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3%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
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7Games have rules. These rules aren't always fair: The average FirstPersonShooter pits a single player against multiple groups of enemies, all of whom are trying to kill them.
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9Some games, however, supposedly apply the same rules to the human and [[VideoGameAI AI players]]. The red bike has a max speed of 230 km/h, batteries for 500 laser shots, can't take corners well... wait a minute! The blue bike has a max speed of 190 km/h, so how did it overtake your red bike when it was going at max speed?
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11This is one of the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} forms of TheComputerIsACheatingBastard, in which the AI players break the explicitly laid-out rules of the game. This throws any idea of equality out the window. However, since many games would be rather dull if the AI played fair, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools some believe this to be a necessary evil]]. Others, meanwhile, will take great, detailed pains to elaborate to their associates [[CatharsisFactor what horrors]] they would adore visiting upon the game programmers.
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13Sometimes this is actually inverted for the player's benefit to provide a fair challenge -- in games which value input speed and assume equal footing of both sides (such as fighting games), the AI simulating the opponent has to naturally be handicapped so that the player has a fighting chance, considering the computer has no need to physically bash buttons, [[ComputersAreFast is capable of perfect timing]], knows ''every'' move and would never fumble a special attack unless some kind of restriction is in place. In games like RealTimeStrategy, this generally ensures the computer opponent won't try cheap or underhanded tactics (such as forgoing base building, investing everything in a ZergRush of starter units to win quickly).
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15In fighting games, this trope has its own subtrope in the form of the SNKBoss.
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17Sometimes this doesn't come out of a desire to give the AI an advantage, but because it would be too difficult or even impossible to program the AI to handle something in the "proper" way. Other times, it's just an oversight or an outright bug.
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19Note that this applies only to games and situations where the human and the AI are supposed to be on an equal footing. If the rules say the AI is in a different situation to the human, treating them differently isn't cheating.
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21In a video game adaptation of a different type of game, such as a board game, the [[VideoGameAI AI]] may have the ability to pull off moves which are against the rules of the original game.
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23Compare SecretAIMoves, which is about differences in character movesets. Contrast PlayerExclusiveMechanic, where the player can do things the AI cannot.
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27%% This example list has been alphabetized. Please keep it that way. Thanks.
28!!Examples:
29* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'':
30** In ''Dual Strike'', units which are controlled by an AI are able to load their air units into the naval aircraft transport units on an allied team (including your own units controlled by you). When under the control of the player they appear colored as your own units (despite that fact that they are not yours) in the status window and the menu. When unloaded they momentarily appear as the same color as the transport unit, then resume their normal coloring. When the transport unit is owned by an AI player, they will always unload the unit after they move it unless they are attacking another unit, they also have no problem unloading an aircraft unit in range of twenty or more enemy carriers and missiles.
31** The FogOfWar doesn't work for the AI like it does for the player in the GBA games such as ''Black Hole Rising''. Usually all units have a limited view range and you can only attack enemy units that are visible. Units in reefs or forests can only be seen by adjacent units. The AI not only [[TheAllSeeingAI can see everything in the map]] but it can also attack units regardless of visibility. The only exceptions are units in reefs and forests, which the AI treats by sending one unit to detect it, then bombarding with everything it has.
32* ''VideoGame/{{Aerobiz}}'': The game does this and [[NotPlayingFairWithResources plays unfair with money]] at once. If your airline runs in the red for a year, it goes bankrupt and [[NonStandardGameOver you lose]]. If an AI airline runs in the red for a year, it goes bankrupt, changes its name and gets a huge influx of cash to start over and bounce back. The sequel, ''Aerobiz Supersonic'', fixes this. An AI airline which goes bankrupt will actually be eliminated from the game. This will often happen if an AI starts an airline in a bad city and then that city is hit with war troubles.
33* In ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', the AI can ignore the cost and build times for military units, allowing them to pump them out without stopping, which can sometimes make taking over their cities very difficult.
34* ''VideoGame/AIWarFleetCommand'':
35** The game has this as part of its premise. The players require both metal and energy to build their fleet and every type of ship has a strict cap on how many you can control at once. The AI, having vastly superior industrial might, does not need to pay resources to build its ships, doesn't respect unit caps in the slightest, and has access to many, many types of nasty units that the player doesn't. They can simply spawn as many units as they please whenever they like, and, if sufficiently concerned, can easily release an unstoppable force that will wipe out the player in minutes. The only hope for the player is the fact that the AI, at the start of the game, considers them to be a harmless nuisance at best, and is dedicating most of their attention to other projects outside the playable galaxy. Once they catch on that the player is a real threat, they'll start dedicating more and more firepower to taking them down, eventually wiping them out unless they finish off the AI quickly enough.
36** Also inverted, as the AI has its own rules too that the player doesn't have to worry about, and it ''does'' have a resource pool in the shape of an established budget tailored to the current situation that it spends as it sees fit. Many player units and strategies can't be used by the AI, and they're generally incapable of doing a lot of basic things like rebuilding their defenses after you destroy them. On the whole, the balance of rules leans very far in favor of the AI, but those small advantages the player has can easily mean the difference between victory and defeat.
37* In ''VideoGame/ArcStyleBaseball3D'', pitchers always throw faster when they are controlled by the CPU. If your average Tall pitcher can throw a 138 km/h fastball at maximum, that same guy will throw the same pitch at 158 km/h when in the hands of the computer. Not only that: Normal and Macho pitchers have a wider array of pitches as well when in the hands of the CPU. This might be done on purpose to compensate for ArtificialStupidity.
38* Used liberally in ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore''. The player has to constantly balance their weapon's ammunition, their energy generator's reserves, and various sub-functions of the titular AC units. Despite ostensibly using the same parts and mechanics as you as they typically follow an identical ruleset in the Arena, however (to the point that HUD elements can be toggled to track these things specifically), in missions the AI suddenly has infinite reserves of ammo and can infinitely boost around without overheating nor batting an eye. Another infamous case is that a shoulder-mounted heavy weapon will force the player to take a knee and potentially even manually aim it, locking you in place if you don't have particular heavy legs like quads or treads, while the AI will shoot at you with terrifying accuracy in the midst of overboosting their thrusters through the air and packing regular bipedal legs on an impossibly-pilotable Overweight AC that would be unusable for you if you tried to replicate them part-for-part. Some of this is justified in-universe by the [[SuperSoldier Human-PLUS]] experiments that explicitly give the pilots advantages, and the player can acquire them through non-intuitive means (or cheats) in the early series; other cases are against a literal artificial intelligence explicitly cheating with non-usable parts and no human limitations. It doesn't make them less of a [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard bunch of cheaters]], though, especially in missions with more than one AC fight where your resources dwindle fast while they hit you with full force non-stop.
39* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'':
40** The game is based on the 2nd edition AD&D rules of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and generally follows a PragmaticAdaptation of the rules. Enemy mages, however, break the system. They're able to put spells into Spell Triggers and Contingencies that are not legal for player characters in tabletop or the game, they're able to have multiple Spell Triggers and Contingencies (which is also illegal) and finally they can use an ability called the 'tattoo of power' to grant them an extra layer of instant defence, which does not exist in Pen-And-Paper and is inaccessible to the party. This may be intended to represent the buffs they set up earlier in the day, since the game's engine doesn't normally allow them to cast until the fight begins.
41** The new Dorn companion in the [[UpdatedRerelease Enhanced Edition]] ''is'' a breach -- in 2E and consequently ''Baldur's Gate'', only humans could be paladins. Dorn is a non-human paladin (of the Blackguard kit, but kits as implemented in ''Baldur's Gate'' can only change allowed alignments, not allowed races).
42** Coran and Kagain had impossibly high ability scores (only doable using special tomes), Edwin can cast two more spells per day than any player-created wizard can, and Aerie is an elven mage/cleric, which is a multiclass only permitted by gnomes and half-elves. On the other hand, the restriction of paladins to humans is a significant element of one party member's backstory.
43* In ''VideoGame/BattlestarGalacticaOnline'', players experience a large penalty in the charge-up time for HyperspeedEscape if they try to do so during or shortly after a fight. The AI has no such rule.
44* ''VideoGame/BillyVsSnakeman'': Several character battles in the gambling minigames come with very annoying bonus rules that give the opponents incredibly unfair advantages. In mahjong, Sue hides her discards so you won't know which tiles are unavailable, while Li'l Rack can't be in Furiten; final boss Triple H not only starts with a nearly finished Rising Sun AND with both side players in tenpai, but if he wins even once, it's game over. In perfect poker, King Omaha starts with four kings and an ace, and will try to showdown each turn, which burns through the deck very quickly.
45* AI players in the 2010 ''TabletopGame/BloodBowl'' adaptation randomly acquire traits, which can lead to AI players with the grab + frenzy combo. This combo is [[ObviousRulePatch outright stated to be illegal]] in the Blood Bowl rulebook, and in both traits' descriptions in-game.
46* In ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', the last RTS boss has the ability to spawn units anywhere on the map. The entire game up to that point had actually been a JustifiedTutorial for the multiplayer, but now you suddenly have to deal with an ability that makes every strategy you've developed over the course of the game useless.
47* In ''VideoGame/{{Calculords}}'', most of the enemy commanders have unique abilities you don't have access to. Not only does Hate.Bit play Cosmo Wreckers on ''every'' turn, but they also have SuperSpeed beyond what they do when you play them ''and'' deploy in all three lanes.
48* In the ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'' games, every action costs guts. If a character hasn't got enough guts, they can only do basic actions like pass the ball -- unless they are AI character, who never run out of guts. Expect AI forwards to spam special shots until your goalkeeper runs out of guts to do his special save moves.
49* ''VideoGame/CardCityNights'': One of the rules is that there can only be one Legendary card in each deck. Naturally, the final boss uses all eight. More generally, if an opposing player has a card that lets them avoid damage, they will ''always'' topdeck it in the initial draw.
50* ''VideoGame/CardfightVanguard'': In ''Cardfight Vanguard Zero'', you are restricted to only having cards from one clan in any given deck. Morikawa, however, does not abide by that restriction, having cards from multiple clans at once. Luckily, he's one of the weaker opponents in the game.
51* ''VideoGame/CastleCrashers'': Most enemies follow the same rules as the player, but a few, like Fire Demons, can cast magic without their magic field active.
52* ''VideoGame/ChangeAirBlade:''
53** The player needs to fill up a charge meter (while being in the top half of the screen) in order to perform their change (which turns them into a boss-like vehicle and prevents their armor from being damaged until the change is destroyed). The computer lacks such a meter. Instead, they change automatically after they hit a certain amount of damage (provided you aren't in the top half of the screen, [[LuckBasedMission which is 99% of the time since the pickup you have to get to swap positions rarely drops in 1P mode]]), regardless of what attacks they just did. Even if that attack would drain the charge meter if done by a human.
54** Sigma Lancer's first change is used near the end of his second life bar. His second change is used near the start of the third life bar. His third change is used the very instant the second change gets destroyed. You cannot damage Sigma Lancer while his change is active.
55* ''VideoGame/ChaosRings'': The harder bosses in the game all have the ability to take two consecutive turns while the player only has one.
56* A certain TabletopGame/{{chess}} program, when it was close to losing, would actually flash the message "The [piece] has escaped!" and one of the captured pieces would reappear on the board. Obviously, only the computer's pieces ever 'escaped'. One hopes that this isn't how Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov (judging by the fact that Deep Blue ''wasn't'' smashed to pieces under mysterious circumstances shortly afterward, it probably wasn't).
57* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'':
58** The player has to attack multiple times in order to build up enough energy to cast high-level magic and skills, and can only cast one spell (max) per turn. The computer is ''completely unbounded'' by this rule. It can cast magic and skills from the first turn of battle, on consecutive turns, or in some cases, more than once in a single turn, without ever having to build up energy with standard attacks. Instead, enemies have predictable patterns, so if you know what's coming next, you have the advantage. This is a vital part of getting the best ending.
59** There are spells that can only be used by characters with the same innate color as the spell. Some bosses are able to use these spells despite having a different innate color. Grobyc, for example, can use the blue-innate-character-only spell Vigora, even though he is black innate. This particular example is also purely for show, since Vigora regenerates stamina; player characters need stamina to act, but enemies don't HAVE stamina and, as noted above, can already act however often they're scripted to.
60* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'':
61** In the original game, Triremes built by the player couldn't end their turn away from the coast without being lost. Computer-built triremes had no such restrictions, allowing them to circumnavigate the world.
62** Most of the ''Civilization'' games have AI that largely ignore some of the basic game rules when playing on the higher difficulty levels, with ''VideoGame/CivilizationV'' being the worst, as the AI can just ignore some of the game rules. For example, when a player founds a city it decreases the overall happiness of his empire, thus resulting in things like lower production and a lower growth rate. This is done to prevent the player from expanding too quickly via settler spamming. Plenty of players have reported however, that on the higher difficulty levels, the AI can more or less just do as it pleases and produce a vast number of cities without any penalties, and produce units at a much faster rate than the player for no reason. The AI itself does not actually appear to get smarter, however, making this a perfect example of FakeDifficulty and TheComputerIsACheatingBastard.
63*** In ''VideoGame/CivilizationIV'', you can attack a computer city with just 1 phalanx guarding it, with dozens of war elephants, hundreds of infantry(modern), a few dozen of tanks and even nuke it, but the phalanx can beat every single thing you throw at it when it is the last city of that AI faction left on the map even though the success rate shown before the attack is over 95% at EVERY single attack.
64*** ''V'' actually explicitly mentions this in the description of higher difficulties.
