History Main / ForcedLevelGrinding

In many games you can also try to acquire a DiscOneNuke which means you don't need to grind. Of course, these nukes are well hidden so either have a [[GuideDangIt guide]] at hand or it will take just as long as killing grinding through {{Mooks}} .

In many games you can also try to acquire a DiscOneNuke which means you don't need to grind. Of course, these nukes are well hidden so either have a [[GuideDangIt guide]] at hand or it will take just as long as killing grinding through [[Mooks]].

In many games you can also try to acquire a DiscOneNuke which means you don't need to grind. Of course, these nukes are well hidden so either have a [[GuideDangIt guide]] at hand or it will take just as long as killing grinding through Mooks.

The heroes have killed the boss, repaired the BrokenBridge and finally arrived at the next City. They visit the two shops, activate few quests and head off to the wilderness. But what's that? The RandomEncounters are suddenly too strong. Two ordinary battles later, half of your party is dead, the rest with only a few {{Hit Point}}s left. You've realized the powers of your heroes are SoLastSeason that facing the [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil new enemies]] is suicidal.

* ''{{Shadowrun}}'' for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive was another game where the whole point was level grinding, or to be specific, money grinding. All the good upgrades cost tons of money. This is especially egregious in Matrix runs, which are the most profitable runs in the game, the reason being that cyberdeck upgrades will cost you an arm and a leg. To actually beat the game though, it's not necessary to upgrade everything because the main plot quest isn't that difficult and the final boss is a pushover.

*** The '''fourth''' scripted fight in the game (Dorter Trade City) is an especially big offender.

* Only the next Boss is affected, if the game is merciful enough. High potential to become ThatOneBoss.

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' tries to avert this. Questing is more effective than plain grinding for leveling purposes, and the various factions have [[AntiPoopSocking Daily Quests]] instead of a plain reputation point grind. The old content was pretty bad, though. One particular grind required the player to kill ''fourty thousand'' {{Elite Mook}}s in addition to having the entire server's population grind crafting ingredients to open a pair of new dungeons.

* AtlanticaOnline: New mercenaries always start out at Level 1 (with the exception of a few base classes that can be hired from wandering NPCs), even if the questline to get them (and the main character level requirement) is 100. There are other ways to get Exp than only in battle, but most of them translate to grinding in one or another form.

* Inverted in {{Borderlands}}. Forget about grinding, if you just complete every quest as it becomes available, you will become so powerful that the later parts of the game are too easy.

** ''FinalFantasyII'' was notable (perhaps infamous) for requiring grinding just to survive more than a single fight against the weakest enemies in the game. Foolishly going towards the nearby first dungeon without at least half an hour's grinding is just a recipe for a quick and inglorious end to your adventure. OrSoIHeard.

*** Also, in the first game, in order to survive in the Grave of Garin, you have to grind to about level 13 (damn Wraith Knights in the lower levels). Then, there's the swamps south of Hauksness, home to the strongest overworld enemies in the game, including the [[NightmareFuel dreaded]] Star Wyverns, Demon Knights, and Wizards.

** ''DragonQuestIII'' is almost as bad in this respect. Try challenging some of the bosses at lower levels. Unless you get extremely lucky, you're going to be curb-stomped. Orochi in particular, you need to grind quite a bit after getting the ship to beat, especially because you have to fight the prick twice in a row without going to an inn.

[[folder:Other genres]]
* ''TheLegendOfZelda'' games often have forced ''[[GlobalCurrency rupee]]'' grinding, like in the Triforce chart quest in ''The Wind Waker''. In most Zelda games you only have to grind for rupees once. [[MoneyForNothing Money eventually becomes a complete afterthought.]]
* Any game where [[HeKnowsAboutTimedHits you know about timed hits]] and ActionCommands averts this to some degree, as the difficulty is a combination of levels and skill.
** There was one speed-run of the first ''Mario & Luigi'' where the person managed to beat the game ''without ever being hit'', completely taking away the need for any levels at all (besides attack power, of course).

* ''DJMAX Portable Clazziquai Edition''[='=]s unlocks are like this. You need to have a high enough rank to enter each club, and you increase your rank by defeating opponents in Mission Clubs. In Mission Clubs, you need to be less than 30 ranks away from a particular opponent to be able to challenge them. The rank requirement for club entry usually isn't bad so much as the requirement for opponent challenging. More often not, you only need to defeat a small fraction of opponents to clear the club...and you end up having to go back there and defeat the remaining opponents because the opponents in a later club are too high-ranked for you to be allowed to challenge them. This becomes quite a problem in the 6th area's Mission Club, "Maximum", where in order to be able to challenge and defeat enough of the 21 opponents to clear it, you more or less have to defeat every opponent in the Mission Clubs prior to this one (unless you like grinding already-defeated opponents for 1 rank per clear as opposed to 2-5 for a yet-not-defeated one).

* ''Godfather'' the game for XBox. Intentional or not, I'm having to simply wait for game-time to pass so I can earn enough protection money to buy the Infinity Plus One machine gun to clear out the last nest of bad guys.
*Bizarrely, ''CommandAndConquer 4''. New units are rewarded for XP, and you'll probably only get about a ''quarter'' of the way to unlocking everything by completing the single player campaigns (and that's assuming you can complete the single player without grinding anyway).
* ''{{Willow}}'' for the NES requires you to be at least level 13 to transform Fin Raziel so she can power up the [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Cane of Plot Advancement]], giving you a chance against Bavmorda. And at level 13 (level 16 is the maximum), it's still not a very good chance.

<<|VideoGameDifficultyTropes|>>

** Since we're talking about ''Pokémon'', this calls for The Big One. The ''Gold'', ''Silver'', and ''Crystal'' Versions are the easiest generation... until you get to Silver Cave. The strongest trainer before Red is Blue, with his highest-level Pokémon being level 58. But then, we've got Red in Silver Cave whose LOWEST-level Pokémon is level 73!!! If you are playing with a 6-Pokémon team, this part of the game is a nightmare even if you caught the Level-70 legendary bird to save time! Not to mention that the highest-level Pokémon you can powerlevel against repeatedly are level 50, so the exp. yield is not awesome.