History VideoGame / Cataclysm

* GreatBow: Greatbows are 198cm long and are useless without superhuman strength.

* OneWordTitle

* PipePain: Pipes make for rather decent weapons to start with, and can be easily obtained by smashing metal objects.

* PointBuildSystem: Character creation involves a [[TabletopGames tabletop-style]] system where you select stats, skills, advantages, and disadvantages out of a pool of points.

* ProHumanTranshuman: The Exodii might be a group of extensively modified cyborgs (many only having the brain be organic), but they're firmly against the Blob, and are eager to take recruits who prove themselves.

* AppropriateAnimalAttire: Most of the issues related to the trope can be [[JustifiedTrope justiifed] by mutations interfering with one's clothing. Having extra arachnid limbs, for instance, doesn't play nice with torso clothes, thus forcing you to either suffer penalties or go topless.

* SuperSerum: The mutation-causing compound that you can find in labs or near dead scientists.
** In 0.A, mutation serums are the only way to cross mutation thresholds, which give you exclusive, special mutations.

** Kaluptic Psychosis (the name being a bastardization of Kalupto, one half of the greek word for apocalypse) represents the hollywood depiction of schizophrenia, and can be treated with antipsychotic medication. Among static NPCs, Dino Dave (who wears a dinosaur suit) suffers from this condition

* CosyCatastrophe: Almost everyone on Earth is dead or a zombie, but it's not ''too'' hard to find a safe spot the zombies can't reach, hide there, and spend your days reading books and eating junk food. And once you're ready to come out, you can use the knowledge from the books you read to grab a nice vehicle, fix it, and drive around the mostly-safe roads looking for stuff.

** The bloated zombie attack by walking up to the enemy, then exploding into a cloud of poison gas.

* HollywoodHealing: Mostly averted, with the notable exception of the Fast Healer trait. Stepped on a landmine? Face half-ripped off? No problem! Just disinfect and bandage your wounds, take a nap, and you'll be back at full health when you wake up. Mutated characters can take this into HealingFactor territory.

* RevivingEnemy: Zombies in general. Butcher the corpse, smash it, or simply [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill kill it so hard there's no corpse left]]. [[spoiler: As of 0.F experimental, this applies to almost any creature given everything is infected by the Blob.]]

* AtomicSuperpowers: Radiation and mutagenic substances can give you mutations. [[SuperpowerRussianRoulette If you're really lucky, they might even be good]].

* ShownTheirWork: Temperature affects the player's body parts individually and uniquely (a head that gets too hot results in a pounding headache, for example). When the player's torso gets too cold, the game will advise them that maybe they should remove some layers. This may not make sense until one realizes it is characteristic of severe hypothermia for people to remove their clothes, speeding up heat loss.

* SinisterSwitchblade: Several criminal professions will start with switchblades as their melee weapons

* WithThisHerring: The default character begins with a pocket knife, a matchbook, a bottle of water, and the clothes on his/her back. Subverted, though, as the knife and matchbook are valuable tools in an apocalypse.
** May be played straight or subverted depending on what profession you pick at the start - the professions that give points rather than costing them usually have nothing but clothes, or even have negative effects like addiction. However, even these professions may have useful equipment - the "Crackhead" profession starts with a refillable lighter, for example.

* BladeBelowTheShoulder: The "Monomolecular Blade" bionic upgrade, which the Bionic Assassin class starts with.

** As in most Roguelikes, mutations exist. Some are good, some are bad, some are double edged swords. You can also modify yourself with bionics, many of which are visible. After several augments and mutations, your character will barely look human.
** Several of the enemy types are quite grisly in their descriptions, especially once-human enemies such as the [[{{AndIMustScream}} Broken Cyborg]]. For added fun, you can play as a broken cyborg in the experimental versions. They start with literally every faulty bionic in the game.

* ChainsawGood: A startling variety of power tools with spinning blades is available, from saws (circular, chain, masonry, pole) to hedge trimmers and electric meat carvers. All of them demand gasoline/electricity to run, and most deal devastating damage in exchange for slow swinging and a huge to-hit penalty. Chainsaws can also be redesigned for combat, making them faster and way easier to hit with.

** '''Test Subject[=/=]"Enhanced" Zombies'''-- The shocker zombie and shocker brute are wreathed in electricity from their bionics and can shoot electricity quite some distance. The zombie bio-operator (and the even tougher elite variety) are stronger versions that, while not able to attack at range, can perform rudimentary martial arts techniques if you let them get too close.

** The Internal Furnace bionic allows the player to consume anything that catches fire for fuel.

* OneManArmy: Most characters will ''have'' to be this, as many locations are swarmed with anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of monsters, while NPCs tend to be rare to recruit, and often suffer from ArtificialStupidity.

