History Main / InstantWinCondition

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Later versions of ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' have multiple possible win conditions (military victory, cultural victory, political victory, space victory, etc.). You win automatically when meeting the conditions for any one of them regardless of how bad you are doing in the others. So a player down to their last city could still win with a space victory.
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*** Placing three Destiny Counters on Number 88: Gimmick Puppet of Leo, (by detaching one Xyz material, having no spells or traps in your spell/trap zone, and skipping your Battle Phase) wins you the game Leo's Chaos Number Counterpart has an easier version. If Disaster leo has no Xyz materials and your opponent's life points less than 2000, you win.

*** Placing three Destiny Counters on Number 88: Gimmick Puppet of Leo, (by detaching one Xyz material, having no spells or traps in your spell/trap zone, and skipping your Battle Phase) wins you the game
*** Leo's Chaos Number Counterpart has an easier version. If Disaster leo has no Xyz materials and your opponent's life points less than 2000, you win.

*** Successfully detaching all of "Number 88: Gimmick Puppet of Leo"'s Xyz Materials with its effect (by skipping your battle phase and not having any cards in your spell and trap zone) causes you to win the game.
*** If "Number C88: Gimmick Puppet Disaster Leo" has no Xyz Materials and your opponent has 2000 or less Life Points, you win the duel.

* The more recent versions of ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' have multiple possible win conditions (military victory, cultural victory, political victory, space victory, etc.). You win automatically when meeting the conditions for any one of them regardless of how bad you are doing in the others. So a player down to their last city could still win with a space victory.

* GoldenSnitch: The last round or part of a competition is disproportionally significant.

* The rule of standard matches in ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'': Your side can be hopelessly outnumbered and in a hopeless tactical position, if you can knock out the enemy flag-tank then you automatically win. This was apparently put in in the name of fairness, so that teams who can't afford many or very good tanks (such as the protagonist's) can theoretically be able to win against wealthy teams with large numbers of powerful tanks if they can find and neutralize the flag-tank. TheMovie changes the rules when the heroes are matched against the national college team to an annihilation format where all tanks on one side must be eliminated for victory. Ostensibly, this is because that's the standard university ruleset, but in reality it's just one of the [[NoKillLikeOverkill many ways]] the [[CorruptBureaucrat MEXT official]] attempts to stack the deck in an already lopsided (against the protagonists) match.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Risk}}'':
** Versions of the game with Mission cards allow someone to win if they accomplish all 4 of theirs, regardless of how much they're losing or someone else is winning at the "conquer the world" objective.
** In ''Castle Risk'', a rather less well-known variant, each player has a capital territory ("castle"), and if you lose that, you're eliminated from the game. Doesn't matter whether or not you're actually stronger.

* In ''Zombie Plague'', the humans win by barricading every window and door, with no zombies in the house. 4 zombies can break down any barricade. Human victory often comes with the sealing of an unimportant window somewhere, while a fourth zombie joins the group of 3 about to break down the front door.
* ''TabletopGame/TwilightStruggle''. Although you can crawl toward victory by being 20 points ahead of your opponent at any time, or being in the lead at the end of turn 10, there are several instant victory conditions in this Cold War board game. The first is to have total control of Europe when the Europe Scoring card is played (usually being in control of a region just gives a bundle of points - Europe is the only one with this property). Second, if DEFCON 1 (Nuclear War) is triggered on your opponent's turn, you win the game - this leads to possible 'DEFCON trap' plays which leave the opponent with no choice but lower the DEFCON from 2 to 1. The final is a single card called 'War Games', which appears during the last few turns. The player who has this card may immediately end the game, but must first give their opponent 6 points. In other words, you must be at least 7 points ahead to win with this card.

* In the Creator/HPLovecraft themed board game ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'', there are ''tons'' of instant fail conditions (Doom Track fills up, Too many gates are open at once, all three acts of ''Literature/TheKingInYellow'' are performed...), and the normal ways to win are to either seal gates or [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu kill the Ancient One after he awakens]], which is difficult for most (and ''impossible'' for Azathoth, since his attack is ''Destroy the Universe''). If you manage to use all six elder signs on the board, even if the Ancient One would awaken the next turn, you win instantly.
** The first big expansion [[TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror Dunwich Horror]] added two missions (consisting of board location lists, where the player will have to make special sacrifices) which allowed an instant win, 'For the Greater Good' and 'Joining the Winning Team'. While usually the players win or lose together, the later card also allows the player making the sacrifice to win alone, with everybody else losing.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} board game, Ankh-Morpork, each player has a secret identity with instant win conditions depending on factors such as the property they own, how much Trouble is being caused, etc. If you are Commander Vimes, all you have to concentrate on is stopping these conditions happening, as if you reach the end of the draw pile with no one else winning, you've won!

* In ''7 Wonders Duel'', a two-person spinoff of ''[[TabletopGame/SevenWonders 7 Wonders]]'', the game normally ends when the players progress through 3 ages, and the winner is decided by total number of Victory Points accumulated in multiple ways. However, two win conditions instantly end the game: Military Supremacy (Conflict token reaches opponent's capital, signalling conquest) or Scientific Supremacy (attaining 6 of the 7 possible scientific masteries). Note that partial credit is awarded and progressing both yields immediate benefits, so it's not all-or-nothing. The ''Agora'' expansion adds another instant-win condition with the Senate -- take control of the majority its chambers, and you win.

