History Main / DungeonBypass

** [[spoiler:After making a DealWithTheDevil that grants [[AmbiguousGender him/her]] ultimate arcane power, Vaarsuvius teleports directly into Xykon's throne room. Made even more awesome because the entire surrounding area was magically shielded from any attempts to teleport in, and Vaarsuvius powered through anyway.]]

* A popular online meme says that the entire plot of ''Lord of the Rings'' could be averted if the Fellowship would simply do this by having the eagles fly the Ring to Mount Doom and drop it in. The Spoony One once delivered an epic rant explaining in detail why this ''wouldn't'' work.

* In ''ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch'', Azula attempts to cut down on traveling time by burning down a forest.

* In a one-off story about the Rhino, he suffered from a midlife crisis and attempted to try to get smarter (so that heroes like [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]] wouldn't treat him like such a joke). As part of this, he had a scientist perform an experimental procedure on him to increase his intelligence before being made to run through a maze to see if it worked. Being TheJuggernaut, he simply smashed his way through the maze walls until he found the exit, but he then discussed the results with the scientist using metaphoric terminology that were far beyond his previous ability, showing that he had indeed gotten smarter.
* In ''[[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Superman: Ending Battle]]'', Superman gets trapped inside Bunny, a LivingShip, by Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman. Trying to bust out is nearly impossible, because the inside is an ever-shifting dimension. Supes fires his heat vision at the wall and keeps pouring it on. Since metal conducts heat, the heat travels everywhere and the ship overheats and shuts down.

* ''Comicbook/XMen'': In [[Characters/MarvelComicsKittyPryde Kitty Pryde]]'s first [[DeadlyTrainingArea Danger Room]] session as a member of the X-Men, she's so terrified that she simply closes her eyes and becomes {{intangib|ility}}le, and then walks straight across the room to the finish line, passing harmlessly through every obstacle.

* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' doubles down on this with cooperative spellcasting, where the players sit in a circle and add effects to a spell until it fails or becomes too difficult to add further aspects or power. This means that a single character with access to the correspondence sphere (which allows scrying) means that the party can drop the majority of its offensive power on an enemy without showing up themselves to potentially be exposed to danger. Especially dangerous since in the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness the various types of supernatural creatures had no way to resist each others' powers, effectively making this the point where the LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards thing became completely insurmountable in any kind of mixed campaign.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has several game mechanics that allow you to put your forces behind your opponent's lines, such as infiltrating, outflanking, and deep striking. The ''Apocalypse'' and ''Planetstrike'' supplements also provide special strategic assets and stratagems that can also help your forces bypass defensive lines. Also, if you happen to have fast skimmer transports, you can literally just ''fly'' over enemy lines.

* An unintentional but still viable strategy when it comes to dealing with ambushes in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. Pretty sure that the only road through the city is mined and that there's a ''Hunchback'', a Demolisher, and two Hetzers hiding in the side alleys just waiting for you to pass by? Don't even bother with streets--blast your way through the buildings instead. A lance of Battlemechs can carve through buildings, even reinforced ones, at an impressive rate. An ''Awesome'' can level a strip mall in as little as 10 seconds--that is to say, ''one turn''.

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* Several times in ''Roleplay/RubyQuest''. One time they did this (smashing open a wooden door with a crowbar) is on the quotes page.
[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/DungeonNoOsananajimi'': Chapter 5 opens with a description of how Van makes his way through Ryuuka's dungeon on a daily basis: Brute Force. Van's clearly established to be strong enough to take on all the monsters en route, but this sequence also shows him charging straight through the obstacles and traps, such as puzzle doors, in exactly the same way.

---> '''Lister:''' Why don't we scrape away this mortar here. Slide one of these bricks out. Then using rope weaved from strands of this hessien, rig up a kind of pulley system. So then when a guard comes in, stands on a tripwire, gets laid out. Then we put Rimmer in the guards uniform. He leads us out. We steal some swords. And fight our way back to the bug.\\

* In ''WebVideo/VaguelyRecallingJoJo'', Tower of Gray crashes the jet onto the ocean liner where the heroes would have encountered Dark Blue Moon, killing its Stand User and skipping that chapter of the story. Instead, Jotaro's group washes ashore along with the runaway girl who was also supposed to be introduced in that chapter.
* The LetsPlay/{{Yogscast}} often wind up doing this accidentally in their Videogame/{{Minecraft}} videos, since the Yogscast Complete mod pack has so many devices, jet packs, magic spells and explosives that the modders of individual dungeons couldn't predict.
* A popular online meme says that the entire plot of ''Lord of the Rings'' could be averted if the Fellowship would simply do this by having the eagles fly the Ring to Mount Doom and drop it in. The Spoony One once delivered an epic rant explaining in detail why this ''wouldn't'' work.

* One ''WebAnimation/RWBYChibi'' sketch starts with Yang using this method to "solve" a panic room exercise- by punching a hole in the wall. Winter, supervising the lesson, angrily tells Yang that she was supposed to solve the riddles and clues to get out. The end of the sketch has Yang using this method to get into the boys' panic room.

* When the ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' are playing ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDIGames Zelda's Adventure]]'' and are lost because the walkthrough they were using ended prematurely, they get contacted by a {{Speed Run}}ner who gives them instructions on how to beat the next dungeon, including the hilariously counter-intuitive advice on how to beat Pols Voice: "hit it for ''two minutes''". While there is a ring to obtain in the dungeon that makes them die faster, going out of your way to get it is ''actually slower'' than just wailing on the thing for that long.
--> '''Dan:''' ''THIS'' IS SPEED-RUNNING?! Is it possible Maxwell's just fucking with us?

--> '''Diablo''': He'll never get me now! This door is made of titanium! And with my timelock... (''Thing busts through the wall'')

* ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures'': The title character is stuck in a death maze within Quest-World, his dad's enormous virtual reality. He quickly comes across some snakes who turn things they bite into stone, and wastes little time into goading them to transform one of his hands and one of his feet; he uses these to [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief tear down the maze's imposing grey walls for an easy exit.]]

'''Donald:''' ''[Bashes a path through the maze walls while shrieking in {{Angrish}}]''\\
''[Later]''\\

'''Donald:''' ''[Bashes down the doors while shrieking in {{Angrish}}]''

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1315205050022509100
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[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beat_maze_the_easy_way_3020.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:325: Screw it, I want that cheese ''now''.]]

%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.

* Something similar happened in ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes''. The obstacle course consisted of huge metal pistons that the hero was supposed to dodge. Blok just walked through calmly, letting the pistons shatter against his rock-hard skin.
* In a one-off story about the Rhino, he suffered from a midlife crisis and attempted to try to get smarter (so that heroes like [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]] wouldn't treat him like such a joke). As part of this, he had a scientist perform an experimental procedure on him to increase his intelligence before being made to run through a maze to see if it worked. Being TheJuggernaut, he simply smashed his way through the maze walls until he found the exit, but he then discussed the results with the scientist using metaphoric terminology that were far beyond his previous ability, showing that he had indeed gotten smarter.
* In ''[[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch The Search]]'', Azula attempts to cut down on traveling time by burning down a forest.

* One brief gag in a ''Yamara'' fantasy-gaming comic had some non-traditional "adventurers" blow up a dungeon with dynamite, then tally their experience points and break out the shovels.

* When [[GroundhogPeggySue Naegi]] tries to ensure that EverybodyLives in ''FanFic/AndAgain'', one of the biggest roadblocks he runs into by the end is how Monobear only gives them access to the higher levels of Hope's Peak after a murder. The answer? Make their own way up with [[spoiler:the entire arsenal of a SHSL Soldier]].

* In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries''

* ''Fanfic/TheRiseOfDarthVulcan''.

* {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''FanFic/WorldwarWarOfEquals''. During the first meeting to get Switzerland to join the [[UnitedEurope European Coalition]], the Swiss government is confident of their military being able to hold off the aliens by using the Swiss mountains to act as a fortress. The plan is then mocked by the Swedish Prime Minister and EC representatives storm out of the meeting, since mountains are a ''terrible'' defense for ''space-faring aliens'' who can just fly over.

* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/{{Wizards}}'', the two titular mages face off for a final battle. After centuries of fighting we're expecting a long, drawn-out climactic fight. Instead, the good guy mage says "Let me show you a little trick mother taught me when you weren't around. Oh, and I'm glad you changed your last name you *&$^%@!" At which point he pulls out an antique handgun and shoots the bad guy. Real short fight.

--> '''Kuzco''': No! It can't be! How did you get back here before us?
--> '''Yzma''': Ah...uh... how did we, Kronk?
--> '''Kronk''': ''(pulls down a map of the dotted lines [[BreakingTheFourthWall from the previous scene]])'' Well ya got me. By all accounts it doesn't make sense.
* In ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', once Ralph discovers the golden medal at the top of the tower in ''Hero's Duty'', Ralph bypasses all the traps and Cy-Bugs by climbing the wall to the top.

* ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'' has two examples: while Peter, Drax, and Groot had to fight through an army of Sakaran soldiers to reach the bridge, Gamora simply blasts a hole in the ceiling/floor and jumps up to stand beside them. A minute late, Rocket pulls one better by just ramming his ship into the bridge windows.

* ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'':
** Subverted shortly after Sarah enters the labyrinth, she asks directions from a small sentient caterpillar. "Don't go that way. ''Never'' go that way," he tells her, at which she thanks him and heads off in the opposite direction. When she's gone: "If she'd gone that way, she'd'a gone straight to that castle."
** Which turns out to be good advice as Sarah probably wouldn't have succeeded without going through TheHerosJourney learning how to defeat the goblin king and assembling her FiveManBand first.

* In ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', both [[Characters/MarvelComicsKittyPryde Kitty Pryde]] and Characters/{{Juggernaut|MarvelComics}} take the direct route to Leech's chamber. Kitty runs through the walls by phasing, while Juggernaut runs through them by ''running through them''.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** In ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', it's not entirely clear whether Kirk is using this or the TakeAThirdOption tactic when he reprograms [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation The Kobayashi Maru]] into a winnable scenario. One of the published books shows what happened during his test. According to it, he reprogrammed the test so it was possible to talk his way out of the fight, so it is a little of both.
** ''Film/StarTrek2009'' shows the events of the test (in the altered timeline): Kirk reprograms the simulator to "delete" the enemy defenses and make them easy as pie to kill, which gets him in immediate trouble as the examiners immediately know that something is wrong. Much more of a dungeon bypass. Of course, [[AlternateContinuity both could be correct.]]
** Interestingly, ''VideoGame/StarTrekStarfleetAcademy'' (which was released about 10 years before ''Film/StarTrek2009'') presents both options to the player, when they stumble upon Kirk's original hack when taking the Kobayashi Maru themselves.
** The books got some fun with cadets finding solutions the examiners hadn't thought of, the crowners being Peter Kirk (Jim's own nephew) issuing a formal duel challenge to the enemy commander (Romulan in this version. He knew the Romulan culture much better than his examiners) and having his ship rescue the crew of the Kobayashi Maru during the duel (as he puts it when it's pointed out that he'd have little chance in the duel, since the Romulan commander would be physically stronger and better-versed in the weapons involved, "It is a no-win scenario. [[HeroicSacrifice But only for me.]]"), and Mackenzie Calhoun [[OffTheRails blowing up the Kobayashi Maru himself]], reasoning that [[ShootTheDog either the Kobayashi Maru had been really captured and their crew would have been tortured to death by their captors once they killed him]] or [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves were working with the enemy and was thus another target]].
** The ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' relaunch novels introduce the ''actual'' Kobayashi Maru that the scenario was based on. Since the Romulans have just introduced a weapon that can seize control of most computer systems of the era, Captain Archer's only solution is...[[SadisticChoice to run away and leave the crew of the Kobayashi Maru to die]].
* Averted in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing''. The Fellowship tries to go around Moria via a mountain pass, but Saruman awakens the mountain of Caradhras, causing an avalanche of rocks and snow that blocks their way, causing our heroes to have to backtrack and go through Moria anyway.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights''. Little John stands on a bridge and demands Robin fight him to pass. Achoo points out that the river beneath "ain't exactly the Mississippi". Or even a ''river'', for that matter; "stream" would be generous. All while hopping from one side to the other.

* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', at one point Sarah is trapped by a SWAT team in a clean room. John, watching on cameras, declares there's no other way out of that room. So the Terminator punches through a wall and pulls her to safety. Then he blasted a hole through another wall with his grenade launcher.
* In ''Film/Red2010'', when Frank infiltrates the CIA headquarters, he comes across a secure door with an electronic lock that is impossible to hack. He gets through by punching a hole in the wall and manually unlocking the door from the other side; since the facility was built by government contractors, Frank knew the lock would be state-of-the-art technology, but the drywall surrounding it was put in by the lowest bidder.

* In ''Film/TheDeserter'', Kaleb and his men enter the stronghold of the Devil's Backbone by scaling a mesa that stands fifty feet away from the rest of mountain range, and using a block and tackle to haul up their equipment and mounts. The Apache don't bother guarding the mesa as they don't think anyone could get from it to the range proper. Kaleb constructs a RopeBridge from the mesa to the range, granting them a backdoor to the stronghold.
* A meta example in ''Film/InTheNameOfTheKing,''which is based on ''VideoGame/DungeonSiege.'' There is a literal BrokenBridge encountered by the party early on, which, in the game, forces you through a haunted crypt, a dwarven mine, and a mountain range. In the film, Farmer ziplines over (or at least, halfway over because the rope was slack). He falls in the gorge and is picked up by the kings army instead. Admittedly, this saves hours from the films run time and eliminates several scenes that have no reason to be there if you're not farming loot and XP.
* In ''Film/JurassicPark'', after finally getting the lock systems working so they can seal the control room from the raptor trying to kill them, she just jumps through the giant window right by the door.
* ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': Reaching the center of the hollow Earth is made out to be a huge ordeal, requiring a specialized vehicle, and even a powerful kaiju like King Kong has trouble getting in. When Godzilla needs him to return to the surface though, he simply blasts a hole straight through the Earth.

