Line #95 Main/EliteTweak


1	Some strategy and lots of patience creates characters that are much more powerful than if a simpler, straightforward method was used.
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3	This usually comes in two flavors: acquiring new abilities through NonStandardSkillLearning and using them to create some kind of overpowered synergistic effect, or leveling your character(s) past its usual {{Cap}} using an alternative method for a slight increase in power.
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5	The former is present in game where its system offers a variety of set of abilities or stat combinations, like an equipment set or {{Mons}}, that are kept balanced within their own ecosystem, but the game allows you to mix and match abilities from other sets to break that balance. Sometimes, this is intended by the creators, but often, it is due to a combination they didn't consider, which then blows the [[GameBreaker game balance to pieces]]. But knowing exactly what skills and equipment you need to do this can require a lot of trial and error, or going to a game site and copying their strategies wholesale.
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7	In games where you get multiple characters with various abilities and classes, this will take the form of taking a select few characters and focusing on specific combos that only they can pull off. The end result can be that out of a large roster of characters, [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome only one particular line-up is ever used]], because it is possible to make their powers to work together in such a way that ever using anything else is sub-optimal. In games where the characters are more interchangeable or customizable, the small differences in innate abilities like {{Limit Break}}s may be what are seized upon, or it could be that any character can be brought to the point of being all-powerful just by using the right elite methods.
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9	Instead of blending abilities, the game may instead give you the option to increase your stats beyond what the standard leveling system allows for. It may be some sort of dedicated StatGrinding mechanic or something that lets you convert excess ExperiencePoints or some other resource like money into some kind of additional stat bonus. In almost every case, this gets hit hard with DiminishingReturnsForBalance. Going from 100% to 101% power can take as long as going from 1% to 100%, if not more.
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11	In either case, prepare to spend a lot of time getting there. It may involve a lot of grinding, a lot of [[LuckBasedMission tries to get the exact combination of skills you want]], or both. It may also involve a lot of trial and error [[GuideDangIt if you don't know what you're doing]]. If the game uses microtransactions, expect it to offer you [[BribingYourWayToVictory an easy way to obtain optimal power]].
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13	Compare LethalJokeCharacter. Contrast ParabolicPowerCurve.
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15	The MagikarpPower is an Elite Tweak to an initially-weak character.
16	----
17	!!Examples:
18	* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'':
19	** Dual classing can easily lead to this. Take the kensai kit for fighters, which has powerful attacks, no ranged capabilities and can't wear any armor or related, being a GlassCannon. Then, at level 9 (or 13 if you want to max their attacks per round), dual class into a mage. Mages can't wear armor too, but can cast defensive spells that can be really powerful, like stoneskin, globe of invulnerability, ghost armor, fire shield etc. and normally can't use any weapon besides staves, clubs or darts. A SquishyWizard after all is not expected to melee. Now you covered the weakness of both classes, and at high levels the kensai/mage becomes outrageously powerful: imagine casting the time stop spell and the improved haste spells while dual wielding enchanted katanas...
20	** Assassins and blackguards can poison their weapons, including arrows, which is already a useful skill per se. Quite unobviously, explosive arrows can be poisoned too, affecting everybody in their blast radius. Yes, you can poison a group of enemies while firing bombs like Rambo. While they are very scarce, they make the difference in the occasions where you want to use them.
21	* Blue Mages in ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games acquire a variety of unique and useful spells, but require you to seek out specific monsters (with [[GuideDangIt little in-game hinting]]) and be ''hit'' by those spells.
22	** This trend is broken occasionally, resulting in truly powerful abilities. Quina, the Blue Mage in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', can learn abilities by eating monsters. If you play their sub-game enough and eat the right monsters, you can have an attack spell that always hits for 9999 damage, and another spell that resurrects and fully heals everyone -- [[DiscOneNuke before the end of disk 2]].
23	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' doesn't have Blue Mages, but the same concept can be used by ''any character'' by equipping the "Enemy Skill" Materia, then letting the character be hit by whatever spell or ability you want the Materia to "learn". Play the game enough to get three mastered "Enemy Skill" Materia, and all characters in your party can cast these abilities. If you know where to look for monsters with abilities to copy, you can acquire skills that are much more powerful than the magic you should have for that stage of the game.
24	** Gau from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' gains new Rages by Leaping at monster parties in the Veldt. The game tells you this, but some of the better rages are quite obscure. Like the Stray Cat. How would you know that a little tabby gives Gau an ability that lets him hit for 4x his usual damage? Gau also ties in with the above in that he can imitate monsters that use blue magic, and if he uses such a Rage in a battle when Strago (the game's resident blue mage) is present, Strago will learn the spell. In fact, because the monsters with Mighty Guard (the best defensive buff spell in the game) and White Wind (potentially the best healing spell in the game) tend to die via health drain before they can use their powers, having Gau imitate them via Rage is the easiest way to teach those abilities.
25	** The resident gaming system also applies. You can [[LevelGrinding grind levels early on]] but without associated espers you'll only gain HP and MP and that's it. If you grind too much before you can get espers that offer good extra stat bonuses per level up, you'll be too weak to deal with anything later, or at least make catching up harder.
26	* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' for the PSP, [[MechanicallyUnusualClass the Onion Knight doesn't gain job levels like any other class]] - instead, it gains a job level for every ''two other jobs'' a character has ''mastered.'' At job level 8, the class becomes very powerful - but characters still can't gain EXP. The only way to enjoy the stat bonuses of gaining a level as an Onion Knight is by the use of a skill that is [[GuideDangIt only present on a friendly monster unit that you can't find in the wild, and only when using another character with a passive ability that enables hidden skills on nearby monster units.]] Oh, and then the monster unit is [[{{Permadeath}} killed permanently.]]
27	** Calculators in this game have a well-earned reputation for being a GameBreaker, but they're balanced by the fact that they are, by a very wide margin, the slowest characters in the game. This means they won't get many chances to use their skills with which to break the game, and which means they'll level and learn new skills very slowly. The latter can be circumvented with proper use of Bard or Dancer skills - their basic songs and dances can trigger three or four times between Calculator turns, which rapidly builds up the job points needed to master the class. And once that's happened, you can then switch to a much faster job (even Ninja, the fastest in the game) to use Math Skill at will.