65** The computer can also apparently build nukes without uranium -- that is, when the game doesn't just spawn the nukes right next to your city.
66** In ''V'', you can vote on measures in the World Congress and also make deals with people to vote for specific motions. For a human player, they can have their delegates vote up a measure, vote it down, or ignore it. However, if you make a deal with the AI to, say, ban whaling, but then the AI sets up some whaling operations and then decides it doesn't like the deal anymore, then it can have some of its delegates vote for the measure and the others vote against. This is impossible for a human player.
67* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'':
68** Early games allowed the AI to rebuild destroyed buildings without regard for building adjacency rules (which forbade placing a building too far away from others). On the bright side, the AI always built on the exact same spots, so a single infantry unit (or a sandbag, which the enemy won't instinctively attack, but harder to get there because of said adjacency rules) can stall the AI by being where the building used to be.
69** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'':
70*** An odd couple of AI rules...er...modifications appear in the expansion ''Zero Hour''. Prince Kassad (the GLA stealth-specialist general) can make terrorist motorcycles by default (usually a bonus of the Demolition-specialist, otherwise made by tediously combining a motorcyclist with a terrorist) and enjoys using them in excess. The rocket-infantry units of all AI USA generals can use laser guidance (increases range and rate of fire) on ''any'' target, including other infantry and buildings, yet players can only paint vehicles. However, these both seem more like [[GoodBadBugs happy accidents]] that improve the challenge the AI offers, since the AI is not [[ArtificialStupidity always very bright]]. These quirks are above and beyond the usual RTS [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard AI cheats]], such as ''extra resources'' and ''unit-building bumper-crops''.
71*** The terrorist motorcycle is actually done deliberately because the AI has access to a construction button for them which is hidden from the human players. The missile bug is an AI fault and many a GameMod try to fix it. In the campaigns, Kassad also gets "Sniper Quad Cannons" which can OneHitKill infantry. Campaign Thrax meanwhile has infantry which are ''entirely immune'' to poison, radiation and microwave weapons. On the other hand, the player can steal his tech and then build them too.
72*** Then there's ''Leang'' who gets both ends of it. Sure, she gets a mash-up for units and starts with 3 superweapons, but even on the hardest difficulty, they fire at a rate of 12 minutes per shot (As opposed to 6-4 for the player) and an entire ''hour'' for easy, meaning if you simply turtle up and rush superweapons, she'll be easily out-gunned.
73** ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'': TheAllSeeingAI is in full effect, with the AI being able to use superpowers even where they don't have line-of-sight or immediately send troops after isolated engineers.
74*** The ''VideoGame/MentalOmega'' GameMod, meanwhile, gives the AI significant build time reduction and lets them ignore build costs, allowing them to keep pumping out units even if you destroy all their Ore Miners or repeatedly steal cash from them with Spies and Infiltrators. On the other hand, this actually works in your favour if you have an AI ally, since not only do ''they'' get the same benefits as your enemy, on easier difficulties they actually get a ''greater'' benefit than the enemy AI does, allowing them to take a lot of pressure off of you.
75* The main campaign of ''VideoGame/CrashBash'' had the crystal challenges, in which special rules are placed on the human player(s). Depending on the game chosen, that could mean the stage hazard becomes a one hit kill for you, or you're prevented from using a certain ability (as such picking up crates in ThreeRoundDeathmatch stages), etc.. Naturally, the AI opponents are not encumbered by these restrictions.
76* In ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'', to make up for the fact that only the player can get Masks, N. Tropy Clocks, and Force Fields, the rules of the race are [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl really more guidelines than actual rules]] for the AI opponents...
77** All AI-controlled carts have inflated stats and can power-slide whenever they want without having to hop first, and can on occasion fire a homing missile ''backward'' at the player even when they're already in the lead. They also don't need to actually ''break'' item crates, but simply pass a line of them to be able to use an item.
78** Bosses, on the other hand, get unlimited item usage, albeit limited to only one type of item, and can spam them with impunity as they go without ever having to break a crate.
79** Nitrous Oxide is the absolute king of this, though. He drives a hovercraft in a go-kart race (the racing version of [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight bringing a gun to a knife fight]]) which has vastly superior handling, acceleration, and speed, and which only briefly slows down and spins around no matter what you hit him with. He's also the only character in the game who is allowed to start racing ''before the green light''.
80* ''VideoGame/CursedToGolf'' is a two-dimensional hybrid golf/roguelike game set in the afterlife, in which you can gain limited powerups that affect your shots, such as turning your golfball into a fireball that can burn away rough terrain. These always end with a one-on-match against the course champ, who all have unlimited access to abilities such as moving their golf ball ahead a set distance even if there are multiple impenetrable walls between the start and end points.
81* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'':
82** Attack hitboxes can be interrupted by in-world objects -- trying a sweep with a {{BFS}} in a narrow corridor is just ''asking'' for trouble. For some reason, this applies mostly to the player. AI characters can get away with weapon stunts that pass through solid objects and/or would get a player dismembered.
83** Spellcasting enemies never run out of casts, while a human spellcaster will be limited to the number of uses each spell has, plus the number of consumables they have.
84** While enemies ''do'' have stamina in the way they can be [[BreakMeter stunned and drop their guard if you hit them enough,]] they do not actually lose any from attacking, unlike you. This means that strategies for fighting Invaders just don't work on NPC enemies, such as punishing their combo and draining their stamina for a follow-up. On the other hand, they don't generally attack as continuously as a player can. Before a patch, the mace-wielding Drakekeepers in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' '''did''' attack without ceasing and showed why.
85* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'':
86** In the original, certain powerful units had a limit on the number of them that a human player could build. For some reason, the computer wasn't subject to said limits, allowing it to spam otherwise unique uber-units.
87** In ''Dark Crusade'''s campaign:
88*** Each faction's army has an honor guard composed of stronger versions of some of the faction's regular units. For the player, honor guard units can be acquired by capturing the appropriate unit's territory, then spending planetary requisition on the world map to actually train the unit. If the unit is killed, it has to be re-bought and if the territory that proves the unit is lost, it must be retaken before the unit can be re-trained. The AI's honor guard units are always the regular variant -- but that's all the advantages the player has: the AI does not require territories to be able to obtain honor guard units, gets them for free over time and can obtain ''endgame units'' like Predator tanks as honor guard, whereas the player's honor guard usually stops a full tier below. Oh, and in case the player has the Eres Badlands territory which allows two attacks per turn and uses both to attack the same AI, the AI inexplicably respawns its honor guard in the middle of the player's turn!
89*** This problem also exists, albeit in a significantly more annoying way, in ''Soulstorm''. Again, honor guard units are won by conquering a territory; lose the territory and you lose the unit. If you have 0 territories, you have 0 honor guard units. However, for the AI, the amount of honor guard units is related to how long the game has gone on. This means an enemy force can have a ''full'' set of honor guard units despite only having a single territory. On harder difficulties this can make the game completely unwinnable as some territories have the enemy spawn with 2 bases, and 2 commanders. With a full honor guard each. You're outnumbered at least 2-1 by some of the most powerful units in the game, and they ''will'' attack you instantly.
90*** Normally, attacking an enemy territory only allows the player to start the battle with assets other than a single headquarters building, a single builder and whatever honor guard the player is bringing to bear, by capturing the Hyperion Peaks territory first and spending planetary requisition to prebuild a few extra structures. When the AI is the one attacking, however, its starting assets are determined by the strength rating of the territory it's attacking from, up to and including two fully built bases with free units at a rating of 10. Oh, and if the player's honor guard's collective strength is below those of the AI's starting assets plus honor guard (which it usually is), the AI ''immediately'' rushes the player literally ''seconds'' into the match and will be rolling in endgame units a minute later while the player is struggling with just getting enough resources to hold the line with starting units, much less actually be able to afford the next unit tier.
91*** When playing as the Tau, the only static defenses the player can build are Listening Posts meant to be put on [=SPs=]. When playing against the Tau, however, they get free-floating Listening Posts around their base. This is due to the fact that each campaign map has map markers for where to spawn the AI's starting assets building by building, including defense turrets. Problem is, the Tau ''do not have defense turrets'' as one of the faction's gimmicks, so they have to be substituted with ''something''. This leads to massive irony due to the fact that with Listening Posts being considerably stronger than turrets, Tau bases ironically have the deadliest static defenses in the campaign despite the lore stating that they consider static defenses counter-intuitive!
92** The Imperial Guard has a scanner ability that allows you to detect an invisible unit anywhere on the map... if you know where it is (MuzzleFlashlight and {{Laser Sight}}s are only there so you can "see" them). The AI, however, simply queries a list of the player's units, picks the first one with active invisibility and drops the scanner right on top of it, no matter where the unit actually is. No matter how many invisible units the player has, the AI only ever scanners the first one that chronologically entered the game until it dies. If there are multiple AI opponents, they all scanner the same unit at the same time with every HQ they have, repeated ''ad infinitum'' until they lose all [=HQs=].
93** The most noticeable case of this has to be the Eldar stronghold in Dark Crusade. Newly-trained squads are around half-strength, and without any upgraded weapons, and the strongest tanks are limited to one or two. Here, the AI pops-out fully reinforced and equipped squads, builds as many Fire Prisms as it feels like, whenever it feels like it. [[note]]Of course, the point of the level is to capture the three giant gates that are warping in reinforcements rather than take on the base. But of course such tactics are tantamount to cowardice for the average player.[[/note]]
94* If you're playing in Endurance or Grand Prix mode in ''VideoGame/DaytonaUSA 2'', you have to deal with a slowly draining supply of gasoline as well as tire erosion. The only way to replenish your gas and change your tires is by making pit stops, which eats up a ton of time. The computer racers don't have to deal with this, so they never have to pit.
95* In ''VideoGame/DigimonDigitalCardBattle'', most enemies avoid cheating, but one of the bosses fights with a deck containing all the top cards and which doesn't have to be shuffled, while simultaneously moving the player's partner cards to the bottom of their deck. The game explicitly states he's a cheater. However, this trope is used to your advantage in ''VideoGame/DigimonWorld3'': the player has access to a set of Digimon other humans don't; others have a separate pool to choose from where their forces can only have three moves.
96* A computer version of Avalon Hill's board game Diplomacy allows fleets to support attacks into adjacent inland provinces or coastal provinces that share only a land border, though this is more likely a programming glitch than deliberate cheating. The interface does not allow a human player to submit such an order.
97* In later ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' games, you can merge your monster-type units into giant monsters with higher stats and increased range on their attacks, and you can turn monsters into weapons for your humanoid units to use (called "Magichange"). However, Fusion and Magichange normally only work for a few turns without a special ability. Unless you're the computer, for whom it will never wear off. (On the other hand, given the computer's tendency to fuse/Magichange on the first turn of battle, and [[ArtificialStupidity its tendency to sit still doing nothing until player units are in range]], this can be seen as a practical way to keep the player from just waiting the fusion/Magichange out from the other side of the battlefield... but then, once the enemy unit is close and trying to murder your units, it STILL doesn't wear off.)
98* Debuffs like possessed, Charm, or Taunt in ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'' work ''way'' differently, to the point where all they really do for the ''player'' is "make an enemy not attack you for a round". Enemies who are charmed will still ''somehow'' make actions to ''hinder'' the player (such as throwing a grenade at literally ''one'' enemy and mostly going after players), whereas charmed ''player characters'' will make actions to benefit the computer. Enemies who are hit with the "madden" status ailment will still somehow walk over other CPU units to attack the player character, whereas player characters will do the ''opposite'', when InUniverse, they are supposed to be going after whoever is the closest.
99* In ''VideoGame/DoodleWorld'', the level cap imposed by Key collecting does not apply to NPC tamers, who will sometimes have Doodles above the level cap for the current area the player is in or have attacks or Doodles evolved at a much lower level than would be ordinarily obtainable by that point in the game.
100* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', magic doesn't allow you to teleport, and there's even a Codex entry spelling out that it's impossible (people apparently teleporting are actually [[VoodooShark making themselves invisible and going somewhere else]]). When we say "doesn't allow you to teleport", we mean "you" (and the members of your party) ''specifically''. AI mages, like qunari Saarebas? Teleport ''all the damn time''.
101* In the ''Manga/DragonBall Z'' CCG video game, Cell gets extra benefits from cards that normally only apply if you declare a Favorite Fighting Style Advantage. Partially justified in that he's a DNA composite of all the heroes -- but he ''can't'' do this in the card game the video game is based on.
102* As detailled in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Vbsr3Ko7M this video]], Malenia from ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' interacts with the BreakMeter system in a way that no other enemy in the game (or even in ''the entire soulsborne franchise'') does. She can cancel her stagger animation to dodge away from the player (stagger animations are supposed to play in full before the entity can do anything else), some of her attacks outright make her immune to stance break during their animations to let her use them in full (when stance-breaking is supposed to stun and supercede any "super armor" to do so), and she can even cancel her attack animations to let her block incoming blows as well (when the player has to finish their attack animations before being able to do so).
103* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
104** Those who find themselves playing a mage in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' will notice enemy magic-users doing some very strange things with ward spells. When used by the player, ward spells cancel out offensive spells, but are a constant magicka drain and can only sustain so much damage before they break. If a player's ward breaks, they are momentarily stunned and vulnerable to attack. NPC mages, on the other hand, can sustain ward spells for ''minutes'' at a time all while lobbing high-level destruction spells at you. Evidently NPC wards do not consume magicka. What takes this into the realm of "infuriating," however, is what happens when an NPC's ward breaks. Although they are stunned like the player would be, they are also ''immune to all damage,'' and likely will cast the same ward spell immediately after recovering. You cannot damage an NPC mage with magic until the AIRoulette has him drop the ward.
