History WebAnimation / MadnessCombat

[[quoteright:264:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/madness_combat_7384.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:264: ''"Just do what comes natural."'']]

The later episodes tend to revolve around Hank attempting to kill Jebus and The Zombie Clown With Super Powers ("Tricky"), for some unknown reason. [[Film/TheMatrix Matrix]]-inspired fights, ludicrously violent deaths, non-sequitur like moments and a much darker feel follow the latter part of the series. All because of the Improbability Drive, and its insane effects on everyone and everything. Or something like that. Yes, it's all that vague, though all three major characters appear to have been killed permanently. That is, until two NEW protagonists revive Hank.

->''[[ArcWords Somewhere in Nevada...]]''

Matt Jolly has teamed up with Michael Swain of WebAnimation/{{Blockhead}} and WebAnimation/{{Mastermind}} fame to create ''[[https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/592473 Madness: Project Nexus]]'', a flash game that is meant to give the player a feeling of being in the animations themselves. A [[VideoGame/MadnessProjectNexus2 a 3D video game sequel]] eventually came out.

Matt Jolly has teamed up with Michael Swain of WebAnimation/{{Blockhead}} and WebAnimation/{{Mastermind}} fame to create ''[[https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/592473 Madness: Project Nexus]]'', a flash game that is meant to give the player a feeling of being in the animations themselves. The two are currently working on [[VideoGame/MadnessProjectNexus2 a 3D video game sequel]] that still has a healthy dose of the good 'ol [[{{Gorn}} "ultraviolence"]] that Madness fans have come to know and love.

[[folder:L-O]]
* LaResistance: Sanford and Deimos appear to be a part of an organization that opposes the Auditor's totalitarian regime, unofficially dubbed the "Anti-Auditor Agency" or "Anti-A.A.H.W.".
* LaserGuidedKarma: Several times through the series, some of the more assholish mooks tend to die almost immediately after abusing their co-workers (though said co-workers tend to die soon after), and even something as egregious as smoking in a public space is a sign they're going to get killed. ''Incident:010A'' has this happen to Hank himself, after saving a civilian from zombies, only to use them as a brick-through-the-wall and a human shield. He is then summarily torn apart and stabbed by a MAG Agent while the civilian just sits back and watches. And to put a cherry on top, this civilian is ''also'' a smoker, and lights one up to watch the show.
* LaserSight: Occasionally seen on guns in the series, but rarely have any effect. Used in a [[EyeBeams more literal sense]] by Jebus.
** Guns in ''Madness: Project Nexus'' have a chance to come equipped with a laser sight, and unlike in the animations, these have an actual effect by increasing the gun's effective range.
* LightIsNotGood: Jebus presents himself as a holy man and has quite a messiah complex, when in fact he's more akin to a fanatical {{Necromancer}}.
* LovecraftianSuperpower[=/=]PowerUpgradingDeformation: [[spoiler: Hank, revived for the seventh time, is now twice his size, lacks the eponymous facial lines across his face, and has a crustacean arm where his right hand used to be]].
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: In ''Expurgation'', two skeletons spawn with shields, and their thick metallic plating renders them completely invulnerable to small-arms fire. [[spoiler:Sanford's stolen shield is the only reason he is not killed when he is subjugated to a rapid-fire barrage from Tricky's M60, along with Hank's timely arrival.]]
* MacheteMayhem: They come in two flavors: the "normal" Machete & the Megachette. The latter is among the most prevalent melee weapons in the series.
* MadeOfIron: Pretty much all of the main characters take multiple bullets, stab wounds and blunt trauma before they finally die. If they die at all, and even then, that's not so permanent.
** Jebus [[spoiler: can walk around [[LosingYourHead without his brain]].]]
** Sanford needs a special mention:
*** He and Deimos had a building dropped on them in ''Depredation'', surviving with little more than some minor head trauma.
*** Shot in the gut in the beginning of ''6.5'' (by a revolver, which in this universe [[RevolversAreJustBetter are usually instant kills]]).
*** Stabbed in the gut, then shot in the hand in ''Aggregation''.
*** Then gets beaten around by the the Auditor at the end of ''Aggregation'' and during ''Abrogation'', [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking with a small knife wound to the backhand for good measure]]. This guy's taken almost as much of a beating as Hank, but with none of the dying (though with a sizable healing period after ''6.5'').
*** In ''Expurgation'' he gets smashed into a wall at high speed when Tricky golf-clubbed him with a hammer. It does cause him considerable pain, but is physically none the worse for wear.
* MadeOfPlasticine: Literally, In fact. Krinkels has said that the skin of Nevada inhabitants aren't very elastic, and that touching them literally feels like plasticine clay. Which explains why they have little trouble ripping each other's heads off like they're secured with velcro.
* TheManBehindTheMan: Apparently, the Auditor is the one orchestrating things, given that he had his own Improbability Drive, was able to upgrade his soldiers, create Mag Agents, and infect Jebus.
* MeaningfulName: Episode 4's subtitle, ''Apotheosis'', can be defined as "the ideal example; epitome; quintessence." Krinkels considers it the best episode of the series, and his personal favorite. Fittingly, it's by far the most popular entry of the series, and Krinkels' original plan was to end the series at this episode.
* MeanwhileBackAtThe: ''Expurgation'' starts off in Auditor's "Hell" realm, where we see two mysterious red figures, then cutting back to Hank and Sanford with a "MEANWHILE, IN NEVADA".
* MeleeATrois: ''Depredation'' is a three-way battle between Hank, Jebus and Tricky.
* MindScrew: Again, depending on how much weight you give the plot.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', [[spoiler:defied by Dr. Jebediah Christoff, who angrily trashed his research and killed his managers after he saw what kind of monstrosities they were having him create.]]
* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: The series scores a 3 due to the presence of a bunch of gods, the Improbability Drive, the Halo and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Hank fighting the literal Sun]], but almost ''all'' the weapons are actual, real-life firearms that ''work'' and people rarely use any laser guns-the only truly "sci-fi" weapon in the whole series is the LightningGun that Dr. Christoff picks up in one level of ''Madness: Project Nexus'' which is then never seen again.
* MonsterClown: Tricky after he gets revived as a zombie. Even moreso after he becomes [[OneWingedAngel Demon Tricky]].
* MoodWhiplash: Happens at the end of some installments. ''Apotheosis'', we're looking at you.
* MookChivalry:
** Tons of it. For example, if a hero ever runs out of bullets, the next room will almost inevitably only have melee-focused enemies.
** In some episodes, [[BehindTheBlack Mooks in the same room as the heroes won't even raise their weapons until they're onscreen]].
* MoreDakka: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', you can pick up the AwesomeButImpractical and incredibly expensive [=M249 SAW=]. One of the 3 SimpleYetAwesome Shotguns is the USAS-12, which is fully automatic and does just as well as the SPAS-12 and Norinco 97k.
* MutualKill: ''Avenger'' ends with [[spoiler:Jesus running Hank through with his sword, but Hank shooting him and the Sheriff before he dies.]] ''Expurgation'' has another one [[spoiler:with Hank killing Tricky in both the mortal world and the afterlife, but seemingly taking his and Sanford's lives in the process. Given that this causes the Auditor to return to life, [[TheBadGuyWins this kill in particular was in vain]].]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', [[spoiler: Dr. Christoff had this reaction to the mad science he created. This feeling didn't extend to the security guards he guns down, though.]]
* {{Necromancer}}:
** Jebus has the power to revive fallen mooks as zombies and is responsible for almost all of the zombies in the series. Except for Tricky, who became one thanks to [[spoiler:the Improbability Drive.]]
** The Auditor's enhancing power he used on two engineers works on corpse too by bringing them back to life.
* NewOldWest: The early videos featuring the Sheriff are pretty much this -- a western with a lot more gore and modern firearms. Although the series takes on a surrealist Science Fiction theme after the death of the Sheriff, there's still a Western feel, with constant shots of the canyons and Tricky driving a train.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands:
** Somewhat justified, as Tricky gains new and improved powers from the Improbability Drive whenever he's on the losing end of a battle. In ''Consternation'', he gains a "Portable Improbability Drive".
** Jebus' powers are rather inconsistent and appears to be different each episode. For example, he can use a disintegrating beam in ''Inundation'' which he never did before, yet he is not seen using it in any of his ''Incidents'' videos.
* NiceHat: You can buy many, many hats in ''[[http://madnesscombat.wikia.com/wiki/Madness:_Project_Nexus/armor Project Nexus]]'' as ''armor'', of all things.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', [[spoiler: Dr. Christoff destroys the titular Nexus Project, but the Nexus was the only thing keeping a horde of zombies and abominations on what could loosely be described as a leash. The epilogue states "the city" is "decimated".]]
* NighInvulnerable: Tricky [[spoiler: after his Reality Compromised power-up, and his demon form]] and [[spoiler:The Auditor, who is Made of... Dark Stuff, though as of ''Abrogation'', it's averted as Hank finds that he's vulnerable to his new arm's electrified punches]].
* TheNightThatNeverEnds: Hank causes an endless night by ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext bludgeoning the Sun to death]]'' in ''Avenger''. As the series goes on, the sky takes on a black-and-red gradient.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown:
** After Hank gains a new metal arm, he body-slams Tricky on a platform, throws him against a wall, crushes him with an other spiky platform, beats him up and shoot him with Tricky's own gun. All what's left of Tricky after that beatdown (prior to Tricky respawning) is an upper body full of holes.
** When a giant skeleton spawns, Hank starts to beat it up before it even finished spawning, and the skeleton only gets to hit Hank once before being stuck it into a wall of light. When the giant skeleton frees himself a few seconds later, it's ready to continue the fight, but Hank simply slices its face with a katana and stomps the skeleton into the ground for good.
* NonSerialMovie: The ''Incidents'' episodes aren't canon to the episodic animations.
* NotTheIntendedUse: Many characters, Hank in particular, have ocassionally stabbed {{mooks}} with weapons not made with that purpose, such as assault rifles or nightsticks.
* OffhandBackhand: Many of the characters do this, but Hank is especially fond of the move.
* OhCrap: What appears to be ''reality itself'' in response to [[spoiler: The Auditor accidentally absorbing Tricky.]] He doesn't take it very well, either. [[StuffBlowingUp Quite explosively.]]
-->'''"[OH GOD NO]"'''
** In one of the few cases of anyone demonstrating any kind of survival instinct, a mook in ''Consternation'' has this reaction to Hank dismembering his colleagues with a chainsaw, frantically trying to climb up a nearby latter to escape. He doesn't get far.
* OminousVisualGlitch:
** In ''Depredation'', the fight between Hank and Jebus in interrupted by the screen glitching and Tricky coming out of the ground, complete with screechy static and flickering text.
*** Tricky in general is constantly in a state of violent shaking, as he was glitching starting from ''Depredation''.
** All over the place in ''An Experiment''. Once Scrapeface is tortured by being separated from his hands, he'll sometimes hover while being motionless like a bugged model and he'll glitch through a door and cause other people to glitch.
* OneBulletClips: ''Madness: Project Nexus'' [[AvertedTrope averts this]] by making ''magazines'' a collected resource. The only exceptions to this are weapons were the ammo is loaded individually, such as the [=SPAS-12=].
* OneHandedShotgunPump: Hank does this twice in ''Consternation'' while hanging one-handed from the ceiling. Notably, the first time he does it, the barrel is pointing ''down'', making the pumping motion vastly harder to put enough force behind.
* OneManArmy: Hank, Jebus, Tricky, Sanford and Deimos, The Auditor, pretty much every main character is one. It's a requirement to survive in the Madness world.
* OneWingedAngel: CLOWN CANNOT DIE. Tricky spends the entirety of one episode trying to get at Hank as a giant demon clown, only stopped when [[spoiler:Jesus destroys the Improbability Generator that's keeping up Tricky's form]].
** Also, [[spoiler:Mag Hank]].
** ClippedWingAngel: [[spoiler:The second time the Auditor tries this, it begins to backfire on him. This gets more noticeable after Hank briefly steals his halo, which causes the Auditor to slowly destabilize physically and mentally. To keep himself stable, he starts to absorb a LOT of dead bodies, allowing him to grow in power and size... then he absorbs Tricky, which kills him.]]
* OrderVersusChaos:
** The conflict between Hank and the A.A.H.W. seems to revolve around this, with the A.A.H.W. claiming to be working to restore order in Nevada while Hank opposes them and appears to just be out to kill as many people as possible. Though given how the A.A.H.W.'s leader is in possession of the Improbability Drive, which is the source of much of the chaos and madness in Nevada, it is possible that restoring order is just a front for the organization.
** Played straighter with Jesus, who opposes Hank due to his murder sprees and later turns against the A.A.H.W. to destroy the Improbability Drive and restore normality to Nevada.
** The Auditor and Tricky also seem to develop this dynamic, representing LawfulEvil and ChaoticEvil respectively.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Actually, they're exactly the same as the regular mooks. [[ConservationOfNinjutsu They're nowhere near as strong though]], but can take a bit more punishment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:P-S]]
* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: The passcode to Deimos's PDA is "8520", entered by swiping a finger down the middle.
* PhlebotinumBreakdown: With the destruction of the Improbability Drives, it seems that reality itself has been suffering from this.
** On top of this, the [[spoiler: Auditor suffers this throughout Abrogation, until his PhlebotinumOverload]].
* PhlebotinumOverload: [[spoiler: The Auditor's death, courtesy of Tricky's remains.]]
* PistolWhipping: When empty, guns are frequently used as melee weapons.
* PoorCommunicationKills: The first two ATP Soldats choose to rush to fight Sanford and Deimos before the Auditor could respond to their messages. Had they waited, they would have learned of an upgrade the Auditor had for them and might have stood a chance.
