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4In {{Eastern RPG}}s, there is usually one spell or a set of spells available late in the game that make every other attack and technique in the game pale by comparison.
5
6After all the tweaking of weapons, stats and armor, magic almost never hits as quickly, consistently, or powerfully as it would if you just run up and hit something with your basic attack. Although healing spells are always useful, SummonMagic tends to be the only offensive magic that'll hit a bunch of enemies for great damage late in the game. This is usually because, while physical attacks improve substantially with new equipment, only gaining new spells will make magic function better. This is especially true for status-affecting spells, which the enemies in the last quarter of the game or so [[UselessUsefulSpell are almost always immune against]].
7
8So, to give the magic wielder something to do in the end-game, there's this trope. There is often an "[[InfinityPlusOneSword Ultimate]]" spell which is hard to find or learn, and which blows all previous spells of its type out of the water. [[InfinityPlusOneElement If it has any others of its type to begin with.]]
9
10These will frequently become a DiscOneNuke if you can [[SequenceBreaking somehow]] get it early in the game or keep the spell when you start a NewGamePlus.
11
12Compare with InfinityMinusOneSword, the weapon version of this trope. Can be a version of InfinityPlusOneSword if this magic technique is optional and by the time you get it, there's nothing left to use it on. Contrast with LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards. May be related to EleventhHourSuperpower.
13----
14!!Examples
15[[foldercontrol]]
16
17[[folder:First-Person Shooter]]
18* ''Videogame/EYEDivineCybermancy'' grants a unique "Gate" psychic attack at the beginning of each of the [[MultipleEndings three penultimate levels]], which are extremely powerful and have NoSavingThrow. Hypnotic permanently stuns the target, Substitution is a LifeDrain, and Triangular is a DeathRay. Each of the Gate powers are hyper-lethal; both to the target and to the user, as they can inflict [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity bouts of insanity]] and permanent scars on the caster. The final, most expensive non-Gate power, Dragon's Breath, is WeaponizedTeleportation and can OneHitKill anything organic. It's also [[MundaneUtility a useful way to travel the large levels]].
19* In ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast]]'', Level 3 Force Grip and Force Lightning are gained quite late on. Level 3 Saber Throw takes the cake, giving you only a ''single level'' to get any real use out of it, and even then, most of the enemies wield lightsabers of their own to deflect it. ''Jedi Academy'' is far more generous on that front: Saber Throw, as one of the "neutral" powers that levels up at set intervals, gives you no less than six levels to play with it (most of them filled with Stormtroopers and other such enemies that are very susceptible to it), and the choose-your-powers approach for everything else turns Grip and Lightning into potential {{Disc One Nuke}}s.
20[[/folder]]
21
22[[folder:MMORPG]]
23* ''VideoGame/WarhammerOnline'' tends to avert this trope, as the primary magic damage stat provides enough damage boosts to keep it roughly level with melee damage. Because the spells differ in terms of effect, range, cooldown and cost rather than just straight out being better than something else, even the basic spells learned in the first few levels are still used consistently in the endgame, although specialized "bonus" abilities from path mastery do tend to be of higher quality (as they should, being pretty exclusive and only available by spending mastery points). There are a few exceptions, but almost all of the starting abilities granted at level 1 are still used just as much at level 40.
24* Blizzard had this problem with ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' at launch: at the time, once you hit 60, the only way to progress was to get gear with better stats. Attack gear could just have higher damage output, but the only thing a caster could do is increase their critical strike percentage by increasing their Intellect. As a result, Blizzard added a new stat: "Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to X"
25** The problem still exists in a way in the arena [=PvP=], as melee classes scale better with the gear (a good weapon is enough to substantially increase their damage), and most powerful spells have a cast time, which is a major disadvantage in [=PvP=].
26** In ''Cataclysm'', Intellect finally affects spell power as well as providing the old mana pool/spell crit bonuses.
27[[/folder]]
28
29[[folder:Real-Time Strategy]]
30* ''VideoGame/LostMagic'' gives you the mystical trio runes, just in time for the showdown with the BigBad (if you took the right SadisticChoice, that is.) In a NewGamePlus, they become a splendid DiscOneNuke.
31* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'': While a hero's stats varies with level and powerups used, spells will always deal fixed damage. Not a huge problem in standard games where the level cap is 10, but many custom maps increase the cap without thinking to increase spell damage as well, leading to heroes that would deal less damage if they were to use all their spells simultaneously than in a single normal attack. Other maps link the spell's damage to the hero's stats, making them useful at all levels.
32[[/folder]]
33
34[[folder:Role-Playing Game]]
35* In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', The "Crystal" versions of existing sorceries are only available in the last third of the game after meeting the requirement of unlocking the teacher in The Duke's Archives. Crystal Soul Spear has the highest base damage of all single target sorcery magic, Homing Crystal Soulmass deals large burst damage if all the soulmasses connect, and Crystal Magic weapon is the strongest of the sorcery weapon buffs.
36** Inverted in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'', Soul Spear becomes a DiscOneNuke.
37* In ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'', the most powerful damaging sorcery, Soul Geyser, can only be found near the end of the game in Aldias Keep after acquiring the King's Ring.
38* The ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' series has the recurring Magic Burst spell, introduced in ''VI.'' While it has the side-effect of draining all of the user's MP at once, it is consistently the single most damaging skill in any game it appears in, often being able to one-shot bosses at higher levels.
39* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' has [[MacrossMissileMassacre A Call Beyond]], an artillery spell which is handy for killing large creatures.
40* ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'':
41** Starting in Chapter 6, each of your party members can learn a unique “Megahax” by trading Rare NES Games to a collector living in [=GameFAQs=]. They can be incredibly useful, (for instance, Til’s Megahax promises to [[ForcedSleep put all enemies to sleep]], and Tyalie’s gives everyone in the party an [[AutoRevive extra life]]), but using them locks the caster’s magic for the rest of the fight, making them a bit of a double-edged sword.
42** A handful of elemental orbs start showing up in various places around Chapter 7 or so. When one of them is equipped as an accessory, the user learns a tremendously powerful magic attack, like “Meteor Shower” or “Eternal Snowstorm.” Unlike the party’s Megahax skills, they can be used multiple times per battle, although each use costs an enormous amount of RP.
43* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'':
44** The final elemental summons are by far the most powerful moves, although they take a long while to recharge.
45** The Elemental Physical Attacks Quick Strike and Annihilation are the most powerful Psynergy attacks to use because their damage comes from multiplying the current attack stat. They also require higher than average endgame levels (40 and 31) and 6 Djinn each to be usable.
46** Weapon Unleashes will become far easier to use the more Unleash chance boosting equipment you can find, meaning at least one party member with be able to Unleash 99% of the time if you play your cards right. Combine this with certain endgame weapons like Excalibur and Sol Blade in ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'' and your normal attacks start outdamaging even the last game summons (if limited to a single target, while summons will hit every enemy).
47* ''VideoGame/{{Gothic}}'' gives mage characters a powerful magic spell (Uriziel's Wave of Death) that is by far superior to any other attack, but can only be gained in the last chapter. Notably, in Gothic mage characters are much weaker than ranged or melee characters up to that point.
48** Repeated in ''Gothic II'', but this time with scrolls that any character can use (but only one time for each scroll) in the one before the last chapter. Casting one of those spells twice on the final boss kills it instantly.
49* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' gave every character (including certain bosses) Hi-Ougi/Secret Artes that could only be accessed towards the end of the game. Well, everybody in the [[NoExportForYou Japan only]] [=PS2=] version and the Chronicles and Steam releases. Only Lloyd, Collette and Genis have them in the base game.
50* The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series, depending on the game chosen, has Flare, Meteor/Meteo, Holy/Pearl, or the rather impressive Ultima. Often they have all of the above. There is a recurring top-end magic that puts them all to shame, called Grand Cross, but this magic has never yet been available to the heroes.
51** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'' has chasing the Ultima spell as a major plot arc, but you don't actually even need to use it at any point in the game. Its power is based on the level of its user's other skills, which can make it absurdly powerful or weaker than the Flare spell you can obtain earlier in the same dungeon.
52*** The magic system in the game largely averts this, however. Rather than unlocking higher-power versions of spells later on, all spells grow more powerful as a character uses them. The simple Fire spell you buy in the game's first town will last you all the way until the final dungeon with regular practice. Even Holy and Flare don't avert this, as while they have higher base damage, they lack [[ElementalRockPaperScissors elemental properties]].
53** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' makes the search for Holy, Flare, Meteor, and Bahamut Summon spells into part of the endgame plot, firmly tauting them as the end-all be-all spells of their respective magic types. That said, it avoids this to some extent, as one of the classes, Mystic Knight, has an ability called Spellblade that infuses the user's weapon with a black magic spell (as long as you've bought it), meaning that it's much easier to hit enemies with spells.
54*** It plays it straight with [[PowerCopying Blue Magic]], since some mooks that carry the ultra-spells don't show up until [[spoiler:world 3]]. Though some of the most powerful blue magic like Death Claw and Level 5 Death is in turn a DiscOneNuke.
55** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has several examples of this, notably the [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Knights of the Round materia.]] With the Knights' materia, and a couple other materia combos (W-Summon, Final Attack, etc.) it's possible to throw any enemy (including both {{superboss}}es) into an endless loop of Knights of the Round until your opponents are dead.
56** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' uses this trope literally with the Apocalypse spell, only obtainable by drawing it out of the final form of Ultimecia's body. If you hack it into your inventory in a new game, you'll find that it's quite the GameBreaker, attack and stat-wise.
57** Even the summon magic in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' took so long to cast as to be useless. Your only real use late-game magic got is the [[GameBreaker Calculator]], which could cast spells like Holy instantly (certain restrictions apply).
58*** As the above suggests, these restrictions can be turned into a positive, as it is relatively easy to get a Calculator to cast Holy on all combatants (Ally and Enemy) instantly and for no MP. The trick is to give your characters the ability to negate or absorb Holy damage, causing all enemies to take massive damage (Usually enough to kill), and your party to be healed to full.
59** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'':
60*** It has the [[WaveMotionGun Scathe]] and [[PlayingWithFire Ardor]] spells for the Black Magic school, and [[HolyHandGrenade Holy]] for the White Magic school. ''IZJS'' and ''Zodiac Age'' releases however subvert it with Scathe by moving it into the deepest parts of Lhusu Mines, which are accessible as soon as you reach Phon Coast hunter camp, providing you can [[BeefGate run past the enemies there and live long enough]].
61*** Since the Wither, Addle, Expose, and Shear Technicks in the ''IZJS'' and ''Zodiac Age'' versions work against [[GameBreaker absolutely anything]], their order of attainability had to be rearranged: the former two were moved into the parts that can be accessed only by the end of the game. Addle can be found in Henne Mines Special charter shaft that is accessible only if you have ten Espers on you, which is doable after the events in Giruvegan (though it's on the path to the boss against which it will be very useful). Wither is in deepest part of Pharos Subterra, which can be only accessed before the final battle. Both also are found in chests with relatively low percentage spawns and are surrounded by hardest monsters in the game. They however ''do'' make all remaining {{superboss}}es much easier though.
62** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight 4 Heroes of Light]] has the ultimate white magic Lux, which places several [[StatusBuff status buffs]] simultaneously, and the ultimate black magic Desolator, a version of the traditional meteor spell that gets around six hits that are each as powerful as a regular spell. Unlike all other spells in this game, you can only acquire one copy of each.
63** Somewhat averted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2''. Depending on the target, magic or physical attacks might be more effective (against monsters it's usually magic thanks to elemental weaknesses), and since MP always start outs at 0, the Last Disc Magic aren't the higher tier spells themselves, but skills and passive abilities that decrease MP cost or speed up MP recovery.
64** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': Doublecast and Ultima lie behind several high level lock-spheres, so they'll most likely only be unlocked just before the PointOfNoReturn (if at all). For the record, the former allows the user to cast two Black Magic spells in one turn, and the latter deals non-elemental magic damage (even higher than that of [[BlackMage Lulu's]] final spell - Flare) on all enemies on the field.
65*** Flare might also count, as it's acquired about 2/3 of the way through the game, and as soon as it's unlocked, most enemies suddenly become resistant to elemental magic (or all magic in general). This coupled with the spell's impressive base damage renders all of the other attack spells obsolete.
66*** Holy is available near the end of the White Mage progression, no enemies resist it, and it's able to do quite substantial damage.
67*** Interestingly, Holy is actually the single strongest spell available to the player (outside of [[LimitBreak Overdrives]]) in terms of sheer base damage, hitting even harder than Ultima, but since it is single-target only and a rare few enemies are capable of absorbing it due to its Holy element, Ultima has a bit more utility making Holy a very slight example of AwesomeButImpractical.
