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In Real Life, taunting your opponent will do nothing but irritate them. In games, they often do more.

"Taunt" is a common debuff or utility attack in games. Common effects include:

  • To Draw Aggro on the attacker, either to protect more fragile allies or to set the unfortunate enemy up for a Counter-Attack.
  • Creates status debuffs on the target(s), often defensively.
    • In rare cases, it may create status buffs on the target(s), often offensively as a trade-off to the before-mentioned defensive debuffs.
  • Creates a Status Buff for the user.
  • Cherry Tapping

Note, they can be Awesome, but Impractical and still count for this trope, they just need to do something besides mocking thy enemy; otherwise, it's a Taunt Button.


Examples:

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    Card Games 
  • In Battle Spirits, cards with the "Clash" ability forces the opponent to block if possible.
  • In Before I Kill You, Mister Spy..., taunting a captured spy raises his point value.
  • The Magic: The Gathering card Taunting Elf causes all of the defending opponent's creatures to block it when it attacks.
    • The "Nettling Imp" and similar cards also fit this trope despite having the exact opposite effect of forcing a specific creature to attack or die.

    Folklore 
  • In Celtic folklore, being satirized by a bard is pretty much the same as being cursed; it could give you boils, affect your abilities as a warrior, or even kill you.

    Literature 
  • In Epic by Conor Kostick, this has the role of a Chekhov's Skill: when Erik is creating a new character in the eponymous game, he's mildly interested by the fact that one of her skills is "mock" but doesn't know how he'd ever use it. While he and his friends are trying to take down the Red Dragon, their "fail-safe" plan fails, and Erik does the only thing he can think of: the "mock" skill, which causes the dragon to turn its attention to him and allow them to get their routine back under control.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons 5E:
    • Bards get a cantrip called Vicious Mockery, a string of insults laced with subtle magical enchantments which deals out a small amount of psychic damage to a target. Given very few enemies have resistance to psychic type damage, if you really need to deal some damage resistances be damned, this is a decent fallback. Plus there are few more reliable ways to get a laugh out from the rest of the table than finishing off a tough creature with a specially-prepared insult. In addition to the damage, a successful use of the spell gives the target a disadvantage on its next attack, which is eminently useful against powerful foes or in a more vulnerable party.
    • Lore Bards can also use the Cutting Words class feature to give enemies a negative modifier to their dice rolls.
    • Swashbuckler Rogues' Panache ability and the Paladin spell Compelled Duel both have the effect of imposing disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than the creature who used the ability/spell. Panache also blocks opportunity attacks against those same creatures.
  • Spheres of Power: The Guardian sphere lets you taunt an enemy, making it easier for them to hit you, but harder for them to hit anyone else. The Sentinel class also gives you a bonus to attack and damage rolls against them.
  • Warhammer Fantasy: Wulfrik the Wanderer has a special ability where he bellows a string of crass insults at his intended target in their language, infuriating them so much they immediately accept his challenge, even if he's a giant armored Viking and they're a wizard wearing robes or a goat-man with a stick. It also lets him bypass bodyguards meant to take challenges on their principal's behalf.
  • Zombicide: Invader: The Survivor character Vivian starts with the "Taunt" ability. When she uses it, Xenos in the targeted zone immediately move toward her, ignoring other targets.
  • SenZar: Taunting can be used for free to draw aggro, or, taking a combat action, as a Presence Attack.
  • Fabula Ultima: The Fury's Provoke skill enrages one target into attacking the user, hobbling the target with a nasty status effect while simultaneously drawing their aggro.

    Video Games 
  • Chest: At the start of the Hyroin II fight, Capulet has the choice of taunting the boss. Doing so causes the boss to get a 200% attack boost while reducing his accuracy to 5%.
  • This can become a necessity in Morrowind if you're sent on a mission to eliminate someone. Murder is against the law, but if you can provoke the target into attacking you, you can fight back and kill them completely legally under self-defence. Amusingly, just taunting them is often not enough - you have a relationship measure that, if it sinks too low, simply leads the target to believe that you are Not Worth Killing, and they will ignore you no matter how much you taunt them. If however, you compliment and/or bribe them into liking you better, you gain enough of their respect that your taunts are effective. Then they'll pull out their weapon and go to town. Contrarily, if they were sufficiently aggressive even a failed taunt can be enough if you exit the conversation — mechanically a successful taunt increases the target's Fight statistic, but Fight is also increased the worse the NPC's disposition to you is, and a failed taunt makes them like you less.
