Required Secondary Powers / Video Games

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• The Aegis Pulse EMP (and its likely cousin, the Countermeasure) in Agent Intercept. As Torpere's notes from retrofitting the Aegis describe, the CLAW vehicles used to test it were torn apart by the force of the shockwave. Only the unique power modulation of the Sceptre's transformation tech allows it to safely use the Aegis.
  • This is likely also how the Sceptre routes energy absorbed from Eris' Harmony power core by the Countermeasure (with Torpere's help) to unleash the super boost and catch Eris' Nidhogg.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt Series: Gunvolt's Septima Azure Striker creates a microscopic insulating layer over his body that protects him from electric shocks and thus his own powers. Should he be sufficiently doused in water (a rainstorm or shower isn't enough, but being submerged more than waist-deep in water does), that field disperses temporarily and using his powers at that point will hit him with the feedback. This is why fighting Milas in 2 is tricky without proper timing and why Milas' EX Weapon when wielded by Copen can punch through GV's Prevasion. By Azure Striker Gunvolt 3, Gunvolt's evolution into a Primal Dragon has removed this weakness and allows him to use his powers with impunity even underwater, though this yet another indication Gunvolt is no longer quite human.
• BioShock: In an aversion, the main characters of the games aren't immune to their own plasmids/vigors. This doesn't cause you any harm, but it makes for some interesting Body Horror; fire abilities char the skin of your hands, ice abilities cause visible frostbite, and you don't want to know about Insect Swarm. Dr. Suchong also mentions in an Audio Diary that the telekinesis plasmid could theoretically catch bullets if human reaction time was quick enough, which gives him a new plasmid idea.
• The "Phase-" powers that Sirens can use in Borderlands have certain specific physical limitations. Lilith's Phasewalk power, for example, shifts her into an alternate dimension, where she can't be seen or attacked — being literally immune to energy from our dimension, both electromagnetic and kinetic. At the same time, while Phasewalking, Lilith can't operate objects, fire weapons, or jump, because she can't exert energy against objects in our dimension either. Maya's Phaselock power lets her lift and trap enemies in the same dimension, but she can't do it to massive objects like Constructors or other large machines; instead the force exerted by the Phaselock does tremendous damage to the target. Angel's ability to Phaseshift lets her take control of Hyperion machinery, but she can't simply take control of any device; she can only hack networked Hyperion machinery, and anything not made by Hyperion is inaccessible. This is why Handsome Jack needs to trick the player into installing a Hyperion device into the shield system in Sanctuary, and later, Angel has to "coerce" Hyperion engineers controlling the lunar deployment systems to launch a Fast Travel Beacon by shutting off their air supply.
• In Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars the flamethrower-using Black Hand aren't immune to hostile fire attacks, because while their armor is flame retardant, they're spraying high-energy plasma at each other with sufficient power to melt tank armor.
• In Condemned 2: Bloodshot, it is revealed that the protagonist Ethan Thomas has the primary superpower of Super-Scream. Sadly, he doesn't find out about it until two thirds of the way through the game, and doesn't learn how to use it until the last level. Thankfully, the super-dense bone structure that allows him to produce the necessary sonic vibrations also gives Nigh-Invulnerability.
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution has two separate upgrades: the Icarus Landing System (sort of a fancy auto-deploying electromagnetic parachute) and the High Jump (see previous two words). Problem with the latter is, it often propels you higher than the minimum distance required to hurt you upon landing; a surface just a couple feet lower than the one you started on makes a big enough difference. So, get the jump before the Icarus, and be prepared to spend a lot of time waiting for your health to recharge so as to avoid nickel-and-diming yourself to death.
  • The use of cybernetic implants in general is also explored. In real life, cybernetics that are married to biological tissue face issues of immune system rejection and the buildup of glial tissue that results in the device not working. As a result, anyone in the setting who uses augmentations must take regular doses of the drug Neuropozyne or their own bodies will reject their augs. The fact that Adam Jensen doesn't have this rejection issue is an important plot point; he is the "Patient X" that Megan Reed was referencing as having the genetic ability to allow cheap and sustainable augmentations available for all of humanity, and the breakthrough was what triggered the Illuminati's attack on Sarif Industries because of fears that human augmentation would go out of their control.
• It's been theorized that, in Donkey Kong 64, the potions Cranky gives out gives these for each move when applicable. For example, while Diddy could probably charge a skull bash on his own, the potion he takes for it more than likely made his body (especially his skull) durable enough to withstand the shock of doing so against stuff as solid as wood or stone.
• In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, some race-exclusive skills for Namekian and Majin Time Patrollers rely on their natural Rubber Man abilities. Majins also have a skill that lets them explode and then reform using their ability to regenerate From a Single Cell.
