Helpful Mook

Dr. Wily: If the intruder can stand on your head...
Mother Brain: Even if he has to freeze you first, do not hover over pits that are too large for him to jump over. We make those pits big for a reason!

— CollegeHumor "The Video Game Bosses' Lament"

Most Mooks exist in video games for one reason and one reason only: to make your life hard (and your death easy). They touch you, they spit stuff at you, they push you around...

However, sometimes the designers mix things up at bit, and you'll run into a Helpful Mook. While they look like mooks, walk like mooks, and talk like mooks—they even generally show up on your Enemy Scan as a baddie—these guys aren't as dangerous as their companions. They generally come in two flavors:

• The Genuinely Gentle: Though they have all the traits of Mooks, these guys wouldn't hurt a fly. They do beneficial things for you when you encounter them, such as heal you, give you useful items, and other handy things. Unless they're made to be abused, attacking these guys is one of the purest forms of Videogame Cruelty Potential there is — What the Hell, Player? However, they may be prone to making you shout, "Stop Helping Me!"
• The Accidentally Assisting: The Minions with an F in Evil of the mook world, these guys may attempt to menace you, but end up going about things the wrong way. Either you can trick them into helping you instead of the bad guys, their "attacks" actually end up doing something useful for you like helping you get to a place you need to be, or you can climb or jump on them. Common in puzzle platformers.

May be used as a form of Fairy Battle. Supertrope of Frozen Foe Platform, as the mook has to be coerced into being helpful as an Improvised Platform. Often, but not always, overlaps with Harmless Enemy. Compare Savage Setpiece.

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Genuinely Gentle

• The Map and Mask bots from Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach. They want nothing more than to give you their respective items. Then they thank you and leave.
• The Walking Bushie enemy in Mother 3. They cast healing PSI on your party and then run away. The enemy guide on Starmen.net even says: "Don't be a jerk and attack it or anything."
  • In EarthBound Beginnings, there was an enemy that looked like a pair of floating Groucho Marx glasses. If you let it, it would eventually say "Hello!" And flee the battle... Giving you more XP than you would get for killing it. Better yet? You find this in one of the first areas you go to.
• Pikmin: The Mamutas. While you can attack them — and you have to do so to get one treasure in Pikmin 2 — all they do is smash your Pikmin into the ground... planting them and eventually transforming them into the highest, "flower" level. They can hurt Olimar, too, but you have to get all up in its grill to do so. Which, of course, you kind of have to to pick all the flower Pikmin he smashed into the ground. They can do real damage to Pikmin, though only circumstantially and by pure accident, if yellow Pikmin armed with bomb-rocks get stomped. Oops on the level of 100 dead Pikmin and the hapless Mamuta.
• Kirby:
  • The Zebon enemy in Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is considered a mook by both games. While it does eat Kirby, it still serves as a replacement for cannons, as it promptly spits him back out again with great force—propelling him to heights he can't reach otherwise, with enough speed to defeat any other mooks in his way.
  • In Kirby's Epic Yarn, the Waddle Dees simply bump into you for no damage. They also tend to fall down and make a squeaky noise. In some areas, you can step on their heads to jump to new heights.
• Final Fantasy XI: Pixies will heal players who don't attack them or other pixies.
• In NetHack:
  • The Nurses deal very little damage with their attacks normally... but if you disrobe while fighting them, their attacks start to heal you instead. And in one of the more disturbing examples of Videogame Cruelty Potential, canning their dead body produces one of the game's most potent healing items, a (blessed) tin of nurse meat, though human characters will get a large Luck penalty and become even more hated by monsters if they ever use it.
  • Succubi and Incubi have a variety of positive and negative effects that happen if you let them disrobe you. However, for a decently-leveled character, the negative effects are easily remedied, while the positive effects are very good. However, Anhur help you if you are holding a cockatrice corpse in a gloved hand when they disrobe you.
• Elona has nurses, which, copying NetHack, will repeatedly cast healing spells at you. At least until they run out of mana and promptly suicide by Casting From Hit Points over and over.
• Most of the canines in Super Catboy, from daschund to poodles to bulldogs, attacks your feline protagonist on sight. And then there's the beagles, who pilots hovering platforms, doesn't have any attacks, and in fact helps you as a Goomba Springboard (either willingly or obliviously, it's uncertain) allowing you to literally jump over them to cross pits.
• Wario Land:
  • Dr. Arewo Stein in Wario Land 4. He almost exclusively appears in bonus rooms, and he can be knocked around and thrown like any enemy, but he can't be killed. It's usually necessary to use him as a projectile to solve the rooms' puzzles.
  • Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 has the Wanderin' Goom; it has no way to hurt you, but you can still kill it for a coin or pick it up and toss it at something else. It more or less exists to show off the difference between Mario and Wario, that very Goomba-like enemies aren't even capable of annoying him.