68*** There are also ultimate WhiteMagic spells Full-Life (revives with full HP) and Auto-Life (grants a StatusBuff that revives given person automatically when killed). Both are of course behind a number of Lv. 4 Key Spheres.
69** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' has the Ring of the Lucii, which you get very late in the game when the heroes travel to Niflheim. Then Ring grants Noctis access to three of the most powerful spells in the game: Death, which instantly kills enemies after being hit with it over several seconds (in addition to restoring HP); Holy, a devastating CounterAttack; and Alterna, which rips a hole in space and has a chance to kill multiple enemies instantly.
70* ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'' has the second class change which, unless you've been grinding a ''lot'', will probably not come up until the last dungeon[[note]]technically second-to-last, though the last two dungeons lead into each other[[/note]] before the [[spoiler: final confrontation in the Sanctuary of Mana]]. This is especially bad for spellcasting classes such as Hawkeye's light classes or Angela, as spells are learned one-at-a-time after level ups (assuming your stats are high enough) and it's possible to beat the game before unlocking all the spells possible. It's well worth it to grind out those last spells, though, as they are nukes once they're available. The remake makes the process gaining these levels ''much'' faster, resulting in the second class change usually being available when [[spoiler:hunting down the Benevedons]], though this trope is still in effect with a ''third'' class change made available in the postgame, catered towards the BrutalBonusLevel unlocked by beating the game.
71* Even if you ignore the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Mystic Weapons]] that all the bosses are weak against, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyLegendIII'' eventually reaches the point where magic is useless... except the Flare spell, which you can only get two of, and only if you're careful not to waste the ingredients on other, more-or-less useless spells.
72* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV'' gives the player the option to tidy up the last of Chaz's character development by visiting a secret dungeon and confronting the secret boss who lives there. Successfully doing so rewards the player with the Forbidden Technique, Megid, which is a horrible incendiary spell that fills the screen with fiery death. It's one of the components for the most destructive combination attack in the game, and is fueled entirely by the wielder's anger.
73* The Melt Crest in ''VideoGame/ShadowHeartsCovenant'' and ''[[VideoGame/ShadowHeartsFromTheNewWorld From the New World]]''. Non-elemental, hits quite hard, and causes Bind status (which has no "cure" except waiting for next turn). Usually only available near the very end and completing the game(s) longest sidequest (Solomon's Key in ''Covenant'', and Lovecraft's Stellar Chart Problem in ''New World''). Has a high MP cost but can be carried over to NewGamePlus should you acquire it.
74* In ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'', the two Attack Mages of the game, Leon and Celine, get their respective ultimate spells, Extinction and Meteor Swarm, in the BonusDungeon, which is only accessible right before the final boss.
75** That said, in Celine's case, Meteor Swarm isn't that ultimate, as the added damage isn't significant enough to make it more useful than Southern Cross (her second most powerful spell), because of the awfully long animation (remember that, in this game, when a spell is launched, the battle's action is completely suspended until the spell is completed).
76* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
77** Starting with ''[=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen=]'', there's a move tutor that will teach Water, Grass, or Fire-typed versions of Hyper Beam, but only to the fully-evolved version of your starter {{Mon}}. The last move a Pokémon learns through level-up generally also falls under this, as the level needed to learn it often isn't reached until you're facing the final Gym Leader or the Elite Four, and these moves are often very powerful.
78** In Gen IV, those moves aren't just restricted to only the starters from that game, either: any starter trio can learn them. The happiness level for those Pokémon also had to be maxed out. Similarly, in Gen IV, a special move tutor will teach any Dragon-type Pokémon with max happiness (fully evolved or not), including Arceus with a Dragon Plate, a special Dragon-type variation of Overheat in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Diamond and Pearl]]''.
79** A lot of [=TMs=] also show up very late in the game (like after beating the Champion), like Energy Ball or Psychic.
80** Genesect's Drives become this in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2''; in order to get them, the player needs to take Genesect to the P2 Laboratory... which requires beating the game first. Considering the event that distributed it allowed players to have it early on, odds are it forgot Techno Blast for a more useful move before then.