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: All over the place in the early episodes, then downplayed more and more as the series went on and the violence got messier. ''Madness: Project Nexus'', on the other hand, is rather inconsistent with this, as a fatal headshot can either leave a single small wound or remove a huge chunk of the target's head. It gets a bit absurd when shotguns are involved, as a point-blank shotgun blast might leave the victim with a ''face-full'' of these in lieu of [[YourHeadAsplode removing the head completely]].
* PunchAWall: In ''Anamnesis.fla'', some kind of hallucination of Sanford start to punch a wall after having his face obscured and before getting half-teleported into the floor. It seems to be more out of despair than anger as if he was trying to escape.
* RealityWarper: Tricky, according to his profile on the Auditor's monitor. May or may not simply be a side effect of the Improbability Drive.
* RecoilBoost: In ''Consternation'', Hank first tries to deal with [=MAG=] Agent: Torture by using the recoil from the agent's gigantic shotgun as a springboard to send him up high enough to blast Torture in the face.
* RecurringTraveller: The Hot Dog Vendor, a guy in a paper hat and greasy apron who has the privilege of being one of the few characters who has not been killed yet (unless he didn't escape the building hit by a reality restoration beam.)
* RedEyesTakeWarning: [[LightIsNotGood Jebus]], [[DarkIsEvil the Auditor]] and many, many, many {{Mooks}}. Hank wears red spectacles, in an odd variant of this trope.
* RefugeInAudacity: The only way this series can get away with the body count.
* ReplacementMooks: Agents start off as an elite division of the A.A.H.W., but eventually replace Grunts as the A.A.H.W.'s primary combatants.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: Jesus had an S&W .500, and Sanford has a Colt Revolver with a shortened barrel.
** In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', the Colt Revolver deals more damage than the [=1911A1=] Custom, despite the [=1911A1=] firing .460 Rowland, which has more power than the .44 Magnum, and deals as much damage as the Desert Eagle and Automag V, both of which are .50 caliber pistols, and both revolvers have more range than everything except for a select few rifles, with barrels only slightly longer than the [=1911A1=]'s. They're getting all that power and range simply from ''being'' revolvers.
* RockPaperScissors: In ''Abgoration'', Hank and Sanford wonder who goes first into the entrance made for the newly created tower made by the Auditor and decide to settle the issue this way. Hank loses.
* RunningGag:
** [[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking Smokers]] getting [[AuthorAppeal killed.]] [[spoiler: [[{{Foreshadowing}} An early hint as to Deimos' ultimate fate]].]]
** The Trench Knife being one of the only few weapons never used to kill someone. This is even referenced in Madness Combat 11, where a Trench knife is summoned for Sanford to use but he just ignores it.
* SawedOffShotgun: In ''Madness Combat 1'', the second gun Hank pulled out was a sawed-off shotgun, which he managed to fire three shots from without pumping. Sawed-off shotguns never appeared afterwards.
** In a way it did appear in ''CHASE.fla'' where Deimos uses a "mare's leg" configuration of a Lever-Action Shotgun.
* SayMyName: [[spoiler:Tricky]] roars out Hank's name upon his resurrection in ''Expurgation''. It's so loud that Sanford covers his ears in pain or annoyance.
-->'''[[spoiler: Tricky:]] "HANK!"'''
-->'''[[spoiler: Tricky:]] "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK!"'''
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Jebus has "quit" about three times already... and keeps coming back for more..
* SerialEscalation:
-->'''Madness Combat 1:''' A faceless goon fighting other faceless goons over a boombox, and Jesus shows up, uses a cross-shaped energy shield to block bullets, and summons a cannon out of nowhere.
-->'''Madness Combat 8:'''
-->'''I PURGE THE WICKED'''
-->'''THE IMPIOUS MADNESS MUST END'''
-->'''I SHALL BE THE INSTRUMENT OF ARMAGEDDON'''
-->'''IT HAS GOTTEN OUT OF HAND'''
-->'''''THE END HAS BEGUN'''''
* SeriousBusiness: People get killed over a boombox in Madness Combat 1.
* ShaggyDogStory: ''Incident:100A''. Well, except for the guy they kidnapped who was lucky enough to survive the incident. He was probably going to be beaten to death if the heroes hadn't saved him.
* ShockAndAwe: [[spoiler: Hank gets this ability after briefly stealing Jebus' halo from the Auditor. It proves to be the Auditor's weakness, as it not only quickens his destabilization, but it's also the only attack that can hit through the Auditor's [[VillainTeleportation intangibility power]].]]
* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted in ''Madness: Project Nexus'', where all 3 shotguns have a decent range of 160 yards, and can inflict heavy damage at long range.
* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', shotguns are among the best weapons in the game: decent range, a reasonable reload time, as good as the many assault rifles, plentiful and can defeat any enemy, from regular Mooks to Sleepwalkers, and even the final bosses.
* ShoutOut:
** Many for ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', and a few to ''Film/TheMatrix''. Also there are certain weapons that bear a strong resemblance to weapons from other media; especially the cutlass with the spiky hand-guard that seems to be from ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal''. Hank's getup from Episode 5 is basically Jean Reno's costume from ''Film/TheProfessional''. As well as the Graffiti that featured names such as Newgrounds Dot Com and forum members on the official fan site.
** Hank's fighting style, especially with GunsAkimbo, is GunKata, as seen in ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}''.
** ''Incident:111A'' features "Smile.jpg" as featured in the game ''[[Wiki/SCPFoundation SCP-087-B]]'', with sound effects from ''VideoGame/SCPContainmentBreach''.
** Jebus' sword has "316" written in binary. That represents [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_3:16 John 3:16]], one of the most quoted passages of the Bible. One of its translations is as follows:
--->"For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting."
*** This is immensely appropriate given Jebus thinks almost everyone else is evil and kills all of them for being "sinners".
** In ''6.5'' when Sanford and Deimos are getting new outfits, sanford puts on a shirt that reads "[[VideoGame/DeadRising I covered wars, you know]]".
** In ''7.5'', when Sanford and Deimos get into melee combat with the newly activated Soldats, Sanford engages one of them with a [[BringIt beckoning gesture]] straight out of Franchise/TheMatrix.
*** In the same episode, Deimos carries a silenced [[RareGuns Mark 23]] SOCOM, otherwise known as [[Franchise/MetalGear Solid Snake's]] favourite weapon.
** ''Incident:001A'': After Hank finds a giant blender and a MAG agent walks in, Hank says [[Advertising/WillitBlend "Will it blend?"]]
** ''Madness: Project Nexus'' also has a few:
*** One of the weapons you can use is called the "[[Film/CitizenKane Citizen Cane]]".
*** Arena Mode lets you buy a Franchise/{{Robocop}} outfit as armor, and complete the look with his trademark [=Auto9=] pistol.
** In Madness: Project Nexus 2, [[https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/madnesscombat/images/0/0b/Crackpotwithgolemsword.png/revision/latest?cb=20140418200959 you]] [[https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/madnesscombat/images/4/42/Golemsword2.png/revision/latest?cb=20140418200940 can]] [[https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/madnesscombat/images/0/0b/Crackpotwithgolemsword.png/revision/latest?cb=20140418200959 get]] [[{{Manga/Berserk}} the Dragonslayer.]]
* SideBet: At the start of ''Incident:100A'', Sanford and Deimos apparently made a bet about their plan to infiltrate the base they're going for -- most likely, whether the door guard would fall for a cardboard cut-out of Deimos. Which he did, so Sanford had to pay up.
* SimpleYetAwesome: The shotguns in ''Madness: Project Nexus'' follow the trend of ShotgunsAreJustBetter in many video games. They seem to be BoringButPractical at first, like the assault rifles-plentiful, good rate of fire and common, with the exception of having a slightly smaller magazine capacity-until you discover that they can ''[[YourHeadAsplode make heads explode.]]'' They also have a fast reload time, and you can sail through whole levels with one, as long as you pick up another shotgun when you run out of ammo. They are also ''very'' useful in Episode 1.5, capable to defeating the Abominations and Sleepwalkers with ease. They've got hilariously high penetration too, so you might find yourself taking out two Abominations with one headshot. The most practical model is actually the most plentiful one: the magazine-fed Norinco 97k. It's got a faster reload time than the SPAS-12, easier to control than the USAS-12, is the cheapest of the bunch and the fact that it's a SawedOffShotgun makes it easy to handle in tight spaces, which is surprisingly good as you'll be fighting in close-quarters for most, if not all the time.
** The Thompson, which looks very cool and actually performs quite well in the Arena and Story Mode.
** The Luger P08 looks awesome as well. It's the second cheapest pistol in the game, deals more damage than the Walther PPK and, well, all you have to do is headshot people.
* SinisterShades: Jesus starts donning a pair of sunglasses in episode 4.
* SlidingScaleOfVisualsVersusDialogue: The entire ''Madness Combat'' series contains no audible dialogue - information and banter are all delivered through text.
* SplashOfColor: Mostly red (and a little [[AlienBlood yellow]]) in the midst of that colorless world.
* {{Squee}}: Hank becomes ''very'' giddy upon seeing the giant blender in ''Incident:001A'', visibly shaking in excitement and anticipation. He immediately starts throwing as many mooks into it as he can, eventually jamming a [[GiantMook MAG Agent]] in it. It's as messy as one might think.
-->'''"OMG"'''
-->'''"SATISFACTORY"'''
* {{Spammer}}: Tricky spams The Auditor in Madness 6.5 with the line "You can't stop me!"
* StandardFPSGuns: They're (almost) all here, but the usual weaknesses are averted. There are plenty of knives and swords that can be wielded as both primaries or secondaries and can range from pitiful damage to being very powerful, pistols that range from ones that take 3 or more shots to kill the weakest enemy to incredibly strong [[HandCannon Hand Cannons]], three different Shotguns, lots of Automatic Weapons in the form of [=SMGs=] and Assault Rifles, an M203 Grenade Launcher, a FN FAL as a Marksman Gun/Battle Rifle (as it can be fired full-auto, oddly enough), with the FAMAS acting as both an assault rifle and a Battle Rifle. There is also an energy gun that isn't available in the Gear Shop that can be found in Episode 1.5 of Story Mode, plenty of [[GunAccessories silencers, laser sights and scopes,]] and an M249 that acts as a {{BFG}}. However, it averts the usual trope by being ''very'' fast.
* StandardSnippet:
** You can hear Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" in ''Madness Combat 3'''s main theme.
** The main theme of ''Expurgation'', where a certain clown comes back in town, has snippets based on Julius Fucik's "Entry of the Gladiators", which is heavily associated with circuses.
* TheStarscream: Tricky could be interpreted as this. [[spoiler: As of ''Abrogation'', this has been confirmed. Posthumously. It got to the point where Tricky defiantly deserted just to battle Hank, and the Auditor threatened anyone who was "caught posting paraphernalia in regards to that god damn clown" with instant death.]]
* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:Jebus was once known as Dr. Jebidiah Christoff, the chief scientist of Project Nexus, who defected after realizing what his scientific efforts were forced to create. Setting his experiments loose lead to them attacking, killing and zombifying his former colleagues. Christoff was immediately blamed for this and became a liability, waging a [[OneManArmy one-man war]] against Nexus itself. Near the end, he picks up his trademark halo which would later turn him into one of the major antagonists of the series and Hank's main rival until being KilledOffForReal.]]
* TheStinger: Rather amusing one in ''Incident:110A''.[[spoiler: After the kill counter drains to zero, the post-animation credits pops up momentarily...and then the action restarts as Jebus picks up a minigun and kills more people, further reducing the counter to -20.]]
* SticksToTheBack: Jebus's TAC-50. Overlaps with {{Hammerspace}} because even disassembled the barrel is taller than him. Also, in both ''Madness Interactive'' and ''Madness: Project Nexus'', you can see alternate weapons a character carries on his back.
* StockSoundEffects: A common occurrence due to the series' mostly non-budgeted nature. Some of the single most common sound effects tend to be from sounds of bodily violence, like a head getting ripped off with a dull fabric-like noise.
* StormingTheCastle: Several episodes start with the protagonists assaulting their enemies' buildings, but they tend to be interrupted in the middle of the raid by unexpected events. Taken a bit more literally in Abrogation, where the Auditor erects a castle-like complex, complete with ramparts, on the spot and ''dares'' the protagonists to storm it.
* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: It was pretty obvious that the dumbwaiter in ''An Experiment'' was a trap but if the poor guy didn't comply [[MortonsFork he'd be shot to death anyway]].
* StylizedForTheViewer: Every character appears to have the same size to the viewers, but [[WordOfGod Krinkels]] said that they actually have differents heights InUniverse. The only current height confirmations are that Hank is taller than Sanford and Deimos and that Deimos is the shortest.
* SubvertedTrope: ''Incident:010A'', wherein Hank is [[spoiler: brutally torn apart while the man he used as a human shield calmly has a smoke in the end; a RunningGag is that anyone who smokes and/or gets used as a shield dies.]]
* SuddenAnatomy: Sanford gains his trademark lower lip to show his satisfaction upon getting his CoolShades in ''6.5''.
* SuperStrength: Hank, an otherwise BadassNormal, can rip a man's body parts off with his bare hands [also included are hearts and ears], and impale people with blunt objects just as easily as with swords or knives. [[spoiler: As of ''Aggregation'', he has now gotten even stronger after [[CameBackStrong being revived once more.]]]].
* SweatDrop: Happens rather often in the series, though sometimes too quickly to see easily. Twice during ''Redeemer'', once during ''Avenger'', another at the end of ''Apotheosis'' ('''OMFG''') and other time when Sanford and Deimos encounter Tricky.
