Basic Trope: A power boost that comes at an extreme cost.
- Straight: Bob is able to use the Power Crystal to become much faster and stronger, but using it is extremely painful, with overuse possibly leading to death.
- Exaggerated: The Power Crystal gives Bob abilities on part with those of a god, but overuse could eventually destroy the entire world.
- Downplayed: The Power Crystal doesn't have much of a drawback beyond making Bob violently ill for a while.
- Justified: The Power Crystal works by pushing all of Bob's vitals to dangerously-high levels.
- Inverted: The Power Crystal makes Bob much weaker, but using it is akin to a drug high.
- Subverted: The Power Crystal causes excruciating pain... for a few seconds. Afterwards it quickly goes away, leaving the power boost behind.
- Double Subverted: A few minutes later, the pain comes back tenfold, and Bob is at severe risk of dying from overuse.
- Parodied: Bob using a power crystal causes him to be unable to taste food or have afternoon naps.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- The Power Crystal doesn't offer any kind of upgrade in power.
- The Power Crystal is a straight upgrade with no ill effects.
- Enforced: "You can't just give the characters an upgrade that powerful without any drawbacks! That would totally break the story!"
- Lampshaded: "Using the Power Crystal for too long can kill you, huh? I guess that much power would come with drawbacks."
- Invoked: The creators of the Power Crystal knew that someone would try to harness its energy for destruction, so they made it utterly cripple anyone who tried to use it to empower themselves.
- Exploited: Bob deliberately lets Emperor Evulz use the Power Crystal to become stronger and simply weathers the storm afterwards, knowing that Emperor Evulz will eventually die from overusing the Crystal without Bob having to lay a finger on him.
- Defied: The Power Crystal is destroyed on account of it being too dangerous to use.
- Discussed: "The thing about crazy boosts is that you tend to pay for it down the line."
- Conversed: "I mean, who would use an upgrade that could kill them in a few minutes? It's just not worth the risk!"
- Deconstructed: Using the Power Crystal causes Bob lifelong health problems. It pushed his body so hard that his future as a warrior is in doubt since he now can't push himself without getting ill.
- Reconstructed: The problems that Bob suffers from prompts Alice to develop a way to harness the energy of the Power Crystal safely, thus allowing her to take up Bob's sword and get the benefits of the Crystal without any of the drawbacks.
- Played For Laughs: ???
- Played For Drama: ???
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