History Main / EmergencyWeapon

* Units in the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars Original Generation'' may or may not come with a ''useful'' no-energy no-ammo attack (if nothing else, for example, a Grungust can always RocketPunch). If they don't, you can bet they'll come with either the option to perform a generic Attack (basically, bodyslamming the enemy), or head-mounted short-range vulcan cannons with unlimited ammo (one of many, many {{Shout Out}}s to ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'', although vulcan ammo was notably limited there). These attacks always hit for piddling damage and are seldom necessary, but can be fun for CherryTapping (or conserving ammo and energy). You could, however, upgrade these weapons. Why? Most Vulcans have 10-15 shots and body-slam has infinite ammo.
** In the first mission in ''OG'', the only character under the player's control is a mech with no weapons (it was a test run that got interrupted), which must kill eight enemies. However, since the pilot is [[{{Badass}} Elzam]], this is easier than it sounds.

* In ''Franchise/StarTrek: [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]: Elite Force'', the Phaser was almost certainly ''intended'' as the EmergencyWeapon, since it has its own separate ammunition supply that recharges on its own. However, it's powerful enough that many players use it even when all the other weapons have plenty of ammunition, thus conserving the big guns for that ''other'' kind of [[BossBattle emergency]].

* ''DeadRising'' has Frank fight off the zombies with his bare hands when you can't get your hands on [[ImprobableWeaponUser a baseball bat, a bench, or anything else for that matter]]. Being a normal reporter, it is about as useful as it sounds. Subverted as you level up, however; eventually, Frank becomes powerful enough to easily hold off enemies unarmed. You know you can stop relying on a handgun when you can start [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower tearing out people's innards with your bare hands.]] [[spoiler: These ludicrously powerful moves also are one-hit-kills on the rifle-wielding special forces that break into the mall near the end.]]

* In ''{{Minecraft}}'', all tools for breaking/attacking degrade with use. However, anything that ''isn't'' a breaking tool (or weapon), including your bare hand (i.e. an empty inventory slot) can still be used to break or attack; it just takes longer (or does less damage), and may destroy the target rather than yielding a resource. Since you start with an empty inventory and the first resource you need is wood, most games therefore start with punching trees.
* ''SurvivalCrisisZ'' has the knife. You can also get a chainsaw, which is a slightly better emergency weapon.

* [[BareFistedMonk Fists (occasionally a kick.)]]

* A weak gun, either with infinite ammo or the ability to fire [[VendorTrash random litter]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}'', each of the classes has a different infinite-ammo starting weapon. The Fighter's fists are actually quite potent (and they even have a combo attack), but the Cleric's mace is a joke. The Mage is unique because his Sapphire Wand is a ranged weapon - an infinite-range HitScan weapon which pierces enemies, at that. It technically does less damage than any other attack in the game, but it fires quickly and in many cases (mainly crowd control) it is more useful than his spells.
** All of the starting weapons share one important quality: they can't be bounced back at you. One common mook species and some bosses have shields which can reflect missiles, but the none of the above weapons can be reflected.

* The Snub Pistol from ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' is rather bad, unless you're skillful enough to fire all shots into an enemy to down them. Because of that, it's rather impratical to use unless you swap it for [[RevolversAreJustBetter Boltok]].

* ''MetalArms: Glitch in the System''. The starting weapon is the recharging "mining laser", and even fully upgraded, it's only slightly better than useless. And even that's better than Glitch's weak Melee.

* Snub Pistol from ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' is rather bad, unless you're skillful enough to fire all shots into an enemy to down them. Because of that it's rather impratical to use unless you swap it for [[RevolversAreJustBetter Boltok]].

** The melee attacks with your "guns" (read: hastily modified power tools with their safeties disabled) are not that useful, but Isaac's ground stomp can SEVER LIMBS from prone enemies! He must work out in high gravity.
*** Plus it's a fantastic stress relief to just stomp those monstrosities into necromorph pulp with those heavy boots. Do it long enough in the sequel and Isaac will launch into a ClusterFBomb.
** On higher difficulties, it's often ''only'' thing to fight with
* Prior to ''Mists of Pandaria'', This was what melee weapons were for the Hunter class in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. These were intended for use only when your pet has lost aggro or died, or you've run out of ammo. Over time, patches removed the need for ammo, the minimum range for ranged weapons, and eventually merged the melee and ranged weapon slots into a single slot. [[note]]Makes one wonder if it's because the developers were as sick of the "Hunter Weapon!" meme as everyone else was.[[/note]] But when they were necessary, the primary consideration when choosing one was on stat bonuses rather than melee damage. For example, one of the most common from vanilla WoW was [[http://www.wowhead.com/item=19106 Ice Barbed Spear]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}'', each of the classes has a different infinite-ammo starting weapon. The Mage is unique because his Sapphire Wand is a ranged weapon - an infinite-range hitscan weapon which pierces enemies, at that. In many cases, it is more useful than his spells.
** All of the starting weapons share one important quality: they can't be bounced back at you. As a common mook species and some bosses have shields which can reflect missiles...

