History GameBreaker / Disgaea

* The ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' games, (and in fact most TurnBasedStrategy games by Creator/NipponIchi) actively encourage you to try to break the games by creating ridiculous multi-character chain {{Combos}} and creating your own {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s, as well as gaining thousands of levels. Of course, then the game throws {{Bonus Boss}}es with levels in triple and quadruple digits at you to ''use'' them on.

** And now, on [[UpdatedReRelease Disgaea 5 Complete]] on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, ''all of the DLC is free'', and most of it can be obtained ''as soon as you start the game''. You even get 1 million HL. [[UpToEleven The game itself is purposely breaking]] ''[[UpToEleven itself]]'', just because you got the game on the Switch.

** Metallia's Greedy Mekashefa is a capture attempt to every enemy on the map. It naturally fails against bosses, but that doesn't matter when it can remove all their support mooks in one transaction. Combine this with Double Fake (preferably the Carnage version), the Warrior's "Shaking Excitement" Evility (+3% stats per enemy unit on map) and powerful Interrogation Squad officers for good times.

* Flonne starts weak, but if you give her pupils to learn all magics, give her a bow and she can nuke anyone from across the map. And considering that a Galaxy Mage/Skull knows pretty much every spell bar defensive buffs, you can have all her other pupils beef up her other stats.

* Maids make for ''amazing'' {{Support Party Member}}s. Their Unique Evility, Efficient Work, lets them use one item without having it count against their "one action per turn" limit, meaning that they can move someplace, use an item, and then move again and take an action. One of their Evilities, Know How To Use It, doubles the effectiveness of healing items; you eventually unlock an item that refills 50% HP and SP, Curry Soup, and that Evility turns that item into a ''full heal'', and Curry Soups can be mass-produced at the Alchemist in the post-game. Another one of their Evilities, Licensed Caregiver, expands the AreaOfEffect of healing items into a five-panel cross shape, allowing the Maid to fully heal or treat status effects for up to five units ''without any of them using their turn up''. And finally there's their SignatureMove, Afternoon Tea, which grants an ExtraTurn to another unit. Every other active skill on this list that isn't an Overload can be used ''again''.

* All of the {{DLC}}s are this, most more in the early game, as the characters start with comparatively high stats at the earliest levels, along with very strong evilities (some of which remain viable well into the post-game). The prime examples include:

* Valvatorez is also among the best DLC characters. His unique Evility Absorbtion is fantastic (absorb 5% of the stats of every unit he defeats, meaning he gets more powerful the longer he fights), his Overload which turns him into tyrant Valvatorez is likewise great (any enemy he defeats gets resurrected as an ally), but his *real* strength is in the Evility "Prinny Instructor". It increases the XP, Mana, and Class XP gain of any Prinny in the same Squad as him by 100%. Good by itself, ''amazing'' once you pass it out to other characters and then put them all in the Prinny squad, which makes all members count as Prinnies. Prinny Squad has a maximum of 10 members, so now all of them can get 1100% XP, even without the benefit of Statisticians or the Cheat Shop. Combine with Fuka's "Prinny Hat" Evility, which makes any character count as a Prinny regardless of Squad, and now you can do this trick with one of the Squads that allows 20 members, bumping the gain to 2100%.
* All of the {{DLC}}s are this, most more in the early game, as the characters start with comparatively high stats at the earliest levels, along with very strong evilities (some of which remain viable well into the post-game). Pram's Punishing Prophecy evility deals damage to a random enemy unit anywhere on the map at end of turn, meaning you could spend entire maps sitting there doing nothing while Pram snipes every enemy. Then there's the FREE {{DLC}} prinnies, especially the one that has access to the first four tiers of elemental and healing magics and one with an Evility that makes its hp 100,000+ (Prinnies explode when you throw them, dealing half of their hp as damage). They also come with the "1 HL" Evility, which allows you to revive them at the clinic for only 1 HL.

* Flonne, she starts weak, but if you give her pupils to learn all magics, give her a bow and she can nuke anyone from across the map. And considering that a Galaxy Mage/Skull knows pretty much every spell bar defensive buffs, you can have all her other pupils beef up her other stats.

