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His $500 sunglasses remained intact.
You win! Perfect!
Announcer, Street Fighter II

In Fighting Games, if you manage to defeat an opponent without taking any damage yourself, you'll get a caption to appear on the screen, acknowledging your awesomeness.

Games that bother with points will usually give you points for it, but it's not necessary. It's something of a Bragging Rights Reward.

In Fighting Games that have you scoring points for finishing a round, earning a Flawless Victory earns you the most points, and may be a requirement for a bonus boss fight.

Cherry Tapping can make the victory both flawless and humiliating. See No Casualties Run for the strategy game equivalent. A No-Damage Run is a Self-Imposed Challenge where you don't take damage, whether the game acknowledges it or not.


Video Game Examples

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    Video Games 
  • Mortal Kombat is the Trope Namer. The first and second games also give you "Double Flawless" if you manage to win both rounds like this.note  From MK3 on, it's only Flawless Victory, even if you win both in a row.
  • Street Fighter II rewarded you by giving you extra points on the end-of-round bonus. This carried into Street Fighter III, with the announcer yelling "All right, that's cool!" The Marvel/Tatsunoko vs. Capcom games had "Perfect", which is used by most (if not all) Capcom fighters as the terminology.
  • A non-verbal one in Dark Souls II: The optional boss Sir Alonne has a unique death animation if you aren't hit at all during the fight, where instead of falling to the ground and dying like most other bosses he will commit seppuku - Either out of shame of being bested so throuroughly or because his cursed, bloodthirsty katana compels him to stab himself.
  • Primal Rage uses the phrase "TOTAL DOMINATION!" There's also a second bonus "QUICK KILL!" for winning the round in ten seconds, and it's entirely possible to see both at once.
  • Intelligent Qube (also known as Kurushi) has "PERRRRRRRRRRRRRRFECT" for when you complete a stage in the allotted number of 'steps' and "EEEEEEXCELLENT" for when you do it in fewer 'steps'. Since this is the only way to add rows to the playing field, you have to get these; otherwise your playing field will slowly shrink as you make mistakes (or quickly, if a full set of blocks runs over you). Eventually this will be lethal.
  • The King of Fighters has had it since '94. "PERFECT!" Thing is, because the KOF series is a team-based fighter, you can knock your opponent to a tiny percentage of health, lose the round, then take them out in two hits with your next character and still get a Perfect bonus. This is why "Straight" (defeating the entire enemy team with one character) gives a higher bonus than "Perfect".
  • Games such as the Super Smash Bros. series, and even non-Fighting Games like Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, will occasionally have a reward for winning a match with a perfect. Super Smash Bros. Melee in particular required you to never take a hit in an entire game to get one bonus. There's also an achievement for never taking any damage and never attacking anyone. And there's a trophy for getting every award in the game at least once, including those. Conveniently, this bonus can also be earned in stages that don't have any enemies, such as the challenge stage where you have to get to the end of an F-Zero track on foot before time runs out (avoiding the racers as you go). This isn't as trivial as it sounds, since the game also counts your Up-B recovery moves as attacks. Still, it's easier to just go to Jungle Japes and just watch the AI die.
  • Punch-Out!!: In the Wii game, some of the characters can be knocked-out instantly by performing certain actions during combat, but it will require that Little Mac is never hit (such is the case of Don Flamenco in Contender Mode and Bald Bull in Title Defense). And in Exhibition Mode, one of the challenges require you to defeat Piston Hondo in his Title Defense rematch without taking damage or lowering your stamina.
  • In some Yu-Gi-Oh! video games, you get more duel points for winning without taking damage.
  • One Dragon Ball Z game gave you more points for a perfect win. This was not turned for the Single-Stroke Battle mode.
  • Fahrenheit displayed "GREAT!" caption when you won the action minigames.
  • Soulcalibur gives you extra gold in story mode for getting perfects, as well as, in some trials in IV, giving hidden items for fulfilling a certain criteria. Even when the opponent has 0% health. Also odd is it happens when you have full health at the end, not from not getting hit (so regenerating from damage does give you it, but entering battle with less than full health doesn't let you get it even if you aren't hit)
  • Tekken has "Perfect!" It also inverts it with "Excellent!" (or "Great!"), which you get by winning with 5% health or less.
  • Team Fortress 2:
    • If one team kills all members of another during an Arena round, without anyone on their own team dying, the scoreboard is headed with: "Flawless Victory!"
    • It's also inverted for the losing team, who receives the message "Flawless Defeat!"
    • There's also an achievement for defending certain levels and not letting the offensive team get any capture points. Fairly hard to do, but oh so satisfying.
  • In the Tales Series, falling between fighters and RPGs, you get crazy bonuses to your Grade if you end a fight without any of your party members being damaged.
  • Killer Instinct had a special subtitle if you won a match without losing a single round ("Supreme Victory", or "Awesome Victory" if you finish the match with a Fatality or Humiliation) and had the standard "Perfect!" if you won without taking any damage.
  • In Mischief Makers, beating a boss without taking damage is the way to get that stage's Gold Gem.
  • The Dead or Alive games will have the announcer shout "GREAT!" while the same word displays on the screen if you avoid getting hit during a round. If you avoid getting hit in both rounds of a match (or if both of your characters have full health when winning a tag battle), the second round will have "GREATEST!" instead.
  • Virtua Fighter opts for "EXCELLENT" if you can score a no-damage victory.
