History Main / VictorybyEndurance

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'', [[spoiler:Arkham/Jester]] waits until Dante, Vergil and Lady [[WorfHadTheFlu exhausted themselves]] fighting [[MeleeATrois each other]] before he could attack them. Jester pulls a BareHandedBladeBlock on Vergil and [[LampshadeHanging comments]] he would not have been able to do that if Vergil was fresh or in tip-top condition.

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'', Jester waits until Dante, Vergil, and Lady exhausted themselves fighting each other to attack them. Jester pulls a BareHandedBladeBlock on Vergil and comments he would not have been able to do that if Vergil were fresh.

** Ash tries this tactic during his rematch with Brawly and fails. When Brawly's Hariyama uses Arm Thrust (a series of consecutive palm strikes), Ash tells his Corphish to endure the strikes until Hariyama gets tried. After about a minute, Ash and his friends are [[OhCrap shocked]] to find Hariyama isn't even slowing down. Brawly explains he gave Hariyama training to build up his endurance. Ash is forced to change tactics.

* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'': T

* ''Manga/RecordOfRagnarok'': Adam is obviously more skilled than Zeus and punches him over and over while avoiding all of Zeus' attacks. However, Adam's body starts to [[HeroicRROD overheat and break down]] from fighting at the level of a god. Zeus realizes the only way to win is to outlast him. In the end, Zeus collapses from extreme injuries, but Adam succumbed to his breakdown and DiedStandingUp, giving Zeus the win.

* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', the tournament to determine the ruler of the Demon plane comes down to this. After the Yusuke vs. Yomi fight, which involves two of the strongest contenders for the thrones, the victor ends up losing the next battle, and the title goes to one of Raizen's old friends, who notes that he was fortunate enough to have good matches throughout the tournament.
** Yusuke also tries this against [[BlowYouAway Jin the wind master]], whose flight and mobility prevented any meaningful attacks from connecting. So Yusuke decides that the best course of action is to wait for him to get close and then cause an explosion at point blank range.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'': In the "Four Star Spectacular!" short "Flash in Double Jeopardy", Mirror Master traps Flash in a HallOfMirrors and attacks him with a neverending army of duplicates, saying they won't stop until Flash is tired and they kill him. Flash takes down duplicate after duplicate and does start to get tired. Fortunately, he figures out which is the real Mirror Master and knocks him out, making the duplicates disappear.

* Aside from the usual bouts of Determinator and NighInvulnerable wrestlers, many matches are based on this concept, like: the "Iron Man" hour-long marathon to see who has the most pinfalls/submissions; "Last Man Standing" matches where you have to keep the opponent down for a 10 count; cage matches where you have to get your opponent so worn down they can't stop you from exiting the cage; and any number of other gimmick matches where the expectation is "beat the guy down so much he can't fight back, and you can put him into/out of the victory condition, or he can't prevent you from doing so." Or, at least, they are HYPED as this, until one or the other figures out [[TakeAThirdOption an alternate means of grabbing victory]].
* This is a strategy (and a good source of {{kayfabe}} drama) behind several gimmick matches. A few notable types are the Iron Man match (match goes to a set time limit, each pin/submission/count-out/DQ earns one point, most points when time runs out wins), Last Man Standing match (can't stand after a ref's ten-count), and a Steel Cage match (escape the cage first). A common tactic by a {{heel}} is to just wait until the {{face}} is so tired they can't fight back before making a move.

* This is how [[Franchise/DragonBall Vegeta]] killed [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Shadow the Hedgehog]] in their ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle''. Shadow, in his SuperMode, was NighInvulnerable, but this form has a time limit. Vegeta has repeatedly shown that he can take a severe beating and still continue to fight, so once Shadow dropped back to his normal form, one blast was all it took.

* The target is in the midst of a harmful state, inhospitable climate or exhaustive activity. Thus, all the plotter need do is wait for them to run out of gas, collapse, or die altogether. It's possible to speed this up through poison, arbitrary attacks, or sending [[WeHaveReserves disposable fodder]] and [[DivideAndConquer mutual enemies]] to help them burn out quicker. The plotter can bring this about deliberately with an ExploitedImmunity.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', [[BonusBoss Culex]], unlike every other boss in the game, has a finite FP pool for spellcasting. If you can tank his attacks for long enough, he effectively takes himself out of the fight. This does not, however, solve the problem of his four elemental crystals which aid him in battle, and which do have limitless FP.

* This is partially how Po defeats Tai Lung in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda''. As Po's excessive body fat makes him immune to Tai Lung's [[TheParalyzer nerve attack]], all Tai Lung can do it hope to defeat him conventionally. However, Po's fatness and life spent as TheKlutz building up a resistance to damage cause all of Tai Lung's attacks to keep bouncing off him. By the end of their battle, Tai Lung has tired himself out to such a point that he can't escape from Po's Wuxi Finger Hold before the latter uses it to banish him to the Spirit Realm.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}, the War Exhaustion system turns any war into a TimedMission of sorts. It's possible to [[WeWinBecauseYouDidNot "win"]] a war by simply holding off the invading force with an inferior yet maneuverable force, inflicting token damage on the invaders while disengaging quickly and losing fewer ships than the invaders in the long run. The end result is the invaders will reach full Exhaustion sooner than the defenders, resulting in a forced status quo peace.

* ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'' bout between Karou vs Ryoma. Karou's tennis style is to force his opponent to run from one side of the court to the other, making them too tired to return his volleys. Ryoma turns this around on him by forcing him to keep his knees bent during the whole game, using up twice as much endurance, instead.

* Played with in Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7, where the alien Elder known as the Champion of the Universe defeats all of Earth's heroes in a boxing match, but [[ComicBook/FantasticFour The Thing]] manages to keep getting up and coming back for more after getting beaten down round after round. He doesn't win, but he manges to [[WowingCthulhu impress the Champion]] enough that he declares him a [[WorthyOpponent worthy adversary]] and decides to leave the Earth in peace.

* In ''Fanfic/CrimsonAndNoire'', [[spoiler:Master Fu and Marianne's original plan against the Butterfly villain Monarch was to invoke this trope. The Butterfly Miraculous was damaged years before the story, so they selected Crimson Bug and Lady Noir to fight off the Akumas until the Monarch suffered enough damage that she could no longer use it. However, in the six months since her debut, she had sent twice as many Akumas compared to previous users who died after one or two years, and she shows no signs of slowing down. And with their aging bodies, Fu and Marianne have no choice but to prepare to [[PassingTheTorch pass the mantle of Guardians]] to the teen heroes in the hope they will find and defeat Monarch]].

* One of the most famous victories in sports was the 2002 Winter UsefulNotes/OlympicGames 1000 m short track speed skating event. Australian Steven Bradbury won Australia's first ever Winter Olympics gold medal after every other competitor crashed on the final turn of the final lap. Bradbury, who hopelessly behind at that point, simply glided to victory past the other fallen skaters scrambling to get back on their feet. Since then, "doing a Bradbury" has become Australian slang for "a fortuitous event".

** Similarly, this was how the Buffalo Bills pulled off the greatest comeback in NFL history (Trailed 35-3, and won 41-38) against the Houston Oilers in the 1992 playoffs. Though one could argue this was more exploiting Houston's AchillesHeel. Houston's famed Run N Shoot Offense was highly potent and could light up the scoreboard like no one else, but it had a crippling weakness: [[CripplingOverspecialization It was all the Oilers could do effectively]]. Houston's offense could not slow the pace of the game down or run the football effectively to grind down clock, and in turn leaving their defense on the field for very long stretches leaving them gassed. By the time Buffalo started generating momentum, Houston couldn't get back in gear and they fell apart.
* This is largely how Rafael Nadal has won ''fourteen'' French Open championships, while winning "only" eight other Major championships combined. The clay courts of the French Open take more speed of the ball when it bounces on them, compared to the grass courts of Wimbledon or the hard courts in the US and Australian opens. This makes it relatively harder to blast a winner by your opponent. Nadal, who is in great shape even compared to other top level pro tennis players, can thus run down balls for hours on end, and his opponents struggle to keep up. With a full five set match potentially pushing ''five hours'' in time, Nadal can win by attrition.

* In one Grand Prix race in the 1930s, William Grover Williams, racing for French automaker Bugatti, was up against a German team whose cars were more powerful. Williams realized that he couldn't catch the German leader in a flat-out race, but that the German's more powerful engine would drink fuel faster than the lighter Bugatti, so he eased off and waited for the German to put in for more fuel. During the time it took for the German to refuel, Williams overtook his pole position and secured his spot at the head of the pack, winning the race.
** This is still a viable way to win a race, much to the dismay of some NASCAR fans. (Although 'who runs out of fuel first?' drama is something in and of itself when you have multiple teams trying it at once... )

*** 17 specifically brings this up when Piccolo fights him after fusing with Kami, noting that while they're evenly matched, he can keep it up forever while Piccolo will tire out. Piccolo retorts that 17 will make a mistake and lose before that can happen (dub line only). [[spoiler:They turn out to both be wrong, because [[BigBad Cell]] notices their battle and shows up to absorb 17, and he's far stronger than either of them.]]

** In the Tournament of Power, one condition of victory is to have the most fighters remaining by the end of the tournament.

* In ''Fanfic/CrimsonAndNoir'', [[spoiler:Master Fu and Marianne's original plan against the Butterfly villain Monarch was to invoke this trope. The Butterfly Miraculous was damaged years before the story, so they selected Crimson Bug and Lady Noir to fight off the Akumas until the Monarch suffered enough damage that she could no longer use it. However, in the six months since her debut, she had sent twice as many Akumas compared to previous users who died after one or two years, and she shows no signs of slowing down. And with their aging bodies, Fu and Marianne have no choice but to prepare to [[PassingTheTorch pass the mantle of Guardians]] to the teen heroes in the hope they will find and defeat Monarch]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': In [[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS3E3TheBullyJustOneBite "The Bully"]], SpongeBob survives Flats The Flounder's pounding by being [[NoSell straight up immune to his punches]] due to being a malleable sponge. Flats simply keeps punching him all day long until he finally collapses from exhaustion.