History Main / OutsidetheBoxTactic

* This thinking is what ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is known for, from creating a Slayer army to defeat the FinalBoss to the time she found out whether a demon who claimed to be invincible wasn't rocket proof. This appears to be the point of the Cruciamentum, a test undergone by Slayers who make it to 18 which strips them of their usual strength until they are at about the same as an ordinary human, thus forcing them to rely on other skills to defeat a particularly dangerous vampire.

* In ancient Greece, armies used the phalanx formation where soldiers would have several lines of soldiers of equal lengths with the front line interlocking shields. Because the shield was held in the left hand, the soldiers on the right of the formation would not benefit from the interlocking shields; to compensate, the toughest soldiers would be placed on the right side. At the Battle of Leuctra between Sparta -- the dominant power of the time and with a reputation of having a strong army -- and Thebes, the Theban general Epaminondas ordered his outnumbered troops to make unorthodox and uneven phalanxes, putting his elite troops on the left instead of the right and even more forces behind them. The result was the Spartans being overpowered, the Thebans gaining victory and ousting the Spartans as the dominant Greek power, and inspiring Kings Phillip II and [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat Alexander III]] of Macedonia to adopt new approaches in battle tactics, changing the course of history.
** In the Roman conquest of Macedonia and Greece, this was how the Romans defeated the phalanx: the legions refused combat from the front and exploited their greater speed and flexibility by swinging round to hit the Greeks on their unshielded side, knowing a phalanx could not quarter-turn anything like as swiftly as a Roman cohort to counter a flank attack. The Romans rolled up the chorts by flank- attacking the unshielded right side.

* Finding himself physically outmatched by the titular antagonist, Dutch in ''Film/{{Predator}}'' tries to goad it into a spiked trap he'd earlier set up. When the alien hunter proves to be too smart to fall for the ruse, a quick-thinking Dutch [[spoiler:instead cuts the rope holding up the trap's heavy counterweight, dropping it on his adversary's head]].

** All enemies, including potentially troublesome bosses, in ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'', are either susceptible to PSI/PK Paralysis, which will completely shut them down and render them incapable of acting for the rest of the fight, or crying, which will at least make them much less likely to hit you. This due to the two weaknesses sharing the same stat, but one being inverted.

** Some [[ThatOneBoss otherwise difficult]] bosses in ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER 3}}'' have some vulnerabilities to certain techniques.

* In ''Technomagia i smoki'', the protagonist manages to kill two dragons by throwing apples or snow into their mouths. The watery stuff ends up in the dragon's fire chamber where it expands into overheated water vapor. Poof!

* In several ''Videogame/ShinMegamiTensei'' games, buffs/debuffs are best used against bosses not for their intended effect, but to goad the boss into losing turns (or Press Turns where applicable) dispelling them instead of attacking.

* One of the main traits of Ash Ketchum, the protagonist of the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime. Many times, Ash does things perceived as impossible to other trainers (in and out universe) that generally win him a lot of battles, even before the opponent can even process what he actually did.

* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' and [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 3]], veteran fans know that one can utilize the Chronosphere and Iron Curtain creatively in ways it's not meant to. For instance, in Red Alert 2/3 you can use the Iron Curtain to instantly kill a large group of potentially-annoying infantry (as its fatal to use on infantry), including Hero-type infantry. The Chronosphere can also be used quite creatively as a surprising offensive weapon under a cunning commander's care. Like the Iron Curtain mentioned before, using the Chronosphere on any infantry within the current initial Chronosphere bubble is instant death for infantry (with the exception of those inside vehicles such as Flak Traks and so forth) once the transition occurs. Not only that, its offensive uses don't end there, as you can use it to chornoshift an annoying tank group assaulting your base and so forth into the water, where they'll instantly be destroyed. The same effect can also be used on pesky artillery-based ships such as Aircraft Carriers and Dreadnaughts for instance as they're instantly destroyed when chronoshifted onto dry land.

* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' and [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 3]], veteran fans know that one can utilize the Chronosphere and Iron Curtain creatively in ways it's not meant to. For instance, in RA2/3 you can use the Iron Curtain to instantly kill a large group of potentially-annoying infantry (as its fatal to use on infantry), including Hero-type infantry. The Chronosphere can also be used quite creatively as a surprising offensive weapon under a cunning commander's care. Like the Iron Curtain mentioned before, using the Chronosphere on any infantry within the current initial Chronosphere bubble is instant death for infantry (with the exception of those inside vehicles such as Flak Traks and so forth) once the transition occurs. Not only that, its offensive uses don't end there, as you can use it to chornoshift an annoying tank group assaulting your base and so forth into the water, where they'll instantly be destroyed. The same effect can also be used on pesky artillery-based ships as Aircraft Carriers and Dreadnaughts for instance as they're instantly destroyed when chronoshifted onto dry land.

** In ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', Sonic's final battle is against the powerful Egg Wyvern. As it's a final boss, it can be a really drawn out, knuckle-scraping battle... Or you can [[GoodBadBugs wait for Eggman to charge you a few seconds into the fight, jump up to intercept and toss your Sky Gem at the last moment before you grab for his controls, warp back onto the battle platform and simply wait 10-20 seconds for Eggman to be far enough out of range that the game considers him dead.]] Seeing as the battle area is basically a small-ish platform above a bottomless pit that's easy to accidentally run off of [[CameraScrew thanks to the sweepy, swoopy camera]], one of the last things you'd think of doing is tossing around a finicky gem that launches you wherever it may land, but it's not that difficult to pull off and is actually significantly easier to do than the fight itself and an easy S-Rank once you've got the timing down.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' the main character faces a villain with powers similar to the X-Men character mentioned above; the main character wins by [[spoiler: punching the bad guy until he's been overloaded with so much energy it travels through the floor, vaporizing his family and emotionally crippling him.]] This is entirely unintentional, and Invincible spends a significant amount of time and effort trying to explain this.

** The heroes once fought a robot similar to Amazo (see JLA example above). They beat it by exposing it to ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, and it absorbed his fundamental goodness. Then it declared that the Avengers were good guys and it didn't want to fight anymore, regardless of the wishes of its creator.

* When fighting the prototype Omnidroid in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Mr. Incredible has to deal with a nigh invulnurable foe, which is faster, stronger and adapts to whatever he tries to throw at it. He eventually burrows inside of it and tricks it into [[AndShowItToYou ripping out its own power core]]. Then at the end of the film [[spoiler: every member of the team has to take turns distracting the production model so Mr. and Mrs. Incredible can launch one of its [[RocketPunch rocket-powered claws]] through its torso]].

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Accelerator is pretty much invincible while his powers are active. However, one of the Sisters found a tactic that he couldn't simply reflect: continuously zap the air around him. This doesn't hurt him, but it does ionize the air and lower the oxygen content by turning it into ozone, which is poisonous. For all his power, Accelerator still needs to breathe. Unfortunately for her, Accelerator figures out what she's up to and resolves to kill her before she can ionize the air to that extent, though he does congratulate her on being one of the few who has ever come up with a strategy that could possibly harm him.

** In the original NES version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'', Tiamat can be killed with the instant death spell BANE due to a programming oversight (the chances are very small, however).
*** Not even the FinalBoss is 100% immune to [=FEAR=].

** For example, Josuke Higashikata, TheHero of ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]]'', has the power to [[HealingHands repair objects]], but instead of playing the role of TheMedic, he is instead a frontline fighter, using those healing skills to [[ThouShaltNotKill nonlethally]] incapacitate his enemies. For example, he takes down someone with total control over [[ShockAndAwe electricity]] by [[spoiler:taking a rubber tire from heavy machinery that had burst earlier in the battle, then "healing" the tire around the adversary to trap him within it, leaving him at Josuke's mercy.]]

** A talking parrot is the only witness to a crime? [[NotInFrontOfTheParrot Cross-examine the parrot]]. In another case, Phoenix does the same thing to a whale, which can't talk.

** In ''VisualNovel/{{Apollo Justice|AceAttorney}}'', the titular lawyer has proven that a witness is a killer with pure logic, but without evidence, they can't be convicted. Apollo's solution is to [[spoiler:[[NoHonorAmongThieves convince the partner in crime to talk]], which the killer can't possibly stop from happening]].
** In ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice Spirit of Justice]]'', the final opponent is so politically powerful that they can just [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem rewrite the law on the spot when things aren't going their way]]. The only way that the defense attorneys manage to get around that is to [[spoiler:prove that the queen has no claim to the throne, thus invalidating every law she ever made]].
** In ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney Chronicles'', there are two cases where Ryunosuke can't prove the witness's guilt. What he can do however is undermine their goals, making whatever criminal acts they commited all for naught. [[spoiler:In ''Adventures'', Ryunosuke plays a pair of music box discs that had government communications encoded into them, going against Inspector Gregson's objectives of keeping them secret. Thus Gregson is forced to admit that he made a deal with the real killer in exchange for the discs. Then in ''Resolve'', Ryunosuke determined that William Shamspeare's motive was to uncover a hidden treasure, so he suggests that the court locates the treasure themselves, meaning Shamspeare will never get his hands on it.]]

