History GameBreaker / WideOpenSandbox

** Experience Grinders and Mob Farms. It's essentially a structure that spawns, traps, and feeds mobs to you where you can kill them from safety, and while some are very elaborate you ''really'' don't need to put many resources into a simple one: some basic cobblestone for structure, hoppers and slabs to gather items into a chest, and some trapdoors to [[AIBreaker trick the game's AI]][[note]]Mobs think an open trapdoor is a solid block and will walk over it, falling into holes rather than pathfinding around them[[/note]], and you can build a basic trench to gather and funnel enemies into and have a fully functioning grinder within your first hour of gameplay. Doing this in the Nether and taking advantage of Zombified Piglins, who are non-hostile but will ZergRush you if you attack one, and you can farm ''ludicrous'' amounts of gold and rotten flesh to sell to clerics and enough exp to keep your Mending tools topped up and enchant whatever you want.

** Trading with villagers can be extremely game-breaking if you know what to do and put in the time to level up your villagers. Villagers can sell you items like ''enchanted diamond equipment'' and books with treasure enchantments.

** End crystals spawn during the boss battle to heal the Ender Dragon, and the player must destroy them to be able to deal damage to it. However, because these crystals explode when shattered, a player must be a decent marksman to hit them with projectiles or else risk dying to the explosion. When version 1.9 allowed players to craft these crystals to respawn and redo the boss fight, players began carrying them around on PvP servers as a weapon because of their power; one explosion could kill someone in maxed-out armor in a single hit at point-blank. You could maybe survive two or three hits if you had enchanted golden apples or totems of undying, but such a powerful tool made traditional weapons useless among master-level [=PvPers=] overnight.

** VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Online:

* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'': Consuming a Pork Bun will give you a long-lasting health regeneration so powerful you can spend entire missions ignoring cover, running right up to gun-wielding enemies and using a melee takedown/disarm, before doing the same to the next guy. Guess the guy was right, [[MemeticMutation a man who never eats pork buns is never a whole man!]]

*** The ''Vice City'' equivalent was the Minigun. Its equivalent is more or less present in later games as well.
** In ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'', collecting 30 hidden packages (which can be done right at the start of the game) gives a Colt Python spawn at Tommy's safehouse. It's a OneHitKill on most enemies, with the only drawback being a slower rate of fire.

** The M-16 in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' was easily the most overpowered weapon in the game. Available early on, the M-16 shredded everything that stood in its path - cars, people, law enforcement, you name it.
*** The ''Vice City'' equivalent was the Minigun.

*** In the [=PS3=] and Xbox 360 versions from this game has a aim option which can be switched to free aim or lock aim. The thing that unlike original versions of the game you can auto aim with the minigun. Killing someone within a group of enemies will instantly auto aim the other enemy of their group killing all the entire group of enemies in less than one second. This makes gang wars pretty much a joke so all you do is press the shoot button while wielding the minigun to kill all Ballas/Vagos and complete gang wars in less than one minute.
** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories'': By taking over a few businesses, building High-Rollers and doing their missions early on, you can easily get 5-digit income every day... and you can speed through time by repeatedly getting Wasted or Busted. Combine this with the Minigun (although in all fairness, you can't get this until near the end of the game, but before that there are many other great weapons too), which thanks to your high income you can easily afford, and the game becomes a walk in the park.

*** First there was the Armored Kuruma, a vehicle that you won't even put a dent in without explosives, much less harm the driver. What sets it apart from the Rhino tank or the Insurgent is that the Kuruma is a personal vehicle; You blow one up, you have to pay for it, AND the game sets you up to be grouped with bad players. The Rhino's main drawback is its cost, and the Insurgent doesn't have reinforced windows, so you can still shoot the driver. The Kuruma, meanwhile, doesn't have this drawback. Those who don't have access to explosives or a fast enough car to outrun it won't stand a chance against it.

