History Main / MookMaker

* One of the more deadly (and popular) monsters from the ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' series were Archviles, who not only threw massively damaging jets of flame at you, but also could resurrect all the dead creatures in its vicinity, as many times as it liked.
** ''Doom 3'' changed this up somewhat because the bodies of demons always disintegrate upon death, meaning that the Archvile could no longer resurrect its defeated fellow demons. Instead, it summons another demon as soon as it appears and then summons additional demons at random intervals while you're busy fighting the first one. It can even summon things stronger than itself, even up to the level of Hellknights, though stronger demons take longer to summon and the Archvile itself is left defenseless while it is performing the summoning ritual. If an Archvile decides to summon a Hellknight as its first minion, a good player can actually kill it before it completes the summoning ritual and never have to face any summoned demons. Some Archviles will get smart about that and summon something weaker first, like an Imp, to keep you busy while it summons a Hellknight.
** And another ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' example, the Pain Elementals, flying Cacodemon-like gasbag monsters that spit out flying skulls called Lost Souls, and could do so forever until you killed them, at which point they released three more Lost Souls upon death just to spite you.
*** The Pain Elementals also had a deliberate limitation implemented to stop them from flooding the map with Lost Souls and slowing everything down to a crawl (we are talking about a game from 1994 being played on machines even older, after all). The universal map limit is 21 Lost Souls, a number which is achievable on pretty much any stock map that includes Pain Elementals. Some [=PWADs=] actually go so far as to take advantage of this feature, booby-trapping special items with crushers that kill out-of-area Lost Souls, allowing the present Pain Elementals to start ruining your day.
** A third example is the ''final boss'' of ''Doom II'', (The Icon of Sin) which spat out cubes that turned into demons upon landing ([[{{Telefrag}} and would kill you even in god mode if you happened be where a cube landed]]). To defeat it, you launch rockets into [[strike:its exposed brain]] hit JohnRomero with SplashDamage.
* ''VideoGame/{{Heretic}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}'', two games that used the same GameEngine as ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', had boss characters (D'sparil and Korax) who would summon lots of lesser enemies in addition to not dying and making you die a lot.

Sometimes the Mook Maker can be destroyed; other times your only real tactic is to dodge them and move on. Or, depending on the game, the enemies can be farmed for goodies, ExperiencePoints, or InfiniteOneUps.

* ''WebAnimation/TheDementedCartoonMovie'' features the Auto Romeo Maker, employed multiple times during a rehearsal of ''Romeo & Juliet'' when the actress [[AxeCrazy can't stop killing her co-stars with explosives]]. Late in the movie, Evil Blah calls for the Auto Damsel Maker when the damsel he's holding captive inexplicably loses her head (literally, it just pops off her neck!)

* In ''RobotChicken,'' Cobra has one of these to clone countless Mooks, though some come out wrong.

* Any Geo Panels with the Clone effect in the ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' series can function as these, spawning an exact copy of a randomly chosen unit who's on the panels at the end of each turn.

* Enemy generators are the signature trait of the ''{{Gauntlet}}'' series, though unlike in many other games they can be destroyed. Most of the games with more detailed graphics depict them as a tunnel opening of some sort, which gives the [[FridgeHorror disturbing impression]] of the entire level sitting on top of an incomprehensibly enormous complex of mook lairs.

* ''VideoGame/SoulBlazer'' has objects which spawn monsters until they are destroyed. This bears striking similarity to ''Gauntlet''.

* ''WebAnimation/{{The Demented Cartoon Movie}}'' features the Auto Romeo Maker, employed multiple times during a rehearsal of Romeo & Juliet when the actress [[AxeCrazy can't stop killing her co-stars with explosives]].

* AgeOfEmpires3 features certain campaign [[HeroUnit Hero Units]] who can summon troops as if they were a walking building. Major Cooper can summon Hussers, Billy Holme can summon outlaws and Colonel Edwardson can train Sepoys. The Japanese are the only civilization who can do this in regular skirmish games, their Daimyo can summon basic Mooks, while Shoguns can summon ''artillery!'' All of the above must remain stationary while producing units though.

See also ClownCarGrave, and ExplosiveBreeder. Compare to EnemySummoner, which is like Mook Maker but with the ability to fight on their own too, or SpawnBroodling when mook-making is a form of attack.

