History GuideDangIt / WesternRpg

** There are two reinforced doors that can only be blown open with thorium charges, and you can only find one set in the ruined Sith Academy. Where's the other one? Akkere on Dantooine sells it, but you have a very narrow window--when the mercenary attack is imminent, you have to ask Akkere on joining the militia, and he'll respond with offering to sell the thorium charges. If you pick up his hydrospanner and confront him about it, or if you initiate the mercenary attack, you will lose this opportunity.

** One puzzle in Zone 3 is impossible to solve without looking at the game's Readme file. Zacharie will tell you this, but the only way for you to learn this is to give him a Music Box, which is guarded by a BossInMooksClothing.

** There's a hidden GainaxEnding, but the game never tells you how to get it. In order to do so, you need to get all the Grand items, talk to Zacharie in Zone 0 and choose the Aries Card over the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Ashley Bat]].

* ''VideoGame/{{OFF}}'' contains a puzzle that is impossible to solve without consulting a guide. [[spoiler:Specifically, the READ ME.txt attached with the game.]]
** Just one? Puzzles in this game generally have two difficulty settings - "so easy they're boring" and "goddamn impossible." One puzzle requires you to ''leave the room and go buy the final piece from an NPC.'' There are no hints at this anywhere in the level.

** Softening Leliana from her ruthless streak can very much be a chore: if you do not explicitly forbid her executing a traitor, oops she remains hardened. Suggest that sometimes war forces terrible choices and, whoops she won't listen to you later. Let her kill another traitor or did not pick the right earlier options and you can't talk her out of it. Did everything else right and then suggest sacrifices have to be made? She will be surprised at your words, then commit even more vile acts. What's worse is that [[spoiler:if you choose her as Divine but had conflicting responses during her special scenes--yes kill the traitor spy, no don't kill the unarmed crying Sister in cold blood--she'll kill the Sister anyway and call you out for being fickle, but the epilogue will state that her rule as Divine Victoria is conflicted and ineffective]].

** Some of the Hidden Skins for ''Legion'' Artifacts are a nightmare to collect without an actual guide. Havoc Demon Hunters have to farm demons until they eventually find a locket that they turn in to an eredar that kicks them up to a felbat they have to fight[[note]]It used to be possible to glide to said felbat from Dalaran or Highmountain but after flying was unlocked for Broken Isles, Blizzard made it out of phase (unseeable and unattackable) for anyone without the locket[[/labelnote]]. Some like Frost Mages and Arms Warriors have no option but to check their order hall daily in hopes of getting the prompt they need. But worst by far is Retribution Paladin which has to hit two different Vanilla dungeons, Alterac Valley, Blackwing Lair, talk to several different [=NPCs=] around the world, kill a rare monster, fish up an item with an incredibly low drop rate (roughly 1/10,000 chance), and talk to some more [=NPCs=] before finally unlocking the Hidden Skin.

* One of the more versatile (and cool-looking) spells in ''VideoGame/LandsOfLore: The Throne of Chaos'' is only attainable in the abandoned city of Yvel about two-thirds of the way through the game. Most of the doors in this city are boarded up, but there is one boarded-up door that can be opened, and the scroll for the spell is waiting inside. By the way, all you have to do to open this door is click on it several times with the mouse cursor...but the door looks exactly like every single other boarded-up door in the city, and nowhere else in the game are you ever required to click on random background scenery for any reason.

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Certain enemies will have Resistance to certain damage types, which significantly reduces the damage taken from those sources, often negating them outright. There is no way in-game to determine whether a given enemy Resists a given damage type--you have to look it up, and knowing the difference can mean the difference between certain enemies being [[{{Main/Mooks}} completely trivial]] or [[BossInMookClothing some of the hardest fights in the game]] due to their nigh-invincibility.

** If you don't import a saved game into the third installment, you automatically lose [[spoiler:the potential peace between the geth and quarians]] due to [[spoiler:Tali and Legion both dying by default]], which can screw new players out of the best result without even knowing it.
** A ''lot'' of factors for the [[spoiler:peaceful resolution of the geth–quarian conflict]] are Guide Dang-Its. Didn't pass Tali's loyalty mission's Reputation check in the second game? [[spoiler:Too bad, you get genocide if you get her father struck off of fleet records, losing her loyalty, and the conflict with Legion that results. Screwed ''that'' up? Same result. Got either of them killed? No prizes for guessing.]] Even the ''official strategy guide'' has been proven inaccurate as to which factors influence whether or not you'll achieve the best resolution. It's an act of diplomacy that makes perfect sense once you know what to do, but a PlayerNudge or two wouldn't have gone amiss. Especially since the game will [[InterfaceScrew fake you out]] with a misleading dialog tree even if you pass the prerequisites... and you can still fail the Reputation check [[YankTheDogsChain after coming this far]]. To summarise...