• Dwarf Fortress: Averted, at least in some versions. Dragons are immune to their own fire, but not any fires started by it.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Morrowind has the Scrolls of Icarian Flight. They allow the user to jump massive distances, but the effect wears off before the user can safely land. (Indeed, this is what kills the creator of the scrolls. The player can see him fall from the sky and then loot the remaining scrolls from his body.) In order to use them safely, one must cast a Slowfall or Levitation spell before hitting the ground, use a second scroll right before landing (there are only three in the game), or land in deep enough water (about as deep as the Player Character is tall). If you have a means to do so, you can also buff your Acrobatics skill to at least 125 (25 points above the standard Cap). At that point, you will no longer take fall damage.
  • Skyrim:
    • In the Dragonborn DLC you meet a mage who wants to fly. He successfully casts the spell, rockets into the air... than crashes back onto the ground. Turns out just because you can get in the air doesn't mean you can stay in the air, and nothing is cushioning you from the ground. Likely intended as a Call-Back to the above instance in Morrowind.
    • The ability to use Thu'um Shouts for normal people requires years of intense study and meditation, as the words must be spoken with meaning in the dragon tongue. Without the understanding of the words, even if a normal human can utter the words, it would generate no effect. The reason the Dragonborn is unique is that they are born with the necessary secondary powers. First, they can instinctively read the written language, allowing them to learn new words for Shouts from monuments scattered around Skyrim that have messages carved in the language (which never have anything to do with the Shouts themselves and just coincidentally contain the words). Second, they can absorb a dragon's soul after killing it, and with it, that dragon's understanding of the meaning behind the words, which is why to actually use the words you learn off the monuments in a Shout, you have to spend the dragon souls you've collected to unlock them. This is why the Dragonrend shout is instantly unlocked without the use of Dragon Souls, but Paarthurnax is unable to teach it to you; while it is a Thu'um and still spoken in the dragon tongue, it is composed of words that only has real meaning to a mortal. Dragons, being immortal demigods, would never be able to truly understand and use it, but the very mortal Dragonborn (and the humans who created it) would.
• The Dune Scorpions in Elements have a unique ability, neurotoxin, which is a death sentence to the opponent — if the Dune Scorpion damages their opponent just once they become poisoned, the poison gets worse every time they play a card, and there's only one card that can cure them. However, there's one thing that makes it hard for the scorpion to attack — the scorpion's attacks literally deal no damage. Unless the owner of the scorpion uses a spell card to increase its attack, there is nothing it can do.
• This trope is what makes Shirou and Archer from Fate/stay night so dangerous. Sure he is able to replicate swords, even Noble Phantasm swords, but they are weaker imitations of the original. However, he can also replicate the skills of the original's wielder through the weapon's memory, allowing him to draw on the skills of countless swordsman, including heroic spirits. Gilgamesh has the similar power of summoning the prototypes of Noble Phantasms, but without the ability to wield them effectively, he loses in his fight with Shirou despite Shirou using weaker versions of Gilgamesh's own weapons.
  • However, this trope is also one of the reasons magecraft and other special powers are so dangerous in the Nasuverse. Shirou initially can't restore burnt out nerves from using powerful magic (a third party heals him in-game) while Tohno Shiki from Tsukihime has a regular human brain that can't cope with seeing the death of everything that has a concept of death.
  • On the subject of Tohno Shiki, his stated ability is Mystic Eyes of Death Perception which perceives the "death of existence" of things as lines and points arrayed across a surface of the said object. Cutting and piercing those lines terminates that existence. He wears special glasses to block the Mystic Eyes and, while wearing them, he can't see the lines and also cannot accidentally cut them. In other words, Mystic Eyes of Death Perception come with a secondary power that also allows him to "interact" with the lines he can "see."
  • The playable Master in Fate/Grand Order has the ability to be perfectly compatible with any and all Servants. However, they are repeatedly mentioned not to have enough power to sustain their many summoned Servants without Chaldea's Magitek. It is also noted that summoning so many Servants causes their battle capabilities to downgrade, like not having all of their Noble Phantasms or being squishier than they should be, and they are only able to summon barely sentient Shadow Servant-like detachments in combat. The difference in specs gets especially notable when they get in fights with the Servants of other Masters, like the Crypters, but the fact that the protagonist only summons mindless Shadow Servants in battle makes it convenient for Servants with suicide Noble Phantasms like Arash or in battles of attrition; their death is never permanent, unlike other Servants, so the protagonist would always win as long as they're determined enough to keep summoning Servants.
• Subverted in the case of Red Magic in Final Fantasy XIV. Unlike the other major schools of magic practiced in Eorzea, Red Magic requires a great deal of athleticism due to the fencing and acrobatics involved in its use. While this poses no issue for the Warrior of Light, who is known for for being prodigiously energetic and physically fit due to the rigors of being an adventurer, the younger and less mature Alisaie is said to struggle with the physical component of Red Magic.
• A technological example in Geneforge, which takes place in a stock fantasy setting: the discovery of a method for magically reading genes is a major plot point. However, unlike in our world where genome sequencing projects and information technology were able to keep up with each other, here the findings have to be recorded on paper. Because of this, a lot of the information has to be discarded.
