| 1 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16635530680.28589800 |
| 2 | %% Previous thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1427396707013392800 |
| 3 | %% Please do not change or remove either without starting a new thread. |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | [[quoteright:350:[[WebAnimation/SoThisIsBasically https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fe_weapons.png]]]] |
| 6 | [-[[caption-width-right:349: Ah, yes, the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' weapon triangle: swords, lances, and the bad ones.]]-] |
| 7 | %% |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ->'''Ophelia''': Oh great. Rosa, I found a lasgun. |
| 10 | ->'''Rosa''': May the Emperor protect you, because that thing won't. |
| 11 | -->-- ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: Battle Sister'' |
| 12 | |
| 13 | In video games, you're bound to find at least one weapon or offense-oriented piece of equipment that you like to use, and use it regularly. Then there are the weapons that are either difficult to use effectively, useless in most situations, don't have much availability, or just plain unfun to utilize. Most people try to avoid using these weapons if they can afford to do so, but some games require you to use them at least once, usually to defeat a boss, solve a puzzle, or find an important item, at which point they are either discarded or forgotten. Note that this is not limited to weapons: Magic, offensive items, Mons or fighting moves can also fall into this category. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Compare with UselessUsefulSpell, which deals with skills and spells that deal status effects in [=RPG=]s, and LowTierLetdown. Contrast with JokeItem, which is an intentionally weak or useless weapon or item, SoLastSeason, where a weapon that ''was'' good for what it did is replaced by a newer, better one, and WithThisHerring, which is about deliberately being given poor (albeit usable) equipment by the important {{NPC}}s when the fate of the world is at stake. Not to be confused with WeaponsThatSuck. |
| 16 | ---- |
| 17 | !!Example subpages: |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[index]] |
| 20 | [[AC:Genres]] |
| 21 | * ScrappyWeapon/FirstPersonShooter |
| 22 | * ScrappyWeapon/RolePlayingGame |
| 23 | |
| 24 | [[AC:Games]] |
| 25 | * ''ScrappyWeapon/TheBindingOfIsaac'' |
| 26 | * ''ScrappyWeapon/Borderlands2'' |
| 27 | * ''ScrappyWeapon/Borderlands3'' |
| 28 | * ''ScrappyWeapon/CallOfDutyZombies'' |
| 29 | * ''ScrappyWeapon/KillingFloor2'' |
| 30 | * ''ScrappyWeapon/{{Kirby}}'' |
| 31 | * ''ScrappyWeapon/MegaMan'' |
| 32 | * ''ScrappyWeapon/{{Minecraft}}'' |
| 33 | * ''ScrappyWeapon/PlantsVsZombies'' |
| 34 | * ''ScrappyWeapon/TeamFortress2'' |
| 35 | [[/index]] |
| 36 | |
| 37 | !!Other examples: |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 40 | |
| 41 | [[folder:Action-Adventure]] |
| 42 | * ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' |
| 43 | ** Wanna ruin your day? Grab a Dagger, which flies straight ahead, doesn't do much damage, can't hit multiple times or strike more than one enemy, and isn't even BoringButPractical. Particularly sucks in the original NES games, especially if you had the Holy Water or Boomerang. Someone on the dev team apparently noticed, since in later games the Dagger's low damage is usually offset by making it the cheapest subweapon to use, and sometimes giving it a semiautomatic rate of fire. |
| 44 | ** However, they will quickly become your weapon of choice in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon'' when you are in Shooter mode (but ONLY in Shooter mode). That is because all of your subweapons get a damage boost, making it a strong weapon. The second is that the upgrade, at no cost, is the homing dagger. And it is ''very'' useful (ties with the cross as the cross does more damage and hits more targets, but doesn't home in on targets). Played straight with every other mode though where they are virtually useless, outside of item crashes. |
| 45 | ** [[NotCompletelyUseless However, it's quite effective against]] the Cyclops in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse''. The dagger deals a lot more damage to him if you can time it right with the lightning. It's also your only hope [[ContinuingIsPainful if you die]] against the Frankenstein monster in the first game. |
| 46 | ** The pocketwatch [[TimeStandsStill stops time]]... but some enemies [[NoSell are immune to it]], and it costs an exorbitant five hearts to use, making it AwesomeButImpractical at best. ''VideoGame/HauntedCastle'' fixes it by making it work on most enemies, even [[FinalBoss Dracula]], and lowering its heart cost to two. |
| 47 | ** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'' has one for each main character: |
| 48 | *** Charlotte gets the Blank Book. It has worse stats than her starter weapon, even lowering some stats from unarmed. The only thing it's good for is [[spoiler:killing a specific enemy with it to complete a quest.]] |
| 49 | *** Jonathan gets the Jet Black Whip. By the time you find it it's ''already'' outclassed by your other weapons, and it's Dark Element, meaning its damage is reduced even further against most enemies in the game. Seemingly, its only purpose is to use against Whip's Memory, but even with its elemental damage it is weaker and less effective than other weapons at your disposal — even if you're ignoring the LethalJokeWeapon of a mastered Cream Pie. |
| 50 | * The keyblade in ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' has exactly two uses in the game. 1) Defeating one of the final boss's forms, and 2) Using its range to destroy a pot in one puzzle. It's one of the weakest weapons in the entire game, and the katana, chain whip, and flail can all do what it can do better. On the other hand, the remake turns it into a LethalJokeWeapon after you've chanted all the mantras, as it does the same damage as the flail whip but has slightly longer horizontal reach. |
| 51 | * ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': |
| 52 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': The Slingshot is hit hard by this since it has horrible range, only does scratch damage, and its ammo is extremely rare to come by outside the first area of the game. Its only required uses are for a tutorial in Ordon Village and a handful of times in the first half of the Forest Temple. Once the Gale Boomerang is obtained, its usefulness immediately drops off the face of the earth, doubly so when the Hero's Bow is obtained in the very next dungeon. Heck, it's considered this ''in-universe'', with the shopkeeper chewing out Link for playing with a children's toy when he buys it. |
| 53 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'': The slingshot not only retains all the flaws it already had in ''Twilight Princess'', but unlike in that game it outstays its welcome for even longer: It is obtained before entering the first dungeon, and isn't upstaged by the bow until the ''fifth''. Even worse, not only does this make the slingshot your only means of ranged combat for most of the game, but several puzzles you'll come across revolve around its ability to merely stun enemies as a means of making it past them when you could have just killed them if the game had given you something stronger. In short, the game takes the qualities of the slingshot that make it a Scrappy Weapon in the first place and exploits them to make things more difficult for the player. |
| 54 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': |
| 55 | *** Royal Guard-tier weapons surpass even the Royal weapons in terms of damage, and are unique in that they can only be found within Hyrule Castle. Unfortunately, they have low durability, in a game where durability and limited inventory themselves are already controversial mechanics. This makes them TooAwesomeToUse outside Hyrule Castle (and not too efficient even inside), as they only have so many hits they can make before needing to run all the way back to the center of the gigantic map. |
| 56 | *** The Long Throw bonus is this for the Weapon Bonus system. Whereas Attack Up bonuses let your weapon deal more damage per hit and Durability Up bonuses let your weapon last longer in combat, Long Throw bonuses just let you throw your weapon farther... at which point it still breaks on contact with an enemy like always. While this does double damage, it already happens if you break a weapon against an enemy in a melee attack, making the Long Throw bonus functionally equivalent to a no-bonus weapon for most players. |
| 57 | * The first ''VideoGame/{{Boktai}}'' game had the Gun Del Hell available in a NewGamePlus if you beat the game a ''whopping four times''. It's the only weapon in the game with S Attack and S Stun as well as far range, but since it's Dark Elemental, it has no effect on about 80% of the enemies other than ''bouncing them around a bit''. It also can't be mix and matched with other gun parts like ''every other gun'' in the game. |
| 58 | * ''Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django'' has the entire Hammer weapon class. The idea behind them is to be high-damage at the cost of low range and slow recovery time (compared to the faster short-range swords and the slow, high-range but weaker spears), but the increase in damage is simply not worth being made so vulnerable since speedy [[HitAndRunTactics Hit And Run Attacks]] are ''the'' way to battle enemies. It's likely you will ''never'' use hammer-type weapons in the game. |
| 59 | * ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'': |
| 60 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'': The Power Bombs may look powerful when one explodes, but its use as an offensive item is dubious at best. Weak enemies are easily killed, but stronger enemies can shrug off the damage. Power Bombs also causes the game's framerate to drop, which is the last thing you want to happen if you're doing a SpeedRun. The only real use Power Bombs ever get are either breaking multiple blocks, destroying Power Bomb blocks, and opening yellow doors. In ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'', they are much more useful as their blast reveals the nature of destructible blocks and these games lack the X-Ray Scope: they are invaluable in "scanning" entire rooms for blocks hidden in walls or to avoid those pesky pit blocks. |
| 61 | ** Some of the Missile power-ups in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' have this problem: |
| 62 | *** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' has the Plasma Beam's missile combo, the Flamethrower. While all missile combos except the default Super Missile are situational at best, [[VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck Flamethrower is the only completely useless one]]. It shoots a stream of flames that has a short range and eats through your ammo like crazy (and unlike the similar Wavebuster, it does not home in on or stun the target). It's made even more useless when you consider that a charged Plasma Beam shot is the single most powerful weapon in the game — there's only ''one'' enemy in the game that can get hurt by it and isn't killed in one charged shot — so you could just be using that instead. |
| 63 | *** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' has the Light Beam's charge combo, the Sunburst. It fires a large ball of light energy that travels about ten feet in front of you, comes to a slow stop, and explodes. It's useless against mobile enemies because they'll just move out of the way, and it's useless against stationary enemies because the explosion isn't anywhere near as powerful as it appears to be. The only conceivable way to damage something with the Sunburst would be for them to back up so they took damage during the entire animation. |
| 64 | *** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' has the Hyper Missile, the game's replacement for the Super Missile and its elemental cousins. While in theory it appears to be a very powerful missile attack powered by Phazon, it's useless against enemies that are already immune to the standard missile shots. It also requires a huge amount of energy from the Energy Tank that is in use during Hypermode. Its only practical utility is to quickly drain Phazon when Samus's Hypermode malfunctions from being active for too long, to prevent her total corruption. |
| 65 | * The harpoon gun found in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'' and its sequels. While it gives you a means to attack underwater, Lara's swimming controls are too clunky and limited for this to be of any use, as unlike on land you can only really hold your position and fire as enemies either barrel in on you like a bat out of hell and land a hit (and become too close to accurately hit) or are scuba divers with harpoon guns of their own who will be steadily draining your health with attacks while you attempt to attack them. You will ''never'' kill an enemy with this thing without losing some health, and probably more health than you'd lose just avoiding them. To make matters worse, ammo is surprisingly scarce for the thing, its projectiles move slowly, it's not much more powerful than your basic pistol, and you have to reload it every four shots unlike every other weapon in the game. Really, the weapon's only real use is for players going for an [[SelfImposedChallenge all-kills run]], as in any normal scenario you're better off either luring aquatic enemies near shore and firing on them from the safety of dry land, or just swimming away and dodging their attacks. |
| 66 | * The grenade launcher in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' is simply useless to use unless you're in close range. In the previous game, the grenade launcher's shots would fly straight and gradually drop as it traveled. In this game, the grenade drops to the ground and rolls until it hits the target or blows up after a few seconds. Mobile enemies (which is pretty much all of them) will generally avoid being hit by the grenade shots. The only way to make the weapon have any use is to use it like a typical video game shotgun where being in close range will guarantee a hit, which is a huge risk since you generally want to avoid being close to anything while fighting. |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:Action Games]] |
| 70 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Evolva}}'': |
| 71 | ** The only reason for the Flame's existence was to light flammable plants, and even then, there are other weapons (like the grenade) that can light them on fire. |
| 72 | ** The Claw, despite being the only unlimited ammo weapon, never really gets used except for breaking rocks once you get better weapons. It too suffers in that its purpose gets taken by future weapons (such as, again, the grenade). |
| 73 | * The Iron Fan in ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors 7'' and its expansions. It has very little crowd control capability in a game where crowd control is everything, meaning it's very easy to get interrupted in the middle of a combo. On higher difficulties this can mean instant death if you're so much as love tapped by one mook, only to have all of his friends follow up. |
| 74 | * Zelda's Baton weapon in ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors''. Its range is pathetic, its damage even more so, and attacking with it forces you to stand still while you strike, unlike ''every other weapon in the game''. It has a special attack that allows you to control a tornado, but it deals negligible damage, renders you immobile until it's finished, and can't be cancelled. However, in [[OneHitPointWonder "all attacks are dangerous" missions]], the tornado carves through enemies like melted butter. Except you're just as immobile and vulnerable as ever and your main attacks still suck. |
| 75 | [[/folder]] |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[folder:[=4X=] Games]] |
| 78 | * The ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' has several. |
| 79 | ** The Fragmentation Bomb Launcher sounds like a dangerous weapon. It's [[SpaceIsNoisy loud]] and produces a pretty explosion. But it burns weapons energy fast, and unless you manage to hit the target ''before'' it detonates and produces its FlechetteStorm, you're not going to hit anything smaller than an M6 corvette. Even worse, thanks to a programmer's oversight, the flechettes lacks any [[AreaOfEffect AoE]] damage whatsoever. Its only saving grace is its price tag: it's BetterOffSold, and a recovered (or manufactured) FBL will net you a roughly quarter of a million credits. |
| 80 | ** The Cluster Flak Array is the FBL scaled to frigate size. It does, however, have one further saving grace. Some players like to pair it in gun batteries with the [[LightningGun Ion Disruptor]], which can chain-lightning between the flak shards to reach further than it could normally. |
| 81 | ** Almost every unguided missile: they are inaccurate and do very little damage. Furthermore, similar to the aforementioned FBL, they lack actual AreaOfEffect damage due to a programmer's oversight, which could have otherwise turned these duds into niche weapons. The exception is the [[RecursiveAmmo Tornado]], which can be used to rig certain M3 fighters as bombers for anti-capital work. |
