History Main / CheeseStrategy

* ''VideoGame/{{Palworld}}'', like any SurvivalSandbox game has its share of cheap tactics.

* ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' has a number of hated or controversial cheeses. Admittedly, the word "cheese" has been used so loosely in the ''Starcraft II'' fandom that it can now refer to almost any rush-type strategy that isn't classic macro, and doesn’t carry as much of a negative connotation as it used to. Still, there are a couple of strats that meet the trope definition, and will at the very least frustrate or annoy many of your opponents. Something worth noting before we proceed is that (as explained by [=WinterStarcraft=]) the starcraft fandom makes a distinction between a Cheese and an All-In, the main difference being that the success of a Cheese largely relies on the opponent not scouting it early enough to shut it down, while an All-In doesn’t necessarily lose its effectiveness even if they find out it’s coming. An All-In is also defined by the fact that you stake everything on one all-out attack, and are almost certain to lose if it fails; some cheese builds can be done with partial commitment and aborted if the opponent doesn’t fall for it. So although many cheeses are all-ins, not every cheese is all-in, and not every all-in is cheese.

** Protoss players also had the "Archon Toilet" tactic where they used the Protoss Mothership's Vortex ability to trap enemies and then sent in Archons after the enemies. Since Archons dealt SplashDamage, all the units emerge at the same time and are overlapping each other, this allowed the Archons to ''[[CurbStompBattle shred]]'' the opponents in mere seconds. It was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMHXyUXZ4bA reviled]] enough that a successfully executed Archon Toilet often led to the other player going "[[RageQuit gg]]" even if their base was intact and they could replace their units. Blizzard ''attempted'' to patch out this tactic by giving all units that emerge from the vortex MercyInvincibility but even that didn't work and by ''Heart of the Swarm'', they were forced to replace the Vortex ability with the Time Warp ability.

