History Main / MagikarpPower

** The ''Afterbirth+'' expansion for ''Rebirth'' includes a new active item called [[PowerOfTheVoid "The Void"]]. While it initially doesn't do much on its own, it can "consume" any pedestal item(s) in a room and either provide a random stat boost if it's a passive item or permanently gain its effect if it's an active item (with some exceptions such as single use active items), as a result, the Void gets continually more powerful the more active items it consumes while the user gets more powerful the more passive items it consumes. Depending on what items it absorbs, the Void can easily become the single most powerful active item in the game.
** [[JustForPun The Magikarp Power of the Void]] is demonstrated nicely through the ''Afterbirth+'' unlockable character Apollyon: a subpar (stat wise) clone of Isaac who starts the game with the Void, before breaking it with good charge management and some luck.

** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'', Claire's default SLS 60 is a dinky five-shot revolver that has to be reloaded one bullet at a time and is pretty much obsoleted by the JMB Hp3 as soon as you get it due to the latter's semiautomatic capability and included laser sight. Then you get the Reinforced Frame for the SLS 60 in the sewers, and it becomes the game's [[HandCannon Magnum]], with stupidly powerful damage per shot with High-Powered Rounds and the ability to switch to standard Handgun Ammo if you run dry.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'':
** The Handcannon, which can't even be purchased until you've beaten the game at least once, and whose ammo is incredibly rare, making it pretty much a paperweight once you own it. Spending a ridiculous amount of money to upgrade it, however, gives it infinite ammo and a firepower rating that lets you one-hit-kill pretty much everything in the game. The only problem is you get access to it so late in the game and after so many proofs of prowess, it's at best a BraggingRightsReward.
** The 9mm handgun you begin the game with is arguably the weakest firearm in the game. However, once you max it out it becomes five times more likely to get a critical headshot which, so long as you hit enemies in the head, virtually turns into a one-hit-mook-killing machine.
** Same with the shotgun found in Pueblo which, while far from ''useless'' is still swiftly outclassed by better weapons. Max it out and it gains the unique attribute which ignores pellet dispersion and averts ShortRangeShotgun: now if even so much as a single pellet fired hits an enemy at any distance, they take the same damage they'd take ''if hit by the entire blast at point-blank range''. Suddenly the thing is able to floor entire crowds with a single-shot, something no weapon other than the rocket launcher or a grenade is capable of doing, and can easily blow multiple heads off per shot which is something no other weapon can do.
** It can be quite easy for players to overlook the TMP. It starts out as a LittleUselessGun which deals anemic damage per shot, chews through ammo like popcorn and is ineffectual at any range besides very close because Leon shoots from the hip using it. With some upgrades and the Stock however, the TMP is a marvellous alternative to a shotgun. A pinpoint-accurate 4-round burst is ideal for taking out thrown axes or dynamite efficiently or tacking a head or knee shot on a Ganado which can be followed up with a melee kick to open up some room, but spraying and praying will also shred shields and small mobs with little trouble (and with the Stock, you can do this at ranges that [[ShortRangeShotgun exceed the effective range of a shotgun]]). TMP ammo pickups come in boxes of 30 or so and are quite common, and the Exclusive upgrade gives you a [[{{Hammerspace}} stupidly big 250-round magazine]].

* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'':** The Apothecary job (not [[GameBreaker Concoct]]) is generally considered the weakest of the initial eight jobs, mainly because all its skills are single-target ones--Last Stand notwithstanding--including First Aid and Vivify, single-target versions of the Cleric skills Heal Wounds/More and Revive, albeit restoring more HP[[note]]which actually makes the Apothecary job consistently good for solo runs[[/note]]. However, the Apothecary job becomes significantly more useful late-game, once you've unlocked Sealticge's Seduction[[note]]The Dancer divine skill, that turns the target's single-target skills into multi-target ones for three turns[[/note]], Dohter's Charity[[note]]The Apothecary divine skill, that makes consumable items affect the entire party for three turns[[/note]] and can farm items like Refreshing Jams[[note]]Fully restores HP and SP. Can be farmed from Accursed Armors in Lorn Cathedral: Cellars, which is unlocked during Therion's Chapter 4; Animated Armors, found in the four advanced job shrines and Everhold Tunnels; and Brigand Leaders III in the aforementioned Lorn Cathedral: Cellars[[/note]], Revitalizing Jams[[note]]Fully restores HP, SP ''and'' BP. Can be farmed from Revenants on Grimsand Road, which is unlocked during H'aanit's Chapter 4; and Caits/Cultured Caits [[MetalSlime if you're lucky]][[/note]] and Energizing Pomegranates (M)[[note]]Restores 2 BP. Can be farmed from Frostwing Serpents in The Whitewood, which is unlocked during H'aanit's Chapter 3; Forest Ratkings III on the East Duskbarrow Trail; and Cliff Birdkings III on the South Orewell Pass[[/note]] with a Thief equipping Snatch[[note]]A Thief support skill that lets the equipping character Collect/Steal twice as much money/loot from enemies[[/note]].

** The Geck card has a meager one point in health and attack and no sigils. It's also the only card without a blood cost so it is adaptable to just about any situation. Put the Field Mice's sigil on it and you have a perpetual sacrifice machine with no drawbacks.

* Nath appears as a DLC character in ''VideoGame/OneHundredPercentOrangeJuice''. She begins with negligible combat stats (-1 ATK, -1 DEF and +1 EVA), however, when she uses a battle card, she stores one stack of "Active Extension", which gives her +1 ATK and DEF, at the cost of -1 EVA, and can store up to 3 stacks of this special ability; and her Hyper, called "Another Ultimate Weapon", gives her +1 ATK and DEF, +1 additional ATK and DEF for every 20 stars spent in this card, meaning she can rack up her attack to a maximum of +9, and demolish anything the game has to offer.

*** Quack-o-Ray. At first it just [[ForcedTransformationtransforms enemies into ducks]], but at higher levels these ducks lay eggs that seek enemies and then explode, and for final level the first transformed enemy will be duck from hell that stays with you and attacks enemies.

** The Disc Blade Gun, which is pathetically weak by the time and for the price tag you get it. V2 does not help it much with saws reflecting from walls, but not enemies and slightly higher damage. ''Then'' at V3 its damage more than doubles, and discs starts to bounce of enemies as well, allowing it to hit many enemies with a single disc (especially with their latent homing abilities). The final upgrade causes disc to split each time they hit an enemy up to 16 discs, making it an effective crowd-controller.
** Quack-o-Ray. At first it just [[ForcedTransformationtransforms enemies into ducks]], but at higher levels these ducks lay eggs that seek enemies and then explode, and for final level the first transformed enemy will be duck from hell that stays with you and attacks enemies.

** The Hoverbomb gun. Holds only 10 charges, costs more than The Bouncer, is available only quite late into the game and while it has technically unlimited range, you keep your usual view so good luck hitting anything with it outside of point-blank range. Even though mines are powerful, the above makes it hard to use mines efficiently. If you persist and upgrade it though, it becomes Tetrabomb gun, which shoots ''[[NonIndicativeName five]]'' mines at the price of one, and is one of most damaging weapons in the game. Nothing prevents you from using it as mine shotgun then.