* Some ''Choose Your Own Adventure''-style books have hidden endings that are not linked to any of the storylines -- the only way you'll ever find them is by flipping through the book to see all the endings without following the storylines.

* In ''[[Literature/{{Emberverse}} Dies the Fire]]'' by Creator/SMStirling, some outside force suddenly causes electricity to stop working all over the Earth. In Oregon, the main (human) villain begins establishing a brutal fiefdom, and orders the construction of a well-defended fort blocking an important pass. Fortunately for the heroes, ''hang-gliders'' still work just fine, and they land a strike-force on the fort's roof and breach the defenses from the rear.

* From LoopholeAbuse: In one of the ''Literature/{{Dinotopia}}'' spin-off novels, the MainCharacters find themselves in a Lost City inhabited by Troodon samurai ([[NinjaPirateZombieRobot just go with it]]). The Troodon challenge the humans to different contests to win citizenship, one of which is a race through an obstacle course. The [[MostWritersAreHuman human]], Andrew, wins by bypassing the course and just running down the strip of land between his course and his opponent's, because there [[LoopholeAbuse isn't a rule]] against it. This becomes very popular, and although [[ObviousRulePatch the rules are immediately changed]], "Pulling an Andrew" begins to occur in other activities around the city as well.
* ''Literature/CiaphasCain'':
** In Creator/SandyMitchell's novel ''The Caves Of Ice'', Cain, THE HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, and the fireteam he's deployed with come across a tunnel with recognizable signs of being carved by an ancient civilization ([[spoiler: specifically, the Necrons]]). Cain immediately orders the tunnel to be sealed off with explosives. When he returns to the spot some time later, however, he finds that a hapless ambull has tunneled around the rubble.
** Earlier in the same book, an ambull came out of the tunnel wall to attack Cain who was "safely" in the middle of the party. This, of course, gave him an (unwanted) opportunity to show off what a badass he is with his chainsword.
** Cain in general is quite fond of invoking this trope, thanks to the melta carried by his sidekick Jurgen. A weapon designed to blast through ''tank armour'' is certainly capable of creating a new doorway in just about anything.
** Near the end of ''Choose Your Enemies'', Cain, Jurgen, and two inquisitors need to get to the center of a hedge maze. The Chaos ritual in progress at the center is warping the maze, leaving ''no'' path, and Jurgen's melta would just torch the maze and everyone in it (including Cain, Jurgen, and the two inquisitors). Cain calls on his innate sense of direction and his chainsword to carve his way through.

* In the Creator/BeverlyCleary YoungAdult novel ''Literature/RalphSMouse'', the kids build a maze for Ralph to run. Ralph climbs on top of the walls to look for the cheese, to the annoyance of the kids (who were building the maze to see how smart Ralph was in the first place).
* The protagonist of ''The Ion War'' was sent, as a test, into a maze -- ''inside a furnace'', with a five-minute timer on the device protecting him from the heat. He discovered that the walls weren't anchored, and toppled them like dominoes. He still wound up having to do an IndyHatRoll to get to safety before the protection deactivated.

* ''Literature/SpySchool'': On his first day at the eponymous school, [[spoiler:Mike]] goes around the hi-tech obstacle course rather than going through it. His teacher is unamused, but has to concede that in the field, an agent is expected to take the quickest and safest route to stopping the villains.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In one novel, Han Solo remarks that he "never saw a maze that couldn't be greatly simplified with a good blaster". This was probably inspired by Leia's way of getting herself and her rescuers out of a very tight situation in ''A New Hope''. Granted, it landed them in a garbage masher, but it still counts for something.
* ''Literature/{{Bolo}}'': As Bolos grow bigger and heavier (in their later versions rivaling the size and mass of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI battleships), the concepts of 'obstacle' or 'barrier' become less meaningful — they blow everything in their way up, iron it flat through the sheer weight of their passage, or both.
* In ''[[Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata When The Devil Dances]]'' and ''Hell's Faire'', the "Screaming Meemie" units accompanying the 7000 ton "Bun Bun", tend to take full advantage of the passage of the [=SheVa=] smashing everything in its path flat. The resultant path is still impassable for wheeled vehicles, but for the tanks[[labelnote:*]]the [=MetalStorm=] turrets replace the regular turrets on [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks M-1 Abrams tanks]], whose hulls are left unchanged save for the turret interface[[/labelnote]] traveling through the impressions that each section of [=SheVa=] tread leaves isn't a problem.
* In ''Literature/CodexAlera'' the Vord bypass an impenetrable Canim fortification by tunneling underneath it to attack them from behind. It took the Canim completely off guard because the Vord had enough [[WeHaveReserves reserves]] to continuously attack the front while tunneling behind.
* In Creator/EstherFriesner's ''Elf Defense'', our heroes are stuck in a [[MobileMaze magical semi-sentient hedgemaze]], which has just separated the college professor being pursued by a dragon from the elven prince who actually knows how to ''fight'' a dragon. No problem: the Welsh au pair calmly picks up a sword and proceeds to chop her way through the first hedge in the way. The maze, not being stupid, immediately opens a clear path for her.
* In ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'', the final test which the main characters are put through in order to qualify for the mission is a maze of identical rooms. Reynie identifies a pattern of arrows (there are several different arrows in each room, each pointing different directions), while Sticky blunders through at random, memorizes the route instantly, and completes it perfectly when he tries again, but Kate simply opens up a heating duct and crawls straight through.
* In Robert Asprin's ''Literature/PhulesCompany'' series, the Omega Mob tends towards solutions like this. The key example comes in the first book, where Phule's troops (a gang of misfits that were already considered too irregular for the Space Legion, which is already an irregular military force) are going up against one of the finest military units in the galaxy in a series of competitions. The second event is the challenge course, which is to be run "under combat conditions" with full military gear. The regular Army unit runs the course perfectly, setting a spectacular time as they do so. Phule's company literally ''destroys'' the course, blowing down walls, cutting away barbed wire, and in general ''using'' their full military gear to wreck everything that gets in their way, and get away with it through LoopholeAbuse and because the rival commander was too damned impressed to push the point - and because he admitted that if he had to get his troops across a real battlefield with such obstacles in the way, he probably would have done the same thing.
* In ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth]]'', both the heroes and the villains are searching for [[MacGuffin Ariadne's String]], which allows a Dungeon Bypass of the famous Labyrinth of Myth/ClassicalMythology, which is now much larger, and beneath all of the United States of America. [[spoiler: Luke finds it, but Percy works out another Dungeon Bypass, a "clear-sighted" mortal, who always know the way through the Labyrinth.]]
* Brandon Sanderson's ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'' Vasher uses Nightblood to demolish walls in the royal palace in order to reach his target Denth. It's not a straight example because it's not a dungeon but the effect is the same.
* In ''Literature/TheBigOne'' there's a nested example of a Dungeon Bypass within a Dungeon Bypass. Faced with a situation where German occupation forces occupy most of Europe and it will require a massive effort over a period of years (with horrifying American and Russian Army casualties) to drive them back, the U.S. elects to destroy Germany directly by means of a nuclear attack aimed at its war production industry. (This is TruthInTelevision in that the plan used in the novel was actually that formulated by the U.S.A.A.F in 1941) Within that Dungeon Bypass is a second one; the Germans had built a comprehensive air defense system that was capable of inflicting severe casualties on any air force that tried to fly through said defense. The U.S. used the B-36 bomber whose high-flying capabilities allowed it to simply fly over the defenses (again, TruthInTelevision since the B-36 could fly 5,000 feet higher than even the best-performing German fighters and well over the threat of anti-aircraft guns and the missiles that existed at that time).
* In the ''Literature/{{Ravirn}}'' books, Clotho at one point seeks to keep Ravirn and Cerice imprisoned in her maze by making it imitate a quantum computer, thus causing all the gateways to be simultaneously open and closed, and thus impassible. Ravirn, however, is a minor chaos power, and more than capable of simply forcing the superposed gates into the 'open' state where it's convenient for him.
* Subverted in ''Literature/{{Doom}}''. Fly gets fed up with hunting for key cards and fighting monsters over them so he blasts a door open with a few rockets. This is the only locked door he ever destroys: he meets the [[EliteMooks barons of hell]] shortly afterward and they can withstand four to six rockets apiece. From that point on rockets are reserved for emergencies and "boss fights" so he and Arlene run the dungeons looking for key cards. One time he suggests the option to Arlene to avoid entering a maze of unnatural darkness to find the key. Their rocket supply is dangerously low so they brave the dark maze instead of risking taking the next baron without ammo. They encounter a baron in the maze and they kill it for the key. Running the dungeon cost them all their rockets when the Dungeon Bypass would have used a few.

* In ''Literature/ThePillarsOfReality'', when Mari is captured and locked up, Alain breaks into the dungeon simply by walking right through the walls with magic. However, he then lacks the strength to do the same for their escape, leaving him stuck in the dungeon too. He admits that he didn't think it through properly. Fortunately, he does have enough strength to create a hole big enough for Mari to tamper with the lock.
* In the ''Literature/ThousandSons'' novel ''Ahriman: Unchanged'', Magnus the Red’s faction of Thousand Sons know that [[TheExile Ahriman]] is returning to the Planet of the Sorcerers and start preparing their defenses for his arrival. They send out daemons to watch for incoming fleets, their own fleet is ready to repel Ahriman’s, and they even reconfigure the planet’s geography to make a land invasion of the City of Towers impossible. Ahriman circumvents these defenses by using a ritual to teleport his entire force right into the heart of the City from a planet halfway across the galaxy, with their cataclysmic arrival throwing the defenders into disarray for good measure.
* The Italian novel ''Per Puro Caso'' ("Purely by chance") is about the discovery of a gene that [[GeniusSerum immensely increases intelligence]]. When its effects are tested on mice in a maze, they jump over its wall and run out of the lab.

* OlderThanFeudalism: In ''Literature/TheBible'', rather than attempt to get through the heavily defended and fortified walls of the city of Jericho, Joshua and the Israelites paraded around the city for days before blowing their trumpets. This caused the walls to crumble completely. With the divine help of God.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': Solars with the correct Charm can bypass locked doors by ''walking through them'', and more veteran ones can remove the walls by punching people through them. Meanwhile, those with dematerialization effects can just stroll through walls, and experienced Infernals can just load up Pellegrina's Fury and ''erode away everything in their path''. Of course, the point of ''Exalted'' isn't about whether the heroes ''can'' make it through the dungeon, it's about whether they ''should'', and how they intend to solve the long-term problems that led to the dungeon attack in the first place.
* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'' adventure Fortress o' Fear, the players are sent to locate [[spoiler: a portal to the Hunting Grounds]] within Devil's Tower. If they enter near the base of Devil's Tower, it's a long and arduous journey through labyrinthine rooms and dangerous monsters. However, they have the option of hiring an Ornithopter pilot in City o' Gloom who will offer to fly them right on top of the tower, which is ''much'' closer to their destination and a lot less hazardous. Oddly enough, the adventure seems to push the players in this direction, essentially encouraging them to bypass the detailed dungeon they'd created.
* An unintentional but still viable strategy when it comes to dealing with ambushes in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. Pretty sure that the only road through the city is mined and that there's a ''Hunchback'', a Demolisher, and two Hetzers hiding in the side alleys just waiting for you to pass by? Don't even bother with streets--blast your way through the buildings instead. A lance of Battlemechs can carve through buildings, even reinforced ones, at an impressive rate. An ''Awesome'' can level a strip mall in as little as 10 seconds--that is to say, ''one turn''.

* The Website/SCPFoundation is fond of this trope in general, but special mention goes to the attempt to simplify exploration of the steel labyrinth found in [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-432 SCP-432]] using an acetylene torch. [[spoiler: Subverted when the BeastInTheMaze bursts through the hole and expresses its displeasure at their ingenuity.]]

* In ''Literature/TheSapphireRose'' by Creator/DavidEddings, the heroes attempt to use captured minions to lead them through the deathtrap maze, only to realize that the minions don't know the way either. Finally, they discover that the maze has movable walls, so its layout can be changed at any time. Furthermore, there isn't any route ''through'' the maze, because it's only a diversion. They try going up through the ceiling, and there they find the direct route to the BigBad's lair.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans|2003}}''. Faced with a maze inside Raven's mind, Cyborg and Beast Boy try the usual tricks -- blasting the walls and flying over them -- but are thwarted and forced to go through.

* Faced with a 60 floor tower filled with traps and monsters, ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' and temporary party members Spear Man and Heavy Warrior proceed to climb the walls of the tower rather than enter.
* In a short story of ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', the SOS Brigade are stuck acting out a typical Medieval RPG in simulated space. Not only do they bypass a lot of dungeons and battles (by threatening an NPC, no less), but the biggest use of this trope is found when they reach the final dungeon, still at level one and probably lacking all the key items and skills they need to beat the last boss. The solution? Mikuru accidentally casts two doomsday level spells at once, completely demolishing the entire castle and the BigBad with it. [[FissionMailed And the hostages they were supposed to rescue.]]

* In a rare example where this was the intended solution, Anos Voldigoad of ''LightNovel/TheMisfitOfDemonKingAcademy'' designed a secret passage in his dungeon that had no hidden doors or secret mechanisms or teleportation device, just a solid wall in front of it. To access it, one just has to be physically strong enough to break down the wall, which Anos does by walking straight through it. Apparently, this was the only surefire way to thwart detection magic and guarantee his most valuable treasure would remain undiscovered during the 2000 years it took for Anos to reincarnate.

* ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'':

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'':

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', when Kirito and Asuna are looking for a house on Floor 22 to buy, they stumble onto Argo and a Wizard of Oz-inspired Quest. Since their levels are miles above that floor's, the three of them use shortcuts like jumping on balconies that they aren't supposed to be able to reach.

* Mentioned in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9658968/23/Enslaved Enslaved]]'' where a castle made with several twists and turns (so many that it can take half an hour to move from one floor to the next) was designed to keep out invading [[LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero Germanians]]. Said Germanians just burned the castle down instead.