!!''Videogame/Disgaea2CursedMemories''

* Chara World Duping got {{Nerf}}ed, but has since been replaced with Shop Duping. It goes like this: Fill up the item bag and warehouse with junk items, level an item filled with subdued Innocents to ten, leave. The levelled item will be in the shop; trying it on will allow you to buy ''unlimited copies of said item.''

** And now, on [[UpdatedReRelease Diagaea 5 Complete]] on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, ''all of the DLC is free'', and most of it can be obtained ''as soon as you start the game''. You even get 1 million HL. [[UpToEleven The game itself is purposely breaking]] ''[[UpToEleven itself]]'', just because you got the game on the Switch.

** ...but not in the Complete editions. You don't unlock her until the post game.

* Anyone who preorders the Premium Edition from Gamestop or NISA store gets access to Fallen Angel Flonne, who is an amazing archer and healer. And unlike the other DLC characters, you get her ''right at the beginning of the game!''

* Magic Knights tend to be in the running for the best class in multiple games, outside of very few specific exceptions. In essence, take Flonne from the first game, give her more survivability and an innate ability that increases the damage of elemental spells and you have the Magic Knight class. If you want to push it further, have them have an innate resistance to their element since their second ability, Elemental Force, lets them further increase the damage of the element spell they're strong against. Their unlock conditions are usually really simple too, usually requiring you to level up a Warrior/Valkyrie and Skull/Mage up to level 25. Once you unlock them, make three that specialize in each element, teach them the star and heal spells and watch them proceed to tear the game a new one.

*** And now, on [[UpdatedReRelease Diagaea 5 Complete]] on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, ''all of the DLC is free'', and most of it can be obtained ''as soon as you start the game''. You even get 1 million HL. [[UpToEleven The game itself is purposely breaking]] ''[[UpToEleven itself]]'', just because you got the game on the Switch.

* The DS remake of the first game makes Pleinair a playable character. She has great starting stats, good stat growth, 2 counters, good movement, and above average aptitude for every stat except Defense, which isn't important because she has a 150% speed aptitude, which makes her almost impossible to hit anyway. She also has a 120% accuracy boost, so hand her some accuracy boosting glasses and a gun and she can kill just about anything. Honestly, the girl can make it all the way to chapter 9 all by herself. It's slightly balanced in that she's only available during a NewGamePlus in the DS version (She joins your party even on a first playthrough in the PC version), but it's possible to trigger a NonStandardGameOver at the end of the first episode by losing to Mid-Boss, effectively gaining a powerful character while only losing about four battles worth of progress. And the NewGamePlus lets you keep Laharl, Etna, and any created characters at their original levels, so even that isn't a problem.
* The Samurai class. Unlocking it requires only a Lv 10 Female Brawler and Valkyrie (Female Warrior) and as soon as you unlock her, 110% ATK aptitude and S Rank in swords, axes, and spears! There are other classes early on that have 110% aptitudes, but having a great close ranger fighter is a must and the only other class that has those ATK aptitudes is the Majin class. Add in the fact that she has an S rank with swords right out of the gate and the general versatility that sword skills have, and you have a class that can last all the way until unlocking the Majin class.

* In the third game, Adell is an extremely formidable DLC character. Evility that does 30% more damage in one on one combat plus an S ranked innate attack plus loads of enemies (including story mode boss fights) that are weak against fire equals pain.

