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14You better [[LevelGrinding grind like hell]] before taking on these [[DemonicSpiders baddies]].
15----
16
17Franchise with their own pages:
18
19* ''DemonicSpiders/DarkSouls''
20* ''DemonicSpiders/EldenRing''
21* ''DemonicSpiders/TheElderScrolls''
22* ''DemonicSpiders/EtrianOdyssey''
23* ''DemonicSpiders/{{Fallout}}''
24* ''DemonicSpiders/FinalFantasy''
25* ''DemonicSpiders/MegaManBattleNetwork''
26* ''DemonicSpiders/{{Miitopia}}''
27* ''DemonicSpiders/{{Pokemon}}''
28** ''DemonicSpiders/PokemonGO''
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31* Fittingly enough, ''VideoGame/The7thSaga'' has literal spiders that appear right at the point where the game's FakeDifficulty starts going through the roof. The damage they inflict is insane, ''and'' they can poison you.
32* ''VideoGame/{{Absinthia}}'':
33** The ghosts in Ambervale don't seem too threatening at first, but when they're defeated, they'll automatically use Pain Split on a target, which deals a [[PercentDamageAttack percentage]] of the target's HP. This means even if the player fights optimally or is overleveled, they'll inevitably take a ton of damage with little means of stopping it.
34** Similarly, the succubus enemies will drain the party's MP upon their death. Even if the player kills them last, it will still cost them a lot of resources to fill up their MP for the next fight.
35* ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'' is usually a fun game, but Sneaks have been known to send unsuspecting players into apoplectic fits. They're nearly impossible to hit except with ranged attacks, most of which are near-useless in any other context. But even they have nothing on Xyfrags, which only take 30% damage and have thousands of HP. The slimy bastards are so much of a problem that there is a weapon with a trigger effect specifically meant to kill Xyfrag. It doesn't help that once you get to the level you will begin to see Xyfrag, the weapon becomes utterly useless. The entire fandom cheered in unison when they were made into a rare encounter; before that, they were so common it was nearly impossible for a high-level player to go through a quest with more than one random enemy without running into one of the damn things.
36** Also, [[IncrediblyLamePun Am-Bushes]], a LightningBruiser with defenses even higher than a Sneak's, and without the vulnerability to ranged damage or any sort of elemental weakness. They always go first and hit so hard it isn't even funny, especially if you're using a GlassCannon character build. Oh, and they're ''[[GoddamnBats everywhere]]'' -- they're extremely common both in random encounters and set battles in quests, so good luck avoiding them.
37** Anything that can drain your stats. Particularly since nearly all the monsters are level-scaled, so LevelGrinding makes things worse... yet most of the equipment is so expensive you ''need'' to grind if want to be able to afford it.
38* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' has Ore Golems. Attacking them with a weapon damages the weapon. Attacking them with your hands damages YOU. They can kill a character in two hits, can hurl stone-spells which take off two-thirds of your health, are GREATLY resistant to damage and are all but immune to firearms. What makes it worse? Most new players will encounter them at a fairly low level if they follow the main plot. You have two choices in dealing with them: spam Harm, or an Elephant Gun. The Elephant Gun is a rare high level tech rifle that you probably won't see until mid-to-late game while Harm is a first level dark necromancy spell, and the location that throws Ore Golems at you throws tons of them at you. Hope you rolled a mage. Or have electrical weapons, if you follow on that tech tree. Oh, and some of them are molten hot for fire damage.
39** Same goes for the Mechanical Arachnids and Automaton enemies, though these are mercifully rarer and only appear later in the story. Bonus points for the Mechanical Arachnids being actual spiders.
40** The worst are the Fire Elementals, which are not only stronger than Golems, but damage your armor with each strike.
41** Gore Guards and Lord's Slaves, or blue zombies if you will, deal fire damage. So do the void jellyfish.
42* ''VideoGame/ArxFatalis'' has Ylsides, which appear human but are extremely fast, hard-hitting, and well armored.
43* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'', the Janissaries are the Assassins' worst nightmare. They're so tanky they can take multiple crossbow or bullets at point-blank range and are literally the only non-boss characters that can survive a counter-attack or killstreak, only being able to be one-hit-killed when caught by surprise or when at least 5 chain-kills have already been achieved. Whereas everything else that goes up against him usually winds up dead within seconds, Janissaries can hold their own against Ezio AND his Assassin recruits: they can block or dodge endless numbers of Ezio's attacks and have an unblockable ranged attack that can slice off large chunks of your health. They can run faster than you, making it impossible to just leg it when they show up. And they WILL show up, because at least one shows up in ''almost every single group of guards.'' And in more than one mission you have to go into a camp full of nothing BUT Janissaries. It's like someone just designed an entire enemy class that was Ezio-proof. And then put them everywhere.
44** [[ViolationOfCommonSense Until Ezio switches to]] [[NeverBringAKnifeToAFistfight his bare hands]]. Turns out, their ultimate weakness is an elderly man's fists. [[note]]Dodging, and then landing a 4 hit combo will take them down without fail.[[/note]]
45* ''VideoGame/AstonishiaStory'' has a cave/secret tunnel that has the highest encounter rate in the entire game, and the enemies are ghosts, skeletons, and zombie-werewolf things that are nearly impossible to hit. No matter what you do, you miss more than half the time, and then they use a spell that can take out half your party in one shot. (The other half just barely survives.) Better yet, sometimes you can't run away until the third or fourth round. Unless you have smoke bombs.
46* ''VideogGame/{{Aveyond}} 4: Shawdow of the Mist'' has the ginger bears, supposedly middle-class monsters that are somehow a lot harder to fight than the monsters found in the Final map. They have attack moves that can not only hit the entire party at once but also hit them hard, with the chance of inflicting bleed on the party members. They also have a pretty good defense and HP, so they're really hard to kill. They only give 150XP and have pretty much no loot. Most players would rather evade these creatures, because engaging them in battle would simply be frustrating and pointless.
47* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'', and many other games based on ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', have mind flayers. You really don't want to mess with mind flayers if you have any other choice, as they will cause your party members to start attacking each other—and the ability that causes this is ''psionic'', not magical, so it's really hard to defend against. Liches and dragons are also extremely dangerous, but they tend to be bosses. Note that while you can make yourself immune to their stun/hold/confusion attacks, there is no way to protect yourself from the INT-drain. The closest you have are temporary INT buffing potions. So even if you do get those spells, you still die if you are hit three times. (or less, if you are particularly low of intelligence).
48** One flayer-killing tactic is to raise undead to block them from getting to you. Another, more effective tactic is to note where the passageways are and fill them up with traps, then choose someone expendable to open the door at the end.
49** Mordenkainen's Sword works wonders against Mind Flayers, as the swords are immune to the INT-drain.
50** Casting three simple spells on your characters would protect them from 99% of a mind flayer's arsenal, leaving them as slightly squishy monsters for your characters to plow through. Beholders, on the other hand, are extremely dangerous... until you get the Shield of Balduran, which deflects beholder rays back to their source. At which point beholders just become a source of amusement, as you watch them swarm your shield-equipped character and wipe themselves out. The players who don't get the Shield of Balduran, though, are in for a rough fight. Magic is a useful defense against mind flayers, but beholders can dispel the defenses you put up against them in one attack and then kill you the next. Their most deadly attack is a ray that serves as a Flesh to Stone spell. Not only will this end the game if it hits your main character, it will remove any effected character from your party. This isn't a huge deal from a gameplay perspective, as removed characters can just be recruited again when restored. From a roleplaying one, though, it's traumatic; removing a character from your party will instantly end your romance with him or her. That's right: Beholders can ''KILL LOVE.''
51*** For those who don't have the shield, the easiest way to take down Beholders is to use summoned monsters. Thanks to a quirk in the AI, Beholders don't use their rays on summons and try to bite them instead. While the Beholder is distracted by the summon, your party can hack it to death with minimal fuss.
52** An earlier example would probably be Umber Hulks. They're tough and cast Confusion with unnerving frequency at levels where you might not have the ability to dispel it or the items to protect against it. Once you get Death Spell though they die instantly. By the way, guess which monster type Mind Flayers are usually accompanied by? That's right, lots and lots of Umber Hulks.
53** It should probably be mentioned that [=BG2=] scales certain encounters (mostly random ones) according to EXP. The Shadow Dungeon, if done at a high enough level, can contain liches in regular spawns. Spawns which also includes Bone Golems and Vampires.
54** If you don't have powerful enough magic weapons, we'd strongly advise against wandering the streets of Amn at night, because you ''will'' meet a vampire, and it ''will'' kill you. Their level drain and Dominate effects are also hugely annoying.
55** In the first game, ''Kobolds'' are this, with the Kobold Commandos being particularly nasty. They show up in significant numbers, block off chokepoints, bring along plenty of other Kobolds as meat shields, and pack [[ArrowsOnFire fire arrows]], which are absolutely ''deadly'' in a low-level campaign like this one. They also show up early enough that you probably won't have anyone who can use spells like Fireball and Cloudkill. If your main character is a SquishyWizard or GlassCannon thief with no adequate missile protection and/or fire resistance and the Commandos spot him/her, it's pretty much game over. Even worse, there's a thankfully optional dungeon where Kobold Commandos endlessly respawn -- and it's mostly tight corridors that favor them and are bad news for a melee oriented party. To add insult to injury, they also give paltry experience when slain. In the sequel they aren't as bad, since they don't show up as often and your characters are beefier.
56** In the first game, if you ever got caught stealing or had low enough reputation that they'd attack automatically, the Flaming Fist Enforcers would come to ruin your day.
57** Most of the different types of golems in the 2nd game can be defeated with minimal fuss. Stone golems are pushovers. Clay golems are even easier as long as you don't forget blunt weaponry (they resist everything else). Iron golems are bit beefier and have a nasty poison attack, but they are still manageable. The ''Adamantite'' golems that show up when your party is higher level are another matter. These beasts don't rely on any special tricks -- they are just huge powerful bruisers that resist damn near everything and can't even be ''scratched'' by anything weaker than +3 weapons. All you can do is buff up your melee characters and pray to the random number god. Adamantite golems are usually accompanied by other golems, too.
58** Enemy mages are also fairly nasty to face, especially if they have friends. A single Confusion can cause your entire group to self-destruct as the frontline fighters arbitrarily decide they'd like to massacre the missile support rather than fight their actual enemies, meaning you get torn limb from limb by the mages' friends. And they usually turn up with a Contingencied Protection from Anything Short Of An Angry God combo, meaning that as soon as a fight breaks out they become almost impossible to hurt. Entire fights can boil down to whether or not Jaheira has Insect Plague.
59** In the first game, Sirines [[CharmPerson cast dire charm]] on your party and shoot you with poison arrows. For additional pain, they always come in groups.
60** In the first game, Giant Spiders also become this if you're out of antidotes. Due to the extreme damage done by poison in the first game (2 damage per second for over a minute of duration = 120+ damaqe, more than any character in the game can survive), a spider battle means that basically anyone hit by one is on a TimeDelayedDeath timer you can't stop. They also NoSell the best low-level crowd control spell in the game (Web). Spiders are extremely common, and can be found practically everywhere.
61** Shadows are usually easy picking, but one variant, the devil shades, are capable LevelDrain.
62* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitosOrigins'':
63** Machina Auto-Turrets, which are found all over [[MarathonLevel Tara]][[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon zed]], and are one of the biggest reasons it's ThatOneLevel. They're fast, tough, have powerful normal attacks and a special attack that hits the whole party, and come in groups of two or three.
64** In Tarazed, you find Prima Queens, which hit way too hard and explode after three or four turns unless they're killed. Just to add to that, they often appear with Dance Kings (which hit like ''tanks'') and have a combination attack with them that takes off unreasonable amounts of health. Encountering two Dance Kings and three Prima Queens at once practically adds up to a full on boss fight. Frigid Queen's Festival won't save you if Guillo gets knocked out two turns in.
65** Any enemy encounter with a combination attack could really count, given that they usually hit like a freight train made of lions.
66* ''VideoGame/BlackSigil: Blade of the Exiled'': Pest Spirits have a spell that causes numerous status effects to all your characters. The standout one, however, is berserk. Berserk causes your characters to be unable to take any action but use their physical attack. This wouldn't be so bad, normally... but Pest Spirits are immune to physical attacks, and only two accessories can protect your characters from berserk, one of which is only acquired from a SecretCharacter. The only good thing about it is that except for a round late in the tournament, they are only found in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, but if you do face them, you better have a weapon with magical damage or the Berserk-blocking accessories equipped: otherwise, one way or another, you're looking at a TotalPartyKill.
67* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'':
68** Snatchers start out as a MightyGlacier enemy that can inflict a lot of damage but don't move quickly, but then they [[TurnsRed turn red]] and go into a quick-acting frenzy. These can turn up as early as the third or fourth boss you'll generally fight and remain significant threats well into the mid to late game. The first one to kill you will take you to Yahar'gul, a high-level area full of ''more'' Snatchers, and they're fairly common in the Chalice Dungeons. And they're hard to parry, just as the icing on the cake.
69** Bloodlickers are bloated, nightmarish tick-flea monsters that move quickly and unpredictably, can't be parried and can both dish out and take quite a lot of damage. This would be bad enough, but they also show up in the higher difficulty Chalice Dungeons in areas you've already been in, licking up the blood from the visceral attacks you used, meaning that even the areas you cleared aren't safe.
70** Chime Maidens aren't too powerful themselves, but they constantly summon and power up other enemies. In the Chalice Dungeons their summoned minions also seem to know exactly where you are.
71** The Upper Cathedral Ward version of the Brainsucker fights by spamming spells that paralyse you, then using a grab that drains your Insight. While Insight is certainly a double-edged sword, since it reduces your frenzy resistance, it's also useful as a currency in the Hunter's Dream, and it's not conveniently farmable in the way that most of the other resources are. The lower-level versions just have the grab, and even that was bad enough.
72** The Giant Lost Children yeti-monsters in the Nightmare areas are mostly hated for ThatOneAttack: the boulder throw. This is alarmingly accurate and does exactly as much damage as you'd think getting hit by a flying rock the size of a small car would.
73** The Winter Lanterns are some of the most hated enemies in the game because they inflict Frenzy, a ''tremendously'' damaging status effect - not even on their attacks but in a radius around them. They have eyes in every direction, so it's difficult if not impossible to ambush them, and their main attack, a grab that doesn't do much damage but holds you in one place for a while as your Frenzy meter goes up, has such ridiculous tracking that the dodge window for it is actually quite small; if you don't go at the exact right moment, it'll either catch up to you and grab you, or spin 180 degrees on the spot and grab you.
74** The Nightmare Executioners in the DLC take an enemy that was already tough and add on some long combos and the ability to buff their weapons for extra reach and damage.
75** The Shark Giants in the DLC are generally accepted as the most unfair "bruiser" enemies in the game, combining everything that Soulsborne players hate in an enemy: they're fast, they deal a lot of damage, their attacks have just enough delay to be hard to dodge, their attacks also track really well, they have a charge attack with long range and tremendous damage, and you essentially never fight them alone. One fight, which you have to do if you want the Rakuyo weapon, has you come up against two; this fight is generally considered to be harder than most of the game's actual bosses.
76--->'''The Bloodborne Wiki:''' [[https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Shark-Giant STRATEGY: Give up.]]
77* ''VideoGame/BlueDragon'' has the Steel-Eating Tigers. Vicious monsters that can two-shot your toughest characters (and of course, one-shot the weaker ones)? Nasty, but manageable. Until you realize that they're so damn fast that they can easily move twice in a row if they want. Be ready to revive more than a few characters when you get drawn into an automatic encounter with FOUR of them.
78* One of the most frustrating enemies in ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' is quite possibly the dreaded Myconid. Sure, how could a sentient mushroom be so bad? The Myconid has a downright unfair ability called spore, which activates whenever you hit it with a physical attack. What does it do? It ''[[MookMaker makes another Myconid]]!'' This isn't some pale clone, but another monster. And they have pretty sizable health, so its very difficult to one-shot them at this point. Using magic doesn't trigger the ability, but MP is pretty low at this stage and you can easily run out, not to mention ethers are pretty rare and you are going to end up burning through them pretty quickly. The battle can drag on for quite a while, since you kill one, move on to the next and it creates another in its place, which can really wear you down. However, if the battle drags on for long enough, you can end up getting tons of bonus money and EXP, which somewhat makes the battle nearly worth it.
79** In the same boat as Myconids, another annoying creature to battle is the Cerberus in the Vampire Castle. Whenever you attack the Cerberus with a physical attack, it counters with "Payback", which hurls huge amounts of damage right back at you. And this triggers EVERY single time you hit it with a physical attack. To put it into perspective, Payback typically dishes out 1,000 damage. At this stage in the game, your HP is probably around 3,000 to 4,000. Cerberus itself is no slouch, with about 5,000 HP and pretty decent speed and power. The worst part is Payback doesn't take up its turn, so after you get counterattacked, it can go and attack you for even more damage. While magic doesn't trigger the effect, you'll find that it's typically far less useful than physical attacks. Multi-target attacks also don't trigger Payback, but they're typically not as powerful. And just because the game hates you, there's a chance to encounter 3 of these bad boys at once in the higher floors. Hope you stocked up on Phoenix Downs...