| 82 | ** [[KillSat Lasertowers]] fit this in ''X3: Terran Conflict'' because Out-Of-Sector combat mechanics render their chief advantage (range) worthless. Some players have had success using them in large quantities to support blockades, however. In ''X3: Albion Prelude'' they're much more useful thanks to a buff in firepower and shielding. |
| 83 | ** Before ''[=X3TC=]'' brought some sense to the weapon types the previous games had small fighters that could mount small guns, medium fighters that could mount medium guns, and heavy fighters that could mount heavy guns. Each gun type was further divided in three subcategories: alpha, beta and gamma, in increasing order of destructiveness. There was no reason to ever use alpha guns in anything, and betas were only useful in heavy fighters (as gamma heavies were restricted to capital ships). |
| 84 | ** The Concussion Impulse Generator sounds like it can do lots of damage in a hurry on paper. In practice, it's merely a scaled up corvette-sized version of the High Energy Plasma Thrower, with marginally improved range but terribly low [=RoF=] and consumes more energy than the HEPT. While it has its uses as a corvette and frigate gun (unless you're flying a Teladi Shrike or Xenon Q, who both have terrible generators to recharge their guns), it's a particularly ineffective weapon for carriers and destroyers. The only reason few players would want to use the CIG is its unique stun effect on fighters and freighters below TL-class just ForTheLulz. Other than that, it's BetterOffSold. ''Albion Prelude'' buffed the weapon generators on all non-Terran corvettes, making the CIG more useful there. |
| 85 | ** The Mosquito Missile was this in the vanilla version of ''Terran Conflict''. Despite it being the most commonly used [light] missile and having great speed as well as fairly good stats, the damage output generated by the missile is a laughably pathetic 200KJ. To elaborate, 1MJ = 1000KJ or 5 Mosquito missiles. This means even the weakest of [[FragileSpeedster scout]] [[GoddamnedBats craft]] can survive several volleys of Mosquitoes, which renders the missile only particularly effective against fighter drones or as a harassing weapon. However, since the release of the Bonus Pack, the Mosquito has suddenly found itself useful as an anti-missile weapon thanks in part of the Mosquito Defense Script. In addition, by the time of ''Albion Prelude'', the Mosquito has been buffed to be compatible with any ship, even the Terran/[=AGI=] Task Force versions, while having a slight boost in its speed. |
| 86 | [[/folder]] |
| 87 | |
| 88 | [[folder:Deckbuilding Games]] |
| 89 | * ''VideoGame/TouhouLostBranchOfLegend'': |
| 90 | ** The White/Black Daytime Guest Stars is considered one of the worst cards in the game. It's a powerful, but hideously expensive attack with the gimmick that it becomes free if your draw pile is empty. The problem is that even if you get your draw pile to exactly 0 cards, there's no guarantee you'll actually have the thing in hand at that point. There are a few ways to Retain it until you can use it, but they are awkward and hard to come by.[[note]]Contrast its inspiration -- the Silent's Grand Finale from ''Slay the Spire''. She has access to Well-Laid Plans, a power that can let her retain it for as long as she wants to, and goes well with some of her other cards. Oh, and there's a boss relic that lets you keep ''your entire hand'' between turns. Another point of awkwardness is that while the Silent has a lot of cards that let her dig through her deck, most DrawExtraCards effects in ''Lost Branch of Legend'' are in Blue or Red (so you need a third colour to play it more reliably) and may be exclusive to Sakuya (though other characters can access them by fighting her in Act 1 and taking one of her Exhibits).[[/note]] Its best use is in a gimmicky infinite combo deck that runs so few cards that you'll usually have an empty draw pile anyway.[[note]]If you're wondering why an infinite combo deck needs the extra damage, it's useful against the Act 3 boss who only lets you play a handful of cards per turn.[[/note]] |
| 91 | ** Two rare exhibits are notorious for being stinkers: |
| 92 | *** The Ibuki Gourd lets you draw a new card whenever your hand is empty. This effect is easily shut down by {{Deck Clogger}}s (of which there are a lot), and has awkward anti-synergies with both Retain cards and Teammates (you might have to waste them to trigger the Gourd). And unlike its ''VideoGame/SlayTheSpire'' counterpart Unceasing Top, no character really has enough cheap/free cards or mana production to get much mileage out of it -- even if you manage to play every card in your hand, there's a good chance you won't be able to play the extra card. |
| 93 | *** Shiny Bulb unlocks the option to Think at Gaps, which adds a random rare card to your deck. The issue is that you don't get any choice -- not even to reject the card once you've chosen the option and seen it (unless you {{save scum|ming}}). So you might get the perfect rare for your deck... or (more likely) something mediocre or a glorified DeckClogger. |
| 94 | [[/folder]] |
| 95 | |
| 96 | [[folder:Fighting Games]] |
| 97 | * ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'': |
| 98 | ** The Team Healer item is a powerful healing item, but the catch is that unlike other healing items, which reduce your damage after you pick them up, this is a thrown item. You're supposed to pick it up and throw it at a teammate to heal them. It seldom ever shows up in normal play because almost all matches are free-for-all (if not one-on-one like in tournaments). Even during team play, it's bad because it occasionally heals opponents and hurts allies. |
| 99 | ** The Smoke Ball attaches to an opponent when thrown and [[InterfaceScrew spews opaque smoke around them]]. Except that makes your opponent's movements harder to read, which is a bad thing in a fighting game. |
| 100 | [[/folder]] |
| 101 | |
| 102 | [[folder:Light Gun Games]] |
| 103 | * ''VideoGame/GhostSquad2004'' |
| 104 | ** Both versions of [[VideoGame/VirtuaCop The Guardian]]. Compared to the other weapons in the game, they're stupidly useless: 6 or 10 bullets, and no extra features like piercing or permanent dot sight. |
| 105 | ** The [[JokeWeapon AGB1]] is a crossbow in a game featuring an assortment of firearms, and has to be aimed properly because arrows don't travel as fast as bullets. [[NotCompletelyUseless At least the two Guardian pistols can hit their enemies instantly.]] |
| 106 | ** Both shotgun weapons. Although they are great for racking up [[OneHitPolykill Double Down]] bonuses, they turn any segment with {{hostage|SpiritLink}}s into ThatOneLevel. |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:MOBA Games]] |
| 110 | * ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', like most games in the genre, features an ever-changing list of items, some of which are considered [[AwesomeButImpractical situational at best]], and Scrappy Items at worst. One example is [[GatheringSteam "Snowballing" style stacking items]] such as Mejai's Soulstealer, along with the removed items Sword of the Occult (removed in Pre-Season 6) and Leviathan armor (removed in Season 3). Each has a stacking mechanic, that gives buff stacks for scoring a Kill/Assists against an enemy champions, that enhances their effects[[note]]Ability Power, Attack Damage, or HP they provide for Mejai's, Sword of the occult, and Leviathan respective[[/note]]. At their maximal 20 stacks, they gain an additional buff and they are also are/were fairly cheap on gold costs. However, this comes with one massive catch: they provide very low stats with minimal or no stacks, and each time the champion bearing one of these items dies, they lose '''''half''''' of their stacks, causing a huge power loss for the champion using them with even a single death. Because of the risks involved, and that it relies more upon the enemy team making massive mistakes in the early game, most players rather just skip these items snowballing potential, and go with safer, more stable power boosting items which provide better general utility. Because of this risk, only Mejai's Soulstealer remains, and has been reworked to build out of starting item for AP focused champions to begin earning stacks ahead of time, which can be sold off for only a minor gold loss if the snowballing attempt fails. |
| 111 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonUnite'': |
| 112 | ** Rocky Helmet's requirement of taking instantaneous burst damage to take effect gives players the instantaneous decision to never bother using it in any of their builds. |
| 113 | ** Drain Crown provides [[LifeDrain healing to its holder through their basic attacks]], scaled to the holder's Atk stat. While 10% of the damage inflicted converted into healing seems like a good minimum baseline on paper, in practice the healing provided proves insufficient in properly sustaining most any mon in the burst damage-based meta, outside of maybe a few of them that mainly relied on spamming basic attacks while also having high basic attack speed. However, while pairing the Drain Crown with the [[SpamAttack Rapid-Fire Scarf]] that it was released alongside is a workable combination, almost every single Pokémon that might consider running it, including the aforementioned ones with high basic attack speed, would still prefer running almost any other held item to Drain Crown so that they could increase their damage output, leaving the item to be derided in the metagame as a case of wasted potential. |
| 114 | ** Leftovers gives passive regeneration over time while the holder is out of combat. Not only is the healing very slow, but the game's fast-paced format actively penalizes idling around to heal using Leftovers as opposed to fighting wild Pokémon or trying to score goals, making it a waste of an item slot. |
| 115 | ** Goal Getter temporarily allows you to score goals twice as fast while active, which sounds neat for backdooring but has the drawback of using up your Battle Item slot on something that's completely useless in an actual fight. The extra goals you score using it (which will almost always be against undefended goals anyway) almost never tip the score enough to make an actual difference compared to having an item that helps you win the Rayquaza/Zapdos fight or gives you an easier time in the game building up to that. |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[folder:Platform Games]] |
| 119 | * The ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' series was the main inspiration for this trope. |
| 120 | ** [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002 The first game]] had a handful of weapons that were quite useful (e.g., the [[ArrowCam Visibomb Gun]], [[BoringButPractical Devastator]]) and some that were almost useless ([[VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck Pyrocitor]]). [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando The second game]] and onwards introduced leveling up weapons, further polarizing their effectiveness. It was quite easy to level up weapons that were easy to use and fairly powerful (the Negotiator and Constructo Shotgun from ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime A Crack in Time]]'', for instance), and weapons that barely got any use (such as the wimpy Buzz Blades) would never be able to level up except on the weakest ankle-biter enemies. |
| 121 | ** The Meteor Gun, the Lava Gun's upgraded form in ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando Going Commando]]'', is another instance. The basic weapon fired a steady stream of molten rock, was one of the best guns to use when you were surrounded (hold down button, spin, watch things burn) and was generally very powerful overall. The upgrade turned it into a burning rock machine gun, which basically did the same thing as another one of your weapons (the Lancer), except it fired more slowly, had less range and shot in a low parabolic arc. And by then, you have other weapons that are much better that you wouldn't need to use the Meteor Gun until they run out of ammo. Fortunately, Insomniac realized what they did and changed the final upgrade to the Liquid Nitrogen Gun in ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal Up Your Arsenal]]'', having it keep its pretty, pretty stream of destruction all the way through the game. |
| 122 | ** The same game's [[NewGamePlus New Game +]] also featured Clank's Zapper. Yeah, it costs as much as the resident InfinityPlusOneSword or ArmorOfInvincibility, so it must be awesome, yeah? Nope, it's the ''worst'' weapon in the game due to pathetic damage (more than SoLastSeason returning weapons, in fact), random rate of fire, and zero indication whether the weapon is even turned on barring the attacks themselves. Honestly, buy something else. |
| 123 | ** Also from the game, the Zodiac is a downplayed example of this. On the one hand, it releases a powerful energy blast that disintegrates all the enemies in the area in [[OneHitKill one shot]] with the exceptions of bosses and the [[BossInMookClothing Arctic Leviathans]] (and even in the case of the latter, it still does massive damage to the Leviathans). On the other hand, the amount of damage it inflicts on bosses is incredibly inconsistent, ranging from major to almost none at all, it can only hold 4 ammo at once, and the ammo is very expensive, costing 10000 bolts per shot. You ''can'' find ammo for it in crates, but it's not very common save for a few specific areas in the game. It ''would'' make for a great means to defend yourself in situations where you are surrounded by enemies and desperately need to wipe them all out at once... [[AwesomeButImpractical but by that point in the game, you should have plenty of other weapons capable of taking hordes out if you simply spam them instead of going for a more dramatic effect]]. It also can't be used while jumping, and unlike every other weapon in the game, it has a lengthy animation that Ratchet had to do before it fired. And if Ratchet takes any damage, it will stop the firing sequence. It ''can'' be useful in certain situations, but because of how costly the ammo is and the fact you have plenty of other weapons to use, it should only be used sparingly for major situations. |
| 124 | ** Another downplayed example is RYNOCIRATOR, the final upgrade of [=RY3NO=], from ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal''. Up until the final upgrade, [=RY3NO=] is your standard fare of [=RYNO=] [[MacrossMissileMassacre weapons]] which fire volley of missiles or energy blasts per round, making it an ideal weapon against multiple enemies or bosses. The final upgrade though just turns it into [[PowerUpLetDown a Zodiac clone]]; the energy blasts instead converge and obliterate everything on screen. While this weapon solves many of Zodiac's problems -- namely ammo capacity, ammo price, and you can move while firing it -- it still retains some of its problems, such as the enemy out of the camera's view not getting turned to ashes and it not effective against bosses unless you hit them with those energy blasts, a no easy task as it has no targeting. What's worse is that you can't find ammo for this weapon in crates anymore. |
| 125 | ** The Holoshield Glove and Plasma Whip are the worst weapons from ''UYA''. The former launches ellipsoid stationnary shields that are just unfit for blocking incoming fire and while higher levels get some theoretically useful effects such as health drain or counter attacks, they are shafted by their short range or weak effect. The Plasma Whip is a melee weapon that inexplicably needs ammunition and is very weak, and to make matters worse, one of Annihilation Nation challenges requires you to use only this, so if you want to complete all challenges you ''have to'' buy it. |
| 126 | ** ''VideoGame/RatchetDeadlocked'' featured less weapons, at the cost of most of them being useful... with the exception of the B6-Obliterator. After two of the most useful grenade launchers in the series, the [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando Gravity Bomb/Mini-Nuke]] and [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal Nitro Launcher]], ''this thing'' shows up and quickly becomes the most useless weapon in the game. It has very low ammo and a slow rate of fire, and the damage it puts out is truly abysmal compared to the other weapons, making it a pain in the ass to upgrade — and even when it's fully upgraded, it's still all but useless in the later levels and/or higher difficulties. The Hunter Mine Launcher and Scorpion Flail, which both start off dealing respectable damage and only get stronger, hold more ammo, and have a much higher rate of fire out of the starting gate, quickly superannuate it in every way. |
| 127 | ** The Combuster has become a form of this in the series, due to how much it appears (''Tools of Destruction'', ''Quest for Booty'', ''All 4 One'', ''Full Frontal Assault'', and ''Ratchet & Clank '16''). It's not so much that the weapon itself is bad, but that it's worse than other pistols from the series, like the [[VideoGame/RatchetDeadlocked Dual Vipers]], [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime Constructo Pistol]], and [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus Omniblaster]]. |
