Horn Attack

Seaking just wants to be sure to get its point across...

Using your head is good and all, but sometimes using blunt force is not effective. Instead, a sharp horn on the head can make that blunt force feel much more painful. Also included are horns that can shoot projectiles or beams.

Weaponized Headgear often have spikes to be used in this regard. If there's a lot of spinning going on at the same time, we're getting into the territory of This Is a Drill.

Subtrope of Natural Weapon. See also Rhino Rampage, Brutish Bulls, Temper-Ceratops, and Horned Humanoid. Can result in being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice. When the horn is the target of the attack, it's Aim for the Horn. For attacking someone with the other kind of horn, see Instrument of Murder.

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Examples:

Advertising

• In a TV commercial for Mountain Dew, a GenXer goes up against a bighorn sheep in a ramming contest over a bottle of Dew (with Marty Stouffer narrating). The GenXer wins.

Anime & Manga

• Berserk: Several of the demons Guts has fought have tried to use their horns against him, including several of the demons of the Eclipse, Rosine in her true Apostle form, and the Great Goat Head once he gets upgraded to full-on demon.
• Bleach:
  • The Arrancar Yylford, whose One-Winged Angel form, Del Toro mainly relies on extensible, sharp horns, which he use to gore Ururu and Renji. A "beam-shooting" example would be Apacci's basic form, as she cast the Cero ray from the antler on her mask.
  • Ichigo's Hollow form in Hueco Mundo forms its Cero between the tips of its two horns.
• In Dragon Ball Z, Frieza nearly kills Krillin by goring him right through his armor.
• Jōjū Senjin!! Mushibugyō, as summer begings, a Kaiju sized "Warrior King Kabutomushi" arrives in Edo to rampage, using his colossal horn to send whole districts flying in the air and using it to block any attack from the front. Unimpressed, Bugai severs the horn with his BFS Jingaito (Impurity-Cleansing Sword), merge the Jingaito with the horn and turns it into a BFS as tall as a mountain, using it to cleave the bug in one blow.
• My Hero Academia: Pony Tsunotori has the quirk Horn Cannon which gives her horns on her head that can be launched as projectiles.
• One Piece:
  • In the third movie, the villain goes on One-Winged Angel after eating some magical golden horns and transform in a giant furry behemoth with large golden antlers. Not only he's strong enough to cause an earthquake when he headbutts the ground, but he can also heat them up. In the main series, Chopper's strongest form is the "Horn Point".
  • Also Magellan appears to be a Horned Humanoid, but the "horns" are actually detachable and he can wear them on his hands as weapons.
  • Subversion: Duval's pet Bison, Motobaro tries to ram Luffy as Duval gushes about how his "Heart-Crushing Horns" are unstoppable and capable of bringing down walls and dams... then when the two impact, we clearly see that Motobaro's horns are far above Luffy. Chopper even lampshades this.
  • Also, Don Chinjao. Not a horn per se, but his oversized, elongated head resembles one and earnt him the nickname of "Chinjao the Drill". With one headbut he can crack open the Ice Continent hiding his massive treasure stash and it took Garp, one of (if not the) physically strongest characters in the manga to flatten his massive horn-like forehead (and he had to train using whole mountains as sandbags).
• In Tiger & Bunny, Rock Bison has a large pair of horns on his Powered Armor. Subverted in that when he tries to use them to stop a getaway car, the horns get stuck and the crooks get away.

Comic Books

• In DC Universe Presents: Black Lightning and Blue Devil, Blue Devil tries to gore Black Lightning with his long, pointy horns in their first encounter.
  Blue Devil: How about a game of "matador gets gored"?
• ElfQuest:
  • The elk domesticated by the Go-Back elves can attack with their horns, including throwing an opponent through the air.
  • The Mad Horn (wooly rhinoceros) can hit other creatures with its horn, possibly after a charge (Dash Attack).
• Justice Society of America: In Last Days of the Justice Society, Loki's head horns stab Starman In the Back after he has been decapitated by Starman's cosmic rod during the battle of Ragnarok.
• Robin (1993): Brutus tries to gore Dodge to death with his horns, but Doge teleports out of the way.
• Spider-Man: The Rhino has a rhino suit he's permanently bonded with. His attacks generally involve running at you bent over with his horn poking out.