** When a new villager spawns, he will take a nearby bed and, if a work table exists, will adopt that trade and have several randomly-selected trades available. So long as you don't trade with him, you can replace his work table and change his trade. If you replace it with the same table, it will shuffle his randomly-selected trades. Furthermore, when a villager is turned into a zombie you can cure him and get lifelong discounts. These discounts ''stack'', allowing you to repeatedly infect and cure a villager until they'll sell everything for 1 emerald. A patient player can have a Librarian who sells Sharpness V, Infinity, Protection IV, Unbreaking III, or god-forbid ''Mending'' for sale for 1 emerald a pop, and all you have to do to earn some emeralds is grow some sugarcane and craft it into paper to sell to that very same Librarian. This was so effective that Mojang ''heavily'' {{nerf}}ed the tactic in 20.1, making it so only specific villagers can sell specific enchantments (though somewhat balanced by how a master of each biome is guaranteed to sell a certain one) and making it so cured zombie discounts don't stack, but it's very telling that ''even then'' this tactic is cheesy.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** The widely-hated "FEAR" Strategy:
*** It first became possible in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondPearlAndPlatinum'' and has persisted ever since. FEAR stands for '''F'''ocus Sash[[note]]A held item which allows the Mon holding it to retain 1 HP if they're hit by an attack that would KO them from full[[/note]], '''E'''ndeavour[[note]]The targeted Mon has their HP reduced to the same total as the attacker's, as long as the attacker's is less than the target's[[/note]], Quick '''A'''ttack[[note]]Priority move that would always go first as long as the opponent didn't use another priority move in the same turn[[/note]], Level 1 '''R'''attata. The gist of it is Rattata would use Endeavour after soaking up a powerful attack and surviving with 1HP, Endeavour would then bring the opponent's HP down to 1 as well, and Rattata would follow up with a Quick Attack to deal 1HP in damage. It eventually became widespread enough to take on another meaning, "Fucking Evil Annoying Rodent".
*** A variant saw the Clefable line use Magic Guard (preventing Focus Sash from being undone by weather effects) along with a damaging weather such as Hail or Sandstorm.
*** [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Generation 5]] changed the game with the ability Sturdy, which essentially worked as a Focus Sash without taking up the item slot. It also could proc more than once as long as the attacked pokemon started at 100% HP, as opposed to the Sash which only worked once per battle. Thus, the FEAR strategy changed to being centered around either Level 1 Aron or Level 2 Probopass[[note]]Nosepass had to level up at least once to evolve[[/note]]. In addition to the change to Sturdy, a move called "Pain Split" was introduced, which would match the HP for both Mons, taking up to half of the targeted Pokemon's remaining HP and healing the attacker for the same amount. Thus Aron or Probopass could continue hitting the opponents with Pain Split while their HP continued to recover, all while Sandstone added chip damage in the background.
*** The Reuniclus line had a mimicked version of the Clefable Magic Guard strategy as well, though it wasn't quite as effective.
*** Following Gen 5 and major nerfs to weather effects, FEAR as a strategy almost dropped off the map except for some small attempts to bring it back, such as Togedemaru in [[Videogame/PokemonSunAndMoon Generation 7]], but they never lasted long.
*** All of this being said, FEAR as a strategy was extremely unreliable, and even the smallest amount of preparation could completely upend it, and thus while it was widespread in casual Pokemon play, it was nowhere to be found in any competitive setting.
** Other Franchise-wide examples:
*** Using Legendary Pokémon on your team is frowned upon by skill-oriented players for this reason. There is no rule saying you can't use Legendaries if you want to, but it's viewed as a Cheese Strategy by those players. In competitive battling, Legendary Pokémon are usually relegated to the Uber tier and can only be used against players who are also using Legendaries against you, though there are some exceptions that aren't considered [[GameBreaker Game-Breaking]] enough to warrant being banished to Uber in spite of their in-game Legendary status.
*** "Para-Flinch" is a strategy where your Pokémon first paralyzes the opponent (only giving them a 75% chance of attacking while drastically lowering their speed, so they'll always attack second), then uses a fliching move (Bite, Headbutt, etc.) which has a 30% chance of preventing them from attacking. Using a Pokémon with the ability Serene Grace increases the chances of causing paralysis and flinching even further, which certain held items will add yet another 10% chance of causing flinching. Sometimes, confusion is added to the mix, which adds a 50% chance (reduced to 33% in later generations) of damaging themselves, but unlike paralysis, will resolve itself within 2-5 turns. It's an incredibly frustrating strategy to face.
** [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Generation I Games]]:
*** The "Wrap-spam" strategy. In later generations, Wrap deals damage per turn while allowing both the player and opponent to continue acting, but in Generation I, Wrap hits 2-5 times for little damage, but locks the enemy Pokémon from attacking or retreating, so it became a common tactic to stun-lock the opponent, especially if the opposing Mon was afflicted with paralysis to prevent it from ever attacking first.
*** The Gen I AI was [[AIBreaker easily broken]] in a number of ways. One of the most famous was using part-Poison-type Pokémon against those with non-damaging Psychic-type (strong against Poison-type) moves, such as Barrier or Agility. As Gen I AI Pokémon did not use up PP when attacking, they would spam these non-damaging moves non-stop, allowing your Pokémon, no matter how weak, to eventually whittle it down. This strategy works even against high-level opponents including the Elite Four. This strategy became wide-spread following its (unintentional) use in ''WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemonRed''.
** ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' has Ultra Necrozma as its ClimaxBoss, and it's remarkably difficult to fight fairly against. While there ''are'' means to fight against it without resorting to cheesing (most of them boil down to the fact its moveset is completely resisted by Steel-type Pokémon), most players instead resort to things like exploiting ArtificialStupidity (by sending a Zoroark disguised as a Pokémon that is weak to Psychic-type attacks, making Ultra Necrozma use Photon Geyser, which Zoroark is immune to), or by using an Inkay or Malamar and use [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard Topsy-Turvy]] to turn Ultra Necrozma's massive x1.5 boost to all its stats turn into a x2/3 drop.