28	* Certainly ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. Kill lots of enemies to level up, but don't pay attention to your junctions, and you'll be destroyed. Farm enemies for magic and items while keeping your level low and you'll be [[DiscOneNuke unstoppable by disc one]]. Also, some [=GFs=] offer stat bonuses per level up, so if you want to level up, it's best to hold on until you unlock those.
29	* Advancing normally though Sphere Grid in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' will make your characters more than powerful enough to finish the game. However, if you want to beat high-end {{Superboss}}es, such as Penance, you'll ''have to'' retrace the Sphere Grid while filling blanks with spheres that create stat bonus nodes [[GuideDangIt that fall from specific monsters in]] MonsterArena [[GuideDangIt each with different unlock conditions]]. Then, after you beat Penultimate Arena Boss, Ultima Buster, you'll unlock Clear Spheres, which allow you to ''clear'' stat nodes in Sphere Grid (removing also corresponding stat bonus), needed to eliminate nodes that don't offer maximum possible stat boost, and replace them with new ones (which always create a node with maximum stat boost), which you then activate again with each character separately. That allows you to ''almost'' maximize stats of your characters and maximize out, with a bit of MinMaxing, their real efficiency. Same goes for armor, which doesn't have ultimate version like weapons and through customization, [[GuideDangIt if you know what monster to bribe for necessary items]], you'll be able to get far better stuff than anything that is readily available within the game, treasure or drop.
30	* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' in general highly encourages this trope in both a tactical and RPG sense. Unlike many [=RPGs=] in general (which often have some characters simply unable to do another's job any better than it's party members), ''any'' unit - with some proper speccing and a little luck from the RandomNumberGod - can turn into a powerhouse monstrosity, which is [[DevelopersForesight deliberately designed]] on the basis of encouraging the player to use their favorite characters to play the game as well as outright ''encouraging'' min-maxing with [[RelationshipValues Support bonuses]] and general tactical synergy. [[NintendoHard Given how tough some of the games can get]], the game strikes a rather impressive middle-ground between tactical efficiency and [=RPG=] growth, to the point that the tier list generally agreed on by the fandom had to measure by ''how fast'' they can get to a point to be "good" and at what cost, not ''if'' they can be good, given that's a given even for the most seemingly-useless of units with enough stubborness.
31	** Those characters from ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' are commonly referred as 'The Est', a character with obnoxiously high stat development, but joins [[CantCatchUp late game]] at a very [[MagikarpPower low level]] relative to the game's progress curve. Est is well-known for not only being the first character with these characteristics, but also because this is true of her in ''all five games she appears in (including the two remakes of the original game)''. Ests are loved by elite tweakers for the fact that they are one of the few characters in the games that can reasonably Cap (or nearly Cap) most of their stats without the need of [[RareCandy Stat-Up]] items before reaching the max level promoted.
32	** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Sacred Stones]]'', both regarded as being black sheeps by many of the series' fans, are loved by elite tweakers because of the ability to elite tweak ''any unit'' with enough patience due to being able to reenter specific levels, allowing players to level grind freely; something extremely situational, difficult, and risky(And often pointless) to do in any other ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' title. Sacred Stones also allows you to buy as many [[RareCandy Stat-Up]] items as you can with the money you'll be getting from the levels or the drops.
33	** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' not only keeps the freely traversable world map of ''Sacred Stones'' and ''Gaiden'', but it also reintroduces the Skill system of a few other past titles, wherein characters can learn abilities by reaching certain levels in a given class. It also features a special item, the Second Seal, which allows a unit to revert to level 1 in a different class. As skills are set to ''characters'', leveling one over and over in different jobs can give them access to some powerful combinations. The [[PlayerCharacter Avatar]] and [[DownloadableContent DLC/SpotPass units]] stand out in this regard by being able to switch to ''any'' class not specific to either a certain character or the opposite gender, giving them [[GameBreaker massive potential]] in the hands of someone not averse to mucho LevelGrinding.
34	** In the Mobile Game ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'', the Skill inheritance system was introduced where a player could use one unit to give another unit up to 3 of their skills (now 4 thanks to an update), at the cost of the inherited skills costing 1.5x the SP the skill would normally cost.
35	** Likewise, in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Genealogy of the Holy War]]'', players can unlock later game child units based on who they choose to pair up out of their original cast of characters. These units have a base form tied to one gender of parent, but can inherit stats and some other things (skills and classes in the former two, and weapons/accessories in the latter) from their other parent. Min-maxing this process isn't necessary to complete the game as the easy pairings still usually work out fine and you should have enough unit options to get by. But players who ''do'' plan out inheritance ahead of time will see their efforts rewarded with some astonishingly powerful units that can blow their parents straight out of the water.
36	* ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'':
37	** Despite the massive amount of content in terms of characters and weapons, players have created recommended guides which provide the most plausible damage output for every element. There exists guides of Basic Grids for Magna and Primal Weapons, and then there are otherwise game-breaking builds which are now otherwise accepted as the "norm", such as a Summer Zooey with a Celeste Claw Grid and a Luminiera Sword Omega Grid.
38	** Certain characters synergize well with a majority of other characters, or stand out with a majority of the content, sometimes to the point of serving as "game-breakers". The aforementioned Summer Zooey's extreme usefulness in Emnity grids makes her viable for other elements also utilizing Enmity-based weapons. The same goes to Korwa who can provide strong buffs regardless of the characters' elements.
39	* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series:
40	** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout\|1}}'' and ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' allow you to pick a special Character Trait at creation time. One such trait is "Fast Shot", which lets you trade the ability to make aimed shots for a 1 point reduction on the number of [=APs=] it takes to fire a gun. Given that you really need to use aimed shots to get criticals (which are [[LudicrousGibs awesomely effective]]) there seems little incentive... but then at level 12 you can get extra [=APs=] and then at level 15 you can get Fast Shot which gives a further 1AP reduction in firing time. Suddenly dangerous weapons like the Alien Blaster or Gauss Pistol become super-accurate super-efficient machineguns, popping up to 6 guys a turn. And then you get the Sniper perk at level 24 to make almost every one of your shots a critical anyway. Incredibly devastating.