• Guild Wars 2's Path of Fire expansion adds mounts with special movement abilities to explore the new maps. The Springer is the second mount unlocked, its special ability is a very high charged jump. It also comes with a very high tolerance to fall damage (it needs to fall from very high before taking any damage at all), for a pretty obvious reason.
• Halo... insofar as the Mjolnir armor can be considered a "super power". It's mentioned in Halo: The Fall of Reach that the Spartans are the only human beings capable of wearing it, because their enhanced durability (particularly their harder bones) is what allows them to survive the armor's incredible strength. An ordinary human was killed when testing the armor because even the slightest movement shattered his bones.
• An interesting aversion occurs in Hatoful Boyfriend with Anghel. At first it just seems that he's the resident Cloudcuckoolander, babbling away about ridiculous things, and acting as everything is taking place in a RPG game. Then you learn that Anghel secretes hallucinogenic spores, but doesn't have the Required Secondary Power of being immune to them, hence his strange behaviour.
• Some of this in InFAMOUS. Cole's electricity powers must also come with some control over magnetism for him to decrease his falling speed and jump off of skyscrapers only to land without breaking anything — it's mentioned explicitly that being able to jump off buildings is a part of his powers, but how it relates to electricity is up to conjecture. More obviously, Kessler's final power once he fully evolved as a Conduit was the ability to travel into the past one time, but likely thanks to this trope, he's immune to Temporal Paradox and freely alters his past life with no side-effects to himself.
  • Cole's free running and climbing abilities aren't from the blast but come from his time doing parkour, which he mentions in the sewer sections.
  • Also, the mere act of shooting lightning bolts means Cole would have to be immune to flashbangs, since realistically he would be getting hit by the equivalent of one every time he fired a lightning bolt. He'd also have to have a way to withstand extremely high temperatures and x-ray radiation since lightning generates extremely large amounts of both.
    • And never mind his ultimate attack of calling down a sustained bolt of lightning several meters in diameter. In-game physics demand he stand on top of a generator or a dynamo and channel the immense electrical energy there into a literal bolt from the blue, though how he changes energy from a grounded source to cloud-based lightning is unexplained, and it still has all the heat and intensity of a bolt of lightning, so in addition to being immune to heat and radiation, he'd need immunity from the blinding light as well.
  • The lack of certain secondary powers is mentioned in some smaller conversations, mainly the fact that he can't turn the electricity off, and as a result can't go into water without zapping everyone else in it and draining himself, and can't hold a gun without it exploding in his hands when the electricity "cooks" the gunpowder. At one point, when Zeke mentions good news, Cole snarks, "They built a car I can sit in without blowing it up?"
    • This is used at several points in both games where you can destroy enemy machine guns simply by holding them and also explains why you can't just take a mook's gun and shoot him with it.
    • Likewise in inFAMOUS 2, after rescuing Kuo who now has ice powers, she lacks sufficient control over her powers and accidentally freezes part of Cole's face when she touches it. While she gets better, the Vermaak 88 take this even further and slowly turn into giant ice monsters called Titans. This is because their powers were forcibly grafted on and they don't have any of the powers to stop the ice from giving them frostbite, freezing whole limbs, or other issues. While it doesn't kill them it drives them mad with constant anguish.
• In Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, using either Force Speed or Force Jump at its highest setting causes a little damage to the player upon running into something or landing on a surface equal or lower than the one from which they jumped. The sequels address this by increasing the distance characters can fall without taking damage as a side feature of their increasing Force Jump skill.
• Kirby's Epic Yarn has a small example. Kirby cannot use his famous sucking powers after he becomes a piece of yarn. While he can suck air in, Kirby's string body is flat and completely open, so the air just goes straight through him.
  • On the other hand, he can transform into a parachute to slow his fall.
• The Power Bracelet/Power Gloves is a recurring item in The Legend of Zelda that allows Link to lift or move large objects. Twilight Princess does not contain this item, but the Iron Boots have a similar effect. Since this version of Link wrangles goats for his day job, he's already plenty strong, but he needs to anchor his feet properly to actually lift or pull heavy things.
• Discussed in Mass Effect with regard to biotics, who can manipulate mass effect fields to lift, throw, warp, or block things. This is done because they have nodes of element zero in their bodies that are activated by electricity from the nervous system and produce mass effect fields. The asari are the only species that can naturally do this on any significant scale; every other species must have implants to strengthen and control their powers, allowing their biotics to actually become useful, as most species' bodies can't generate electrical fields like that. There's also the problem of energy, as using biotics uses a significant amount of it. Because of this, biotics have a significantly higher required calorie intake than ordinary people (twice as many calories are allotted to biotic soldiers as compared to regular ones, for example) and often have to stop to eat and rest after extended use of their powers.
