History NotTheIntendedUse / VideoGames

** Playing Wisp as a hard carry, normally as a position 5 hard support. In fact it's so devastating that it actually won the the team in the biggest tournament.

** [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Lucario]] has a special mechanic that makes him become stronger the higher his damage percentage is. Thus, many players [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=042808 purposely take damage]] in order to have insanely powerful attacks.

*** And in some annoying cases, the moves Trick or Switcheroo will be used to give the opponent the Choice item. Not only will it lock them into a move, but you'll get their (usually beneficial) item. Especially troublesome if it's a move your pokemon is immune to. (I.e. psychic moves vs a dark type).

** Fireworks rockets are placable furniture items intended for decorative use despite them doing damage. That hasn't stopped people from using them to annihilate bosses.

** Fireworks are a placable hardmode furniture item intended for making colorful displays and for decoration, despite doing damage. They're more often used for traps and obliterating bosses.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' features an intended, in-universe example. Tidus and Wakka have Blitzball skills that involve kicking and punching sports balls hard enough to move a long distance through water. As it turns out, this translates to doing considerable damage on impact when it's moving through the air (and in Wakka's case, even on airborne enemies hundreds of feet away). Oddly enough, Tidus' Jecht Shot, which involves punching and kicking the ball [[UnnecessaryRoughness into several defenders before going for the goal]], isn't used as a combat move in ''FFX'' (though he does use it as an HP Attack in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy''.

** Using the Temple of Zeus to create "Death Knights". Basically, said temple would slowly heal your units, at the same rate that Plague drained your health. Cue players who noticed this exploiting it to make unstoppable Plague Armies of death, with their infected troops surviving due to the temple but rapidly bringing ruin to any enemies they encountered. It even became a MetaGame at one point where opponents would find ways to turn this against them the moment they see the Temple of Zeus being built.[[note]]One way was to build your own ToZ, then build temples near areas you expect to meet the enemy to stop your units from getting the Plague.[[/note]]

*** The Lightening Sage's ability highlights the area around Link in yellow to indicate its range as it expands. This has the side effect of illuminating dark areas without the need for torches, brightbloom seeds, or glow potions.

* ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'': Each of the [[VideoGame/Splatoon1 first]] [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 two]] games has one [[LimitBreak Special Weapon]] that has a direct benefit--Echolocator in the first game reveals the locations of all opponents to the entire team for several seconds, and Bomb Launcher in the second game grants the player an unlimited number of bombs until the Special Weapon meter runs out--but also provide you with an instant ink refill, overriding absolutely ''everything'' that could delay it, including cooldown time when deploying things like Splash Walls or Squid Beakons during which you're ordinarily prohibited from refilling your ink. This secondary benefit can be a lifesaver for players running critically low on ink and don't have time to replenish their ink under normal circumstances, such as if they're under attack at the moment. This is especially true for Bomb Launcher in the Salmon Run mode: As large numbers of Salmonid come at the players at once, waiting for the bombs to detonate is much too slow, and being able to shoot and shoot, then immediately refill and keep shooting is more useful.

* The UsefulNotes/RPGMaker series of games sees a lot of use for RPG's but it has also become famous for horror games like The Witches House and even horror themed RPG's like Fear And Hunger.

** In-Universe: The Casket of Tomes is a device meant to find fellow players of Genius Invocation TCG who also have a casket, so you could play the game with each other. During the ''Duel: the Summoner's Summit" event, the characters were able to find a missing person as she was a card player and by using the characters' own caskets they could find the missing person.

** In-Universe: The Casket of Tomes is a device meant to find fellow players of Genius Invocation TCG who also have a casket, so you could play the game with each other. During the ''Duel: the Summoner's Summit" event, the characters were able to find a missing person as she was a card player and by using the characters' own caskets they could could the missing person.

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': Dehya's ''Stalwart and True'' ability allows her to gradually restore HP whenever it is very low. While this was obviously intended for combat, players have figured out that this also makes her ideal for exploring locations with HP-draining effects, such as Sheer Cold in Dragonspine and Balethunder in Tatarasuna (if not cleared yet) and Musoujin Gorge, hence making her nigh-unkillable. This also makes her unexpectedly compatible with the Ocean-Hued Clam artifact set, normally geared towards healers (such as Barbara and Kokomi), which boosts her self-healing and generates what's basically timed explosives, whose damage is based on the amount of healing before it explodes.