  • In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, each character has an action that can be activated with the R1 button and varies from style to style. Among these are taunts that heal a small portion of health and taunts that boost attack power for a period of time. These were largely removed in the next games, with Havik retaining the self-healing taunts and a few characters in Armageddon having attack-boosting taunts.
  • In Diablo II, the Barbarian has the taunt ability, which lowers an enemy's defenses, and more importantly, provokes ranged attackers into fighting up close.
  • Street Fighter:
    • In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, each character's Personal Action (read: "taunt") has its own individual Status Buff. For example, Q (already something of a Mighty Glacier/Stone Wall) can bolster his defense with each taunt, for a maximum of three times. Same goes for Makoto, but it's her attack power that increases for 1 hit only.
    • Dudley's taunt has him toss a rose at the opponent, which can be used for Cherry Tapping.
    • Dan's taunt can extend his jump distance when used midair and, in IV, can even stop several Ultra Combos if timed properly. His Legendary Taunt Super Combo, which consists of Dan performing all his various taunts in a row, also counts in a way; as it can be canceled into his Ultra Combo, several Dan players are known to throw it out as psyche-out tactic, perhaps most famously seen with Justin Wong's Marvel Madness 2011 triumph over Air. Dan Hibiki in V has his V-Skills that're taunts. Now he's learned to weaponize them thanks to them, but has the catch of filling up the opponent's meter.
    • Street Fighter V has G's "Message to the People," which is basically a presidential speech. While talking, G's Critical Gauge constantly fills up; the full speech (which lasts roughly 25 seconds) fills it completely.
    • Street Fighter 6: Blanka starts with three Blanka-chan dolls and has to use a taunt to recover one.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
    • If Kirby taunts while having a Copy Ability, he loses it. (This allows him to acquire a new, more useful copy ability, or regain the ability by reusing his Neutral B. Kirby also happens to have one of the fastest taunts to help lose a Copy Ability quickly.)
    • Luigi's down taunt works as a Meteor Smash, and Snake's taunt can damage with the box.
    • Greninja's down taunt does damage and launches the opponent upwards if they are hit by the water fountains.
    • In the Game Mod Brawl−, several taunts become practical. Mario's "cap" taunt makes him Metal Mario, and Meta Knight's "Fight me" taunt gives the opponent a Beam Sword (in reference to his honourable nature).
    • Kazuya’s Side Taunt is Demon’s Wrath, a four hit combo that is the most powerful taunt attack in the game. That said, it has very little actual practical applications in an actual game but it can be good for mind games.
  • Eternal Champions allowed taunts to drain an opponent's "inner strength," which was needed to perform special attacks. Since the CPU could pull off any moves at any time without regard to their inner strength, this mostly just meant you, the player, never got to use any special moves in arcade mode because your enemy would immediately taunt away your means to do them.
  • In X-Men: Next Dimension, taunting charges up the super meter faster than most moves. Rogue's is also her only default projectile.
  • In Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Polimar can charge up his attack power by using his normal taunt or performing the Storm Kamae special, which causes him to pose and gives him access to 3 followups. This is represented by three Polimar emblems on the bottom of the screen; one lights up each time he does either.
    • Also, the emblems allow him to cancel any of his ground specials with another special (one cancel per emblem, and you can also keep cancelling the slide followup from Storm Kamae back into Storm Kamae to psych the opponent out). Having three emblems is also the only way Polimar is able to use his Level 3 Hyper Combo.
    • Doronjo's taunt, a blown kiss, also doubles as a short range missile. It even doubles as her assist move!
  • Team Fortress 2:
    • All classes have at least one taunt that can be used as an attack, such as the Scout's Home Run, the Soldier's Kamikaze (and Lumbricus Lid), the Pyro's Hadoken, Execution, Armageddon, and Gas Blast, the Demoman's Decapitation, the Heavy's Showdown, the Engineer's Dischord and Organ Grinder, the Medic's Spinal Tap, the Sniper's Skewer, and the Spy's Fencing. These were all deliberately so slow and obvious that one would have to be an idiot to be hit by them. This was intentional, as it was meant to be a way to defeat your opponent in the most humiliating manner possible, hence most of them have achievements for actually killing someone.
    • All taunts switch the player's camera to third person, so they can be used to look around corners without exposing yourself.
