History Main / BreatherLevel

** Other zones are not necessarily extra life buffets, but still provide a breather aspect by falling between two more difficult levels. Such zones include Star Light Zone from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'' and Sky Chase Zone from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2''. To many players, Spring Yard Zone is the breather level between the exhausting Marble Zone and the frustrating Labyrinth Zone.

** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon'': Certain rooms of the Battle Arena are made of easy enemies before harder things like the Fox Archer room who can be safely slide into and their attacks easily ducked under, before the poison room, and then after that, Abiondargs, which can only crawl on a platform, and both of those named enemy types have a chance to drop healing items.

* Episode 6 from ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'': The three previous episodes took place in the Indian jungle, which was a complete maze to navigate, and [[ThatOneLevel Prague]], which featured a [[TheAlcatraz confusing prison compound]] followed by The Contessa's ancestral home; the whole city is so dark and grimy that you can hardly tell the [[SuperDrowningSkills instant-death water]] from the dry land. Episode 6 sends the action to [[CanadaEh Canada]], in which the map is not only much smaller and more straightforward, but also takes place in virtually broad daylight.

** For all the game hyping it up, Evil version of Minas Tirith is an absolute breather in terms of difficulty. Enemy does not attack you at all, allowing the player to take over pretty much all the resourses on the map, the Rohan reinforcements are easily dealt with with the usage of pikemen, and when Aragorn comes with the [[CavalryOfTheDead Army of the Damned]], said army will vanish ''way'' before it can hurt you much at all. Sadly Minas Tirith is also the final level of the campaign.

** Among the hardest challenge mode levels is Hidden Garden, which is the easiest one of them all. There are no hazards and the only enemies are the harmless Skitter Leaves and Spectralids, so getting a [[FlawlessVictory pink flower]] is pretty much a freebie.

* Similarly, in ''VideoGame/TimeSplittersFuturePerfect'', the mission "You Take the High Road" takes place after [[ThatOneLevel Something to Crow About]], which involved tough robots, ''two'' bosses (and the one at the end is [[ThatOneBoss especially nasty]]), [[DemonicSpiders Rolling Robots]], and many high stakes obstacles. The former involves the same {{Mooks}} from ''Scotland The Brave'' plus more, so the threat is much more sedated.

*** As well as both the Snow Kingdom and Seaside Kingdom later on. Both are far more exploration focused than the tricky kingdoms after them, and the latter is also really small and easy to navigate.

** ''Media Blitz'', which concludes the main storyline of the Rebellion branch, is also very easy compared to the missions that precede it.

* ''VideoGame/SplinterCellChaosTheory'' has the final level, Kokubo Sosho. In comparison to the previous three levels, Battery, [[ThatOneLevel Seoul and Bathhouse]], Kokubo Sosho is MUCH easier to complete with 100% stealth, much more straightforward and much shorter in length.
** It also features Hokkaido, which comes between Displace, where you are prohibited from killing anyone and is bristling with security cameras and lasers, and the aforementioned Battery. Hokkaido features no keypads or cameras to hack, and the player is not prohibited from killing enemies (and in fact is required to kill one). Whilst it is a breather in terms of gameplay, it features arguably the most significant twist in the game's plot.

** The original SNES game has one of these in the King League. After getting bounced around like a pinball in Death Wind 2 and navigating a very narrow and treacherous snaking road in Port Town 2, Red Canyon 2 eases things up considerably, with no real difficult turns and one of the best jumps in the game.
** In ''F-Zero X'', the X Cup's gimmick is that it produces [[RandomlyGeneratedLevels random track layouts]]. However, some of these tracks have weird dips and curves that can be done safely by a human but [[AIBreaker which causes AI opponents to either destroy themselves in a huge pile-up or fling off the course to their collective doom]]. If it happens to all 29 opponents, you can take your sweet time carefully navigating the course for an easy win.

* The fifth mission of ''[[VideoGame/PoliceQuest SWAT 2]]'' involves apprehending an airport sniper. If you don't storm in right away TOC reveals more and more information, including a woman loyal to the sniper. Both can be arrested with reasonable use of force at most, the mission serving as more of how to assess a situation and tactical considerations (you lose points for authorizing a demand of money for example) rather than how to resolve heavily armed and armored suspects.

* ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'': The Glutton's Kitchen cavern is one of the few caverns during that point of the game to not have any dangerous hazards like Bomb Rocks, explosions and falling boulders; it does have electricity (which is an [[OneHitKill instant-kill hazard]] for non-yellow Pikmin), but the cave's entrance warns you about this so you can come here with an army of electric-proof Yellow Pikmin and nothing else. It's especially noticeable for players who come here after having played the later, more difficult caves of Awakening Wood and Valley of Repose (and fully paying the Poko debt in the process). The boss is also very easy, as it's a KingMook version of a harmless enemy whose only annoying factor is stealing treasure/corpses. In fact, you can kill it by ''tug-of-war''. However, if you are indeed playing the caves in order, the next one after Glutton's Kitchen will be the difficult Submerged Castle (home of the dreaded Waterwraith), followed by all of Wistful Wild and its murderous caves (including the last one in the game).

