History VideoGame / RealmOfTheMadGod

* AnachronismStew

* LethalLavaLand: Some parts of the Realm, the Abyss of Demons and the Lair of Shaitan contain lava. The Shatters has a deadlier version called "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment hot lava]]".

* LifeDrain: Necromancers can use their ability to deal damage and also heal themselves. Skulls heal for a set amount, with its damage and healing range increasing with wisdom. Lord Ruthven turns this against you, using certain shots to steal health from you.

** For enemies, Ice and Fire adepts are very much this. They hit like a truck, have HP comparable to dungeon bosses, and move almost as fast as most player characters.

* MarathonBoss: The Avatar of the Forgotten King was infamous for this before it underwent a {{nerf}}. Even now, it has significantly more HP than any other non-seasonal Realm enemy in the game[[note]]Packing 150,000 HP, while the other events generally range from 16,000 to 60,000, and the BonusBoss Lost Sentry has 125,000 HP[[/note]], a massive amount of DEF, a powerful spiral of shots, four phases with four types of deadly minions, and immunity to the Knight's Stun ability to boot. It's still easier than its previous form, which had an even more titanic amount of health, even more defense, was almost always invulnerable, and was a required kill in order to access [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Oryx's Castle]].

* LethalLavaLand: The Abyss of Demons and portions of the world map contain lava. The Shatters has a deadlier version called "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment hot lava]]". The Lair of Shaitan is also this.

* NonIndicativeName: The fourth equipment slot, consisting of items that can be equipped by all classes, is called Ring. While all untiered items in this slot are indeed rings, the untiered and set tier items can be anything from rings to necklaces, gemstones, headgear, musical instruments (both distinct from the Warrior's Helm and the Bard's Lute), among others.
* NoobCave: The Pirate Cave and Forest Maze, which can both be soloed before the player hits Level 10.

* PinataEnemy: The Gumball Machines in the Candyland Hunting Grounds, the Treasure Sarcophagi in the Tomb of the Ancients, the Coffins in the Manor of the Immortals, and the Masked Party God in his Beachzone. All are harmless[[note]]though coffins do spawn enemies when damaged[[/note]], and most drop useful items.

* PoisonMushroom: Many of the April Fools items dropped by enemies in the Machine tend to be harmful. The three Cheater's Armors do nothing but reduce HP by 100 when equipped; the Challenger Helm dazes and slows the user when used; the [=NSFWakizashi=] deals no damage to enemies while also inflicting the Exposed status effect on the user; and the Omni-Impotence Ring provides harsh penalties to all stats. In particular, the Omni-Impotence Ring is treated as an ST item, and will reduce stats even further when equipped alongside other Mistake Gear items (UT items dropped by Null).

* ThePawnsGoFirst: It's not until ''all'' his important minions in the Realm are killed that Oryx faces you himself.

* UnderwaterBossBattle: Thessal's chamber. The Cnidarian Reef is just one big boss room where you fight the Royal Cnidarian.

** Some classes are particularly vulnerable to certain StandardStatusEffects:

** The Abandoned Mineshaft is this and MarathonLevel - it's an extremely long, 2-part gauntlet riddled with hordes of enemies that can easily kill the unprepared in a heartbeat. The first part, the Fungal Cavern, is full of mushrooms that gleefully swarm players and can handily pound Knights to death with sheer numbers and firepower, and the boss fight is a chaotic, projectile-flooding shootout that can easily kill off anyone not prepared. The second part, the Crystal Cavern, also packs a variety of very sturdy and hard-hitting mooks that use unorthodox bullet patterns and love StandardStatusEffects, while the boss has mini-boss guardians of its own and takes the game's BulletHell aspect to its logical extreme. The plus side is that it can drop Greater Pots, high level armor, and a wide variety of unique and powerful UT items.

** The first one comes when you reach the Highlands- where before most enemies were relatively sedate, the Highlands can and will see you swarmed under with minions if you aren't prepared. You'll also start seeing [[StandardStatusEffects status effects]] quite commonly.

** AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: ...But Exaltations are a whole other can of worms, granting permanent stat buffs that carry over between lives for clearing endgame content with an 8/8. To fully boost one stat, you need to complete ''75'' of a dungeon that is difficult to access and beat, and you have to do this for all 8 dungeons that each represent one of the stats (particularly, maxing life needs you to clear [[UpToEleven Oryx's Sanctuary]] 75 times) to fully exalt a character. And then you have to do this on an 8/8 ''for every class'' to get all the Exaltations. Needless to say, this is a ''very'' long-term goal for most players.
* AcidPool: Mad Labs have a single room of these on the way to the boss. The alien planet Forax is also filled with acid water. Other hazards like Dead Water from the Deadwater Docks and "[[MadeOfEvil Pure Evil]]" by the Avatar and Void also count.

