History Main / MagikarpPower

* The Kol Battleship of ''SinsOfASolarEmpire'', despite its glowing description in lore, has poor antimatter reserves, unflattering damage and can be beaten by most other capital ships in a duel. However, with enough levels, its antimatter reserves grow to the point where it can use its abilities much more freely and the Finest Hour LimitBreak can dramatically turn a bad situation around.

* ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' has the Morrigi, who are also DifficultButAwesome. Their destroyer-class ships are fragile and strategically sluggish. Their population growth, terraforming ability, research speed and industrial growth are awful. However, if you know how to play them and get them to lategame, you find they have good to great chances at the best techs in the game, and their dreadnoughts are monsters. Liir also suck at start but become frightening once you get good techs.

* The move Return is this. It starts out rather weak, but since its power is tied to your Pokémon's Happiness stat, which increases with leveling up, winning, and even walking around, you can hit its max power of 102 eventually.

* While a complete list would fill the page, there's also Slakoth. Poor stats and it only acts every other turn, but at Level 16 it evolves into the psychotic Vigoroth - and after ''that'' into Slaking, which goes back to only acting every other turn but has one of the highest Attack stats in the game. Slaking's stat total actually matches the godlike [[MagmaMan Groudon]] and [[TheGreatFlood Kyogre]], and is the highest of any nonlegendary Pokémon in the game.

The TropeNamer is Magikarp from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', a ubiquitous, dim-witted, crap... er, ''carp''-like Pokémon that only knows the move "Splash", which, as the game gleefully informs you, 'has no effect'. It learns "Tackle" at level 15, but it's not even the best normal-type move to begin with. In short, [[TierInducedScrappy one of the suckiest]], [[JokeCharacter most useless, pointless]] '{{Mon}}s in the game. This is until you [[LevelGrinding painstakingly grind it up to level 20]], of course, at which point it evolves into [[GameBreaker Gyarados]], an awesome, intimidating [[SeaMonster water-dragon-qea serpent-death-machine-Leviathan]] ready to wreak vengeance from on high with its lethal abilities. Also, it can fly. This comes from [[http://www.koi-pond-guide.com/koi-fish-meaning.html an old Japanese legend]] that [[LegendaryCarp a carp that manages to swim up a waterfall can become a dragon through perseverance.]]

The TropeNamer is Magikarp from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', a ubiquitous, dim-witted, crap... er, ''carp''-like Pokémon that only knows the move "Splash", which, as the game gleefully informs you, 'has no effect'. It learns "Tackle" at level 15, but it's not even the best normal-type move to begin with. In short, [[TierInducedScrappy one of the suckiest]], [[JokeCharacter most useless, pointless]] '{{Mon}}s in the game. This is until you [[LevelGrinding painstakingly grind it up to level 20]], of course, at which point it evolves into [[GameBreaker Gyarados]], an awesome, intimidating [[SeaMonster water-dragon-serpent-death-machine-Leviathan]] ready to wreak vengeance from on high with its lethal abilities. Also, it can fly. This comes from [[http://www.koi-pond-guide.com/koi-fish-meaning.html an old Japanese legend]] that [[LegendaryCarp a carp that manages to swim up a waterfall can become a dragon through perseverance.]]

** Less extreme but still eligible is the Wizard class. It starts with a quarterstaff for a weapon and a piddly little Force Bolt for offence (and one random other spell). By endgame, Wizard is by far the most powerful class in the game. Area effect magic, infinite death spells, instantly mapping dungeon levels, instantly identifying unknown items, teleporting at will... all with nigh-infinite MP because of their quest artifact. Oh, and their first sacrifice gift allows for unlimited, instant, semi-permanent Elbereth. And zaps enemies with status ailments. And blocks curses. And is powerful enough to let Wizards play melee, if they so choose. Did I mention they get bonuses to Magic Marker use, hungerless casting, self-healing, no-items-needed levitation, Very Fast speed... you get the picture.