80* In ''VideoGame/CrossEdge'', you can end up meeting Cilone, a level 190(!) enemy with insane physical dodge and crazy magic resistance. Normally, this would be a BossInMookClothing; however, there's a DLC dungeon where Cilone are regular encounters. And if you thought Lujit's A-Fear was bad, Cilone's attack of choice is Ragnarok, which it will spam until it ends in a TotalPartyKill. What makes Cilone even ''worse'' is that, like Lujit and its ilk before it, it has both Parry and Pefect Barrier, negating physical and magical attacks at 25% HP, meaning EX skills are the only way to go. And for something [[SerialEscalation even worse than that]], they are regular encounters in the third area of the fifth world, and are buffed to level 750(!!!), meaning that unless you've some godly speed, you can't run away. Better hope you saved or you've got good defenses.
81* ''VideoGame/TheDarkSpire''. Nearly every floor has at least two elite enemies. Nearly all of them are this, and there are some more common enemies that also qualify. Being a Wizardry clone this is normal and expected.
82** The best examples though are anything with a breath weapon. Breath weapons do damage based on the HP of the user to the entire party and can be used in the surprise round. It is not at all unusual for later ones to kill everyone before you can move.
83* ''VideoGame/{{Darkstone}}'':
84** Goblin Bat Riders and Giant Bats. Both are immune to all spells except fire based ones (and there are only 3 fire based spells), they're fast, have a lot of health, they do a lot of damage and they infinitely [[MookMaker spawn]] bats (including upon death). Luckily, they are rather rare.
85** Mages, which attack in swarms, hurl fireballs, TeleportSpam, summon golems (fire and ice), leave magic bombs behind when damaged ''and'' are completely immune to any form of magical assault. Luckily they are [[SquishyWizard fairly easily]] to kill with normal weapons despite having surprisingly high health... if the golems and fireballs don't kill you first or if you can catch them.
86** The Queen Spiders, which are giant fireball-spitting spiders. They have a ton of HP, hit hard, attack surprisingly fast, have very strong armor that can make them especially hard to consistently damage with ranged-weapons without you having a very high hit rate, your weapon's durability will deplete at an accelerated rate when hitting them, and they can poison you with their melee attack for good measure. Plus if you get an enemy on your side, from either using Invocation to summon a Fire Golem or Confusion to turn enemies against each other, no monster will retaliate against a Queen Spider and will just stand there being attacked until it dies. The only reprieve about them is that they move rather slowly and in dungeons their massive size keeps them restricted to the rooms they spawn in, but their size also means it can be difficult or impossible to maneuver around them in confined spaces, especially with a pack of them.
87** Red and blue Skeleton Captains. These are not only stronger than the basic yellow Skeleton Captain, but also shoot fireballs and Magic Missiles respectively. In addition, they also have very strong armor like any skeleton has that makes them difficult to damage without a very high hit rate, especially with ranged weapons.
88** The Amazons clad in full plate armor and wielding one-handed maces and shields are an absolute pain to deal with. Aside from being fast moving, fast attacking and attacking in groups with other Amazons, their attacks do a lot of damage and they are immune to all spells except poison based ones. Of which, there are ''two'' available spells and they are both level 4 spells, the highest tier available.
89** Mystical Wyverns will spam fireballs at you with the fastest attack speed of any ranged enemy in the game and can poison you in melee combat.
90** For enemies you can encounter earlier on, there's the Chief Rat Man, who will be among the first ranged-attackers you can encounter, but compared to other earlier ranged attackers they're more durable, attack faster, and seem to have a higher hit rate that will have their throwing axes penetrate your armor more frequently.
91* Eldar Warlocks in the ''[[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Dawn of War 2]]'' single-player campaign, who are staggeringly durable and spam psychic lightning that knocks back your squads.
92** Particularly Wraithguard in the ''Chaos Rising'' expansion, though, because their [[{{BFG}} D-cannons]] will knock back anything in their blast radius, have a pretty solid rate of fire, and will ''knock down your squads when you try to retreat''. The only good way to kill them, in fact, is to catch them by surprise and beat on them in melee with Thaddeus, where they are utterly useless.
93* ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' is hard as it is, but nearly every skeleton enemies in the Shrine of Storms is a walking doom machine waiting to prey on an unfortunate player. Not only do their rolling attacks waste stamina even on block, they're very fast and agile, spawn in numbers, and the archer variant fires White Bows which deal magic damage. The Black Skeleton variants [[DualWielding wield]] [[KatanasAreJustBetter dual katanas]], and while they have a poor turn radius, they is resilient and very deadly. If you try to block a Black Skeleton's leaping attack, you get to watch your health and stamina drop to zero in a heartbeat. The Gold variants use large machetes that double as shields, are even more durable, come in pairs, can take off huge chunks of HP in a hit, and are usually found guarding treacherous passes where if the skeletons don't kill you, the fall will.
94* The ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' games sometimes pit you against enemies that have demons of the Dragon and Vile races as part of the enemy teams. Both of these demon races are ''very dangerous'' as they are able to destroy you from two and three spaces away for Dragons and Viles respectively and prevent you from attacking them in exchange for not getting any extra turns, waiting longer for their turns to come up again, and a movement penalty if a team has a Vile, but that's a moot point if you're dead. If you happen to unwittingly walk into the attack range of one of such teams, be prepared for two skirmishes from them since not moving reduces the turn delay. And in ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'', the stronger members of these races get the capability to '''attack from four spaces away.'''
95* Musyamon in ''VideoGame/DigimonWorld3'' start as this. They are in the Gecko Swamp, with the only other digimon there being, well, Geckomon, who besides one obnoxious attack are pretty weak. Musyamon, though, have ungodly high offensive stats for any digimon at that point in the game, when your team will likely only be around level 15 or so. Also, thanks to the annoying escape mechanics, it's almost impossible to get out of the battle before it uses one of its strong attacks on you. Naturally they become a cakewalk once you level up properly, but until then, good luck.
96* The ''[[VideoGame/DotHackGUGames .hack]]'' series makes up for its lack of any single, solid example of this trope by making quite a few of the enemies you encounter borderline examples. Among these are the [[GoddamnedBats Mu Guardians]] that spam attacks freezing you in place until they finish, and consistently appear in groups to stack said attacks on top of each other. It's not as outright dangerous as it sounds, but every bit as irritating. It's in the third game, where [[PaletteSwap Nega Guardians]] start showing up, that it descends into this trope's territory. Same basic idea, but those attacks are now far more damaging, and the battle is quite literally {{Unwinnable}} unless you use [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Data Drain]], on each of them, individually... after which you must kill them AGAIN, though the second time [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Data Drain]] is mercifully optional.
97** Not to mention the Specters from the second game. In addition to having an annoying attack similar to the one used by Mu Guardians (though thankfully the Specters didn't spam it), they had HP that was absolutely ridiculous for the time, an attack capable of draining your SP, and an attack that was just under half as strong as the one used by Skeith (and Skeith being ThatOneBoss on its strength alone, that is saying something). Oh, and they constantly appear IN PACKS.
98** Idols. They have the ability to resurrect any monsters you destroy. It gets worse when two of them are in the immediate vicinity of one another and you become forced to [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Data Drain]] one. Have fun getting through any Thunder areas in ''Infection'', where it seems like every gate contains one.
99* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' has many enemies who can pin a character down and maul them until they die, with very few ways to stop this. The first time you encounter this is a boss, where an Ogre will pick up a random party member and punch them in the face until death. You can only stop this by stunning the creature somehow, and most of the creatures that have this ability are incredibly hard to stun.
100** The worst of these kind of enemies are, appropriately, giant spiders. Not only can they do the aforementioned pinning and mauling, they can also tangle party members in web and some have painful venom. Good luck if you're leading your party with a mage in the Deep Roads, because they can drop down from the ceiling, web your tank, then kill your mage without you being able to use any spells at all. And mages are VERY important in this game for large encounter survivability.
101** That Ogre boss also has a tendency to head straight for the player character, so if you're playing a mage (IE relative Easy mode), the fight serves as the first rage-quit-hard single fight in the game. Mages also get boned in their very first available side quest, where you are sent to go take out foes who use the aforementioned stun attack, at a level where you can die in a few seconds if things are going ''right''. Appropriately enough, these foes are spiders.
102** At a high enough level enemy archers start using Scattershot, which stuns your ''entire party'' and is almost impossible to resist. It wouldn't be so bad by itself, but enemy archers usually come in groups that consist of more archers who also use Scattershot.
103** Enemy mages. At higher levels they spam chain lightning (high damage and stamina drain against your entire party), Curse of Mortality (continuous damage and prevents healing), Crushing Prison (damage and lockdown), Misdirection Hex (renders your physical attackers useless), and Blood Wound ''(party-wide'' Crushing Prison). They are rarely ever alone, and are often joined by the other DemonicSpiders mentioned earlier. No wonder everybody hates blood mages.
104** On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are dwarves. They are highly resistant to mana, making a mage's life hell. Guess what kind of enemies you have to face most often in [[ThatOneLevel Orzammar]]?
105** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' has, perhaps to payback players who abused the insanely overpowered player mages in Dragon Age Origins, made enemy mages incredibly dangerous. They're invulnerable to damage except when casting spells, most of which they do without warning and can cause a TotalPartyKill, and, unlike player mages, don't aggro every single enemy on the battlefield by casting a spell, don't get stunlocked in melee combat, and are decidedly not [[GlassCannon Squishy.]]
106*** Specifically, let's talk about the Qunari mages, or Saarebas. The Qun should ''really'' take more pride in its mages, since they can '''KICK YOUR ASS TO PAR VOLLEN AND BACK'''. Not only do they take a ridiculous amount of damage, but they have a lightning ball spell that they can spam and essentially down your party within five seconds if you're not careful. Also, they had the [[FlashStep Flash Step spell]] that allow them to move quickly from one place to another.
107*** Enemy assassins are even worse. They disappear into stealth a lot and will almost always one-shot your mages and rogues on the higher difficulty levels with a backstab that can rarely be dodged. Any encounter with more than one of them is ridiculously, unfairly difficult.
108** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' often has the player dealing with Fade Rifts by clearing out any demons escaping it before closing it permanately. While there are multiple demon types that are simply annoying, Despair Demons for much of the early to mid game are an absolute nightmare to deal with. They pack a higly damaging ice spell that also slows down anyone that tries to engage them in melee, are surprisingly durable, and if actually engaged in melee will simply fly to the other side of the battlefield and continue pelting party members with ice. Eventually the party gains access to better crowd control abilities to lock down despair demons and will be able to survive the brunt of their attacks, though later on they come in greater numbers and focus more on avoiding damage, turning them into GoddamnedBats.
109* Many of ''Franchise/DragonQuest'''s EliteMooks fit this:
110** In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestI'', many monsters can put you to sleep before you can act, and you will be at the mercy of the RNG until (or IF) you wake up. The Magiwyvern has a tendency to bludgeon you to death in your sleep. The Starwyvern/Cosmic Chimera has deadly flame breath (which ignores your defense), high HP, high attack power, and Healmore/Midheal (meaning it can heal faster than you can hurt it if it decides so). The Wizard possesses both Sleep/Snooze and Hurtmore and is resistant to your magic. The Armored Knights/Knights Abhorrent in the endgame have both Healmore/Midheal and Hurtmore, and Red Dragons/Dread Dragons combine the worst of everything, since they have both Sleep/Snooze and Healmore, and do the worst melee and fire breath damage out of all mooks in the game. It's telling that the remakes actually nerf the Dread Dragons by switching out Sleep/Snooze with Stopspell/Fizzle and lowering their damage output.
111** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestII'':
112*** The Gold Batboons/Bat Demons/Batmandrills in the final area of the game can potentially wipe out your entire party in one turn with their Sacrifice/Kamikazee spell. And unlike the Rockbombs/Bomb Crags of later games, they don't wait until you've damaged them to do it. They can do it at any given moment, even on their first action of the battle, if they feel like it. And they can act before your party, if the RNG says so. And this spell has a 100% success rate of working. Even a party at the maximum level can be insta-killed if the random number generator decides you don't deserve to live any more. The ''only'' good thing about them is that they only appear in the final area of the game, where DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist (provided you saved at the shrine upon reaching Rhone Plateau and didn't wander close to Hargon's fortress before then).
113*** Just about anything in the second half of the Cave to Rhone qualifies. Dragons have a breath attack that has the potential of critically wounding or killing two thirds of your party if you don't level grind. Flames usually come in a group of four and can wipe the party out of nowhere if they all use a breath attack that deals about 35-40 damage. There's a reason why Cave of Rhone is ThatOneLevel and why the game's generally considered [[NintendoHard tough as hell]].
114** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' has several:
115*** Man Eater Chests and the upgraded {{mook}}, the Mimics, are introduced in this game. The Man Eater Chests have a high critical hit rate, strike like a freight train normally, and can make your allies fall asleep using Sweet Breath. Mimics can do much the same, but can also attack twice in one turn, leech magic points from your party, and insta-kill your party members with [[OneHitKill Whack]]. [[SarcasmMode Have fun!]]
116*** Hologhosts (later named Silhouettes in the 2010s remakes) have [[OneHitKill Whack and Thwack]] at their disposal and can sometimes be seen in groups. One of the dungeons they appear in is the DiscOneFinalDungeon, a dungeon where you'll need to have everyone alive for the boss there.
117*** Kragacles in the Alefgard oceans. They can attack 3 times and have 450 HP, almost twice as much as the next strongest enemy in the ocean. And you can encounter 3 of them at once, meaning 9 attacks in a single turn.
118*** There's also the Archmages (later renamed to Hocus pokers) who lurk the later dungeons in [[spoiler:Alefgard]]. They not only have the strongest explosion spell, but also have access to the best revive spell and two varities of cold breath attacks. They also tend to appear in groups.
119*** The Leger-de-men in the final dungeon not only love pelting you with back-to-back Kaboom spells, they can also revive each other to full health, dragging the battle way more than recommended. On the other hand, they can also revive slain [[MetalSlime Liquid Metal Slimes]] for even more experience.
120** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' has a couple lurking in the remake-exclusive bonus dungeon. The Pandora's box from ''Dragon Quest VII'' (mentioned below) is there, and the Bloody hands from ''Dragon Quest II'' tend to call forth dangerous enemies.
121** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' has the Beastmasters and Fire eaters/Ice breakers. Both fire eaters and ice breakers come in large groups and have high agility and ridiculously strong attacks. Beastmasters can [[MookMaker summon a lot of these]], and WORSE, if a Beastmaster defends instead of attacking, '''another''' Beastmaster shows up right then and there, and unlike most reinforcements, '''''has an instant turn'''''.
122** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII'' gives us ''another'' upgraded version of the Mimic line; the Pandora's Box, a beefed-up Mimic with Drain Magic, a upgraded version of the mana-draining Weird Dance. Unlike [[Myth/GreekMythology its namesake]], there is little hope to be had when facing this monster.
123** The Dead Ringers in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' can not only level themselves up repeatedly, but call in reinforcements... who can call in ''more'' reinforcements that call in ''even more'' until you're dealing with 8 of them, at which point they unleash an attack that can wipe out your entire party. Appropriately enough, said attack plays the Game Over music from [=DQ1=].
124** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'':
125*** Boa Bishops have tons of HP, are surprisingly fast (both in battle and out), always attack twice, have an automatic sleep spell, have a hit-everything-spell, often appear in twos and threes... Oh, and to add insult to injury, their snake tentacles take up so much space in the narrow grotto corridors where you find them that you can't sneak past them, and drags you into battle even when you're think you're out of its range.
126*** The various types of Beakon can all summon more Beakons, which is irritating enough by itself. However, they also get two attacks per turn, so you don't get a grace turn if they summon because they still get a chance to deal damage as well. If you have to pause to heal, that's more momentum lost. Between this and the fact that they're not as squishy as a WaddlingHead might appear means that a battle against two enemies is often really a battle against six or seven enemies in disguise.
127** The random trainers in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters'' have quite a few monsters that can be bothersome even considering they are supposed to match your levels, but Fang Slimes in the level sum 99-118 group take the cake. On top of being ridiculously fast, they come armed with War Cry, a skill that causes all enemy monsters to skip their next turn. It is naturally possible to have monsters that can resist this and have a chance of not suffering from this, but [[GuideDangIt the game doesn't tell you which ones or how well]]. This is made particularly bad by the fact that various other monsters in the group like to have powerful hit-all attacks, so you're having to heal every other round... or you would, if War Cry didn't just cause you to skip your turn. And the same level sum group has Bomb Crags that know Paralysis Air, which short of having monsters immune to it is capable of ''paralyzing all of your monsters and causing you an instant defeat''. And unfortunately, they have high HP and defense so you can't kill them quickly, either.
128** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestBuilders'' likes to throw some of these at the player as part of clearing optional challenges in a few chapters. The Green Dragons in Chapter 1 and Boss Trolls/Gigantes in Chapter 3 especially. Without proper gear, they will wreck you.
129** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestHeroesIITwinKingsAndTheProphecysEnd'':
130*** Any enemy that can cast Whack. Pazuzus are really bad about this. And woe to you if you brought Kiryl along and run into Float-O-Copiers.
131*** Gigantes, which can be found in the Damned Dunes in the other world. They're every bit as powerful and dangerous as their size would have you believe. You never actually have to pick a fight with one, but if you decide to challenge them, beware!
132*** Roseguardins, despite looking like a palette swap of the much less dangerous armour type enemies, have easily the highest defense of any monster that isn't a Metal Slime. Even with a Metal King Sword you won't be doing much damage to them per hit (though spells do a fair amount of damage to them). On top of that, they block your every move, attack very swiftly and suddenly, and hit very hard with their attacks. They also tend to come in large groups on top of that. Thankfully they only appear in the post game.