* In ''Literature/TheSapphireRose'' by Creator/DavidEddings, the heroes attempt to use captured minions to lead them through the deathtrap maze, only to realize that the minions didn't know the way either. Finally, they realize that there was no way ''through'' the maze so try going up through the ceiling. It works as they find the maintenance pathways, and funnily enough real access ways to the maintenance pathways.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Some games with randomly generated dungeons, such as ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Baroque}}'', will occasionally end up generating a floor's exit right next to its entrance. You can't bypass the entire dungeon this way, but you pretty much end up bypassing that floor.
* ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfRadGravity'''s [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon very definitely final planet]] has a nerve-wracking maze of [[MagicalMysteryDoors Magical Mystery Teleporters]], but it can by bypassed by glitching through the walls with the Teleport Beacon.
* In ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders'', Lizardfolk's innate swimming ability give them a powerful advantage on some maps, which is why they didn't appear in the sequels. Particularly since there was a water spell that flooded the map, giving them even more water to have an advantage with. Subverted in the mission which requires you to go through an underground tunnel under some mountains. If you try to go over the mountains instead, you'll run into a very aggressive red dragon. Also, even if you somehow managed to defeat the dragon, it actually takes longer than going the normal way because mountains give you a movement penalty.
* The mad king of ''VideoGame/{{Armello}}'' has fortified his palace with deadly Perils in order to keep would-be heroes out. However, if you complete enough quests, one of your contacts points you towards a way to sneak past one of the traps, enabling you to enter the Palace Grounds. Still have to deal with the King's Guard, though...
* In ''VideoGame/AsheronsCall'' every door that can be unlocked (including ones that require a unique key) can be unlocked from one side by simply using it. Due to the way physics works in game it's [[GoodBadBugs possible]] for two players to work together to glitch through a door.
* ''VideoGame/{{Avernum}}'' sets these up intentionally in the first three games. Learn the Priest spell "Move Mountains" and look for cracked walls, and you can sometimes get around the baddies (or at least find sealed-off rooms.) Sadly, as of the fourth this is no longer possible.
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIIThroneOfBhaal'':
** A variation appears upon teleporting to a city under siege. You're told that no one has been able to enter or exit using teleportation magic. The player, of course, can come and go as he pleases, though he can't target a location more specific than the point he left the city. This is probably due to this ability being linked to the fact that the main character [[spoiler:is a proto-god at that point]].
** It is also possible to go past most of the Undercity plot by simply bribing the guards at the entrance (exit) and most other dungeons can be severely shortened through use of the transformation-teleport bug.
** And unofficially, one of the most popular [[GameMod mods]] for ''Shadows of Amn'' is an NPC that just teleports you and your party to the end of the opening dungeon with any worthwhile items, quest hooks, and the equivalent gold roughly equal to the market value of all the [[ShopFodder junk that you could have picked off each damned corpse]] as well as a bunch of experience points. Because in a game with very high replay value, after a few times through, [[ThatOneLevel that dungeon really is that boring.]]
** On that note, several mods also exist for other [[RolePlayingGame RPGs]] that allow the player to skip ThatOneLevel while still gaining all the things they could've obtained by playing through that level. Examples of this include the Fade in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' and the Peragus Mines in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords''.
* The JetPack item from ''VideoGame/BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg'' allows you to float indefinitely, but only at the initial height you start floating from. Naturally, this means that if you can jump off from a high enough point, you can go over just about anything and go to pretty much anywhere in a level. At least one level in [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Blizzard Castle]] seems to encourage this to get around a particularly vicious slide.
* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' has plenty of items and bonuses that allow you to circumvent barriers or outright pass floors, albeit whether or not you can use them largely boils down to the luck of what items you draw, the layout of the map, and which enemies you encounter. You ''could'' beat all the enemies in a room to unlock the doors, or you could just blow them open with a bomb or lure the explosive attack of an enemy to do it for you. You ''could'' deliberately start a floor with only one heart and hope a boss-challenge room appears, or you could blast your way in via an adjacent hidden room. You ''could'' fight Mom, or just bring a bible and use it to end the fight instantly. You ''could'' carefully navigate rooms, or you could just unlock Azazel and fly over everything. It's actually hard to play a round of this game and ''not'' find a way to bypass at least a few challenges along the way.
* This was the main reason the Teleportation Plasmid was removed from the original ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' game, as using it in the right situations could have skipped major plots in the game.
* ''VideoGame/BlueStinger'' has a maze of ice blocks in a cold storage area. However, it's possible to just melt all the ice and swim across to the next room, but doing this means you fight a rather difficult miniboss in the next area.
* In ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'', the second dungeon requires you to find three of fifteen hidden books, and then use codes written in their margins to unlock a door. Which three books you need are randomly chosen each playthrough, but the codes themselves are not. So if you have a list of all fifteen codes, you can just input the ones you need right away and skip the whole mess.
* ''VideoGame/{{Broforce}}'':
** Indiana Brones's whip serves this purpose. If used while a directional key is being held, Brones will automatically grapple onto a nearby surface and catapult himself upwards. This is extremely useful for dodging dangerous enemies.
** The Brocketeer's rocket jump, though not as powerful, serves a similar purpose.
%%** Mr. Anderbro's blink dash.
** The Brominator's minigun pushes him backwards when firing at a rapid pace, allowing a skilled player to fly over an ''entire map'' without engaging a single enemy. In the spinoff, his palette swap Bro Caesar has the same ability.
** In general, segments of many maps can be bypassed simply by digging underneath the relevant section using the game's destructible terrain.
** Many of the bros have options to slightly increase their movement in various ways, most often by propelling them forward in an attack animation. Though very situational, these can theoretically be used to bypass segments of maps.
* The ''normal'' way to play ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair'' multiplayer is to go off in different directions and open doors that would otherwise take forever to each with one player. Or you can dive kick off another player's head (or Yorick's if you're Soma) and skip tricky sections that way. ''Or'' you can glitch the physics engine to pass through walls and skip even more sections of the map.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Celeste}}'', the Chapter 5 Crystal Heart requires you to take a hidden alternate path after picking up the InterchangeableAntimatterKey to bypass the door you would normally use it on, so you can instead use it to unlock the door to the Heart room.
* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'':
** Can be done on any mission that does not require every foe on the map to be defeated as long as the players have Stealth or at least one has Stealth and the ability to teleport their teammates to their location. Stealth can be taken by any character by level 6, and the Stalker archetype has it as a required power at level 1. However, some enemies later in the game have + perception powers that allow them to see through stealth as well as some maps featuring obstacles that will suppress stealth if the player gets too close to them.
** In the final mission of the Katie Hannon task force, players are expected to beat their way through hordes of [[TheFairFolk Red Caps]], find a captured witch, and get her out through wave after wave of ambushes. This happens on an outdoor map, though, and the witch is capable of flying. As a result, it's become standard practice to fly to the witch, blow away her captors, and fly her out.
** The old trial in the Hollows has two stages: fighting your way through the tunnels to the door to the cave, then facing a single massive room full of monsters between you and the eight triggers that have to be pressed simultaneously. You have 90 minutes to complete it. If someone on the team has a stealth power and Recall (teleporting someone to your position), they can get to the door and quickly teleport everyone there. Once everyone goes through the door, then do the same thing for each of the triggers (teleporting one teammate to each). Click the triggers, trial over in a few minutes, and quite likely zero enemies having to be fought.
** There's also an Enhancement (a sort of power upgrade) which can be slotted to Sprint, an ability earned at level 1 - and which gives the character a sort of partial invisibility as long as Sprint is active. It stacks with ''Stealth'', the level 6 Concealment skill, for a single power slot used... and then you can get ''[[GameBreaker Recall Friend,]]'' to pull other members of your team towards the single objective.
** On the Oranbega maps, some portals are bugged so they send you to a random portal rather than the partner portal on the other side of the wall. If you get lucky, it's possible to be sent from a portal just inside the map entrance to one just outside the room with the mission objective(s).
* The Chronosphere from ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' allows the Allies to teleport their troops all around the battlefield, bypassing the enemy defences. In a commendable aversion of GameplayAndStorySegregation, they use it story-wise as well in the final mission of Red Alert 2, when they teleport their army from Cuba to Moscow to end the war in one decisive strike.
* In the first ''VideoGame/{{Crackdown}}'' game, a DLC pack came with a large number of Street Race missions. These would generally be quite tough, since everyone involved - you included - would be driving the exact same car. There was also a LOT of them. Players tired of trying to beat the near-perfect AI in every race soon found alternate solutions - while the street-races took away all of your main weapons (preventing you from just bringing a rocket-launcher to the party), you were still left with your default handgun, and a single shot to the gas-tank cap would instantly [[EveryCarIsAPinto detonate a car]]. So once the race has started, you just park your car in some nice, out-of-the-way place, and start lifting any large, heavy objects you can find to build a barricade across the track. When the AI cars finish the first lap and get tangled up in your barrier, you shoot out as many as you can. If any get through, well, you now have several wrecked cars you can use to improve your barricade for the next lap. With all other racers destroyed, you just need to open a hole in the barricade, and then hot-lap your way to victory.
* In ''Videogame/CrashBandicoot1996'', the second-to-last 'proper' level (not including bosses and a BreatherLevel) is long and difficult. If you acquired a gem from another similar level, you can take a shortcut, grab many 1-ups and finish the level in fifteen seconds.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Crusader}}'' games, virtually any door that you need a keycard or combination to open can be blasted open with explosives. This will, however, set off the alarm.
%%* Because its world and level design is decidedly {{Metroidvania}} in style, ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' features a lot of this both through clever shortcuts and SequenceBreaking.
* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'':
** ''Dawn of War: Dark Crusade'': During the Space Marine stronghold mission an early optional objective allows you to direct [[EarthShatteringKaboom orbital bombardments]] from the ''Litany of Fury'' by co-opting the Blood Ravens' communications. The Imperial Guard stronghold has a scanner that gives you line of sight to one point anywhere on the map temporarily. Orbital bombardment can one-shot an enemy stronghold building.
** The mission is even easier for Tau, whose commander has both long ranged weapons, jet pack and stealth. He can jump over the SM defences and blast the stronghold while remaining hidden from retaliation.
** The Necron stronghold has a bunch of empty tunnels your forces can use (though you need to discover the tunnel exits to use them), one near your base and one near the Nightbringer. The goal of the mission is to get your hero to drop a bomb at the Nightbringer's room and evacuate before it collapses, which the tunnel makes a lot easier.
** Eldar are extremely good in this in general, since their vehicles can skim across long distances and over obstacles, and their builder units can teleport across half the map and then build Webway portals that you can teleport your whole infantry army (and ''your whole base'' if you feel like it) through.
** The Necrons can use their Lord's teleportation and immortality from the "Essence of the Nightbringer" skill to do this in the Imperial Guard stronghold. The Necron Lord simply teleports over a set of small islands in a river right to the enemy headquarters (the only structure that needs to be destroyed), activates the Nightbringer mode and gets rid of it; mission complete.
** In Soulstorm, flyers in general are very good at this. Just fly them straight towards the target, overshoot a bit, then demonstrate the joys of MoreDakka to the enemy.
** The Hive Lord in one of the sequel's expansions is a monstrous creature, meaning it's flagged as a vehicle for the purposes of barging through things. Some of the missions were designed without taking this into account, meaning that the Hive Lord can counter-flank ambushes or take massive shortcuts just by smashing through a vehicle-breakable wall.
* ''Videogame/DeepRockGalactic:'' Only natural when destructible terrain and mining pickaxes are a part of the game, but one class in one situation invokes it the most: When the Drop Pod comes down, and everyone must quickly get to it before it leaves, you could either backtrack and follow the M.U.L.E. and its flares, fighting off what ambushes you in the meantime... or just have the Driller carve a straight tunnel to it with his twin drills, and guard his back while he does. If you're lost, it's usually the easier way.
-->'''Driller:''' Obstacle? More like a granite smoothie once I'm done!
** The Scout can also completely ignore the terrain inside a cavern by using his grappling hook to traverse huge gaps. He even lampshades this:
--->'''Scout''': Going from A to D, skipping B and C!
* Several ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' levels have this, e.g. ''Descent II'''s eighth level has a huge shortcut that allows you to go straight to the red key and the boss, bypassing about half the level. Level 2 also has a shortcut to the red key, which also allows you to go through the rest of the level backwards.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'':
** Many sections of the game could be skipped via alternate routes or player ingenuity (and which the designers [[DevelopersForesight praise the player for]]):
** A smart player could run straight through the first mission (Liberty Island) to the boss and complete it in less than 5 minutes with minimal enemy contact. Once that happens, the UNATCO troops come up behind JC and kill all of the NSF troops. A player that knows what he's doing can force open the UNATCO door with a gas grenade, bypassing the mission entirely. The game acknowledges this.
** There are several examples of bypassing danger by taking a stealthy route to the target, particularly in Castle Clinton, where the player can use the keypad near the vending machine, go through the vents, and then find the Ambrosia while only encountering one or two guards. Likewise, you can sneak through the maintenance tunnels in the Battery Park subway station past the terrorists (and rescuing the hostages if you so choose), bypassing the situation and the objective (and getting chewed out by your brother when you arrive in Hell's Kitchen).
** After JC sends the signal from the roof of the UNATCO occupied NSF base, it causes every single soldier inside to turn hostile. You can either fight your way down... or put a bunch of mods in Leg Strength (which lowers fall damage) and jump off the roof. Alternately, you can also carefully knock out the UNATCO soldiers before sending the signal, leaving no one left to fight you as you leave (the game even anticipates this method and gives the player a special message from the guy who sent the kill order.)
** Several parts of the game can be skipped if the player knows the passwords to certain locked doors: The [=MJ12=] base underneath UNATCO can be skipped entirely if the player knows the code to the exit door. The game doesn't account for this.
** In Hong Kong, the entire section where JC goes to confront Maggie Chow can be skipped if the player sneaks into Chow's apartment via grenade-jumping and steals the Dragon's Tooth Sword early on. Also, the sidequest about Max Chen needing proof of Maggie's guilt can be skipped if the player already knows the code to the police station vault.
** Also, the player can skip most of Versalife if they know the codes to certain doors, which allows them to access the Level 3 labs and destroy the Universal Constructor before they're asked to.
** Lacing the East Side Cemetery with LAM's before you visit Stanton Dowd results in all the [=MJ12=] troops that spawn in getting blown to smithereens instantly. This can also be done in the 'Ton Hotel during the escape with Paul to trivialize an otherwise-hard battle.
** The majority of the penultimate Silo level can be avoided completely if you run to the hatch leading from the surface down to the Silo, and fire a LAW rocket into it at a certain angle (which glitches through the grate and continues straight downward, killing Howard Strong). This can cause the level to be finished in under a minute.
* In the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series, units with flight like the Mothman and Masked Hero can move through enemy units, and disregard the height of terrain, making them extremely useful for any map where you need to get a certain point to complete it, as both of those things will frequently pose problems for normal units.
* The "Excelsior Transporter" from the ''VideoGame/{{dnd}}'' game for [=PLATO=] computers teleports the player from the outside the dungeon to a level of the dungeon they've already beaten, so they can skip past stuff they already played through. Notably, this only works on the way into the dungeon, so escaping the dungeon to level up or beat the game still requires you to manually beat each level again.
* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'':
** [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1 The first game]] has six levels with a shortcut at the beginning that takes you to, or very near, the end of the level. This includes some of the hardest levels in the game.
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'' has one of these in ''every'' level of the first and second worlds.
* Many ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' levels can be completed in seconds by exploiting glitches to create shortcuts. In source ports that allow jumping, you can end certain levels within ''seconds'' by leaping onto the otherwise inaccessible exit switch/linedef.
* ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'': Partway through the game, the Doom Slayer faces a problem: the final Hell Priest he needs to kill is hiding on Sentinel Prime, which can only be reached via a portal that is buried deep inside the core of Mars. It would take months at least to dig down to it, time that the people of Earth ''don't'' have what with the apocalyptic demon invasion going on. The Doom Slayer's solution? Take control of humanity's most powerful weapon, the BFG 10,000, and... well...
-->'''Samuel Hayden''': You can't just ''shoot a hole'' in the surface of Mars!\\
'''VEGA''': The portal is ready.\\
'''New Mission''': Shoot a Hole in Mars.
* In ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'', several levels can be easily bypassed with Duke's JetPack.
* The RTS game ''[[VideoGame/DungeonKeeper Dungeon Keeper 2]]'' has a campaign level that has racing against the clock while your mission is to destroy the enemy Dungeon Heart, where the MacGuffin is stored in the far North, having to go through another enemy camp in the middle to get there and having overwhelming numbers against you with few resources while you're stuck in the far South. The obvious solution hinted by the mission briefing is to find the bypass. This can be done by building a bridge on the west side over the water and then tunneling past both bases straight to the enemy's Dungeon Heart. Another level gives you the choice of a frontal assault to be able to assassinate the enemy leader or to tunnel east and attack him in his own headquarters bypassing all his defenses.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena'', included the spell "Passwall". It allowed players to permanently destroy dungeon walls, letting them bypass tough enemies and other obstacles. They didn't include it in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', but enterprising players can make use of the wonky level geometry to move through the walls into a black space, allowing you to run along on top of the dungeon paths. Be aware, though, that while it's relatively easy to pass into the Void, it's rather more complex to get back out of it. These "features" live on in later Bethesda games, with the "tcl" (toggle clipping) console command. This is also possible, if one is lucky, to do in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'': notably, using a certain scroll which enhances your jump skill to ludicrous levels may allow you to jump through ceilings, and land in other areas of the dungeon.
* You can do this in ''VideoGame/{{Elona}}'', and it's often a way to find hidden passages. If you have a really high digging skill, you can even break out of jail by just digging through the walls.
* ''VideoGame/EvilIslands'':
** Can be done a couple of times, although you still want to complete all quests because of the experience bonus. Especially since the game's extremely steep level and equipment curve means that almost any area you're not supposed to be is going to be a solid BeefGate wall extending forever. Instead of doing the long set of quests related to entering the Dead City, you could just traverse the cave that is available very early in the game. The other entrance leaves you about ten metres far from your objective in the Dead City.
** If you don't want to avoid ''all'' of those quests, you can still shorten them. Getting to the observatory is far easier than the game tells you. Instead of making peace with the Lizard Men living in the Middle Mountains, you can just lure the ones near the dragon to kill them elsewhere, and then just sneak the dragon. Similarly, you can avoid the quest for freezing the lake by taking a side path that goes around the lake. There are some Lizard Men there, but you should have killed many of them already by that point, and they're anyway weaker than the skeletons you're forced to fight to get the crystal required to freeze the lake.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' allowed the player to bypass several levels of security in the Sierra Army Base if he had a high enough Lockpick skill to get to the personal elevator of the general who would have been in command of the base. A character could also bypass forcefields with the Repair skill.
** ''VideoGame/Fallout3''
*** If you max out lockpicking ''completely'', you can lockpick through [[DoorToBefore the exit of the dungeons.]] Thus, literally bypassing everything.
*** Several dungeons, such as the National Archives, the Antagonizer's Lair, and Olney Powerworks, have a hidden back door that you can use to skip all the monsters and traps and go straight to the boss/MacGuffin item/mission objective.
*** In the National Guard Depot, you can squeeze your way through a debris pile blocking a stairway to the third floor, then jump down to the Armory switch on the second floor, bypassing the Training Wing and Offices.
*** The Metro service tunnel leading to the Family's hideout also has a hidden back entrance from Northwest Seneca Station, which is the way most players first discover during the Blood Ties quest. The main tunnel entrance is from the Meresti Trainyard, which is a fair distance away.
*** You can either take the hard route to Vault 87 through Murder Pass, or if you rescued Penny from Paradise Falls, ask Joseph to turn on the computer terminal for you to hack and open the back door.
*** During the Reilly's Ranger's quest, the main marker path leads you eastbound from Metro Central to Freedom Street and the Mutant-infested and irradiated Vernon Square, which is the main entrance to Our Lady of Hope Hospital, but Reilly recommends an alternate route to the hospital from Dupont Circle through the Dry Sewers.
** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'':
*** Some doors are chained or barred from inside and normally serve as a DoorToBefore, but with a JetPack, RoofHopping, or tunnel crawling, you can sometimes shortcut around the impasse.
*** A few Raider hideouts such as those in the Federal Ration Stockpile and Andrew Station have a hidden trapdoor leading straight to the ringleader's headquarters, sometimes requiring high lockpick or hacking skill.
*** Played literally in the sidequest "The Big Dig", where you use a mining robot to tunnel into Hancock's warehouse from below, the story quest "Mass Fusion", where you teleport (Institute) or ride a Vertibird (Brotherhood of Steel) to the Mass Fusion Building roof, which is the only way to reach the Executive Suites until you have the keycard, and the finale "Nuclear Option", where you blast your way underground into the Institute, which could previously only be teleported to.
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'':
*** There is a vault that contains a maze to reach the bottom for a mission. Or you can just repair the elevator at the entrance and go straight to the bottom floor.
*** Repair, Science, Speech, Barter, Lockpick and Disguises allow you to do this a lot over the course of the game. The difficulty of Dead Money is largely dependent on if you actually leveled your skills fully or used every possible drug, magazine, and equipment bonus to pass skill checks and put the bare minimum skill points in as a result.
*** Vault 19 has a hidden back entrance via the Sulfur Caves northwest of Whittaker Farmstead.
*** In the DLC ''Old World Blues'', a mission requires you to test out a stealth suit by reaching a safe without being detected. You could carefully avoid and disable robots, turrets, lasers, and land mines. Or you could destroy all the obstacles before the test even begins. Even better, a player with a force-field disabling weapon can use the observation level to drop directly into the final room of the test.
*** When ascending Black Mountain, you normally have to go up a Super Mutant-infested and irradiated [[SpaceFillingPath switchback path]], but if you have a Lockpick skill of at least 75, you can pick the back gate and go straight to Tabitha's hideout.
* In the PC version of ''VideoGame/FarCry1'', in the second level, a lifeboat is hanging from the top of a beached carrier. A lucky shot from the lower deck of the carrier can break the chains, dropping the lifeboat into the water and skipping the section on top of the carrier altogether.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' one can bypass much of the Shinra Building and its guards by simply taking the stairs as opposed to fighting your way floor by floor. This is, however, incredibly boring, time consuming, ''and'' you have to put up with your characters complaining the entire way. There are a few bits of nice loot on the stairs, however.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' had several "secret" areas in different zones which could only be accessed by passing through long elaborate and often dangerous dungeons, some of which having doors that required multiple players to open and at least one who's entrance was in a completely different area 3 zones away. These areas generally held valuable timed spawn Notorious Monsters or quest objectives. It wasn't until the "Battle packs" added between the 4th and 5th expansions that (most of) these areas finally became easily accessible through Abyssea and/or Voidwatch warps.
** Early in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', Dungeon Bypassing was the norm to pull off {{Speed Run}}s in the endgame. A few seconds after being engaged bosses erected magic barriers sealing players into (or out of) their battle area. These barriers also broke aggro for any mobs caught on the other side when they went up. Players would sprint from one boss to the next, tank leading the way to aggro everything, then stand right at the barrier edge as the boss was pulled, trapping the trash mobs outside and allowing it to be completely bypassed. Square largely killed off this behavior by adding mid-level barriers that require killing all the trash up to that point to open, either explicitly by just not opening while the mobs live, or practically by requiring several uninterrupted seconds of interaction with key items.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates'' requires a lot of jump-climbing and in many cases the player has to meet an objective or solve a puzzle to unlock the next platform or lever or switch to allow them to climb to the next level... or, you could just dump the magicites from your inventory and strategically stack them to make a ladder. This becomes especially doable once you have Gnash (who can DoubleJump) and Meeth (whose urn is a constantly-available stepstool). This is also possible in its Spiritual Successor ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesEchoesOfTime Echoes of Time]]'', but you have to use other party members which requires a bit of finesse as they move away from being jumped on (probably to avoid this exact thing).
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight'', the objective in each map is to have [[TheHero Marth]] seize an important tile (either a gate or a throne). Most times in [[Franchise/FireEmblem the franchise]], there is a boss guarding that tile, but in the NES version, several bosses don't start the map on it, instead moving onto it during their first turn. The player moves before the enemy, so if you can get Marth to the tile in one turn, you can end the map incredibly early. The developers obviously assumed you wouldn't get to them in one turn, forgetting the [[{{Teleportation}} Warp Staff]] that you [[GameBreaker get in Chapter 3]], allowing you to cut short ''many'' long maps.