  • BEMANI games often have some form of this, usually with one for a Full Combo (hitting every note with a satisfactory judgment) and a perfect run:
    • In beatmania IIDX from 10th Style onwards, if you clear a song hitting every note with a GOOD judgment or better, the judgment line will light upward and you'll get a "FULL COMBO" caption. The song will also be marked with a flashing "FULL COMBO" caption by your score record data on the song selection menu. If you hit every note with a GREAT or better, this is replaced with a gold "PERFECT", although the flash at the end of the song still only says "FULL COMBO".
    • Same with newer versions of pop'n music, but with "NO BAD!", as well as "PERFECT!" if you get all Greats (or higher, if playing on a mode with COOL judgement enabled).
    • In DanceDanceRevolution games starting with DDR X, getting a GREAT! or better on every step causes a green light-up effect at the end with "FULL COMBO" over it and a green circular mark; both the text and the mark are displayed next to your grade. Meanwhile, getting a PERFECT!! or MARVELOUS!! on every step nets you a "PERFECT FULL COMBO!" with a gold flash and a gold mark, and the announcer yells "Perfect Full Combo!" at the Results screen. Additionally, your combo is displayed in gold instead of the usual green if your combo has consisted of all PERFECT!! or MARVELOUS!! so far, and has a white glow for all MARVELOUS!!. Previous versions also had various recognitions of such feats:
      • Up through DDR 3rd Mix, the game would award a SSS grade for a Perfect Full Combo, and the announcer would say "Oh god! Oh god!" at the Results screen. A Full Combo earned you a or a SS or S depending on your ratio of Perfects.
      • 4th Mix changed this to a AA for a Perfect Full Combo and A for Full Combo.
      • 5th Mix changed it yet again to AAA and AA respectively.
      • DDRMAX (6th Mix) removed the Full Combo requirement for a AA, and the announcer quote for a AAA was changed to "Can I call you a dancing master?"
      • SuperNOVA had a white swirly effect under your grade for a Full Combo.
      • SuperNOVA 2 changed the requirement for a AAA to simply 99% of the maximum score, but added the "Perfect Full Combo!!" and gold mark, and a darker yellow mark for Full Combo.
      • DDR 2013 adds the "blue Full Combo" for when a player gets all Goods or better (previously, a Good would break your combo).
      • The Marvelous Full Combo, which requires you to get a Marvelous on every step (which also results in a perfect score). Even on the easiest songs in the game this is considered extremely difficult, and only a handful of players have been able to succesfully pull one off.
    • Both Guitar Freaks and Drum Mania write "FULL COMBO" over your grade and give you a score bonus for hitting every note with a GOOD or better. A GREAT or better on every note earns you a SS, and all PERFECTs earn you a SS with "EXCELLENT" in place of the usual Full Combo text.
    • jubeat has the usual "FULL COMBO" acknowledgment for hitting every note, while hitting every note with perfect timing triggers a brief flashy animation that culminates in plastering "EXCELLENT" all over the results screen, which also replaces your grade. Do note, however, that pass/fail is based on score; if you achieve a Full Combo but fail to achieve the point quota, the game will recognize your full combo and then fail you immediately afterwards.
    • SOUND VOLTEX acknowledges completing a song with no ERROR judgments as an "ULTIMATE CHAIN", and a gold flash ripples up the track from the judgment line. Additionally, completing a song with all CRITICAL judgments nets you a "PERFECT ULTIMATE CHAIN" (or simply "PERFECT" in Sound Voltex II).
    • REFLEC BEAT gives you a 100-point bonus if you clear the song with a full combo. (For reference, each note is worth up to 3 points barring the Just Reflec bonus, and charts generally have around 500-800 notes at higher difficulties.) However, this is potentially a Game-Breaker, so this was Nerfed in sequels to be worth only 50 points. Said sequels also have a 25-point bonus for getting only one miss, and a 10-point bonus for getting only two misses.
  • In the Groove (and by extension StepMania if a theme implements "awards") can have the following display next to your grade:
    • - "Full Fantastic Combo" with a trophy above it for getting every single step "Fantastic!"
    • - "One Excellent" with a flag above it for getting one "Excellent" and all the rest "Fantastic!"
    • - "Single Digit Excellents" with a plaque above it for getting 2-9 Excellents and all the rest Fantastic
    • - "Full Excellent Combo" with a plaque above it for getting every step Excellent or better
    • - "One Great" with a flag above it for getting one "Great" and all the rest Excellent or better
    • - "Single Digit Greats" with a ribbon above it for getting 2-9 Greats and all the rest Excellent or better
    • - "Full Great Combo" with a ribbon above it for getting every step Great or better
    • All of the above also require that you not drop any hold or roll arrows.
    • In addition, once you're 20% into the song, your combo will glow blue if you're getting all Fantastics, or gold if you're getting all Excellent or better.
  • Getting a "Full Combo" in Taiko no Tatsujin by not missing a single note in a song, regardless of how many "great" or "good" notes you get, nets you a golden Crown (and yes, this is possible even in the Oni difficulty). Don-chan even exclaims "Full Combo!" or "Full Combo da-don!".
  • In Crypt Of The Necrodancer, defeating a boss stage in All Zones mode without taking damage and while staying in rhythm of the stage's song by not missing a beat grants one of three chests to select from as a reward before heading to the next zone.
  • Cytus rewards a perfect score of 1,000,000 with a "Million Master" animation. You can also get 100% TPnote , but no specific fanfare is provided for such performances.
  • Groove Coaster grants a "No Miss" award if the chart is cleared with no Misses. Doing this and hitting all of the hidden Ad-Lib notes will result in a "Full Chain" award. From Groove Coaster 3: Link Fever onwards, the game will also hand out a "Perfect" reward for getting the perfect score of 1 million points.
    Linka: (on a No Miss) "You didn't make any mistakes! Amazing!"
    Linka: (on a Full Chain) "A Full Chain! Well done!"