105** Meanwhile in the MMO prequel ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' [=NPCs=]' melee and ranged attacks ignore line of sight, AOE attacks are not obstructed by the environment, their crowd control effects will not trigger crowd control immunity and are capable of running after sprinting players at the same speed as them without ever tiring/running out of stamina while in leash range.
106* The online CCG ''Elements: the Game'' is pretty spectacular about this. Not only does a lot of chance-massaging go on, but there are a couple of rules it actively breaks. First and foremost, poison damage to the AI does damage once per turn; poison damage to the player tends to squeeze out an extra HP or two on its way. Then there's the Arena, in which players build decks for the AI to use against other players who foolishly stumble into the Arena; they're given points based on an in-game level to upgrade stuff, meaning that a deck designed by a skilled player can have 80% more hit points than you, have an upgraded mark that generates more [[{{Mana}} quanta]] per turn than yours, or even draw more cards in a turn than you can.
107* ''VideoGame/EmpiresOfTheUndergrowth'': Tiger beetle larvae are explicitly stated to lurk in the ground and ambush ants. But in the first mission with wood ants in the formicarium mode the random wandering AI ants are never attacked.
108* In ''Epic War 3'', the computer is not bound by build limits or build times. However, this is only to counteract the greater advantages you have as the player.
109* ''VideoGame/EternalChampions'':
110** "Inner energy" is required for all special moves. Theoretically, this forces the player to learn the characters and apply specific strategies in every possible matchup... Except against the AI, which could always execute specials with sheer and utter disregard of its own energy levels.
111** Even more, well, insulting, characters have an ability called Insult which allows them to sacrifice one piece of their special gauge to destroy a little more of their opponents. The computer, especially the final boss (bosses in the Sega CD version), is quite fond of repeatedly Insulting you from a distance to render you impotent, usually shortly before, with a blatantly flashing EMPTY gauge, they execute their ultimate full-gauge-requiring attacks, some of which do things like rendering the character completely invincible (the final boss(es) have these, naturally, and if you lose in the final battle, you can't continue!).
112* Enemies in ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' choose their attack once it's their specific turn to attack, unlike the player, who has to decide all attacks in advance at the turn's beginning. This can be observed in the way a single-target attack may target a party member even on the same turn they were revived.
113* In ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis 2'', the computer does not suffer attrition for its naval units.
114* Enemies in the RPG ''Videogame/EvilIslands'' never run out of fatigue needed to run (no pun intended) and cast spells; thus, even a frigging troll (an ugly, pimply, lumbering bulk -- you know the [[OurTrollsAreDifferent kind]]) can always outrun the player.
115* ''Eye of Judgment: Legends'':
116** The AI ''explicitly'' cheats throughout the entire story mode, sometimes to [[NintendoHard nigh-insurmountable extents]]. This is all the more egregious considering that Eye of Judgment is essentially a trading card game, where even a slight mana or attack advantages compound over time to give the abusing side an [[GameBreaker enormous advantage]].
117** The final boss is particularly nasty about this in that the game actually ''lies'' about the extent to which he cheats. While the boss description states that he gets one mana off the summoning cost of any of his ultra rare creatures, he actually gets the summoning cost reduced ''to'' one. Prepare to see him pull out insanely powerful cards like Ouroboros Dragon out of nowhere while you're stuck summoning [[CannonFodder bottom tier monsters]]. Oh, and he uses a [[FixingTheGame stacked deck]]. Prepare to see his trademark card Scion Triumphant summoned around turn 5 every time you battle him even though he only has one copy of the card in his entire deck.
118** The second to last boss has the ability to use any spell cards at no mana cost, and his deck seems designed to abuse this power to the fullest extent. This is particularly evident when he casts [[ThatOneAttack Elven Dismissal]], a card which [[OneHitKill returns an opponent's monster to their hand]] by paying an amount of mana slightly higher than the monster's summoning cost. Since the boss essentially has an infinite amount of free spell mana at his disposal, the game interprets this as allowing him to sweep away ANY of your monsters for free. If he decides to take out your most powerful defensive monster and already has board control, you can [[GameOver kiss the match goodbye]].
119* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', weapons used by the player [[BreakableWeapons gradually degrade as they are used]], doing less damage, firing slightly slower, starting to jam and eventually breaking. When anyone else uses a weapon, the condition doesn't degrade except when [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands the weapon itself is hit by an attack]]. Notably you can make this a considerably ''advantage'' because this applies to your companions, and there is a lot of equipment and ammunition whose only major downside is frailty/increasing rate of wear -- downsides that don't affect them at all. Likewise, radiation only affects the player character.
120** ''Fallout 3'' has two more examples of this trope with two weapons: The Tri-Beam Laser Rifle in the base game, and the Double-Barrel Shotgun from the ''Point Lookout'' DLC. Both of these weapons are ''specifically programmed and coded'' such that when wielded by an enemy, they do bonus damage against the player that [[ArmorPiercingAttack cannot be mitigated by any means]], so long as the shots connect. To rub salt into wounds, the bonus damage is applied to '''EACH''' beam/projectile fired by either weapon that hits.
121* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
122** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'':
123*** Joe, a chocobo racer, and Teioh, his black chocobo, in the Golden Saucer, will always have higher stats than yours, even if your chocobo's stats are all maxed out. After a point it doesn't matter, as you can train your Gold Chocobo enough (get it running in a straight line) that it has enough stamina to sprint from start to finish on the long course. Joe doesn't start sprinting until the final stretch and so is easily beatable.
124*** Sephiroth himself, during Cloud's retelling of the Nibelheim incident. He's under AI control and is invincible, so any enemies that do manage to attack him before he can act will do no damage at all. While you CAN become invincible yourself legitimately later on in the game, Sephiroth isn't using any abilities or equipment that can make him as such. On top of this, Sephiroth never loses MP when he casts a spell while everyone else in the game does spend MP when using an ability. All of Sephiroth's cheating is based off [[UnreliableNarrator Cloud telling the party that the legendary SOLDIER is really that strong]].
125** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'':
126*** Not all enemies have the required job levels to use their current job. (This is really a minor issue, however, having those levels doesn't affect their performance and won't make a difference unless the player invites them to the party.)
127*** A more egregious example is that the AI has unlimited item stock. That rare Infinity Plus One sword you've been crawling around Deep Dungeon for, while fighting through the hardest enemies in the game? Yeah, they toss those babies around like it was nothing; preferably, straight into your face. That's not mentioning the Elixir Spam and the Draw Out Spam. Fortunately, this is hardly a problem in game where you can wipe out the whole enemy force in one turn in most battles, and sometimes, before they can even move! You can also turn the enemy's tendency to throw {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s at you into an advantage with a reaction ability that allows you to catch and keep any weapons thrown at you.
128*** In the PSP remake, the Onion Knight job is marked by being able to use any piece of equipment, being unable to use abilities, yet having extremely high stats when mastered. However, in one link mission, you and your partner must defeat a team of master Onion Knights who have a full range of powerful abilities equipped.
129*** In the last battle in the last link mission in the PSP remake, the final boss of the mission can equip a Ribbon in his accessory slot. Not only is Cloud the only male in the game that can equip Ribbons, Ribbons are headgear.
130** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'':
131*** Abilities are all learned by specific jobs. Blood Price, for instance, can only be learned by Spellblades, a Viera-only class. Now, there exists a job changing system, so you can use abilities from one class to another, so this means finding Red Mages and Summoners (both Viera jobs) with Blood Price isn't terribly out of the ordinary. However, AI units tend to ignore the exclusivity of support abilities like these, and you'll find plenty of enemy units with abilities they just simply shouldn't have. Illusionist (Humes and Nu Mou only) with Blood Price, despite lacking the Spellblade job necessary to get it? Sure, why not? And, whenever you compete in the "Cup" missions to get scions, some enemy units will have support skills that raise Magick/Resistance, or raise Attack/Defense (which can also be learned by monsters, but they could simply just be abilities only learned ''by'' those monster), or support skills that allows the unit to evade all ranged attacks (not Evade Magick, that's a reaction skill). Your clan will never learn such skills, oh no. What really rankles is when you fight with a certain unit using one of these unobtainable support skills ("Impervious", which makes them immune to ''all'' StatusEffects), and then later on you get to recruit this character, and he's suddenly ''forgotten'' this amazing ability.
132*** A very literal example of the trope is the law system itself. In its predecessor, laws were universal: everyone in the conflict was bound by the judge's ruling. In this game, your clan has its own personal judge, who deals you one law per battle, which ''only applies to you''. Best of all, the laws are not random, so if the judge thinks that your battle against the nigh-[[DemonicSpiders Demonic Spider]] Flans would be improved by disallowing all magic, then prepare for a long, painful battle. Presumably other clans have their own judges imposing similarly arbitrary laws, but you never see them or their effects. Thankfully, breaking the laws in ''A2'' is far less severely punished than it was in ''Advance'': instead of having the violators sent to prison for several in-game days, you simply lose the benefit you'd chosen (annoying, especially if you'd chosen a benefit that occurs ''after'' the battle, like an EXP bonus), and the ability to revive your fallen comrades (though this doesn't apply to the Auto-Life spell). It's still quite annoying to watch the enemies gleefully do what you can't.
133*** Worth special mention is the [[BrutalBonusLevel horror known as Brightmoon Tor]]. Not only do all the enemies have access to a unique moveset the player is completely unable to use without romhacking (Turning), said moveset consists exclusively of middle fingers raised to the player, such as inflicting mass Haste and Protect to all enemies and mass Slow to your party. What really crosses the line into being absolutely unfair (and this even shows up elsewhere in the game) is that Brightmoon Tor's enemies automatically get a round or two of free turns, completely ignoring any actual speed stats. Brightmoon Tor's enemies WILL get a free round of actions that they will, almost exclusively, use to ensure they get several more rounds of free actions. It can literally take 10 minutes into a battle before your party, having been savaged to hell and back by this point, can do ANYTHING. FakeDifficulty in its purest form, the player's party will continue to have approximately one round of actions between 2-3 enemy action rounds. The rest of the Turning moveset consists of things like Dark Elixir that drop a unit's HP to one, Otherworldly Wind to blast your entire team with high non-elemental damage, Shadowflare (the same thing but even stronger), and Flash Bomb, an attack that explicitly ignores any reaction ability the unit may have. Every single enemy will have other skills it is completely impossible for any other unit of its type to have otherwise.
134** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance''[='=]s law system was, if anything, even ''more'' restrictive than ''A2''[='s=]. There were anything between one and ''three'' laws up for any given mission. The enemies actually had to obey the laws (Enemies that disobeyed would be red-carded and jailed just like your party members, and sometimes waiting for the right law would cripple an enemy), except when they didn't. Many enemies of any real importance would have a special medal on them (just a mark on their profile, not an actual item that you could steal or break) that made them immune to getting red-carded. So they could get yellow-card warnings all day for flagrant disobedience of the laws that would get ''your'' clanmates jailed on the spot. You could ''never'' get this kind of law-protection. Despite this being technically unfair, it is also an necessary evil since a boss that was bound by the law could easily be crippled and destroys whatever challenge said boss would have given to the player.
135** In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', all equipment has a minimum required level before it can be equipped. Accessories don't have a level restriction, and instead fall into several classes, depending on how many of the same accessory you can equip at once. Abilities are earned based on your level, and cost "CP" to equip, so even if you know an ability you might not be able to use it without removing an existing ability. AI opponents in Story Mode are designed to provide a specific type of challenge, which quite frequently means ignoring these limits.
136** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesEchoesOfTime'', being Slowed will absolutely cripple your spellcasting. It will not have this effect on enemies.
137** Most spells and abilities in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' are bound by a charge/casting bar with varying speeds. Enemies using Fire, Blizzard, or Thunder can fire off the spells an alarmingly fast speed while the player's version of the same spells takes at least 1.5 to 2.5 seconds to unleash. Even if the enemy is inflicted with Slow, their cast times are still very damn fast. Inversely, some physically-based AreaOfEffect attacks that both player and AI have access to will have a lengthy cast time for the AI, but go off instantly for humans.
138*** With the addition of Trusts, numerous AI allies have cross abilities that players do not. Thancred can use Ninja skills despite being a Gunbreaker, Y’Shtola uses both White and Black magic as a unique class, Urianger uses a teleport spell unique to Black Magee as an Astrologian, etc.
139** In most games, you'll find equipment that can protect you from a variety of status effects and can even get items that will prevent instant death. Many a {{superboss}} can ignore your protection entirely and inflict the status effect on you anyway, making those items pointless to have.
140** From several games, if a group of mobs ambushes you, every single one will attack you before you even get the chance to strike back. If you do the ambush, you may strike first but the mobs will strike back before all your characters have done their moves.
141** In the fight against Evrae in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', after getting down to 1/3rd of its max health, Evrae casts Haste on itself. Trying to dispel the effect or replace it with Slow causes the boss to break turn order to immediately re-apply Haste.
142* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'':
143** In both ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' (Original only, not the remake), enemies will never backfire from weapons that can backfire (Shadow Sword in ''Gaiden'', Devil Axe and Devil Sword in ''Mystery'') while the player units are still stuck with the (21-Luck)% chance. This is dropped starting from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 Thracia 776]]'', where enemies can ''and will'' be very likely to suffer Devil Axe backfire themselves due to their low (often non-existent) luck.
144** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'', opponents have infinite uses of their weapons and staves. The former is rarely an issue as all weapons except the Earth Sword have 50 uses. (Though it is annoying when it comes to long-range spells like Bolting and Meteor, which only had 5 uses in later games.)
145** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'' contains an example that you'll only realize in retrospect: throughout the game you face Dark Mages, who use a spell that does heavy damage ''and'' inflicts [[StatusInflictionAttack Poison]]. When you later get a Dark Mage of your own, the same spell used by you ''doesn't poison.''
146** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' has Feral Ones, enemy Laguz units that are always permanently shifted due to their transformation gauge locked at full. This means they will always be able to counter attack your units who attack them from close range (something that most of playable Laguz unit cannot do without specific items or skills). The same rule also applies for ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn''.
147** This quote from Serenes Forest.net, on the forging system in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', pretty much says it all:
148---> Each weapon stat (Might, Hit and Critical) can be increased through a maximum of 5 intervals. There is an overall limit of 8 intervals that can be raised per weapon. For example, you can raise Might by 5 intervals and Critical by 3 intervals, but no more than that. '''Enemies, especially on higher difficulties, can have weapons that exceed the interval limits.'''
149** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' continues this tradition, giving enemies exclusive weapon classes -- katti, kukri, nageyari, javelins, maces, star axes, hankyu, and shortbows. These completely outclass the standard weapon classes, and in some cases even generic {{mook}}s can have access to them, but except for the weakest javelin, the player never will. There's also one chapter (''Conquest'' chapter [[spoiler:26]]) where an enemy Sorcerer is standing in the middle of the map, spamming debuff staves on your characters as much as he possibly can. The problem with this: the Sorcerer class ''cannot use staves when under the player's control''.
150** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has a rare player-exclusive example: [[spoiler:if the player, on their volition, [[HazyFeelTurn ends up aligned]] with [[WellIntentionedExtremist the Flame Emperor]], they automatically recruit one of the latter's subordinates, [[BlackKnight the Death Knight]]. This guy has a hidden talent for flying that comes in a package with Darting Blow, a skill normally restricted to female-locked Pegasus Knight class.]]
151** Ordinarily, area of effect attacks, such as gambits that target an area or the splash damage from Meteor, cannot kill units, and will only reduce them to 1 HP(but it is possible for a Gambit to kill its primary target). However, when enemy Demonic Beasts use Staggering Blows, it is possible for them to kill multiple player units in one fell swoop.
152* AI aircraft in ''MS Flight Simulator'' will nonchalantly blaze right through the player, taking no damage while the player's airplane falls out of the sky. Gods help you if you're running a virtual airline add-on when this happens. They also blatantly ignore ATC instructions and FAA regulations with no penalties. Real-world pilots playing MSFS tend to turn off AI traffic for exactly this reason.
153* In ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'', you can only mount a level-3 or lower gun on a level-3 hardpoint like you get on the Defender. The corrupted Liberty forces flying the same Defender can mount level-''7'' Nomad Energy Cannons. AI-controlled ships also have unlimited weapon capacitance and [[SprintMeter thruster burn-time]].
154* ''VideoGame/FZero1990'':
155** If you set the original game to the [[HarderThanHard Master difficulty]] you'll notice that all computer vehicles now have a top speed of 478 km/h and masterful cornering ability. Worse, you can't outrace the other cars. They are always ''right'' behind you. No matter how many shortcuts you take, how many tricks you exploit to get bit of extra lead time, if you make even the ''slightest'' mistake they will fly past you as if they were right on your bumper up until then. Catching up, assuming you have enough time to do so, isn't that tricky, but it just hammers home that you can't get more than a second or two ahead of them.
156** On ''any'' difficulty, if you crash into an AI machine, your machine will go spinning out of control in general observation of standard racing game physics, while the other machine will invariably be nudged slightly to the side and then go on as if nothing happened. This is especially evident if you catch two AIs crashing; they'll both be nudged in exactly this manner, and often go right back and crash into each other ''again'', multiple times.
157** A blatant example occurs if you manage to knock an AI racer of the track. If they land outside the track's guardrails, they will simply drive back through them (admittedly playing the damage animation, but that's meaningless as they have infinite health) and continue on like nothing happened. If the PLAYER lands outside the track's guardrails? They explode instantly.
158** F-Zero has a lap knockout system where every lap, you need to be above a certain rank to continue. This rank lowers every lap, from 15th to 10th, 7th, 5th, and finally 3rd on the final lap. But as you might imagine, this limitation only applies to YOU. You can see it in action -- finish any lap (other than the last lap) in the cutoff position and then simply stop. You will quickly be passed by several racers despite the fact that you should be the last racer not eliminated on that lap.
159* ''VideoGame/{{Ghostrunner}}'': You get the Surge ability from the second boss, but while you have to fill up a meter by killing a dozen or so enemies to use it once, the boss can use the ability over and over and over in her fight without killing a single thing.
160* In ''VideoGame/GlobalAgenda'', the PlayerVersusEnvironment AI is not restricted by power pools like the players are. Thus, even if their power is being sapped (such as by a robotics beating them in the back), they will still be able to shoot with no regard whatsoever to the fact that a player in their situation would be out of power to shoot with. Many of the [=NPCs=] can also completely ignore recon stealth with no warning or ability use whatsoever.
161* In all of the ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' games, the type of attack used are identified as either used (physical) or casts (magic). The status effect, Seal, prevents the target from casting magic. Most bosses use magical abilities with the "used" variant instead of "casts". Ergo, enemies can use magical abilities without being bound by the "if magic based, Seal prevents magic" rule.
162** Curiously, one enemy (a spiky rock) ''does'' follow the rules by being unable to cast a spell if it doesn't have enough PP. Except this can happen on its first turn, meaning they don't have enough ''total'' PP to cast a spell, something even the players never suffer from (except in certain rare cases involving the disabling of all djinn).
163** Another curious case is the {{superboss}} from the first game, Captain Deadbeard. All his abilities are the "cast" type, which means that you can cheese him off by [[AIBreaker simply keeping a Seal ailment on him, forcing the boss to use simple physical attacks on your party, one target at a time]].[[note]]What makes it interesting is that Cpt. Deadbeard is the ''only'' case in all three games of the series that's susceptible to this. It might get a lot of players by surprise, due to the very nature of this enemy: after so many mooks and bosses can NoSell the Seal status, why would the one guy, typically stronger than the FinalBoss, would fall for it?[[/note]]
164** One example of this trope that benefits the player: the elemental lighthouses are charged with Psynergy that weakens Adepts of the opposite element. This is used to explain why your team of level 10 chumps can feasibly take on one of the {{Big Bad}}s (you're fighting on the Mercury Lighthouse, while he's a Mars Adept and is thus weakened), but your Adepts never suffer any such penalty.
165** Speaking of said BigBadDuumvirate, they actually completely avert this in the penultimate battle. Saturos and Menardi have no bullshit "enemy-only" shenanigans, have stats easily reachable by your party aside from inflated HP, and ''completely'' follow the exact same rules as your party: one attack per turn, all of their spells are Psynergy learnable by the party, each have one weapon-unleash -- Heat Flash for Saturos and Deathsize for Menardi -- and both of these unleashes of which are identical to ones usable by the party as well (Heat Flash is identical to the Dragon Axe's Heat Mirage, and Deathsize is identical to the Assassin Blade's Mortal Danger). [[spoiler:Granted, this all goes out the window when they merge into the ''actual'' FinalBoss, a gigantic dragon.]]
166* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'', ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'', the police are designed to go after the player and virtually no one else. This is especially frustrating in ''III'', when [[spoiler:almost every gang ends up hostile towards you by the end of the game, and the cops picking on you means you can't even try to defend yourself.]]
167* ''VideoGame/GranTurismo'':
168** ''Gran Turismo 2'' has power limits for each of its races. The most notorious example (though not nearly the most flagrant) is the second race in the Historic Car Cup, located at the Rome Circuit. This race allegedly limits cars to 295 brake horsepower. One of the possible AI entrants in the race is the 305 BHP Ford [=GT40=], which in addition to having more power than any car you're allowed to use, is also a purpose-built racer that will easily dominate the race against all but the most skilled players. Dozens more examples can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIZgGwWmjmo here]].
169** In the two-car races in ''Gran Turismo 4'', there is a penalty (your engine gets shut off for a few seconds) for colliding with the other car, but this almost never happens to the AI. Even if they ram you, if anyone gets the penalty, it will usually be you.
170* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
171** In the entire series, ammo can become rare. Moreso for powerful guns. The AI doesn't care about this, it can fire everything with impunity. This can work in the player's favour as well though, since it also applies for allies. The AI also has ImprobableAimingSkills. Hearing about Marines firing perfect shots with the sniper rifle while inside a moving Warthog isn't uncommon, particularly in ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', where Johnson can snipe the drivers of speeding vehicles.
172** In ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', DualWielding, a gameplay feature in both ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', was removed for balance issues... except for Covenant enemies, meaning high-ranking Elites can still wield two plasma rifles and mow you down over and over again.
173** AI enemies in ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians''' Warzone Firefight are a horrible offender of this trope. For example: aside from over-the-top health, accuracy, and damage boosts, they don't have to worry about ammunition or weapons overheating while you do, their grenades will track you while yours cannot track them, and they can board your vehicles while you are unable to do the same to theirs. Sometimes this is brought on by AIRoulette; for example a Hunter, who may one time use his gun's standard burst fire on you, and another time unleash a devastating hail of hundreds of shots that can melt any heavy vehicle.
174* In the TurnBasedTactics game ''VideoGame/HardWest'', enemies benefit from an automatic overwatch[[note]]during the opponent's turn, the AI opens fire in anything that enters a area close enough to a unit[[/note]] but the party members can't use such a feature. The goal is to force the player to flank the enemy instead of turning each tactical battle into a purely defensive firefight.
175* In ''Creator/TomClancy's VideoGame/{{HAWX}} 2'', players often have a limited number of missiles (to shoot down enemies with) and flares (to decoy enemy heat-seekers), and each plane has its own physical limitations on what it can do (such as turning radius and speed). But when the AI uses those same planes, not only do they have an unlimited number of missiles and flares, their planes can pull hairpin turns instantly the second they're in your sights, ''at speeds that would normally make that plane stall out''. Even when you have ''radar-guided'' missiles, those same flares still work against you. This often forces players to close the distance and use their cannon for up-close-and-personal work.
176* ''[=HDXyth=]'':
177** The computer usually has several points of damage resistance, counterattack, free energy generation, and health regeneration that the player lacks, as well as coming with up to 400HP where the player's base will typically have around 75. This is particularly irritating since a great many cards have low-damage specials, such as Flare Spire's ability to inflict 1 automatic damage per turn, which simply does nothing to the computer. Adding insult to injury, even when its resistance eliminates all damage done by your cards, the computer's retaliate will still damage them back. As a result, for quite a few cards their special ability amounts to "This ship takes extra damage every round for no benefit." Consequently playing against humans is a completely different game and the tactics are hugely different from the computer.
178** As if that isn't enough the computer gets piles of rare cards you don't start with (A deck you'll probably be facing in your first few games fields Ultranought, a super-rare card you'll grind for months to obtain), and it often gets custom cards with utterly broken special abilities the player can never have, such as carriers that deploy destroyer-class ships instead of fighters. However, due to the fact that these are sometimes randomized, once in a while the computer will deploy cards who's specials are [[GoodBadBugs less powerful than usual.]]
179* While most ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'' bosses' difficulty comes from them using [[UnusableEnemyEquipment exclusive,]] [[SNKBoss overpowered cards and hero powers]], they don't ''usually'' break the rules outright. This can't be said for Kel'Thuzad, the FinalBoss of the ''Curse of Naxxramas'' expansion, who can deliberately end your turn if you break his armor or if you take too long before switching Hero Powers and summoning a bunch of free minions. The Lich King (who is, perhaps unsurprisingly, KT's boss in ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' canon) also blatantly cheats by swapping one of the cards in his opening hand for an overpowered cheat card ''after'' the mulligan and stacking his deck to always draw [[InvulnerableAttack Frostmourne]] as soon as he hits 7 mana. Coding-wise, these two cards don't even start in his deck -- the game adds them directly to his hand after conditions are met.
180* In ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIronII'' the computer does not obey range restrictions when using naval units -- which leads to Japanese CABG's in the Baltic. (The computer has the same restrictions as the player in ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIronIII''.)
181* ''VideoGame/HonkaiStarRail'', by and large, does not pretend to be a symmetrical game, with several mechanics only being available to one side or the other (for instance, enemies aren't bound by SP, but they also can't use ultimates). ''That said'':
182** Several status effects work slightly differently depending on the side of the field they're on-- Bleed, shock, and burn have much higher stack limits when they're on your characters, and imprisoned only deals damage to playable characters.
183** The Aetherium Wars event about [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything an oddly familiar game]] where you [[VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} command a team of monsters in fights against other players doing the same]] initially ''tries'' to seem like enemies are following the same rules as the players-- Enemies follow the same teambuilding restrictions as the player and they even have the same ults... but the ults are used ''in lieu of their regular turn'' instead of in addition to it, and as the event goes on it becomes more and more apparent that the enemy monsters are much closer to their main-game counterparts than the versions that the player gets are.
184* In ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'', you have a population cap on your units. The remastered versions also limit how many of each type of unit you're allowed to have. Naturally, the computer has no such limitations. In some missions, you may face half a dozen battlecruisers, which is twice as many as you're allowed to build (or capture).
185* ''VideoGame/{{Inscryption}}'' is framed as a versus CardBattleGame, yet the mechanics of using cards for you and the AI opponent are completely different from each other. The goal of the game is to use your minions to deal enough damage to tip the scale in your favor. You have a deck plus a side deck and most minions require sacrificing other minions or Bones from fallen minions to summon, and if you run out of cards to draw, it puts Starvation units on the opponent's side of the board each turn until they eventually overwhelm you. Your opponent has no concept of a deck or resources and just summons minions arbitrarily and they have to queue what they'll summon the next turn, which leaves them open for overkill damage. They will run out of minions eventually, but they never have to deal with Starvation.