  • Some games require Wario to be hit with a status effect in order to proceed (on fire, zombified, flat...), said effects are helpfully provided by the level's enemies.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • The series has the White Mushrooms, and if you hit them with the right spell three times (e.g. if they are shivering, use Fire magic on them), they will drop a lot of magic orbs, a specific 'Arts' item for the magic you used and sometimes a rare item or two.
  • In the first Jafar battle in Kingdom Hearts 1, Genie is controlled by Jafar and commanded to attack you, but for the most part he's just a helpful mook; his attacks don't do very much damage and make HP orbs appear all around you so that you can recover the health quickly.
  • In Kingdom Hearts II, the sole purpose of the rare Bulky Vendor Heartless is to give out items via a Reaction Command once you've found it. It doesn't attack, instead draining its own HP once it spawns. The more HP a Bulky Vendor has left when you use its Reaction Command, the better the quality of the item you can get from it.
• Metroid
  • Metroid II: Return of Samus: A number of the organisms on SR-388 are completely harmless like Flitts, Proboscums, and Septoggs. Samus can safely stand on them as platforms even without having to freeze them, and they are completely incapable of harming her. Moheeks are a subversion as the manual describes them as "Usually quite tame, but if Samus touches its tendrils she will be hurt badly", implying they're rather friendly but are inherently dangerous to her.
  • Super Metroid has the Shaktool, a digging robot in one room of Maridia. While it can hurt Samus if she stands in the way of its blades, it digs the way through otherwise impenetrable hardened sand to the Spring Ball's room.
  • Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: Lightbringers act as mobile Safe Zones in Dark Aether.
• Breath of Fire III has an enemy called 'Drak' in the Desert of Death, which is 'paralyzed by the heat' when you encounter it. If you heal its paralysis, it will cast a very powerful healing spell (which you can learn) on one of your allies and then flee the battle.
• Give certain rare enemies in Final Fantasy IX a particular item and they grant a large amount of AP. Plus, find and "help" them all, and Superboss Ozma becomes vulnerable to Shadow-elemental magic, meaning when he uses his only such spell, that hits both parties, he damages himself instead of healing himself. He also becomes targettable by normal physical attacks.
  • The Magic Pots in Final Fantasy V work the same way in terms of AP, though there's no reward for finding them all.
  • The same applies to the Magic Urns from Final Fantasy VI.
  • In Final Fantasy II, there are enemies called Green Souls, which will constantly cast Cure VI on your party members, won't attack, and they absorb all magic. The only way to beat them (but why would you want to? It's free healing!) is with physical attacks.
• Whereas most moving objects on the screen are deadly to touch, the Green Ball in Q*bert gives a point bonus and briefly stops time... as long as you jump on top of it. Getting hit in the head with a Green Ball will still cost Q*bert a life.
• In Red Faction, the medics employed by Ultor will heal you whenever you need it. And yet it gives such great pleasure to put a bullet in their alarm-setting heads once they do. Even if you don't intend to kill them though, they have an annoying habit of running into the line of fire.
• The Camelia Smiles in Killer7. They run screaming when they see you, but if you hit their weak spot, you get massive amounts of blood. According to Iwazaru, they're traitors to the Heaven Smiles.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Koopa Troopas in Super Mario 64. They can't even hurt Mario, in fact running away from him, and you could ride their shell after defeating them. They make Goombas look like super soldiers.
  • Super Mario Bros. 3 gives us Para-Beetles, a tribute to Super Mario Bros. 2's Albatoss. Both can be ridden, though Para-Beetles form an arc when you ride on them. Moreover, they can be killed if you whip your tail at them, or while on them. Because of this, they can still be Demonic Spiders, since the one level they're in becomes That One Level without the ability to control your descent, from the same power-ups.
  • Super Mario World has Dolphins, who jump up out of the water and act as moving platforms. In the Japanese version they could be eaten by Yoshi- this was removed in the English one, as much from Values Dissonance as eating them could make levels Unwinnable.
    • It should be noted that the Dolphins wear scuba masks, as do any type of Mook in the Mario series that cannot harm you and act more as moving platforms. Other examples are Dorrie from Super Mario 64 (though it only wears the scuba mask in the DS version), and the giant flying manta rays in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. In the sky. In a jungle-themed level.
    • The game also has Mega Moles as well, giant versions of Monty Moles. Whilst they do have Collision Damage if you walk into them, if you jump on top you get a free ride, and this is needed to cover some pits with ferocious plant life.
• A good amount of the random foes in Klonoa probably qualify, as even though they hurt you by touching you, they are not overly aggressive, and are necessary stepping stones to higher areas, or as ammunition against more aggressive foes.
• In Vivendi Universal's The Hobbit, the final level has a rather intimidating looking orc hidden behind a wall. If you walk up to him, he will tell you that he is tired of the fighting, and won't hurt you (you can't hurt him either). He also has a handy supply of healing mushrooms scattered all around him.