41	** ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' can be cracked and broken like an egg with careful stat and equipment choices. Start a character with 9 INT and then go ''immediately'' to Rivet City to pick up the INT Bobblehead from Dr. Li's office. You now have maxed INT and are at level 2. INT directly affects how many skill points you get per level, at a rate of 2xInt, plus there is a Perk that increases this amount. In the space of four or five levels - an incredibly short time, as the first handfuls of levels are really easy to get - you can have Sneak and Small Guns maxed at 100, by which point you can also have picked up Lincoln's Repeater and a Dart Gun and if you have the DLC, the Chinese Stealth Suit. Congratulations, you are now a God of Death and you haven't even started the story quests. As you progress, you can pick up several perks that increase VATS accuracy, ''and'' VATS ''headshot'' accuracy. By this point, there is no longer any kind of difficulty curve and we have not reached the max level of 20. At level 20, there is a perk called Grim Reaper's Sprint. This perk refunds all of your AP, which is used in VATS, if you got any kills while in VATS. Adding all of this up, you now can effectively eradicate all life on the planet in one uninterrupted VATS chain of head-popping magnum rounds.
42	*** Smart players also go to Tenpenny Tower immediately after Rivet City to pick up that Dart Gun schematic, and have been collecting parts for it in preparation. The Dart Gun instantly cripples both legs of any organic target on hit. There is no living creature in the game immune to this. In addition to being ''permanently slowed,'' Yao Guai and Deathclaws with crippled limbs ''cannot lunge''. This means that while they retain their lethalness at point-blank range, they are laughably helpless beyond it.
43	*** A certain Perk gained at a relatively low level doubles the amount of Skill Points gained from reading books. It is thus highly advisable to hold off on reading any books until this Perk is gained.
44	*** Likewise, it is highly ''inadvisable'' to take any Perk that directly increases Skill Points, unless the Perk also includes a valuable additional affect, such as Cyborg, which increases several Skills, but also adds Damage Resistance.
45	*** It's also inadvisable to put any points into Big Guns whatsoever, since there is a Big Guns skill book that is carried by a particular Raider boss. Most enemies respawn a few in-game days after being killed. You can see where this is going.
46	*** The ''Broken Steel'' DLC introduces a whole new level of tweaking with the Almost Perfect perk, which can only be taken at the new max level of 30, but raises ''all'' SPECIAL stats to ''9''. Start with INT 4 and any other stats you like, take Comprehension when it's available and read ''all'' the skill books (there are 25 per skill, so you don't need to have high INT), take Almost Perfect at 30 and ''then'' get the stat increasing bobbleheads. Now you have [[MasterOfAll 10 in all stats and 100 in all skills]] and are essentially God.
47	* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'', each character can advance each of the jobs separately. However, although spell lists are unique, the stat bonuses and skills stack across jobs. So, with enough grinding, you can build a not-so-squishy Wizard, or a Paladin with the agility of a master thief, or a Gladiator who can wear powerful shields (normally, a Gladiator cannot).
48	* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'': The job system is even more hilariously broken than ''IX'''s: when you level up a job (not by experience, but by number of battles against enemies above a certain level), you learn new spells... ''and keep those spells across all jobs''. Want a wizard who can throw punches as well as fireballs? Give every character a 0-mana HerdHittingAttack? An entire team of hard-hitting gladiators with only enough mana to, say, fully heal themselves and each other when their HP finally drops to the double digits? A single character with multiheals, buffs out the wazoo, magic and resurrection? Hell, take four! And that's without getting into the Hero class, which automatically heals HP every turn and is unlocked by mastering the other classes.
49	* ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' (as well as pretty much any game from Creator/NipponIchi) is a wet dream for the elite tweaker, as you can level up ''individual items'' and generally push your characters to the point their [[StatisticallySpeaking statistics look like phone numbers]].
50	** A specific example in the game would be the LoveFreak, Flonne. Leveling up normally, you either end up with a mage with very few spells, or a character with incredibly slow weapon mastery. Using the Master/Apprentice system properly, however, she can become a DiscOneNuke.
51	** ''VideoGame/PhantomBrave'' gets special mention, because dang it, you can obliterate people with a level 20 starfish. A STARFISH. Along with other great items.
52	** Understanding the reincarnation system is ''vital'' to tweaking Disgaea characters. Beginners may find it unintuitive; you go all the way back to level 1, but with slightly better starting stats. However, all your future advancement is based on these stats; having them start higher will mean they eventually end up ''way'' higher. It is also the way to bring back generic classes as a higher version, with better aptitudes, which ''also'' will boost the speed at which stats increase. Originally doing this enough times meant generics could actually end up stronger than story characters, but later games had all of a story character's aptitudes increase by a flat 5% for each reincarnation. This worked up to five times, and meant that the earlier you started reincarnating your characters, the better.
53	** ''VideoGame/Disgaea5'' has overloads which unlock on the major story characters as the story itself progresses, giving each character a special power that outright beefs them or makes them even more lethal than they were before. Killia starts the game with no overload, for example, and is definitely powerful, but lacks a strategic punch that nearly every other character you have will have at that point, that is until you beat Flowerful, at which point you unlock Killia's overload which doubles his attack and gives him three attacks in a single turn.
54	*** The only downside to the story characters is that the DLC characters can be unlocked really early in the game and come standard with overloads, such as Adell's overload which gives him a 32 movement range and increases his attack with all fist skills, which his unique evility already buffs by allowing you to do the same fist special twice in a single turn, promptly allowing him to rush the most dangerous opponent on the field and kill it. Compared to Zeroken's overload to make 4 clones with pitiful stats in comparison to his own, there's just no contest.
55	** Then there's the Dark Assembly and vote buying. A player can simply [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership literally beat the Dark Assembly to force bills through]], but another option is [[BribingYourWayToVictory bribing them all]]. The Dark Assembly remembers what you've previously done, though, so if you attempt the bribe route, one common way to tweak it out is to hold off on passing several of the easier bills (as the game determines the base likelihood of a bill passing on your stats) until the bill would pass easily anyway, then bribe the heck out of as many senators as possible. Once several senators have been bribed [[{{Pun}} to Hell and back]], they become much more likely to vote for a player in the close-call bills, several of which open up valuable options (and in some cases, alternate endings) to players.