* In ''VideoGame/FridayThe13th'' you don't actually have to do ''any'' of the "dungeons" or tasks. You don't have to enter the forest, or the cave, face Pamela Voorhees, or light the fireplaces. All you actually have to do is keep the children in the lakeside cabin alive and defeat Jason three times to win the game. All those extra tasks do is provide you with better weapons and Pamela's sweater which in effect doubles that one counsellor's health. In fact, a careful player can get his hands on the machete or torch without doing any of the dungeons at all. The former can be found by killing 60 zombies and the latter can be found at random in a large lakeside cabin after finding the note telling you to look for it, and the machete is a fast weapon that does okay damage to Jason while the latter is a slow one that does as much damage to Jason as [[InfinityPlusOneSword the pitchfork]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Gauntlet}}'', [[https://vgmaps.com/Atlas/Arcade/Gauntlet-Level-16-Fork.png one level has four exit tiles near the players' spawn point]]. Other levels have most or all of the walls replaced by exit tiles, so there's no incentive to explore those levels unless players are told to "find the hidden potion".
* In ''VideoGame/TheGodfather: The Game'', the main goal is to run a protection racket for the Don. Scaring shopkeepers tends to bring in enemy soldiers. However, doing all the respect-earning tasks first, like finding Plot Devices and assassination missions can gain sufficient respect that most shopkeepers don't summon bodyguards. And -that- gains respect as well, allowing much of the game to be bypassed with no shooting whatsoever. In other words, playing like a real mafia man.
* In ''VideoGame/GolfWithYourFriends'', you generally follow the path of the "fairways" in each level, but by taking advantage of the obstacles and physics, you can skip parts of the level. While it can save time and strokes, there's usually more challenge involved, and you risk landing out-of-bounds, incurring a penalty.
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'':
** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'':
*** At the start of the game if you are careful you can turn around and jump the "broken" bridge, bypassing the entire first island.
*** You can also get to the third island earlier than intended by running a boat ashore near the pipeline that functions as a border in the water, and pushing the boat past it on land.
*** There's another way to get to the third island early. On the second island, there's a hospital with a big dark blue window high up in the air. A player could, with careful use of cheats, get up there and find the window wasn't solid. If the player drove a car through the window, they would fall and land inside a tunnel that led into the third island, bypassing the blocked tunnel entrance.
*** "Two-Faced Tanner" involves over-taking and killing an undercover cop. As soon as you attack his car, you get the cops on your case, coming at you with just about everything they have. You can't disable his vehicle beforehand. What you can do is get ahead of him, jump out of your car, and then destroy his car with an M-16. It takes about half a magazine, and when he dies the cops automatically desist.
** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'':
*** is full of things like this. Instead of chasing cars all willy-nilly through the streets, it's possible, with proper preparation, to blow up enemy cars and win easily.
*** Or shoot their tires with a sniper rifle to make them helpless. Quite useful on the mission where you have to beat someone in a car race to hire him as your driver.
*** This is not so effective in racing missions in general, as the races tend to start immediately if you harm any of the other cars. However, some missions where you need to kill someone seem to be set to intentionally reward a player who thinks ahead and disables potential getaway cars first.
*** The street races in GTA Vice City can be made much easier by simply killing all of your opponents in the opening seconds with a tank cannon shell.
*** One mission has you perform a hit at a golf club. Your weapons are confiscated if you use the main entrance. It's infinitely easier to park a car by a wall and jump the fence, going in fully armed.
** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'':
*** The factory filled with Russian weapon smugglers. Half of it can be bypassed by driving a tall vehicle to the back wall, clamber onto the car roof and jump the fence.
*** There's a mission later in the game where you have to steal a skycrane helicopter from a military fuel depot. The caption tells you to steal a military vehicle (which it promptly provides by spawning a Patriot humvee leaving the facility when you approach it) to gain entrance, but it's much easier to just grab the nearest airplane (which are freely available at this point) and parachute right on top of the target's helipad or, if you completed the Flight School missions beforehand, clean up the bulk of soldier resistance on the rooftops with a Hunter attack chopper first. You can complete the game several times over the years without even knowing there was an entire part of the facility accessible and in place especially for the shootout that would ensue if you took the regular Dungeon path.
** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'':
*** Possible in the mission Pest Control, where you have to kill [[spoiler: Ray Boccino]]. Before the mission starts, you can see his car sitting outside the building the mission starts at, so you can simply slap a car bomb on it and set it off when he gets in. You still have to clean up his guards, but you skip the entire pursuit section of the mission.
*** There's a lot of these in GTA IV. One mission from Francis has you tasked with entering a multi-story apartment building in the projects, cutting your way through dozens of guards on several floors, and finally either killing or sparing a gang leader after chasing and then cornering him on the roof. If you don't want to mess around with all that (and don't care about the choice to kill or spare) you can climb a crane a block away, zoom in with a military sniper rifle, and headshot the dude on the roof first thing.
* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars'', the second half of the Nolani Academy mission requires players escort an NPC through a series of ravines and then fight through a Charr army to reach their general. However, if the party instead immediately heads the opposite direction from the NPC after a cutscene, he'll stop in a safe spot. The party can then take an unpopulated direct path to the general, whose death ends the mission.
* ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'':
** Most jumping puzzles simply require the player to reach the end point and loot a chest. Mesmers who have reached said chest can then teleport other players up there for as long as they have an interest.
** Mounts and gliders have the same potential for bypassing puzzles and mini-dungeons which is why the developers added no-gliding and no-mounting zones around a majority of puzzles. However some puzzles were not protected for one reason or another, most notably Troll's Revenge in Lion's Arch which held the title as hardest jumping puzzle for some time.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** This can often be pulled off, whether legitimately or with glitches. In fact, Dungeon Bypassing is a requirement if you're a speed runner.
** ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'':
*** In the level "Assault on the Control Room", in the last quarter of the level, you encounter a group of Covenant Grunts, Jackals, and Elites. One of the Elites is piloting a Banshee, a flying vehicle. However, until they see you, they aren't doing anything in particular. One well-aimed shot with a plasma pistol, and you can take out the pilot of the Banshee, and wreck havoc on all Covenant forces between you and the final room. Other methods include either hanging on to your sniper rifle so you can kill the pilot before he hops in (you can even kill the pilot of the second Banshee further down the bridge), or using a rocket launcher to flip the Banshee over so he can't get in it.
*** Even before that, on the first bridge you cross in "[=AotCR=]", you can hug the cliff all the way down to the bottom. The rest of the enemies will not spawn so you skip about 95% of all the fighting in the level.
*** With a lot of practice and luck, you can even get a Banshee on "[=AotRC=]" just after you reach the first tank. A well-placed rocket launcher to the bottom of the platform high up on the chasm wall will knock off the Banshee sitting above it. You can jump in and fly your way through the rest of the level! It works because the vehicle spawns with the level, but the pilot doesn't spawn until you've walked farther into the next area. You can actually fly back and find a very lonely, very angry elite waiting where his ride should be.
*** "The Silent Cartographer" has the semi-famous "Squally's Jump." When you go back to the door you unlocked there's a ledge that triggers a cutscene showing off the near-bottomless pit. To the right, you can see the side of the complex you would be fighting through, and on the bottom floor, you can see an [[OverHeal Overcharge]]. It's possible with good aim (or the fact that the game autosaves there) to land on it and take no damage. It also lets you sneak up on and kill two Elites guarding the way you were supposed to come from. The downside is, all those enemies you skipped by jumping? They stay there, and are joined by the enemies that [[EventFlag spawn in]] after reaching the titular Silent Cartographer. [[OhCrap Hope you're ready for a fight.]]
*** There's another spot on "TSC" where a door is meant to close before you can get to it. The intention is that you are entering on foot - with a warthog, you won't be slowed down by the enemies between you and the door, and with good timing and driving skills, you can wedge the warthog in the doorway, forcing the door to stay open. If you're also lucky, it's far enough through for you to hop out on the other side, bypassing having to fight your way to and through the back door.
*** There are in fact many more examples which can be found throughout the game, like another one in ''Assault on the Control Room" where you hug the wall down a huge valley, allowing you to take a ride in the Pelican dropship straight to the Scorpion tank.
* Part of the plot of ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' is your fleet executing one: to reach Hiigara you have to penetrate the Taiidan Empire and the short way means you have to face the mighty Imperial border defences, so you pass through the Great Nebula, where the only defence is a small fleet near a research station because nobody (before you) has ever entered the nebula and lived to tell the tale.
* Late in ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', you have to destroy a generator protected by heavy doors, which you're supposed to open by finding the appropriate switches. But if you maximize you Tasen Weaponry, Komato Weaponry and Cracking skills (that's where the Nanofield Reboot ability comes in handy), you can hack together a gun that can shoot ''through'' the heavy doors, completely eluding the dungeon and its boss. This is mandatory for a true PacifistRun as one of the switches is guarded by a boss who insists on fighting to the death.
* One achievement in ''VideoGame/JettRocket'' tasks you to complete an Atoll level in under 20 seconds. As you might expect, doing this without glitching is impossible unless you pull a Dungeon Bypass in the GimmickLevel. Don't worry; no one will call you out on it.
* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestMaskOfEternity'' it is possible to take a shortcut through the [[TheUnderworld Dimension of Death]] and avoid the hassle involving the bridge.
* In the Square game ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI Kingdom Hearts]]'', a section in one of the final worlds requires you to lower the positions of huge blocks through different switches placed in the world to use as a staircase to reach a boss. However, by that point, you have a glide ability that allows you to slowly but surely reach areas across gaps. Therefore, you only have to partially lower one of the blocks to be able to stand on it, angle your camera, and then glide around the other block to land on the platform behind it.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'':
** The game ''lets'' you do this for ThatOnePuzzle in the Nemesis Quest after you fail the puzzle enough times. You can restart the platform hopping puzzle by swimming back to shore... then, your character soon realizes that ''you can just swim to the goal that way. [[ConvectionSchmonvection Through lava.]]'' You don't get the best rewards (really good spleen consumable and an accessory that gives [=HP/MP=] and sells for a lot) if you do this though.
** Because of the NewGamePlus nature of the game, you can do aspects of the quest without entering the zones if you are in Softcore and pull the items. Before it was revamped, even the level 8 quest could be done without spending a single turn, as it was two {{Fetch Quest}}s (for mundane items) and one test of elemental resistance.
* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}''. In ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand'' you can literally float over whole levels. In pretty much [[GameBreaker every single level]]. Subsequent games put more of a limit on his flying ability, or otherwise took measures with level design and enemy placement to prevent the player from simply coasting through, even with unlimited flight.
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' is usually linear and when hordes arrive, most players hole up in small rooms or something similar, especially in the finales. However, the infected will sometimes make their own shortcuts by smashing down walls, catching the survivors off guard.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': The game only checks if you got the {{Plot Coupon}}s from the last two dungeons, instead of the last five as it should. Normally, the game prevents access to the Shadow Temple until you complete both the Fire and Water temples by putting the entrance up high and only giving you the [[WarpWhistle warp song]] after you complete them. And, normally, you cannot complete the Spirit Temple until you learn how to go back in time, which you can't do until you complete the Forest Temple. But GoodBadBugs exist to get into the Shadow Temple and complete the Spirit Temple without having to fully complete the other three, making at least half-dungeon bypasses possible. Additionally, the Kakariko Well is not technically required, though it takes a lot of memorization to get through certain areas without the Lens of Truth it provides.
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', each of the four major dungeons has a teleporter at the very beginning that leads directly to the boss room of that dungeon. However, it only activates if you have already defeated the boss in a previous cycle of the game's GroundhogDayLoop (or, in the UpdatedRerelease, if you had already been in the boss room). It still comes in handy if you couldn't finish all side quests that only open after a dungeon has been cleared in the previous cycle.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': When reaching the Temple of Time, you gain the Dominion Rod and thereby gain control of a monolithic, mobile, hammer-wielding statue, which you have to return to the first room. The hammer-wielding statue can break past all of the fiddly little gates and things that you had to work your way past on the way up. And kill all enemies in one hit. You do not know what fun is until you see an entire puzzle-room destroyed 'neath the mighty tread of the Hammer Golem!
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'': Link must return periodically to the Temple of the Ocean King, a multi-segmented dungeon that is FAR too long for its own good. Fortunately, they give you the ability to skip many many floors after certain points in the game. They did not go far enough though. Even in the end game getting to the bottom is [[FakeDifficulty very annoying.]]
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'': Link must climb up the Tower of Spirits. While it is very similar in function to the predecessor's central dungeon, you can now skip all previously finished sections and never return.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'':
*** The game is full of dungeons based upon puzzles, genuinely blocking the endpoint with high walls. Thanks to the game's physics-based abilities, it's a common trick to jump into the air, drop a bomb underneath [[TheHero Link]], equip a shield for surfing on, then get knocked further upward by the exploding bomb. This propels you over the high wall and skips the dungeon entirely.
*** In a more extreme example, players have managed to use Octo Balloons, which can be attached to items to make them levitate, to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGZElRJtyComake a working airship]] (or, more properly, an air raft), which they then used to fly over TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon and leap straight to Ganon.
*** There are three outdoor labyrinths that lead to shrines in the overworld. The shrine's location has its entrance hidden ''under'' the walls, but once you've memorized where it is, there is little to keep you from gliding or climbing to the top of the maze and hopping straight to the secret entrance.
* In ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet 3'', the Popit Puzzles teach you how to use certain tools in Create Mode. The final tutorial gives you Sackbots and you have to use them to solve puzzles. However, you can also just change the mesh of the Sackbot from Sackboy to Swoop the bird and use the "Record" function to take control of Swoop, have him pick up Sackboy, and fly to the end of the level instead.
* Interplay's 1990 adaptation of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' allows you to skip [[TheMaze the Old Forest]], if you play your cards exactly right. As in the book, if the Hobbits try to leave the Shire by the road instead of the forest, they will be set upon by a Black Rider. This would normally be an unwinnable fight, but if you learned the !Elbereth word of power from the Elves in the Shire, you can use it to drive the Rider off, allowing you to walk straight into Bree. This isn't even SequenceBreaking; the game just rewards exploration and offers alternative solutions to many problems. You're even free to go back into the Old Forest the "wrong" way if you want to explore it anyway.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' arcade light gun game, successfully completing objectives at certain points (saving a triceratops, inputting a passcode to lock a door, etc.) enables the player to bypass some parts of levels.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':
** A justified aversion in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. On Illium, at the start of the mission to find the Assassin (whose target is in the penthouse of a skyscraper), Shepard notes "Why don't we just fly up to the top?" His/Her informant, however, comments "They have a lot of mercs carrying rocket launchers, just waiting for you to try."
** In the ''VideoGame/MassEffect3: Citadel'' DLC, Shepard's team has to break into the Citadel archives to stop an identity thief. Brooks mentions that it will be tricky finding a way inside. Vega's response is to hold up a bomb and say, "Not really."
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'': One of the most frustratingly difficult bosses in the entire game, The End, can be entirely bypassed [[spoiler:by simply saving during the boss fight and waiting an entire real-life week (or tampering with the system clock) - The End is a very old man who will have died of old age in the middle of the battle when you reload the save]].
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
** Besides the usual SequenceBreaking of the series, the Space Jump (allows for infinite jumping, and destroys anything you touch if the Screw Attack is equipped) and the "Shinespark" technique in ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' and later 2D games (run until you get "charged", and then thrust in a chosen direction, jumping extremely high and possibly breaking some walls) are perfect translations of dungeon bypass.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'' on the GBA let you use a morph-ball shinespark to acquire super missiles early, bypassing a few minibosses. It was a tricky technique, and probably more time-consuming than just killing the boss. Worryingly, the skipped bosses register as dead if you come back later, down to scenery-alterations caused by their death throes. If you didn't kill it, then what did...
* In ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic IV'', the game's world has six magic mirrors that can teleport you to each other; all you need to do is speak their name or location and step into them. But one of them, the Sixth Mirror, has no name -- and is portable, so nobody knows its location. Much of the game is spent searching for it, only to discover that it's been claimed by the BigBad, Lord Xeen. Cue epic rush through his massive castle to reach him and stop him from using it for his nefarious plans... or, if you're smart, cue walking to one of the other five mirrors and typing "Lord Xeen", which teleports you to him instantly. You can even do this right at the start of the game before you should know it'll work, although that's likely to get your lowly level one party murdered by Lord Xeen.
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'':
** Strongholds and dungeons appear in the procedurally-generated terrain, and since any player is going to be equipped with a pickaxe one might think the walls of the dungeon would present no obstacle at all. But, to make the player think twice about breaking down a wall, the stone-brick block that comprises the dungeon walls are randomly populated with identical-looking blocks containing Silverfish, a vicious swarming enemy that can cut even an armored player down in numbers, and that tends to make more of itself when attacked.
** For ocean monuments, the devs went a step further--besides the greatly reduced mining speed underwater (which can be eliminated with enchantments), each one of these fortresses includes three boss monsters who (using a lovely JumpScare) repeatedly inflict you with [[StatusEffects Mining Fatigue]], which reduces mining speed by a ridiculous 99.73%, making tunneling through the structure virtually impossible until you track down and kill the bosses. [[LordBritishPostulate Some players just take this as a challenge]], though, and come up with alternate strategies, such as using glitchy tricks to set off TNT underwater and blast their way through, or stockpiling milk and drinking it to nullify the status effect every time it's applied.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Monaco}}'', the Mole's whole shtick is this. His abilities allow him to dig through walls with his "freedom spoon," opening up long passageways through many dungeons.
* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', a game which very much prides itself on its flexibility, you can begin the game with a pickaxe or acquire one very early on. A pickaxe can break down every wall, including the ones that separate one level from another. By diligent digging, you can literally bypass the entire dungeon, stopping only to bushwhack a few mandatory bosses before ascending to ultimate victory. This means playing with a very [[LowLevelRun underlevelled character]], but is quite exciting. The technique is known as [[http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Digging_for_victory digging for victory]].
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'':
** It is possible to do this in the Golem Dungeon, as there is a door right at the entrance that leads straight to the final room of the dungeon. It takes a ''lot'' of lockpicking skill to open it, however.
** In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', the supposed DoorToBefore in the Temple of Seasons can be opened from the "wrong" side by any decent rogue, skipping the entire dungeon.
* ''Videogame/NocturneRebirth'' allows the player to spend Reviel's EXP and MP to break through doors and barriers that normally require a puzzle to bypass.
* ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'' has almost as many shortcuts to bypass levels as it does regular levels.
* ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' has one in the last section of the Misty Woods, where you can Bash to a ledge leading to a secret shortcut that bypasses a tricky moving wall platform puzzle. Another is in Sorrow Pass, where the first Spirit Gate can be skipped by projectile-Bashing a breakable ceiling below and behind it.
* [[VideoGame/{{Persona 3}} Akihiko Sanada]] does a bit of this in ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' during his story mode: The master of the dungeon he's going through made invisible walls in order to guide his path to the fight that he was supposed to take on. However, [[spoiler:said master forgot that the windows of the dungeon could be shattered to completely avoid the invisible walls altogether. This ends up being subverted, however, as Akihiko gets into an unexpected fight with [[VideoGame/{{Persona 4}} Kanji Tatsumi]] and the dungeon master promptly puts him on the correct path again, putting invisible walls in front of the windows to prevent any further loopholes]].
* The famous ''[[VideoGame/{{Photopia}} Photopia]]'' puzzle: to escape the crystal maze, [[spoiler: fly above it with your wings. By the way, you have wings]].
* ''VideoGame/PitfallTheMayanAdventure'' features two really tough boss fights against a duo of jaguars and a transforming jaguar-man. However, in some ports of the game (such as the SNES version,) the triggers for boss fights are wonky enough (requiring that the player be on the ground, for one thing) that the player can simply leap right over them and head straight to the exit.
* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' differs from many [=RPGs=] in that instead of having to assemble the whole party in the transition zone in order to move to the next location, you just need bring one character there. If you have an experienced thief with well developed stealth ability in your party, you can bypass most of the heavily infested locations. Of course, sometimes the exit is behind a locked door but guess what? The experienced thief can steal the key!
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime'': The Swashbuckler Zombie and the Relic Hunter Zombie will drop deep into your defences while Breakdancer Zombies can kick other zombies further into the lawn. There are also ambushes, which will also drop zombies midway into your lawn.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'':
*** You can, after acquiring the usage of Surf and Fly, bypass the extremely annoying Seafoam Islands dungeon by surfing south from Pallet Town, landing in Cinnabar Island. It means skipping Articuno, but it's easy to pick it up later.
*** The Celadon city Rocket hideout can be skipped entirely by using a Pokedoll on the Marowak ghost.
** In ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger: Shadows of Almia'', your boss, Barlow, repeatedly deals with the age-old RPG problem of impassible locked doors by kicking them down. Over and over. Less awesome, it does not get.
** After you get Cut in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl and Platinum'', you can easily bypass repeat visits to Eterna Forest without waiting to get Fly.
** ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'':
*** The ''Mystery Dungeon'' series has the Pure Seed item, which teleports you to the stairs down instantly. However, your limited inventory space and the rarity of the item makes it so you can't skip through the entirety of a longer dungeon, making them best used for skipping floors with a high number of rooms (Where finding the stairs can take a ''long'' time), or as a means of escaping a dangerous situation.
*** There's also the Absolute Mover IQ skill, which allows the user to traverse any manner of terrain and plow through walls by simply walking into them. Certain Ghost type Pokemon as well as holders of a Mobile Scarf are also able to walk through walls, but won't destroy them in the process. These coupled with the Stairs Seer IQ skill made getting to the next floor a very easy task. Presumably for balance reasons, Absolute Mover ended up being limited to a single Pokemon in Explorers, while the Mobile Scarf became the sole method of wall walking in Gates to Infinity and gained the harmful side effect of rapidly reducing a Pokemon's HP for every turn it spends in a wall.
* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'':
** Several levels have a "normal" solution which is also the hardest / most labor-intensive solution [[spoiler:(notably level 14)]]. Finding the shortcuts is usually necessary for solving the challenge levels.
** In the commentary, the designers admit that there were a few bypasses that play testers stumbled upon, allowing them to skip portions of the puzzles. Many times, they decided to leave it in because the shortcut was less intuitive and a bit more challenging to use. Still, knowing how to do this could save some time.
** In fact, in one of the test chambers, the commentary even ''explains how to bypass the entire puzzle''!
* In the first level of Unit 3 in ''VideoGame/QuakeII'', you can skip the LaserHallway jumping puzzle by detouring through the moat and an underground passage that drops you out at the exit. Don't forget the secrets on the main path, though.
* In ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'' the teleport skill and flywings would make bypassing dungeons possible if you got lucky enough. Some quests, such as the fox quest in Amatsu which is necessary to access the dungeon are nearly impossible without getting around the hordes of hydras guarding the shrine. Seeing as how this dungeon was the best way to gain levels for a new acolyte becoming a priest it made poor acolytes spend half an afternoon trying to get lucky enough with their teleport skill to bypass the hydras. The Abyss Lake dungeon normally requires a set of dragon parts to enter, one for everyone. A lucky teleport can dump you on the island with the entry and save some of those parts, though it doesn't open unless somebody does it the right way. The undisputed Kings/Queens of the Dungeon Bypass, however, are the Taekwon classes. Using the High Jump skill they are more than capable of jumping over walls as long as teleporting is permitted, even indoors. While a lucky teleport will get you there faster if it comes up early, jumping over walls is more reliable.
* ''VideoGame/RagnarokRoguelike'':
