History GuideDangIt / WesternRpg

** Sting is another example. There's a function of the game that lets you assign a name to an object; by all appearances, its only use is to help you tell unidentified items apart. But if you pick up any elven dagger and name it Sting, it will suddenly gain the powers of Bilbo's sword from TheHobbit. (Faintly justified since Bilbo did, in fact, name his own weapon, but it had magic powers ''before'' he started calling it Sting.)

*** Cataclysm also seeks to further simplify weapons and armor (much to the chagrin of "hardcore players") by removing many of the different stats. For example, a physical damage dealer (rogue, warrior, etc) in earlier expansions had to balance: Agility, Strength, Attack power, Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, Expertise and Armor Penetration... along with enough Stamina to survive a few splash damage attacks. That's ''seven'' different stats to look at, and a good number of them were rather redundant anyways. Cataclysm specifically calls out a primary stat for each class: Agility for Rogues and Shaman, Strength for Warriors, Death Knights and Paladins, or Intellect for spell casters. A few stats, largely perceived as redundant and non-intuitive but important nevertheless (such as expertise, which reduced the chance of enemies dodging and parrying your attacks) remain, and the addition of mastery (a stat which does very specific things based on your character's specialization) complicates matters further. Still, it's enough of an improvement that one can safely assume a class-appropriate level 359 item is better than a level 346 item of the same type.

* ''{{The Elder Scrolls}} 3: Morrowind'' has a side-quest wherein you are required to find multiple pieces of Sanguine equipment. The quest-giver only tells you about a few of them. The rest are on seemingly random [=NPCs=] throughout Vvardenfell.

** For another instance of this trope in Morrowind, one of the very early episodes of the main quest requires finding a "Dwemer puzzle box" in a ruin. While the item is located in a relatively easily-reached portion of the dungeon with few guards, it's located in a small nook off the obvious play in such a way that few people will notice. Even then, the item itself is small and the same color as the shelf it's sitting on in a low-lighting area. The official forums had a multi-''hundred'' page stickied thread dedicated to pointing people to it!

* In the sequel ''{{Oblivion}}'', the quest "A Venerable Vintage" requires locating six (infinitely respawning) bottles of Shadowbanish Wine and is often added to players' quest logs early on in the game due to the fact that the quest is received in the first settlement players are likely to encounter once first venturing out from the Imperial City. After that, with this being one of the quests acquired so early in the game, that quest is pinned to the top of your quest log ... for the entire game. Seriously, this is one of the last quests players ever complete. Whereas most quests provide some exact indication of where to go due to the vastness of the game world, the only hint Nerussa provides is that it is found in abandoned forts located about Cyrodil. There are easily 40 forts in Cyrodil (50+ with expansions), and only eight of them (or 10 with expansions) have the vintage. A typical fort can take a good 20-30 minutes to slog through the darkness, the worst ones literally being mazes in spite of the auto-mapping feature, with monsters all the while ambushing you from the darkness. The reward for this quest is a somewhat respectable 1000 gold. If you are the type of player who detests exploring forts and caves, either consult a guide or don't even attempt this quest.
** Also in ''{{Oblivion}}'' [[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Horses horses can see you steal and will "report" your theft to NPCs]], ''including the theft of horses''. So in effect, the horse that you steal will "report" being stolen if it sees you mounting it. To avoid this, players need to sneak up on a horse and [[UnfortunateImplications mount it from behind]]. And if you're stealing a horse from a group of horses, you need to either separate the horse you plan to steal so that the rest of the group doesn't see it, or push the other horses to rotate them into looking away.
* ''{{Skyrim}}'' example: Ochendor, the renegade cult leader Daedra Prince Peryite tasks you to track down (in the depths of a Dwemer ruin) and kill, is immune to magic. As in, destruction spells do no damage. Now, sometimes enemy [=NPCs=] can be invulnerable (usually for cutscenes, dialogues, etc.) and sometimes the game can glitch and not remove the invulnerability, usually when you accidentally interrupt a script. Now imagine you're a magic-focused character, you approach the guy, the fight starts, and ''you can't damage him''. It'll probably take a few reloads to "fix the bug" before trying to harm him in any other way. No, there's no mention of how or why this guy is immune to magic (practically no one else in the game is, even much more serious bosses) and he's not carrying any items that gives the ability either. He's just immune to magic for no reason at all.