* Prior to ''Mists of Pandaria'', This was what melee weapons were for the Hunter class in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. These were intended for use only when your pet has lost aggro or died, or you've run out of ammo. Over time, patches removed the need for ammo, the minimum range for ranged weapons, and eventually merged the melee and ranged weapon slots into a single slot. [[hottip:*:Makes one wonder if it's because the developers were as sick of the "Hunter Weapon!" meme as everyone else was.]] But when they were necessary, the primary consideration when choosing one was on stat bonuses rather than melee damage. For example, one of the most common from vanilla WoW was [[http://www.wowhead.com/item=19106 Ice Barbed Spear]].

* Samus' Power Beam was quickly obsoleted in many a ''{{Metroid}}'' game, especially the [[MetroidPrime Prime]]s, as you got upgrades. In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, the Luminoth beam weapons required energy sources alien to Samus' Power Suit, thus turning the Power Beam into the EmergencyWeapon. Of course, the three Luminoth weapons can still fire without ammo by charging a shot, thus keeping Samus from being locked out of any doors. Ammo is required for those three weapons to regain full functionality, however.

* VideoGame/ChexQuest, based on the Doom engine, has the "Boot Spoon", pictured above, which can do some Zorch damage to enemies when used. Being a game about cereal, it makes sense... kinda.
* In {{VideoGame/Marathon}}, you have your fists (one per mouse button) to rely on. Interestingly, by giving yourself a running start, you can do increased damage and take out weaker enemies with surprising speed; it's kind of funny to repeatedly berserker-charge an alien soldier and punch him in the face, and funnier when it makes pretty short work of the guy.

* The wrench from RatchetAndClank not only has unlimited uses but boomerangs when thrown and when properly upgraded is described as the most deadly weapon in the galaxy.

* In VideoGame/PsiOpsTheMindgateConspiracy, you have your silenced pistol with rare ammunition (since no enemy really carries one) and a larger gun. Since it usually takes about a clip, per enemy thankfully you have {{Telekinesis}} as back-up or your main weapon. If you run out of psi energy, you'll still have GoodOldFisticuffs.

* All CityOfHeroes characters have the "Brawl" power which costs no endurance to use and deals low damage. It's mostly just used at low levels as a filler attack but some Brutes use it even into the mid-levels to help them generate/maintain Fury before they have an optimized attack chain.

* DeadRising has Frank fight off the zombies with his bare hands when you can't get your hands on [[ImprobableWeaponUser a baseball bat, a bench, or anything else for that matter]]. Being a normal reporter, it is about as useful as it sounds. Subverted as you level up, however; eventually, Frank becomes powerful enough to easily hold off enemies unarmed. You know you can stop relying on a handgun when you can start [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower tearing out people's innards with your bare hands.]] [[spoiler: These ludicrously powerful moves also are one-hit-kills on the rifle-wielding special forces that break into the mall near the end.]]

** This is carried over into VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Most of Olimar's moves requires him to use a Pikmin to actually strike the foe, though he does have a (very few) weak melee attacks that don't use Pikmen.

* In 4/fA, the Hanger ability becomes a set, permanent ability, with a catch: [=NEXTs=] with tank-type legs have no restriction in hangar weapons, meaning that carrying grenade launchers with gatling gun backups is perfectly valid option (obviously, barring weight restrictions).

** VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas: Also gives you [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Recharger_pistol Recharger pistol]] and recharger rifle which don't require ammo (but can still break)

* While VideoGame/CaveStory has weapons that use ammo, there is only one weapon (two if you count the upgraded version) that has ''limited'' ammo, the missile launcher. The ammo for the Machine Gun recharges quite quickly, even quicker if you find an upgrade for that, and the Bubble Gun recharges very slowly on Lvl 1 and very quickly on Lvl 3.

* Snub Pistol from ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' sucks so badly, that it's basically useless until you swap it for [[RevolversAreJustBetter Boltok]]

* Tools, such as a [[HalfLife crowbar]] or [[BioShock wrench]]. Lead pipes are also popular.