    Linka: (on a Perfect, with a surprised look on her face) "Perfect?! That was incredible!"
    Yume: (on a Perfect, in the Japanese version only) "Pa...PAAFEKUTO?! Yume mitai!TL "
  • Love Live! School idol festival acknowledges a Full Combo with the appropriate flashing text and S-rank combo rewards. Unfortunately, while all-Perfect runs are entirely possible, the game not only doesn't recognize them, it's perfectly possible to still get a grade lower than S if your cards' attributes aren't high enough; in fact, it's common for beginner players who came in from other rhythm games to get all Perfects and still get a C because their starting cards are extremely weak.
  • maimai:
    • "FULL COMBO!" — clear the chart without missing any notes.
    • "FULL COMBO+!" — clear the chart with only Greats or higher. (maimai Deluxe onwards)
    • "ALL PERFECT!" — clear the chart with all Perfects.note 
    • "ALL PERFECT+!" — clear the chart with all Perfects, and all Critical Perfects on Break notes, i.e. an Achievement score of 101%. (Deluxe onwards)
    • "MAX FEVER!" (classic maimai) / "FULL SYNC!" (Deluxe onwards) — clear a chart in a multiplayer round without anyone, including yourself, missing a note.
    • "100% SYNCHRONIZED!" (classic maimai) / "FULL SYNC DELUXE!" (Deluxe onwards) — clear a chart in a multiplayer round with a Sync percentage (that is, percentage of notes in which all players are within one judge rank of each other on a particular note, without missing notes) of 100%. In classic maimai, the game must be set to Sync Play rather than VS Play.
  • Tetris: The Grand Master and its sequel: On getting the Grand Master rank, you get "YOU ARE GRAND MASTER!"
  • In Cave Story, defeating the boss of the Waterway without taking damage will net you the Alien Badge.
  • Castlevania series:
    • In Order of Ecclesia, defeating a boss without taking damage will reward you with a medal.
    • In Rondo of Blood (and the Dracula X Chronicles remake), if you defeat the boss with a full life bar, you get an extra life. Contrary to popular belief, you CAN take damage, as long as you get a meat/ice cream (depending on who you're playing as) before the end of the stage.
  • In the Story Mode of Dissidia Final Fantasy, one of the potential DP bonuses (DP being what you use to move around the map and having more of it leading to bonuses) in certain fights is to clear the fight without taking any damage. This bonus is even called a "Flawless Victory." There's also a milder version, "Flawless HP Victory", where you must not take any HP damage - you're allowed to take Bravery hits.
  • In Muramasa: The Demon Blade, winning a battle without losing any HP will earn you a "Completely Unscathed" bonus, which grants you a small extra percentage of experience points.
  • Pokémon:
    • Pokémon Ranger grants this sort of bonus not only for not taking any damage during a Pokémon encounter, but also for capturing a Pokémon with an unbroken line (i.e. the Pokémon can't attempt to break the styler line by moving through it). Keep in mind that even if you get hit by an attack that does 0 damage due to damage reduction, you still lose the "No Damage" bonus.
    • In Pokémon Stadium 1 and 2 if you defeat an opponent in the Stadium without any of your Pokémon fainting in battle, you get an extra continue. This is especially helpful if you lose to a later opponent.
    • Pokemon Battle Revolution is the same, but you also get additional Poke Coupons on top of the additional continues.
  • The Guitar Hero franchise, especially GHWT and beyond, award extra in-game cash for a perfect performance (which is even mentioned in the newspaper cutouts in GH2: "Perfect Performance from <your band's name> at <venue you were playing in>"). Most GH games give a gold star result (usually 5-star, although 4-gold-stars and 3-gold-stars are possible) for hitting all the gems. In GH5, getting a full combo (No errors)note  gives you an extra star on top of what you have (which will ALWAYS be 5 stars) in addition to turning them gold.
  • Rock Band has the "flawless" title that only appears when someone gets 100% (not necessarily a full combo). That game also has gold stars (in Expert difficulty only), but it's score based so you don't need a full combo for it (and can technically fail to get it even if you get a full combo, because basically these depend on your score; the cutoff for gold stars is the standard Expert cutoff for 5 stars, plus 50% of that). What's worse on both of these is that the Drummer must use two different scoring strategies (or "Overdrive Paths") - one for single player, a different one for multiplayer. The difference? Every fill removes some notes from the chart, decreasing the possible combo. At the same time, a fill must be played (complete with the crash at the end) to activate Overdrive, and they'll keep appearing as long as you have 50% Overdrive without being in Overdrive. This means five drummers can get 100% notes hit, never break their combo, and have completely different note streaks on the same song.
  • The Unreal series has this.
    • Winning a round of Onslaught, CTF, or Bombing Run in Unreal Tournament 2004 with no points scored by the other team gives this announcement. The inverse is called "Humilliating Defeat" in 2004. In the single player mode, it's an achievement.
    • Winning a Warfare round in Unreal Tournament III without taking any damage to your core gets the announcer to say this.
  • BlazBlue has "Perfect!" The game only checks if the winner has full health, not if he actually got hit or not. Thus, you can still get this bonus with Ragna even if you get hit, as Ragna can heal himself for an extremely small amount every time he hits with a some attacks (unless it's his Unlimited form). His HP Draining abilities are so weak though, you may as well have not gotten hit. However, due to chip damage being present, Ragna is the only character that can block moves without using the barrier gauge and still get a perfect.
  • Getting one in a Grandia game results in whoever delivered the last blow saying a different victory quote than normal, and in III, a slight recovery of everyone's SP.
