History GuideDangIt / Strategy

** While it's taken for granted now, nothing in the games themselves has ''ever'' explained how a unit's stats increase when they level up, except for the occasional vague comment about "differing potential". The fact that stat gains are only generally biased by character and completely at the mercy of the RandomNumberGod is never stated, let along specific growth rates. Later games also have a unit's current class affect their growth rates in various ways, which is also never proper explained. If you didn't look this up and were used to other [=RPGs=] with their more consistent progression, it would be a complete mystery why the same unit can be a war god one playthrough, and a liability the next.

** While the Support system in ''Blazing Sword'' is generally simple, there are a few notable cases of this trope. [[HappilyMarried Pent and Louise]] already start out with a A support, but they ''still'' have "support conversations", so-to-speak, that are considered part of the support library. To get these, you have to move them next to eachother and select the "talk" option during specific chapters. Miss one of these? You can't get the later ones. This first occurs in Chapter 27 and the second in the penultimate chapter. It's the last one that most players miss though: you have to have them talk during the Final Chapter... but ''only during the second half''. Most players would assume that if they didn't have a conversation in the first half of the chapter, they wouldn't have one at all. Nope. The other case also involves the second half of the final chapter: it's actually counted as a ''separate chapter'' for support purposes, and this is the ''only'' reason A Supports with Renault are even possible. So you're going to need to know this if you want to complete his support log.

** In both ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' and its remake, ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEchoesShadowsOfValentia'', nothing in the game tells the players which characters learn which spells, which can be a problem when deciding which class to promote Villagers to. Out of the starting Villagers, [[BookWorm Kliff]] is the best fit for the Mage class due to getting the most spells, and [[GirlNextDoor Faye]] from ''Echoes'' learns a unique White Magic spell called Anew that acts as the game's only equivalent of the [[ExtraTurn Dancer class.]] (Though some consider it AwesomeButImpractical, as each Anew cast [[CastFromHitpoints takes away a hefty chunk of the girl's HP]].) If Faye's promoted to anything other than Cleric, the player will need to use a rare (and currently DLC-exclusive) Pitchfork to remedy this. In Kliff's case, the only hints at his natural aptitude for magic come from an easily missed comment by Alm[[note]](checking the wall of Mycen's house has Alm notice a burn mark that was caused by Kliff practicing magic)[[/note]] and his epilogue[[note]]which states that [[spoiler:his son becomes a talented mage]][[/note]], and there's no hints to Faye's unique spell at all. Additionally, some Mercenaries get unique spells if the players loop them back to Villager and then into Mage, like Saber being the only male to get the Seraphim spell.

*** Similar to [[spoiler:Kaze in ''Birthright'']], though admittedly not as bad here, the Blue Lions path can also potentially kill off a playable character if the player does not meet certain requirements. In this case, [[spoiler:Dedue]] will be killed off post-timeskip if his paralogue was not played. Granted, unlike some other paralogues (see below), [[spoiler:Dedue’s]] paralogue does not have any unlock requirements, and most players likely played it anyway, even without knowing that playing it is required to keep him alive, but even if the player does meet the requirements, [[spoiler:Dmitri will still say that he was killed off at the end of Chapter 13, and Dedue will still be unavailable for a bit, leading players to believe that they did something wrong until he shows up alive and well in the middle of Chapter 16.]]
*** Certain paralogues can be a nightmare to unlock. In particular, any that activate after the TimeSkip but involve students from two different houses, as the "outsider" student has to be poached ''before'' said TimeSkip, otherwise the game progresses without a hint the paralogue even exists. By far the worst is Caspar and Mercedes', which not only runs into the timeskip problem, but is completely unavailable to the Black Eagles even if you meet all the other conditions. If you come at it from the Blue Lions, Caspar's significance to the chapter isn't revealed until it starts. And what makes this one particularly vexing is it contains vital information for a character arc, specifically, [[spoiler:the Death Knight's identity and Mercedes' childhood]].

* ''VideoGame/WarriorsOfTheNile'' never tells you that right-clicking after moving a character will undo that move.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'': The second-last Soviet mission requires the player to capture the Chronosphere within the Allied base and prevent its subsequent destruction. Except capturing the Chronosphere produces the comically frustrating "Objective Reached. Mission Failed." voiceover, presumably due to a bug. The only way to progress is through a roundabout solution that essentially requires you to capture an Allied Barracks and then use your combined units to kill all of them.

