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"There's something very wrong about a katana that shatters after five or six hits, one that ostensibly isn't made out of glass or chocolate."
An inexplicably common occurrence in videogames is that weapons have only so many times they can be used before they cease to function. The game usually gives you some sign as to how many uses you have left (usually called "Durability"), but when you run out, the weapon breaks.
That's right, breaks. Apparently, nobody in the game world has ever heard of maintaining their weapons. Granted, after enough time even the sharpest sword will dull, but it would seem the weapons of the video game world are secretly made of metal-coated balsa wood.
In most cases, the weapon will work at full strength until it's broken, as opposed to getting duller and less effective over time.
If you're lucky, there will be ways to repair or reinforce your equipment before the durability expires. If not, you had better have a spare on hand, or be good with your bare fists.
On many occasions, this trope comes up to keep the game focused on the style of combat the developers intended; it's quite common, for example, for weapons to break in a beat-em-up so that the player must focus on barehanded combat. Another reason, often used in MMORPGs, is to act as a 'gold sponge' forcing players to spend some of their money on repairs, especially for that Infinity Plus One Sword. Or it could be just a nod towards realism, though in many games the speed of degradation is preposterously high.
Occasionally, the Infinity Plus One Sword has infinite uses, often because a boss would be impossible to defeat without that weapon. If the designers feel like making things really difficult, it will have exactly one use.
Compare with Throwaway Guns; guns that cannot be reloaded are one way of implementing this trope.
Of course, if a game doesn't feature Breakable Weapons, it probably has Unbreakable Weapons.
If you can break weapons before even getting them, it falls under Destroyable Items.
truth in television: swords do break eventually. Especially if the user doesn't follow proper maintenance.
Examples
- In GURPS guns will jam on a bad roll and this becomes more likely if the weapon is not cleaned regularly or is poor quality.
- Fire Emblem has had this trope since the beginning, and broken weapons usually cannot be repaired. This is the case for every unit, even ones without physical weapons (such as healers and mages). Even the legendary weapons have limited durability (except in Path of Radiance). Certain games have repairable weapons (that when broken gain a statset and a name of "Broken Sword"), but most of the time if a weapon breaks it's gone.
- The one exception comes in the form of weapons that are a part of one's body, like beaks or claws. A dragon's breath also counts...usually.
- FE 5-10 each have a staff that can be used to repair other weapons. Of course, it has only so many uses itself, and yes, there is only one per game and it can't repair itself. Except FE 8, which has two if you get the last secret character.
- In Radiant Dawn A Goddess blesses all your character's currently equipped weapons, making them unbreakable like the Ragnell and Alondite.
- In Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War, you can repair pretty much any and all weapons, including broken ones, simply by visiting the castle town shops and paying a corresponding fee (up to 1000 gold per use on legendary weapons). Which is rather more less convenient than it sounds when you realize that each unit has its own bag of cash that can only be transferred to another unit under very limited circumstances and healers tend to have trouble acquiring money.
- Particularly ironic in that if a legendary weapon isn't one of the Unbreakable Weapons, it's a lot more brittle than a run of the mill Iron Sword.
- Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon has an item that when held in one's inventory nullifies weapon degradation. Also, one can buy character specific weapons like the rapier and wing spear from some shops. There's also a single repair item, and Falchion itself, once you get it, is indestructible.
- In FE 7, Lyn's Legendary Weapon, the Mani Katti, has its uses restored between the two times when you get to use her, or a new Mani Katti will be given to Lyn altogether if you manage to break it in teh first part. Arguably an example showing that even broken weapons can still be fixed (either that or Lyn just somehow reproduced another Mani Katti somehow)...
- One could go so far as to say this series is renowned for this trope along with Permanent character deaths and a very large cast.
- The Game Boy Sa Ga titles (released in North America as "Final Fantasy Legend" games) had this too, for all performable actions: shields, spellbooks, weapons, etc. The only one that did not have this was Sa Ga 3 which played like a traditional Final Fantasy game.
- Unlimited Saga has breakable weapons as well, but you can repair them in one type of shop.