| 128 | ** In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankRiftApart'' the two weapons that are generally considered least useful or fun are Void Repulser and Bambardier. The former is interesting concept that is badly executed. The weapon is supposed to generate a shield that you can shoot at enemies, but has similar issues as [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal Holoshield Glove]], so it will most likely end up used as just another shotgun, something that Enforcer (the second gun you can buy and thus is most likely maxed by the time Void Repulser becomes available) does better. The second is supposed to be support weapon, but performs worse than Topiary Sprinkler or Mr. Fungi, which are available much sooner. |
| 129 | ** Some of the newer weapons have become this for another reason: not having the same "oomph" or feeling as cool or strong as weapons from earlier in the series. For example, the [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando Blitz Gun]] upgrades into the Blitz Cannon, which is so strong that the screen flashes every time you shoot it. The [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction Nitro Reaper]] doesn't feel nearly as powerful as that. |
| 130 | * As an attempted SpiritualSuccessor to ''Mega Man'', ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'' has more than its fair share of these. Countershade is a glutton for energy and doesn't deal crazy damage. Aviator's slow falling barely matters outside of a handful of stages in a game where airdashing is much faster and easier. Pyrogen is a close-range explosion that's nowhere near as powerful or wide-ranged as it should be. Dynatron is generally outdamaged by your basic attack. Seismic is basically the Charge Kick from ''5'', but more sluggish and only effective against [[InstantDeathRadius an agile boss who uses lots of melee attacks]] (and both it and Pyrogen are outdone by Brandish, which is also a close-range weapon and infinitely better in every way). |
| 131 | * ''VideoGame/TwentyXX'', inspired by ''Mega Man'' in a lot of ways, has its own, among both the general equipment and the boss-derived powers. |
| 132 | ** Among the boss weapons, the Shadespur and sometimes the Quint Laser are typically skipped in favour of the cash or augment options. The Quint Laser is very damaging and pierces through multiple targets, but the projectile is slower than molasses, and its out-of-combat use — knocking over vending machines — isn't hugely useful. The Shadespur, however, is the most often skipped. Its gimmick is that it's fired with the direction and speed of the player, meaning it's hard to hit with it and can involve running directly into bullets to ensure a hit, and its effect of locking certain platforms isn't all that useful either. |
| 133 | ** Nina's least liked weapon is the Wave Beam. While its ability to go through walls is useful, the firing pattern is weird, making hitting small and nimble enemies like Flapps rather unreliable. |
| 134 | ** Ace's Rippling Axe is designed for diving attacks. When used in midair, it delivers a charged attack with bonus damage… but it drops your horizontal momentum to zero. This, as you would expect, is a ''serious liability'' in a game about jumping between platforms. It's deadly against bosses, but unless you're very good or you have a teammate, you will have a hard time getting there. |
| 135 | * ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins'': |
| 136 | ** The torch in the is slow and travels in an arc, while most of the enemies come right for you, so the players try to avoid it as much as possible. |
| 137 | ** The hatchet travels in the same arc, but also penetrates enemies and obstacles. While you can have two on screen at a time, the nature of the weapon ensures that you can't rapidly fire on a single enemy that takes multiple hits, which is often a death sentence in this game. |
| 138 | ** Each game in the series has a "hidden" weapon that is much slower and/or has a shorter reach than the other weapons, such as the cross/shield in the first game and the Goddess Bracelet in other games. What makes this particularly nasty is the fact that you are required to beat the final boss with these weapons. |
| 139 | * ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' and [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 its sequel]] have the Spring Mushroom, which transforms Mario into a living spring, jumping at great heights to higher spots. The problem is that it's very difficult to maneuver, as the powerup moves Mario perpetually, so a misaimed or poorly calculated jump can be lethal when chasms and pits are close. |
| 140 | * ''VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach'' had an accessory for Perry called the Bowbrella which was usefully for only ''one'' thing, changing the direction of the wind by hitting the switch that did so in one area. Other than that, it was useless against enemies. While that one use made purchasing this weapon a necessity, doing so wasn't advisable until you reached the level where you could collect all the coins you needed. |
| 141 | * ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'' has the Fruit Bazooka. Unlike other weapons on this page which are hated for being underpowered and/or useless, this one is hated for being [[GameBreaker overpowered]] to the point of sucking most of the challenge out of the game. Too many enemies up ahead? No problem, [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim just shoot them]] from a distance. In its defense, you don't get the launcher until you're 4/5ths through the standard game, and the gems may have been too tedious without it. The fruit bazooka in ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootTheWrathOfCortex'' is '''worse''' than ''Warped'''s; it's just as overpowered, but it has some sort of lock-on thing which doesn't even work half the time, and the aiming is absolutely dreadful. |
| 142 | * Both ''Dynowarz'' and ''VideoGame/{{Predator}}'' for NES have grenades, hated because of their ineffectiveness and the games' concept of carrying one weapon at a time that switches by picking up a power up. The grenade is slow, flies in an awkward arc, and difficult to aim, meaning picking one up is practically a guaranteed loss of a life. Players of either game will consider the grenade power up to be the true BigBad of the game, as it's killing them more often than anything the Predator or Spondylus can throw at them. |
| 143 | * The video game adaptation of ''Film/DennisTheMenace'' has the squirt gun, which does not damage any enemies and only freezes a few of them in place very briefly. |
| 144 | * ''VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander'': |
| 145 | ** [[LightningGun Arc Wielder]], the second blue weapon mod. It eats ammo [[{{Pun}} lightning fast]] and is not as powerful as you would expect, meaning using the same ammo for old trusty [[GatlingGood Vulcan Fury]] is much better option. [[SubvertedTrope However]], for a handful of Precursor orbs you can buy a Robot Shack upgrade for it, with which it can [[OneHitKill oneshot]] robots, an enemy type that starts appearing much more frequently after obtaining this weapon ... |
| 146 | ** Mass Inverter, which just creates an antigravity field in your vicinity. This leaves the enemies helpless but does next to no damage and uses up precious Dark Eco ammunition, which is much better to be used in Peace Maker to end your enemies outright. |
| 147 | * The Platform/{{Playstation}} version of ''VideoGame/SpongebobSquarepantsSupersponge'' has the Reefblower, a [[WeaponsThatSuck Weapon That Sucks]] in more than one way. With it equipped, you can suck in just one seashell at a time and slowly aim and fire it at an enemy. The drawback is that wearing it slows you down pretty badly and disables your GroundPound attack, making it much more of a liability with a side effect that doesn't help whatsoever. The only reason to use it is to break down walls that can only be damaged by the Reefblower. |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[folder:Racing Games]] |
| 151 | * ''VideoGame/MarioKart'': |
| 152 | ** The ever-so-infamous Blue Shells (also called Spiny Shells). They are almost impossible to avoid, cannot be blocked or destroyed (except with the Super Horn, which was introduced in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'') and create a huge explosion that stops the victim for much longer than other items. This sounds powerful, but they only target the racer in first place, and can only be obtained by racers near last place, so it's ''very'' unlikely that the person using the Blue Shell will benefit from it. The is especially true from ''Double Dash'' to ''Wii'', where the shell has wings and flies directly to first place, ignoring everyone else in the way. At least in ''64'' and ''7'' onwards, the shell can also hit other racers on its way to its target, although it's very easy to avoid for ''them''. In short, it's an item whose sole purpose is [[DoWellButNotPerfect punishing players for being too good]], but provides zero benefit for the player using it. |
| 153 | ** The Lightning Cloud in ''Wii'' grants you a passive speed boost and lets you drive off-road, but after a few seconds, it shrinks you like if someone else used the Lightning item. Bumping into another player will transfer the cloud to them. What puts the item in this category is that it's the only one that ''automatically'' activates when you get it. If there are no other racers nearby, you're screwed. Thankfully, it did not return in future games. |
| 154 | ** The Super Leaf in ''7'' lets you use a spin attack to hit other racers and destroy hazards, but its range is too short to be reliable. It also occupies your item slot until it wears off, so you have the choice of using it right away and risking being without items (and therefore defenceless against Red Shells), or keeping it until you need to block something, but risking missing on the next item box if it doesn't wear off before then. |
| 155 | ** The Lucky 7/Crazy 8 give you 7/8 items when activated, in a series where you can only have 1 or 2 items at a time normally, and are appropriately rare. Unfortunately, the way the item works is that it makes the items spin around your kart, and the one in front is the one that activates when you press the fire button, making it hard to choose what you want to use. Some of the items (a Mushroom and Star, and a Coin in ''8'') are beneficial, but can be stolen if another driver bumps into them, and one of the offensive items is the Bob-omb, which will explode in your face if someone drives into it. On top of that, aside from the Star, none of the items (Mushroom, Banana Peel, Red Shell, Green Shell, Blooper, Bob-Omb, and Coin) are game-changing, especially when compared to other rare item like the Lightning Bolt (which hits all racers and shrinks them) or the Bullet Bill (which gives you a big speed boost, invincibility, and auto-pilot). |
| 156 | * ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'': Spectre's Ghost Missile is infamous for its ability to home in on vehicles and phase through solid terrain to catch them. Though the series tries to balance it out by making the missile itself weak, it is still considered a cheap trick that ruins things for the other players. |
| 157 | [[/folder]] |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[folder:Roguelike]] |
| 160 | * ''VideoGame/DeadCells'': The Spartan Sandals is one of the very first weapon blueprint you will find and the number of Cells required to unlock it is extremely cheap. The weapon itself has you do an awkward, short-ranged kick with godawful base damage and most of the damage comes from using it to knock back enemies to walls to deal bonus damage. It has some potential as a secondary weapon and a crappy projectile reflector, but its mediocre speed and hitbox makes it difficult especially for beginners to use and it is downright ''terrible'' against bosses, and woe be on you if it was a Legendary weapon. This thing practically exists to condition players to start using Custom Mode to turn off items they don't like to use. |
| 161 | * In ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'', players that have been torn apart by [[WakeupCallBoss Sigmund]]'s SinisterScythe are disappointed when they get one of their own, or loot Sigmund's after ''finally'' getting the better of him. Sigmund's accuracy and brutal damage with the weapon are unique to him; for anyone else, a scythe is a slow, inaccurate weapon that doesn't do enough damage to justify its weaknesses, and is outclassed by every other polearm in the game. |
| 162 | * ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': |
| 163 | ** Blunt weapons spent a long time in the wilderness due to a bug in the damage rules, meaning that your dwarves could pound on some poor goblin or kobold for ''months'' in-game without scoring a kill. While that did have [[VideogameCrueltyPotential a certain amount of appeal to many players]], it tended to impair the smooth running of a fortress by making civilian dwarves scared to go near the site of the battle. |
| 164 | ** Two handed weapons aren't very popular, because they can't be used with a shield. And when there are barrages of projectiles coming your way, battling while surrounded is common, and shields are the only thing that can block dragonfire, you ''will'' need one if you want to live. |
| 165 | ** Whips, scourges, and [[EpicFlail flails]]. In this case it's because they tend to be absurdly powerful due to how the game handles chain weapons. While a human in adventurer mode can put them to good use, they're Scrappy in fortress mode, as none of them can be [[UnusableEnemyEquipment manufactured by dwarves, only scavenged off goblins]]. |
| 166 | ** The above example is caused by small impact surface combined with high velocity, which are calculated oddly and thus lead to the massively powerful strikes chained weapons are known for. This also leads to mauls being a scrappy weapon of themselves due to having the opposite problem (low velocity plus large impact surface making it very hard for mauls to apply their extra weight properly), and thus being so weak even masterful silver mauls are more like wifflebats that have a hard time cracking bones where a smaller silver hammer would explode the struck part into gore in a tenth of the time. Later updates did at least give it a niche role in twisting joints from its sheer momentum; it won't crush a skull but it ''will'' snap the neck into splinters in the same blow. |
| 167 | ** Crossbows are a bit of an unusual example. They work perfectly fine, and are deadly as they should be, but in fortress mode something about crossbow-handling seems to [[ArtificialStupidity destroy dwarven brains]], and a mixture of glitches and plain idiocy makes the training and use of marksdwarf squads into a hassle. |
| 168 | %%(ZCE)* ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'' has the Klobb, which works almost exactly the same as it does in [[VideoGame/Goldeneye1997 Goldeneye 007]]. |
| 169 | * In ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'', the Burst Laser Mark III fires [[MoreDakka an impressive five-shot barrage]], but players generally avoid it due to its high power requirements and long charge time, and the same amount of firepower can be easily achieved by firing several cheaper lasers at once. |
| 170 | [[/folder]] |
| 171 | |
| 172 | [[folder:Shoot 'em Ups]] |
| 173 | * ''VideoGame/FireShark'': |
| 174 | ** The red flamethrower weapon is easily a GameBreaker with how powerful and wide-reaching it is, and the blue SpreadShot weapon [[BoringButPractical isn't as flashy as the red weapon but is still quite reliable and more common]]. Meanwhile, the green vulcan weapon is easily the most hated weapon of the three, as while it inflicts a lot of concentrated damage, it has no spread whatsoever, making picking it up a death sentence in later levels in a game where enemies that are allowed to live for more than one second will ''snipe'' you. To add insult to injury, the item for it is more common than the other two weapons and sticks around longer than other items, and if you have a maxed out shot and you fill the powerup meter, item blimps that would normally carry powerups will instead release weapon change items...most of which will be green. As such, [[PowerUpLetdown green items are to be treated as extra bullets]]. |
| 175 | ** Even the flamethrower isn't safe from this trope. A level 3 or 4 flamethrower may rain death upon your enemies, [[MagikarpPower but at level 1 or 2 it only shoots forward beams with all the problems of the green vulcan]]. Massive DPS isn't going to help much if enemies from the sides can snipe you because you didn't kill them within roughly 0.1 second. |
| 176 | * ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}} [=ReBirth=]'' has Type E's Double shot, the V-Shot. It fires up and down, but ''not'' forward, thereby depriving you of any and all horizontal coverage. Type E's Laser, the Vector Laser, becomes this too on Stage 2 and bonus stages, where it cannot damage destructible walls. Needless to say, if you equip the Vector Laser and then go into Stage 2 on higher loops or difficulties, or into a bonus stage, both of which require destroying walls to advance, you are ''[[UnwinnableByDesign dead]]''. |