** The first ''VideoGame/ShiningForce'' has a unique item required to promote one of the character types hidden in a random spot in a castle. The only way one would legitimately find the thing would be to manually search (through a menu!) ''every tile in the game''.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'': The second-last Soviet mission requires the player to capture the Chronosphere within the Allied base and prevent its subsequent destruction. Except capturing the Chronosphere produces the comically frustrating "Objective Reached. Mission Failed." voiceover, presumably due to a bug. The only way to progress is through a roundabout solution that essentially requires you to capture an Allied Barracks and then use your combined units to KillEmAll.

*** There are some C-Supports that can ''only'' be seen pre-timeskip. If you try to unlock the support during Part 2, you'll get a message saying, "It's too late to deepen this bond." This locks out an entire chain of supports in that file so the only way you'll see those supports is in a new game. In addition to this, many supports only occur past certain points in the story, mainly after the timeskip, and trying to access the support will give the message, "This bind needs more time to develop", which some players may interpret as just needing more support points. Some of the delayed supports make logical sense depending on the context of said support (for example, [[spoiler:Leonie being upset over Jeralt's death]]), but you won't really know that until you get there.

* There actually is a Real Life example of GuideDangIt in [[TabletopGame/{{Chess}} The Game of Kings]]; many non-professional players are unaware of a maneuver called En Passant (GratuitousFrench for "In Passing"), where if a player's pawn is in position to take an opponent's pawn if it moves forward, and their opponent makes use of the pawn's ability to move two spaces on its first move, the pawn positioned to capture may move as if the defensive pawn had only gone forward one space, taking the opposing pawn and more than likely giving it a straight shot to the last row. (The opportunity to do so must be taken immediately or it is forfeited.) It's in almost every manual and guide out there, but no casual players ever really bother to read those, or if they do they soon forget about it.

* The ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'' is full of examples of this;

* Later versions of ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' are just about unplayable without recourse to the game's extensive wiki.

*** ''Binding Blade'' also had the path to Ilia vs. the path to Sacae, which is based on the levels of certain non-essential characters, as well as the slightly non-intuitive methods used to enter the Gaiden Chapters in which the legendary weapons are found. These range from the easy (Chapter 8x has no turn requirement, only that Lilina survives the chapter) to the arcane (Chapter 20x, the last chapter of the Ilia/Sacae split requires you to complete chapter 20 in 25 turns while recruiting the unit that can be obtained there and all earlier characters related to that character must also still be alive and recruited) to the absolutely infuriating (Chapter 16x requires an enemy unit that ''can't'' be recruited during the chapter to survive Chapter 16; said enemy will automatically join you at the start of 16x and must be used in said Gaiden Chapter.) And you must have ''all'' eight legendary weapons, unbroken (they have very low durability), plus keep a certain unit alive, in order for the game to continue past Chapter 22. And ''then'', if said character dies ''after'' Chapter 22 and/or someone besides Roy (equipped specifically with the Binding Blade) defeats the final boss, you'll miss one small scene in the final ending. Granted, the latter is easy to do since the Binding Blade is near-guaranteed to kill the boss in two rounds tops, but the former can still be annoying.

*** ''Binding Blade'' also had the path to Ilia vs. the path to Sacae, which is based on the levels of certain non-essential characters, as well as the slightly non-intuitive methods used to enter the Gaiden Chapters in which the legendary weapons are found. These range from the easy (Chapter 8x has no turn requirement, only that Lilina survives the chapter) to the arcane (Chapter 20x, the last chapter of the Ilia/Sacae split requires you to complete chapter 20 in 25 turns while recruiting the unit that can be obtained there and all earlier characters related to that character must also still be alive and recruited) to the absolutely infuriating (Chapter 16x requires an enemy unit that ''can't'' be recruited during the chapter to survive Chapter 16; said enemy will automatically join you at the start of 16x and must be used in said Gaiden Chapter.) And you must get ''all'' eight legendary weapons (and the Holy Maiden staff) and not have used up any of them (the staff, in particular, has only three uses), plus keep a certain unit alive, in order for the game to continue past Chapter 22. And ''then'', if said character dies ''after'' Chapter 22 and/or someone besides Roy (equipped specifically with the Binding Blade) defeats the final boss, you'll miss one small scene in the final ending. Granted, the latter is easy to do since the Binding Blade is near-guaranteed to kill the boss in two rounds tops, but the former can still be annoying.