** Hank briefly gets a transparent one when he empties a magazine into the very first MAG agent's face to no effect.
** In ''Antipathy'', a mook gets one for a split second when Hank gets his hands on the battleaxe. But only for a split second.
* SwordAndGun: Used extensively by Hank in ''Apotheosis'', as well as by Jebus in most of his appearances.
* SwordsAkimbo: The Auditor summons two Megachettes when he goes to fight Jesus in ''Inundation''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T-Z]]
* TakingYouWithMe:
** In ''Avenger'', Hank kills the Sheriff and Jesus just before dying from the impalement that Jesus gave him in his stomach.
** Hank suicide bombs himself to kill Jesus in ''Apotheosis''.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Near the end of of ''Antipathy'', Tricky buys a hot dog but doesn't have the chance to enjoy it as Hank assaults him in just as he's getting it.
* ThrowAwayGuns: Hank tends to burn through both his ammo and his firearms. Subverted by Jebus, who only drops his TAC-50 after he doesn't need it anymore/runs out of ammo and keeps his S&W500 on him throughout the episode, and played straight and subverted by Deimos, who throws weapons away, but not his own Glock 20, which he picks up in ''6.5'', uses to kill a few agents on the roof and holsters it as he gets into the helicopter with Sanford.
* ThrowingYourGunAtTheEnemy: With all the [[ThrowAwayGuns gun-throwing]] in the series, some of those throws will naturally be aimed at enemies. Special mention goes to Hank ''bouncing a rifle off an enemy's face and catching it'' in ''Antipathy'' and Jesus throwing one so hard it impales a guy through the head in ''Inundation''. Also a viable tactic in ''Madness Interactive'' (though the throwing mechanic means it requires some finesse) and ''Madness: Project Nexus'' for guns that have run out of ammo; however, the M249 in ''Madness: Project Nexus'' is too heavy to be thrown, and will instead just be dropped.
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks:
** Ever seen someone's skull being pierced by a police baton from ''[[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice across the room?]]'' Hank does the same with many weapons across the series.
** Other characters get in on it too. Notably, in ''Inundation'', Jesus throws an empty machine gun so hard at a mook that it impales them.
** Subverted, then deconstructed, in ''7.5''. First, Deimos throws a machine gun like Jesus did in ''Inundation'', but it's too heavy for him to aim the throw properly, and it just lands on the floor. Later, Sanford throws his sword into a Soldat's belly, only for another Soldat to pull it out and use it against Deimos.
** Downplayed in ''Madness: Project Nexus'': It ''does'' work, but you have to aim your throw just right so you can destroy someone's forehead with your discarded gun/Sanford's hook. However, the [=M249=] SAW is the only gun too heavy to throw properly, resulting in your character dropping it.
* TooDumbToLive: Many times throughout the series, some mooks are either shot non-fatally and knocked down or are hit in the face with guns/bodies/blunt weapons. Some of them just stay down, since the protagonist is usually too busy with attackers to care about the disarmed wounded enemy on the floor. However, most of them get right back up for more and promptly die. [=L33T=] Crew agents seem particularly prone to this.
** The grunts in ''Incident:011A'' try to stop [[GiantMook Mag-Agent: Torture]] by hitting him with nightsticks.
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: [[spoiler: The Auditor absorbs Tricky's corpse. Tricky then decides to overload the Auditor, causing him to explode.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Hank gets a lot better at fighting over time.
* UncertainDoom: We don't know if Hank and Sanford are dead or just unconscious at the end of ''Expurgation''.
* UnusualHalo: Jesus' gold halo turns out to be a physical object that grants or [[AmplifierArtifact enhances his supernatural abilities]]. When [[BigBad the Auditor]] claims it, it turns dark red.
* UnwantedRevival: When Hank is resurrected in ''Consternation'', he seemingly asks Tricky to "KNOCK IT OFF", likely tired of being endlessly brought back to life after dying.
* VisualDevelopment: Every important character gets visual differences as the series goes on, either through wounds and bandages, new clothes or permanent transformations. In spite of the changes, each character has a "main" [[IconicOutfit iconic appearance]] used for non-canon videos and video game adaptations.
* VisualPun: In ''Incident:110A'', Jebus kills two mooks by using his telekinesis to repeatedly smash one's body upside-down into the other. What's the enemy count at when he does this? 69!
* WallJump: Jesus does one near the end of Inundation to skip climbing a ladder.
* WantedPoster: Each of the main protagonists have one with bits of ArsonMurderAndJaywalking:
** Hank is wanted for distorting reality, felony evasion, public urination and crime.
** Sanford is wanted for murder, telling lies, torturing, kidnapping, conspiring, arson - and for being ugly.
** Deimos is wanted for murder, lying, thievery, conspiring, [[HeelFaceTurn betraying the cause]], and for being a smoker.
* WeaponOfChoice: Jebus has his longsword with "316" in binary on it and a S&W 500 Revolver; his Desert Eagle(s) make a reappearance in later episodes as well. The Auditor has his black energy blades, a katana and his massive broadsword. Tricky also likes to use traffic sign with exclamation mark on it. Sanford seems to be fond of his hook and .357 Colt Revolver. In several episodes Hank uses a piece of piano wire to dispatch mooks and Agents. Everyone uses different weapons throughout the series.
** While Deimos likes to ThrowAwayGuns, he seems to enjoy the M203 Grenade Launcher, the Glock 20, the Minebea PM-9 and dual-wields [=G36s=] at one point. He also carries a HK [=MP7=] submachine gun with full attachments and a fully modded black Beretta M9 in ''Madness: Project Nexus.''
** Sanford and Hank carry the Glock 20, with a silencer and laser sight, as their sidearms in ''Madness: Project Nexus''.
** In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', ''Apotheosis'', ''Depredation'' and ''Madness Retaliation'', Hank seems to like his katana ''a lot'', and carries it as his primary in Story Mode in ''Madness: Project Nexus.''
** [[spoiler: In ''Abrogation'', Hank seems to have become more fond of GoodOldFisticuffs, courtesy of an organic PowerFist as a result of his resurrection. Of course, his resurrected form is larger than most other characters and strong enough to crush ordinary weapons in one hand, so it's probably also out of necessity.]]
** The L33t Agents are often seen carrying the Desert Eagle as their standard issue sidearm/primary weapon, although it has become less common due to more handgun options being available. For handguns, they now tend to carry the Browning Hi-Power or Beretta M9 alongside the Deagle.
** In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', all Riot Troopers carry Billy Clubs. As well as that, the A.A.H.W. seems to have a thing for two particular [=SMGs=] -- the HK SMG II and the infamous MP-40.
** The A.A.H.W. seems to be quite fond of the AR-15 on the whole. Their troops are shown wielding the rifle several times and ''Abrogation'' has three in a gun rack.
* WeaponsKitchenSink: Everything from World War 2 machine guns, 1920's-era Tommy guns, laser guns, Gatling guns, .500 hunting revolvers, 1970's battle rifles, 1980's-era [=SMGs=], you name it, they've got it!
* WeHaveReserves: Hundreds of them. This plays a major role in ''Madness: Project Nexus''.
* WhamEpisode:
** ''Avenger'' features [[spoiler: the activation of the Improbability Drive and the beginning of Nevada's dissolution into chaos.]]
** ''Consternation'' sees [[spoiler: Jebus returning after being killed two episodes ago and the Auditor's reveal as TheManBehindTheMan to Tricky.]]
** ''Aggregation'' [[spoiler: marks the beginning of the Normality Restoration and Sanford and Deimos' introduction into the main storyline.]]
* WorldOfBadass: Almost every major character is a badass OneManArmy.
* YouAlwaysHearTheBullet: Averted in ''Incident:111A''.
* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', the player needs specific perks to learn how to carry a second weapon and pistol whip.
* YourHeadAsplode: The result of [[spoiler: Tricky attempting to use Jebus' powers to create zombies from dead mooks.]]
** '''[--[[spoiler: Tricky]]: How come this does not work?!??--] '''
** Of note is how the giant mook in ''Incident:011A'' meets his end: [[spoiler: A grenade launched into the back of his head, then detonating.]]
*** This also happens to [[spoiler:Mag Hank]] in ''Incident:1000A''.
[[/folder]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:#-C]]
* AdvancingWallOfDoom: Throughout ''Expurgation'', dozens of sharp blades will periodically start rising up from the floor of the room Hank and Sanford are currently in, forcing them to advance lest they be ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice. [[spoiler:Hank actually gets impaled at one point, but is revived by the Auditor so he can continue fighting Tricky.]]
* AerithAndBob: Some characters have rather common names, like Hank or Sanford. Then there's names like Deimos.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Hank starts off the series as a VillainProtagonist who's willing to start a massacare over a boombox. He graduates to a NominalHero later on, if only because his main enemies now include a MonsterClown and a HumanoidAbomination.
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:The cliffhanger ending of ''Expurgation'' leaves it ambiguous on whether or not Hank and Sanford died in killing Tricky, or if they've been knocked unconscious.]]
* AnAxeToGrind:
** Lots of mooks use fire or battle axes as weapons.
** Hank gets his hands on an axe near the end of ''Antipathy'' that's as big as he is.
* AnimatedWorldHypotheses: The short "An Experiment" shows that the characters' FloatingLimbs aren't physically connected to their bodies and continue to function when moved far away from them, albeit not without reality-warping side effects.
* AnyoneCanDie: Several times, even! The only main character not to die at least once is [[spoiler:Sanford]], and that's only if we're counting unambiguous canon deaths. The l33t-crew-employed civilians, such as the hot-dog vendor, are pretty safe most of the time.
** This trope will always be in effect with [[RunningGag anyone who smokes.]]
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: The protagonists' wanted posters have bits of this which can be seen on the WantedPoster trope entry below.
* ArcWords: Almost every episode begins with "Somewhere in Nevada..."
** ''Antipathy'' has "Just do what comes natural."
** "Unity of purpose is strength." It's essentially the tagline of [[NebulousEvilOrganization the AAHW]], and though it's never terribly prominent, it recurs on a good deal of the background posters.
* ArtEvolution:
** Compare the first animation (unofficially titled "Boombox Madness") with either ''Consternation'', ''Inundation'', or ''Aggregation''. ''Apotheosis'' is where the animation ''very noticeably'' changed to be smoother and more violent.
** Hank's appearance in general. Same goes for Jebus and Tricky, who go from just a Madness character with a goatee and halo and some clown to a stitched-up, goatee'd holy man with a mouth and a literal MonsterClown.
** Zombies go from [[PaletteSwap green-skinned mooks]] to darker green mooks with gaping, bloody mouths full of teeth.
** Weapon designs become a lot more detailed and varied between ''Depredation'' and ''Consternation''.
** Weapons and backgrounds get even more detailed starting from ''Dedmos Adventure'' and ''Expurgation'' with lots of shading added.
** ''[=DedmosRebuilt.fla=]'' introduces new character sprites with scratchy outlines, giving them a hand-drawn appearance. Characters' outfits also became more detailed, such as Engineers' masks. And, of course, the {{Gorn}} also gets taken up a notch, with Deimos's punches denting bodies, destroying flesh, and occasionally [[TeethFlying littering the floor with teeth]].
* ArtShift: ''Madness: Project Nexus 2'' is in full 3D, making it stick out from the animations and the previous Project Nexus games.
* AscendedMeme: The fanbase jokes that it took seven years for Hank and Sanford to climb down a ladder with regards to the SequelGap between ''Abrogation'' and ''Expurgation''. [[https://krinkels.newgrounds.com/news/post/1046223 Guess what Krinkels said regarding Dedmos 5?]]
* AssimilationBackfire: [[spoiler: In ''Abrogation'', the Auditor starts absorbing corpses to stay intact. One of them belongs to Tricky, who promptly implodes the Auditor and begins hijacking his powers to rain literal Hell on everything. Oops.]]
* AwesomeButImpractical: Several of the big-ticket weapons in ''Madness Interactive'', the first video game spinoff. For example, the rocket launcher is quite impressive... but it only has four shots, has a tendency to blow the victim's weapon off-screen (so you can't grab it when you run out of rockets), and it's an area-of-effect weapon, so you could kill yourself with it.
** The same could be said for the M203 grenade launcher in ''Madness: Project Nexus''; the game even lets you know that you can damage yourself with it by saying in the description that the grenades have no safety feature. It's also the only weapon that has friendly fire, which doesn't bode well when you have a squad of six teammates in Arena mode.
** The [=M249=] SAW machine gun in the same game counts too. It is one of the guns in the game with the second-highest fire rate, and can decimate any enemy-but it's also the most expensive weapon, has a painfully long reload time and decreases your character's speed to a walking pace when he's carrying it.
*** Although It's Balanced out by the fact that it has a whopping [[MoreDakka 200 rounds]] and as it's description states "Reloading is a pain in the ass, but chances are that everybody will be dead before you even need to reload."
** In the same game, the S&W 500. It's the most powerful handgun available, and can instantly kill just about every enemy you hit. The issue with it is that it has an incredibly low ammo count, and in later waves where most enemies can dodge your shots, you'll find yourself wasting quite a lot of that ammo on single targets.
** The Electrocannon you can pick up in Episode 1.5. It's a RayGun that one-shots just about everything, but it takes forever and a day to reload, and the ability to indiscriminately OneHitKill enemies is a lot less useful when those enemies include {{Reviving Enem|y}}ies, namely Sleepwalkers and Abominations.
* AxCrazy: Pretty much everyone, but [[MonsterClown Tricky]] takes the cake. Whereas Jebus and Hank hand out {{cruel and unusual death}}s like candy, Tricky takes it to bizarre, extremely sadistic levels, such as giddily dancing after murdering the entire cast and resurrecting Hank just so he can kill him again later.
