History Main / AttackItsWeakPoint

* ''Manga/Fabricant100'': All Fabricants have a crystal heart somewhere in their body. Mortsafe's badges that serve as proof of human idendity make these cores glow on contact with a Fabricant. Normally it doesn't matter and No 100 didn't even know about these cores, but for Fabricants that have stolen Yao flesh, destroying the core is the only way to bypass their [[HealingFactor regeneretive abilities]].

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': "Pikachu! The horn! [[BeamMeUpScotty Aim for the horn!]]"

* This comes up in ''Fanfic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]] and its sequel, ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}''.

* In ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess'', a Peacemaker Proxy could only be destroyed by destroying a small glowing crystal-like object that could only be revealed by powerful magic destroying the ever-regenerating slime that the proxy is made of.

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' had the Behemoth, a ''huge'' [[HumongousMecha AS]] which requires the Lambda Driver to even remain standing. Its armor is so thick that no weapon can damage it and the Lambda Driver deflects those shots anyway. Sousuke managed to destroy it with the Arbalest by sliding between its legs and firing into the cooling system's exhaust ports per Kaname's instructions. As expected, the Lambda Driver overheated and the Behemoth collapsed under its own weight, killing the pilot.

* ''LightNovel/BludgeoningAngelDokuroChan'': Angels lose their powers (and, uh, [[PottyEmergency other]] [[{{Gonk}} stuff]]) if you can manage to yank their halo off. The halo is razor-sharp, of course.

* ''Literature/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'': In the fourth novel, animated as [=S1E08=], the minotaur's skin is extremely tough, giving Bell difficulty in fighting it. However, he manages to stab its arm at one point, causing it to drop the sword it was using. [[spoiler:Bell then uses the sword to make more cuts into it, then finally stabs it again with his knife, and casts firebolts directly into its body until it explodes.]]

* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': One of the functions of Annala's Death Killer bow is to grant the arrows it shoots whatever properties will hurt the target most. Then she buries the arrows in the location they will hurt the most. In ''ManaMutationMenace'', this meant aiming for one of the crystals on a particular monster breed and then using a sound wave that would disintegrated it.

* ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'': In episode 8 of book 4, the minotaur's skin is extremely tough, giving Bell difficultly in fighting it. However, he manages to stab its arm at one point, causing it to drop the sword it was using. [[spoiler:Bell then uses the sword to make more cuts into it, then finally stabs it again with his knife, and casts firebolts directly into its body until it explodes.]]

'''Kirk:''' ...\\

[[folder:Films]]

* In the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Battle of Midway]], the Imperial Japanese aircraft carrier ''Akagi'', flagship of Admiral Nagumo, was struck by a single 1000 lb bomb from an American dive bomber. Ordinarily, this would not be fatal damage to most aircraft carriers, particularly larger carriers like the ''Akagi''. The bomb, however hit the ship's the middle aircraft elevator and detonated inside its hanger, where the ''Akagi's'' own bomber planes were being fueled and armed. This resulted in setting off the munitions inside the hanger and, even worse, the aviation fuel supplies. This started an uncontrollable fire that forced it to be abandoned and scuttled later that day.

* In the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Battle of Midway]], the Imperial Japanese aircraft carrier ''Akagi'', flagship of Admiral Nagumo, was struck by a single 1000 lb bomb from an American dive bomber. The bomb, however hit the ship's the middle aircraft elevator and detonated inside its hanger, where the ''Akagi's'' own bomber planes were being fueled and armed. This resulted in setting off the munitions inside the hanger and, even worse, the aviation fuel supplies. This started an uncontrollable fire that forced it to be abandoned and scuttled later that day.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Even after taking out its shields, the thick armor of the Colossus makes it difficult for Ruby and the others to actually damage it. [[spoiler:Oscar notices that the missile launcher and the rotating Dust cylinder share the same chamber, suggesting that a sniper shot would be able to blow up the arm cannon. When Cordovin spots what Ruby is trying to do, she protects the missile launcher by closing it back inside the arm cannon. Ruby unexpectedly decides to charge inside the cannon itself, and Jaune immediately figures out what she's doing: because of what Oscar said, the missiles and Dust will be stored together inside the arm cannon, making them extremely vulnerable to a well-placed shot -- but only if the shot is taken from inside the cannon itself. This time, the plan works and the arm cannon is rendered inoperable; the extra weight caused by the damage it sustains makes it impossible for Cordovin to move the robot without first severing the entire arm.]]

* The DEMONHEAD MOBSTER KINGPIN from ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'', after suffering the heroes' devastating [[CombinedEnergyAttack Triple Truffle Shuffle Scuffle Comb Rave Attack]]: "DMK's NETHER-REGIONAL VULNERABULB blooms, briefly exposing his WEAK SPOT." And in a later panel: "The CRATE comes back down and clocks the WEAK SPOT for massive damage."
* ''Webcomic/MSPaintMasterpieces'' hilariously referenced it. While the comic usually has ''{{VideoGame/Mega Man|Classic}}'' finishing off the Robot Masters with their [[ElementalRockPaperScissors weaknesses]], at one point a heavily damaged Mega Man, riding in a stolen [[HumongousMecha walker]] is confronted by Quick Man. After a little taunting from the latter, Mega Man makes the walker [[GroinAttack kick Quick Man in the crotch]], while he mutters to himself, "I hope...that was...his weakness..."

* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'':
** Fighter gives us a basic rundown of this trope:
--->'''Fighter:''' Oh, well weaknesses are bad. Except on bosses where you have to shoot at the core 'cause the rest of it is pure invincibility. It makes you wonder why they built a core at all, gave it no protection, and then put it where it would be exposed to intergalactic gunfire.
** The trope is used more directly in an early comic, where [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2002/09/02/episode-189-do-not-keep-creep-near-open-flames attacking a monster with its weakness of fire causes it to explode spectacularly.]]
* ''Webcomic/MagicalMina'' [[http://www.tsunamichannel.com/index.php?date=2002-06-26&comic=MaMi flips the buglike Armor living spell over on its back]] and stabs it several times in various joints on its underbelly to get it to yield and gain its powers. Perhaps a reference to ''Genji: Days Of The Blade'', though she [[SubvertedTrope was only supposed to flip it over]] to win.
* The [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]] of ''Webcomic/{{Heartcore}}'' have two weakpoints: their brain, and their [[GemHeart Heartcore]]. The destruction of either or removal of the latter are the only ways to kill a demon.
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', The Goo's weak point is its [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-11-09 demon nuclei which is the size of a marble.]] Everything else is merely a shell for the nuclei and thus replaceable.
* In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', the S model robots are [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1141 shown to have red on/off buttons on their heads,]] making them not much of a threat.
* This phenomenon [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2016/01/22/real-world-applications is discussed]] in ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'', wherein Tycho refers to this weak point as the "critoris".
** In [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/10/21 another strip,]] an enemy [[GenreSavvy calls them]] a "Goddamn liability."

* Willa stabs the [[VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus Titan]] in its weak spot in ''Webcomic/LatchkeyKingdom'', causing a huge spurt of black blood. Unfortunately, the Titan is just so huge and [[MightyGlacier tough]] that it can [[NoSell shrug it off]], then it flicks Willa [[ATwinkleInTheSky into the distance]].
* Ebbirnoth of ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has a degree in "xenokillology", a course of study he put together to better be able to kill things. Turns out to mostly be ADegreeInUseless: the main weak point of almost everything is "[[MoreDakka being shot a lot]]".

* ''Series/TheMandalorian''. Subverted when humans and Tuskans band together to kill a Krayt Dragon, luring it over a trench of buried explosives that they plan to detonate under its belly, its weakest point. It fails because the charges are simply too weak to breach its hide even when used optimally, forcing the Mandalorian to improvise.

* In the final volume of ''Manga/{{Parasyte}},'' Shinichi, who is alone and armed with only his wits and whatever he can find around him now that [[spoiler: Migi has seperated from his body, which also means that he [[AnArmAndALeg only has one hand,]]]] executes a total hail mary by [[spoiler: stabbing Gotou in what he hopes to be his one tiny weak point with a metal rod he pulls out of a pile of garbage. It is indeed the weak point, and Gotou crumples. It might not have done much by itself, but that rod just so happened to be covered with a poisonous pollutant from the trash pile that rips Gotou's body apart from the inside, defeating him.]]
* In ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'' [[spoiler: dragons are large, strong, and have near impenetrable scales. But there's a gap in the scales on the throat which is located near vital organs; attacking this gap will instantly kill the dragon. Team Touden defeats the infamous Red Dragon this way when Laios stabs it there.]]

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': ''Nasty'' subversion in Part 5. One of the minor villains, Ghiaccio, is ''completely'' protected by the unbreakable ice-armor Stand, White Album. Except for a little hole in the back of the neck which allows Ghiaccio to breathe. Solution: shoot there. Easy, right? Nope. [[spoiler: Ghiaccio developed a technique called "White Album Gently Weeps" that drives the temperature around him so close to absolute zero that any solid object will ''bounce off the air''. He did this specifically to ''protect the air vent''. In order to kill him, the heroes have to drive him towards a ruined streetlamp so the air vent lands on a jutting shard of metal.]]

* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': In the FinalBattle, [[spoiler: when Simon and the eponymous mech fail to overpower the Anti-Spiral's HumongousMecha, he just takes the smaller Gurren Lagann mecha and boards the Anti-Spiral home planet (which is on the mecha's forehead), finishing off the Anti-Spiral himself]].

** The 11 Planetary Masters of Sol in FINAL can infinitely regenerate, but once the heroes learn the purpose of [[spoiler: the Loud G-Stones and Pisa Sol]], the Sol Masters are taken down for good.
%%** [[spoiler: The Z-Master]] is destroyed from the inside out.

* To explain how humanity can actually fight giant robots in the ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'', the series ''Fanfic/BlackCrayons'' uses this as an explanation. Cybertronians' armor can protect them from large blasts large-scale attacks, but small enough weapons can slip in between sections of their armor to get at the more delicate circuitry underneath. [[spoiler: Mikaela causes some serious damage to Laserbeak by stabbing him with a screwdriver, getting under the armor of one of his wings, and Annabelle causes similar damage- adjusting based on the relative size of both weapon and Cybertronian- when she hits Sentinel in the ankle with a piece of reinforcing bar.]]

* {{Discussed}} in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13545968/1/Wilhuff-Tarkin-Hero-of-the-Rebellion Wilhuff Tarkin, Hero of the Rebellion]]'', where Tarkin, upon confirming that Galen Erso is working against the Empire [[AdaptationalNiceGuy like him]], flat-out asks him what kind of weakness did he put on the Death Star.