- In the remake of Romancing Sa Ga the weapons durability only dropped if you used weapon techniques in which you were far too underleveled to use, you could increase it's durability by tempering it, but then you can only use another material or the same material to repair it in addition to the initial fee. You could even reduce the durability to increase attack power.
- The weapons in Yakuza are breakable, as per its focus on hand-to-hand combat.
- Weapons in Dead Rising are the same way.
- Dead Rising also has a unique power-up system based around this trope. Instead of repairing the durability of these ubiquitous and disposable weapons, the player can collect books that multiply the durability whatever weapon is discussed in the book (e.g., a book about construction increases the durability of 2x4s, ladders, etc.). These books can be kept indefinitely at the tradeoff of taking up inventory space that could be used for weapons. If one has multiple books in one's inventory, the effect of the books is multiplied for whatever weapons are affected by both books; one of the game's best weapons, the small chainsaw, is affected by three of these easily found books, effectively making it the Disc One Nuke.
- Dark Cloud and its sequel have breakable weapons and "Repair Powder", so you can repair a weapon without having to go to a shop. Also, in the sequel, Broken weapons weren't lost, but simply useless until repaired.
- The weapon degradation system in Dark Cloud one was probably it's biggest downfall as all stats gained by leveling up were stored in your weapon. This meant that if your BFG broke on the last level of the game there was a possibility that you were stuck with your crappy ass dagger from the beginning of the game. Dark Cloud 2's fix of this problem made it on the whole more enjoyable and less likely to send Play Station 2s through television screens.
- In the last two Prince of Persia games, the Prince's sword is unbreakable, but enemy swords — once picked up by the Prince for two-weapon fighting — break after about thirty seconds' worth of use. This is particularly silly considering the first unbreakable weapon the Prince picks up after the shipwreck in Warrior Within is a stick. In The Two Thrones, the unbreakable permanent weapon is the Dagger of Time, a near-godly artifact, so it's plausible. Also, the rapid wear of the bladed weapons can be handwaved by the enemies being made of magic sand.
- In the original Soul Edge/Soul Blade Fighting Game, it was possible to break a character's weapon if it had to block too much damage, or if you used a certain special move. This mechanic never appeared in any subsequent game, although a similar guard-abusing deterrent appeared in Soul Calibur IV in the form of Clothing Damage rather than weapon damage.
- In System Shock 2, every gun you find eventually degrades to the point where it breaks and becomes useless, requiring the player to invest in disposable tools and the skills of unjamming and repairing broken weapons. Unfortunately, the rate is cranked up much too high, making weapon maintenance an immediate high priority. The official patch adds a simple way to slow down weapon degrading or disable it altogether. Only melee weapons don't fall apart like cheap furniture after a few uses. Patch notes explained how to hack the config files and thereby reduce or remove weapon wear altogether (as well as a few other annoyances).
- In the Diablo series and World Of Warcraft, an item keeps all its characteristics intact until it reaches zero durability, at which point it instantly becomes useless (handwaved in the WoW manual), but can still be repaired. Diablo II: Lord of Destruction added three special cases: Ethereal items, which are more powerful than regular items but have lower durability and cannot be repaired, the Indestructible attribute found on some unique and set items as well as regular magical items with the "of ages" suffix and finally the Zod rune (but good luck finding it). In the first Diablo, using the repair skill at lower levels would fix the weapon, but lower its maximum durability number, meaning it would need fixing again sooner.
- In Diablo 1, items reduced to Zero Durability are destroyed, making low durability items like the Thinking Cap very tedious to use. However, there were shrines in the game that raised maximum durability, and making use of the Thinking Cap item (which had 1 durability: You could probably break it by sneezing.) to start with, almost required exploiting these shrines.
- In WoW, durability degradation applies more slowly to Player versus Player combat, which also doesn't use the death durability penalty.
- Throwing weapons in WoW used to be ammunition (like arrows for bows, except that the ammo is both), but a patch changed it so that throwing weapons had durability, which was reduced by one point every time it was thrown and could be repaired like a normal weapon. This was especially helpful for hard to come by throwing weapons.