** The game has potions of phasing, which allows you to walk through walls (except in the shop level) and even between planes, letting you skip the tedious process of looking for portals. If you walk off the map in the dungeon, however, you'll fall to Niflheim and take a lot of damage, usually dying. It also has pickaxes and wands of digging, which allowed for you to dig through walls and floors, saving you the trouble of finding a stair - especially if you have the rope item which allows you to climb through holes in the ceiling. And if you can handle the fall, digging through the bottom of the dungeon is a good way to get to Niflheim without using the River Gioll (which is guarded by a ''painful'' BeefGate).
** Dimensional travel is the game's way of saying "go wherever you want, we won't stop you." It sends you to the Crossroads, and from there you can travel semi-controllably to most areas in the game, evading all obstacles in your way. You can get it with a single wish - while the potion of dimensional travel can't be wished for, [[spoiler: you can wish for a dead breleor]].
* In ''VideoGame/RainbowSix: Raven Shield'''s ninth mission, a StealthBasedMission, leaving one operative in the Extraction Zone will automatically trigger the "mission complete" flag after the other operative completes the objectives, saving you the trip back.
** ''VideoGame/RainbowSixSiege'' fully embraces blasting your way through destructible walls and floors, especially if you are an attacker trying to avoid killzones and traps laid by the defenders.
* ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'':
** The series have had a couple of these, thanks to many platforms that the player should probably never reach still being made solid. In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'', the final level of the game has a very large wall surrounding the entire first half of the level. Getting on top of it allows the player to essentially run around it until they reach the back of the level, jumping into a teleporter to let them skip to the second half of the level. (Using this, and an alternate dungeon bypass on Grelbin, one is capable of skipping the Hypnomatic fetch quest, which includes large chunks of Smolg and even ''completely skipping'' Allgon City, Damosel.)
** ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction'' is perhaps the most egregious example in the series, with a couple tricks taking advantage of physics with a well-known GameBreakingBug. The first of which is the Hyper Strike (when Ratchet slams his wrench down in midair), which gives you added height ''and'' length to your jump. A few areas in the game can be sequence broke by making a hyper strike in the right place, just barely getting over a wall or gap.
** The most well-known, however, is the Razor-Claws glitch. (A weapon that, while cool, did not make it into ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime A Crack In Time]]'', for obvious reasons.) The weapon allows one to climb walls, which can turn platform heavy levels into a case of "Climb a wall, walk/glide over the level, land at the end/in the boss' area" followed by "Fly to next level. Rinse and repeat."
* ''VideoGame/RedFaction'' has entire levels with destroyable walls, making it necessary to punch through them in order to bypass locked doors and the like. There are even achievements for bypassing levels with the least number of explosives.
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' has the well-known "Jill Sandwich" trick. By approaching the room with a shotgun in it when playing as Jill, a cutscene will allow her to be rescued from that room instead of needing to find the broken shotgun to switch for the shotgun. This gives her early access to a mainstay "heavy" weapon and allows her to complete the game much faster.
** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'', speed-runners prefer to face down Nemesis outside of the police station -- not to fight him, which is extremely tough due to limited ammo resources, but because that way they can grab Brad's ID card and use it to access the S.T.A.R.S office, instead of needing to complete a long, winding route that requires passing through some heavily zombie-infested areas inside of the station.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'':
*** If you fight off the Ganados in the village before entering the house containing the shotgun, Dr. Salvador won't spawn here. Don't go into the path leading to the next area, since he guards the door there. Also, fighting the second El Gigante is optional, although you have to fight a camp of Ganados and the "[[DualBoss Chainsaw Chicks]]" if you take the alternate path.
*** A well known {{{Good Bad Bug|s}} in the game involves using the [=TMP=] to shoot locked doors from the wrong side. Normally you can only open such doors from one side (meaning many of which serve as [[DoorToBefore Doors To Before]]) but it's possible to approach the "unopenable" side and clip through them to snipe the lock because of the way the [=TMP=] is shot from the hip. This allows for several bypasses, most notably in the Castle segment of the game.
* Many {{Roguelike}}s share this property; ''[[VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery ADOM]]'' also allowed you to modify the map on most levels. In fact, digging was the ''only'' way to reach the Elemental Temples.
* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'''s Stronghold of Player Safety adds a teleport spot to every level you've cleared, which will allow you to skip from the beginning of that level to the end. Going up a ladder/rope/vine/tentacle/chain of bones also bypasses the dungeon and takes you out of the Stronghold completely.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowComplex'' has one about halfway through the game. After your girlfriend gets kidnapped [[spoiler: for the second time,]] you can make your way back to the Jeep which brought you to the area to start with...and just leave.
--> '''Jason''': "There are plenty of other fish in the sea..." ''drives off''
--> ''Award Unlocked: "Status Update: Single"''
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** Any game (with the exception of SA 2) in which Tails or Cream (who both have the ability to fly) is playable; also Knuckles to a lesser extent (he can't fly but he can glide and climb walls).
** ''Sonic 3'' (and some of the Sonic Advance series) took this into account though, providing alternate routes only reachable by using those abilities.
** In ''Sonic 2'''s Oil Ocean Zone, Sonic neither sinks nor dies in the ocean of oil at the bottom of the level as long as he jumps out in time. One can run under the entire level until they hit a wall, jump on top, continue the level like normal, then drop back into the ocean and repeat.
** Sonic himself can do this in open levels and a spindash, jumping over half a level with ease. Especially if he is Super Sonic (or, in the 3D games, Metal Sonic in the multiplayer of Adventure 2: Battle)
** In ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H9Dw9CgYqA there's one stage that can be won in under five seconds by Sonic turning around and railjumping to the exit.]] The Air Boost in this game alone can turn a platforming segment/puzzle into a two-second solution of [[CuttingTheKnot "Just jump and boost over it,"]] among a ton of other small tricks to speed up levels. Specifically, a couple levels in particular with the description of "Complete X Laps!" can be sequence broke by turning around at specific points, tricking the game into thinking you've reached a certain lap early.
** In ''VideoGame/KnucklesChaotix'' you can play as Charmy, who can fly for as long as you want without ever needing to land, so you can basically go straight through the levels without doing anything.
** Due to an awesome {{Good Bad Bug|s}} in ''[[VideoGame/SonicBoom Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric]]'' Knuckles was capable of unlimited air jumps. You can bypass so much of the game that an ''under one hour speedrun is possible''.
* ''Franchise/StarCraft'':
** ''VideoGame/StarCraftI'':
*** The 6th Terran mission in has you rescuing a downed ship in the center of the map, surrounded by a ring of mountains. The game expects you, with your base in the east, to circle around clockwise to the west, taking you through the enemy bases on the way before you ascend the mountains around the ship and fight your way down to it. But if you put some units along the cliffs to the west and get sight up there with an air unit or a comsat sweep, they can kill a couple of anti-air turrets to create a safe landing zone for you to ferry them up there and fight a much shorter, much easier way to the ship. Alternatively, the downed ship has two worker units, some mechs and two bunkers defending it--destroying one of the bunkers gives you room to build a barracks, and you can fight your way out from the inside.
*** The 7th mission can be completed in about thirty seconds by simply casting "Defense Matrix" on the SCV with the Psi Emitter and sending him directly to the beacon in the enemy's base. The right route there results in very few defenders in your way, and with the Defense Matrix they can't kill the SCV in time before he gets to the beacon.
*** The 7th Protoss mission is a terrible pain, pitching you against three strategically positioned enemy bases, but you only have to destroy a single building to win. Instead of building up your base and taking out theirs as is expected, you can simply utilize the Dark Templar's invisibility and go kill the objective in about five minutes, as long as you take the right way in that lets you bypass most of their defenses.
*** In the expansion pack, a mission has you escorting a leader unit to a beacon in the middle of the enemy base. If you take along an escort unit or two to clear the anti-air turrets on the way, you can use a Shuttle to fly her to the beacon, bypassing the enemy base entirely.
** ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'':
*** In the third-to-last mission in ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty'' you are supposed to plough through a sprawling Zerg base in order to get to another downed ship. If you have the Deep Striking ability, you can send some Ghosts directly to the ship and nuke the three target structures. Lacking that, pack some heavy ordnance into the transports and fly them along the map edges, bypassing the base and facing only minimal resistance.
*** One of Zeratul's missions has you destroying three targets inside of a very well defended Protoss base. Building up the necessary forces to destroy the defenses is time consuming, difficult and requires a lot of skill. Simply creating seven or eight Dark Templar to bypass the minimal detection is quick and relatively easy.
* In ''VideoGame/StardewValley'', one of the craftable items is a stairway that you can place in the mines to take you to the next floor. Normally, you would have to find the stairway by clearing rocks or killing enemies. In the Skull Cavern, you can also find shafts that will allow you to bypass multiple floors.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** Several games have [[SequenceBreaking shortcuts that lets you cut through large sections of the dungeon]]. For example, in World 1-2 of the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', for example, you can smash through the ceiling and run over the entire level all the way to the end... and then keep going and skip half of the ''game''. Then, world 4-2 has another warp zone (better hidden, but still accessible) to let you skip to the last world, cutting out roughly 80% of the whole game.
** In some levels of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'', such as 8-2, these are required to exit the level. Worse, some warp zones send you backwards.
** Playing as Luigi or Toadstool in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' allows you to easily bypass large chunks of several stages. The princess can skip straight to the end of 4-3 by floating over the gap separating the two towers at the beginning of the stage.
** ''Super Mario Bros. 3''
*** The Lakitu's Cloud item lets you skip entire levels.
*** Then there are the {{Warp Whistle}}s, which let you skip entire worlds. There's two in World 1, and using them together can take you directly to World 8, bypassing almost the entire game.
*** Then there's the P-Wing, which can make almost any level a breeze (and unlike the cloud, they stay beaten if you die). Shame they are TooAwesomeToUse (until you beat the game and get an [[BraggingRightsReward inventory loaded with them]]).
*** There are also the Dungeon Bypass opportunities '''within''' levels. For example, there's a level where you go up against a fleet of battleships... but you can bypass all the weapons and enemies by swimming '''under''' the ships. In what is apparently ''lava'', no less.[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-QVjqeeoMw]]
*** In other levels in the game, there's a massive wall between the start and finish line, with the majority of the level in a cave underneath it. Which means anyone with the P Wing can just fly straight up, right over the wall and down to the finish block.
** Same with the Feather, Flying Yoshi, or Lakitu's Cloud (again) in ''Super Mario World'', on levels with no ceiling.
** Once you gain access to the Star Road in ''SMW'', you can skip the rest of the game straight to Bowser's Castle by keyhole-clearing each of its levels. Especially glaring if you get there through the Donut Secret House, as the 11-exit speedrun does.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'':
*** ''The Goopy Inferno'' is a [[NoGearLevel No Fludd Run]] of a level covered in lava that requires you to climb around the village underside to reach the goal. However if you're careful and patient you can just walk along a fence to the giant tree and take a mad dive from the top ''straight to the end goal'', all in all completing the level in about a minute.
*** ''The Runaway Ferris Wheel'' normally requires you to climb the maze on the back of the Ferris Wheel to reach the monster on top and take him out to slow the wheel back to its normal speed. However, if you run up the ramp that takes you to the Roller Coaster, which is much faster and easier, you ''can'' make a mad jump and easily wiggle past the fast-moving Ferris Wheel using the hover nozzle to bypass this entire mission in about 5 seconds.
** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'', halfway through Rightside Down Galaxy, you can backflip above the maze and walk around the top. Exploring the area nets you 4 1-Ups and the ability to re-enter right on top of the Star. There's also the first Bowser Jr level, the Fiery Flotilla, where you can skip most of the level by jumping on the castle walls and just long jumping to Gobblegut's boss arena.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'', if it's not an exaggeration or parody, has W7-1. It's normally a water level, where you start on solid ground, go through an underwater area, then use a pipe to reach the flagpole, which is also on solid ground. As a matter of fact, you can even see the flagpole from the start of the level... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhIcgdVJHM0 and, if you have a Tanooki suit, jump over to it, allowing you to skip the entire level and beat it in 5 seconds]].
* In the ''VideoGame/SuperMonkeyBall'' series, although most notably 1, 2, and Deluxe, a surprisingly large number of levels may be passed through manipulation of the floor's layout by means of physics exploitation. For example, upon coming into contact with a lip on the edge of the ground, the player will be popped upwards, and will fall back down. In certain situations, this may be used to completely bypass a handful of the more annoying levels of the game.
* This is why you have bombs in ''VideoGame/TheSwindle''. Some parts may even be sealed off and ''require'' you to bomb your way in.
* Parodied and subverted in ''VideoGame/TheSwordAndTheFish'', where after slowly making their way through several screens of very tough monsters, the party is confronted with the entrance to a large dungeon. They figure they can be clever by just going around and using the back entrance, which indeed takes them right to the boss, who complains about how they completely avoided all of his lethal traps and mazes. Later, though, it's revealed that the front door to the dungeon led to an empty room with no enemy encounters which led directly to the boss chamber, meaning that sneaking around the back way actually forced the party to fight more enemies than they would have if they had taken the front door.
* Deconstructed in ''VideoGame/TheSwordsOfDitto''. Your first task in the opening cutscene is to infiltrate EvilSorcerer Mormo's fortress. Since your Sword has very little practical combat experience besides killing a few mooks outside of her castle, she [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impales them with an Ether spike]] almost immediately after their arrival in the throne room.
* ''VideoGame/ThiefTheDarkProject'' has many secret passages that cut short levels. The most important example is in level 3, where you descend upon a big, deep catacomb full of undeads in order to steal some artifacts and then you have to backtrack all that Hell to the surface (unless you play on the easiest difficulty or you find a secret tunnel near the end). The most gamey example is a SequenceBreaking in level 6, where you are supposed to go inside a haunted cathedral, steal a magic item, try to escape, find that the doors have been magically sealed and then investigate all the structure and its crypts in order to find how to escape: but you can block the doors with a skull or a rock in the beginning, preventing their closure, which was NOT supposed to be how to play the level (this was fixed in Thief Gold where they close anyway).
* ''Franchise/TombRaider'':
** Older games often had methods to bypass {{Fetch Quest}}s or large chunks of levels, some deliberate and some accidental, that could only be used by clever players or those with a firm grasp on Lara's DifficultButAwesome acrobatics and platforming. The Colliseum for example has a ''massive'' skip where it's possible to gingerly drop into a pit with spikes without being skewered on them, effectively bypassing an entire segment of battling lions, while Palace Midas can be cut in half by a player who has a firm grasp on jumping from sharp-angled platforms.
** ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' had several of these, but they often resulted in you [[PowerUpLetdown missing out on secrets]], all of which were required to access the SecretLevel.
* In ''VideoGame/{{TOME}}'', another roguelike, you can get a spell that can remove walls in all unblocked directions at once (with any class) as a result of a lost sword quest. Or make walls in all unblocked directions for when you want to wall in every annoying critter (breeders and stuff that summons greater dragons recursively come to mind) that saw you as a result of the first spell, and then pickaxe yourself a path around them. It's quite random to get either spell, but you usually get a few super powerful spells along the way.
* ''{{VideoGame/Trove}}'': Given the prevalence of extra jumps and wings / flying mounts, you can simply jump over most enemies in dungeons. Combine this with the ability to destroy certain blocks to enter dungeons, and you can simply make your own entry / exit point.
* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Turok}} Turok 2]]'''s first stage, you get the keys to both the second and third levels. Playing the levels in the order 1-3-5-2-4-6 is initially more difficult, but allows you to get the heavier weapons earlier.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'':
** ''VideoGame/UltimaI'' had spells which allowed you to instantly travel one floor up or one floor down inside a dungeon. Using these, you could skip all the dungeons entirely by simply spellcasting your way down to the appropriate level, killing whatever quest monster you were sent there for, then spellcasting your way back to the surface. Later games kept the spells, but subverted the trope by making your objectives in the dungeons more complex.
** In ''VideoGame/UltimaIV'', each dungeon presents two objectives: a magic stone somewhere inside, and the altar rooms, which hold {{Plot Coupon}}s and connect to multiple dungeons. However, a secret passage [[spoiler: in Lord British's Castle]] will allow you to skip straight to the bottom level of Dungeon Hythloth, whereby all three altar rooms can be accessed. The stones still take some doing, but since the altar rooms connect the bottom floors of all seven dungeons, and the stones tend to be on the lower floors...
* In the spider web maze of ''VideoGame/UncleAlbertsMagicalAlbum'', it's possible for the fly to force itself through the walls, although doing so strongly attracts the spider. Alternatively, there is a hidden passage in the bottom part of the page. Said passage is indicated in a making-of video of the game, meaning this is an intentional design choice rather than an oversight.
* ''VideoGame/UntitledGooseGame'' has a glitch that allows you to clip up insurmountable slopes or through closed gates by wiggling toward them while repeatedly dropping and picking up an item until you get past. Not only can you skip directly to the pub by doing this, but you can also skip the majority of the final task by abusing this.
* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'':
** This is usually the best (and sometimes only) way to get A ranks on missions. At max level with all of her potentials unlocked and their chance of awakening boosted with a special order, GameBreaker Alicia can quite literally run across the entire map, shrug off or dodge anything the enemy can throw at her, and capture the enemy's base camp in the space of a single turn without having to fire a single shot.
** Even before this is possible, using the Lancer's rockets or the tank to knock down walls to make shortcuts is also a common way to reach targets quickly.
* ''{{Videogame/Warcraft}}'':
** The third episode of the expansion's Nightelf campaign involved finding the current "evildoer" inside a complicated (but still pretty linear dungeon) then escaping before the timer runs out, using the main character's blink ability, which allows her to teleport short distances and even go through walls, as long as the destination was previously revealed. during the escape only, a hidden room is revealed, right next to the entry hall. The player can blink into the room, then through the wall, skipping almost half the dungeon.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** Possible in many dungeons if you use an all-stealth group. Having all druids is most effective, as they can occupy any slot in a group (tank, healer, DPS). Though Blizzard got a bit crafty recently and allowed some of the enemies to detect stealth.
** Rogues (and anyone with the Engineering or Blacksmithing professions) can pick the locks of some doors that ordinarily require keys found on bosses in that dungeon. Others can't be picked, however, and there's no way to tell except by trying.
** Some dungeons however are designed in a way that lets player skip some bosses. The Botanica being the most notable since you can skip ''every'' boss, but given the ease of most of them, its pretty pointless to do so. They are the ones that give the nice loot, after all. In addition, crafty players have found ways to bypass several normal enemies with various tricks, although the usefulness of some are debatable. And one of these, the infamous wall-walking bug, was almost entirely patched out of the game after a number of rather blatant exploits.
** Indeed, the Deadmines fall under this trope -- but only so far: when the players reach the big evil's ship, rather than wading through hordes of henchmen, they can simply hang a left and move right on to the miniboss via the edges of the cavern and a conveniently-placed slope.
** There's another anti-stealth technique used by some encounters, in which a boss will summon all the monsters you haven't yet defeated in the nearby area to assist it, with [[HilarityEnsues hilarious]] [[PartyWipe consequences]].
** Many dungeons have some bosses that are optional in this sense, that they are in an alcove or side room and you can clearly go on to later bosses without even disturbing them. A smaller number of dungeons, though, have small, nonintuitive, easy-to-miss, often one-way paths that let players circumvent content. This often requires jumping off a ledge, such as in Blackrock Depths, lower Blackrock Spire and the Slave Pens. Sometimes, like in the Slave Pens, if you don't jump at exactly the right angle it's possible to miss the ledge you're aiming for and make a lethal drop or simply fall below your goal and have to run back the long way.
** Levels 60 to 77 were originally designed for players who didn't yet have flying mounts, but later allowed the use of flying mounts anyway. This meant quests that involve killing a specific NPC, normally requiring you to fight through a large number to mooks in the way, could simply be flown over. Levels 86 and up had similar setups--''Mists of Pandaria'', like prior expansions, didn't let you have a flying mount for the area until you hit the level cap, and flying mounts in ''Warlords of Draenor'' or ''Legion'' weren't available until the correct patch happened, [[DoubleUnlock and the players had to jump through some hoops even then]] (but at least once flying mounts for an area were unlocked for one character, they were unlocked for the entire account).
** Attunement for Blackwing Lair and the Molten Core raids allowed players to teleport directly into the instances, whose actual entrances were located deep inside other dungeons.
** The underground layout of [=AQ40=] is such that the stairs on which you fight the first boss are directly above the chamber just before the final boss. One guild decided to use a third party hack tool to remove the stair's texture[[note]]Classic was well known for faulty seams in ground textures and virtually every player could share at least 1 occurrence of them falling through the world into the void beneath[[/note]] allowing them to jump down the whole and bypass everything between the 1st and last bosses. Predictably, retribution was fierce with the Ban Hammer being applied to every member of the guild.
** Starting with ''Warlords of Draenor'' many raids include quests to kill certain raid bosses, which in turn creates a portal or unlocks a door to later portions of the raid. This allows guilds that have no interest in killing the early, easy bosses to skip right over them.
** Since ''Legion'', Demon Hunter Players have managed to find a way to get to Illidan Stormrage faster in The Black Temple Raid from ''Burning Crusade'', by using their classes DoubleJump and Glide abilities to jump up the chain in the northwestern corner of the Sanctuary of Shadows to reach the second floor of the Den of Mortal Delights: bypassing four Raid Bosses.
** Amusingly averted in one situation. During the legendary ring questline one sequence involves a lengthy stealth mission in an Iron Horde base. If the player attempts to skip this by flying over in any way, the quest giver teleports them back and snaps that this is a ''stealth'' mission.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} 8'', if you visit the Ascension Peak before the endgame and leave behind a portal, you can later teleport right past the Rapax, who bar passage to the Peak the moment you are told by the story to actually go there.
* In the N64 ''[[Franchise/JamesBond Bond]]'' game ''VideoGame/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', the first level consists of obtaining the contents of a lock-box, infiltrating the bank, stealing files, and getting the drop on an NPC, all while not setting off any alarms. However, if the player chooses to trigger the alarm before opening the lock-box, they can obtain the items and walk out of the bank with a "mission cleared" in under 30 seconds, effectively skipping the whole level.
* ''{{VideoGame/X COM}}'':
** In the original (''VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense'' and ''VideoGame/XComTerrorFromTheDeep''), most walls can be shot through with a powerful enough weapon. Eventually, units can be outfitted with flying armour and weapons powerful enough to punch through the hull of a U.F.O - making it possible to simply blast your way into the bridge.
** Early in the game, clearing a house or even a stable of aliens can be very dangerous and time consuming. A simpler tactic is to throw a Heavy Explosive against a wall to make a hole and then fire exploding and/or incendiary ammunition into the building. This will clear out any walls or any other obstructions that can hide an alien. Any surviving aliens will end up in clear line of sight of your soldiers.
** A favorite tactic for TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: The expected route is to fight your way through the alien base and [[spoiler: destroy the central computer]]. A team of skilled psychics, on the other hand, can complete the mission in the first turn without even leaving the starting area, by simply [[PsychicAssistedSuicide mind-controlling the aliens]] to do it instead.
** The final mission of ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' pits you against three Ethereals, one of whom is far more powerful than anything you've faced to date, as well as a group of [[DemonicSpiders Muton Elites]]. Sending a trooper far enough into the final room (far enough to see the FinalBoss) triggers a cutscene and a cryptic MotiveRant from the FinalBoss, all of which can be skipped if you simply lob in [[StuffBlowingUp large amounts of heavy ordinance]]. Which is good, because the sheer amount of enemies in that one confined space can result in a TotalPartyKill within a single turn.
* ''[[VideoGame/XMenLegends X-Men Legends II]]'' has the "Ancient Labyrinth" section, which, true to its name, has a lot of mazes. One large maze takes quite a while to find your way through... Or you can just bash straight through the walls. The Juggernaut can even use his Super Move to casually stroll through the maze without breaking stride.
* Acknowledged in ''[[Website/GaiaOnline zOMG!]]'', which has guards stationed at the west and north entrances of Barton Town to try and prevent low-level players from leaving town in those directions (into Zen Gardens and Bassken Lake areas respectively). This doesn't work as well as you'd think, because the early-game areas don't have monsters that automatically attack players, so a surprising number of newbs ignore the quest chains, walk through the low-level areas without fighting anything and gaining experience, and [[TooDumbToLive then wonder why all the enemies in the higher-level areas suddenly aggro and oneshot them]].
* The bazooka in ''VideoGame/ZombiesAteMyNeighbors'' could not only blast open locked doors, but could also blast open ''many'' walls and barriers. This mechanic made this weapon too valuable to actually use on enemies.
* In the "Vacillia Battleships" stage in ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders: the 2nd Runner'', you're normally supposed to fight your way to each ship's WaveMotionGun and take that out, which leaves its [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak point]] in the back vulnerable to a shot from your own WaveMotionGun. What they ''don't'' tell you, is that your WaveMotionGun is actually powerful enough to take down those ships outright through sheer damage. If they get close enough, you can cripple one ship, wait until another gets close, then fire your cannon and just sweep the beam down it's length, ''then'' finish the first ship off.
[[/folder]]

