Deadly Dodging in Video Games.
- The mooks in Battletoads: Battlemanics automatically counterattack when they take damage, so if you get one to hit another they'll fight to the death.
- This trope describes one of the most popular techniques for scoring in the coin-op game Berzerk, where the player would stand between two robots until they both fired, then would step out as the shots passed and then step back to lure the robots back into the line of fire.
- Boktai:
- The Golems roll around to attack you. If you hide behind a wall or other obstruction (or you Quick Guard in Lunar Knights), the Golem will be stunned for a period of time (by crashing into it), allowing you to get a few hits in.
- The Goat Chimera roars when it's about to charge you; unlike the previous examples, you have to use the lamppost to disable it, as it skids to a halt if you dodge and it runs you over if you try to block. Thankfully it can still be killed the old-fashioned way.
- A fun tactic in multiplayer games of Bomberman and derivatives of it. Keep running around until the opponent hits himself with his own bomb. More effective in Baloono, with smaller arenas and more power-ups....
- A similar sequence occurs in Clive Barker's Undying. When fighting Aaron, he will stand in the middle of the room when sufficiently injured and keeps attacking with his chain hook. The trick is to let him attack then sidestep when you are in front of the door. If done right, the hook gets stuck in the door and Aaron can be "killed" by decapitating him with the scythe.
- Commander Keen: You can dispatch some enemies that attack by jumping at Keen (notably the Mimrocks in Secret of the Oracle, who are otherwise not easy to hit with the neural stunner) by luring them close to the edge of a pit, and jumping yourself out of the way when they strike. They are not hurt by whatever hazard can be found in the pits (spikes, lava, freezing water, boiling tar...) but they can't jump high enough to get out, effectively neutralizing the threat.
- It's possible to do this to Seath in Dark Souls. You can manuever yourself so that he accidentally destroys the primordial crystal, which is what causes him to remain effectively immortal. Doing this causes him to fly into a rage where he's open to hits for a while.
- There's a secret mission in Devil May Cry where Dante is fighting against a pair of rock-spitting spider demons, and has to goad one of them into destroying the other using this trope.
- This is the basic mechanic of the flash game Dodge: your spaceship is unarmed, and you have to maneuver so that the enemies destroy themselves and/or each other with their missiles.
- Doom: Luring enemies into firing at each other and then fighting is an essential combat tactic, especially when up against maps with tons of enemies and not enough ammo to kill them all yourself.
- Played straight in Super Double Dragon. You can get your enemies to throw knives and boomerangs at each other, although it might take you a while to perfect this fine craft.
- Simultaneously played straight and inverted in Dwarf Fortress. When fighting, both your dwarves and whoever they're fighting can sidestep to an adjacent free tile in order to dodge an attack. Free tiles include open spaces, so battles on top of bridges often result in one or more combatants dodging off the bridge and falling into the water or magma below. This can be exploited in defense of your fortress. Make a high, narrow bridge the only path into your fortress, and rig the bridge with traps which will poke its victims with blunt sticks. Invaders will dodge to avoid getting poked, and thus fall to their deaths.
- Twinblade in Fable can't be damaged and will always strike you. Every few attacks, he will loose a brutal assault that, if dodged, gets his swords stuck in the ground. This leaves his back vulnerable for a while.
- Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage: During the second phase of Kenshiro's boss fight with Shin in Chapter 2 of Legend Mode, Shin will use an unblockable charge attack that will cause severe damage if it connects. If you position Ken in front of a pillar and then dodge at the last second, Shin's hand will get stuck for a few seconds, allowing you to get a few free hits in.
- Gatling Gears: In a few stages, you encounter drilling machines that attempt to charge the player. You can take advantage of them by standing in front of a Mook and dodging as the drill charges, causing them to run into and instantly destroy the other Mook.
- At one point in Grand Theft Auto V, Amanda's yoga instructor Fabien makes a sexual pass at her, causing her enraged husband Michael to lunge at him. Fabien dodges, sending Michael careening into his own pool.
- The Haunted Mansion has a segment where Zeke is shrunken down onto a billiards table and has to get the ghostly player to hit all the balls into the pockets. In the kitchen, you have to get the plates aimed at you to break every bottle of alcohol.
- Into the Breach: Enemy attacks are telegraphed before the start of the player's turn, and are executed afterwards, meaning that player units can often move out of the way of an attack and make it hit another enemy.