* ''VideoGame/FZero'' on SNES has one of these in the King League. After getting bounced around like a pinball in Death Wind 2 and navigating a very narrow and treacherous snaking road in Port Town 2, Red Canyon 2 eases things up considerably, with no real difficult turns and one of the best jumps in the game.

* Very common in games in the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series, which were/are typically easier than their NintendoHard cousins to begin with.

** ''[[VideoGame/SonicAdvanceSeries Sonic Advance 3]]'' has two instances. The first is Ocean Base, which has two long and gruelling acts and then a significantly shorter third act. The second is Twinkle Snow, which is lighter on getting crushed and obstacles in general compared to Toy Kingdom before it. However, the boss is [[ThatOneBoss probably the most difficult part of the entire game.]]

** ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes'' has Killer Marathon, the fifth Death Ball game. [[spoiler:Which isn't a fully-functioning game at all, but an [[ObviousBeta unfinished]] empty void with a few catwalk platforms, a ramen stand, an empty conference table and easily-acquired collectible items. The game's only objective is to play the original Death Drive, a space shooter that [[EndlessGame doesn't need to be cleared]] for progression.]] There isn't even a boss fight!

** The Residence in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' and its Remake is quite a bit easier than the actual mansion. It's a smaller and much more straightforward to navigate area with many rooms only being visited once, making it easy to figure out which rooms you should rout enemies and which ones you should just dodge. On top of that, most of the enemies are giant spiders (which are very easy to run past) and giant bees (which are very easy to run from), and the two bosses are both dispatched by solving puzzles rather than combat (though fighting Plant 42 head-on is an option, particularly for Chris, who has to at least fight its second phase; if you make the right choices as Jill, [[ZeroEffortBoss Barry will kill it for her in a cutscene]]). This was likely done intentionally by the developers not only so you could can focus on the several major plot points that are revealed here, but also to give you a reprieve before returning to the mansion and finding out it's been infested with [[DemonicSpider Hunters]].
** From the first game again: despite being the final area, the laboratory is rather barren on threats compared to the mansion revisit and the caverns. The Hunters are gone for good and the only enemies left are zombies, which aren't even that numerous[[note]]aside from the original game having one room where they respawn[[/note]], and Chimeras, which can be dangerous but are limited to a couple rooms. It's even easier if you ignore certain sidequests and already know the passwords that were hidden behind puzzles; this causes the lab to be over in mere minutes, and end with a "final boss" that gets defeated by [[AntiClimaxBoss 12 shots from the handgun]] in the original game. The remake also removes the threat of Crimson Heads that plagued the player for most of the game; the naked zombies can't turn into them, and you're given plenty of lighter fluid to burn the few clothed zombies that can.

* In ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' has level 2, 'Office Escape' which is far easier than level 1, 'All Just a Dream' which is a difficulty setting level and level 3 'Kungfu Training' where the action really picks up.

* The fifth mission of ''[[VideoGame/PoliceQuest SWAT 2]]'' involves apprehending an airport sniper. If you don't storm in right away TOC reveals more and more information, including a woman loyal to the sniper. Both can be arrested with reasonable use of force at most, the mission serving as more of how to assess a situation and tactical considerations (you lose points for authorizing a demand of money for example) rather than how to resolve heavily armed and armored suspects.

* Episode 6 from ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'': The three previous episodes took place in the Indian jungle, which was a complete maze to navigate, and [[ThatOneLevel Prague]], which featured a [[TheAlcatraz confusing prison compound]] followed by The Contessa's ancestral home; the whole city is so dark and grimy that you can hardly tell the [[SuperDrowningSkills instant-death water]] from the dry land. Episode 6 sends the action to [[CanadaEh Canada]], in which the map is not only much smaller and more straightforward, but also takes place in virtually broad daylight.
* In ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfLomax'', the space levels can feel like this after TheWildWest levels. The enemies are back to being destroyed after a single hit, as opposed to the cowboy enemies, who take two hits and shoot walking bullet enemies, which explode on contact and are the only enemy immune to your spin attack. Also, no Obstructive Foreground.
* Most ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' games contain at least one part in the final castle where you can just stock up on health and weapon energy, often before [[BossRush going after the 8 previous bosses]]. Special mention must go to Wily Stage 1 in ''VideoGame/MegaMan3''. It may be the first of the fortress stages, but it comes after four successive stages that are revamped, harder versions of one of the original eight stages and each contain ''two'' fights with Doc Robot, who mimics the Robot Masters from [[VideoGame/MegaMan2 the previous game]]. The stage has relatively low danger and the boss is quite easy, unlike some of Doc Robot's forms (good luck with Spark Man's revisited stage, which finishes with Doc Robot mimicking [[ThatOneBoss Quick Man]] with a larger hitbox and a higher rate of shooting projectiles than the original Robot Master). Probably ''all'' of the fortress stages in this game are easier than most of the Doc Robot ones, in fact.