  • In Touhou Project, if you drain a boss's spell card's corresponding section of the boss's Life Meter without losing lives or bombing, you get a Spell Card Bonus and the spell card is counted as "captured." However, if you're playing as the Marisa-Nitori team in Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism, due to Nitori's bomb mechanic (which instead of clearing out bullets grants temporary invincibility for one hit) the condition is slightly different: you can still fire a bomb, as long as you don't get hit.
  • At the end of each stage in Point Blank (1994), you get a bonus equal to your shot accuracy * 1,000. If you don't miss a shot, you get an extra 1,000 points. Interestingly, you can get over 100% accuracy (as a result of shooting through a window to another target), but you only get the 1,000-point bonus if you don't miss; if your accuracy is, for instance, 150%, but you miss at all, your accuracy bonus will only be 1,500 instead of 2,500.
  • In the DJMAX series (except for Trilogy and Technika), getting 100% judgments will yield an S grade. In Technika, this is accompanied by a "Perfect Play" graphic next to the song disc.
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum awards a hefty points bonus for completing a fight challenge without the enemies landing a single hit on you. And this is a necessary prerequisite for the series' own definition of "Flawless", which is to begin and end the fight in a single continuous sequence of actions without any hesitation, noncombat movement, or getting hit.
  • In the Inazuma Eleven series, winning an exhibition match in a complete shutout with at least 5 goals earns you an S rank. This is the only way to get an S — if the other team scores even a single goal, the best you can do is an A rank (though thankfully you can replay exhibition matches as much as you please if you want the S).
  • Xenophage Alien Bloodsport. Not only will the announcer say "Perfect!" for a flawless victory, but when you are on the receiving end of one, he will call you "Pathetic!"
  • Dragon Age: Origins has achievements for completing origin stories or the game without anyone dying in combat.
  • Wave Race 64 rewards players finishing in first with no penalties for steering on the wrong side of the speed buoys with the the announcer screaming "Banzai!" as they cross the finish line.
  • Gears of War 3 has the "I'm a Beast!" medal, which requires you to complete all 12 waves of Beast in a row without failing on each of the four difficulties.
  • Both Devil Survivor games have two of these, one for winning without taking damage, and one for defeating all three opposing demons in one round. Both net you extra Macca (money).
  • Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA gives you a rainbow "PERFECT" on the results screen for getting a COOL or FINE on every note.
  • In Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip, if you win a match without allowing your opponent to win a game, you get credited with an "Epic Victory", which gives you extra loyalty points and shop credits. Taken further, winning a match without allowing your opponent to even score a point makes the "Epic Victory" icon gold when you walk up to the opponent to challenge them for a rematch.
  • In Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, you're credited with a "Perfect Chain" if you complete a song without getting a BAD or a MISS, and an "All Critical" (with the score maxed out at 7999999note ) if you get all Criticals on a song. Also present in Curtain Call, though it gives the full 9,999,999 regardless of your abilities/items, or lack thereof.
  • DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu awards a score bonus of 5 billion points for having a Maximum Bonus active at the end of the 2nd loop, doubled to 10 billion if you also faced and defeated the True Final Boss Hibachi. Note that you lose your Maximum Bonus if you get hit or use a bomb, and your last chance to get it back is at the start of the penultimate boss battle. Therefore this is essentially a bonus for a flawless victory against the penultimate boss and the final boss.
  • Halo: In Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, a Perfection medal is earned by winning a multiplayer match with at least 15 kills and no deaths.
  • In GemCraft Labyrinth, defeating a map without letting any enemy touch your gem gives an xp boosting medal for that round.
  • In Divekick:
    • If one player has four wins and the other player has zero, the next round starts with a "FRAUD DETECTION WARNING". Should the winning player win this round, securing a perfect match, the game blares out "FRAUD DETECTED"—in other words, the loser is declared a fraud. This is a reference to players in the Fighting Game Community who are hyped up only to end up on the losing end of a Curb-Stomp Battle, and thus are labeled as frauds.
    • Inverted in another way should the fraud candidate turn it around and end up beating the former dominator; after getting the score to 4-4, the final round starts with a "CHOKE DETECTION WARNING", with similar "CHOKE DETECTED" should the former underdog win. Unlike with frauds, a choke doesn't get stamped with a "Fraud 100% Certified" label; "choking" is a sports term for someone who had a strong early lead losing anyway.
  • Jurassic Park Warpath: "Flawless!"
  • Persona 4: Arena: "*character* wins! PERFECT!"
  • An Untitled Story features a plenty of heart doors which open only if you approach them with a full Life Meter, housing rewards behind them. Naturally, you will only find them at the end of the Death Courses which are guaranteed to hurt inexperienced adventurers.
  • One Finger Death Punch: Completing a level without taking a hit gets you a bright "Perfect" medallion on the score screen. Completing a level with no misses gets you a Platinum medal on the same screen. Get both on one level and you may get a giant, announced, "PERFECT" when you land the final hit of the level.
  • Upon achieving full combo in Aikatsu! Photo on Stage!!, the main character of a live show will praise the player and the result screen will show the phrase "full combo" above the combo count in the result screen. However, this does not always translate to S rank combo because combo total depends on how long the notes are pressed, which is less when they are pressed late.
  • One Must Fall had news reports detailing your battles after the fact. If you did particularly well, the reporter states that if people like evenly-matched battles, he hopes they didn't pay for last night's fight. But if they like a good one-sided, masochistic pounding, they should keep an eye on your character.
