Limit Break

Go on, hit me. I dare you.

"My Limit Break involves a moose, the demon Baphomet and a Kuiper Belt object. It takes four hours and you can't skip any of the cutscenes."

— Pintsize, Questionable Content #707

A powerful attack or technique available after some requirement during battle is fulfilled. In video games, this is often indicated by a refillable or chargeable gauge on the menu allowing the player to gauge when it will become available, how strong it will be, or so on; and the most common requirement is taking (and/or giving) damage in combat. Thus, it's usually a kind of Evolving Attack. May overlap with Super Mode or be a form of Desperation Attack.

It's always displayed in the character's Status Line. It may be accompanied by a Super Move Portrait Attack. It might unlock a Super Special Move.

The popularity of the trope, and its assimilation into numerous forms of media is a testament to the widespread effect that Final Fantasy VII, the originator of the term, had in making RPGs more mainstream. Although a nearly identical gameplay mechanic appeared a few years earlier in Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, the concept has become synonymous with the Final Fantasy games series, and the term is now widely used as a catch-all term to describe such attacks.

The inverse of Break Meter. For when you can make a vehicle do this, see Overdrive^note Which has nothing to do with the limit breaks used in Final Fantasy X. or Nitro Boost. See EX Special Attack for a downplayed version of this trope. Not to be confused with limit breaks in Exalted, which are closer to Sanity Slippage.