*** [[spoiler:You have to have peacefully resolved their loyalty conflict – no exploiting the "gain back loyalty" mechanic for you!]]

*** And once those four must-have prerequisites are met, you must gain at least 5 (mercifully, you get three for free) peace points from any of the following...
*** [[spoiler:+2 points: Tali's loyalty mission being completed successfully without getting her exiled]] – nearly a freebie, since most players go for the paragon/renegade solution in her loyalty mission
*** [[spoiler:+1 point: Peacefully resolve Tali and Legion's loyalty conflict]] – this one ''is'' a hard requirement, so it's obviously free, too.

*** Done all that? Good. Now get at least 840 total Reputation points with the equation (Paragon + Renegade + Reputation) x class passive multiplier = Reputation to unlock the dialog options you need to [[spoiler:prevent either the quarians or geth from needing to [[ShootTheDog eradicate the other side over their misunderstanding]].]] But [[EarnYourHappyEnding good]] ''[[EarnYourHappyEnding lord]]'', [[EarnYourHappyEnding is it worth it]]. [[spoiler:Even if you [[MultipleEndings Destroy the Reapers]] afterward, the geth get to [[IDieFree die free]] and be remembered as heroes, rather than killer robots... provided you have high-enough EMS to get the [[BittersweetEnding good endings]], at least.]]
** In order for [[spoiler:Kelly Chambers]] to appear, you not only have to make sure she survived the events of the suicide mission (which meant that you immediately had to jump into the relay to save her) but you ''also'' had to have befriended her to the point that you invited her up for dinner (and her promise that she would feed your fish, one of which you had to buy on Illium). Failure to do so means no [[spoiler:Kelly]] appearance and no bonus intel from the Prejak Paddlefish (for a 10% weapon- or power-damage bonus). Then in order to keep her alive for the entire game, you would have to [[spoiler:spot her in the beginning of the game, tell her to change her appearance and name, and then visit her again afterwards.]] Not doing that means she will [[spoiler:die during a Cerberus attack]] that you couldn't possibly have known about without a guide or a previous playthrough.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' has the Datacrons. A few of them are easy enough to find, but most require some crazy platforming sequences (in a game whose controls are very much not platformer-friendly) that are usually started in some obscure, out of the way place on the map, or needing cooperation between multiple players with specific skills. Some even involve riding on a moving platform that oterwise appears to be simple background ambiance; the most infamous of these requires boarding a hot-air balloon at one specific location, riding it for ''30 minutes'' to another specific location, and then trying not to miss the dismount, which is easy to do if you don't switch off the sprint toggle that most players turn on and forget about.

** Probably the worst of the clues are the anagram clues, which require you to find an NPC whose name is an anagram of the clue. Problem is that that many of these NPCs are extremely obscure characters located in places players almost never go to and so are likely to have completely have forgotten about and so will be nearly impossibly to find without looking up the answer.

** Speaking of clue scrolls, there is a quest in the desert series called Do No Evil, where you attempt to introduce [[ItMakesSenseInContext Planet of the Apes type monkeys into the desert ecosystem]]. One part of this quest is to use the equivalent of a metal detector to dig up some metal boxes with Magic Carpets for the colony. What does any of this have to do with clue scrolls, you might ask? Well, after the quest, you can use said metal detector to locate a rare Elite Clue Scroll with great rewards. You are never told this, ever. Furthermore, the Elite Clue Scroll is buried in one of four obscure locations that you would not likely go to otherwise while wearing the device.
*** Another clue scroll can be gotten by giving a banana to a monkey in your inventory, which can be obtained in an earlier quest. However, the chance of getting the clue scroll is very low, and there were no hint at all that you could get a clue scroll this way before an achievement for getting it was added to the game, and the achievement doesn't say how to get the clue scroll, and so without a guide, the player may not realize that is it received randomly.