* Some consider Desco of ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 4|A Promise Unforgotten}}'' to be a game breaker due to her powerful evilities (Increases attack of adjacent allies by 20%, gains 20% attack per third of total HP missing, and deals 50% more damage at the expense of receiving 30% of normal mana), high stats, and multitude of long ranged area attacks that become even better after a monster fuses with her (Yog Sothoth hits a 3X5 area up to six spaces away, making it the biggest ranged area attack in ''the entire series''). On top of that, she can be boosted even further by a Beast Trainer.
** She's also exceedingly easy to LevelGrind once you get to Chapter 9. Stage 9-4 is tailor made for Giant Desco to kill 15 enemies in a single blow, with a 50% boost to both Mana and XP. Most of the really good grinding tactics (Mt. Ordeal 4 + Big Bang, for example) are either not available until the post-game, or require pretty powerful characters to begin with. Not this one, with almost no effort you can easily have Desco (and all your other monsters, since someone must fuse with her) solo the entire rest of the story.
* And now we have the game breaker to end all game breakers: Tyrant Valvatorez. His lowest item proficiency is 110% (the rest ranging from 130-150%). He automatically increases the stats of whatever weapon he wields by 50%. His stats can be boosted by 80% simply by having four adjacent allies at the home base. And then there's his evility No Life King, which revives any enemy he kills as an ally. The story was not kidding when it said that Valvatorez was once absurdly powerful.
** King Krichevskoy is also on the same league as Tyrant Valvatorez. Not only his item proficiencies are on par with the Tyrant, as he can inherit his Prideful Comrade evility (80% increase in all stats if he has 4 units around him in the home base) and his evility is as reliable, if not more than Tyrant Val. Remember the 30% damage boost on one-on-one skills that made Adell the most powerful character of Disgaea 3? Krichevskoy's main evility gives a 50% damage boost on ALL of his skills.
** Overlord Zetta gives both Valvatorez and Krichevskoy a run for their money with his evilities. His second and third evilities give him a 30% stat boost to either atk, def, int, or res, depending on which one's equipped and if it's an odd or even turn. That doesn't seem like much until you take into account his first evility, "Badass Overlord", which allows him to use any special attack in the game to be powered by his strongest stat. To put it more simply, if you build him as a sword fighter, you can teach him Tera Star and instead of it being powered from his int, it's powered by the strongest stat (which would be attack).
* In another note, on Disgaea 4 it is possible to pass on the Trick Move evility to any and all classes and characters in the game - in the previous game, it was restricted to the JokeCharacter Masked Hero class (which kinda made it a LethalJokeCharacter of sorts). Trick Move gives you a 10% chance of evading enemies' attacks for each panel your character moved on that turn. The thing is, once you have a decent favor rate of the congress, you can upgrade any legendary item in the game to make it increase the move of the wearer by +6 on top of whatever benefits it already had (such as the Accelerator, with a natural +2 move). It is possible then to make the tank classes to be able to move more than 10 panels in a single turn. With Trick Move, when the enemy turn comes your character will have 100% evasion, meaning no one will be able to hit him/her, even if they are 1000 levels higher and at max accuracy.

* DLC character Salvatore from ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'' has multiple evilities, ''all'' of which are game breakers and affect all adjacent allies; increasing their movement by 10, the range of attacks and spells by 9, jump by 99, attack by 100%, and reducing all damage by 90%. The only caveat is that the evility is random and changes every round of combat. But whichever you get, it's probably powerful enough that there's no reason ''not'' to field her, and you could always [[SaveScumming reload a battle]] until you get the one you want.
** Made worse by three factors: one, Salvatore retains whatever effect she had active as long as she is sent back to the base panel at the end of the turn, meaning that the damage and attack range boosts can be used ''every turn''. Two, the evility also affects monsters she's mounted on, meaning you can hand out ''five'' massive boosts instead of four while also protecting Salvatore in the first place, which works ludicrously well with the defence boost. Lastly, you can transfer the evility to other characters, which, [[RuleOfFun if you decide to go nuts with it]], can grant ''all party members''' numerous, massive buffs.
* Similarly to Salvatore, [[VideoGame/MakaiKingdom Pram]], another DLC character has the evility Prophecy, which also has a randomized effect per turn. The effects include attacking a random enemy, doubling the user's attack power, increasing the INT stat of all allies by 50% and inflicting poison to all enemies. And you can use SaveScumming on non item world maps to get the effects you want.
* [[VideoGame/PhantomBrave Marona]]. In ''Phantom Brave'' (Where every unit but her are ghosts by default), her "Confine" power was a simple mechanic. In this game (where the units are alive and the Base panel serves her role as the starting point) She can bring back units that were defeated in battle with a 30% stat boost. Heavy Knight [[TakingTheBullet took the bullet]]? Back and able to take more hits. GlassCannon or SquishyWizard dies? more resilient and can now deal more damage. FragileSpeedster (Especially Masked Heroes with Heart of a Flea) got trampled? faster and allows him to carry your through the item world from beyond the grave. The only downsides are that Marona herself is a SquishyWizard, she cannot act the turn she confines a unit and that her Confine is a spell that starts at a range of 1. (But that can be mitigated with Range boosting effects like Petta's or Salvatore's evilities.)
* [[VideoGame/LaPucelle Human Priere]] comes with the evility Purify Power, which, upon inflicting damage on an enemy, causes the damage to radiate out to all adjacent enemies, getting weaker the further it goes. With the right set-up, this has the potential to clear an entire map in one attack. What makes this especially powerful is that user gets all potential gains (EXP, Mana, HL, and Land of Carnage stats) from all enemies defeated this way. This is a must for getting the max stats through the Land of Carnage.
** What also makes Purify Power amazing is that it can be used as part of a larger strategy to effortlessly clear Rasetsu + Land of Carnage Item World Floors with impunity, maximizing stat gains on your equipment.
* The return of weapon mastery brought with it monster mastery, which boosts the stats monsters gain when they equip monster weapons, which increases based on level. One can already spot the problem with this - levels are easier to increase than weapon mastery, on top of caster monster weapons increasing spell range and damage dramatically. Simply having an army of semi-high level monsters is enough to rip the game to pieces, including some of the more complicated bosses, like [[spoiler: Xenolith]] and Darkdeath Evilman.
* [[VideoGame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten Valvatorez]] has his ''Absorption'' Evility increased to gain 20% of a slain foe's stats. What makes this game-breaking is that unlike other stat-increasing Evilities, such as Laharl's Overlord's Dignity / Pride, is that Absorption ''does not cap''. With the Rasetsu modifier on, this means Valvatorez can hit the stat cap with ease, making him nearly perfect for taking down Tyrant Overlord Baal.