  • Shepard in Mass Effect 2 onwards. The M-300 Claymore shotgun and the M-98 Widow sniper both generate so much recoil force that they shatter the bones of a normal human's arm. Normally, the shotgun is only seen in the hands of a genetically modified super-Krogan and the sniper rifle in the hands of a Geth platform. Shepard's cybernetic upgrades that s/he receives in the beginning of Mass Effect 2 are what allow her/him to fire these weapons. Though the makers of the weapons managed to dial back the recoil so that anyone can use it without making their arm a pile of broken calcium.
  • The third game reveals that the asari's biotic power isn't natural either. The Protheans uplifted them in the hopes that the asari would lead the other races against the Reapers. Instead, the asari squandered their gifts to lord it over everyone else. Javik, the last Prothean, will call them out on their wasted potential.
• The times in which a power Mega Man acquires is noticeably different from its source (Top Spin and Charge Kick), it's because he doesn't have wheels on his feet and must adapt the move. Further, he must have a built-in replicator to construct the ammo for those weapons that are physical in nature (such as the Metal Blade or Needle Cannon).
  • This is also the case with Mega Man X and Axl. They can't fully replicate the weapons as used by the bosses and adapt them as well. Although in X's case, once he gets the hardware upgrade for his X-Buster, he can charge the special weapons up and do things that the bosses couldn't do themselves.
  • Similarly, while Zero can mimic bosses' attacks after he beats them, he often doesn't have their weapons or range to go with it.
  • Also, the characters must have an extremely high tolerance to sudden changes in temperature and other forces to function in all the environments they do. The first X series game has a moment where you destroy an enemy in an airport's control tower, with the force of the blast blowing out all the windows in this fairly large room. Considering you'll destroy many more of this type in the game, you can imagine the kind of forces that X is bombarded with during the games.
• Metal Gear:
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
    • Fortune uses an oversized rail gun as her main weapon. During a codec call with Raiden, Rosemary shares a report she found indicating that this model of rail gun has unresolved problems with its rail plasma and its inner-electromagnetic release, so that its high rate of discharge can hurt or even kill the wielder. Fortune is probably the only person who can use it because her supernatural luck prevents it from backfiring on her.
    • In the climactic scene where the full extent of the Gambit Pileup is revealed, Solidus Snake explains to Fortune that not only did he already know she was planning to double-cross him and steal Arsenal Gear, but he was going to let her have it: "Arsenal is far from impregnable. It needs other Metal Gears as guards, a huge payload of warheads, and full air, sea, and land support to function efficiently. Against a large attack force without support, Arsenal is nothing more than a gigantic coffin." Seizing Arsenal Gear was never his real objective; instead he wanted to extract the data identifying the twelve chief members of the Patriots which was stored in the GW artificial intelligence, and start eliminating then one by one while Fortune and Arsenal Gear drew the Patriots' fire.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Volgin the Psycho Electro has superhuman strength. The strength allows him to punch holes in solid concrete, but it's also required for another of his favorite moves: using his electricity to fire bullets held between his fingers. Without super-strong hands, the kickback would break his fingers.
  • In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a codec conversation has Doktor declare that further upgrades to the special eyepatch Raiden is using would be pointless because the human brain would not be able to use any additional resolution it might give him. This is also the rationale behind the majority of cyborgs opting for full-body conversions; a super-strong and super-durable robot arm is no use whatsoever if it's attached to a squishy human torso. Sam compensated by wearing a special Powered Armor suit, but his vulnerability is still notable considering Raiden is able to kill him with one well-placed stab through the chest at the end of the fight, whereas the other major bosses (robots or full-conversion cyborgs) usually need to get diced into Ludicrous Gibs to be finished off.
• Metroid:
  • Lampshaded when the Space Pirates try to reverse-engineer Samus's powers in Metroid Prime. They manage to clone her basic weaponry but abandoned the Morph Ball research due to... let's just say "unknotting a pretzel" and move on.^note "Science Team is attempting to reverse-engineer Samus Aran's arsenal, based off of data acquired from her assaults on our forces. Progress is slow, but steady. Command would dearly enjoy turning Aran's weapons against her. We believe we can implement Beam weapon prototypes in three cycles. Aran's Power Suit technology remains a mystery, especially the curious Morph Ball function. All attempts at duplicating it have ended in disaster: four test subjects were horribly broken and twisted when they engaged our Morph Ball prototypes. Science Team wisely decided to move on afterward."
  • Certain depictions, Super Smash Bros., the e-manga, and Prime for example, solve the problem of how Samus jumps with all that armor on by showing that she has jump-jet assistance.
  • Rolling around in the Morph Ball also requires Samus to be immune to motion sickness, not to mention impact trauma when she lands, boosts into walls or is hit by enemies.
