History Main / StrongFleshWeakSteel

* In ''VideoGame/HiddenAndDangerous'', an enemy soldier could keep fighting even after taking two high-powered rifle rounds to the throat, only dying after the third hit. A Tiger tank could be destroyed with a single hand grenade.

* In ''{{VideoGame/Halo 2}}'' on Legendary difficulty, a sniper shot to any part of your armored super-soldier body would kill you. Your marine allies with their much less advanced armor could survive multiple shots. To a lesser degree, this holds true in later ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games too.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'', the fleshy Fighting type is strong against the Rock and Steel type. Steel does normal damage against Fighting rather than being weaker against it, though.

** In ''Soldier of Fortune: Payback'', every couple of levels ended in a boss fight against a rival soldier who could soak 2 or 3 clips of assault rifle fire before croaking (''none'' of said bosses are even wearing body armor, and include a chick in a tank top and a guy in a business suit). Particularly {{egregious}} were the final 2 bosses, who took that sort of ridiculous punishment from your guns while being able to kill ''you'' in one or two shots with his.

** Generally averted by Iron Hands, whose motto is "Flesh is weak!".

* In ''Film/ExMachina'', the robot Ava is unable to [[spoiler:beat Nathan in a clean fight even when she gets the jump on him, with Nathan effortlessly smashing her arm off in one blow. It's only because Kyoko stabs him that Nathan doesn't completely destroy Ava. The video we see of Nathan's earlier AI experiments also shows one of the robots he created smashing her arms to nubs as she pounds on her cell door pleading to be let out. Justified in that they weren't built as fighting machines; their sole purpose was to serve as robot vessels for a TuringTest.]]

** tanks can be destroyed by one shot from a weapon with high enough strength to penetrate the armour, while monstrous creatures usually take at least 4 shots, as they have several Wounds and are usually tough enough to not be instakilled by normal weapons. Same applies for any multi-Wound model that has immune to [[ChunkySalsaRule instant death]] rule.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' tanks can be destroyed by one shot from a weapon with high enough strength to penetrate the armour, while monstrous creatures usually take at least 4 shots, as they have several Wounds and are usually tough enough to not be instakilled by normal weapons. Same applies for any multi-Wound model that has immune to [[ChunkySalsaRule instant death]] rule.

!!Gaming Examples:

!!Non Gaming Examples:

* A conflict very common in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', where the colours Green and Blue are pitted against each other - the former, which represents life and "nature", is so good at dealing with metallic things that the latter, which represents innovation and is associated with technology, can only defend itself by countering spells. [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Phyrexia]], however, just takes the BodyHorror middle ground, fusing artifice with life in horrific and deadly ways.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' tanks can be destroyed by one shot from a weapon with high enough strength to penetrate the armour, while monstrous creatures usually take at least 4 shots, as they have several Wounds and are usually tough enough to not be instakilled by normal weapons. Same applies for any multi-Wound model that has immune to [[ChunkySalsaRule instant death]] rule.
** Furthermore, any glancing or penetrating hits will at least keep the tank from shooting, whereas multi-wound infantry and monstrous creature units can take repeated damaging hits with no effect until they lose their last wound and experience a CriticalExistenceFailure.
** Averted with the Void Missile Apocalypse Weapon, which specifically points out only an invulnerable Save can save you from being completely erased from existence, since it pretty much wipes you away from reality, along with a good chunk of the earth you were standing on. Being MadeOfIron or having extremely awesome BlingOfWar does not help when you are thrown into a NegativeSpaceWedgie. Similarly, being crushed by a titan's foot also ignores the Eternal Warrior rule (immune to instant death) since you are now just a smear on the titan's shoe. Both of these only do marginally more damage to Tanks (in some cases the tank has a higher survival chance if it has good enough armor).
*** The last part is rather funny since fluff repeatedly mentioned that Space Marine in Terminator armor will survive being stepped by Titan.
** Poison and sniper weapons specifically avert this, usually having a strength value too low to harm tanks at all[[note]]tanks have a minimum armor rating of 10, while unless the poison/sniper weapon is applied to another type of weapon, it will have a Strength of 1. To harm a tank, the weapon must roll a 6 sided die and the combined total of the dice and strength must meet or exceed the armor value of the tank. Since they're all strength 1, the maximum result the weapon can get is 7.[[/note]] but are highly effective against monstrous creatures as they completely ignore the monster's toughness value (and, in the case of most poison weapons, a ridiculous amount of attacks).
** Generally averted by Iron Hands, whose motto is "Flesh is weak!".