** The side missions that unlock Neotanks (in ''Black Hole Risings'') and Black Boats, Black Bombs, and Piperunners (in ''Dual Strike'') are mild cases of this. You have to capture particular cities in particular missions to advance to these secret levels. It's not too bad, since the game does tell you which levels these special cities are in... but you're still not told ''which cities'' have the maps in them, so you have to hope that you find it before killing off all the enemy units.

* In ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'', in the original game the Final Battle against the BigBad Sturm consists of a 3-on-1 match. The 1st CO is always Andy, but the 2nd and 3rd are seemingly randomized between the other CO's encountered. That is, until you read an online guide and find out the formula for getting the CO's you want. The Blue Moon CO depends on who you used in that first fork in the road at the beginning of the game, ''Max Strikes''; if you used Andy, Max shows up to help at the end, unless you completed "Olaf's Navy!" by rout, in which case it's Olaf, whereas if you used Max, it's Grit. The 3rd CO depends on what you did in Green Earth and Yellow Comet; if you completed the three Missions against Sonja (which had requirements to unlock by themselves), Kanbei is your 3rd helper. In the Green Earth Missions, using Andy for all of them nets you Drake in the third position, while using Sami for all of them gets you Eagle (as well as the BonusBoss Mission ''Rivals''), both of whom override Kanbei. Doing none of these things results in Sami in the third position. The map is winnable regardless of who your combination is, but certain players do better with certain CO's, and the CO's start with different and somtimes better stuff (for example, Kanbei begins with several tanks and other heavy units while Eagle starts with an air squadron).

* In ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'', in the original game the Final Battle against the BigBad Sturm consists of a 3-on-1 match. The 1st CO is always Andy, but the 2nd and 3rd are seemingly randomized between the other CO's encountered. That is, until you read an online guide and find out the formula for getting the CO's you want. The Blue Moon CO depends on who you used in that first fork in the road at the beginning of the game, ''Max Strikes''; if you used Andy, Olaf shows up to help at the end, whereas if you used Max, it's Grit. The 3rd CO depends on what you did in Green Earth and Yellow Comet; if you completed the three Missions against Sonja (which had requirements to unlock by themselves), Kanbei is your 3rd helper. In the Green Earth Missions, using Andy for all of them nets you Drake in the third position, while using Sami for all of them gets you Eagle (as well as the BonusBoss Mission ''Rivals''), both of whom override Kanbei. Doing none of these things results in Sami in the third position. The map is winnable regardless of who your combination is, but certain players do better with certain CO's, and the CO's start with different and somtimes better stuff (for example, Kanbei begins with several tanks and other heavy units while Eagle starts with an air squadron).

** ''Thracia 776'' has a lot of "escape" chapters, and what the game doesn't tell you is that the chapter automatically ends when Leif escapes and that any unit who hasn't escaped yet is captured by the enemy. You do get a chance to get them back ''eventually'', but...
*** ''Thracia 776'' also has a hearty collection of tough-to-recruit characters. Xavier is probably the worst (rescue the 8 civilians and have each of them talk to a specific enemy that they're paired with to turn them into an allied NPC, then talk to Xavier -- note that while those 8 enemies won't attack the civilians, other enemies will, and enemies who have turned into allies ''will'' battle those who have yet to do so, potentially killing them before they can be turned), but Misha isn't much better (talk to her with a specific unit, then use a Sleep staff on her to force her to dismount, allowing you to "capture" her, and hold on to her for the rest of the chapter). Or Ilios, who can only be recruited if a unit ''wasn't recruited'' some five chapters earlier. Or Salem, who also needs to be captured and held onto.

*** Assuming of course it isn't a level you NEED to beat. Some endings refuse to let you start the game over until you beat it (kill too many allies and you'll get one like this), and some refuse to let you continue if you lose, even if it gets an ending. Is this your first playthrough through the game? Better get grinding or suffer an [[UnwinnableByMistake unwinnable battle forever]].

* ''VideoGame/BattalionWars 2'' - in the mission Enemies Undone, if you didn't bother with the Xylvanians (most likely because they can't doing anything to you once you jump to the HQ) but wiped out all of the other enemies, you still won't get 100% in Power because you missed 8 infantry. Tip: they're all Xylvanians. However, a search reveals only 7 Grunts--still one short of the 100% in Power. It seems you get the 8th one by [[spoiler:blowing up the 3 digging machines by shooting the explosive canisters near them, something suggested in-game by Vlad responding to that by warning Frontier's commander that this helps invite Xylvania to retaliate one day with their full wrath]]. What makes this more fun is that in other missions, some enemies won't necessarily count for Power ''at all'', but you have to destroy all of the enemies that ''do'' count for Power if you want 100% in it.

* ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' and the ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' series leave mentioning many things out of the game, to varying degrees of obviousness. For ''Company of Heroes'', there's the 'Elite Armour' for certain infantry and for certain infantry to gain - it makes them be harder to hit and take less damage from most bullets, but causes them to always be hit by sniper fire and take more damage from flames. One would have a hard time realizing what infantry have this and what it does without looking into the MetaGame. In addition, while the supporting instructor/officer for the campaign usually suggests useful strategies e.g. place guns here and build infantry to defend, occasionally you need to disobey the instructor and e.g. spam armor instead. Retreating in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2'' is similar - doing so makes units run away back to their base, gradually getting faster and taking less damage from ranged attacks, but now taking extra from melee. There is no indication anywhere why your units run through tons of ranged fire and survive, but get torn a new arse from melee attacks while retreating. And many units not made for melee get torn apart from melee units almost as fast anyway, so you'd also have a hard time to figure it out without going to the MetaGame also.

* ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper 2'' has 'elite' creatures, which are uniquely named, more powerful versions of the standard creatures, and summoning them relies on varying degrees of Guide Dang It. For the most part, summoning them requires building the room that normally attracts that kind of creature, but then putting another room's tiles in the corners, for example. However, the elite Dark Angel's layout takes the cake - a 5x5 Temple surrounded by four other different rooms in a very specific configuration. It should be added that a normal player will have no idea that the elite creatures exist in the first place, and even the player-written FAQ on elite creature summoning layouts lampshades that they had no idea how Bullfrog expected anyone to work it out by themselves.

** The sequel makes things a bit better by having such items part of the ''loot'' system which is also used for ItemCrafting and never [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost forever]]. However, there are other instances of Guide Dang It: For instance, a series of quests where you need to provide the right person for a non-combat job, with very vague hints provided which race/class can do it. The worst case is "Wanted:Caretaker" which can only be done by a Viera White Mage - all the others require a specific class/set of classes OR a specific race, but that one requires both.

** The desert chapters present in ''Mystery of the Emblem'', its remake, and all of the GBA games and both Tellius games (that are already annoying because you are fighting on sand, lowering your units' movements) have hidden items that can only be obtained by having units wait on a range of squares. The chances of doing so vary from game to game- in Mystery and its remake, it is 100% for everybody. In 6-9, only thieves have a 100% chance, and other units must rely on Skill or Luck (depending on the game). In ''Radiant Dawn'', not only do thieves lose their guarantee, but hidden items discovery is also influenced by [[ScrappyMechanic biorhythms]]- and hidden items are ''everywhere'' (and some are really valuable, like Beastfoe, the Brave Bow, and the Rescue staff). ''New Mystery'' also has hidden items outside of the desert, but all tiles are marked (though the spaces are accessible only by certain classes and also indicate reinforcements will appear, so the fact they all hide valuable items is its own Guide Dang It).

*** ''Thracia 776'' also has a hearty collection of tough-to-recruit characters. Xavier is probably the worst (rescue the 8 civilians and have each of them talk to a specific enemy that they're paired with to turn them into an allied NPC, then talk to Xavier--note that while those 8 enemies won't attack the civilians, other enemies will, and enemies who have turned into allies ''will'' battle those who have yet to do so, potentially killing them before they can be turned), but Misha isn't much better (talk to her with a specific unit, then use a Sleep staff on her to force her to dismount, allowing you to "capture" her, and hold on to her for the rest of the chapter). Or Ilios, who can only be recruited if a unit ''wasn't recruited'' some five chapters earlier. Or Salem, who also needs to be captured and held onto.
** ''Binding Blade'' has something along the lines of this for the recruitment of a certain Paladin, who is considered to be one of the best pre-promoted characters. You have to drop one of your defenseless characters (Either a bard or a dancer, both incapable of attacking) next to a swarming mob of enemies. (6 to 8 cavaliers around the paladin you're trying to recruit) While the storylines of the characters hint the bard can accomplish this (the paladin being an Etrurian general, and the bard is [[spoiler:the supposedly dead prince of Etruria, who had merely faked his death]]) you can only have either the bard or the dancer in your party, and the only connection between the general and the dancer is a cutscene where it's revealed that she's the adopted daughter - not of him, but of a different Etrurian general.