  • Prime (again) shows that the Morph Ball turns Samus into a small cloud of energy while engaged — the two halves of the sphere have a seam between them you can see right through if you roll the ball the right way and hold still. Presumably "Space Pirates who saw the Morph Ball hold still long enough to realize this" and "Space Pirates who suffered a violent death at Samus's hands" are mutually inclusive groups.
  • Recurring series villain Ridley is a Giant Flyer, with all the logic problems that implies. Prime mitigated it somewhat by giving him forcefield wings, which would essentially be massless, aside from the physical parts by which they are generated.
  • Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: The Luminoth tried to weaponize the toxic nature of "Dark Aether" against the Ing... except they are perfectly fine in their environment so the weapon did nothing to them. However the Ing have the opposite problem with our world (so a light gun was invented) and as such the Ing can't enter "Light Aether". To work around this they can (and often do) possess corpses, machines and animals to do the attacking for them.
  • The Nightmare boss from Metroid Fusion and Other M can manipulate gravity, and it can still fly around as normal while increasing gravity around it and even create an Unrealistic Black Hole. While not explicitly stated, Nightmare was implied to be built with Gravity Suit technology (an upgrade that allows Samus to move freely in environments that would otherwise hinder her movements, such as moving through water as if it were air) to protect itself from being hindered or ripped apart by its own powers. The Core-X copying it in Fusion gives Samus the Gravity Suit upon being absorbed, and the room aboard the Bottle Ship in which the original was developed has a hologram display that looks like the Gravity Suit item pickup from other games in the series.
• Monster Hunter: Nearly every creature has the exact set of elemental and status resistances you'd expect — for example, Khezu hide is near-impervious to electricity, so it doesn't shock itself with its own attacks, while Brachydios takes very low damage from Blastblight due to its own explosive attacks. If a monster requires a limb or organ for an ability, and you damage or sever it, expect that attack to weaken or backfire.
  • One notable deviation is the Valstrax. While it's capable of flying at Super-Speed, it completely lacks accelerated information processing abilities. All its focus during flight is devoted to avoiding mountains and spotting prey, so it doesn't even notice when it kills another monster or destroys a guild airship by plowing through them at Mach 1. On the other hand, its body is ridiculously tough and it can take a load of punishment from hunter weapons; said toughness is required in order to accelerate and decelerate in a notable fashion without overshooting its target without killing it.
• In Mutant Football League, the Warp Speed dirty trick makes your ball carrier run down the field at blazing speeds. A player scoring a touchdown may comment that the speed is fun, but the chafing is a real bitch.
• Nihilumbra: Averted. You are not immune to your own fire.
• Persona 5: Akechi has the wild card ability, which allows him to use multiple personas just like Joker can. However, the wild card is the power to turn the individual facets of your personality that you show to the people close to you into Personas, as opposed to conventional Personas which represent your "true self" in its totality. As Akechi is completely unable to form genuine connections with anyone he only has two Personas: one that represents the facade he shows the entire world, his "lies", and his true persona, his "hate".
• Pokémon:
  • Every Pokémon in general. A lot of them must have pocket dimensions inside them to hold all that water/rock/webbing/snow/acid/etc. And, of course, there's the logistics behind Fire and Electric Pokémon not hurting themselves...
    • In the newer games, this is somewhat addressed as Fire-type mons can't be burned, Poison-types cannot be poisoned and Ice-types can't be frozen. Also, from Pokémon X and Y onwards, Electric-types can't be paralyzed, and Grass-types are immune to powder and spore moves (such as Sleep Powder and Stun Spore).
  • The only TM that can be taught to every single Pokémon (except Magikarp, Smeargle, Unown and Magearna) is the move Toxic, which means that nearly every single species of Pokémon — including the Ridiculously Cute Critters like Jigglypuff, Pichu and Skitty — can produce highly poisonous substances. Which makes sense for most of them, as every living creature produces waste products in their bodies (now, Pokémon like Magnemite or Porygon, well...).
    • Magnemite could weaponize the harmful waste products of metals (slag, etc). Porygon could be essentially using viruses/junk data, perhaps?
  • Ditto and Mew can physically transform into any other species of Pokémon, but when turning into something like Wailord or Groudon they surely have a way to defeat the whole Conservation of Mass thing. Conceivably, Mew can project an image of the mon it's transforming into on its subject's mind as well as the attacks it's using and the requisite amount of pain and effects from them. Ditto, though...
    • According to the Pokédex, some Ditto have trouble with the whole "conservation of mass" thing, resulting in them retaining their size when they transform.
  • Normally, sandstorms hurt every Pokémon that isn't Ground-, Rock-, or Steel-type, but if they have an ability activated by sandstorms (like Sand Rush, which increases speed while in a sandstorm), they won't take damage, even if they're not one of the aforementioned types.
    • However, this is redundant with the Hail-based abilities, as no Pokemon that aren't naturally Ice-type have the relevant abilities.^note There are abilities and moves that temporarily grant such an ability to the user, if the opponent has it.