* In ''[[VideoGame/RidgeRacer Rage Racer]]'', once you unlock Class 3, you gain access to the Extreme Oval course, which unlike the other three courses is a simple three-turn oval course with an emphasis on speed. Once you purchase one of the Assoluto cars, a victory on this course shouldn't be too difficult compared to doing the same feat on the other courses. It's also the highest-paying course of the four, so you can grind this course again and again to rack up tons of money. It's still the highest-prize course in Class 4, but once you get to Class 5, [[{{Nerf}} it becomes the least paying course out of the four]].
* The ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal 2'' battlefield difficulty curve: easy -> moderate -> very easy -> moderate -> very easy -> hard -> INSANE -> moderate.
* Any Story Mode stage in ''VideoGame/WanganMidnight'' Maximum Tune 3 set on Hakone. How easy are they? You can set your horsepower to the lowest possible setting (beyond stage 40, that's 600 horsepower out of the maximum of at least 800). and still win by at least 100 meters. Ironically, Hakone is ThatOneLevel in all other modes.
* In many ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' games the hardest track is right near the end, but not the last one, and the last track is usually a lot easier if you got through the previous tracks. In every game with 8 tracks, the hardest track is either number 4 or 7.

* ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'': The Glutton's Kitchen cavern is one of the few caverns during that point of the game to not have any dangerous hazards like Bomb Rocks, explosions and falling boulders; it does have electricity (which is an [[OneHitKill instant-kill hazard]] for non-yellow Pikmin), but the cave's entrance warns you about this so you can come here with an army of electric-proof Yellow Pikmin and nothing else. It's especially noticeable for players who come here after having played the later, more difficult caves of Awakening Wood and Valley of Repose (and fully paying the Poko debt in the process). The boss is also very easy, as it's a KingMook version of a harmless enemy whose only annoying factor is stealing treasure/corpses. In fact, you can kill it by ''tug-of-war''. However, if you are indeed playing the caves in order, the next one after Glutton's Kitchen will be the difficult Submerged Castle (home of the dreaded Waterwraith), followed by all of Wistful Wild and its murderous caves (including the last one in the game).

* Most of ''Creator/ParadoxInteractive'''s grand strategy games are based on historical accuracy instead of balance. As a result, after a war with a superpower and before a war with a large coalition, it's fully possible to have a war with a helpless country the size of a broom closet.

* ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX'' has the song "Elisha" on Single Hyper difficulty. It is rated a 10 out of 12, but most players agree that it's either a low 9 or a high 8 at best. While this could be chalked up to the song being introduced in the version that introduced Charge Notes and that the developers overestimating how hard charts with Charge Notes, those of "Elisha" included, would be, the song has continued to appear in every ''IIDX'' version since its debut and this particular chart has never been re-rated to reflect its commonly-perceived difficulty.

* It's based on score, not on levels, but ''VideoGame/StarCastle'' inexplicably slows to a crawl after scoring a specific (and very large) number of points. One way to learn the game is to have an expert player get you to that point, allowing you to play against stupidly easy enemies with, most likely, hundreds of lives to spare. Just be sure to pass the controls back before it snaps back to normal ...

* ''VideoGame/FatalFrameMaidenOfBlackWater'' gives the player the Interlude chapter. It's a very short chapter that lacks hostile ghosts, and mostly gives the player a break to just find some notes and spectral echoes to photograph, after the previous chapter ended with Ren fighting a ghost to prevent it from forcing Rui to commit suicide and ends when Yuuri heads back to Mt Hikami, intent on finding the missing Haruka and Hisoka.

* ''VideoGame/CliveBarkersUndying'': The Monastery. Non-threatening human enemies MUCH less dangerous than the fast, monstrous Howlers AND tons of health and ammo.
* ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' has one. In day 2, you spend most of the day in Central Park, which is a huge "dungeon" with save points pretty spread apart. In the start of day 3, you're in Soho where you get to stock up on guns, armor, ammo, tools for tune ups, stat boosting items, curing items, and recovery items (although some of the really good stuff [[PixelHunt are practically invisible]]). You then go the museum to advance the plot. Why such a generous break? The NYPD precinct is under attack by Eve's minions after you come back to from the museum. The monsters have beefed up considerably (and you'll be dealing with monsters that can either lower your defense or cut your HP in half per hit) compared to the monsters you fought in day 2 at Central Park, due to being in a small building.