[[folder:Non-Video Game Examples]]
[[AC: Anime and Manga]]
* Certain characters in ''Manga/OnePiece'' (specifically [[GadgeteerGenius Usopp]] and [[DemBones Bro]][[BackFromTheDead ok]]) saw a drastic increase in skill following a two year TimeSkip. Usopp has learned how to make inventions that are genuinely useful and powerful (whereas before he usually relied on deceit and distraction while he ran or his allies set up attacks), on top of already being a hell of a marksman. Brook, the king of losing the SuperPowerLottery (his power allowed him to return from the dead, once) has learned how to separate his soul at will, making him the king of untraceable reconnaissance ([[PowerPerversionPotential and peeking into the women's baths]]).
** Nami underwent this as well. Originally, she was only capable of beating up your average {{Mook}}, her amazing ability to read and predict the weather not being terribly useful in a fight. Once Usopp invented a small-scale WeatherControlMachine for her, [[PowerOfTheStorm well...]]
* In ''HighSchoolDXD'', this is how Issei's Sacred Gear Boosted Gear works. Every ten seconds, his powers double and it can last as long as his body can take it without passing out.
* The ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' anime pulled this trope quite a bit; some of the most innocent-looking (and usually weak) Rookie Digimon evolve into more powerful Digimon than the rest could. One of the most notable examples is Patamon from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure''. Patamon had a weaker attack than his fellow Rookies and was the last of them to evolve, but became capable of evolving into Angemon, a Champion-level that could contend with Myotismon (whom the other children's Ultimate-level Digimon could not touch). His Ultimate form is also much stronger than others of his level, being effectively able to hold off the Mega-level Piedmon, who had easily dispatched the rest of the team.
** In ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' there was [[JerkAss Impmon]], a smart-mouthed Rookie level Digimon who was incredibly weak and got his ass handed to him in the only fight he engaged in during the first half of the series. Then comes the gang's journey to the Digital World, where they meet up with Impmon again, now digivolved into the incredibly powerful Beelzemon. He then proceeds to kick the ever-loving crap out of them, in accordance with the [[spoiler: [[DealWithTheDevil deal he made with Zhuqiaomon]]]].
* At the start of SpaceRunawayIdeon, the titular Ideon was actually rather humble when compared to other SuperRobot series (or even RealRobot series), its only armaments consisting of a beam cannon and rocket arrays that the crew of the Solo Ship strapped onto it, plus a few defensive shields. This is the same mech that became known as the "God Giant", capable of wiping out ''entire fleets'' and slicing planets in half.

[[AC:Film]]
* KungFuHustle; the guy who ends up fighting the BigBad is the scrub who at the start couldn't even fight little girls. He gets beaten the tar out of several times, but powers up every time.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In ''{{Flanimals}}'', a children's book by RickyGervais, the cute, puff-like Mernimbler becomes a ferocious monster that devours everything in sight[[note]]and gets chronic indigestion[[/note]] if one calls it cute and wants to touch it.

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* Every now and again, when a KamenRider first gets their power, they'll be using some base form with weak-ass weapons that break easily and no noticeable enhancement to their physical prowess, i.e. KamenRiderRyuki before contracting with the dragon. [[TheHero But as the]] [[TookALevelInBadass series goes on...]]