- That patch also changed all throwing weapons from simply damage dealing to also increasing stats. While in the older World Of Warcraft, throwing weapons were mainly used to pull enemies and had no other real use, rarer throwing weapons weren't absolutely necessary. But since Burning Crusade, high-end throwing weapons provide significant stat boosts and are either crafted or drops from raid bosses.
- The Legend Of Zelda's Nintendo 64 incarnations featured this trope. The Ocarina of Time featured the Giant's Knife, a powerful sword which broke after only a few swings — though the hilt interestingly retained its great strength even when broken, taking only a considerable decrease in range. Majora's Mask featured the Razor Sword, an upgrade to Link's usual weapon which blunted back down to its original form after a hundred swings. Both games featured a Side Quest to render these upgraded forms permanent.
- A variation also appears in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, where wooden shields are destroyed if set on fire. As an added bonus, the Wooden Shield in Twilight Princess is lost forever. You can buy a new one, but it's not the same shield. In addition, Oo T's Deku Sticks could be used to hit enemies with, but the stick would break on impact... rather reasonable.
- Incidentally, there's a glitch in the game that involves using a Deku Stick in a jumping attack from a ledge which nets you a shorter, but unbreakable stick that you can swing around until you pull out another item. Useful in the early game when the sticks do considerably more damage than the tiny Kokiri Sword.
- Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, a pirate-based MMORPG for the PC, features this trope. Everything you can obtain (with the exception of currency, trinkets, ships, pets and some promotional items) wears out over time and turns into dust.
- Except for clothes, which turn into unattractive "rags". You can still wear them—no nudity allowed, even the cartoon variety—but they don't look good.
- Weapons (and armor) in The Elder Scrolls games are worn down by use, but can be repaired, using repair hammers that are, themselves, destructible through use. If a character has completely mastered the repair skill, then repair hammers become unbreakable. Also, damaged weapons and armors degrade, doing less damage or have less protection.
- In Daggerfall, only weapons wore with use, to be repaired at a shop, while your armor remained spotless. Enchanted items that wore with "Use" could not be repaired without tweaking the game's *.cfg file. Starting with Morrowind, magic drain/recharge and physical wear/repair were isolated from each other as item properties.
- In most Wrestling Games, all weapons, from broomsticks to steel chairs to sledgehammers, break after you hit somebody with them three times. This convention started with games like WWF Wrestlefest and Saturday Night Slam Masters, and continues to be used today.
- SaGa Frontier 2 has this. Each weapon is good for so many hits (except for rare/special weapons) and you must repair them at certain shops to continue reusing them. This is because the game universe allows people to use magic...as long as they're using "natural" weapons. As a result, the weapons are made of wood and such. In fact, the main character is unable to use magic at all, and as a result discovers the incredible offensive properties of iron, which does not allow magic use, but absolutely destroys an army armed with natural weapons and magic.
- In Jade Empire, your character's personal weapons are Unbreakable Weapons, but you can also pick up legs from broken tables and other improvised weapons, which break after a certain number of uses.
- In Jagged Alliance 2, guns, armor, tools, and even glowsticks degrade. This is realistic, to a certain point, as guns will jam or misfire when degraded, and armor will not be as protective. However, it is incredibly aggravating to loot opponents' bodies and find guns that they have apparently left in a stagnant pool of hydrochloric acid for a month, which still fire perfectly for them!
- Another thing which realistically damages weapons is explosions; be careful when using grenades or barrels to kill elite mooks, because it might damage their often-better equipment.
- In the videogame version of The Warriors, the focus is on bare-fisted combat — any item you pick up will break after a few hits. This includes wrenches, knives, and bricks. If the weapon was taken from a fallen enemy, expect it to be good for exactly one swing before it disintegrates in your hand.
- The recent PS2-version of The Punisher has a similar system. Focused on gunplay, any melee weapon you collect can be used to kill a single mook, often literally shattering into pieces in the process. Including pipe-wrenches and metallic baseball-bats.