56	* ''VideoGame/GrandiaII'' allows spending coins to purchase equipable abilities from books that can then be equipped on a chosen player. One of these abilities is Taunt, which at max level (which isn't too hard to reach if you focus on it) will force every enemy to attack the equipped player. By itself this would be useful but not game breaking, until one remembers that the DefendCommand in this game is far more powerful then most, cutting damage to a fraction of what it was. Equipping a character with Taunt and having them defend every round will cut damage your party takes drastically. Take the time to equip buy & equip some more defensive ability on the taunting character and very soon your party will be taking nothing more than ScratchDamage even from bosses. Furthermore it isn't even hard to set up this tweak, if one forgoes upgrading offensive abilities for a short time(which you don't need when nothing can hurt you) it doesn't take long to max out Taunt after getting the ability, and it's possible to already have one defensive ability already raised to a moderate level by the time Taunt becomes available, it's trivially easy to make an invincible part by the first half of the game without any power leveling required.
57	** It's possible to defeat any boss in the second half of the game without using any ability beyond regular attacks, no healing or offensive spells at all, by shuffling around weak health regeneration rings to party members as they get hurt, since the incoming damage is just that low.
58	* Peco, the Blue Mage-type character in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' joins your party really late; most players ignore him, as he is particularly weak, even compared to other characters of the same level. However after a certain [[MagikarpPower level barrier is broken, he starts getting stronger]] -- fast. Aside from being able to learn ludicrously powerful plant-based monster abilities (he is, after all, a monster himself), his base stats jump to even greater levels than the main character.
59	** Add to that his ''absurd'' HP score, 50% chance of counterattack and the attack formation's counterattack boost and ''75%'' attack boost, and you have a [[GameBreaker true monster]]
60	** Also bear in mind that he starts at level 1, which is another reason many ignore him, but means that he can get boosts to stats from masters for every levelup.
61	* Some of the characters in ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' can be mildly or even heavily "upgraded" by putting them through specific conversation chains, parts of which will only be available after certain (optional) events have occurred, or after the main character has achieved certain stat levels.
62	** The best example of this is Dak'kon, who, when acquired, can give you lessons in his personal philosophy. If your intelligence and wisdom stats are high enough, however, ''you'' can give ''him'' lessons in his philosophy and remove his doubts in it, resulting in a significant stat boost for him.
63	*** An extension of the above is the Missile of Patience, a first level spell that's so useless you definitely won't waste time memorizing... Then, after a certain experience level, the Missile of Patience suddenly becomes an awesome weapon of mass destruction. Of course, by that time most other first level spells don't really cut it, and most players miss it altogether.
64	* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', playing normally the player character would become a Jedi around level 8 after leveling in Taris, the first world. By holding these off and being very careful and dependent on your companions, one can instead become a Jedi at level 3, and able to earn more Jedi levels and their stronger bonuses before hitting the level cap of 20.
65	** The assassin-droid [=HK47=] can be upgraded if you've got high enough Mechanical skill - providing him with various bonuses, and easily making him the strongest Droid character in the game.
66	** Use of solo mode and OptionalStealth takes some work to figure out (and patience, as stealth means you run about half speed), but in conjunction with grenades, mines, and hacking computers in enemy bases, a stealth based character like Mission can sneak up to a bunch of tough mooks, thin their numbers with a grenade, kite them through a minefield, and lead them to the other party members who mop up what's left.
67	** Similarly in the sequel it's generally worth not leveling up your non-Jedi non-droid non-wookie followers since all but one of them can become Jedi and not leveling them up means that they get more Jedi levels (which are generally better than their initial class).
68	** The sequel also offers one other Elite Tweak, the Consular route for a male Exile. While the game is somewhat infamous for the player characters becoming stupidly powerful, a male consular is absolutely ridiculous when paired up with the Handmaiden for a few rounds. She teaches you 'Battle Precognition' which allows the Exile to use his Wisdom Modifier, the highest stat anyway on a proper consular, to his Armor Class. And that's just the beginning...
69	** Then there's the ability to mix and match the base and prestige classes in any of six combinations based on starting class and alignment. If the player starts as a Jedi Consular, they'll have more force powers and [[{{Mana}} force points]] than they'll know what to do with, plus a set of feats that will guarantee that their powers will almost never be resisted. If they choose the Jedi Weaponmaster PrestigeClass at level fifteen, they'll get a set of feats to increase melee damage, another set that decreases all damage, while keeping all the bonuses they had as a Consular. They can even have respectable skill usage if their starting Intelligence was fourteen or higher. It is a true [[MasterOfAll best of both worlds]] if the player can get past the early game slump.
70	* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' Shadow (or Assassin) tanks are often underestimated because they rely heavily on shields and wear ''light'' armor, which is counterintuitive for a tank spec. However, the combination of stealth, stuns, speed, and a DPS that's ''almost'' as good as a full-blown DPS (which factors into how they ''hold'' aggro) means that a Shadow-Assassin Tank that's properly tweaked the equipment and figured out the mechanics is an excellent choice for exploration, dailies, flashpoints, or a boss with a fast enrage timer.
71	* Fina in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' doesn't get weapon upgrades from stores or chests; you have to [[GottaCatchThemAll search]] for hidden items and accumulate a great deal of them before her EmpathicWeapon, Cupil, levels up. And even then, it still sucks [[MagikarpPower before you get every single one]], at which time it becomes the InfinityPlusOneSword.
72	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' can learn otherwise-inaccessible moves through breeding, resulting in multiple "chain breedings" in order to get a mon that knows a certain move.
73	** And if the player wants to put the effort into it, they can breed for good [=IVs=]. This involves several generations of breeding, and will probably require some inbreeding. [[GuideDangIt And frequent references to a guide]].
74	*** Generation VII alleviates this with Hyper Training. In exchange for bottlecaps, you can cap out a Pokémon's stats as if it had max [=IVs=]. Bottlecaps are rare, however, it's definitely less time consuming and involves less GuideDangIt. However, it only changes stats, not inherent [=IVs=], so you still have to breed specific [=IVs=] for Hidden Power and you're out of luck if you want a Trick Room team (which favors a ''low'' Speed stat rather than a high one).
75	*** The same generation also alleviated entire breeding process by the fact you can get a Pokémon that has up to 4 perfect [=IVs=] by chaining SOS-calls. This means you can get just two Dittos with their common [=IVs=] covering all stats then breeding each a particular species until it passes all of those to next generation, then breeding the two resulting mons together, speeding up entire process. Getting good nature is still LuckBasedMission though.