| 177 | * ''Soul Star'' has the '''C'''ircle Laser. It fires quickly, but you'll soon notice it does an awfully low amount of damage. After you get the powerful Orange '''L'''aser, you'll want to avoid the C "powerup" at all costs. |
| 178 | * Most ''VideoGame/{{Zanac}}'' players know better than to pick up Weapon 2, the frontal shield that lasts for 50 hits. Why? Because while the weapon itself isn't bad, it's the DynamicDifficulty's BerserkButton, throwing out significantly tougher enemies than what you're already facing if you switch to it. |
| 179 | * The red weapon type in ''VideoGame/{{Raiden}}'' and its sequels. In a game with lots of heavy enemies that take significant firepower to bring down, being able to fill the screen with low-power shots is not a good long-term survival technique. This was recitified from ''Raiden III'' onwards, where the spread shot now has rapid-fire capability, and can shred armored enemies in a reasonable period of time. |
| 180 | * ''VideoGame/ThunderForce'' has a wide variety of weapons throughout the series, so naturally some weapons are going to be worse than others: |
| 181 | ** Sidewinder in the original ''Thunder Force II''. It's just a stream of missiles that fire straight ahead. Why this when the Twin Shot and its upgraded version, the Laser, exist? Fortunately it was RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap in the Mega Drive / Genesis port, where it was replaced with the Side Blaster, which consists of shots that fire up and down, making it useful for taking out enemies on the floor and ceiling. |
| 182 | ** Blade in ''Thunder Force IV''. Normally, when you shoot an enemy, blue explosions indicate no damage and red explosions indicate damage. However, when hitting enemies with the Blade, [[InterfaceScrew all hit explosions are red]], meaning you can fire nonstop at a boss and not realize you've been doing no damage to it all along until you're wondering "WhyWontYouDie" 5 minutes later. At least its base counterpart, the [[BoringButPractical Twin Shot]], doesn't have this problem. Even worse, when the Rynex was backported into the ''SEGA AGES'' port of ''Thunder Force AC'', the Blade kept this behavior, as if M2 expected players to view "I can't tell if my weapon is doing damage" with fond nostalgia. The Snake also uses all red explosions for the grenades it fires onto the ceiling and floor, but at least you can still use your forward shots to see if you're shooting the right spot on the enemy. |
| 183 | * ''VideoGame/{{Tyrian}}'' has a few. The Scatter Wave has such an inefficient field of fire that one online guide jokingly suggested that it was planted by the enemies in order to sabotage your ship. The Charge Cannon also costs way more than it's worth for the minimal damage it does. |
| 184 | * The Delta Formation in ''VideoGame/SolCresta''. Sometimes trying to change the ships' formations can unintentionally cause it to activate despite not being in the shape, and can even screw up a player's concentration sometimes, going as far as to cause them to crash into an obstacle at times. |
| 185 | * ''VideoGame/SuperAleste'', also known as ''Space Megaforce'', has Weapon 8, the Cracker/Scatter Shot. It fires orbs that break into smaller projectiles when they hit something. Unfortunately, it has a relatively low rate of fire and does very little damage, making it worse than literally every other weapon under almost every circumstance. |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[folder:Simulation]] |
| 189 | * ''Videogame/MechWarrior'' series: |
| 190 | ** [=SRM2s=] in any [=MechWarrior=] game ever, due to the piddling damage caused by the tiny two-missile salvo. If you're taking the trouble to fit a missile launcher but your build restricts you so much that you can't mount [=SRM4s=] or [=SRM6s=], you're almost certainly better off either compromising on something else in order to install the better launchers or using up the weight with buffs or ammo for other weapons. At best, you can use the small racks to rattle the enemy around with missile spam. |
| 191 | ** The Autocannon/2 is also subjected to this in any [=MechWarrior=] game as well. Unlike Machine Guns, the AC/2 itself weighs more per ton (6 tons vs. the former's 0.5 tons) and doesn't have the [[MoreDakka rapid-firing ability of the former and its Ultra and Rotary variants]] despite having a very good range bracket, discouraging users from "boating" their custom mechs with this gun. Its piddling damage makes it inferior to other long-range weaponry like Large Lasers, [=PPCs=], and [=LRMs=] and so the AC/2 is BetterOffSold. |
| 192 | ** ''Mechwarrior: Living Legends'': |
| 193 | *** For most of its history, the Autocannon/10 - and to a lesser extent, the Ultra AC/10 dealt - piss for damage, had crap hit registration, and weighed so much that mechs mounting were so gimped in other categories that they became jokes. The AC/10 was reworked six years after the first release with many positive buffs, though it and the newer Hyper Velocity AC/10 still have lingering problems; the gun weighs so much that lighter assets basically have to [[CripplingOverspecialization dedicate themselves]] to it (such as the Regulator HoverTank, one variant has ''only'' a HVAC/10), leaving their overall firepower crap. |
| 194 | *** The Bear Autocannon (a PoweredArmor weapon option) was crap for the game's entire history, dealing negligible damage, with poor accuracy, a tendency to overheat, [[GatlingGood the barrels had to spin up]] to fire, and it was competing with much more competent weapons. It was so ''bad'' that you were better off ''throwing the gun at the enemy'', because at least then you have a small chance to kill them via TeleFrag when the weapon spawns inside them. When it was made the default battle armor weapon in version 0.7, [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap it received buffs across the board]]; with a steady hand, it can pick off dedicated battle armor players from beyond their effective range. |
| 195 | ** The Arrow IV in ''[=MechWarrior=] 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy''. In principle, it was great - super long range and huge damage - but its effectiveness was nullified by the anti-missile system, another new weapon included in [=GBL=], which would explode them effortlessly because it was meant to counteract missile salvos made of several ''dozen'' of them - and Arrows were just as unarmored as normal missiles. Ammo supply was also pitifully small. |
| 196 | ** Several Examples of Scrappy Weapons are also found in ''[=MechWarrior=] Online'': |
| 197 | *** [=LRM-20=] Missile Launchers. As the name implies, they fire off a swarm of 20, one point damage missiles out to a max range of 1000 meters (in a game where the average optimal weapon range is typically around 300 to 500 meters. As the only other weapon that can deal up to 20 points of damage with a single shot (not counting Critical hits triggering Ammo Explosions), is the short-range, and heavier Autocannon/20, this sounds awesome, right? Wrong. [=LRM-20s=] It has long reload times, generate significant heat build-up on your mech, have very wide missile spreads, which can cause up to half or more of the missiles to miss even the largest Assault Class mechs, and even if they do hit, that's damage that's scattered on up to 8 hit locations (3 of which, the torso sections, have front and back armor, so technically, 11 total hit locations). They weigh the most of all the missile launchers in-game right now, they take up a lot of critical slots, limiting what else you can place in a section of the mech, and eat through literal tons of ammo. Many players prefer the faster reloads, and more compact spreads of the smaller launchers. |
| 198 | *** Flamers. Another case of VideogameFlamethrowersSuck. They are by all means, "Energy Machine Guns", which is to say, versus any enemy mech with Armor protecting them still, do very little damage, but versus exposed Internal Structure, have increased damage, and bonus Critical Hit Chance. And unlike Machine Guns, they have infinite ammo and can increase the heat of a mech hit with them. However, they also generate heat very quickly on the mech firing them, completely negating the "Overheat your enemy" aspect, are short-ranged, and are nowhere near as good as the regular Machine Guns in terms of ease of aiming ([=MGs=] are pinpoint, while it can be hard to hit the section of the enemy mech you want with the Flame Throwers). Latter updates solved the pinpoint damage issue by turning the flames into heat jets, making them far more accurate weapons, and increasing the amount of heat it generates on the target. |
| 199 | * ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' |
| 200 | ** In most games, the Rocket Launcher qualifies as this: it's wildly inaccurate, can be difficult to aim, and does insignificant damage is outdone by most bombs or missiles. The exception to this is ''VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'', where the rockets are now much easier to aim and have unrivalled damage potential if the rockets hit their targets. After 6, most games took a middle ground: keeping the improved accuracy but nerfing the damage to make it a niche if servicable choice. |
| 201 | ** In some games, Guided Bombs are considered the worst weapons available. They were decent enough in the [=PS2=] games, but from 6 onwards their splash radius was greatly reduced, weakening their potential as anti-ground weapons. They're decent enough as anti-ship weapons, but even in that they're vastly outpaced by dedicated anti-ship missiles. |
| 202 | ** ''VideoGame/AceCombatInfinity'' has the High-Capacity Air-to-Air Missile. It's basically a second set of the standard missiles, with a slower reload time, less ammo, less damage, and no ability to lock onto the more plentiful ground targets. That would be bad enough on its own, but what makes it worse is that it is very, very easy to upgrade every aspect of the standard missiles and completely obsolete the HCAA, while the HCAA - and by extension, every missile-based special weapon - requires most of the tech tree to be completed before one can even begin to upgrade anything other than their capacity. What really makes it scrappy is that damn near every mid- to high-tier and special aircraft gets the HCAA instead of something that actually fills a niche the standard missiles can't already do better - you can count the number of late-game craft that ''don't'' have it on both hands. |
| 203 | * ''VideoGame/Freespace2'' has the Prometheus-R, a supposed retrofit of the well-liked Prometheus from the first game. Unfortunately for you, this retrofit effectively made the weapon worse in every possible way, with a painfully slow rate of fire, high power consumption, and per-shot damage that is barely higher than the starting [[BoringButPractical Subach HL-7]]. Even worse, a few missions force you to use it. Thankfully it is supplanted later on in the game by the Prometheus-S, a variant more up to the standards of the first game's Prometheus. The in-game explanation for this is that the GTVA was in the midst of a gas shortage and couldn't provide fuel for the Prometheus, so the Prometheus-R was a watered-down version meant as a stopgap production. The Prometheus-S is introduced about the same time the GTVA gets its gas mines back, allowing them to begin producing the actual weapon again. |
| 204 | * ''TabletopGame/HeavyGear'' has the Fragmentation Cannon. Besides its usual problems as a ShortRangeShotgun, it has one of the worst performance ratings in terms of damage, firing rate, and ammo capacity in the two video games it appears in. This weapon can barely scrape a light-class Gear's hull, let alone a tank, that it might as well do ScratchDamage. Even worse, the first weapon you start off in the game, the Light Autocannon, embarrassingly outclasses the Fragmentation Cannon in every other aspect concerning performance, turning the latter into the shotgun equivalent of ''[[VideoGame/Goldeneye1997 Goldeneye's]]'' Klobb. |
| 205 | [[/folder]] |
| 206 | |
| 207 | [[folder:Stealth-Based Games]] |
| 208 | * ''VideoGame/Hitman2'' has the [=ICA=] Electrocution Phone, unlocked by completing three Mission Stories in the New York mission. Veteran and professional players hate the weapon for being a boring GameBreaker that counts as a simple accident kill when no other device does so (in comparison, the [=ICA=] Explosive Phone doesn't count as an accident), thus nullifying the challenge of a "Silent Assassin, Suit Only" run. And casual players find its accident gimmick to get stale rather quickly, and it deincentivises them from trying other options as it's faster by default. The fact that it's a [=DLC=] item doesn't help, making it feel very much like a pay-to-win item. Tellingly, the weapon ended up being completely cut from the following game; ''VideoGame/Hitman3'', as its the only weapon left behind when transferring progress, and while the developers never gave explicit reasoning, it's strongly suspected that this trope is the reason why. |
| 209 | * Any melee weapon in the ''VideoGame/{{Tenchu}}'' games (at least ''Wrath of Heaven'') that you can get from a dead {{Mook}}. Especially as they get rid of your one-hit stealth kills. The higher-scoring need-for-powering-up stealth kills. The you're-a-ninja stealth kills. (Well, yeah, the fun-to-do stealth kills.) |
| 210 | * The M63 in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' if you decide to use it during the bike chase (which, owing to this being an ActionBasedMission and its high ammo capacity, you most likely will). Yes, the weapon is handy, but Snake's [[ShoutingShooter constant]] ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}''-[[ShoutingShooter esque yelling]] (which will occur non-stop since you'll be firing in bursts) is painful to listen to and tempts many players into using the less effective (but less annoying) AK-47, [=XM16E1=] or Skorpion. |
| 211 | [[/folder]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[folder:Survival Horror]] |
| 214 | * ''Franchise/DeadSpace'': |
| 215 | ** The [[VideoGame/DeadSpace1 first game]] has the [[VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck Flamethrower]]; it has pathetic damage per second, completely lacks the ability to cut off limbs in a game where combat is literally ''built'' around dismembering foes, guzzles precious ammo like a hog at a trough, and has absolutely no special attributes that [[MasterOfNone aren't done better by other weapons]]. Whilst it does get notable buffs in the [[VideoGame/DeadSpace2 second]] game, it's still generally considered the most useless weapon in that installment, and the [[VideoGame/DeadSpace3 third]] game made it as bad as in the first. The Pulse Rifle, sometimes considered the second-worst weapon in the series, is regarded as way more useful, since it at least has a dedicated niche in fighting enemies that rely on AttackItsWeakPoint over "cut off the limbs". |
| 216 | ** The [[VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake remake of Dead Space 1]], ironically, changes things so that [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap the Flamethrower is awesome]] but now the ''Pulse Rifle'' is absolutely rubbish. Its damage output has been significantly lowered compared to the original game, and the new Peeling system means its ability to dismember foes is vastly reduced; even a Pulse Rifle that's been upgraded to the maximum will struggle to kill basic Slashers for anything less than an entire clip of ammo. This is at least thematic, since the whole concept of the game is that the weaponized tools are better weapons against the [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Necromorphs]] due to their much broader focus on inflicting gross physical trauma. |
| 217 | * ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' |
| 218 | ** The knife was absurdly weak (usually taking several dozen stabs just to knock over the most basic of enemies at its worst in Resident Evil 2), had zero range, and took up valuable inventory space, so was typically dumped in the first item box, unless you were just ''that'' good and wanted to give yourself a SelfImposedChallenge. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' was the first game to make the knife even semi-useful, as the ability to dodge and quick turn mitigated somewhat the lack of range, plus it could stun lock the dogs and [[GoodBadBugs the corner bug]] allowed you to attack Nemesis with impunity. ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica Code Veronica]]'' massively buffed the knife, as one swipe counted as several hits, and swiping at zombies' knees would drop them instantly, making it possible to kill them before they could get back up. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' made the knife just as powerful as the basic handgun, trading range for unlimited use and no inventory space used. A skilled player could save a lot of ammo using it, and some bosses (particularly Krauser) were actually easier with the knife as it dealt majorly-increased damage against them. |