* Many FirstPersonShooter games, at least those before QuickMelee became popular, have a unique melee weapon - often a [[ImprovisedWeapon random object]] that the protagonist uses like a club - which becomes iconic for the series, such as the crowbar from ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life}}''

* The ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life}}'' series has the crowbar for every game except ''Opposing Force'', which gives you a slower but more powerful pipe wrench, and later a combat knife that works just like the crowbar.
* ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}'' also has the Gravity Gun, which has infinite uses and [[WreakingHavok can turn any loose object in the environment into a lethal projectile]], from boxes, oil drums, old tires, and iron stakes to giant buzzsaw blades, exploding barrels, and enemy grenades. Quite a fun weapon! Buzzsaw blades are particularly useful for bisecting crowds of zombies with one attack.

** ''Doom 3'' also adds the flashlight, which deals twice as much damage as the fists and actually [[WhoForgotTheLights lets you see what you're doing]], but swings twice as slowly (and, in the PC version, has shorter range). ''Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil'' adds the Grabber, which can be used to grab barrels, crates, and even most enemy projectiles and fire them back at the sender, and in addition its Soul Cube analogue gives the same bonuses as the above-mentioned powerup from the base game, depending on how many of the Hunters you've killed.

* The ''Franchise/TombRaider'' series has Lara with her defaul dual Pistols that have unlimited ammo, which is used mainly as a backup weapon halfway through the game once you collect other guns and ammo. It's the weakest weapon.

* ''BinaryDomain'' gives you the infinite-ammo sidearm - a simple semiauto pistol. It's fairly useful even when other guns are available - if you're only facing a few standard mooks, downing them with a few pistol headshots lets you save up ammo for the big guns. And if you haven't upgraded the assault rifle's precision, and don't have a sniper weapon as your secondary, the pistol is also the most precise weapon at your disposal.

* Snub Pistol from ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' sucks so badly, that it's basicaly useless until you swap it for [[RevolversAreJustBetter Boltok]]

* The ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'' series first ammo is the Blaster, weak bullets that never are used up and are useful until you find better ammo. Although getting some rapid fire Powerups make them very good weapons on their own.
* Similiarly, ''Abuse'''s base weapon, a simple repeating laser rifle, uses ammo to increase its firing rate (up to several hundred units) rather than to shoot at all. If its ammo falls to zero, it just shoots less quickly.

** In the original ''Metroid'', all of the bosses could be harmed with your regular beam in case you ran out of missiles (with the exception of metroids, but they always gave you missiles when you killed them). In fact, Kraid [[spoiler:is particularly weak against ''morph ball bombs'']]. The later games are able to mix it up thanks to the Charge Beam powerup; bosses take no damage from uncharged beam shots, while charged shots are just as strong as missiles but take a second or two to actually charge up.

* ''VideoGame/HarryPotter'' video games have introduced the Flippendo knockback jinx, a basic attack spell which consumes no {{Mana}}.

** And it comes all the way around to awesome once again in ''MegaManStarForce 2''. The BusterMax giga card (the most powerful type of card, of which you can only use one at any given time) turns the Buster into the game equivalent of a gatling gun that can chew anything in your path into little tiny crunchy bits.

** In earlygame, it's also useful for breaking chests open if you can't open them and can't deal enough damage with your normal weapon. Especially the flat chests, which have 15 damage reduction against physical strikes... truly an emergency lockpick. Or a lockhammer. Destroying a chest from afar doesn't trigger any traps that are on it, either.

* Many FirstPersonShooter games have a unique melee weapon - often a [[ImprovisedWeapon random object]] that the protagonist uses like a club - which becomes iconic for the series, such as the crowbar from ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life}}''

* The ''VideoGame/RainbowSix: Vegas'' series features pistols with infinite magazines (although limited shots per magazines), but considering the fact that you can carry two 'primary' weapons with upwards of ''ten'' full magazines for each, there's really no excuse for running out of ammo (unless you [[CripplingOverspecialization over-specialize]] one of them). Though it does make you look much more BadAss.
** As do ''MedalOfHonor: Airborne'' and the 2010 reboot.
** ''Airborne'' also lets you stomp on enemies during your parachute descent, making you lethal before your feet even touch the ground. ''{{Section 8}}'', which has all players drop in from orbit when they spawn, does much the same.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life}}'' series has the crowbar for every game except ''Opposing Force'', which gives you a pipe wrench and later a combat knife.

