamePlus.

*** An inversion of this tactic is when a team's attack has tall forwards who play the entire game as 'target men'. This is generally called the "long ball" tactic and considered to be a low-skilled, non-technical style. It is often utilized in lower divisions where fast and technically-skilled players are rare, but physically strong and tall players are common.

** In ''Film/TheLastJedi'', one of the most visually stunning scenes in the whole series is when Admiral Holdo, as a last-ditch attack against the First Order's fleet, stays behind after evacuating the cruiser under her command and also does an much more overpowered kamikaze attack by engaging the hyperdrive on purpose and crashing the ship into the First Order's; doing this attack at hyperspeed releases a huge amount of energy and damages a lot of ships. This scene was hotly debated by fans because of the FridgeLogic of why if it was so effective nobody had ever done such an attack before in the series (kamikaze attacks had been done, but not with the hyperdrive). This was explained in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' by a CallBack in which the heroes talk about trying it again but point out that it was an unlikely move to work; presumably Holdo was extremely lucky and happened to hit at the right speed, trajectory and timing to be the most damaging.

** Pain Split divides your current HP and your enemy's current HP evenly between you; the more HP than you your opponent has, the better.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'' Link learns, in addition to his normal full-health SwordBeam, a beam attack that only works when his health is at or below 1 heart.
** One of the rings in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' also gives you this ability.
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', the mini-Guardians you fight in the Test of Strength shrines start to fire off charged salvos of explosive lasers, similar to the regular Guardian's laser attack when their health is low.

** In a diversion from the usual LimitBreak method of dealing with this for the series, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' allows you to combo attack much more frequently the lower your health. One of the best methods for dealing with most of the BonusBoss's uses this to its advantage by berserking 2 of your characters in critical health while using the third as a decoy. There are also unlockable options on the Licence grid that increase your Strength, Defence and Magic stats when HP Critical.

** Also, some characters have [[LimitBreak Mystic Artes]] that can only be used in Over Limit mode, and a few of them also require the character to be at low heath. Lloyd's Falcon Crest, for instance, can only be used when his health is at 16% or less. Presea's Crimson Devastation, from the UpdatedRerelease, is even worse. Not only does it require Presea's health to be low, but every other party member must also be [=KO'd=]. And even then, whether or not the move activates is random. To balance it out, Crimson Devastation is by far the strongest attack in the game, capable of cutting the health of even the toughest BonusBoss ''in half''.

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* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' has the Whore of Babylon item which Eve starts with. When their health drops to half a normal heart, the player turns into a demonic form with greatly increased damage which lasts as long as the player exits the room with half a normal heart. One strategy is to get an item which slowly refills soul hearts and use a Blood Bank to get down to half a normal heart to keep this ability going. This item is not a desperation attack for one of the unlockable characters, though: when he picks it up, the effect is permanent.
* The Flagellant from ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' is [[MechanicallyUnusualClass based around this.]] He (and he alone) gains a CriticalStatusBuff at 38% HP that allows him to hit harder, and he gains a {{Life Drain}}ing MegatonPunch called "Exsanguinate". The lower his HP, the higher his Attack, and at [[LastChanceHitPoint Death's Door]] he's an absolute monster. He also has the ability "Suffer," which steals DamageOverTime and MarkedToDie statuses from an ally so he can get to the point where he can use it sooner. He also has shades of TheBerserker, since he becomes AxCrazy at 100 [[MoraleMechanic Stress]], whereas anyone else either becomes Afflicted or Virtuous at that point.
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* ''Videogame/ExtrapowerStarResistance'' allows the player to perform a powerful transcendental attack when on their last health.
* In ''VideoGame/TouhouChireidenSubterraneanAnimism'', the game throws a full power-up at you to boost your shot power to maximum as soon as you're on your last life.

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* The ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' games give the more powerful items to players lagging behind, like [[ClassicVideoGameScrewYous Spiny Shells]], [[InvincibilityPowerUp Super Stars]] and [[RocketRide Bullet Bills]], while those in the lead get weaker items like [[NitroBoost Mushrooms]], Green Shells and {{banana peel}}s.