** ''After'' using his mask to find the fastest way through the maze, minimizing the amount of walls they had to blow up.

* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'':
** During the Hunter Exam arc. Gon and his companions (plus Tonpa "The Rookie Killer", a SmugSnake who was acting like TheLoad on purpose) are near the exit of a tower full of traps when they come across a branch. The "easy path" goes straight to the exit, but the door to the easy path will only open if they leave two members of their group behind and chained to the wall. The "hard path" will allow all of them to exit, but will take too long for them to make the deadline for escaping the tower. However, the two exits are next to each other, so after some thought and a lot of effort, they manage to break through the wall separating the easy path and the hard path.
** Gon also did this in a later story arc. He and his friend had been manipulated into a mansion by a tough enemy talented in anticipating their movements (and who knew where the doors were). The heroic duo started kicking through the walls...
** One expert rock climber in the Hunter Exam tried to circumvent the tower entirely by simply climbing down. Unfortunately for him the skies around the tower were patrolled by man-eating giant birds.
* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Ed transmutes a DeathCourse into a perfectly inoffensive hallway.
* In ''[[Literature/FateZero Fate/Zero]]'' Kayneth el-Melloi turns the upper floors of the hotel he's renting into a fortress filled with magic traps and summoned monsters. The [[CombatPragmatist highly pragmatic]] Emiya Kiritsugu simply levels the entire building with explosives.
* Both subverted and played straight with the Maze Card in ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura''; trying to fly over the walls causes them to grow (or turns the maze into an Escher masterpiece), but the Moon Bell knocks down the walls in a straight line.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Occurs during the Enies Lobby arc. The crew has to reach the top of a courthouse tower and Zoro, whose sense of direction [[NoSenseOfDirection rivals Ryoga Hibiki]], is having a tough time finding his way. Eventually he realizes he merely needs to go up, and launches his ''Tatsumaki'' attack (straight upwards windcutting tornado) and clears a path upwards for himself, inadvertently sending Chopper and Nami up as well. Afterwards, Sanji presumably has the same idea and crashes through the room just after Zoro climbs out. At the same time, Usopp -- uh [[PaperThinDisguise Sogeking]] -- gets himself thrown to the roof from outside by a giant he had recently convinced to switch sides.
** Earlier, in the Alabasta arc, Sanji invokes this trope by realizing the easiest way to get to the clock tower in this maze of a city is to kick through the walls of every building in his way. This later comes back to bite him in the ass when he overhears townsfolk complaining about the repair work they'll have to do.
** Much later in the series, several members of the Straw Hat Pirates find themselves in a spooky forest with [[WhenTreesAttack animate trees]] that rearrange themselves to keep Luffy and the others lost inside. Luffy's solution is to simply destroy every tree that gets in his way -- before long, the trees realize there are too few of themselves to trap the main characters in any non-obvious way. Not long after ''that'', they just let the Straw Hat Pirates travel through however they want, as the ''trees'' are now the ones terrified of the pirates.
* ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'':
** Discussed in regards to the Great Tomb of Nazarick's teleportation system. If any invaders were to find and kill Aureole Omega, the NPC in charge of teleportation within Nazarick, they would have full access to the entirety of the Tomb, turning it from a NintendoHard MarathonLevel into a far simpler affair, allowing raiders to easily leave, restock, and return to where they left off, or just travel straight to the 10th floor.
** The route between Feo Jera and Feo Berkana in the Aserlisia Mountains is marked by three deadly trials - the [[BottomlessPits Great Chasm]], a sea of magma and its Lavalord Anglerfish, and a massive labyrinth that spews toxic gases. When Ainz and company were traveling to Feo Berkana to reclaim the dwarven capital, they simply flew over the Chasm and the lava sea. As for the labyrinth, he applied poison resistance to his non-undead comrades and used a spell to find the best route through.
* In a short story of ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', the SOS Brigade are stuck acting out a typical Medieval RPG in simulated space. Not only do they bypass a lot of dungeons and battles (by threatening an NPC, no less), but the biggest use of this trope is found when they reach the final dungeon, still at level one and probably lacking all the key items and skills they need to beat the last boss. The solution? Mikuru accidentally casts two doomsday level spells at once, completely demolishing the entire castle and the BigBad with it. [[FissionMailed And the hostages they were supposed to rescue.]]
* ''Anime/TheCatReturns'':
** The King's henchmen put up fake walls in a maze to make sure the heroes can't find their way to the end. However, the Baron realizes a wall is fake, and the kicks it down--which, since the henchmen had unknowingly set themselves up like dominoes, causes a chain reaction of falling walls until they form a pathway straight to the exit.
** Muta tries this earlier by climbing up the walls of the maze, but it turns out the guards expected that.
---> "[[NoFairCheating HE'S CHEEEEEEEAAATING!]]"
* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'': Hiei, Kurama and Kuwabara give Yusuke a boost to help him reach a window in Suzaku's tower on top of Maze Castle, enabling him to fight Suzaku while they work their way up to him.