| 219 | ** [[VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck The Flamethrower]] are almost always useless, as it tends to be unreloadable, short-ranged, with zero stopping power, and one character tends to get it in lieu of superior weapons given to the other playable character. It's at its most useful in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', as it's very effective against [[DemonicSpiders the Ivys]], but even then the flame rounds from Claire's grenade launcher are more effective, so Leon ends up shafted. It's at its absolute worst in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'', where Chris gets it late in the game, as opposed to the GrenadeLauncher given to Jill ''very'' early on, and the flamethrower can only be used in the underground area, limiting its usefulness to fighting one boss that goes down fairly easy anyway. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' continues the tradition with the Burner, which is extremely useful for exactly one area of the game and its boss, then is worthless for the rest of the game. This wouldn't be so bad except even after that area, the game ''keeps giving you more ammunition for it.'' ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake The remake of 2]]'' finally makes it a viable weapon, as it's now the only weapon capable of killing the Ivies, who are now OneHitKill monsters that regenerate if downed with any other weapon. |
| 220 | ** The Spark Shot in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', exclusive to Claire Redfield, has exactly one use -- fighting William Birkin, something you can also effectively do with her Grenade Launcher. It's only real benefit is effectively serving as a freebie, allowing you to save your Grenade Launcher ammo for other enemies and not wasting useful ammo on Birkin, but that's a pretty narrow use for a weapon that's overall borderline worthless, taking three shots just to put down a normal zombie, takes two inventory slots, and only comes with twenty non-replenishable shots anyway. It was buffed into a much more useful weapon in the game's [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake remake]]. |
| 221 | ** The Bow Gun in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' is weaker than the handgun, has absolutely no {{knockback}}, can't hit fast targets like dogs at all, and the powerful gunpowder arrows are TooAwesomeToUse. But the real kicker is that Chris has a ''lot'' of difficulty using it because of his size[[labelnote:*]]both he and Claire hold it at eye level, but he's about OneHeadTaller than his sister, and while Claire consistently nails a human-sized target in the chest, when Chris shoots, most of his arrows end up whizzing past the enemy's head[[/labelnote]]. |
| 222 | ** Proximity Mines in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' might be considered this. Though they have some use in Story mode (usually by leading bosses and strong enemies on them), in Mercenaries they are next to useless, since you need to do melee anyway and you can't even use them to clear the mob in a pinch. No reason to bother with bosses. And in Versus, if you happen to be seen placing them, the enemy player can detonate them by shooting while you are still close. This added to the fact that good players won't be caught stepping on them anyway, since it's easy to tell the set mines from the dropped ones. |
| 223 | ** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' has at least three of them: the Punisher, the Minethrower, and the Matilda. The Punisher is the weakest handgun when fully upgraded, with its only perk -- being able to shoot through multiple enemies -- being outshined by other weapons like the shotgun and the TMP machine gun. Then there's the Minethrower, which not only has a delayed explosion and lacks any knockback, but ammo pickups are rarer than even ''magnum'' rounds. Lastly, the Maltilda drains through ammo very quickly due to firing three-round bursts and is not even stronger than the Blacktail (when fully upgraded, the Maltilda's firepower is at a mere 2.5 in contrast to the Blacktail's 4.5). The Maltilda's exclusive upgrade bumps up its ammo capacity to ''100'', the largest for any handgun in the game, but it still feels underwhelming. |
| 224 | ** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake'' introduced the Bolt Thrower, which ''quickly'' established itself as one of worst (potentially ''the'' worst) weapons in Resident Evil's entire run. Its one (1) benefit is you can retrieve its bolts from enemies and the ground after firing. Now take a seat for the list of drawbacks: it has a piddling attack power that maxes out at a meager 2.4 and a ''pathetic'' rate of fire that maxes out at 0.85, even with its ''exclusive'' upgrade it can only hold 20 bolts, it takes forever to reload, its bolts are unretrievable if shot out of bounds or out of reach, bolts stick into enemies which renders them unretrievable until they die (and you are ''not'' likely to kill with this weapon before you run out of ammo), you need to spend ''knives and resources'' to craft its ammo when you'd much rather have the knives for defense and the resources for grenades and ammo for ''useful'' weapons, and it's main advertised perk aside from retrievable ammo is it doubles as a watered-down version of the Minethrower (mentioned above). The only people who buy this weapon are newcomers to the game tricked by the prospect of unlimited ammo or who think it in any way compares to Ada's ''awesome'' 16.6 attack power Bowgun from Separate Ways, or veterans using it as a SelfImposedChallenge. And, as one final nail in the coffin, the Cat Ears don't even grant it unlimited ammo. |
| 225 | ** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' has the burner and the machine gun. Both weapons have very weak firepower and require lots of ammuniniton to down even standard enemies. They're NotCompletelyUseless, however; the burner is perfect for taking bugs and their nests during the Old House section and the game fortunately offers plenty of machine gun ammo to burn through. |
| 226 | * ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'' has two: the Kitchen Knife and the Hand Axe, the first and last melee weapons you get, respectively. The Kitchen Knife is a mandatory pickup, has zero range and in terms of defense is much worse than simply running from danger, and it's as if the game realizes how worthless it is because you can find the Steel Pipe, one of the game's more useful weapons, ''less than a minute later''. The Hand Axe is a barely-noticeable upgrade to the Kitchen Knife, which is rather unacceptable since by then you're 75% through the game and already have the magnificent and deadly Emergency Hammer. You don't have to get the Axe, though it does have one use: Breaking the lock keeping you from the sewer. Other weapons can break it, but it requires careful positioning and the Axe makes it easier. |
| 227 | * The unlockable Hyper Spray from ''VideoGame/SilentHill2''. Like the Hyper Blaster from the first game, its effectiveness depends on your end-game ranking, so it will do very poor damage unless you're good at SpeedRunning and meticulous at gathering items. Unlike the Blaster, the Hyper Spray has shorter range, requires you to "reload" by shaking up the can after about 10 seconds of use, and using it also damages ''you''. Atop all this, the presentation is lame as hell; it's just a simple spray can, so it doesn't even have the coolness factor of a sci-fi style raygun going for it. |
| 228 | * ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'': |
| 229 | ** The Maul - the big, powerful and extremely slow melee weapon of the game. Compared to the [[InfinityMinusOneSword Emergency Hammer]] in the first game, and the [[LethalJokeItem Great Knife]] in the second, it really comes up short; even the weaker monsters can withstand several blows, and will manage to sneak in their own attacks as you whale on them. Hitting with just the handle does less damage, too, and good luck spacing an attack that takes several seconds to execute. Another problem lies in the more complex stamina mechanics of this game, which means swinging this weapon will quickly tire you out and slow down most actions. Yet the lamest thing of all is the way it comically bounces off enemies like a pool noodle, despite being so heavy that Heather can barely lift it. It might have been purposely weakened a bit, since it's acquired rather early on, but there's still no point where it's needed and you'd have a much easier time beating things down with the Pipe, let alone the quick and powerful Katana you find later. |
| 230 | ** The Submachine Gun. It replaces the Rifle from the first 2 games, which was great at killing things in one shot. Unfortunately, not only is the SMG's ammo rarer than gold, you also need to fire a lot of it to do worthwhile damage, effectively burning through a big chunk of the whole game's supply for just a couple targets. It feels like overkill to use on minor enemies, as it's usually much easier to run past them than to stay and fight, while the bosses have a nasty habit of abusing invincibility frames to make those precious bullets a complete waste, a problem the single-shot weapons aren't as affected by. In particular, the final boss on hard mode and up has an added ''immunity'' to the weapon, where it snaps to an invulnerable state after taking just a couple of bullets from it, and requires a lot more hits or waiting around just to bring it back out; sure, it still does damage, but you could probably escape a prison cell with a spoon before it actually dies from that. |
| 231 | * In ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'', the pipe bomb becomes one by the end of the game. When you first aquire it, it's the only thing that can drive off the Xenomorph if it sees you, giving you at least a chance during the [[AbandonedHospital hospital]] segment. However it is also extremely costly to make, taking most of your scrap, sensors, and blasting charges just to build one. It can also kill you if you don't throw it far enough away. Shortly afterwards, you get the flamethrower, which will quickly become your best friend in driving off the Xenomorph, regulating the pipe bomb to just something to dump your spare parts into so you have room to grab more. |
| 232 | [[/folder]] |
| 233 | |
| 234 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 235 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 236 | ** 3.0, 3.5, and TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}} made the heavy crossbow nearly useless. A user could fire it a bit further than a light crossbow and on average did one more point of damage on a hit compared to a longbow or a light crossbow. However, the weapon took an entire round to reload, leaving the character useless for an entire turn. Characters who knew how to use a bow would always do better to use the bow if they planned to make more than one attack in a round or spend more than one round shooting. Characters above the first level could almost always afford a bow that lets them add their strength to the damage, negating the heavy crossbow's advantage to damage. Characters who couldn't use a bow would usually rather shoot and move with a light crossbow or were spellcasters whose actions in combat were almost always better used casting a spell. Feats (special tricks characters learn) were priceless, and using one to select "Rapid Reload" for a heavy crossbow was generally a terrible choice. Even the range advantage was usually useless due to the metagame; most [=GMs=] who use maps don't set many encounters at distances where the extra range comes into play. If the adventure takes place inside a dungeon of any kind, forget it. Many "subpar" weapons have tons of uses for smart players, but the game's rules render heavy crossbows worthless. Even the siangham (a monk weapon which does less damage than the monk's fist) has its uses. |
| 237 | *** Pathfinder managed to (somewhat) salvage the heavy crossbow as more options become available. The Crossbow Mastery feat allows the user to reload their crossbow fast enough that they can perform multiple attacks per round, and while it is a bit heavy on requirements (requiring 3 feats and a minimum of 15 Dexterity) it can be obtained by level 5 in most builds that would consider using a heavy crossbow. Later on, the Bolt Ace archetype for Gunslingers added the benefit of adding the character's Dexterity to damage, helping them catch up to bow-wielding characters. |
| 238 | ** The double crossbow in Pathfinder is even more AwesomeYetImpractical. It fires two bolts with one trigger pull but penalizes both shots by -20% to hit (even if you know how to shoot it) and costs a feat just to learn to use. It takes two standard actions to reload, meaning a normal character using it would fire once every three rounds unless he dedicates even more precious feats to the weapon. Meanwhile, the Manyshot or Rapid Shot feats applied to many weapons and imparted lower/no penalties to hit and allowed for similar effects for dedicated ranged characters. If the character was a spell-caster or melee fighter, spending a feat to learn to use a double crossbow was a very bad choice, especially compared to repeating crossbows, longbows, or other options available to these characters. |
| 239 | ** Bastard swords saw little use in 3rd edition, as they were two-handed weapons which did less damage than two-handed swords or great axes, and only by spending a feat could a character use it in one hand. Feats were too precious to spend to gain the minimal damage bonus a bastard sword had over a longsword. Magical longswords were also far more common to find whether the loot was based on GM whimsy or random rolls, making longswords even more attractive compared to the bastard sword. Eventually in 5th edition, bastard swords were effectively combined with longswords by use of the ''versatile'' weapon trait, which grants a weapon increased damage dice size if they wield a weapon with two hands instead of one. 1st edition Pathfinder attempted to focus on the ability to wield the weapon as either a two-handed martial or one-handed with exotic weapon proficiency for how it would interact with various abilities, feats, and rules, demonstrated by the iconic Pathfinder Barbarian character Amiri using her proficiency with the weapon to wield an oversized bastard sword that deals 2d8 damage at the cost of having to be wielded two-handed and at a -2 attack penalty. 2nd edition Pathfinder reclasified the weapon as a martial weapon, and gave it 1d8 one-handed damage, and 1d12 damage when wielded with two hands. |
| 240 | ** Exotic weapons, in general, had this problem except for D&D's spiked chain, which could be a MinMaxersDelight. It was severely [[{{Nerf}} nerfed]] in TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}, to the point of being useless. Any benefit the exotic weapon provided was grossly overshadowed by the thought of "wasting" a feat and the low chance of finding a magical version of the weapon. If an exotic weapon was associated with a certain race, allowing that race to use it more easily, it would see modest use. The rest almost never saw action. |
| 241 | ** Also in 3.5 is the Heavy Mace. A simple bludgeoning weapon, but the problem is the Morningstar does the same amount of damage, costs less, weighs less, ''and'' does piercing damage in addition to bludgeoning. The only advantage the Mace has is being harder to sunder. |
| 242 | ** In 1st edition AD&D, only the longsword and two-handed sword out of all the melee weapons were really worth using for fighters most of the time unless you used the complicated "Weapon Type vs Armour Type" to hit modifier table which hardly anyone did making any other choice a scrappy weapon. They had the best damage dice for the number of hands required to wield them compared to all other weapons unless you were unlucky enough to come across an enemy resistant or immune to slashing damage. Once weapon specialization was added, every single 1st level fighter selected the longsword as you could double specialize in it (resulting in a very useful +3 to hit and damage while two-handed weapons were restricted to single specialization at +1 to hit and +2 damage) and used their remaining proficiency slot for a missile weapon. This problem remained until 3rd edition rolled around. |
| 243 | ** In 5th Edition, the trident gets hit with this. Its stats are exactly the same as the spear, but the spear is a Simple weapon and the trident is a Martial weapon, which means that its damage dice are one tier lower than every other one-handed melee weapon in the game. Spears are much cheaper if you want a piercing weapon that can be thrown, while a longsword, warhammer, or morningstar gives you better damage for a one-handed weapon. On top of the issues with the weapon itself, the trident doesn't work with the Polearm Master feat (considered one of if not the best feat for melee characters in the game), while the spear does. |