* BackFromTheDead: Hank has died 7 times over the course of the series, Tricky has a grand total of 6 deaths to his name, and Jebus has gone out 4 times. That's not even taking the countless Zombie Mooks present in the series...
* BackToBackBadasses: Sanford and Deimos in ''5.5'', ''6.5'', ''7.5'', and ''Aggregation'', then Hank and Sanford in ''Abrogation'' and ''Expurgation''.
* TheBadGuyWins: Most of the main episodes end with the antagonist winning. [[spoiler:The most notable example is ''Expurgation'', which ends with Hank, Sanford and Tricky presumably dead, and the Auditor recovered and back in charge, seemingly with no one able to stop him.]]
* BadassBack: Attacking Hank from behind usually just means you'll die ''faster.''
* BadassLongcoat: Eventually, [[TheHero Hank]] and [[AscendedExtra Deimos]]. You can also buy them in the Gear Shop in ''Madness: Project Nexus'', in the form of Long Coats, Dusters and Trench Coats.
* BadassNormal: Hank at first, before going through numerous [[BackFromTheDead resurrections]] that give him superpowers, and now Sanford and Deimos fit the bill, being the only protagonists thus far without having some kind of power or mutation. [[spoiler:Well, maybe just Sanford.]] The two mooks that are forced to accompany the Auditor ''would'' count, being able to [[spoiler:outshoot Sanford and Demios]], but they're superpowered. That being said, no one is really "normal" as all the agents can have their [[NoFourthWall stats raised]] by the Auditor with a press of a button. It makes the agents [[RedEyesTakeWarning eyes glow red.]] Why he can't raise their stats higher remains unclear. Also, some of the regular recruits in ''Incident:011A''. The last two guys in particular who finally manage to [[spoiler: kill the MAG Agent. One of them still doesn't make it. Of all of them, only two manage to stab him and three hit him with bullets. The last one takes the easy route and implants a grenade round directly in the MAG's head.]]
* BadassPreacher: Jebus.
* BashBrothers: Sanford and Deimos. [[spoiler: Later, Sanford and Hank.]]
* {{BFG}}:
** The Auditor is fond of these, as are any [[GiantMook Mag Agents]] on the field. In the latter case it's justified as they're pretty big themselves and thus cannot use standard-sized equipment.
** The Auditor attempts to use a GAU-8 against Jebus in ''Innundation'', but Jebus moves far too fast for him to hit. He spawns another BFG in ''Abrogation'' to kill Hank and Sanford with, but is similarly unsuccessful. In ''Abrogation'', he uses what appears to be an upsized [=G3A3=].
** Sanford gets his hands on a Bren light machine gun in ''6.5''.
*** Deimos gets a MG-42 in ''7.5''.
*** Hank briefly wields a MAG-scale [=M249=] in ''Abrogation'' with suitably devastating results.
*** Tricky later re-summons his M60 to try and kill Sanford in ''Expurgation''.
*** The Auditor later grants Hank a machine-gun-sized Fightlite SCR Raider pistol with a ridiculously curved magazine that reaches to the muzzle - and Hank puts it to very good use.
* {{BFS}}: The Binary sword. It's noticeably longer than the characters are tall.
** In ''Antipathy'', Hank uses a ''giant'' axe to butcher an entire building's worth of mooks. The axe is as tall as he is, and he swings it around ''one-handed.''
** [[spoiler: In ''Abrogation'', the Auditor's sword, once he absorbs enough corpses. One slash is almost enough to cleave the industrial-sized elevator that Hank and Sanford are standing on in half.]]
* BigBad: The Sheriff, in the first episodes. [[DragonAscendant Then Jebus]]. [[MakeWayForTheNewVillains Then Tricky]]. [[TheManBehindTheMan And now the Auditor]].
* BigNo: [[spoiler:The death of the Auditor in Abrogation:]]
-->'''[-[[spoiler: Auditor:]] "What?"-]'''\\
'''[-[[spoiler: Tricky:]] "HELLO AGAIN!"-] '''\\
'''[-[[spoiler: Auditor:]] "NO!"-]'''\\
'''[-[[spoiler: Tricky:]] "YES!"-]'''\\
'''[-[[spoiler: Auditor:]] "NO! NO! NO!"-]'''\\
'''[-[[spoiler: Tricky:]] "YES! YES! YES!"-]'''
* BizarreAlienBiology: The people of Nevada have been described in ways that are very much not akin to humans. Of what's been shown or divulged, their FloatingLimbs are literal, their flesh feels like clay and lacks elasticity, their brains aren't as important to maintaining biological functions (even less so for [=MAG=] agents), and they seemingly lack a face, but have all the necessary skeletal features for it under their skin, including a full set of teeth that was only first seen when the skin around it was torn open. But as seen with Sanford, they can make their mouths visible at will.
* BlindedByTheLight: Deimos takes a flashbang to the face in ''7.5'' and stumbles blindly for a few seconds. Thankfully, Sanford covers his eyes in time and takes out the mooks who threw it.
* BlingBlingBang: Every gun in ''Madness: Project Nexus'' has a gold palette swap.
* BloodFromTheMouth:
** Jebus during ''Inundation''. ''Buckets of it''. He's infected with a virus by the Auditor halfway through the episode to impede his progress. [[{{Determinator}} It fails to slow him down at all.]]
** ''Expurgation'' starts with a shot of a strange red being repeatedly puking up blood or fire. Who or what the being is is unclear.
* BloodierAndGorier: Surprisingly enough, considering that this is one of the more violent Flash animation series out there. The first episode was [[BloodlessCarnage completely bloodless]], and the next two had very little blood, with what little there was depicted as red starburst decals (although ''Avenger'' dialed it up, albeit comedically, with things like a mook ''flooding a room with the blood from his skull''). The {{Gorn}} didn't kick in until ''Apotheosis'' and just kept escalating from there.
* BloodKnight: ''Everybody.'' Best exemplified in Tricky, who purposefully keeps reviving Hank over and over to kill him again and again.
* BloodlessCarnage: The first episode features no blood, in contrast to [[BloodierAndGorier later episodes]].
* BodyHorror: Hank gains a crustaceanoid arm after being revived by the Magnification Chamber.
* BodySurf: Tricky seems to do a version of this in ''Expurgation'', going from one undead-imp like creature to the next whenever the body he is currently using is too damaged. May also qualify for MesACrowd as the imps seem to be his creations or manifestations.
* BolivianArmyEnding: ''[=DedmosRebuilt.fla=]'', the last installment of the ''Deimos Adventure'' sub-series, ends with [[spoiler:Deimos and [=2BDamned=] facing down several giant Agents, [=2BDamned=] complaining "God damn it Deimos," and a cut to black.]]
* BoringButPractical: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', the assault rifles, especially the AK-74, TAR-21, [=M16=], Steyr AUG, HK-416 and the FAMAS don't do anything cool, but they're common, plentiful, [[JackOfAllStats excellent all-rounders]], surprisingly accurate, and the most powerful rifle, the FN FAL, is actually recommended for taking down heavily armored enemies, like the [=GO3LM=] units. They are also one of the best and the most plentiful weapons for fighting the final boss (plus the shotguns, which are also plentiful.) The FAMAS is also one of the fastest assault rifles in the game, able to take down Mag Agent GESTALT in ''seconds.''
** Two of the submachine guns, the [=HKMP5=] and the Thompson, count as well. Excellent damage, better accuracy than ''some of the assault rifles'' and a nice, controllable, rate of fire, and they're among the most common submachine guns in the game. The Thompson can fall into SimpleYetAwesome for how ridiculously [[RuleOfCool cool]] it looks, though.
* BottomlessMagazines: Notably averted; guns frequently run out of ammo, but [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks throwing your gun always works]]. It's probably not that hard to keep track of the ammunition when animating one scene takes hours.
* BreakoutMookCharacter: ''Incident:011A'' stars [[GiantMook Mag Agent: Torture]] as its protagonist, rather than one of the main characters.
* BringIt: Sanford in ''7.5'', versus the newly activated ATP Soldats.
* BroughtDownToNormal: [[spoiler:After Jesus destroys the Portable Improbability Drive, Tricky changes from a flaming demon back to a zombie, and is quickly dispatched with Jesus's sword.]]
* BulletproofHumanShield: Dead enemies usually come in handy as these. Hank's dead body in ''Aggregation'' is also used like this by Deimos. [[spoiler:When Deimos is killed in ''Abrogation'', the newly-revived Hank returns the favor.]]
* BulletTime: Used in several scenes, mostly in ''Depredation''.
* CallBack: In ''Expurgation'', [[spoiler: Tricky uses an M60 while flying around to harass Sanford, much like he did with Hank in ''Avenger''. He even gives a sort of knowing chuckle while he arms himself.]]
** ''9.5'' is basically an animated instance of this trope, with [[spoiler:Hank taking on his ''Madness Combat 7'' incarnation, Tricky being [[BroughtDownToNormal unzombified]], and the "eaugh" pain soundbite being heard when Hank throws a pistol to an ATP Engineer's face.]]
* CameBackStrong: If any character has died once and come back from the dead so much as once, you ''KNOW'' this applies. Especially [[spoiler:Hank]].
** Subverted in ''Consternation'', where [[spoiler:Hank]] is resurrected at the very beginning and fares noticeably worse than usual, continuously running from Tricky and even taking bullets from regular Agents at two points.
* CannibalismSuperpower: Subverted in ''5.5''. Tricky attempts to use [[spoiler: Jebus's zombie making powers]] after killing him by [[spoiler: [[CrossesTheLineTwice wearing the top half of his severed head like a hat, he needed the Halo apparently instead.]]]] Much to his frustration, it doesn't work.
** Played straight with The Auditor, who absorbs bodies to grow stronger.
* CarFu: In ''Apotheosis'', Hank starts off his killing spree by ramming the first two mooks with a car.
* CerebusSyndrome: The first episode was a comedic punch-up in a public park over a boombox. The next two episodes were about a man trying to kill a sheriff, but things were still rather silly. After that, the sun gets killed, a reality-altering device, which was previously used for comedic effect, turns the world into a nightmare, the existence of two warring secret organizations is implied, and everything is topped off by a monster clown that turns into a giant flaming demon and a satanic figure with the technology to build 10-feet tall super soldiers.
* CerebusRetcon: Jebus was initially a way just to annoy religious folk on Newgrounds. Eventually, ''Madness: Project Nexus'' reveals [[spoiler:he's not Jesus at all, but an ex-scientist who rebelled against Project Nexus after seeing his research twisted into abominations, and gained a massive messiah complex in the process.]]
* ChainsawGood: Hank uses one to butcher several mooks and brutally carve [[GiantMook MAG Agent Torture's]] face apart.
* [[ChekhovsGunman Chekhov's Gunmen]]: Remember those two guys in ''Depredation'', in the jeep, who throw Hank a weapon when he climbs out of the evil red glowing pit? In ''5.5'' (which was made some time after ''5''), it's revealed that they survived, and that [[spoiler: they're actually Sanford and Deimos.]]
** [[spoiler: To a lesser extent, Tricky, whose corpse ironically saves both Sanford and Hank from the Auditor.]]
* CombatPragmatist: Hank is more than willing to use whatever he can get his hands on as a weapon. Be it a piece of lead piping, a street sign, a giant axe or even ''someone else's severed head'', if he can hold it, he will beat you to death with it until he can find something more practical to use.
* ContinuityNod:
** The second building Jebus storms in ''Inundation'' is the Sheriff's office from ''Redeemer'' and ''Avenger''. You can notice this with the hastily-sealed air vent, which Hank used to enter the building in the third episode.
** "The Bakery!" from ''Avenger'' reappears in ''SACRIFICE.fla'', as the building Deimos comes out from. [[spoiler:A dead Hank, looking just like he did in ''Avenger'', falls into the floor and inflicts a seizure of images of that episode on Deimos when touched.]]
** In the near end of ''9.5'', after Hank takes some ClothingDamage and is picked up by the Retainer. If one has a keen eye they can notice that underneath the bandana covering his mouth he ''still'' has the Metal Jaw he had back in ''Antipathy''.
* CoolShades: Hank wears a red pair of these since ''Depredation'' though they get replaced by a pair of similar-looking goggles in ''Consternation''.
* CrapsackWorld: Very noticeable in the later episodes. The Sun ''was'' killed, after all.
* CurbStompBattle: Practically every episode and spin-offs feature a protagonist or two effortlessly slaughtering tons of mooks. Though this does get subverted at points where the protagonists get killed.

[[folder:D-F]]
* DarkerAndEdgier: The original video was just a random fight Flash with no story and plenty of bloodless silliness. Compare the latest video.
* DarkIsEvil: The Auditor, who is a LivingShadow HumanoidAbomination. Jesus used to work for him but quit and tried to stop the madness he's causing. The protagonists appear to have some sort of mission to stop him too.
* DarkReprise: The song from ''Abrogation'' has elements from ''Consternation'', ''Depredation'' and others.
* DeathIsCheap: AnyoneCanDie. And they will, again, and again, and again...
** To give an example, Hank, the protagonist of the series, has died and gotten resurrected a total of ''seven'' times in canon.
* DefectorFromDecadence: Many characters are implied or shown to be former A.A.H.W. agents:
** [[EasterEgg The posters]] in ''Abrogation'' imply this about [[spoiler:protagonist Deimos.]]
** Also Dr. Jebidiah Christoff, playable character in ''Madness: Project Nexus''. [[spoiler:We know him today as Jebus, Sheriff's bodyguard and Hank's rival.]]
** Doc, AKA 2BDamned may also be a former agent.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Most of the art is in black and white with some exceptions, the most notable being the vibrant red (and later yellow) blood.