** ''Film/IndependenceDayResurgence'' reveals that the alien exoskeleton biosuits have a weak spot in the middle of the tentacles sprouting out of the back. [[spoiler: This even applies to the house sized queen in her skyscraper sized exosuit, and is used to kill her.]]

* ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'': The dragon is killed by [[spoiler: a sword hitting a chink in the exact same place on his armor]].

* In the ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' series, Lord Ruler [[JustifiedTrope specifically created]] minions with such a weakness (removing a spike driven through their spine would kill them), because he [[spoiler:knew that there was a possibility an evil god could take control of them]], and wanted a fail-safe. The Lord Ruler himself had a similar weakness: [[spoiler: he gave himself {{Immortality}} [[ImmortalityInducer by means of]] Feruchemical bracelets, the removal of which caused RapidAging, as he could no longer hold back a thousand years of age.]]

* {{Subverted}} in an episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. The crew of the starship ''Valiant'' discover a new, massively powerful Dominion warship. They discover a weakpoint and plan an attack accordingly. The attack goes off masterfully, causing a massive explosion... [[WorfBarrage which then dissipates and reveals the ship, still battle-worthy]]. [[spoiler: The ''Valiant'' is soon destroyed, and most of her surviving crew is killed when the Jem'Hadar decide to SinkTheLifeBoats.]]

** While [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]]'s known for doing this, it's absent in his battle with [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud]], though it's understandable. Z-targeting still makes an appearance and Link uses it to [[spoiler: block Cloud's Omnislash.]]
** This actually works ''against'' ComicBook/WonderWoman during her battle with [[spoiler:[[ComicBook/XMen Rogue]]]]. [[spoiler: Wonder Woman's combat training taught her to strike the weak points of the human body, including the face, the only part of Rogue uncovered. This in turn allowed Rogue to absorb some of Wonder Woman's power and temporarily stun her, giving Rogue an opportunity to absorb even more of Wonder Woman's abilities and give Rogue enough power to defeat her.]]
** [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Tommy and Saba]] try this in their fight against [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Epyon]] [[spoiler: Only to find out that it doesn't work on Power Rangers logic and giant green circle on it's chest is just a decoration]].

** The trope is used more directly in an early comic, where [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2002/09/02/episode-189-do-not-keep-creep-near-open-flames/ attacking a monster with its weakness of fire causes it to explode spectacularly]].

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', The Goo's weak point is its [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-11-09 demon nuclei which is the size of a marble]]. Everything else is merely a shell for the nuclei and thus replaceable.
* In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', the S model robots are [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1141 shown to have red on/off buttons on their heads]], making them not much of a threat.

** In [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/10/21 another strip]], an enemy [[GenreSavvy calls them]] a "Goddamn liability."

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', at episode 'Tree Trunks' the gang goes into '[[{{DarkIsEvil}}The Evil Dark Forest]]' in order to achieve the plot-device for the eponymous Tree Trunks. At the forest the group catches up with a monster of no vulnerabilities...Except it's [[http://i49.tinypic.com/znvpjt.jpg/giant gem weak spot]].

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'', Shredder decides to build the ultimate combat robot to finally destroy the turtles once and for all and does this by building the robot out of indestructible material. He runs out when he's almost done and has to use ordinary steel to finish leaving a weak spot at the small of the robot's back. [[IdiotBall He and Krang then mention this several times in front of April.]] Guess what happens.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Mask}}'' episode title “They came from within”. There is a muscular robotic villain called [[https://robotsupremacy.fandom.com/wiki/Warmachine "Warchine"]], like his chest, there is also a small door handle on his back. After opening, any person(especially dogs) can enter the machine through the passageway (can be regarded as a design flaw). Inside there has a "Fail Safe Box", Milo pee on the device, it makes the robot short-circuit.

* Tanks are almost always vulnerable from above and below, and to a lesser extent, the sides and [[http://www.simhq.com/_air/air_053j.html rear]]. Tank Destroyers and other specialized [=AFVs=] often take this further, in some cases resulting in open-topped or open-backed vehicles such as the M10 and Marder series.

** [[LensmanArmsRace Military ground vehicle designers are getting smarter about protection]], what with the introduction of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-hull the V-shaped hull]] to certain armored vehicles[[note]](basically, it's just taking a boxy iron car and giving it angled sides)[[/note]]. V-hulls borrow the deflecting hoo-ha used by sloped armor. In simple English, it's supposed to take most of the damage from the bad guys standing straight ahead [[note]]because most of the time, that's where you find them holding antitank weapons, anyway[[/note]] or from explosives underneath the vehicle and then point it elsewhere. What you end up with is a vehicle that's not as scratched as compared to a regular vehicle in the same situation.

* "Spy in the Sky," a ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' story (Gold Key, Hanna-Barbera Fun-In #3) has Dastardly sending Muttley on a mission to find out Yankee Doodle Pigeon's weakness. When pigeon suspects he's being spied upon, he makes Muttley think he's afraid of lightning. The squadron prepares accordingly, but naturly FailureIsTheOnlyOption.

* "Spy in the Sky," a ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' story (Gold Key, Hanna-Barbera Fun-In #3) has Dastardly sending Muttley on a mission to find out Yankee Doodle Pigeon'z weakness. When pigeon suspects he's being spied upon, he makes Muttley think he's afraid of lightning. The squadron prepares accordingly, but naturly FailureIsTheOnlyOption.