** A ''lot'' of factors for the [[spoiler:peaceful resolution of the geth–quarian conflict]] are Guide Dang-Its. Didn't pass Tali's loyalty mission's Reputation check in the second game? [[spoiler:Too bad, you get genocide if you get her father struck off of fleet records, losing her loyalty, and the conflict with Legion that results. Screwed ''that'' up? Same result. Got either of them [[FinalDeath killed]]? No prizes for guessing.]] Even the ''official strategy guide'' has been proven inaccurate as to which factors influence whether or not you'll achieve the best resolution. It's an act of diplomacy that makes perfect sense once you know what to do, but a PlayerNudge or two wouldn't have gone amiss. Especially since the game will [[InterfaceScrew fake you out]] with a misleading dialog tree even if you pass the prerequisites... and you can still fail the Reputation check [[YankTheDogsChain after coming this far]]. To summarise...

* In ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', the steps to get the Passion destiny are so obscure that it's a wonder anyone managed to discover it: you have to get a specific ending of the Fate-locked Secrets Framed in Gold storyline, then draw a rare card that can be unearthed in only ''one'' location.
* Famously in the original Dungeon Siege game there is a secret 'chicken level', which can only be accessed by placing three completely unassuming items on pressure plates in the MULTIPLAYER map! You need:

* ''VideoGame/{{DRL}}'' has a Dragonslayer sword. Even if you find it, you can't pick it up without meeting the proper secret requirements. What are the requirements? [[ShapedLikeItself They're a secret]]. The devs, as well as the handful of players who've figured it out, are all in agreement [[DoNotSpoilThisEnding not to tell anyone]]. So not only is it a GuideDangIt, ''there isn't even a guide''. [[spoiler:You have to be berserk and not wearing any armor.]]

** The fight with Undyne during the [[SheatheYourSword Pacifist run]]. Every boss battle (in fact, every battle ''period'') up to this point could be completed through selecting the "Spare" option after enough [[PuzzleBoss Act menu trickery]], or by outlasting their attacks in some cases. Undyne, however, continually refuses to accept your mercy and won't react to any attempts to spare her. ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption? Nope, that'll ruin the Pacifist run. It's essentially a HopelessBossFight - [[RunOrDie you have to run away when your soul heart turns from green to red]], and the only hint at this is her line at the beginning of the fight: "As long as you're green, you can't run away." Additionally, most players wouldn't think that fleeing from her would allow them to run in the ''other'' direction.

** Another Pacifist Run example, the fight against [[spoiler: King Asgore]] can be really confusing, specifically ''because'' ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption. Up until that point, every boss could be spared without any physical violence. After a while, the game will say "All you can do is FIGHT" but ignoring any calls to violence and being persistently pacifistic is completely ''necessary'' until that point, so it's easy to assume it's just another trap to trick you out of the Pacifist run. It also explicitly goes against any [[PlayerPunch hard lessons]] the player might have learned from the very first boss battle, which is meant to harshly dissuade you from using the TechnicalPacifist "hit until they give up" strategy. Not helping matters is that your stats are completely atrocious for actually fighting anything, adding another layer to the "this can't possibly be the solution" confusion.

** If you're having trouble with dodging an attack only to run into another one, you can slow down by holding the X key. However, unlike other game mechanics, this is never actually hinted at or brought up, so many players go through the game without ever using it, thinking that X is only used to skipping through dialogue. Similarly, the same button can be used to exit the menus during fights so you can choose another option instead, but again this is never mentioned.

** The fight with Undyne during the [[SheatheYourSword Pacifist run]]. Every boss battle (in fact, every battle ''period'') up to this point could be completed through selecting the "Spare" option after enough [[PuzzleBoss Act menu trickery]]. Undyne, however, continually refuses to accept your mercy and won't react to any attempts to spare her. ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption? Nope, that'll ruin the Pacifist run. It's essentially a HopelessBossFight - [[RunOrDie you have to run away when your soul heart turns from green to red]], and the only hint at this is her line at the beginning of the fight: "As long as you're green, you can't run away."
** Likewise, Mettaton EX can only be spared by getting the ratings for the show over 10000. There is no indication of this beyond the subtle rising stats under the ratings, it just kind of... happens. It could easily be believed that the ratings are just there for show rather than being an actual game mechanic.