186* The developers of ''VideoGame/JudgeDreddDreddVsDeath'' went through the extra effort to have the firearms of the Judges explode if a civilian tries to use them, which is keeping in with the source material. This would be more commendable if it applied for the AI too. Admittedly, actually witnessing this is a rare occurrence, since you have to fulfill several specific conditions: A) Find an enemy who will not surrender when you shoot the weapon out of his/her hand. B) Have this happen near a dropped Judge weapon. C) Get the enemy to pick up the Judge weapon instead of the weapon they just dropped, or simply attacking you with fisticuffs.
187* The Japan-only smartphone game ''Anime/KemonoFriends Festival'' works like this: You choose a party of four characters, then you and the AI (who can not only have more characters on the field than you, but also have duplicates of said characters) take turns attacking each other. You're limited to attacking in the order you set your party up in (meaning, of course, you can't attack with the same character twice in a row), while your opponent can attack you in any order they want. Not only that, but the AI's characters have their own HP meters, while you have only one for your entire party. To make matters worse, in the boss fights against the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Celliens]], the AI can attack multiple times per turn.
188* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
189** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'':
190*** {{Mook}} enemies have an unlimited deck size and never have to reload. On the other hand, they can't do sleights. The humanoid enemies do have to reload and can sleight, but also appear to have infinite CP, and while they're ''theoretically'' just as vulnerable while reloading as you are, after a few hits they'll just arbitrarily float and dash-teleport out of your reach until they finish. Larxene is a prime example of this.
191*** Most notably, Riku's sleights. You see Riku [[spoiler:Replica]] using moves like Dark Firaga and Dark Aura... however, you yourself get access to these abilities. Naturally a lot of players will want to use Dark Aura because it was ThatOneAttack... except the only way you can use it is if your throw a sleight where the value equals 27 (Three nine cards). However, Riku has a fixed deck and likely won't be able to use Dark Aura until much later (Like the last level). While Riku [[spoiler:Replica]] can throw it out with ''any'' value.
192** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': The Struggle. When you get your opponent down to 0 HP, they are knocked out for a few seconds so you can collect more orbs, then they revive with full health. When YOU get knocked down to 0 HP? You lose instantly. It helps that the only remotely dangerous Struggle opponent is Vivi, whom you cannot fight again after Roxas' part of the game is over.
193* Goenitz in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters '96'' could do desperation moves without restrictions while dealing more and receiving less damage to/from the player.
194* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'':
195** Present, because the AI is ungodly stupid; they compensate by screwing the rules and having ungodly reflexes. The AI is somehow able to pull gold and levels out of nowhere, have high-level champions respawn as quickly as a low-level champion does, heals faster than a player does, etc. Oh yeah, they also don't need to worry about several things that the players do. The AI bots ''never'' lag or ever have to worry about a griefer. It's likely they also get faster respawn timers, too.
196** On the bright side, if you have someone who disconnects for whatever reason, an enemy bot will leave to compensate for the missing player, thus making things fair-erish. Also, while bots do gain gold at a fixed rate, this is somewhat neutral as while a bot can never be made to have low gold, they also can never be fed to have a lot of gold if a particularly bad game is going on.
197* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'':
198** Both games have the special infected AI cheat by spawning inside the safe room at the end of a level, whereas players controlling the infected are told by the game they are not allowed to to do the same thing because it's a restricted area. (A player infected ''can'' still spawn in the ending saferoom if they are auto-spawned, however.)
199** The survivor AI will sometimes teleport to save other survivors form a "point of no return". Once you get past the point, there is no way to proceed further. Survivors left hanging behind sometimes get pinned by infected, and any human survivors would not be able to help the pinned survivor, even though an AI survivor can teleport back to help the pinned survivor.
200** The infected AI also has a few other quirks, such as being able to occasionally claw at a survivor while being knocked back, while a human player is stunned. Hunters in particular seem to have more gameplay differences than most. They seem to be able to perform a very high non-pounce jump, usually in response to being fired at from a distance, as well as occasionally being able to immediately recover from being punched off of a victim. On the players side, Hunters are able to do complex wall-jumps that the AI is either incapable of, or not programmed to do.
201* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' has a durability system where all gear will break after being used too much. Monsters can use weapons and shields without issue, but the moment you take their gear from their dead hands, you have to deal with the eventual breakage of your salvaged gear.
202* In ''VideoGame/LEGORacers'', where speed, acceleration and handling are built entirely on the car's weight and distribution thereof, Basil the Batlord (the third opponent) drives much faster than he has any right to. This might not be obvious at first, but upon facing him in a rematch with what seem to be the exact same parts, it's clear that he knows something we don't.
203* {{Inverted}} in ''VideoGame/LikeADragonInfiniteWealth'': battles are typically conducted in a turn-based system, but Kiryu has a special ability called "[[SuperMode Dragon Resurgence]]" which allows him to ''break'' the turn-based battle system and attack enemies in realtime, ala pre-''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' games.
204* ''VideoGame/LordsOfMagic'' is notorious for the computer not giving a single damn about the rules. One of its many tricks is seizing only a mage tower and using it to make units (normally, the associated city also has to be taken to produce units) and said mage tower can also produce units that can are normally only produced from the Great Temple instead of the mage tower. Most notoriously, it can also produce as many of the top tier Great Temple unit (normally only one can be summoned per game, even if it dies) as it desires.
205* ''VideoGame/LordsOfTheRealm2'':
206** Enemy AI nobles can make small groups of peasant armies of 10-40 troops, whereas you normally can't make an army with less than 50 men. As a result, they will often send these small armies to pillage your fields, forcing you to spend a several seasons rebuilding your fields back up.
207** When your county without a castle (or defenders in them if you have one built) is attacked, a large portion of your population is forced into battle, but all you get are peasants, who are easily defeated. But if you attack an enemy county, they often have macemen, pikemen, and archers in their army.
208* ''VideoGame/{{Madden}}''
209** In ''VideoGame/MaddenNFL'', the AI is allowed to audible from the Wildcat formation while the human players cannot. Rather surprising, as well, in that the series has long been founded not on any "arcadish" feel, but on the philosophy of trying to provide the purest UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball video game experience possible, where every option available to any real coach/player of the game is in play.
210** ''Madden Mobile'' doesn't give humans the ability to call audibles but if you're up against a computer that constantly calls running plays, try and call a blitz package and watch them line up, pause, then blatantly change their formation.
211* The final boss of the Microprose ''VideoGame/MagicTheGathering'' PC game has an absurd amount of health, in addition to starting with several permanents in play. However, by the time you fight him, you've already foiled his plans; win or lose, you win, and the amount of damage you rack up simply determines how long he's banished from your world. Additionally, his five-color deck is quite impractical, so it's very possible to run down his health as he tries to get the proper types of mana to cast his spells.
212* In ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'', building bonuses and special weapon abilities tend to vary depending on whether you're the player or not. For instance, units deployed from an Academy gain +50% EXP for players... but enemy units instead gain a sweet level-up each turn. If an enemy hits one of your troops with a mallet, you go down a level, but the same thing doesn't happen when your troop holds the mallet.
213* ''VideoGame/MarioKart'':
214** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' has multiple differences between you and the computer players: Your car's max speed is determined by how many coins you have. You lose coins when you hit someone or fall off the track. The other cars? They don't even ''have'' coins. They can't even pick them up. So while you hitting them means you slow down, it means nothing for them besides being hit. Then there's the powerups; ''you'' have to drive over a power-up block to get a random power-up, while '''they''' don't get random power-ups, but rather each AI character has a single kind of powerup that they use at regular intervals. Donkey Kong throws banana peels, Princess Toadstool drops mushrooms, Mario and Luigi can spontaneously ''turn invincible'', etc. They only use these powerups against ''[[GangUpOnTheHuman you]]''; they will only activate them if they are exactly one place in front of or one place behind the player.
215** In ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'', the computer does not need to go over an item block to get an item. This is most evident on Toad's Turnpike, where the item blocks are all in the pit area that the computer never enters, but that doesn't stop them from leaving bananas all over the place. In addition, the computer does not get certain items: they never seem to get banana chains or any of the shells, including blue ones. Every game after ''Mario Kart 64'' has the AI only use items if they actually picked one up from an item box.
216** The AI can get an item from an item box far faster than you can because ComputersAreFast. The reason most of the Mario Kart games are infamously known for their item spam is due to the AI being able to get and use items quickly. The player can stop the roulette wheel like the AI can to get an item sooner, but the player suffers a delay while the AI does not.
217** In ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'', the player automatically discards their items when running into an item box. However, AI can be seen continuing to hold an item behind them even after passing through an item box.
218** In ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'', the computer is not affected by the Traction Stat, which means that they will take corners of sandy and icy roads as if they were asphalt. Their speed, acceleration and weight aren't affected by their choice of kart either -- you could be outran by AI Daisy on a Cat Cruiser when you play as a speed freak like Morton. The item probabilities are also different for computer players when compared to human players; there is a higher chance of the AI in last getting single banana peels and single green shells.
219* Deliberate in ''VideoGame/MarySkelterNightmares''. Most fights are turn-based, but the ultra-powerful, generally unkillable Nightmares will leapfrog over your turns if you take too long, whether you're fighting them, or fighting something else while running away. Also, they'll come after you in real-time while you get bogged down by turn-based fights against regular enemies!
220* The incredibly difficult ''VideoGame/MegamanBattleNetwork'' spinoff game ''Battlechip Grand Prix'' loves this trope. The game rules restrict the Program Deck size and slot-in capacity for the player, but these restrictions ''never'' apply to the computer -- which leads to ugly surprises like Ring having Jealousy as her slot-in chip in the ''E-rank tournaments'', when you don't actually have the memory capacity for Jealousy until after you've beaten the game.
221* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'': if the battle against [[FinalBoss Galactus]] ends on a time out, he'll say "Galactus does not abide by these rules" and proceed to destroy Earth as if he has won the battle normally, regardless of his remaining health.
222* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', the enemy soldiers never run out of ammo and never even have to [[BottomlessMagazines reload]]. This was later averted in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' where not only did soldiers have limited ammunition, but it was also possible to ''blow up their food and ammo stores'', leaving soldiers in the area laughably low on ammo (forced to switch to sidearms after 30 shots), and weakened from hunger.
223* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'':
224** While the player's tools break after a certain number of uses, enemy skeletons have no such restrictions on their bows (to say nothing of their infinite arrow supply). As if to add insult to unfairness, if you happen to get a skeleton to drop one of said bows upon death, it'll likely be almost broken when you pick it up to use for yourself.
225** Averted with the similar enemy pillagers, whose crossbows actually do break after enough shots, rendering them completely harmless.
226* Inverted, strangely enough, in ''Monster Galaxy''. Every [[{{Mons}} Mon]] has a special status-inducing attack. When the computer uses one, they spend a turn to do it. For humans, however, it's a free action; if it misses, you can just use it over and over again until it hits, all without ending your turn (your turn can only end if you use one of your mon's damage-dealing attacks).
227* ''Monster Girl Quest! Paradox RPG'' has the ability to recruit enemies as party members, but:
228** Enemies [[HealthDamageAsymmetry have much higher HP, but lower damage]] compared to party members.
229** Enemies don't consume HP, MP or SP to use skills. However, enemies ''do'' need to have enough MP in order to use MP-requiring skills. This makes reducing MP to 0 a useful tactic against enemies with these skills.
230** Many characters have different elemental and status resistances as enemies compared to when they're party members. This is most notable for multi-race characters, since as enemies they'll have resistances appropriate for their multiple races, while as party members they're limited to one race at a time and the resistances of this one race (though using the right abilities and equipment, it's possible to change this). And of course, [[ContractualBossImmunity bosses have much better resistances, including immunity to all types of instant death]].
231** Some powerful enemies can act multiple times per turn. Your party members are generally unable to do the same without using (temporary and dispellable) buffs or equipping Cards (which grant a chance of an extra action each turn). An exception to this is Est, who innately gets two actions per turn as a boss ''and'' as a party member (one reason she's a serious GameBreaker).
232* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
233** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatII'': The AI jumps ''while its sprite is still in the "laid on the floor" animation'' to counter any hope of continuing a combo after a knockdown.
234** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'': Occasionally, the AI can preform moves that are completely impossible for any human player to pull off, such as using Cyrax's net twice in a row.
235* ''VideoGame/MSSagaANewDawn'' has a system where you can upgrade and equip suits to fight other suits. The enemy ms's are not at all confined by your system having vastly more powerful suits and loadouts you can't duplicate.
236* ''VideoGame/NationalLampoonsChessManiac5BillionAnd1'' (yes, there was such a thing) cheated ''constantly,'' though this was part of the point.
237* Inverted in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', with the Frenzied Berserker. In the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' rules, that class gets an ability called "Deathless Frenzy" which means the berserker ''[[ImplacableMan can not die]]'' as long as his frenzy lasts. Players in the video game are mysteriously missing this power, but a boss enemy does have it-- meaning that in this case it's the computer who follows the rules.
238* ''VideoGame/OgreBattle'':
239** The computer is not restrained by the same level restrictions for class change as you are, and its characters can have advanced classes that they do not qualify for. The player starts the game with a number of characters who follow the same principle (because the tier 1 classes cannot lead units), but for the computer such characters are the rule rather than the exception.