Films — Animation

• This is how Chirin actually kills the evil wolf at the end of Ringing Bell — he is now a sinister-looking ram.

Films — Live-Action

• Dagoth kills Queen Taramis this way in Conan the Destroyer.
• Subverted in Legend (1985) when Jack fights Darkness. Darkness charges Jack with his horns foremost as though he's planning on piercing him with them, but ends up with the horns touching a wall with Jack trapped between them.
• The first full onscreen battle between a Jaeger and a Kaiju in Pacific Rim sees Gipsy Danger going up against Knifehead. The monster uses its horn to rip off Gipsy's left arm and part of the head, which kills Yancy Becket.
• Star Wars: The Reek in Attack of the Clones (the arena sequence) uses its horns (all three of them) to gore through targets.
• In Team America: World Police, the German representative for Kim Jong Il's play does this by accident to Kim Jong Il himself as the dictator falls on his helmet's giant spike and impales himself dead on it.

Literature

• In Outlaw of Gor (the book, not the film) Tarl is sentenced to Gladiator Games in the Stadium of Tharna. All the prisoners there are under yoke; during one of the games they're paired up for head-to-head battle and have sharp horns attached to their yokes.
• Robert Adams' Horseclans series of novels. The Shaggy-Bull is the product of an attempt to recreate Bison primogenus, the prehistoric longhorn bison. It has long, sharp horns that can inflict lethal damage on its opponents.
• The Last Battle describes Jewel the unicorn spearing and tossing enemy soldiers with his horn the way men toss hay on a fork.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who: The bull-like Nimon in "The Horns of Nimon" can shoot beams through its horns, an ability it uses to stun its victims before draining their life force or placing them in the "larder" for later.
• Kamen Rider OOO: Sai (rhinoceros) medal allows him to attack with a horn on his head.
• On one episode of Supernatural, a man dies after a unicorn stabs him through the chest with its horn.
• Many Ultra Series kaiju. Worse still, just as many can shoot lasers or lightning bolts from their horns. The most infamous of the bunch is Gomora, who not only managed to overpower Ultraman with his horns, but beginning with Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle can fire a powerful beam of energy from his nasal horn as a Finishing Move. His favourite way of using it is by goring his foe first and then discharging his attack to obliterate their insides before tossing them aside to watch them explode.