*** [[spoiler:+2 points: Tali's loyalty mission being completed successfully without getting her exiled]] – nearly a freebie, since most players go for the paragon/renegade solution in her loyality mission

** In order for [[spoiler:Kelly Chambers]] to appear, you not only have to make sure she survived the events of the suicide mission (which meant that you immediately had to jump into the relay to save her), but you ''also'' had to have befriended her to the point that you invited her up for dinner (and her promise that she would feed your fish, one of which you had to buy on Illium). Failure to do so means no [[spoiler:Kelly]] appearance and no bonus intel from the Prejak Paddlefish (for a 10% weapon- or power-damage bonus). Then in order to keep her alive for the entire game, you would have to [[spoiler:spot her in the beginning of the game, tell her to change her appearance and name, and then visit her again afterwards.]] Not doing that means she will [[spoiler:die during a Cerberus attack]] that you couldn't possibly have known about without a guide or a previous playthrough.

* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura''. Due to the wide open sandbox, the complex lore of the setting, and the vast number of side quests, this trope is inevitable. It is nearly impossible to find all the side quests without some kind of guidance, and there are many side quests for which the game does not give sufficient information on how to complete. For example:

** Oh, and did we forget to tell you that in order to locate your next objective, you need to enter the correct password into a giant [[ComputerEqualsTapedrive computer]] to get a Planet Probe that will reveal the next base on the star map? The password is on a clipboard carried by a scientist in white lab coat. No planet probe? Good luck trying to find the next base.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' had this problem to an extreme degree with its game mechanics. Many game mechanics are not described in game or in the manual, and had to be determined outside the game by testing.

** There's a guide written up for the technical details how poison damage works, including how it gets overwritten and how to convert damage over time in-game as relates to time IRL, to help use it viably as a damage-over-time effect. Without knowing this, it's easy to overwrite/nerf your own damage and come to the conclusion that poison simply sucks.

*** Energy Shield's synergy with Telekinesis is mentioned on the skill tree, but never explained: investing skill points in Telekinesis decreases the amount of mana lost per damage prevented.
* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' continues its predecessor's proud tradition of lying character screens: Battle.net and the in-game character screen both give inaccurate damage/second information, and don't necessarily agree with each other.

** Before patch 1.0.8, items on the Auction House only listed changes to base stats or damage, so you needed a calculator or 3rd-party site to figure out whether an item would be an improvement over your current equipment. Damage/second comparisons were added in 1.0.8, but even now, there's no way to account for skill-specific damage boosts and the impact on damage reduction/dodge chance still has to be done by hand. [[note]] This is no longer a problem as there is no longer an aucton house, however. [[/note]]
** Proc coefficients are one of the game's worst offenders. They are less than intuitive and integral to many builds, but are mentioned nowhere in the game or Battle.net's official guide.

* Quite a few things in ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSin'' can only be discovered through trial and error. For instance, the game contains two types of combat invulnerability: Invulnerability proper and the Void Immunity. The former is what the Death Knights possess and you eventually find a spell that nullifies it; the latter is sported by certain demons and plot-relevant bosses and can only be removed in specific cases by story events. What the game doesn't tell you is that the Remove Death Knights' Invulnerability spells works on ''all'' enemies with the Invulnerability status effect--including the [[GoddamnedBats Sentinel statues]] and those who can case Invulnerability as a high level Witchcraft spell.

** Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts, where achieving desired outcomes—[[EarnYourHappyEnding especially the "golden" outcomes]]—can require a guide to figure out exactly what to do. It's possible to have [[spoiler:Celene and Briala reconcile]] or have [[spoiler:all three contenders for the throne work together]], but require frustratingly exact directions to achieve. The better outcomes requires you to not only have a high enough reputation with the Court (which is pretty doable by save-scumming when you figure out the flags that cause it to raise and learn to do the infiltration sections as quickly as possible) but also have some dirt to blackmail each of them with. Two of them can be gotten from certain conversations, but for Briala this requires freeing a witness who is locked in an out of the way room that opens by using five statuettes you can find around the palace and which are used to open other doors. There are ten total, and before the point where you can unlock the door there are three doors that use two each. Meaning you have to ''avoid'' using the statuettes to open one of the other doors for that.

** The game is peppered with other instances of this trope. Example One: using the Green Skull is the best (and possibly only) way to kill the Lahrkon guarding the Urbish Mines, but you might not figure this out until you'd tried everything else. Example Two: the fact that the Emerald Blade is the best (and possibly only) weapon to use against Wraiths is only mentioned once, in an easily-missed book in the only library in the game, which is located on the very first map, which is inaccessible by the time you're fighting Wraiths, which are easily capable of wiping out your entire party in a single blow. It's also possible to miss both Green Skulls and both Emerald Blades. Worse, it's possible to screw up due to the Barrier placements and have your only other available weapon against the Wraiths [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost for good]]. Bye bye plot development.