76	** Some Pokémon, like Magikarp and Shroomish, learn very good moves if you don't evolve them immediately. Particularly, Magikarp gains Flail, one of the potentially strongest Normal attacks for Gyarados, 10 levels after it would initially evolve. Shroomish gains access to Spore, a 100% accuracy Sleep move, at level 45.
77	** Pokémon also have invisible "Effort Values", very small stat boosts given by each species when defeated. Normally a Pokémon's [=EVs=] will be all over the place because it knocks out lots of different species as you battle trainers with it. With some planning (rather, "grinding the same species of Pokémon in the wild for a few hours"), these boosts can add up to produce about the same effects as good breeding.
78	*** Generation VI introduced a feature called the "Super Trainer" which allows for quicker and more convenient [=EV=] training by way of playing minigames and training bags, and even provides a graphical representation of your Pokémon's [=EVs=] and a way to reset them. [[DiscOneNuke This means you can have a fully [=EV=]-trained Level 5 Starter at the beginning of the game]].
79	*** Generation's VII Poke Pelago allows you to train Pokémon for [=EXPs=] or [=EVs=] while you're away. Using beans and maximized island it takes about 20 hours to maximize [=EVs=] for one stat and 18 Pokémon can be trained at once, meaning if you can hold on using particular mon (usually a freshly breeded [=Lv1=] Pokémon) you can have them fully trained with no effort whatsoever.
80	** Most Pokémon also have access to a "hidden" ability, one which is much rarer to find on that Pokémon than their standard abilities. Finding one with these rare abilities requires anything from chaining multiple wild Pokémon, to participating in events, and performing tasks possible only in past generations, and frequently requires finding someone online who's willing to trade. They also have a lower chance of being passed on to bred Pokémon, and if you have a male you'll also need a Ditto. The payoff? These abilities frequently outclass their standard counterparts by a country mile, or at least open up brand new ways to play and strategize; in extreme cases they're a Pokémon's ''only'' useful ability in online play. [[labelnote:Example]]Alakazam and its pre-evolved forms possess Synchronize and Inner Focus as regular abilities; the former makes it so that if it's inflicted with a major status condition by the opponent then that opponent also gets the status condition, while the latter keeps it from flinching. Both abilities are decent, but otherwise not spectacular by any means. Compare that to its ''hidden'' ability, Magic Guard, which prevents all non-attack damage done to it. This is a huge boon to it due to being a major SquishyWizard, since not only does it provide immunity to everything from entry hazards to leech seed to sandstorm and hail damage, but it also allows it to, among other things, use Life Orb and get its damage boost without the recoil, or hold Flame Orb to burn itself, thus making it immune to deadlier conditions like Paralysis, Sleep and Freeze (being burned also halves its attack, which not only does it not use, but it also cuts damage taken from confusion and the move Foul Play, which are affected by its attack stat).[[/labelnote]]
81	** And then you can combine all of the methods above, resulting in a Pokémon with about 40% better stats than normal which also knows incredibly rare moves. It also comes in handy for those that participate in TournamentPlay, which allows Pokémon in lower-level tournaments to use moves normally not available to them.
82	** Generation VII's SOS calls can result in players having Pokémon like ''Salamence'' before even leaving the first island.
83	* Something similar to HotSkittyOnWailordAction can be done in most of the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games--careful fusions of demons/personas can give the new ones very useful abilities they can't otherwise get. Due to the series' trademark FusionDance technology and NintendoHard action, you need to master it in order to avoid crippling beatdowns, protect your demons while negating their weaknesses, and overcome enemies by exploiting theirs.
84	** Note that this is very important in game-play. Let's just say if that the player does ''not'' do this, they're in for a [[NintendoHard rough ride]].
85	* In the Platform/GameGear game ''Crystal Warriors'', Healers have very weak melee stats through level 8; get one to level 9 (the max) and suddenly he gains massive amounts of attack, defense, and hit points, becoming the most powerful melee unit in the game.
86	* In the MMORPG ''VideoGame/AnarchyOnline'', Elite Tweak type characters are built due to the skill system employed in the game and the capability of any given character to use items and implants to boost those skills even further than before. The end result are characters that have impressive, frightening power levels and levels before they're supposed to actually have access to it. (many weapons, armor and nanos have no level locks to equip and use.)
87	* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore''. Here's a breakdown on what to be elite tweaked: each titular Armored Core needs at least body, head, arms, legs, and generators. Most usually, it needs boosters, FCS and radiators (depending on the game). Equippable weapons include arm weapons (or [[ArmCannon weapon arms]]), back weapons, and/or spare weapons/extensions+insides. The weapons themselves range from puny handguns to grenade launchers, to anything in between, including, but not limited to: {{Attack Drone}}s, arcing howitzers, [[MacrossMissileMassacre missile launchers, lots of missile launchers]], [[GatlingGood superlarge caliber gatlings]], [[MoreDakka more gatlings]], [[NukeEm tactical nukes]], mezzer weapons (lock-on disruptor, radar jammer, missile decoys), etc, etc, etc. The list goes on.
88	** In the later games, also add the ability to tweak individual parts to have more power, less weight, more ammo, etc.
89	*** This trope is essentially the point of the series, perhaps even more-so than fighting mecha.
90	** The same goes for other mecha battles such as ''Chrome Hounds'' and ''Phantom Crash''.
91	* The ''VideoGame/QuestForGlory'' games were built upon this. The games allowed one to carry over ones save (across 5 games no less!), keeping not just stats but abilities and spells too including the hidden (in the first few games that it appeared in) class, the Paladin. However, there were few other restrictions to what skills and such a player could gain or achieve; most notably, only a wizard could get a wizard's staff. Thus, by starting at the first adventure and playing all the way through to the last, a player could be a paladin with a magical sword and additional abilities... who was an elite member of the Thieves Guild, a powerful archmage, and a exceptionally powerful fighter. Being a guy in plate mail sneaking around doing acrobatics while stabbing the archvillain and chucking fireballs seems more suitable to anime than a game based off medieval Europe and Africa.
92	* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' was always a rather casual-oriented {{MMORPG}} where an optimum build isn't very important, and booting a player from a team for having anything other than a ''really'' bad build (I.E. nothing but travel powers) is considered a real dick move. However, there's still plenty of fun to be had for number crunchers with patience, especially with the Invention system- save up some money and you can literally push the limits of your offensive and defensive powers, allowing you to take on even the strongest enemies solo.