* Usalia is notoriously hard to take down, especially when used in tandem with Christo. Optimal builds result in a minimum 145% damage reduction and a max of 270%. Considering that offense got nerfed and armor finally got proficiency, this toughness is even more exploitable. All on top of 75% evade rate. Her Overload "Murmur of Rage" is considered one of the best in the game, being one of the best ways to take down Baal.
** One of her common evilities, "I Love Curry!" has an incomplete description. It says that after eating any Curry item, the unit will also deal 30% more damage for three turns. In addition to that, it also makes the user completely invincible for three turns, as in, even immune to Baal's attacks. The only way a character can die while under the effect is to kill a Baal Node (wich has an evility that causes the unit that killed it to be killed in return). And since you can get an infinite amount of Curry items with the Alchemy Squad...

* Among the DLC we have Artina, Fuka, and Desco working in tandem. Fuka has a combo skill she can perform with the others called "Tri Angels" that attempts a Steal maneuver against ''every enemy on the map''. While you don't get to pick what you get, and its effectiveness is capped at 50%, you can try it over and over again until you get what you want. Absurdly useful in the deeper levels of the Item World, and if you are ever strapped for cash, unleash it in the map featuring 100 Asagis to watch hundreds of millions of HL worth of gear fill your pockets.

* Flonne, she starts weak, but if you give her pupils to learn all magics, give her a bow and she can nuke anyone from across the map.
** And considering that a Galaxy Mage/Skull knows pretty much every spell bar defensive buffs, you can have all her other pupils beef up her other stats.

* The Majin class. The Majin is quite powerful, having 110% proficiency in all stats for the first three ranks (meaning that all stat bonuses from equipment are 10% more efficient), which is an accolade normally reserved for specialist classes in their specialist stat, and 120% efficiency for the later three ranks (which is just flat-out crazy). This effectively means that they out-perform EVERYONE, at EVERYTHING. They're better swordsmen than Cosmic Heroes, better with their fists than a top-rank [[BareFistedMonk Eternal Fist]], and better spellcasters than a [[SquishyWizard Galaxy Mage]](and have MUCH better health and defenses too). In fact, the only thing they aren't completely superior at is guns. At guns, they TIE with [[SpaceMarine Space Marines]], which are the highest rank of a class designed to use guns almost exclusively. The final rank, the Divine Majin, is flat-out superior and obsoletes all other classes once unlocked. However, this is somewhat counterbalanced by the esoteric requirements needed to unlock the class (At least one Brawler, Warrior, Ninja, Strider, and Thief all at level 200). Nippon Ichi also realized how devastating they were, so over the years, they have nerfed the Majin by completely dropping its MOV to 3 and their stats, aptitudes, and evilities have changed over the years to counterbalance its strengths.
* Need something like a Majin early in the game? Then the Samurai class is for you. Unlocking it is very easy (Lv 10 Female Brawler and Valkyrie) and as soon as you unlock her, 110% ATK aptitude and S Rank in swords, axes, and spears! There are other classes early on that have 110% aptitudes, but having a great close ranger fighter is a must and the only other class that has those ATK aptitudes is the Majin class. Add in the fact that she has an S rank with swords right out of the gate and the general versatility that sword skills have, and you have a class that can last all the way until unlocking the Majin class.

