'''Basic Trope''': The hero has a hard time with individual enemies, but sweeps the floor with entire groups with ease.
* '''Straight''': The hero fights against a henchman and manages to beat him after a hard fight, then several appear, and he defeats them with relative ease.
* '''Exaggerated''': When the hero faces a singular, average (or even below average) sized henchman, it turns out to be an incredibly tough enemy and the hero only wins due to a combination of skill and luck, when a lot of them (who are way bigger) appear, they are degraded to canon fodder, not tougher than the average mook.
* '''Downplayed''':
** The hero initially has trouble beating an enemy, when the same enemy returns in groups, they are Elite Mooks that pose a challenge, even if they are not as strong as the original.
** The hero initially has trouble beating an enemy, then he finds himself against other enemies that are weaker but pose a threat due to numerical superiority.
* '''Justified''':
** The hero has been specifically trained to fight against overwhelming numbers and wields a weapon suited for fighting many enemies at once.
** Groups of robotic mooks run on the same energy source, so the fewer members of a group, the more power per robot.
** Mass training a bunch of mooks at once means they don't get as personalized and thorough training as a the initial henchman personally trained by the OldMaster.
** Ninjas are assassins, not frontline troops. One at a time, sneaking up on a hero, when they can use stealth to their advantage, they can do far much more good (or evil, as the case may be).
** TheDragon or BigBad will send out his worst mooks en masse as cannon fodder, hoping that quantity will make up for (lack of) quality, while his less common, [[EliteMooks more competent mooks]] get sent out in [[QuirkyMinibossSquad smaller groups]] so to make better use the scarcer resource they represent.
** Or, the massive army of mooks is really just one enemy with DopplegangerSpin powers. As the clones are mowed down, the rest become stronger.
** The hero is a SquishyWizard with SplashDamage spells who was never meant to solo strong lone enemies.
** The weaker mooks get cut down easily, the remaining mooks are the more skilled ones who put up a better fight.
** The hero shoots down all of the mooks but one or two, at which point his gun runs out of ammo. He must take down the remaining mook(s) in hand-to-hand combat.
** The Mooks are actually suffering from CloneDegeneration.
** The hero's fighting style is built on DeadlyDodging to make enemies harm each other, and therefore is weak against a lone elite where there's no one to redirect attacks from.
** The strongest subordinates are usually sent alone or in small groups, the weakest subordinates are sent in larger groups.
** The [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Wuvorkyn]] soldiers of the Dark One are tougher and stronger than humans, but short-tempered and unwilling to work together. So individually a wuvorc will kick a human's ass two times out of three, but when fighting as armies the human soldiers of TheGoodKingdom can beat twice their number of wuvorcs by holding their formations and fighting as one.
** The first henchman was a SuperPrototype.
** The larger the army, the thinner their supplies have to be spread. The singular henchman is in top form, while the group's morale is less stable.
* '''Inverted''':
** [[EliteArmy An army of good footsoldiers]] takes on a lone badass villain -- [[ZergRush and proceed to win]], even if they sustain some losses in the process.
** Alternatively: The more zombies show up, the more powerful each individual zombie seems to be.
* '''Subverted''':
** The hero after defeating a henchman, jumps into a group of enemies, only to find out that they are a lot more powerful than they look.
** The hero can defeat [[Film/IpMan ten men at once]]. Give him twenty, though, and he's toast.
** After cutting down groups of mooks, the hero runs into TheBrute. They have a stare-off, prepare to fight... and the hero [[FakeUltimateMook demolishes him as easily as the mooks before.]]
* '''Double Subverted''':
** ...But now that the hero has gotten into the swing of the battle, he can take care of them easily.
** ...but then TheBrute gets back up revealing his [[TurnsRed second form.]]
* '''Parodied''':
** Groups of henchmen trip over themselves to retreat whenever they see a single hero advance towards them. Or one fighter can take on a group of enemies no matter how large it is.
** Said henchmen trip over themselves [[EpicFail on their way to battle!]]
** The hero becomes tense and frightened upon seeing a single enemy. When other enemies appear, however, he relaxes and sighs in relief.
* '''Zig Zagged''': Various groups of enemies give the hero different levels of trouble with regard to defeating them.
* '''Averted''': The hero knows that there is strength in numbers, so he avoids fighting large groups of enemies alone.
* '''Enforced''': "We need the hero to fight off hordes of enemies so it'll look really epic, even if the same enemy gave him trouble individually or in small groups before.."
* '''Lampshaded''': "How come these minions are weaker when there are more of them?"
* '''Invoked''': The hero begins drawing plans for attacking the enemy fort, one of them being to charge wildly at the opponents and hope for the best.
* '''Exploited''': The BigBad sends out an army of his weakest mooks in order to get rid of deadweight while keeping the more EliteMooks to fight the heroes in one-on-one battles, knowing they are more dangerous.
* '''Defied''': The hero charges into battle, thinks about it for a second and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere turns back]] [[GondorCallsForAid to request reinforcements]].
* '''Discussed''': "Hell yeah, they brought out the ninja! Those guys don't stand a chance now!"
* '''Conversed''': "You ever wonder why one guy is capable of taking down entire armies of henchmen with such little effort?, but suffers in individual fights."
* '''Deconstructed''':
** A single hero charges into the group, expecting to defeat his enemies easily. Turns out this was a pretty bad idea as the opponents gang up on him and finish him off.
** Or he does beat them all... but because there were no witnesses, [[CassandraTruth no one will believe]] [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold that he has done such a thing]].
** The hero managed to beat an army, but it drains his energy and makes him vulnerable to a stronger enemy's attacks.
** The reason why the hero was able to take down a large group of enemies with such ease, was because all of them were exhausted, injured and taken by surprise. Trying out the same feat with a properly prepared group would be suicidal... But the hero does so anyway due to SuicidalOverconfidence.
* '''Reconstructed''':
** Their teammates, however, take a notice and make sure they come ''[[WalkingArmory damn]]'' [[CrazyPrepared well-prepared]] [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe to the]] [[TakeCover next encounter]].
** The hero deliberately sets up a camera before the fight to prove their badassery [[TalkingIsAFreeAction and the bad guys let them finish before attacking]].
** ...But the challenge of taking on so many enemies at once forces him to fight with even more strength, since he's now fighting for his own survival.
* '''Played For Laughs''': The hero battles the henchmen with ease, possibly not even trying or [[ExcuseMeWhileIMultiTask doing other things while fighting (reading a book, making a phonecall, etc.)]], But when there's only one left, he has the battle of his life..
* '''Played For Drama''': More and more enemies start ganging up on the hero. The hero is fighting hard, but it's unsure if he'll be able to take on any more mooks.
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%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
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%%* '''Implied''': ???
%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???