93	* The Gadgeteer class in ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} 8'' is a case of this. On the surface, they seem to just be rogues with guns and are weaker in combat, and start with a homebuilt gun that they occasionally tweak as they level up. The trick is finding gadget parts, which are usually far in between, and putting them together to assemble powerful weapons of destruction while that omnigun becomes one of the most potent ranged weapons in the game when its owner reaches a high enough level. If the player knows what she's doing, a Gadgeteer can become one of the most powerful characters in the party.
94	* In the world of hyper-realistic racing simulators, tuning your car is everything. All allow you to do things like adjust almost every parameter of your suspension, mess around with your gear ratios, and the really hardcore ones let you even do the things such ''change the size of your radiator or add tape to your grill to control aerodynamics.''. Even the amount of fuel you have is important, as less will mean you have a lighter car and will be faster and handle better. But, if you have more fuel, you can go longer before pitting and pass cars who have to pit more often....and that's just one factor.
95	* Do not, do not, DO NOT miss the upgrade accessories for any character in the Platform/SuperNintendo RPG ''VideoGame/SailorMoonAnotherStory''. Particularly Sailor Mercury, who's pathetically weak even ''with'' the upgrades and absolutely useless without them. And you play as her solo for an entire chapter.
96	* Due to its utter lack of traditional experience levels and subsequent reliance on random drops and treasure chests, ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair'' is all about elite tweaking. And the methods for tweaking your elites can be determined by ''very'' frustrating random variables.
97	* The first ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' initially promises a LOT of potential tweaking by sinking all your experience level-ups into Badge Points. Badges can give you really great and varied bonuses, letting you set up stats and abilities for each new situation. Alas, the BP cap maxes out just before it gets interesting. ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' delivers much better, raising the level cap from 27 to 99 and raising the BP cap with it. In both games, one NPC can tweak Mario's stats for additional BP at the cost of his max HP and FP, and then the player compensates the handicap with badges that raise stats and that activate other boosts when Mario's HP is low (5 or under, regardless of level) and the "Danger!" warning flashes. Cue the dawning of the [[GameBreaker disgustingly powerful]] setup aptly known as ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Danger Mario]]''.
98	* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':
99	** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'': With a bit of effort, Lilim can be fused with all four basic elemental spells, making her pretty much the only Persona you'll need to fight with until level 20 or so. Having no elemental weaknesses and a reasonably high magic stat is the icing on the cake.
100	** Helel from both ''Persona 3'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' can be this as it is possible to fuse him in such a way that he can cast multi-target elemental spells for no mana, or be completely immune to all types of damage (except Almighty as its unblockable). The methods for doing this however can politely be described as "time consuming and prone to randomness" and impolitely described as "completely insane".
101	** ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' and several games after it feature the ability to completely control which skills your demons inherit, making it entirely possible to assemble the perfect demon that either wrecks face with a supercharged attack backed by Boosts/Pleromas, or has immunities to everything barring Almighty and things with [[ArmorPiercingAttack Pierce attributes]].
102	** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' lets you sacrifice one persona to another to boost their stats and pass on moves. With enough patience and SaveScumming it's entirely possible to turn your initial persona Arsene or even early-game weaklings like Pixie and Jack-o-Lantern into behemoths with maxed-out stats, horrifically strong attacks with boosted power, and no weaknesses, putting them on par with or even outclassing endgame personas with less optimized stats and movepools.
103	*** ''Persona 5 Royal'' lets you go further in manipulating a Persona's stats, allowing you to add stat points via Lockdown and the Gallows (during fusion accidents) until they have [[MasterOfAll maximum stats in everything]]. The game also introduces "traits" which work like Abilities in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', providing additional attributes such as reduced skill cost or increased damage on physical attacks. With some crafty fusing, skill cards and tons of patience, it's possible to turn every persona in the game into a monster, their innate resistances being the only things separating them.
104	* ''VideoGame/StarWarsGalaxies'' originally had a very dynamic levelling system that was absolutely ripe for abuse. Due to the nature of the game each player had a limited number of job ''points'', but they can spread them out across as many ''jobs'' as they wanted. Theoretically, better skills require more points, but skills that might not be particularly valuable in a particular job (and thus, require less points to activate) could be absolutely devastating when combined with other skills in other job trees. Because the system had so many loopholes for abuse and because the game had a heavy [=PvP=] focus it was deemed basically "broken" and the entire gaming system was remade to a more traditional structure. However, by the time they made the change most of the dedicated players were only playing because they enjoyed the massively tweakable game engine... the game was killed by the developers not much later.
105	** In addition, the game featured an entirely player-based resource and crafting economy to make all but the most mundane of equipment. Unfortunately, the developers never bothered to check what would happen if players were dedicated enough to grab the best resources possible (which was not actually all that difficult to do) and used them to craft weapons, armour, and - most game-breakingly - buffs. Cue players that regenerated hundreds of health points every second and could wear entire suits of armour that reduced nearly all incoming damage by 85%. Content that was originally designed to be tackled by groups of 10-20 players could be comfortably soloed by mid-tier characters. Future content had to be balanced to accommodate this power-creep, basically making it completely unplayable by anyone who WASN'T using top-tier weapons/armour/buffs.
106	* ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsGundam 2'' has two kinds of customization options.
107	** First is special equipment added to a mobile suit. Most suits can mount up to five upgrades that can be switched out later at any time. While most upgrades affect weapon damage, defenses or mobility, some combinations are inherently better than others. Nu Gundam and Wing Zero in particular become scarily powerful when equipped with Sniper, allowing them to lay out over a dozen mooks in a single attack ''on Hard difficulty'' once their ranged attack stat is maxed out, regardless of pilot skill. Then there are upgrades like Armor Gain that restores health while hacking away at mooks, Biocomputer that allows you to spam [[LimitBreak SP attacks]] by multiplying the gauge's recharge amount while inflicting damage, Pressure Hit that makes every single attack partially bypass [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe guarding]] and [[ShieldsAreUseless inflict damage anyway]]...