** The only way to keep Kelly from getting killed by Cerberus is to take the dialogue option to convince her to change her name. The only way to save Miranda from getting killed by [{TheDragon Kai Leng]] is to ''read an email'' on him before messaging her, otherwise Shepard won't know to warn her.

** Once both Miranda and Jack's loyalties are earned, they both get into a full-on confrontation and they flat-out ask you to pick sides, which only a high enough Paragon/Renegade score will let you prevent. However, [[GuideDangIt what the game doesn't tell you]] (with both the immediate situation and the aftermath) is that the points the game checks for ''isn't the Paragon/Renegade gauge in your menu.'' There's another, hidden meter than keeps track of the total number of P/R points available versus how many you've obtained.

* ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} IV is a massive offender of Guide Dang It, with devious dungeon layouts, random hidden doors and one-way walls, and puzzles which required pop culture knowledge to know which item to use, let alone ''where'' to use it. '''The very first room''' is one of the most glaring examples: there's seemingly no way out of the room you start in. There's a hidden door, which you need a light spell to find and enter. But Werdna can't use light spells! So you summon some Priests. But you can't command your monsters outside of battle! So you have to get into a random battle and hope that one of the Priests ''randomly'' casts a light spell so you can use the hidden door once the battle is finished.

* ''{{Diablo}}'' 2 had this problem to an extreme degree with its game mechanics. To name a couple examples among many: the attack speed shown in game was/is wrong, the interaction on poison damage and time was not explained. Both of these mechanics had to be determined outside the game by testing, as did the other GuideDangIt mechanics.

* ''{{Ancient Domains of Mystery}}'' is full of these. Merely surviving to the early mid-game is possible with some trial and error to learn how to dodge the anvils the RNG will throw at you. Actually completing the game without spoilers is non-trivial, and Ultra Endings are practically impossible to reach by mere trial and error. (Though clearly not actually impossible since ''somebody'' first discovered them, either by SaveScumming or investing more time than any mortal has.)

** If you join House Telvanni, one of the quests involves you delivering a skirt to the AxCrazy Therena. Once you go to her, she'll order you to try it on yourself, just in case its curse. [[spoiler:Doing so causes Therena to turn hostile, immediately failing the quest. What you're ''supposed'' to do is give the skirt to a nearby slave.]]

** ''MightAndMagic II'''s very last section stumped this troper for years! The ending is a cryptogram with the answer as "PREAMBLE." You have 15 minutes to discover that you need to use the cryptogram's spelling and write out PREAMBLE. The only way he learned this was by emailing a guide author because the solution wasn't even on GameFAQs. Yeah.
** On further recollection, ''MightAndMagic II'' in general is this. Sure, there are hints throughout the land, but it took him a good long time to learn how to regain HP and MP! (Mind you, he played the DOS version with keyboard commands as a young child and wasn't acclimated to certain things.) The best sources of information for this game pre-Internet were from console magazines and hint books since there were also Genesis and SNES versions.
* It's been ages since I played the game, so I'm not sure if I even remember the name correctly, but Centauri Alliance (I played on an Apple [=IIe=]) had a final puzzle that fit this trope. I found (and reassembled) the McGuffin, handed it to the character most likely to be able to use it, found what I thought was the proper location...nothing. I found out a decade or so later that, not only had I given the McGuffin to the wrong character (the race that only has one skill set ISN'T the one that can learn a new skill set?!?), but the "proper location" was actually two steps south of the descriptive text. Argh!

** You can't make The Illusive Man off himself at the climax unless you used every possible Paragon / Renegade dialog choice when talking to him. One is semi-hidden in that the player must choose the left side "additional dialog" option at one point.

* Quests in themselves also work on a similar pattern. TalkToEveryone, but be careful what you say. Many [=NPCs=] tend to be quite testy, and saying one wrong thing ''permanently'' makes them angry with you, sealing off any quests they might have. In a game where you get lots of your money and experience from quests, this is a problem.

* ''{{Skyrim}}'' example: Ochendor, the renegade cult leader Daedra Prince Peryite tasks you to track down (in the depths of a Dwemer ruin) and kill, is immune to magic. As in, destruction spells do no damage. Now, sometimes enemy NPCs can be invulnerable (usually for cutscenes, dialogues, etc.) and sometimes the game can glitch and not remove the invulnerability, usually when you accidently interrupt a script. Now imagine you're a magic-focused character, you approach the guy, the fight starts, and ''you can't damage him''. It'll probably take a few reloads to "fix the bug" before trying to harm him in any other way. No, there's no mention of how or why this guy is immune to magic (practically no one else in the game is, even much more serious bosses) and he's not carrying any items that gives the ability either. He's just immune to magic for no reason at all.