* DemBones: Tricky become a giant dragon-skeleton thing in ''Expurgation'', he also spawn an army of black skeletons who later sports his clown haircut. Tricky himself looks like on of these skeleton mooks while in "Auditor's Hell" only distinguishable by the halo and his shiny eyes.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Warning: DANGER!
* DevelopersForesight: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', there are several weapons that are supposed to be inaccessible to the player. If you somehow acquire them anyway, their FlavorText will call you out on it:
** The [[{{BFS}} Giant]] [[AnAxeToGrind Axe]] (dubbed "Mega Hammer" in-game): "The fact that you have this means I hate you."
** The [[DummiedOut Severed Head]]: "Where'd you get this filthy thing?"
** The [[GatlingGood Minigun]]: "HOW DID YOU GET THIS? THIS DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU. YOU DO NOT BELONG IN NEVADA."
* DivergentCharacterEvolution: Hank looked like a plain Madness Combat character at first, but then got different with each passing installment. Same for Sanford and Deimos, for whom you actually see this happen in real-time in one episode.
** In a more literal sense, according to various screens seen throughout ''7.5'', Advanced Training Program (ATP) candidates are divided into 2 different training programs based on personality traits or skills exhibited by a particular candidate:
*** More intelligent, intuitive and leadership-focused candidates become [[TheEngineer Engineers]].
*** More aggressive, malevolent and more physically capable candidates become [[SuperSoldier Soldats]].
* DodgeTheBullet: Mooks have decent to good aim, but the heroes usually either dodge or kill them before they can shoot. Later, the Auditor personally upgrades two random mooks, who are capable of super-speed dodging, making it a pain for the heroes to kill them.
* TheDragon: Jebus, in the second and third episodes. Tricky seems to take this position in episodes 4 and 5. Which brings us to our next trope...
* DragonAscendant: After Hank shot the Sheriff, Jebus got to be the BigBad for a little while until [[TheStarscream Tricky]] snapped.
* DuctTapeForEverything: Injuries can be healed by simply wrapping them up with bandages.
* DumbMuscle: Subverted by Hank in ''Aggregation'', whose transformation makes him mentally retarded. [[EasterEgg According to the monitor outside the augmentation chamber, his intelligence stat is reduced from 9 to 3.]] In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', [[ShoutOut this is the minimum number needed for a creature to even count as sentient.]] ''Then'' it's shown that he isn't so dumb after all, as he made a working pipe bomb strong enough to blow up the two possessed ATP engineers, and [[spoiler: use Deimos' corpse as a decoy.]]
* EarlyGameHell: Arena Mode in ''Madness: Project Nexus''. You start out as a basic grunt with no money, no weapons, no armor, and no stats, meaning that all you can do is [[DeathOfAThousandCuts slowly punch enemies to death]] as they gang up on you three at a time. As such, your first couple of attempts will end in death before the halfway point of the first wave, and if you haven't died by then, you will probably get [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] by the mooks showing up with actual weapons. However, once you've built up your stats and accrued enough cash to purchase gotten a weapon of your own, things become a lot easier.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Compare the first three episodes to the rest of the series. Back then, the backgrounds were a light gray instead of red, zombies didn't have mouths or tattered clothing, heck, the first episode didn't even have a ''single'' drop of blood in it!
* EasterEgg: Zoom in on some of the posters. Additionally, pause when Sanford looks at his PDA, or when Tricky/Jesus/Auditor look at a PC screen.
* EmergencyTransformation: [[spoiler:Hank, in ''Aggregation''. It's hours late, though.]]
* EldritchAbomination:
** [[spoiler: [[MonsterClown Tricky]] becomes a giant, flaming demon clown in ''Consternation'' after being resurrected again. In ''Expurgation'', he is resurrected again in a similar, but more skeletal, form.]]
** The Auditor himself is both this AND an EldritchLocation - specifically, he's a living gate to a dimension that looks like actual Hell. The Auditor also looks like a [[HumanoidAbomination vaguely humanoid dark mass]] because, according to [[WordOfGod Krinkels]], that's [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm only how the viewer can perceive him]].
* EldritchLocation:
** Nevada itself, after the Improbability Drives are activated. The sky glows red eternally, new buildings and hallways with impossible geometries seemingly spontaneously pop into existence, and reality seems to slowly tear itself apart in the later episodes.
** Nevada is nothing compared to the purgatory/hell that Deimos found himself in in the ''.fla'' series. The insane geometry is turned UpToEleven, the gravity constantly changes, and random paranormal things constantly pop into existence to make Deimos suffer.
*** As noted above, the Auditor IS one of these, he's a living gate to a dimension that looks like actual Hell. ''Expurgation'' takes place in this where impossible physics and geometries are also in full effect, but the Auditor also has some ability to directly manipulate the realm and its inhabitants too such as by creating sharp spikes and even stopping time by 'hacking' the space.
* ElevatorActionSequence:
** One in ''Redeemer'', which ends with Hank cutting the cables down with a shotgun.
** A brief one in ''Consternation'', cut short by [[spoiler: the appearance of Tricky in his MonsterClown form, landing on the elevator and forcing Hank to retreat.]]
* EleventhHourSuperpower: [[spoiler: After Hank momentarily grabs the Auditor's halo in ''Abrogation'', he gains a new hand and eventually an energy charged punch. Which appears to be the only way the Auditor can be harmed.]]
* EliteMooks: Subverted. Agent-style Elite Mooks are dispatched, but rarely, if ever, slow down the hero. Same with the ATP (Accelerated Training Program) Engineers and Soldats. Tricky may have originally been one as well.
** The two ATP Engineers transformed by the Auditor in ''Aggregation'' play this straight. They're noticeably more competent, accurate, ruthless, and capable of bullet dodging. [[spoiler: They manage to kill Deimos and wound Sanford, albeit superficially.]].
** The possessed agents in ''Abrogation'' also count, taking far more gunshots to kill than usual. They are, however, rendered just as useless as regular agents by [[spoiler: Hank's new Magnified form.]]
* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:In ''Expurgation'', the Auditor heals and empowers Hank to defeat the Tricky Demons. Ultimately {{subverted|Trope}} as the Auditor was actually using him to kill Tricky and return to the living world, uncontested.]]
* EverybodyDoTheEndlessLoop: The guy dancing in the background in the first episode.
* EverythingFades: The bodies of dead enemies fade away in the first game adaptation, though it has a fixed timer, so the floor might be coated in gibs before they disappear.
* EvilIsPetty: According to ''Madness Interactive'', the reason why Hank is looking to kill the Sheriff is because he ''stole Hank's pie''. This may not be canon to the animations, however.
** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the latest installment ''[[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel Madness: Project Nexus]]'', which is basically an advanced playable adaption of the cartoons themselves.
* EvilVersusEvil: ''Expurgation'' was one big CosmicChessGame between [[spoiler:The Auditor and Tricky. It's the Auditor who wins.]]
* ExcusePlot: Initially about a fight over a boombox, graduating into a MeleeATrois between Hank, Jebus and Tricky. This no longer became the case after the Sheriff's death, implementing a plot about reality warping and a mysterious organization trying to stop it all.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: While the episodes from the first one to ''Depredation'' (episode 5) are separated by time skips of unknown length, starting from ''Depredation'' every episode takes place directly after the previous one. This means that in the span of a few dozens of minutes:
** Several characters died and came back to life (sometimes multiple times).
** The protagonists fought many armies of agents (who themselves have been upgraded twice), genetically modified soldiers with yellow blood, giant people and skeletons.
** The main characters stormed multiple buildings and got new clothes.
** The protagonists travelled in hellish dimensions and got new powers.
** Hank got a mutant arm he lost twice, only to get a better one seconds or minutes later.
* TheFaceless: Initially, everyone at first. Zombies gained mouths in ''Apotheosis'', as well as Jebus, and Sanford has one.
** The Sun (first appearing in Marshmellow Madness) is featured as a smiling face... Until Hank beats it to death with a street sign in ''Avenger''.
** Deimos has visible upper teeth after he loses his lower jaw in ''SACRIFICE.fla''.
** A rather horrifying subversion in ''An Experiment''. Someone whose FloatingLimbs are being pulled away from him is driven mad by the torture and starts grinding and slamming his face against the wall. When an ATP engineer enters the room, the subject turns around to reveal exposed eye sockets and teeth beneath his torn-off skin.
* FacialHorror: In ''An Experiment'', shortly after Scrapeface is separated from his hands, he rubs his face on a wall so hard that it gets torn off and his skull becomes visible.
* {{Fingore}}: At the beginning of ''9.5'', an ATP engineer accidentally cuts another guy's fingers with a sword while trying to attack Hank.
* FlashStep: Tricky is quite fond of this, using it either "normally" to close the distance or to bounce off ceilings and floors.
* {{Flight}}:
** Jesus' Halo allows him to do this.
** Tricky in ''Incident:1000A'' and ''Expurgation''. There is no explanation of why he can do this in the former though.
** A random skeleton {{Mook}} in ''Expurgation'' could do this.
* FloatingLimbs: Floating hands are omnipresent in this series. ''An Experiment'' establishes that these floating hands can be sealed in a box and pulled several meters away from the person's body without the person losing control of them... but that they [[EldritchAbomination lose control]] [[DrivenToSuicide of themselves]] in the process.
* FreezeFrameBonus: Littered in the background of almost every episode are posters and fliers that change every episode. They start out comical (recruitment posters filled with over-the-top propaganda, or random gibberish), but over time get darker or more desperate (''"'''HE DOESN'T BELONG.''' But then again, neither do you. We can survive together."'')
* FriendlyEnemy: Jebus seems to have this relationship with Hank, as he seems to [[MercyKill mercy kill]] Hank to grant him a final death, and teams up with him to fight Tricky.
** In addition, Hank refers to Jebus as "Player 2".
** During their duel in ''Depredation'', Jebus orders all his henchmen to cease firing and line up against the wall so he can fight Hank fairly. Later on, Jebus physically stops one of his henchmen from shooting Hank after he's fallen down a cliff.
* FromNobodyToNightmare:
** Tricky starts off the series as an assassin clown hired by Sheriff who gets killed off by Hank fairly easily. However, through the power of the Improbability Drive, Tricky gets revived and upgraded into a [[RealityWarper reality-warping]] MonsterClown.
** An update to ''Madness: Project Nexus'' includes a prequel episode involving a long-haired, goatee'd Nexus Scientist named Dr. Jebidiah Christoff, who attempts to stop the insane project from achieving its goals after he learns what he has been creating. By the end, he's murdered his way through the facility and picked up a halo and magic powers as well.
** Scrapeface from ''An Experiment''. The torture not only drives the guy completely insane, it [[MindScrew somehow]] turns him into a glitchy EldritchAbomination who proceeds to destroy the entire facility ''while'' reducing himself to LudicrousGibs.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent:
** In the very first episode, while Hank is laying waste to everyone around him in the field, there is a random person in the background dancing to the Chicken Dance that's coming out of the [[SorryILeftTheBGMOn on-screen boombox]]. [[spoiler:Hank promptly shoots him as soon as he kills everyone else.]]
** In the rave room in ''Apothesis'', one mook whom Hank missed sees the slaughter before him, and decides to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere sit back and enjoy a smoke...]]until he gets crushed by a door.
** In ''Aggregation'', Sanford kills an Engineer with a rocket launcher just as the Engineer fires, causing the rocket to shoot up into the sky. Later on, the rocket can be seen falling back to earth in the distance.

[[folder:G-K]]
* GeneralFailure: [[DirtyCoward The Sheriff]] isn't shown to be especially competent at his job. His one and only kill in the entire series happened when ''he shot one of his own men by mistake while running away from Hank.''
* GeniusLoci: The Auditor himself is a sentient gate toward his personal dimension that strangely looks like Hell. ''Madness 9.5'' implies that the real Hell itself has a degree of sentience. And it seems angry about Hank getting revived numerous times.
--> '''LISTEN HERE, HACKER'''
--> '''YOUR INTEREST WILL BE TERMINATED'''
--> '''HANK WILL BE RETAINED'''
* GiantMook:
** MAG Agents. All featuring equally giant weapons, and they fare little better than their tinier co-workers.
** Hank fights a giant masked skeleton in ''Expurgation''. It's unknown if he's a Magnified skeleton or was just made that way.
** Deimos fight several giants agents in ''[=DedmosRebuilt.fla=]''. It's unknown if they are related to MAG agents as they are smaller and don't have sharp claws.
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Jesus in the first episode, and the first MAG Agent shows up with no explanation. We do get one later (the Auditor's been growing them). In addition, whatever Tricky/The Auditor was... growing and deploys against Hank and Sanford prematurely in the ninth episode.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom:
** The Auditor has red eyes.
** Later, Skeleton Tricky and his clones gain similar eyes.
* GoodGunsBadGuns: Various "Good" and "Bad" guns all appear briefly or prominently in the series. However, in ''Madness: Project Nexus'', A.A.H.W. troops are often seen wielding the MP-40 in the later levels of Episode 1 and throughout Episode 1.5.
* GoodOldFisticuffs:
** Used by MAG Agent: Torture in ''Incident:011A'' (which, for some reason, takes away his shotgun). [[BloodyHilarious Let's just say it got messy.]]
** Deimos also indulges in this in ''[=DedmosRebuilt.fla=]'' with his newly formed rock fists. Let's just say it got even ''messier''.
* {{Gorn}}: Not so much in the early episodes, but the later ones? Various Mooks get sliced in half, shot full of bloody holes and splattered all over the scenery by buckshot or explosives. Krinkels does very realistic blood spray.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: Hank semi-frequently uses severed heads as weapons. Mag Agents are known to use entire bodies to (attempt to) bludgeon the heroes.
* GunsAkimbo: Everyone seems to love using this trope.
* GunsAreUseless: In the hands of mooks, at least. When they DO hit Hank, it doesn't even seem to bother him much.
