Basic Trope: Gaining a single Character Level isn't worth much.
- Straight:
- The heroic knight Bob gains a level, but only gains stat points in his dump stats.
- Bob gains a level where all his stats do increase, but they are not significant enough to result in an actual improvement in power.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob does not actually gain stats at all for some levels.
- Only Bob's health increases when leveling up, and each enemy deals a fixed percentage of damage, resulting in no difference in durability.
- Downplayed: Increasing Bob's level past a certain point has less effectiveness than prior levels.
- Justified: the stats are subject to the Square-Cube Law.
- Inverted: Each level that Bob gains makes him drastically more powerful than he was previously.
- Subverted: ???
- Double Subverted: ???
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: The effectiveness of each increase in level is highly inconsistent, with only some levels resulting in a significant increase in power for Bob, and others not resulting in power increases.
- Averted: All level ups result in at least a noticeable increase in power for Bob.
- Enforced: The developer applied the Square-Cube Law to teach players about the real life futility of performing certain activities excessively.
- Lampshaded: "I keep fighting and fighting, but I don't feel any stronger."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "Sometimes I feel like this game could do away with the leveling system entirely."
- Deconstructed: Because of the poorly designed leveling system, the game can feel unsatisfying at best, and gut-grindingly difficult at worst.
- Reconstructed: The game's Equipment-Based Progression makes up for it, though.