''Videogame/Disgaea2CursedMemories''

!!Multiple Titles

!!Disgaea 1

!!Disgaea 2

!!Disgaea 3

* Also introduced in this game were ''Fun'' weapons, each with a fixed innocent that had varying effects (such as restoring 50% HP/turn, gaining +5 counter attacks, even increasing ally monster stats). However, the one best known is the Puppy Paw Stick, an Axe-class weapon with the Cat Burglar innocent. Said innocent had a 20% chance to steal an item off any unit it killed. When combined with Clone panels or Dropouts from the Class World, it basically meant the ability to clone powerful pieces of equipment. NIS however nerfed this twofold in a patch: Clone panels can't affect player-controlled units, and the chance for the weapon to steal an item was dropped to 10%. This weapon also showed up in Disgaea4, and is still as gamebreaking, though the RNG needs some manipulating to make it more effective.

!!Disgaea 4

!! Disgaea D2

!! Disgaea 5

** The Kunoichi has Nirrti, which grants a 10% stat boost per attack dodged. Not only can Forced Counter and Counter Dodge max out Nirrti's boost, but it also triggers on passive HP/SP restoration, such as the Zombie's Corpse Cannibal (3% HP/SP restored per enemy killed), the Fairy's Magic Generation (10% SP restored per turn), and the Spear Fisherman's ability (restore 3% HP per attack landed).

** On maps with plenty of foes (Double Fake and the Item World in particular), Warrior's "Shaking Excitement" Evility (+3% stats per enemy) really stands out to be more useful than Violence and when combined with other notable {{Game Breaker}}s (Sages, Valvatorez, Metallia's Greedy Mekashefa Overload, Majorita's Death March and Combat High Evility combo, et al.) it can easily turn the tide on huge maps.

** On maps with plenty of foes (Double Fake and the Item World in particular), Warrior's "Shaking Excitement" Evility (+3% stats per enemy) really stands out to be more useful than Violence and when combined with other notable {{Game Breaker}}s (Sages, Valvatorez, Metallia's Greedy Mekshefa Overload, Majorita Death March and Combat High combo, et al.) it can easily turn the tide on huge maps.

** On maps with plenty of foes (Double Fake and the Item World in particular), Warrior's "Shaking Excitement" Evility (+3% stats per enemy) really stands out to be more useful than Violence and when combined with other notable GameBreakers (Sages, Valvatorez, Metallia's Greedy Mekshefa Overload, Majorita Death March and Combat High combo, et al.) it can easily turn the tide on huge maps.

* On that note, spell users, in general, tend to be ''miles'' ahead of other classes when it comes to the sheer raw damage they can deal out at a surprisingly far range. Gunners and bow users often ''pale'' in comparison to the range spell users can obtain after even a ''slight'' amount of work put into them, with far higher damage output than both the previous classes combined, on ''top'' of spell users getting [[AreaOfEffect AoE]] modifiers to their spells to hit ''several'' enemies at once; often way more than most other [=AoE=] attacks can hit. The things that are ''supposed'' to balance them out, elemental resistances, immunities, and paper thin defense are easy to work around or ultimately don't matter; just have your mage/skull who specializes in the element the enemy is weak to deal with them or give them the star line of spells to nuke them for NonElemental damage and, after you reach a certain point in most Disgaea games, [[RocketTagGameplay defense on]] ''[[RocketTagGameplay any]]'' [[RocketTagGameplay unit doesn't matter anymore]]. Often, the most 'efficient' party in most games consist of three mages/skulls specializing in each element, a few fodder units to draw agro off them and ''maybe'' a storyline character or two.
* Violence, an evility that first appeared in ''Disgaea 3'' and would continue to appear afterwards, boosts a unit's stats by 50% while decreasing their EXP gain by 50%. At level 9999, it's just a free, massive stat boost that puts any other to shame. ''5'' nerfed it severely by causing it to take up 5 evility slots, making it less efficient (but still nice to have).