Tabletop Games

• Fantasy Games Unlimited's Aftermath!. Book 3 has a description of "buls", huge mutated cattle with shaggy coats, great strength and endurance, and two hard, wickedly sharp horns which act as lances when they perform a charge attack.
• Arduin RPG, The Compleat Arduin Book 2: Resources
  • The Boogie Man undead has two horns that each do 4-12 Hit Points of damage and drain 1-4 points of Strength.
  • The Chimera can gore opponents with the horns on its goat head, doing 5-12 Hit Points of damage.
  • The Oront is a cross between a rhino and a minotaur. Its three horns can each do 4-16 Hit Points of damage on a hit.
  • A Satyr can head butt with its small horns, doing 1-3 Hit Points damage.
  • A Unicorn can stab and impale with its horn, doing 7-16 Hit Points of damage with a 20% chance of a critical hit.
• Atlantis: The Lost World generic RPG setting
  • Malataurs (a form of centaur) were half human and half ram (mountain goat) and could deliver a butt with their horns.
  • Fomorians (a type of giant) had horns and could attack with them, doing moderate damage.
  • Unicorns were the standard fantasy type and had the usual horn attack.
  • Chimeras were straight out of Dungeons & Dragons and could butt with the horns on their goat head.
  • The Cherubim spirit entities could take the form of a bull and attack with the horns.
  • The following normal animals all had horns and could attack with them: {deep breath} auroch, bighorn sheep, bison, black buck, bushbuck, caribou, gazelle, gnu, goat, ibex, impala, kudu, moose, musk deer, musk ox, pronghorn antelope, red deer, reedbuck, reindeer, rhinoceros (black, white and Dravidian), sheep, sunda sambar (deer), water buffalo, wild goat, and zebu.
• Call of Cthulhu:
  • A number of animals and monsters given stats could attack with their horns: the cape buffalo, gnoph-keh and rhino.
  • The T.O.M.E. (Theatre Of the Mind Enterprises) supplement Pursuit to Kadath has the Dragon Warriors, a set of monsters created by the Cthulhu Mythos deity Yig. The Dragon Warrior named Boresk is a winged bull with elemental flame covering its horns. The horns do 4-24 Hit Points of damage and set the target on fire.
• Champions. The Hero System Bestiary (both versions) had the following creatures with such attacks: bison/buffalo, cape buffalo, carabao (water buffalo), caribou, cattle (bulls), gazelle, moose, ram (big horn, sheep), rhinoceros, triceratops, unicorn and a variety of deer and antelope.
• Chaosium's supplement All the Worlds' Monsters
  • Volume I had the Battler, Stone Gargoyle, Horned Bellower, Icehorn, Long Horned Murderer, Minogon, Morse, Nerve Flayer, Orgoyle and Wyvergon, all with horn attacks.
  • Volume III
    • The Baggol has 2 horns, each doing 1-4 Hit Points.
    • The Electrogoyle is a gargoyle whose horns cause 1d4 Hit Points physical damage and 8-48 Hit Points of electrical damage.
    • The Karkaden is a Chaotic (Chaotic Evil) black unicorn. A touch of its horn forces the victim to make a saving throw versus death or suffer instant death. The victim takes 2-16 Hit Points of damage even if it makes its saving throw.
    • The Osta Beast can attack with its horns as if they were two-handed swords, with each horn doing 2-6 Hit Points damage per hit.
    • The Peditar is a black winged demon about 1 yard tall with a foot long horn in its forehead. It can use its horn like a lance, charging at an opponent and impaling them for 8-64 Hit Points of damage.
    • The Horned Tiger has a white horn in the center of its forehead that does 1-8 Hit Points damage.
    • The Tyrsisian Tiger has a horn that gives it the spell casting abilities of a twentieth level cleric/priest and does 2-12 Hit Points of damage.
    • The Yale is a horse-like creature with two horns on its head that each do 3-18 Hit Points damage.
    • A Zanluk is a winged bull with two horns that each inflict 2-8 Hit Points of damage.
• deadEarth. The radiation manipulation (mutation) Cow Horns causes cow horns to grow on your head. When you perform a melee attack on an opponent you do +d6 damage.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • 1st/2nd Edition Advanced D&D:
    • The following standard monsters can attack with their horns: al-mir'aj, arcanadaemon, babau demon, Baphomet (demon lord of minotaurs), bariaur, chimera (goat head), criosphinx, giant beetle (rhinoceros, stag), giant goat, giant ram, goat, gorgimera (gorgon head), herd animal, Irish deer, ki-rin, margoyle, minotaur, narwhale, peryton, ram, rhinoceros, rothé, satyr, stag, stegocentipede, stench kow, tarrasque, triceratops and unicorn. Hordlings are designed using a random generator, which means that some of them have horns they can use to attack with.
    • In module EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, the Jabberwocky monster has a large horn on its head that does 5-20 Hit Points damage.
    • The Goat of Travail, a type of Figurine of Wondrous Power, can attack with its horns, and the Goat of Terror has removable horns. The owner can take the horns from its head and use them as weapons in combat.
    • Dark Sun: The cattle-like Carru can slash at opponents with their long horns. Male Syrga (pig-like quadrupeds) have horns which they can use to gore an opponent for extra damage. The fordorran can gore opponents with the three horns on its head.
    • Mystara setting has a few of these: actaeon (does 2-16 Hit Points of damage by goring opponents with its antlers), horned chameleon (horn does 1-6 Hit Points), some armored herbivorous dinosaurs (e.g. the triceratops does 5-40 Hit Points), gargoyles (1d4 Hit Points horn damage), gorgons (2-12 Hit Points with horns), unicorn (horn does 1-8 Hit Points) and narwhale (horn inflicts 1d4 Hit Points).
    • Ravenloft: In the Realm of Terror booklet, when a PC performs extremely evil acts they have to make a Powers Check or suffer a punishment. One possible punishment is growing small horns on the PC's head that can do 1-2 Hit Points of damage by butting an opponent.
    • Forgotten Realms: In the supplement The Code of the Harpers, if a spellcaster creates a magical construct (golem, gargoyle, etc.) inside a Harper refuge, either the creator or the construct can be given a Chance Element. One possible Chance Element is horns that can inflict 1-4 Hit Points of damage when used to attack.
  • Basic D&D (Mentzer 1983) Dungeon Masters Rulebook: The Gargoyle and Horned Chameleon monsters can attack opponents with their horns.
  • 3rd Edition:
    • In Sword and Sorcery's Creature Collection, the following creatures can make horn/antler attacks: Amalthean ram, crescent elk, emperor stag, hornsaw unicorn, muskhorn, orafaun, Slarecian gargoyle.
    • Horned felldrakes possess two pairs of sharp, forward-pointing horns that they use to impale their foes.
  • OD&D Supplement IV Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes and the AD&D Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia
    • Yama's Buffalo (from the Hindu mythos) cab do 4-40 Hit Points of damage by goring with its horns.
    • Thor's goats Tanngrisner and Tanngjost can each do 9-72 Hit Points of damage by butting with their horns.
  • 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms
    • Supplement Hall of Heroes. The werebison can change into a minotaur-like form with a bison's head and two short horns. They charge head-first into their opponents, doing 1-4 Hit Points of damage.
    • Supplement Elminster's Ecologies, booklet "The Thunder Peaks and the Storm Horns". The yak has large horns that it uses when it makes a Dash Attack at an enemy and the serow is a goat-like animal with two dagger-like horns on its head that it uses against intruders.
    • Supplement MCA 11 Monstrous Compendium Appendix. The hornhead saurial (a humanoid with a head like a triceratops) can charge opponents and gore them with its horns.
  • Dragon magazine #199 article "Opening the Book of Beasts" has three examples from European mythology.
    • The calopus is a puma-like animal with two serrated horns. In combat it can either use a claw/claw/bite routine or impale opponents with its horns.
    • The monoceros has the body of a horse, the feet of an elephant and a four foot long, spiraled, needle-like horn in its forehead that 1-10 Hit Points of damage.
    • The yale is an antelope-like animal with two horns that can swivel to attack opponents on either side of it. Each horn does 1-8 Hit Points of damage per hit.
  • Polyhedron magazine #129. In the RPGA Living Jungle setting, an impala katanga is a shapeshifter that can take animal form or a Partial Transformation animal/biped form. In both forms, it can use its horns as a weapon against opponents.