  • The abilities Guts and Quick Feet boost a Pokemon's Attack and Speed respectively when it has a status condition. To avoid certain statuses neutralizing the abilities, they also remove the Attack drop from Burn and the Speed drop from Paralysis respectively before applying the boosts.
  • The Pokémon Toedscruel suffers the effects of not having these to go with its ability, Mycelium Might. This ability causes all status moves to ignore other abilities, which theoretically allows Toedscruel to use Spore to inflict sleep on Pokémon with Insomnia or Vital Spirit. Unfortunately, these abilities also cause the Pokémon to wake up instantly once the turn is over (because of the abilities' own Required Secondary Powers; otherwise, they would be useless if a Pokémon somehow gained them while asleep), rendering this functionality moot.
• As well as being armed with a portal gun, Chell in Portal is fitted with a pair of legs springs that allow her to survive falls from any height. According to the commentary, the developers added these because playtesters complained about the lack of realism. Even though the leg springs couldn't possibly account for all the issues with surviving falls, the complaints stopped.
• Lampshaded in the Aperture Investment Opportunities videos for Portal 2.
• Alex Mercer from [PROTOTYPE], much like Mystique, is technically naked all the time. His "clothes" are just shapeshifted tissue that are still part of his body. This explains why none of his footwear is instantly ruined when he jumps off a skyscraper or heck, even when he's on a stroll considering he actually weighs at least a ton due to Shapeshifter Baggage. This also handily justifies why his clothes are never ruined; presumably, he automatically regenerates any damage to them thanks to his Healing Factor.
  • Being a wad of nothing but biomass also explains how Mercer can hip-drop a tank from the top of a skyscraper and walk away uninjured — he had no bones to break or organs to rupture.
  • Similarly, Mercer is a giant wad of biomass, and given some of the powers he can pull off (such as turning one of his arms into a gigantic blade or coating himself in thick armor), it's got to be dense. This is backed up by how glass cracks under his feet when he runs up the side of a building, and how he instantly sinks to the bottom of any body of water he falls in (only to leap back out when he touches the bottom).
• In Quake, the Ring of Shadows power-up makes your character invisible, but lacks the appropriate secondary power. End result? You appear to others as a pair of small floating eyes.
• In Saints Row IV, The Boss gets super jumping early on, but also becomes immune to fall damage that would otherwise kill them in any previous game (and may have had it from the previous game — the fall from an ICBM into the President's chair would be instantly fatal otherwise). When using their super speed, they also gain the ability to knock cars, people, and other destructible objects out of their way.
• Sonic the Hedgehog's immunity to G-forces are a no-brainer, but he's also managed to fall from space at least twice without any significant injury. He can not only breathe at supersonic speeds, but also, again, in the total vacuum of space. Can't breathe underwater, though, because... huh?
  • In Sonic the Comic he was affected by friction, as it stated he was a brown hedgehog and breaking the speed of sound changed his quills blue.
  • It was also a problem with his shoes; in a comic printed in one of the strategy guides, it opens with Sonic trying out his friction-resistant red-and-white shoes, which his uncle invented after burning through several previous pairs.
    • In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, it's shown that he is reliant on his shoes to be able to run that fast without burning his feet. Naturally, they get stolen for an episode, forcing him to do without.
  • Canon said that at the end of Sonic 2, when Sonic was re-entering on Earth, he was Super Sonic then, and Chaos Emeralds just give that kind of indestructibility. (The first seconds of Sonic 3 show Sonic going Super for a few seconds.)
    • In the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) cartoon, the rings served the same purpose, and he could only acquire one every 12 hours (thus limiting the flow of Phlebotinum and preventing him from using his super-speed powers to become a Sprinting Brick).
  • It's also pretty obvious that Tails has not only some kind of healing ability, but an anchoring one as well, explaining why his tails stay attached to him whenever he flies. He's also been shown to be incredibly durable otherwise. Likewise, his tails must also be very strong to achieve flight, with Sonic Heroes having him carry himself, Sonic and Knuckles simultaneously. Additionally, his tails being able to support his flight basically means they are very strong, which explains how he can use them as very effective offensive weapons, even against robots.
  • There's one notable aversion throughout the series: None of the characters have super-acceleration. The very shortest amount of time it takes a character to reach full speed is just over two seconds. As the series went on, the characters became faster, but didn't accelerate any better, so it can take over ten seconds for them to reach full speed. It was not until the games introduced the Boost power that Sonic could accelerate to cruise speed on a dime.
  • Sonic Unleashed and onwards also says Sonic can produce a small force field around himself, which takes the hits. Presumably, while running while boosted, the air around Sonic moves at the same speed as him.
  • Sonic can handle high speeds without losing consciousness or feeling unsteady (hence why he has the reflexes and cognition to avoid plowing into things when running). Tails tries out a device in order to help Sonic during Sonic Boom that boosts the speed of whatever it's attached to and he ends up woozy and feeling ill afterwards, which Sonic says doesn't bother him.