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Example subpages

• Video Games

Examples

Anime & Manga

• Inuyasha
  • The Kaze-no-Kizu (Wind Scar) can only be used if Inuyasha can find the "rift" between his aura and the opponent's, and cut through it. Made particularly difficult by Kagura, who can control wind and thus manipulates the flow of their auras so Inuyasha can't find the rift.
  • Inuyasha's Bakuryuuha (Backlash Wave) fits, since it turns an opponent's energy-based attack back upon them.
• Attack on Titan features Eren Jaeger, whose ability to turn into a Titan only activates when he's injured. However, he instinctively realizes that self-harm works as well, and from then on it becomes a controlled ability. Other Titan Shifters activate their powers in the same fashion.
• In Dragon Ball:
  • The requirements to activate the Saiyan Super Mode introduced in Dragon Ball Z are similar to this. Once a Saiyan of sufficient power has been pushed to the absolute limit of what they can take, said Saiyan will trigger the golden-haired Super Saiyan state. Part of Gohan's training involved taking control of his anger in this fashion.
  • Majin Buu's Angry Explosion. Its only activation is when his massive anger is triggered.
  • In Dragon Ball Super, Goku's Ultra Instinct transformation can only be accessed when he is under extreme duress not only physically but mentally as well (such as being under the pressure of competing in a tournament where the entire universe is at stake). Unlike his other transformations, he has yet to re-attain it outside of those conditions.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • The GIGA DRILL BREAKER can only be unleashed when the main character's spiral energy peaks (usually caused by an extreme burst of emotion).
  • In Gurren-Lagann The Satire, when Simon and Kamina use Giga Drill Break, Kamina doesn't shout FINISHING MOOOOOOOOVE! Instead, he actually shouts "LIMIIIT BREEEEEEEAK! GIGA DRILL BREEEEEEEAK!" This is despite the series trying to avoid tropes and main-stream pop-culture references.
• In Kuroko's Basketball, the Zone works like this. The requirements are, at minimum, that you must love the sport you're playing, that you be an advanced prodigy (i.e. the Generation of Miracles or Kagami), that you have an incredible, single-minded focus on the game and your desire to win, and that you are pressed to activate your unique "trigger" to open the door (i.e. Aomine's trigger is to have a "worthy opponent", against whom he can go all-out and have fun). However, with knowledge of one's trigger, and sufficient focus, it's possible to force open the door on your own, as Aomine, Kagami, and Akashi demonstrate, so it works more like Dragon Ball's Super Saiyan form than the standard limit break.
• Naruto does this as traditionally as Dragonball. Naruto's first activation of the Nine-Tails Chakra occurs after believing that his friend/rival has been killed, enraging him and tapping into his hidden power. Eventually, Naruto learns how to activate this power at will, so it's not really a Limit Break anymore. Prior to this, though, it manifested primarily when Naruto saw his friends being injured or killed; ironically, in one incident, this actually caused further harm to his own team.
• In One Piece, Luffy's first use of the Gears is considered a Limit Break, especially Gear Third. So much so that Gear Third shrinks him down to a small, kid-like chibi form (before the timeskip, anyway). Gear Second, on the other hand, is Cast from Hit Points.
  • Elizabello II has a signature attack that he calls the "King Punch", which is strong enough to supposedly take down a fortress. However, the downside is that he needs to warm up for one hour before he can use it, requiring his subordinates to protect him during this time.
• Shinji of Neon Genesis Evangelion can trigger one when he's under extreme emotional duress, whether from battle fatigue or just sheer pressure. His EVA 01 unit goes berserk in a scene usually complete with horror. Unit 01 goes berserk whenever Shinji's life is in danger to the point that he's almost pissing himself in fear. The other, much more powerful kind appeared in the second Rebuild movie and was triggered by his Berserk Button; as such, his opponent is completely fucked. In fact, him going full-power had triggered literally The End of the World as We Know It and turned Unit 01 into a Physical God by vaporizing its Restraining Bolts. In the same movie, Mari was able to manually activate and control EVA 02's limit break by disabling its Restraining Bolts.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS calls Nanoha's Blaster System and a few other attacks limit breaks with some Gratuitous English. And her Starlight Breaker, which recycles recently-used mana in the vicinity, and so gets more powerful the later in the fight it's used.
• The eponymous Sekirei have a form of this. A special power-up and attack available only when their Ashikabi kiss them of all things.
• A variation is used in Hellsing. As Alucard's powers are controlled by Integra via Hermetic Magic, only she can say how much of his power can be used. This is seen when different levels of Alucard's power are released, culminating in the Godzilla Threshold when Alucard's full power is released, allowing him to call forth the millions of souls he has consumed over the centuries to tear the forces of Millennium and Iscariot to shreds.
• Bleach:
  • In omakes and anime, it's revealed that Hanatarou's zanpakutou is this, absorbing the injuries of others that fills a gauge on the side of the sword, whereupon the stored power can be used as a surprisingly powerful, explosive attack.
  • Rukia's third dance can only be used when her zanpakutou has broken.
  • Renji's shikai can also perform a special maneuver (Higa Zekkou) only when his zanpakutou is broken.
  • Ikkaku's bankai functions according to this principle. He has to wait for the dragon crest on his blades to fill completely with the colour red by striking or being struck by the enemy, like a power gauge, before he is at full strength.
• Practically every soccer player (including goalkeepers) in the anime series Inazuma Eleven has this, which is called "Hissatsu" (Japanese for "Certain Kill").
• [C] - The Money of Soul and Possibility Control has "Macroflations", the highest tier of attacks for Assets, they're all incredibly expensive (in a world where money is literally power), exhausting for the Assets and have powerful effects ranging from mind control, massive flames or stopping time.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00:
  • All of the protagonists and eventually the antagonists too have Trans-Am. Around mid-way through the second season, the 00 Gundam aquires the 0-Raiser which makes it able to Trans-Am without malfunctioning as before... except that THIS Trans-Am is ridiculously powerful even when compared to the others; even the Gundam's designer is completely shocked at a RealRobot outputting significantly more power than what it's theoretically capable of.
  • In the penultimate episode, Setsuna triggers a Trans-Am Burst which is truly this trope, filling several hundred cubic kilometers with enough GN particles to put everyone inside into a temporary Hive Mind - even ordinary, non-psychic humans. And if that's still not enough, The Movie gives us the Quantum System aboard the 00 Quan[T] which is even more powerful to the point the participants can share memories.
• Mobile Fighter G Gundam has the "SHINING/BURNING FINGER!!". It's more of a finishing move, but in a closer sense, there's Domon's Super/Hyper modes, which (at first) can only be triggered by intense anger, then supreme calm (the former being an imperfect and unreliable version). However, the man is boiling all the time, so it doesn't mean much. However, later, Domon mixes the Burning Finger with Master Asia's ultimate attack, so that has to count for something.
• A Certain Magical Index: Accelerator's "Awakened" state, in which he develops black wings made of exotic matter and his powers skyrocket beyond the already ridiculously high level they start at. This only happens when Accelerator is under severe mental and/or emotional stress, so he's rarely thinking straight or even entirely coherently when in that form, making him all the more dangerous. When he finally manages to Awaken consciously, his wings are white and he gets a halo over his head. The exact ramifications of what this means have not yet been explored.
• In Tiger & Bunny, the titular characters' Powered Armor enters the Good Luck Mode when they only have three seconds of their power remaining, which involves Wild Tiger's arm and Barnaby's leg virtually quadrupling in size, allowing for one final strike. subverted when, immediately following the first time Good Luck Mode is activated, it's revealed that it doesn't raise their power one bit. It was only designed to look awesome.
• In Claymore, the titular Claymores can use their strongest personal techniques and become more powerful in general only when they unleash their Yoma energy, an energy they can use thanks to the fact that they are themselves half Human and half Yoma, this is quite dangerous, however, as the more Yoki a Claymore uses, the more she becomes similar to a Yoma, and can even potentially lose control and turn into an Awakened being. There are, however, those who managed to turn back even after losing control and coming very close to Awakening; these ones can use their techniques with greater freedom and become considerably stronger than how they were before.