  • One Minotaur race lets you use a gore attack when charging, push a target back, or use your horns as a melee attack instead of a weapon.
• Earthdawn. The Thundra beast uses its horn to attack opponents when it uses its Charging Attack on them.
• Gamma World
  • Mutant animals could have the Horns mutation. In 1st Edition rakoxen had them. In 2nd Edition hoppers did too.
  • In the adventure GW6 Alpha Factor, the mutant creatures known as the S're'daan and the Ba'crolbai had horns that they could use to attack opponents after charging into them.
• GURPS 3rd Edition.
  • Supplement Myth. The monsters called "The Fetch" normally attack with lightning bolts or spells, but in close combat they can butt opponents with their horns and do minor damage.
  • Supplement Technomancer. The Jackalope is a magical creature which resembles a small rabbit with antlers. It can inflict minor impaling damage with them.
• Hollow Earth Expedition. Creatures that attack with their horns/antlers include the triceratops, auroch, "Giant Unicorn" (a huge rhinoceros), Irish Elk (a giant deer) and wooly rhinoceros. The supplement Mysteries of the Hollow Earth adds the pentaceratops and styracosaurus (which were similar to triceratops), the pelorovis (similar to the auroch) and the brontotherium (another rhinoceros-like animal), as well as the following normal (surface world) animals: bull, deer and rhinoceros.
• In Nomine: one of the Numinous Corpus songs is Horns, which allows the user to grow horns on the top of their head and use them as a weapon.
• In Lejendary Adventures the following creatures attacked with their horns: bulls, the Cephalocorn Giant, the Gorgobos and the Black Rhinoceros.
• Marvel Super Heroes adventure MLBA1 Mutating Mutants. One of the opponents the PCs could face was a supervillain named Ramhorn. He had horns like those of a bighorn sheep implanted in his head and tended to charge head first into enemies.
• Mayfair Games' generic supplement Undead. The Death Dragon can strike foes with its horns, doing 4-24 Hit Points of damage.
• Midkemia Press supplement Heart of the Broken Lands.
  • The Friendly Beast is a grey-skinned monkey-like creature with two long, sharp horns that each do 1-4 Hit Points of damage.
  • The Thunderhoof is a large rhinoceros-like monster. It charges at targets and tramples them, then strikes them with its long horn.
• The Morrow Project main rules. The mutant animal known as the "Minimoose" (a dwarf moose) is noted as having a horn/antler attack that does the same damage as a claw attack.
• RuneQuest. The following Gloranthan creatures had horn/butt attacks: bison, broo, broobats, rhino, sable (antelope), sky bull, unicorn
• Space Opera adventure Fasolt in Peril. While lost in space, on an unknown planet the PCs encounter the Trelkoth, a huge rhinoceros-like alien animal with three horns that do Weapon/A damage.
• Elric!/Stormbringer: The Crimson Xoar and the unicorn can both attack with their horns.
• Judges Guild adventure Tegel Manor (revised and expanded, 1989).
  • In its true form the demon in The Salon had small horns that it could use to attack for 1-3 Hit Points of damage.
  • Gargoyles also have double horns that can do 1-3 Hit Points of damage.
  • The nightmare (an evil version of the unicorn) can do 2-8 Hit Points of damage with its horn.
• Classic Traveller
  • One possible attack form for alien animals was "Horns". They did 2d6 points of damage.
  • Judges Guild adventure Darthanon Queen. In the first scenario "The Dyson Wakes", the title monster is randomly generated. One of its possible attacks is "Horns", which is based on the animal combat rules.
• Varanae generic RPG supplement Monstrum 1. The Guide Horn is a horse-like humanoid monster with a horn in the center of its nose that can do 1-8 Hit Points of damage.
• Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Ogroid Thaumaturges can use their great horns to gouge at their enemies in close combat, doing more damage with them than many troops can do with their blades.
• Warhammer Fantasy Battle: Beastmen and Minotaurs frequently use their horns to gore and impale foes; Minotaurs in particular prefer to charge into battle with lowered heads to gore and impale the first rank of foes.
• There's a Yu-Gi-Oh! Equip Spell Card called Horn of the Unicorn; presumably, Monsters equipped with it attack by goring their enemies.