** From ''Videogame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'', the Shield Charger. It surrounds you with shield that negates all damage and slightly damages enemies that touch it, but it has kinda low ammunition that cannot be found in crates and does not stay on that long. Upgrade it - which is very hard to do - and it becomes Tesla Barrier, that shocks nearby enemies with surprisingly powerful shocks, takes much more punishment, and gets more ammo.
** Plasma Coil from the same game is basically a plasmatic rocket-launcher that damages a single enemy and zaps everyone nearby. Cool, but not as powerful as you would expect from a weapon that costs 150000 bolts (more than [[GameBreaker Bouncer]] that is available two planets prior). 15 shots only don't help at all. Upgrade it and it becomes Plasma Storm that shoots a ball of plasma that shocks all enemies it travels by, possibly multiple times, and can clean a room by itself.
** Also from second installment, we have Gravity Bomb/Mini-Nuke. It is your starting weapon and upgrade makes nice mushroom cloud, but that's it, and will probably fall by the wayside for the rest of the game. Until NewGamePlus, that's it, where its upgrade to mega version costs as much as Zodiac and more than [[InfinityPlusOneSword R.Y.N.O II]], but its ammunition goes from 8 to 20 (and 30 for Ultra version), while the damage becomes on par with said weapons and is ramped further when upgraded to Ultra.
** From ''Videogame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'', the Holo-Shield Glove. V1: blocks a few projectiles before it shorts out, and serves no secondary purpose. In a word: useless. V2: blocks more damage, and sucks the very lifeforce from your enemies to heal you. In a word: awesome. It then begins to CounterAttack enemies, and shields become bigger.
** From the same game, the Infector. It's a complete bitch to upgrade, the hardest in the game and only ever has 15 ammo, 20 or so max. V1, shoots out a ball of goo that does small damage, V2 makes the infection last a bit longer by a few seconds, V3 has splash damage, V4 has slightly better splash damage and homing, and V5? Launches out a massive Infecto-Bomb, hence its name, that infects the blast radius and anything the resultant 6-8 globs of goo seek out and find, with phenominally better performance.
** The same game has also Disc Blade Gun, which is pathetically weak by the time and for the price tag you get it. V2 does not help it much with saws reflecting from walls, but not enemies and slightly higher damage. ''Then'' at V3 its damage more than doubles, and discs starts to bounce of enemies as well, allowing it to hit many enemies with a single disc (especially with their latent homing abilities). The final upgrade causes disc to split each time they hit an enemy up to 16 discs, making it an effective crowd-controller.

* ''VideoGame/{{Broforce}}: when [[Film/{{Highlander}} Brolander]] spawns in, he starts with no special attack and abysmal running speed. Successful kills and ammo drops power him up and give him his special attack (which also doubles as an indicator of his current power level). At the fifth stage, he moves faster than any other character in the game, deals insane amounts of damage, zaps enemies just by being near them, and has the ability to resurrect himself at the cost of his accumulated power.

* ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' pre-revamp had the bowmaster. Early on, they were clunky to play and pretty much outclassed by night lords in every way. However, at the third job they started getting skills that were very useful and by fourth they had the fastest attack in the game, and unlike Night Lords they don't have to worry about ammo.

* The British civilization in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'' is incredibly slow to start off with, but in the 4th and 5th ages their epic Musketeers and rocket artillery form some of the strongest armies in the game.

*** In ''Victoria'', Punjab is one of the few Indian states that isn't under Britain's thumb, and thus stands a relatively good chance of working its way up to GP status and kicking the British out of India. A good player can do this by around 1870. Heck, [[http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?568991-Subcontinental-Subtleties-An-experimental-comic-AAR one of the most critically acclaimed After Action Reports for the game was Punjab]].

* Good old "useless" Colin from ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising]]''. He's a rookie whose units have reduced attack power in exchange for a 20% discount on manufacturing cost, and one of his first major missions is a [[HoldTheLine Hold The Line Style]] setup which goes out of its way to remind you he is useless. Later in the game, when the strong units (Like Battleships and Bombers) are in use, his weakness is suddenly a moot point since his units are ''still'' doing tons of damage and that discount means you're saving thousands on new units. [[GameBreaker Happy smashing!]]

** She's also like this in her debut game ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha 2''. And she's also a main character.
*** In Alpha 2 she only gets a massive stat boost as part of a plot event in stage 32 (namely finally shaking off her self doubt and loathing. Before then leveling her to max won't help her any. In fact weak Ibis and strong Ibis have separate character data. Strong Ibis has a few different abilities (and loses a useful ability weak Ibis had that helped keep her alive though you no longer need it at that point) and her outfit in game is different.
** [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory Gundam 0083]]'s Kou Uraki's a more reasonable example, combining with TookALevelInBadass. Kou starts out underleveled and in an inferior machine. Between leveling up and getting the GP-03, you realize problems with him in the past didn't come from himself, but simply his machine.
*** And then he gets the [=GP03=] Dendrobium Orchis, [[LightningBruiser a Gundam with as much size, HP, and Armor as a typical super robot, while still being able to dodge like a normal Gundam]].

