History Main / AdaptiveAbility

** It should be noted that his powers don't always give him the ability needed to ''win'' a fight, only to survive. When faced with the Hulk, he gained the ability to teleport to the next state.

* Indie shooter WarningForever has this as its main mechanic: a time attack boss rush where the boss repeatedly comes back stronger in a way that seeks to counter how the player destroyed it in the last round. For example, if it was defeated by having its rear armor destroyed, its next form will have more armor on its rear. It also changes which weapons it adds depending on how effective they were (e.g. if it killed the player using lasers frequently in one round, expect it to have a lot more lasers in the next round).

*** Back on the knife thing, don't forget that the knives are supported by the Valkyrie's point barrier system, which basically lets it cut through armor like butter. It's basically a [[WarhammerFortyThousand Power Knife]].

* ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has the Tyranids:

* Pringer X, the ultimate bonus boss in the remake of ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 2|Cursed Memories}}'' and ''{{Disgaea 4}}'' possesses an ability that makes it completely immune to whatever special attack it was hit by for the rest of the battle. Made more complicated by the fact that when you fight more then one of them at the same time later on, all of them become immune to the attack.

* Pringer X, the ultimate bonus boss in the remake of ''{{Disgaea 2}}'' and ''{{Disgaea 4}}'' possesses an ability that makes it completely immune to whatever special attack it was hit by for the rest of the battle. Made more complicated by the fact that when you fight more then one of them at the same time later on, all of them become immune to the attack.

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* Reidak from the ''{{Bionicle}}'' series.
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* SCP-682 of the SCPFoundation is a reptilian OmnicidalManiac who is MadeOfIron who also possesses this power. They try to shoot out it's eyes, it grows several new sets covered in armor plating. They try to poison it, it starts spraying out jets of high-pressure blood to get the poison out. Thankfully, the adaptations wear off after a short while.

* Reidak from the ''{{Bionicle}}'' series.

* Byakuran in Katekyou Hitman Reborn! used this to an extend. He just didn't wait until someone used a certain tactic against him, he simply communicated with himself in alternate dimensions and linked their minds together to make himself crazy prepared for anything.
* Nurarihyon from {{Gantz}} had this as his power. In addition to adapting to become immune to attacks, he could also beat fighters at their own game by BiggerStick adaptation. [[spoiler:It turns out that he can't adapt to attacks that he can't see coming. The Gantz combatants snipe him to death.]]

This is an enemy whose power is to [[EvolutionaryLevels adapt]] to any power used against it.

* In ''JojosBizarreAdventure'', the Big Bad from part 2, Cars, uses the Red Jewel of Asia to instantly become the ultimate creature, with all of earth's evolution in hand and the ability to adapt to any attack. He was effectively immune to every possible attack because he could simply change into a form that resisted it before it even hit him. Even when thrown into a volcano he surrounded his body with bags to air to insulate him from the immense heat. He was defeated by being shot into space by the volcano to float around forever until he eventually ceased thinking, effectively making him dead.

* Arcueid from {{Tsukihime}} claims such an ability. She was immune to conventional weapons to begin with, and gained immunities to conceptual weapons as they were used to fight her. When Shiki killed her, she was sure he used some obscure far eastern conceptual weapon. In a slight subversion, she can't become immune to that particular ability, either.

* Kuro Momotaro from ''YuYuHakusho''. His body possesses the ability to memorize the damage of any attack that hits him, while his weapons, the Steaming Spheres heal him from that damage, and give him the power to overcome it.

The result is ItOnlyWorksOnce. The good guys will easily be convinced the EvilEvolves. The functional opposite is MegaManning. A sub-trope of FeedItWithFire. Compare and contrast with EnergyAbsorption, where the defender is actually ''powered'' by being attacked. See also AdaptiveArmor.

* Learning.
* [[ThereIsNoSuchThingAsNotability A recent report]] on {{NPR}}'s "Science Friday" program described the increasing population of urban raccoons. Since they mature and breed rapidly, human attempts to kill them, trap them, and keep them out of the garbage cans have the net effect of breeding ever smarter "[[{{Ubermensch}} uber]]-raccoons." ''[[PlanetOfTheApes Primate]] [[VerbThis THIS!!!]]''
* Coyotes take this a few steps further. Unable to fit into a prarie dog burrow? Hire a badger to scare them to the surface.
** A female coyote can also alter her own fertility to match the estimated food source for the next breeding cycle. This is one of the reasons why widespread attempts at genocide have failed against them. The more of their competitors that are taken out, the more pups that are born to take their places.
** Some have learned that farm machinery will scare up or kill mice and rabbits (and the occasional snake), and that if they let themselves be seen around noonish, they might get some leftovers from the farm workers' lunches conveniently dropped off at the edge of the field. One has even walked alongside this troper's tractor once, looking over occasionally, then took off across another field when no food was given out at the end of the field.

* Taken to its logical extreme and closing off all loopholes along the way: The ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'' fanfic ''[[http://www.talesfromthevault.com/relentless/ Relentless]]'', where the [[EldrichAbomination Reikoku]] has an AdaptiveAbility. It's an unusual take as in the story, the Reikoku adapts to the characters' [[SupernaturalMartialArts techniques]]

** The ones in ThisTroper's neck of the woods have learned that farm machinery will scare up or kill mice and rabbits (and the occasional snake), and that if they let themselves be seen around noonish, they might get some leftovers from the farm workers' lunches conveniently dropped off at the edge of the field. One has even walked alongside this troper's tractor once, looking over occasionally, then took off across another field when no food was given out at the end of the field.

** However, they lose this ability when their central control computer, the Borg planet, is destroyed.
*** Wait, wait, don't tell me - if you try to destroy the planet again it doesn't work?

** And to make matters worse, they're [[AbsoluteXenophobe obsessively xenophobic]], want to TakeOverTheWorld, aren't fussed about whether they do it by [[YouWillBeAssimilated assimilating us]], [[KillEmAll slaughtering us]], or [[IAmAHumanitarian sticking us in wax to digest to death]], and are [[HiveMind controlled]] by a Queen who's the [[UncannyValley stuff of]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel nightmares]] [[PsychopathicManChild all by]] [[AGodAmI herself.]]

* In [=~Jojo's Bizarre Adventure~=], the Big Bad from part 2, Cars, uses the Red Jewel of Asia to instantly become the ultimate creature, with all of earth's evolution in hand and the ability to adapt to any attack. He was effectively immune to every possible attack because he could simply change into a form that resisted it before it even hit him. Even when thrown into a volcano he surrounded his body with bags to air to insulate him from the immense heat. He was defeated by being shot into space by the volcano to float around forever until he eventually ceased thinking, effectively making him dead.

* Kuro Momotaro from ''YuYuHakusho''.

* Indie shooter WarningForever has this as its main mechanic: a time attack boss rush where the boss repeatedly comes back stronger in a way that seeks to counter how the player destroyed it in the last round.

* The sword of Griffindor in ''HarryPotter'' can't be destroyed; it simply takes in the power of whatever it encounters. For example, when in ''The Chamber of Secrets'' [[spoiler:Harry uses it to kill the basilisk, it becomes impregnated with bailisk venom]].

** [[CompletelyMissingThePoint So the more I learn, the easier I resist knowledge from that field?]]
** Well, sort of. It will deal much less damage.
** As in, [[BowelBreakingBricks you will shit less bricks]].

* Berserker from FateStayNight, Unless you are TheHero (or his FutureBadass) or [[TheEpicOfGilgamesh King Of Heroes]], you will probably fail to kill him.