History AttackItsWeakPoint / VideoGames

** ''VideoGame/{{The Legend of Zelda|OracleGames}} of Ages'': Octogon can only be damaged on its front. During the first half of the battle, it keeps its face pressed against the wall to counteract this, only becoming vulnerable when it turns around to fire at Link.

* In the final battle of ''VideoGame/SlyCooperAndTheThieviusRaccoonus'', [[BigBad Clockwerk]] needs to be hit in the areas where Carmelita has recently shot him with her shock pistol.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'':
** Happens with a variety of baddies, but the worst are the Regenerators and Iron Maidens. Scary as hell and nigh invincible, and you see the first one before you can even attack its weak point. They require a thermal scope on a sniper rifle,[[note]]They can be killed without the scope, but they have a colossal pool of HP and you can run out of ammo very quickly if you try to fight them this way.[[/note]] but always attack from close range. That means while you're trying to snipe them, they're eating, impaling, flailing at you and freaking you the hell out.
** After a certain point, using headshots on the regular mooks may just cause them to sprout CombatTentacles.
* Regenerators and Iron Maidens have nothing on the ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' [[DemonicSpider Reapers]], giant cockroaches who not only quickly regenerate lost limbs and heads, but can shield their weak point, a squishy white egg sac. A number of other enemies have weak points that may or may not require a partner to expose and exploit, such as Popokarimu's squishy under-abdomen, Ndesu's giant plaga growth, Uroboros' glowing red clusters, and [[spoiler:Wesker's]] concealable weak spot / [[spoiler:any rocket he catches in his hands]]. And of course, who could forget the ever-trusty [[BoomHeadshot bullet to the face]]?
* The bosses in the ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' series take minimal damage if hit anywhere other than a designated weak point, though blasting at that weak point really will deal out huge damage to them, like Justice from ''4'' for example, whose weak point is his tongue (pictured above). However, the first boss in the first game -- Chariot -- subverts this just a tad by having its armor blown off when its health gets down to a third, allowing you to fire at the soft, pink body underneath anywhere you wish.
** This is also the in-game manual's HandWave for why agents in the spinoff/parody ''Typing of the Dead'' are running around wearing keyboard-guns -- the typing feeds into an autotargeting mechanism which eliminates all risk of friendly fire and automatically discovers and isolates weak spots in targets.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' features normal {{Mook}}s that work like this. For example, {{Random Encounter}}s in Cleyra include sand-elementals where you actively need to target a little, pink heart-like part of it. Not realizing this fast enough can result in throwing away lots of HP and mana in battle against the main body of the {{Mook}}.

* ''VideoGame/{{Killer 7}}''

* Traditionally, the only way to harm Dracula's first form in the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games is to hit him in the head.
* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'', there is the giant mecha-centaur demon knight (well, at least it's original) called Eligor. To kill him, you have to attack his eyeball, which is for some reason on the back of his head. The only way to actually be able to damage him is to get onto his back, and getting there requires destroying a number of glowing red orbs on his legs to make him drop to his knees first.
* In a few boss battles in ''VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves'', particularly those fought in Sly's biplane or with Dimitri's speargun, the weak point is Dr. M, who is connected to the boss monster via the massive plug in his head.

* The ''VideoGame/{{MDK}}'' games.
* Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay''. One Terminator-like robot boss sports a huge flashing red button on his back reading "Do Not Push." The next boss combines this (hitting him in his vulnerable spot is literally the only way to hurt him) with a rather nasty form of GroinAttack (crushing his "vulnerables" between a pair of bricks).
** Nearly all the bosses have this -- Mecha-teddy has the gigantic yellow hole that opens up when you shoot his possessed dolly, the big caveman can only be dealt with by using your velociraptor to headbutt his groin, and then bite his ass....
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/MegaManZX''. The eight main bosses have a weak point, but hitting them there damages the [[TransformationTrinket biometal]] you are trying to take from them, resulting in costly repairs after the fight, or a rematch. The ideal outcome is to [[CherryTapping defeat them]] ''[[CherryTapping without ever hitting the weak spot]]''. A few bosses actually have annoyingly easy-to-hit weaknesses.