** The aptly named "[[FanNickname Nurse Cheese]]" tactic consists of building a home for the nurse in your arena and attacking [[AttackAttackAttack constantly]], eschewing dodging in the process and simply healing everytime your health gets low. 1.4 ''attempted'' to remedy this by making the healing cost more money as the game progresses.

* ''Videogame/{{Darkstone}}:

** Due to a quirk in his AI, [[FinalBoss Drakk]] could be cheesed by hiding in a specific location inside an alcove inside his dungeon. This causes him to try and constantly attack you in melee combat instead of using his BreathWeapon. As long as you stay in that specific location, he cannot harm you and you are free to pound away at him with whatever weapon you choose.

** When a new villager spawns, he will take a nearby bed and, if a work table exists, will adopt that trade and have several randomly-selected trades available. So long as you don't trade with him, you can replace his work table and change his trade. If you replace it with the same table, it will shuffle his randomly-selected trades. Furthermore, when a villager is turned into a zombie you can cure him and get lifelong discounts. These discounts ''stack'', allowing you to repeatedly infect and cure a villager until they'll sell everything for 1 emerald. A patient player can have a Librarian who sells Sharpness V, Infinity, Protection IV, Unbreaking III, or god-forbid ''Mending'' for sale for 1 emerald a pop, and all you have to do to earn some emeralds is grow some sugarcane and craft it into paper to sell to that very same Librarian...

* ''VideoGame/{{Besiege}}'' has the Great Balls Of Fire strategy, which exploits the way physics intermingle to basically create an apocalyptic meteor shower. Move the key block up as high as it will go. Place a single Flaming Ball in the center of the box. Keep duplicating and moving the copies out 0.75 block widths until the entire bottom-most layer of the box is filled. Now duplicate this layer vertically, moving up 0.75 blocks a time, as many times as your poor computer can handle (you really only need 2 layers for most stages). The second you hit play these things will hurl themselves outward in all directions, ''annihilating'' every destroyable block on the field in under a second. Not only will you win any "destroy x" mission in an instant, but you'll also get a number of otherwise-difficult achievements[[note]]A Swift Seige, Piloting 101, Barely Standing, Birbecue, Anti-Aircraft, Rube Goldberg Machine, Through and Through, Dodger, and Demolition Expert[[/note]] very easily.

* ''Series/BattleBots'': In the 2020 competition, Jake Ewert knew his robot, Hydra, would stand no chance against Jonathan Schultz's robot, HUGE. Hydra is a "flipper" robot, meaning it wedges a hydraulic flipper arm under the opponent and flings them into the air, causing them to take fall damage and perhaps render them FlippingHelpless. Problem is that HUGE is specifically designed to be immune to this, as it consists of an elongated horizontal body with a single axle running through it; two very large wheels on either end of the axle; two tail sticks to help it "right" itself in case it gets flipped; and a spinning metal bar in the center of the axle as its weapon. The wheels of HUGE are strong and bouncy enough to resist any shocks, and since everything important on the bot sticks out by less than the diameter of the wheels, none of it can be harmed by a fall. In response to this problem, Jake installed a wide "cowcatcher" made of metal tubing on the front of Hydra, designed to catch the wheels of HUGE and push it around. It also negated HUGE's spinning weapon because its reach was less than the diameter of HUGE's own wheels. However, Jake also had to remove Hydra's flipping mechanism in order to install the cowcatcher while keeping his bot under the weight maximum set by the rules, so the [[https://youtu.be/K_-ia1Zczz4 Hydra vs. HUGE match]] consisted mainly of Hydra pushing HUGE into the hazards along the arena wall for one or two hits, and then trapping HUGE in a corner to run out the clock. Jake's strategy proved to be so uninteresting to watch and so against the spirit of ''[=BattleBots=]'' that, while Jake allowed anyone to use his cowcatcher if they ever fought HUGE, all of the other teams refused out of principle.