    • When the Medic taunts with the Kritzkrieg, he regains 10HP. If he taunts with the Amputator, all nearby allies regain health, which is meant as a primary source of healing in Medieval Mode.
    • Some weapon's effects involve performing a taunt, though they generally use normal weapon inputs instead of the taunt input (the latter may or may not do the same thing). Heavy and Scout taunt to consume food items. Engineer's Eureka Effect taunt teleports player back to spawn or his teleporter exit. Pyro's Phlogistinator performs a taunt when activating its Limit Break as a tell, though you're invincible when doing so.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Deadpool's taunt, a speech bubble, can also be used as an attack.
    • It gets better in the Ultimate version: Deadpool can cancel into and out of a taunt, making it a tool for combos.
    • Thor has an extra taunt; a long-winded speech that fills his team's hyper bar as he continues to speak.
    • Taunts can also be used to bait attacks pretty well, as you can still call assists (if rush in on Spider-Man as he calls you a loser, you'll have to eat Akuma's Shoryuken for example). You can also cancel a taunt into a crossover combination (So if you try to attack Zero as he compares you to a training program, you'll have to eat the entire opposing team's Super Moves at the same time). Last but not least, you can X-Factor cancel out of a taunt (meaning if you attack a taunting opponent, they'll go into their Super Mode and have the perfect opportunity to unleash a deadly combo). So the only time it's safe to attack a taunting opponent is if they have no Hyper bars, already used X-Factor and are down to the last character on the team.
  • In the Sengoku Basara series, many taunts have an effect on the character's moveset, for example, powering up one of their special attacks. They can also be used to charge the Basara Attack Gauge.
  • Some characters' taunts in Jump Super Stars have special effects; for example, Eve gets a super jump. The stunning kiss from above is included too, but it goes to... Kazuki. The sequel Jump Ultimate Stars expands this to all characters, with effects including Train of Black Cat loading more bullets to make his next normal attack fire a burst of shots or Lenalee of D.Gray-Man being able to triple jump next time she takes to the air.
  • The taunting action in Assassin's Creed II makes an opponent attack sooner, so you don't have to wait as long to counter the attack.
  • In Mabinogi, the giants' Taunt skill attracts the aggro of all nearby monsters, taking the pressure off any teammates.
    • Giants also get a skill that makes them virtually invincible but immobilizes them, so Taunt is a good way of attracting enemies within range when they use said skill.
  • Art of Fighting was the first fighting game to have this feature. Taunting affects the opponent's spirit gauge, lowering it, which limits their ability to use special attacks. Specials also suffer from reduced range and become weaker as the gauge depletes. Art of Fighting's spirit management system and use of taunts offered a strategic element meant to prevent players from simply spamming special attacks.
  • In earlier iterations of The King of Fighters, taunting lowers the other player's power bar. In more recent installments, it actually does the reverse, allowing opponents to gain a bit of meter.
  • In BlazBlue, taunting in story or arcade mode completely fills your heat meter (useful in story mode if you have to end a fight with a special move to unlock a given ending).
    • Certain characters can cancel attacks with a taunt to chain combos more effectively.
  • In the Star Control games, the Pkunk's special action is taunting its opponent — this doesn't harm the opponent, but does recharge the Pkunk's combat batteries.
  • In Devil May Cry, taunting restores your Devil Trigger gauge and boosts your Style Gauge. Of course the higher on the Gauge you are the longer and more elaborate the taunts get.
  • Devil May Cry 5 brings all new taunts with additional functionality. With a high style rank, Nero is able to load explosive bullets into his gun with one taunt and rev up his sword in another. After beating the game, he also gets a taunt where he chews some gum, healing a small section of his health.
    • The air taunts added add an extra level of complexity to the game, as while V's taunts are purely aesthetic (basic taunts are already good enough when your Familiars do all the fighting anyway), both Dante and Nero's taunts have additional functionality. Nero's air taunt, in which he kicks off his sword like a skateboard, acts as a pseudo double jump, granting additional air time, while also allowing him to rev up his sword for additional damage. Dante's on the other hand has him throw out a rose, which can launch enemies into the air, opening up the possibility of more complex air combos, like this one.