* In ''TabletopGame/AdvancedSquadLeader'', this is zig-zagged. Tanks are usually destroyed by the first successful attack against them, while fire at infantry that hasn't been damaged before usually has no effect other than sending them on a rout and keeping them out of combat for some time. But if you don't have any specialized anti-tank weapons handy, tanks are nigh-invulnerable.

* The ''Franchise/DragonBall'' anime. A bullet to Goku's head makes him say "Ouch!", and an axe to the head gives him a headache - ''shattering the axe''. He blocks rocket-propelled grenades with his arms, jumps through steel-lined floors head-first, destroys the Franchise/{{Terminator}} with a ki blast, and dispatches wave after wave of tanks and helicopters like it's ''nothing''.

* Blaster rifles in ''Franchise/StarWars'' aren't ''steel'', but this trope comes up in ''Literature/LukeSkywalkerAndTheShadowsOfMindor''. Luke, held captive by stormtroopers, is not sufficiently quiet, so one [[BullyingADragon keeps hitting him with a blaster rifle even when Luke politely tells him not to]]. Finally Luke catches the business end of the rifle and it shatters.
* In the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series the Yuuzhan Vong exclusively use OrganicTechnology that often outperforms the drytech of the New Republic, conquering or destroying vast stretches of the galaxy. Though in the final book it's noted that the Vong are running short on ships more quickly, since fabrication is faster than growth. They had able to build up a massive fleet prior to the invasion because the Yuuzhan Vong had been preparing for a ''very'' long time, and didn't really count on the war taking as long as it did, or how much of a fight the New Republic and Imperial Remnant would put up.

* For a RealLife example, bonesaws penetrate hard, rigid substances like plaster and bone, but not soft substance like flesh. This is because the saw doesn't spin, it vibrates back and forth within a very small space, chipping away at substances that do not give, but simply pushing back malleable substances.

->''"Steel isn't strong, boy...'' Flesssh ''is stronger."''

* Taken to absurd extreme in ''Wolfschanze'' - a rather poorly made [=WW2=] FPS from the same makers of ''{{VideoGame/Mortyr}} [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/07/28/ 2093-1944]]'' - in which you can take out a tank by ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDM7cu89Kas kicking it enough times]]''. One Polish magazine that reviewed it dubbed the game "a Creator/ChuckNorris simulator" after the fact.
** Amusingly enough, the miles-better ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 2'' [[GoodBadBugs allows the exact same thing]] - melee an immobilized tank five or six times and it explodes, just the same as if one of your NPC teammates had gotten the chance to toss a grenade inside it.

In certain kinds of games, it is inexplicably easier to destroy something made of armored steel, like a tank, than to destroy an ostensibly flesh and blood character (often a boss of some sort), even without specialized weaponry. Compare InvulnerableKnuckles, MadeOfIron. When applied to weapons rather than opponents, it is GunsAreWorthless . You know this trope is active when the best way to defend a structure is for a character to stand in front of it and take the damage as a meat-shield. This can lead to comic relief when someone starts smashing and smashing but the person either feels no pain or feels tons of pain but no respite.

* A conflict very common in ''MagicTheGathering'', where the colours Green and Blue are pitted against each other - the former, which represents life and "nature", is so good at dealing with metallic things that the latter, which represents innovation and is associated with technology, can only defend itself by countering spells. [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Phyrexia]], however, just takes the BodyHorror middle ground, fusing artifice with life in horrific and deadly ways.