• In Mega Man X: Command Mission, there is the Preon Nurse. If you kill all the enemies in the group but her, she will surrender, heal your characters and leave, and even thanks you for sparing her. And you will still net the items that drop when you kill her. However, Video Game Cruelty Potential arises because you can kill her before the turn she uses to escape comes up.
• In Pokémon Black and White, you have the Pokémon Audino. They drop mountains of exp, and will often use Heal Pulse on you, which recovers your health. Even in-game it's noted how helpful they are. They've become a fan-favorite because of this and most people feel bad for Audino-grinding afterwards.
  • Not to mention Concordia and Anthea, the "goddesses" of Team Plasma who heal your Pokémon and provide crucial exposition about the guy you're about to face.
  • Similarly, Black and White introduced Nurses and Doctors; trainers who act like a Pokémon Center visit after defeating them, and every time you talk to them thereafter. Very useful, since they usually show up about halfway into a dungeon, and aren't very difficult to defeat. In Pokémon Sword and Shield, the Doctors are now male and female but no longer heal your team.
  • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire often have the last mook of the building the local Villain Team sieged tell you where they would go next and say that you shouldn't try to follow them... because they were just about to own you with their two Zubat per member.
  • In the Pokémon Rumble series, the only move Audino uses when it's encountered as an enemy is Heal Pulse, which makes them a convenient way to restore your HP, as you can easily outdamage any healing they give to your enemies in the process.
• Bug! has chameleons in the desert stage. They would grab Bug by their tongue and eat him... and then spit him out onto a higher platform without any harm, sometimes required to get to certain areas in the level. You could still choose to kill them, though.
• In BloodRayne, instead of just killing the mooks, Rayne is able to feed on them by drinking their blood, which restores her health. She is a dhampyr, after all.
  • Moreover, there are some enemies who carry no weapons and only serve to provide health.
• The Muddy Buddy in Yoshi's Island. When Yoshi hops on it, it coats his feet in mud, allowing him to walk on top of spikes.
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island has Green Gloves, an enemy type that can catch your eggs and will throw them back at you to try to knock you back. With careful positioning, you can actually trick them into hitting other enemies or collecting items for you. The game even requires this to solve some of its puzzles.
  • Chomps in Yoshi's Woolly World deal Collision Damage if touched like most enemies in the game, but they can be turned into harmless Chomp Rocks by throwing a yarn ball at them. At least one stage requires making full use of this mechanic.
• Undertale has Vulkin, a friendly volcano monster that fires its lava at you because it thinks it will heal you. Unfortunately, it's wrong. There's also the Vegetoid you encounter in the ruins who, while he does attack you, will feed you instead if you simply ask. Said green veggies (naturally) heal HP instead of draining it.
• Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: The starfish enemies attack Shantae herself on sight... but if you're using the Mermaid transformation, they fall in love with you, follow you around, and will attack other enemies for you.
• Demon's World have a stage over a pit of flames, which would be impossible to cross if not for the legions and legions of coffin-carrying ghosts passing by, where you can simply jump on their coffins to the other side. The ghosts themselves are harmless, can be shot for points (the stage seems to have an unlimited amount fo them) and unlike other enemies who damages you with a single touch, you can actually try touching thse ghosts without getting hurt.
• Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! and Donkey Kong Land III:
  • Koins are Kremlings who appear once in every level and guard that level's DK Coin (a collectible needed to 100% the game) by concealing it within their shield. A Koin cannot harm the Kongs directly, as they remain stationary and will only knock the Kongs back two feet should they bump into one. A Koin's shield makes him immune to frontal attacks, and he always faces the Kongs, who must find a way to hit him from behind. In most cases, this involves tossing a keg over Koin's head and letting it ricochet off a nearby wall, so that it comes back and crashes into Koin's backside, defeating him and causing him to drop his DK Coin. In a sense, Koins function more as a puzzle than an actual enemy.^note Koins do not appear in Donkey Kong Land III's water levels; the DK Coins for those levels are unguarded. This is averted with the Koindozers, the cousins of the Koins, which appear only in the level "Koindozer Klamber". While they also cannot damage the Kongs directly, Koindozers will chase after the Kongs and attempt to knock them into pits with their shields.
  • Nibbla is a fish with a voracious appetite who appears in a few levels, and will attempt to eat the Kongs should they get too close to the surface of the water. However, in "Fish Food Frenzy", which is situated underwater, he will instead go after other aquatic enemies. However, he will target the Kongs if he gets angry, either by going too long without eating another enemy, or by eating a Lurchin.
• Snakeys in the Adventures of Lolo games are completely harmless. They don't move or attack, nor do they kill you with Collision Damage if you touch them.
• In Default Dan, what are usually your enemies in most platform games here are a big help to you. Man-Eating Plants act as warp pads, and goombas will carry you over hazards.