| 244 | * 7thSea, due to an oversight, has the crossbow. The system uses a "keep" roll system, where [=XkY=] means you roll X dice but only keep the Y highest dice. Since you get to add your brawn to your roll (but not keep) for melee weapons it was common to find a weapon that had a lower X than Y. The crossbow has 0k2, but since it's a ranged weapon it never gets any bonuses from strength, meaning there's no way to get any rolls to actually keep. |
| 245 | * ''TabletopGame/MiddleEarthRolePlaying'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Rolemaster}}'' had the morning star and flail. While they both offered a modest +10 attack bonus and the chance to do a secondary critical hit, both weapons had an 8% chance to fumble on every attack and if you did fumble, you automatically critically hit yourself with them before you even rolled on the fumble table. The bola was even worse, with a -5 attack penalty though again with a chance to do a secondary critical, 7% fumble chance and again you automatically critically hit yourself with it if you did fumble. |
| 246 | * ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' has numerous weapons that are AwesomeButImpractical or even CoolButInefficient, but it's got a few true stinkers. |
| 247 | ** Hyper-Velocity Autocannons. They've got greater range than normal autocannons but get less ammo per ton, weigh dramatically more, generate more heat, and if you roll a 2 (on 2D6) when you attack the gun [[MadeOfExplodium explodes]]. |
| 248 | ** Bombast Lasers. They have a special ability to dial how much damage they inflict per shot, but for each point you choose above 7 (the laser's base damage), you take an equal penalty to the attack roll and generate that much more heat. It's really not useful for anything other than fine-tuning your mech's heat for Triple-Strength Myomer (which gives bonuses if you're exactly at 9 on the heat scale), but there are ways to do that without using such a worthless weapon. |
| 249 | ** [[EpicFlail Flails and wrecking balls]]. Melee weapons are suspect but flails can't use Triple-Strength Myomer, do fixed damage rather than scaling with the mech's mass, and if you roll poorly on the attack you [[EpicFail hit yourself with it]]. Even in-universe they're considered AwesomeButImpractical, and usually show up in the famous [[BloodSport battlemech gladiator matches]] on Solaris 7 rather than in serious combat. |
| 250 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 251 | ** For decades, the butt of all jokes regarding weapon balance was the Imperial Guard (or Astrum Militarum in latter editions) lasgun. The infamous "Strength 3, No Armor Penetration", wielded by infantry that typically had a 50% chance of hitting the target. In lore, a decently effective and reliable weapon with EasyLogistics being one of the features of the weapon. But when the Guard in-game were often facing tougher opponents and struggled to score any wounds due to how weapon attacks were resolved, the only good thing players could say about it that one can certainly bring plenty of quantity, if certainly not quality. Jokes about Lasguns doubling as "Flashlights" and "Laser Sights for Bolters" abound and even became an AscendedMeme to Games Workshop. The preferred strategy for years favored vehicle-heavy Guard armies instead, such as the Leman Russ tank and the good old bad days of taking nine Basilisk Self-Propelled Guns, while shuffling troops around in Chimera armored transports. |
| 252 | ** [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap And then 8th edition rolled around and simplified how Strength vs Toughness was calculated when rolling "To-Wound" and made rolling a 6 on the dice always a success, while also changing vehicle rules to also be damaged in a way similar to infantry and meant two things to Guard players]]. First, lasguns were now capable of damaging everything, including Super-Heavy Tanks, Titan Walkers, Monstrous Creatures, and even beings that could count as [[PhysicalGod Physical Gods]]. The second change, the meta massively shifted towards horde tactics as the quantity of dice a player could roll provided quite a boost of quality to their army. Cue the mass horrified realization of players' who had built their armies around heavy, expensive, elite "Death Star" units could be wrecked by dozens upon dozens of laser lights. |
| 253 | ** Weapons with the "Gets Hot!" rule were considered an edge case up until 8th edition, the standard for the debate being Imperial/Chaos forces Plasma weaponry. Expensive in point cost, and rolling a 1 on the To-Hit resulted in a CriticalFailure that inflicts wounds on firing model. But the strength and armor penetration they had always kept it a tempting option, especially if your army had means of reducing the risks. Notable also because Plasma weaponry worked pretty well against a wide range of targets, be it infantry, heavy infantry, and light vehicles or weaker armor facings of heavy vehicles. 8th edition, however, made them fully viable by reworking all "Gets Hot!" weapons to have a "Standard" firing mode that keeps the power of the classic versions with no overheat risk, and "Overcharge" mode that brings back the risks, but offers higher strength and damage, allowing one shot to deal multiple "wounds" to the target. |
| 254 | ** The same can not be said for the T'au Empire's Plasma Rifle with 8th edition, which went from the "gold standard" of T'au Battlesuit weapons to this trope thanks to the very same reasons that made lasguns better. Namely the rework of the To-Wound and damage systems. Pre-8th, T'au sacrificed a point of strength from their Plasma rifle compared to a Plasma gun in exchange for not having to deal with the "Gets Hot!" rule. But even with the lost point of strength, it was still more than enough to only have to roll on a six-sided dice either a 2+ or 3+ against most infantry, while also applying a former [[ChunkySalsaRule Instant Death Rule]] to Toughness 3 or lower units that it wounded and had the armor penetration to prevent armor saves from anything short of Space Marine in Terminator armor. As for vehicles, most T'au battlesuits are equipped with a JetPack that gives them deployment and mobility options, which made it easier to get behind vehicles to hit their weaker rear armor. 8th Edition, however, removed the "Instant Death" rule for a weapon's strength being double of the target's toughness, the To-Wound chart was simplified so that attacks with strength higher than the target's toughness, '''but not double'' a 3+ to wound, and double strength to toughness for a 2+. This made Toughness 4 models more resistant and reduced the number of opposing commander units for armies with only Toughness 3 being removed from the table by Turn 2. Vehicles also replaced Armor facings to simply use the same stat lines as infantry models, which removed the reward for outflanking vehicles and made some more resistant to the Plasma Rifle and all of them having multiple "wounds". The final nails in the coffin for the Plasma Rifle's former reign was that the weapon did not receive an "overcharge" setting unlike Imperial or Chaos plasma weapons[[note]]that option instead went to the T'au Ion Weaponry, which had similar mechanics and inspired the "Gets Hot!" rework for 8th edition[[/note]] and could only ever inflict 1 damage per successful hit. Early 9th edition before receiving their 9th edition codex made this problem worse, as the game balance put less emphasis on armor and more on toughness and wounds a unit can take, starting off by giving Imperial aligned Adeptus Astartes aside from their scouts a baseline of 2 wounds, and introducing more models with toughness 4 and 5. It was finally RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap with T'au Empire's 9th edition codex by improving its entire statline, especially in terms of strength and damage it dealt. |
| 255 | [[/folder]] |
| 256 | |
| 257 | [[folder:Turn-Based Tactics]] |
| 258 | * ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2'': |
| 259 | ** The [[LittleUselessGun .38 Special]]. Pistols, in general, are relegated to EmergencyWeapon status early on as it is, and revolvers in particular are considered inferior because they have to be reloaded about three times as often as everything else, so that's two strikes against it before we even get to the fact that it does ''lousy'' damage and has poor range and accuracy even by pistol standards. You're almost better off with a knife.[[note]]In the case of Michael Dawson, one of the few mercs that starts with the .38 in his inventory, you ''are'' better with the knife.[[/note]] |
| 260 | ** Rocket Rifles are particularly useless. Only available in Sci-Fi mode and requiring you to find and capture a weapons lab in the middle of nowhere, Rocket Rifles ''seem'' like the InfinityPlusOneSword of the game. However, they have pathetically small magazines (5 rounds), take a significant amount of time to fire, and most importantly, cannot accept ''any'' weapon modifications (in a game where a laser aiming module and a sniper scope is considered easy mode). For these disadvantages, you get a piddling amount of armor penetration, and some extra damage. Sniper rifles and assault rifles are far more reliable. And Rocket Rifles are keyed to a specific user, so if that user dies, the Rocket Rifle is completely useless. |
| 261 | * ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'': |
| 262 | ** Bow weapons in ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'' were largely overshadowed by gun weapons for players that wanted range damage. Bows had access to Area of Effect attacks, but guns had greater range, and more importantly, damage for them was determined by a combination of the wielder's ATK and HIT stats, while every other weapon in the game relied on only one stat for damage, making level stats for a good bow user was more trouble than it was worth. Developers noticed this and the weapons were RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap in later games where they were given better attacks, classes with abilities that can take advantage of bows, and nerfing the range on the guns (guns in later games can still hit farther, but only in a straight line). |
| 263 | ** Spears in the series tend to either fall into this or at the very least, the weapon version of the CrutchCharacter. Early on, the weapon's extra range on the attack in exchange for lesser damage has its perk. However, as you reach further into the game and become more reliant on specials, the weakness of spears really begins to show. Many of its specials require extra space to be open, making them unwieldy in some situations. Said specials usually allows its user to jump to said extra space, which again, is not always very useful in most situations and while other specials have some good AreaOfEffect specials, those special are hampered by the spear's lower attack strength compared to the stronger and more versatile swords and axes. |
| 264 | ** While not a significant example, the Baal Sword in ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'' has the curiosity of statistically being the worst [[InfinityPlusOneSword Rank 40 weapon]] in the game due to having 0 HP and 0 RES, meaning it has noticeable holes in its stats compared to the others. The only other Rank 40 weapon to have a 0 in any stat is the Invincible with a 0 in ATK, but in its case that's to be expected since Guns don't use ATK for anything (using HIT and SPD for damage instead) and no other Gun in the game has any ATK either. With the Baal Sword, it's especially odd since the Yoshitsuna before it does have both HP and RES (missing SP, INT, and HIT instead), but the difference in ATK is so steep that there's no contest between them if they're both fully powered up. The Vita version sidesteps the issue by adding Rank 41 weapons, with the Stardust Sword having the HP and RES that the Baal Sword is missing (and the Psychic Rail Gun having the ATK the Invincible is missing for that matter). |
| 265 | * ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars:'' |
| 266 | ** Missiles are this in the first game on pre-deploy maps, since the game likes to give them to you on maps that ''don't have enemy air units''. Missiles cannot target ground units at all meaning its only purpose on such maps is to block enemy units and take attacks, and since it's wheeled give it poor mobility and it is lacking in armor, it's not even all that useful for ''that'' purpose. Later games don't hand these units out on pre-deploy maps unless the enemy has either aircraft or an airport. Even then, most players ''still'' don't use Missiles much even when they aren't forced to. The above-mentioned poor movement combined with their range (they can only hit up to five squares away) means that air units can generally either avoid them or fly right up to them and destroy the Missile before it can even do anything. Then add in their cost, and Anti-Air tanks[[note]](which are also good against Infantry/Mechs and are about ''half'' the cost of a Missile to boot)[[/note]] are most players' preferred ground unit for fighting enemy air forces. |
| 267 | ** Cruisers end up being this in most of the games; they can counter Submarines just fine but tend to be very shaky against anything else, and their bloated price doesn't help matters. They can attack air units, but if any of them gets the first strike - even measly Battle Copters - it will quickly cripple them. Anti-Air guns perform much better for a fraction of the cost. Being a boat, its movement also tends to be very limited; many of the games don't allow boats to cross shores, bridges, or even rivers, so unless the map design devotes a huge chunk of space to these units, there won't be much they can do. Yet in ''Super Famicom Wars'', they somehow manage to be ''much worse'' - their price is even more unreasonable, and the only units they can attack are Submarines and Copters, both of which ''will'' take nearly half their health in return unless the Cruiser has a terrain advantage. Like naval units in general, you don't want to use them unless the map design absolutely forces you to. However, competitive ''Advance Wars'' has shown Cruisers to be so bad that, even in heavily naval-focused maps, most players ''still'' avoid building them at all. |
| 268 | ** Dusters from ''Days of Ruin'' are effectively cheaper Fighters that can also attack ground units, but their attack power against ground units, especially tanks, is ''pitiful''. They're clearly meant to be a harasser, going in to interrupt captures and pick at ground units that can't counter-attack against them, but there's never a scenario where this is useful: in the early game when interrupting captures is paramount you won't have them, and in the late game when it's time to chip at enemy units you'd be better off building units that can do more significant damage. Their MasterOfNone trait is so pronounced, and scenarios where they specifically would be useful are so rare, that you'd rather just build a copter or save up for a fighter or bomber. |
| 269 | ** ''Dual Strike'' has the Stealth plane, an aerial version of the Submarine in that it can become invisible to the enemy (unless adjacent to an enemy unit). They're peerlessly versatile, able to attack ''any'' unit in the game for solid damage. And even after being discovered, hidden Stealths can only be targeted by Fighters and other Stealths. ''However'', they have just under 2/3rds the fuel capacity of other air units and burn through that meager fuel reserve blisteringly fast just by staying hidden, much less actually '' moving'' while hidden. This means Stealth units require constant resupply to get anywhere, making them much more trouble than they're worth, especially in light of how much they cost to deploy. |
| 270 | ** ''Dual Strike'' also has the Piperunner. For 20,000 you get a weapon that is essentially Rockets and Missiles combined: it can target ''any unit'' except for hidden Stealth planes and submerged Submarines. The trade-off is it can ''only'' move on pipelines, can't be hidden in FogOfWar, and gets no defense bonuses, making it a fine example of CripplingOverspecialization: who cares how hard that expensive unit hits when it can't go anywhere, can easily be zoned out by far cheaper units, and takes 55% base damage from cheap early-game units like Tanks, Artillery, and Battle Copters, each of which costs around 1/4 the price? You will only ever see this thing used as a {{meme|ticMutation}} in competitive PVP, as the Advance Wars equivalent to saying "check" in ''TabletopGame/{{Chess}}'': a player will build a Piperunner to signal to the opponent that they have essentially won and that the opponent should do the graceful thing and resign. |
| 271 | * ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'': |
| 272 | ** The Devil Axe. In its debut game, it's by far the most powerful axe, but it has a sizeable chance to just straight-up hit you instead. It also tends to be very heavy and inaccurate to the point where the chance of you actually hitting the opponent is far outweighed by the chance that you either die by missing and getting doubled or kill yourself with it outright. The only games where the axe sees actual use are ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'', where it [[PowerAtAPrice gives an unusually high 8 weapon experience per use]] (even if it backfires or misses, ironically making its low accuracy a boon here), the DS remake of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragon'', where [[DiscOneNuke it's obtained very early]] and now has incredibly ''high'' accuracy [[EarlyGameHell in the part of the game where it matters the most]] (plus being in a game with [[SaveScumming mid-chapter save points]]), and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', where it simply reduces your health by a flat 10 after combat. |