* DummiedOut: Though the game has taken good care of weeding out unused content (barring testing and admin-only items), some still remain:
** Tier 8 abilities for all classes exist, even though a player can only go as high as tier 7 legitimately. Of note among them is the Sacrilege Skull, which is a PaletteSwap of the Skull of Unholy Sacrifice UT rather than the tiered abilities.
** The Appetizer event boss has an unused Rogue-based UT set associated with him, including a [[ShoutOut comically large spoon]] that spawns healing items at a 10% chance per hit.
** Upgraded versions of the loot associated with the Undead Lair and Abyss of Demons exist but are not obtainable, likely intended to be part of their heroic variants before they were phased out.
** An unused Seal called the Seal of Divine Focus exists as a remnant of the Scholar Seal's development.
** An attempt at allowing players to reskin UT items without grinding for separate drops exists in the form of the Jade Shard, which would've been used on the Quiver of Thunder and Helm of the Juggernaut.
** Shaitan the Advisor has a mark for himself coded into the game, even though Court of Oryx bosses are not eligible to be part of any daily quests. As a result, it goes unused except for very specific events.
** A bottomless buff potion exists in the game's code, and is not intended for admin-only use. It is likely not released as it provides a perpetual source of buffing speed and attack, two of the most vital stats for endgame fighting.
** A multi-use version of the Suspicious Milk Bottle gag item released for Halloween events exists but is not obtainable.

* PrestigeClass: You start-out with the Wizard. Everything else must be unlocked by reaching X level with the preceding character(s) ([[BribingYourWayToVictory or forking over real-world money]]).

* InexplicableTreasureChests: In the realm, treasure chests appear in some regions occupied by quest monsters (Deathmages, Coil Snakes, Liches, Oasis Giants, Phoenixes, Cyclops Gods, and Red Demons). Instead of dropping the loot themselves some bosses spawn loot chests instead. Namely, the Shatters bosses, Lair of Draconis bosses, Shaitan the Advisor, and Esben the Unwilling. Occasionally, there are also special events that involve chests appearing from nowhere at the end of certain dungeons.

** The Sorcerer class in general could be considered this. It hasn't had a balance change since pets were introduced, leading to an incredible Vitality stat that's rendered almost useless by even a Rare pet, not enough DPS to compete with its ranged brethren and an ability which is useful for moderate damage across a large number of enemies but is worse than even the Necromancer's Skull at inflicting singe-target damage; in fact, it's ''worse'' than useless in the Tomb of the Ancients as using it will chain the lightning between all three bosses, causing the other two to wake up if they haven't been already. However, Sorcerer eventually received a wisdom modifier on his Scepter, increasing its damage, and if Wisdom is high enough, increasing the number of targets. In addition, there are multiple UT Scepters that are very good, like the Scepter of Fulmination and the Scepter of Devastation, making the Sorcerer a viable option. Sorcerer indirectly got buffed again in the Reconstruction update, which increased the damage of his wands and added Vital Combat to let Sorcerer make use of his high VIT.

** The Shatters after its 2021 rework drops valuable potions, a huge number of extremely powerful UT items, and some of the highest tiered gear in the game. It's also a MarathonLevel of unholy levels of difficulty, with three huge areas packing different objectives that are required to proceed, dozens upon dozens of {{EliteMook}}s that will swarm you with impunity and use complex attack patterns, and three bosses which stand among the toughest adversaries in the entire game, capable of tearing through maxed characters in a heartbeat.

** The Epic Dungeons, much harder versions of early dungeons, are dropped by the Lucky Gods and Crystal Prisoner. The Nest deserves a mention for being significantly harder than the other 3 Epic Dungeons, so much that players are unsure if that's even the right term for it. It drops from a very difficult Event Boss, all the enemies are DemonicSpiders, and the boss is one of the most grueling enemies in the game. Fittingly, the loot it drops is much better than the other Epics.
** The exclusive Battle for the Nexus has bosses from other areas with beefed-up HP.
** The Shatters drops the best equipment, both of the most valuable stat potions (Life and Mana), exclusive Tier 6 rings and has three valuable untiered rings that are some of the most sought-after items in the game. It only drops from the Avatar of the Forgotten King- a MarathonBoss that doesn't have to be killed in order to close the Realm and travel to Oryx's Castle. It's also a BrutalBonusLevel and the first of the dungeons considered to be in the 'Epic' difficulty- the final and hardest difficulty.