81** After defeating or catching Kyogre/Groudon in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire]]'', the number of Pokémon available to catch ''explodes'', in particular [[OlympusMons Legendary Pokémon]], of which ''every one'' in the series (excluding Mythical Pokémon and the Legendaries found in ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'') can be caught. The kicker? This happens ''before'' the eighth Gym, meaning there's nothing stopping you from assembling a team of Legendaries and [[GameBreaker shattering the rest of the game into pieces]].
82** After defeating Ultra Necrozma in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', you get access to Ultra Space, which ''also'' gives access to every Legendary Pokémon from Gen VI and earlier. You still have one trial, the League, and the entirety of Episode RR to go at this point. Even better is the fact that partway through Mt Lanakila, you'll gain access to both Necrozma ''and'' either Solgaleo or Lunala depending on version, which combined give you access to [[GameBreaker Ultra]] [[ThatOneBoss Necrozma]], which has the highest base stat total in the entire series and renders anything that doesn't resist both Psychic and Dragon a total joke.
83* Arcana in ''VideoGame/TheLastRemnant'' is orders of magnitude more powerful than any other type of magic, and hits every enemy of the battlefield. It is possible to unlock weaker arcana by accident, but unlocking the most powerful arcana requires a lot of training; you first need a character with the rarest type of mystic arts, then you need to train those arts extensively. You then need to place the character in a union with multiple other magic users, and fight until the chance arrives to have all of them use mystic arts at the same time. Time-consuming, but worth it when you destroy an army of over 30 units with a single devastating spell.
84* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'':
85** Inverted by Destruction magic. Damage from Destruction spells doesn't scale with level, they only have damage bonuses from existing or applied weaknesses and there are only perks that make them do 25% or 50% more damage or cheaper and using both hands to cast only does a set bonus. This means that beyond a certain point it CantCatchUp to archery or swordplay. In addition, the Master level spells take up both hands and have an insanely long casting time during which the caster can easily be interrupted by taking a hit, so even dedicated mages will use lower-level spells as their bread and butter.
86** Played straight, on the other hand, with Shouts. Completing the main quest gives the player several powerful Shouts, such as the ability to conjure a thunderstorm which strikes everything in a wide radius with lightning or summon a dragon or powerful ghost hero to fight for you. Now it doesn't mean that all these Shouts are "good", it just means they're more powerful. The shout that lets you conjure lighting storm doesn't let you ''choose'' [[AwesomeButImpractical what it strikes]].
87* The original ''VideoGame/Persona1'' had this too with the Ultimate Personae, although some of them are less impressive than others. Amon-Ra is decent and has Hieroglyphein (which deals massive damage against certain enemies, FinalBoss included), Verdandi/Valzante's an okay healer, and [[spoiler:Yamaoka/Alfred]] has some brilliant skills on top of being an EnsembleDarkhorse, but Susano-o/Demo suffers since the grid-based battle system hampers the usefulness of his physical attacks. In regards to your [[OptionalPartyMember fifth party member]], meanwhile, Reiji/Chris' Mot/Mondo is dreadful unless you use him for defense, but Brown/Brad's Tyr/Darkside has a GameBreaker spell and Elly's (St.) Michael boasts incredibly powerful skills and immunities to a many elements.
88* And finally, ''VideoGame/Persona2'' offers the fusion spell Armageddon, which you can only cast if you have two party members using Satan and Lucifer. Satan and Lucifer are very high level personae (Lucifer is level 99) in a game where there aren't really any enemies past level 70. Obviously, a lot of LevelGrinding is required to get them. But Armageddon will instantly kill any enemy including the final boss - both forms. The only exception is the {{superboss}}, who can counter it and instantly kill you.
89* ''VideoGame/Persona3'':
90** Messiah, the ultimate form of the Judgement Arcana, and one of the last Personae you get. It's about as strong as you'd expect.
91** The "severe damage" forms of the elemental spells, only available from high-level personae that mostly require you to finish a social link to unlock. All except the fire spell are single-target only, but by that point you should have the [[{{Mana}} SP]] to spend quite comfortably.
92* ''VideoGame/Persona4'':
93** The plot-mandated Judgment Social Link only maxes out after you've cleared the dungeon in December, meaning that Lucifer, the Persona that's unlocked this way, is only available for the final dungeon on the route to the True Ending. The same happens with Adachi's Social Link in ''Golden'', as it truly maxes out right before you unlock the same dungeon, meaning that its strongest Persona [[spoiler:Magatsu-Izanagi]] only becomes available for that dungeon (ignoring NewGamePlus).
