History Main / EmergencyWeapon

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

** And then there are [[VendorTrash grey weapons]]. Some classes (like rogues) rely on having a certain kind of weapon. If the raid's having a bad night, or the player is just out of it, their weapon can break, and then they can't use those special "must have an X equipped" abilities. In these times of desperation, a grey dagger can be better than having nothing. Note that you may encounter approximately one or two of these moments in your entire [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft [=WoW=]]] career.

** Samus also had a literal Emergency Pistol in ''[[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Mission]]'' that she uses during the UnexpectedGameplayChange stealth sequence during which she's lost her power suit. It's only able to stun enemies, and for exceptionally short periods at that; Samus herself [[LampshadeHanging hangs a giant lampshade]] on its ineffectiveness in a cutscene.

** The pistol (now called the "Paralyzer") returns in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM's'' epilogue when Samus has to race out of the Bottle Ship in her Zero Suit. This time, it has a charge function that is capable of stunning Pirates much longer than single shots do, but it's still pretty useless. It's really only used in the sequence to short-circuit gates and open them.

*** You'd think she would be better suited to just [[PistolWhipping bash the Pirates over the head with the silly thing]]. Apparently she came to the same conclusion herself by the time of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl.''

* ''VideoGame/AmidEvil'' has the Axe of the Black Labyrinth. Unlike most examples of this trope, it's a very useful weapon. One swing does more damage than many of your early ranged weapons, and it has the ability to pull enemies towards you at close range. It's more than capable of dealing with most of the basic mooks you'll see in each chapter.

* Averted through most of the VideoGame/FireEmblem series. With few exceptions, when your weapon breaks, it vanishes. Played straight in VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses, though, as broken weapons are still usable, they just do minimal damage and weigh a ton.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Receiver}}'', your only weapon is a single handgun, and you can do nothing with it unless you have bullets.

** .''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' expansion ''Opposing Force'' gives you a slower but more powerful pipe wrench, and later a combat knife that works just like the crowbar.

* ''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 {{Kukri|sAreKool}} for the Sniper, a bonesaw for the Medic, a [[GrievousBottleyHarm whiskey bottle]] for the Demoman, a [[AnAxeToGrind 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.

* If you're unarmed in ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', you can actually slug away with your bare fists, but RealityEnsues when you see how pointless trying to punch an EldritchAbomination is in practice. Thankfully, outside of one scripted event, each character's melee weapon is unbreakable and quite powerful to use in hacking off enemy limbs and heads, with projectile weapons often being inferior to the various melees until you move far enough in the timeline to be using rifles and shotguns.

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' was really the first game to make a useful knife. The ammo was VERY scarce, so most of the time Claire/Chris have to take care of zombies with the knife. Ironically, the other game featuring Claire, had probably the worst knife in the series, taking a whopping 50 slashes to kill ONE zombie. However, it's pretty common that "hardcore" fans of the series will perform knife runs, only using the knife and no other weapon unless it's completely necessary, even bosses. It helps that, due to a GoodBadBug, the knife ignores enemy MercyInvincibility when aimed down and can strike numerous times in a single slash, making downward slashes more powerful than ''handgun bullets''.
** ''Resident Evil 5'' gives you the option of buying the Stun Rod around level 3. It is a melee weapon that is swung like a bat and delivers an electric charge. Kills the normal enemies and in groups has the potential of killing a lot of them at the same time.
** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'', Ethan Winters gets his first combat experiences when he is attacked unexpected by [[spoiler: [[DemonicPossession His wife, Mia,]]]] and has to fight her off in a close-combat encounter with a nearby Hatchet, against the [[KnifeNut Butcher Knife]] she was attacking him with. The hatchet's small Size comes in handy when [[spoiler: Ethan gets his left hand chainsawed off by Mia shortly afterwards, and has to fight the subsequent boss fight with only one functioning limb. He does find a gun he uses to hold her off, but if the bullets run out, ethan's melee attack is the hatchet he still has in his possession.]] He loses the hatchet shortly afterwards when he's ambushed by [[TheDragon Jack Baker]] and dragged into the family house, and thus has to spend the next few encounters playing cat and mouse with the [[ImplacableMan unkillable Redneck.]] following this, he begs for aid from a Police deputy that was investigating disappearances around the property, and whilst the cop refuses to give the frantic Ethan his gun to defend himself, citing Ethan's suspicious behaviour as implicating he could be the cause of the disappearances, he does humour his pleas for aid by giving him a foldable pocket knife, which then goes on to become Ethan's Melee Weapon for the rest of the game. As expected, it's a spectacularly crappy weapon, but it's unbreakability means Ethan always has a means of defending himself from the Bakers.
*** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'' Ethan's melee weapon is now a hunting knife he finds in the titular abandoned village when he first stumbles into it. Fitting with the game's [[ActionisedSequel more action-packed focus]] Ethan never has to use it in any story context [[spoiler: save cutting himself free of his bonds to shoot Miranda at the climax]] and instead, thanks to the game's abundance of Ammo through either Crafting or The Duke's services, Ethan's main form of attack will always be his guns throughout the game, with little fear of running out, especially on lower difficulties.

* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'', Ethan Winters gets his first combat experiences when he is attacked unexpected by [[spoiler: [[DemonicPossession His wife, Mia,]]]] and has to fight her off in a close-combat encounter with a nearby Hatchet, agaisnt the [[KnifeNut Butcher Knife]]she was attacking him with. The hatchet's small Size comes in handy when [[spoiler: Ethan gets his left hand chainsawed off by Mia shortly afterwards, and has to fight the subsequent boss fight with only one functioning limb.. He does find a gun he uses to hold her off, but if the bullets run out, ethan's melee attack is the hatchet he still has in his possession.]] He loses the hatchet shortly afterwards when he's ambushed by [[TheDragon Jack Baker]] and dragged into the family house, and thus has to spend the next few encounters playing cat and mouse with the [[ImplacableMan unkillable Redneck.]] following this, he begs for aid from a Police deputy that was investigating disappearances around the property, and whilst the cop refuses to give the frantic Ethan his gun to defend himself, citing Ethan's suspicious behaviour as implicating he could be the cause of the disappearances, he does humour his pleas for aid by giving him a foldable pocket knife, which then goes on to become Ethan's Melee Weapon for the rest of the game. As expected, it's a spectacularly crappy weapon, but it's unbreakability means Ethan always has a means of defending himself from the Bakers.

* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'', Ethan Winters gets his first combat experiences when he is attacked unexpected by [[spoiler: [[DemonicPossession His wife, Mia,]]]] and has to fight her off in a close-combat encounter with a nearby Hatchet, agaisnt the [[KnifeNut Butcher Knife]]she was attacking him with. The hatchet's small Size comes in handy when [[spoiler: Ethan gets his left hand chainsawed off by Mia shortly afterwards, and has to fight the subsequent boss fight with only one functioning limb.. He does find a gun he uses to hold her off, but if the bullets run out, ethan's melee attack is the hatchet he still has in his possession.]] He loses the hatchet shortly afterwards when he's ambushed by [[TheDragon Jack Baker]] and dragged into the family house, and thus has to spend the next few encounters playing cat and mouse with the [[ImmplacableMan unkillable Redneck.]] following this, he begs for aid from a Police deputy that was investigating disappearances around the property, and whilst the cop refuses to give the frantic Ethan his gun to defend himself, citing Ethan's suspicious behaviour as implicating he could be the cause of the disappearances, he does humour his pleas for aid by giving him a foldable pocket knife, which then goes on to become Ethan's Melee Weapon for the rest of the game. As expected, it's a spectacularly crappy weapon, but it's unbreakability means Ethan always has a means of defending himself from the Bakers.

* ''Franchise/StarWars: {{VideoGame/Dark Forces|Saga}}'' has a fist you can fall back on. At one point you're expected to kill a big angry lizard called a Kell Dragon or two with it. 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'', once again has you with a lightsaber from the beginning. In one mission, however, it's taken away from you and you have to kill the guy who imprisoned you to get it back.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' gives Link infinite bombs. They're quite powerful, but you can only use one at a time, and there's a relatively long cooldown after each use.

** In fifth edition, most everyone carries a melee weapon and a ranged weapon, including spell casters. This way, a strength-based character can throw javelins at distant foes, while dexterity-based characters can use rapiers and shortswords in melee. Also, among spell casters, cantrips are At Will spells that can be used at any time, and don't use up spell slots - some of them can be pretty potent. Of course, in situations where preferred weapons (those that the character lacks the proficiency) are unavailable, any character can use any weapon, though it would be a good idea to base this off their respective strengths - a dexterous wizard getting a shortsword and a strong cleric getting a battleaxe - and worse comes to worse, anything can be used as a weapon.

* ''Driv3r'' - Tanner's 17-bullet-per-mag [[AKA47 9mm Automatic]]. If you run out of ammo for your other guns (including several machineguns, two other pistols, one of which is silent and fires faster, a grenade launcher and an assault rifle) in a later mission, where you're facing an ass load of dudes with ALL of those guns, bend over and kiss ass goodbye.

* In fourth edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', powers fall into several types depending on how often they're able to be used and how powerful they are. The At will powers can be used as many times as you want per day, but they are way less damaging than the daily powers.

* ''VideoGame/QuakeIIIArena'' had the gauntlet. It was the only melee weapon in the game, but it does deal a fair amount of damage by the standards of emergency weapons and was unlimited use. The game would keep track of how many gauntlet kills you'd racked up in a match, and the announcer would call "Humiliation" every time you pulled one off.

* In the ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013'' reboot, Lo Wang's WeaponOfChoice is his favourite katana. Rather than simply being something you pull out as a last resort when you run out of ammo, the katana makes for a very potent primary weapon as it can be upgraded to deal more damage and is also capable of powerful KiAttacks as Lo Wang grows in strength. There's a more powerful demon-slaying katana, the [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Nobitsura Kage]], up for grabs too.

** The series has the crowbar for every game except for ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' expansion ''Opposing Force'', which gives you a slower but more powerful pipe wrench, and later a combat knife that works just like the crowbar.
** ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' 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, enemy grenades, and [[AttackDrone Manhacks]]. Quite a fun weapon! Buzzsaw blades are particularly useful for bisecting crowds of zombies with one attack. You still have your trusty crowbar but it will be mostly relegated to just killing pesky headcrabs (especially the Poison and Fast variants) in a single hit.

* ''UnrealIITheAwakening'' also has a dispersion pistol, but unlike the first game, this really is a emergency weapon and nothing more.

* ''VideoGame/GoldeneyeRogueAgent'', the player is provided with a pistol with infinite ammunition, in addition to a few of the lethal uses for your [[MagicTool golden]] {{e|lectronicEyes}}ye.