Basic Trope: An attack or fighting style that deals damage by inflicting immense amounts of minor injuries.
- Straight: In Legends of Troperia, the druid spell Stings of the Swarm summons bees that deal 4-6 damage 30 times in one turn, matching other attack spells in overall damage.
- Exaggerated: Stings of the Swarm deals 1 damage 50 times in one turn, and lingers to deal the same damage at the end of each subsequent turn (which stacks for each cast of Stings of the Swarm, possibly resulting in enough hits to crash the game in longer battles).
- Downplayed: Stings of the Swarm deals 20-40 damage 5 times in one turn, making it deal the most hits of any spell by a narrow margin.
- Justified:
- The spell is designed to overwhelm defences that focus on blocking, countering or redirecting single attacks.
- The spell is designed to deal with a Fragile Speedster who has a habit of dodging attacks.
- The character doesn't want to give their enemy a quick and painless death, wanting them to suffer as much as possible before dying.
- Inverted: The druid spell Thunderous Footfall summons a mammoth that stomps on a target opponent, dealing a single hit of 220-280 damage; however, it can't be cast on consecutive turns, limiting the number of times it can hit relative to other spells.
- Subverted: Stings of the Swarm summons a single bee, despite the stated number of hits.
- Double Subverted: After the first bee hits, it releases a signal that draws in the rest of the bees to attack.
- Parodied: The druid, learning that his opponent is allergic to dogs, alters the spell so that it summons a pack of strays to smother him. The druid calls it Death by a Thousand Mutts.
- Zig Zagged: A druid casts Stings of the Swarm, but 29 of the bees are killed before they reach the target. So the remaining bee stings the target 30 times, while the target complains that real bees can only sting once before dying.
- Averted: The player only uses Boring, but Practical attacks that quickly inflict a good chunk of damage.
- Enforced: "We should program an attack emphasizing the importance of strength in numbers, no matter how weak the individual is, to serve as some form of Aesop about teamwork."
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Knowing his team specializes in this method of attack, the player researches cheap improvements that slightly benefit each individual of the swarm, but stack up exponentially for great offensive results.
- Defied:
- "Oh no, I won't wait for my enemy to succumb from hundreds of tiny lashes, I'm slicing their head off right now!"
- Damage Reduction provides total immunity to weaker attacks, regardless of quantity.
- Discussed: "I know Swarm attacks have their benefits, but they can be quite situational and unreliable compared to a good old light explosion."
- Conversed: ???
Back to Death of a Thousand Cuts.