** There's another example in ''VideoGame/MegaManMaverickHunterX'', particularly in [[spoiler:Day of ∑]] when a mechaniloid went berserk. Its generator is its weak point. Accordingly...
-->[[spoiler:'''Chill Penguin]]:''' Shoot the generator X! Shoot the generator!

* Attempted justification in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'': the HumongousMecha's designer was an eccentric soul who felt that it needed a "personality flaw" to make it complete. Therefore the only part of the mecha which isn't practically invincible is the target-shaped box of sensors sticking off the side, without which the pilot is deaf and blind. This forces the pilot to open up the cockpit in order to see what he is doing, leaving the controls vulnerable to your missiles. Strangely, the weakest part of the cockpit is not [[MadeOfIron the guy sitting in it]].
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' this is justified: the back of the [[HumongousMecha Walking Behemoth]] Shagohod falls off [[spoiler: when you attempt to destroy it by blowing up a bridge from underneath it]] and the only part left unarmored is the back of the cockpit, which was never to be exposed. Shooting the threads with the RPG-7 also helps considerably.
* Beating Vamp is made a lot easier in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' if you shoot for the [[GroinAttack crotch]].

* [=GLaDOS=] in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' is [[spoiler: [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment a massive supercomputer taking up an entire room... but she also happens to have a massive Venus-like structure hanging out from the roof... with four glowing orbs on it (which are also massive).]] Hmmm... oh look, it's your old pal, the rocket turret!]]
* In ''VideoGame/Portal2'', [[spoiler: Wheatley]] tries to protect himself with shields. Too bad you have a portal gun.

* Tanks in the ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' games take realistic damage; shooting rockets to the front of the tank does minimal damage, more damage to the sides, and the most damage to the back. Smart players with this knowledge will always try to flank around to the back of the tank rather than take it head on.
* The battlewalkers in ''VideoGame/Battlefield2142'' can shrug off most everything short of a [[RammingAlwaysWorks suicidal transport pilot]]. However, there is a flimsy vent underneath that potentially allows someone with a pistol to inflict massive damage. The Titan supercarriers present a similar situation: they can only be damaged from outside by BLOC-3 missiles, but can be infiltrated to get to its creamy nuclear core.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleOfAges'': Octogon can only be damaged on its front. During the first half of the battle, it keeps its face pressed against the wall to counteract this, only becoming vulnerable when it turns around to fire at Link.

* Numerous bosses in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' are only truly vulnerable at one point on their body. The most notable is probably TheButcher -- the only part of his ''massive'' body that's vulnerable is his head, and even then, it's too high to reach normally ''or'' hit with ranged attacks. In round one, you can climb up his arms when he does [[TacticalSuicideBoss a certain attack]], but in round two, you have to throw telekinetic projectiles at him when he does the same attack. And he's ''much'' faster now.
* ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'': The Lady Luctopus' weak point is her heart... which is located in her head. Octopuses' hearts are located in their mantles, which makes sense.

* Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog's arch-nemesis Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is arguably the patron saint of using this trope, as most of his MiniMecha creations have an obvious weak spot on them (usually the cockpit) for Sonic to exploit. As for specific Eggman or non-Eggman examples across the series:

* Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando'' regarding spider droids:

* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsSquadrons'', destroying a capital ship's Power System creates ruptures on the ship's hull. Attacking these ruptures inflicts massive damage on the cap ship.

