History Main / ScrappyWeapon

** Royal Guard-tier weapons surpass even the Royal weapons in terms of damage, and are unique in that they can only be found within Hyrule Castle. Unfortunately, they have low durability, in a game where durability and limited inventory themselves are already controversial mechanics. This makes them TooAwesomeToUse outside Hyrule Castle (and not too efficient even inside), as they only have so many hits they can make before needing to run all the way back to the center of the gigantic map.
** The Long Throw bonus is this for the Weapon Bonus system. Whereas Attack Up bonuses let your weapon deal more damage per hit and Durability Up bonuses let your weapon last longer in combat, Long Throw bonuses just let you throw your weapon farther... at which point it still breaks on contact with an enemy like always. While this does double damage, it already happens if you break a weapon against an enemy in a melee attack, making the Long Throw bonus functionally equivalent to a no-bonus weapon for most players.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Royal Guard-tier weapons surpass even the Royal weapons in terms of damage, and are unique in that they can only be found within Hyrule Castle. Unfortunately, they have low durability, in a game where durability and limited inventory themselves are already controversial mechanics. This makes them TooAwesomeToUse outside Hyrule Castle (and not too efficient even inside), as they only have so many hits they can make before needing to run all the way back to the center of the gigantic map.

* The [[LittleUselessGun .38 Special]] in ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2''. Pistols, in general, are relegated to EmergencyWeapon status early on as it is, and revolvers in particular are considered inferior because they have to be reloaded about three times as often as everything else, so that's two strikes against it before we even get to the fact that it does ''lousy'' damage and has poor range and accuracy even by pistol standards. You're almost better off with a knife.

** In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'', Fire, Lightning and Wind magic are crunched into one weapon type, "Tomes", similar to their treatment in the GBA titles. However, instead of being its own branch and part of a TacticalRockPaperScissors, Dark Magic is instead a subset of tomes. Only Dark Mages can use it, but they can use normal Tomes at the same time, making Dark Magic little more than an incremental upgrade that only certain magic-wielding classes can use. There's also the fact that despite all being one weapon group, each weapon element still has multiple tiers of weapons, so you get Wind, Elwind, Arcwind, Thunder, Elthunder...etc. This reduces magic from the strategic element it was in the past games and turns it into just another type of attack that happens to hit resistance instead of strength, and the lack of Weapon Triangle superiority between normal and Dark magic makes them redundant (outside of health-recovering spells like Nosferatu).

* ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' has a similar problem of some guns becoming obsolete once you find better ones. There's basically no reason to use the nailgun once you find the super nailgun, as it both shoots faster and does more damage while using the same ammo. The double-barreled shotgun has a similar problem, although the regular shotgun is at least more accurate. Also, the grenade and rocket launchers use the same ammo, meaning few people bother with the grenade launcher once they have the much more useful rocket launcher, the only real exception being when you're overlooking a ledge with enemies lurking below, as you can toss grenades down without having to look over the ledge and risk getting shot at.

** [[VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck The Flamethrower]] are almost always useless, as it tends to be unreloadable, short-ranged, with zero stopping power, and one character tends to get it in lieu of [[FakeBalance superior weapons given to the other playable character]]. It's at its most useful in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', as it's very effective against [[DemonicSpiders the Ivys]], but even then the flame rounds from Claire's grenade launcher are more effective, so Leon ends up shafted. It's at its absolute worst in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'', where Chris gets it late in the game, as opposed to the GrenadeLauncher given to Jill ''very'' early on, and the flamethrower can only be used in the underground area, limiting its usefulness to fighting one boss that goes down fairly easy anyway. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' continues the tradition with the Burner, which is extremely useful for exactly one area of the game and its boss, then is worthless for the rest of the game. This wouldn't be so bad except even after that area, the game ''keeps giving you more ammunition for it.'' ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake The remake of 2]]'' finally makes it a viable weapon, as it's now the only weapon capable of killing the Ivies, who are now OneHitKill monsters that regenerate if downed with any other weapon.

** The Devil Axe. In its debut game, it's by far the most powerful axe, but it has a sizeable chance to just straight-up hit you instead. Later games reduce its accuracy to the point of being more likely to hit you than the opponent, and added better axes that rendered it almost totally obsolete. In the GBA games, it gives a huge amount of weapon experience, meaning [[NotTheIntendedUse they're mostly used for grinding a character's axe skill.]] The risk of killing yourself is still pretty frustrating, though. The only game where the axe sees actual combat use is the DS version of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragon'', where [[DiscOneNuke it's obtained very early]] and has incredibly high accuracy, making it actually useful as a high-risk high-reward option.
** The Devil Sword, appearing in the Archanea games, suffers from essentially all the same downsides as its axe counterpart--not least because it's also obtained fairly late in the original ''Shadow Dragon'', at which point every sword-user is probably using silver. It is a legitimate DiscOneNuke in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'', though.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind'' has Polearms. Though fans have been lamenting about their loss (each game in the series that has followed does not include them), it's rare to find someone who actually ''uses'' them. A major factor is that they're two-handed weapons, meaning you cannot use a shield or light source in your off-hand, while doing damage on par with one-handed weapons.

