History Main / PaddedSumoGameplay

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft III]]'' has this as a core philosophy, as unlike ''Warcraft I & II'' or ''[[VideoGame/StarCraft StarCraft I & II]]'', hitpoints are in much greater proportion to the damage values to promote a micromanagement playstyle. The ArbitraryHeadcountLimit is also 100 instead of 200 supply units as in ''Starcraft'' and combat units usually require at least two supply units (with few exceptions) to make each unit a more significant presence in your army. This gets subverted in the endgame with units like MightyGlacier fliers who can devastate heavy-armor units quickly in sufficient numbers with Magic damage, and how powerful some heroes can get with fully leveled nuke spells that can be combined with other heroes to melt through health bars.

** (Pre-''AW'') There's no advantage to attacking first, because both sides hit each other simultaneously in combat, instead of the defender going second and having their counterattack weakened by the health they lost. This makes indirect units extremely valuable as they don't take counterattacks, but they're very slow to use and will dissuade the opponent from engaging you even more.
** (Pre-''AW'') Only the properties near your HQ can produce units - ones farther away are just resupply points. Even when you're clearly winning, this can make pushing into the enemy base and actually finishing the game immensely difficult, as their reinforcements are right there, while yours are on the opposite side of the map.
** (''AW''-''AWDS'') Superpowers that are charged more from losing your own units than destroying others, giving a losing opponent the chance to undo the progress you made.
** The smarter, defensive AI used in games like ''Super Famicom Wars'' and ''Days of Ruin''. Due to its habit of massing up units just outside your attack range, it requires a lot of patience to break through its lines, or else fights can easily take over 50 turns.
* Endgame ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'' turns into this, due to the fact that the last part of the tech tree is laden with options that pretty much destroy the game's time and resource systems--building troops instantly, for instance. This basically turns the match into a contest of who can mash up their armies against each other the longest.

* Stalemates are a common occurrence in ''VideoGame/NintendoWars''. Each base can produce a unit per turn, limited primarily by properties supplying you with money. Capturing properties to gain a production advantage depends on the survival of infantry, the slowest and most fragile unit type. It's usually suicidal to rush enemy bases early on, as they're quite easy to defend; thus, many battles become wars of attrition where all parties can only advance one step at a time, if at all. Outside of {{Time Mission}}s, it's quite easy to win against the AI eventually, [[GameplayGrading albeit with a poor "Speed" score]], but [=PvP=] matches tend to degrade into alternating uphill battles. This is compounded by various factors, depending on the game:
** Maps that feature huge distances, long chokepoints, or split the field into "cells" enclosed by mountains or rivers, which most units can't pass through. Bounty River is a standout example - one long, winding, narrow path that takes boats many turns to reach the action. This map proved such a problem that almost every sequel had to try improving it.
** Maps that give enormous advantages to the AI to compensate for its lack of intelligence, including many times more units and bases, giving you a lot to chew through.

* ''VideoGame/NintendoWars'': stalemates are a common occurrence. With bases, everyone can produce unlimited amounts of units. Capturing bases and winning the game depends on the survival of infantry, the slowest and most fragile unit type. It's usually suicidal to rush enemy bases too early, as they're quite easy to defend; thus, many battles become wars of attrition where all parties can only advance one step at a time, if at all. This is compounded by various factors, depending on the game:

** (Pre-''AW'') There's no advantage to attacking first, because both sides hit each other simultaneously in combat, instead of the defender going second and having their counterattack weakened by the health they lost. This makes indirect units extremely valuable as they don't take counterattacks, but they're very slow to use and will dissuade the opponent from engaging you even more.
** (Pre-''AW'') Only the properties near your HQ can produce units - ones farther away are just resupply points. Even when you're clearly winning, this can make pushing into the enemy base and actually finishing the game immensely difficult, as their reinforcements are right there, while yours are on the opposite side of the map.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** In the late game of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', you will be very heavily armoured, and you will encounter opponents with power armor. Both of you will be almost incapable of doing even a single point of damage except in critical blows, so combat basically boils down to taking the Slayer (turn every melee attack into an automatic crit) or Sniper (give each ranged attack a chance to crit equal to 10 times your luck score) and make aimed shots at an opponent's [[EyeScream eyes]], [[GroinAttack groin]], or other body part to blow through their armor and cripple them. Your only other option is to switch over to single-shot, high-powered energy weapons (and to a lesser degree rocket launchers), which would actually deal real damage through armor. It's likely for this reason that when ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]'' re-introduced damage threshold it also [[ScratchDamage kept armor from reducing more than 4/5 of the damage an attack can do.]]

** Franchise/ScoobyDoo vs. WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog ended up being such an extreme example, where both canines had such potent defenses that helped them survive several outlandish situations [[spoiler:to the point where neither could kill or permanently dispose the other, ending the match in a ''very'' rare instance of a draw]].

** ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' vs. ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' ended up being such an extreme example, where both canines had such potent defenses that helped them survive several outlandish situations [[spoiler:to the point where neither could kill or permanently dispose the other, ending the match in a ''very'' rare instance of a draw]].

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' has this in spades. Because auto-attacks deal so little damage, even normal enemies can take a ridiculous amount of punishment unless you min-max the hell out of your party and spam Arts like they're going out of style. On the player side of things, Having a properly set-up tank and healer will mean that you never even have to worry about your HP unless you're fighting an enemy that's a good few levels above you, or a boss who decides to pull out some ability that can hit the entire party ForMassiveDamage.

* In ''Videogame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'', by default, most units are capable of absorbing silly amounts of firepower, such as a colony ship brazenly flying through an enemy fleet and surviving. The "Shield Mitigation" mechanic is the main cause of this, and is present on all ships which possess shield systems, even when the shields are down (it acts as a ReinforceField on the ship's armor instead). Shield Mitigation causes ships to flat-out ignore 15% of incoming damage when full, and become more effective as damage is taken - going up to 60% damage negation on lowly frigates, and 65-75% on capital ships and titans, depending on their level. Disabling mitigation in the pre-match setup significantly increases the speed of combat. That said, certain area of effect abilities, most infamously, the Marza Dreadnought's MarossMissileBarrage ultimate can shred enemy non-capitals ''terrifyingly'' fast.

* In ''Videogame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'', by default, most units are capable of absorbing silly amounts of firepower, such as a colony ship brazenly flying through an enemy fleet and surviving. The "Shield Mitigation" mechanic is the main cause of this, and is present on all ships which possess shield systems, even when the shields are down (it acts as a ReinforceField on the ship's armor instead). Shield Mitigation causes ships to flat-out ignore 15% of incoming damage when full, and become more effective as damage is taken - going up to 60% damage negation on lowly frigates, and 65-75% on capital ships and titans, depending on their level. Disabling mitigation in the pre-match setup significantly increases the speed of combat.

* Exaggerated and parodied in the "[[Franchise/MortalKombat Monkey Kombat]]" fight in ''VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland''. Both fighters regenerate health too fast to kill each other through standard means, [[PuzzleBoss so you need to find an alternate way of winning]]. It is an AdventureGame, after all.

** [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure DIO]] vs. [[Manga/{{Hellsing}} Alucard]] demonstrates both vampires are pretty much immovable objects. DIO’s lies in his Stand, which is InvisibleToNormals and can [[TakesOneToKillOne only be harmed by another Stand]] and his specific brand of vampirism, which gives him a HealingFactor able to survive any physical attacks short of [[ThePowerOfTheSun sunlight-based attacks]], on top of being able to [[TimeStandsStill stop time itself]]. Alucard, meanwhile, is a living SoulJar and can use the souls of those he’s slain to take lethal damage in his place (and he has literal ''millions'' of souls), and his true self is actually a LivingShadow. [[spoiler: Out of the two, Alucard’s means of outlasting his foe is truly finite, as DIO could burn through his reserves with his SuperSpeed and SuperStrength eventually, and Stands can interact with ethereal opponents anyways.]]

* In vanilla ''Videogame/XCOM2'', AlphaStrike is the prime strategy, and in the beginning many of your troops can be one-shot by flanking aliens. The "Beta Strike" modifier doubles the health of all units - XCOM and alien - but leaves damage untouched, meaning one must be much more careful about scouting ahead and crowd-control, because situations can rapidly spiral out of control.

This trope doesn't ''have'' to be [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools a bad thing]]. Lengthy battles tend to feel more epic than short ones, and [[{{munchkin}} some gamers]] enjoy calculating the best possible tactics and [[EliteTweak perfecting them]].

* ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'': In the 11th volume, this is what the IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight between [[spoiler:Elias and Leonardo]] turns into. The former has simply far too high defences for the latter to subdue him without resorting to lethal force, but his [[spoiler:fairy eye curse]] ensures that he can't finish off his opponent either (sort of; it's a really complicated version of YourMindMakesItReal). The result is a fight that lasts well over an hour, with the former chipping away ''percentages of a single life point'' at the time, and the other unsuccessfully trying to stop him.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th edition combat was often called "Padded Sumo" by its detractors, as health outstrips damage, many powers focus on moving enemies around, and your more exotic powers are most effective if used at the start of a fight (reducing the rest of the fight to basic attacks). It is rather easy to run through all your powers only a few turns into combat, and then spend the rest of the fight spamming comparatively weak ones. This was particularly bad with solo monsters, which frequently boasted ''outlandish'' HP relative to when your characters were supposed to fight them. Notably, one of the bigger changes that came a few years into its lifespan was chopping large chunks off enemy HP.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'': A skillful player falls into this during [[DownloadableContent Lightning's Story: Requiem of the Goddess]] at lower levels. The story consists of Lightning fighting against Caius, with a second fight against Chaos Bahamut if the player does well enough. Both of them are [[MirrorBoss using a variation on the Paradigm system]]. Caius has access to Commando (powerful but telegraphed attacks), Ravager (long strings of weak hits), and Healer (ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin plus buffing) stances. Lightning starts with access to Paladin (main damage-dealing), Shaman and Mage (chain-building), and Knight (passive damage reduction and an ability with which to NoSell everything) roles. Thus, winning the battle and therefore maximizing your CP with which to level-up consists of switching to Knight whenever he starts attacking/gets ready to attack, minimizing your HP loss, maintaining/building his chain gauge at every scarce opportunity, and hoping he only switches to Healer infrequently. As you level up, the fight gradually drifts away from this trope, with Lightning acquiring the Conjurer (buffing) and Sorcerer (debuffing) role; Chaos Bahamut, meanwhile, is a straight DamageSpongeBoss, having much more HP but no healing and the power to nearly one-shot a low-level Lightning in any role but Knight.

* Some games in the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' feature an item called the All-Divide, which halves both the damage the player takes and the damage the opponent takes. Since you can carry a massive supply of heal and TP restoring items into battle, it's quite effective for winning by attrition. [[TooAwesomeToUse You get very few All-Divides]], and thus it's recommended you save them for certain {{Bonus Boss}}es--specifically, the ones that are difficult but ''not'' [[UselessUsefulSpell immune to its effect]].

** While it is possible to use stealth or cover in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', the game's [[MoneyForNothing economy]] makes [[HealingPotion stimpak]] spamming a much easier tactic. In particular, many of the added enemies in the DownloadableContent have pointlessly high amounts of HP and qualify as DemonicSpiders for most of the game due to the fact that they get damage bonuses with the weapons they use and [[MadeOfIron being as tough as nails coated with more nails]], as part of a [[FakeBalance failed attempt]] to balance them towards end-game characters who are putting off replaying the finale to screw around in new locations rather than new characters who are check out the new content as they re-explore the original wasteland. By the time you hit the {{cap}} at level 30, they will not individually be threats to you, but they ''will'' take forever and a day to kill, even with your InfinityPlusOneSword.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft III]]'' has this as a core philosophy, as unlike ''Warcraft I & II'' or ''[[VideoGame/StarCraft StarCraft I & II]]'', hitpoints are in much greater proportion to the damage values to promote a micromanagement playstyle. The ArbitraryHeadcountLimit is also 100 instead of 200 supply units as in ''Starcraft'' and combat units usually require at least two supply units (with few exceptions) to make each unit a more significant presence in your army. This gets subverted somewhat in the endgame with units like Gryphon Riders who can devastate heavy-armor units quickly in sufficient numbers.

* ''D20 Future'' (an offshoot of ''TabletopGame/D20Modern exaggerates this with the combat between capital ships: namely, capital ships typically have tens of thousands of HitPoints, whereas the most powerful ship weapons only do damage in the hundreds of points. Even worse: ships get a size penalty to attack rolls just like creatures do (-8 for colossal size, which all capital ships are), as a result, the ships typically have a really low attack bonus and miss a lot, dragging on the interminable fight even longer.

* ''LightNovel/BofuriIDontWantToGetHurtSoIllMaxOutMyDefense'': [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As the title says]], main character Maple put all her stat points into defensive ability when she first created her character. This left her with the ability to tank practically everything the game threw at her, but her pitiful offensive ability meant that she couldn't do much to strike back herself. Eventually subverted as she learned new offensive abilities and started becoming more effective at attacking.

** The Generation II metagame has a reputation for looking like this, and not for no reason. Nearly all the top-ranked Pokémon are incredibly bulky, which is furthered by the stat system at the time allowing Pokémon to max out all their stats, the Leftovers item grants slow regeneration and sees nigh-universal use, the Rest/Sleep Talk combo is at its height, due to the fact that Sleep Talk can roll Rest to fully heal the user, and some of the biggest offensive tools of the prior generation (mainly critical hits and Hyper Beam) were nerfed. Though offensive play is certainly common, it's far slower-paced than in other generations, and it's quite telling that the most notable strategies for damage rely on using [[TakingYouWithMe Self-Destruct or Explosion]], as they're some of the few ways to quickly break an opponent's defenses. Part of the reason the famously powerful Snorlax remains legal is a belief that, were it not for Snorlax's presence and insane offensive potential, then the game would lose the one thing keeping it from being an eternal stallfest. This was significantly lessened with the third-generation games, which retooled the stat gain system to force Pokémon to specialize, added powerful offense-boosting items like the Choice Band and Choice Specs or moves like Dragon Dance and Calm Mind, and nerfed some of the more annoying stall strategies (namely, Resttalk).