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'':
** Cackletta is the final boss, in smokey ghostly spirit form. You have to take down her hands and her head for her to expose her heart, which is her weak point.
** Against Queen Bean, you have to attack her arms to deflate them (She's HUGELY muscular) and to make her lose her crown on her head, cause you know, spikes hurt when jumping on it.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'': Even more drawn out in the final battle, the second in the series. You have to attack her tentacle legs, which enables you to attack the crown which enables you to attack the boss herself. And the crown regenerates after a while, rendering any attack to her useless. And if that wasn't enough, the legs also regenerate, sometimes forcing you to do the whole thing again.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'': The final boss. You begin the fight as Bowser. After you've dealt a certain amount of damage the boss fully heals and grows big. Then you must punch his stomach to make him spit out [[spoiler: the Dark Star core]]. Then you must suck it into Bowser's stomach where Mario and Luigi take over. Now you have to fight [[spoiler: an EldritchAbomination version of Fawful]]. His weak points are his legs and glasses, if you don't destroy the glasses first he will retract some of his legs while you are attacking. After killing his legs he will fall to the ground, revealing [[spoiler: the Dark Star core]], the boss' REAL weak point. You have approximately two turns to damage it before it escapes, and you have to REPEAT THE ENTIRE PROCESS untill he FINALLY dies. Phew.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'': The final battle is against a 12 foot tall monster with the full power of the Dreamstone. Its weak point is the crystal shard in its forehead, which it'll guard with its [[CognizantLimbs right arm]] if it's not taken out first.

** ''VideoGame/Pikmin1'': The Armored Cannon Beetle can only be harmed by attacking its abdomen. This is normally kept covered by its hard elytra, meaning that the player must first clog its air intake with a Pikmin when the beetle sucks in air for an attack, causing it to overheat and forcing it open its elytra in order to cool itself down.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfGraces'' striking an enemy with a move it's weak against provides you with a temporary damage bonus that fades with time or once your combo ends. It's possible to exploit multiple weaknesses on the same enemy to increase strength and duration of the bonus.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheEmpireStrikesBackAtari2600'': While the Imperial Walkers normally require forty-eight hits (thirty in the Intellivision) to take down, a flashing spot will occasionally appear on the Walker, which if the player strikes it will take down the Walker with one shot.
* The fight system in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' is turn-based, with a stop-the-needle QuickTimeEvent to attack opponents, but the fight against [[HumanoidRobot Mettaton EX]] is a {{Shmup}} in which you have to fire on the projectiles coming at you; during select rounds, you can also shoot Mettaton's "heart shaped core", which the CHECK command explicitly says is his weak spot. But all shooting it does is make his arms and then his legs fall off, reducing the maximum rating you have to reach to end the battle [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext because reasons]]. If your goal is to kill him, you can still attack during your turn, and he's just as susceptible to physical attacks as any other boss because [[spoiler:his ghost soul fused with his not-actually-invulnerable body when he unveiled his human form]].
* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', a shot to the Fusion Core of a Sentry Bot or PoweredArmor-wearing enemy will cause it to [[GoingCritical go critical and explode]], also taking out adjacent enemies.
** And in the older games, the best way to take out a [[LightningBruiser Deathclaw]] was to aim [[EyeScream for the eyes]]. [[ImprobableAimingSkills Hell of a shot to make]] against a charging 12-foot-tall reptilian mutant that is ShroudedInMyth and described invariably by the handful of lucky people to have met one and lived as a walking tank.
* Hit Creature Brains to destroy minor enemies in ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'', and attack the core of bosses to defeat them.
** And remember to shoot the Brightly Coloured Weak Spots on the [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Metal Gear REX]] to defeat it.

* ''VideoGame/ChickenPolice:'' To get a good score in the interrogation mini-game, you have to pick questions that match the subjects' emotional weaknesses.

* The UsefulNotes/FMTowns ShootEmUp ''Rayxanber'' helpfully describes the boss's weak point at the start of each stage.

* ''VideoGame/StarFox'':
** The series is fond of this, often in the obviously-glowing-red variation. Of particular note is one boss in ''Star Fox Command'' whose weak point is essentially a giant glowing ''butt''. The enemy forces are mainly apes and monkeys, you see, and this boss is a HumongousMecha baboon.

* The bosses in the ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' series take minimal damage if hit anywhere other than a designated weak point, though blasting at that weak point really will deal out huge damage to them. However, the first boss in the first game -- Chariot -- subverts this just a tad by having its armor blown off when its health gets down to a third, allowing you to fire at the soft, pink body underneath anywhere you wish.