* BossDissonance: Both kinds, depending on the dungeon you happen to be in. The Abyss of Demons, for example, is a frighteningly lethal dungeon to all but maxed-out [[StoneWall melee classes]], but the boss can easily be taken down by a lone Priest with good aim. On the other hand, Sprite Worlds have a single actually dangerous enemy[[note]]The Native Sprite God, an identical version of which you'll likely have killed to even reach the dungeon in the first place[[/note]] and a slew of enemies identical to those you would have encountered in the Midlands, roughly at level 6-7[[note]]Native Sprites of all kinds. The only one likely to even slow you down is the Native Ice Sprite, which inflicts [[StandardStatusEffects slow]].[[/note]], while the boss has a hyper-aggressive attack pattern likely to rip the unaware to shreds, followed by a stationary PuzzleBoss phase. This is, of course, relative; Limon the Sprite God is probably overall easier than Malphas is but is the boss of a much easier dungeon.

** There are generally a few enemies in dungeons that are much more powerful than the other ones, mostly in endgame dungeons (eg. Mecha Squirrels, Enforcer Bots, Crawling Grey Spiders, the Henchmen of Oryx, etc.) In addition, most enemies in the hardest dungeons have stats superior to that of lower-level dungeon bosses (for example, Shatters Adepts have as much health as Archdemon Malphas, and hit much harder!)
* BossOnlyLevel: Several. The Lair of Shaitan, Puppet Master's Encore, Lair of Draconis, Battle for the Nexus, and Belladonna's Garden only consist of boss(es) and their minions.

* BossRush: The Battle for the Nexus limited dungeon consists of four consecutive boss fights against powered-up versions of in-game bosses. The Arena becomes this in later stages, except you have all of the bosses in a wave [[NintendoHard at once.]]

* DegradedBoss: Dwarf Kings, who lead groups of mid-leveled enemies, but are summoned as stronger Undead versions along with their former minions by a high-level leader. The Arena sort-of invokes this; in later waves you'll get various dungeon bosses either on their own or in groups. This includes even late-game dungeon bosses like Oryx 2.

** There would be another step in reaching for the rarer non-endgame dungeons such as the Epic Dungeons, Ocean Trenches or Ice Caves, and for going to events, except these are so commonly steamrolled that even level 1 characters can complete them. (Good luck getting loot though.)
** The final and most severe one if the step up to the truly endgame content; The Tomb of the Ancients, Lair of Draconis, the Wine Cellar, the Shatters, and the Lost Halls. If it's your first time in one of these dungeons and you don't know what to expect, you're probably going to die.

** Upgraded versions of the loot associated with the Undead Lair and Abyss of Demons exist but are not obtainable, likely intended to be part of their heroic variants.

** Shaitan the Advisor has a mark for himself coded into the game, even though Court of Oryx bosses are not eligible to be part of any daily quests. As a result, it goes unused.

* EternalRecurrence: Oryx and his minions have to be defeated again and again. Two minutes after an old Realm is closed, another opens.
* EnemyCivilWar: Between the 22nd and 29th of March 2021, the Son of Arachna and the Crystal Prisoner both detected a new source of power outside of Oryx's sight and prepared accordingly for whatever might happen next. The problem is that the Son wants to take it for himself and his cohorts (and also because [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas he wants to cure Arachna]] despite his exile), while the Prisoner wants to investigate it further in case Oryx or a GreaterScopeVillain might be behind it. Both are reasonable approaches, thus dragging the Realmers into a proxy war between the two.
* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: The penguin pet family. One of the divine penguin pets is '''a penguin with a tank'''.

* EvilHand: Shaitan's hands grasp at you independently of his body. '''[[StuffBlowingUp THEN THEY EXPLODE]].'''

* ExcusePlot: While there ''is'' lore, none of it has an actual part in gameplay. All that you need to understand is that you're stuck in the [[TitleDrop Realm of the Mad God]], whose minions want to eat you. Here's how you move, shoot, and loot corpses. Now go kill things.