| 273 | ** The Devil Sword, appearing in the Archanea games, suffers from essentially all the same downsides as its axe counterpart - not least because it's also obtained fairly late in the original ''Shadow Dragon'', at which point every sword-user is probably using silver. It is a legitimate DiscOneNuke in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'', though. |
| 274 | ** Bows tend to suffer from this in "enemy phase"-focused games (that being, games where the enemies are sufficiently weak and numerous that the majority of kills are the result of enemies attacking the player and dying on the counter). This is because bows cannot counter enemies fighting at melee range, which is most of them, meaning a bow-user is a sitting duck on enemy phase. No matter how good their stats are, a character who can only ever kill one enemy per turn is going to come up short when others can kill three or four. This is especially the case in games that bite into the bow niche of being able to [[TacticalRockPaperScissors shoot down flying units]], whether by reducing their effective damage boost or simply making fliers too weak or uncommon to warrant a bow-user, and it isn't helped by the Archer class being notoriously undertuned statwise. In "player phase" games where individual enemies are strong, though, bows tend to be seen as a good pick, being the most reliable way to chip down enemy health without taking a highly damaging counterattack, as well as being important for dealing with fliers that are actually powerful. |
| 275 | ** All Fire magic in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Genealogy of the Holy War]]''. In that game, all three types of Anima magic have identical power, the only difference is their weight. Fire is the heaviest (unlike later games where that honor went to Thunder) by FAR, and that is ''not'' a good thing. Even the weapon triangle advantage over Wind users does little to compensate for the massive speed loss the Fire user suffers (and Wind users are naturally speedy to begin with, which makes it even worse), so there's almost no point in using Fire magic when other tomes were available. Probably the only decent Fire spell is the legendary one which, of course, is enemy-exclusive. |
| 276 | ** Before the [[TacticalRockPaperScissors weapon triangle]] was codified into the series, axes in earlier titles were not so much an equal to swords and lances as they were a representation of the disposable earlygame [[ComMons commoners]] and [[TheGoomba bandits]] that would quickly be phased out in favor of [[HeroesPreferSwords your sword-wielding heroes]] and TheEmpire's primarily lance-wielding forces. In those games, good axes are rare and good users even rarer--in fact, ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'', its remake, and the second book of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' simply don't have ''any'' playable axe users at all. You're not missing much, in any case; axes boast the highest weight of all weapon types, meaning that many axes drag the user's Speed to the negatives (letting them be doubled by anything that isn't another axe-user), and have the worst accuracy in an RNG system that ''isn't'' fudging the results. You could usually mark the point where the game is no longer throwing axe enemies at you as a "taking the training wheels off" moment. After ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'' introduced Constitution, they became significantly better due to weight becoming a nonissue, and by ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'', they were the best weapon type by far. (''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' was the main stumble in that path, due to axes having the worst hit rates in a game where accuracy is a going concern.) |
| 277 | ** Lances in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'' fall into this due to the Dismount mechanic, which means that mounted classes were unable to use their lance weapons whenever taking the fight indoors, when indoor maps take up a significant chunk of the endgame. This means the only possible lance-users at that point are Knights, which are otherwise considered one of the worst classes and have a paucity of good units in both games, and even fewer who can use lances effectively. |
| 278 | ** Rounding out the trio, swords in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade''. Sure, they're accurate... but most weapons have good base accuracy anyway, and enemies have crappy Avoid because they weigh themselves down most of the time. And to compensate for their accuracy, their damage is worse than comparable weapons. They're the lightest weapon type, but, again, the vast majority of enemies are slow and therefore you don't need a sword to double them. Lances are very common in enemy hands, which turns the weapon triangle into a real problem. And to cap it all off, while lances and axes have a cheap and common option for attacking and countering at melee and range (the javelin and hand axe), swords... don't, with the closest thing being the Light Brand, a rare and expensive item of which you only obtain two at most in the whole game. These problems persisted through many later games, until ''VideoGame/FireEmblemNewMysteryOfTheEmblem'' made swords a strong weapon type again. |
| 279 | ** Considering the weaknesses of swords, the slim sword has been next to useless in almost every game after the SNES era. The advantage of "slim" weapons is low weight and high accuracy in exchange for less power, with the slim lance mainly being useful for frail Pegasus Knights who are restricted to a weapon type that's otherwise pretty heavy. But swords are ''already'' light and accurate, and there's no sword user in any of the GBA or Tellius games who gets weighed down by the basic iron sword. The SNES games had it closer to an upgrade over iron, with either better damage, a bigger gap in accuracy, or weight that actually makes a difference, but here, the slim sword is one of the weakest weapons in exchange for overkill accuracy and a piddling crit boost. It doesn't help that unlike the slim lance, which the aforementioned Pegasus Knights usually start with, the slim sword has to be bought from armories while also being ''more'' expensive than an iron, so you can't even take advantage of its miniscule upsides for free: it can at least be a ''little'' worthwhile to buy in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' where even the iron sword isn't always reliable, but you're better off never bothering for the other games unless you ''really'' need your UnskilledButStrong cavalier to land their hits. (It remained as weak as ever when it returned in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'', but there it comes with a massive dodge boost that at least gives it the more immediately useful purpose of [[PowerNullifier nullifying]] {{Critical Hit}}s.) |
| 280 | ** In ''Blazing Blade'', you have Lyn's final weapon, the Sol Katti. The Mani Katti was the main thing making Lyn useful for the majority of the story, being essentially a Rapier crossbred with a Wo Dao. Then the Sol Katti comes along in the same pack as the genuinely PurposefullyOverpowered Armads and Durandal, and you're expecting amazing power... when in reality, it has less Might than a Silver Sword. It has a high crit rate and is effective against dragons, but there's exactly one dragon enemy left in the game at that point, and said dragon barely gets scratched by the Sol Katti and has extremely good odds of killing Lyn in one shot. On top of that, the Sol Katti has a weight of 14, which is heavier than most axes and far above a Silver Sword or Killing Edge, and Lyn has a Constitution of only 6 when promoted, meaning the damn thing cuts into her high speed and moves her from doubling every enemy to actively fearing getting doubled herself. |
| 281 | ** Light magic in the post-GBA games has a tendency to be this (unlike in the Jugdral games, where it was easily the best magic type). Similarly to the issues with swords above, light's main shtick is that it's weak but lightweight... when anima magic is strong and also generally lightweight. ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' has one of the most pronounced cases, likely owing to it being the first game to turn light magic-users into a dedicated branch. Not only are light magic tomes worse than anima ones, but the only class that can use it is Bishop... a promoted class. Only one prepromoted bishop shows up, and he does so very late and isn't much of a fighter, so if you want to use a light magic character before then, you have to grind up the characters who can become Bishops--and they're both healers. Healing staves are a very slow way to grind XP, so unless you arena-abuse, burn out barrier staves, or promote very early, you're probably never going to have a light magic-user with a high enough rank to use Aureola. |
| 282 | ** Dark magic in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'' (ironic, given that this is one of the games where light magic users are considered extremely good). Not only are the available tomes incredibly heavy, inaccurate, or lacking in solid bonus effects, but you have only two characters in the main campaign who can use dark magic, both join late, and both do the magic type no favors: Knoll has poor growths and risks crit from nearly everything, meaning he's best off away from the frontlines as a Summoner, and Ewan is a Pupil who starts off with absolute bottom-grade stats and requires leveling and a specific class path to use dark magic at all. |
| 283 | ** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'': |
| 284 | *** The Bolt Axe. While the other [[ElementalWeapon magical weapons]] (the Wind Sword and Flame Lance) can at least be given to characters with okay Magic, you'd be ''very'' hard-pressed to find an axe user with anything even vaguely resembling a Magic stat, making it almost useless. Thankfully, in ''Awakening'', most of those who can use the War Monk/cleric class ''do'' have a usably high Magic stat, making this weapon a more viable choice. |
| 285 | *** Knives. There are only three in the game, they have no ranged options, and the strongest (the Stiletto) has a whopping 8 Mt (the same as a common iron axe), meaning they do pitiful damage even when accounting for their slightly enhanced crit rates. They're also restricted to the game's thieves and sages, of whom only Volke has anything even resembling the strength to make such weak weapons work. On top of all that, to wield knives, sages need to give up the option to use staves--do you want the option to heal your allies and manage all kinds of helpful utility effects, or the option to forego your powerful spells that hit at range on an enemy's weaker stat to wield incredibly weak daggers that key off your abysmal Strength? (Incidentally, both of the game's prepromoted sages went with the latter, as if specifically to nerf them after the sages from the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade previous]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones games]] blew their earlygame counterparts out of the water.) Even after being significantly buffed in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'', it was still usually seen as the worst weapon type, only carried by that game's CrutchCharacter. Knives didn't reappear until ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', which completely revamped their role by allowing them to debuff enemies after attacking. |
| 286 | *** All the effective weapon varieties fall into this, due to the game changing the effective weapon formula from x3 to x2, and also making most of them have either bad base damage or ridiculously high weight. Consequently, they go from "highly effective against their designated targets, subpar against anything else" to "barely passable against their designated targets, you may as well be using a cardboard tube against anything else." The Armorslayer gets the worst of it, due to weighing so damned much that basically nobody can use it effectively. This also has the side effect of making bows almost useless. |
| 287 | *** In most prior games, Wind magic tended to be one of the strongest options; even in games where magic types aren't segregated, it's represented by powerhouse tomes like Excalibur and Aircalibur. In ''Path of Radiance'', however, it's the worst type by far, due to utterly ''abysmal'' damage. Its damage is so bad that it barely does more damage than the equivalent Fire and Thunder tomes ''while hitting enemies it's effective against''--and in some cases, it does ''the same damage''. Sure, it may be light and accurate, but most mages are fast and skilled enough to not care. It says quite a lot that even Soren, who is meant to be a Wind specialist, still ends up using Thunder almost exclusively in a lot of playthroughs. |
| 288 | ** All the dark tomes in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'' for one simple reason: only two characters that can ever be recruited for your team can use them, and both of them can only be recruited on [[NewGamePlus the second-and-above playthroughs]]. This means all the dark tomes are BetterOffSold in the first playthrough, and even then only if you're aware that keeping them is useless. Besides that, most of the dark tomes are merely comparable to other tomes, except they have an advantage over "anima" tomes (fire, wind, and lightning) and a disadvantage to light. Unfortunately, a lot of bosses use light magic, which makes things even more of an uphill battle for those two characters. |
| 289 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' is the second game in the series [[UnbreakableWeapons where all weapons are unbreakable]]. To make up for it, the higher-ranked weapons have various negative effects attached to them, but a lot of them can be so crippling that you'd rather stick to iron or steel weapons for most of the game. The silver weapons got hit especially bad, lowering strength and skill after every battle with it, and even debuffing dodge by 5 in a game where enemies are always creeping up on the thresholds to have CriticalHit chances on you. |
| 290 | *** Many of the S-Rank weapons have it even worse, with a lot of them ''halving the unit's Strength/Magic stat'' with every other attack. |
| 291 | *** Many of the ranged physical weapons either cannot double attack (Javelins, Hand Axes, Throwing Clubs) or can ''only'' hit from two spaces away instead of having 1-2 range (Spears, Tomahawks), presumably as a response to previous games where they reigned supreme for those very reasons. This is particularly annoying in this game, since there are now a lot of powerful shuriken/dagger enemies who can still attack ''you'' at 1-2 range, and you'll probably have to resort to the magic weapons (such as the Levin Sword) over the physical options a lot of the time, since they can still double and hit at 1-2 range. |
| 292 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'''s poison weapons inflict DamageOverTime, which doesn't really harm enemies that much. Sure, you ''could'' use them on rather bulky enemies, but they usually have so much health that any poison damage you do amounts to ScratchDamage or CherryTapping. |
| 293 | ** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'', Smash weapons have the drawback of preventing follow-ups and always striking last (even after the foe's follow-up), but some are situationally useful for their high Might on the enemy phase and being one of the few ways to Break Armored foes. A few, however, don't have enough strengths to outweigh these drawbacks. |
| 294 | *** The Hurricane Axe is a ''magic'' axe which sounds good at first, but unlike the Levin Sword/Flame Lance it is a Smash weapon ''and'' locked to 1 range. Most axe users don't have enough magic to make it worthwhile, and the one who does, [[GlassCannon Anna]], ''really'' doesn't want to be attacking last. Unless your Anna has somehow developed the Spd and Bld to become a supreme dodge-tank while equipping a Hurricane Axe, you will ''never'' use this. If one has [=DLC=], the Bolt Axe that comes with Camilla is far better simply because it behaves like a proper Axe-based analogue to the Levin Sword/Flame Lance, even when it's locked to her Engage transformation. At the very least, the Hurricane Axe is effective against fliers while Camilla's Bolt Axe is not, so it avoids being ''completely'' [[NotCompletelyUseless worthless]]. |