** Alistair's romance plot is relatively predictable and easy to navigate. Except for one seemingly-innocuous conversation option in the first half of the game [[spoiler: right after meeting his sister]] which changes his entire personality, making him more open to the idea of [[spoiler: being king]], and also to the idea of [[spoiler: keeping a female non-human-noble Warden on as a mistress after becoming king. It is also the only way to keep him from dying or becoming a wandering drunkard if you choose not to kill Loghain.]] If the player does not take this option, it never becomes available again, and nothing you say makes any difference to the eventual outcome of an Alistair romance.
*** Leliana's romance has a similar moment of choosing. The results are less clear-cut.

** If you're playing as Male Shepard, the only way to successfully romance Kaidan is to buy a bottle of whiskey [[spoiler:before checking up on him in hospital for the first time]]. It's very easy to miss, especially as the whiskey disappears if you don't buy it straight away.

** How about both the older Fallout games? TalkToEveryone, but be careful what you say. Many [=NPCs=] tend to be quite testy, and saying one wrong thing ''permanently'' makes them angry with you, sealing off any quests they might have. In a game where you get lots of your money and experience from quests, this is a problem.
* ''Most'' of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''. Best glasses in the game? Head to a store in the middle of nowhere, look for the ''only'' item in the shop that doesn't count as theft, and there you go. Some of the Bobbleheads involve going to the middle of nowhere and killing raiders for no real reason. The only 'good' solution to the Tenpenny Towers/Ghouls quest? Unless you read a guide, the first time going through it '''will''' involve a slaughter.
** Plus, with the glasses, there is a large chance they have fallen onto the platform below where there are normally, making them glitched, and nearly impossible to get. if you want them, the method of getting them is complicated and involve going int third person mode, and then looking ''away'' from them, and hoping the "pick up glasses" prompt shows up... Or you get pile about 20 mines right next to it and blow them up.
*** And the Bobbleheads - three of them are LostForever. One is in Vault 101 (the first area of the game), but you come back there eventually for a side quest, so you have two, and only two chances to get it. Another is in Raven Rock, where you only visit ''once'', and everyone around you is hostile. The last is in Megaton, which can decide to nuke.
** The Xuanlong Assault Rifle, a unique Chinese Assault Rifle with souped-up stats. By the time you hear about it you've probably already screwed up the unmarked quest that spawns it.

* ''{{Fallout 2}}'' featured an EasterEgg with the strategy guide phenomenon. After finishing the game's main quests, you could return to New Reno and get a Fallout 2 Strategy Guide from the old drunken priest. Upon using it, your character gains 10,000 xp, all your skills are set to 300% (this being the maximum in the game), and your display window reads "Well, it would have been nice to have this at the BEGINNING of the damn game!" You can use the item multiple times for more XP, though your skills can't improve further. If you have the item in your inventory at any point before the game ends, and attempt to save, the game will crash.

* ''Most'' of ''{{Fallout 3}}''. Best glasses in the game? Head to a store in the middle of nowhere, look for the ''only'' item in the shop that doesn't count as theft, and there you go. Some of the Bobbleheads involve going to the middle of nowhere and killing raiders for no real reason. The only 'good' solution to the Tenpenny Towers/Ghouls quest? Unless you read a guide, the first time going through it '''will''' involve a slaughter.

* FalloutNewVegas: Some of the Companion Quests are nigh-impossible to complete (or even know about in the first place) unless you have an online guide handy. For many of them, you'll have to speak with specific people at ''very'' specific points at the game, and this is never mentioned to the player in any dialogue tree.

* In ''{{Drakensang}}'' it's straightforward at least. A woman asks you if you know the password (44SC2K). If you do, she'll give you a magical item.

** Another tells you to look for a "throat mage." Most clues ask you to solve puzzles and riddles, so one can be forgiven for not expecting the solution to lie in a StealthPun. [[spoiler:You're supposed to look in the Necromancer's Tower. Get it? Neck-romancer? HA HA HA!]]