• In Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the Hot as Hell Rul'sha is described in the bestiary as "A lovely winged demoness who gives blessings to those she favors." Indeed, if you hang around her and don't attack, she'll cast a powerful buffing spell on you and otherwise leave you alone. Since she tends to appear around Demonic Spiders and a room full of the Sidhe enemies who drop the Game-Breaker Healing Shard and the Faerie Wings to enhance it, you really want to be on Rul'sha's good side here.
• Late in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night you'll encounter Dragon Riders, which are simply Flea Men riding White Dragons. While White Dragons are normally aggressive, these ones are clearly very unhappy with being ridden by an ugly little flea creature since if you manage to kill the rider or knock it off the dragon's back the White Dragon will become friendly, follow you around the room, and attack other enemies for you. It's about the cutest a skeletal dragon snake could ever be.
• Subverted in the Oglaf strip Gravity Loves Masonry, where the mook appears to warn adventurers that the trap they're about to set off will crush them under tons of rubble. When asked why, he says that he's in charge of putting the rubble back in place afterwards, and points them in the right direction... which turns out to be a different trap.
• Quantum Protocol:
  • The CorruptedBit enemy card forces the player to Reprogram their deck. If the player has most of their cards in the trash, this can give them a second wind before the boss fight. On the other hand, if the player has a really strong setup on their field, this resets their field.
  • The Sanctum enemy card also resets the player's deck and field, while adding a healing effect. This is to compensate for the fact that it's encountered in the final level, which is longer and has more bosses than the previous dungeons.
• The Superhero League has Super TNT, who's Made of Plasticine like most other enemies, but explodes when killed, potentially taking out other nearby enemies. Some levels even require you to use him in some way to kill Super Diamond.

Accidentally Assisting

• The enemies in the Wii version of A Boy and His Blob. Some of them help to hold down Pressure Plates, some of them throw you while being in a bubble, some of them kill other enemies or crush walls. Finally, you can ride on top of some of them if they have an Anvil on Head.
• The enemies in Boulder Dash (and other game clones) help to open up spaces, when they explode on death.
• In Bubble Trouble, most of the enemies can push bubbles at the hero and attempt to squish him. However, their bubble-pushing can also kill other enemies, or even pick up bonus bubbles that drift up from the bottom of the screen.
• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Some attacking enemies have safe places that don't give Collision Damage. Bone Pillars allow you to stand on them, as do the Catoblepas and Gorgons. If you don't have double jump or flight (and even if you do), they can help you reach slightly higher places.
• Celeste has the eyeball monsters in Chapter 5. You can let them press switches for you, you can make them dash into red walls which is the only way to break them, and you can Goomba Stomp on them, which has the additional effect of replenishing your air dash. Stomping on them also stuns them for several seconds. When they become un-stunned they release a shockwave that violently propels you away from them, which can be extremely useful if you position yourself correctly.
• Doctor in Contra: Hard Corps summons Mix-and-Match Critters if you choose to fight him. One of them is a cute tiny flower which gives you several weapons.
• Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure contains large pods that will occasionally spit monsters into the sky, to parachute down and make a nuisance of themselves. However, the pods aren't directly dangerous to touch, and moreover, if Cosmo jumps into one, they'll spit him high into the air, allowing him to reach platforms and items that would normally be far out of reach.
• Cuphead: In the Phantom Express battle, the flying pumpkins drop bricks that can cause your trolley to move. Sometimes this will move you away from danger instead of towards it.
• Cursed Treasure: The Smuggler enemy can carry multiple gems, meaning that if you only have one or two out of the cave, he'll actually bring the missing gems closer to their starting point.
• In Dark Souls II there are a few obstacles, mostly in Aldia's Keep, that can only be circumvented by tricking Giant Mooks into smashing them.
• Vultures, dragonflies and flying beetles in the Donkey Kong Country games are usually there for you to bounce off of and reach something out of normal jumping distance.
• Devil May Cry series:
  • Several self-detonating demons in the series (such as the Hell Wraths in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and the Blitz in Devil May Cry 4) also deal massive damage to their fellow demons when they explode. They tend to "accidentally" help you clear out a room of enemies provided they are closely-packed with the rest.
  • The series' Goomba Springboard mechanic lets you use the Mooks as makeshift platforms. Oftentimes, this allows you to artificially reach an item located way up high, or it can be used for Sequence Breaking with the Demon Pull ability in DmC: Devil May Cry. Secret Mission 9 of Devil May Cry 5 even partially encourages this, as you can repeatedly jump off the Hell Antenora's head in order to stay afloat.
  • Devil May Cry 4:
    • The Blitz is a Mini-Boss type of a demon Mook that's difficult to deal with. However, it's blind and thus can accidentally hurt its fellow demons whenever it strikes or Teleport Spams.
    • Thanks to the game's Mêlée à Trois mechanics, the artificial demons created by Agnus (Angelos, Gladii and Basilisks) will fight the other demons and vice versa, which can be helpful for the player as the demons tend to switch their aggro. In normal circumstances, this happens rarely (such as in Mission 17, where two Alto Angelos confront a Faust), but it's in full force in the Legendary Dark Knight mode where dozens of enemies spawn at once.