133* There are a few enemies from ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'' that fit the bill:
134** Hellhounds are probably the epitome of this trope. You encounter them very late in the game, but that doesn't stop them from being the most aggravating enemies in the game that even seasoned players still end up having trouble with. They don't stagger very easily, so it'll take a few hits before you can actually make them flinch or knock them down. They do NOT sit still, and run all around the place in an effort to confuse you. '''Their''' attacks have no problem stun-locking you or knocking you down, as they possess a long range fire breathing attack that will hit for lots of damage and most likely leave you on the ground. But that's not all! While you are on the ground, they can take a hold of you and drag you off somewhere. They can either throw you off a cliff (if it's too high, you die), or bite at you for massive damage while you shake them off. Finally, they come in groups of no less than three. Yup, these guys are mangy mutts from ''hell.''
135** Early on bandits pose quite a threat. The ones with swords and shields have ludicrous amounts of HP, strength and can one-shot low level characters with an extremely long-ranged dash used seemingly at random, the ones with 2-handed weapons have ludicrous strength, and the ones with bows and/or daggers love to stand way offscreen and shoot you with extremely damaging arrows that can send you flying. A group of bandits usually includes 3 or more with bows and/or arrows, 3 or more with swords and shields, and 2 or more with 2-handed weapons. The groups are usually next to multiple other large groups of bandits and multiple large groups of wolves. Bandits love to run away nonstop until you give up on chasing them and then attack you from offscreen while you're attacking their allies. Chasing them down often means alerting other large groups of bandits. If you hit them while they're hitting you, they tend to instantly and unflinchingly run away as soon as your attack makes contact which really sucks if your weapons rely on weak rapid hits. If a bandit's attack is especially hard to dodge, it's most likely an attack that will one-shot many low-level characters. Finally, wolves like to run away when you get near them and leap at you from offscreen later to hold you still while bandits one-shot you.
136* ''VideoGame/{{Drakensang}}'' has its share of tough enemies in both games, including Harpies, Giant Crabs, Emerald Spiders, Stone Golems and Fire Spirits. The first two are severely annoying, as they can easily inflict wounds on your characters via physical damage, and it only takes five wounds to kill your character. Golems have a lot of health, are super resilient and hit like trains, and are immune to wounds. Fire spirits, while still manageable, have the irritating quirk of setting ablaze all characters around them.
137* ''VideoGame/DyztopiaPostHumanRPG'': Retrograde Scorpio, like the original boss, can seal one character in sand at a time. However, in the extra Church dungeon, it's possible for two to spawn in the same fight, resulting in two characters being sealed. This is especially brutal on hard mode, where there are only three active party slots.
138* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'':
139** In ''Epic Battle Fantasy 3'', Monoliths are perhaps the strongest enemies in the game. Viking Monoliths can freeze multiple party members at once, Ancient Monoliths can stun party members, and both are capable of dealing massive damage, but Cosmic Monoliths takes the cake. A single Cosmic Monolith won't hesitate to use a Dark attack easily capable of a TotalPartyKill every three turns, while unleashing weaker attacks, weakening you or buffing itself, or charging said attack even stronger in between. One functions as the effective MiniBoss of the last main dungeon, but more appear in the short true final dungeon (often more than one at once). ''Epic Battle Fantasy 4'' nerfs them and removes the Cosmic Monoliths, but makes the Viking Monoliths appear one level earlier than they did last game (Ancient Monoliths didn't appear until the last dungeon). ''4'' also adds two new kinds: [[TropesOfTheLivingDead Undying Monoliths]], appearing in a couple of side areas unlocked after level 3, and [[BlowYouAway Sky Monoliths]], which only appear near the end of the last dungeon, just before Ancient and Undying Monoliths appear again.
140** Dish Turrets in ''4'' can stun multiple characters at once and force them to miss turns, they can Syphon multiple characters at once (which blocks off all of their skills and reduces them to basic attacks and items, the latter of which you'll promptly be using to cure the condition, thus wasting more turns), and can dispel your entire party's buffs at once, in a game where UselessUsefulSpell is emphatically ''not'' in effect and you really need those buffs. They also have a ton of HP, so you can't expect to pick them off easily. While their attacks have low raw power, this is hardly any consolation considering they just about ''always'' have other powerful enemies fighting alongside them, who will happily abuse the free turns the Dish Turrets are providing them to blast your characters into the stratosphere. Always go after the Dish Turret first. That is, of course, assuming they don't come in pairs. Or groups of three. Or alongside the resident BossInMookClothing.
141** And they're the '''first''' of the [[FourIsDeath four types]] of giant machines in that area. One Defender by itself deals enough damage every turn to [[IronicName keep YOU on the defensive]]. Thankfully, there's usually only one at once, and it's the only giant machine the boss can't summon, but the one encounter with two at once is one of the hardest encounters in the level and one of the hardest one-wave encounters. Laser Turrets aren't so bad, but [[AnIcePerson Fridge Turrets]] will wet your entire party, making all of you weak against their own ice attacks '''and''' the Dish and Laser Turrets' thunder attacks for several turns.
142** [[SmashMook Golems]] can also count as this, to an extent, largely depending on the difficulty (since the biggest difference between difficulties is enemy stats). There's nothing gimmick-y about them; they just hit really hard and have lots of HP and high defenses. And unlike the Dish Turrets, which only appear in the factory, there are many varieties of the Golems, so you'll often see some version of them regardless of the region you're in at the time.
143** In ''4'', [[MightyGlacier Turtles]] (then known as Eaters) and [[LightningBruiser Elementals]] could've count too, but now they don't stand out among all the other guys, and are mere ants compared to one newcomer. This game, despite nerfing the Monoliths, added the Dragons. They have tons of resistances and few weaknesses (and if you face two different kinds at once, may not have any common ones). In addition, they have powerful party-hitting attacks and even stronger single-target strikes, can buff their entire party and debuff all of you to massive extents, and in some cases can even heal or kill instantly.
144* ''VideoGame/EternalSenia1'': Succubi are incredibly fast and never stop moving, which is a problem in an action RPG where the main way of dealing damage is touching the enemy. On top of that, they can turn themselves invincible on a whim with absolutely no warning beforehand, after which they charge at you with an attack that homes in on you at a speed even faster than their already fast basic moving speed, making it nigh-impossible to dodge if you're anywhere near the succubus at the time -- again, the main way of dealing damage in this game is by getting close to the enemy. And if this attack hits you (and it inevitably will), you're TakenForGranite.
145* Any enemy in the ''Exile/Avernum'' series with level 6 mage spells or greater is this, because they can summon Demons at will. And those demons can not only breathe deadly fireballs, but they can also summon Devas and Shades. And those Devas can summon other monsters in turn. One high-level mage can potentially fill up the screen with summons in only a few turns, which is why they are usually your number-one priority to kill first. Unfortunately, they themselves like to stand in the back ranks of the enemy party, and are usually resistant (if not completely immune) to ''your'' spells.
146* ''VideoGame/EyeOfTheBeholder''
147** In the first game, applied literally with the {{Giant Spider}}s. You meet with them in a part of the dungeon where you're unable to backtrack and must find the way out, while too low-level to have any spell that durably neutralize their venom, and thus dependent on the few counterpoison potions you can find.
148** In both games, thri-kreen (mantis warriors). They're incredibly fast, hard to kill, and have a paralytic bite that makes it pretty sure one of your meat shields will be incapacitated ''before'' having even a chance to strike. So tough they are, fighting them one-by-one is actually a ''less'' favorable option than facing a swarm of them -- at least then you can spam offensive spells more efficiently.
149* ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed''. Pretty much any great enemy when you have to fight more than one at once. The first part of the Death Star level [=AT-STs=] ''and'' Purge Troopers ''and'' snipers all at once make for difficult gameplay. Then there are the Rancors on Felucia who take great delight in knocking you over, patiently waiting for you to get up and then knocking you over again a split second before you get control of your character back.
150** There aren't any Purge Troopers in the Wii/[=PS2=] version, but the Jump Troopers and Heavy Troopers are probably just as bad. The former hovers around with a jetpack, repeatedly hammering you with rapid blasterfire and a freakin' flamethrower, and can take an insane amount of punishment (tough to hit, too). The latter wield electrostaffs that can block your lightsaber, and absolutely ''love'' to zap you in the back with electricity when you're busy fighting off the inevitable swarm of lesser foes that accompany them. And both frequently ''appear in groups.''
151* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'':
152** The games never really focus on the monsters, more on the puzzles. ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' is no exception... until the [[spoiler: Grave Eclipse]], which spawns a whole bunch of monsters that, if your party is not above Level 30 ''at least'', will merrily feast upon you, mostly by virtue of being powerful, quick, and hard to kill in comparison to everything you've been two-shotting up until now. In addition, Scuttler-type enemies have a vocal attack that can [[StatusEffects Stun]], which they will spam; and Skorpna-type enemies have an attack, Drag Down, that is a potential OneHitKill. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Which they also spam]].
153** Wonder Birds in ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'' are most likely an example, as they cast very powerful fire Psynergy, attack multiple times per turn, and are hard to escape from. To make matters worse, they will commonly get almost your entire party downed or close to it, then run away like a wuss. However, once you're strong enough to deal with them, they become [[MetalSlime a treasure trove of EXP]].
154* Orcs in the ''VideoGame/{{Gothic}}'' series. In most RPG settings, orcs are disposable fodder-type enemies. Even the lowliest orc scout in ''Gothic'', on the other hand, is more than a match for your character for most of the game, and when you're finally tough enough to beat the scouts down, you start to run into elite warriors.
155** Same applies to skeletons, which are highly competent swordmasters. Defeating a single skeleton without receiving heavy damage requires ably blocking all of its lightning-fast blows. Fighting multiple skeletons at once is a nightmare.
156** Snappers are very tough, damaging and really fast, meaning that if you want to run away from them, most of the time they will outrun you and kill you. The worst part is that they are never encountered alone, only in packs of 3 or more, and killing a pack of them is a challenge to even high-level character. In ''Gothic I'' snappers the worst, since they are scattered all over the place, usually around strategic areas [[BeefGate to prevent a low-level player from accessing said areas]], and it's quite easy to stumble into a pack of them in the beginning of the game, only to be slaughtered within seconds. Thankfully, in ''Gothic II'' they are much rarer, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous. Sequel also features [[BossInMookClothing dragonsnappers]], a variant of snappers taken up to eleven. But fortunately, they are even more rare, and are not usually encountered in packs.
157* ''VideoGame/GrandiaII'' has Devils if you return to Raul Hills late in the game. They know BA-BOOM!, which hits the entire party for over 4000 damage, which is a nearly guaranteed TotalPartyKill. The one saving grace is that the area they're in is completely optional, but necessary if you want some rare items (including a Mana Egg).
158* In ''VideoGame/HellgateLondon'', most players have developed a rather unhealthy dislike (read: primeval, seething ''hatred'') for the enemies in the "Pain Leech" line, big tentacled floating heads. They seem harmless enough—damage capabilities only slightly above average, and really limited speed. Easy meat, right? Well, yeah, if you're fighting a single one. However, the danger of Leeches increases exponentially with numbers, since their lack of speed is handily supplied through their teleporting abilities, which means no matter how much you run, they're going to keep hitting you until you drop them. They also chew through shields like ''butter'' when there's more than about three of them, can cause the "phased" status (which causes you to sustain an extra 50% damage on every received hit ''and'' deal half damage) and have an uncanny ability to appear right in the middle of your escape route when you're running the hell away from a mass of missile-toting darkspawns or simply trying to find a moment of respite to recharge your skills. Taking all this into account, it's easy to see why the expression of most Hellgate players hardens when they hear the unmistakable moaning of the Leeches.
159** The "Bruiser" line consists of large, lumbering zombie cyborgs with maces for hands, which induce a stun effect. What makes them so broken? They're ''ranged'' and spawn in packs of 3 or more, which can leave even the toughest tank permastunned for the next ten minutes while they shoot you to death. Up close, they even have the ability to increase their defence and health regen, which just gives them even more time to set up a stun.
160** Then there's the "Blood Coil" line: annoying blind little reptilian beasts with suicide spikes, which induce poison or phase effects. As noted above, phasing increases damage taken and decreases damage dealt—which makes it harder to kill the next little beast that's kamikaze-ing you. Did we mention that they, like everything else, ''spawn in packs''? And that later versions like Riftcoils can ''teleport'' and ''cloak''?
161** And then there's the "Tortured Soul" line. Normally, they're blind demon shrimps that don't do anything unless you come within 20+ meters of them. They're easy pickings for ranged characters with sniper skills. Of course, when you do get close, their only attack is an unavoidable teleporting strike. Which phases. (See above.) Also, they don't target pets. And when you consider that out of the 6 classes in-game, 2 are melee and 2 are pet classes...
162** And the "Orbile" line, floating blobs with eyeballs. Mainly attack with lightning and self-destructing mini-Orbiles called Polyps. Defence in-game decreases with continuous attacks (claimed to make hordes of weak mobs more of a threat), and the lightning is most definitely a continuous attack. It doesn't help that damage reduction doesn't do anything, since lightning deals very small amounts of damage per tick—but ''very'' rapidly. And since 2 out of 6 classes are melee, and one of them is the resident tank, these flying mobs are incredibly hard to kill. Oh, and Polyps phase. (Notice a trend yet?) And bigger "Orbiles," called Bile Brains, spawn smaller Orbiles (Orbiles and Soul Reapers), which in turn spawn Polyps on their demise. Good times, good times...
163** And these are just the outright ''broken'' mobs.
164* In ''VideoGame/Haven2020'', Hornets, the Apiary's MechaMooks sent to capture Yu and Kay, first appear as a boss-style [[PreExistingEncounters scripted encounter]], then as equally powerful [[RoamingEnemy roaming]] [[RandomEncounters encounters]] afterwards, but what truly take the cake for this trope are the EliteMook variety, Leader Hornets. Like regular Hornets, they are equipped with [[TheParalyzer immobilizing Flow Jammers]], which cause a NonStandardGameOver if both Yu and Kay are caught by them, plus they have the ability to InterfaceScrew your combat charge meters, and can take at least three times more punishment, making them the toughest non-boss enemies in the game. If all three members of a Hornet [[ActuallyFourMooks mob]] are Leaders, say your prayers.
165* Every enemy in ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheLance'' falls under this category, not only because they inflict great damage and slink away while you try to hit them, but because the ''horrid'' control scheme makes hitting them even when you are standing in the right place nearly impossible.
166* In ''VideoGame/IcewindDale'' and its sequel ''Icewind Dale II'', you'll find many of these:
167** {{Mummy}}: Unlike their ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' counterparts, they can cast flamestrikes. You face them as early as chapter 1.
168** Salamanders: They have either cold or fire auras and always come in large groups. Their auras even damage you when they're non-hostile toward you.
169** Umber hulks: Looking straight in their eyes will confuse you if you fail your saves. They're also backed up by [[OurMinotaursAreDifferent minotaurs]].
170** [[OurBansheesAreLouder Wailing Virgins]]: Inflict magic damage to all party members whenever [[SuperScream they scream]].
171** [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies Harpies]]: Their songs charm your party, leaving you vulnerable to other monsters.
172** Crypt Things: Whenever they touch you, you'll teleport to a random part of [[ThatOneLevel the dungeon filled with other nasties]].
173** [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent Werejackals]]: Their gaze cause instant sleep to the victims.
174** [[SpiderPeople Driders]]: They web you and call other [[SpiderPeople Driders]] for help.
175* Elephant Demons in ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' can cause devastating shockwaves when they pound the earth, making it hard to get close to them (and demons are immune to magic). The Horse Demons also have the ability to damage your character with a fire shield when you hit them, and have a fair assortment of melee and ranged attacks.
176* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', rakghouls, when you first meet them at a low-level. They're fast, numerous, generally don't miss, are the first time you encounter poisoning, and they are ''creepy''. In fact, most of Taris will turn relatively simplistic enemies later on into demonic spiders. The torture droids in Davik's mansion, for example, would be laughably easy... if your only Jedi actually had the chops to use Stun Droid without them saving against it half the time. Droids in general also get ridiculous special weapons that can do a lot of damage to even the most well-armored player.
177** The [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Star Forge]] is full of these. Of particular note are the Dark Jedi and Sith heavy troopers, the enemies in the middle stretch of the dungeon. Prior to this point, enemies with force powers are almost always bosses or sub-bosses, but here they show up in groups of 2-4 and respawn infinitely. Their powers can debuff you heavily and do substantial damage, and because they have light sabers they also hit hard in melee. The troopers that accompany them are relatively weak in most respects, except for one critical point: they love to spam grenades. If you're lucky they'll just use frag grenades, which do heavy damage over a decent-size area. If you're unlucky, they'll use [[ThatOneAttack cryoban grenades]], which inflict moderate damage and paralyze everyone they hit, potentially your whole party.
178* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''
179** The standard enemies in the ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' series of games are generally pretty manageable. Not so the special enemies in the [[UpdatedRerelease Final Mixes]] and the 1.5 HD Remix version. Of these, the worst would have to be the Stealth Soldier in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI Final Mix'', who is practically a checklist of traits for DemonicSpiders. The Stealth Soldier is an invisible LightningBruiser capable of cutting Sora down to size with its three-hit combos and throwing off the target lock-on-- your one chance of keeping tabs on it-- any time it pleases. It appears in the Hollow Bastion area, the game's penultimate level, which is full of the toughest {{Mook}}s and bosses in the game, and it always appears in a crowd of enemies. It's entirely possible to encounter a Soldier in a horde of Defenders and Wizards, giving you the beggar's choice of getting pasted by the Soldier or desperately trying to find and exterminate it while getting beaten up by the other enemies. As if that wasn't enough, the Stealth Soldier's appearances are randomized, so unless you have eagle eyes, you won't even know it's there until it starts killing you. And if you don't kill the Soldier quick enough, it ''disappears''; sparing you from more humiliation, maybe, but also keeping you from the satisfaction of killing the little bastard-- and more importantly, depriving you of EXP and item drops, which include [[RareRandomDrop an exclusive synth item]] needed to unlock the InfinityPlusOneSword.
180** Also in the Final Mix is the Sniperwild, a purple version of the Bouncywild. They utilize lock-on crosshairs, and if they connect, can instantly hit you with a bullet from anywhere. And they ''don't stop spawning''. So your best bet if you're running out of MP for Cure spells is to run to safety. They're even worse considering they will spawn unrepentantly to kill you if they see you meaning the only way to get their synthesis drop item is to rely on the short-lasting Stop series of spells.
181** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'':
182*** The Hot Rod Heartless found in Timeless River which, once reaching a certain [[TurnsRed amount of health]], will start spamming an attack in which they become invincible and charge at Sora thrice. They do become trivial once you get Magnet though.
183*** The Devastator from Space Paranoids, has high health, attack and defense and can 'switch forms' while you're in the middle of comboing it without warning, hitting you several times for lightning damage if you're up close. They usually come in groups of two with several other enemies. Worst of all, they are immune to Magnet.
184*** Dancers. They have a move where they turn invincible, slide across the floor towards you at high speed, grab you, swing you around, and throw you. This move is ''completely unblockable'' and very difficult to dodge. The Titan Cup, especially the Titan Paradox Cup is made a nightmare because of [[ThatOneBoss the battle where you have to face three Dancers.]] Fittingly enough, they're [[ThatOneBoss Demyx's]] minions.
185*** [[BonusDungeon The Cavern of Remembrance]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' [[UpdatedRerelease Final Mix]] is ''filled'' with these. ''Every single enemy'' found there qualifies (well, except for maybe Perplexes, which are [[GoddamnedBats literal Goddamned Bats]]). Two of the enemies found are Recklesses and Mad Bumpers, which are stronger [[PaletteSwap Palette Swaps]] of enemies (Devastator and Hot Rod, respectively) ''that are DemonicSpiders to begin with''. Finally, the last couple of areas features ''hordes'' of stronger-than-normal Heartless and Nobodies. A team of two or three Spring Metals can use desynced Aero and Tornado attacks to [[CycleOfHurting trap and stunlock you to death]] with zero opportunity to heal or escape. The Berserkers, Dancers, and Sorcerers ''will'' make you want to snap your controller in half. And keep in mind your big reward for going through them all is a chance to fight [[ThatOneBoss Those Thirteen Bosses]].
186** [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded Coded]] brought us a more literal example in the form of block spider heartless, specifically the ones you encounter in Data Riku's body. You can take out several swarms of these things and still never run their spawning point dry. The worst part? They have a chance of changing into different kinds of blocks, which include metal blocks (this flavor can turn itself invulnerable by retracting its legs), bounce blocks (send you flying back with each landing hit), and danger blocks (hurts you with every hit you land on it).
187** ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]]'':
188*** Skelterwilds, [[DemBones skeletal]] ''T. rex'' that can separate their heads from their bodies. What this means is that you have to watch out for both the chunks of ice the head spits out ''and'' the ramming attacks of the main body, both of which deal a good chunk of damage. They also have relatively high HP and, unlike with other large Dream Eaters, spamming Blow Off does not incapacitate them because the head will keep attacking even when the body is being immobilized by your attack. They can also grab you, stun you, and freeze you, meaning getting caught in a CycleOfHurting when going up against them is very possible.
189*** Aura Lions and Ryu Dragons are two other enemies you'll quickly grow to hate. The former attacks by spamming long range homing projectiles and has an ''extremely'' annoying tendency to teleport away whenever you get near it. The latter is extremely quick on its feet, attacks relentlessly, and unlike every other large enemy in the game, you can't perform Flowmotion off it to immobilize it. Both share the qualities of high HP, high attack power, being mostly ImmuneToFlinching and almost always showing up in groups.
190*** Sir, Chef, and Lord Kyroos have some of the most annoying attacks in the game after the above mentioned enemies. First they have shields and randomly raise them to block your attack commands and standard combos (thought you were going to use Meteor Crash to one-shot them? No, because one of them blocked for all three of them. Luckily this doesn't stop magic or flowmotion attacks). Next, they have a nigh-impossible-to-dodge skill that raises your drop time, effectively making your time as Sora/Riku shorter (gets annoying when you have to finish the worlds with BOTH characters to move on at certain points in the game.) Another annoying attack they have is to combo you in the air multiple times PLUS causing burn damage to hit you on top of the combo attack you're locked in. Finally, Chef Kyroos tend to leave about three "landmine"-like attacks that also hit you then deal damage over time as well. Thought that wasn't so bad? They usually come in mobs of 3 or more. Mid-game they're in almost every world.
191** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'':
192*** The Gigas mech suits in Toy Box. They're huge mechanical toys that bombard your party with lasers, bombs, and tackles, and each one is a damage sponge of the first order. The mechs can show up in groups of as many as five, where just surviving is a struggle as the party gets blasted from every angle with heavy-hitting, hard-to-dodge area attacks. The good news is that Sora can commandeer one after it's been defeated to take control of it, which quickly helps turn the tide in your party's favor. The bad news is that, if the game doesn't generously give you an empty one to start a battle, it's going to be a world of hurt before you can take one down.
193*** The Spiked Turtletoads, the octopus Unversed in Monstropolis. If you don't have your guard up, these enemies will shred HP like nothing else in the world as they capture the NPC party members in their swings. Not only do they have a lot of multi-hit attacks, they can't be damaged from the front. This makes a very powerful enemy with great defense, which is a real migraine. While they typically only show up one at a time, one is all it takes to make any fight in Monstropolis much harder.
194*** Anchor Raiders, the pirate Heartless that swing from anchors in the Caribbean. They're nimble, they can take some punishment and they can hit reasonably hard. Magic does run out after a while so you'll have to get close to them at some point.
195*** In lower difficulties, using magic against the various elemental Core Heartless is a polite suggestion but is otherwise not required. In Critical Mode, the Cores' stronger abilities, which tend to render them invulnerable, make the [[ElementalRockPaperScissors appropriate counter-spell]] necessary to avoid death.
196*** The Parasol Beauty heartless. As a solo encounter, they aren't particularly bad, and would normally fall under mild GoddamnedBats territory. What pushes them into being this trope is the fact that they almost always spawn in large numbers. Their laser attacks have an extremely long range, and the fact that you'll more than likely end up getting hit by two or more at a time means that they can take you from a full health bar down to critical in a matter of seconds. They’ve also got a second rapid-fire laser attack with a similarly long range that, in larger numbers, can damn near turn this standard fare action RPG into a BulletHell game.
197* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'' has these in the form of Psych Druids. God help you if you get these things in the red and don't finish them off before they get a turn, because they'll ''happily'' drop a psych bomb on you (effectively the strongest non-dragoon magic in the game, as well as being all-hit and non-elemental.) if you're looking for a way to run yourself out of angel's prayers and healing mists/rains that's the way. Beyond that, any mob that can do a OneHitKill ([[MeaningfulName Death]], Professor (also full of StatusEffects for extra "fun"), and some other annoying ones)
198* ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals '' has a few:
199** Asashins and Ninjas are brutal [[PaletteSwap Palette Swaps]] of one another. Both are insanely fast on the map, making them difficult to get the drop on while making it very likely they’ll get the drop on you. They’re also fast in battle, so it’s guaranteed they’ll go first. Asashins live up to their [[JapaneseRanguage intended]] name with a OneHitKill attack that succeeds more often than it fails, while Ninjas trade that out for an attack that hits the whole party for appreciable damage. If multiple Ninjas use that attack, say goodbye to your mages.
200** Gold Gorems in the Gratze Dungeon: they have a ton of HP; a brutal, all-party-hitting special in Golden Mist; and are resistant to everything except Hard attacks.
201* In ''VideoGame/LunarDragonSong'', many common enemies, plus a few bosses, can steal or destroy your your equipment, accessories, weapons or items. Since you either have to spam card effects to prevent this (cards of which you'll have to battle tons to farm) or constantly re-purchase or regain missing goods (which involves farming money or the item in question), SaveScumming is generally advised.
202* Nearly any monster can become this, depending on circumstances, when night falls in ''VideoGame/ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlRevis''. Ones that are already nasty can get boosted to the point where they become a BossInMookClothing—without the usual rewards and fanfare the game attaches to such.
203** One in particular is the side job where you have to fight 3 Kyuubis in the Japanese PSP version; item lock, no HP/SP healing and fast initiative will ensure you will lose. HARD.
204* ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' has an enemy in one area called the Stirge. It is a [[GoddamnBats goddamned-bat-like]] creature, which flies ''just above'' the hit area of most player's weapons. Combine this with a fairly high attack power, and the required quest that Dual Blades have to kill these things for, and you've got some serious FakeDifficulty.
205** Ever since the patch that revamped Victoria Island, Stirges have been well and truly relegated to mook status. In fact, most enemies hardly even pose a threat to players anymore due to power creep.
206* Pixies in chapter 3 of ''Videogame/{{MARDEK}}''. They're fast, starts the battle with Haste, Regen and both physical and magic shield, has high evasion, immune to elemental damage,[[note]]Except light, dark and fig[[/note]] always start the battle with Addle Gas, which has a high chance of confusing your whole party, and can silence or confuse (or if you're unlucky,both.) a single party member while also lowering magic defense. Worse, you can encounter them in the Dreamcave, where you only have Solaar that can actually damage it with light magic without chance missing that is, if not confused or silenced, and Mardek if you got a lucky physical hit.[[note]]Your other party members are Elwyen who at that point can probably only boost allies' magic attack and Gloria who can only heal and deal nature elemental damage, which, again, the pixie is immune to[[/note]]They get easier over time though, as you can bring any party members after you acquire the Talisman of ONEIROS in the Dreamcave, plus they give good EXP when you beat them.
207* Any enemy in the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series which can inflict status effects besides Poison is this. The poison effect merely causes a little damage each time you make a move, but the others (Burn, Dizzy, Tripped) will leave the affected party member unable to attack ''or'' dodge attacks until the effect wears off. These games emphasize the use of [[ActionCommands quick button presses]] to dodge attacks entirely. Attacks that do hit the Bros. will usually take off a sizable portion of HP, so being unable to dodge at all will usually lead to a quick death. If only one brother is incapacitated, the other can usually cure him, but if both Bros. are immobilized (often by the same attack), a GameOver will be imminent.
208** Bowser in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'' is especially crippled by status effects because there's only one of him. He doesn't have a buddy to cure him, so any enemy that can make him dizzy or trip him must be defeated as soon as possible; one missed defensive action can mean GameOver for Bowser if the RandomNumberGod won't let him recover.
209** Cocoknights from ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam''. They're fast enough that they're guaranteed to strike first unless you're significantly overleveled. And when they do, they attack with a barrage of annoying attacks. Sometimes they'll gather around and start spinning, requiring you to carefully move within the small moving safe spot so you don't get hit. Another attack is where they run around and two Cocoknights in a group will throw a flaming spear which if they hit ''will'' make you dizzy and unable to defend yourself from further attacks. It's telegraphed, but unless you memorize which two are the ones, you will have to strike within a split-second. And once you get down to the last few Cocoknights in a group, they'll throw their spears and run away, which has an extremely short safe period to jump. The only thing that could make them worse is if they were the most common enemy in Dreamy Wakeport and can cause battles in the overworld with their projectiles... oh wait, '''they do.'''
210*** Beehoss. They're found all over Somnom Woods, can't be jumped on, have a fairly high amount of health and decent stats... and have an automatic counter attack ability that activates when you hit them with just about anything. That counter attack? To send out a hard to dodge swarm of bees. Their normal attacks? To send out an even harder to dodge swarm of bees. And if you happen to land on the bees mid attack? They launch an unavoidable counter attack against the character responsible. And again, they're extremely common enemies.
211*** Mechakoopas. Common enemy, check. Decent stats? Check. Oh wait, they also have a near unavoidable attack where they charge at Mario in rows and shoot rapid fire fireballs at him, which is damn near impossible to predict and gets even worse if you've already attacked some and they're malfunctioning, which reverses their attack tells. They're the reason any player in Dreamy Neo Bowser Castle really wants to be able to strike first and destroy the main horde as quickly as possible, to avoid them using this attack until they're dead.
212** From ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam'' is the Paper Piranha Plants. They have an annoying fire attack that can burn Mario and Luigi and does double damage to Paper Mario. Their other attacks are not much better.
213*** Paper Boomerang Bros. as well. They have a really difficult to dodge attack where they fire two boomerangs at you. Failure to hammer both of them at the same time with make it nearly impossible to hit the other one before it hits you. And if you do fail to counter this attack, it is likely to add another Paper Boomerang Bro to the field.
214*** Shiny Paper Enemies. If you thought the normal ones were bad, try one with its stats jacked up to boss levels. Especially if it has more than one layer.
215* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' has a few of these.
216** In the first game we have the Geth. They're a race of MechaMooks, until you get to higher levels and encounter Destroyers, Hunters, Primes, and Juggernauts.
217** Krogan. Insanely tough, generally have Immunity (dramatically reducing the damage they take from your weapons), sometimes have Biotics abilities, and they ''love'' to charge you at insane speeds and get into melee range, where they can typically beat you to death in a couple of quick and painful blows. Oh, and if you kill them, they simply fall over, auto-heal all their damage, and get back up for another go.
218** The second game has the Collectors's special classes, which include Assassins and Guardians. The ManBehindTheMan can also control one at a time, which might cause the player to have an OhCrap moment when the words "''Assuming control''" are heard. This not only fully recharges the possessed Collector's barriers but also adds ANOTHER layer of shielding and gives the possessed Collector the ability to spam biotic attacks that knock you out of cover and rip your shields apart. And the Collector constantly tries to rush you and knock you out of cover.
219** Sniper enemies in the first game. They don't attack very often, but when they do, it's usually with the Assassinate ability. This has the potential to ''[[OneHitKill one-shot]]'' characters on higher difficulties, and can even do significant damage to the Mako. As a bonus, they often look exactly like standard Mooks, so if they're mixed in with a group, you can be killed before you even know it.
220** The biotic attacks from the first game do very little damage, but ignore shields and almost always knock you to the ground for several seconds, during which you can't even pause the game. This is painful when it happens during a heated fire-fight, but worst when you're surrounded by nothing but biotics, who whittle your health down over two minutes while you wait for the game to allow you to access the menu.
221** The sequel turns Husks into these. For those not in the know: ''Mass Effect 2'' Husks are fast-moving cybernetic zombies that tend to move in erratic patterns (making it hard to hit them) have Armor at higher difficulties (increasing the damage they can take and making them immune to many of your powers) and attack you in melee (which knocks you back and makes you unable to act for a second) in groups of ''a dozen or so'' (which staggers their melee attacks and, by extension, ''stun-locks you'') usually backed up by either Collectors (which will shoot you to death), Scions (which shoot you with a BFG that kills your shields and knocks you out of cover so they can shoot you to death) or Praetorians ("whats this, you've taken away my first layer of defense? [[FakeDifficulty We can't be having THAT, can we]]?").
222** Mixed in a swarm of Husks in the second game will be one or two or more Abominations. Abominations are ''exactly like Husks''...except that they explode when they die. And, of course, that takes away quite a bit of health. So, while you're being swarmed by Husks on all sides, you're trying to move away from the Abominations so you can kill them without being hit with... whatever exploding robot zombies are made of.
223** The Thorian Creepers in the first game were every bit as bad, especially as the mission where they are really swarming you is in a series of cramped corridors. The worst part is that they deal ''toxic'' damage, which completely ignores your shields. If you're playing a character with Immunity, this isn't so bad, but otherwise you're in for a world of hurt as they swarm you by the dozen and cover you in toxic vomit.
224** Almost as bad are the Rocket Drones, which are tough, deal massive damage with their attacks, and are immune to most biotic abilities. They're not too bad in open areas, but the Luna mission has you fighting them en masse in very cramped quarters. Your best friend for that mission is Tali (with possibly Garrus or Kaidan as backup). Overload, Sabotage, and AI Hacking should shut down those drones quite handily, especially if you let them bunch up in the hallway where a single Sabotage will knock out a half-dozen drones' weapons at once.
225** Geth snipers can one-hit kill you without effort on Hardcore, to say nothing of Insanity. Ditto for Geth Ghosts, which are basically the same as snipers, except that they are smaller, never ever stay still, and have a terrible habit of jumping onto the wall or ceiling over your cover to get a clear shot at you.
226** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the Geth Snipers are gone, but in their place come something much nastier: Scions. They have skin so thick it takes dozens of fully-upgraded sniper bullets to bring them down (and only two classes start the game with a Sniper Rifle). While they are slow, they have an area-of-effect attack which brings you from healthy to half-way-dead in one shot, and they never attack alone. Oh, and that attack? Almost impossible to avoid and bypasses most things you can take cover behind. But good luck telling that to your teammates, [[ArtificialStupidity who still huddle desperately to that wall as their HP is depleted in seconds]]. Seems you'll have to take that wave of enemies on your own now.