    • There are also the EX Provocations and Bloody Palace Taunts, the former requiring a hefty cost of almost a million red orbs to get them for each character, and the latter requiring the character beat the Bloody Palace mode. The EX Provocations have the character perform an elaborate dance for 30 seconds, slowly building Style and Devil Trigger the longer the taunt goes on for, raining down red orbs if the final style is high enough. As for the Bloody palace taunts, while Nero's only changes his eye colour, V and Dante's have an effect on combat, with V's taunt allowing him to deal some damage with his cane rather than needing his familiars to all of it, and Dante's grants additional 20% damage if his DT gauge is full, while also reducing damage by 20% if it's empty.
  • The spiritual successor to Devil May Cry, Bayonetta also allows you to use one of two taunts (depending on your equipped weapons) based on whether you tap or hold the taunt button. Unlike Devil May Cry it has an extra purpose to gameplay - enemies Turn Red when taunted and become faster and stronger but killing them awards more Halos.
  • In zOMG!, the Taunt ring is used to draw enemies' attention. Higher rage ranks will induce status debuffs.
  • Pokémon:
    • The move Taunt is used to make the target only use offensive moves.
    • Torment prevents the target from using the same move twice in a row.
    • Growl, Leer, and Screech reduce the opponent's stats.
    • Flatter and Swagger make the opponent's attack stats raise, but confuses them.
    • Parting Shot lowers the foe's stats and switches the user out.
    • Notably, Taunt, Torment, Flatter and Parting Shot are all Dark-type moves.
  • Mogul Khan, The Axe, a hero in Defense of the Ancients, has this as one of his spells. While buffing himself up with tons of extra armor, he taunts his enemies magically such that all nearby enemies are forced to attack him, preventing them from attacking anyone else for a few seconds.
  • In Super Dodgeball for Neo Geo, characters from both teams can charge a meter to unleash an unavoidable, highly damaging team attack. The only way to prevent it is to lower the enemy's meter by taunting him.
  • Final Fantasy series:
    • The DS remake of Final Fantasy IV added a provoke ability that can be given to a character (almost always Cecil, the party Tank). The game-breaking part is, it's a passive ability: The character always directs enemy single-target attacks at him, which combines well with giving him the Counter ability. For extra survivability without losing on damage, putting him in the back row and giving him the Reach ability is also possible.
    • Tidus's Provoke skill in Final Fantasy X, if successful, makes an enemy attack him only, or even drives down the enemy's accuracy. It sounds like a spell, but it's performed through a rude gesture and sometimes a verbal taunt. "Hey hey hey!"
    • Final Fantasy XIII has this as an ability for the Sentinel role. The default tank, Snow, just waves the enemy forward and says something like 'Come on!' or 'I can take it'!
    • The first appearance of the Provoke ability in the series is Final Fantasy III, as the special command of the Viking class. The first pure tanking build in the series was a Viking spamming its taunt and Dual Wielding shields to absorb all single-target attacks.
    • Final Fantasy XIV has two types of taunts for the tank jobs. The tanks each all have a single-target ranged pull ability (Paladins throw their shields, Warriors will tomahawk their axes, Dark Knights will shoot dark energy from their hands and Gunbreakers drag their gunblades on the ground to spark lightning and sort of launch it at an enemy) with the added effect of "increases enmity", which can be spammed and is meant to be used to start fights. The Tank Role action "Provoke", usable by all tanks, forces you to the top of an enemy's aggro list, the intended function being to peel a boss off of a non-tank party member in case mistakes were made, and it has a cooldown which makes it an emergency tool, like if the main tank suddenly died and has to get back in the fray immediately upon being revived, or an off-tank in a raid has to take over before things get out of hand.
  • In Dragon Age: Origins, Taunt is a generic Warrior class skill used to instantly boost all nearby enemies' aggro, making them attack the tank instead of weaker party members. In Dragon Age II, it is part of the Warmonger talent tree and has an even better effect, transferring all aggro towards other party members to the tank.
  • Lee Chaolan from Tekken has one where he leans back and wags his finger at his opponent, beckoning them to come at him. The thing is, while this may look like a taunt, it also has the more prominent utility of being an alternate stance that gives him access to moves that are great at countering a reckless charge, which is the likely reaction for someone who falls for the taunt. A second one has him lean in and say "Come on!" to the opponent, but if they try to punch him during the taunt, he flips behind them, landing in a perfect position to attack.
