History Main / ProtectionMission

** Near the end of ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', when you're about to teleport into the AnotherDimension, you have to prevent aliens from killing a scientist who's busy setting up the teleporter until he finishes his job.
** Near the end of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' Episode 2 you have to protect White Forest Base from being attacked by striders.

** ''VideoGame/{{Prototype 2}}'' has one where you will need to defend a downed helicopter with a plot-important person inside. In this case, considering you intend to [[spoiler:consume him]] anyway, it makes little sense that you can't just pluck him out and get it over with instead of defending him first.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife''

* ''Zombie Horde 2''. Every once in a while you have to protect a box from zombie attacks.

** A few other games for the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}}, Imagic's ''VideoGame/{{Atlantis}}'' and U.S. Games' ''M.A.D.'', are also based around the same premise.

* A [[ThatOneLevel particularly frustrating mission]] of ''[[{{VideoGame/Tribes}} Tribes: Vengeance]]'' is centered around Victoria protecting Daniel from onrushing Blood Eagles while he extracts the data from an enemy computer. The main problem is that the location is very poorly suited for prolonged defense, your resources are painfully limited, and there is no backup whatsoever (except a few automatic turrets).
* ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}'' has ADAM gathers, where the player must keep a crowd of splicers away from a Little Sister while she gathers ADAM from a corpse. While the splicers won't kill the sister if they get close, they will interrupt the gathering process.

* Several times in ''VideoGame/{{Conduit 2}}'', protagonist Michael Ford must protect the Free Drudge during the campaign.

* ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' has several, mostly in terms of guarding the AI Ma3a who is carrying the algorithms needed to run the digitizing laser (Jet's ticket back to analog). One of them is sniping rival security Programs from a tower, another is fending off [[TheCorruptor Thorne]] and his horde of virus-inflected Programs in a BarBrawl.

* A number of missions in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' are of this type. The last phase of one of Tiny Tina's missions requires protecting a generator from a stream of bandits; a mission in Opportunity requires protecting a hacked drone while it destroys Handsome Jack's statues; one of the Slab King's missions requires protecting generators hoisting Slab flags in hostile territory; a story mission requires protecting a beacon from waves of loaders.

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies''

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar''

* The Majima Construction minigame added in ''[[VideoGame/Yakuza2 Yakuza Kiwami 2]]'' plays out like this. You have control over up to 8 HeroUnits that must defend a stationary construction material or equipment from waves of thugs.

* Almost every level in ''VideoGame/RawData'' involves you protecting one or more data cores from waves of robots. If the player character dies, they respawn and lose points. Only the lose of a core results in a game-over.

* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'''s ''Octo Expansion'' has two:
** Mission D08/J03 (Girl Power Station). In it, the player must protect an orb in the center of the stage from waves of Octolings for 90 seconds, using your choice of bomb type and weapon.Your tools? One of three bomb types chosen when selecting the mission and any weapon you think you'll do the best with before Octo-jumping down to the field. It's generally considered [[ThatOneLevel one of the harder missions]] because the AI can quickly overwhelm you by unloading several special attacks on the orb at once if you aren't able to manage them properly.
** Phase 6 of the escape sequence doubles as an EscortMission, as you must guide an energy core through a room filled with all sorts of enemies. There are a few checkpoints to make it a bit easier on the player, though.

** Mission 08/J03 (Girl Power Station). In it, the player must protect an orb in the center of the stage from waves of Octolings for 90 seconds, using your choice of bomb type and weapon.Your tools? One of three bomb types chosen when selecting the mission and any weapon you think you'll do the best with before Octo-jumping down to the field. It's generally considered [[ThatOneLevel one of the harder missions]] because the AI can quickly overwhelm you by unloading several special attacks on the orb at once if you aren't able to manage them properly.

* [[ThatOneLevel The “Redemption” mission]] in ''VideoGame/XWing''. Protect the Corvette ''Korolev'' from a bunch of TIE Bombers as it transfers wounded troops to the medical frigate ''Redemption''. Oh, and they are launched by an Imperial frigate that pops in and out of hyperspace from different (generally opposite) sides of the engagement area. And escorted by flights of TIE Fighters. And any one of the bombers, if it gets close enough, carries enough torpedoes to kill the corvette. It’s infamous enough to show up as a much dreaded training simulation in [[ComicBook/XWingSeries the X-Wing novels]], where the pilots refer to it as the “Requiem” scenario.

* The second of the mid-game missions in ''VideoGame/MegaManZero 2'' contains a segment toward the end where Zero must protect Ciel as she disarms a bomb, which takes 90 seconds. The enemies coming after you two are quite weak, [[ZergRush but there are a lot of them]].