** A common small-scale version of this is using negative statuses and other detrimental states to nullify certain bosses' attacks, usually through damage reduction that comes with it. Mostly evident against the BonusBoss. Examples include:
*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': [[BonusBoss Ruby Weapon]] normally begins the fight by using Whirlsand to remove two of your three party members from the battle permanently, then he buries his tentacles in the ground and begins using his other moves. Obviously, fighting with a single party member is less than ideal for you. Solution: [[ViolationOfCommonSense go into the fight with two party members [=KO=]'d]]. He'll immediately bury his tentacles, at which point you can revive the other two with impunity and fight him with a full party. The countering of his attacks with Mime counts too, he'll eventually seal his own doom if set up correctly. Sort of works with Emerald, but look out for the time limit.

* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'': Two major flaws of the Time Bomb psych is that it takes a while to actually explode and when it does, any enemy hit flies into the air. Well, the [[BossInMookClothing elephants]], including the BonusBoss one, and both forms of the FinalBoss are slow/immobile and cannot fly in the air. The Time Bomb psych will utterly destroy them.

* To some extent, the evolution of strategy and tactics is one series of these after another. Tactics constantly evolve to adjust to social, political, and technological factors, and in turn affect them in turn. One needs to look only at World War I: the deadlock of the trenches led to the development of quickfire artillery barrages, squad and platoon assault tactics, armored advances, all of which would have been unimaginable to all but the most prescient officers in 1914. The success of the tank led to entire strategies built around it that would dominate the Second World War and the Cold War. What seemed new and outside-the-box in the last war could quickly turn into standard operating procedure in the next.

** In the finale of the first book, he takes a leaf out of the below mentioned 'Judge' episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' when dealing with a [[PhysicalGod god-like]] necromancer with borderline FromASingleCell healing abilities -- he telekinetically lops off each limb, and [[spoiler: Carol]] uses SwissArmySuperpowers to blast the rest halfway across the city. It is widely admitted to be a very bad plan, but it's more or less CrazyEnoughToWork.

** In the finale of the first book, he takes a leaf out of the below mentioned 'Judge' episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' when dealing with a [[PhysicalGod god-like]] necromancer with borderline FromASingleCell healing abilities -- he telekinetically lops off each limb, and [[spoiler: Carol]] uses the GreenLanternRing to blast the rest halfway across the city. It is widely admitted to be a very bad plan, but it's more or less CrazyEnoughToWork.

* In ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', water is this to the Wicked Witch of the West.

** In a third example, [[spoiler: Ender is commanding a fleet of ships for a "simulation" (actually it's real) and he's given a weapon called the M.D. device. If you zap something with this device, it will explode, and anything nearby will also explode in the same way, potentially setting off a chain reaction. The idea is to get a bunch of enemy ships in one spot, then him one of them with the M.D. device so you can destroy a bunch of ships in one shot. At the end of his campaign, Ender's forces reach the enemy homeworld. Instead of attacking enemy fighters, Ender shoots the ''planet'' with his M.D. device, destroying the entire thing.]]

** Natalie can be defeated by [[spoiler:giving [=NoLegs=] and Matt the Lovable {{status effect}}, charming Natalie enough that she forgets why you were even fighting]].

** ''VideoGame/Persona3'' has the 6th full moon boss: Strength and Fortune. The gimmick of the fight is that every turn Fortune will use the "Wheel of Fortune" attack, which has a variety of effects such as inflicting damage, debuffs or StatusEffects on either your party or on themselves. Fear is one of those status effects. At this point, if you're versed enough in fusions, it's possible to have a Persona with the Ghastly Wail ability, which instantly kills all enemies with Fear. Strength and Fortune are ''not'' immune to this. Provided you know how to manipulate the wheel, the fight can easily become a CurbStompBattle.