- In I Wanna Be the Guy, during his third attack pattern, The Guy is immune to your puny bullets, and you have to dodge his shots so that they bounce off the walls into him. It's harder than it sounds, because the bullets don't follow usual angles: they always bounce so that they're flying directly at you.
- Used brilliantly in Jade Empire by Sagacious Zu against Death's Hand. Turns out to be a Heroic Sacrifice, sadly.
- Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy: This is a fairly common tactic in Boss Battles and fights with Giant Mooks in the game. One such battle involves tricking a man-eating plant into slamming its heads against spikes so that it becomes dazed and vulnerable.
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance uses this in a couple boss battles using Action Commands.
- In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Samus defeats the Grapple Guardian by dodging just as its beam hit an electrified pillar that stuns it for a few moments.
- The only way to get a record for the record player in Minecraft (other than being really lucky with dungeon chests) is to get a skeleton to kill a creeper with its arrow.
- Monkey Island: A variant appears in Escape from Monkey Island; the enormous Final Boss appears in a rehashing of the game's martial-arts-code-breaker puzzle, but can't be defeated in regular combat. The player is expected to have discovered and remembered that combatants will get frustrated and beat at their own head if stalemated, and induce the boss to do so, crushing its controller who was conveniently riding on top.
- Monster Hunter: Certain monsters with very large fangs or horns can get them temporarily stuck in conveniently-placed ledges or walls by application of this technique. Doesn't work once the offending body part has been smashed, though. When dealing with the Alatreon, there are two ledges at the edge of the arena. This is the only reliable way to get at these horns while it's still standing — the other ways are knocking it off its feet and putting it to sleep.
- Tom and Jerry in Multi Versus weaponizes Deadly Dodging. Their whole moveset consists of Tom swinging at Jerry and missing or tossing him around. Really, what's happening is they're busy fighting each other and anyone else is just getting hit by the crossfire.
- In Persona 4 enemies that miss have a chance of falling down. If it is the last enemy on their feet at the time, you get a free combination attack.
- Phantasy Star Online:
- The easiest way to dispatch a Garanz is to open the menu to keep yourself in non-combat mode and running in circles around it, making it hit itself with its missiles while you take no damage.
- And in the sequel, the Garongo is heavily armored and attacks by curling into a ball and ramming you. Goading it into hitting a wall will topple it over and expose its vulnerable underside.
- Pikmin 2: The easiest way to clear out areas with Cannon Beetle Larva (which shoot rocks out at you) is to lure them into shooting every other enemy in the vicinity. It also spares your pikmin from being steamrolled by the rock projectiles in the process.
- In Pokémon, the moves Jump Kick and High Jump Kick inflict damage on the user if they miss. Though it probably only counts as a dodge if the target's evasiveness is raised such as with Double Team.
- Portal:
- To beat GLaDOS, you have to do this with some missile turrets, either standing close by and aiming the turrets, or using portals to send a missile over.
- Portal 2 uses a similar concept. Of course, without real weapons this is pretty much the only way a boss battle can go in those games.
- In Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, That One Boss fight involves two really big guys. The only way to beat them is to dodge and get an axe stuck in the ground.
- Averted in the fight against El Odio in Psychonauts, interestingly, as not only is it a Bullfight Boss in terms of the trope definition, it's a Bullfight Boss in literal terms. He's rather intelligent for a boss of his kind and probably won't end up touching the wall at all.
- Resident Evil:
- One of the quicker ways to defeat the Garradors in Resident Evil 4 is to stand with your back to a wall, get them to charge you, and run for it (conveniently, they usually don't swerve after you), causing them to get their claws stuck in said wall and allowing you a free strike to the weak point on their backs.
- Resident Evil 3: Nemesis has the Nemesis. If you are skilled or lucky, you can get him to kill zombies for you, since he destroys anything in his path to get to the player.
- In the Nintendo 3DS downloadable game Sakura Samurai, timing your dodges and attacks is the key to victory, as opposed to Button Mashing. You can dodge most enemies' attacks normally, but it's more effective to time your dodges and backsteps just as the enemy is about to attack, then closing the gap with an attack of your own. Doing this properly earns you "Precision Points", which can be traded in for gold.