227** Go to Korlus on Insanity difficulty, especially early in the game. It's really hard, but not egregious until the end boss fight. Can you say '''''[[TheBigGuy Krogan]] [[FlunkyBoss flunkies]]'''''?!
228*** Insanity even turns vorcha into these, since almost all enemies on Insanity have some form of special defence, and even worse their [[HealingFactor regeneration]] can mean that you can take a vorcha mook to 1 percent, have to change heatsink clips, and by the time you've reloaded, the vorcha has already healed back to max.
229** Anything with a flamethrower. Getting shot by one causes Shepard to flail around, trying to put out fires on his/her armor. While you're flailing, you can't move, meaning whatever shot you is just going to get closer and shoot you again, stunlocking you to death.
230** Similarly, any enemy with [[BlindedByTheLight flashbang grenades]]. Not only do they damage your shields and stun you, they also knock you out of cover, making you a sitting duck while the enemy unloads.
231** Gets even worse in VideoGame/MassEffect3:
232*** In the multiplayer demo: Cerberus [[LightningBruiser Ph]][[{{Invisibility}} an]][[TotalPartyKill toms]]. Described as "Ninjas on speed", they are fast-moving melee flankers with biotic barriers that like to jump around and use cloaking devices to avoid bullets from long range. They prefer to get up close so they can chop you and your squadmates into pieces with their [[KatanasAreJustBetter katanas]]. A few strikes from a Phantom's katana can easily kill even a fully shielded [[ImplacableMan krogan]]. If standing still, the Phantom can grapple you for an instant kill, from which you cannot be revived. And although they are fragile alone (though their barriers can make up for that), they spawn in the heat of battle, while you are busy shooting at the rest of the advancing Cerberus troopers, quietly entering the flanks to drive you and your squad from cover in the best case, or single-handedly causing a TotalPartyKill in the worst. So when you hear a player cry "PHANTOM!", target and kill them with extreme prejudice from long range, or chances are that someone in your squad may be seeing the Incapacitated screen/Spectator's screen very soon.
233*** And to make matters worse, Phantoms will usually be covered by Nemeses, powerful long range snipers capable of taking down your shields in a single hit, leaving you open for the Phantom to slice you to pieces. Even worse still: Phantoms will occasionally use a Nemesis as bait. Nemeses are completely helpless in close range because they lack a close range or melee attack. [[ArtificialBrilliance Phantoms know that you know that. So they stay close to a Nemesis, waiting for you to engage her in melee and jump you out of a corner you didn't see.]]
234*** Turrets. Dropped by combat engineers, these are capable of shredding a player's shields to nothing in the blink of an eye. Engineers love to drop them in places where they can cover multiple choke points, and they sport both Shields and Armour, making them very tedious to kill. Unless you happen to be playing as an Infiltrator or Engineer. [[PassThePopcorn Then you can hack them]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard to fight on your side.]]
235*** Marauders become this on the higher difficulties. Their Phaeston rifles are lethally accurate, cutting through your shields like butter and slashing your vulnerable body apart during your stun animation. In groups, two of them will pin you down while a third flanks you and punches through your shields, knocking you into the fire of the other two. Oh, and they often appear with Cannibals, which will launch grenades over your cover, leaving you open to the Marauder's fire.
236*** Banshees are idiculously tough, can TeleportSpam, throw nearly undodgeable biotic attacks that can kill you in two or three hits... and have an instant death attack if they manage to get within melee distance. In multiplayer, you cannot be revived if you get hit with this. Even worse, occasionally a bug causes Banshees to become ''invisible''. They still show up as a health bar when you're firing at them, but you won't be able to see the Banshee itself, making them even harder to deal with for obvious reasons. The [[BrownNote scream of a Banshee]] is the signal that the battle is going to get ugly, ''fast''.
237** ''3'' also introduces us to the greatly buffed Geth Hunters. Unlike in ''2'', they turn completely invisible now, and stay invisible until their shields are destroyed. If you miss the slight distortion their invisibility makes, they will get up close, uncloak, and hit you with their plasma shotguns, destroying your shield and probably doing a fair amount of damage as well. Even worse, they like to sneak up on your while you're dealing with Pyros or Primes.
238** Remember the Collectors from the aforementioned ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''? Well, as of the ''Retaliation'' DLC, they're back... with a vengeance! Now some classes can get to be a Possessed class version of itself.
239*** Normal Abominations can explode and take a good chunk of your shields. ''Possessed'' Abominations explode as if they're in a Michael Bay movie and ''[[OneHitKill instantly KILL you]]'' if you're too close. Not to mention the possibility of a TotalPartyKill if any other team members are too close.
240*** Scions are back, and yes they can ''still'' shoot through cover using their grenade attacks. ''Possessed'' Scions now have [[GrenadeSpam cluster grenades]] than can kill you, and any party members clost to you, almost instantly...
241*** They have the new Collector Captain-type enemy that can shoot Seeker Swarms, who in turn become Seeker Nets that negate your dodge rolls. Worse when you're being swarmed by enemies...
242*** Seeker Swarms themselves definitely qualify. They don't actually damage you, but they shut down your power use for five or so seconds if they get within melee range. If you're in the middle of pitched combat when these things get to you, which you likely will be, and are playing a class that relies heavily on their powers like the Adept, Engineer or Infiltrator, they can seem like the longest five seconds of your life.
243*** Praetorians are back with stronger shields and can perform a OneHitKill if you get to close by [[OffWithHisHead chewing your head off]]. And yes, they can ''also'' be possessed.
244** The ''Citadel'' DLC introduces the [=Cat6=] mercenaries, enemies who make Cerberus troops look like pushovers in comparison.
245*** [=Cat6=] Specialists not only have shields, stronger assault rifles and cluster grenades that will always manage to cover far more area than seems possible, but they also can deploy disruption drones that will instantly overload your shields once they get close enough. This can be particularly maddening during the first mission, where you have very little health to work with and no medi-gel.
246*** [=Cat6=] Snipers are the nightmarish amalgamation of a Nemesis and a Phantom. They carry the Nemesis' sniper rifle and superior cover tactics, and have the speed and cloak of the Phantom. All add up to one big headache for the player.
247*** [=Cat6=] Heavies might look like nothing more than a recolored Guardian, but where the Guardian is an annoyance, the Heavy is a far different creature. They carry shields that block armor piercing and tech attacks, have armor (thus being immune to biotics) and carry Revenants that allow them to attack from afar. They are the very definition of a NoSell. Thankfully, the omnishield can be taken down by an Overload with multi-target functionality, assuming there's a non-Heavy enemy nearby, or by Energy Drain, but without those you are not in for a fun time.
248* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VII'' plays this trope to an extreme. First, any particular breed of monster comes in three different strengths (e.g. Goblin/Hobgoblin/Goblin Lord), and anywhere a particular breed appears, the higher strength monsters have a chance of occuring. The strongest of the breed is usually roughly 3 times stronger than the weakest, which can result in an inappropriately powerful monster appearing in a lower-level area. And aside from that, many of the stronger monsters have hit effects that can include such things as "Instantly Drain MP to 0" and "Instant Death." Yes, there are monsters in MM 7 that can automatically kill you just by hitting you. If you play MM 7, you ''will'' come to loathe Minotaur Lords, Ancient Wyverns, Devil Captains, and Elder Vampires.
249** And then there's Dark Magic spell "Dragon Breath." It's like a fireball: it explodes on contact and hurts everyone. It will probably kill your wizard and healer immediately, and even your meatshield will go down after 2 or 3. Oh, and the creatures that can use it are immune to it, so they can cast it while standing right in front of you and suffer no ill effects. And monsters in MM 7 don't have MP, they just use whatever magic spells they're programmed to use randomly. A spell doesn't count as a Demonic Spider, but any monster that can use it (Queen of the Dead, Lich King) sure does qualify. [[FromBadToWorse Worse yet]], they also know Pain Reflection, another Dark Magic spell that deals the same damage to the attacker he/she dealt to the monster.
250** The mobs that know Light Magic, such as Archmages and Angels, aren't picnic either. They can summon Light Elementals with ranged attacks that explode upon death, have annoying Dispel that removes all your buffs, making you ''much'' more vulnerable, and of course know Day of Gods, Hour of Power and Day of Protection to buff themselves quickly to obscene levels, which is really nasty considering they base stats are already pretty high to begin with.
251** Some of the earliest enemies you'll find are Cobras. The basic ones are fairly fast, quite tough to hit (at level 1, anyway) and have poisonous attacks. That's right, they can poison party members. The one saving grace is that they've got relatively low hit points. Which doesn't mean much when you go against the two stronger levels of them.
252*** The other enemies that tend to be rather nasty are Spectres. They're the third level of ghosts, meaning they're pretty tough. They're also ''really'' fast. And they have a chance of doing an attack that renders the target unconscious, regardless of how many hit points they had before the attack connected. They absolutely infest [[HauntedHouse Corlagon's Estate]], [[spoiler:which you need to pretty much clear out to get the item you need to complete the Archmage promotion quest. Good luck with that.]]
253* ''Monster Girl Quest! Paradox RPG'':
254** Doll enemies are often annoying due to their wide-ranging status resistances and immunities, in a game where status ailments are usually quite useful. Fortunately, they're weak to lightning damage and the petrify status.
255** Apoptosis likewise have tons of resistances, have dangerous attacks on top of that, and are less predictable than Dolls since they're based on multiple other races. You'll encounter them again and again due to them populating the Tartarus.
256** Angels also have lots of resistances and they can all use holy attacks. Most of your party is likely to be monsters, who are almost all weak to holy. They also appear late in the game when enemies have huge amounts of HP. Even when exploiting their weaknesses to pleasure and dark, they can take a while to bring down.
257** Nightmares range between this trope and GoddamnedBats depending on your party. They're immune to everything except pleasure and their pleasure attacks cannot be resisted in any way (though they can be evaded or nullified by [[SingleUseShield deflectors]]). If you didn't bring along strong pleasure attackers, Nightmares will be very annoying to fight.
258* The [=MOTHER/Earthbound=] series has a ''love affair'' with Demonic Spiders.
259** Due to a notorious lack of product testing, ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' has too damn many of these, especially in the last area of Mount Itoi. The one that immediately jumps to the forefront is Juana (with her previous versions, Nancy and Kelly, already being a headache too!): she can deal 150 HP of damage with every regular attack if you're not using a shield, and she is also able to use PK Thunder γ, PK Fire β, and PK Fire γ, which hit all party members. She also can use PK Beam γ, which [[OneHitKill instantly kills]] anyone not wearing a Franklin Badge. To top that all off, she can raise her defense to impervious levels with her "darling smile." She's bad enough alone, but she occasionally shows up with a Super Energy Robot (called [=SuperEnergy=] due to character constraints on the NES), ''which can heal its allies completely and [[TakingYouWithMe explodes upon defeat]].'' Your best bet is to run away when you see one unless you're traveling with [[spoiler: EVE]].
260** Gargoyles hit for over 100 damage and cast PK Fire Îł (hits your entire party for upwards of 90 damage), Oh Mooks (which can paralyze, blind and confuse party members) and Titanees, which have massive amounts of defense and turn party members to stone. And thanks to the RandomEncounters system, they will attack you [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Every. Three. Steps.]]
261** ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound|1994}}'':
262*** The Dali's Clock can attack you and ''freeze time in mid-hit'', causing a long string of attacks.
263*** ''Everything'' in the [[ThatOneLevel Department Store]] and [[DarkWorld Moonside]] is a Demonic Spider. The Enraged Fire Plug, the aforementioned Dali's Clock, and the infamous Scalding Coffee Cup are the worst, but the Mystical Record and the Musica aren't fun either. It doesn't help that you're doing this part of the game without your BlackMagicianGirl.
264*** The monsters in Winters -- Lesser Mook, Whirling Robo, and Woolly Shambler -- are tough enough on their own, but designed to compliment each other in battle. Lesser Mooks are the worst, casting PSI Freeze Beta (which will one-shot anyone except maybe an over-leveled Ness) and [[StatusEffects Diamondizing]] you. Whirling Robos use a Neutralizer that removes all PSI effects (including the shields you'll have cast to protect you from the Mook's PSI Freeze), and cast a physical damage shield. And Woolly Shamblers cast PSI Flash (decreasing the accuracy of your entire party) and cast PSI Shield to block your own psychic attacks. To make matters worse, you can teleport to Winters well before you're supposed to, so you can get trapped in Winters by these things while you're badly underleveled for fighting them.
265*** The Demonic Petunia in Deep Darkness. Its only attack (a "giant blast of water" that is actually PK Fire Îł) will hit all your party members for a ton of damage (unless you're protected against it).
266*** There's also the Atomic Power Robot. It can freely use the "replenish a fuel supply" action (which heals whatever it's used on fully), and it explodes upon defeat. Not to mention it shows up in the only area where you can get [[RandomlyDrops the Sword of Kings]]. If you want it, you will almost definitely be fighting a lot of battles, which means a lot of chances for these guys to join said battles and screw you over. You can, however, use the Mirror ability on them, letting Poo refuel your own party to full health. [[MST3KMantra Don't think about how that works.]]
267*** The Ghost of Starman. It casts PK Starstorm α ''at the start of every fight'', which can kill three members of your party at once if you don't go first and get a PSI Shield erected. They are often encountered along with the Evil Eye, which can paralyze every member of your party at once. In the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon they travel with the Final Starman, which is a BossInMookClothing, and the Nuclear Power Robot (a tougher and more annoying version of the Atomic Power Robot). If you don't kill them fast enough (and you might not, considering the Robot's healing abilities), they'll do a countdown and cast ''[[TotalPartyKill PK Starstorm Ω]].''
268*** Then there are the Loaded Dice. They show up in an area where you only have one controllable character. Their only action is to call for help, which if successful will summon another enemy into the battle. These include ''even more Demonic Spiders'' like Uncontrollable Spheres, which explode when defeated, and Care Free Bombs, which do nothing but throw Bombs and the occasional Super Bomb.
269*** "[[IncendiaryExponent The Territorial Oak burst into flames!]]" Hostile Elder Oaks do it too, although by the time you encounter them your hitpoints are high enough that the bursting into flames isn't quite as potentially lethal.
270*** Mobile Sprouts aren't too hard to kill, but then they plant seeds and grow several more Mobile Sprouts, which plant ''even more'' seeds, which causes the situation to rapidly escalate beyond your control. Unless you have enough PP to hit them with PK Rockin, you could be in trouble.
271** ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER 3}}'':
272*** It has Trees, which take the worst qualities of the Woodohs from ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' and the Territorial Oaks from ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound|1994}}''. Not only do they explode when they are defeated, but they can summon MORE of themselves, and at the point in the game where you encounter them, you can very easily die from the flames if you aren't quick and are low on health.
273*** Almost everything in the Volcano area is some form of this. The Mrs. Lavas will hit you with PK Fire Îł for around 100 damage per party member, the Pyreflies are weak but fast and good at whittling your health down, and the Magmen have a tremendously powerful 'eruption' attack '''and''' can [[MookMaker spawn Pyreflies.]] There's a reason they sell Flame Pendants in Saturn Valley. Although, there is a very handy spot in the volcano that lets you abuse the respawning-magic butterfly trick, turning it into a PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling.
274*** The stationary Grated Yammonsters, which appear in the Sunshine Forest starting Chapter 4, have 387 HP (far more than the Slitherhens or Really Flying Mice), but the real danger of facing them is that they cast PK Freeze β, which can deal 30 or 60 more HP of damage than Lucas or Boney have HP, if they enter the Sunshine Forest before visiting the Railway (read: at around level 10). Worse, they guard presents, so you may accidentally run into them while trying to open one, and get a party member wiped while attempting to escape. Take caution while exploring Sunshine Forest early in Chapter 4.
275*** The first time you encounter a Men's Room Sign, you'll chuckle at the absurdity of a living sign fighting you. Then it casts [[NotSoHarmlessVillain PK Starstorm]] and [[TotalPartyKill annihilates your party]], and you stop laughing.
276* The Mimics in ''VideoGame/MysticArk''. Despite that you only encounter them once throughout the entire game, they fit this bill quite well. They're notable for knowing the Blackout spell, which is a much improved version of the Kill spell and has an incredibly high success rate. They also tend to cast this spell the first chance they get, so be quick with the Deathguard spell or else...
277* The ANBU in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}: Path of the Ninja''. They can kill you instantly with their Silent Killing technique, enabling them to easily kill your party, and have much more HP than other enemies.
278* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'', another [=DnD=] game, has a bodak in the Jhaereg castle. This monster has a DeadlyGaze attack that kills you instantly if you fail a Fort save. This is especially bad for Wizards, Sorcerers, and Rogues, who all have dismal Fort saves.
279** Not to mention an earlier and ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin literal]]'' instance of the trope, the bloated dire spider. This thing is level 10, whereas most players will be level 7 at the most when they encounter it, and not only can it knock you down, rendering you defenseless for a painfully long amount of time, it has slow-acting strength draining venom, meaning unless you can cure yourself somehow, your damage output will slowly be reduced to nothing and you'll become so encumbered you won't even be able to walk at a normal speed.