* ''{{Halo}}'' has the inventive solution of letting you [[PistolWhipping use your guns as melee weapons]]; a melee attack dealt to a sleeping or unaware enemy is a OneHitKill. This has become somewhat popular in games such as ''GearsOfWar'', where your main gun has a built-in [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]] ''[[BayonetYa bayonet]]'' for just this purpose. Also found in the earlier CallOfDuty games.
** ''{{Halo 2}}'' and 3 have weapons that only function in melee (specifically, an [[LaserBlade energy sword]] and a [[DropTheHammer gravity hammer]]), but they have limited energy. The sword becomes completely useless when depleted, and the hammer (while still usable as a simple blunt object) loses its knock-back ability.
*** In ''{{Halo 2}}'' and 3, you can use your regular melee, and he will be holding the hilt of the sword, so it is still a blunt object.

** In its spiritual successor, ''GoldeneyeRogueAgent'', the player is provided with a pistol with infinite ammunition, in addition to a few of the lethal uses for your [[MagicTool golden]] [[ElectronicEyes eye]].
* Some newer games are providing very useful backup melee attacks. ''VideoGame/{{Counter-Strike}}'', the ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' series and later ''CallOfDuty'' games feature a knife that is an instant kill, and ''F.E.A.R.'' not only has pistol whips and rifle butts but also jump and slide kicks that are instant kills.
* In ''{{Painkiller}}'', the emergency weapon is the titular Painkiller. It's actually quite useful -- its rapid-fire melee hits can keep an enemy from attacking, and its ranged secondary is powerful enough to kill most weaker enemies in one hit on Normal difficulty... and you can also fire it at a wall to create an unstoppable laser to fry your enemies by keeping the Painkiller pointed at the "hook".

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' has a different melee weapon for every single class - A [[BatterUp baseball bat]] for the Scout, an [[ShovelStrike entrenchment shovel]] for the Soldier, a [[PercussiveMaintenance wrench]] for the Engineer, a ButterflyKnife for the Spy, a [[KukrisAreKool Kukri]] for the Sniper, a bonesaw for the Medic, a [[GrievousBottleyHarm whiskey bottle]] for the Demoman, a [[AxeCrazy fire axe]] for the Pyro, and [[GoodOldFisticuffs bare fists]] for the Heavy. The 'unlockables' added in subsequent patches provide alternative melee weaponry on top of these.
** Inverted with the Spy class however: the Spy's ability to {{Backstab}} makes the butterfly knife his primary weapon most of the time, while his [[RevolversAreJustBetter Revolver]], while still powerful, is the EmergencyWeapon in [[BlastOut case he gets caught]]. In fact, the ItemCrafting system categorized Spy knives as primary weapon.

* ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'' starts the player off with an [[LethalJokeWeapon incredibly powerful knife]] and a rather less powerful infinite-ammo revolver.
** Second Encounter adds a chainsaw to the mix, though it has to be acquired first.

* ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Dark Forces]]'' has a fist you can fall back on. At one point you're expected to kill a big angry lizard called a Kell Dragon with it (or two, if you're on hard mode). Its sequel, ''Jedi Knight'', starts with your fists as a backup... and then you get the lightsaber, which never needs recharging and is probably the most useful and powerful weapon in the game bar none. Incidentally, in ''Jedi Knight'', the only things that can hurt the lone Kell Dragon you can encounter are explosives and the lightsaber--energy weapon shots ''bounce off'' its skin. In the expansion pack, ''Mysteries of the Sith'', you start with the lightsaber. The sequel to that, ''Jedi Outcast'', has you starting out with a stun baton (cattle prod) as a backup weapon, which is actually useful against certain types of enemies, and then you get the lightsaber and never look back. Finally, the sequel to that, ''Jedi Academy'', has you with a lightsaber from the beginning. In one mission, you can lose it, and you don't get another infinite-ammo weapon to replace it, though you regain it after you complete the mission.

** With correct augments (combat strength, bullet resistance, fast running, etc) this trope is subverted and they become very, very, VERY deadly. Not many games let you frontal charge an assault bot armed with miniguns and rockets with a sword-and win. Comfortably and easily.

