History Main / ImpassableDesert

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', the desert is impassible (because of a perpetual sandstorm) until your character's friend gives you a pair of "go-goggles". Even then, any battles you have will take place in a sandstorm which damages your non-rock/earth based pokemon.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': The Gerudo Desert gets very hot during the day and very cold during the night outside of Kara Kara Bazaar and Gerudo Town, requiring you to wear temperature-appropriate clothes or eat special foods to traverse it safely. There are also areas with sandstorms that disable the Sheikah Slate's map.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', you need several items to successfully cross the Haunted Wasteland (the Longshot or Hover Boots, and the Lens of Truth). Until then, the desert to the spirit temple is blocked.
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', the Gerudo Desert gets very hot during the day and very cold during the night outside of Kara Kara Bazaar and Gerudo Town, requiring you to wear temperature-appropriate clothes or eat special foods to traverse it safely. There are also areas with sandstorms that disable the Sheikah Slate's map.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', travellers lost in sandstorms sometimes end up in the Shifting Places, a seemingly infinite desert region of the {{Dream|Land}}ing in which past, present and future overlap. The only way to get out and return to the waking world is for the titular character to intervene magically.

* While not technically a desert, in the original short story version of ''Literature/DamnationAlley'', North America had become an impassible wilderness, with snakes big enough to crush tanks without even noticing they were there and storms of rock from the sky. The protagonist, [[AwesomeMcCoolName Hell Tanner]] was given a pardon for his substantial crimes if he would attempt to cross coast to coast to deliver a vaccine.

** The Lamakan Desert will make you overheat and lose HP (represented by a bar which fills with every step you take, and the odd complaint from party members). You need to use Reveal to see hidden oases so you can cool yourself off (some oases instead hide treasure, a Djinni, or an AntlionMonster). [[SelfImposedChallenge It's possible to cross the desert without using Reveal if you like pain]], but to make sure you can't actually get through it, the exit is hidden by a mirage (and blocked by a giant manticore), and entry into the desert itself is blocked by a rock until you get the Reveal-granting NPCs to help.

** The Lamakan Desert will make you overheat and lose HP (represented by a bar which fills with every step you take, and the odd complaint from party members). You need to use Reveal to see hidden oases so you can cool yourself off.
** The Suhalla Desert doesn't have a heat meter, but it does have tornadoes that will fling you back to the start unless you use the right spell to get rid of them.

* ‘’ComicBook/LeavesOnTheWind'' has a prison on a planet wide one. Guards don’t chase runners because they’ll just die in the desert. Zoe at least gets the benefit of a BigDamnHeroes rescue from the TropeNamers.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', you need several items to successfully cross the Haunted Wasteland (the Longshot or Hover Boots, and the Lens of Truth).

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'': The desert is surrounded by a mountain range, leaving an inn as a choke point. You can't cross until you obtain a wagon, which is convieniently available at that same inn.

* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'', the desert will make you overheat and lose HP (represented by a bar which fills with every step you take, and the odd complaint from party members). You need to use Reveal to see hidden oases so you can cool yourself off.
** A later desert in the same game doesn't have a heat meter, but it does have tornadoes that will fling you back to the start unless you use the right spell to get rid of them.

* The desert between the nations of Ephebe and Omnia in ''Discworld/SmallGods'' was widely believed to be impassable for an army. [[spoiler:Unfortunately the book's BigBad was enough of a DiabolicalMastermind to figure out how to do it: the Omnian army sends a detachment out into the desert, they march as far as they can, leave a cache of supplies, then turn back. The next detachment does the same, using the supplies left to go further, then turn back while also leaving supplies. Do it enough times (and [[WeHaveReserves sacrifice enough of your own men along the way]]) and a small army can in fact cross the desert.]]

* In the first ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' game, you couldn't get through the Desert of Lost Souls until you'd tracked down and murdered all of the Desert Sirens. Fortunately, it's a really tiny desert.

* In the first ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' game, You can't pass through the desert in Agrabah without first freeing carpet from Aladdin's house.

* In the first ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' game, You can't pass through the desert in Agrabah without first freeing carpet from Aladin's house.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', you need several items to successfully cross the Haunted Wasteland (the Longshot or Hover Boots, and the Lens of Truth).

* Invoked in ''LawrenceOfArabia'' with the Nefud. "It cannot be crossed!" [[spoiler: Yes, it can.]]

* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryII'', you were heavily advised to purchase a Saurus before entering the desert, because you could command the Saurus to "go home" and it would return you to the city. You could still traverse the desert alone if you wanted, but with no map to chart your location with it was up to ''you'' to remember where the town was; forget, and you could become permanently lost as the desert extended infinitely with no landmarks to guide you. If you stubbornly refuse to buy the Saurus when the saurus salesman shows up, the game [[DroppedABridgeOnHim drops a bridge on you]].
** The game actually averts this; you can get to Raseir before the caravan departs near the end of the game, if you know where to go and have all the gear you need (the Saurus, plenty of food and water). However, you aren't allowed to enter the town yet so while you can do it, there's no reason to do so; it's mostly just [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything The Dev Team Thinking of Everything]].

* In ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', the [[TheEmpire Calormene Empire]] believes it is impossible to conquer Narnia, despite outnumbering them many times over, due to the desert between them being impassable to large armies. Rabadash, in a moment of rare cleverness, thinks of a way: send a small army of experienced survivors to launch a surprise attack to conquer and hold Archenland (the smaller kingdom that separates the desert from Narnia), and then the Empire can send its forces over in small groups until the garrison is strong enough to launch an all-out invasion. [[spoiler: It might have worked, if the Narnians and Archenlanders hadn't been warned in advance and defeated the initial invasion.]]

* In ''[[EndlessFrontier Super Robot Wars: OG Saga: Endless Frontier]]'', the only way to pass the desert is by a giant cat-shaped tank that carries a city.

[[ShiftingSandLand Deserts]] in video games are a hassle. Not only are these places dangerous and full of RandomEncounters, they are also difficult if not impossible to enter without the right accessory, artifact or skill. Be it glasses against the sand, a map to avoid getting lost, seven league boots to walk on quicksand, you'll never be able to "just" [[CrossingTheDesert enter the desert]].

* In ''{{Dune}}'', you have to get a special suit to avoid dehydration.

* ''{{Dune}}'' features an entire planet that's an impassable desert. People are forced to inhabit only a few cities and crossing the desert without stillsuits and thumpers (to confuse the ginormous sandworms) will be certain death. Even the Fremen can't cross without stillsuits though they've learned to manage without thumpers and hitch rides on the backs of sandworms themselves as transport.
** ''With'' a stillsuit and thumpers it's still pretty much certain death for non-Fremen without an aircraft. Among other things, the Fremen stillsuits are significantly better than Imperial-make. Paul impresses several Fremen (and pseudo-Fremen Liet-Kynes, who is an Imperial who's "gone native") by managing to put on his stillsuit correctly without being told how, and by surviving on foot in the desert for even a short time.