** One of her common evilities, "I Love Curry!" has a incomplete description. It says that after eating any Curry item, the unit will also deal 30% more damage for three turns. In addition to that, it also makes the user completely invincible for three turns, as in, even immune to Baal's attacks. The only way a character can die while under the effect is to kill a Baal Node (wich has an evility that causes the unit that killed it to be killed in return). And since you can get an infinite amount of Curry items with the Alchemy Squad...

** The cheat shop also affects HL and Mana gain as well, literally giving you MoneyForNothing and more then enough Mana for those bills. Not to mention Rasetsu Mode, which raises the item level cap to ''999''.

* In the third game, Adell is an extremely formidable DLC character. Evility that does 30% more damage in one on one combat plus a S ranked innate attack plus loads of enemies (including story mode boss fights) that are weak against fire equals pain.

** Petta's Future Eyre gives all allies +1 Overload use. No exceptions. Every Overload on this list can be used ''again''.

* The Sage has been accused of being significantly better than just about everybody else, and it sticks out like a sore thumb given how surprisingly balanced the generic classes were this time around. Their innate evility Mass Blaster grants them +10% extra damage for every unit they target, which works not only with spells but with any area of effect attack in the game. Their first unique skill is Multi-Attacker, which allows them to give an ally the ability to attack twice in a row for two turns, effectively doubling their damage. Worst of all is Land Decimator, the Sage's second unique skill and quite possibly the best attack in the game. It deals a very low amount of damage and only has a 50% hit rate, but it also targets every single unit on the map, which when combined with Mass Blaster makes the poor damage moot. She's no slouch against single targets either, as she can learn the Concentration Evility, which doubles the damage of single-target magic attacks. A sufficiently geared Sage can solo the entire post-game by herself, up to and including the Item World.

** Petta's Future Eyre gives all allies +1 Overload use. No exceptions. Every Overload on this list can be used ''again''.
* Maids make for ''amazing'' {{Support Party Member}}s. Their Unique Evility, Efficient Work, lets them use one item without having it count against their "one action per turn" limit, meaning that they can move someplace, use an item, and then move again and take an action. One of their Evilities, Know How To Use It, doubles the effectiveness of healing items; you eventually unlock an item that refills 50% HP and SP, Curry Soup, and that Evility turns that item into a ''full heal'', and Curry Soups can be mass-produced at the Alchemist in the post-game. Another one of their Evilities, Licensed Caregiver, expands the AreaOfEffect of healing items into a five-panel cross shape, allowing the Maid to fully heal or treat status effects for up to five units ''without any of them using their turn up''. And finally there's their SignatureMove, Afternoon Tea, which grants an ExtraTurn to another unit. Every other active skill on this list that isn't an Overload can be used ''again''.

* Maids make for ''amazing'' {{Support Party Member}}s. Their Unique Evility, Efficient Work, lets them use one item without having it count against their "one action per turn" limit, meaning that they can move someplace, use an item, and then move again and take an action. One of their Evilities, Know How To Use It, doubles the effectiveness of healing items; you eventually unlock an item that refills 50% HP and SP, Curry Soup, and that Evility turns that item into a ''full heal'', and Curry Soups can be mass-produced at the Alchemist in the post-game. Another one of their Evilities, Licensed Caregiver, expands the AreaOfEffect of healing items into a five-panel cross shape, allowing the Maid to fully heal or treat status effects for up to five units ''without any of them using their turn up''. And finally there's their SignatureMove, Afternoon Tea, which grants an ExtraTurn to another unit. Every active skill on this list that isn't an Overload can be used ''again''.