280** The expansions give us the secret room in the final dungeon of the interlude of Shadows of Undrentide that contains eight Basilisks (enjoy facing eight save-or-die effects per round!), the BonusDungeon under the Beholder lair in Hordes of the Underdark (all magic items are rendered nonmagical for most of that dungeon (which nerfs non-casters) and magic does not function (which nerfs spellcasters), and while its occupants' aren't much of a threat normally once you've lost all magic their Strength-drain effects begin to add up), and the Beholders themselves (with infinite-use petrification effects, no less).
281** Another vanilla NWN example: high-level duergar in the fire giant dungeon. If you had enough experience, groups of deep dwarves would frequently turn up with a mage rocking Phantasmal Killer, a spell which instantly obliterates you if you fail both a will and a fort save, and still hurts if you pass the fort.
282* Wraiths in ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' spam ManaDrain without having limited actions like player characters with the same ability, which can easily drain players to the point where they lack the power to get ''out'' of the FireAndBrimstoneHell in which Wraiths can be found. "Fortunately", death usually provides an escape if you're being swarmed by Wraiths.
283* VideoGame/{{Nioh 2}}'':
284** Enki. Spear-wielding ape monsters that [[LightningBruiser move frighteningly fast for their size]] and a small but effective moveset. The expansion has Kiryoki, which are the same... but can also use onmyo magic. Oh, and Enki are found in the ''first area of the game.'' [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Have fun!]]
285** Giant spiders are back from the first game, and they still do horrendous damage and move incredibly fast. Worse, they tend to be surrounded by their babies when you fight them. They also do even more damage if you fight them in the Dark Realm.
286** Ippon-Datara are one-legged youkai monsters with massive health and Poise and also a hammer that hits like a freight train ''and'' does fire damage too. They swing in wide arcs and have an overhead smash attack that varies how many times it comes down, up to ''three times''. They can easily kill weaker builds in one hit.
287** Nure-Onna are monstrous snake-women who are extremely agile and hard to hit, and use poison and paralysis in their attacks. They have one particular attack where she shocks you with eye beams and then lunges at you and bites your head for massive damage (the saving grace is the stare is telegraphed; the problem is it's nearly impossible to escape if it gets you). They also have a tendency to hover on the ceiling above conspicuous loot and drop down to bite you from above.
288** If you happen to play some kind of [[GlassCannon ninjutsu or onmyo magic build]], regular human enemies wielding [[{{BFS}} odachi]] or axes can be a pain simply due to how much damage they can inflict in one hit.
289* In ''VideoGame/NostalgiaRedEntertainment'' for the DS, Sand Worms in the second dungeon will gang bang any player walking in. They come in groups of four and each are as strong as any other enemy in that dungeon, so without copious level grinding all you can do is run.
290* In ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'':
291** The Shambling Weeds that appear in the Mirkwood can "proliferate" themselves, quickly hitting the antagonist limit of four. They're tough enough even at the Mirkwood's recommended level that area attacks don't work well, and each Weed summoned is just as strong as their predecessors. Battles with these things take ''forever'', not that you get much [=XP=] for your trouble. Better just to flee...if you can.
292** The Elementals in chapters 2-3 are extremely powerful elemental attackers who can decimate anyone in just two or three hits. Being weak only against elemental attacks, having multiple guard points, and having abnormally high physical defense for elemental attackers leaves physical attacks completely out of the question until their guards are broken, and they're often teamed up with other powerful enemies.
293* The Secretaries from ''Videogame/{{OFF}}''. They're easy to avoid, if you're not looking for 100% completion, but otherwise, they're tanky, they hit harder than anything else at their level, they pile on the status effects, and they can show up in groups of three. Also, they look like giant baby [[CreepyDoll dolls]].
294* ''VideoGame/OkageShadowKing'' is full of these. Foes generally either pack nasty status effects, enough damage to kill you in a few hits, or more HP than a tank. Squads vary, and often have a combination of these, aided by legions of weaklings. This actually keeps the game interesting, as strategy is required for just about every encounter, but you can avoid fights to balance things out.
295* ''Videogame/PhantasyStarII'' has a shining example in the ''second dungeon'' you face. Up until the Tower of Nido, the most damage you're likely to face from any given enemy up to this point is about 5 points in a single attack. The only exceptions are the "Froggy" enemies, which have a party-wide attack that can deal roughly 10 damage if it hits... [[PowerfulButInaccurate but which only hits roughly 1/3 of the time at most]]. Not particularly dangerous. Cue the third floor of the Tower of Nido, where you get introduced to "Blaster" enemies. Blasters ONLY have a party-wide attack, it has the accuracy of normal single-target attacks, and it deals a whopping 20-30 damage to EVERY member of your party. As well, they're [[DamageSponge twice as durable as any other enemy in the dungeon]]. By the time you've reached them, your party is likely worn down, your only healer is probably running out of TP, and it only takes 3 attacks from Blasters to kill your entire party even ''at full health.'' [[FromBadToWorse They come in sets of two,]] so you're going to be dead by your second turn even if your party is in top condition. The obvious choice would be to try and just run away from them, right? Except it's nearly impossible to escape from them.
296* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarUniverse'' has dozens of Demonic Spiders. A couple of examples:
297** The Svaltus is large humanoid thing about 10 feet tall and with a huge sword on its arm. It has a linear, long-range shockwave which can randomly stun you if it inflicts damage -- which, given the attack power of the Svaltus, is pretty much ''every time it hits''. Stun status renders you unable to move, heal, or in fact do anything but stand there and let it and its pals beat on you without fear of reprisal. They take reduced damage from bullet attacks and have a shield which they will use liberally and without restriction which eliminates bullet damage while active, making guns useless; And if you try to melee them, they will use a spin attack which will inflict the Zalure defence-down status effect on you and send you flying, unless you happen to block it. (don't count on that) Oh, and did I mention they like to spawn in packs?
298** Zamvapas and Galvapas are large quadrupedal creatures with an annoying tendency to charge, which they will do so for long distances. Against low-leveled players the charge does hefty damage, but even if you're level Awesome and evade every time, you still have to go chasing after them, at which point they will inevitably charge AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN. Repeat ad nauseam. In addition, they have obscenely high defence when hit anywhere but their head, making the risky head-on assault the only way for those without [=TECHNICs=] to do appreciable damage. Which inevitably leads to the irritating charge-chase-charge malarkey, over and over.
299** Grass Assassins are another instance of "large goddamned bats," unlike the Grass Assassins which appeared in Phantasy Star Online. They thoroughly enjoy charging, sending your character flying into the nearest wall every time it hits, even if you only take a single point of damage. They also possess a spit-take attack, which almost always inflicts the stun status effect should it do damage. Add to this the fact that Grass Assassins always seem to show up in packs, and will often take it in turns to use the spit-take, and the Grass Assassin is an exercise in controller-snapping frustration.
300** Ubakrada are another example from this game. All of their attacks, save their elemental projectile attack, comes with very little warning, and half have the ability to send a player flying should it cause any damage at all. These attacks include a charge, and a quick sweep that also serves to turn the creature about 90 degrees, making it almost impossible to get behind the thing, which is a useless tactic anyway, since it will just perform a back-kick and knock you down. And those elemental projectile attacks come in the ice and light varieties (depending on the element of the creature), which will freeze you solid or put you to sleep, respectively.
301* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarZero'' has Arkzeins in the Arcaplant to make your life a living hell. They don't look like much... but once they start attacking, it's hellish. They have a homing missile attack which in the higher difficulties will OHKO you if you're playing a squishy class like a Newman or Human force class. Their other attack is a quick machine gun volley which doesn't do as much damage but if you're whaling on it head on can whittle you're health down quick. Its last attack is a "rush" like skill where it tries to run you over; sometimes scoring multiple hits, making it sometimes even worse than the missile attack. If you're a completionist, then have fun hunting down Arkzein Type Rs they're the same only turned up to 11 and are VERY rare. Fortunately, these monstrosities only appear in the Arca Plant and the Eternal Tower: unfortunately, they often spawn 2 at a time, and if you're really unlucky they'll spawn 2 more. Seeing as you only get three revives unless you're playing in a party that hopefully didn't get mowed down thrice like you did, these guys are a major pain in the butt.
302* ''VideoGame/PuzzleAndDragons'' has Red Caps in the "Alt" dungeons. They preemptively gain the ability to self-heal when you hit them with an attack of 4 or fewer total matches (this is usually a moderate to high end boss ability), have above average hit points, and if you don't wipe them out in the first turn, will hit you with an attack that reduces your current HP by 90%. And if they drop? ShopFodder at best.
303* ''VideoGame/{{Realmz}}'': In ''City of Bywater'', the demonic spiders are actually demonic spiders. The random encounters in the appropriately named Spider Tower paralyze and poison when they attack, have high hit points, and tend to appear in random encounters with you already forced against a wall, surrounded, in a small room. Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, in the final battle against -- yes -- more demonic spiders (the writers clearly realised they didn't need a boss), a second legion of reinforcements swarm in while you're finishing with the first. (Or while the first are finishing with you.)
304* Most enemies that can inflict poison in ''VideoGame/ResonanceOfFate''. Most sources of damage to your characters deal Scratch damage, which can be healed fairly easily and only moderately messes up your day if a character takes all their HP worth of it. Poison ignores the protection that is normally offered by the hero gauge and goes straight to dealing Direct damage every second or so. Direct damage is a true loss of HP, there's only one item in very limited supply that can heal you from it, and if any one character loses all their HP it's game over. The damage you take from poison isn't a big deal in itself, except that it will lock in any Scratch damage you've been taking as Direct damage as well -- and the attacks that poison your characters tend to hit you for a pretty big chunk of that at the same time. You can heal from poison, but not before the first time it pings you and locks in all the Scratch damage, and the enemies will usually just do it again.
305* Any enemy in ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' that can summon more enemies, and slimes in particular. Fortunately, they are limited to having three monsters on the screen, but this is small comfort when the last one standing keeps making two clones before you have the chance to finish it off. Furthermore, the red slimes set you on fire if you get too close while the blue slimes turn you into a snowman.
306** Another annoying enemy type are those that can't be harmed by regular attacks (unless you get a critical hit). This forces you to either charge up your weapon (a slow and dangerous process when other mooks are beating on you), use magic (even though your mana pool is very limited early in the game), or run like a chicken. And yes, some types of slimes fall into this monster category.
307** Probably the worst offender is the Shape Shifter, which spawns a random enemy from a set. One of the enemies it spawns? Eggplant Men. When you encounter a Shape Shifter for the first time, the Eggplant Man is an enemy encountered at least two dungeons ahead. And to rub salt in the wound, Eggplant Men spawn Needlelions, which are guaranteed to kill a character at the point Shape Shifters are first encountered. And to rub lemon juice in that would, Shape Shifters are one of the hardest enemies to kill thanks to absurdly high defenses. You're better off running like hell.
308** Practically any enemy that can cast spells can become a huge bastard. Magic in this game is fundamentally broken; upon casting a spell, the caster becomes ''invulnerable'' until the spell finishes, and you will be hit no matter where you are on the screen. An enemy spamming spells cannot be hurt, but the spells ''will'' be hurting ''you''.
309* In the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series, any enemy can be a DemonicSpider if they have an attack that any of your characters are weak to -- doubly so in ''Nocturne'', ''IV'', ''Digital Devil Saga'', and ''Persona 3'', ''4'' or ''5'', which use the "Press Turn" and "One More" systems respectively that allows for more turns by exploiting weaknesses. This works for and against you.
310** In almost ''any'' game in the series, Rangda and Girimehkala are known for being able to reflect physical attacks, and depending on game, will have very few or no weaknesses at all to exploit, so you'll have to burn some MP on spells to eliminate them.
311** In ''VideoGame/MegamiTensei'', the Succubi and the Nasu in the Corridor of Mazurka usually attack in groups of six to eight, and inflict status ailments like Paralysis and Petrification. Plus they seem to appear constantly, and they can't be recruited (preventing you from getting rid of them in the future just by having one in your roster). Even if you get to a level where they become more like Goddamn Bats, it's tedious to fight them except (and perhaps even then) on auto. Even worse, Mazurka is also home to Laos and Vampires, who, while they never attack in large groups like the Nasu and the Succubi, have a "smile and laugh" attack that permanently reduces your experience levels. Laos also like to spam a spell that saps away at all your party members' MP.
312*** Viles and Tyrants cannot be recruited under any circumstance and they usually have an annoying spread of resistances or weaknesses (if any) to make eliminating them much harder. They're also tricky to fuse, meaning it'll take a lot of effort to acquire one of them to bail yourself out of an otherwise tough encounter. They're ''everywhere'' in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon so most random encounters there are problematic.
313** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' gives us Zhen, who appears ''very'' early in the game, but it knows [[StatusEffects Poison Needle]] and Wing Buffet, both of which can be devastating this early on. The latter is made worse if you have a demon with a weakness to Force. If you're extremely unfortunate they can appear in a swarm of ''five''. Plus the only way to get one is through fusion, which you can only do if you're lucky enough to get to Shibuya (as they outright refuse to join you [[GuideDangIt if you don't know the secret conditions to talk to demons of their race]][[note]]Races that can't be talked to normally can be talked to on full moons.[[/note]]).
314** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}''
315*** The Void Giants in [[BonusDungeon Monad]]. Physical attacks [[HealingShiv heal them]]. Extremely high magic defense. Repel [[OneHitKill Light and Dark]] (as in, they bounce them ''back'' to you.) Armed with the highest-level of aforementioned Light and Dark spells (single-target and group versions!) as well as Myriad Arrows and Deathbound, which are very high-level multi-hit, all-party Pierce and Slash attacks, respectively. And they come in groups of two at least. Even if you sneak up on them, if you see two (or more) get consecutive turns then you might as well reset the game (or [[GuideDangIt fuse a Persona that Nulls/Repels/Absorbs Pierce, Slash, Light, and Dark]], and just [[ItsUpToYou say goodbye to the rest of the party]].)
316*** Before them, you get to do battle with the Creation Relics on floors 65-88. Their only weakness is Darkness—but all this means is Mudo is ''marginally'' more effective, and by this point you probably gave up on it working and don't have it on any Personae. They know Magarula, which they love to use in a row; two in a row will kill most of your party. And to top it off, if you can't kill them down to one in a single round (and they do love to come in threes), they know Diarama, which will undo all your hard work. Oh, [[ActionBomb and they can self-destruct when on low HP.]] Bonus points: they're the Subjugation Request for that level—you have to ''hunt them down''. The really weird part is that otherwise, 65-88 is one of the easiest stretches of Tartarus, and the Relic enemies in the next block are downright pathetic by comparison. They reappear in part 2 of Malebolge, the first level of The Answer. And they're every bit as annoying, if not more so. The Relics now have more HP, know Twin Shot (a powerful Strike attack that hits twice), and on top of their original resistances, they now bounce back Strike and block fire attacks.
317*** The Prime Magus and Vehement Idol. They start showing up after the 2nd boss of the Adamah Block, and are ''Level 88 and 89 in an area with an average enemy level in the mid-to-high 60's!'' The Idol isn't that bad due to its weakness to Light, but the Prime Magus has ''Mind Charge and Megidolaon'' and is surprisingly durable for a [[SquishyWizard Magus-type]] Shadow. And it's not just a magical powerhouse, its standard physical attacks can oneshot you party members if they critical. And these things aren't even Crimson Shadows, so you never know when you'll run into them.
318*** Any Jotun-type enemy is bound to become this. Each of them is resilient enough to qualify for BossInMookClothing status, even if you exploit their weaknesses, and they hit REALLY hard. Appropriately enough, when you finally encounter one as a boss, it absorbs everything but Pierce attacks.
319*** Many of the Crimson Shadows, both in The Journey and The Answer. The Avenger Knight in The Answer is one such example. He shows up in Cocytus - the second dungeon in the game - and can very easily rip you a new one if you're caught off-guard, and/or thought he would be easy like he was in The Journey or ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', in which case you'd be dead wrong. He has no weakness you can exploit, [[MadeOfIron quadruple-digit HP]], blocks both types of instant-death spells, reflects Pierce (Aegis' attack type), and has the very nasty combination of Elec Break (to nullify a character's resistance to electric attacks) and Mazionga (second-tier electric spell that hits the whole party).
320*** The Berserk Turrets, also in The Answer, are truly vicious. You know it's going to be bad when ''Fuuka pleads you to run away from them.'' They always show up in groups of five, have really high defense against everything, including their weakness (electricity), and they don't die from a single All-Out Attack. And once their turns start rolling around, the Turrets fall into a pattern; hit someone with Agidyne, then sweep the party with Heat Wave. The only spot of hope there is shows up when the AIRoulette spins in your favor and the Turrets [[ArtificialStupidity waste their turns hitting someone that's immune to fire.]] And they're Crimson, which means they're rare.
321*** Remember the World Balance? You know, that boss from Persona 3 that knows every -dyne spell and responds to Magic Mirrors with Megidolaon? Yes, it shows up as a random encounter in ''The Answer'', '''with all its moves as a boss and quadruple-digit HP.''' And it isn't even Crimson, which means it's more common than not!
322*** The Grudge Towers, in The Answer, have over 1000 HP, high defenses, Megidolaon, and come in groups of four. Woe be to you should they decide to hit you with four party-wide unresistable Megidolaons in a row. Thankfully, they're a crimson shadow, so they're relatively easy to avoid.
323** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'':
324*** Wondrous Magus. It shows up fairly often at the higher levels of the bathhouse dungeon and likes to spam Zionga, Mazio and Maragi, which at least two members of your party are weak against and are strong enough to one-shot any party member, even without hitting a weakness, ''including'' the Hero, [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou which is an instant game over]]. It also doesn't have any weaknesses, take a while to kill, rarely shows up in parties of less than three and you can't even switch out for party members that are stronger against them until later. On top of that, unless you have extremely high Agility or manages to hit them from behind, they'll likely have the initiative so you won't even be able to inflict them with a status effect to stop them from casting.
325*** Marukyu Striptease has a random encounter that is a lot more common than it should be; four Idle Basalts and a Persistent Fuzz. The Fuzz can and will bounce back any spell used on it, leaving you with physical attacks to take it down. And even though it has no spells of its own, its physical attack does tremendous damage. And the Basalts have no spells either, but their attacks do even more damage than the Fuzz's. They're weak to ice, but good luck keeping them down with it. If you try physical attacks on it, you'll find that they resist it '''20-fold'''. Fortunately, these two only show up on two floors of the dungeon.
326*** Any random encounter with the word "Basalt" in its name is going to be a Demonic Spider. They greatly resist (and later outright ''ignore'') physical attacks, have unpredictable weaknesses, and while they don't have many skills, their regular attack hits like a ton of [[StealthPun rocks]]. Oh, and one type of Basalt, the Selfish Basalt, '''''[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard resists Almighty]]'''''. You will, more often than not, drain half your collective SP getting everyone's health back up after fighting a group of Basalts-- assuming, of course, you survive the encounter in the first place.
327** ''Videogame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'' has the Burning Beetle, which appears in the third floor of the first labyrinth, and exists to tell you the game has stopped screwing around. It can attack twice per turn, hits ''really'' hard, has a ton of HP and can use full-party hitting Fire spells and inflict Magic Bind. It's also resistant to both OneHitKill elements, so you can't cheap your way out of it. It also tends to be the thing to ambush you on Power Spots on this floor.
328*** Around the end of the second floor, you have Justice Swords, which use Toxic Slice and Stun Slice, attacks that have a very high chance of causing [[StatusEffects Poison or Paralysis.]] They wouldn't be so bad if they didn't have a tendancy to show up in groups. In particular, there's one event that tricks you into thinking you'll get a free item... but instead pits you against ''five'' of these at once.
329*** The Heat Balance, also from late into the first dungeon, is incredibly tough for the point you fight it at, because it happens to know ''Mind Charge'' (nearly triples the power of the next spell used, a move that's a GameBreaker when used by you and often only found on very late game Personas). Combined with the fact they have full party-hitting spells...
330*** Possessive Cupids. These appear in the second labyrinth and are incredibly fast. They love to spam Thorn Chains, which not only does a lot of damage, but has a good chance of binding the target's magic, too. They can be one-shotted with a Mudo spell, but if they bind your Mudo user's magic they can rack up damage very fast. They also tend to appear in pairs.
331*** The third labyrinth features Phantom Mages (wind), Rainy Pots (Electricity), Phantom Masters (Fire), and Ameniti Ravens (Ice), who all share a simple yet deadly tactic. They first cast an -Element- Corrosion Spell to make your entire party weak to their preferred element. Then they cast Magarula/Mazionga/Maragion/Mabufula to massacre the party. If you can't remove the debuffs or kill them quickly, you could find yourself staring at the game over screen very quickly. The Phantom Mages stand out from among this class of Shadows as they ''will'' appear in pairs during a P-Spot ambush, meaning the combo has likely already fired off before the party can even move.
332*** Anything that has Bestial Roar can prove to be a pain to deal with. Said skill buffs the user's physical attacks and gives them raised turn speed, allowing them to move before the speed bonus from Boost. This often ends in them knocking a character out of Boost before the use whatever skill they had lined up - usually something that's otherwise really costly to take advantage of the discounts - resulting in the skill not firing at all or needlessly wasted HP or MP. One such enemy that stands out among the others is the Fate Seeker, which - like the Burning Beetle -- can attack twice in a turn and also likes to ambush the party at P-spots on the lower floors of the 3rd labyrinth.
333** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' continues the trend with a slew of nasty encounters.
334*** Any enemy that's immune to both Physical and Gun skills is this, since you'll essentially be unable to damage it without expending SP. Girimehkala in the Space Station especially stands out, since his only weakness, Bless, is an element that only the protagonist can use at the time you first encounter him.
335*** Arahabaki is also found in the Space Station, and is every bit as nasty as Girimekhala. While it is weak to the element used by the newest party member you will have when you encounter them and it's not that high leveled, it knows two moves that more than make up for it: Makarakarn and Abysmal Surge. Makarakarn allows it to repel a single magic attack, making it temporarily immune to everything except the Almighty spells, which uses large amounts of SP. [[ThatOneAttack Abysmal Surge]], on the other hand, can cause "Despair" on the whole party, which makes them unable to move AND instantly kills them after 3 turns have passed. If your entire team is suffering "Despair", it's game over. And they will spam it if Makarakarn in already in effect.
336*** The Archangels in Kamoshida's Palace are your first wake-up call that you don't want to mess with [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience red Shadows]]. They're at Level 16, which is much higher than the level at which the player is expected to fight ''Kamoshida himself'', and can use an insanely powerful Makouha and strong multi-target physical attacks which can cause a TotalPartyKill if you let it get a turn. It's weak to lightning and darkness, but they show up late into the dungeon when the player is likely to be running low on SP.
337*** The Angels in the Bank Palace. They don't seem very threatening, being only Level 11, but if you don't kill them quickly, they'll unleash [[OneHitKill Hama]] on you. The Onmoraki in the Museum Palace are similar, with Mudo. ''Royal'' instead moves them to Kamoshida's Palace and makes them less threatening overall.
338*** Anubis in the Pyramid is about 10 levels higher than the protagonists by the time you run into him for the first time, and he comes packed with several instakill spells (which he will likely use if you ambush him). He also has no weaknesses, meaning you need to rely on crits to get a Hold Up, and his level advantage means he can generally be expected to survive an Ambush and then retaliate with a vengeance. To top it all off in the later areas of the stage you can run into two or ''three'' at the same time.
339*** Dionysus in the final dungeon knows Thermopylae, a full-party Heat Riser that only works when surrounded. It's a UselessUsefulSpell in your hands since you generally want to avoid being surrounded, but since a player is likely to be Ambushing almost all enemy encounters at this point in the game, Dionysus will be able to use the move most of the time. And Dionysus has no weaknesses, so they get quite a lot of use out of Thermopylae.
340*** Also in the final dungeon is Nebiros-- one of the few basic enemies in the game to have Brain Jack, the full-party hitting Brainwash spell. This late into the game, Ann, Makoto and Morgana will all have full healing spells, and the protagonist likely will too, meaning Brainwash will lengthen the fight dramatically. And if you've been leveling Futaba's Confidant, Ultra Charge can spell a Game Over if brainwashed characters attack the protagonist. Nebiros are only weak to Bless, a skill that only the protagonist has access to, and often show up in groups along with the aforementioned Dionysus. In a dungeon with only two save points, [[LuckBasedMission random deaths due to brainwash]] are very punishing.
341*** Any enemy that has zero weaknesses. Not necessarily because of difficulty but more because of the added effort needed to take them down may force you to use more resources than normal since it limits your options: either try to bolster critical hit chances, hope a Bullet Hail is triggered (which will cut enemy HP to nearly 50%), gamble on insta-kills, maximizing status ailments (to aim for Technicals), or just trying to "brute force" them into submission. This only really gets bad at higher levels, where this can make otherwise quick encounters into grueling battles of attrition if the player isn't ready. Oni in the Bank palace is especially bad, because not only does he not have any weaknesses, but he resists Physical and Gun damage.
342*** Fafnir from the extra Palace in ''Royal''. Since he reflects Physical and Gun damage, absorbs Fire and Nuke damage and resists Electricity, he's hard to damage. Combine that with attacks like Gigantomachia and Cosmic Flare, and you have one of the deadliest non-boss enemies in the game.
343** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'' does away with extra turns--instead, exploiting enemy weaknesses will cause same-alignment demons (and you, if you're of the same alignment) to perform a "Demon Co-Op" attack for extra damage. Thankfully, enemies CANNOT do this. However, you still need to be on the lookout for enemies with spells that have [[OneHitKill "Mudo"]] in the name, as well as enemies with stoning attacks (an instant GameOver [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou if it hits you]]) or attacks that cause the [[ThatOneAttack dreaded]] "Bomb" status, which turns a party member into a bomb that explodes on hit.
344*** King Frost will, if not killed quickly, heal himself back to full health over and over again and spam Mabufudyne and Explosive Fist between heals. And if he's with other mooks when he casts his healing spell, those mooks are also completely healed. Makes sense that he shows up in [[DiscOneFinalDungeon Erid]][[ThatOneLevel anus]].
345*** Pisaca just loves to cast the Bomb status on your party, and unless you have Dis-Bombs, they will deal tremendous damage to your party hitting whoever they bombed. Pray that it wasn't [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou the main character]].
346*** Encountering Takeminakata when you first get the Enemy Search is a classic newbie trap. He has a good amount of HP for when you fight him, and high defenses to match. Additionally, he knows Zan-Ei, which is really strong and more or less becomes a OneHitKill if he's encountered under a new moon. To add insult to injury, ''he doesn't give out experience when you beat him''; he does, however, give you a Forma that can be pawned off for 3,000 Macca.
347*** Even for the level you encounter it in, Tao Tie is a pain. It nulls Physical and Gun attacks[[note]]which makes any level grinding strategy that focuses on you going solo with a gun that inflicts Stone completely impossible and makes your character pretty useless in general[[/note]], has over four hundred health, a skill that can inflict Fear on random enemies ''and'' a skill that inflicts Bomb on them. If you ever encounter a group of them and you don't have your best demons out your best bet is just to leg it.
348*** The cake of ''Strange Journey'''s Demonic Spiders is taken by Futotama. It is a dozen levels ahead of the other enemies in the zones you can find it in, has no weaknesses, is immune to instant death (except Stone-based), hits(hard) all of your party at once with ''normal attacks'', has the ever-annoying Macca Beam and Strange Beam magic that will rob you of money and MP, can use Turn Tables to reverse any debuff you inflict it, and once you whittle its health down enough it will ''heal itself fully'' with Diarahan. Luckily, it only appears if you use the Demon Search function, but if you factor in that you can't recognize it until you beat one...
349** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' has Macabres. They favor ThatOneAttack, Blight, which hits the entire party for damage, plus a chance of Poison. On paper, Blight does only "weak" damage, but it seems to be slightly stronger and have a higher CriticalHit rate than other "weak" moves, with critical hits giving the demon extra Press Turns and Smirks. When you first reach Shinjuku, where they can be found, encountering a party of three of them is often more than enough for a TotalPartyKill. Thankfully they're weak to [[LightEmUp Light]], meaning they're easy to OneHitKill, and if you can recruit one, he'll be just as powerful against your enemies as he was against you.
350* In ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' and its UpdatedRerelease, ''Skies of Arcadia: Legends'', there are the Slothsters. While they look like giant green [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin sloths]], they happen to be very dangerous. Not only do they have [[StoneWall ridiculous amounts of HP and high Defense]], but it also dishes out devastating strikes and a breath attack that can cause [[StatusEffects Confusion]]. The developers also saw fit to give it the powerful [[DishingOutDirt Quake]] spell, which does, on average, 600 damage to EVERY party member. What's worse, if you can somehow manage to whittle down this behemoth's HP, it can also use Deep Sleep, which puts it to sleep and recovers a little HP every turn.
351* The Nocturne Equites in ''VideoGame/SonicChronicles'' will not only dodge almost every attack you throw at them, but counter it. That wouldn't be so bad, if they didn't do about 1/4 of your health with each hit, and heal every time, too. This means attacking them will usually give them more health.
352* ''VideoGame/SoulBlazer'' has the demon fly. Seen in large numbers in the last stage, it is a small, fast, erratically-moving creature with surprisingly large amount of HitPoints, and on top of that, it is invulnerable part of the time.
353* The SFC version of ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' has enemies in the final dungeon that can turn you to stone by contact, in a game where there's no guaranteed way to guard against petrification and if everyone's petrified, it's game over. They then go the extra mile by designing random battles where your party starts out sandwiched between two of these enemies, guaranteeing that at least two of your party members are going to be petrified right at the start of battle.
354* ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' has a few.
355** Proclaimers are angelic monsters that [[spoiler:perform a similar function in our universe as agents do in ''Film/TheMatrix'' and]] use, every few seconds, a high damage attack that is unblockable and has a longer range than Maria's pistol in all directions, not to mention being encountered throughout the game starting about halfway until the predictable controller/screen interfacing inevitably ensues. They also have an upgraded version called Convictors.
356** Wisps have an even stronger all-round attack, and to make matters worse there's a room in the BonusDungeon where the player must defeat ten groups of them followed by a (thankfully easy) boss without saving.
357** Decahedrons and crystal statues are so fast that landing more than one blow is nearly impossible, never flinch and, ''needless to say'', have lethal attacks.
358** While Sphere 211 is mostly a BonusDungeon, there is one part of it which is an area required to go through during the story. The soldiers there are just a minor nuisance, but all the robots? They rip you to shreds. The spider-like ones, in particular, spam missiles that ''juggle you in midair'', which happens to be a strong attack so it breaks your AAA, and their AAA happens to be the first one in the game to ''heal the user'', meaning if you screw up a weak attack they're getting healed. While one by itself can be manageable, they often come in twos [[CycleOfHurting so that they can take turns juggling you.]]
359** The Sooties in the optional area of Sphere 211. Not only do they hit for insane amounts of damage and are much, much faster than you, they're about six inches high (meaning many attacks simply can't hit them) and are essentially mobile dust clouds with cute little caps and glasses on. Not just frustrating, but ''embarrassing'' at the same time.
360** ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'' has Salamanders and their [[PaletteSwap palette swaps]], which have a breath attack that, in theory, hits the character(s) in its path 2-3 times and pushes them away. However, very often, obstacles or the arena boundary prevent the characters from being pushed, and the attack hits over a dozen times for an instant kill. As if that weren't enough, it can cause some of the worst StatusEffects depending on which palette swap it is.
361* The Crazee Dayzees of the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros.'' series transformed from slow, weak minor enemies in their debut in ''Yoshi's Island'' to tough mofos who traveled in packs and inflicted the dangerous sleep condition at a very high rate in the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series. They also tend to run away when their health is low, taking any experience points they may drop with them. Particularly bad in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', where the Dayzees almost always outnumber you and will frequently put both characters to sleep before you can finish them off, which pretty much guarantees a massive beating if not death.
362** ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' may have it the worst--they're first found on a jump-centric ThatOneLevel!
363** There is also a MetalSlime version called Amazy Dayzees, which not only behaves similar to one (high HP, huge reward for beating it, tendency to run the first chance it gets to), but also possess the strongest single attack in the game, at 20 damage.
364** Another Demonic Spider in ''Thousand-Year Door'' is the Spiky Parabuzzy in Chapter 6 if you didn't get past the retracting SpikesOfDoom room protecting the Spike Shield badge in Rogueport Sewers. Take Jr. Troopa's fourth form in the first game and multiply him by about 3. Per room. To make matters worse, the only partner to hit them without being damaged him/herself is Vivian, who can't damage them because of their immunity to fire! If you haven't equipped Hammer Throw, just run away. Or use Flurry's defense penetrating Lip Lock on them. Or use the second star special... hope you've been warming that audience up.
365** The X-Yux isn't encountered very often, and its HP isn't very high, but you better kill it before it gets a turn or equip the Feeling Fine badge. If it attacks, its beam will immobilize Mario or his partner, so if you didn't do any of the above, do your ''best'' to Guard/Superguard it. While Mario's unable to act or defend, it will build up ''two'' mini-Yuxes per turn unlike other Yuxes. When it has four, it will shoot ''five beams every turn''. Once that happens, it's pretty much GameOver. On top of that, it's immune to status effects, so you can't use Clock Out to stop it from moving or Showstopper to just kill it before it can move. While it is a UniqueEnemy, failing the Thwomp quiz in the X-Naut Fortress forces you to fight two at once, so you better get it right.
366** The Bombshell Bill Blasters in ''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door'' are changed drastically from the previous game (in which they can be easily beaten without taking damage, and are good for leveling up), to the point they are possibly the toughest enemy in the Palace of Shadow. First, they spawn a Bombshell Bill every turn (as opposed to every other turn as in ''Paper Mario''), making it difficult to attack the Blasters themselves. Second, the Bills can be launched into the air, meaning only jump attacks can reach them. Third, the Bills have a defense of 2, meaning any jump attacks that would be able to dispose of them if they had 0 defense (as in ''Paper Mario'') or even 1 defense would not stop them from attacking you for 6 damage each. Lastly, if there is only one Blaster remaining, it will spawn ''two'' Bills ''in one turn''. The easiest way to defeat them is to have Yoshi use Gulp, but this will cost a good chunk of your FP, and if they shoot two Bills into the air, while this leaves the Blasters vulnerable, unless you use an attack item or a special move or are just really good at Superguards, you will likely receive 12 damage. Fortunately, B. Bill Blasters only appear in the first half of the palace. The ordinary Bill Blasters, encountered a few times at Pirate's Grotto, are similar but weaker.