    • This is also seen with the development of Amy Rose over the course of the games. When she first starts asserting herself as a hero in Sonic Adventure she can't even spin in a circle to do her Spinning Hammer attack for more than a few seconds without getting dizzy. Later on in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Advance she's show getting progressively faster and being capable of doing somersaults without getting dizzy but still not being nearly as fast as the others or being able to do spindashes. It's not until Sonic Heroes and Sonic Advance 2 when she's had ample training that she's able to run and spindash on par with everyone else.
  • Sonic and Shadow are shown to be very strong and durable for their size, thanks in no small part to withstanding high speed g-forces. Sonic in Sonic X can easily bend a tank barrel into a pretzel shape, get punched through several buildings without a scratch, and with no leverage, push a sixty-foot robot pinning him down off with only slight effort. Shadow on the other hand, can overturn buses with one hand, easily wield an anti-tank minigun several times bigger and heavier than he is, and kick through solid steel reinforced walls.
  • It has been theorised that the shape and composition of their quills is what allows hedgehogs like Sonic to hit mach speeds, similar to jets that can move at supersonic speed without bursting into flame — and it creates a slipstream that allows anybody being pulled behind them to also ignore this air-friction. In other words, Sonic's quills are basically melded as one and he is no longer furry. This is shown by their colours being different while many other characters in the series are 'normal' and furry.
    • This also explains how the slower Power and Flight characters are able to keep up when in Speed Formation in Sonic Heroes, since they're arranged in a tight line formation, the Power and Fly characters are able to run in the slipstream of the Speed character, allowing them to hit higher speeds due to the reduced wind resistance.
  • Of course he can breathe in space, there's no pesky water in the way.
• The Soul Series makes a case for a perfectly mundane character lacking a Required Secondary Skill: while Cassandra is plenty proficient with the weapons she "borrows" from her sister, she doesn't know how to take care of them. Not normally an issue, except during her ending of Soul Calibur 3 where her sword breaks after being used to shatter Soul Edge, and Sophitia catches her trying to hide it after a bad patch job and sends her straight to the forge to fix it properly. Cut to Cassandra having a sobbing fit on the forge floor, sword still broken, wailing that she doesn't know how to fix it.
• A lot of the flavor text in Starcraft II is dedicated to explaining the secondary powers of the units.
  • Viking pilots must be able to bend quickly or the machine will crush them during the air to ground transformation sequence, and most pilots die because of this during their first battle.
  • Ghosts can read the minds of others, but can't block other ghosts from reading their thoughts.
  • Almost all the Dominion's forces have been "neural resocialized" (read, brainwashed) so they are suicidally complacent (most of the army is former criminals).
  • The Hydralisk has several thousand more muscles in its large head than the entire human body. Each is needed to fire their spikes. which can pierce future tank armor.
  • Many of the Zerg strains you get in Heart of the Swarm show that the Zerg created them by placing them in various hostile places (such as versions of roaches that can slow down enemies or Banelings that can climb up walls), then waited for natural selection to kick. It is mentioned and shown that a LOT of Zerg died before they got any useful genetic material. The mass amount of death didn't matter if even a single scrap of genetic material that was an improvement was gained.
• Mario, when properly empowered, can throw fireballs (and ice balls) and not be burned/frostbitten by them, but is harmed by other fire sources.
  • He is always shown wearing gloves. Maybe the gloves are made of something like kevlar to protect his hands from the flames/frost?
  • He also spends most of New Super Mario Bros. kicking Conservation Of Mass in the nads.
• In Syndicate (2012), the infobank entry for liquid shields says that they can withstand even 105mm rounds, but the concussive force transferred pastes the shieldbearer.
• The Pyro from Team Fortress 2. The only reason they can run and fire their flamethrower is that they wear an asbestos-lined fireproof suit. What's more, everyone's outfits have multiple visible pockets and pouches (and Scout has a messenger bag) to suggest that they are carrying all of their ammunition on their person.
  • The Gunslinger, an alternate melee weapon for the Engineer, is a cybernetic hand that gives him an additional 25 max HP, suggesting that he's thought of (and taken care of) the required secondary power of reinforcing his body so it wouldn't rip his arm off every time he uses it. (For a game that otherwise runs on the Rule of Cool and Rule of Funny, a lot of the technology synergize very neatly as required secondary powers for each other or could conceivably run on the same underlying subsystems: the Engineer's teleporters must save some sort of template in order to reconstruct a teammate at the exit, and this is just what regular Respawn and the Medigun would need to restore organs, limbs, and clothes lost during gunfire and/or explosions; the bomb being pushed in Payload/Payload race mode, the control points, the intelligence briefcase, the Respawn areas, the Spy's disguises and cloaks, teammates not causing pileups in narrow corridors and the weapons being Friendly Fireproof all need some way of distinguishing friend from foe; and the Administrator, who runs both RED and BLU behind the scenes, is implied to have all of the political and economic clout she needs to run and supply the two teams without anybody asking too many questions.)