- Spider: The Video Game have a Brain Monster boss who's immune to all your attacks, will repeatedly use a Tail Slap on you (via it's metallic spine) and the only way to damage it is by pushing a set of switches you can't reach. The solution? Stand behind the switches, trick the boss into swinging it's tail-spine at your direction, get out the way and watch as the boss accidentally hit those switches and hurt itself. Repeat the process a few times and the boss goes down.
- Players can destroy Mycon Podships in Star Control by guiding their plasmoids back into them.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Used in Super Mario Galaxy to trick Bowser into performing a Ground Pound over a glass cover. Said cover was on top of molten hot liquid that would burn Bowser.
- Of course this actually harkens back to Super Mario Bros. 3, where Mario tricks Bowser into destroying the floor, which covered a Bottomless Pit.
- Also in Galaxy, this technique can be used to turn Bullet Bills into Helpful Mooks by tricking them into colliding with something you want blown up (including a certain boss's weakpoint).
- The Post-Final Boss of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time does not allow the Mario Bros. to attack at all. They can, however, still dodge everything, and every attack that is dodged will mysteriously come back and hit the boss. Repeat until dead.
- There's also a boss in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team that's like this, with a rules gimmick set before the battle that says "only fight via counter attacks".
- Super Smash Bros.:
- This can be done against certain opponents with certain moves. Jigglypuff is the biggest example, with a fully charged Roll-Out causing it to shoot off in one direction at insane speed. If it hits, the attack stops and all the momentum is transferred to the opponent for a KO. A crafty opponent can just as easily avoid the attack at the last second and watch Jigglypuff fly off the side of the screen itself. This can also happen with Squirtle's and Sonic's similar moves, though Squirtle's moves really slow and Sonic, while he starts skidding if you try to stop, can also cancel the momentum simply by jumping during the move.
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl:
- It's possible to do significant damage to the boss Duon by getting its homing missiles to crash into it.
- The Auroros enemies attack by dive-bombing players with their sharp beaks, and remain stuck in the ground if they miss. Players can bait them into attacking and dodge at the last minute to get them like this, after which they can be picked up and thrown like javelins.
- Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U: The trailer for Little Mac has a scene where an attempt to attack Wii Fit Trainer in the air has her simply yoga-pose out of the way and then start doing push ups as Little Mac falls off the stage.
- Taz in Escape from Mars:
- The game requires this tactic against one boss, a bull that one must trick into running into a wall.
- Also used against two alligators; you need to get the stupid one to drop his net over the smart one.
- TIE Fighter lets you do this, although it's much easier with the large, slower-moving capital ships compared to fighters and bombers. As a bonus, if two enemy capital ships accidentally shoot each other, they'll keep blasting each other until one of them dies!.
- Time Commando allowed you to do this. In some cases, tricking one enemy into hitting another would cause them to begin attacking each other until one of them was dead.
- In Tomb Raider: Anniversary, during the fight with the T-Rex this is the fastest method of killing it, but it's optional since you can just pump it full of bullets until you reach the end of the fight where this is in full effect. The force of the T-Rex smashing into the building behind you even leaves you with a conveniently placed stepping stone to get into the next area.
- The first form of the Final Boss in An Untitled Story is defeated by having his charge shot bounce right back at him.
- Clementine does this twice in The Walking Dead: Season Two.
- In Episode 1, after Winston and her are still dazed from falling to the ground, she moves out of the path of a walker coming for them and lets it eat Winston instead. This may have been accidental, though.
- In Episode 2, she dodges a walker that would've tackled her off the bridge she was trying to cross, leaving it to fall into the waters below.
- Played With in The Witcher: when fighting the golem in the swamps, Geralt soon discovers that thanks to its insane Damage Reduction, it is practically unkillable by conventional means (read: his swords). Instead, he has to lure it to the nearby magical lighting rods and activate them to summon the lightning, using the short delay before it appears to get clear so it strikes the golem instead of him.
- You're actually rewarded for pulling this off in World of Tanks. The medal "Lucky" is given to anyone that is within 50 meters of an enemy tank being team killed. It should be noted that any attempt to set this up yourself will likely go about as well as expected, but it's not uncommon to see ELC AMX drivers pull this off as their tank is both small and fast, and can force many players to take "snap shots" that they otherwise wouldn't, which results in this trope being played out.