240** Of course, even as late as the third-to-last stage (out of thirty) -- which also has TheEmpire's supreme commander as the stage boss -- you'll be seeing classes that SHOULD have been promoted, but haven't (in this case, ninjas -- which you can, arguably, get by the THIRD STAGE!). So these sort of cancel out...
241** ''Videogame/OgreBattle64'' does the same thing. Also, unlike the previous game where the computer followed the cap on how many units it could deploy at once, in this game the enemy can field as many squads as it wants, despite you being limited.
242* ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' features the [[HarderThanHard Dark Sims]] in multiplayer, who combine PerfectPlayAI with TheComputerIsACheatingBastard. The Dark Sims can teleport at will, fire at a faster rate than a human, and have nearly instant reload times. On top of that, they seem to peek out of corners right when you're coming around them and blast you with ''just'' enough frames for them to get back into cover. To the game's credit, it tells you that the Dark Sims can do all of this before you pick them, so at least [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned you were warned]].
243* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIII'' has four offensive techniques: Foi (single target), Gra (all targets), Zan (row of targets) and Tsu (column of targets). Only the first two work for both you and enemies equally; Zan and Tsu will both target your entire party, too, as nothing defines your party as being in a row ''or'' a column.
244* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersPirates'' is really foul about this. [[http://www.hookedonpirates.com/forums/portal.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1119017449&archive=&start_from==12& Not only is your ship ridiculously slow, even by 1660 standards]], but the damn [[BigBad Marquis]], [[TheDragon Baron Raymondo]], and everyone else on the board does not age while your player character does (with their skills going down the pan as they do).
245* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
246** In the mainline games, it's fairly common to see an NPC using Pokémon evolved ''far'' earlier than they should be, or using moves they shouldn't have by that point:
247*** Starting with the first boss in the series, Brock has an Onix that is much lower-level than any Onix you will encounter in the game. However, Brock could have bred Onix which hatch at Level 5 or Level 1 (depending on the game), then trained them to around Level 9. While breeding was not a game mechanic in ''R/B/Y'', their remakes imply that breeding is possible, just not in the region the originals cover.
248*** Lance in ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' uses two Dragonite at Level 47 and a third at Level 50, while the lowest level at which a player can legitimately have one is Level 55. In ''Red''/''Blue''/''Yellow'', his Dragonite knows Barrier, a move which is impossible for a human-owned Dragonite to learn.[[note]] Until 2016, when he finally gets to learn Barrier legally.... at least, the event Dragonites that are in themselves a reference to Lance's Dragonite.[[/note]] His ''Gold''/''Silver''/''Crystal'' Aerodactyl has Rock Slide, which that generation's players' Aerodactyl didn't have access to, but later generations did (too bad you can't trade back...). In ''[=HeartGold=]/[=SoulSilver=]'', he has one at Level 40, two at Level 49, and one at Level 50. Dragonite can once again only be obtained at Level 55 or higher, except through an event at Level 50, which is STILL higher than three of Lance's.
249*** In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' you have the pleasure to face a Level 54 Hydreigon. Normally, its pre-evolution wouldn't evolve until Level ''64''. It also has perfect [=IVs=] and uses all its [=EVs=]. It will destroy your team. Earlier, Grimsley uses a Level 50 Bisharp -- there is no way to legitimately get a Bisharp until 52.
250** A rare example in the player's favor in the Generation 1 and 2 games: major status moves and stat-lowering moves besides Accuracy have a flat 25% chance to fail when used by the AI (which is rolled for before their normal accuracy check), even moves like Tail Whip which have 100% accuracy when used by the player.
251** In the Battle Tower, should the player and the opponent be down to their last Pokémon, the Self-KO (Kamikaze) Clause comes into play, where the player loses if he or she happens to command a Pokémon to use Explosion or Self-Destruct. But say the ''computer'' decides to finish the match with an all-out Explosion? The player still loses without the opponent being penalized, despite the sacrificial KO being ''solely'' the fault of the computer. Similar unfairness occurs when both Pokémon faint simultaneously due to the effects of Destiny Bond or Perish Song. So if you lose, the computer wins. If you "tie" with the computer, the computer ''still'' wins. To "win" (and thus preserve streaks), you have to ''win'', no questions asked.
252** When attempting to escape from a wild Pokémon, you may sometimes fail if your active Pokémon is slower than the wild Pokémon you're facing. Some legendary Pokémon always attempt to flee as their first action, and unless you use a move or ability to prevent it they will always succeed, regardless of your Pokémon's speed.\
253On the other hand, the trainer's attempt to flee is always done at the beginning of the turn while for wild Pokémon it depends on turn order, which is based on speed.
254*** In ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', the legendary bird that you're chasing[[note]]dependent on your chosen starter Pokémon[[/note]] will flee the first ten encounters with the player, who does not get to use a move to try and trap it. "Trapping" Abilities like Shadow Tag also do not apply to these encounters. Furthermore, though the encounter is played out like a "battle", the player does not even get an opportunity to select a move or use an item, preventing the player from even trying to catch it until it's good and ready to be fought properly, despite the fact that in all other battles, trainer actions (like item use) take place before Pokémon actions.
255** In ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', the player's Pokémon are the only ones that can have their moves run out of [[{{Mana}} PP.]]
256** Actually downplayed in the Battle Maison for ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY''. There are instances of abilities/items unavailable for this generation, such as Contrary Serperior or Snow Warning Aurorus[[note]]programmed in and intended as Hidden Abilities, but unreleased when the games launched, though they were eventually released late in the generation as Pokémon Bank and tournament rewards respectively.[[/note]], and Jaboca Berry[[note]]available in Gen V, but unavailable in -- and cannot be transferred via Pokémon Bank to -- Gen VI, etc.[[/note]], but they are examples of moves/items that were DummiedOut for some reason, not illegal moves and items per se. Playing fair: Pretty much everything else. With the exception of the above, all movesets/abilities of opponent's Pokémon are obtainable by the player, and the legendaries being used in the consecutive battles are all legal in rated battles.
257** Enemy Pokemon in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'' are capable of evolving. However, they don't require EXP in order to do so, and will instead evolve immediately after defeating one of your party members or eating a Joy Seed, assuming their evolution is triggered by leveling. They also immediately jump up to the level required for their evolution upon doing so, which can make things quickly go from bad to worse if you're in an early dungeon that has Pokémon that evolve at high levels like Litwick, Vullaby, or Deino.
258** Another interesting inversion occurs in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2''. When you first arrive to the Pokemon World Tournament building, you are forced to try the Driftveil Tournament once before proceeding. In this tournament, Pokemon above level 25 have their levels reduced to that amount, but in this story-forced run, that restriction ''only'' applies to the AI opponents, and not the player[[note]]Proven by Hugh's starter Pokemon, which knows moves learnt later than Level 25, and immediately after this tournament, it is at Level 33[[/note]]. While this is most likely an [[AntiFrustrationFeatures Anti-Frustration Feature]], it does not take out the fact that, for once, it is ''the player'' who is cheating, instead of the AI.
259** ''VideoGame/PokemonMasters'' has it both ways with regards to [[LimitBreak sync moves]]: The player's sync moves can only damage one Pokémon (unless they're a 6* EX Strike Pair or have the Strike EX Role), while the opponent's sync moves damage all the player's Pokémon. On the plus side, the player has three sync moves (one for each Pokémon they have) they can use, while the opponent only has one.
260** In ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'' there is a curious example in that it does not apply to specifically the player or AI, but to a few specific Pokémon who still have their abilities as intrinsically built into the game. The first is Cherrim, who, based on time of day, can transform from its Overcast form into its Sunshine form, gaining a stat boost equivalent to Flower Gift. The second is the titular Arceus itself, who can change types by using the plates, which are Key Items in the game (akin to its ability Multitype), and the third (and amusingly, a Pokémon who is WORSE for it) is Regigigas, who, despite being in a game with no abilities, is still forced to deal with an attack and speed penalty for five turns, akin to its Slow Start ability.
261*** ''Legends Arceus'' has a more straightforward example in the form of the FinalBoss, [[spoiler:Volo]]. He fights you with a full team of six Pokémon, but straight after you beat him, he summons [[spoiler:Giratina]] and sics it on you. And after you beat ''that'', [[spoiler:it [[TurnsRed changes into its Origin Forme]] and you have to beat it ''again'']]. This essentially amounts to [[spoiler:Volo]] using ''eight'' Pokémon in a single trainer battle, when the usual limit is six.
262* ''VideoGame/PunchOut'':
263** In the NES game, if Little Mac gets knocked down three times in a match (even if it isn't the same round), no amount of button mashing will let him get up the third time. His opponents can potentially get up many more times provided it isn't three in one round for a TKO (or if you're fighting King Hippo, who never gets up from the first knockdown).
264** The Wii version adjusts this: Little Mac now has three knockdowns he can recover from (barring a TKO), and can [[{{Determinator}} occasionally force himself up]] on the fourth. (A fifth will end you.) The opponents all have secret knockdown values -- once exceeded, they collapse in a KO on the next knockdown.
265** In all versions, Little Mac has to get to a full standing position before the KO count will stop, but the opponent only needs to twitch to stop or pause it. The only exception is the SNES version, where the opponents can stand all the way up, only to fall back down again, and the count will keep going until they're actually up and ready to continue the fight. On the other hand, in the SNES version, unlike the other games (or actual boxing) where you have three rounds and after which you can still win by decision, you ''have'' to KO or TKO your oponent before time is up or you lose, no matter how much health you have over the oponent.
266* In ''[[VideoGame/PuzzleQuest Puzzle Kingdoms]]'', your hero has four slots in which he can equip stat boosting items. You are limited in both type (one item each from Helm, Armor, Weapon, and Accessory) and by the point cost of each item. Computer opponents, OTOH, are given items completely at random, not only ignoring the points cap, but frequently stacking item types (which occasionally results in completely unfair combos like enemies with three shields, soaking up 90% of your attacks).
267* The AI competitors in ''VideoGame/RailroadTycoon'' get to build several track configurations that aren't available to human players, including stations with non-straight-through track (it can leave at a non-opposite angle and have multiple accesses -- while humans are restricted to N-S (say), AI can build N-SE, N-E and N-E-W...), and diagonal bridges that can cross more than one square. In the first game, you may also run into AI-built bridges that span an entire river--lengthwise.
268** ''VideoGame/TransportTycoon'''s AI carries on the tradition, most notably being able to ignore its reputation meter and level half a town to build a bypass without penalty, but quite frankly [[ArtificialStupidity it needed all the help it could get.]] [[FanRemake OpenTTD]] provides for fanmade AI scripts that are generally somewhat smarter.
269* Throughout the ''VideoGame/RType'' series, [[OneHitPointWonder player ships are destroyed with only one hit]], and there's no shield or armor items that can mitigate this besides post-respawn MercyInvincibility in some games. However, in ''R-Type Final'' and ''R-Type Final 2'', [[spoiler:there are stages where you are turned into a Bydo and fight the Earth forces, including their famed R-series ships that you've been using throughout the series. At the ends of these stages, you fight a boss R-ship that has the health you'd expect of a typical boss.]]
270* ''VideoGame/RepublicAtWar'': The AI produces units at cheaper costs than you; the player needs 60,000 credits to construct the ''Malevolence'', but the AI only needs 20,000 credits to build it according to the [[https://republicatwar.com/changelog changelog.]]
271* In ''VideoGame/ResonanceOfFate'', your characters must take turns moving one at a time, but the enemies can all move at the same time. So, for every turn ''one'' of your characters take, ''every'' enemy gets a turn. The enemies are also aware of which character you're currently controlling and prefer targeting that one so you can't aim. This makes the limited run-while-shooting Hero Actions practically the only way to fight, since if you try to shoot while standing still the enemies will almost always interrupt your aim.
272* One of the minigames in ''VideoGame/{{Ripper}}'' lets the play with different rules. It's a chess-type game where you and the computer are trying to capture each other's kings. But while the computer can move all its pieces from the beginning, the player can only use their knights after all of their pawns have been killed. The computer knows this, and will actively go out of its way to avoid capturing your pawns.
273* There are plenty of {{Roguelike}} games (like ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'', and the first, but not the second, ''[[VideoGame/IzunaLegendOfTheUnemployedNinja Izuna]]'' game) where enemies aren't affected by traps. Most likely because their AI is so bad they tend to walk recklessly even into visible traps all the time, but it still can get annoying.
274* In an early Windows 95 game TabletopGame/{{Risk}}, you can conquer all you want, but when the computer has only one territory and one unit left, you can never beat it. Maxing out the units next to that piece of land to 999, and you can waste 998 of them(because you cannot attack with just 1 unit) and still see the 1 over on that side.
275* In the Super Famicom version of ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'', enemies who can use Techs can use them as a counter to your Techs/Magic, as a desperation attack when they're almost dead, or whenever they feel like it (even though the player needs to attack multiple times to use a Tech). This can be particularly dangerous near the end of the game when some mooks have Techs that can wipe out your entire party in one or two hits. A simple way out is not using any magic or techs and only use normal attack, the game is designed to have enemies counter every single special move but uses very little tech if you simply use normal attack. (In the remake, tech-using monsters ''can'' still use them more freely than you can, but they do not counter your own techs and magic any longer.)
276* In ''VideoGame/{{Shadowverse}}'', like in a lot of [=CCGs=], you're only allowed to build decks using cards from your faction and the neutral card pool. In the later stages of each character's story campaign, their opponents start casually disregarding this rule to use decks containing cards from multiple factions. Worse, they specifically abuse this ability to create very degenerate and unfair combinations of cards that would be impossible for a human player, such as combining Dragoncraft's Dragonsong Flute with Forestcraft's ability to fill its hand with Fairies to be converted into Hellflame Dragons, or Shadowcraft's Nephthys being used to pull Swordcraft's Leonidas from the deck and immediately destroy him again to generate the devastating Leonidas' Resolve amulet far earlier than would usually be possible.