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': Dehya's ''Stalwart and True'' ability allows her to gradually restore HP whenever it is very low. While this was obviously intended for combat, players have figured out that this also makes her ideal for exploring locations with HP-draining effects, such as Sheer Cold in Dragonspine and Balethunder in Tatarasuna (if not cleared yet) and Musoujin Gorge, hence making her nigh-unkillable. This also makes her unexpectedly compatible with the Ocean-Hued Clam artifact set, normally geared towards healers (such as Barbara and Kokomi), which boosts her self-healing and inflicts damage based on the amount of healing.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' carries on the "unintended uses of various objects" that ''Breath of the Wild'' started. For example, the Shock Emitter that has a pitifully short range and paralyzes enemies on contact has that range extend greatly in the rain or in water; Link can thus use it to [[MundaneUtility catch large sums of fish]]. Brightbloom Seeds can illuminate dark areas... or instantly eradicate undead. And ''do not get us started'' on the myriad uses of the Ultrahand, Autobuild and Fuse abilities.

*** And in some annoying cases, the moves Trick or Switcheroo will be used to give the opponent the Choice item. Not only will it lock them into a move, but you'll get their (usually beneficial) item.

** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'': The [[DungFu Dung Pie]] is a throwing item that [[StatusInflictionAttack inflicts]] Toxic on the enemy, but also on the thrower. However, the Toxic inflicted by Dung Pies is ''much'' less damaging than the Toxic inflicted by the [[DemonicSpiders Blowdart Snipers]] of Blighttown. Players venturing down into Blighttown have been known to innoculate themselves from the Blowdart Snipers by deliberately giving themselves Toxic from Dung Pies. This would eventually get a nod from [=FromSoftware=] in their later game ''VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice'' in the form of Contact Medicine, an item with the express purpose of innoculating you from Poison by giving you a weaker form of it.

** Enor Pearls are meant to be minable resources, large and glowing stones to be dug out and stuck in the MULE to fuel your crafting... but they are perhaps the most luminous of all minerals, and the pearl stays together and is easily carried and thrown around, so some players decide to use it as a lantern to supplement their flares, and just pack it into the MULE right at the end of the mission.

*** Annette is set up to become a [[BlackMage Mage/Warlock]], due to her proficency in Reason, high Magic stat, and low Defense. However, her proficency in axes, combined with her Relic weapon, Crusher, being an axe (or Bolt Axe outside of Azure Moon), and not having weaknesses in lances or flying, makes her a solid pick for the Wyvern Rider and Wyvern Lord classes.
*** Ferdinand has high Strength and Speed, a wide range of proficencies (swords, lances, axes, riding, and a budding talent in heavy armor), no skill weaknesses, and access to the rare Swift Strikes combat art, gearing him towards being an offensive unit. However, his Speed and evasion-granting personal skill, combined with his proficencies in swords and riding, make him a solid pick for the Dancer class, of all things. [[note]]With Sword Proficency Level 5, Confidence, Sword Avoid+20, an Evasion Ring, and the Jeralt's Mercenaries battalion, Ferdinand hits 80 Avoid before his own stats and terrain come into play.[[/note]]

** Thanks to the way Max's powers work, he is actually the best CO at naval combat, and even better than the resident naval expert Drake. His outright obscene power boosts, even after being {{nerf}}ed in ''Black Hole Rising'', gives him the ability to pull stunts like two-hit KO a cruiser using a battleship and a sub, OneHitKO enemy subs with cruisers, and even with -10% attack and -1 range his battleships are even more lethal than most commanders since he can far more effectively protect them from enemy fire. All of this in spite of how Max actually laments that he is bad at naval combat if you choose him instead of Any in ''Olaf's Sea Strike.''

* Exploiting the WreakingHavok physics in ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooieNutsAndBolts'' to fly. To do this, find one vehicle parts crate [[note]](or anything flat and grabbable, really, but the parts crates are ubiquitous)[[/note]], put it on your trolley, then pick up the trolley with your wrench. The player can lift himself up by his bootstraps and get a lot of rare parts early.
* There is nothing about operator Mountain from ''VideoGame/{{Arknights}}'' that would indicate that his purpose is to be quickly deployed, then retreated or holding off early pressure and standing until the end. Yet, it isn't at all uncommon to see him being used as a Vanguard in cases where DP generation is already being taken care off by Flagbearer Vanguards who are rendered a sitting duck when they do so. His low cost of 11 DP (as little as StarterMon Fang and among his fellow 6-stars, only Phantom who's an ''actual'' Fast-Redeploy operator, has a lower DP cost) and low windup time of his second skill made this possible.

* ''VideoGame/EndlessSky'': Some of the larger ships have launch bays for small one-man fighter craft. However, since fighters are fragile, enterprising players noticed that instead of using them for combat, it's often more practical to strip out most of a fighter's systems and install an expanded cargo bay, then keep it permanently docked instead of launching it. This boosts overall cargo capacity with minimal extra crew costs. The Boxwing fighter was later introduced as an official nod to this strategy.

* ''VideoGame/PathfinderWrathOfTherighteous''