    • Perhaps a stronger example would be Bryan Fury's taunt. You don't have to commit to it (you can escape the animation simply by pressing forward) and it does no direct damage but the knee lift is unblockable and by correctly timing the escape after it connects you can combo into things like his Jet Upper. Taunting near the wall is a very common Bryan tactic as the unblockable knee makes for a scary pressure tactic (since you can dupe an opponent to either block an unblockable or break out of the taunt to rush them down when they try to anticipate it). The taunt itself can also provide move buffs if you let it play to completion.
  • In League of Legends, Rammus, Shen and Galio have taunt abilities. Taunts make their target incapable of performing any action but autoattacking, and will interrupt a channeled spell, useful in itself.
    • Rammus' taunt reduces enemy armor. He has another ability that increases his defense and hurts people who hit him, with obvious synergy.
    • Shen has a dash ability that taunts all the units that he passes through, which can be handy for directed them away from a fleeing ally.
    • Galio's ultimate unleashes a powerful explosion, but he has to channel to do it. But because it also taunts everyone nearby, it prevents them from running out of range, and makes it much harder to interrupt the channel. The explosion also increases in strength based on how many times he's hit while channeling it.
  • Every tank spec in World of Warcraft has a taunt, which boosts the tank's threat level to that of their target's current target and forces the target to attack them for a few seconds no matter what.
    • For a while the Paladin's Hand of Reckoning taunt used to deal damage, although the amount wasn't significant.
  • Most of the Shin Megami Tensei games have a "Taunt" spell, which increases enemy attack power while severely lowering their defense. Combined with Dekaja, a Status-Buff Dispel, this can be a very effective ability.
    • Changed entirely in Devil Survivor: it makes enemies more likely to attack the user (instead of their allies) and buffs their defense.
  • Scarface: The World Is Yours: Taunting helps to fill out the Balls meter, speeding you on to another Blind Rage.
  • In Super Monday Night Combat, taunting rewards the player with a little bit of cash. This is because the match is televised in-universe, so the players are rewarded for posing for the fans.
  • Tales Series:
    • In Tales of Symphonia, taunting restores some of the Unison Attack gauge.
    • Taunting in Tales of Vesperia boosts the Overlimit gauge by a significant amount, but multiple abilities give it additional effects, such as restoring HP/TP and making enemies target or not target you. Raven has another practical use for it in that it causes enemies struck by a particular arte of his to explode when he does it.
    • In addition to retaining the TP recovery, taunts in Tales of Xillia have other functions for some of your party members: Milla gains the ability to charm foes, while Elize switches giving extra power to either her martial or arcane artes. Rowen gets a skill that makes him Immune to Flinching while taunting, which has a variety of uses.
  • In God Hand, Gene's taunt pisses off enemies, making them stronger, and raises the Dynamic Difficulty - but it also refills his God Hand gauge and allows him to lure enemies out of the pack. This game is all about effective crowd control dynamics, making well-used taunts the key to success.
  • The Wing Commander series has a special keyboard command for taunting enemies, which can make the target of the taunt redirect their attack to you from whatever they were previously shooting at. This is particularly useful when the enemy is targeting the subject of your Escort Mission, which usually has the defensive strength of wet tissue paper.
  • Between versions of Virtua Fighter 5, Jeffrey's Threat Stance was changed from a raised knee to a taunt that involved him beating his chest and snarling at the opponent. The chest-beating taunt did minor damage and knockback to the opponent, but more importantly, set the opponent up for any number of Jeffrey's massively damaging combos.
  • Taunts have appeared in a few Koei games:
  • Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium has a specific example. Normally taunting will raise your opponent's super meter, so this is generally not practical and in fact will harm you. However, should you be coming towards the end of a round and your opponent happens to be using K-Groove with a near-full bar, taunting at this point will push the meter over the edge and into a raged state. Again, could be bad (since you just handed them a level 3 super) but once the round ends, their meter will be empty regardless of the outcome because a K-Groove meter that's in the process of draining will not carry over to the next round.
  • In general, Professional Wrestling video games reward taunting by bringing you closer to being able to execute your finisher. Particularly in the Def Jam series of video games, you won't be able to execute your finisher without taunting (taunting with a full power meter puts you into "Blazin'" mode, which then enables you to execute your finisher; most pro wrestling games simply allow you to execute a finisher at any time once your power meter is full or you have a finisher stocked).
  • Skullgirls intends to implement this with subtle buffs your character can gain after a taunt. The first example of this, Peacock, has it so that if you successfully pull off a taunt, the item that will come down for her next fully-charged Shadow of Impending Doom will always be the one based off of Hsien-Ko's Tenrai-Ha (which is slightly more damaging than the other possibilities).