Comic Books

• The Human Torch's Nova Flame attack sometimes works like this, but often it takes the role of The Worf Barrage.
• Thor's Godly Essence Blast, often known simply as the 'Godblast', is an attack that takes a bit of charge-up time, and can even damage or destroy Mjölnir from overuse. However, it lets him do things like drive away Galactus and break the armor of Celestials.
• The Incredible Hulk's transformation could be seen as this, as it can only be triggered when Bruce Banner is in danger or under emotional stress (typically anger).

Film

• Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children had the characters using several of their limit breaks from the game. Many of them are not used as "limit breaks", though, after taking enough damage to fill an imaginary bar, but as just special attacks seemingly at will.
  • Tifa uses her entire limit chain except for Dolphin Blow and Final Heaven when fighting Loz.
  • Nanaki uses Sled Fang against Bahamut Sin.
  • Barret seems to use a combination of his Heavy Shot and Mind Blow attacks.
  • Cid uses Boost Jump to smack Bahamut right in the brain. Ow.
  • Cloud uses Blade Beam against his foes in the Forgotten City, then uses Braver, Climhazzard against Bahamut Sin, Finishing Touch against Kadaj, and then finally an upgraded Omnislash against Sephiroth. In true limit break fashion, it could be said that he was only able to use the latter of these due to being severely injured by Sephiroth beforehand.
  • In Advent Children Complete, Cloud also uses the original Omnislash against Sephiroth. Sephiroth parries Omnislash, which, for those who don't know, was the attack that, two years ago, finished off Sephiroth, banishing him from Cloud's mind. Sephiroth casually parries the first fourteen hits and then impales Cloud before he can come down with the final slash.
  • Yuffie can be said to have used Greased Lightning, but it's hard to tell.
  • Even Aerith, who's dead, gets in on the act by healing Cloud, and using Great Gospel to cure everyone of their Geostigma.

Live-Action TV

• Though nearly all seasons of Kamen Rider have Finishing Moves with awesome titles, Kamen Rider Fourze actually uses the term Limit Break. The trope isn't used, however - no requirement (other than it being the appropriate point in the episode) must be met before using finishers.

Roleplay

• Charged attacks in Destroy the Godmodder count as this.
  • It is possible to create a very-powerful one-shot weapon by alchemizing an already potent weapon and a Smash Ball.
  • Comb Raves are a confirmed feature in Act 4.

Tabletop Games

• Exalted:
  • Burn Legend, an alternate take on the setting detailed in Shards of the Exalted Dream, has Overdrives, which charge up when you hit your enemies. Overdrive techniques tend to have enormous clash pools, deal massive damage (sometimes to multiple targets), and automatically force the enemy to lose a health stock and take a roll to remain conscious^note except a few oddities like Demon Emperor Shintai, which instead provide you with a significant stat boost or other long-lasting benefit. Of course, if your opponent knows what your Overdrive is, you might be advised to assume they'll try and counter it, so then you use a technique that beats their most likely countermeasure. And then there are the few techniques that force stagger checks or even automatic stagger on an opponent, which will give you a chance to ream them while they can't counter you.
  • Exalted itself has a mechanic called Limit Break, but it's actually an example of what this wiki calls Sanity Slippage.
• Iron Kingdoms: The tabletop wargame Warmachine features similar abilities amongst the warcasters called feats. Feats can only be used once per game, but when used properly can turn almost certain defeat into victory.
• Monsterpocalypse has Hyper Mode. Every monster can hyper-up by spending power dice, entering Hyper Mode (depending on the figure, Ultra, Mega, or Quantum). Both the Alpha and Hyper forms need to be defeated, so this crosses over with Turns Red.