*** That same update also gave us the Oppressor, a bike with a rocket booster and retractable gliding wings. The kicker? It comes with a forward machine gun, but can be upgraded with a 20-shot guided missile launcher. Have fun getting blown up before you can even react by a small, fast-moving target leaping over buildings to rain guided missile fire. And if the player runs out of those 20 missiles or the bike gets damaged, they can just use the Motorcycle Club abilities to spawn another. It got even worse during After Hours with the Oppressor Mk. II, which ''hovers'', has the same missile system that ''[[ScrappyMechanic doesn't need to be unlocked with research]]'', and can deploy flares in case someone tries to use homing weapons. It too can be easily respawned with the Motorcycle Club abilities, and although later updates forced a 5-minute cooldown before respawning it again, the Oppressor Mk. II still remains as [[HighTierScrappy (arguably) the most overpowered weaponized vehicle in the game]].
* The Machine Gun from ''VideoGame/JustCause'' when fully upgraded (which won't take long). Perhaps it's an homage to action movies (which tend to glorify MoreDakka), but it is the best weapon in the game. It has ridiculous range (you can even ''snipe'' with it), a respectable rate of fire, can destroy helicopters and cars in seconds, has a high ammo capacity, and doesn't hinder your mobility like the Minigun (which actually is better in a few categories) does.
* The jetpack in the "Air Assault" DLC of ''VideoGame/JustCause3'' outright destroys the game: infinite flight, the ability to fire guns and lock-on missiles with no limit but a short cooldown (which can be made shorter with upgrades), personal VTOL launching...there's literally no need to ever use a vehicle again outside of missions that require one. The DLC was actually heavily criticised on the basis it made so many of the core game mechanics utterly redundant.

** Incendiary ammo for your submachine guns. Any enemy hit with even a single round is set on fire and takes continual damage, which means most ordinary grunts are going to die very rapidly. Non-[[DemonicSpiders Brute]] enemies are, furthermore, completely incapacitated, as they run around trying to put themselves out instead of shooting at you. And if a flaming enemy touches another enemy, that enemy also gets set on fire. This makes any gunfight in which your enemies stay grouped together (which is most of them) very easy.

** The SA-3 Airstrike, which you receive about halfway through the game. Pull it out, point it at a group of enemies, hold down the trigger for a few seconds, then step out of the blast radius. This makes gang operations and survival missions a breeze.
** One of your vehicle delivery upgrades is a tank delivery. Yes, an actual tank. On demand.
*** And later, you get a VTOL on demand. The Boss sums the vehicle up as being like "a helicopter that doesn't suck!"

** [[BribingYourWayToVictory One DLC allows you to purchase a jet]]. An incredibly powerful jet that you can use to navigate the city at high speeds. It's only deployable in a very small number of areas (any place you can deploy a chopper), but it allows you to reach any destination in record time. Just don't forget where you parked.

*** That same update also gave us the Oppressor, a bike with a rocket booster and retractable gliding wings. The kicker? It comes with a forward machine gun, but can be upgraded with a 20-shot guided missile launcher. Have fun getting blown up before you can even react by a small, fast-moving target leaping over buildings to rain guided missile fire. And if the player runs out of those 20 missiles or the bike gets damaged, they can just use the Motorcycle Club abilities to spawn another. It got even worse during After Hours with the Oppressor Mk. II, which ''hovers'', has the same missile system that ''[[ScrappyMechanic doesn't need to be unlocked with research]]'', and can deploy flares in case someone tries to use homing weapons. It too can be easily respawned with the Motorcycle Club abilities, and although later updates forced a 5-minute cooldown before respawning it again, the Oppressor Mk. II still remains as [[TierInducedScrappy/HighTiers (arguably) the most overpowered weaponized vehicle in the game]].

Works with subpages:

* ''VideoGame/StatefDecay2'': Play Meagher Valley. Build your base in Whitney Field. Construct the HAVEN device. Use the built-in speaker system to lure in a zombie horde. Watch HAVEN pop heads. Gain 200 Influence. Repeat as needed. Basically, the game lets you spam attacks you cannot be defeated by in order to farm infinite currency. The only thing that prevents this from completely ruining the game is that HAVEN is a late-game facility.