  • Clearing a CHUNITHM chart with only Justice or Justice Critical judgements results in a congratulatory "ALL JUSTICE!" message. Note that while an All Justice run is always at least 1,000,000 points, it is possible to exceed that score with non-Justice hits (Attack or Miss); the actual maximum score of 1,010,000 is attained by getting all Justice Criticals.
  • Club Penguin has a medium-level achievement by this name in the Mini-Game Card-Jitsu. The goal, of course, is to win a match without letting your opponent gain any cards.
  • DJMAX spinoff game SUPERBEAT XONiC awards 10,000 points for completing a track with an All Combo (no Breaks). This can be made trivial to earn by using characters with Shield stats; the best defensive character that doesn't require completing missions to unlock has a Shield stat of 40, i.e. you can miss 40 notes and still get an All Combo. Getting all Super Beats on a song will be declared as a Perfect Play.
  • Games in The Jackbox Party Pack often reward a player for doing as well as they possibly can.
    • In Guesspionage, if a player guesses the percentage of a question exactly right, they get all of that round's points while their opponents get nothing. The host will also compliment the player for being smart.
    • In Quiplash, if every player chooses the same answer as the best one, the player who wrote the answer gets bonus points.
    • Fakin' It enforces this. The only way for the faker to win is to survive all three rounds without ever getting caught. And the only way to catch the faker is if everyone else votes for the same person.
  • Bayonetta awards a Platinum rank in the Damage category if you clear a Verse with no damage taken. This is one of the three requirements, alongside Platinum rank for score and time, for a Pure Platinum Medal. Getting a Pure Plat on every Verse — and yes, this means taking zero damage throughout the entire chapter — is required to obtain a Pure Platinum Award, which sees the player getting a platinum trophy of Bayonetta holding the moon.
  • In Donkey Kong Country, completing the final Barrel Cannon sequence in Snow Barrel Blast as fast as possible rewards you with a blue 3-up balloon.
  • In WACCA:
    • Clearing a track with no Misses rewards a Full Combo status.
    • Clearing a track with all Marvelous judgements results in ALL Marvelous status.
    • Played with if the player gets 1-5 Misses, which will award the player with a Missless! status.
  • Defeating an opponent without taking damage yourself in the Samurai Shodown series will have the announcer say "完勝!" ("Kansho!"), which means "perfect victory" in Japanese.note 
  • In Hades, the Pierced Butterfly grants Zagreus a permanent damage bonus if he clears a room without taking any damage at all. Entering a Stygian Portal also requires a flawless victory in order to get their listed reward — take any damage within one and Zagreus' only reward is an onion that heals 1 HP.
  • Progress Bar 95: Collecting only blue segments rewards a 1000-point Perfectionist bonus at the end.
  • O.N.G.E.K.I.:
    • "FULL COMBO" — Clear the song with all notes hit (no Misses).
    • "ALL BREAK" — Clear the song with all notes hit as "BREAK" or "CRITICAL BREAK". Takes priority over FULL COMBO.
    • "FULL BELL" — Clear the song with all Bell items collected. Awarded separately from the above two.
  • Frantic 3: Every time you beat a stage without taking damage, the game marks it as "Unharmed!" and gives a 1000 coin bonus.
  • Caladrius awards a no-death run of a stage with special artwork on the results screen. The illustrations are extremely lewd for a game that isn't straight up adults-only, featuring Clothing Damage and nominally-censored forbidden regions. The arcade Updated Re-release Caladrius AC substitutes these illustrations for different, much more chaste images, while the second updated version for consoles, Caladrius Blaze, brings back the original illustrations, with the arcade ones available in Arcade Mode.
  • Enter the Gungeon rewards the player for defeating a boss without taking any damage with another heart container. Note that you only lose the reward if the damage you took was to the actual health bar, so armour breaking still counts as a flawless victory.
  • Pixelo: Beating a level without tapping a wrong pixel gives the level a gold frame.
  • Lyrica has animation rewards for completing a song with either All Combo or All Perfect.
  • Reactance: Beating a level without taking damage marks it with a star.
  • Pixelvader: Each level can be beaten without taking damage. The game will mark those with a star.
  • Orzmic awards an "Info Decrypted" badge for not missing any notes. If they are all hit with perfect timing (all "Stable"), it is called "Perfect Decryption". If playing with Hard judge, and you hit every note with a +1 bonus (for hitting circles dead-center for notes that fall on them, as well as for simply hitting catch notes, completing hold notes, and hitting notes that land on lines), a '+' will be appended to your ID/PD status.
  • D4DJ Groovy Mix awards Full Combo for not getting any combo-breaking judgements. If you get Great or above, it is a Great Full Combo, and if you get all Perfects, it is a Perfect Full Combo. There are also All Tap, All Disc, and All Fader badges for hitting all notes of each respective type, which you can still get if you drop the Full Combo or use at most two of the auto-play options.
  • Mario Party Superstars:
    • There's an achievement that asks the player to win a party playthrough after winning in all minigames disputed.
    • In Trio Challenge, the three main players must win against the solo rival in every minigame showcased in order to win. The solo rival only has to win once to claim victory.
  • In Slay the Spire players are granted the title "Perfect" for a run where they're able to defeat a floor boss without taking damage, and "Beyond Perfect" if they're able to defeat all three floor bosses without damage.
  • Arcaea has Full Recall for finishing a song without any Lost notes, and Pure Memory for hitting every note with a Pure judgement. If you hit all Pures without getting any Early or Late timings, your score will additionally have a teal shadow, although there isn't a specific message for this.