* MarathonBoss: The Avatar of the Forgotten King was infamous for this before it underwent a {{nerf}}. Even now, it has significantly more HP than any other non-seasonal Realm enemy in the game[[note]]Packing 150,000 HP, while the other events generally range from 16,000 to 60,000, and the BonusBoss Lost Sentry has 125,000 HP[[/note]], a massive amount of DEF, a powerful spiral of shots, four phases with four types of deadly minions that require a certain amount of DPS to push through, and is immune to the Knight's Stun ability to boot. It's still easier than its previous form, which had an even more titanic amount of health, even more defense, was almost always invulnerable, and was a required kill in order to access [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Oryx's Castle]].

** The Shatters is filled with {{Mook}}s as powerful as Gods and is ''incredibly'' long, with an extensive map consisting of three lengthy areas each with their own objectives and incredibly dangerous boss. Because of this, it's nigh impossible to complete the dungeon without a strong group, and solo completions are almost unheard of.
** Taken UpToEleven with the Lost Halls: the dungeon is composed of an uncountable number of identical rooms, filled with enemies more powerful than most mid-level bosses, and with several bosses that embody MarathonBoss with a passion. Good runs may still take upwards of 10-20 minutes, and bad runs won't even complete the dungeon.
** Now properly invoked with the Abandoned Mineshaft, the first multi-floor dungeon to exist. The first part, the Fungal Cavern, has the player tracking down and destroying 25 pink crystals to open the way to the boss, all while avoiding or dispatching the hordes of incredibly lethal mushrooms and BigCreepyCrawlies roaming the cave. The boss itself, the Crystal Worm Mother, is an incredibly dangerous one whose fight will put most players through the wringer. Once it's dead, the Worm drops the portal to the Crystal Cavern, which has players do the same thing as before, but now with even stronger crystalline monsters hounding them at all times. This culminates in the final fight with the Crystal Entity, a brutal fight that embodies BulletHell with a passion.

* RareRandomDrop: Even in a game where everything is RNG, there are a few major standouts: the Shield of Ogmur, Helm of the Juggernaut, Dirk of Cronus, Skull of Endless Torment, the Wand of the Bulwark, Haunted Cemetery whites[[note]]Resurrected Warrior's Armour and Plague Poison[[/note]] and Shatters whites[[note]]the Bracer of the Guardian, Twilight Gemstone and Forgotten Crown[[/note]] are all among the rarest items in the game.

* SchizoTech: Due to the game taking place in a FictionalEarth with supernatural and magic presences, it's unclear how advanced the world actually is. Although most modern technology present is imported from another world (Dr. Terrible) or outer space (Commander Calibrik), the Reconstruction event confirms the realmers know how to use guns and are aware of complicated construction equipment.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Hot lava, a more dangerous version of lava found in the Shatters and the Lair of Shaitan.
** No longer redundant - it's now called Magma.

* EquipmentBasedProgression: To an extent. The game is intentionally designed such that it is easy to reach the max level in less than a few hours; then it partly becomes this trope. While leveling up does boost your stats, the main focus is in fighting monsters to acquire better and better equipment. However, the real quest is for stat potions- if you manage to max all eight stats on a character (commonly abbreviated as 8/8) then you have reached the endgame, where EquipmentBasedProgression abruptly becomes the main focus again.

* HealingSpring: The fountains in the Nexus.

* HolyWater: Found in the Manor of the Immortals. Can be used to cure status effects and heal yourself.

* OxygenMeter: Again, in the Ocean Trench and Cnidarian Reef. Not stepping into an air pocket causes health depletion and eventual drowning.
** Also done on the alien planet Katalund. Most of it is covered in constantly moving [[DeadlyGas toxic clouds.]] Standing in the toxic clouds drains oxygen. Players need to move toward the few constantly changing cloudless areas in order to breath. Enemies become armored while standing in the clouds, doubling their defense, except for the dungeon's FinalBoss, which goes invulnerable instead.

* PoisonMushroom: Many of the April Fools items dropped by The Machine and its associated enemies tend to be this. The three Cheater's Armors do nothing but reduce HP by 100 when equipped; the Challenger Helm dazes and slows the user when used; the [=NSFWakizashi=] deals no damage to enemies while also inflicting the Exposed status effect on the user; and the Omni-Impotence Ring provides harsh penalties to all stats. In particular, the Omni-Impotence Ring is treated as an ST item, and will reduce stats even further when equipped alongside other Mistake Gear items (UT items dropped by Null).

** The Avatar of the Forgotten King has a frustrating phase in which clouds of eyes must be killed before respawning in order to continue the fight.

* AcidPool: Mad Labs have a single room of these on the way to the boss. The alien planet Forax is also filled with acid water. Evil water from the Deadwater Docks and "[[MadeOfEvil pure evil]]" by the Avatar and Void also count.