108	** Second are the pilot skills, learned by piloting certain mobile suits and lucking out with the RandomNumberGod (or just doing missions over and over again in the same suit until the RNG throws up its hands in frustration). Some, like Parry, are nigh-useless. Some, like Leadership (buffs all allies) and Moonrace (gives a temporary buff per every 50 kills) are highly situational. But some are completely game-changing: DG Cells (take more damage at the cost of RegeneratingHealth, the hardest missions are nigh-impossible without it), Serene Mind ([[LimitBreak SP gauge]] continually regenerates instead of only at [[DesperationAttack low health]], allowing you to spam your strongest attack) and Overdrive (swaps SP attack with Combo SP attack; [[WaveMotionGun Hyakushiki]] and [[NukeEm Turn A]] greatly benefit from it) in particular.
109	* The Sentinel class in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' is often considered a MasterOfNone, due to having the lowest weapon skills of any class and lacking the advanced tech/biotic powers. But once you get the Achievements for killing a number of enemies with the non-pistol weapons, you can take one of those weapon types as a bonus talent. With the extra firepower, a Sentinel Shepard can spam a multitude of debuffing and disabling powers whilst gunning down vulnerable and helpless mooks, protected with a talent-boosted shield and the Barrier power.
110	* Standard issue in ''VideoGame/Dota2''. Every hero has certain synergies with items, varying from the extreme to simply being particularly good with them. Combining these items with particular heroes and then with eachother is ''far'' more powerful than building in a straightforwards manner towards a single "Goal" (Contrast ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', where it literally ''is'' just about building one number up for the vast majority of characters, with "gimmicks" generally being extra scaling based on one number such as armor or speed). For example, Ember Spirit has an ability that attacks all enemies in a large area for increased damage. The common build is a Battlefury, which grants him a HerdHittingAttack.....on ''all of those attacks'', letting him to massive cumulative damage to grouped up enemies. Further boost this by teaming him up with Magnus, who grants an even ''stronger'' HerdHittingAttack to his allies with one of his abilities, and has another to group them up and stun them. [[TotalPartyKill Do the math]].
111	* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' end-game consists largely of figuring out the proper combination of skills, armor sets, legendary bonuses, Paragon points, and cube buffs. Where the maximum time for clearing a Greater Rift and receiving the award is 15 minutes, a properly equipped and skilled player can clear them on the highest difficulty in under two minutes.
112	* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' encourages homogeneous armor sets by [[SetBonus having armor parts' skill points sum up such that they form a set of active skills if all armor pieces of the same design are used together]]. However, some players take to building custom sets that can achieve skill combinations that are not possible with conventional armor-building, resulting in some extremely powerful sets, [[RainbowPimpGear fashion sense be damned]][[note]]although later games have Armor Fusion or Layered Armor that overrides the look of one armor with another[[/note]]. Many players who build custom sets use tools such as [[https://www.facebook.com/AthenasArmorSetSearch/ Athena's Armor Set Search]] to look up the necessary armor pieces for their sets.
113	* ''VideoGame/MagicTheGathering'': Tribal decks are a straightforward example. A 2/2 rat zombie for 2 mana can be ludicrously more useful than a 2/2 human zombie for 2 mana,
114	** Depending on the current metagame, swapping one type of removal or counterspell for another can turn a deck from "solid, but with glaring weaknesses" to "tournament winner".
115	* Most ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' players will jump at the chance to upgrade to a chaos-empowered flaming halberd. Chaos weapons scale with Soft Humanity instead of stats governed by levelling up, giving them an advantage in low level [=PvP=]. Veteran [=PvP=] players tend to follow the [[BoringButPractical Normal]] path instead, as it benefits the most from stat scaling at high levels and avoids dealing split damage that can be negated by an opponent's damage resistances.
116	** Softcaps and Breakpoints. DiminishingReturnsForBalance applies hard, so knowing that can help you get the most value for your souls. For example, your Endurance stat won't increase Stamina anymore once you push it past 40.
117	* In ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', the Blood Gem Workshop allows you to apply various Blood Gems that increase various stats of your weapons. Finding a fitting gem would greatly amplify the effectiveness of your weapon, be it a weapon with high physical damage, a Sidelite Weapon with mixed elemental damage types (applied by attaching gems with [[FixedDamageAttack Flat Damage]]), a Bow Blade and a sidearm which continuously heal you, a Rapid Poison Chikage, or a serrated weapon with Fire damage that works very well against Beast-type enemies. There are also Cursed Gems, which are more effective than normal gems at the cost of various debilitations. Also, deliberately not levelling up your character past a certain level gap (or only reaching the minimal stat requirement of a single weapon) while focusing on upgrading a weapon into something with ridiculous stat would allow you to obliterate virtually everyone at low level [=PvP=].
118	* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' invokes this trope in the form of Runes and Masteries. These offer small (1-3%) situational boosts to your champion's stats, and you access more of them the more you play. They're usually small (3% speed out of combat, stuns are 5% shorter) but can give you a crucial edge in combat when combined.
119	* A key part of competitive ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' is being able to manage your team's cash. While a casual group will usually buy whatever suits their playstyle (or an [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome an AWP]]), organised teams will share weapons and gear.
120	* SurvivalSandbox games often feature this trope when it comes to resource gathering, or base building.
121	** ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': Figuring out automated farms, then automated mob grinders. Drastically increased gathering efficiency on food and loot.
122	** ''VideoGame/{{Rust}}'': Figuring out layered, raid-resistant base designs. Your buildings go from "raider magnet" to "possibly too much trouble to raid".
123	* ''VideoGame/PuzzleAndDragons'' has quite a few. "Hypermaxing" is the art of ultimate evolving and max leveling a monster with all of the first 3:
124	** Evolved monsters have awakenings, which include both self- (two-pronged attack, bind resists, type killers, etc.) and team-boosting (skill bind/poison/jammer/dark resists, enhanced row element damage, element damage resists, extended time, etc.) enhancements, some of which are crucial for late and post-game dungeons. Latent awakenings, while less potent at what they do, can be assigned to any monster[[note]]max. 5[[/note]], as opposed to the preassigned allotments of the standard counterparts, and are the only source of skill delay resists. Many players will use at least one dark latent to survive Hera's [[OneHitKill Zero Gravity attack]].
125	** Stat boosts, which are typically acquired by random drops. Monsters can each have up to +99 per stat[[note]]HP, ATK, RCV[[/note]].