  • Parodied with Jarate: the Sniper regularly takes Saxton Hale-brand medication that triples the size of his kidneys so he can piss a lot, and dulls pain to the point he can't feel the rest of his organs shutting down.
  • For a more general example, all of the Mercs have special heart transplants courtesy of the Medic. This is so that — as elaborated on in the below scene from Meet The Medic — they can survive being Übercharged without their cardiovascular systems completely rupturing:
  Medic: (connects an Übercharge unit to the Heavy's original heart, and powers it up) Now, most hearts couldn't withstand this voltage. But I'm fairly certain your heart-
  (Heavy's heart violently bursts in Medic's hand from the Medigun's charge)
  Heavy: (confused) What was noise?
  Medic: The sound of progress, my friend.
• Terraria, Clingers spit fireballs made of cursed flame. They are immune to the cursed inferno debuff. Likewise, Ichor Stickers spray jets of ichor and are also immune to the ichor debuff.
  • Hell Armored Bones are stated to be members of the Molten Legion and wield heated weapons. They are immune to fire.
  • Averted with the case of the salamander enemy that attacks with jets of acid capable of poisoning the player but is not immune to poison. Played straight with all other enemies that can inflict poison.
  • Enemies native to the snow biome are immune to frostburn.
• Touhou Project:
  • Rumia, a darkness-generating character, cannot see through her own cloak of darkness, which results in her aimless wandering being constantly interrupted by collision with trees.
  • Not even lame powers are immune to this trope. Rinnosuke has the power to identify the name and purpose of any object, but that doesn't mean he understands its actual function. He deduced a Game Boy that had fallen through the Barrier was for the purpose of destroying large amounts of enemies, but is unaware of the existence of video games and so concluded that it was a powerful weapon. He deduced an iPod is used to store and play music, but doesn't gain any knowledge on how to operate it.
  • On the other hand, it's been theorized that this trope is the reason Utsuho, otherwise a huge birdbrain, is well-versed in nuclear physics in Hisoutensoku.
  • Mokou seems to be safe from her own flames, but her clothes apparently are not. That's the reason she has all those ofuda attached to her clothes: they grant immunity to fire.
  • ZUN himself points out that Sakuya's power to stop time would require her to be able to manipulate space as well, so she can do things like move or breathe in stopped time. This explains why the Scarlet Devil Mansion is so much Bigger on the Inside, as well as where Sakuya keeps her knives when she's not fighting.
• Tribes gives every player a device that renders their suit frictionless, allowing them to "ski" around the stage at high speed. Activating this system also causes every jet of their jetpack to start idling, explaining how they manage to stay upright.
• Undertale explores (among other things) the power of Save Scumming, and the fact that to use it at all, you'd need Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory. Since saving is explicitly an in-universe power your character has, they keep their memories when you reload. Flowey used to be able to save, but can't anymore now that you're in the same Closed Circle as him, but he still has the required secondary power. This is inverted when you fight him after your first Neutral ending — he's stolen back the ability to save, but you've kept the ability to remember.
• Elemental-themed Warframes aren't immune to their own elements; e.g. an Ember can take fire damage (but gains a damage increase when on fire), a Frost can have his shields reduced or be slowed by cold, and a Volt can be electrocuted by an electrical trap.
  • Zigzagged with Gauss who has Super-Speed, but by necessity cannot have the Super-Reflexes needed to avoid head on collisions ^note His reaction time is only as good as the player's and Bullet Time would be hard to balance in a multiplayer environment, but to compensate he's given Super-Toughness so that he can both take bullets (and walls) without a scratch. This is even exploited as his combination of speed and durability is intended to be used as a Foe-Tossing Charge against anything he can feasibly bowl over, and creates a Shockwave Stomp when he hits something he can't.
• In Xenonauts, after researching the Alien Alloys, your scientists note that it would be very useful for armour... if they had any tool capable of cutting, never mind machining it. It's not till later that such capability is acquired. Reasonably enough, such capability is acquired by researching the aliens's weapons. Speaking of said weapons, you can, if you want, snatch up the gun of a fallen alien and use it... but it's designed to fit the ergonomics of a creature with a completely different anatomy and has no built-in sights, so your aim is going to suffer until you research and reverse-engineer it to fit a human.
  • The aliens arrive in a massive fleet, which orbits Earth for the invasion. The only reason that they don't just bring the whole fleet down and initiate a Curb-Stomp Battle is that their spaceships wouldn't operate in the planet's gravity and atmosphere. Hence why they start out sending smaller scout craft, and gradually develop new methods of craft modification and design in order to bring down progressively larger craft, putting you and the aliens in a Lensman Arms Race. On the other hand, one of the elements introduced in the sequel is the aliens doing periodic Orbital Bombardment, because there's no need to specially modify their craft to fire on Earth from orbit.

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