367** The Piranha Plants in the Pit of 100 Trials are a very blunt case of WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer. They have no special tricks unlike Putrid and Frost Piranhas, but their attack of 9 adds up, especially since they often come in groups of 3-4 at a time. Having 15 HP each makes it difficult to kill them all in one round, so most players will either take a fair amount of damage fighting them, or expend a lot of FP & SP to destroy them quickly.
368** Almost everything in the last 30 floors of the Pit of 100 Trials. The first ones you'll encounter are the Badge Bandits, whose attacks are hard to guard against and, as their name suggests, ''they can steal your badges''. Later, you face Wizzerds, more powerful versions of the Dark Wizzerd enemy from the Palace of Shadow. It gets even worse near the bottom, with Spunia, the aforementioned Piranha Plants, Arantulas (a quite literal example), and Dark Bristles, which are very difficult to hit without getting hurt and have a whopping 8 attack and 4 defense!; you better equip Quake Hammer and Spike Shield.. On the lowest levels, you'd run into Amazy Dayzees, Poison Puffs (with the ability to store up poison, surrounding them in a cloud of unapproachability and allowing them to do a breath attack for 10 damage and chance of poisoning), Swampires (with and the ability to drain your HP and replenish their HP, which is at an absurdly-high 20), Bob-ulks (which would charge up before unleashing a self-destruct attack so that they'd be up to 16 by the time they hit -- including a defense boost almost immediately in the sequence), and the absolute worst, ''Elite'' Wizzerds--12 HP, 8 attack, '''5 defense''', and the full complement of buffs. And for some reason, they tended to appear in groups of four or five. 5 {{Elite Mook}}s at once practically [[BossInMookClothing amounts to a boss battle]]. The only saving grace is you no longer need the Spike Shield to jump on any enemies. If you can manage to survive all of that, you'll probably find the actual boss at the bottom floor to be, ironically, [[AntiClimaxBoss less stressful]].
369** Any enemy in ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' that can attack your partner will prove to be dangerous. If Mario's partner is attacked, they cannot act for X amount of turns, which is equal to how much damage they received. A dazed partner also prevents you from swapping characters, which turns the fight into a solo match with Mario only. Things can get really hairy when you don't have your partner to help attack enemies or use abilities to buff Mario.
370** Status debuffs like Sleep, Freeze, Dazed, and Stop will prove to be lethal at times due to those status effects preventing Mario from attacking ''or'' defending. Any enemy that can cause such a status and starts spamming it will be one you want to kill very quickly.
371*** Dark Koopas come to mind. They come in groups and like to start off with an attack that is very difficult to guard against and causes Dizzy status for ''4 turns''. And they can attack Mario's partner while spamming it, often resulting in a battle where you sit there without even being able to act as they beat Mario's HP down to 0.
372* ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'':
373** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'''s ice dungeon, there are enemies called "Ekim." One Ekim in a group of enemies is nothing to worry about. However, when they appear in pairs, they embody this trope. The first one will prevent you from reaching its partner, who will invariably cast the devastating spell Judgment. While your party recoils from the blow, both Ekim will begin to cast this spell and proceed to spam it until your helpless party is destroyed. To make things more irritating, it is possible to go for more than an hour without reaching a save point.
374** There is also the "Fire Giants" which you encounter early to mid-way in the game. You must use hit-and-run tactics on them, because one hit from its club paralyzes you, freeing him to repeatedly attack your only melee character until he's dead. If you cure his paralysis with an item, he'll just get hit again before he can retreat. Enemy blocking is random, so one randomly blocked attack can leave you vulnerable to this attack.
375** Also in ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' golems, especially on the higher difficulty levels. They take ungodly amounts of damage, hit quite hard, can knock Cless back and stun him with annoying regularity, and bunch the party up allowing their long reaching attacks to even hit the back row casters. To top it off they are usually acting as meat shields for enemy mages who will nuke you into oblivion. On hard mode, being surrounded on both sides by golems usually spells death unless you use tricks to escape, or go all out with abilities to kill one ASAP.
376** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny2'', any reaper type, ghost type, or eyeball type enemy, because of the simple fact that they TeleportSpam, allowing them to both teleport behind you and attack your [[SquishyWizard SquishyWizards]], or teleport away to cast magic. The walking eggs are also quite annoying, due to being [[DamageSponge Damage Sponges]] that ruin your Grade.
377** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfInnocence'''s secret dungeon, there is an enemy that resembles a bee. These generally come in groups, are incredibly fast, have great attack power and attack several times. By the way, the dungeon has 100 floors and you can only save by getting out of it.
378** Also, in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', the starfish-type enemies are stupidly hard to hit, due to their being smaller than normal enemies, while still packing a hefty punch.
379** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfZestiria'', the Undead Magicians in Tintagels are the second enemy you can fight that regularly casts spells. They can also do a ranged attack and Slow your party members, which (like all status ailments) prevent the character from being healed and at that point in time it's likely that Elixir Vitae is your only means of removing it. These can be quite hard to deal with (especially on higher difficulties), and god help you if you get in a Dangerous Encounter while fighting a bunch of these guys first. From that point on, pretty much any enemy that uses Seraphic Artes will be significantly more dangerous than anything else in the same dungeon, due to their ability to hit you for heavy damage from anywhere on the battlefield.
380* ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'' gives us Grislwolves and Nightshades. One member of these species of hostile can be a ''colossal'' pain in the ass because they emulate the highly-damaging techs that Kevin and Hawkeye use, which inflicts roughly 280+ damage per character at a time when you're expected to push 300-400 HP (for reference, the max is 999). Some can use these skills unprovoked, but they will ''always'' use them when you use an advanced [[labelnote:read]]anything that freezes the action to execute[[/labelnote]] skill to hurt them. Use a single-target tech on them? Your party is either hurting or dead. Did they use the skill before this counter? [[GameOver You're dead.]] If you didn't bring Ninja Master Hawkeye and Star Lancer Riesz with you, prepare for a slog. And keep in mind, this is just ''one'' of these bastards; they tend to come in pairs or trios, so if your multi-target tech goes off with more than one alive, [[TotalPartyKill you can kiss your ass goodbye]].
381* You really, really aren't supposed to fight the Shadowlords in ''VideoGame/UltimaV''. Upon entering combat, they teleport you to their dimension; which boxes each character in a chamber alone. They can walk through the walls of the different chambers, can move multiple times per hit, poison your characters, charm them, they hit like a mofo. And then, even if you kill one in battle, it just [[FightingAShadow reforms elsewhere.]]
382** On TOP of that, if you have the Sceptre of Lord British -- one of the vital items needed to win the game, and [[spoiler: the only way to break the chamber walls]] -- they automatically reclaim it. And you have to trek all the way back to [[spoiler: Stonegate]] to recover it again. This can happen ''several times.''
383** From the same game, the guards: they attack [[LightningBruiser hard, quick]], and [[ZergRush in numbers]]. Like the Shadowlords, they are best avoided, especially if one's party members are at a low enough level that they can be killed before they even move.
384** Daemons are a pain too; extremely durable, hit like a freight train and they cast Charm and Fear on your allies, so your party quickly tears itself to shreds before they punch anyone who survives to death. Dragons have all that plus even more HP, and they can ''summon daemons''. Don't have Lord British's magic-nullifying crown and some seriously badass equipment? Well... good luck. You'll need it.
385** In ''VideoGame/UltimaVIII: Pagan'', there are kith, giant bloodthirsty spidery-things that you encounter randomly in the wild, and can kill you in one hit. And if you run into one, and it actively pursues you, '''''RUN.'''''
386** In ''VideoGame/UltimaVII'' the door to the endgame area is guarded by a one-of-a-kind Lich. He's easy enough to kill, if you can reach him, but he's the only non-NPC in the game that can throw out the Death Bolt spell, which kills on impact. When the add-on "Forge Of Virtue" was released they added another lich: in this case you need to kill a mage before he succeeds in summoning it.
387* ''{{VideoGame/Underrail}}'' features the fan-favorites, Crawlers. The official wiki accurately describes them as "nightmarish amalgams of arachnid bullshit;" they include all but two[[note]]level-stealing and duplicating[[/note]] of the defining traits listed on the trope's main page. They can outright teleport, something no other enemy in the game does. They can stun the player for two turns unless you bring antidotes, and that option is off the table if the Crawler in question is a Black Crawler or a Death Stalker. They have outrageously high dodge and evasion, and entirely too much health. They start off stealthed and are incredibly difficult to see before they reach you, at which point their exceptional Initiative generally means they get the first strike. They also get a free 20-HP heal every single turn. The generally-accepted method of crawler hunting is to spam as many bear traps as possible and kill them while they're stuck.
388* ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' has its own share of terrifying monsters to test Lenneth and her Einherjar.
389** Banshees have a good chance to appear early and can wipe out everyone (including your rear caster) with just a couple of their AOE attacks; good luck if you didn't get [[DiscOneNuke Nanami and her Dragonbane]] in the second chapter.
390** Mandragoras in the Forest of Spirits can deal significant damage with a single multi-hit AOE attack. ''And they come in groups.'' Weapons that can kill enemies weak to Fire, such as Infernas, can help, but the item needed to craft those is only available in Hard Mode.
391** The Fatal Glow enemies in the Tower of Lezard Valeth can stun with their basic physical attack, and self-destruct at low HP for immense fire damage to the party.
392** The various Eye enemies (Evil Eye, Inferior Eye, etc.), who deal high damage, take a ton of hits to defeat, lack weaknesses, and can revive their fallen comrades. On Hard Mode and [[spoiler:Asgard Hill in the GoldenEnding]], they regularly pop up in groups of two to four.
393** Many others appear in later dungeons, which is one reason you want to make good use of those [[TooAwesomeToUse breakable]] [[WeaponOfXSlaying "Slayer" weapons.]] Dragon Zombies and Dragon-Tooth Warriors, in particular, are tough, hard-hitting, and can cause status effects with their BreathWeapon, which hits multiple times.
394** Hamsters randomly show up in place of Loki Shades in the [[BonusDungeon Seraphic Gate]], and will give you a violent phobia of cute furry things in short order. They are so short that most attacks whiff over them, and they possess a bevy of nasty magical and physical attacks, chief of which is Furry One -- a wave of hamsters that runs the whole party over for huge amounts of damage.
395* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeRedemption'': the Nosferatu and the Tremere. The Nosferatu turn invisible at will, and attacking doesn't break it. Unless you've bought yourself some form of heightened senses power (doubtful, since they are otherwise useless), you're hosed. And then there's the scumsucking Tremere, who are vampires AND mages. They come in big packs, and spam such lovely spells as Mind Control, Lightning Strike (aggravated damage, hits your entire party), Fireball (same, plus lasting fire damage), and the ever lovely Freeze, which does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin—and high damage, of course. Aggravated damage inherently has high chances to make your party members go berserk and start using their powers at random... or for even more fun, biting the neck of the nearest person, which makes them helpless as long as the biter is drinking. Note: That nearest person is you. Always.
396* In ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland 2}}'', anything toting grenades rapidly becomes this. Explosives cannot miss, ignore cover, and deal flat damage that ignores armour in an area of effect. Since gameplay naturally leads itself to bunching up your characters behind cover and focusing fire, anything that can half-kill every single party member with a single attack (especially since they have an infinite supply of explosives) becomes a primary target. And once you hit [[spoiler:Los Angeles]] the game starts throwing rocket launcher enemies at you, which don't even have the courtesy of short range and will instead snipe your entire party for 100+ damage from halfway across the map.
397* ''VideoGame/WildArms'' has a recurring gag with the Hyolkontons, Aliens with obscene hit points and their own version of Bad Breath, "Arc En Ciel".
398* ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}}'':
399** ''Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge'' and ''Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant'' had more than their share. What could make them truly nasty is that unless the player is very experienced at the game (and knows when what monsters start appearing, and in what numbers), the Demonic Spiders are indistinguishable from the normal mooks without a high mythology skill on one of the characters. Examples:
400*** Qua'Tari look like Ban'Tari at first (and Ban'Tari aren't slouches), but it's when you realize that Blinding Flash isn't working, and that they're hitting HARD, that you realize these aren't your normal two-headed lions. Veterans know to beware when the kitties show up near Ukpyr.
401*** Lizards in ''Wizardry 7'' in general are one of the tougher enemy groups, but Komodo Dragons are truly dangerous. Resistant to most magic, lots of armor, hard-hitting, acid breath that hits multiple characters, and a chance to instant-kill characters with physical attacks...
402*** Helazoids could also be frustrating at lower levels-fairly fast, resistant to magic, hit hard, and their laser cannons can hit back-rank characters. All but the weakest variety have a chance to instant-kill as well.
403*** The tougher Rattkin qualify, too. Rattkin as a whole tend to be {{Glass Cannon}}s, but the nastier ones really emphasize the "Cannon", adding in poison, instant death, and occasionally stoning as potential side-effects.
404*** Savant Controllers and Kui Sa'Ka. Not very fast, but resistant to magic (noticing a trend?), good armor, lots of hit points, and the truly annoying psionic spells that like to make party members go insane.
405*** And God help you if you run into Conqueladas...
406** In ''Wizardry 8'' the general power of StatusEffects means that fighting almost ''anything'' that can inflict an ailment can turn into an exercise in frustration, especially if the monster is particularly fast. This tends to include Rynjin (insanity, turncoat), nightmares (fear, insanity, turncoat, blindness), most plants (blindness, sleep, poison), and undead (insanity, sleep, paralyzation, fear). Late in the game, enemy spellcasters like Rapax Templars can even use the same buffing spells as the party (with Missile Shield being far and away the most annoying, as it negates a large portion of ranged combat and causes one to waste precious ammo if one isn't careful).
407*** And yes, the game ''does'' have bats. They're annoying because they're really fast, meaning unless you freeze, sleep, or drive the lot of them insane they will ''invariably'' surround your party. At low levels, this means taking a lot of damage. At high levels, they can even cause HP drain, which is harder to cure than ''death''.
408*** One of the nastier examples are the Pixies in the Trynnie trees. Their powerful magical debuffs can render most of your party impotent inside the first combat round, their fast reaction time means they'll almost always cast first, and there's something particularly humiliating about finding yourself constantly running away from roving gangs of tiny naked girls with wings. On the other hand, that's really all they have. They also possess pitifully low HP, and if they cast anything but Blinding Flash or the like, a single application of an area-damage spell will typically kill them all in a single shot. Their higher-level cousins, such as Cliff Sprites, on the other hand, have the same attack spells and about five times as many hit points.
409* A few enemies from ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' fall under this. The [[EliteMooks blue noise]] and [[BossInMookClothing elephants]] can be easily avoided, fortunately.
410** Any Taboo Noise. They're stronger than the Noise they're based off of (except perhaps the drakes), have ridiculous amounts of damage reduction unless you have the light puck, requiring you to ''really'' move the puck efficiently if you want to hurt them at all, and ''actively seek you out during a scan''. On top of all that is the fact that running away is disabled during Taboo fights, meaning that you can't even run from them.
411** Drakes: the non-Taboo form of this enemy chain is actually deadlier than its Taboo form. Why? It can use a breath weapon that deals absolutely horrifying damage (the Taboo version doesn't). If it uses it on the top screen, it is virtually an instant kill-it is continuous, essentially impossible to block in its entirety, and can't be avoided on the two-dimensional battlefield of the top screen (unless the player's partner is Joshua and can levitate). The player's only real chance is to go hyper-aggressive and hope to kill it before it does the breath attack.
412** The Taboo Drake is annoying as hell to kill, too—especially if you've been dropping your level for the Ultimate drops. Top screen faces spears from above, bottom gets the standard Taboo treatment. It isn't as hard to kill in the NewGamePlus because you can use Joshua, who ''levitates'', thus avoiding most of the drake's attacks.
413** Brassbanfrogs, from the late game and postgame, are annoying by themselves; they absorb negative (long-range) attacks to heal themselves, which include some of the cooler pins you've been collecting up to this point. They become incredibly dangerous in the BonusDungeon, New Pork City, however. On each floor of the dungeon, you can only use a single brand of pin -- and many brands don't ''have'' positive (close-range) attacks that can take the frogs out. Unless you cotton on to the fact that [[spoiler:Unbranded pins will still work]], the frogs will stick around and generally give you a very hard time.
414* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' has the Fortress Units, enemies that can be just as powerful, if not more so than [[UniqueEnemy Unique Monsters]] despite being just regular enemies. They have multiple attacks that can hit the entire party, one of which that causes Blaze DOT and the other that does a lot of damage. In addition, later in the match [[TurnsRed they become crazed]] and just spamming their arts. They also pack a large amount of HP.
415* ''VideoGame/XMenLegends'' has normal foot soldiers that could chip off 70% of health after a single hit, and the majority of enemies that could kill you in ONE hit! Doesn't matter how many defenses you've built up, they will kick your ass.
416* ''[[VideoGame/{{Ys}} Ys III]]: Wanderers from Ys'':
417** The blue blob enemies hit extremely hard with a wide hit-box, and can kill you outright if you're not leveled (or equipped) properly... which you probably aren't at that stage of the game.
418** Worse are the spear-toting enemies in the Cursed Mine, whose weapons have greater range than yours and deal massive damage. And you need to conserve your HP and ring power for [[ThatOneBoss the boss]].
419* The more advanced versions of the Bholdoms (wild boar-type creatures) in ''VideoGame/{{Ys}} VI'', who not only hit hard and can take a whacking, but also inflict debilitating StatusEffects. Also, the cave scorpions (Gilchas) in Mythos Path and Limewater Cave.
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