** "Excavation" missions sees Tenno running around the map to locate the excavation points, then both protecting the excavators and keeping them powered by power cells dropped from enemies.
** The "pursuit" archwing mission ends with the players having to protect a disabled Grineer courier ship from being destroyed by Grineer forces.
** Ganymede node on Jupiter is home to a "disruption" mission, in which the Tenno must loot keys from enemies to hack into conduits which [[ActionBomb the demolysts]] will try to destroy.

* The penultimate battle in ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'', where Kratos (you) has to protect the memory of his wife and child against hordes of evil versions of himself. ItMakesSenseInContext, really!
** In ''VideoGame/GodOfWar 2'', you have to protect a translator from a bunch of enemies so you can have him read some writing. Naturally, Kratos kills him immediately after.
*** Averted in ''VideoGame/GodOfWar 3'' though. Twice. First there's the [[spoiler: Possidon princess]]. You don't have to protect her; she just sits there while you fight enemies. Of course Kratos kills her soon after that. The next comes late in the game with [[spoiler: Pandora.]] You think you have to protect her from enemies but she does a good job of evading them while kill them. Meaning she never gets hurt by enemies, ever. However there are times where she falls into death traps you have to get her out of before she's killed though.

* ''VideoGame/{{Onmyoji}}'': Kingyo-hime's skin dungeon where she takes over as your onmyōji. Letting her fall in battle ''makes you lose instantly'' whether your other shikigami have fallen or not.

*** Archangel's recruitment mission involves protecting. He's not immobile and he fights back against attackers, but without your help, he's toast.

* Several missions in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' revolve around protecting an immobile unit, such as a cryopod, from waves of increasingly fiercer enemies. Every 5 waves you get an opportunity to extract and reap your rewards, but you can choose to continue fighting to get better rewards.

* The videogame-style comic Alastere has the main characters fight off a bunch of storm elementals, preventing them from attacking the engines of the airship they are on.

* Numerous examples from ''VideoGame/FireEmblem''. Most frequently, it's an incapacitated "Ally" NPC, or some other figure such as [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething Royals who aren't as talented as yours at fighting]]. While many missions are "Seize the throne", there are a few where it's inverted which would also fit this trope. Some of them are also [[LuckBasedMission Luck Based Missions]], since if you are unlucky, the character you are supposed to protect can get killed before you even have a chance to reach them -- most infamously, "Battle Before Dawn" in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Blazing Sword]]''.

* Near the end of ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', where you're about to teleport into the AnotherDimension, you have to prevent aliens from killing a scientist who's busy setting up the teleporter until he finishes his job.

** In the second game there's Archangel's recruitment mission. He's not immobile and he fights back against attackers, but without your help, he's toast.
** Same game, there's a short sidequest that involves you finding the badly injured sole survivor of a quarian ship crash, and protecting her from attacking varren until your shuttle shows up to pull you out of there. If she dies, you lose.
** There's also the sidequest you get fairly early on, which involves landing on a planet to retrieve twenty boxes of valuable cargo. Trouble is, once you arrive, a bunch of YMIR Mechs move in and start destroying said cargo. The relative success of the mission is determined by how many boxes you manage to keep from being destroyed.
** Variation in the Overlord DLC: the final boss consists of [[ItMakesSenseInContext shooting little holographic spheres sliding toward the VI core]]. If you don't kill them fast enough, then the rogue VI will upload itself to the Normandy, resulting in a NonStandardGameOver. Basically this has you protecting your own ship from a hacking attempt.
** In the third game, during the Tuchanka: Bomb mission, the final battle involves you preventing Cerberus forces from attacking Victus as he disarms the bomb.

* The "Invasion Mode" in ''VideoGame/IslandWars'' is this. You need to protect your [[VideoGameLives palm trees]] on the island from getting destroyed by enemy attack, and the game is over if they're all taken out.

** Journey Home starts out a simple ceremonial flight [[TemptingFate with no combat expected]]... until Yuktobanian planes begin attacking you and the crowded sports stadium the Vice President is speaking at. Fortunately, [[GenreSavvy your planes were armed just in case]].

* Protecting the American and Mexican presidents in ''GhostRecon: Advanced Warfighter''.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', events called "[=FATEs=]" spawn at random times, and one type involves a selection of objects appearing out of nowhere that must be defended from ''hordes'' of attackers. While not too bad for tank characters, who can peel the monsters off the targets with their standard tanking abilities, there's a reason these specific [=FATEs=] are ignored even by players specifically grinding the other types of [=FATE=]. As with the obnoxious EscortMission [=FATEs=], you can also get protection missions from leves; protection leves, however, are located in areas with no other monsters and generate only 1-2 enemies at a time, making them basically identical to kill leves.