- Weapons in God Hand are good for about ten swings before they just fall out of your hands and vanish. Gameplay-wise this appears to be justified considering how much damage they can deal, and not having them break instantly would unbalance the game's Nintendo Hard nature.
- The player can pick up numerous melee weapons in Marvel Ultimate Alliance. They break after a few swings, but are more damaging than the default weapons which is quite a feat considering the base weapons include Thor's Mjolnir, Wolverine's adamantium claws, and Cap's unbreakable shield.
- Many of the games in the Ultima series had a glass sword which could kill almost any enemy in one shot, but would break afterwards.
- In Summon Night: Swordcraft Story you have weapons with their own meter in battle that measure how much you can use it (attacking and blocking) that resets in every battle. If it runs out it breaks and you have to use another type of weapon, and if you don't have any left, a forging hammer. The same goes for human opponents in duels where you can only use one weapon and if either's weapons break, they lose.
- In Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 this is slightly changed. The meter no longer becomes full after each battle but can be repaired after breaking and restored before breaking by items.
- In Riviera The Promised Land, almost all weapons are breakable except for angelic Diviners, which can only be used to any effect by their owners. Sometimes, the player will get weapons that are much more powerful than what they already have, but with only one or five uses. Many of these come back at a later, more reasonable time in the game with 30-40 uses.
- Knights in the Nightmare, the final game in the Dept. Heaven series (of which Riviera is the first), has a similar system. You don't get a default unbreakable weapon, but Maria, the main character, can use any weapon effectively to make up for it.
- Seen in the CRPG The Magic Candle, with a couple of twists. One is that you can erase your weapons' accumulated "wear and tear" by having someone work on them during a rest period. (You quickly get into the habit of doing this.) The other is that a broken weapon can still be fixed, it just takes a lot longer. One perk of Brennix, the game's Infinity Plus One Sword, is that it never needs fixing.
- Most of the weapons in Valkyrie Profile are unbreakable, though human weaponry, slayer weapons and many staves that allow Great Magic use have a random chance of breaking after each use.
- The game's sequel was a bit nicer, having all weapons unbreakable unless a certain Sealstone was used. Odd, somehow in the time between the beginning of the two games, the ability for Normals to make unbreakables was lost.
- Like the modern-day Prince of Persia, Prince Ali of Beyond Oasis (The Story of Thor in Europe) carried an arsenal of breakable weaponry. Only his knife (which he was best with anyway) stayed around... unless you could find the top-secret "Infinite" items! Oddly, for a number of years the only infinite item anyone knew anything about was the best one.
- However it is justified with the Crossbows and the bombs since they are ammo based weapons anyway.
- An Early on Infinity Plus One Sword would be the Fire Crossbow which you win in a Minigame
- Board Game Example: With a few exceptions, all weapons in Duel Of Ages are lost the moment you successfully kill an opponent with them. They can miss any number of times, be used to repeatedly drop enemy units to near death, and kill every pet or sentinel sent after you, but the moment you kill another character with it, it's gone.
- Super Smash Bros has multiple weapons that can be picked up that eventually cease to function. Some won't work anymore, but can still be thrown, while others simply vanish after some time or a certain number of uses. The hammer occasionally loses its head when you use it, making the handle completely useless, although the head can be thrown a few times with devastating results. Containers, which release additional items when damaged, basically count as breakable weapons since they can be broken open on enemies.
- Nonmagical metal weaponry early on in Baldur's Gate would sometimes break on you without warning, justified because the first major quest of the game involved a "plague" upon all the iron coming out of the mines that supply most of the region, meaning much of the processed iron and steel goods in the area were constantly breaking because they were so weak. It sucked, but at least they had a reason. Once you got magical weapons (and paying for them at low level was like drinking gold dust) it wasn't an issue.
- A rare few blades in Planescape: Torment also would break easily, simply because they weren't meant for combat or were in extremely poor shape — things like steak knives, rusted blades, and so on.
- Don't forget the Glass Gauntlets! (Er, Shards of Fate.)