%%* The only way anyone gets around in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''.
* In the Tower of Heaven arc of ''Manga/FairyTail'', [[BigBad Jellal]] taunts the heroes on the intercom and challenges them to fight their way up to top floor of the Tower of Heaven, where he will be waiting. Natsu decides to skip that, steps outside, then he and Happy attempt to just fly to the top. Unfortunately, [[EliteMooks Fukuro]] intercepts them and knocks them back down, then calls them out for "cheating".
* In ''Manga/MedakaBox: Abnormal'' the Student Council must descend 13 floors of goons to reach their objective. When presented with an elevator to take them down immediately, they decline. However, later in the arc they try to use it, only to be cut off by a group of henchman saying "Only a cheater would attempt to use this route!".
* The second season of ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'' has a rather funny example. Chased by the ''Andromeda'' and confiding in the superiority of their navigator over the ''Andromeda'''s computer, our heroes try to lose the pursuer by [[AsteroidThicket flying through the Asteroid Belt]]... [[OhCrap Only to find the]] ''[[OhCrap Andromeda]]'' [[OhCrap waiting for them on the other side]], her commander being smart enough to fly ''around'' it at a faster speed the ''Yamato'' could keep in the belt.
* In ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'', Dr. Genus activates traps on floors 1 through 8 of The House of Evolution- but Genos decides to simply vaporize the entire building at once and be done with everything. Turns out there was a basement though. Saitama calls him out on poor sportsmanship, and kinda wanted to see whatever challenge the villains may have had (if any).
* In ''Manga/MissionYozakuraFamily,'' Shinzo upped the Yozakura's booby traps in an attempt to keep Kyoichiro out, but the latter was so pissed at Taiyo that he simply tore through all of them instead of dodging them.
* ''Anime/CannonBusters'': In Madura City, when Sam is trying to find and rescue Philly from the Fetter, she determines his location and calculates the best route to reach him. Said route involves entering her Cannon Buster mode, obliterating everything between her and Philly, and creating a straight path.
* In a rare example where this was the intended solution, Anos Voldigoad of ''LightNovel/TheMisfitOfDemonKingAcademy'' designed a secret passage in his dungeon that had no hidden doors or secret mechanisms or teleportation device, just a solid wall in front of it. To access it, one just has to be physically strong enough to break down the wall, which Anos does by walking straight through it. Apparently, this was the only surefire way to thwart detection magic and guarantee his most valuable treasure would remain undiscovered during the 2000 years it took for Anos to reincarnate.
* In Episode 6 of the ''VideoGame/LapisReLights'' anime, α (Alpha) finds herself trapped in a HauntedHouse that's being magically distorted to be BiggerOnTheInside. Her solution is to use her PrehensileHair to slice through the fragile wooden and plaster walls, walking straight back to the foyer.
* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', when Kirito and Asuna are looking for a house on Floor 22 to buy, they stumble onto Argo and a Wizard of Oz-inspired Quest. Since their levels are miles above that floor's, the three of them use shortcuts like jumping on balconies that they aren't supposed to be able to reach.
* Faced with a 60 floor tower filled with traps and monsters, ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' and temporary party members Spear Man and Heavy Warrior proceed to climb the walls of the tower rather than enter.
* ''Manga/DungeonNoOsananajimi'': Chapter 5 opens with a description of how Van makes his way through Ryuuka's dungeon on a daily basis: Brute Force. Van's clearly established to be strong enough to take on all the monsters en route, but this sequence also shows him charging straight through the obstacles and traps, such as puzzle doors, in exactly the same way.