* ActionBomb:
** The grey blob, which is a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin grey blob]]. They like to get right up next to you before exploding in a circle of fire. For low-level players, a whole swarm of them is [[YetAnotherStupidDeath a common way to end a game in a hurry]].
** The much more powerful Blobombs. They spawn in large groups around the Avatar and Forgotten Sentinel and can be very dangerous if not dragged safely away.
** A number of bosses spawn minions that do this; the Grave Caretaker in the Haunted Cemetery, Archdemon Malphas in the Abyss of Demons and the Forgotten King in the Shatters among them.

* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: The Sprite World is filled with moving conveyor belt tiles and trees that are all sorts of colors. One of the main challenges of the dungeon is figuring out what's going on.

** The Staff of Extreme Prejudice (EP) fires ten shots at once and deals obscenely high damage should they all hit, but are fired ''around'' the character. The player has to practically stand on monsters to maximize damage, in a game where standing on most high-level monsters will quickly kill you. While it used to have a niche usage getting soulbound damage on loot chests, the lowering of SB thresholds and outright removal of most loot chests have removed even that.
** There are a few other weapons that qualify for this too. The Etherite Dagger for any dagger class that isn't a Rogue (incredible DPS in exchange for laughably short range), the Annoying Firecracker Katana, the Staff of Esben, regular tiered bows in comparison to the Doom and Coral bows, and the Wand of Geb.
** The Sorcerer class in general could be considered this. It hasn't had a balance change since pets were introduced, leading to an incredible Vitality stat that's rendered almost useless by even a Rare pet, not enough DPS to compete with Melee classes and an ability which is useful for moderate damage across a large number of enemies but is worse than even the Necromancer's Skull at inflicting singe-target damage; in fact, it's ''worse'' than useless in the Tomb of the Ancients as using it will chain the lightning between all three bosses, causing the other two to wake up if they haven't been already. No longer relevant, as the Sorcerer received WisMod on his Scepter, increasing its damage, and if Wisdom is high enough, increasing the number of targets. In addition, there are multiple UT Scepters that are very good, like the Scepter of Fulmination and the Scepter of Devastation, making the Sorcerer a viable option. Sorcerer indirectly got buffed again in the Reconstruction update, which increased the damage of his wands and added Vital Combat to let Sorcerer make use of his high VIT.

* BigBad: Oryx the Mad God, who only appears when the event bosses have been defeated on a single server. Actually less powerful than some other bosses.
** The Void Entity serves as an OverarchingVillain version of this, as he is more malevolent than Oryx, arguably just as strong, actively works against him to destroy the Realm and has orchestrated a number of its events.

* BrutalBonusLevel: The high-end dungeons like Tomb of the Ancients, Ocean Trench, The Shatters, Lost Halls, the epic dungeons (especially The Nest), Abandoned Mineshaft, and the Wine Cellar, able to eat through 8/8 maxed characters with ease. Taken UpToEleven with Oryx's Sanctuary, the final area of the game, where it's borderline ''required'' to have a fully maxed and geared character to avoid being instantly gibbed by the lethal enemies and bosses, and even then often chewing through maxed characters like cannon fodder.

* DiscOneNuke: Lower-tier items, which are fairly unremarkable finds for a level-capped character, can still be used to breeze through the trek to level 20 without much effort. However, they won't help you much in the quest for the game's [[InfinityPlusOneSword ultimate weapons]].

** As of now, Tier 14 Weapons[[labelnote:List]]Dagger of Dire Hatred, the Bow of Deep Enchantment, the Staff of the Fundamental Core, the Wand of Retribution, Kusanagi, and the Sword of Majesty[[/labelnote]], Tier 15 Armors, and Tier 7 Abilities. They only drop from [[TrueFinalBoss Oryx the Mad God 3]] in his Sanctuary, but perform considerably better than the gear right below their tier, and sometimes even better than ''UT items''. They also can't be traded, so you'll have to challenge these highly powerful endgame bosses yourself to get your hands on them.
** Untiered items that drop from dungeon and event bosses, often in the coveted white bag. These are exceptionally rare and generally have effects different from normal weapons: the Crystal Sword, for example, has a longer range than other swords (See the below entry on SwordBeam on why it ItMakesSenseInContext). These are highly sought after, and can't be traded (much like the above T13/T14 weapons), adding to the challenge of finding them. Several (such as the Coral Bow) are considered upgrades to standard tiered weapons, or unlock very powerful abilities for the wielder (such as the Seal of Blasphemous Prayer, which makes the player ''completely invincible'' for between one and two seconds). Untiered items from endgame dungeons tend to be even more exorbitantly powerful, especially those from Oryx's Sanctuary.
* InfinityMinusOneSword: Tier 11 and Tier 12 weapons, which are dropped from high-level dungeons such as the Wine Cellar. Not as powerful as T13/T14 weapons, but they can be traded, which means with a little luck or grinding on your part, you can grab one of these weapons very easily for your character if you trade your spoils for one. Tier 12 weapons in particular are common enough to be the gold standard when it comes to DPS and range, and many Untiered items are compared to them when it comes to opportunity cost for an inventory slot.