* Magic seems to work this way in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive''.
* In ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'', Ace Dick has a special attack called the [[TheGoonies Truffle Shuffle]], which has absolutely no effect and usually ends with him being killed. However, if he combines his Truffle Shuffle with one or more additional Ace Dicks, it can turn into an incredibly devastating attack.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''JohnnyTest'' parodied the original Magikarp Power in the episode "Johnnymon" (itself a parody of Pokémon). Johnny and Dukey decided to go into the Tinymon videogame, and when they couldn't get out, Susan and Mary went in after them. The game's version of Ash Ketchum ("Blast Ketchup") challenges them to a battle. The only Tinymon they can get is Cuddlebuns, which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: cute, adorable, and downright untrainable. During the battle, Cuddlebuns is injured. Mary decides to kiss Cuddlebuns to make it feel better, and it transforms into the legendary Screechereen. Ownage ensues. It turned out that a little love was all the training Cuddlebuns needed.
** Happens again in a later episode when Dukey and Johnny's dad, both turned into Tinymon, Mymuttdog and Imhistdad (both due to Blast Ketchup combining the first words they said into names) respectively. Both of them are even weaker than Cuddlebuns but when Johnny gives them enough power points, they evolve into the extremely powerful Dukundra and Dadoomarang. Once again, ownage ensues.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', baby dragons are fairly weak, being the size of a small child with their only major attack being (mostly) non-lethal fire breath. Once they reach adulthood, they're massive powerhouses with very few equals in size or strength.
** As a filly, Twilight Sparkle was apparently nowhere near the [[StoryBreakerPower powerhouse]] she is today. She comes very, very close to utterly failing a test to get into a school for gifted unicorns, when suddenly, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome cue Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom]]. Twilight Sparkle immediately has a surge of enormously powerful wild magic, not only hatching the dragon, but immediately supersizing him and turning her parents into potted plants. This is where it turns out Twilight has a talent for [[RedMage learning and casting ANY magic]], and she ends up becoming [[PhysicalGod Celestia]]'s personal student.
* Also, Roboto and Stinkor from ''HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse'' 2002 series. The former starts out as a chess player, but then decides to [[MoreDakka upgrade himself]], while the latter begins as a small villager and ends up being one of the most credible threats of the whole cartoon.
* ''CliffordTheBigRedDog''. In the books and the show, he's a tiny puppy, the runt of the litter, that Emily Elizabeth adopts despite being told it might not be a great plan. However, since she raised him with love and affection, he grew to be two stories high.
* In ''XMenEvolution'' Rogue doesn't have her comic book super strength and flying (presumably because she hasn't met Ms Marvel yet) so all she has is her power draining ability. This makes her rather useless in combat unless she can actually grab onto her enemies. But after a while, she's able to tap into most of the powers she's absorbed and use them at will.
--> '''Rogue:''' [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome My power is your power and I can use more than one!]]

[[AC:Real Life]]
* Humans. We start as useless screaming fleshbags of poo and vomit and take longer than most animals to become adults, but when we grow up and learn the right things, we are insanely powerful as a species compared to other animals.
[[/folder]]

The TropeNamer is Magikarp from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', a ubiquitous, dim-witted, crap... er, ''carp''-like Pokémon that only knows the move "Splash", which, as the game gleefully informs you, 'has no effect'. It learns "Tackle" at level 15, but it's not even the best normal-type move to begin with. In short, [[TierInducedScrappy one of the suckiest]], [[JokeCharacter most useless, pointless]] '{{Mon}}s in the game. This is until you [[LevelGrinding painstakingly grind it up to level 20]], of course, at which point it evolves into [[GameBreaker Gyarados]], an awesome, intimidating water-dragon-serpent-death-machine-Leviathan ready to wreak vengeance from on high with its lethal abilities. Also, it can fly. This comes from [[http://www.koi-pond-guide.com/koi-fish-meaning.html an old Japanese legend]] that [[LegendaryCarp a carp that manages to swim up a waterfall can become a dragon through perseverance.]]

The TropeNamer is Magikarp from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', a ubiquitous, dim-witted, crap... er, ''carp''-like Pokémon that only knows the move "Splash", which, as the game gleefully informs you, 'has no effect'. It learns "Tackle" at level 15, but it's not even the best normal-type move to begin with. In short, [[TierInducedScrappy one of the suckiest]], [[JokeCharacter most useless, pointless]] '{{Mon}}s in the game. This is until you [[LevelGrinding painstakingly grind it up to level 20]], of course, at which point it evolves into [[GameBreaker Gyarados]], an awesome, intimidating water-dragon-serpent-death-machine ready to wreak vengeance from on high with its lethal abilities. Also, it can fly. This comes from [[http://www.koi-pond-guide.com/koi-fish-meaning.html an old Japanese legend]] that [[LegendaryCarp a carp that manages to swim up a waterfall can become a dragon through perseverance.]]