*** As of version 1.9, there is now a vanilla item that allows flight, although to prevent it from being overpowered it's more of a glider than true flying so you can't hover or take off on a whim(If you don't have fireworks, that is.)
** End crystals spawn during the boss battle to heal the Ender Dragon, and the player must destroy them to be able to deal damage to it. However, because these crystals explode when shattered, a player must be a decent marksman to hit them with projectiles or else risk dying to the explosion. When version 1.9 allowed players to craft these crystals to respawn and redo the boss fight, players began carrying them around on PvP servers as a weapon because of their power; one explosion could kill someone in maxed-out armor in a single hit at point-blank. You could maybe survive two or three hits if you had enchanted golden apples or totems of undying, but such a powerful tool made traditional weapons useless among master-level PvPers overnight.

*** That same update also gave us the Oppressor, a bike with a rocket booster and retractable gliding wings. The kicker? It comes with a forward machine gun, but can be upgraded with a 20-shot guided missile launcher. Have fun getting blown up before you can even react by a small, fast-moving target leaping over buildings to rain guided missile fire. And if the player runs out of those 20 missiles or the bike gets damaged, they can just use the Motorcycle Club abilities to spawn another. It got even worse during After Hours with the Oppressor Mk. II, which ''hovers'', has the same missile system that ''doesn't need to be unlocked with research'', and can deploy flares in case someone tries to use homing weapons. It too can be easily respawned with the Motorcycle Club abilities for extra spammability.

Several in ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'':