Non-Video Game Examples

    Anime and Manga 
  • In Dragon Ball Z, Gohan manages to defeat Super Buu without taking a single hit or using any ki attacks.

    Fan Works 

    Game Shows 
  • In order to become a Top Prize winner on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, you must answer about 15 questions correctly! But if you leave at least one lifeline intact for the final question, you can use it to get out of trouble.note 
    • John Carpenter, the world's first contestant to win the Top Prize, made it to the final question in the US version without using a single lifeline. On the million dollar question, he finally used his Phone-A-Friend lifelife and called his father...not to ask for help, but to let his father know that he was about to win a million dollars. And then he did.
  • The Japanese game show Tokyo Friend Park 2 called it a "Grand Slam" and awarded a bonus prize of a trip to either Disneyland (California) or Disneyland Paris if the contestants pull off a perfect 5-for-5 record in the main game. Also, in some of the individual games, a flawless victory can double the team's winnings for the round. For example, in "Quiz! Body and Brain", the team has to get 6 out of 10 questions correct to win. If they sweep the first 6 in a row, they get to continue playing and try to get the remaining 4 for a double win. Of particular note is "Flashsauraus", an arcade-like "stop the light" game where the player has to jump off a platform and hit the gigantic button with their feet. It's hard enough to get the requisite 3 out of 8 successes to win, but a perfect 8-out-of-8 run nets the team a triple win.
  • Another game show example: On the Japanese quiz show Time Shock, a contestant who sweeps every question in a round is rewarded with a bonus prize, complete with Confetti Drop. In early days, this was an international vacation plus cash for a total value of 1 million yen; this was later changed to a flat-out 1 million yen in cash. On the revival Time Shock 21, if any member of the winning team accomplished the same feat in any of the 3 endgame rounds (or, alternatively, got 11 out of 12 for 5 million yen in the first two rounds), the team's winnings were increased to the Game Show Winnings Cap of 10 million yen and the endgame ends on the spot (i.e. they no longer need to get at least half the questions right on any remaining rounds to keep their endgame winnings).
  • Yet another Japanese quiz show example: On Panel Quiz Attack 25, all 4 players normally receive 10,000 yen per point at the end of the main game. But if a contestant pulls off the maximum possible win margin of 25 to 0 to 0 to 0, their winnings are doubled to ¥500,000 (later increased to ¥1,000,000 in 2019). This has only been achieved 14 times since the show debuted in 1975.
  • The Price Is Right:
    • The show has its own fan criteria for a "perfect game": Win your way out of Contestant's Row with a perfect bid (with the $500 bonus for doing so), win your pricing game, win $11,000 (now $26,000) on The Big Wheel (hitting $1.00 twice), then hit the Double Showcase win (bid on your Showcase, coming within $250 of the actual price, without going over. No one has managed to pull off all four feats (usually missing the Perfect Bid or the $26K).
    • Lesser variant: The Perfect Show - all six pricing games, plus the Showcase, won. This has only happened 80 times since the show's debut in 1972.
    • On the primetime Million Dollar Spectaculars, playing a perfect pricing game often won the player a $1,000,000 bonus during the Carey era. Examples: After the contestant has stopped the rangefinder in Range Game, they must guess (within that $150 range) the exact price of the prize to win the bonus. In Switcheroo, the contestant must correctly price all five prizes on their first attempt to win the bonus. In Cover Up & One Away, the contestant must guess all five digits in the car's price correctly on their first attempt to win the bonus.
  • For two seasons during the 1985-88 run of the riddle-based game show Jackpot, any contestant who solved all 15 riddles correctly in a single game won a new car.
  • Schlag den Raab had occasions where this feat, 11 games won in a row for a total of 66 points, was achieved... by Stefan.