    • In Mission 11, there's a gate that can only be opened by activating its pressure plates on both sides at once. There's a Scarecrow demon on the other side, so Nero can just pull it to the pressure plate and help him open the gate.
  • Devil May Cry 5: Hell Antenora, Empusa Queen and Behemoth are demons prone to going berserk, being able to hurt and outright kill other demons if they go on a rampage. Some of the other enemies' attacks (such as a Hell Judecca's ground spikes) can also "accidentally" damage their fellow kin in a crossfire.
  • In the Bloody Palace modes, the Chimera Seeds from Devil May Cry 4 and the Qliphoth Roots from Devil May Cry 5 are guaranteed to drop Green Orbs that restore the player character's vitality. The Green Empusa in DMC5 also do so even outside of the Bloody Palace mode, but only when they're killed early on without having exhausted their healing substance yet.
• In Doom, almost any enemy can be helpful since enemies can damage each other, causing them to infight. This is an important tactic on higher difficulty levels. Some notable examples of this:
  • Doom II: The rocket zombie (Revenant), introduced in this game. They tend to be more dangerous for foes than for the player due to their frequency of friendly fire and splash damage.
  • Doom (2016): The Possessed Engineer is a variant of The Possessed which had a gas tank fused into its body when it was zombified. Shooting it causes it to blow up, most likely taking out a bunch of other enemies around it. An oftentimes more useful tactic was to Glory Kill it, double tapping melee (once to deplete its microscopic health pool, once to trigger the GK animation) would send it flying across the room to explode on contact. In Doom Eternal, it is renamed to Cueball, and doesn't even move or attack you, instead just standing around for you to send it flying into your other foes as soon as it's dealt the slightest amount of damage.
• In Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, a certain species of fish are harmful to eat. However, if Ecco eats them while he's poisoned, he'll be cured (and won't suffer the usual damage he'd get by eating them normally).
  • The penultimate stage involves releasing one of the Foe Queen's babies, a ravenous alien, so it will eat its way into her otherwise-invulnerable body. By following the baby, Ecco can get to the Foe Queen's heart to attack her directly.
• Trappers in Eternal Darkness are generally annoying since moving too fast near them will have them transport you another dimension, generally wasting your time. However, said dimension has three areas where you can get your health, sanity, or magic fully restored, depending on which one you pick.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The Tricker/Li'l Murderer enemy from Final Fantasy IV only uses Scan on itself to show it's weak against lightning. If you use a lightning spell on it, it will rain the hurt down on you in kind. It still retains its weakness however, so if you use a Lunar Curtain to give your party Reflect status, it'll only murder itself. If you don't cast lightning, it'll just keep casting Scan until it's dead.
  • Final Fantasy VI has certain spellcasting enemies that zig-zag between this and the other variation by casting Cure and even Reraise spells at you. Although chances are you might be wearing a Reflect Ring, so the former spell might bounce back towards the enemy and heal them instead.
  • Final Fantasy VIII has the bonus boss Diablos, which could be made to Curaga you by casting its own Demi on it. It had to be drawn, and then cast, instead of cast direct though.
  • Final Fantasy XII has the Happy Bunny type enemy, an adorable looking monster that usually won't attack you except in self-defense. They heal any injured creatures near them, which is helpful if you're the one hurt, but annoying if they're healing your enemies — especially since they use better spells or items on enemies and cheaper versions on your party.
  • Stretching the definition of Mook—while Feral Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy most definitely wants the player dead (as well as the rest of existence), his summon, Shinryu, is a little more ambiguous—all of his "helping" of Chaos can be either nullified or turned around to hurt Chaos, really badly, and with ease. Thank you, Shinryu, for locked 9999 Bravery, couldn't have done it without you. It makes sense when you realize that by the time the player fights Feral Chaos, Shinryu as a character really does hate him and probably would like to see him dead.
• Five Nights at Freddy's:
  • The "Bare Animatronic Skeleton" from Five Nights at Freddy's 2 blocks the air vents from being used by the actually malevolent (and possibly haunted) robots. That being said, it's still scary looking, seeing as how it's a robot skeleton. It might be the only one that still follows the Three Laws. It may itself be haunted but Genuinely Gentle. Who knows?
• In Iji there are several occasions in which you can trick an enemy into firing a rocket at a breakable wall or at you to access a secret. There's no specific enemy for this, but it usually happens with Tasen Soldiers.
  • There's also Normal the Shark, who tries to spit bubbles to ensnare the hero. However, his bubbles can ensnare another enemy instead, or even himself.
• Kingdom of Loathing's Aeris parody will usually try to attack you, but every so often heal you instead "out of habit". This becomes even more useful once you get dexterous enough to dodge all of her normal attacks, since her healing move can't miss, meaning you can intentionally prolong the fight, easily getting over 100 HP healed.
