History Main / SuperToughness

* In the case of ''{{Robocop}}'', this arguably is his main superpower, with super strength and ''{{justified}}'' ImprobableAimingSkills as his secondary ones.

* This is basically Shioon's power in ''TheBreaker''.

* Phylip Wylie's ''Literature/{{Gladiator}}''

Phylip Wylie's ''Literature/{{Gladiator}}''

Phylip Wylie's ''Literature:{{Gladiator}}''

Phylip Wylie's [[Literature:Gladiator]]

Phylip Wylie's Literature:Gladiator

* Plenty of supers at SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy in the WhateleyUniverse, but Peril is a good example. He field-tested an inventor's jetpack. It exploded at two hundred feet up (so he took the blast and then the fall). He's fine now.

The power of unambiguously superhuman durability, ranging from being "merely" capable of taking a dozen gunshot wounds and keeping walking like they were nothing, to getting hit by a train car and only suffering a few shallow cuts and minor bruises, to having enough explosives to take out a ''skyscraper'' strapped to your chest, have ''them'' detonate, and get a few second degree burns and ''maybe'' a couple of broken ribs for your trouble [[hottip:*: Well, assuming that you don't get buried under enough rubble that you ''suffocate'' to death, that is]].

This is a RequiredSecondaryPower to be able to do anything with SuperStrength; without it, Newton's Third Law would result in you breaking your hand every time you threw a super-punch, and every bone would snap under the tension of lifting a car.

NighInvulnerability (specifically, the MadeOfDiamond type) is this trope's [[UpToEleven big brother]], where almost '''nothing''' is able to harm the character. Compare MadeOfIron, where an explicitly non-superpowered character can take a lot more punishment that is normally possible for no apparent ''or'' explained reason, though CharlesAtlasSuperpower can blur the line between MadeOfIron and SuperToughness.

!'''Examples'''

[[AC:Media in General]]
* Applies to a lot of superpowered powerhouses, "lesser-tier" FlyingBrick-type characters, as well as many of those who utilize [[{{Cyborg}} extensive cybernetic enhancement]], KiAttacks, SupernaturalMartialArts, and/or FunctionalMagic. Listing them all might be a bit too much to ask.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* In ''GhostInTheShell'', Mokoto Kusanagi, courtesy of bionics. Batou even more so.
* In ''InuYasha'', Yokai and Hanyou can take more damage than a human can.
* In ''{{Macross}}'', lampshaded by Bretai:
-->"I am not built as weakly as you are"

* The Shinigami from ''{{Bleach}}'' have this. Their life force equal their reiatsu, meaning both that they're more difficult to injure than humans and that they can survive far, far more damage than humans could.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In the case of ''{{Robocop}}'', this arguably is his main superpower, with super strength and ''{{justified}}'' ImprobableAimingSkills as his secondary ones.
* Not sure if ''KingKong'' or other {{Kaiju}} count or not, since relative to size, human weapons are rather puny.
* The ''{{Terminator}}'', especially in its debut film. It's ''not'' indestructible, it takes damage throughout the film. Actually getting what's left of it to ''stop'' is another story.

-->'''ER Doctor:''' And, to answer your question, there are two reasons why I'm looking at you like this. One because it seems in a few minutes you will officially be the only survivor of this train wreck, and two, because you didn't break one bone, you don't have a scratch on you.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' gives us Buffyverse vamps, Slayers and many species of demons. All of them can take quite a beating, ranging from being able to take a full-force beatdown from someone with super strength to [[WeaksauceWeakness needing a specific way]] [[NighInvulnerable to be killed]].
** Also, while slayers are actually a little stronger than vampires, vampires can take a more thorough beating because they're technically not alive and thus don't have to worry about things like internal organ damage.

** It shows up in ''VampireTheRequiem'' as Resilience. Activating it grants a temporary increase in health levels, and allows a vampire to downgrade a certain amount of aggravated damage to lethal.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* [[{{Badass}} Master Chief]] of ''{{Halo}}'' fame is a [[SuperSoldier Spartan-II]] who can survive atmospheric reentry and subsequent impact with the ground [[PowerArmor almost]] unaided. The fact that he didn't turn into a squishy soup like mixture is a testament to his SuperToughness.

* Plenty of supers at SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy in the WhateleyUniverse, but Peril is a good example. He field-tested an inventor's jetpack. It exploded at two hundred feet up (so he took the blast and then the fall). He's fine now.

* '''WHITEBEARD''' from ''OnePiece''. When [[spoiler:getting half of your face punched off by a MagmaMan]] is a minor annoyance, you are this trope.
* '''THE THIRD RAIKAGE''' from ''{{Naruto}}''. When you can NoSell an attack that's capable of damaging you on a cellular level, you are an exaggeration of this trope.