* ''VideoGame/FearEffect'' ''2: Retro Helix'' has the first time playing as Deke. After the hell that is the Wing Chun Tower, you go up against a bunch of slow moving, weak hitting mutants. Meanwhile, Deke has his trademark shot pistols, an actual shotgun, a grenade and rocket launcher, and an assault rifle.

* In ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2'', you have a tourist attraction; Chapter 6 'A Linear Sequence of Scares' was just a stroll through a funhouse ending in a shower scene with The Dame. Oh, and a batch of goodies. It's mainly there to serve as character development, and actually stands out as one of the most memorable levels in the game. It also serves as an opportunity for the player to familiarize themselves with the layout of the map, as he or she will have to return to the location twice - once while fighting enemies, and once while the building is on fire. As the funhouse has the most complex and disorienting level design in the game, this level serves as a dry run before the player has to overcome challenges inside it. All of the dream sequences in the game also function as breather levels, in contrast to the two dream sequences in the original game, which were ThatOneLevel.
* Level 8 in ''VideoGame/PN03'' is the shortest and easiest level in the game, with only 5 rooms and a [[BreatherBoss pushover boss]].

* These are frequently featured in campaigns of ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'' to allow the player to build up gold and experience for their units in between scenarios with loads of casualties.

* In ''VideoGame/TaskMaker'', a FetchQuest RPG for the Macintosh, the seventh task is one of the easier ones. You have to navigate through a bunch of force fields in Fierce Fold, and even those are easily thwarted with the right spell. Then once you get to Dripstone, where the item in said fetch quest is located, the town is very small (about the size of the town that holds the first task), so finding all the switches to unlock the path is easy.

* The second episode of ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' is a lot easier than the first one. It has a larger variety of weapons, including [[InfinityMinusOneSword the Voodoo Doll]], and its final boss, Shial, is just a big spider that [[MookMaker can only spawn lesser ones and cannot attack on her own]], and is nothing comparing to the first episode's Cheogh the Stone Gargoyle, which does heavy damage and is unbelievably hard to kill with the first six weapons. Sure, there are Stone Gargoyles in episode 2, but the Voodoo Doll chews them up and spits them out. In turn, the episode has a breather level, namely Level 5 (The Haunting), which is long but quite easy; unlike the level before, it doesn't feature [[DemonicSpiders any kind of Cultist]] or (in the case of the secret level) [[BossInMookClothing Stone Gargoyles]].

* As per usual in the series, microgames in ''[[VideoGame/WarioWare WarioWare: Smooth Moves]]'' get faster as you progress. During Dribble and Spitz's microgames, the speed will not increase when you're playing for the first time so that your successes or screw ups are timed with the music. The games will speed up as normal when you're playing the stage in endless mode.

* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'':
** ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars2BlackHoleRising'':

** ''VideoGame/AdvanceWarsDualStrike'' has Muck Amok, a one-screen wide-open map with no obstacles and nothing to battle but [[OminousObsidianOoze Oozium 238]] and a single missile unit guarding the enemy HQ. You'd have to be really careless to get overwhelmed since Oozium are so limited in mobility and such a predictable threat, making the level a ''very'' nice reprieve from the much more difficult Omens And Signs and Into The Woods that came before, and the downright savage Healing Touch and Crystal Calamity that come after. Adding to that is the mission offers comms towers and almost all vehicle-type units giving you a ''massive'' advantage if you team up Jess with Javier, you're facing Koal on his own whose abilities aren't usable on this map[[note]]He gets a firepower bonus on roads and his CO power boosts his movement range: the map has no roads and Oozium don't get movement bonuses from CO powers[[/note]], and you'll get a cool 680 points for wiping out all the Oozium units (equal to the reward you get for two S-ranked missions), making this mission worth 1000 points total if you S-rank it.
** ''VideoGame/AdvanceWarsDaysOfRuin'':

* It's a staple of the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series to include at least one level in each game consisting mostly or entirely of Prinnys, who may or may not be arranged in a fashion that allows you to [[MadeOfExplodium detonate every single one of them in a single throw]]. It's baseball in [[VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness the first game]], and bowling in [[VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories the second]]. There will also be at least a couple of levels with easy enemies sanding around on XP/Mana/Money boosting [[GeoEffects Geo-Panels]] for no other reason then to provide you with an easy LevelGrinding spot, often before a DifficultySpike.
* These are frequently featured in campaigns of ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'' to allow the player to build up gold and experience for their units in between scenarios with loads of casualties.
* ''VideoGame/MutantYearZeroRoadToEden:'' "The World Ender" is a short level with no combat, good loot, and a significant cutscene.