* {{Panacea}}: Royal Jelly cures all in-game illnesses. Or at least, it did until it was {{nerf}}ed, since real-life royal jelly is obviously not an example.

** Triffids, at least the rank and file ones, make the ideal neighbours for your fort. They're not ''that'' tough, more tame than most enemies (as in, won't immediately charge at you on sight from 5 screens away), and unlike zombies, they leave behind raw vegetable matter that any character can safely eat without needing any preparation whatsoever. [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Queen triffids, on the other hand...]]
** Shocker zombies have a nasty projectile attack that is just about guaranteed to hit you, and striking them bare-handed or with a metal weapon will injure you as well. However, with a high enough survival skill, butchering them can yield some very valuable bionics. Shocker brutes are similar, but can also send you flying with a punch.

** Scientist zombies have a wide arsenal of surprises, but yield a few rare and valuable crafting components when they die. You can also butcher them to harvest their bionics.
** Technician zombies are a significantly easier source of bionics, lacking any special attacks save for one that pulls your weapon out of your hands. Their drops are often include a disproportionate bounty of power storage bionics as well as work clothing.

* TheSociopath: The Psychopath trait, which is considered beneficial due to removing guilt for killing innocent NPCs and certain monsters, and allowing you to eat [[ImAHumanitarian human flesh]] without morale loss.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Skills have more weight than raw stats for determining success, so ''any'' character can get good enough at a particular skill with enough grinding, with only Skill Rust there to stop you (and then there's the Memory Banks bionic, or, you know, [[GodModders disabling Skill Rust altogether]]). Throwing is probably the worst offender; at high enough levels, it's easy to one-shot turrets well beyond their firing range [[RockBeatsLaser with a wooden spear]].

* AlliterativeName: The ImAHumanitarian recipes. Examples include Cooked Creep, Niño Nachos, Jerk Jerky, Hobo Helper, and Soylent Slices.

** Most advanced classes. Being a martial arts blackbelt or {{cyborg}} assassin may sound more appealing than being a hobo or chain smoker, but these professions cost points, while the weaker ones give more points. Since these points are the only way to obtain certain traits, and any character can gain any skill or item given they overcome the EarlyGameHell, picking a weaker profession will be more beneficial in the long run.

** A lot of items in the official mods, especially in the experimental versions. Vehicle Additions Pack adds a lot of parts like wildly impractical turrets, including what's effectively a vehicle-mounted mininuke launcher. Related is the Tanks and Other Vehicles mod. Yes, a direct hit from a tank's main gun will kill pretty much anything in the game, but ammo is hard to come by.

** The nail gun has next to no range and does dismal damage, but it's fairly accurate, and since nails can be found literally almost anywhere, it's a cheap way to level up your handguns skill early on. Also, it can be converted into a nail rifle, which can be used to train up your rifles skill as well.

* DeadlyLunge: A few zombies (and animals) can pull this on the player, though a harmless "leap" ability to close the distance is far more common. The experimental builds add zombie predators, an upgrade to the [[VideoGame/Left4Dead zombie hunter]] with a very nasty version that can knock the target over and inflict blood loss.

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Gun-wielding ferals are hideously innacurate with guns, to the point that a completely untrained survivor can easily outshoot them with the same guns. This is all done for balance reasons, to prevent players from easily dying to gunfire.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Happens to your character if you kill a survivor in cold blood, kill a zombie child, eat human flesh, or mutilate a zombie corpse to create an undead slave. [[spoiler:Unless you're a psychopath.]]

* UndeadChild: Zombie children, of course. Killing them results in a morale penalty. [[spoiler:Unless you have the Psychopath trait. Additionally, the penalty per kill [[ItGetsEasier gradually lowers]] the more of them the player kills.]] Certain mutated variants of zombie children do not grant this morale penalty, because they've been so mutated they no longer resemble a child at all.

* BaitAndSwitch: Found an awesome weapon, like a katana or broadsword, in a random house somewhere? Better double-check the damage stats before you charge into a mob of zombies, it has a decent chance of being a useless prop.

* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] by the Exodii, who augment themselves to an extreme point (up to becoming a FullConversionCyborg), but they're the most pro-human extradimensional faction, and behave like ordinary people. In contrast, those who rely on BioAugmentation via mutations will often suffer from alterations to their mind, with the most heavily mutated being barely human in mind.

* HealThyself: First aid kits, bandages, and disinfectant fix damage to your body parts, stop bleeding, and prevent infections from setting in. Medications for managing pain are also available, ranging from the common aspirin to the highly-addictive oxycodone and morphine.

* HollywoodHealing: Mostly averted, with the notable exception of the Fast Healer trait. Stepped on a landmine? Face half-ripped off? No problem! Just take a nap and you'll be back at full health when you wake up. Mutated characters can take this into HealingFactor territory.