History Main / SavageSetpiece

* In the jungle stage of ''{{VideoGame/Contra}} Hard Corps'', there's an apatosaurus whose back you land on after defeating one of the stage's minibosses. You have to walk up his neck and over his head to move on, but if you shoot his face, he'll unleash a stream of white-hot plasma DEATH out of his nose. In the Japanese version where you could take up to 3 hits before dying ([[OneHitPointWonder unlike the US version]]), this is the only attack in the game that [[OneHitKill kills you instantly]].

** Multiple installments have the Cuccos, vicious birds who many old-school gamers can recognize by name as being this trope. In every game they appear in and are attackable they'll gang up on Link and viciously destroy him should he poke them with his sword one too many times. In some games the barrage will stop if you survive long enough, but in others the only escape is to leave the area or die.

* The Creeper monster in ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' mod ''Lasting Light'' isn't hostile as long as you don't shine the lantern on him; if you do, you'll have a split second to douse the light before it kills you. Otherwise, the best way to deal with it is to kill the lantern and walk towards it, and it'll vanish for some time. What complicates matters is that [[WhoForgotTheLights the lantern is the only light source in the whole mod, it's literally pitch black without it]], and [[DarknessEqualsDeath if you stay in the dark too long, another monster, the Screecher, can kill you out of nowhere]].

** In ''{{VideoGame/The Legend of Zelda Oracle|Games}} of Seasons'', you repeatedly defeat the Moblin King until he's living in a one-room house in a village making bombs for sale, utterly disheartened at how low he's fallen, to the point where he makes no attempt to harm you. If you put a bomb in his stockpile, however, it's the final straw, and he and his mooks run outside, lock the place up, and watch the house explode — [[NonStandardGameOver with you still in it]].

** The Hinox are giant trolls who are always sleeping when you come across them. They'll only attack you if you wake them up, and it's pretty easy to avoid doing so if you're careful. In fact, if you're ''really'' careful, you can climb on top of them and steal their loot without stirring them.
*** The [[BossInMooksClothing Lynels]] are an ''extremely'' downplayed version of this. Being both highly skilled and territorial, Lynels have a much wider aggro range and a much higher chance of spotting a stealthy Link. They take a few seconds longer to aggro than most enemies once they see you, but don't let the standard "?" awareness indicator fool you. Their body language and the way they threateningly reach for their weapons demonstrate that they can see you perfectly well. ''[[NobleDemon They're warning you to leave their territory]] [[RunOrDie NOW]] or face a CurbStompBattle.'' And while they tend to spawn in the middle of obvious routes between plot-important locations, Lynels also have very specific fixed spawnpoints and a player willing to sidetrack a bit will never need to engage with one.

* The King P Statue in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' is normally nothing more than a background element found in the upper-right corner of New Pork City. However, you can choose to provoke it, in which case [[BonusBoss it will come to life]] and, [[PuzzleBoss unless you know a secret to defeating it]], hand you your ass on a silver platter.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' is absolutely ''lousy'' with these; the world is filled to the brim with monsters, a number of whom won't attack you unless you provoke them. The enormous Millesaurs are the earliest example. They're some of the largest and most powerful enemies in the game, but will ignore you as long as you leave them alone. The most extreme example is the game's BonusBoss: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Telethia, the Endbringer]]. It's completely non-hostile, but if you attack it, it's the single most powerful enemy in the game.

** In ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'', Vendrick and the Ancient Dragon are introduced as non-hostile [=NPC=]s, but hitting them a few times triggers a BonusBoss fight in both cases, and [[MarathonBoss grueling ones at that]]. ''Scholar of the First Sin'' also revamps the Dragon Shrine so that all Dragon Knights are initially non-hostile to you until you either hit them first, or show cowardice by trying to run past any of the Drakekeepers (and one single aggressive Dragon Knight at the end) that challenge you on your way to the Ancient Dragon.
* [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire O.D.]] from ''VideoGame/BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight'' is aloof but friendly and would rather just talk to you or lend you books than fight with you. You ''can'' even attack him from below to get your hands on a JokeItem and he won't retaliate. However, when he says "return this book before you leave or else", well, do it. [[BonusBoss Or]] [[ThatOneBoss else.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}''
** The Zombie Pigmen will walk right up to you and stare at you without attacking; they're content to wander around the Nether grunting and snorting without incident. Attack them, though, and not only do they attack full-on with their golden swords, but any other Pigmen within hearing range will come in swinging, and on normal difficulty, they can take off a quarter of your maximum health with one hit. Attacking them is of questionable value, too: all they drop is rotten flesh, gold nuggets (and the occasional ingot) and their swords, which isn't too valuable since if you've reached the Nether, you're likely have a much superior diamond sword, or at least an enchanted iron one.
** Wolves behave with a similar pack instinct, except you can also tame them so that they'll gang up on monsters that attack you. You may be forced to kill a wolf pack if you're looking to capture or tame a fox, however.
** Spiders are hostile at night, but turn into this in the sunlight, albeit without the group attack mechanic. However, due to how the AI works, you can kill them without fear of reprisal by maneuvering them into harmful obstacles like cacti, nudging them off cliffs, or starting a fire under their feet.

** Iron Golems that spawn naturally as village guards are content to ignore the player and patrol their village, hunting down threats like zombies, skeletons and Illager patrols or raids. Sometimes they'll "converse" with baby Villagers by offering them poppy flowers. If you hit one, it'll turn its might and wrath at you, and its uppercut attack has two properties: 1) it's one of the most powerful attacks in the entire game; 2) it lifts you up in the air high enough to cause FallingDamage. Golems you make yourself (visually distinct by lacking the vines of village golems) will not attack you in retaliation.
*** Even worse, if you hit a villager, all naturally spawned golems in the vicinity will attack you.

->"So the secret to getting past the Red Orb Guardian is to '''not''' attack him? But he's huge! He's nasty! He's the most lethal video game creature ever! He towers above you with fists like anvils! Skulls litter the ground at his feet! And you're not even supposed to '''try''' to take this guy on in a fight?...wow. Talk about counterintuitive."

See also BewareTheNiceOnes, RageBreakingPoint, HeroicNeutral and AwakeningTheSleepingGiant for story/characterization version of this trope. Compare HelpfulMook and ShopliftAndDie. Often overlaps with KillerRabbit.

** ''Monster Hunter Frontier'' has the Espinas, large, powerful Flying Wyverns whose thick, spiked hides deflect most attacks. Unlike the vast majority of hyperterritorial Monsters, Espinas is unusually docile and ignores Hunters even as they attack it — unless they manage to sufficiently piss it off, which results in many inexperienced players being introduced to a world of hurt. ''Especially'' with the Rare subspecies.
** Due to the updated engine in ''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld World]]'', most monsters are perfectly content to just pass you by without even giving you a second look (as compared to in the Old World games, where all monsters would immediately go for your jugular as soon as they saw you.) However, if you so much as poke them with your weapon, said monsters will immediately be ready for a fight.

* A not-really-an-enemy example: ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'''s Peter The Puppy. You have to escort him across a level full of dangerous enemies and pits. You can't hurt him, but if an enemy does, cute little Peter will morph into a giant monster and maul the heck out of you. Then he'll drag you to the nearest checkpoint before turning back to normal.