    Live-Action TV 
  • From Hell's Kitchen only one chef has managed to completely avoid any chance of being nominated throughout the entire team phase of the competition, and that was Season 1 winner, Michael Wray.
    • Besides Michael, the only other chefs to win their seasons without being nominated even once were Heather West from Season 2, David "Dave" Levey from Season 6, Holli Ugalde from Season 7, future sous chef Christina Wilson from Season 10, La Tasha McCutchen from Season 13, Meghan Gill from Season 14, Kimberly-Ann Ryan from Season 16, Ariel Fox (who previously competed in Season 6) in Season 18, and Ryan O'Sullivan in Season 22.
  • On Survivor, a player achieves what is known as a "Perfect Game" if they win without having a single vote cast against them and receive a unanimous jury vote. So far, only J.T. Thomas (Tocantins) and John Cochran (Caramoan) have managed this.
  • The Amazing Race. Meghan & Cheyne (15), Kisha & Jen (Unfinished Business), Ernie & Cindy (19), Rachel & Dave (20), Jason & Amy (23) , Dave & Connor (All-Stars 2014), and Colin and Christie (31) all won the Race without ever being in danger of elimination at any point (being one of the last two teams that didn't arrive at the pit stop yet, regardless of the leg being an elimination leg or not). Rob & Brennan also did this, but that was because of a poorly-placed equalizer during leg 10 making it impossible for them to finish below 3rd.
  • Cutthroat Kitchen. Getting the full $25,000 ($50,000 in tournament finals) requires you to not bid on any sabotages and take any sabotage that comes your way while also not committing any fouls that might come with the sabotage. In 2014, one chef came close to this only to lose in the final round. Then a few weeks later, a certain Chef Kyle managed to pull this off. Accomplished a second time in 2016 with Chef Mikery.

    Pinball 
  • In Capcom's Breakshot (1996), getting a perfect Cutthroat Countdown (by sinking all the balls, then collecting the Super Jackpot) not only immediately starts another round of Cutthroat Countdown, but also increases the value of future Cutthroat Countdowns.
  • High Roller Casino extends the duration of the Super Award you receive on "Roll 'N Win" by 50% if you can land exactly on the starting space.
  • In Q*Bert's Quest, hitting all three enemies before they can advance towards the pyramid awards an extra ball.
  • Winning a poker hand in Maverick The Movie without a single discard (hitting a wrong drop target) is considered a "Perfect," and the score for that hand is tripled.

    Sports 
  • Due to its relatively short season, in North America football teams are the only ones with any plausible chance at a perfect season (no losses/ties), but it's still very rare. For American football, at the professional level the only NFL team to pull it off in the Super Bowl era is the 17-0 1972 Miami Dolphins; there have been dozens of college teams to accomplish it, but their seasons are shorter (nowadays top-level college teams schedule 12 games in a regular season, with a few qualifying for a conference championship game and a few more playing in 1note  bowl game vs. 17 NFL regular season games plus 3 or 4note  playoff games) and the balance of competition in college football is generally more lopsided (i.e., there tend to be more "cupcake" teams in a given college team's schedule). The CFL also has one perfect season (the 1948 Calgary Stampeders). For comparison, the NBA and NHL currently have 82-game regular seasons, and MLB has 162. No one has ever achieved an undefeated regular season in an NBA or NHL season, with the closest being the NBA's 2016 Golden State Warriors (73-9) and 1996 Chicago Bulls (72-10); the closest in the NHL were the 1930 Boston Bruins, who went 38-5-1, and the 1944 Montreal Canadiens, who went 38-5-7.note 
  • No top-level Association Football team has won every single game in a full season. However, several teams have won every league match in a season, beginning with Rangers FC winning all 18 Scottish League Division One matches in the 1898-99 season. Another achieveent is for a team to go undefeated in a full season - this is much more common, as football matches can end in draws.
  • Baseball's perfect game, defined as the same pitcher going all 9 innings with 27 up-27 down (no hits, no walks, no errors charged), is a definite flawless victory. Similarly, a pitcher going all 9 without giving up a run, called a shutout, is the equivalent of a No Death Run. A no-hitter is where a pitcher does not allow any hits but can still allow baserunners either via walks or errors (all perfect games are also no-hitters by definition). It is rare (only happened six times officially), but completely possible, to throw a no-hitter and still lose. Formerly, it was possible for a team to lose even if their pitcher achieved a perfect game (since the game could go into extra innings even after 9 with no baserunners by the opposing team, so long as the pitcher's own team failed to score any runs in regulation), but in 1991 the definition was changed to require the pitcher to maintain "perfection" for the entire game including extra innings, no matter how many innings are played. This new definition already excludes games that are ended before 9 innings because of weather. The statistically "best" perfect game ever achieved was by Addie Joss in 1908, who did it with only 74 pitches.
  • In 9-ball billiards, if you're very lucky, it is possible to sink the 9-ball on a break shot, known as a Break Ace. A more skillful version is the Break & Run Out, where you sink at least one ball on every shot including the break, saving the 9-ball for last, all without committing a single foul.
  • The 300 game in Bowling is the most well known, although all framed pin games will have a "perfect" score.
  • The Nine Dart Finish is the perfect way to win a game of Darts.
  • Theoretically, a perfect score in a round of golf is 18 (18 holes-in-one shot). Most courses are specifically designed to make this impossible. It happens far more often in Putt-Putt/mini-golf.
  • Secretariat's performance in the 1973 Triple Crown series is widely viewed as a Flawless Victory. Three victories, three track records and capped with the largest margin of victory ever in a Grade 1 stakes race (31 lengths). Most records still stand 50 years later.
  • The Maximum Break in snooker, usually of the 147 point variety. In snooker it is possible to score more than the maximum using Loophole Abuse. This has only occurred once in tournament play.
  • In tennis, a "Golden Set" is a set which is won without dropping a single point. This means scoring the 24 minimum points required to win a set 6–0, without conceding any points. In professional, top-tier tennis, this has only been accomplished seven times. In 1910, the four-time grand slam singles winner Hazel Wightman achieved a golden match in which she did not lose a point the entire match.