• Fading Suns: A rule allows a very unsettled character to snap and go for Unstoppable Rage or other kinds of fanatical fun. If the appropriate test is passed, the character receives bonuses to other tests until the matter in question is resolved. It may require some tact from the GM to execute it properly.
• Malifaux: Masters can manifest Avatar forms, giving them access to new and improved abilities. To manifest, they have to meet a set of requirements specific to each Master, usually based on using that Master's unique abilities successfully.
• BattleTech features the Triple Strength Myomer equipment, which upgrades the battlemech's artificial muscles to work at triple strength and speed. However, they only receive the strength and speed bonus as the mech is nearing critical heat levels. Once at optimal heat from combat or just dumbfiring its weapons (at which point, the targeting computer begins to fail), a TSM equipped mech will be absurdly fast and possess the ability to nearly instantly kick the legs off enemy battlemechs or literally curb-stomp fallen mechs by crushing the cockpit. Pilots of TSM mechs need to be careful to maintain their heat level without increasing it too far, or they run the risk of spontaneous death by causing any ammunition in their mech to explode, or have the fusion reactor burst inside the mech's chest.
• Cardfight!! Vanguard: There's a skill called, word for word, Limit Break, which activates when the player has 4 or more damage (the player loses when he/she has 6 damage). Limit Break skills generally have strong effects such as boosting power, destroying cards on the field, adding extra cards to your hand, etc., to help the player turn the tables.
  • Ultimate Break is introduced later. These skills only activate when a player has 5 damage.
  • There's also the Damage Trigger Check. As you take damage, your Vanguard may grow stronger (so you don't need to defend as much that turn), and in addition, you may draw a card, or even heal some damage.
  • Megablast abilities require you to counterblast five cards' worth of damage and remove eight cards from their soul, but allow you to pull game-winning effects like standing all of your units for another two attacks, providing a significant permanent boost to the mega-blasting vanguard, or (most commonly) destroying all your opponent's rearguard units.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Number C39: Utopia Ray can only activate its effect if your Life Points are 1000 or less (you start with 8000).
• Magic: The Gathering: Each planeswalker card has a powerful "ultimate" ability that can only be used after building up its loyalty over several turns and is often designed to win the game shortly after it's used. Since a planeswalker's loyalty also functions as its health, damaging a planeswalker is actually the best way to stop this from happening.
• Fabula Ultima: The High Fantasy sourcebook introduces optional "Zero Powers", incredibly potent custom abilities that must be charged up (whether by spending Fabula Points, taking damage that isn't self-inflicted, or fulfilling a trigger of the creator's choice) before they can be used. Their possible effects include such things as unleashing a hard-hitting weapon attack, giving your whole party resistance to all damage for a turn, casting a spell for free while having it inflict extra damage, dealing high elemental damage to all enemies, curing the party of all status effects while simultaneously restoring a large amount of health, and more.

Visual Novels

• In Silver Crisis, when the door inside of one’s Aura/Soul is opened, it allows them to achieve this, gaining access to their true potential. Lucas achieves his true power during the finale, giving him Silver hair with a Yellow streak in it. Likewise, Lucario’s Mega Evolved form is his equivalent of this.

Web Comics

• In Gold Coin Comics, the characters have something called a Final Attack, similar to this.
• Keychain of Creation, an Exalted webcomic, sets this up. The Forgotten Flame of Endless Unmarked Years keeps pushing Misho, reminding him of all his failures, pushing him closer and closer to a limit break...only for it to turn out that Misho's Limit Break is Heart of Tears, turning him into a blubbering mess.
  Flame: Well...this is awkward.
• Mob Psycho 100 has this in the form of Mob's titular 100% State, where his usually-suppressed emotions are pushed their breaking point and spill out alongside the vast majority of his psychic powers. Of these emotions, his 100% Rage against Dimple and Touichirou and 100% Animosity against Koyama fit the bill best, due to them involving Mob actually focusing on fighting.
• MS Paint Adventures:
  • Affectionately parodied in the series Problem Sleuth in many ways. Murder Flux, Ostentation Drive, and Comb Rave are just a few of the strange permutations featured, and despite their silliness, they can get rather epic.
  • In the more widely-known MSPA comic Homestuck, characters have abilities called Fraymotifs that can be bought for astronomical amounts of money and are to be used either alone or in tandem with other members of the session. They supposedly are the most powerful attacks in the game, but since the only characters that they have been used on are a dog with the powers of the First Guardians and the Troll empress, this may be a moot point.
• In White Dark Life, Lugifan's Ultimate Rage Burst is this. It activates only when Luigifan is pushed to a state of extreme rage (usually by hurting someone he cares about), and generates a sphere of raw elemental power around him that can be launched forth to vaporize whatever it touches.

Web Original

• Krillin of Dragon Ball Z Abridged unleashes his in Episode 7 to kill three Saibamen... and is immediately upstaged by Piccolo. As consolation, Vegeta and Nappa conclude that "Earth's Raditz" is at least not quite as pathetic as their Raditz.
• Found all over the place in Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006, where the two characters will call out something else to bulldoze through the enemy, including The A-Team and Walter Sobchak.
• Cracked's #5 Science Lesson As Taught by Famous Video Games is that one in five men can transform under stress.

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