*** Nina's paralogue has a win objective being "Rout the enemy before she escapes". Most would expect this to be to kill all enemies on-stage except for her. The problem comes from the fact that she is an enemy - and the stage doesn't end even if she's boxed her into a corner so she can't possibly move. The players actually ''have'' to beat her in battle, and the game drops a strong hint that she became [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]].

*** Benny and Ryoma's sons, Ignatius and Shiro, are also somewhat confusing as well - only due to the fact that the end of their paralogues still play as normal even if they died during the stage. Fortunately a player can figure this out by themselves though simple logic (He dies during the chapter, and doesn't join? Oh, that must be why he's not in there), but this does not exactly explain ''why'' they didn't join under those circumstances. Shiro is particularly vexing, since he's an aggressive green unit that starts in the middle of a sand-filled map; he will die before the second turn unless you're quick with a rescue staff.

*** Some of the supports are only available on specific routes or under specific circumstances, to the point where browsing the support library in the game's main menu before playing the game will likely lead to less spoilers and more confusion. For example, Gilbert is formally associated with the Church of Seiros, but unlike the rest of the knights he is only available on the Blue Lions route (not even recruiting [[spoiler:his daughter Annette]] will get him to join another house, which frustratingly leaves [[spoiler:Annette]]'s Hero Relic unobtainable on other routes). Ingrid and Seteth can support on any route, but their A+ rank can only be obtained on Blue Lions and won't even show up on the menu if you're leading another house. Rhea's entire support chain is only available pre-timeskip (in contrast to all other supports, which have their A - and sometimes even B - ranks locked off until Part II); to make matters worse, her C and B ranks become unavailable after certain plot events, and [[spoiler:her S rank can only be unlocked on the Silver Snow route]].

** The Honorable Wounded Prize - ''lose'' a battle in Campaign. This is clearly a case of DoWellButNotPerfect.
** The Excellence Prize - clear all 45 Campaign maps in 54 battles. For starters, this automatically qualifies it as PermanentlyMissableContent. This is actually intended to keep players from LevelGrinding on early maps and having a bunch of promoted units to work with--not that it will help much on the harder levels. However, it's particularly bad because in order to unlock certain maps without repeating others, you must clear certain maps ''[[DoWellButNotPerfect slowly]]''. Which maps you'd have to clear quickly or slowly is its own Guide Dang It too.
** The 2 Engineer Medals - you must build certain terrain a certain number of times. This terrain must count as man-made and strengthening properties ''does not count toward this''.
** The All Unit Medal - you know how bad a Guide Dang It this is when even the maintainer of [[http://gbwn.main.jp/Medal_GBW3.htm Game Boy Wars Network]] hasn't obtained it and must only even know of its existence due to hacking on somebody's part. It is possibly done by [[GottaCatchEmAll building all 51 units]] due to cheat search results, but can't be sure with a Japan-only Revenue Enhancing Device being required for the mercenary units.

* In ''VideoGame/KartiaTheWordOfFate'', getting the mighty Pair rune. It's only mentioned in the Japanese guide to the game, but to create the mightiest Phantoms and spells - your party can only use silk runes at Stage 15 (including for item crafting and altering terrain) and you can only attack the dragons there with physical attacks or Phantoms. Only then can the Pair rune show up. This led to MANY players in NA and EU at their wits' end trying to create the Fynus phantom.

** The gutspunch family of chips can apparently be fired as a rocket rather than a punch with their own button combination--and by their own I mean "each one has its own". Considering that without this they were effectively a sword that knocked people backwards, only some of the combonations are given on the ingame BBS. More importantly, in all of the games finding boss rematches (and thus the mega-class chips) for non-allied bosses, because after beating them a "ghost" appears in a specific unmarked unhinted-at dead end in if you're lucky the general region you explored just before beating him, which does not appear on the map and is virtually always in a dead end meaning the only way to find them without a map is to systematically walk into every single dead end of every internet area blindly. And after that further rematches against further-powered-up bosses for further-powered-up chips become random encounters (ugh) on a different map. Forget the "secret areas", mystery data and hidden jack-in points; it'd take a masochist just to find all the rematches without a guide. Some jobs also require you to go to rather nonsensical areas to complete them, like the memorable occasion of finding an escaped penguin hiding in your bathroom in the sixth game.
** ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'' has invisible ghost bosses as well, but in the second game they're visible until you beat them and they become random enemy encounters. But enough about that - the biggest Guide Dang It EVER occurs to a translation error: At one point a character says, "You can have a [=Recover150=]", but you don't get a [=Recover150=]. He actually WANTS a [=Recover150=]. Thanks, Crapcom.