277* In the majority of ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games and spinoffs, you have Physical attacks, which [[CastFromHitPoints consume a percentage of the user's HP]] (Prior to ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', where they use MP) and Magic attacks that use up magnetite, spirit points, or traditional [=MP=]. Naturally, Physical attacks, while powerful, will deplete your health in a hurry and are thus relatively risky to use. Enemy characters can use as many Physicals as they want and stay perfectly healthy. The only way to deny them the ability to do this is getting their HP lower than the cost of the attack; even though they don't pay the cost, ''they still have to have enough to pay it for it to work''.
278** It's also not unusual to see a boss take multiple actions per turn through one way or another, like with a bonus regular Press Turn(s). If the battle system lets you gain {{Extra Turn}}s of your own, it keeps playing field more even.
279* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', the Trumpeter has an attack he uses periodically that instantly kills whoever has the lowest HP, as well as another that fully heals whoever has the lowest HP, including himself. That means he can also OneHitKO himself, right? Wrong! If the Trumpeter gets off his instant kill attack while he's the one with the lowest HP, it will instead target the protagonist.
280* Although it seems like a small detail to get fussy about, in ''VideoGame/ShirenTheWanderer'' small details can be the difference between life and death, and one of these things happens if you have party members with you when you encounter a Skull Mage. One of the random effects that can result from a Skull Mage swinging its staff at you is that you become twice as fast for a few turns. If this happens to one of your allies, they remain at double speed for much, MUCH longer than you. Enemies that obtain double speed, such as when waking up after you use a Scroll of Sleep, also retain the speed bonus for much longer than you.
281* ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsHitAndRun'': AI opponents can overtake you whilst driving an inferior car. They also don't suffer from the penalties for hitting people on the road.
282* In ''VideoGame/SkoolDaze'', if you throw a punch or fire your catapult in view of a teacher, you will get given lines as punishment even if you don't hit anyone, while other students will only get in trouble if they hit a teacher.
283* ''VideoGame/SonicShuffle'', which, in lieu of the dice in ''VideoGame/MarioParty'', uses cards. You can take cards from any player, but you can only see what your cards are when you hover over them. In spite of this, computer players know exactly what cards you have, and can/will [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard steal the right cards from you even if they already have one they need]].
284* In ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'', the Anti-Matter decor gives you a 90% chance to avoid taking damage, but any unit that fails to do so will be killed. Enemy units with Anti-Matter apparently don't pay attention to the second part.
285* Done intentionally in ''Videogame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'' by two characters, who are explicitly cheating by altering the rules of the Superhero {{LARP}} that you're playing:
286** Cousin Kyle, as Alternate Human Kite will often whine about getting additional turns or negating damage because you didn't say it's your turn. [[spoiler:As a [[OneWingedAngel giant mutant abomination]], he whines that it's not fair how all of your party members get to go before he does, resulting in him getting a turn after each of them, which is the main reason he is such a challenging boss]].
287** The true BigBad [[spoiler:Mitch Conner]] goes one step further, as he will not only claim extra turns or reflect damage, but will also randomly apply status effects after his attacks just by claiming, "Oh by the way, that caused [insert status effect here]". [[spoiler:Kyle as Mitch Conner does the exact same thing in the final battle, and both him and Cartman are only stopped by Doctor Timothy declaring "No Cheating"]].
288* ''VideoGame/StarbaseOrion'', the ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' clone for [=iOS=], in a recent update, has given the player the option to enable or disable AI cheating, which is independent of difficulty levels. This allows the AI to ignore basic rules. For example, unlike ''Master of Orion II'', ''Starbase Orion'' does not allow the refitting of ships. Instead, you can use the option to scrap an existing ship, which is turned into "industry" for the chosen planet. With cheating turned on, the AI is fully capable of upgrading ships with new tech.
289* ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefrontII'':
290** In campaign, the AI gets unlimited reinforcements but your team still has to make do with a limited number of respawns. While mainly to prevent [[SequenceBreaking wiping out the entire enemy team, therefore rendering the mission objectives moot,]] this can lead to frustration as it encourages a more [[DeathOrGloryAttack aggressive play style]], a war of attrition being out of the question.
291** Bots get access to the special classes from the very start, whereas players have to earn points before being able to play those classes.
292* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'':
293** CPU fighters are always better than player-controlled ones frame-data wise, from executing certain moves which require holding the joystick in one direction for a certain time without having to do so, to having attacks connect in less frames than a player character and having less ending lag, to outright gaining invincibility during hitstun so that they can always counter any attack. A comprehensive list of examples is given in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laUAgEUunsI this video]].
294** In the earliest versions of the game, it was not uncommon for a CPU controlled Guile to use his Flash Kick from a standing position, often as he's walking toward you. For those who don't know, the Flash Kick requires you to hold down (crouch) for two seconds, then immediately press up and a kick button, which would make this tactic completely impossible for a human player to do.
295** In a similar vein, AI-controlled Balrog is able to throw out dash punches without the requisite charge command (hold back for two seconds, then forward and punch). This is arguably worse, because he can combo three dash uppers on you, taking out way more than half your life and stunning you. Effectively, if you are hit by one dash upper while on the ground, you'll lose the round no matter how much health you have.
296** Blanka also does this by launching his rolling attack while walking forward. Oddly, after ''Turbo'', while he still does that, he'll pretend to charge for his rising rolling attack.
297** In the max difficulty, some CPU characters will have the starting frames of some attacks cut to zero in order to use the infamous magic priority trick. Especially noticeable in a Ryu vs. Ryu match: if you try to sweep him, he can crouch and swipe you before you complete your sweep.
298* In ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage 4'', the player will lose health when performing a special move and their star move is limited by how many stars they've collected. When you fight against a player character in survival mode, they can use their special moves without losing health and they can use their star move as much as they feel like. The only saving grace is they will never pick up weapons and if you throw one at them, they'll catch it and toss it aside.
299* In ''VideoGame/StuntCarRacer'' the computer opponent cannot crash -- any collision between you and the computer will most likely result in you flying off the track while they drive on unaffected.
300* ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'':
301** In most of the series, bosses have ways of breaking out of combos that cannot be reproduced by the player. This is to prevent players from abusing infinite combos or co-op combos to completely lock the boss down. In ''VideoGame/TalesOfHearts R'', even normal enemies can break out of combos, but this is alleviated by the player exclusive Guard Counter mechanic, which can force them back into the combo if timed properly.
302** Spells have a delay, and if a player is hit with an attack while charging a spell they are knocked out of the spell. Several enemies do not follow this rule, and will always finish casting despite being hit during their charge.
303** Zig-zagged with mystic artes in games. In some games, you have to be in overlimit to use Mystic Artes. Bosses have to follow this rule too, although for some reason, they're able to just pull them out of nowhere as well as through overlimit. This is especially prevalent in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' and ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', where bosses that have Mystic Artes more often surprise the player when they suddenly pull it out of nowhere. This is also part of why that makes a certain boss in ''Vesperia'' ThatOneBoss; because he'll use his mystic arte ''numerous'' times, and chances are, you ''will'' be caught by surprise when he pulls it out of thin-air.
304** Doesn't apply in some games though -- in others, enemies can use mystic artes out of nowhere or if they're programmed to as a response. (For example, in ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny 2'' and subsequent appearances, Barbatos only uses a mystic arte, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efJlhwRmRfw No Items Ever!]] if the player uses an item.)
305** In addition to being in Over Limit, one must also connect with a high level attack to trigger most mystic artes, but enemies don't need to do this.
306** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfGraces'', players can pull mystic artes out of nowhere with the correct skills after meeting certain conditions. Enemies are held to the normal rules (even the hitting rule), save for a certain EasterEgg...
307** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia'' and its sequel, enemies can go Over Limit alone, while player characters must [[CombinationAttack Link]] with eachother both to build the limit meter and to trigger Over Limit. This also means only bosses can use [[LimitBreak Mystic Artes]] when fighting alone. The sequel also has different Mystic Arte trigger rules for enemies. They must hit the target with an Arcane Arte, while players must use a Linked Arte.
308* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'':
309** Players made invincible cannot personally advance gameplay objectives like capping a point or moving the payload bomb. In Mann Vs Machine, robots can carry and even drop the bomb into the hole while Ubercharged.
310** Engineer bots in regular gameplay are capable of clipping into the center of their Sentry guns and wrench away while human-controlled Engineers treat their own sentry as a solid entity.
311* There was once an electronic TabletopGame/TicTacToe game in the Sydney Powerhouse Museum, which was literally impossible to win, thanks to this trope. The computer's flawed programming meant that it could override a box you had put your "O" in with one of its own "X"s, meaning that the computer would ''always'' win in three or four moves, no matter what you did.
312* AI Bots in the ''VideoGame/{{Timesplitters}}'' series seem to operate on a much different ruleset than player-controlled characters, which can be to your detriment or advantage:
313** Bots occasionally do flashy dodging moves such as dives, slides, siderolls, and backflips. [[SecretAiMoves Players cannot do this]].
314** When you, a player take damage, your view shakes a bit but you can still fire. Bots go into a flinching animation that renders them helpless until they recover. Being set on fire has a similar effect, with Bots flailing helplessly while Players get a mild InterfaceScrew.
315** Bots reload much faster and never overheat the Plasma Rifle or Minigun.
316** In ''Timesplitters 2'', bots can fire single shots with the Scifi Handgun while players can only use 3-shot bursts. Conversely, in ''Future Perfect'' they can't use its secondary fire bouncing shot.
317* ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal 2''. Enemies ''blatantly'' don't need weapon pickups and are not restricted by an energy meter. Some characters will take the freeze missile (an energy-based attack that can only be used twice on a full energy bar) and ''spam'' it. Once the first shot connects, you are frozen and unable to move while taking a minimal amount of damage from each hit until you die.
318** Made even worse in ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal 3'' at the hardest difficulty, where all CPU cars will constantly spam their special weapons, something impossible for a player since said weapons have limited ammo and reload after a set amount of time, which is the only way to replenish them. This gets the most irrating with Club Kid, who leaves a dozen of his "vortex" weapon behind as soon as you get close to him. As this weapon sucks all cars nearby and spins them around violently, If the player gets caught with more than 2 enemy cars it will invariably not survive the onslaught (unless the player is using [[LightningBruiser Minion]] or maybe [[MightyGlacier Warthog]] in lucky day).
319* The final boss in the [[spoiler:No Mercy/Genocide]] route in ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' -- [[spoiler:Sans, after he decides that you must be destroyed]] -- is entirely based on this trope. For starters, not only do they get the first turn -- something literally ''no other enemy in the entire game'' can do -- but they also get to [[spoiler:attack you ''[[CombatPragmatist during his opening monologue]]'']], complete with a lampshade about why [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim nobody else bothers to do that]].
320** Technically, while the boss in question doesn't operate like any other enemy in the game, they're actually one of the biggest subversions of this trope. [[spoiler:As a boss, Sans']] rules are ''exactly'' your rules. They goes first, like you normally do. They can dodge like you. they can take as long as they wants on a turn, like you. [[spoiler:Sans can make [[ISurrenderSuckers a fake offer to spare you]], then kill you instantly if you accept it.]] The only thing they can do that you can't is [[spoiler:attacking you during your turn. Except you finally beat him by figuring out how to attack him during his turn.]]
321* ''VideoGame/UninvitedTheQuestForTheRedDiamond'': You can shoot Bill before the count of 10, but then the Demon of Honor shows up and kills you. But he will shoot you at 6.
322* ''VideoGame/UrbanRivals'' has Duel mode which allows you to play against the AI (named Kate). In a normal fight, the player with the higher star count goes first. However, when battling against Kate, you go first even if your star count is lower than hers. While this puts the player at a disadvantage since screwing up your opening could make it hard to win, Kate has a tendency to use pills predictably and wildly (such as putting most of her pills on a single card). This isn't always the case though, and she will play somewhat smart occasionally.
323* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles4'' does this in the player's favour. The player can move a single unit as many times in a single turn as they have CP to spend, balanced by a reduction in AP (movement range) for each action beyond the first. The AI can only move each soldier once on their turn, period. The AI will also burn all their unspent CP at the end of the turn, not accumulate them like the player can. In fairness, if the AI could abuse the system the same way as the player, some missions would be flat-out impossible. This is also what makes the game's bosses so scary -- not only are they powerful and tough, but they can actually move and attack more than once per turn.
324* Used for horror in ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'', where [[spoiler:the werewolf of Griffith Park]] breaks all the previously established rules of the game up to that point just to underline just how utterly, completely out of your depth you are when dealing with it. It has no health bar, takes no damage from anything you can throw at it (including OneHitKill Disciplines, which at least deal some moderate damage to other bosses) and even shrugs off the game's console commands. It ignores all forms of damage resistance (including god mode) and is mostly immune to the effects of [[TimeStandsStill higher levels of]] [[SuperSpeed Celerity]], giving you at best a short burst of ground speed to get away. Finally, it is scripted to teleport next to you [[BarrierBustingBlow and destroy the nearest wall or roof segment to get at you]] [[OffscreenTeleportation whenever you lose sight of each other]], something no other boss can do.
325* In ''VideoGame/VandalHearts 2'', you are explicitly not allowed to mix magic or skills belonging to two opposite elementals (fire vs ice, light vs dark, you get the point), nor are you allowed to store an elemental magic/skill inside an opposite element weapon (dark spell in a light-elemental weapon, say). This did not stop one of the major boss of the game (Manon in this case) to do exactly just that.