- Tabletop RPG example: the d20 Apocalypse book, for running post-apocalyptic games with the d20 Modern game system, strongly recommends that Game Masters have pre-apocalypse weapons and equipment break when the player using them rolls a natural 1 (a "critical failure") on the attack roll or skill check. Mainly justified in that most of this stuff has been lying around without any kind of maintenance and probably exposed to the elements for a few centuries.
- Free MMO Voyage Century Online does not allow repairs to the basic starter versions of weapons, nor to any versions of the various tools used to perform crafts. Not much of an issue because starter weapons are extremely cheap and replaceable at any blacksmith, and the basic versions of tools are much the same. More advanced versions of tools last so long before wearing out that it's rarely a major inconvenience to go back and replace them. Repairing more advanced equipment can be a pain if you do not know how to make the item in the first place, meaning you'll be lowering the item's max durability even as you fix it up, meaning it'll break more easily next time, and blacksmiths will do much the same with advanced equipment.
- Seen in Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure - given that the game is more focused on Double Dragon-style hand-to-hand combat and tagging, melee weapons are breakable after three to four uses. And yes, that includes steel pipes and crowbars.
- A major part of the Way Of The Samurai series of games on PS2. Aside from only being able to carry 3 different swords at a time, each could have different durability stats that represented how much stress the blade was under. Each attack raised the red bar a little, though extremely powerful attacks, some instant kill attacks, and blocking heavy attacks added lots of stress. Hitting the limit dropped the durability one point, making it easier to break again. Losing all durability generally meant the end of the weapon, particularly painful considering the upgrading you can have done to a blade, and that skills you know and attacks automatically blocked are unique to the sword used to acquire them.
- In S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl all conventional firearms wear out from prolonged use. The lower the weapon's durability, the more likely it is to jam, necessitating a lengthy reload (not a happy prospect in the middle of a firefight). Weapons with a durability of less than 30% become practically unusable.
- Some weapons also wear out ridiculously quickly. This editor found a brand new handgun in a stash, and only managed to use it for two in-game days before it became so worn it would jam once for every few rounds fired. Fortunately, many mods reduce the rate of weapon degradation and also allow you to pay to have them repaired.
- Mercifully, in the prequel Clear Sky there are characters who will repair your stuff.
- In the Monster Hunter series weapons become duller the more they are used. However, one can buy an item (or gather them from the environment) and resharpen the weapon back to it's original form during hunts. Also, when the weapon loses all its sharpness, it is still usable, albeit very weak.
- Rather bizarrely, you also have to sharpen blunt weaponry to the same effect.
- Early editions of Dungeons And Dragons had optional rules where a player who makes a very unfortunate attack roll could break his own weapon, or suffer some other similar calamity, at the referee's discretion. With 3rd Edition rules, players can specifically attack an opponent's weapon or shield in an attempt to break ("sunder") it, just like any other object or material.
- For the same reasons as the ones discussed above in the trope, Sunder was not exactly well-liked. If you did it to your enemies, you essentially destroyed your own loot. If the enemies did it to you, they had a good chance of making a character useless for the combat as most don't carry around more than one or two spare weapons, especially considering how easy sundering stuff was if you were built for it. Then, there were Rust Monsters (also known as "How fast can you run in that full plate again?") which had the ability to near-instantly destroy any metal objects including your trusty +5 vorpal hackmaster. They were not popular. 4th edition has completely abandoned anything affecting items or other ressources that were paid for.
- In Condemned: Criminal Origins, most melee weapons would last forever if you wanted them to, with the sole exception of firearms used as melee weapons in order to prolong the inevitable invocation of the Law of Conservation of Ammo. In Condemned 2: Bloodshot, -all- weapons degrade and eventually break if used in any form of melee combat, especially blocking. Whether it's to encourage Good Old Fisticuffs or keep you scrounging for weapons is unknown.
- In Def Jam: Fight for NY, participants can get their hands on any number of nifty weapons, from baseball bats to beer bottles to barbed-wire-wrapped 2x4s, all of which break after 1-5 hits. This even applies to the rare (and devistating) chrome tube and lead pipe, though they don't actually break - once you hit the limit, the item bends over the opponent's head.