• Left 4 Dead 2 while the clown infected does attract other infected, they mostly follow the clown first. This makes it easier for you to shoot them all in a tight group. Likewise, Boomers that puked on a lone player will attract all nearby zombies towards that player (as well as spawning in new ones), making it easier to mow them down and effectively clean the area of infected.
• Magical Starsign has Swingers, which attack by tossing green gummi frogs with their tails. However, if their attack is blocked with a reflex guard, not only will the attack do no damage, but you'll even get a health-restoring gummi frog added to your inventory.
• Mega Man X occasionally has enemies that provide more help than harm: the Pararoid V-1 mechaniloid drone, for instance, attempts to latch on to X's head, but does no damage. Instead, it takes over the function for one of the action buttons and effectively mashes that button until it's shaken off. Constant dashing and non-stop jumping are rather annoying, if fairly harmless. However, about a third of the time, the Pararoid will instead provide X with non-stop rapid-fire buster shots while not limiting his movement or agility (as only one drone at a time may latch on to X). If you get 'infected' with one of these particular drones, feel free to park X next to a Giant Mook and have a good laugh at how quickly you can blow through the many enemies with no Mercy Invincibility against standard shots.
• Metroid
  • Many Metroid games require you to use enemies frozen with the ice beam as platforms to progress at some point.
  • Metroid Prime has Gliders, harmless critters with a convenient "magnetic signature" floating over a few gaps, allowing you to swing across with the grapple beam.
  • Metroid Prime 3: Corruption:
    • The Swarmers are insectoid enemies that latch on to Samus while she's in Morph Ball mode and lift her up, carrying her to new areas. You just have to shake them off before another, nearby critter tries to eat you.
    • Phazon Puffers draw in Phazon from their environment, depleting your Hypermode meter when you stand close to them. They only appear in Phaaze, where keeping the Hypermode meter down is necessary to survival. Also on Phaaze, Phaz-Ing can be affected by Hyper Grapple to pump Phazon into them and reduce the Hypermode meter greatly.
• In the Monster Hunter series, since the various mooks can deal scratch damage, they may ultimately assist you in killing huge enemies and even their own leader.
  • Monster Hunter Generations: Mizutsune, one of the four Mascot Mooks of the game, is a special case: its Bubble Gun attack on occasion, Mizutsune will launch green bubbles that heal hunters, or red bubbles that give them an attack boost.
  • Happens often in Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter: Rise, as a result of turf wars; smaller monsters often have a tendency to inadvertently help with larger ones, particularly ones like the Tzitzi-Ya-Ku which is able to stun flying monsters out of the air (which is often a godsend for weapons with poor aerial range) the second they see them.
• The haunted burger enemies in Ninja Baseball Bat Man. While they can damage you, you can "beat" them by hitting them once, making their eyes fall off, and they become harmless. After which pressing the attack button when near them will have your character eat them for a decent amount of health!
• Noita: Parantajahiisi are Hiisi that shoot their allies with healing beams... or, well, they try to. It's very easy to trick them into healing you, because they don't check their firing line at all. The classic setup is to get two Parantajahiisi, kick them both for minimal damage, and stand between them as they try to heal each other, but there are several more ways to do it if you're creative.
• In Ōkami and its sequel, there are times you wear a (literally) Paper-Thin Disguise. Any imp you encounter while doing this will help you get wherever you need to go. There is also an element of Type 1 in that in certain dungeons, imp merchants will appear to sell you goods before you go to fight bosses.
• Due to how aggressively the AI functions in Phantom Brave, by standing atop the enemy there's a nearly 50/50 chance they'll attack/steal from you or their friend. Can be a big lifesaver late in the game when you place a 'small' unit atop a 'large' type enemy with more body space for the AI to accidentally target. This is true even of some area effect skills which are more horizontal than vertical, or attack skills which have a very small range of effect (like the vase primary attack) but are counted as capable of attacking multiple foes.
• The Plants Vs Zombies 2 Game Mod Plants Vs Zombies 2 Reflourished has the Bandit Zombie. He sneaks onto your lawn to chomp a few plants, before retreating as discreetly as he can... because he has a bag of sun on his back. If you can kill him before he escapes (No hard feat; he's about as brittle as a basic zombie), he drops his spoils, giving you a 75 sun boost.
• Prayer of the Faithless: The Dark elemental sword Tenebris is immune to Dark elemental attacks. But Soulfire Drain extracts the Soulfire Blaze resource even when said attack deals 0 damage, so Aeyr can use it to get infinite Soulfire Blazes and convert them to healing with Soulfire Mend, if he's at a high enough Character Level to get that skill. Not that that he would ever need that strategy, since the Flunky Boss-revives-any-available-flunky-at-end-of-turn nature of the battle means there's always something to drain.
• Rayman Origins has bird enemies that Blow You Away. They can keep you off platforms and push you around... but sometimes they'll help you reach high areas you couldn't before. There are also dragon waiters whose trays you can ride and use as platforms, but will breathe fire at you or kick you if you approach them from the side.