** The golden film reels are even worse, because they are often located in obscure locations like in the middle of train tunnels or random playgrounds. Without a guide you almost literally need to cover every street, back alley, and overland area of the game map to find everything.
** And lets not forget finding all 95 vehicles in the game. A good amount are not even unlocked until certain missions. The vehicle showroom feature ''does'' show you which cars you've found, as well as the general shape of the ones you're missing, but so many of them are variations of similar models that it doesn't really help much. In order to find out whether or not you've found a car you need, you have to enter every single vehicle you come across unless you can recognize the slight detailed differences.

* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic II'' requires you to go into a dungeon to retrieve [[PlotCoupon King Kalohn's Element Orb]]. However, as long as the Orb is in your inventory, a magical barrier prevents you from leaving the area which, by the way, is also an anti-magic area preventing the use of teleportation spells. What you are ''supposed'' to do is to give the Orb to a hireling and dismiss him from the party. The hireling will then somehow find his way back to the last visited inn with the Orb still in his inventory. That's right-abusing game mechanics is the ''intended'' solution to this puzzle.

** ''VideoGame/SlashEmExtended'' has a set of weapons capable of breaking down iron bars. Basically, it's a list of random weapons including steel whips, torpedoes and electric swords, some of which nobody would even consider of being able to break bars. The only way to find out about them is to try applying every weapon at a square containing iron bars and hoping it does something.

** Several gems are much, much more useful if you ''don't'' upgrade them, because upgrading them also will increase their mana cost/damage threshold to proc. For example, connecting level 1 Cast When Damage Taken with level 1 Immortal Call will result in Immortal Call being procced ''every single time you are hit'', which is extremely useful against spiky enemy damage and oneshots. Another example of this is Arcane Surge, which is a useful spellpower buff that can be linked to movement skills so it procs every time you use it (which will be often).

*** Another clue scroll can be gotten by giving a banana to a monkey in your inventory, which can be obtained in an earlier quest. However, the chance of getting the clue scroll is very low, and there were no hint at all that you could get a clue scroll this way before an achievement for getting it was added to the game, and the achievement doesn't say how to get the clue scroll, and so without a guide the player may not realize that is it received randomly.

** In one particular quest released in December 2012, players needed a Tz Haar translate old texts for them, but didn't have him on hand to translate the last set. That's alright, because by this point it's the boss fight of the quest line, so you can just complete it. Well, a Jagex moderator confirmed that it ''was'' possible to translate the text. After months of searching for the solution by themselves, the community was given the following information: there was a Ga'al (basically, a Tz Haar born as a blank slate instead of fully matured) who escaped the Tz Haar city wandering around Runescape, but he's really good at disguising himself. If you found him, he'd take you to the area and translate it for you. To trigger his appearance, you needed to meet a set of conditions which were totally unknown... and that was all the players were told. Some ideas from players included changing your title to be Tz Haar themed, a Ring of Stone (which turns you into a pile of rocks, as Tz Haar are rock creatures), obsidian armor from the quest, a Ring of Visibility (it was confirmed that you need "more than this ring"), or all of the above.

* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher2AssassinsOfKings'' features an essentially hidden side quest, "From a Bygone Era", which allows you to either reset your skilltree or get the best additional weapon, and one of the three Dragon Scales in the game. You must find a rundown shack in Chapter 2, near the Kaedweni camp, which is tricky if you're playing Iorveth's path, in which case you only visit the area once, and blast some unremarkable barrels behind it to reveal a cellar entrance. Then you must solve a puzzle which requires information from the gravestones in the backyard. This gets you a book containing some gibberish words. You must show it to Bras of Ban Ard in Chapter 3, who will explain exactly once in what order the words must be used to pass the Guardian that you can find in the sewers of Loc Muinne. This information is not recorded in your Journal and you can't ask again, making the Guardian's puzzle a very frustrating process. Finally you must pass a relatively simple puzzle to reach the Operator, who will either reset your skill tree, or end up being possibly the hardest boss fight in the game, depending on what you want from him.
* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' has a CollectionSidequest involving a dentist who collects monster teeth. The thing is, most of the parts you extract from creepies have little use beyond simple VendorTrash, and the appearance of relevant monsters are not limited to chapters the guy appears in. For example, barghests (and therefore, their skulls) are plentiful in Chapter I, but never to be seen again after that - and the guy does not show until Chapter III. So you need to hang onto some with no apparent reason at all, since they can't even be used to brew potions.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} VII'', some of the puzzles are nigh-incomprehensible without the guide. Map pieces in the game give you clues on occasion, but even with all of them you will do lots of aimless wandering.
* ''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.