* InventoryManagementPuzzle: Your character has eight inventory slots, and the Vault contains an additional eight by default. Seeing as anything in your character's inventory is lost on death, and nearly all equipment is restricted to certain classes, it often becomes a challenge to decide what loot to store in the Vault to use when your current character inevitably kicks the bucket and you start anew. The Vault and inventory ''can'' be significantly expanded, but doing so requires gold, which can only be obtained with real-world money.

* ItemAmplifier: The Wisdom stat has been modified to serve as this (only for certain classes so far), now increasing the range/duration of abilities as well as the rate of mana regeneration.

** The Shatters is the most dangerous area in the game, filled with {{Mook}}s as powerful as Gods. To ensure your safety, all must be dispatched systematically or evaded while you destroy the numerous switches required to advance. The three bosses possess attacks that can easily kill the most powerful players, and all have between 70k and 100k base health. Because of this, it's nigh impossible to complete the dungeon without a strong group, and solo completions are almost unheard of.

* ObviousRulePatch: Dungeons were changed in an update in 2020 to have their bosses subject to quadratic HP scaling[[labelnote:Explanation]]Rather than increase by a flat/linear amount, the amount the boss's HP is raised per player increases with each player. In a worst-case scenario, an extra player can add a whopping '''111.6%''' of the boss's base health, a far cry from the starting 10.8%.[[/labelnote]] instead of linear scaling. For the eight Exaltation dungeons (the Shatters, Lost Halls, Cultist Hideout, Nest, Crystal/Fungal Caverns, Oryx's Sanctuary, and the Void), the enemies themselves were also given this scaling, due to an update in 2020 specifically intended to target and {{Nerf}} raids organized through external platforms.

** Wand, Sword and Staff UT items are almost always [[SituationalSword Situational Swords]] that are only useful in a couple of places or specific situations, such as the Demon Blade working very well on low-defense enemies you can sit on top of, the Esben Staff being very useful at hitting enemies around corners, or the Conducting Wand working well on single targets.

** While Katana UT items suffered from severe PowerUpLetdown once, they play it pretty straight- the Doku no Ken sacrifices damage for slightly longer range and an increased fire rate, the Ray Katana is a standard UT power-for-range exchange, the Void Blade deals massive damage if you bait enemies into its projectiles and the Annoying Firecracker Katana has insane DPS if you're willing to get closer to your enemies.

** Drunk status, especially with Hardware Acceleration turned on. With it off, your screen blurs. With it ''on...''

''Realm of the Mad God'' is a free-to-play {{MMORPG}} which can be found [[http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/ here]], as well as on [[http://www.kongregate.com/games/Wild_Shadow/realm-of-the-mad-god Kongregate]] and Steam. Gameplay takes cues from both the {{Roguelike}} and BulletHell genres, with [[FinalDeath permadeath]] in effect for everyone. The game is small and embedded on that page, so you can play right away unless you don't have Flash installed.

* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: Level 20, the highest attainable, can be achieved within as little as thirty minutes. Maxing out all of your stats will take much longer (but still relatively little time compared to other {{MMORPG}}s). Necessary, considering the [[FinalDeath permadeath]] system.

* FinalDeath: If your character dies, he is gone for good. (There is an exception for a player's first death, however.) Before Amulets of Resurrection were removed, this was very often {{Subverted}}--all deaths were final, unless you were rich enough to possess an Amulet.

* InstantGravestone: A gravestone will instantly appear when a character dies. stronger characters get bigger, more impressive gravestones. Due to the game's use of FinalDeath, players will often pay respects to a particularly strong character.

* NintendoHard: The game can easily slip into this when your level goes into the double digits (assuming you keep following the quests alone). Especially since, unlike other {{MMORPG}}s, [[FinalDeath death is permanent]].