* Most shooters (especially older ones) where their StandardFPSGuns ruthlessly fell prey to the SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness. In ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' for example, there was no reason to ever touch the pistol once you had the chaingun, or even the shotgun — which in both games you can acquire within a minute at worst. ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' tried to compensate by giving the pistol BottomlessMagazines, and ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' just dropped the pistol entirely, in favor of letting you start with the shotgun and chainsaw.

** The above example is caused by small impact surface combined with high velocity, which are calculated oddly and thus lead to the massively powerful strikes chained weapons are known for. This also leads to [[DropTheHammer mauls]] being a scrappy weapon of themselves due to having the opposite problem (low velocity plus large impact surface making it very hard for mauls to apply their extra weight properly), and thus being so weak even masterful silver mauls are more like wifflebats that have a hard time cracking bones where a smaller silver hammer would explode the struck part into gore in a tenth of the time.

* The first ''VideoGame/Splatoon1''[='=]s incarnation of the Rapid Blaster stands as one of the few weapons in the entire series that are almost universally considered bad. While they have more range and higher rates of fire than the normal Blaster, they have much less power. It lacks the one-hit kill that the other Blaster types are used for while other weapons like .52 and .96 Gals are more reliable for kills due to having a higher range and fire rate. It's not helped by the fact that the Damage Up ability can't reduce the number of hits needed to splat someone, meaning that it can't be used as a regular blaster, and even having the decent sub-weapon and special sets of Ink Mine and Bubbler or Suction Bomb and Bomb Rush does little to redeem it.

** The ever-so-infamous Blue Shells. They are almost impossible to avoid, and create a huge explision that stops the victim for much longer than other items. This sounds powerful, but they only target the racer in first place, and can only be obtained by racers near last place, so it's ''very'' unlikely that the person using the Blue Shell will benefit from it. The is especially true from ''Double Dash'' to ''Wii'', where the shell has wings and flies directly to first place, ignoring everyone else in the way. At least in ''64'' and ''7'' onwards, the shell can also hit other racers on its way to its target, although it's very easy to avoid for ''them''. In short, it's an item whose sole purpose is [[DoWellButNotPerfect punishing players for being too good]], but provides zero benefit for the player using it.

** The ever-so-infamous Blue Shells. They target the racer in first place, are almost impossible to avoid, and stop the victim for much longer than other items. This sounds powerful, but they can only be obtained by racers near last place, so it's ''very'' unlikely that the person using the Blue Shell will benefit from it. The is especially true from ''Double Dash'' to ''Wii'', where the shell has wings and flies directly to first place, ignoring everyone else in the way. At least in ''64'' and ''7'' onwards, the shell can also hit other racers on its way to its target, although it's very easy to avoid for ''them''. In short, it's an item whose sole purpose is [[DoWellButNotPerfect punishing players for being too good]], but provides zero benefit for the player using it.

** The Super Leaf in ''7'' lets you use a spin attack to hit other racers and destroy hazards, but its range is too short to be reliable. It also occupies your item slot until it wears off, so you have the choice of using it right away and risking being without items and therefore defenceless against Red Shells, or keeping it until you need to block something, but risking missing on the next item box if it doesn't wear off before then.

** Knives. In the [=PS2=] version, only Jessica could use them, plus she was a SquishyWizard who had access to [[WhipItgood whip]] abilities, considered very overpowered. Later on, knives vanished because they would allow Jessica to use swords - but her attack power was so low that not even the Falcon Blade or the Über Falcon blade could let her catch up. Much like with clubs and Morrie, Red in the 3DS version enables for knives to become useful. As a fighter, she is much more equipped to use knives than Jessica, and when she learns swords she will be able to deal good physical damage. However, this is only one option - most players actually believe Fans to be Red's WeaponOfChoice.