Toys

• BIONICLE's Kane-Ra bull and the Mix-and-Match Critter Rahi Nui, which has the head of a Kane-Ra, usually use this strategy. The Rahi Nui, at its first appearance, was in fact defeated by letting it drive its horns into a rock wall with so much force, it couldn't pull itself out. Strangely, the actual Kane-Ra toy is an aversion, as it has a jaw-snapping attack, and the horns are just decoration.

Video Games

• Atlas Reactor: Magnus has a Dash Attack called Horns Up, which involves having three hundred pounds of angry Stegosaurus-human-hybrid colliding into whoever is in the way. It damages the first enemy hit and deals damage in a "three spikes" pattern behind the initial target.

• Bug Fables: Kabbu the beetle uses his horn as his primary weapon. It can pierce through 1 point of enemy's defense, and is also used in most of his skills. Zombeetles can also attack the entire team by dashing through them with their horns, and the Beast can jab the party members or ram the entire party using its horns.
• Defense of the Ancients: All-Stars and Dota 2 has Magnus with his Skewer ability, which makes him charge forwards while impaling all units who stand in his way on his horn, dragging them along.
• The Qunari race from Dragon Age mostly have horns, but are never seen using the horns as weapons. It gets discussed by the Iron Bull from Inquisition; he did experiment with goring his enemies, but his target got stuck on his horns, and so Bull had a screaming man hanging from his head for the rest of the fight. He wisely gave up on the tactic after that.
• Dungeon Crawl has growing horns as a possible mutation for your character (or a normal thing if you play as a minotaur). This prevents you from wearing certain helmets, but grants an extra headbutt attack when attacking in melee. Getting mutated further can increase the size of the horns, improving the headbutt attack but further restricting the helmets you can wear.
• Dungeons: Minos will usually try to ram Deimos with his horns and has a charge attack performed with his horns.
• Dwarf Fortress: Most animals and monsters with horns can perform a gore attack, dealing blunt damage. The same goes for goring with tusks, like elephants.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • In the series' backstory during the Alessian Revolt against the Ayleids, the Divines themselves sent aid to the revolting Nedic people under Queen Alessia. In particular was the Aedric demi-god Morihaus, the "winged man-bull". Going with his "man-bull" theme, his favored style of combat was to gore enemies with his horns. When Alessia's divine champion, Pelinal Whitestrake, was cut to pieces after his battle with Umaril the Unfeathered (Big Bad leader of the Ayleids), Morihaus scared off the remaining Ayleids when he "shook the whole of the tower with mighty bashing from his horns." The tower in question was the massive White-Gold tower that now stands as the Imperial Palace in the Imperial City.
  • Minotaurs, said to be the result of Alessia's coupling with Morihaus as part of their Divine Date, are massive half-man half-bulls. They are known to use their horns in combat, which are hard and sharp enough to rend even the toughest armor.
• Fossil Fighters: Several vivosaurs, such as Tricera, use their horns as a form of attack.
• God of War: Minotaurs will sometimes attack Kratos with their horns, rather than using weaponry.

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: If Link startles certain species of large, herbivorous animals while standing in front of them — stags, water buffalos, mountain goats, moose and wooly rhinoceri — their reaction will be to lower their heads, present their horns and charge him down.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the Bokoblins, Moblins, and other monsters have grown some rather wicked horns compared to their previous appearance, and some are more than willing to run Link through with them. Link can do this too, but by Fusing the horns of dead monsters to whatever weapon he is carrying at the time, so it might not exactly count.
• Mega Man X series: Boomer Kuwanger (a stag beetle) uses this to throw X into the air. His brother Gravity Beetle (a rhinoceros beetle), creates a black hole in the air then uses his horn to toss X into it!
• Metroid: The insectoid Geegas, Zebs and Gamets will charge towards Samus with their horns.
• Minecraft: Goats will semi-randomly charge other mobs, running into them horns-first at high speed and sending them flying multiple blocks.
• Monster Hunter: Numerous monsters make use of their horns while attacking, such as the Diablos who uses them for hitting and headbutting. They're also frequently the source of a monster's more unique abilities, such as the Kushala Daora's wind barrier and the Chameleos' camouflauge and breaking them will prevent those abilities from being used.
• Pokémon:
  • The moves "Horn Attack", "Horn Drill", "Megahorn", "Horn Leech", and "Smart Strike".
  • Pokemon Black/White introduces the Legendary Trio of Terrakion, Cobalion, and Virizion whom all know "Sacred Sword". True to their Musketeer theming, the attack is basically them using their own horns as a sword. The Anime takes it even further and shows that the move causes a horn made of energy to emerge from their heads a la some sort of natural beam sword.
  • Keldeo (the honorary "fourth member" of the trio) can also learn Secret Sword. It should be noted that learning Secret Sword causes Keldeo to change form including its horn growing larger and more powerful.
• Spyro the Dragon: One of Spyro's original abilities is a high-speed charge with his horns. In Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon, he can also use a jump-and-dive downward headbutt.
• Spelling Jungle: Contact with the horn end of a rhinoceros, or the antler end of a moose in the sequel Spelling Blizzard, is lethal.
• Super Robot Wars: The Alteisen has a weapon called the heat horn, which resembles the classic Gundam commander antenna but can be super-heated. Its upgrade, Alteisen Reise, likewise has the improved plasma horn.
• Them's Fightin' Herds: Oleander (a unicorn), Arizona (a cow), and Texas (a bulll) have at least one move that utilizes their horns.
• Total War: Warhammer II: When fighting other big monsters, Stegadons — which, name aside, look more like ceratopsians — use an attack animations where they stab into their enemy with their horns to push it back or throw it to the side.
• Weaponlord: Jen-Tai can throw people using the ram-horns on her helmet.