* MarathonBoss: The Avatar of the Forgotten King was infamous for this before it underwent a {{nerf}}. Even now, it has ''seven times'' the HP of the event boss with the second-most longevity[[note]]The Lord of the Lost Lands, with 70,000 HP compared to the Avatar's 500,000[[/note]], a powerful spiral of shots, four phases with four types of deadly minions, and is immune to the Knight's Stun ability to boot. It's still easier than its previous form, which was almost always invulnerable and was a required kill in order to access [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Oryx's Castle]].
** With the latest update, the Lost Sentry has edged out the Avatar for this title, with his 800,000 HP, devastatingly powerful BulletHell attacks, and an invulnerable sentry that circles him delivering lethal attacks to everyone in the area.

* OxygenMeter: Again, in the Ocean Trench and Cnidarian Reef. Not stepping into an air pocket causes health to deplete and eventual drowning.
** Also done on the alien planet Katalund. Most of it is covered in constantly moving [[DeadlyGas toxic clouds.]] Standing in the toxic clouds drains oxygen. Players need to move toward the few constantly changing cloudless areas in order to breath. Enemies become armored while standing in the clouds, doubling their defense.

* PlayerGeneratedEconomy: Centered in the [[MerchantCity Nexus]] and using stat potions as the base currency.

* PoisonMushroom: The three Cheater's Armors do nothing but reduce HP by 100 when equipped; the Challenger Helm dazes and slows the user when used; the [=NSFWakizashi=] deals no damage to enemies while also inflicting the Exposed status effect on the user; and the Omni-Impotence Ring provides harsh penalties to all stats. In particular, the Omni-Impotence Ring is treated as an ST item, and will reduce stats even further when equipped alongside other Mistake Gear items (UT items dropped by Null).

** Special mention must go to the Lair of Draconis Untiered items save the Midnight Star, which are all completely useless except for their Fame bonus.[[note]] The Leaf Dragon Hide armor sacrifices more than half of its defensive boost and all of the Dexterity boost for a measly fifty extra health (less than the boost from wearing a tier 2 HP ring), the Water Dragon Silk Robe exchanges a lot of attack and some Defense for a small boost in speed that isn't worth it on a class [[SquishyWizard not suited for rushing dungeons]], and the Annoying Firecracker Katana requires you to [[SuicidalOverconfidence sit practically on top of a target to do significant damage on a relatively squishy class]], and doesn't do nearly ''enough'' damage to make this worthwhile. The Fire Dragon Battle armor has a [[NotCompletelyUseless niche use on Knights and Helm of the Juggernaut Warriors]], but is otherwise not worth the severe defense penalty.[[/note]] If it wasn't for the fact that the Lair of Draconis is one of the [[BrutalBonusLevel hardest dungeons in the game]], this might not even be really noticeable.
*** Averted with a recent update that buffed all of them. Leaf Hide now gives an enormous speed boost and some VIT/WIS, while not sacrificing as much defense. The Water Silk Robe now gives an even bigger speed boost and the highest ATT boost of any robe in the game, while not sacrificing nearly as much stats in comparison to the T13 Robe. The Fire Dragon Armor got its defense raised a bit and its attack bonus raised even higher, while the Annoying Firecracker Katana was restored to the Celestial Blade and now outdamages just about every Katana in the game at the cost of not piercing.

** Ditto with the Tomb of the Ancients.
*** And Katalund.

** The Void Entity serves as an OverarchingVillain version of this, as he is more malevolent than Oryx, arguably just as strong if not stronger, actively works against him to destroy the Realm and has orchestrated a number of its events.

* EvilVersusOblivion: The main beef between the two main [[BigBad Big Bads]] of the story. While Oryx is an EvilOverlord who wants to subjugate the realm and feed his endless ego, the Void Entity is an OmnicidalManiac that just wants to annihilate all existence. This has put them firmly at odds ever since they became aware of each other, although the heroes of the realm are also solidly opposed to both of them.

** {{Mithril}}, "the strongest and most desirable of all metals." Or at least, the description claims- Mithril is mostly alluded to in T7-8 items, and the GameBreaker Mithril Sword was removed relatively early in development, eventually being replaced by the Crystal Sword.

* EasterEgg: Oryx's statue in the vault, only accessible through teleporting.

* TakeThat: The Golden Archer ST collection from The Machine serves as this from DECA to the bundle of the same name sold during the Kabam era, which consisted entirely of mid-tier Archer equipment, a very weak ring, and a Wine Cellar Incantation for the ludicrous price of 1400 Gold, or about $14 USD. Fittingly, the FlavorText praises the items in the set to high heaven despite them being completely useless.