* Early in ''VideoGame/RedFactionGuerrilla'', Sam will invent the Arc Welder. Buy it, upgrade it, and never look back. This thing will not only fry the three nearest enemies (either killing them or setting them up for a hammer blow), it can somehow distinguish friend from foe, making it safe to use around valuable [=NPCs=]. Most important, it'll kill the driver of ''any vehicle'', from the humblest car to the mightiest tank... leaving it undamaged for you to use. Many missions that would otherwise be tough are a snap with this glorified power tool.
* ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'':
** Anyone on horseback, from the perspective of footsoldiers. [[FragileSpeedster Khergit horse-archers]] ([[PlanetOfHats which is to say, all Khergit troops]]) and [[LightningBruiser Swadian knights]] are particular offenders. TruthInTelevision, there ''is'', after all, a reason why horses as war animals are viable, and why a good part of war after these ages was still focused on anti-cavalry.
** [[MightyGlacier Nord Huscarls]]. Pack them in a tight group of 20-30 and they'll inflict ''massive'' casualties on anyone who is foolish enough to try and take them head on. And don't think you're safe doing hit-n-run either; their thrown axes are pretty much {{One Hit Kill}}s to anyone who isn't a plate-armoured knight.
** Rhodok Sharpshooters. They're armed with a Siege Crossbow which deals sixty-something damage per shot (in a game where 50-100 HP is common), and they hit with pinpoint accuracy. They're armed with a huge pavise shield (the only archers in the whole game to get shields) that stops the projectiles of your own units and makes them fairly decent in hand-to-hand as well.
** Vaegir Marksmen. Not as good in hand-to-hand and less powerful per shot as their Rhodok crossbowman cousins, but they shoot just as accurately and much ''much'' faster, and worse, [[ZergRush they often turn up in larger groups]]. Taking castles from any faction is tough, but taking Vaegir castles is ''nightmarish''.
** The Surgery skill. 4% chance per point that a unit will be knocked unconscious rather than killed. Doesn't sound like much, but remember that soldiers who survive battles and get experience are much stronger. Stronger soldiers are much harder to kill and much better at killing other soldiers, so you win more battles with fewer casualties. You win more battles, and you get more experience for your elite killing machines ''and'' your raw recruits due to LeakedExperience, and they in turn become much harder to kill... See how there's a snowball effect here? You only need about 3-4 points in the skill for a noticeable effect, and it becomes even more broken if you take up the Trainer skill as well, which allows you to distribute a small amount of experience points from just randomly marching around.
** Plate armour. So you move at the same speed as a pregnant whale when walking? So what when 5 out of 6 times you're hit, you won't take any damage!? [[LightningBruiser And you're probably riding a horse too]]! There's a good reason why plate armour is far and away the most expensive equipment in the whole game. Second-tier armours are far cheaper, and still increase your survivability ten-fold.
** In ''With Fire and Sword'', once you get enough money[[note]]Buying powder barrels at cities and selling them off at forts is a good way to accomplish this[[/note]], you can simply start commissioning caravans for the best possible profit, hire up a large amount of low-tier troops, set your group to escort the caravan (loading it with maximum cargo, minimum guards), and leave the game running until they arrive at their destination, where you can repeat this again and again until you're drowning in money. Once this is achieved, you can basically buy up a crapload of mercs, gear them up in the best possible equipment, talk to the weaponmasters and armorers at the cities to commission the most outrageously expensive ''and'' outrageously effective gear for yourself and your companions, and ride out, ready to take on the entirety of Eastern Europe. Sure, a little economic savvy is needed for the "caravan" step, but there's guides for that, and the game starts outright telling you the best deals if you have enough skillpoints in trading.
* ''{{VideoGame/Minecraft}}'':
** Giving the player the ability to fly in Survival Mode is a common addition in the many [[GameMod mods]] of the game. What most mod makers fail to realize is that in the vanilla game flight is restricted to Creative Mode ''for a reason''. On paper, flight would simply make navigation easier, when in reality it makes ''everything'' easier: combat, construction, movement, mining, you name it. A zombie heading towards you? Just hover off the ground and they can't get you. Spot some ore on a cliff? Just fly up instead of having to build or tediously mine your way up. About to fall to your death? Well, that should be self-explanatory. Anything even remotely challenging in the game is broken in half by this ability. If a mod allows access to flight in Survival Mode, whether it's through an item and[=/=]or ability, then regardless if it's nerfed to oblivion or difficult to get, there's no reason not to try and obtain it as early as possible and no reason not to use it once acquired.
*** As of version 1.9, there is now a vanilla item that allows flight, although to prevent it from being overpowered it's more of a glider than true flying so you can't hover or take off on a whim(If you don't have fireworks, that is.)
** End crystals spawn during the boss battle to heal the Ender Dragon, and the player must destroy them to be able to deal damage to it. However, because these crystals explode when shattered, a player must be a decent marksman to hit them with projectiles or else risk dying to the explosion. When version 1.9 allowed players to craft these crystals to respawn and redo the boss fight, players began carrying them around on PvP servers as a weapon because of their power; one explosion could kill someone in maxed-out armor in a single hit at point-blank. You could maybe survive two or three hits if you had enchanted golden apples or totems of undying, but such a powerful tool made traditional weapons useless among master-level PvPers overnight.
* ''{{VideoGame/SleepingDogs}}'': Consuming a Pork Bun will give you a long-lasting health regeneration so powerful you can spend entire missions ignoring cover, running right up to gun-wielding enemies and using a melee takedown/disarm, before doing the same to the next guy. Guess the guy was right, [[MemeticMutation a man who never eats pork buns is never a whole man!]]
* ''{{VideoGame/WatchDogs2}}'': The distraction ability trivialises stealth encounters since you effectively render an enemy blind for several seconds, giving you plenty of time to walk past them, have your car hack a terminal they are standing in front of or use a stealth takedown. It's just as effective in battle, paralysing even armoured elite enemies and setting them up for an instant-kill melee attack. It's also ridiculously cheap and spammable (requiring only one bar of energy with the right upgrades).

* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' has so many items that are Game Breakers that [[GameBreaker/{{Terraria}} it has obtained its very own page.]]