* A maze is a {{Leitmotif}} in Creator/MaryStewart's ''Touch Not the Cat'', and the climax is when the VillainWithGoodPublicity leads the DistressedDamsel heroine into the center of a complicated hedge-maze. The misunderstood hero uses hedge clippers to get to her.

* Right at the beginning of the rpg-story in ''Webcomic/AbsurdNotions''. Starts [[http://www.absurdnotions.org/page9.html here]], solution [[http://www.absurdnotions.org/page11.html here]].
* Tesla of the ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}'' does this [[https://web.archive.org/web/20030507220348/http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0388.html here]].

* "[[http://www.llbbl.com/data/RPG-motivational/target237.html POWERLEVELING]]: When you just don't have the time to dick around."

* In a rare example where this was completely intentional, Anos Voldigoad of ''LightNovel/TheMisfitOfDemonKingAcademy'' designed a secret passage in his dungeon that had no doors nor secret mechanisms or teleportation device, just a solid wall in front of it. To access it, one just has to be physically strong enough to break down the wall, which Anos does by walking straight through it. Apparently, this was the only surefire way to thwart detection magic and guarantee his most valuable treasure would remain undiscovered during the 2000 years it took for Anos to reincarnate.

* Some games with randomly generated dungeons, such as ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Baroque}}'', will occasionally end up generating a floor's exit right next to its entrance. You can't bypass the entire dungeon this way, but you pretty much end up bypassing that floor. One [[SpeedRun speedrunner]] takes advantage of this feature to finish ''{{VideoGame/Diablo}}'' in a matter of minutes, by [[SaveScumming reloading every time]] the next floor wasn't laid out this way.