*** Armor Broken is the bane of melee classes such as Knights, as every hit ignores their sky-high defenses while the effect is applied. The effect is enough to turn attacks that would normally be survivable for these tanky classes into death within a split second.

** The final boss of the Secluded Thicket, Xolotl the Lightning God, during his final phase, becomes invulnerable to all attacks save his own lightning bolts.

** The Sorcerer class in general could be considered this. It hasn't had a balance change since pets were introduced, leading to an incredible Vitality stat that's rendered almost useless by even a Rare pet, not enough DPS to compete with Melee classes and an ability which is useful for moderate damage across a large number of enemies but is worse than even the Necromancer's Skull at inflicting singe-target damage; in fact, it's ''worse'' than useless in the Tomb of the Ancients as using it will chain the lightning between all three bosses, causing the other two to wake up if they haven't been already. No longer relevant, as the Sorcerer received WisMod on his Scepter, increasing its damage, and if Wisdom is high enough, increasing the number of targets. In addition, there are multiple UT Scepters that are very good, like the Scepter of Fulmination and the Scepter of Devastation, making the Sorcerer a viable option.

* ContractualBossImmunity: The majority of Dungeon and Event bosses are immune to most status effects that would normally work on enemies. Higher-level ones tend to be immune to all of the serious negative effects (Stun, Paralyze, Stasis, and Slow), although there are certain (but mostly unorthodox) ways of bypassing their immunities. Taken to an absolute head with the Void Entity, which is immune to ''every status effect in the game.'' Strangely enough, the TrueFinalBoss Oryx the Mad God is vulnerable to all debuffs except Stasis, although he gains immunity in some phases.

* DumpStat: Vitality/VIT used to be this as one of the eight stats you can max, and it helps you regenerate health faster. In a game where every bit of survivability counts and can mean the difference between a safe trip to the Nexus and a lost character, VIT would seem like an important stat, but it's usually unwise to get rings or armor to try to maximize it, since it used to boost your character's health regeneration too slightly for it to matter much over other equipment that increase other stats, like Defense or HP, which both help your character survive more sudden bursts of damage which tend to be game-enders. Additionally, investing a lot into a Pet with Heal used to be enough to match (or often surpass) the healing provided by your character's natural VIT, enabling players to face-tank several bosses that didn't OneHitKill them. Pure VIT rings are rarely traded as anything other than Feed Power [[note]]Feeding your pet increases its power permanently, which in the long run is going to be better for regeneration than VIT[[/note]] and defense-minded players often overlook armor which capitalizes on Vitality [[labelnote:Except]]The Fungal Breastplate, which provides such a massive bonus (+30) to VIT that it's a worthy swapout to regenerate faster out of combat[[/labelnote]] in comparison to pieces of armor which increase other defensive stats [[labelnote:Such as]]The Breastplate of New Life, which offers a massive 160 HP bonus that helps survive Armor Broken or enemies that ignore defense[[/labelnote]]. This changed as of the Reconstruction update, where Vitality's healing power was doubled if the player doesn't take damage (past a certain threshold) recently, and Pets took much longer to heal if the player ''did'' take damage recently, making VIT an important stat provided the player can dodge hits. In addition, the passive health and mana of Vitality and Wisdom was doubled, allowing players to recover significant amounts of HP/MP as long as they didn't get hit, even without a pet.

* AcidPool: Mad Labs have a single room of these on the way to the boss. The alien planet Forax is also filled with acid water. Evil water from the Deadwater Docks and "[[MadeOfEvil pure evil]]" by the Avatar also count.

* ObviousRulePatch: The eight Exaltation dungeons (the Shatters, Lost Halls, Cultist Hideout, Nest, Crystal/Fungal Caverns, Oryx's Sanctuary, and the Void) have their bosses subject to quadratic HP scaling[[labelnote:Explanation]]Rather than increase by a flat/linear amount, the amount the boss's HP is raised per player increases with each player. In a worst-case scenario, an extra player can add a whopping '''111.6%''' of the boss's base health, a far cry from the starting 10.8%.[[/labelnote]] instead of linear scaling, due to an update in 2020 specifically intended to target and {{Nerf}} raids organized through external platforms.

* DoppelgangerSpin: {{Downplayed}} with the Trickster, who can summon a single decoy.
** Or two, with the untiered Prism of Dancing Swords.

** An unused Seal called the Seal of Divine Focus exists as a remnant of the Seal of Divine Focus's development.