* ''WebAnimation/The Demented Cartoon Movie'' features the Auto Romeo Maker, employed multiple times during a rehearsal of Romeo & Juliet when the actress [[AxeCrazy can't stop killing her co-stars with explosives]].

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* ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' Photoplasty advertises it in [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_273_26-ads-products-that-must-exist-in-video-games_p26/#19 Ads for Products That Must Exist in Video Games]].

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' Photoplasty advertises it in [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_273_26-ads-products-that-must-exist-in-video-games_p26/#19 Ads for Products That Must Exist in Video Games]].
[[/folder]]

* [[KamenRiderDecade Kamen Rider Diend]]'s main power is the ability to create copies of other Kamen Riders, which then do what he tells them to. Normally these summons are solo, but his most-used card creates three [[KamenRiderFaiz Riotroopers]], more in line with this trope.
** Later, a MonsterOfTheWeek steals the Diendriver, and with it, summons a Fangire and Undead to fight the ''SamuraiSentaiShinkenger''.

* Geth starships in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' sometimes spawn geth until they are damaged enough to fly away. (yes, fly away. Geth pilots are apparently more intelligent than your average video game airman, and don't want their fancy starship getting destroyed.)

** In the first game these are finite, though, unlike many mook makers -- the Geth dropships will eventually run out of troopers and leave, and the Thorian produces a new Asari clone only when you destroy a node. In Mass Effect 2 there do seem to be some infinite mook spawns, notably the Geth infantry when fighting the Colossus on Haestrom.

* The giant seahorse in one of the levels of the first ''EccoTheDolphin'' game. It [[MrSeahorse keeps spitting baby seahorses out of its pouch at you]].

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' - [[DemonicSpiders Boxed Phalanxes]].....[[OhTheHumanity oh the Boxed Phalanxes]]
** To clarify, they're not only Mook Makers, they're also ''Mook Empowerers''. Leave them long enough, and they'll put so many buffs on their Mooks they almost reach BossInMookClothing territory.

A device or enemy whose main purpose is to constantly spit out enemies for the player to fight. [[FlunkyBoss Some bosses have this ability]], to add to the challenge, to make the [[ThatOneBoss player want to hurl the controller at the TV screen]], or to [[TacticalSuicideBoss give the player something to use]] to hit or get to the boss villain's [[ForMassiveDamage weak point]].

Sometimes the Mook Maker can be destroyed; other times your only real tactic is to dodge them and move on. Or, depending on the game, the enemies can be farmed for goodies, XP, or InfiniteOneUps.

* ''Blake Stone'' Don't hang around in rooms with electric sockets on the walls. The Plasma Aliens will just keep coming out and will not stop until you are dead.

* The PC game ''BlakeStone: Aliens of Gold'' has plus-sign shaped "outlets" that spawn energy aliens that are weak individually, but often are seen in groups near their outlets. They shoot projectiles at you.

* ''VideoGame/DGeneration'' has holes in the floor which you step on to close.

* ''VideoGame/Vexx'' features an enemy called a Shreek. These invincible enemies are bound to poles, and alternate between awake and asleep in predictable intervals. If the player is spotted, it will summon several weak mooks.

** Likewise for Engineer nests in ''Halo: DOST'', which combust spectacularly when fired upon and can lead to a daisy chain of destruction.

** Batreaux from ''VideoGame/SkywardSword'' is an (in-universe) unintentional example. He's a pretty nice guy, but that doesn't stop his demonic aura from attracting monsters to Skyloft and making all the Remlits turn evil at night.

[[quoteright:330:[[VideoGame/MegaMan http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MetallPotton.JPG]]]]

** Also from Wind Waker: Wizzrobes. The normal variety can summon normal {{Mooks}} such as Keese, but there's one Wizzrobe mini-boss in the Wind Temple that can summon not only mooks, but ''other'' (normal) Wizzrobes.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter Tri'' has Gigginox, which can lay eggs which spawn infant Giggi, which can drain your health. Unfortunately, some of eggs are not eggs and will in fact explode and poison you if you are within range of it.

* ''CortexCommand'' has a cave level which has cloning tubes that spawn zombies. Said zombies cannot attack directly, which is why a bomb spawner is placed only a few feet away. Things can get ugly real quickly.