History TheLastOfUs / TropesOToZ

* TooSoon: InUniverse when Ellie reads the following from her book of lame jokes:
-->'''Ellie:''' "People are making apocalypse jokes like there's no tomorrow." ''[{{Beat}}]'' Too soon.

* SawedOffShotgun: Two examples, one in the single-player, and one from the Factions multiplayer mode.

* SawedOffShotgun: The Shorty, basically a really short-barreled shotgun that's classified as a pistol in-game. Despite it being a single-barrel shotgun, its self-loading function and (by default) 2-round detachable box magazine means it is functionally your typical double-barreled sawn-off.

* SawedOffShotgun: The Shorty, basically a really short-barreled that's classified as a pistol in-game. Despite it being a single-barrel shotgun, its self-loading function and (by default) 2-round detachable box magazine means it is functionally your typical double-barreled sawn-off.

* OneHitPolykill: The hunting rifle and El Diablo have [[ArmorPiercingAttack armor-piercing]] upgrades. Aside from being able to deal full damage against armored enemies, it also enables these weapons to hit (and often kill) multiple enemies in a row with just one shot.

* SniperPistol: The [[HandCannon El Diablo]] comes with a scope as standard, though it offers less magnification than the scope for the Hunting Rifle.

** The houses in the sniper sequence in the suburbs are this. Sure, they offer cover from the sniper and also contain quite a bit of supplies, but they also spawn alerted hunters the moment you enter, usually in positions that make it difficult to evade detection. It's generally advised to stick to the car wrecks on the road for cover unless you're ''really'' good at sneaking and ambushing alerted enemies.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The soldier who killed Sarah on the night of the outbreak (and, by extension, the authority figure who gave the soldier the order to kill Joel and Sarah). Their actions would eventually lead, 20 years down the line, to Joel [[spoiler: depriving the world of a chance for a vaccine against the Cordyceps, since it would come at the cost of Ellie, who he has come to see as [[ReplacementGoldfish a surrogate daughter]], and he wouldn't allow [[HistoryRepeats history to repeat itself]].]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The soldier who killed Sarah on the night of the outbreak (and, by extension, the authority figure who gave the soldier the order to kill Joel and Sarah). Their actions would eventually lead, 20 years down the line, to Joel [[spoiler: depriving the world of a chance for a cure to the Cordyceps, since the cure would come at the cost of Ellie, who he has come to see as [[ReplacementGoldfish a surrogate daughter]], and he wouldn't allow [[HistoryRepeats history to repeat itself]].]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The soldier who killed Sarah on the night of the outbreak (and, by extension, the authority figure who gave the soldier the order to kill Joel and Sarah). Their actions would eventually lead, 20 years down the line, to Joel [[spoiler: depriving the world of a cure to the Cordyceps, since the cure would come at the cost of Ellie (who he has come to see as [[ReplacementGoldfish a surrogate daughter]]) and he wouldn't allow [[HistoryRepeats history to repeat itself]].]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The soldier who killed Sarah on the night of the outbreak (and, by extension, the authority figure who gave the soldier the order to kill Joel and Sarah). Their actions would eventually lead to Joel [[spoiler: depriving the world of a cure to the Cordyceps 20 years down the line, since the cure would come at the cost of Ellie (who he has come to see as [[ReplacementGoldfish a surrogate daughter]]) and he wouldn't allow [[HistoryRepeats history to repeat itself]].]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The soldier who killed Sarah on the night of the outbreak (and, by extension, the authority figure who gave the soldier the order to kill Joel and Sarah). Their actions would eventually lead to Joel [[spoiler: depriving the world of a cure to the Cordyceps 20 years down the line, since the cure would come at the cost of Ellie (who he has come to see as [[ReplacementGoldfish a surrogate daughter]]) and he couldn't stand by and allow [[HistoryRepeats history to repeat itself]].]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The soldier who killed Sarah on the night of the outbreak (and, by extension, the authority figure who gave the soldier the order to kill Joel and Sarah). Their actions would eventually lead to Joel [[spoiler: depriving the world of a cure to the Cordyceps 20 years down the line, since the cure would come at the cost of Ellie, who he has come to see as [[ReplacementGoldfish a surrogate daughter]].]]