| 295 | *** Carnwenhan is an S Rank Knife that is also a Smash weapon. While it's incredibly strong for a Knife at 28 Mt (considerably higher than most other S Rank weapons), it is also the heaviest of the Knives, cutting into the unit's Speed along with the other Smash weapon restrictions. Losing Hit/Avoid, striking last, and preventing follow-ups are the ''last'' things [[FragileSpeedster Knife classes]] want. And like the Hurricane Axe, it only has 1 range, when striking at a distance is the main draw of Knife weapons. About the only use case for Carnwenhan is if you need to punch through an Armored class to inflict poison, and there are better ways to do so (one of which ([[spoiler:Veyle]]) is even your reward for ''clearing the chapter Carnwenhan is found in''). |
| 296 | * Most acquired [[EliteMook Enemy Ace]] weapons in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' take a massive hit to accuracy and range in exchange for raw power, making them unpopular among players because all the power in the world doesn't mean a damn thing if you can't hit anything (and endgame and Royal weapons approach their power with much better range and accuracy, anyway.) The Ace weapons found in the Challenge of the Edy Detachment DLC, however, are more well-liked, with the rifle, in particular, being seen as a GameBreaker. |
| 297 | * Axes in ''VideoGame/TacticsOgreTheKnightOfLodis''. They generally look quite powerful, and they can back up with damage... but only ''one'' playable character can use them with an advantage. And he's optional - and mutually exclusive with Lobelia. By the time you get him, you'll more or less have his ultimate weapon. |
| 298 | * Being made by the same people, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' has axes - the only classes who use them as a weapon of choice are Geomancers and squires. The main problem with them is the fact that their weapon damage is somewhat randomized - meaning they are ''very'' unreliable. You'll sometimes have an axe user smack an enemy for almost 75% of their health in one fell swoop.... and then go back and hit a SquishyWizard for only 5% of their health. |
| 299 | * ''VideoGame/XCOM2'': |
| 300 | ** You have a lot of flexibility with regards to customizing weapons, with tier 3 weapons able to mount three different weapon mods. This makes weapons that ''don't'' let you customize them more difficult to use, such as the unique weapons unlocked by the Tactical Mission Pack. While it is cool using a cobbled-together laser weapon or a barely-functional plasma weapon, their lack of customization means you'll only use them when you need to. The weapon modifications aren't ''bad'', but they are specific to a certain playstyle that may not mesh with your methods. |
| 301 | ** The Plasma Blade, the tier 3 sword for Rangers. While the Arc Lance was a straight upgrade to the Sword, doing 1 more point of damage and having a good chance to stun the target, the Plasma Blade removes the stun function and adds a ''lower'' chance to inflict burn, while increasing damage by one more point. However, enemies on fire ''can still move and attack'' (though they can't use special abilities), while stunned enemies are completely vulnerable, being stuck in place and unable to do anything. Even more than that, some enemies are ''immune'' to fire damage, while even Sectopods can be stunned. The one extra point of damage on the Plasma Blade generally isn't worth losing the utility of stun on the Arc Lance. |
| 302 | ** Templars in ''War of the Chosen'' have autopistols, which are inaccurate, low-powered, and worse is every respect than the Templar melee abilities. The only use for an autopistol is attacking at range when you otherwise can't, something that a decently-leveled Templar can do much better with their psi abilities anyway. You can go through the entire game without ever upgrading autopistols and never worry about it. |
| 303 | [[/folder]] |
| 304 | |
| 305 | [[folder:Third-Person Shooters]] |
| 306 | * The "Kozlice" shotgun from ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint''. It's more accurate than the average game shotgun, but that's where the good bits end. It's weak, only holds two shots (and you can only carry 10 rounds ''total'', as opposed to ''300'' for an assault rifle, due to each individual shell taking up the same inventory space as a 30-round rifle magazine), and takes twice as long to reload as any of the other weapons. It'd almost be more effective if you could use it as a club. Of course, since it's there to represent the civilian hunting shotguns which are all most of [[LaResistance the Resistance]] have to start with this is intentional. |
| 307 | * ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'''s Scorcher flamethrower is a weird one as it both used to invoke VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck down to a T and subverts in the sequels. In ''2'', it has an exceedingly short-range, which unfortunately forces you into the Killzone for everyone's favorite weapon, the Gnasher shotgun; not only that but despite being a flamethrower, it lacks any significant damage over time effect which would help justify its existence. This however, changed with ''3'', which amped up the Scorcher's damage to an insane degree; downing players within ''half a second''. It got an even ''bigger'' buff in ''5'' where not only was the damage the same as in ''3'', but a perfect reload now enables the Scorcher to set the ground on fire. If you were lit up by a perfect-reloaded Scorcher, you are as good as dead. It is to the point that Gnashers players now ''[[Main/RussianReversal actively avoid]]'' Scorchers. |
| 308 | * ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' has a fair number of LowTierLetdown weapons, but the Akjagara falls under this trope for a different reason. The weapon's stats are fairly unremarkable, which wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the cost to build it in the first place, requiring an Akbolto and a Dual Skana. While the Dual Skana's build costs aren't too bad, the Akbolto requires two Boltos to craft, each of which requires a Lato (which fortunately is available to purchase for credits). The total cost comes out to 210,000 credits, 7 Orokin Cells, 4 Neurodes, and some other more common resources, in a game where most weapons don't even cost 100,000 credits to build. Add in the fact that you'll need multiple weapon slots for the intermediate steps and that the whole process will take a minimum of 48 hours, and it's not hard to see why players were disgruntled. |
| 309 | * ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'''s [[PlayerVersusEnvironment Salmon Run]] makes it clear that there are a number of weapons which are notably ill-suited to taking on mobs of enemies at once: |
| 310 | ** The Inkbrush and Octobrush are the worst weapons in the mode, bar none. Their multiple hits are each individually weak, which while able to splat an Inkling/Octoling quickly is merely a nuisance against larger and more dense Salmonids, and the lack of range only makes things worse since they cannot flatten anything bigger than a Smallfry. On top of that, [[TheAllSeeingAI the Salmonids' sense of smell can pick out hiding Inklings]], making this weapon's popular "assassin" style of gameplay dead weight. |
| 311 | ** Blasters are some of the most difficult-to-use weapons in the mode due to their limited range (which makes them go from not very effective to completely useless when dealing with bosses) and a slow fire rate (which makes them bad at clearing out the {{Mooks}} that try to mob you). Their secondary selling point (being able to do damage around corners) is almost completely useless given the aforementioned fact that you can't hide from Salmonids and sneak attack them. That said, they are the only single-shot weapon capable of blowing multiple Stinger segments off at once, and the Grizzco Blaster's fire rate makes the lack of range a moot point. |
| 312 | ** The Goo Tuber has a shorter range compared to other chargers as well as a longer charge time. It does have the ability to hold a full charge for much longer, but this isn't really useful in Salmon Run. |
| 313 | ** The Bamboozler has a quick charge time but lacks the damage and range of other chargers, which works against it more often than not. |
| 314 | ** The H-3 Nozzlenose only fires in a three-shot burst with each press of ZR and has a longer cooldown between bursts; this can cause plenty of damage to a single target, but Salmonids are never single targets for long. |
| 315 | ** The Hydra Splatling takes way too long to charge, and the user slows to a crawl during spin-up, making it easier for them to get mobbed before their belt is ready. The ink consumption leaves much to be desired, too. |
| 316 | ** The Dynamo Roller destroys any mook caught under it, Cohocks included, but takes too long to fling, making it unwieldy as a boss buster. Aside from what it does to Cohocks, it mostly just ends up doing exactly what other Roller types do, but slower. |
| 317 | * The grenades and, fittingly enough, the grenade launcher in ''VideoGame/ArmyMen: Sarge's Heroes''. They're slow to use and have a tiny blast radius. The former's explosion must be timed perfectly to hit anything, while the latter's shot travels in a ''very'' tight arc that forces you to aim almost straight up for anything beyond close-range. It's infinitely easier to just shoot your enemies, and none of the soldiers take more than a handful of shots anyway. They are halfway decent against tanks, which can only be destroyed with explosives and are obviously much easier to hit; however, they're still made completely worthless by the bazooka in this regard - it's much easier to aim (point and shoot!), has an effective range of ''anywhere'' (only the [[SniperScopeSway random aim deviation]] gives it a sort-of maximum range - but anything you ''should'' be shooting with the bazooka is [[TankGoodness big]] [[HumongousMecha enough]] that it simply can't screw you over enough to miss on its own), and has a much bigger, more powerful explosion (on the easiest difficulty, the bazooka kills a tank in three shots - the grenade launcher takes ''six''). Plus you'll usually find one if there's a tank nearby anyway. There's also the mortar, which is like the grenade but with much more power and range, detonates on contact with the targeted area and can be easily used behind cover without the projectile bouncing back toward your feet... |
| 318 | [[/folder]] |
| 319 | |
| 320 | [[folder:Vehicular Combat]] |
| 321 | * A lot of the weapons in ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal 3'' and ''Twisted Metal 4'' introduced by 989 Studios are lackluster at absolute best. Examples include the Mortar which rarely hits and is just as likely to hit you, the Rain Missile that rarely hits and only inflicts ScratchDamage with flames when it does, the Speed Missile which does ScratchDamage and doesn't even home in, the Auto Lob that rarely hits unless the target is ''very'' close range, and the Freeze Remote because why on ''Earth'' would you use this to freeze a foe instead of a homing freeze missile? Note the recurring theme of "never hits its mark" and "does barely any damage." There's a very good reason why no other studios have ever bothered to use these weapons, as you're better off avoiding their pick-ups as to not clutter your inventory. |
| 322 | [[/folder]] |
| 323 | |
| 324 | [[folder:Wide Open Sandbox]] |
| 325 | * ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'': |
| 326 | ** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2'' introduces the shotgun to the GTA franchise. Although the weapon has fast bullets and good stopping power, it is woefully undone by being a ShortRangeShotgun with a range that doesn't even reach the end of the default POV distance, and a criminally low fire rate, as unlike in later GTA titles where you could outrun and swing around your shotgun towards any threats with ease using a targeting control, in GTA 2 you are limited to only firing at what is right in front of you, and being required that you stand still and make slow turns in order to aim the gun properly, rendering it nearly useless against any enemies that were armed with longer-ranged weapons and any police officer that chased you down. You would be better off using the flamethrower or a machine gun in these types of scenarios. |
| 327 | ** The basic Pistol in the 3D games is the last weapon you would want to have in an intense gunfight. It has a middling firing rate and low damage rate. By the time you get your hands on a .357 magnum or Desert Eagle, there's no reason whatsoever to go back to the Pistol. Even at Hitman level in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', it is outclassed by the other handguns. |
| 328 | ** Holding true to VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck, the Flamethrower in the 3D era of ''Grand Theft Auto'' games is one of the worst weapons. Its range is greatly {{Nerf}}ed from the 2D games and you're more than likely to accidentally set yourself on fire trying to hit enemies in a crowd. In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'', there is no Fireproof bonus, meaning it is more of a liability. It's no surprise the HD era of games dropped this weapon from the game. |
| 329 | ** The Country Rifle in ''San Andreas'' is vastly outclassed by the Sniper Rifle once you unlock it. The latter has better overall utility and distribution, despite that weapon slot having no skill slot attached to it. |
| 330 | ** Other than a few weapons, melee weapons from the same game are vastly unviable. The Chainsaw is an interesting on paper, but it draws police attention on to you faster than it is worth. The pool cue has it worse because it automatically takes up the melee weapon slot when you play pool, causing you to automatically give up the coveted Knife or Katana. |
| 331 | * ''VideoGame/{{Palworld}}'': |
| 332 | ** Almost every player would much rather use bows than melee weapons in the early-game, given that bows have far better damage and the obvious advantage of letting you keep your distance from murderous critters. The only real advantage of melee weapons is not requiring ammo, which is largely a moot point considering how easy it is to collect materials for arrows, and even if you wanted to just deal chip damage to a Pal you're trying to capture, basic picks and axes do pretty much the same thing. |
| 333 | ** The musket, despite being the first gun you have access to, is often considered less practical than the crossbow due to its massive damage being let down by its horribly long reload time; as such, not keeping the crossbow around is just asking for trouble from multiple enemies. It doesn't help that the musket has a tendency of one-shotting Pals you're trying to catch due to said massive damage per shot as well as the Makeshift Pistol, which uses the same ammo but is far more effective, is only one level away anyway. |
| 334 | * ''VideoGame/TheSaboteur'''s Terror Flamethrower. "[[VideogameFlamethrowersSuck Typical video game flamethrower]]" sums it up fairly well, with its short-range and flames that cover up your field of view. It would be good for close-quarters combat in theory, except that at around the same time you gain access to an automatic shotgun with a ridiculous ammo capacity (150 rounds with a dirt-cheap upgrade) that's surprisingly effective at stopping targets well out of the flamethrower's range. |
| 335 | * ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'': |
| 336 | ** Shortswords. Theoretically, they're faster than broadswords, but do less damage and are smaller. However, unlike broadswords, your character doesn't swing it in an arc; rather, they jab it straight forward. It's moderately useful against enemies that walk right into your attacks but worthless against nearly everything else. After the 1.4 update, shortswords have been buffed to allow them to stab in any direction, but their short range means they'll usually get replaced anyway. |
| 337 | ** The Wand of Sparking is generally considered useless even at the beginning of a run, being the weakest magic weapon and having no knockback. As it can only be found as random chest-loot and not crafted, it's likely to not even find one until it is already obsolete (unlike shortswords, which the player even starts with). |
| 338 | ** In Expert mode, the Brain of Cthulhu drops the Brain of Confusion, which theoretically induces the Confused debuff on enemies that [[InterfaceScrew switches their controls.]] The biggest issue with this is that Confused is the one debuff that almost ''every'' enemy or boss is immune to, making it almost pointless. The 1.4 update significantly buffed the Brain of Confusion to give it a chance to dodge attacks for this reason - making it competitive with its Corruption counterpart, the Worm Scarf. |
| 339 | ** Among the Biome Chest weapons, while the Scourge of the Corruptor, Vampire Knives, and Desert Tiger Staff are generally considered very good weapons, and the Piranha Gun and Staff of the Frost Hydra have niche use cases, the Rainbow Gun is definitely not worth the grind for a Hallow Key to get. The Rainbow Gun fires out a lingering, arcing rainbow that deals damage to anything it touches. The problem is that the rainbow does paltry damage for its stage of the game, and it doesn't linger anywhere near long enough to be considerable as a support weapon, even after the Labor of Love update doubled its duration from 20 seconds to 40. |
| 340 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Main / ScrappyWeapon
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