* GunAccessories: The games have three main ones: silencers, scopes and laser sights. Although silencers don't really affect anything rather than change your weapon's firing sound, laser sights and scopes ''actually affect'' your weapon's range and accuracy.
* GunFu: Hank and Jebus do this a lot.
* GunPorn: The wide variety of guns used and the detail given in using them is rather high. This is best shown in the beginning of ''Inundation'', wherein Jebus delicately disassembles an entire TAC-50 bolt-action rifle piece by piece.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: Hank has a habit of tossing people (or rather, their heads)around.
** Ironically, Deimos also uses his corpse rather creatively during the course of ''Aggregation''.
** In ''Incident:110A'', Jesus kills two mooks by repeatedly smacking one into the other via telekinesis.
* HandCannon: Jebus seems to prefer having the biggest handgun in the series. He carried a Desert Eagle until they became L33t Crew standard issue, and then he switched to a S&W 500 revolver.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Jebus is the protagonist in ''Inundation'', [[EvenEvilHasStandards apparently having decided that the insanity has gone too far]]]].
* HeroicSacrifice:
** [[spoiler:Deimos dies rather unceremoniously mere moments after placing Hank in a Magnification device in ''Aggregation''.]]
** This is definitely the case in [[spoiler:''Inundation'', where Jebus embarks on what is essentially a SuicideMission against the Auditor. He dies in the end, but takes the primary Improbability Drive with him.]]
* HighPressureBlood: In ''Avenger'', a mook gets a large portion of his head blown off by Hank. A veritable FOUNTAIN of blood begins gushing out, flooding three quarters of the room's floor in the process.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** Tricky [[spoiler: has repeatedly stabbed Hank with the signpost that originally killed him]].
** In ''Consternation'', Jebus [[spoiler: finished Hank off with the infamous [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice stab, lift, and headshot]] from ''Apotheosis'']].
** [[spoiler: As of ''Abrogation'', this has happened to the Auditor. Remember kids, {{Monster Clown}}s are NOT part of a healthy diet!]]
* HollywoodSilencer: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-Zagged]]. Played straight in ''Redeemer'' and ''Madness Interactive'', justified in ''Apotheosis'', averted in ''Depredation'', played straight in ''Aggregation'', played straight and averted with two different guns in ''7.5'', and ''exaggerated'' in ''Madness: Project Nexus'', where everything from a silenced pocket pistol to a silenced magnum will produce the same sound.
* HumanoidAbomination: The Auditor is a humanoid mass of shadowy flames with supernatural powers, and hails is a living gate to his own dimension that looks like Hell.
* IconicSequelOutfit: Hank's outfit in ''Consternation'', the 7th episode of the series, is his most popular one.
* IHaveManyNames: Jesus has also gone by Jebus, The Savior, and [[spoiler:Dr. Jebediah Christoff]].
* IHaveTheHighGround: The Auditor really likes this. He raises himself up on a giant pillar to retreat from our heroes.
* ImplacableMan: [[spoiler:Despite his many physical wounds and being infected by some kind of virus that makes him periodically vomit up blood, Jebus kept chasing after the Auditor]].
** The MAG Agent in ''Incident:011A''.
* IKEAWeaponry: Jebus disassembles his TAC-50 whenever he's not using it. Comes into play later in the same episode, where he rapidly reassembles it when a MAG Agent shows up and he lacks a means to kill it.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Most notably Hank in ''Avenger''. Tons of {{Mook}}s meet the same fate on regular basis, including one memorably badass moment in ''Apotheosis'' when Hank gets hold of his first katana and uses it to skewer one of the mooks and lift him up before unloading a submachine gun into his face.
** MAG Agent: Torture's defining feature is the two colossal nails driven crosswise through his head. They do not hinder him in the slightest.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Not only do almost all of the [[{{Mook}} Grunts, Agents]], [[EliteMooks Engineers, and Soldats]] miss pretty much every shot, but it's actually come to be expected as a [[PlotArmor plot device]]. Not to mention the overall accuracy from the [[SuperpoweredMooks MAG Agents]] totaling in at a whopping 0%.
** It's somewhat subverted, because the protagonists seem to do a pretty good job dodging bullets thanks to their superior reflexes and not necessarily due to their enemies' poor aim. Regardless, there have been examples here in there that are definitely this trope.
** Subverted in ''6.5'', where [[spoiler: Sanford is badly wounded by an ATP Engineer's .357 revolver, greatly hindering his ability to fight for the first quarter of the episode.]]
** Subverted twice in ''Consternation'' where Hank is wounded by grazing shots twice in a short span: one Agent manages to ambush him on the elevator and graze his shoulder, and later on another Agent grazes the same shoulder just below the first wound with a TAR-21.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Tricky's main weapon is a road sign that he uses as a staff, a spear and an axe. Sometimes all at once.
* ImprovisedWeapon: If it appeared in the series and can be wielded in both hands, someone has used it as a weapon. Tricky's road sign, initially used by Hank to [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext pin him to a giant marshmallow]], is the most iconic, but there's a lot of them.
** On several occasions, mooks find something to take cover behind only for Hank to squash them with it. Jesus also telekinetically lifts crates to smash mooks with.
** Early on in ''5.5'', Sanford incapacitates an agent by splashing a drink into his face.
** ''Madness Interactive'' allows you to rip a urinal off a wall and bludgeon enemies with it. The urinal is also a DummiedOut weapon in ''Madness: Project Nexus''.
* InformedFlaw: Hank's mental retardation from ''Aggregation'' onward. After his transformation and resurrection, he uses clever tactics (MacGyvering up a bomb and tossing it at EliteMooks after distracting them with [[spoiler: Deimos' corpse]]), uses the environment to deploy traps, hangs back to let Sanford take care of enemies armed with guns, makes use of martial arts, and keeps his gun trained on the exit when riding an elevator. He also adapts quickly to the Auditor's changing tactics. If anything, he's more careful than before his resurrection.
* {{Interquel}}: ''Madness Combat 5.5'', ''6.5'', and ''7.5'' follow Sanford and Deimos' story before they were formally introduced.
* IWillFightSomeMoreForever: The heroes never stop trying to damage the Auditor, even after it's made very clear he can become intangible, though it's justified by the fact that when he becomes intangible he must either drop his weapon, teleport to safety, or both. He also needs to consciously use this power, as shown when Hank snuck up on the Auditor and grabbed him from behind to steal his halo.
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Especially when they have [[BilingualBonus Thai inscriptions]] on the flat of the blade. Hank loves his very much, making ample use of it in ''Apotheosis'' and ''Depredation''. Additionally, it is available in ''Madness: Project Nexus'' as Hank's primary weapon.
* KillEmAll: Lather, rinse, repeat.
* KuleshovEffect: In his introduction in ''Aggregation'', Sanford only had two expressions: a normal default expression where he looks stoic, and an annoyed expression where he's frowning. However, when he sees Deimos's corpse, he goes from his annoyed expression to his default one, and the disappearance of his frown upon seeing his partner's corpse makes him look more surprised than stoic. Then he sees the Auditor and goes back to his annoyed expression, but the context makes him looks more angry than merely peeved.
* KungFuJesus: Jebus, obviously.

[[folder:L-O]]
* LaResistance: Sanford and Deimos appear to be a part of an organization that opposes the Auditor's totalitarian regime, unofficially dubbed the "Anti-Auditor Agency" or "Anti-A.A.H.W.".
* LaserGuidedKarma: Several times through the series, some of the more assholish mooks tend to die almost immediately after abusing their co-workers (though said co-workers tend to die soon after), and even something as egregious as smoking in a public space is a sign they're going to get killed. ''Incident:010A'' has this happen to Hank himself, after saving a civilian from zombies, only to use them as a brick-through-the-wall and a human shield. He is then summarily torn apart and stabbed by a MAG Agent while the civilian just sits back and watches. And to put a cherry on top, this civilian is ''also'' a smoker, and lights one up to watch the show.
* LaserSight: Occasionally seen on guns in the series, but rarely have any effect. Used in a [[EyeBeams more literal sense]] by Jebus.
** Guns in ''Madness: Project Nexus'' have a chance to come equipped with a laser sight, and unlike in the animations, these have an actual effect by increasing the gun's effective range.
* LightIsNotGood: Jebus presents himself as a holy man and has quite a messiah complex, when in fact he's more akin to a fanatical {{Necromancer}}.
* LovecraftianSuperpower[=/=]PowerUpgradingDeformation: [[spoiler: Hank, revived for the seventh time, is now twice his size, lacks the eponymous facial lines across his face, and has a crustacean arm where his right hand used to be]].
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: In ''Expurgation'', two skeletons spawn with shields, and their thick metallic plating renders them completely invulnerable to small-arms fire. [[spoiler:Sanford's stolen shield is the only reason he is not killed when he is subjugated to a rapid-fire barrage from Tricky's M60, along with Hank's timely arrival.]]
* MacheteMayhem: They come in two flavors: the "normal" Machete & the Megachette. The latter is among the most prevalent melee weapons in the series.
* MadeOfIron: Pretty much all of the main characters take multiple bullets, stab wounds and blunt trauma before they finally die. If they die at all, and even then, that's not so permanent.
** Jebus [[spoiler: can walk around [[LosingYourHead without his brain]].]]
** Sanford needs a special mention:
*** He and Deimos had a building dropped on them in ''Depredation'', surviving with little more than some minor head trauma.
*** Shot in the gut in the beginning of ''6.5'' (by a revolver, which in this universe [[RevolversAreJustBetter are usually instant kills]]).
*** Stabbed in the gut, then shot in the hand in ''Aggregation''.
*** Then gets beaten around by the the Auditor at the end of ''Aggregation'' and during ''Abrogation'', [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking with a small knife wound to the backhand for good measure]]. This guy's taken almost as much of a beating as Hank, but with none of the dying (though with a sizable healing period after ''6.5'').
*** In ''Expurgation'' he gets smashed into a wall at high speed when Tricky golf-clubbed him with a hammer. It does cause him considerable pain, but is physically none the worse for wear.
* MadeOfPlasticine: Literally, In fact. Krinkels has said that the skin of Nevada inhabitants aren't very elastic, and that touching them literally feels like plasticine clay. Which explains why they have little trouble ripping each other's heads off like they're secured with velcro.
* TheManBehindTheMan: Apparently, the Auditor is the one orchestrating things, given that he had his own Improbability Drive, was able to upgrade his soldiers, create Mag Agents, and infect Jebus.
* MeaningfulName: Episode 4's subtitle, ''Apotheosis'', can be defined as "the ideal example; epitome; quintessence." Krinkels considers it the best episode of the series, and his personal favorite. Fittingly, it's by far the most popular entry of the series, and Krinkels' original plan was to end the series at this episode.
* MeanwhileBackAtThe: ''Expurgation'' starts off in Auditor's "Hell" realm, where we see two mysterious red figures, then cutting back to Hank and Sanford with a "MEANWHILE, IN NEVADA".
* MeleeATrois: ''Depredation'' is a three-way battle between Hank, Jebus and Tricky.
* MindScrew: Again, depending on how much weight you give the plot.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', [[spoiler:defied by Dr. Jebediah Christoff, who angrily trashed his research and killed his managers after he saw what kind of monstrosities they were having him create.]]
* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: The series scores a 3 due to the presence of a bunch of gods, the Improbability Drive, the Halo and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Hank fighting the literal Sun]], but almost ''all'' the weapons are actual, real-life firearms that ''work'' and people rarely use any laser guns-the only truly "sci-fi" weapon in the whole series is the LightningGun that Dr. Christoff picks up in one level of ''Madness: Project Nexus'' which is then never seen again.
* MonsterClown: Tricky after he gets revived as a zombie. Even moreso after he becomes [[OneWingedAngel Demon Tricky]].
* MoodWhiplash: Happens at the end of some installments. ''Apotheosis'', we're looking at you.
* MookChivalry:
** Tons of it. For example, if a hero ever runs out of bullets, the next room will almost inevitably only have melee-focused enemies.
** In some episodes, [[BehindTheBlack Mooks in the same room as the heroes won't even raise their weapons until they're onscreen]].
* MoreDakka: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', you can pick up the AwesomeButImpractical and incredibly expensive [=M249 SAW=]. One of the 3 SimpleYetAwesome Shotguns is the USAS-12, which is fully automatic and does just as well as the SPAS-12 and Norinco 97k.
* MutualKill: ''Avenger'' ends with [[spoiler:Jesus running Hank through with his sword, but Hank shooting him and the Sheriff before he dies.]] ''Expurgation'' has another one [[spoiler:with Hank killing Tricky in both the mortal world and the afterlife, but seemingly taking his and Sanford's lives in the process. Given that this causes the Auditor to return to life, [[TheBadGuyWins this kill in particular was in vain]].]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', [[spoiler: Dr. Christoff had this reaction to the mad science he created. This feeling didn't extend to the security guards he guns down, though.]]
* {{Necromancer}}:
** Jebus has the power to revive fallen mooks as zombies and is responsible for almost all of the zombies in the series. Except for Tricky, who became one thanks to [[spoiler:the Improbability Drive.]]
** The Auditor's enhancing power he used on two engineers works on corpse too by bringing them back to life.
* NewOldWest: The early videos featuring the Sheriff are pretty much this -- a western with a lot more gore and modern firearms. Although the series takes on a surrealist Science Fiction theme after the death of the Sheriff, there's still a Western feel, with constant shots of the canyons and Tricky driving a train.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands:
** Somewhat justified, as Tricky gains new and improved powers from the Improbability Drive whenever he's on the losing end of a battle. In ''Consternation'', he gains a "Portable Improbability Drive".