- Izuna: The Legend of the Unemployed Ninja and its sequel. Armor is breakable, too, but most weapons and armor last a long time when not overloaded with talismans.
- Streets Of Rage 3 has all weapons vanish after a certain number of hits.
- A certain exploit actually made the weapons' life bars refill again, basically renewing them. If an enemy picks up a weapon you dropped, its life bar will be near full once you take the weapon back.
- All of the games in the series had the weapons vanish if dropped too many times.
- Kingdom Of Loathing has a few breakable items, mostly due to them being of flimsy make, like the Palm-Frond Whip. Usually they have an advantage to offset their fragility; the whip, for example, deals a ridiculous amount of bonus damage when it hits.
- Another example is the weapon and pieces of armor making up the Antique Arms and Armor outfit, each of which has a random chance of being destroyed during combat, with the offset being that all of the items are some of the most powerful in the game.
- From the page quote, Silent Hill Origins and also Silent Hill 4. The golf clubs snapping after a few hits was particularly irritating.
- In Drakan, only the weakest weapon is indestructible.
- And the two strongest ones - the vampire sword (don't remember the name) and the Infinity Plus One sword, aka sword of plot advancement that you only get at the very ending of teh game and so really doesn't have a chance to break even if it could.
- Betrayal At Krondor has a curiously rare system where the weapons' and armors' effectiveness (measured in percents) degrades gradually over use instead of going from 100% to snapped in half in one sudden moment. A sword in 73% condition will only do 73% of the normal damage. It employs a similar system for people - when you get injured, all of your skills will temporarily drop in proportion to the injury. Whetstones and hammers for repairing gear exist, though they also degrade over use.
- A bug in the game's code made the displayed condition of the weapon or armor independent of its actual use; a sword will do the same damage at 10% as it does at 100%, and a suit of armor prevents just as much damage at 35% as it does at 100%. The only in-game effect for the durability is for crossbow strings (which will break randomly, based on the condition of the string and render the weapoon unusable) and selling looted or obselete armor to shops.
- Ultima Underworld and its sequel have a system similar to Ba K above, except they show vague descriptions of condition instead of definite percentages. Everything in them can break upon repeated use (or repeated throwing against a wall), including potions.
- The weapons in Far Cry 2 degrade over time, losing effectiveness. Eventually, they'll start jamming more and more often, and will blow up altogether if the player continues using them. Luckily, weapons purchased from the gun stores are always brand-new, and you get an infinite supply of replacements for any gun you've purchased before. Guns picked up from enemies, on the other hand, tend to be rather old and beat-up; it's better just to snag their ammo.
- The guns themselves are ridiculously bad, however. There is no way a dart rifle (with no propellant fouling) explodes after 15 shots.
- Fallout 1 and 2 had unbreakable weapons, but a critical failure had the potential to destroy a weapon, making it disappear completely. This was one of the many reasons that made the 'Jinxed' trait so unpopular.
- Fallout Tactics occasionally have weapons break on a critical failure, but rather than vanish you simply couldn't use it. You could, however, repair it.
- Fallout 3 had weapons that did less damage and jammed more frequently when damaged. They could be repaired by NPC for usurious fees, or, unusually, by scavenging parts from other weapons. If you've got two beat up 10mm pistols, you take take apart one and end up with a single 10mm in better condition.
- Makes a small bit of sense with firearms if the individual parts of the guns are in different conditions (one has a better barrel than the other) but it makes no sense that you can use one sword or combat knife to repair another.
- Taken to its logical extent in Fallout 3, where you could shoot your ENEMIES' weapons and render them unusable by damaging them enough, causing your enemies to drop them. They can still be repaired or used for pieces, though they cost a huge amount to repair and dont repair other items much.
- Partially done in the PS 2 {{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}} game Chaos Bleeds. A shovel, for example, will eventually snap (including if you bash it against a wall enough times), but since vamps are weak to wood, you can just pick up the handle and keep using it until it snaps again and makes a standard-sized stake, which you can then keep using until it is completely worn away. Metal weapons like swords never break, though.
- In Forumwarz, using broken items causes a temporary maximum health decrease. Fortunately they are reparable- for a price.