* The most obvious example are games like ''VideoGame/{{Haze}}'' or ''VideoGame/DarkSector'' which feature armoured vehicles with fixed hitpoints but a player character [[WalkItOff with regenerating hitpoints]]. While the tank can only take a tank's worth of damage, ''ever'', you're still safely moving along after taking enough hits to destroy Brazil.
** And even escalated in the spiritual sequel to darkSector, Warframe, where one of the titular Warframes, Nidus, has no armor or other obvious technological elements, unlike most of them, yet can stand up to sustained gunfire indefinitely due to its combination of regeneration rate and armor, whilst virtually no enemy (many of which are obviously mechanical) can regenerate at all.

** ''SilentStorm'' is similar, though not quite to that degree.
* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' has different armor and attack classes. The armor classes are Unarmored, Light, Medium, Heavy, Fortified, and Hero; the attack classes are Normal, Piercing, Siege, Magic, Hero, and Chaos. Each attack class is usually effective only against certain defense classes and has reduced efficiency against others. For instance, Siege attacks are effective against buildings and unarmored units, but hardly useful against units with medium armor and heroes. Interestingly, some units with the "unarmored" armor type still have armor rating for balance reasons.
** This was done to mitigate of a problem in the two earlier titles, where building could be taken out by archers as efficiently as siege catapults.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''. A Heavy has more HP than a fully upgraded machine gun and rocket spewing sentry gun. In fact, the best way to defend a particular location IS to have a Heavy rely on a dispenser for health and ammo, the sentry for additional firepower and protect both structures with his body when necessary.

** The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Fists of Steel]] reduces ranged weapon damage coming at the Heavy wearing them, but also increases Melee Damage that the heavy takes, which sort of make it dance back and forth with this trope as it results in the heavy taking little damage from a ''rocket to the face'' but can be killed by a few smacks ''with a fish''.

** Inversely, not all mutants can be killed in one hit with the knife. Since they have high damaging melee attacks, it's better just to shoot them, but the blood suckers will die from 1 stab of the knife while they can take a full Assault rifle mag to kill and the fact that they are mostly invisible and use claws to attack you makes the knife a good weapon to choose.
** All this happens because the knife does a crapload of damage against EVERYTHING. It's because of bugs like these that there aren't more vehicles.

* The old game, ''Airborne Ranger'' had a realistic weapons system, where a LAW rocket pretty much meant death for anything you shot it at. The limiter was simple space/weight logistics. Your guy only had enough room in his pack for two or three rockets, at the cost of more practical equipment.

* The original ''{{Soldier of Fortune}}'' had 1 character, the final boss, who could survive inhuman amounts of bullets, [[HandWave handwaved]] by the fact he was wearing a full-body suit of metal armor.
** In ''Soldier of Fortune: Payback'', every couple of levels ended in a boss fight against a rival soldier who could soak 2 or 3 clips of assault rifle fire before croaking (''none'' of said bosses are even wearing body armor, and include a chick in a tank top and a guy in a business suit). Particularly {{egregious}} were the final 2 bosses, who took 2 to 3 clips of assault rifle fire to kill, while being able to kill you with 1 or 2 shots.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'', the fleshy Fighting type is strong against the Rock and Steel type. Steel does normal damage against Fighting, though.

* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', Supersoldiers are sort of this trope, they can take 5+ hits from an Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher, while M1 Abrams Tanks take 1 or 2 to destroy. However, unlike Tanks, Supersoldiers are vulnerable to small arms fire. For the most part, this trope is all justified though, as all strong flesh targets have superpowers. Non powered flesh creatures die easier than tanks and such.
* Sniper Wolf in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' takes as much damage from a sniper rifle bullet to the big toe as she takes from being hit flush in the chest with a remote-controlled missile. And in the sequel, a Stinger missile inflicts the same damage on a Harrier jet as on Vamp, who is not only unarmored but shirtless.

* Taken to absurd extreme in ''Wolfschanze'' - a rather poorly made [=WW2=] FPS from the same makers of ''{{VideoGame/Mortyr}} [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/07/28/ 2093-1944]]'' - in which you can take off a Tank by ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDM7cu89Kas kicking it enough times]]''. One Polish magazine that reviewed it dubbed the game "a Creator/ChuckNorris simulator" after the fact.