** The Ghost ability from ''VideoGame/KirbySqueakSquad'' sounds very powerful on paper: Kirby can possess any regular enemy by dashing into it, and then use its attacks. Unfortunately, the enemies in this game are so weak that, compared to any of Kirby's abilities, they feel like {{joke character}}s; most of them have low HP and are extremely slow, many have no way of attacking beyond CollisionDamage, and the ones that do have projectiles tend to have short range, weak attack power, and very laggy attacks. The ability is also completely useless against bosses, which [[ContractualBossImmunity can't be possessed]] and only rarely spawn [[FlunkyBoss flunkies]] that can be used against them. Ghost Kirby is especially disappointing considering that, to even unlock the ability, you have to collect all the pieces of the Ghost Medallion found in treasure chests, making it [[BonusFeatureFailure a disappointing reward]].

** The ever-so-infamous Blue Shells. They target the racer in first place, are almost impossible to avoid, and stop the victim for much longer than other items. This sounds powerful, but they can only be obtained by racers near last place, so it's ''very'' unlikely that the person using the Blue Shell will benefit from it. The is especially true from ''Double Dash'' to ''Wii'', where the shell has wings and flies over everyone else. At least in ''64'' and ''7'' onwards, the shell can also hit other racers on its way to first place, although it's very easy to avoid for ''them''.
** The Lightning Cloud in ''Wii'' grants you a passive speed boost and lets you drive off-road, but after a few seconds, it shrinks you like if someone else used the Lightning item. Bumping into another player will transfer the cloud to them. What puts the item in this category is that it's the only one that ''automatically'' activates when you get it. If there are no other racers nearby, you're screwed.

** Any weapon with randomized damage, e.g. [[AnAxeToGrind axes]], especially once your attack power goes high enough that randomization only hurts your damage potential.

* ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'''s Scorcher flamethrower is a weird one as it both used to invoke VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck down to a T and subverts in the sequels. In Gears 2, it has an exceedingly short-range, which unfortunately forces you into the Killzone for everyone's favorite weapon, the Gnasher shotgun; not only that but despite being a flamethrower, it lacks any significant damage over time effect which would help justify its existence. This however, changed with the update in Gears 3 which amped up the Scorcher's damage to an insane degree; downing players within ''half a second''. It got an even ''bigger'' buff in Gears 5 where not only was the damage the same as in 3, but a perfect reload now enables the Scorcher to set the ground on fire. If you were lit up by a perfect-reloaded Scorcher, you are as good as dead. It is to the point that Gnashers players now ''[[Main/RussianReversal actively avoid]]'' Scorchers.

** The same can not be said for the T'au Empire's Plasma Rifle with 8th edition, which went from the "gold standard" of T'au Battlesuit weapons to this trope thanks to the very same reasons that made lasguns better. Namely the rework of the To-Wound and damage systems. Pre-8th, T'au sacrificed a point of strength from their Plasma rifle compared to a Plasma gun in exchange for not having to deal with the "Gets Hot!" rule. But even with the lost point of strength, it was still more than enough to only have to roll on a six-sided dice either a 2+ or 3+ against most infantry, while also applying a former [[ChunkySalsaRule Instant Death Rule]] to Toughness 3 or lower units that it wounded and had the armor penetration to prevent armor saves from anything short of Space Marine in Terminator armor. As for vehicles, most T'au battlesuits are equipped with a JetPack that gives them deployment and mobility options, which made it easier to get behind vehicles to hit their weaker rear armor. 8th Edition, however, removed the "Instant Death" rule for a weapon's strength being double of the target's toughness, the To-Wound chart was simplified so that attacks with strength higher than the target's toughness, '''but not double'' a 3+ to wound, and double strength to toughness for a 2+. This made Toughness 4 models more resistant and reduced the number of opposing commander units for armies with only Toughness 3 being removed from the table by Turn 2. Vehicles also replaced Armor facings to simply use the same stat lines as infantry models, which removed the reward for outflanking vehicles and made some more resistant to the Plasma Rifle and all of them having multiple "wounds". The final nails in the coffin for the Plasma Rifle's former reign was that the weapon did not receive an "overcharge" setting unlike Imperial or Chaos plasma weapons[[note]]that option instead went to the T'au Ion Weaponry, which had similar mechanics and inspired the "Gets Hot!" rework for 8th edition[[/note]] and could only ever inflict 1 damage per successful hit.