Western Animation

• Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: Eatle can shoot beams from his horn after consumption.
• The Fantastic Four (1967) episode "Invasion of the Super Skrull". While fighting the Thing, the Super Skrull used Reed Richard's elastic power to shape his head into that of a ram and head-butt the Thing with his horns, knocking him off the top of a building.
• The Galaxy Trio episode "The Eye of Time". The Galaxy Trio goes through a Time Tornado and is sent back to the first century A.D. They end up in Scandinavia on Earth, where a Viking with a horned helmet charges head-first at Meteor Man.
• Tundro from The Herculoids not only has rhino-like horns along his snout, he also has a hollow horn on his forehead that shoots rocks.
• Looney Tunes
  • Porky Pig short "Picador Porky" (1937). Porky faces off against a bull in a bullfight. The bull tries to gore Porky several times.
  • Bugs Bunny short "Bully for Bugs" (1952). After Bugs accidentally tunnels into a bullring, he gets into a fight with Toro the Bull. Toro repeatedly tries to skewer him on his horns during their battle. In one scene, Toro swallows a rifle and finds that he can shoot bullets from his horns.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, unicorns and alicorns use their horns to cast magic, including combat magic. Particularly skilled and powerful individuals such as Twilight Sparkle can fire, or even rapid-fire, beams from their horns. On a few occasions they have also physically charged with the same horn lowered.
  • The page image for Equippable Ally shows Twilight using this ability.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Revival", Savage Oppress puts his horns to good use, ramming a Jedi headfirst and stabbing her with his horns before finishing her off with his lightsaber.

Real Life

• The sheer diversity of horned/antlered animals today and in Earth's past is a testament to the ostensible Truth in Television of this trope. However most examples from nature tend to be subversions: horns are primarily for display of fitness. Only when contenders for mating rights/territory/food are evenly matched are they used aggressively, though most of the resulting scraps are akin to wrestling matches. When things have Gone Horribly Wrong this doesn't stop horns being used as offensive weapons among species, especially when prey defend themselves against predators, but unlike the fictional examples it isn't their main function.
  • Certain animals do, however, play this trope straight, with dangerous headgear adapted specifically for combative purposes - examples include the horns of rhinos and cape buffalo, the tusks of wild boar, and the ossicones of giraffes which are used to strike each other during a rutting behavior called "necking". It's also been discovered that female hoofed animals are more likely to retain their horns in open environments such as grasslands specifically to defend themselves and their young from predators. This is especially apparent for larger or more robust species which can't benefit from speed or camouflage in the same way that their smaller contemporaries can.
• A more true-to-trope example of Real Life head-mounted weaponry can be found in swordfishes, sailfish, and the unrelated carpenter sharks (sawfish) and saw sharks. They sport an elongated rostrum used in hunting and defense.
• Double-Subverted with narwhal tusks, which aren't horns per se but oversized teeth. Although presumed for decades to have served as a weapon in defense or male/male competition, it's now known that their outer surface is riddled with sensory receptors that detect water pressure, temperature, salinity and particulate levels: to strike one tusk against another would be painful and overwhelming for both animals, as anyone who's gotten hit in the teeth or bit into something cold can tell you. What were thought to be "duels" between male rivals are now theorized to be a form of peaceful tactile communication, conveying what sort of water conditions each male has been swimming through. Recent footage, however, has shown narwhals using their tusks while hunting to strike and stun fish for consumption... very carefully. To put it into perspective, it'd be like having one of your teeth grow as long as your arm and using it like a baseball bat.
  • However, a Narwhal tusk removed from a Narwhal can make for a suitable weapon! During the 2019 London Bridge terror attack, a Polish chef on duty at Fishmonger's Hall where the attack took place immediately stepped up to try to help others hold the attacker off, ripping a mounted Narwhal tusk from a wall and using it to attack the terrorist. Though he sustained injuries in the fight, his efforts, along with those of numerous others prevented the deaths of many more than the 2 people brutally murdered by the terrorist.

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