• Resident Evil 4:
  • The game introduced mooks who toss dynamite sticks, which have roughly the same damage and blast radius of a Hand Grenade. However because of the way the game has set it up, it will only deal damage to the player if it landed right under their feet, otherwise your character will casually shrug it off by covering his face. The enemies, unfortunately, don't know this trick, and will often have a whole pack of them blown to pieces by their clumsy comrade without the player lifting a finger. And, if you manage to hit their dynamite, it'll explode instantly, making him a very useful mobile Explosive Barrel.
  • The RPG mooks. Sure, it deals a lot of damage, but when you've realised that it has the same property of a grenade, which makes you safe as long as you are 2 inches away from the blast, it quickly became a conventional way to take down the Giant Mooks, much to their dismay.
• While Resident Evil 5's Executioner Majini and Gatling Majini are menacing, their attacks tend to hurt their minions more than the player, who can easily dodge much of it by casually strafing sideways.
• In Rocket: Robot on Wheels, there are mushroom (and marshmallow) enemies that roll and grab on to you. While they can't hurt you, they do make it impossible to walk, and you can only jump slightly. However, if you jump three times in quick succession, they spit you out, letting you jump extremely high.
• The Shantae series: Dragon Heads are stone heads that fire attacks out from their mouths. But they're still made of stone, so they can be used as platforms if they jut out of the wall, which they usually do:
  • Shantae: Risky's Revenge: They appear in Squid Baron's Labyrinth.
  • Shantae and the Seven Sirens: They appear in Coral Mine.
• Robots in Stealth Bastard can push down Pressure Plates and block laser beams.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario 64 has the flipper enemies, which would launch you into the air many times higher than you could jump. Usually harmless, but it might hurt if you don't land in water or a higher surface. Also present is this glitch, which allows you to get through unopened gates by having alerted Bob-ombs push you through them.
  • Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars: The pirates hurt each other more than you hurt them.
  • Super Mario Bros. 2 has a level in which you need to ride on Birdo's egg to progress. The same Birdo used to be a miniboss in earlier levels.
  • Mario Clash: Koopa Troopas again. While they can hurt you, they're ineffective, and throwing their shells is the only way to defeat every enemy except them. Even the Goombas are tougher!
  • Super Mario Galaxy is absolutely full of these. Cataquacks launch Mario into the air, Bullet Bills can be tricked into blowing up certain objects, Koopas are almost completely harmless and yield a shell upon defeat (used for Mario's only ranged attack without a power-up), some Topmen have springs Mario can jump off of, Bob-Ombs can be thrown after being defeated...
  • Super Mario 3D Land: One of the Rocky Wrenches in World 8-3 will throw coins at you instead of its signature wrenches.
  • Super Mario 3D World: There are potted Piranha Plants that will attack you just like any other Piranha Plant in the game, but, if you grab them as items, they will eat any other enemy that moves in front of you (including other players).
  • Super Mario World: The Fishing Lakitu holds out a 1-Up mushroom for you. He'll go back to trying to kill you with Spiny Eggs after you grab it, but it still means the most he can do is break even.
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Several creepy-looking ghosts will "curse" you with new special abilities like folding into an airplane, or being able to turn sidewise. They are very pleased with themselves and don't seem to even realize how helpful they are. It's implied that the ghosts are the original four heroes that sealed away the Shadow Queen, and are cursed to curse others. They each apparently came up with the idea to only tell a great hero how to open them, and then "curse" them with something helpful.
  • Super Mario World: The Platform Hell ROM Hack Super Kaizo World has stages where you have to use a walking cactus enemy to ferry you across a bed of killer plants ("MOVE FASTER, POKEY!!!") or jump on one Bullet Bill after another to make it across an incredibly wide Bottomless Pit. Also, those "genuinely gentle" Dolphins? Yeah, they can kill you. Or rather, push you into obstacles that do.
• Something
  • The entire gimmick of Punches on Cold Ice. Mario has to be punched by the Punches in order to cross the vast gaps in the level.
  • The gimmick of spin-jumping on Torpedo Ted is used in Pain Fortress and Crazy Night.
  • In Ultimate Custom Night, Rockstar Foxy will give you power-ups if you click on his parrot when he's in a good mood. If he's in a bad mood, however, he'll attack and kill you.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the Marble Garden Zone has enemies that disguise themselves as spikes and shoot out projectiles when you get close. However, the spikes aren't really spikes, but bendy rubber ones that act as springs.
  • Also, rarely in the earlier games but prevalent from Sonic Adventure and on, you will often have enemies that float around waiting to be killed by Sonic's homing attack, so Sonic can use the momentum to reach other parts of the stage. In certain games, they will even respawn if you somehow fail the jumps.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Any Zelda game that has the Wallmasters has them take you back to the dungeon's entrance if they grab you. Normally, this is annoying since you're forced to backtrack to where you were, but Wallmasters can make an efficient Warp Whistle if you need to return to the entrance and move on to a different area or a handy Escape Rope if you need to leave the dungeon quickly.