** And then there's the original SNES ''VideoGame/OgreBattle''... Where does one begin? You often only get once chance to recruit the important [=NPCs=], and the criteria for doing so are hopelessly vague and rarely alluded to in the game itself. This is made worse by the fact that the criteria often involve you having recruited ''another'' NPC, creating a knock-on effect whereby it's possible to miss out on almost every important character should you ''visit the towns in the wrong order on LEVEL THREE'', without any indication of what the right order actually is. Getting the best ending also involves collecting all the Zodiac Stones, which are all randomly hidden and require you to have already gotten two obscure, difficult to obtain items - which can be lost, permanently, should you mess up getting them - before you can even begin the search. You also need to maintain high Charisma, Reputation and Alignment stats, which are - as in Ogre Battle 64 - related a system that the game doesn't explain to you. Have fun!
*** The game does explain - in game, even - how to get and maintain a good reputation: liberate towns with High ALI, High CHA characters. What it ''doesn't'' particularly tell you is how to boost ALI and CHA: [[spoiler: delivering the killing blow to an enemy of higher level, preferably one of lower ALI]]. It alludes to it a little bit, but otherwise, you're on your own. The Canopus/Gilbert thing is AllThereInTheManual, by the way, as are some of the other various bits and pieces of getting [[MineralMacGuffin the Zodiac Stones]]. Otherwise, there's a great deal of PermanentlyMissableContent in that game, in general.

*** But wait, there's more! In the Game Boy Advance remake, the locations of Hanzou and Musashi are changed. By the time you realize this--upon trying the recruitment methods mentioned above--you have already missed out on them. Only by reading a guide specifically made for this version ahead of time can you reasonably get them on your first run, especially if you played the original. Musashi in particular has a very tiny recruitment window; you must leave town to engage in a battle, then retreat. If you continue to the next battle, he's (arbitrarily) [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]]. Well, until New Game Plus brings you back around, anyway. Even though you can still access the spot where he would have been recruited.

* ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' has a mild version of this in general, due to the universe going on without the player - indeed, there's a time limit to winning the game - combined with the time-and-fuel-consuming need to gather resources in order to complete the game at all and the fact that many star systems are not worth mining. At least it's mild enough that one can play some "probe" games before trying to take a serious stab at actually winning...

* ''VideoGame/WinterVoices'' has this, constantly. Due to the combat system being almost entirely defensive (the player only get skills that actually ''damage'' the enemies halfway through the game) any combat objective other than "get to this place" or "survive for x amount of turns" and have straightforward and simple terrain instantly becomes this. It doesn't help that after a certain point, most areas are littered with traps that lower your MP - so if you didn't pick Intuition as a main stat, you'll have to rely on Ven's Pyre and Introspection in order to build it up - and enemies that will almost always kill you instantly at point blank range being in tight, narrow spaces. This can be alleviated somewhat using some builds, but it's still one of the game's biggest problems. There's also the fact that LevelGrinding is nonexistent, so if you want to gain more XP from combats you have to increase your Memory - which lowers your defense on a percentage.

*** Assuming of course it isn't a level you NEED to beat. Some endings refuse to let you start the game over until you beat it (Kill too many allies and you'll get one like this), and some refuse to let you continue if you lose, even if it gets an ending. Is this your first playthrough through the game? Better get grinding or suffer an [[UnwinnableByMistake unwinnable battle forever]].
*** Having [[spoiler:Laharl]] as your leader when you fight [[spoiler:Baal controlling Zettas body]] gives you a bad ending. The guide dang it comes in the ending itself. Once you win the battle with anyone else as a leader, you permanently unlock [[spoiler:Zetta]] and thus cannot play the level again, [[PermanentlyMissableContent even with subsequent playthroughs]].