326* For ''Warhammer 40,000: Herald of Oblivion'', this is done on the player's behalf. Normally a Terminator has a very limited selection of weapons, but your particular Terminator character is free to use all kinds of weapons that he finds, including a plasma gun and chainsword - which aren't available to Terminators in other 40K video games. As a CYOA type of game, this gives your character some variety plus you're alone against some very powerful enemies.
327* In ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlords_(game_series) Warlords]]'' (that is, ''any'' of the seven-plus ''Warlords'' games) the percentages are so lopsided in favor of the [=AI=] you can only accomplish a fair fight if you sacrifice ludicrous amounts of cannon-fodder at an equally powerful enemy group before launching a main assault. Interestingly, the difficulty settings do not modify the artificial intelligence, only the degree to which it cheats. Especially conspicuous, since the ''Warlords'' franchise was promised by developers and marketing alike to feature strong [=AI=] ''in lieu of'' common cheating methods; it seems [[ILied they lied]].
328* In the [[MediaNotes/TheFifthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames fifth-gen]] ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' games, when you push an opponent off the track they will just ''clip through'' obstacles and ignore gravity [[HoistByHisOwnPetard while you]] collide with the wall or fall into the pit you tried to push them into. They also do not brake for corners and start off the race by blasting off into the distance and then slowing down.
329* ''VideoGame/{{Wizard101}}'':
330** Enemies in an optional tower get cheats like casting spells that they don't have the pips (spell points) for, super powered spell that do more damage than normal or casting a defense spell on themselves during your turn. They are meant to be fought with a full team of level 50 (the [[{{Cap}} LevelCap]] until Celestia was released.)
331** In Celestia many enemies get many more pips at the start of the battle than is possible for the [=PCs=].
332* ''VideoGame/TheWonderful101'' has Prince Vorkken. Unite Guts can only block blunt attacks; in a battle with Vorkken, this applies to his Hand, his Hammer and... that's it. Vorkken, however, can block EVERY one of your attacks and will scatter your team if you hit him while he's in Guts form. In addition, he is ''invincible'' while holding any Unite Morph (while you're often at your most vulnerable with a Unite Morph), and even when he's reduced to nothing but a sword with no Morphs, he's ''still'' invulnerable during his attack animations and can even break through your entire team's Unite Guts with that sword! The last option when it comes to using your weaknesses against him would be to knock away all of the Guyzoch so that he can't make any Morphs (you require at least ten active members to do ''any'' morphs, including Guts and Spring). Even if you do this, while he will lose access to his attacks and Guts, he can somehow make a one-person Unite Spring to bounce away and stall for time while his team gets up!
333* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
334** Whirlwind is a Warrior ability that strikes all targets around the user for damage that is lower than a typical weapon attack. When bosses and some enemies use Whirlwind, however, they will often spin for a few seconds, hitting anyone standing next to them multiple times for damage comparable to their typical weapon attacks, more akin to the Blade Storm talent (only accessible to Arms warriors at the very end of the talent tree, and having a cooldown of about a minute and a half). This is one of many examples of player abilities being different in bosses' hands.
335** Apart from bosses, many [=NPCs=], enemy and ally alike, roughly correspond to a specific playable class and have a handful of that class's signature abilities. However, while players' abilities have been modified, removed or had restrictions put on them, those changes haven't usually affected [=NPCs=]. Therefore it's not unusual to see them plonk down shaman totems that were removed two expansions ago, channel spells like that are now instant cast, or use old animations for spells whose animations were overhauled for players.
336** This applies to racial skills too. For example, blood elf mobs in Outland still use the Mana Tap ability, which was removed for blood elf players in ''Wrath of the Lich King''.
337** The Chess event in the Karazhan raid has Medivh cheat every so often by doing things like setting your pieces on fire. The game explicitly tells you that Medivh is cheating. This is by design - in the original version of this event, Medivh did not cheat and as a result, the event was extremely easy. Characters capable of stealth soon discovered they were able to creep directly to this event, solo it and collect free loot. Medivh's cheating prevented this and ensured that a full party was required to complete the event.
338* NPC ships in the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series seem to possess a point-to-point jumpdrive (they spawn with the same white flash that accompanies jumpdrive use), whereas the only such drive the player can buy is jumpgate-dependent. According to WordOfGod this is GameplayAndStorySegregation; the official line is that only the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Kha'ak]] have point-to-point jumpdrives, and [[AlwaysChaoticEvil they aren't sharing]].
339** In ''Videogame/XRebirth'''s, your ship (the ''Albion Skunk''), is capable of pulling some hilariously impossible turns that would turn the pilot into red pudding when under the control of the [[GameplayAutomation Autopilot]]. NPC capital ships do not collide with each other, although this is probably a good thing considering how crowded the space around stations get; they'll still try to avoid hitting each other, though.
340* Psionic attacks in the first two ''X-COM'' games (''[[VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense UFO Defense]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/XCOMTerrorFromTheDeep Terror from the Deep]]'') have different targeting rules between the Alien AI and the human player: For a player to psionically attack an enemy, at least one of your soldiers must see it (though not necessarily your psi user, allowing for spotter tactics). On the other hand, as soon as Aliens see ''any'' of your guys (or even a tank), they can target ''anyone'', including the ones still in the Skyranger.
341** In ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', if you're not playing the Long War GameMod, activating the Red Fog option will result in your soldiers getting Aim penalties when hurt, without affecting the aliens.
342** The ''VideoGame/XCOM2: Alien Hunters'' DLC quickly became the most divisive and hated expansion in the modern ''XCOM'' series for this reason. The game usually follows a "you go, they go" system where you give your team of soldiers their actions, then your opponent manages any activated groups of enemies. The Alien Rulers in the expansion, however, interrupt your turn and get to make a "Ruler Reaction" every time one of your soldiers does something, an ability not even ''XCOM 2''[='s=] "boss" enemies share. Have fun deciding which lucky soldier gets to move out of the blast radius of the Archon King's MacrossMissileMassacre.
343* In ''Xenosaga Episode I'', enemies seem to get unlimited boosts that completely fudge the order of character and enemy turns. Its sequels, luckily, restrict them.
344* In the ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' games[[note]]the ones with action-based combat systems anyway, not [[VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon the ones which switched to a turn-based combat system]][[/note]] your combat lock-on is very flakey- if an enemy dodges your attack, your character will continue going forward in a straight line and you have to stop and manually readjust yourself to face them again, very annoying considering you can only block attacks from the front. Enemies, however, can track you like they're laser guided. Bosses in particular are sometimes capable of launching dramatic leaping pounce or lunging charge attacks which will literally go past you then spin around 180 degrees in mid-attack to hit you in the back when you thought you'd dodged.
345* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'':
346** ''7 Trials to Glory'' features Shadow Duels where any enemy could build such illegal decks, like Yami Marik -- who had three copies each of the hideously broken Black Luster Soldier -- Envoy the Beginning and Chaos Emperor Dragon -- Envoy the End; both of which basically ended the duel once they hit the field. However, this trope gets subverted once you realize that while in that area with Shadow Duels, '''you''' are also allowed to build and use an illegal deck.
347** In the ''Tag Force'' series, the appropriate sentiment would be: "Boy, I wish ''I'' could play three copies of a card that's limited to one".
348** ''VideoGame/YuGiOhOnlineDuelEvolution'' provides you with [=NPCs=] to duel as well as other humans. The game imposes the current ban/restricted lists of the card game on your deck, meaning there's certain cards you can't use even though you may own them. The [=NPCs=] are not under these restrictions, leaving you saying, "Boy, I wish ''I'' could play Pot of Greed/Snatch Steal/Ring of Destruction."
349** ''VideoGame/YuGiOhTheSacredCards'' and ''VideoGame/YuGiOhReshefOfDestruction'' impose limits to the player's access to cards through Duelist Level and Deck Capacity, requiring them to engage in LevelGrinding to access stronger cards. The opponent, on the other hand, isn't bound by these restrictions, and can use cards far stronger than the player is allowed access to. This becomes more blatant in ''Reshef of Destruction'' due to the [[ForcedLevelGrinding glacial pace]] at which the player earns Deck Capacity, allowing the player to see how quickly the opponent can scale out of their reach. ''Reshef'' also has some endgame opponents having multiple copies of powerful cards, of which the player is usually only allowed 1 or 2 copies in their Deck, on top of sporting more initial LP than normal.
350** In '''World Championship 2004''' the Rare Hunters all have decks with three copies each of Raigeki and Dark Hole -- both of which destroy everything on your field at a moment's notice.
351
352[[AC: Non-Video Game Examples]]
353* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''
354** Spellcasting mostly averts this, with each spellcasting monster having either the Innate Spellcasting feature (which a PlayerCharacter can get through racial feats or simply picking the right race), or are assigned a spellcasting class and level, and they can then access spells available to that class at that level. Played straight in a few examples, such as the lich Acererak or the half goddess Laeral Silverhand, both of which are described as lv. 20 wizards, but have access to more spellslots than a player character could ever get.
355** Whoever creates all those dungeons lying around can apparently create magical effects that last indefinitely and can resist any spell except a few specific ones. Needless to say, this is beyond what player characters are capable of.
356** A rare example that benefits the ''players'': in D&D, and, by extension, ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', Players can reach the LevelCap of 20 after only a year or two of adventuring in-game. However, there are numerous npcs that are hundreds or even thousands of years old that are less than level 20, despite having plenty of time to get there. With regards to ''Pathfinder'', WordOfGod has outright said that npcs don't use the same xp tables as pcs, and are just whatever level the plot requires.
357* ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'', as the star of a crossover anniversary show, has the ability to ignore many of the rules that other Riders are subject to in the various worlds he visits, such as being able to kill things that normally require a specific KryptoniteFactor or even aren't supposed to be able to die at all. This continues when Decade returns as a major supporting character in ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'', being immune to many of the rules that keep the other Riders from getting too involved in the action.
358* Zigzagged with the agents in ''Film/TheMatrix'', who can bend the rules of the virtual world to have super strength and speed and thus are severe threats. However, Morpheus explains that as agents of the system they are limited to bending the rules, which is very powerful, but can not outright ''break'' the rules and can never be as powerful as a human can potentially be. [[spoiler:In the end Neo effectively becomes a god by learning to actually break the rules, thus becoming The One, and in the sequels we see just how bad things get when an agent actually ''does'' [[AnswersToTheNameOfGod decide]] [[ApocalypseHow to]] [[TheVirus break]] [[GrandTheftMe the]] [[EnemyMine rules]]. Worse, [[CreateYourOwnVillain that agent learned how to break the rules by experiencing Neo doing it]].]]
359* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'': [[{{Cyberspace}} The world inside a computer]] uses this trope all the time [[InUniverse with its Game Cubes.]] The heroes frequently win games against the User by finding ways to cheat. The pinnacle of this is during a Franchise/{{Pokemon}} style game, where Matrix and Bob utterly ignore the "Mons vs Mons" rule and go straight for the User handler.
360* In a literary example, XB-223, the navigational computer in ''Literature/TheRedTapeWar'' moves chess pieces when Pierce isn't looking, and deals whatever cards it wants in card games rather than using a random-number generator. Pierce caught on a long time ago. Nobody else has.
361* During the UsefulNotes/CanadianFootballLeague's American expansion years, the American teams were exempted from the "import ratio" rules (More than half the team's roster had to be Canadian) and were not subject to Canada's much-higher income tax. This gave the American teams a massive advantage via the number of NFL-level players they could sign. It's how the Baltimore Stallions could win the 1995 Grey Cup after existing for only two years. Proposals to address that imbalance were in the works when most of the American teams folded (With the exception of Baltimore, who moved and became the new Montreal Allouettes.)
362* In ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostBusters'' episode ''Night Game'', the forces of Evil are allowed to cheat while the forces of Good are not. The Umpire explains that cheating is evil's nature, and if a Good player cheats they will become Evil as they are embracing evil's nature.
363* In ''Literature/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'', no one -- human or Material -- can enter or leave the closed space of a battle enabled by the Third Summoning Ceremony. Unless [[spoiler:they are a Material manifested through the Fourth Summoning Ceremony]]. That's why no-one can fight [[spoiler:the Colorless Little Girl]], as there is nothing to prevent her from simply leaving.
364* ''TabletopGame/RedDwarf'': The Evil Commander character template has higher stats and more points in several skills than any other pregenerated character in the sourcebook. Lampshaded by the sourcebook itself, which states that he cheated because he's evil.
365* ''TabletopGame/{{Godbound}}'': Stronger enemies often get multiple actions per turn, multiple attacks per action, and can deal 'straight' damage instead of following the damage chart used by everybody else. While Godbound characters can mimic some of these abilities, it's only by investing in specific gifts, and requires expending their limited effort instead of simply having it by default.
366** [[BadassNormal Human]] player characters actually have talents that give them multiple actions and attacks normally, but still suffer this trope as they can't bind to a Word of Creation, unlike enemies that get all of the above.
367** This trope is inverted in terms of health. While damage is normally inflicted to a creature's hit dice, players still take damage to their hit points, giving them an extremely inflated health track compared to most enemies.
368* In episodes 18 and 19 of ''Series/KamenRiderGeats'', the Jyamato that play in the Jyamato Ball game have abilities that stack them against the other Riders, namely that they can spawn in as many Jyamato and Jyamato Riders as needed and that the Rook Jyamato has the ability to launch the ball in play from the other end of the field to the goal where the Riders have to effectively play Basketball and American Football to get the ball to their goal.

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