** The Onyxia attunement chain is one reason why the attunements were removed all together before being replaced with the fairly straightforward proving grounds in Warlords of Draenor.

*** The alliance version flat out bait-and-switches you. You must run Blackrock Depths, and in the early part of the dungeon you get a quest that tells you to go outside the dungeon. Usually, when you do quests in a dungeon, you don't go outside to complete it, but in this case, you must - because completing the quest causes a crumpled up note to drop. The kicker? You complete the quest, turn it in, get a reward and are told "Oh, I guess there isn't anything else we can do"... so for ''no apparent reason'', you have to think to go ''back'' into Blackrock Depths, kill around the jail (Which you ''just cleared'', meaning you have almost no reason to go there unless you are starting another run) until the note drops, and then start off an EscortMission.

** Originally, the very gameplay itself was an example of this trope. The game failed to teach you incredibly fundamental information like "what defense score is needed to make the tank immune to critical hits?" or "damage dealers should stand behind the boss, because attacks from the rear can't be parried". Blizzard made a valiant effort to fix it, adding obvious descriptions to important skills ("This spell deals damage, use it a lot.", ""This talent makes you take less damage. That's your job, meatshield.", etc.) and putting great big Tank/DPS/Heal icons and short description of how you're going to be expected to play your role on the early-game talent selections. They also added quests where you fight a boss designed to teach you simple mechanics like getting out of the way when the boss starts telegraphing an attack, another crucial skill players weren't getting taught. Later on, the proving grounds were added.
** All of the following was eventually removed from the game, because Blizzard recognized that players were being forced to consult guides and automated websites just to be able to hit things reliably, and that wasn't a good state of affairs. Post-6.0 items have primary stats appropriate for anyone who can wear them, there are only a few secondary stats (and all are useful), reforging is gone, and gems and enchantments have been massively downplayed in importance. For posterity's sake, all examples about the old state of affairs have been retained:

*** Nor does the game specify in any way what enchants and socket gems are optimal for a given specialization at a given level. Is +500 Nature damage better than occasionally getting +1200 Intellect? To find out, you'll either need to spend a ton of money on enchants, or look it up on a third-party site. On some trinkets or enchantments with a proc, there is an "internal cooldown" that prevents the proc from re-occurring within a certain period. When comparing a trinket that randomly procs with one that has a cooldown, you must not only compare the relative benefits of each one in terms of statistics, but how often the latter will proc, which you will not be able to find from in-game information.

*** To say nothing of stat caps. While most stats improvement follow the general rule of "more is better", some stats will suffer critical diminishing returns after a certain amount is reached (or Soft Cap) while others will cease giving any benefit whatsoever past a certain point (Hard Caps). While it is possible to discover some of these on your own if you ferret deep enough in your character stats ("Hey, why am I putting more hit rating on my mage if I already have 0 percent chance of missing?"), some are so obscure (such as the mage 25% haste soft cap) that they are definitely trope worthy and a sign that you need to do more online research for your optimal build.
*** Haste is an especially non-intuitive statistics, especially since for classes that use damage or healing over time spells, getting haste to a certain threshold, you get extra ticks for each spell, since haste determines the time between ticks (for example, a HOT with a duration of 4 seconds has four ticks if it ticks every seconds, but gets a fifth tick if you increase your haste to the point at which it can tick every .8 seconds). This involves gearing to fairly specific break points; you won't get the extra tick if you're a little short, you'll likely benefit very little from extra points unless there is a nearby breakpoint, and it's hard to determine those breakpoints without a chart, especially since haste buffs come into play.
** Since patched to be reasonable, but Vanilla Blackrock Depths. This is just a pair of Guide Dang Its, but they're critical: the dungeon cannot be completed unless you get the Shadowforge Key and unlock the Shadowforge Lock with it. However, you can run half the dungeon ''without'' it, only to find yourself in a dead-end without explanation. There is never an indication you '''must''' have the key, nor where to get it, nor does anything tell you that you have to take a quest from a ghost outside the dungeon whom you can't even see unless you're dead and that you need to ''not'' kill a unique dwarf you're going to find ''before'' you have the quest, or a completely required item won't drop and the dungeon has to be reset. Later on you hit up a tavern with a locked back door, and indications you need a key to get through it, but there's no way to get it. How do you get through? Four ways: pickpocket the tavern owner and risk death when he finds out and everyone there attacks, kill someone to summon a guard patrol (which never happens anywhere ''else''), do a quest for an NPC there that requires you leave the dungeon and fly around the world gathering bits, or give an otherwise normal looking dwarf several beers, at which point he'll smash the door down for no reason other than he wants to be drunker.