    • The DLC characters Big Band and Eliza also has this mechanic. Pulling off Big Band's taunt will upgrade the next level one super he uses, adding Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs to Super-Sonic Jazz and a combo-able version of his air throw to Tympani Drive. Eliza's taunt causes all attacks done during the next time spent as Sekhmet to heal her for part of the damage done, as well as allowing her to use her Lady of Slaughter super as Sehkmet, which can normally only be done as Eliza. Robo-Fortune's taunt will double the number of missiles in her next Headdrone Salvo.
    • For most other characters who've since received taunts, these have token effects such as restoring a negligible amount of health (Valentine eating a chocolate bar), or granting the opponent an infinitesimal amount of meter (the rest). Averted in Parasoul's case; taunting gives a 100% chance that the next Egret Call she dismisses will say "Well, excuuuuuuuse me, Princess!".
  • The DLC character Sam in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance can taunt his enemies, which causes them to glow red, attack more aggressively and makes their attacks do block damage along with making them uncounterable, but it also makes them more predictable and greatly lowers their defense, allowing Sam to do double damage to most enemies and cut weaker enraged enemies apart with his normal attacks. This also works splendidly against bosses as well.
  • Monkey can do this in Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. It can either be used to draw enemies to him (and therefore away from Trip), or to goad the Bullfight Boss to run into walls.
  • Every character in Jojos Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle has multiple taunts, which can lower their opponent's Heart Heat gauge when they're prone. Joseph also has a counter where he predicts his opponent's next sentence to gain an entire bar of his Heart Heat gauge and increase the strength of his hamon attacks.
    • Josuke manages to invert this: one of his moves causes his opponent to taunt his hair. Cue attack buff.
    • Rohan also somewhat inverts this: if he has been taunted, he can spend a taunt to get indignant about having been offended. This allows him to regain the Heart Heat he lost.
    • Akira has an additional taunt where he rocks on his guitar, gaining up to a full Heart Heat gauge.
  • In One Piece: Grand Battle! Rush (brought to the states as just One Piece: Grand Battle) as well as the American-made sequel, Grand Adventure, Crocodile's taunt makes him whip out a poisoned version of his claw, meaning that any attacks with the claw that connect will poison his opponent.
  • Planescape: Torment has Morte, the floating skull. His "Litany of Curses" ability causes enemies to chase down and attempt to engage in melee combat with Morte (even if it's a ranged attacker like a Mage) while applying multiple debuffs to them (reduced attack, damage, saving throws, and Armor Class). He levels it by example; if he hears an NPC get angry and start swearing, he makes a mental note of whatever they said for future reference. Not only does this increase the penalty toward the saving throw against the effect, it also adds new things for Morte to say when he uses it.
  • Saints Row: The Third has Killbane's Mask as a special item you can take after beating him the ring. Normally your taunts will just piss rival gang members off, but taunting with the mask on will set them ablaze, giving a new literal meaning to the term "Epic Burn."
  • In Sid Meier's Pirates!, shouting a taunt during a swordfight will briefly tilt the "advantage" bar more in the taunter's favor, making it much easier to dodge and counter the next swing. Understandably, taunting at the wrong time and getting stabbed for it doesn't have quite the same effect.
  • Soulcalibur: Xianghua's taunts are an integral part of her fighting style. Her feints are accompanied by a taunt to make her seem open to attack, as are her counter stances, which are indicated by a brief purple glow on her sword. If she successfully baits an attack, she auto-impacts it and says, "Gotcha!", then immediately follows up with an auto-counter. She also taunts whenever she cancels an attack, which is indicated by, "Just kidding!", and can cancel her evasive moves as well which is indicated by, "Hey!".
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1: For much of the early going, Reyn is your damage sponge, whose job is to divert the enemy's attention by drawing aggro to himself, which is what he has "Mad Taunt" for. It's his Talent Arte, which boosts his aggro so that the enemy has no choice but to lock onto him. Plus, he has multiple Artes designed to draw aggro and refill his talent meter at the same time, meaning, he can reuse Mad Taunt, just as its effects have begun to wear off. Thereby ensuring it's always Reyn time.
  • Banzai Pecan v1.2.0. adds this feature wherein by taunting foes fills your Heat Meter but drives them to attack aggressively.
