History Main / NoGearLevel

* [[Recap/CaptainNTheGameMasterS1E12MetroidSweetMetroid An episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' involved this. Mother Brain pretends to run out of power, and a portal back to Earth opens to take Captain N home. He gives back his power items before he goes, then finds out it was a trick and he's actually in Mother Brain's fortress. She drops Captain N into the monster-infested maze of the game, expecting him to die without his powers. Unfortunately for her, he's mastered ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' and manages to get to the end thanks to his GenreSavvy status. Interesting for being an example before video games made this trope a thing.

* Every time you nearly fall to your death and have to climb up to safety in ''VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour'', you'll reach the top with ''none'' of your weapons, items, or even first aid kits. You don't get your lost gear back, either; this is the game's sneaky way of keeping you from hoarding your items.
* The first third of the ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'' is played like this, and after that you still lose all your weapons in several occasions to retain the horror feel. Once you're strangely quickly given a pistol, even though the only monster in the level is utterly immune to bullets, and in other time you're reduced to a pistol, even though you would think that being sent to help a party of soldiers would call for ''more'' arsenal.
* ''VideoGame/FatalFrameII'': Mio dropped her ghost-capturing camera after she was surprised by a ghost in the tunnel between haunted houses full of ghosts. Yeah, that's just as lame as it sounds, ''especially'' because the camera is her only "weapon" in the game. Worse, the very next puzzle [[{{Unwinnable}} can lock you]] with a ghost that is supposedly trivial to defeat, if only Mio has her camera.]]

* In ''VideoGame/CondemnedCriminalOrigins'', the final level strips the air taser that the player has had the entire game. The ''[[DiscOneNuke extremely efficient]]'' air taser that it was easy to rely on as the primary weapon through the entire game.
* At one point in ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'', you're required to use an elevator that can hold one person. And ''[[MalevolentArchitecture only]]'' one person. You have to drop all your weapons and health items, ride the elevator down, then [[DoorToBefore work your way back to your possessions]].
* In ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'', Alex begins [[spoiler:the final level]] with all his (by now, considerable) stock of weapons missing. Thankfully, a quick look around the area turns up the combat knife and a basic pistol. Find an optional semi-hidden key and you'll gain access to the locker room, where all your items are conveniently stashed.
* Every time you nearly fall to your death and have to climb up to safety in ''VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour'', you'll reach the top with ''none'' of your weapons, items, or even first aid kits. You don't get your lost gear back, either; this is the game's sneaky way of keeping you from hoarding your items.
* The first third of the ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'' is played like this, and after that you still lose all your weapons in several occasions to retain the horror feel. Once you're strangely quickly given a pistol, even though the only monster in the level is utterly immune to bullets, and in other time you're reduced to a pistol, even though you would think that being sent to help a party of soldiers would call for ''more'' arsenal.
* ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' has the annoying habit of dropping all of his weapons, lights and ammo in between the chapters. Sometimes even in the same chapter due to cutscene stupidity. One part of the game forces you to navigate an area ''filled'' with bear traps without any weapons, and getting caught in a trap spawns an enemy that you can't kill due to your lack of weapons. If you get caught in one, you're bound to get caught in another since you now have to flee from the enemy chasing you instead of taking it slow and careful, which means there are now ''two'' enemies chasing you, and it continues to spiral downhill from there.
* ''VideoGame/FatalFrameII'': Mio dropped her ghost-capturing camera after she was surprised by a ghost in the tunnel between haunted houses full of ghosts. Yeah, that's just as lame as it sounds, ''especially'' because the camera is her only "weapon" in the game. Worse, the very next puzzle [[{{Unwinnable}} can lock you]] with a ghost that is supposedly trivial to defeat, if only Mio has her camera.]]

* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':

* During TheStinger of ''VideoGame/ObsCure II'' (as in, it turns out that [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle the end credits weren't the actual ending]]), Shannon and Stan find themselves kidnapped by the GreaterScopeVillain and stripped of their weapons. After they escape when monsters wreck the van they were in, they must defend themselves with only a flare gun (which is actually a very handy weapon when fighting [[WeakenedByTheLight darkness monsters]]) and a baseball bat. They recover ''most'' of their weapons before facing the TrueFinalBoss.
* ''VideoGame/CryOfFear'' has a level where you lose all your weapons and items (including your [[StuckItems undroppable cell phone]]) in a train crash, and if that wasn't enough, you also lose three inventory slots. Right after, the player is given a rather weak but useful tree branch and a lantern.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'': The Proving Grounds Shrines has Link stripped of his clothes and weapons with the task to use surrounding items to defeat all the Constructs. The gear removal happens during the transition as you enter, so there's no opportunity to smuggle things in.

* The Citadel DLC for the third game at one point drops you into a firefight with only a level one pistol you just stole from a goon and no armour, allies or medi-gel, which is pretty inconvenient after you fall quite a long distance and get beaten down to only one health box out of five as a scripted event. Of course, you still have all of your powers, which can be astoundingly destructive if you're a power-based class, and the pistol is really quite powerful if you [[BoomHeadshot aim for the head]].

** Although by then there aren't very many enemies left to fight, the last leg of the final game's final dungeon has Shepard going it alone, no armor, and only a pistol. All other weapons are presumably destroyed or lost when Shepard is caught in an explosion prior to reaching the ship, which also reduces their armor to a charred mostly destroyed undershirt.

* ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' has a brief one of these. After [[spoiler: the Loyalists turn on you and poison you]], you are left for dead in a prison cell with all of your gear thrown to the bottom of a shaft. You can make your way back to this shaft to recover everything if you so choose. It will also net you the achievement/trophy "This is mine".

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': The Citadel DLC at one point drops you into a firefight with only a level one pistol you just stole from a goon and no armour, allies or medi-gel, which is pretty inconvenient after you fall quite a long distance and get beaten down to only one health box out of five as a scripted event. Of course, you still have all of your powers, which can be astoundingly destructive if you're a power-based class, and the pistol is really quite powerful if you [[BoomHeadshot aim for the head]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' takes away all your equipment at the beginning of the Flooded District level. Although it is entirely possible to get it all back, beating the rest of the game without it is simple enough using magic powers and choke holds that you don't need to at all.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'': The Proving Grounds Shrines has Link stripped of his clothes and weapons with the task to use surrounding items to defeat all the Constructs.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', a pair of {{mooks}} who want revenge for you "killing their buddies" ([[MoralMyopia never mind that they started it]]) dump you in [[TheWallsAreClosingIn the trash compactor from]] ''Franchise/StarWars'', taking away all your weapons in the process.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'':
** After infiltrating the Citadel, you're stripped of all weapons except for the gravity gun, [[EleventhHourSuperpower which gets upgraded]].
** Inverted in ''Half-Life 2: Episode 1'', in that it happens early in the game before you have much of a weapon collection, and the gravity gun is immediately turbo-charged to use for more gameplay goodness than [=HL2=] allowed with it.
** Inverted once again in ''Half-Life 2: Episode 2''. Unlike ''Episode 1'', you eventually acquire more weapons halfway into the first chapter

* Again, in ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
** The segment where you play as Ashley in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' amounts to this. Ashley can fight back by throwing lanterns at enemies, but that's about it.
** At one point in the Lost in Nightmares DLC for ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', Jill and Chris fall down a shaft and lose all of their equipment. After the fall, you're forced to wander through a labyrinth that has several enemies with the large axe. You have to use the traps that are dotted around the area to kill them.
** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'', Jake and Sherry are captured and stripped of all their gear at the beginning of Chapter 3. Thankfully, for those who chose to play as Jake, [[GoodOldFisticuffs his bare hands tend to do more damage than his guns anyways]].

* In the ''Prince of Persia'' games:

* Franchise/FinalFantasy

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': the Citadel DLC at one point drops you into a firefight with only a level one pistol you just stole from a goon and no armour, allies or medi-gel, which is pretty inconvenient after you fall quite a long distance and get beaten down to only one health box out of five as a scripted event. Of course, you still have all of your powers, which can be astoundingly destructive if you're a power-based class, and the pistol is really quite powerful if you [[BoomHeadshot aim for the head]].

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Emily, a rookie witch at an evil WizardingSchool, begins taking extra physical combat training from the elite student Ceranna. At the training's outset, Ceranna forbids Emily from using her various crafted items because she thinks Emily has been using those tools as crutches so that she doesn't need to develop real power because she can instead rely on her trinkets. Emily is thus forced to do all her extra training without any of her tools.

* In ''VideoGame/SiN'', John Blade is mutated into a monster right after one of the later stages, and spends a whole level (plus an optional bonus one) running through dangerous and deadly test chambers before being turned back into a human, which immediately reverts him back to his human form - along with all his weapons, ammo and special items returning (with no explanation of where they were in the interim).

** The end of ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'', when Samus is stripped of her Power Suit and has to navigate a part of the game with just a "[[LampshadeHanging rather useless emergency pistol]]."

*** The DLC Trial of the Sword casts you into a large 45-floor dungeon (Sword Monk's Shrine) with no items except the Paraglider and the Sheikah Slate, because it is your spirit venturing in the dungeon.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'':
** In ''VideoGame/Doom3'', shortly after deciding whether to call the fleet or not, the PC's teleported to Hell and loses all his weapons. Then you're fighting the big monsters you've been saving rocket shells for with a shotgun and dead ends. When you return to Mars, you lose your weapons again (except for the Soul Cube), but thankfully, you reacquire most of your arsenal right at the start of your return.
** The ''Doom 2'' mod ''Vanguard'' has the player die at the end of level 5, forcing him to go through level 6 (aptly named "Punchline") with nothing but a pistol and a [[PowerFist berserk fist]]. All these [[TheGoomba imps and zombiemen]] suddenly become a real threat, and the moment where you get the shotgun back gives you the "yeah, I'm back in the game!" feeling.

* In ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamLand'', when Kirby enters the other dimension through the openings unlocked from using the Ultra Copy Abilities, he loses his ability and must make his way through an obstacle course with only his normal moves.

* A variant is done with ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles''[='s=] two DLC mini-campaigns. "Edy Detachment Challenge" forces you to use specific units, who are all reset to a predetermined level and with a predetermined loadout, both of which are almost guaranteed to be weaker then what you have in the main campaign. Meanwhile, "Behind Her Blue Flame" gives you control of Selvaria in all her [[GameBreaker overpowered glory]], but also forces her to drag along a team of mediocre Imperial units who haven't even reached Elite status.

** In the second game, the above examples can be repeated with the looters, who will capture Chuck if they manage to knock him down, stripping him of his clothes and taking his items.

* Also happens several times to Franchise/JamesBond in ''VideoGame/EverythingOrNothing''. Quite frankly, you end up wondering why they even bother to take his weapons at all, when there are so many unlocked armouries for Bond to take his pick from. In general, Bond is infamous for this, because the enemies never take away his gadgets.