* "Spy in the Sky," a ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachinez'' story (Gold Key, Hanna-Barbera Fun-In #3) has Dastardly sending Muttley on a mission to find out Yankee Doodle Pigeon'z weakness. When pigeon suspects he's being spied upon, he makes Muttley think he's afraid of lightning. The squadron prepares accordingly, but naturly FailureIsTheOnlyOption.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'': In Chapter 4, Henry needs to [[spoiler: chop off the joints on Bertrum's mechanical arms]] with an axe.
* ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' likes the red, glowing orb variety, at least in earlier games.
* ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'':
** Monokuma drones take extra damage if you shoot them in the eye, meaning most of them can be taken down with one well-placed shot.
** Each of the Warriors of Hope has a MiniMecha with a weak point that becomes exposed under certain conditions, which you have to attack to defeat it. For example, Jataro's robot Doctor Von Geralt has a weak point on its head, so to access it you have to knock it over by using Knockback ammo to hit it with its own bombs.
* ''VideoGame/{{Genji}}: Days of the Blade'': The TropeNamer is a demonstration at E3 2006, in which Bill Rich demonstrates one of the games's boss battles -- namely, the battle against the "GiantEnemyCrab" boss. After he "flips over this crab on its back," he narrates, "And you '''attack its weak point''' for '''massive damage'''."
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyroDawnOfTheDragon'': Normally nearly invulnerable and so tough he can shrug off attack from the Dragon Elders, the golem still has vulnerable eyes, as well as spots containing life crystals which can be destroyed to stop him.
* ''VideoGame/VirtualOn'':
** Operation Moongate FinalBoss Z-Gradt has one where he is grey with ultra-heavy armour most of the time, but turns gold at one point, while also deploying a truly MASSIVE cannon. During this period he is much more vulnerable, as long as you [[InstantDeathBullet aren't hit by his cannon]].
** Oratorio Tangram's midboss Bradtos employs a similar method, although the shots it use when it exposes the weakness is far weaker than Z-Gradt's cannon.
* The colossi in ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' all possess glowing sigils on their flesh that can only be revealed by sunlight reflected off the protagonist's magic sword. Hitting this spot is the only real way to inflict any injury to them; somewhere between half to ninety percent of the fight (depending on the boss) is exposing it/[[ColossusClimb getting there]].
* In the final battle of ''VideoGame/SlyCooperAndTheThieviusRaccoonus'', [[BigBad Clockwerk]] needs to be hit in the areas where Carmelita has recently shot him with her shock pistol.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' gives us this with a variety of baddies, but the worst are the Regenerators and Iron Maidens. Scary as hell and nigh invincible, and you see the first one before you can even attack its weak point. They require a thermal scope on a sniper rifle,[[note]]They can be killed without the scope, but they have a colossal pool of HP and you can run out of ammo very quickly if you try to fight them this way.[[/note]] but always attack from close range. That means while you're trying to snipe them, they're eating, impaling, flailing at you and freaking you the hell out.
** Also, after a certain point, using headshots on the regular mooks may just cause them to sprout CombatTentacles.
* Regenerators and Iron Maidens have nothing on the ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' [[DemonicSpider Reapers]], giant cockroaches who not only quickly regenerate lost limbs and heads, but can shield their weak point, a squishy white egg sac. A number of other enemies have weak points that may or may not require a partner to expose and exploit, such as Popokarimu's squishy under-abdomen, Ndesu's giant plaga growth, Uroboros' glowing red clusters, and [[spoiler:Wesker's]] concealable weak spot / [[spoiler:any rocket he catches in his hands]]. And of course, who could forget the ever-trusty [[BoomHeadshot bullet to the face]]?
* The bosses in the ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' series take minimal damage if hit anywhere other than a designated weak point, though blasting at that weak point really will deal out huge damage to them. However, the first boss in the first game -- Chariot -- subverts this just a tad by having its armor blown off when its health gets down to a third, allowing you to fire at the soft, pink body underneath anywhere you wish.
** This is also the in-game manual's HandWave for why agents in the spinoff/parody ''Typing of the Dead'' are running around wearing keyboard-guns -- the typing feeds into an autotargeting mechanism which eliminates all risk of friendly fire and automatically discovers and isolates weak spots in targets.
* ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'':
** In general, the series uses this trope liberally. The only boss that ''isn't'' hit for massive damage is [[ThatOneBoss Ridley]], with whom the only strategy is "make him dead before he makes you dead". And even then it only applies sometimes -- Meta-Ridley always has at least one form that can't be damaged unless you aim for his torso. Omega Pirate from ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' inverts this: He has no specific weak spots, but before you can harm him you have to first blast away his armour (which means you attack his ''strong'' points first).
** ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'': Blob throwers must be destroyed from the top down, unless Samus is using the ice or wave beams. It counters by throwing floating "blobs" to try and stop her from getting above it.
** Hilariously in the first ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' game, there's a rock monster boss that looks almost exactly like the one in ''Film/GalaxyQuest''. You must use the thermal visor in order to find his weak spot (a random piece of rock that changes after he takes enough damage).
** The various Metroid metamorphoses in ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'' are only vulnerable from their exposed belly nuclei, a crucial change from ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' where they could be shot anywhere.
* The bosses in the original ''VideoGame/RType'' used this system, and the third level took it to extremes by featuring just [[BattleshipRaid a single, giant enemy]] with a number of weak points; the player had to pilot his ship around the boss itself, blowing up each part in turn.
* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''
** Late in the game there is a boss called the Son of the Sun, who is a giant eyeball surrounded by a ring of flames. You can only attack the surrounding flames, and all but one will take no damage and counterattack when hit. The one that you can hit to actually damage the boss looks exactly the same as the others, and is only identifiable through trial-and-error. To make this worse, it uses an attack called "Roulette Shuffle" that spins the flames around so the one you attack is in a completely different area.
** Subverted by ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'''s final boss, Lavos, who appears to be a humanoid figure flanked by [[AttackDrone biological orbs]]. It turns out that [[spoiler:the "Lavos Core" is actually one of the orbs, while the humanoid is just a drone that regenerates like the other orb]]. Many parties die before finally discovering this crucial fact.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' features normal {{Mook}}s that work like this. For example, {{Random Encounter}}s in Cleyra include sand-elementals where you actively need to target a little, pink heart-like part of it. Not realizing this fast enough can result in throwing away lots of HP and mana in battle against the main body of the {{Mook}}.
* The ''VideoGame/StarFox''
** The series is fond of this, often in the obviously-glowing-red variation. Of particular note is one boss in ''Star Fox Command'' whose weak point is essentially a giant glowing ''butt''. The enemy forces are mainly apes and monkeys, you see, and this boss is a HumongousMecha baboon.
** Peppy usually tells where the weak points are. "Aim for his back!" "Aim for the open spot!" "Maybe it's an arm! Aim for the arm!" "Shoot the tentacles to open the core!"
** ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'' :
*** The first boss from can be attacked, but you can't truly ''harm'' him not matter how much you whack his tail with a stick. In fact, he's so tough, he can only be hurt from within. Do enough damage so he gets annoyed and eats you, so you can attack it from inside.
*** There's a normal, area-specific enemy that can only be hurt on a spot on its back. Circle-strafe all you want; it'll keep up. You have to [[spoiler:hit it with a Ground Quake]] to make it turn around so you can hit it on its back.
** The series also features some subversions, though. Andross is the eye type, but shooting his eyes only stuns him briefly. To defeat him, the player has to first shoot his hands off, then shoot the head anywhere BUT the eyes. On the right route, he then reveals his true form: [[OneWingedAngel a giant brain with detachable eyeballs that shoot lasers]], whose sole weak spot is the cerebellum.
* Almost all of the large Grigori bosses in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope'' have a glowing core that needs to be struck in order to cause anything more then ScratchDamage.
* ''VideoGame/LostPlanet'' takes this to the extreme. ''Every single'' Akrid--from the weakest cannon fodder all the way up to the {{Superboss}}--has orange weak points. It's worth noting that although Akrid make up a significant portion of the enemies in the single-player game, they're not the only ones; humans ([[BoomHeadshot the head]]) and [[AMechByAnyOtherName Vital Suits]] ([[InTheBack the engine]] or the kneecaps) also have them.
* ''VideoGame/{{Killer 7}}''
** The majority of the Heaven's Smiles have a glowing yellow spot somewhere on their body. Shooting this kills them instantly and grants you far more blood (used to heal and for power-ups) than gunning them down the standard way. Heaven's Smiles without the yellow spot have similar vulnerabilities -- the enlarged part of a Phantom Smile, the eye of a Giant Smile, the shirt on an Ulmeyda Smile, the cockpit on the part of it's body that looks like a jet that it uses to fly around...
** Most comical is the Ceramic smile boss, a big hulking monster of a smile that runs fairly quickly. Just shoot his heart through the convenient hole in his chest once. At least he has the sense to turn tail and run when you have your gun pointed at him.
* Traditionally, the only way to harm Dracula's first form in the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games is to hit him in the head.
** Later on in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'', there is the giant mecha-centaur demon knight (well, at least it's original) called Eligor. To kill him, you have to attack his eyeball, which is for some reason on the back of his head. The only way to actually be able to damage him is to get onto his back, and getting there requires destroying a number of glowing red orbs on his knees first.
* In a few boss battles in ''VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves'', particularly those fought in Sly's biplane or with Dimitri's speargun, the weak point is Dr. M, who is connected to the boss monster via the massive plug in his head.
* The final boss of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} 2'', the Icon of Sin, has you firing rockets into the brain of the Icon. When using the idclip cheat, however, you can [[EasterEgg go into the brain and see...]] John Romero's severed head impaled on a stick. Also, if you [[SubliminalSeduction reverse what the demon chants]] at the start of the battle, you'll hear the message "To win the game you must kill me, John Romero!"
* In ''VideoGame/ThiefIITheMetalAge'', both the larger and smaller versions of the "Children of Karras" have a glowing-red coal hatch on the rear of their boilers. Unless you have an implausibly large amount of fire arrows or explosive mines available, hitting that coal hatch with water arrows is the only way in the game to disable one. Humorously, this is {{Lampshaded}} in-game by an engineer's report asking what the hell the designer was thinking leaving the boiler so exposed like that, especially in a world where Water Arrows are well-known tools, and saying they really need to fix that ASAP.
* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'':
** [[BackStab Hitting an enemy in the back with the knife]] as a Spy.
** Hitting an enemy in the back with fire from the Pyro's Backburner flamethower.
** [[BoomHeadshot Shooting an enemy in the head]] with (and only with) the Sniper's sniper rifle.
*** Or the][[RunningGag Spy's]] [[HandCannon Ambassador]].
* The "headshot=death" rule has become more-or-less universal, providing players with an intuitive, sensible advanced technique for dispatching foes. Famously, completing the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games on the punishing "Legendary" difficulty requires a mastery of it.
** This was avoided, though, in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' (for every class besides Sniper, anyway), which deliberately removed them (and replaced them with more-or-less random criticals) because the developers felt that headshots rewarded obsessive players at the expense of casual gamers and were unfriendly to team play.
** Also avoided in ''VideoGame/PlanetSide''. The in-universe justification is apparently that the Auraxian factions were smart enough to give their soldiers durable enough helmets to take your average rifle round without causing more damage than a body-shot. The sniper rifle takes off 75% of your average armored grunt's HP in one shot no matter where you hit, anyway. [[note]]The ''real'' reason? While the developers were working on the game, they played a lot of ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' and ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' as "research." Their boss apparently sucked at both of them, and after getting killed hundreds upon hundreds of times with headshots, he insisted that there be no headshots in their game.[[/note]]
** On the flip side, ''VideoGame/MetalGearOnline'' (at least the version packaged with [=MGS4)=] has an in-game option in which players hosting a match can decide to enable a "Headshots Only" mode, in which you're penalized if you shoot an opposing player anywhere but their head. And considering just how headshot-unfriendly the game's controls are to begin with...
* The ''VideoGame/{{MDK}}'' games.
* Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay''. One Terminator-like robot boss sports a huge flashing red button on his back reading "Do Not Push." The next boss combines this (hitting him in his vulnerable spot is literally the only way to hurt him) with a rather nasty form of GroinAttack (crushing his "vulnerables" between a pair of bricks).
** Nearly all the bosses have this -- Mecha-teddy has the gigantic yellow hole that opens up when you shoot his possessed dolly, the big caveman can only be dealt with by using your velociraptor to headbutt his groin, and then bite his ass....
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/MegaManZX''. The eight main bosses have a weak point, but hitting them there damages the [[TransformationTrinket biometal]] you are trying to take from them, resulting in costly repairs after the fight, or a rematch. The ideal outcome is to [[CherryTapping defeat them ''without ever hitting the weak spot'']]. A few bosses actually have annoyingly easy-to-hit weaknesses.
** Played straight in its predecessor, ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' though, with Omega. In the aforementioned Boss' first form, he's only vulnerable on the black portion of his torso. For his OneWingedAngel, the target is raised, with the horn of the central head as the target. [[spoiler:His BishonenLine form, however, lacks any such weakness]]. Similarly, the OneWingedAngel forms of Copy-X, Elpizo, and Dr. Weil are all found on their heads.
** ''ZX Advent'' plays this straight enough, since Model A copies the bosses' DNA at the same quality no matter how hard you bang on weak points. Some bosses don't have any weak points, however, and just need to be hammered on the old-fashioned way.
** In the pre-predecessor ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', expect the GiantEnemyCrab and all variants to have its head be the weakness. That also applies to the nearly omnipresent BigBad Sigma, who most often has his head or the gem on his forehead being the weakness. It's averted with X8's FinalBoss [[spoiler: Lumine]], who despite having an obvious crystal sticking out his ''chest'', is vulnerable to hits on his actual body whenever his shield isn't up.
** There's another example in ''VideoGame/MegaManMaverickHunterX'', particularly in [[spoiler:Day of ∑]] when a mechaniloid went berserk. Its generator is its weak point. Accordingly...
-->[[spoiler:'''Chill Penguin]]:''' Shoot the generator X! Shoot the generator!
** Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'', where the villains complain whenever the mooks expose a weakpoint in their indestructable vehicle order to make a rear-facing attack.
** Played straight in X7, where your mission control tells you "The head is his weak point, aim for the head!" on one of the Mavericks. EGM poked fun at this by that image being screen capped and the reviewer saying "really, I never would have tried that on my own".
** Played with in ''VideoGame/MegaManX4''. One of Sigma's final form is a giant head that spits debris at you. There's a big, blinking red orb on his forehead, which has baited many gamers into shooting at it. But its real weak point is its mouth.
* Attempted justification in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'': the HumongousMecha's designer was an eccentric soul who felt that it needed a "personality flaw" to make it complete. Therefore the only part of the mecha which isn't practically invincible is the target-shaped box of sensors sticking off the side, without which the pilot is deaf and blind. This forces the pilot to open up the cockpit in order to see what he is doing, leaving the controls vulnerable to your missiles. Strangely, the weakest part of the cockpit is not [[MadeOfIron the guy sitting in it]].
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' this is justified: the back of the [[HumongousMecha Walking Behemoth]] Shagohod falls off [[spoiler: when you attempt to destroy it by blowing up a bridge from underneath it]] and the only part left unarmored is the back of the cockpit, which was never to be exposed. Shooting the threads with the RPG-7 also helps considerably.
* Beating Vamp is made a lot easier in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' if you shoot for the [[GroinAttack crotch]].
* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', you kill the [[PuzzleBoss Nihilanth]] by shooting everything you've got at its massive head.
* [=GLaDOS=] in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' is [[spoiler: [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment a massive supercomputer taking up an entire room... but she also happens to have a massive Venus-like structure hanging out from the roof... with four glowing orbs on it (which are also massive).]] Hmmm... oh look, it's your old pal, the rocket turret!]]
* In ''VideoGame/Portal2'', [[spoiler: Wheatley]] tries to protect himself with shields. Too bad you have a portal gun.
* Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/HeavenlySword'', where Kai threatens a guard with a very painful GroinAttack if he doesn't cough up the password to the armory where the titular sword is.
* The enemy ships in ''VideoGame/{{Einhander}}'', aside from small-fighter type cannon fodder, were usually segmented. Shooting the main body of the ship would destroy it eventually, but simply destroying the cockpit and (in some ships) the engines would cause the ship to crash and explode.
* ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'': "Shoot the Core!"
* ''VideoGame/PunchOut'':
** King Hippo has two weak points: his belly-button and the back of his throat. And you can't get to either right away. In the Wii game's Title Defense mode, he covers up said belly button with a manhole. [[spoiler:This turns out to be a DoubleSubversion of this trope, as the way to beat him is to knock off said manhole and expose his weak point.]]
** All fighters are obviously vulnerable to a hard right hook, but Glass Joe is especially weak, getting knocked out by one punch.
* ''VideoGame/FarCry1'':
** It's hard to notice, but this is actually subverted in the PC version. The large, glowing green orbs in the chests of the rocket launcher-wielding [[GiantMook Giant Mooks]] are actually ''part of their armor'', and they actually take ''less'' damage when shot there. Their real weak point is, common-sensibly enough, their head.
** Played straight, but in a fairly tongue-in-cheek manner, for the final boss. He's a super-mutant with loads of health, but he can be killed in less than a second by shooting him in the crotch (something of an Easter egg, as there is no in-game indication that shooting him there would have that effect).
* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'':
** In the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 first game]], Phantom can only be hurt by strikes to the face (high damage, but that's where he shoots fireballs from), and back (less damage, but less risk). Nightmare has a weakpoint that you have to expose by first solidifying it, then smashing the glowy circle.
** Beowulf from ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' can be struck in his eye for greater damage than attacking the rest of his body. If Dante or Vergil lowers his health to the points where he TurnsRed by hitting the eye, Beowulf will stumble and give a few more vital seconds for dealing damage. Cerberus from the same takes more damage from getting hit on either of his three heads. The Leviathan Heartcore, also from the same, needs to have its two accompanying "organs" destroyed before it opens up and makes itself vulnerable.
* The final boss in ''VideoGame/{{Descent}} 2'' is covered by a force field in the front, and thus can only be hit from the rear. Worse, unless you happen to be cloaked, he will always turn to face you. You're meant to detonate a multi-warhead missile on a wall behind him, causing the secondary warheads to hit his weak spot. Didn't stockpile enough Earthshaker missiles ahead of time? You're screwed.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' has plenty of examples that aren't just the usual "shoot head for max damage" ones:
** Hunters have strong armor covering most of their bodies. The weak points are the back, which is bigger and generally easier to go after, especially on co-op, and under the chin, which is much harder to hit but has the advantage of being accessible while they're facing you.
** If you shoot the infection form inside the Flood combat forms (they're located in the part of the chest where the sensory tentacles are sticking out), they take more damage, or die in one hit if you have the right weapon.
** The [[SpiderTank Scarab]]'s weak point is a reactor core hidden in the center of its platform. Common strategies include using a aerial vehicle (or in the case of the Scarab in New Mombasa in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', a ledge above it) to land on its platform to get to the reactor core, or in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', firing at its legs until it lowers itself so [[ColossusClimb it can be climbed]].
** Some vehicles have weak spots that you can hit for extra damage, with examples including the Ghost's left-side fuel cell and the Wraith's rear-end exhaust port.
** In ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'', the Promethean [[BossInMookClothing Knights]] and [[EliteMooks Soldiers]], as well as [[RecurringBoss the Warden Eternal]], will expose big glowing weak spots (or in the Warden's case, a big dark one) once you knock off enough of their armor.
** Also from ''Halo 5'', the Grunt [[MiniMecha Goblin]] has weak spots on its front and back that can be exposed if you knock off the armor covering them.
* Although nearly all bosses in ''VideoGame/RocketKnightAdventures'' (with the exception of Axel Gear) follow this trope, the third boss in the first game displays an interesting variant. The boss is a fish-shaped submarine-like vehicle partially submerged in lava, and the vehicle itself is completely invulnerable. The only way to deal damage is to wait until the rare occasions when the pilot is exposed and attack ''him''.
* The Bosses in VideoGame/JetIsland have a PowerCrystal that must be attacked to destroy them.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** The anime's issues with NewPowersAsThePlotDemands aside, Parasect doesn't have just a double weakness to Flying and Fire, but in Generation IV, potentially a ''triple'' weakness to Fire if it has the Dry Skin ability.
** [[OneHitpointWonder Shedinja]] takes it even further, with its special ability. Only super-effective attacks or indirect damage (poison, weather) will work at all, but it's a [[TheLawOfDiminishingDefensiveEffort guaranteed KO]].
* Tanks in the ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' games take realistic damage; shooting rockets to the front of the tank does minimal damage, more damage to the sides, and the most damage to the back. Smart players with this knowledge will always try to flank around to the back of the tank rather than take it head on.
* The battlewalkers in ''VideoGame/Battlefield2142'' can shrug off most everything short of a [[RammingAlwaysWorks suicidal transport pilot]]. However, there is a flimsy vent underneath that potentially allows someone with a pistol to inflict massive damage. The Titan supercarriers present a similar situation: they can only be damaged from outside by BLOC-3 missiles, but can be infiltrated to get to its creamy nuclear core.
* Almost every enemy you encounter in ''Franchise/DeadSpace'', although how you are supposed to hit them is a bit different. Headshots are a joke in this game, instead you must shoot their limbs (hands, legs, tails, tentacles). The big ones even have their joints explicitly shown to the players. Exploders even have ''two'' weak points: their explosive pustule and its joint with the shoulder. Bosses and mini-bosses have big yellowish pustules that you should obviously know what to do with them. The "almost" part in this case are the Swarmers, which die in one hit no matter where you hit them, and Dividers, which do not have a weak point. New enemies in ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'' still follow this trend. Some of them are untransformed humans, and they too have a weak spot: [[BoomHeadshot the head]], obviously.
* Justified in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles''.
** The AppliedPhlebotinum powered tanks generate huge amounts of waste heat, and need radiators to avert a catastrophic heat explosion. Aim for the radiators, and anti-tank Lances will likely take them down in a single blow -- two if it's a heavy tank. Even otherwise useless anti-infantry firearms will deal ScratchDamage to the radiator. Only two tanks in the entire game are capable of hiding their radiators -- one of which only needs to expose them after firing the main cannon, one of which needs constant supporting repairs from nearby allied bases. It's also possible to headshot infantry units for greater damage at the cost of lower accuracy versus hitting center mass. While both of these apply toward both ally and enemy forces, enemies will never intentionally target the head (while they'll constantly attempt to exploit the tank radiator for all it's worth).
** The final battle against the Marmota, a massive land battleship, is mostly hitting a series of different weakpoints in order to get at the ancient {{BFS}} it's outfitted with. First the player shoots at a huge gaping hole in the hull left when [[spoiler: Alicia]] used her Valkyria powers to hurl a Valkyria lance through it, which creates a convenient ramp of scrap metal for infantry units to climb up and disable a pair of hidden radiators powering a shield surrounding the mounted superweapon, allowing it to be attacked directly.
* Taken to its logical extreme in ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter''. Although no boss in the game has a specific weak point, all of them have parts that are weaker or stronger against player attack. Further, depending on the method of attack used, the weak points may be different (some parts are weak against blunt force but resistant to damage from edged weapons, for instance). Each part of their body also takes a varying amount of damage from the different elements. Properly exploiting these weaknesses can easily make the difference between a hunt taking close to the usual time limit of 50 minutes or less than half that.
* ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders: the Second Runner'' does this at the BattleshipRaid. Jehuty has to destroy them, and can go about this in a few ways: find and destroy every destructible piece of paneling and weapon on the ships, use the Vector Cannon to hit their generators, or (related to the last one) line up the Vector Cannon and fire at them to blow them up with just sheer damage. To be fair, the generators are protected by a shield of compressed space, and normal weapons do no damage to them; if you can hit the generators, you've got enough firepower to take down the ship through pure damage anyway.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Onimusha}}'' games, scoring a counter-hit on an enemy during a narrow window of opportunity will have the screen flash bright yellow as your current character (usually) delivers a lunging slash. This will instantly destroy {{Mooks}} and inflict Massive Damage against Boss characters, and in the case of characters equipped with an [[AncestralWeapon Ogre Gauntlet]] result in a much higher Soul payoff than normal.
* Tank crews in the World War II MMOFPS ''Battleground Europe'' (a.k.a. ''VideoGame/WorldWarIIOnline'') have to know the weaknesses of every tank type they might possibly come up against, because the game tries to realistically model armor penetration. Trying to pound away at the front armor of a Panzer MIGHT work, but it's far less dangerous to aim for exhaust vents, the cupola, or anything else with thin armor. If you are driving a vehicle (or pushing an anti-tank gun) with small caliber shells, this might be the only way you will ever damage them at all. Then, of course, your gunner could very well get shot in the neck by an infantryman because you forgot to close the hatch. The same occurs in ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks''.
* In ''VideoGame/WarThunder'' Ground Forces, aiming for specific parts of the tanks is essential. This includes the view slits for the crew, ammo or fuel storage for a quick kill, but also the engine, transmission (getting stuck in reverse) tracks, or the turret to keep the enemy tank from firing or escaping.
* ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'': Dark Maker HumongousMecha have multiple weakspots on their limbs, each of which can take a moderate amount of damage, then becomes invulnerable. If you don't notice the targeting reticules around the hips and knees, you can spend half an hour shooting them in the head.
* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'': "Its only weak point is in the front air intake. You'll have to attack it head on to take down Morgan."
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles: Ring of Fates'': Every boss has a glowing red crystal that does more damage than hitting the rest of the boss.
** These glowing red weak spots are also present in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles: Echoes of Time'' on most bosses.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Advance'' makes fun of the Trope Naming quote in its description of the Gladiator's Finisher command. Then again, they made fun of a lot of things.
* Every ''VideoGame/{{Fraxy}}'' boss has a weakpoint -- it just depends on how big it is and how many there are!
* The Caterpillar in ''VideoGame/AmericanMcGeesAlice'' can only be damaged by attacking a glowy soft spot on its underbelly.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': Ever since the first boss of [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI the first game]] (which was only vulnerable on its horn), its been making use of this. It especially likes the GoForTheEye variant, and [[PuzzleBoss making you figure out how to expose said weak point.]]
** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' has the enemies named "Horsehead" and "Helmethead". Guess where you need to strike? Inverted with Gooma, a boss added to the international releases in place of a second battle with Helmethead, whose weak point is his body and, in contrast to the boss he replaced, whose head is invulnerable.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'':
*** The Moldorm's tail is the only part Link can hit in order to cause it damage. And due to the boss's erratic movement, it's hard to land the sword's slashes properly.
*** Helmasaur King, the Boss of the Dark Palace. Link has to aim for the green crystal on its forehead, which it protects with a mask.
*** Trinexx, the Boss of Turtle Rock. In the second phase of the battle, Link has to attack its glowing midsection.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': Many bosses have each a specifc weak point: Gohma has her eye, King Dodongo has its mouth when it's open (in preparation of a wide fire breath), Barinade has its soft skin under its jellyfish armor, Morpha has its nucleus, Bongo Bongo has its eye (which is exposed once you attack both of its other weak points), and Ganon has his bright blue tail.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': The only weak points in Twinmold are the heads and tails (the boss is a duo of large centipedes). The catch is that, due to their massive size, Link has to either grow in size with the Giant's Mask to hit the points easily, or have a very good aiming with his arrows.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': Played with when fighting Gohma. It has a ''massive'' fluorescent green and magenta eye, but if you throw your grappling hook at it the beast just [[FakeWeakness casually closes his eye and deflects it]]. You actually have to aim for Valoo's unassuming and nondescript tail to drop the ceiling on it a few times to break its shell. Once the shell is gone, ''then'' you can target the eye with your grappling hook to stun Gohma. If you don't figure this out for yourself (the game gives only vague {{Foreshadowing}}), eventually The King of Red Lions will tell you to look around the room for something else to target.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': The eyes of Diababa, Morpheel and Armogohma, the jewel on Fyrus's head, the Twilight Sword in Stallord's head, and the open point in Argorok's armor (on its back); the third battle with Zant has his shoes, and Beast Ganon has his underbelly during the second phase.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'': There's a particularly fun (if easy) variant involving whacking a seesaw with the hammer in order to reach the giant golem Eox's weak point.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'': Various bosses and enemies use this, often with the added twist of only being vulnerable from a certain angle, requiring the player to time and angle their attack ''just'' right in order to actually hit it.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' uses this trope the least of any game in the series, though it is still present. The individual dungeon bosses, Guardians and Hinox all have weak points that can be exploited (as do the Lynels, [[BossInMookClothing though they aren't technically boss enemies themselves]]), but the open-ended nature of the combat means they will still take damage and can be fought without utilizing the weak spots if the player goes in with the right equipment. Only the [[RockMonster Talus]] minibosses and the final boss require hitting weak points to deal damage at all.
** ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'': Enemy officers have attacks that will leave them vulnerable, indicated by a Weak Point Gauge over their heads. Attack them while the gauge is up to deplete it, and when it's empty the player character will perform a unique attack for a lot of damage.
* The Factory boss in ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' is only vulnerable at its "core," which it protects with a metal grate. Luckily, its legs aren't so well-protected, and if you UseYourHead, figuring out how to knock him over isn't so tough.
* The third boss in ''VideoGame/SphinxAndTheCursedMummy'' has a rather obvious "heart lid" on its chest to attack, but it keeps it closed most of the time. (And anyway, it's out of the reach of your sword anyway.) However, you are capable of ''throwing'' things that high... and indeed, you have to throw rocks at him to make him expose his weak point. Harder than it sounds--he's ''reeeeaally'' fast, and you when burdened by a rock? Not so much.
* Numerous bosses in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' are only truly vulnerable at one point on their body. The most notable is probably TheButcher -- the only part of his ''massive'' body that's vulnerable is his head, and even then, it's too high to reach normally ''or'' hit with ranged attacks. In round one, you can climb up his arms when he does [[TacticalSuicideBoss a certain attack]], but in round two, you have to throw telekinetic projectiles at him when he does the same attack. And he's ''much'' faster now.
* ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'': The Lady Luctopus' weak point is her heart... which is located in her head. Octopuses' hearts are located in their mantles, which makes sense.
* The ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' games have this all over the place.
** All mechs (including your own) have much weaker armor in the rear than they do in front; this doesn't really matter much when you're in an assault mech picking off light ones, since they die like flies either way. However, when ''you'' are in a small/medium mech, or a big one that's taken a lot of damage, and the radar cheerfully bleeps and tells you an enemy 100-ton behemoth is heading your way, the rear weak spot suddenly becomes a lot more important, because targeting it is the only way (barring sheer luck with critical strikes or a particularly incompetent enemy) to survive the encounter. Since they usually always face you, the leg are also always weak points on a mech, destroying them also permit to salvage the mech, very useful to capture the heavy armed 100-ton battlemech. Putting together enough precision weapons like lasers, autocannons, Gauss guns, or missiles with targeting computers to quickly destroy their leg is a damn good tactic.
** The "weaker rear armor" bit is taken straight from the [[TabletopGame/BattleTech board game]]; the torso locations can each only have so much armor altogether and attacks coming in through will strike the front, so that's the side that gets the lion's share of the armor and the rear is left comparatively vulnerable to a determined attacker who can get there. Beyond that, actual aimed shots tend to be fairly rare because even with an advanced targeting computer success at hitting the chosen spot isn't guaranteed ''and'' the overall chance to hit in the first place goes down, and without try are limited to immobile targets and/or the occasional melee attack.
** The weakest part of any 'Mech is the head (aka the cockpit), which has such low armor that one good hit will probably destroy it instantly. The issue here is that the head is ''really'' small and damned near impossible to deliberately hit on a moving 'Mech, so headshots tend to be the result of pure luck or an ''extremely'' stupid pilot sitting completely still and giving you the chance to line up such a shot. Striking the cockpit is also an excellent way to get relatively-intact mechs for salvage, as any hit there that gets through is liable to reduce the pilot to little more than LudicrousGibs given the firepower of most battlemech weaponry. Even if they survive (either by luck, or due to a weak weapon like an [[MoreDakka MG Array]]) they might panic and eject; and if they don't, injuries will still reduce pilot performance/mech effectiveness.
* Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog's arch-nemesis Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is arguably the patron saint of using this trope, as most of his MiniMecha creations have an obvious weak spot on them (usually the cockpit) for Sonic to exploit. As for specific Eggman or non-Eggman examples across the series:
** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'':
*** All forms of Chaos (except 6 which requires that you get him into a specific state... of matter) require that you attack his brain. This is fairly easy the first two times with Chaos 0, and then he starts jumping around on lampposts and punching at you, and you have to wait until he comes down, at which point he's easy again. 2 makes you wait until he misses a punch and freezes in place a couple of seconds, while 4 has to surface and float in place before you can attack him there. Perfect makes you have a minimum speed so that when you get to him, you spiral up the inside and hit his brain. If you're not going fast enough, you're just ejected and have to find him again. Actually, you could almost make a case for 6's weak spot being Froggy, at least in Big's version: once Big lands him, he wins.
*** The Egg vehicles have the cockpit as the weak point. The Hornet stays at bay and shoots small missiles at you, then tries to drill you into the ground. If he misses, there's your chance. The Walker makes you play Simon Says (sort of) with its ankle joints; one, two, or three of the feet stomp, sending out a shockwave which you want to avoid, but also making that joint vulnerable to brief malfunction if you jump near it. If all the glowing joints malfunction, that brings the cockpit down for semi-easy pickings. (You can hit its underside this time.) The Viper, the first three times, from time to time shows its belly, trying to lure Sonic in with a path to the cockpit while it's charging its (other) laser, which it will fire if you don't hit the cockpit in time. Then you have to wait until it yo-yos spinning spiked discs at you so you can jump on one and use it to reach Eggman.
*** Zero, whom Amy is fleeing throughout her stages, is only vulnerable once Amy knocks him into the electric fencing surrounding the boss stage. This causes him to flip his top, exposing a button which you then attack.
** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'':
*** Boss GUN vehicles, much like Egg vehicles, are only vulnerable in the cockpit. How easy they are to get to varies.
*** The Biolizard has a tank on its back which you have to attack. To reach it, however, you have to wait until it's tired from chomping at you and shooting balls of dark energy at you. Then you can grind up the rail that begins at its mouth, and then you can attack.
*** The Finalhazard. "Aim for the red swelling area to damage him!"
** ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' has a notable Egg boss where it's weak point ''ISN'T'' the cockpit (it has none) -- the Egg Emperor. It's weak point is the glowing orb in the middle of it's body with the slightly-hard-to-see-during-gameplay picture of Eggman on it. However, it's smart enough to protect itself with a giant shield. You have to either destroy the shield with a Power character, or temporarily paralyze the shield-arm with Thunder Shoot in order to do any damage.
** Eggman's love for this trope ends up getting [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in a FourthWallMailSlot event on the franchise's official Twitter account. According to him, [[https://mobile.twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/926570920382046208/video/1 it's a backup plan for if a robot ever goes rogue on him.]]
* Bosses in the ''VideoGame/{{Parodius}}'' series almost always have a weak point, which the game helpfully points out to you. One boss in ''Sexy Parodius'' is a huge {{tanuki}}, complete with arrows telling you [[GroinAttack what his weak point]] ''[[GroinAttack isn't]]''.
* Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando'' regarding spider droids:
-->'''CT-01/425:''' Its durasteel plating is rated for starship hulls and is nearly invulnerable to small arms fire. Only its optical cluster, the red orb on its abdomen, is unshielded and vulnerable.\\
'''Scorch:''' In other words, shoot the big red spot.
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsSquadrons'', destroying a capital ship's Power System creates ruptures on the ship's hull. Attacking these ruptures inflicts massive damage on the cap ship.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** The game features a quest in which you must defeat undead that are unkillable unless you destroy the crystals that keep them moving. These crystals become vulnerable only when the undead in question has taken enough damage that it would otherwise be defeated. (If you ''don't'' destroy the crystal then the undead, merely stunned instead of defeated, snaps out of it and resumes attacking even though it has 0 health. This resulted in some hilarious griefing potential early in the game's run where the designers forgot to put a "leash" on the crystal-bound undead like most enemies have, forcing them to return to their normal area when lured too far away. Since they didn't have this, some players would pull the invincible undead all the way to a town or a major city, where they would slowly but inexorably murder any opponent, no matter how statistically outclassed they should have been. And the only way to stop it would either be a server reset or luring the undead all the way back to their crystal.
** Raigonn, the final boss of the Gate of the Setting Sun dungeon, is a slightly more traditional example, where players need to attack and destroy its weak spot -- specifically named that, no less! -- in order to break its armour before they can kill it.
** The Ulduar boss XT-002 Deconstructinator both plays the trope straight and subverts it. After damaging the boss enough, its mechanical heart will be exposed. The heart takes double damage and any damage done to the heart is mirrored to the boss. However, the heart has its own life meter, and if killed, it will actually make the boss STRONGER, causing him to heal, gain a damage boost, and gain new attacks. Ergo, unless the players were attempting to trigger this purposely (it was the Boss' hard mode trigger), it was best to only attack the weak point for a short amount of time.[[note]]Fortunately, the heart healed itself to full after every exposed/returned/exposed cycle.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/FreeSpace''
** ''VideoGame/FreeSpace2'' features alien communication nodes with a giant crystal in the center. Blowing up the crystal causes the thing to self destruct in a massive explosion. Somewhat subverted in that these devices are far behind enemy lines, and were not expected to be attacked.
** In the original, the ''Lucifer'' had a reactor be destroyed, which would then blow up the ship. Like with the above example however, these reactors were never expected to be vulnerable -- they powered off the massive energy shielding that normally renders the ''Lucifer'' completely impervious.
* ''VideoGame/LostKingdoms II'':
** [[spoiler:The God of Harmony]]. It's hard to defeat unless you know what cards can cripple and/or kill it outright:
** Your first fight can be ended with Wraith (which can be missed since the Ghoul card can be missed if you progress too much), Sandworm's Sandstorm or the Lizardman combo since it doesn't flinch from an attack, just like a Petrified target.
** The second fight [[spoiler:which is the final boss]] can end with Vampire's Death Spell or a properly placed Catapult.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'':
** Cackletta is the final boss, in smokey ghostly spirit form. You have to take down her hands and her head for her to expose her heart, which is her weak point.
** Against Queen Bean, you have to attack her arms to deflate them (She's HUGELY muscular) and to make her lose her crown on her head, cause you know, spikes hurt when jumping on it.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'': Even more drawn out in the final battle, the second in the series. You have to attack her tentacle legs, which enables you to attack the crown which enables you to attack the boss herself. And the crown regenerates after a while, rendering any attack to her useless. And if that wasn't enough, the legs also regenerate, sometimes forcing you to do the whole thing again.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'': The final boss. You begin the fight as Bowser. After you've dealt a certain amount of damage the boss fully heals and grows big. Then you must punch his stomach to make him spit out [[spoiler: the Dark Star core]]. Then you must suck it into Bowser's stomach where Mario and Luigi take over. Now you have to fight [[spoiler: an EldritchAbomination version of Fawful]]. His weak points are his legs and glasses, if you don't destroy the glasses first he will retract some of his legs while you are attacking. After killing his legs he will fall to the ground, revealing [[spoiler: the Dark Star core]], the boss' REAL weak point. You have approximately two turns to damage it before it escapes, and you have to REPEAT THE ENTIRE PROCESS untill he FINALLY dies. Phew.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'': The final battle is against a 12 foot tall monster with the full power of the Dreamstone. Its weak point is the crystal shard in its forehead, which it'll guard with its [[CognizantLimbs right arm]] if it's not taken out first.
* Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsGame'', where a cutscene shows an [[spoiler:alien saucer]] attacking the Simpsons house. It starts moving around, firing then stops, prompting Bart:
-->'''Bart:''' Guys, look! The hatch opens after every four laser bursts! That's the weak spot when we need to fire!\\
[[spoiler:'''Kang:''']] Hey [[spoiler:Kodos]], that ugly kid's right. Why are we exposing our weak spot every four laser bursts?\\
[[spoiler:'''Kodos:''']] You're right! Why do we even need to expose our weak spot at all!?\\
[[spoiler:'''Kang:''']] Thanks for the heads-up, Earth dumbass!
* The basis of ''Blood of Bahamut''. The giant monsters that are the game's entire basis can only be damaged at their Cores (if you hit anywhere else, damage is along single-digit lines). Indeed, some missions are entirely to remove armor over a Gargantuan's core before you can actually fight it.
* ''VideoGame/ArmyOfTwo'' has heavily armored enemies that can only be hurt from behind. The general strategy is to use the game's aggro mechanic to get them to focus on one while the other sneaks around behind them.
* All bosses in ''VideoGame/LegendOfKay'' have a glowing red amulet that must be hit. The in-game justification is that those amulets enable the bad guys to enslave dangerous animals and force them to do their bidding.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' has, alongside the usual 'shoot them in the head' approach (which even works on the geth for unclear reasons), several other examples;
** The final boss in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' is [[spoiler:a giant terminator with a multitude of orange 'Shoot me here!' lights in place of its eyes and a big hummer on its chest. They're not the ''only'' place that will take damage, but they do take damage at a higher rate than elsewhere. In case that wasn't obvious enough, they're actually labelled as "Weak Point" on your HUD]].
** The [[spoiler:Reaper]] on Rannoch is so heavily armored that it's only weak spot is the lense of it's giant laser beam, which it keeps covered until right before it fires. Since it completely jams normal targeting sensors, you have to line up a handheld targeting laser to aim for [[spoiler:the entire [[SpaceNomads Quarian fleet]] that sits in orbit]].
** Brutes take more damage than usual against lightly armoured areas such as their backsides, and Husks in ''2'' die the second their legs are destroyed.
** The [[MiniMecha Atlas mechs]] and [[GiantMook Scions]] both have weakpoints. For the Atlas, the shoulders, knees, and crotch all have plating that can be shot off to stagger it and interrupt an attack in progress, as well as the giant vent on the back (although this is harder to get a bead on). Shooting the lumps on a Scion's back can have the same stagger effect on top of dealing a pretty decent chunk of damage to the Scion. On higher levels in multiplayer, knowing this is essential.
** Surprisingly enough, a [[McNinja Phantom's]] sword is the weakpoint. Hitting it with a surprisingly small number of rounds will [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands shatter the weapon]], forcing them to back off and use their hand blaster and depriving them of their one-hit-kill weapon. Good luck hitting it, though.
* In ''VideoGame/AliensVsPredator2010'', to have a real chance of beating combat synths as the marine, you need to hit them in their weakpoint -- their legs. No, really. Knocking off their head just blinds them and makes it harder for them to hit you, their torso can take absurd amounts of punishment, and although their arms would theoretically work too, they're too hard to hit in practice as they're holding guns. Aim for the legs.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series:
** Almost every enemy in the first game, ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'' has some body part that will take bonus damage when hit. Soft parts like head and eyes are common targets, as are underbellies.
** ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'': Multiple:
*** features Loaders, a robotic enemy class with an uncommon yet logical weak point--their joints. [[TruthInTelevision Just as in real life]], mechanical and electronic joints are more complex and often more delicate than the limb or body structures that they join and are more easily damaged by, say, a shotgun blast. More advanced Loaders, such as SGT's, armour their joints and are vulnerable only to eye shots.
*** Assassin [=Zer0=] has a ranged combat style entirely defined by these. The [=B0re=] upgrade, among other things, highlights weak points, and most of the Sniper tree buffs critical hit damage in one way or another. This can get particularly nasty with a Jakobs sniper rifle, which has a much higher damage multiplier against weak points than any other brand of gun.
*** Actual ''invulnerability'' when not hit in a critical spot is pretty rare, however -- the final boss of the "Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt" DLC exhibits it, and Crystalisk enemies are ''almost'' invincible when not hit on their giant shiny crystals (explosive rounds can damage their bodies, but unless you've already done a lot with critical hits it's going to take a very long time), but that's about it.
* [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony's]] review of ''VideoGame/{{Microcosm}}'' describes the boss's weak points as "huge fuck-me lights".
* In another {{Mook}} example, the Drones in ''VideoGame/TheConduit'' have huge red glowing orbs on their chest... but these are part of their armor and don't take more damage than anywhere else. Their weakpoint is, sensibly enough, their head -- although they can still take more punishment there than a human.
* Enemies in ''VideoGame/ResonanceOfFate'' tend to have CognizantLimbs that absorb damage from a certain angle. Strong enemies and bosses can have heavily-armored parts covering most angles, but one or two lightly-armored angles that leave the main body open to attack. And if you jump, your bullets hit random body parts. Shoot enough times with a submachine gun, and you will eventually almost completely fill up with scratch damage. Then, all you have to do is jump and attack with a direct damage weapon. No need to worry about pesky body parts after all.
* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheKasai'' has a few bosses like this. Three take the form of dragons that fly around the platform and will breathe fire at you that will instantly kill you if it hits. They're far out of reach for most of the fight and can only be sniped by arrows right before breathing fire, and then will only take damage if the arrow hits a weak point on their chest. The final boss can be stunned, but not killed, by attacking it over and over again, however, its SoulJar is floating right above it. Once again, arrow to that equals dead boss.
* In all of the ''VideoGame/SilentScope'' games, the boss's weak point is always the head. Certain vehicles also have weak points, like the rotor for a helicopter and the tires of a car. This is later subverted for laughs in the third game ''Sogeki'', where the boss of Stage 3 has two. The first is obvious, his head. The second is not so obvious, his teddy bear. Shoot the teddy bear and he goes down. Though this is actually harder than it sounds, you have less than a second to shoot it when the chance presents itself.
* From the ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series:
** In ''Wing Commander III'' and ''Wing Commander IV'', shots aimed at the bridge or engines of a capship do an additional 50% damage, once the shields are penetrated.
** While the Kilrathi dreadnought in ''Wing Commander III'' isn't totally invulnerable, it's ''much'' more vulnerable when shooting at it inside the hangar, where there the fast-recharging shields don't protect, even compared to the extra damage given to targeting a capship's engines or bridge.
** In ''Wing Commander IV'', the only way to kill the ''Vesuvius'' is to drop the [[KillItWithFire Flashpak]] in the hangar, where they don't use the quite effective armor found on the outer hull.
** Played realistically in ''Prophecy'' with killing capital ships. The majority of the ship is too heavily armored and shielded for fighters to destroy them with massed fire. Instead, you have to take down their shield generators and hit the critical subsystems: Bridge and Engines. Even with those destroyed, the ship doesn't explode as in most games... it's left dead in space, with occasional secondary explosions across the hull.
* ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}'' has the usual weak spots -- groin shots and headshots -- but some fully mutated enemies have several glowing sacs of stuff on their body. Shoot any of the sacs and the whole body will go up in a blast of orange bodily liquids. Also, the [[spoiler:plant boss]] has several weak spots to hit before it recharges its hitpoints.
* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin 2}}'' has the Segmented Crawbster boss, which has to be tricked into rolling into a wall to reveal the weak spot on its belly. A non-boss example would be Anode Beetles from the same game, which can be flipped over simply by throwing a pikmin directly onto its back.
* ''VideoGame/{{Pico}}'s School'': The only way to do damage to Casandra's monster form in the final battle is by [[GroinAttack targeting the dangling genitalia]] between her (or is that his?) legs.
%%* ''VideoGame/WarioMasterOfDisguise'': {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by [[ExpositionFairy Goodstyle]].
* ''VideoGame/HeavyWeapon'' has a few bosses like this. The [[BattleshipRaid Battleship]] is weak in the control tower, [[GiantEyeOfDoom Eyebot]] was [[GoForTheEye vulnerable in the eye]] when it is open, and the SegmentedSerpent [[SandWorm Mechworm]] was weak in the head.
* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'': The Shadyas are a type of smoke-like enemies with large, curved blades. The only way to kill them is to attack the large, red, glowing orb in their chests.
* ''VideoGame/BattleTanx'' has the Rhino Tank, which is described as "A trainload of armor on front." You have to either use grenades or hit the tank from behind.
* ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsGundam 2'' treats Mobile Armors like this: you have to strike them when and where they are vulnerable to do any damage at all. Thankfully the third game does away with this: in that Mobile Armors can be harmed at any time, but you do a lot more damage if you strike the weak points.
* ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe'': Capital ships have destroyable subsystems. Take out the powerplant, it can't move. Destroy the weapons generator, it can't shoot. Blow up the shield generator, and its DeflectorShields won't regenerate. There are occasions where time constraints make this mode of attack inadvisable, but they're rare.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games have this all the time.
** Oftentimes, the boss has a giant target painted on them, like the bandage on the Whomp King in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', the target on Topmaniac's head in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', or the glowing/coloured lights/symbols on Megahammer in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2''. In the Gobblegut fight in ''Galaxy 2'', Bowser Jr warns Gobblegut to protect his "bellyache bulges". Just in case the player hadn't seen them...
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland'':
*** Naval Piranha's only weak spot is a bandaged lump on its stem (presumably the "navel", although it looks more like an adam's apple).
*** Eggs thrown at Sluggy the Unshaven just deform its outer shell without hurting it, but once its clearly-visible heart is exposed, it can be destroyed with a single strike. In both cases, [[TheDragon Kamek]] draws your attention to this, in the first case by, bizarrely, calling Yoshi a "cutie without a navel", and in the second case by announcing "[[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial This slug has no weak points!]]"
*** Hookbill the Koopa is defeated by knocking him down then ground pounding his stomach.
** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'': The Earth Vellumental -- a giant tortoise -- can only be harmed by striking its exposed extremities, but is particularly vulnerable to blows against its weak, tender tail.
* For the final fight against Omega Supreme in ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'', you first have to attack his exposed turrets, which are explicitly stated to be outside of his shields. Destroy enough of them and his shields go down and his chest becomes the vulnerable spot.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Scaler}}'', the [[GiantEnemyCrab Rattlecrab]] (an [[UnexpectedShmupLevel Unexpected Shmup Boss]]) has four blue weak spots that glow red when it's going to attack. The first two are on its pincers, the third one is on its tail, and the fourth one is its mouth.
* Humanoid enemies in ''Videogame/AloneInTheDark2008'' can only be killed by [[KillItWithFire igniting]] the fissures on their bodies.
* In ''VideoGame/DukeNukem'', Atomic Edition, the Pig Cop riot tanks can take quite a lot of punishment and have an assortment of long and short-range weaponry. However, if you're quick enough to get behind them to [[SelfDestructMechanism press the nuclear trefold]] on the back, they self-destruct, leaving you with only the annoyed driver to deal with.
* The Brawlamari and Queen Buzzerfly in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' both have extremely conspicuous glowing orbs on their bodies that serve as the only points that can be struck to cause damage. It takes a little effort in order to get close enough to hit them, though.
* The naval portion of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' introduces ship-to-ship battles. Your ship, the ''Aquila'', can fire broadsides or use its smaller swivel cannons for precision targeting. The swivel cannons are usually only good against gunboats and are almost completely useless against bigger ships. However, if you damage a frigate enough with broadsides, this has a chance of exposing its powder magazine, which can be targeted with your swivel cannons for OneHitKill.
* In ''VideoGame/AfterTheWar'', the Worm bosses can only be damaged by hitting the head. First you have to stun them, then use your sword to remove the shell and finally kill it by shooting at the thing.
* The Nevi from ''VideoGame/GravityRush'' have large glowing cores that shatter when hit with a well-placed Gravity Kick. In the case of many of the larger Nevi, this is the only way to damage them.
* The final boss's first form in ''VideoGame/DynamiteDux'' is composed of several spheres; its weak point is the ball [[BigBad Achacha]] is riding.
* Hellbugs in the TV tie-in game [[{{VideoGame/Defiance}} Defiance]] are in general heavily armored, but the different versions all have some weak spot. The smallest skitterlings die pretty easily, but the Warrior, the next size up has only the inside of its mouth and it only opens that when it's about to attack. Matriarchs have three; the mouth, their chest when they rear up to do a smash attack, and once they've done a roll-charge attack and are recovering, vanes open and temporarily expose a weak spot at the rear. The sound your gun makes when you're hitting one of these changes from the usual pings of ricocheting bullets to a sawtoothed grinding noise to let you know you've got the right place.
* All of the different types of Darkers in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'' have a conspicuous red core located somewhere on their bodies that serves as a weak point.
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfGraces'' striking an enemy with a move it's weak against provides you with a temporary damage bonus that fades with time or once your combo ends. It's possible to exploit multiple weaknesses on the same enemy to increase strength and duration of the bonus.
** This system returns in ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'', where it's even more crucial to combat, as bosses are unable to perform a ComboBreaker as long as the bonus is active (Something they'll do with annoyingly great frequency otherwise).
* The UsefulNotes/FMTowns ShootEmUp ''Rayxanber'' helpfully describes the boss's weak point at the start of each stage.
* Possibly some of the hardest enemies to defeat solo, [[BlackKnight Trojans]] from VideoGame/SpiralKnights have a massive crystal in their back. They also have a shield, which unlike the player's shield can't be broken. Said shield is always up. Also, they hit like trucks.
* In ''VideoGame/SkySerpents'', the titular serpents have weak spots [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience helpfully colored purple]]. Sometimes they're inaccessible due to cover by scales, which like everything else but those purple spots are invulnerable to attack.
* In ''VideoGame/RedOrchestra'', especially with the AT handguns, aiming for the ammo storage and the engine or fuel tanks is essential. Chances of penetrating front armor, even from short range is very low. In the sequel, it is possible to knock out the crew, so aiming for the armored glass also works.
* In ''VideoGame/CopyKitty'', attacking Yolomacho's head deals more damage as opposed to hitting its body. This is important to know because in hard mode, you'll be hard pressed to hit its back if you don't know its weak point.
* [[spoiler:Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi]] from ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma'' has two weak points to hammer on, but neither are consistently vulnerable, and exposing one means hammering on the other. [[spoiler:First is the tongue, which serves as the main weapon; during one Distortion Drive, it will stick the cannon out and prepare to fire; attacking Take-Mikazuchi's head during this time causes damage to the tongue, and when enough damage has been issued, the Distortion will abort and cause it to fall over. Second is the core, exposed in precisely the aforementioned fashion; when the core falls into arm's reach is when the player dumps everything they've got into it, as it is much more sensitive to pain than anywhere else on its body.]]
* Battleships in the ''VideoGame/SDGundamGGeneration'' series take up multiple squares on the map (for example, 3x4 or 4x5) and can be attacked anywhere in that area. Attacking a flashing square that corresponds to the bridge or some other vital system causes a "Pinpoint Attack" that does twice as much damage as usual.
* ''Videogame/{{Warframe}}'' has a few examples:
** Banshee's "Sonar" ability creates critical weak points on enemies, which have a 5x damage multiplier[[note]]By default; upgrades can make it as high as 14.2x or as low as 2x[[/note]] when hit. The power also doubles as an EnemyDetectingRadar.
** Certain bosses have invincible armor except for certain weak spots, such as Sargas Ruk's glowing blue heat sinks (to his credit, he tries to keep them shut) and Vay Hek's big, ugly, [[LargeHam hammy]] face.
* In the game ''VideoGame/TheCatInTheHat'', boss fights with Mr. Quinn require you to attack his weak point -- in this case, the exhaust pipe of his massive crab-vehicle.
* Lampshaded by the final boss of ''VideoGame/SunsetOverdrive'', who complains about the presence of his own big, blinking weak spot with "Everybody knows the only reason you have a power core is so someone can ''destroy'' the power core!"
* ''VideoGame/NosferatuTheWrathOfMalachi'': The only way to hurt [[spoiler:Malachi]] is to shoot him in the glowing golden orb in his ribcage.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheEmpireStrikesBackAtari2600'': While the Imperial Walkers normally require forty-eight hits (thirty in the Intellivision) to take down, a flashing spot will occasionally appear on the Walker, which if the player strikes it will take down the Walker with one shot.
* The fight system in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' is turn-based, with a stop-the-needle QuickTimeEvent to attack opponents, but the fight against [[HumanoidRobot Mettaton EX]] is a {{Shmup}} in which you have to fire on the projectiles coming at you; during select rounds, you can also shoot Mettaton's "heart shaped core", which the CHECK command explicitly says is his weak spot. But all shooting it does is make his arms and then his legs fall off, reducing the maximum rating you have to reach to end the battle [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext because reasons]]. If your goal is to kill him, you can still attack during your turn, and he's just as susceptible to physical attacks as any other boss because [[spoiler:his ghost soul fused with his not-actually-invulnerable body when he unveiled his human form]].
* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', a shot to the Fusion Core of a Sentry Bot or PoweredArmor-wearing enemy will cause it to [[GoingCritical go critical and explode]], also taking out adjacent enemies.
** And in the older games, the best way to take out a [[LightningBruiser Deathclaw]] was to aim [[EyeScream for the eyes]]. [[ImprobableAimingSkills Hell of a shot to make]] against a charging 12-foot-tall reptilian mutant that is ShroudedInMyth and described invariably by the handful of lucky people to have met one and lived as a walking tank.
* Hit Creature Brains to destroy minor enemies in ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'', and attack the core of bosses to defeat them.
** And remember to shoot the Brightly Coloured Weak Spots on the [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Metal Gear REX]] to defeat it.
* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher2AssassinsOfKings'': The Kayran conveniently has glowing "tumors" to indicate where you should start hackin' with your silver.
* Each character in ''VideoGame/OhSirTheInsultSimulator'' has a weak point in the form of an insult topic that when attacked with the right insult will deal much heavier than normal damage. For example, Sir Arthur Knight is vulnerable to insults involving modern culture and technology ("[Your mother] '''[still uses Windows Vista]''' [and] [you] '''[never watched Star Wars]'''!"), while Nigel Hogg is vulnerable to insults about weight and appearance ("[Your sister] '''[looks like]''' [a grunting sow] [and] '''[can't exercise because of]''' [your pimply arse], [and everyone knows it]!")
** This also applies to characters in the sequel ''Oh... Sir!! The Hollywood Roast''. Jane Blunt is vulnerable to insults about Britain and the monarchy ("'''[The royal family]''' [had an embarrassing cameo in] [your last movie] [and] [your favorite director] '''[ruins the British accent]'''!"), while Wisecrack is vulnerable to insults about his originality, or lack thereof ("[Your therapist] '''[is a worse version of]''' [your mother] [and] [reminds me of] '''[a desperate cash grab]'''!")
* ''VideoGame/ShantaeHalfGenieHero'': The start of most {{Boss Battle}}s. "Stop that Tinkerslug!"
* The monsters of ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}}'' each have a weak point that takes double damage from precision weapons. For most of them it's [[BoomHeadshot the head]], but for the Behemoth it's its soft underbelly.
* In the early games in the ''VideoGame/HiryuNoKen'' series (''Flying Dragon'', ''Flying Warriors'', etc.), this makes up the bulk of the one-on-one fight scenes. Flashing red marks will appear on your fighter and your opponent. You have to inflict damage by attacking the red marks, while defending when the marks appear on your fighter's body. Occasionally, blue marks will appear when their is an opportunity for a CriticalHit, and star marks indicate an opportunity for a OneHitKO. When ''no'' hit markers appear, it's usually a sign that your opponent is about to use a [[LimitBreak super-strong attack]].
* Almost every enemy in the [[WebGame flash game series]] ''VideoGame/{{Stormwinds}}'' has a weak spot. If you see anything on the enemy vehicles that resembles parachutes, flotation devices (balloons) or exposed SteamPunk machinery, attacking them in those spots will make them ''hurt'', often causing extra damage. Usually, around halfway through the first level of each game, a {{Heavily Armored|Mook}} GiantMook hanging from a ''very obvious'' bunch of balloons is introduced, quickly teaching the player that they need to strike said balloons to end it effectively.
* ''VideoGame/StarshipTitanic'': Prod the Maitre d'Bot in the "Achilles' Buttock" to defeat him.
* Every boss in ''VideoGame/{{Sundered}}'' has three Elder Shard fragments sticking out of its body, and attacking these fragments is the only way to harm them.
* In ''VideoGame/TheDivision'', certain enemy types have specific "weak points" that can be shot at in order to deal massive damage to that enemy. Grenadiers, for example, have grenade satchels; shoot them enough, and they'll explode. This instantly kills the grenadier and can deal significant damage to other nearby enemies or cause secondary effects (e.g. Cleaner grenadiers go up in an incendiary blast that sets fire to other nearby enemies).
* This is how you defeat your enemies in ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn''. Your various arrows and tools will mostly just plink off the massive machines populating the world, but shooting the assorted weak points in their chassis will do much more damage. Depending on what you hit, you can also rupture an especially volatile component on the machine which could set it on fire, freeze it, overload it with electricity, or trigger an explosion. This trope applies to human enemies to a lesser degree; [[AnnoyingArrows arrows by and large don't do much damage]] unless they hit them in the head.
* In ''VideoGame/AkaneTheKunoichi'', some of the bosses have to be hit in the face. One of them shields his face when not attacking, so you have to time it right.
* In ''VideoGame/TouchTheDead'', each boss has a weak point you need to shoot at in order to deal damage.
* Two of the bosses in ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' required you to attack their weakpoints in order to defeat them. The Tower Knight forced you to run around his titanic greatshield to hit his heels until stumbled and fell over, exposing his vulnerable head to your attacks, while the Adjudicator's blubbery body was almost impervious to your attacks except for a gaping wound in its belly with a snapped blade protruding from it (apparently one of its own cleavers), which when struck would cause the boss to slump forward, letting you reach the golden bird sitting on its head that controlled it.
* The ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' trilogy also featured a number of bosses utilizing these mechanics:
** In ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI,'' the [[ThatOneBoss much-reviled]] Bed of Chaos was a PuzzleBoss which could only be defeated by striking the two orbs on either side of it, then making your way through its body to reach its heart... where you found a single Chaos Bug that would perish in one blow. Several other bosses in the game have vulnerable points where hitting them can cut off their body parts (such as the tails of dragons or the Bell Gargoyles) but attacking these are optional, although doing so will not only give you a special weapon but prevent them from using their tail lash attacks.
** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' features the Demon of Song, whose froglike body is completely invulnerable to your attacks until it opens up the skin covering its front to reveal its skull-like face and long arms, with which it attempts to grab and eat you. The Duke's Dear Freja can only be damaged by attacking either of the two heads at either end of its gigantic spider body. Finally, while you can hit Sinh the Slumbering Dragon anywhere to damage it, hitting it anywhere other than its head causes its corrosive poison to degrade your weapon extremely quickly, while striking its head also does more damage.
** In ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' the Curse-Rotted Greatwood can only be effectively damaged by attacking the pallid white pustules sprouting from various points of its bulbous body, or the long white arm it sprouts in the later stage of the battle. High Lord Wolnir is also almost completely immune your attacks, but by attacking and shattering the magical bracelets he wears on his arms you can send him careening into the depths of the Abyss. You ''can'' theoretically defeat him with pure damage, but it's not recommended. Finally, as with Sinh from the previous game, [[{{Superboss}} Darkeater Midir]] takes additional damage when struck on the head rather than going for the more accessible limbs.
* ''VideoGame/BonanzaBros'': The riot shield guards can only be shot in the back and side, or slammed with doors.
* ''VideoGame/RazingStorm'': Players can disable the [[HumongousMecha Krakken bosses]] by shooting it's joints. The difficult part is getting past it's defenses and turrets first.
* Every Octarian boss in the ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' series has the ''same'' weak point (save for DJ Octavio) - a giant tentacle. Very few of the bosses will leave this tentacle exposed on their own, so you’ll have to reveal it first, whether by [[TacticalSuicideBoss waiting for an attack that leaves it vulnerable]], [[FeedItABomb Feeding It a Bomb]], or destroying a series of smaller weak points. It’s explained via one Sunken Scroll in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' that these tentacles are cut from a host Octarian (implied to be Octavio himself) and are what give the mechanical bosses some degree of sentience.
** In ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'''s [[MultiMookMelee Salmon Run]] [=PvE=] mode, every single [[MiniBoss Boss Salmonid]], save for the Goldie, has a weak point that's the key to defeating them:
*** Drizzlers normally hide under their impermeable umbrella-like armor, but when they pop out to shoot an Ink Storm-like missile, they're completely vulnerable for several seconds.
*** The Flyfish [[FeedItABomb must have a Splat Bomb tossed into both of its missile pods]] to defeat them.
*** Grillers have a fish tail poking out of their back. If it's shot enough, three more appear. When enough damage is dealt to these weak points, the machine is destroyed.
*** While Maws ''can'' be taken down with normal firepower, it's much faster to [[FeedItABomb toss a Splat Bomb at their warning marker before they lunge up to the surface, so they swallow the bomb]] and not a player.
*** If a Scrapper soaks up enough damage with its frontal shields, it will be immobilized for several seconds, at which point players can head to the back of the machine and kill its exposed driver.
*** The only vulnerable point on a Steel Eel is its driver, and if they are killed, the rest of the contraption will be demolished.
*** Steelheads attack by forming a bomb on their head and throwing it at a player. If enough damage is dealt to the bomb while it's still swelling up, the Steelhead will [[DefeatEqualsExplosion explode]].
*** Stingers sit atop a tower of 7 pots, all of which must be destroyed to defeat them.
* Most enemies in ''VideoGame/BulletGirlsPhantasia'' have an exposed blue crystal core that, when shot, can instantly kill them or cause massive damage.
* ''VideoGame/ChickenPolice:'' To get a good score in the interrogation mini-game, you have to pick questions that match the subjects' emotional weaknesses.
* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': One of the core aspects of the combat system. Hitting an enemy with its weakness to causes it lose shield points in addition to dealing extra damage. When an enemy's shield points hit zero, the shield temporarily breaks and they lose a turn, during which an even greater amount of damage can be dealt. Also played with, because a key strategy the game expects you to pick up on by the third set of chapters is when to attack a weak point in such a way where your team has the longest amount of time to punish the boss while they only sit there and take it...and have time afterwards to buff and heal back up, since after recovering from being broken, bosses will generally get to move multiple times and hit back harder.
* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': The CyberCyclops Ruin Guards and their variants all follow this.
** The vanilla Ruin Guard is vulnerable to being shot in its eye by bow-wielding characters. The only time the eye is not vulnerable to its current target is when it turns around to perform its MacrossMissileMassacre attack... which lets you hit its ''other'' weak point on its back if you react fast enough. Hitting either enough will temporarily take it offline, allowing you to get some free hits in before it boots back up, and hitting it once will allow you to hit its eye again to stun it immediately.
** The flying Ruin Hunters only have the eye to hit, and it's only vulnerable if you can stray far enough away from it to force it into its artillery mode, but unlike the Ruin Guards, it only takes one hit to knock it down.
** [[KingMook Ruin Graders]] also have two weak points: there's its eye, which is vulnerable when it fires its {{Eye Beam|s}}, and its legs, which open up when it charges at you and if hit enough will leave it immobilized, but it will still fire the beam at you if its eye is intact.
* ''VideoGame/SharkShark'': The titular shark is only vulnerable to attack on its tail. So [[PlayerCharacter the yellow fish]] needs to hit it there a few times to beat the shark.
* ''VideoGame/GoingUnder'': When Jacqueline is asking Ray about the boss of Winkydink's weaknesses, and he thinks sh means mental ones:
--> '''Jacqueline:''' Yeah, or like... physical ones.\\
Maybe like, glowing weak spots or something like that.\\
You know what, never mind.
* Some of the bosses in ''VideoGame/JumpjetRex'' have this:
** Seedmour's weak point is on top of his head. To expose it, you need to knock him onto the ground by [[SpinToDeflectStuff using Rex's spin attack to deflect his leaf projectiles onto his propellers]]. It is possible to hurt him without attacking his weak point, but this takes much longer to deal proper damage and won't allow you to get the star for defeating him in under one minute.
** The Big Globowski's weak point is its heart, and is exposed by taking out all three of its heads at once. Unlike Seedmour, it can only be defeated this way.
* In ''VideoGame/DancingMonster'', you have to remove a monster's body parts one by one. Only the part indicated in the top-left corner of the screen can be shot.
* ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'': The [[KingMook giant three-headed ghast]] has a glowing hole on top of its head.
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!!Examples