- Eve Online, believe it or not. If you overheat your modules, they will shortly start to incur heat damage, too much heat damage and the module(s) will go offline; you will either need to drop by a station with a repair facility and pay to have them repaired, or use some (expensive) nanopaste if that is not an option. Assuming you don't (or can't) overheat your modules, however, the only way for them to get damaged is to be in or on a ship when it goes boom...
- It should be noted that like all things in EVE Online this is a tradeoff. Modules that can be overheated will often give some addition boot. (range, Ro F, Damage, etc) Additionally, keeping somewhat accurately to science, heat will "spread randomly" to other modules. So, one tactic used is to have an offline modules to act as a "heat sink" to run your other modules hotter longer.
- Soulbringer uses this fairly realistically. Weapons gradually become less effective as they're used (especially if used against certain armors, like using a scimitar to slash against plate armor.) They can be repaired to perfect condition at any point up from “ruined,” but use beyond that can break them beyond repair. The game also features breakable armor, in the same manner.
- Alone In The Dark had weapons which fell apart literally in about a dozen strokes. Combined with unlimited supplies of some mooks, this can get pretty aggravating.
- Free MMORPG Mabinogi has all equips subject to this trope; with functionality is fully retained until breakage. Weapons can be repaired at any time by certain NPCs. However, the reliability of the repairs varies considerably between NPCs, with environment effects also affecting reliabity. Failed repairs reduce the maximum durability of the item by a point, potentially to zero with enough failures. Failed attempts to add certain effects to a weapon through "enchantments" can also reduce durability, up to and including permanent breakage. Cost to repair varies with the NPC (higher reliability = higher price), and item value. Subscribing to a paid premium service slows the decay rate, and increases the reliability of repairs.
- Not all weapons can be repaired. A few, such as the Ghost Sword, break after a single use, or very limited use (a single point of durability). This is justified in that they are often One Hit Kill weapons, or required for specific quests.
- Some items, including weapons, are only available for a limited time during special events; and typically cannot be repaired. Justified in the case of most weapons by giving them better stats than similar weapon types; although some are purely cosmetic differences.
- The game's sentient "spirit" weapons" follow a slightly different mechanic. They also wear out and break; but have a much higher maximum durability, which can be increased. Unlike ordinary weapons, spirit weapons are repaired by the owner, using a more complex process, and the chance of a failed repair is dependent on several factors. A "spirit weapon repair potion" is available through the premium (cash) shop which eliminates the normal repair process, and the risk of losing durability.
- Capcom's Shadow Of Rome for the PS 2. Weapons in both the gladiator and stealth sections would break with enough use. Justified though, since if they didn't break, any fight would become trivial when the Magnus lands in the arena.
- Runescape uses this in a few different ways. First, there are some enchanted rings, necklaces, bracelets, and other jewelry that disintegrate after a specific number of uses. Next, there are some random events that occur that "break" your tools. For instance, when chopping wood, the head of your axe will occasionally fly off. You can, however get it repaired, or stick the head back on, depending. Lastly, there are some gloves that give a massive exp bonus in Runecrafting, but they only last when you create 1000 runes. After number 1000, they just disintegrate.
- In Muramasa The Demon Blade, your swords will break and become useless for attacking and defending if you use them too much for blocking or using special moves. They can, however, be repaired if you keep them in your sheath for a while.
- Tabletop wargame Warhammer 40000 features Plasma weapons for it's Space Marines and Imperial Guard troops that have a tendency to explode at inopportune moments.
- This is a very prominent Scrappy Mechanic in the RPG/Resident Evil clone Koudelka. Breakable weapons do not show up in its sequels, the Shadow Hearts series.
- Weapons in the Might And Magic series have an annoying tendancy to break quite often (as do armor and accessories). However, they can be fixed for the right price or if one of your party has some skill at repairing things.
- Averted in Monster Hunter, where weapons actually do become dull and get weaker over time instead of breaking.
- Items break at seemingly random in [[Albion]]. There's no durability, just usable items, and broken weapons. Some items are found broken, and must be repaired before use.
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