** Jebus' powers are rather inconsistent and appears to be different each episode. For example, he can use a disintegrating beam in ''Inundation'' which he never did before, yet he is not seen using it in any of his ''Incidents'' videos.
* NiceHat: You can buy many, many hats in ''[[http://madnesscombat.wikia.com/wiki/Madness:_Project_Nexus/armor Project Nexus]]'' as ''armor'', of all things.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', [[spoiler: Dr. Christoff destroys the titular Nexus Project, but the Nexus was the only thing keeping a horde of zombies and abominations on what could loosely be described as a leash. The epilogue states "the city" is "decimated".]]
* NighInvulnerable: Tricky [[spoiler: after his Reality Compromised power-up, and his demon form]] and [[spoiler:The Auditor, who is Made of... Dark Stuff, though as of ''Abrogation'', it's averted as Hank finds that he's vulnerable to his new arm's electrified punches]].
* TheNightThatNeverEnds: Hank causes an endless night by ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext bludgeoning the Sun to death]]'' in ''Avenger''. As the series goes on, the sky takes on a black-and-red gradient.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown:
** After Hank gains a new metal arm, he body-slams Tricky on a platform, throws him against a wall, crushes him with an other spiky platform, beats him up and shoot him with Tricky's own gun. All what's left of Tricky after that beatdown (prior to Tricky respawning) is an upper body full of holes.
** When a giant skeleton spawns, Hank starts to beat it up before it even finished spawning, and the skeleton only gets to hit Hank once before being stuck it into a wall of light. When the giant skeleton frees himself a few seconds later, it's ready to continue the fight, but Hank simply slices its face with a katana and stomps the skeleton into the ground for good.
* NonSerialMovie: The ''Incidents'' episodes aren't canon to the episodic animations.
* NotTheIntendedUse: Many characters, Hank in particular, have ocassionally stabbed {{mooks}} with weapons not made with that purpose, such as assault rifles or nightsticks.
* OffhandBackhand: Many of the characters do this, but Hank is especially fond of the move.
* OhCrap: What appears to be ''reality itself'' in response to [[spoiler: The Auditor accidentally absorbing Tricky.]] He doesn't take it very well, either. [[StuffBlowingUp Quite explosively.]]
-->'''"[OH GOD NO]"'''
** In one of the few cases of anyone demonstrating any kind of survival instinct, a mook in ''Consternation'' has this reaction to Hank dismembering his colleagues with a chainsaw, frantically trying to climb up a nearby latter to escape. He doesn't get far.
* OminousVisualGlitch:
** In ''Depredation'', the fight between Hank and Jebus in interrupted by the screen glitching and Tricky coming out of the ground, complete with screechy static and flickering text.
*** Tricky in general is constantly in a state of violent shaking, as he was glitching starting from ''Depredation''.
** All over the place in ''An Experiment''. Once Scrapeface is tortured by being separated from his hands, he'll sometimes hover while being motionless like a bugged model and he'll glitch through a door and cause other people to glitch.
* OneBulletClips: ''Madness: Project Nexus'' [[AvertedTrope averts this]] by making ''magazines'' a collected resource. The only exceptions to this are weapons were the ammo is loaded individually, such as the [=SPAS-12=].
* OneHandedShotgunPump: Hank does this twice in ''Consternation'' while hanging one-handed from the ceiling. Notably, the first time he does it, the barrel is pointing ''down'', making the pumping motion vastly harder to put enough force behind.
* OneManArmy: Hank, Jebus, Tricky, Sanford and Deimos, The Auditor, pretty much every main character is one. It's a requirement to survive in the Madness world.
* OneWingedAngel: CLOWN CANNOT DIE. Tricky spends the entirety of one episode trying to get at Hank as a giant demon clown, only stopped when [[spoiler:Jesus destroys the Improbability Generator that's keeping up Tricky's form]].
** Also, [[spoiler:Mag Hank]].
** ClippedWingAngel: [[spoiler:The second time the Auditor tries this, it begins to backfire on him. This gets more noticeable after Hank briefly steals his halo, which causes the Auditor to slowly destabilize physically and mentally. To keep himself stable, he starts to absorb a LOT of dead bodies, allowing him to grow in power and size... then he absorbs Tricky, which kills him.]]
* OrderVersusChaos:
** The conflict between Hank and the A.A.H.W. seems to revolve around this, with the A.A.H.W. claiming to be working to restore order in Nevada while Hank opposes them and appears to just be out to kill as many people as possible. Though given how the A.A.H.W.'s leader is in possession of the Improbability Drive, which is the source of much of the chaos and madness in Nevada, it is possible that restoring order is just a front for the organization.
** Played straighter with Jesus, who opposes Hank due to his murder sprees and later turns against the A.A.H.W. to destroy the Improbability Drive and restore normality to Nevada.
** The Auditor and Tricky also seem to develop this dynamic, representing LawfulEvil and ChaoticEvil respectively.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Actually, they're exactly the same as the regular mooks. [[ConservationOfNinjutsu They're nowhere near as strong though]], but can take a bit more punishment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:P-S]]
* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: The passcode to Deimos's PDA is "8520", entered by swiping a finger down the middle.
* PhlebotinumBreakdown: With the destruction of the Improbability Drives, it seems that reality itself has been suffering from this.
** On top of this, the [[spoiler: Auditor suffers this throughout Abrogation, until his PhlebotinumOverload]].
* PhlebotinumOverload: [[spoiler: The Auditor's death, courtesy of Tricky's remains.]]
* PistolWhipping: When empty, guns are frequently used as melee weapons.
* PoorCommunicationKills: The first two ATP Soldats choose to rush to fight Sanford and Deimos before the Auditor could respond to their messages. Had they waited, they would have learned of an upgrade the Auditor had for them and might have stood a chance.
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: All over the place in the early episodes, then downplayed more and more as the series went on and the violence got messier. ''Madness: Project Nexus'', on the other hand, is rather inconsistent with this, as a fatal headshot can either leave a single small wound or remove a huge chunk of the target's head. It gets a bit absurd when shotguns are involved, as a point-blank shotgun blast might leave the victim with a ''face-full'' of these in lieu of [[YourHeadAsplode removing the head completely]].
* PunchAWall: In ''Anamnesis.fla'', some kind of hallucination of Sanford start to punch a wall after having his face obscured and before getting half-teleported into the floor. It seems to be more out of despair than anger as if he was trying to escape.
* RealityWarper: Tricky, according to his profile on the Auditor's monitor. May or may not simply be a side effect of the Improbability Drive.
* RecoilBoost: In ''Consternation'', Hank first tries to deal with [=MAG=] Agent: Torture by using the recoil from the agent's gigantic shotgun as a springboard to send him up high enough to blast Torture in the face.
* RecurringTraveller: The Hot Dog Vendor, a guy in a paper hat and greasy apron who has the privilege of being one of the few characters who has not been killed yet (unless he didn't escape the building hit by a reality restoration beam.)
* RedEyesTakeWarning: [[LightIsNotGood Jebus]], [[DarkIsEvil the Auditor]] and many, many, many {{Mooks}}. Hank wears red spectacles, in an odd variant of this trope.
* RefugeInAudacity: The only way this series can get away with the body count.
* ReplacementMooks: Agents start off as an elite division of the A.A.H.W., but eventually replace Grunts as the A.A.H.W.'s primary combatants.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: Jesus had an S&W .500, and Sanford has a Colt Revolver with a shortened barrel.
** In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', the Colt Revolver deals more damage than the [=1911A1=] Custom, despite the [=1911A1=] firing .460 Rowland, which has more power than the .44 Magnum, and deals as much damage as the Desert Eagle and Automag V, both of which are .50 caliber pistols, and both revolvers have more range than everything except for a select few rifles, with barrels only slightly longer than the [=1911A1=]'s. They're getting all that power and range simply from ''being'' revolvers.
* RockPaperScissors: In ''Abgoration'', Hank and Sanford wonder who goes first into the entrance made for the newly created tower made by the Auditor and decide to settle the issue this way. Hank loses.
* RunningGag:
** [[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking Smokers]] getting [[AuthorAppeal killed.]] [[spoiler: [[{{Foreshadowing}} An early hint as to Deimos' ultimate fate]].]]
** The Trench Knife being one of the only few weapons never used to kill someone. This is even referenced in Madness Combat 11, where a Trench knife is summoned for Sanford to use but he just ignores it.
* SawedOffShotgun: In ''Madness Combat 1'', the second gun Hank pulled out was a sawed-off shotgun, which he managed to fire three shots from without pumping. Sawed-off shotguns never appeared afterwards.
** In a way it did appear in ''CHASE.fla'' where Deimos uses a "mare's leg" configuration of a Lever-Action Shotgun.
* SayMyName: [[spoiler:Tricky]] roars out Hank's name upon his resurrection in ''Expurgation''. It's so loud that Sanford covers his ears in pain or annoyance.
-->'''[[spoiler: Tricky:]] "HANK!"'''
-->'''[[spoiler: Tricky:]] "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK!"'''
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Jebus has "quit" about three times already... and keeps coming back for more..
* SerialEscalation:
-->'''Madness Combat 1:''' A faceless goon fighting other faceless goons over a boombox, and Jesus shows up, uses a cross-shaped energy shield to block bullets, and summons a cannon out of nowhere.
-->'''Madness Combat 8:'''
-->'''I PURGE THE WICKED'''
-->'''THE IMPIOUS MADNESS MUST END'''
-->'''I SHALL BE THE INSTRUMENT OF ARMAGEDDON'''
-->'''IT HAS GOTTEN OUT OF HAND'''
-->'''''THE END HAS BEGUN'''''
* SeriousBusiness: People get killed over a boombox in Madness Combat 1.
* ShaggyDogStory: ''Incident:100A''. Well, except for the guy they kidnapped who was lucky enough to survive the incident. He was probably going to be beaten to death if the heroes hadn't saved him.
* ShockAndAwe: [[spoiler: Hank gets this ability after briefly stealing Jebus' halo from the Auditor. It proves to be the Auditor's weakness, as it not only quickens his destabilization, but it's also the only attack that can hit through the Auditor's [[VillainTeleportation intangibility power]].]]
* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted in ''Madness: Project Nexus'', where all 3 shotguns have a decent range of 160 yards, and can inflict heavy damage at long range.
* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', shotguns are among the best weapons in the game: decent range, a reasonable reload time, as good as the many assault rifles, plentiful and can defeat any enemy, from regular Mooks to Sleepwalkers, and even the final bosses.
* ShoutOut:
** Many for ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', and a few to ''Film/TheMatrix''. Also there are certain weapons that bear a strong resemblance to weapons from other media; especially the cutlass with the spiky hand-guard that seems to be from ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal''. Hank's getup from Episode 5 is basically Jean Reno's costume from ''Film/TheProfessional''. As well as the Graffiti that featured names such as Newgrounds Dot Com and forum members on the official fan site.
** Hank's fighting style, especially with GunsAkimbo, is GunKata, as seen in ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}''.
** ''Incident:111A'' features "Smile.jpg" as featured in the game ''[[Wiki/SCPFoundation SCP-087-B]]'', with sound effects from ''VideoGame/SCPContainmentBreach''.
** Jebus' sword has "316" written in binary. That represents [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_3:16 John 3:16]], one of the most quoted passages of the Bible. One of its translations is as follows:
--->"For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting."
*** This is immensely appropriate given Jebus thinks almost everyone else is evil and kills all of them for being "sinners".
** In ''6.5'' when Sanford and Deimos are getting new outfits, sanford puts on a shirt that reads "[[VideoGame/DeadRising I covered wars, you know]]".
** In ''7.5'', when Sanford and Deimos get into melee combat with the newly activated Soldats, Sanford engages one of them with a [[BringIt beckoning gesture]] straight out of Franchise/TheMatrix.
*** In the same episode, Deimos carries a silenced [[RareGuns Mark 23]] SOCOM, otherwise known as [[Franchise/MetalGear Solid Snake's]] favourite weapon.
** ''Incident:001A'': After Hank finds a giant blender and a MAG agent walks in, Hank says [[Advertising/WillitBlend "Will it blend?"]]
** ''Madness: Project Nexus'' also has a few:
*** One of the weapons you can use is called the "[[Film/CitizenKane Citizen Cane]]".
*** Arena Mode lets you buy a Franchise/{{Robocop}} outfit as armor, and complete the look with his trademark [=Auto9=] pistol.
** In Madness: Project Nexus 2, [[https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/madnesscombat/images/0/0b/Crackpotwithgolemsword.png/revision/latest?cb=20140418200959 you]] [[https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/madnesscombat/images/4/42/Golemsword2.png/revision/latest?cb=20140418200940 can]] [[https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/madnesscombat/images/0/0b/Crackpotwithgolemsword.png/revision/latest?cb=20140418200959 get]] [[{{Manga/Berserk}} the Dragonslayer.]]
* SideBet: At the start of ''Incident:100A'', Sanford and Deimos apparently made a bet about their plan to infiltrate the base they're going for -- most likely, whether the door guard would fall for a cardboard cut-out of Deimos. Which he did, so Sanford had to pay up.
* SimpleYetAwesome: The shotguns in ''Madness: Project Nexus'' follow the trend of ShotgunsAreJustBetter in many video games. They seem to be BoringButPractical at first, like the assault rifles-plentiful, good rate of fire and common, with the exception of having a slightly smaller magazine capacity-until you discover that they can ''[[YourHeadAsplode make heads explode.]]'' They also have a fast reload time, and you can sail through whole levels with one, as long as you pick up another shotgun when you run out of ammo. They are also ''very'' useful in Episode 1.5, capable to defeating the Abominations and Sleepwalkers with ease. They've got hilariously high penetration too, so you might find yourself taking out two Abominations with one headshot. The most practical model is actually the most plentiful one: the magazine-fed Norinco 97k. It's got a faster reload time than the SPAS-12, easier to control than the USAS-12, is the cheapest of the bunch and the fact that it's a SawedOffShotgun makes it easy to handle in tight spaces, which is surprisingly good as you'll be fighting in close-quarters for most, if not all the time.
