History Main / BeamSpam

* In ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', you can equip your Heavy class soldiers with Heavy Lasers. Unlike other laser weapons, it doesn't fire only one beam, but eight separate ones in rapid sequence. EXALT Elite Heavies in ''[[ExpansionPack Enemy Within]]'' carry different-looking but mechanically identicals ones that you can equip your Heavies with.

** The Heisei Era was known for producing several monsters with a large array of colorful beam attacks, but Mothra Leo, monster protagonist of the ''Film/RebirthOfMothra'' trilogy, takes the cake. After graduating from his larval stage, he wound up with an arsenal of various beam-related abilities (and even ''as'' a larva, he had a ChestBlaster attack). Furthermore, each successive ''Rebirth of Mothra'' movie winds up with him getting some kind of evolution, which, inevitably, results in him ending up with even ''more'' beam attacks and new forms that come with an absurd number of beam attacks of their own.

* In the first ''Anime/SailorMoon'' anime, Sailor Venus: not only she's prone to fire her [[FingerBeam Crescent Beam]] in quick succession, she also has [[http://www.wikimoon.org/index.php?title=Crescent_Beam_Shower a variation]] that consists in a ''barrage'' coming from above-[[NoKillLikeOverkill on a single target]]. And whatever you do, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzFcc9EEQVo don't get her mad]].

* In Creator/DavidDrake's ''Literature/HammersSlammers'' series, one of the staple weapons is the vehicle-mounted tribarrel, a weapon with three rotating barrels that shoots energy blasts (called "bolts") so fast that the bolts leaving the weapon appear to be a solid line, not individual bolts. The weapons scale up, too - his tanks in the series have both a tribarrel ''and'' a 20cm "main gun" that can literally cook mountainsides with one shot. The tribarrel is based on a cross between the real-life MG42 machine gun and the Gatling gun, both of which have beam-spam-class rates of fire.

*** NieR Automata's Hobbes does this to the entire raid for unavoidable AoE damage every so often, increasing his barrage the angrier he gets as his HP lowers.

* ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'': Beam weapons [[AlwaysAccurateAttack never miss]] and deal damage to every room they hit. Coupled with beam [[AttackDrone drones]], it means world of hurt for the ship... if you can keep their shields down. There is even [[CosmeticReward an achievement]] called "Slice and Dice" that requries you to hit every room of the enemy ship with a beam within 5 seconds interval.

** Buu spammed an ''entire planet'' with lasers, using his aptly-named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Human Genocide Attack]] to wipe out the planet's entire supply of {{Muggles}}. Tien and Chiaotzu actually outlasted the rest of the Z team ''because'' they were down on Earth at the time rather than at Kami's lookout, and therefore only had to survive the beam spam rather than the "[[ForcefulTransformation Chocolate Lasers]]" he used on the foes right in front of him.

** Buu spammed an ''entire planet'' with lasers, using his aptly-named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Human Genocide Attack]] to wipe out the planet's entire supply of {{Muggles}}. Tien and Chiaotzu actually outlasted the rest of the Z team ''because'' they were down on Earth at the time rather than at Kami's lookout, and therefore only had to survive the beam spam rather than the "[[BalefulPolymorph Chocolate Lasers]]" he used on the foes right in front of him.

* ''Anime/{{Spriggan}}''. In "Berserker", Yu Ominae finds himself up against a LostTechnology KillerRobot that uses this trope. He eventually defeats it by luring it into a chamber where he punctures some steam pipes, diffusing the beams so they won't penetrate his PoweredArmor.

* ''Anime/Spriggan}}''. In "Berserker", Yu Ominae finds himself up against a LostTechnology KillerRobot that uses this trope. He eventually defeats it by luring it into a chamber where he punctures some steam pipes, diffusing the beams so they won't penetrate his PoweredArmor.

* Entire battles in ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' consist of tactics-infused beam spam. Interestingly, Alliance ships are most prone to beam spam, and one of their most notable commanders is named Attenborough.

* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' has the [[{{Cyborg}} combat cyborg]] Otto and her aptly named Inherent Skill, Ray Storm, which sends powerful beams flying in every direction. Nanoha herself also has a few examples of this, not least is her Blaster System, which functions much like the [=DRAGOONs=] mentioned above. And Fate has her Phalanx Shift attack that is a Beam Spam version of her basic beam attack. Taken UpToEleven when [[PowerCopying Reinforce]] upgrades Fate's spell to ''Genocide'' Shift.

** In the third season, Nanoha even Beam Spams her ''WaveMotionGun'' attack from five different direction against [[spoiler:her ''daughter'' Vivio]].
*** Hayate did something similar earlier in the season to wipe out an armada of Gadget Drones. The only difference was [[UpToEleven there were a lot more lasers and they were]] ''[[UpToEleven bigger]]''.
* ''Anime/{{Macross}}'' uses this trope (in the forms of turret-spam and ships-with-[[WaveMotionGun WMG]]-spam) almost as much as it does the MacrossMissileMassacre - and when you have 100+ ships on each side each with 100+ turrets ...

* The Battlecruiser in ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' outputs a constant stream of laser bolts. Attacking with a dozen takes the beam spam [[UpToEleven to a whole new level]].