  • Warcraft III's Taunt forces the closest enemies to attack the taunting unit, and is used by the Mountain Giant, the unit with the most HP of all standard ground units. The Pandaren Brewmaster has this when in Storm Earth And Fire mode (splits into Storm, Earth, and Fire pandas, and only dies if all three are killed), since it allows his slightly more fragile elements to escape.
  • In EarthBound, some enemies can "say something nasty" that affects a player character, lowering their Guts stat.
  • In Kamen Rider Battride War, Kamen Rider Den-O's taunts fill his super gauge for as long as you perform them, which makes it easier to use his Super Mode.
  • In Heroes of the Storm, one of the heroic skills of Varian Wyrnn is Taunt, when activated, forces an enemy hero to attack him for a second.
  • In Hearthstone there are minions with the Taunt ability (and those that don't have it can be given it via other minions abilities or spells) that must be killed before the other creatures or the player can be attacked. However, it only works on attacks, spells and hero powers are exempt from having to attack Taunt creatures. There are also spells that can Silence a minion (remove any special effects it might have, such as Taunt, Deathrattle which triggers something when the minion dies, or other such things) or that target and damage or outright destroy minions with Taunt.
  • In Dragon Ball FighterZ, Android 18 can call her brother 17 for various assist attacks. One of them is a long taunt where he warns the opponent's allies to not interfere with the fight between 18 and whoever she's currently fighting. He isn't kidding: if the opponent calls for an assist while 17 is talking, 17 will automatically counter it before it even starts, causing decent damage.
    • From the same game comes Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta. One of his moves is a quick taunt that builds up a level system (goes up to level 7) that empowers his next usage of either of his supers, as well as building the super meter. At level 7, he gets access to an alternate Meteor Attack that is a One-Hit Kill if it connects.
  • In the Yakuza series, taunting starts off as nothing more than simply enraging enemies within its area of effect, but can be upgraded to charge up a character's HEAT gauge on a successful taunt. In 0 and Kiwami, taunting is one of the actions covered by the "Quick-Change Clothes" in Zero, and the "Change-Up Taunt" skill in Kiwami, allowing for instantaneous changes in combat style while performing a taunt, while in Judgment and Lost Judgment, pissing off an enemy with a taunt opens them up to the "EX Infuriating Counter" EX action.
  • In Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, the Knight class’s Taunt skill drives its target Berserk, making them attack the nearest unit.
  • In Bug Fables, Kabbu's Taunt skill makes every enemy in the field target him during their turn. Similarly, Zasp can also taunt a random party member, preventing them from using skills, items or turn relay.
  • In the Untitled Goose Game, honking can allow the goose to distract a human and lure them the wrong way, and/or give said human an in-universe Jump Scare that accomplishes an objective.
  • In the tie-in game to Ghost Rider (2007) taunting enemies will fill up a good chunk of your super meter. The downside is that Ghost Rider will stand in one place for several seconds during the taunt, which leaves you very vulnerable to enemy attacks, and naturally being attacked during the taunt will interrupt it and leave you without gain.
  • Every character's first learned special move in Brutal: Paws of Fury is a taunt, which leaves you wide open but also recovers a little bit of health.
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak, Van has a craft called "Coin Bullet" that has him fire five 10-mira coins to the enemies in that path. He then ends up gaining a "Hate Up" status effect where enemies have a high chance of going after him instead of his party members.
  • Red goblins, elite goblins, and turkey-family monsters in Miitopia all have a "tease" move which inflicts Anger on one or more party members if successful. This prevents them from using non-damaging moves, causes them to act twice per turn, and prevents the player character from being controlled.
  • Pizza Tower's taunt button has a lot of practicality;
    • It causes you to briefly pause without losing momentum, which can be useful when trying to blitz through tighter platforming segments at high speeds.
    • Taunting right as an enemy would damage you turns it into a Counter-Attack that can reflect projectiles.
    • Taunting at the exit gate will net you some extra points.
    • Getting a high combo lets you do a super taunt, which acts as a screen-clearing Smart Bomb.
    • It makes enemies near you immediately attack, which can cut down on waiting when you need to be hit by something that transforms you.

    Web Original 
  • In Noob, Sparadrap's warrior reroll Spärädräp has the Draw Aggro variant. He keeps using it by accident and one of its cosmetic effects is to make the avatar yell a hilarious Pre Ass Kicking One Liner.

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