** Especially if the character in question is a Supermutant. One of the critical hit phrases is "Torn in half like a phone book."

--> General Bjarngrim: How can it be...? Flesh is not...stronger!

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', the Mako mechanized infantry vehicle is pretty durable and has good weaponry compared to Shepard and her crew. As you approach the game's level cap, however, you'll find that it's easier and nets you more XP (the Mako penalizes 60% of your XP) to drive to the battlefield, hop out of the Mako, and engage enemies on foot. This is mostly due to the fact that the Mako handles like a drunken rhino due to being so floaty due to its lousy controls and mediocre navigation have fun going up mountains), has a poor defense system that can't go lower than the horizon along with a below average aiming system and its shields having to take up to 5 minutes to recharge after a fight.

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRenegade'' has a very complicated system of armours and weapons to emulate this sort of thing from the RTS games. Buildings as well typically have Master Control Terminals that can be destroyed with a single pack of C4 to kill the building rather than slowly dealing external damage. This, of course, still results in things like MadeOfIron bosses who can tank a shot from a [[{{BFG}} hand-held Ion Cannon]] to the face, while at earlier points in the game you'd been given opportunities to destroy buggies with a chaingun and helipads with a pistol.
** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' gets particularly weird with this when it comes to its version of the veterancy system introduced in ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun Tiberian Sun]]''. Elite units get boosts to their fire rate and damage, as well as RegeneratingHealth, and except in cases of extreme CripplingOverspecialization, these boosts usually turn normal matchups on their head; an Elite Conscript can actually kill a Grizzly tank in a one-on-one shootout mostly through endurance granted by his regeneration, and a whole squadron of [=GIs=], normally made mincemeat in any numbers by even a single sentry gun, can tear through it and its owner's entire base in about a minute flat when at Elite.

* The Franchise/DragonBall anime. A bullet to Goku's head makes him say "Ouch!", and an axe to the head gives him a headache - ''shattering the axe''. He blocks rocket-propelled grenades with his arms, jumps through steel-lined floors head-first, destroys the Franchise/{{Terminator}} with a ki blast, and dispatches wave after wave of tanks and helicopters like it's ''nothing''.
** Averted with super-suits and the mechanical androids, but those stop working as Goku gets stronger and the villains are forced to hire more muscle. In ''ANime/DragonBallZ'', Dr. Gero finally learns from previous mistakes and actually starts making his death machines out of flesh instead of steel. By that point, Goku's flesh can literally withstand attacks that would [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up the planet]].

* In the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series the Yuuzhan Vong exclusively use OrganicTechnology that often outperforms the drytech of the New Republic. Conquering or destroying vast stretches of the galaxy. Though in the final book it's noted that the Vong are running short on ships more quickly since fabrication is faster than growth. They had able to build up a massive fleet prior to the invasion because the Yuuzhan Vong had been preparing for a ''very'' long time, and didn't really count how long the war would take or how much of a fight the New Republic and Imperial Remnant would put up.

* Bonesaws penetrate hard, rigid substances like plaster and bone, but not soft substance like flesh. This is because the saw doesn't spin, it vibrates back and forth, chipping away at substances that do not give, but simply pushing back malleable substances.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRenegade'' has a very complicated system of armours and weapons. It's not perfect, though. The game has MadeOfIron bosses, but helipads you can destroy with a pistol.
** In essence all buildings have a control panel inside of them. Attacking this panel will destroy the building much faster than shooting at the building itself, a C4 or two will take it out of commission altogether.

* In the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' series, a recurring gameplay motif is that shells damage tanks and buildings, while bullets damage infantry. This means that tanks will require multiple shots from their main gun to kill even a single infantryman and will likely kill him quicker by [[CarFu running him over]], while a machine-gun using hummer can kill its weight in infantry easily. Similarly, grenadiers or bazooka-using infantry counter tanks, but not regular foot soldiers.