94** Every party member can get in on this in ''Golden'' if you put in the effort. If you max out their Social Links, you can visit them one more time during January to unlock their Tier 3 Persona. This further upgrades their resistances and unlocks a unique, character specific skill for each party member. Chie gets a party-wide [[StatusBuff Heat Riser]], Naoto can null all damage for a turn, Yukiko gets the most powerful fire spell in the game, and even Rise gets new support skills, to name a few. However, you only get two dungeons to use them in: the gimmicky BonusDungeon and the final dungeon available only on the route to the True End.
95* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiNocturne'' has the Demi-fiend exclusive skills which can only be gained late into the game with optional Magatamas. These include [[EyeBeams Freikugel]], [[PlayingWithFire Magma Axis]], [[UnholyNuke Gaea Rage]], [[MacrossMissileMassacre Javelin Raid]], and a few others. Unusually for this trope, most of these skills actually scale off ''Strength'' rather than Magic.
96* ''VideoGame/SporeCreatures'': The body parts of resident BigBad Gar'Skuther and the Round Tail provide the absolute best Bio-Powers in the game and render all the other Bio-Power giving parts redundant. However, almost all of them have to be bought through the Parts Shop for an exuberant sum of Badge Points which you will certainly won't have until the end of the game, with one of them being the quest reward for defeating him at the very end of the campaign.
97* ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'':
98** In ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' Ana (the only member of the party who can use offensive PSI) will finally learn the high-level attacks that [[DemonicSpiders the enemies]] have been using against you since almost the beginning of the game: [[HPTo1 PK Freeze Gamma]], [[OneHitKill PK Beam Gamma]], and, even later, [[TotalPartyKill PK Fire Omega]] by the time you reach [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Mount Itoi]]. You'll need them.
99** In ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', Poo is taught PK Starstorm Omega right before the final dungeon. Chances are, you're not actually gonna use it.
100** In ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' Kumatora learns PK Ground at level 60. It hits the enemy for 5% of its maximum HP five times. That's 25% of the enemy's HP, it can't be blocked by shields, and bosses aren't immune to it. The only downside to it is that unless you do a ton of grinding, you'll only get to use it on the second to last boss since you can't use Kumatora against the final boss. Additionally, Kumatora and Lucas learn PK Starstorm and PK Love Omega at the very end of Chapter 7, respectively. These are the two strongest PSI attacks in the game, but there's not much left of the game by the time you obtain them.
101* Every final Bros Attack in the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series is this. For instance, in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'', you eventually get the Zee Egg and Star Rocket attacks (via finding all Pi'illos and collecting attack pieces in the final dungeon respectively). These attacks are incredibly easy to line up for maximum damage, do about four times the damage anything else does and are incredibly cool looking to boot. Both are pretty well needed given that your older bros attacks lose a lot of effectiveness by that point.
102* Completely averted in ''VideoGame/EvilIslands''. The best offensive magic is not acid, the Suslanger magic, but lightning, which is already available in Ingos, and there's even a way to craft a Lightning spell in Gipath, although it will be ''very'' expensive. Concerning non-offensive magic, the high price, required skill and stamina cost and the low duration of Suslanger's spells makes most of them useless, while the game's most useful spells are already available in the previous islands. To drive the point home, [[spoiler: The Curse]] uses lightning in its attacks.
103* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'':
104** VII does this with Light and Dark magic. Both schools contain the most powerful spells in the game that make plenty of other spells from other schools absolutely obsolete. However, to be able to even learn it, you have to complete main quest that forces you to choose path, then complete initiation quest, and the classes that can learn it have to complete their second promotion quest. This basically means you'll be able to access these schools only in last quarter of the game (if at all), and even then you'll take some time to Grandmaster it and buy all available spells, which are quite costly.
105** The same game and ''VI'' have even better example in Blaster class of weapons, which are the only way your party can deal Energy damage. ''VI'' makes them available only in penultimate main quest (the objective of which basically boils down to getting them) and in ''VII'' you have to reach Eeofol, which is locked behind the strongest [[BeefGate Beef Gates]] in the game and is also the place of penultimate main quest.