*** The Borot itself is often a kind of Magikarp Power - while it starts out with terrible stats and no ability to hit airborne enemies, its weapons are extremely cheap to upgrade and become ''stronger'' than those on Mazinger itself. With four part slots, you can easily buff up its stats and give it flight, fixing its anti-air issues.

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* The {{Trope Namer|s}} is inspired by a [[LegendaryCarp legend that a carp]] that manages to go UP a certain waterfall [[{{Determinator}} (which naturally would require a huge amount of determination)]] will be transformed into a dragon.

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-->-- '''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Magikarp]],''' via MemeticMutation

* Issei Hyoudou from ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'':

* The Adventurer class in ''LightNovel/KonoSuba''. The class' main perk is PowerCopying, which allows the Adventurer to learn any skill that is displayed and named in front of them. Most people just upgrade to a different class as soon as they can because learning worthwhile skills is usually dangerous. Kazuma, who is forced to remain in the class to offset his partners' CripplingOverspecialization, soon realizes that (a) with some inventive he can use the skills he learns to cause effects that no one considered and (b) any skill means ''any'' skill - which includes a Lich's Drain Touch [[spoiler:or Megumin's Explosion, which he uses to kill the [[BigBad Demon King]]]].

* The Legendary Weapons from ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'', especially the Legendary Shield. Initially, they are basic weapons that give basic boosts to their users. When upgraded (whether by adding materials, copying similar weapons or just training with them) they boost the wielders' abilities to demigod levels and give multiple abilities that allow them to become more powerful.

* In ''LightNovel/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' most basic skills start off weak and underwhelming but are very powerful at level 10. The most infamous example in-universe is "Appraisal" which at level 1 only rewards basic info like "wall" or "deer" while causing a massive headache with each use. Most people decide not to learn it as a result despite it being able to supply massively valuable information at higher levels.

The {{Trope Namer|s}} is Magikarp from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', a [[ComMons ubiquitous]], dim-witted, carp-like Pokémon who only knows the move Splash, which, as the game gleefully informs you, "''has no effect''". It learns Tackle, the most basic attack in ''Pokémon'', at level 15, and a lucky few have it as an innate skill, but its Attack stat is so low that it still does minimal damage. In short, it's pathetic... Until you [[LevelGrinding painstakingly grind it up to level 20]], at which point it evolves into Gyarados, a [[SeaMonster sea leviathan]] ready to wreak vengeance from on high with its own lethal abilities. Magikarp is based on [[http://www.koi-pond-guide.com/koi-fish-meaning.html an old Japanese legend]] about [[LegendaryCarp a carp which manages to swim up a waterfall and becomes a dragon through sheer perseverance.]]

*** ''Three Houses'' also provides a slightly unusual example by applying it to the three main healers. Linhardt and Marianne both start with a [=D+=] in Faith, allowing them to reach the Physic spell (long range healing of a single unit) more quickly than Mercedes, who starts with a lower D rank. Once they reach that threshold however, Linhardt eventually learns Warp and Marianne learns Silence and [[LightEmUp Aura]], halting their development as healers in favor of other forms of support. Mercedes continues to develop as a dedicated healer and eventually learns the mass-healing spell Fortify, one of only two units to do so. Mercedes has the weakest start as a healer but by far the strongest finish.

* ''Manga/KurokosBasketball'': Ryota Kise is introduced as the weakest member of the [[DreamTeam Generation of Miracles]], having only started playing basketball during his second year of middle school. However, his natural athleticism and ability to [[PowerCopying instantly learn techniques]] after [[AwesomenessByAnalysis seeing them once]] resulted in a rapid growth in his skills that far outpaced that of the other members. By the end of the series, Kise's acquired two particular abilities that when combined, make him the strongest player on the court: [[spoiler:[[AllYourPowersCombined Perfect Copy]], which allows him to use the techniques of the other members of the Generation of Miracles simultaneously, and the [[SuperMode Zone]], which lets him play at one-hundred-percent efficiency]].