126	** Skill level-ups to reduce turn cooldown, though depending on the rarity of the fodder and number of levels needed to max out, this can [[LastLousyPoint add a massive layer of annoyance]], to speak nothing of [[LuckBasedMission the RNG factor involved]].
127	** With the advent of Skill Transfer (also known as Assist Monster), it has been possible to transfer any skill of any monster[[note]]specifically, those with golden stars after maxing their Awakening Skills[[/note]] to another, where, for instance, the inheriter would be a better fit for typing purposes and/or stats, or an otherwise ideal team needs a bind clear skill without compromising one of its own. For starters, only monsters with a corresponding element would raise the inheriter's stat. The monster's level and stat boost also affect how many stat increases the inheriter would receive. Several monsters can be evolved into equipments via Assist Evolution, which allows a monster to inherit awakened skills from the equipments.
128	** The achievement badge system, which awards awakening-like options for awakenings, adds more tweak options, most notably bind immunity for leaders, cost requirement reduction, 50% skill-bind resist, and +1 second movement time.
129	* In ''VideoGame/TotalWarShogun2'', the primary disadvantage of the Warrior Monk units is that they have weak armour which makes them very vulnerable to enemy archers. However, it's possible by combining a Master Armourer and an Armoury in the same province to give a +5 bonus to the armour of all units recruited there, including monks. This turns the Warrior Monks into an all-rounder unit with devastating fighting abilities and a strong resistance to the one type of unit intended to be a hard counter to them. At this point the only thing preventing you from sweeping the map with hordes of invincible monks is their high upkeep cost, but they're easily worth it.
130	* ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheRays'' has the tower, a side mode from the main game that most people attempt once a month for the rewards, with the chance to get a random set of passive skills for characters. Since getting far or even completing the tower essentially requires you to have powerful equipment for many characters, the game isn't balanced around these passives at all. Cue people constantly re-attempting tower for a chance at getting just the right skills to make a character broken. The most popular example is getting as high of a cast time reduction as possible on Rita- as much as 90%, as well as the Tidal Wave magic arte, then casting it after one backstep for instant screen nukes.
131	* ''VideoGame/GirlsFrontline'' has the "[[TabletopGame/YuGiOh Exodia]]" composition, so-called because the original Exodia squad is composed of IWS 2000, Stechkin, [=M950A=], [=Five-seveN=], and Welrod [=MkII=], all incredibly rare T-Dolls. By herself, IWS possess incredible firepower but is hampered by low rate of fire, which is further magnified by her skill. The four handguns paired with her drastically increases her damage, critical hit chance, and (most importantly) rate of fire, allowing her to clear mobs of enemies single-handedly and even go toe-to-toe with bosses, all with lower resource consumption than a typical echelon. Other Exodia variations exist, such as ones utilizing [=M4A1=] MOD 3 or [=G11=] instead of IWS, but the core concept of buffing one T-Doll to high heavens remains the same.
132	** In a similar vein, a 5 HG echelon is often a go-to for resource-efficient farming, due to handguns having the lowest resource consumption out of all T-Doll types. Handguns also posses powerful team-wide skills and tile buffs, both of which stack with other handgun's own skill and tiles, offsetting their low overall stats. In fact, with the correct setup and some micromanagement, a 5 HG echelon can take on endgame enemies ''and win''.
133	* ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'': The Blood Crystal is generally a RangedEmergencyWeapon, being outclassed by the Bow and Adamant Rail's ranged basic attacks and the Spear's [[JavelinThrower special attack]], and generally inferior damage-wise to melee combat with the sword, shield or fists: Its main advantage outside of range is that it can be thrown quickly, and thus add an additional hit to a {{Combo}}. However, several Gods and weapon Aspects are designed around a Cast-based playthrough, with Artemis in particular being designed around it: An all-Artemis run can turn the Cast into a GameBreaker capable of laying low any boss in the game in less than a minute through MoreDakka of {{Always Accurate Attack}}s that deal massive additional damage when they detach from enemies.
134	* Mandatory in ''VideoGame/BattleTech''. Stock designs and stock pilots are okay, but usually mediocre: a normal pilot firing a salvo of missiles from a normal 'Mech will do some damage, but usually it will be small amounts, and usually poorly spread out besides. It is only after you take the time to get down into the weeds of both pilot training and 'Mech design that you can come up with some truly vicious results. For instance, instead of the above basic pilot, train a pilot with Multiple Targeting and Bulwark, then specialize into Breaching Shot. However, take some time to train up Tactics to remove the indirect fire penalty. Find a large missile boat 'Mech (or rebuild machines such as the ''Stalker'' with more missile launchers) and you will be blessed with a 'Mech that can hit multiple enemies with an UnblockableAttack from behind a hill while being almost immune to return fire itself (and able to reduce the impact of said return fire, usually enemy counterbattery missile fire, thanks to Bulwark). Said attack will also usually cause stability damage (knocking the 'Mech down and injuring the pilot) or have a fairly good chance to hit enemy 'Mechs in the head (just injuring the pilot directly). Congratulations, you will now leave a trail of concussed opponents in your wake and enjoy battlefield salvage for days.
135	* The difficulty of ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VI'' can be reduced to nothingness if you take a party of three Sorcerers and a Cleric (or two and two) if you know what you're doing. While they are [[SquishyWizard Squishy Wizards]] and the [[EarlyGameHell beginning of the game can become hell]], if you teach every Sorcerer Sparks - good spell dealing electric damage (to which not many enemies are resistant in early parts of the game) that can be learned right at the beginning if you have cash (which you can get with no combat if you know where to look) - you can kill many of monsters with ease as long as you stop for rest when out of mana. Once you finish first dungeons and associated quests in New Sorpigal, you can move to promotion quests of Sorcerers which can be done before reaching Free Haven and which shouldn't be too difficult once two or three of your party members know Sparks at expert level. Before getting to Free Haven, you can grab Chalice from The Temple of The Sun (that is accessible with Water Walk) for the second Cleric promotion quest, which does have difficult enemies but in low number, so you should be able to handle it. Once in Free Haven you can go to Stone City to get both Cleric promotion quests and complete them. Now you have fully promoted party with each member having access to both Light and Dark magic, and you didn't even properly start the mainline quest. After that, you can get to shops with Light and Dark magic spells and power them up right away if you saved skill points, and after that there is really nothing that can stop you anymore.

Context Main / EliteTweak