  • In the first The Legend of Zelda, Blue Bubbles (which only appear in the second quest) do not damage Link at all. Their only function is to remove the "no sword use" curse that Red Bubbles can inflict on Link. (Do note, however, that Blue Bubbles are the ones that do the cursing in Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker, though the curse wears out on its own in those games. Red Bubbles in those games are simply surrounded by ordinary fire.)
  • The Anti-Fairy in A Link to the Past is dreaded for being fast-moving, Nigh-Invulnerable, and able to drain your Magic Meter. However, if you sprinkle Magic Powder on them, they'll turn into a normal, helpful fairy. Thus, the neophyte looks upon them with revulsion, and the knowledgeable player with glee.
  • Also in A Link to the Past is the Mad Batter, a character in a hidden shrine cave who will "curse" you by halving your magic, but which actually reduces your magic costs by half, effectively giving you twice as much magic.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, the Mad Batters return to increase your bombs, magic powder, and arrow capacity under the guise of "cursing" you to carry more. Anti-Fairies can also be transformed as before, but with the Boomerang instead of Magic Powder.
  • In The Wind Waker:
    • Moblins carry halberds that are easily three times as tall as Link. And they are so bad at using them that they will regularly miss Link altogether and hit the mook standing next to them, knocking them clean off their feet. They then waste two seconds staring at the guy they knocked over.
    • Darknuts can be induced to smack any enemies near them at will by simply performing a spin attack, which they'll imitate regardless of whether you're range of them or not.
  • In Hyrule Warriors, there are Summoner enemies that will occasionally summon a large group of low-level mooks to the player's location. Since the mooks are far too weak to do any sort of damage or survive more than a few hits, and a large amount of KOs is required to get a good ranking, this is entirely beneficial for the player.
  • The primary offensive measure of Rock Octoroks in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is to inhale before spitting up a fiery rock at you. However, if you toss a rusty weapon at it while it's inhaling, it will actually clean it and spit it back up as a brand new weapon of the same type (whether sword, greatsword or spear; while you can't throw rusty shields, the Rock Octorok will still clean it if you drop it nearby). The power of these renewed weapons can vary; they could be as weak as the Traveller weapons, or as strong as the Royal weapons.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Wallmasters will constantly try to slam palm-down onto Link, but can be baited to slam onto buttons placed on platforms above him.
• The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning: The level Dante's Freezer is full of these. There are two kinds of enemies, apes and ice soldiers, and since they are at war with each other, they'll often show up to kill each other in the middle of a battle. One notable instance is when you come across a huge fortress stuffed full of ice soldiers, but before they even see you an ape runs over and blows the entire thing up, killing everyone (including himself). Dreadwings also have a habit of dropping bombs on hordes of ice soldiers even while you're still fighting them.
• In Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, the only real purpose of Grots are to let Captain Titus recover some health by smashing them into a paste with his power armoured knuckles.
• Every single transformation causing enemy in Wario Land II and after. They have various attacks and what not, but the attacks do not physically harm Wario, just transforming him in some (often helpful) way. You've got enemies that set him on fire so he can smash fire blocks, enemies that flatten him so he can go through small passages and vampire bats which turn him into a vampire with flight and invincibility powers.
• Part of Wild9's overall platforming mechanic is gumming up the works of various traps by oh-so-helpfully lifting random foes into them until the traps stop working. Some traps don't, however, and the respawning enemies represent merely a temporary stepping stone.
• A number of bosses in World of Warcraft summon minions who are the only way to defeat them. For one example, Grand Widow Faerlina's servants will dispel her powerful frenzy mode if killed next to her.
  • In the original (unexpanded) World of Warcraft, when Ragnaros in Molten Core was the final boss, some players discovered that some of the mobs from the nearby Blackrock Spire instance could be mind-controlled and would provide a significant fire resistance buff, which is very useful for the Ragnaros encounter. It is unclear whether this usage was intentional on Blizzard's part.
  • Trilliax, the third boss in the Nighthold Raid, has three modes, Cleaner, Maniac, and Caretaker; Caretaker, he cannot attack, and creates three Succulent Feasts while sending out a mob of Scubbers. The Feasts let you restore 3 million points of damage (useful for his next wave of attacks) while the Scrubbers clean up the toxic sludge puddles that his previous waves made. (They eventually self-destruct, however, but their blow can be lessened by interrupting their spell.)
• Xenogears has repair Gears that show up to heal their comrades. Kill their comrades and they'll repair you for free. How nice.
  • There are also Genuinely Gentle versions that appear on the world map and act as Gear shops, allowing you to repair, refuel, and buy new parts. You even have the option of fighting them if you want (by saying "I don't trust you"), but after you win it's removed from the map.

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