*** On Disgaea 2, the endings are completely confusing to unlock. The default ending is the easiest, by far, but the Bad Ending requires 50 ally kills which is highly unlikely as that is a rather excessive number for it, and the Worst Ending requires 99 ally kills with Rozalin in that number, an even less likely scenario (especially if you never use Rozalin). Assuming you get the Worst ending by being that bad at the game, you're immediately thrust without option into a BonusBoss fight against [[spoiler:Rozalin, who has returned to her true Overlord Zenon form]], a boss fight over 1500 levels higher than the final boss himself. The Tink ending is by far the worst and most ridiculous: get Tink up to level 2000 and have him kill the final boss. Not only is level 2000 waaaaaay over the final boss's head, but Tink is easily one of the absolute worst units the game has to offer.
** Good luck getting to the Land of Carnage in Disgaea 4 on your own. The Promotionhell Tickets and the X-Dimension were one thing, but you need to get a '''very specific''' set of ship parts in order to get there. Parts that can only be found by torturing specific monsters for specific locations.
** Disgaea D2 has some serious issues with unlocking the endings. A long list of endings will be available at the end of the game, but you'll likely notice that you barely have any. The truth is, the game has 3 endings for the final boss, and nearly a bad ending for every boss fight you die to. Given a player is more likely to abandon back to the castle and level up rather than pointlessly let a game over play, it's highly likely that a player would never know to purposefully die against many of the games bosses, worse yet the player ''has'' to do a new game+ every time is happens. The final boss endings are no better. The default is easy, kill the final boss, but the other two are annoying. One requires dying against the final form of the final boss, the other requires Etna having zero likability with Sicily, Laharl, and Flonne, and then choosing "Yes" at a prompt that doesn't appear if this condition hasn't been met.
** Most of Disgaea 5's endings require the same ridiculous ally kill requirement that Disgaea 2 does as well, coupled with dying to specific bosses like D2.

* ''VideoGame/BahamutSenki'', an obscure Megadrive game, normally falls somewhere between an ExcusePlot and NoPlotNoProblem; most of the time, when you beat the game, you just get a tactical summary. However, there ''is'' a "true" ending. How anyone was supposed to get it without a guide is anyone's guess, but in order to do it you must: Play as a specific character, in a specific scenario; go through a scripted sequence where your advisor automatically defeats one of your enemy leaders (who has to survive up to this point); avoid having most of the remaining enemies lose before turn 40; agree to use your advisor as a hero; have that hero ''lose'' a fight, directly, to a specific enemy leader (not their troops; they have to reach the enemy leader, fight them 1v1, and ''then'' lose, even though said hero is PurposelyOverpowered and is unlikely to lose 1v1 unless you are intentionally trying to); defeat every remaining opponent except one in particular (a different one from the above); and, finally, invade the last enemy's location with ''just'' your main character and nobody else. There are no hints to any of this whatsoever.

* There actually is a Real Life example of GuideDangIt in [[TabletopGame/{{Chess}} The Game of Kings]]; many non-professional players are unaware of a maneuver called En Passant (GratuitousFrench for "In Passing"), where if a player's pawn is in position to take an opponents pawn if it moves forward, and their opponent makes use of the pawn's ability to move two spaces on its first move, the pawn positioned to capture may move as if the defensive pawn had only gone forward one space, taking the opposing pawn and more than likely giving it a straight shot to the last row. (The opportunity to do so must be taken immediately or it is forfeited.) It's in almost every manual and guide out there, but no casual players ever really bother to read those, or if they do they soon forget about it.
* VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles has unlocking the [[OptionalPartyMember Optional Party Members]]. While Musaad [[spoiler:(start a NewGamePlus)]] and Audry [[spoiler:(get 10 medals)]] could be reasonably stumbled upon without a guide, Lynn and Emile both require you to unlock a specific character's hidden potential, then ''let them be KO'd'' (thankfully not killed, you are allowed to rescue them with the medic. In case you're wondering, the characters are [[spoiler:Karl and Oscar]] respectively.) and Knute requires you to [[spoiler: enter the command room with 1,000,000 in cash on hand.]] All these conditions make perfect sense once you find out the unlockee's personality, [[spoiler:Lynn is Karl's lover, Emile is Oscar's brother, and Knute is a MiserAdvisor]]) which you won't know that until ''after'' you unlock them.

*** Spell lists return from ''Gaiden[=/=]Echoes''. While a unit's aptitude for Faith and Reason at least hint at who has more or fewer spells, who gets what is far from straightforward, and some of the most desirable spells are hard to come by. For instance, the ever-useful Bolting can only be learned by two characters: one is available on every route but heavily slanted toward Faith magic, and the other can't be recruited by every house and isn't naturally inclined toward magic at all.