** After 20 years without the benefit of human maintenance, the level of decay and creep of vegetation back into urban areas is startlingly realistic. Direct evidence for such dramatic reclamation is provided by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pripyat city of Pripyat]] in the Ukraine, which was abandoned over 20 years ago almost over-night, following the Chernobyl disaster.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The soldier who killed Sarah on the night of the outbreak (and, by extension, the authority figure who gave the soldier the order to kill Joel and Sarah). Their actions led to Joel's CynicismCatalyst which, 20 years down the line, would lead to him [[spoiler: depriving the world of a cure to the Cordyceps, since the cure would come at the cost of Ellie, who he has come to see as [[ReplacementGoldfish a surrogate daughter]].]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The soldier who killed Sarah on the night of the outbreak (and, by extension, the authority figure who gave the soldier the order to kill Joel and Sarah). Their actions led to Joel's CynicismCatalyst which, 20 years down the line, would lead to him [[spoiler: depriving the world of a cure to the Cordyceps, since the cure would mean the death of Ellie, his ReplacementGoldfish for Sarah.]]

** Largely averted, since most of the items you get can be crafted. Also, you'll have such little ammo that you'll have no choice but to literally use everything in your arsenal to survive.
** Played straight with the [[AnAxeToGrind hatchet]], which [[OneHitKill One Hit Kills]] anything short of a bloater, but only lasts five hits before breaking. The [[MacheteMayhem machete]] is even worse, packing the same punch but only lasting ''three hits'' before breaking.
* TooAwesomeToUse: Every single bullet is precious in a ScavengerWorld where no new ammo has been produced in over twenty years, which turns any use of your firearms into a calculated risk. Who knows when or where you'll be able to scrounge up more ammo, if at all? The hunting rifle and El Diablo suffer particularly hard from this due to their ridiculously low ammo cap; players have gone all the way to [[spoiler:the massive long-distance shootouts at Tommy's dam]] more than halfway through the game without firing a single shot from the hunting rifle. Needless to say that this grows exponentially worse the higher you set the difficulty, to the point that many [[NintendoHard Grounded]] guides are built around not using firearms at all outside of scripted open battles.

** Although the above is certainly true in open combat, the bow is a [[CripplingOverspecialization highly specialized stealth weapon]], and mastering it makes it DifficultYetAwesome in a game that puts extreme emphasis on stealth. Its arrows [[OneHitKill kill unaware hunters, runners and stalkers instantly]] no matter where they're hit, a headshot instakills clickers at range without making a sound, it can be upgraded to have a very impressive range, and it can carry more ammo than its closest equivalent, the hunting rifle[[note]]11 arrows compared to 9 bullets, and since arrows have a roughly 50:50 chance of being retrievable, it goes up to 17 shots on average[[/note]]. Stealth encounters with large groups of enemies become vastly more manageable if you conserve your arrows for these occasions.

** The flamethrower also fits here. Anything it hits (again, except bloaters) won't die instantly, but burning enemies stop fighting and rapidly lose health until they die, so it's basically a OHK with a slight delay.

** Upgrading a melee weapon in the crafting menu allows Joel to instakill one to three enemies with it (depending on upgrade level) before the weapon's normal three-hits-to-kill behavior takes over again.

** The bow is notable not only for being the only completely silent ranged weapon, but also for killing any unaware human enemy in one hit, even if you merely shot them in the foot[[note]]or the knee[[/note]]. It can also instakill clickers with a headshot (something your handguns need at least two shots to accomplish), making it the perfect tool to clear out packs of infected. The one thing it can't take down in one shot is bloaters, but they're so rare it's not really a problem. Its only downside is the scarcity of its ammo since no enemy ever drops arrows other than the ones you shot into them before.