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersPirates'' Sloop and Pinnacle class vessels. Ostensibly maneuverable and fast vessels balanced out by poor armament and mediocre crew capacity, they are by far the best and most popular vessels for ship-to-ship combat. The reason why is because the combat system places extremely emphasis on controlling the distance between ships, dodging cannonballs, and getting into an opponent's blind spots while keeping them in your field of fire. Sloop and Pinnacle class vessels are the best at all these things: their speed (as well as their ability to sail relatively well at all points of sail) means they can stay safely out of reach of larger opponents, while their maneuverability and small size helps these weave through enemy cannonballs and ensure their guns are always pointed in the right direction. All this is flipped for larger ships: they can't catch up to or outrun their opponents, their greater durability is meaningless because their slow speed and large size means they'll usually get hit, their greater armament is negated by the fact that they can't hit faster opponents, and their larger crews are negated by Sloops and Pinnacles using grape-shot ammunition prior to boarding.
** Some players take this to the extreme by always using the ''War Canoe'', the smallest sub-variant of the Pinnacle class (which is in turn the smallest ship class).
* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' has so many items that are Game Breakers that [[GameBreaker/{{Terraria}} it has obtained its very own page.]]
* The Machine Gun from ''VideoGame/JustCause'' when fully upgraded (which won't take long). Perhaps it's an homage to action movies (which tend to glorify MoreDakka), but it is the best weapon in the game. It has ridiculous range (you can even ''snipe'' with it), a respectable rate of fire, can destroy helicopters and cars in seconds, has a high ammo capacity, and doesn't hinder your mobility like the Minigun (which actually is better in a few categories) does.
* The jetpack in the "Air Assault" DLC of ''VideoGame/JustCause3'' outright destroys the game: infinite flight, the ability to fire guns and lock-on missiles with no limit but a short cooldown (which can be made shorter with upgrades), personal VTOL launching...there's literally no need to ever use a vehicle again outside of missions that require one. The DLC was actually heavily criticised on the basis it made so many of the core game mechanics utterly redundant.

* Several in ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'':

* ''VideoGame/AgentsOfMayhem'':
** Lazarus, when equipped right. Set her Elite Tech End Effector to her passive, and her drones will keep traveling to other enemies. For defense, add in the passive that fortifies her when at least 3 drones are active. And add in the buff that increases damage the longer drones are active and the tech that increases damage when at least 3 sre active, and you can do some serious damage and clear a room of enemies with ease.

* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'''s [[NintendoHard difficulty]] mainly comes from the realistic fuel limitations--requiring many huge fuel tanks, most of which will be ditched along the way, just to go to the "Mun" and back. Running out of fuel is a common problem, and usually forces you to restart or send a rescue mission. But there are a couple of ways to effectively have limitless fuel.
** The infamous "get out and push" strategy. A Kerbal on EVA can use their jetpack to push their spacecraft; when fuel gets low, they can hop back in the capsule to replenish it, and repeat as many times as necessary. This is very tedious, and obviously won't work for landing or takeoff, but it's commonly used to fudge the numbers a bit when you run out of fuel just short of a return trajectory.
** [[GoodBadBugs Kraken drives.]] Most versions of the game have some physics-exploiting means of accelerating for free, usually [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBeYZOwNOvc without using engines at all.]]
** To a lesser degree, using the ion engines and/or command chairs to make [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EWKbHt7Vxs ridiculously tiny vessels]] and/or ships with ludicrous amounts of delta-v. The ion engines are PurposelyOverpowered because realistic ones would take ''months'' to produce significant acceleration, but they're still intended for space probes, as in reality; command chairs are literally just chairs with control capabilities, and are intended for rovers, not spacecraft. But [[AintNoRule you can put any type of engine on anything and kerbals don't mind sitting in a spacesuit strapped to a chair for decades]], so EmergentGameplay takes over.

* ''{{VideoGame/SleepingDogs}}'': Consuming a Pork Bun will give you a long-lasting health regeneration so powerful you can spend entire missions ignoring cover, running right up to gun-wielding enemies and using a melee takedown/disarm, before doing the same to the next guy. Guess the guy was right, [[MemeticMutation a man who never eats pork buns is never a whole man!]]

* The jetpack in the "Air Assault" DLC of VideoGame/JustCause3 outright destroys the game: infinite flight, the ability to fire guns and lock-on missiles with no limit but a short cooldown (which can be made shorter), personal VTOL launching...there's literally no need to ever use a vehicle again outside of missions that require one. The DLC was actually heavily criticised on the basis it made so many of the core game mechanics utterly redundant.