** Averted with super-suits and the mechanical androids, but those stop working as Goku gets stronger and the villains are forced to hire more muscle. In DragonBallZ, Dr. Gero finally learns from previous mistakes and actually starts making his death machines out of flesh instead of steel. By that point, Goku's flesh can literally withstand attacks that would [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up the planet]].

** In essence all buildings have a control panel inside of them. Attacking this panel will destroy the building much faster then shooting at the building itself, a C4 or two will take it out of commission altogether.

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', the Mako mechanized infantry vehicle is pretty durable and has good weaponry compared to Shepard and her crew. As you approach the game's level cap, however, you'll find that it's easier (and nets you more XP) to drive to the battlefield, hop out of the Mako, and engage enemies on foot.

* Taken to absurd extreme in ''Wolfschanze'' - a rather poorly made WW2 FPS from the same makers of ''{{VideoGame/Mortyr}} [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/07/28/ 2093-1944]]'' - in which you can take off a Tank by ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDM7cu89Kas kicking it enough times]]''. One Polish magazine that reviewed it dubbed the game "a Creator/ChuckNorris simulator" after the fact.

* In ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'', after realizing his [[HalfHumanHybrid condition]] is the result of his organ transplant, Kaneki tries to stab himself to damage the organ. The kitchen knife harmlessly bends against his stomach, because ghoul flesh is too tough for conventional weapons to pierce. The [[TheHunter CCG]] uses Quinque Steel, an alloy reinforced with [[HumanResources melted down ghouls]] to make it strong enough to harm them, and employs weapons made from a ghoul's predatory organ to kill them.

* In ''{{Pokemon}}'', the fleshy Fighting type is strong against the Rock and Steel type. Steel does normal damage against Fighting, though.

* ''StarCraft''. Zerg Ultralisks are significantly harder to kill than Terran Siege Tanks. However, Tanks are available earlier and have huge long-ranged cannons on top.

* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'' this trope comes into play with the Vrykul, giants of living stone and iron that are killed in large numbers by fleshy beings. One of their generals (and one who actually is tougher than any player, if only because he's a boss) has a ThisCannotBe reaction to a lethal encounter with this trope.

* StreetsOfRage makes heavy use of this. In addition to being able to [[DieChairDie smash in iron drums]] with a simple punch from the very first game, the second game introduces robotic enemies (although they at least have a lot of hit points). The third game takes this even farther by introducing a lot more robotic enemies as well as a scene where you need to fight off a bulldozer! While the bulldozer [[AdvancingBossOfDoom cannot be defeated]], landing enough shots on it will force it to back off for a few seconds.

* ''SonicTheHedgehog'': Most of the enemies are robotic, and the characters don't usually use any weapons but their own bodies, so this is in full effect. Even in regards to story, the flesh-and-blood characters seem to be quite a bit more durable than robots.
* ''SuperMarioBros'': Not as much of an example as Sonic, since there are less robotic enemies, but a GroundPound is usually enough to take out a robot.

* In the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series the Yuuzhan Vong exclusively use OrganicTechnology that often outperforms the drytech of the New Republic. Conquering or destroying vast stretches of the galaxy. Though in the final book it's noted that the Vong are running short on ships more quickly since fabrication is faster than growth.

* ''VideoGame/{{Oni}}'': In a game full of plasma weapons, mercury-tipped sniper arrows and good old fashioned pistols, the most dangerous weapons are still Konoko's fists.

* ''VideoGame/{{Oni}}''In a game full of plasma weapons, mercury-tipped sniper arrows and good old fashioned pistols, the most dangerous weapons are still Konoko's fists.

* In ''{{X-COM}}: UFO Defense'', veteran soldiers are [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower far more powerful]] and harder to kill than tanks, because soldiers gain experience and tanks don't.

* In ''{{VideoGame/Halo 2}}'' on Legendary difficulty, a sniper shot to any part of your armored super-soldier body would kill you. Your marine allies with their much less advanced armor could survive multiple shots.