** The Thompson, which looks very cool and actually performs quite well in the Arena and Story Mode.
** The Luger P08 looks awesome as well. It's the second cheapest pistol in the game, deals more damage than the Walther PPK and, well, all you have to do is headshot people.
* SinisterShades: Jesus starts donning a pair of sunglasses in episode 4.
* SlidingScaleOfVisualsVersusDialogue: The entire ''Madness Combat'' series contains no audible dialogue - information and banter are all delivered through text.
* SplashOfColor: Mostly red (and a little [[AlienBlood yellow]]) in the midst of that colorless world.
* {{Squee}}: Hank becomes ''very'' giddy upon seeing the giant blender in ''Incident:001A'', visibly shaking in excitement and anticipation. He immediately starts throwing as many mooks into it as he can, eventually jamming a [[GiantMook MAG Agent]] in it. It's as messy as one might think.
-->'''"OMG"'''
-->'''"SATISFACTORY"'''
* {{Spammer}}: Tricky spams The Auditor in Madness 6.5 with the line "You can't stop me!"
* StandardFPSGuns: They're (almost) all here, but the usual weaknesses are averted. There are plenty of knives and swords that can be wielded as both primaries or secondaries and can range from pitiful damage to being very powerful, pistols that range from ones that take 3 or more shots to kill the weakest enemy to incredibly strong [[HandCannon Hand Cannons]], three different Shotguns, lots of Automatic Weapons in the form of [=SMGs=] and Assault Rifles, an M203 Grenade Launcher, a FN FAL as a Marksman Gun/Battle Rifle (as it can be fired full-auto, oddly enough), with the FAMAS acting as both an assault rifle and a Battle Rifle. There is also an energy gun that isn't available in the Gear Shop that can be found in Episode 1.5 of Story Mode, plenty of [[GunAccessories silencers, laser sights and scopes,]] and an M249 that acts as a {{BFG}}. However, it averts the usual trope by being ''very'' fast.
* StandardSnippet:
** You can hear Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" in ''Madness Combat 3'''s main theme.
** The main theme of ''Expurgation'', where a certain clown comes back in town, has snippets based on Julius Fucik's "Entry of the Gladiators", which is heavily associated with circuses.
* TheStarscream: Tricky could be interpreted as this. [[spoiler: As of ''Abrogation'', this has been confirmed. Posthumously. It got to the point where Tricky defiantly deserted just to battle Hank, and the Auditor threatened anyone who was "caught posting paraphernalia in regards to that god damn clown" with instant death.]]
* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:Jebus was once known as Dr. Jebidiah Christoff, the chief scientist of Project Nexus, who defected after realizing what his scientific efforts were forced to create. Setting his experiments loose lead to them attacking, killing and zombifying his former colleagues. Christoff was immediately blamed for this and became a liability, waging a [[OneManArmy one-man war]] against Nexus itself. Near the end, he picks up his trademark halo which would later turn him into one of the major antagonists of the series and Hank's main rival until being KilledOffForReal.]]
* TheStinger: Rather amusing one in ''Incident:110A''.[[spoiler: After the kill counter drains to zero, the post-animation credits pops up momentarily...and then the action restarts as Jebus picks up a minigun and kills more people, further reducing the counter to -20.]]
* SticksToTheBack: Jebus's TAC-50. Overlaps with {{Hammerspace}} because even disassembled the barrel is taller than him. Also, in both ''Madness Interactive'' and ''Madness: Project Nexus'', you can see alternate weapons a character carries on his back.
* StockSoundEffects: A common occurrence due to the series' mostly non-budgeted nature. Some of the single most common sound effects tend to be from sounds of bodily violence, like a head getting ripped off with a dull fabric-like noise.
* StormingTheCastle: Several episodes start with the protagonists assaulting their enemies' buildings, but they tend to be interrupted in the middle of the raid by unexpected events. Taken a bit more literally in Abrogation, where the Auditor erects a castle-like complex, complete with ramparts, on the spot and ''dares'' the protagonists to storm it.
* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: It was pretty obvious that the dumbwaiter in ''An Experiment'' was a trap but if the poor guy didn't comply [[MortonsFork he'd be shot to death anyway]].
* StylizedForTheViewer: Every character appears to have the same size to the viewers, but [[WordOfGod Krinkels]] said that they actually have differents heights InUniverse. The only current height confirmations are that Hank is taller than Sanford and Deimos and that Deimos is the shortest.
* SubvertedTrope: ''Incident:010A'', wherein Hank is [[spoiler: brutally torn apart while the man he used as a human shield calmly has a smoke in the end; a RunningGag is that anyone who smokes and/or gets used as a shield dies.]]
* SuddenAnatomy: Sanford gains his trademark lower lip to show his satisfaction upon getting his CoolShades in ''6.5''.
* SuperStrength: Hank, an otherwise BadassNormal, can rip a man's body parts off with his bare hands [also included are hearts and ears], and impale people with blunt objects just as easily as with swords or knives. [[spoiler: As of ''Aggregation'', he has now gotten even stronger after [[CameBackStrong being revived once more.]]]].
* SweatDrop: Happens rather often in the series, though sometimes too quickly to see easily. Twice during ''Redeemer'', once during ''Avenger'', another at the end of ''Apotheosis'' ('''OMFG''') and other time when Sanford and Deimos encounter Tricky.
** Hank briefly gets a transparent one when he empties a magazine into the very first MAG agent's face to no effect.
** In ''Antipathy'', a mook gets one for a split second when Hank gets his hands on the battleaxe. But only for a split second.
* SwordAndGun: Used extensively by Hank in ''Apotheosis'', as well as by Jebus in most of his appearances.
* SwordsAkimbo: The Auditor summons two Megachettes when he goes to fight Jesus in ''Inundation''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T-Z]]
* TakingYouWithMe:
** In ''Avenger'', Hank kills the Sheriff and Jesus just before dying from the impalement that Jesus gave him in his stomach.
** Hank suicide bombs himself to kill Jesus in ''Apotheosis''.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Near the end of of ''Antipathy'', Tricky buys a hot dog but doesn't have the chance to enjoy it as Hank assaults him in just as he's getting it.
* ThrowAwayGuns: Hank tends to burn through both his ammo and his firearms. Subverted by Jebus, who only drops his TAC-50 after he doesn't need it anymore/runs out of ammo and keeps his S&W500 on him throughout the episode, and played straight and subverted by Deimos, who throws weapons away, but not his own Glock 20, which he picks up in ''6.5'', uses to kill a few agents on the roof and holsters it as he gets into the helicopter with Sanford.
* ThrowingYourGunAtTheEnemy: With all the [[ThrowAwayGuns gun-throwing]] in the series, some of those throws will naturally be aimed at enemies. Special mention goes to Hank ''bouncing a rifle off an enemy's face and catching it'' in ''Antipathy'' and Jesus throwing one so hard it impales a guy through the head in ''Inundation''. Also a viable tactic in ''Madness Interactive'' (though the throwing mechanic means it requires some finesse) and ''Madness: Project Nexus'' for guns that have run out of ammo; however, the M249 in ''Madness: Project Nexus'' is too heavy to be thrown, and will instead just be dropped.
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks:
** Ever seen someone's skull being pierced by a police baton from ''[[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice across the room?]]'' Hank does the same with many weapons across the series.
** Other characters get in on it too. Notably, in ''Inundation'', Jesus throws an empty machine gun so hard at a mook that it impales them.
** Subverted, then deconstructed, in ''7.5''. First, Deimos throws a machine gun like Jesus did in ''Inundation'', but it's too heavy for him to aim the throw properly, and it just lands on the floor. Later, Sanford throws his sword into a Soldat's belly, only for another Soldat to pull it out and use it against Deimos.
** Downplayed in ''Madness: Project Nexus'': It ''does'' work, but you have to aim your throw just right so you can destroy someone's forehead with your discarded gun/Sanford's hook. However, the [=M249=] SAW is the only gun too heavy to throw properly, resulting in your character dropping it.
* TooDumbToLive: Many times throughout the series, some mooks are either shot non-fatally and knocked down or are hit in the face with guns/bodies/blunt weapons. Some of them just stay down, since the protagonist is usually too busy with attackers to care about the disarmed wounded enemy on the floor. However, most of them get right back up for more and promptly die. [=L33T=] Crew agents seem particularly prone to this.
** The grunts in ''Incident:011A'' try to stop [[GiantMook Mag-Agent: Torture]] by hitting him with nightsticks.
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: [[spoiler: The Auditor absorbs Tricky's corpse. Tricky then decides to overload the Auditor, causing him to explode.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Hank gets a lot better at fighting over time.
* UncertainDoom: We don't know if Hank and Sanford are dead or just unconscious at the end of ''Expurgation''.
* UnusualHalo: Jesus' gold halo turns out to be a physical object that grants or [[AmplifierArtifact enhances his supernatural abilities]]. When [[BigBad the Auditor]] claims it, it turns dark red.
* UnwantedRevival: When Hank is resurrected in ''Consternation'', he seemingly asks Tricky to "KNOCK IT OFF", likely tired of being endlessly brought back to life after dying.
* VisualDevelopment: Every important character gets visual differences as the series goes on, either through wounds and bandages, new clothes or permanent transformations. In spite of the changes, each character has a "main" [[IconicOutfit iconic appearance]] used for non-canon videos and video game adaptations.
* VisualPun: In ''Incident:110A'', Jebus kills two mooks by using his telekinesis to repeatedly smash one's body upside-down into the other. What's the enemy count at when he does this? 69!
* WallJump: Jesus does one near the end of Inundation to skip climbing a ladder.
* WantedPoster: Each of the main protagonists have one with bits of ArsonMurderAndJaywalking:
** Hank is wanted for distorting reality, felony evasion, public urination and crime.
** Sanford is wanted for murder, telling lies, torturing, kidnapping, conspiring, arson - and for being ugly.
** Deimos is wanted for murder, lying, thievery, conspiring, [[HeelFaceTurn betraying the cause]], and for being a smoker.
* WeaponOfChoice: Jebus has his longsword with "316" in binary on it and a S&W 500 Revolver; his Desert Eagle(s) make a reappearance in later episodes as well. The Auditor has his black energy blades, a katana and his massive broadsword. Tricky also likes to use traffic sign with exclamation mark on it. Sanford seems to be fond of his hook and .357 Colt Revolver. In several episodes Hank uses a piece of piano wire to dispatch mooks and Agents. Everyone uses different weapons throughout the series.
** While Deimos likes to ThrowAwayGuns, he seems to enjoy the M203 Grenade Launcher, the Glock 20, the Minebea PM-9 and dual-wields [=G36s=] at one point. He also carries a HK [=MP7=] submachine gun with full attachments and a fully modded black Beretta M9 in ''Madness: Project Nexus.''
** Sanford and Hank carry the Glock 20, with a silencer and laser sight, as their sidearms in ''Madness: Project Nexus''.
** In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', ''Apotheosis'', ''Depredation'' and ''Madness Retaliation'', Hank seems to like his katana ''a lot'', and carries it as his primary in Story Mode in ''Madness: Project Nexus.''
** [[spoiler: In ''Abrogation'', Hank seems to have become more fond of GoodOldFisticuffs, courtesy of an organic PowerFist as a result of his resurrection. Of course, his resurrected form is larger than most other characters and strong enough to crush ordinary weapons in one hand, so it's probably also out of necessity.]]
** The L33t Agents are often seen carrying the Desert Eagle as their standard issue sidearm/primary weapon, although it has become less common due to more handgun options being available. For handguns, they now tend to carry the Browning Hi-Power or Beretta M9 alongside the Deagle.
** In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', all Riot Troopers carry Billy Clubs. As well as that, the A.A.H.W. seems to have a thing for two particular [=SMGs=] -- the HK SMG II and the infamous MP-40.
** The A.A.H.W. seems to be quite fond of the AR-15 on the whole. Their troops are shown wielding the rifle several times and ''Abrogation'' has three in a gun rack.
* WeaponsKitchenSink: Everything from World War 2 machine guns, 1920's-era Tommy guns, laser guns, Gatling guns, .500 hunting revolvers, 1970's battle rifles, 1980's-era [=SMGs=], you name it, they've got it!
* WeHaveReserves: Hundreds of them. This plays a major role in ''Madness: Project Nexus''.
* WhamEpisode:
** ''Avenger'' features [[spoiler: the activation of the Improbability Drive and the beginning of Nevada's dissolution into chaos.]]
** ''Consternation'' sees [[spoiler: Jebus returning after being killed two episodes ago and the Auditor's reveal as TheManBehindTheMan to Tricky.]]
** ''Aggregation'' [[spoiler: marks the beginning of the Normality Restoration and Sanford and Deimos' introduction into the main storyline.]]
* WorldOfBadass: Almost every major character is a badass OneManArmy.
* YouAlwaysHearTheBullet: Averted in ''Incident:111A''.
* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: In ''Madness: Project Nexus'', the player needs specific perks to learn how to carry a second weapon and pistol whip.
* YourHeadAsplode: The result of [[spoiler: Tricky attempting to use Jebus' powers to create zombies from dead mooks.]]
** '''[--[[spoiler: Tricky]]: How come this does not work?!??--] '''
** Of note is how the giant mook in ''Incident:011A'' meets his end: [[spoiler: A grenade launched into the back of his head, then detonating.]]
*** This also happens to [[spoiler:Mag Hank]] in ''Incident:1000A''.
[[/folder]]