    Stand-Up Comedy 
  • Comedian Dat Phan brings up this very phrase, joking on how he was at a urinal in a public restroom when a stranger approached and asked if he knew martial arts.
    Dat Phan: "I'm takin' a piss, man!"
  • Patton Oswalt dropped a reference to this trope from a bit in his album Annihilation, in a story where he witnessed a public fight between a drunken, aggressive man and someone who turned out to be a powerlifter. Upon the powerlifter simply raising the drunken man over his head and slamming him to the ground, Patton's takeaway from the encounter is such:
    "What was your favorite fight you ever seen, Patton?" "Oh, it was like a Street Fighter video game, it was like, literally lift - fatality!!"

    Tabletop Games 
  • Warhammer 40,000 has this as the backstory for Tau special character Commander Shadowsun. She wiped out an entire Tyranid splinter fleet without losing a single ship, even though she's a Fire Caste (ground army) commander and therefore had no experience of space combat at the time. Yep.

    Web Videos 
  • In Hot Ones, Guy Fieri eats all ten of the progressively spicier wings while barely breaking a sweat. In The Stinger, he points out that he didn't drink any of the water or milk provided to him, much to Sean's shock.

    Webcomics 

    Real Life 
  • In the first battle of the Spanish-American War, Commodore Dewey managed to lead the U.S. Navy into defeating the entire Spanish fleet stationed in Manila Bay without a single American casualty. No such luck for the combined American North Atlantic Squadron and Flying Squadron, which faced a Spanish squadron at Santiago De Cuba. One American sailor died of heat stroke, in return for the entire Spanish squadron being destroyed as they attempted to make a dash for the sea. One American battleship, the Texas, also had the indignity to be (mildly) damaged by her own battery due to the less-than-ideal arrangement of her guns.
  • Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the Korean naval commander during the 1590s invasion by Japan, was able to pull this off multiple times against the Japanese navy. The Korean navy, accustomed to dealing with pirates, were heavily armed with cannons for long-range combat, and had recently developed the "turtle ship", a vessel that had cannons pointing in every direction and a spiked top to repel boarders. This was bad news for the Japanese navy, as their specialty lay in boarding tactics, due to their experience in the Sengoku Period. This led Yi to develop the Crane Wings formation, in which he sent the turtle ships into the center of the Japanese fleet to open fire from within as his other vessels (including converted fishing ships) encircled them and opened fire from without. As a result of this, the Korean navy decimated the Japanese on the open sea, to the point that their only casualties were individual sailors. Of particular note is the penultimate Battle of Myeongnyang Strait, in which the Korean navy - down to a paltry 13 ships due to a Japanese plot - took on roughly 330 Japanese ships, including 130 warships. Due to carefully choosing his battlegroundnote , Yi's forces suffered no loss of ships, 2 killed, 3 wounded, and 8 drowned. The Japanese fleet, on the other hand, lost 60 ships (30 to crashing and another 30 to the Korean navy) and half their soldiers were killed or injured. Prior to the battle, however, the Korean court initially ordered the Navy to disband entirely, prompting this response from Yi.
    Admiral Yi: This humble subject still has 12 ships. However small the number may be, I solemnly swear I will be able to defend the sea if I prepare myself for death to resist the enemy.
  • In many American high school systems, the valedictorian award goes to the student with the highest grade point average in their class. The highest unweightednote  GPA obtainable is a 4.0note , so even being eligible for this award very often requires completing every single class with nothing less than a straight A.


 
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Excellent-graded battle

Winning a battle without getting hit is denoted by the word "Excellent" flashing in background, and the character who dealt the final blow taunting the enemy.

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