* Quake II provides the blaster which, despite being an "advanced technology" energy weapon, is quite weak. (The Hyperblaster, which ''isn't'' an emergency weapon in that it actually hungrily uses up ammunition, is a much more useful variant that emits the same plasma bolts, but at a much higher rate than the Blaster.)
* Unlike most FPS games, ''VideoGame/{{BioShock}}'' wrench is arguably the most useful weapon in the game. With the proper upgrades, it allows you to effortlessly kill Big Daddies as well.
* Same with ''Franchise/BioShock'', ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2's'' wrench can be very deadly with proper upgrades. Or you can just change to laser rapier or alien crystal if you want.
** In System Shock 2, learning to properly use the wrench is actually a requisite of completing the [[HarderThanHard Impossible]] setting as buying upgrades becomes prohibitively expensive in cyber modules (making energy or exotic weapon skill an utter folly to pursue), enemies can take more damage than ever before, specialized ammo supplies dwindle to a trickle (especially precious armor-piercing bullets) and vending machine prices for extra ammo will make you think twice about spending your nanites like they're going out of style.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando'' has melee attacks associated with every weapon via the melee quick-hit button. The default Commando-issue [[SwissArmyWeapon Swiss Army Rifle]] includes a deadly strike with the [[BladeBelowTheShoulder retractable blade in the left glove]], while other weapons resort to [[PistolWhipping beaning your enemies with them]]. The actual emergency weapon slot is the [=DC-15s=] pistol that you to fall back on if you manage to run out of ammo for ''all'' your weapons. It has infinite ammo, a recharge time, and about zero usefulness other than saving ammo. Actually PistolWhipping with said pistol is the weakest melee attack in the game (which wouldn't be so bad, except you can't switch to an empty weapon should you want to melee with that one instead).
* The starting weapon in ''FarCry 2'' is an enormous machete the BigBad slammed into the wall just above your head. Any attack from stealth with it will either kill or critically wound the target, but they'll usually shout and give away your position before they die.

* In ''JetForceGemini'', your basic weapon is the Jet Force pistol. It's weak, can only be fired 5 or so times before needing to pause, and has limited ammo. But if you run out, it can still fire an infinite supply of emergency pellets, which are even weaker.

* ''SeriousSam'' starts the player off with an [[LethalJokeWeapon incredibly powerful knife]] and a rather less powerful infinite-ammo revolver.

* ''SwordOfTheStars'' has surface-to-orbit missiles. While they might destroy lone scouts or even small groups of starships that are PointDefenseless, they become much less useful once the enemy either has sufficient point defence or [[WeHaveReserves brings enough spares]] to the battle. No substitute for a proper battle fleet, they are.

* Sidearms in ''JaggedAlliance 2'' are relegated to this role by mid-game, particularly in the v1.13 update. They're not very effective against proper body armour or at long range, unless you're packing a HandCannon with all their accuracy issues, but the AP cost to draw and fire one is significantly lower than reloading or unjamming your primary weapon. The various melee weapons are another kind of EmergencyWeapon; guns are very nearly useless at point-blank range (which is TruthInTelevision), and a blade or even GoodOldFisticuffs is more use if you walk right into an enemy mook whilst clearing a building. v1.13 even includes a special blades-only inventory slot so you can give one to every team member without wasting inventory space.

* [[BareHandedMonk Fists (occasionally a kick.)]]

* [[GoodOldFisticuffs Fists (occasionally a kick.)]]

* Tools, such as a crowbar or wrench. Lead pipes are also popular.

* The ''RainbowSix: Vegas'' series features pistols with infinite magazines (although limited shots per magazines), but considering the fact that you can carry two 'primary' weapons with upwards of ''ten'' full magazines for each, there's really no excuse for running out of ammo (unless you [[CripplingOverspecialization over-specialize]] one of them). Though it does make you look much more BadAss.

* ''Franchise/SilentHill'' contains melee weapons which tend to see more use than the guns, which have very limited ammo. Fortunately, these melee weapons are both strong and unbreakable for the first four games. ''Un''fortunately, Silent Hill fans who were used to invulnerable wooden planks and unbending steel pipes were given a very rude shock when the prequel ''SilentHillOrigins'' came and brought the concept of all melee weapons breaking eventually. If players weren't careful and didn't conserve their best melee weapons, they would be reduced to beating down bosses with toasters, screwdrivers or their ''bare hands''.

* In {{Marathon}}, you have your fists (one per mouse button) to rely on. Interestingly, by giving yourself a running start, you can do increased damage and take out weaker enemies with surprising speed; it's kind of funny to repeatedly berserker-charge an alien soldier and punch him in the face, and funnier when it makes pretty short work of the guy.

*** Plus it's a fantastic stress relief to just stomp those monstrosities into necromorph pulp with those heavy boots.

* ''BinaryDomain'' gives you the infinite-ammo sidearm - a simple semiauto pistol. It's fairly useful even when other guns are available - if you're only facing a few standard mooks, downing them with a few pistol headshots lets you save up ammo for the big guns. And if you haven't upgraded the assault rifle's precision, and don't have a sniper weapon as your secondary, the pistol is also the most precise weapon at your disposal.