The TropeNamer is Magikarp from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', a ubiquitous, dim-witted, crap... er, ''carp''-like Pokémon that only knows the move "Splash", which, as the game gleefully informs you, 'has no effect'. It learns "Tackle" at level 15, but it's not even the best normal-type attack to begin with. In short, [[TierInducedScrappy one of the suckiest]], [[JokeCharacter most useless, pointless]] '{{Mon}}s in the game. This is until you [[LevelGrinding painstakingly grind it up to level 20]], of course, at which point it evolves into [[GameBreaker Gyarados]], an awesome, intimidating water-dragon-serpent-death-machine ready to wreak vengeance from on high with its lethal abilities. Also, it can fly. This comes from [[http://www.koi-pond-guide.com/koi-fish-meaning.html an old Japanese legend]] that [[LegendaryCarp a carp that manages to swim up a waterfall can become a dragon through perseverance.]]

The TropeNamer is Magikarp from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', a ubiquitous, dim-witted, crap... er, ''carp''-like Pokémon that only knows the move "Splash", which, as the game gleefully informs you, 'has no effect'. In short, [[TierInducedScrappy one of the suckiest]], [[JokeCharacter most useless, pointless]] '{{Mon}}s in the game. This is until you [[LevelGrinding painstakingly grind it up to level 20]], of course, at which point it evolves into [[GameBreaker Gyarados]], an awesome, intimidating water-dragon-serpent-death-machine ready to wreak vengeance from on high with its lethal abilities. Also, it can fly. This comes from [[http://www.koi-pond-guide.com/koi-fish-meaning.html an old Japanese legend]] that [[LegendaryCarp a carp that manages to swim up a waterfall can become a dragon through perseverance.]]

** The cube of meat item will initially only act as a shield, blocking attacks against Isaac and inflicting collision dmage on enemies. Finding two will allow it to attack enemies in conjuntion with Isaac's tear attacks, three will turn it into a SuperMeatBoy pet who will seek and destroy enemies, and four will up meat boy's size and damage.

** Same goes for some of the other mercs that you can hire, notably Ira, who is assigned to you at the very start in ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance2''. She seems like a mediocre medic and awful everything else... except for her 83 wisdom that allows her to quickly become one of your elite soldiers.

** The game inverts this trope with the Nemesis. A very powerful weapon, which levels up (with only one experience point!) to... a less powerful (though still decent) weapon. Level it up again (one more EXP point!) and it shoots rubber ducks. 1 damage point rubber ducks. They don't even go very far. Essentially, this is a [[BreakableWeapons breakable weapon.]] Taking damage lowers weapon experience however, so you're not stuck with the rubber duckies for the whole game.
** On the ''other'' hand, refuse to trade away your wimpy initial weapon until the near-end of the game, and you'll be able to upgrade it to the almighty Spur. This is partially a reward for honesty, since said wimpy initial weapon technically doesn't belong to you.

** In [[GuildWars2 the sequel]], Mesmers again fall victim to this trope. Initially they are very off-putting. Most of the other classes have unique and useful class-exclusive mechanics, while the mesmer's only real power is to create very weak clones of himself, in addition to being a SquishyWizard. Later on, with the proper skill setup and trait point distribution, they become absolute monsters capable of piling on damage in many different ways, ''often all at once'', while creating mass confusion by pumping out identical copies of themselves that explode ForMassiveDamage.

** Necromancers would fall under this catagory as well. Initially, they seem like one of the weakest classes in the game, only able to deal weak hits and ''very slowly'' drain an enemy's health bar, while the Necromancer himself ''[[SquishyWizard takes damage like a newborn baby]]''. However, once you hunt down some of their more useful skills and start capturing elites, they become extremely versatile and devastating in both PvP and PvE.

* ''TheBindingOfIsaac'':

* Several weapons in ''[[VideoGame/{{Onimusha}} Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams]]'' are like this, one of which is the Onimaru, a katana for Jubei. It can be dropped by an early-game enemy, but its attack power is much lower than the other weapons you can get for her at that point. Level it up enough and it gains Attack +100, and Generate Attack Wave (which shoots energy waves with every attack made with the weapon, thus increasing its range). Jubei will then be able to shred through nearly everything you come across and continues to be useful even in the second disc.

*** Lachesis, who joins during the first half and is just as weak (though she has the benefit of being able to use healing staves along with swords), but promotes into the insanely powerful Master Knight (a class she shares only with Leaf).