* The first ''VideoGame/Splatoon1'' (and the series as a whole) does a good job averting this for the most part. Most of the weapons are fun to use and are intuitive, and while some are almost useless in some modes, they're always incredibly powerful in other modes to compensate, like the Chargers and Blaster class weapons. However, the Rapid Blasters in ''Splatoon 1'' stand as one of the few weapons that are almost universally considered bad. While they have more range and higher rates of fire than the normal Blaster, they have much less power. It lacks the one-hit kill that the other Blaster types are used for while other weapons like .52 and .96 Gals are more reliable for kills due to having a higher range and fire rate. It's not helped by the fact that the Damage Up ability can't reduce the number of hits needed to splat someone, meaning that it can't be used as a regular blaster, and even having the decent sub-weapon and special sets of Ink Mine and Bubbler or Suction Bomb and Bomb Rush does little to redeem it.
* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'':
** In multiplayer, the Stingray started out as easily the least effective special weapon in the game. All it had going for it were its long-range and ability to see through walls, both of which were rendered useless by the fact that was incredibly slow to aim, making it very difficult to hit anyone with it unless they're busy trying to dodge ''someone else's'' special. And to add insult to injury, it took multiple hits to down an opponent, meaning there was a good chance that they'd get away even if you manage to hit them, making it more distraction than actual hindrance. It was ''slightly'' more useful in Salmon Run mode due to the Salmonids generally not bothering to dodge and being the only weapon that can kill [[DemonicSpider Flyfish]] without using a bomb, but even then it was situational at best. Then the Versions 1.3.0 and Version 1.4.0 updates hit, buffing it to the point that the weapon is now hated by competitive players for being ''too'' good, even after Nintendo spent the remainder of the game's lifespan trying to nerf it.
** By the end of ''Splatoon 2''[='=]s life, Splashdown was almost unanimously considered to be the worst special outside of [[MultiMookMelee Salmon Run]], falling into AwesomeButImpractical territory: in spite of its flashy animation, it's slow, predictable and therefore easy to dodge, and '''extremely''' easy to punish, making some people compare it to being a suicide button. Due to it being painfully hard to use effectively, and the high probability of the user getting killed for using it, it's often considered a downside for a weapon to even ''have'' this special.

*** The Inkbrush and Octobrush are the worst weapons in the mode, bar none. Their multiple hits are each individually weak, which while able to splat an Inkling quickly is merely a nuisance against larger and more dense Salmonids, and the lack of range only makes things worse since they cannot flatten anything bigger than a Smallfry. On top of that, [[TheAllSeeingAI the Salmonids' sense of smell can pick out hiding Inklings]], making this weapon's popular "assassin" style of gameplay dead weight.
*** Blasters are some of the most difficult-to-use weapons in the mode due to their limited range (which makes them go from not very effective to completely useless when dealing with bosses) and a slow fire rate (which makes them bad at clearing out the {{Mooks}} that try to mob you). Their secondary selling point (being able to do damage around corners) is almost completely useless. That said, they are the only single-shot weapon capable of blowing multiple Stinger segments off at once, and the Grizzco Blaster's fire rate makes the lack of range a moot point.

Compare with UselessUsefulSpell, which deals with skills and spells that deal status effects in [=RPG=]s, and TierInducedScrappy. Contrast with JokeItem, which is an intentionally weak or useless weapon or item, SoLastSeason, where a weapon that ''was'' good for what it did is replaced by a newer, better one, and WithThisHerring, which is about deliberately being given poor (albeit usable) equipment by the important {{NPC}}s when the fate of the world is at stake. Not to be confused with WeaponsThatSuck.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' has a fair number of TierInducedScrappy weapons, but the Akjagara falls under this trope for a different reason. The weapon's stats are fairly unremarkable, which wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the cost to build it in the first place, requiring an Akbolto and a Dual Skana. While the Dual Skana's build costs aren't too bad, the Akbolto requires two Boltos to craft, each of which requires a Lato (which fortunately is available to purchase for credits). The total cost comes out to 210,000 credits, 7 Orokin Cells, 4 Neurodes, and some other more common resources, in a game where most weapons don't even cost 100,000 credits to build. Add in the fact that you'll need multiple weapon slots for the intermediate steps and that the whole process will take a minimum of 48 hours, and it's not hard to see why players were disgruntled.

* The Power Bombs in ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' may look powerful when one explodes, but its use as an offensive item is dubious at best. Weak enemies are easily killed, but stronger enemies can shrug off the damage. Power Bombs also causes the game's framerate to drop, which is the last thing you want to happen if you're doing a SpeedRun. The only real use Power Bombs ever get are either breaking multiple blocks, destroying Power Bomb blocks, and opening yellow doors. In ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'',they are much more useful as their blast reveals the nature of destructible blocks and these games lack the X-Ray Scope: they are invaluable in "scanning" entire rooms for blocks hidden in walls or to avoid those pesky pit blocks.

!!Examples:

Games with their own pages:

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%%[[quoteright:303:[[VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6f5716ce6cf5fe4b68ee79aac737ec55.jpg]]]]
%%[[caption-width-right:303:Guess which weapon nobody ever uses.[[labelnote:Credit]]Poster design by Olly Moss.[[/labelnote]]]]