** While it's taken for granted now, nothing in the games themselves has ''ever'' explained how a unit's stats increase when they level up, except for the occasional vague comment about "differing potential". The fact that stat gains are only generally biased by character and completely at the mercy of the RandomNumberGod is never stated, let along specific growth rates. Later games also have a unit's current class affect their growth rates in various ways, which is also never proper explained. If you didn't look this up and were used to other RPGs with their more consistent progression, it would be a complete mystery why the same unit can be a war god one playthrough, and a liability the next.

* ''VideoGame/FrontMission3'' has two completely different story arcs. How do you choose between one or the other? You choose to either go or not go with a character to a location. This happens right after the games first mission. The kick? One arc leads to the bad ending, the other to the good, and I believe one is MUCH more difficult than the other.

* ''VideoGame/FrontMission 3'' has two completely different story arcs. How do you choose between one or the other? You choose to either go or not go with a character to a location. This happens right after the games first mission. The kick? One arc leads to the bad ending, the other to the good, and I believe one is MUCH more difficult than the other.

** Even the ''[[GameMod ROM hacks]]'' have moments like this. Case in point, ''The Last Promise'' (a ''Blazing Sword'' hack with a totally original plot and cast of characters) has finding the Emblem Lance, which requires Corben to visit a small house in chapter 2. This is a curveball because anyone who's played a FE game on the Gameboy Advance would expect only bigger houses and villages to give items. What's worse is that unlike any other small house, you can only visit it once before it's locked out for the other characters, and the item is different for each person! If Siegfried, Shon or Tamiko visit the house, you have lost the lance. And getting all the Emblem weapons will unlock a sidequest near the end of the game, but fortunately none of them are as hard to find as the lance.

** ''Sword of Seals'' has something along the lines of this for the recruitment of a certain Paladin, who is considered to be one of the best pre-promoted characters. You have to drop one of your defenseless characters (Either a bard or a dancer, both incapable of attacking) next to a swarming mob of enemies. (6 to 8 cavaliers around the paladin you're trying to recruit) While the storylines of the characters hint the bard can accomplish this (the paladin being an Etrurian general, and the bard is [[spoiler:the supposedly dead prince of Etruria, who had merely faked his death]]) you can only have either the bard or the dancer in your party, and the only connection between the general and the dancer is a cutscene where it's revealed that she's the adopted daughter - not of him, but of a different Etrurian general.
*** ''Sword of Seals'' also had the path to Ilia vs. the path to Sacae, which is based on the levels of certain non-essential characters, as well as the slightly non-intuitive methods used to enter the Gaiden Chapters in which the legendary weapons are found. These range from the easy (Chapter 8x has no turn requirement, only that Lilina survives the chapter) to the arcane (Chapter 20x, the last chapter of the Ilia/Sacae split requires you to complete chapter 20 in 25 turns while recruiting the unit that can be obtained there and all earlier characters related to that character must also still be alive and recruited) to the absolutely infuriating (Chapter 16x requires an enemy unit that ''can't'' be recruited during the chapter to survive Chapter 16; said enemy will automatically join you at the start of 16x and must be used in said Gaiden Chapter.) And you must get ''all'' eight legendary weapons (and the Holy Maiden staff) and not have used up any of them (the staff, in particular, has only three uses), plus keep a certain unit alive, in order for the game to continue past Chapter 22. And ''then'', if said character dies ''after'' Chapter 22 and/or someone besides Roy (equipped specifically with the Sword of Seals) defeats the final boss, you'll miss one small scene in the final ending. Granted, the latter is easy to do since the Sword of Seals is near-guaranteed to kill the boss in two rounds tops, but the former can still be annoying.

* Many of the games in the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series feature strange and rather arcane ways to recruit various people to your army.

* ''VideoGame/BahamutSenki'', an obscure Megadrive game, normally falls somewhere between an ExcusePlot and NoPlotNoProblem; most of the time, when you beat the game, you just get a tactical summary. However, there ''is'' a "true" ending. How anyone was supposed to get it without a guide is anyone's guess, but in order to do it you must: Play as a specific character, in a specific scenario; go through a scripted sequence where your advisor automatically defeats one of your enemy leaders (who has to survive up to this point); avoid having most of the remaining enemies lose before turn 40; agree to send that same hero into single combat with a particular opponent; agree to use your advisor as a her; have that hero ''lose'' that fight, directly, to a specific enemy leader even though said hero is PurposelyOverpowered and is unlikely to lose 1v1 unless you are intentionally trying to; defeat every remaining opponent except one in particular (a different one from the above); and, finally, invade the last enemy's location with ''just'' your main character and nobody else. There are no hints to any of this whatsoever.