* The discipline of Fortitude in the ''VampireTheMasquerade'' is explicitly this, giving characters a larger 'dice pool' (i.e. a larger chance) to 'soak' (reduce or ignore) damage. It also allows those who have it to partially soak damage they normally couldn't, like a vampire reducing damage from [[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]] or [[KillItWithFire fire]]. Fortitude is not an automatic reduction, however, and a bad roll of the dice means you can still get just as carved up with a knife as anyone else. There's just a lesser chance you will.

A standard component of the FlyingBrick package. ''Sometimes'' a side-effect of [[AdaptiveAbility particularly adaptive]] {{Healing Factor}}s. Most {{Super Soldier}}s possess it. Combine it with SuperStrength, and you're likely to end up with the ImplacableMan. can be achieved with MindOverMatter.

* This is basically Shioon's power in TheBreaker.
* The Shinigami from {{Bleach}} have this. Their life force equal their reiatsu, meaning both that they're more difficult to injure than humans and that they can survive far, far more damage than humans could.

* The discipline of Fortitude in the ''TabletopGames/VampireTheMasquerade'' is explicitly this, giving characters a larger 'dice pool' (i.e. a larger chance) to 'soak' (reduce or ignore) damage. It also allows those who have it to partially soak damage they normally couldn't, like a vampire reducing damage from [[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]] or [[KillItWithFire fire]]. Fortitude is not an automatic reduction, however, and a bad roll of the dice means you can still get just as carved up with a knife as anyone else. There's just a lesser chance you will.

NighInvulnerability (specifically, the MadeOfDiamond type) is this trope's [[UpToEleven big brother]], where almost '''nothing''' is able to harm the character. Compare MadeOfIron, where an explicitly non-superpowered character can take a lot more punishment that is normally possible for no apparent ''or'' explained reason.

* The discipline of Fortitude in the ''TabletopGames/TheWorldOfDarkness'' is explicitly this, giving characters a larger 'dice pool' (i.e. a larger chance) to 'soak' (reduce or ignore) damage. It also allows those who have it to partially soak damage they normally couldn't, like a vampire reducing damage from [[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]] or [[KillItWithFire fire]]. Fortitude is not an automatic reduction, however, and a bad roll of the dice means you can still get just as carved up with a knife as anyone else. There's just a lesser chance you will.

** The Arrancar have a super-tough skin (called Hierro) which makes it difficult to damage them.

A standard component of the FlyingBrick package. ''Sometimes'' a side-effect of [[AdaptiveAbility particularly adaptive]] {{Healing Factor}}s. Most {{Super Soldier}}s possess it. Combine it with SuperStrength, and you're likely to end up with the ImplacableMan.

* ''{{Prototype}}'' gives us Alex Mercer. He isn't unkillable, but multiple [=RPGs=], choppers, tanks and zombies aren't going to do the job ''unless the player is playing the game '''wrong'''''.

* The discipline of Fortitude in the ''Videogame/TheWorldOfDarkness'' is explicitly this, giving characters a larger 'dice pool' (i.e. a larger chance) to 'soak' (reduce or ignore) damage. It also allows those who have it to partially soak damage they normally couldn't, like a vampire reducing damage from [[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]] or [[KillItWithFire fire]]. Fortitude is not an automatic reduction, however, and a bad roll of the dice means you can still get just as carved up with a knife as anyone else. There's just a lesser chance you will.

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' gives us Buffyverse vamps, Slayers and many species of demons. All of them can take quite a beating, ranging from being able to take a full-force beatdown from someone with super strength to [[WeaksauceWeakness needing a specific way]] [[NighInvulnerable to be killed]].

* The discipline of Fortitude in the ''WorldOfDarkness'' is explicitly this, giving characters a larger 'dice pool' (i.e. a larger chance) to 'soak' (reduce or ignore) damage. It also allows those who have it to partially soak damage they normally couldn't, like a vampire reducing damage from [[WeakenedByTheLight sunlight]] or [[KillItWithFire fire]]. Fortitude is not an automatic reduction, however, and a bad roll of the dice means you can still get just as carved up with a knife as anyone else. There's just a lesser chance you will.

* The discipline of Fortitude in the ''WorldOfDarkness'' is explicitly this, giving characters a larger 'dice pool' (i.e. a larger chance) to 'soak' (reduce or ignore) damage. It also allows those who have it to soak damage they normally couldn't, like a vampire ignoring damage from sunlight or fire. Fortitude is not an automatic reduction, however, and a bad roll of the dice means you can still get just as carved up with a knife as anyone else. There's just a lesser chance you will.

[[AC:General]]

* ''{{Prototype}}'' gives us Alex Mercer. He isn't unkillable, but multiple [=RPGs=], choppers, tanks and zombies aren't going to do the job ''unless the player is playing the game '''wrong'''''.

* Not sure if ''KingKong'' or other {{Daikaiju}} count or not, since relative to size, human weapons are rather puny.