** Speaking of Settlements, you get a small amount of experience whenever you craft something at a workbench or in a settlement. Settlements often have lots of scenery items you can scrap and craft with the moment you find them, and the various usual chems you find can be combined at a chemistry station into a new one. Add in that settlers in a settlement can farm food and scavenge scrap for you, and you can slowly but surely grind experience just by building settlements and crafting chems and food items, which can then be sold for profit. A commonly-known strategy for exploring the "Idiot Savant" perk at the start of the game is to create wooden fence-posts en-masse to take advantage of the experience boost and gain effortless levels.

*** Speaking of Settlements, you get a small amount of experience whenever you craft something at a workbench or in a settlement. Settlements often have lots of scenery items you can scrap and craft with the moment you find them, and the various usual chems you find can be combined at a chemistry station into a new one. Add in that settlers in a settlement can farm food and scavenge scrap for you, and you can slowly but surely grind experience just by building settlements and crafting chems and food items, which can then be sold for profit. A commonly-known strategy for exploring the "Idiot Savant" perk at the start of the game is to create wooden fence-posts en-masse to take advantage of the experience boost and gain effortless levels.
* ''Fester's Quest'''s FinalBoss, which is near-impossible to fight legitly without loads of healing and invincibility potions, can be cheesed by standing in a certain spot just out of reach of both the turrets and the main core's sine wave projectile, and unloading on it with gunfire or missiles.

** Speaking of Settlements, you get a small amount of experience whenever you craft something at a workbench or in a settlement. Settlements often have lots of scenery items you can scrap and craft with the moment you find them, and the various usual chems you find can be combined at a chemistry station into a new one. Add in that settlers in a settlement can farm food and scavenge scrap for you, and you can slowly but surely grind experience just by building settlements and crafting chems and food items, which can then be sold for profit. A commonly-known strategy for exploring the "Idiot Savant" perk[[note]]The lower your character's Intelligence, the higher the chances of gaining double experience for most actions.[[/note] at the start of the game is to create wooden fence-posts en-masse to take advantage of the experience boost and gain effortless levels.

** A common strategy in {{Fighting Game}}s is "chipping out" an opponent; that is, forcing an opponent to block a series of special abilities that cause [[ScratchDamage "Chip Damage"]] and slowly whittle away their health until they die. This strategy is so derided that the ''Videogame/StreetFighterAlpha'' series literally had a small "cheese" icon appear on the screen instead of the normal victory icon if a player won this way. In later games, the icon was simply replaced with a "C", which can either mean "Cheese" or "Cheap" depending on the game. ''Videogame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' and ''Videogame/StreetFighterXTekken'' both included ways to avoid taking any chip damage completely, while ''Videogame/StreetFighterV'', ''Videogame/Tekken7'', and ''Videogame/SoulCaliburVI'' all made it impossible to lose by chip damage (unless certain conditions are met by the enemy).

** Often referred to just as "cheese", it references a design oversight that allows players to skip parts or the entirety of levels. This design oversight can be a wall being too low (thus allowing players to jump over it), the player being able to use their frames of MercyInvincibility to skip obstacles, or the ability to bring an item or PowerUp into an area where it shouldn't be.

** The fight against T.K's helicopter is normally a PuzzleBoss where you have to winch it down into range to throw objects found on the roof at its rotors. The cheese strategy comes if you bring a Toy Spitball gun, a normally harmless JokeWeapon that normally deals no damage, as the Toy Spitball gun's projectiles are coded as "thrown objects" rather than projectiles, and T.K's helicopter is coded to take fixed damage from "thrown objects". Due to the ExactWords nature of how the game was coded, and how the Toy Spitball gun can reach the helicopter without winching it down, you can take the helicopter down in ''seconds'' by shooting what are basically sponges at it.