* Named for the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' Magikarp, who has horrible (but not the worst) stats and can only naturally learn four moves outside of events[[note]]Splash, Tackle, Flail, Bounce - with Flail being introduced in Generation II, and Bounce first becoming available to Magikarp beginning in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pokémon Platinum]]'' (which was actually a paltry ''two'' moves at the time of its original debut appearance in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'')[[/note]], one of which does absolutely nothing, and cannot be taught anything else from [=TMs=], [=HMs=], or the Move Tutor. However, it eventually evolves into [[SeaMonster Gyarados]], one of the most powerful and versatile creatures in the game. Aside from [[GameBreaker those in the Uber tier]], it's still a staple in many non-competitive players' teams.

** The main thing Feebas has going for it is that it can learn [=TMs=]. Magikarp's only non-level learned move is Bounce, which is Tutored.

** Beldum can attest to Level 20's awesomeness, as it goes from a floating leg that can only learn Take Down, an average powered move with poor accuracy that damages the user, to Metang, which becomes the [[MightyGlacier defensive and powerful]] Metagross at level 45.

** Then there's Moody, an ability that increases a random stat at the start of every turn, and the only ability to be ''[[GameBreaker banned by clause.]]''

* Porygon was yet another JunkRare back in the first generation, with poor defenses and speed, but a somewhat decent movepool. You have to trade the thing ''twice'' to get it to evolve into Porygon-Z, which has a crapton of Special Attack and can relearn Nasty Plot (which ''doubles'' that already high Special Attack) once it evolves.

** For about the first half of the ''Dawn of War II'' campaign, Cyrus deals pathetic damage, dies easily and is the epitome of UselessUsefulStealth. Level him up, give him a sniper rifle and various explosives, and allocate the right traits to him (especially the ones that make his stealth ''incredibly'' useful) however and he becomes the single most versatile character, effective against all enemy types.

* Named for the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' Magikarp, who has horrible (but not the worst) stats and can only learn five moves total[[note]]Splash, Tackle, Flail, Bounce, and Hydro Pump - with Flail being introduced in Generation II, Bounce first becoming available to Magikarp beginning in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pokémon Platinum]]'', and Hydro Pump is event-exclusive (which was actually a paltry ''two'' moves at the time of its original debut appearance in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'')[[/note]], one of which does absolutely nothing, and cannot be taught anything else from [=TMs=], [=HMs=], or the Move Tutor. However, it eventually evolves into [[SeaMonster Gyarados]], one of the most powerful and versatile creatures in the game. Aside from [[GameBreaker those in the Uber tier]], it's still a staple in many non-competitive players' teams.

* Shroomish, a silly-looking walking mushroom (no, not ''that'' [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros walking mushroom]]), starts with poor stats in everything but its defenses and health. It evolves pretty early, but that's not what you want. If you have the patience to keep cancelling the evolution and dragging it around until it reaches level 45 (in Generation III it was level ''54''), it learns Spore, which ''always'' causes sleep. Pretty useful, since the only other possessors of said move aren't that good in regular combat. Then, once evolved into Breloom (a slightly less silly-looking [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot mushroom kangaroo boxer]]), it gains a ''ton'' of Attack stats (from 40 to ''130'', the most of any non-legendary Grass-type), the Fighting type, and plenty of good moves. Plus, its abilities are pretty good- either it heals from getting poisoned (works well with a Toxic Orb held item), inflicts status ailments when hit, or boosts the power of moves with 60 base power or lower by 50%; breed Wake-Up Slap onto it and combine it with Spore, plus its incredible Attack, and you've got an incredible combo. It may be [[DifficultButAwesome a bit of a challenge to use]] and is kinda slow, but it's worth carrying it around for 22 levels more than it needs.

* To get a wizard to learn the Arcane Omniscience skill in ''HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' V, you need to let them learn a specific set of skills (Sorcery, Enlightenment, and War Machines), which typically means neglecting their other skills and being forced to rely on low level, low power spells until they're about level 23+. Once they learn Arcane Omniscience, however, they instantly have every spell in the game added to their spellbook, and can cast them all at expert level mastery.

* The Crystal/Big Star weapons in ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi 3''. Initially they start with low attack power (usually 9 or 10), but at max proficiency they gain a plus 54 attack increase, making them the most powerful weapons in the game, barring certain others.