*** First there was the Armored Kuruma, a vehicle that you won't even put a dent in without explosives, much less harm the driver. What sets it apart from the Rhino tank or the Insurgent is that the Kuruma is a personal vehicle; You blow one up, you have to pay for it, AND the game sets you up to be grouped with bad players. The Rhino's main drawback is its cost, and the Insurgent doesn't have reinforced windows, so you can still shoot the driver. The Kuruma ? Nope. Don't have access to explosives or a fast enough car to outrun it yet? Have fun not playing free mode!

* Beating the Hitman missions in ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' will cause you to have unlimited rifle ammo. The Sniper Rifle can destroy a car in 2-5 bullets. Beating Corporate Warfare will give you unlimited RPG ammo, and can make those hard as hell car battles end in a few shots(did I forget to mention that getting the Annihilator will make things easier, and it still applies in a new game even if you didn't beat CW on the new save).
** That is ''nothing''. The game will also give you, as a present for defeating certain ''minigame missions'', an infinite ammo shotgun that can shred tanks and infinite ammo dual-wielded fully-automatic magnum pistols that can shred ''deities.'' This is just for beating minigame missions. Which are available the moment you step into the world. Meaning, in effect, the moment you leave the NoobCave, you can beeline for these specific minigame missions and ''become a God of Death before embarking on the storyline missions.''
** But what about some of the trickier vehicle-based missions, you say? Well, apart from those dual-Cobras devouring anything in the universe, you can also pretty easily get your Wanted level up to the utmost and look around - not too hard, honestly, they will be everywhere - for one of those Spec Ops [=APCs=] (the "Bear") with the mounted gatling guns on the top. Jack one (also easy, as most of them are being used for barricades instead of chasing you, for some reason) and get it to a safehouse. Voila! Problem permanently solved. Get it to a garage and soop it the fuck up and you're basically golden, what with having an armor-plated death engine with a mounted gatling cannon with default infinite rounds on the top. There is basically nothing in the universe that can stand against you. Haaaave fun!

** The SA-3 Airstrike, which you receive about halfway through the game. Pull it out, point it at a group of enemies, hold down the trigger for a few seconds, then step out of the blast radius. Makes gang operations and survival missions a breeze.

** At around Respect 50, you can buy character upgrades that make you basically immune to everything except melee damage and being in a car when it explodes. Although, if you're at Respect 50, there's probably not much left the game can throw at you anyway unless you went out of your way to farm respect before doing anything else.

* The jetpack in the "Air Assault" DLC of JustCause3 outright destroys the game: infinite flight, the ability to fire guns and lock-on missiles with no limit but a short cooldown (which can be made shorter), personal VTOL launching...there's literally no need to ever use a vehicle again outside of missions that require one. The DLC was actually heavily criticised on the basis it made so many of the core game mechanics utterly redundant.

* ''{{VideoGame/Minecraft}}'': Giving the player the ability to fly in Survival Mode is a common addition in the many [[GameMod mods]] of the game. What most mod makers fail to realize is that in the vanilla game flight is restricted to Creative Mode ''for a reason''. On paper, flight would simply make navigation easier, when in reality it makes ''everything'' easier: combat, construction, movement, mining, you name it. A zombie heading towards you? Just hover off the ground and they can't get you. Spot some ore on a cliff? Just fly up instead of having to build or tediously mine your way up. About to fall to your death? Well, that should be self-explanatory. Anything even remotely challenging in the game is broken in half by this ability. If a mod allows access to flight in Survival Mode, whether it's through an item and[=/=]or ability, then regardless if it's nerfed to oblivion or difficult to get, there's no reason not to try and obtain it as early as possible and no reason not to use it once acquired.
** As of version 1.9, there is now a vanilla item that allows flight, although to prevent it from being overpowered it's more of a glider than true flying so you can't hover or take off on a whim.

** Believe it or not, the Dubstep Gun. Not only does it fires Dubstep instead of bullets, if fully upgraded, it can kill everything it stands in its path, with ''the power of exploding wubs'', making it into a continuous stream of explosions. Throw in Unlimited Ammo, and you can stroll through entire areas of the game with it. How strong? One or two good barrages can end a Warden, once you've used your powers to take down its shield. Its only tangible flaw is its charge-up time, but it isn't that long either.