* In ''VideoGame/TerraTech'', the player can equip their tech with as many laser guns as they fancy. Twenty or so is enough to unleash a storm of damage that can overwhelm most enemies. Late-game weapons such as the Better Future gatling laser can beam spam [[UpToEleven single-handedly]].

** Super Berserk mutator + Shock Rifle = this trope turned UpToEleven.

* ''[[http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/ Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'' once ran an article which, as a thought experiment, calculated how many supermarket pen lasers it would take to build a working anti-missile defense system (and thus explain the technical difficulties behind such a system). The answer was, "Several million." In a [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/13/ What If? blog post]], Randall Munroe takes this idea UpToEleven, beginning with "What if everyone on Earth aimed a laser pointer at the Moon?" and upgrading to more powerful light sources (law enforcement spotlights, IMAX projector arrays, megawatt military lasers) until the Moon just [[CriticalExistenceFailure isn't there anymore]].

*** ''A wakening of the Trailblazer'' loves doing this. Most of the Gadelaza's scenes involve it just flying through a mass of ELS, and letting its [[UpToEleven 154]] [[AttackDrone GN Fangs]] skewer them via DeathInAllDirections. Every now and then it actually bothers attacking personally, using either its giant WaveMotionGun, MacrossMissileMassacre, or the four massive beam guns it has as auxiliary weapons. ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill indeed.
** Averted in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'', all mobile suits in universe use physical ammunition rather than beam weapon. [[spoiler: As it turns out, though, beam weaponry isn't nonexistent, but forgotten. It was used by the mobile armor Hashmal which fires a WaveMotionGun that while useless against the setting's Nanolaminate Armor still makes short work of anything ballistic weapon mounted on it as well as being capable of bouncing off the armor to hit other targets.]]

* This is referred to as the Beamer strategy in ''VideoGame/{{Stars}}'' and is considered to be particularly good against the chaff tactic.

** The inspiration for the pose when beam-spamming is the V2 Gundam from ''Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam''.

** The Freedom Gundam in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Gundam SEED]]'' and its upgrade, the Strike Freedom (this page image), in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'', especially when equipped with the [[FunWithAcronyms METEOR]] pack. Combine near-limitless energy with a state-of-the-art targeting system (two luxuries that most mobile suits in the ''SEED'' universe don't have) with a [[SuperMode SEED Mode]] user who [[MartialPacifist refuses to kill]] and you get someone who can show up in the middle of battle and proceed to completely disarm both sides in less than a minute. Seriously, Kira Yamato's FanNickname could just as easily be [=Aimbot McBeamSpam=]. In addition, the Providence and Legend Gundams are capable of [[AttackDrone remotely-controlled]] Beam Spam thanks to their [[FunWithAcronyms DRAGOONs]], which the Strike Freedom is ''also'' [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill equipped with]].

* Attenborough Cortitch of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', the gunner of the many {{Cool Ship}}s throughout the series, lives for this kind of stuff. So much so that his FanNickname became Beam spam [[{{Gonk}} McMuppet]].

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' a Wizard or Sorcerer can learn the Magic Missile spell, which grants more and more magic missiles as they gain levels. At the highest level, it becomes the embodiment of this trope.
** And by that, we mean that at its highest power, you get a grand total of ''five'' missiles. Seriously, Minute Meteors is a better beam spam.
*** 1st Edition has no limits on the number of missiles, so magic missile spamming is possible at high levels. Just one of the reasons why they turned it down to five, tops, too much bang for a first level spell.

-->'''Goku:''' That's Vegeta's technique.

* The [[RedshirtArmy Imperial Guard]] in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''. Each infantryman is armed with a [[SlowLaser laser weapon]], and they tend to field a lot of them. For kicks, their vehicles come with "multilasers". ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'', Loroi cruisers have several beam weapon turrets, large ones used for ship-to-ship combat and smaller ones used for point defense against enemy torpedoes (the preferred tactic of their main enemy, the Umaik). Combat against the Umiak means hundreds of beams going in every direction.

** Frieza can fire multiple [[DeathRay Death Beams]] at once from a single finger. He uses this against Goku in their first confrontation but the Saiyan is able to [[ParryingBullets block them all]] much to Frieza's surprise.

** Frieza can fire multiple [[DeathRay Death Beams]] at once from a single finger. He uses this against Goku in their first confrontation but the Saiyan is able to [[BulletParrying block them all]] much to Frieza's surprise.

** At little more recently, [[spoiler: Starrk's release gives him the ability to rapid-fire multiple ceros at once, fitting with his release's [[TheGunslinger gunslinger]] motif]]

** This is one of Vegeta's signature attacks.

** One of the most famous monsters in the franchise is the Beholder, a floating mass of eyes and teeth that can fire EyeBeams from all of its many, many eyeballs, each with its own unique and powerful magical effect. A Beholder in battle is by definition a fountain of lethal, chaotic beam spam, requiring its enemies to pass a string of random, difficult skill checks if they don't want to be slowed, paralysed, petrified, and/or simply disintegrated into a pile of dust, among many other exotic, unpleasant fates.