History GameBreaker / TurnBasedStrategy

{{Game Breaker}}s in turn-based strategy games. There are seperate pages for

* In the UsefulNotes/MegaDrive[=/=]Genesis port of ''Heroes of Might and Magic: King's Bounty'', you're racing against the clock to defeat all the bad guys and save the king. Luckily, there is a spell called "Time Stop" that briefly freezes time. The Sorceress has many spell slots. The result of using these two together is that you can leisurely sail around picking up money (which always respawns). It also freezes all the random encounters on the map, letting you either easily avoid or only attack the weak ones for easy gold (and possible recruits). Yelling "Za Warudo" while using this exploit is stupid.

* ''GameBreaker/DarkestDungeonII''

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*** When [[UpToEleven combined with the Structural Analyzer and Achilles Targeting System described above]], and optionally a Phasing Cloak, facing everything the enemy can throw at you with a single doom star thus equipped is [[CurbStompBattle basically dynamiting fish in a barrel]].

** [[spoiler:[[WellIntentionedExtremist Hilda]]]]'s ''[[TimeStandsStill Ice World]]'' actually [[UpToEleven trumps the above two.]] Take ''Rusty Key'', replace Negate Action with Stop, and the DEF Down debuff on the enemy with an ATK Up StatusBuff on your whole team, and you get ''Ice World''. The reason this is a step up is because Stop completely shuts down the enemy. Negate Action doesn't actually disable your enemy completely, which means that foes with high Agility (such as [[GirlWithPsychoWeapon Dorothy]]) can recover from the ailment before the Conduct actually ends. Stop, on the other hand, removes them completely from the action queue, meaning they don't even ''get'' turns. Also, Stopped enemies receive extra damage naturally, which is compounded by the fact that your whole team has boosted attack. You don't even have to worry about the direction you're attacking from. The result is that your team has even ''more'' impunity than and kills even faster than with ''Rusty Key'' in use. This is essentially ''Rusty Key 2.0'', or the "I Win Even Harder" button. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since [[LampshadeHanging even the game notes that]] [[spoiler:Hilda]] [[TheAce rightfully deserves to be called the strongest Witch.]]

** ...The most broken ailment of all: Delay. Delay is an oddball because it isn't treated as a "status effect" by the game (meaning no enemy can NoSell it, no matter what), but is still affected by Nonoka's SA+ + CC combo. Delay does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin and pushes back the afflicted unit's turn. Because Nonoka is the speediest unit, she almost certainly will act before the Delayed enemy and can just Delay them again. You can see where this is going. Nonoka can keep most enemies in the game Delayed indefinitely with this strategy and keep them from ever doing anything except eating pain. For additional hilarity, [[spoiler:Hilda]] can acquire a Song that applies [[UpToEleven a severe version of the usual Delay effect,]] which combined with Nonoka means even one of the {{Final Boss}}es ([[spoiler:Eve]]), one of the only two enemies ''in the whole game'' who can resists this combination, basically never EVER gets to do anything. If this applies to such a foe, you ''know'' that this means that this tactic completely destroys any challenge whatsoever that the game can put up.

* ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'':

** The Romulan scouts could be potential game breakers as they are fast, long range, cheap and can cloak. Build enough of them—like 45 or so—and the fleet can take out a Borg Cube in their opening volley.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes''

* In ''VideoGame/KartiaTheWordOfFate'', the game is for the most part fairly easy if you keep developing your equipment and reach the maximum Level 20 for your heroes - you'll rarely take any damage in battle. But you'll hit a BeefGate when you reach a point in the story arc where the enemy is capable of summoning Fynuses. These creatures are so durable that only your strongest characters with the best conventional equipment are capable of injuring them, the rest of your heroes will be reduced to healing themselves and summoning Dragons (yeah they're at disadvantage against a Fynus but they're ranged and can inflict heavy damage depending on ElementalRockPaperScissors). The gamebreakers for winning this game easily is in either finding the secret "Pair" rune that allows you to create your own Fynuses, getting items from converting Level 20 Phantoms (especially the Kyau which makes the unrivalled Boink Hammer) or winning items from the arena - the greatest being the Excalibur which phenomenal attack power and completely restores health with each swing.

* VideoGame/AdvanceWars has a nasty strategy akin to the memetic ZergRush. On any deployment map you can just keep producing Mech units and swarming your opponent with them. Mechs are strong enough to take on units like tanks and artillery, can cross mountains and rivers, and can capture bases. Best of all, they cost only 3000G to produce each turn. They die fast, but since there are so many of them, your opponent will be overrun and pushed back, allowing you to easily capture their HQ.

** The sequel introduces us to Lash, one of the Black Hole Commanding Officers. Her ability increases a units offense by 10% for every star of defense a terrain provides it. In other words, parking units on high-defense terrain not only makes them hard to destroy, but they now also pack a nasty punch. Rockets on her HQ annihilate anything that comes near, mechs on mountains can take on medium tanks, and battleships on reefs ''obliterate everything in sight''. Her CO power actually ''doubles the defense level of all her units as well, which happens to also double their attack bonus, and her CO power fills up rather quickly. She also has no weakness. Even after being Nerfed for Dual Strike, she is still one of the best characters available.