106** The Grandmaster Spells from Light and Dark magic in ''VIII'' are also this, as the instructors are located on Regna, which is accessible only late into the game and the quest that takes you there is the last one before going for a trip to Elemental Planes and then stopping Cataclysm. Subverted with Grandmaster elemental magic: their instructors are in Elemental Planes themselves, but unlike Regna those are accessible all the time and only [[BeefGate being stomped into the ground]] prevents you from exploring them more thoroughly in earlier parts of the game.
107[[/folder]]
108
109[[folder:Simulation]]
110* ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'': The [[DeckbuildingGame deckbuilding mini-game]] cards for becoming a Council member's second-in-command have a value of 10, which is the maximum base value a single card can have, but are obtainable only on what would've been the 10th Vertumnalia Festival, 95% into the game.
111[[/folder]]
112
113[[folder:Turn-Based Strategy]]
114* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'':
115** ''Fire Emblem'' in general, while having powerful magic spells in each game, typically avert the spellcaster's uselessness in comparison to the physical weapon users, usually being just as useful as them. While more powerful magic is often gotten late in the game, most enemies have low Resistance (even magic units typically don't have as much Res as physical units have Defense), allowing them to be your one source for constant damage throughout the game, whereas most physical weapon users have to contend with the weapon triangle. To compensate for this, physical weapon users get more weapons with special effects, while special effects magic is quite rare and is usually reserved for [[BlackMagic dark]] [[CastingAShadow magic]] users, or for legendary magic tomes.
116** In the first game in the series and its remakes, the powerful Starlight tome requires jumping through some hoops to obtain but is one of the most powerful magic tomes in the game; not only does it have high Might and Hit, but it's also required to defeat TheDragon (you don't need to confront him though).
117** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'':
118*** Julia gets the ridiculously powerful Naga tome, which has 30 Might and gives +20 to almost every stat, just before the FinalBoss.
119*** Forseti is an interesting example, as you get it near the end of Chapter 4 and there's only one more chapter before [[spoiler:the entire party gets killed in a cutscene and]] the story continues with Seliph's party. However, the ability to use Forseti will be passed down to Lewyn's son if you paired him with one of the three girls whose sons use magic. If you paired him with Sylvia, it will be another example of this trope (as Coirpre starts off a [[GoodShepherd Level 1 priest]] [[MagikarpPower in the middle of Chapter 9]] and must be grinded to promotion before he can use it). If, on the other hand, he was paired with Tailtiu, you'll get [[DiscOneNuke a level 3 Mage in the middle of Chapter 6 who can promote into a high movement Mage Knight who can and will destroy everything that gets in his way until Chapter 10]].
120** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'', the legendary dark magic tome Apocalypse has the highest overall power of all tomes and the ability to boost said power even more so (though its usefulness is kept in check by its high weight). It's found just before the chapter in which the BigBad is fought. However, it only has 20 uses, and the GoldenEnding cannot be reached unless this tome, along with all of the legendary weapons in the game, has been obtained and still have uses remaining when you finish off the BigBad, so it should only be used rarely to take down particularly tough enemies.
121** [[spoiler:Athos]] comes with Forblaze and Aureola in the Final Chapter of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade''.
122** It is possible to steal the ultimate Light spell (although only Rhys can use it) during ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance''; in addition to getting the assorted other ultimate magic in the chapters just before the endgame.
123** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'':
124*** ''Radiant Dawn'''s variants are deceptive. While all five are given to you for free (Rexflame (Fire), Rexbolt (Thunder), and Rexcaliber (Wind) are given to you in pre-battle talks while Rexaura (Light) and Balberith (Dark) are dropped by bosses), they all require SS rank in their respective weapon skill, which is a royal pain in the arse to get to when you're a SquishyWizard who uses the tomes. And unless you're a hardcore magic user, it's likely the units who can use the tomes won't have reached this level until the Endgame. This is compensated for by the ability to buy a large amount of Arms Scrolls.
125*** You get the ultimate magic forced into your hands during Part 4 and [[spoiler:on the second playthrough, you can get two characters who can use the ultimate Dark magic, one of whom comes with the ultimate staff in the game -- but this is only during the final section of endgame, so they're not as useful as they could have been]].
126[[/folder]]

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