* ''VideoGame/DoomTheRoguelike'' has a Dragonslayer sword. Even if you find it, you can't pick it up without meeting the proper secret requirements. What are the requirements? [[ShapedLikeItself They're a secret]]. The devs, as well as the handful of players who've figured it out, are all in agreement [[DoNotSpoilThisEnding not to tell anyone]]. So not only is it a GuideDangIt, ''there isn't even a guide''. But It's been leaked:[[spoiler: You have to be berserk and not wearing any armor.]]

* The GayOption in ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' can be very difficult to unlock unless you know exacly what to do. The only way to get Sky to date a male PC is by being [[KarmaMeter Open Palm]] and shutting down the romances with both Silk Fox and Dawn Star. Because 'nice' conversation options get you higher good points, it's pretty close to impossible to figure out how to let the girls down gently while still being 'good' enough to catch the fella's interest. Additionally, if the conversation that normally triggers the Sky romance has already occurred and you haven't properly rejected the two women first, then the romance is LostForever.

** A quest reward book from an extensive quest chain in the multi-player campaign.
*** The book gives a very cryptic riddle which vaguely directs the player to an area of the multiplayer map he'd never usually go anywhere near. The entrance to it is only opened if you have the book. The riddle also very cryptically refers to the level 1 knife and the item from the hidden dungeon, and rather less vaguely instructs the player to place all three items on the respective pressure pads to 'start the trial'. The trial turns out to be slaughtering a load of chickens (one of which named for the lead developer, Chris Taylor) who start with ridiculous amounts of health (but do very little damage). Once defeated, the player receives humorous and massively overpowered loot, including a gun that fires chickens.
*** The chicken level in Dungeon Siege is a rather obvious reference to The Cow Level in ''VideoGame/DiabloII'', and previous contributors should be ashamed for failing to mention it in this trope yet.

** ''Cataclysm'' a new quest in Loch Modan, where you find a Dark Iron spy's list of drop places for parcels, which you can go around collecting and giving to a Dwarf NPC for experience. The third note is listed as being in the back of a cave on the southern side of a hill that's just south of Thelsamar. Logically, you look at Grizzlepaw Ridge, which fits the description perfectly. Except, there are two caves on that hill. One is a large, Trogg-filled cave on the southern face. The other is on the eastern side, but still sort of fits the description, since it mentions the path to the cave, which does begin on the southern side, and that it's at the top of the hill, and the larger, southern cave is at the bottom. After thoroughly investigating both of these caves, you'll notice that the item isn't anywhere in either of these caves. You'll later happen upon another cave, not to the south, but much more to the southeast of Thelsamar. There's also the fact that there are ''no'' quests leading you here, meaning that most players have no reason to go here.

** There's a new quest in Loch Modan, where you find a Dark Iron spy's list of drop places for parcels, which you can go around collecting and giving to a Dwarf NPC for experience. The third note is listed as being in the back of a cave on the southern side of a hill that's just south of Thelsamar. Logically, you look at Grizzlepaw Ridge, which fits the description perfectly. Except, there are two caves on that hill. One is a large, Trogg-filled cave on the southern face. The other is on the eastern side, but still sort of fits the description, since it mentions the path to the cave, which does begin on the southern side, and that it's at the top of the hill, and the larger, southern cave is at the bottom. After thoroughly investigating both of these caves, you'll notice that the item isn't anywhere in either of these caves. You'll later happen upon another cave, not to the south, but much more to the southeast of Thelsamar. There's also the fact that there are ''no'' quests leading you here, meaning that most players have no reason to go here.