* In the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' short story "[=LEPrecon=]", Holly plays a game of Paintball with the commander about her promotion, where the commander promised her she would win if she managed to land a single hit on him. The game gets interrupted by the main conflict of the story, and both the reader and Root forget about it... but Holly doesn't. Once she's established that the threat is over and Root is safe, she pulls out her marker and shoots him in the chest, reminding him that the game technically never ended and he ''did'' promise.
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', you win if you're the last tribute alive (and if you are you're likely to stay alive, since victors are given immediate medical treatment). Haymitch managed to win his game despite basically being disemboweled when he was able to trick his opponent into throwing an axe at the force field surrounding the arena, which bounces back anything that hits it. She took an axe to the head, giving Haymitch the victory.

* In ''Series/RunForMoneyTousouchuu'' (the original Japanese version of ''[[Series/Chase2008 Cha$e]]''), all you have to do to win the grand prize is avoid getting tagged by a Hunter until the time limit runs out. Even if you're running as fast as you can with a Hunter right behind you and gaining, you still win as long as the countdown hits zero before you get tagged (and at least one player has won this way on the show).
* In ''Series/RobotWars'' you can be battered, smashed, running on the last bit of engineering, and if you can put your opponent in the pit of oblivion, you automatically win (this most famously happened in the all-time classic battle between [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7BPMohOsmc Bigger Brother and Hypno-Disc]]). The same applies to your opponent becoming immobilised, either by a mechanical malfunction or through its own actions (e.g. the early Razer defeat when it pinned itself to the floor with its wheels in mid-air), although it would require 30 seconds of them not moving. And when Chaos 2 brought the first high-powered flipper to the arena, any match would end instantly if one competitor could [[RingOut hurl their opponent over the arena wall]].
* ''Series/TheJokersWild'': If a player spun three jokers in one turn and correctly answered a question in a category of their choice, they immediately won the game and either $500 or all the money they'd racked up to that point, whichever was higher. Early episodes gave the win to a player just for getting three jokers, without having to answer a question. If a champ spun three of the same value in the bonus round, they immediately won the prizes at stake, plus either $1,000 or the money in the pot plus the value of the triple, whichever was more.
* ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' subverts this: even if the puzzle is filled in completely, the contestant must successfully read it off in order to solve. This has backfired on multiple occasions, as contestants have been penalized for mispronouncing or misreading a puzzle that has been completely revealed.
* ''Series/{{Lingo}}'': Scoring the maximum possible 10 words in Bonus Lingo guarantees a win, as each correct word results in a randomly-drawn Lingo ball used to cover up a partially filled-in bingo-style board. Getting all 10 words means that enough balls will be drawn to get at least one "Lingo" (5 in a row) and win a cash jackpot. (However, winning the ''top'' prize requires completing the Lingo on the first draw, which is entirely up to chance.)

* ''Pinball/HighRollerCasino'' allows the player to collect "Cheats" by fulfilling certain conditions. If you start a casino game, you have at least 1 Cheat, and you would normally lose the game, one Cheat will be deducted from your total to turn it into a win.

** [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Lost_World_%28Call_of_Legends_81%29 Lost World]] provides a victory if the opponent has 6 or more Pokémon in the Lost Zone (a super-discard area used in the VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl era). This is not as difficult as it sounds: [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Gengar_%28Triumphant_94%29 Gengar's]] "Catastrophe" effect sent knocked out Pokémon to the Lost Zone instead of the normal discard pile, and an evolved Pokémon sent there will also send all of its previous evolutionary forms there too. This meant that the player only needed as few as 2 knockouts to win the game using Gengar and Lost World.
** An early form of milling in the Pokémon Trading Card Game involved abusing the original Mewtwo, which could become completely invincible for a turn by discarding a Psychic Energy. Thus, people made decks out of a Mewtwo, a trainer card that reshuffles their discard pile into the library, and 58 energies, and then simply waited for the other player to run out of cards. Under the original rules, if you mulliganed because you didn't draw any Basic Pokémon, your opponent was ''forced'' to draw another card, inevitably giving the deck a head start (and, on rare occasions, the win!) before the game even started. [[ObviousRulePatch Which is why the draw is now optional.]]
** The [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Generation VII]] set Lost Thunder has three cards depicting Unown, all of them allowing the player to win the game if some difficult condition was met: The group spelling out [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Unown_(Lost_Thunder_92) "MISSING"]] will win you the game if your opponent's Lost Zone contains 12 or more Supporter cards, the group spelling out [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Unown_(Lost_Thunder_90) "DAMAGE"]] will win you the game if your Pokémon collectively have 660 or more HP of damage sustained at a time (including the group itself), and the group spelling out [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Unown_(Lost_Thunder_91) "HAND"]] will win you the game if you have 35 or more cards in your hand. Despite the incredibly high numbers needed for all of these conditions to be met, both the [[https://www.pokemon.com/us/sun-moon-team-up-banned-list-and-rule-changes-quarterly-announcement/ DAMAGE variant]] and the [[https://www.pokemon.com/us/sun-moon-cosmic-eclipse-banned-list-and-rule-changes-announcement/ HAND variant]] were banned from tournament play due to the discovery of combos that allowed them to be met much quicker than the designers anticipated--within the first two turns in the case of DAMAGE.

* In the ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' [[BlandNameProduct Magickal Cards]] tournament in "Squirrel Prophet", Sarah [[http://egscomics.com/comic/2014-11-13 manages to "deck" Sam]] (aka make him run out of cards) by ''accident''. (They're stalemated, but Sarah has a couple more cards, simply because she couldn't decide between them.) She [[http://egscomics.com/comic/2014-11-14 offers Sam a draw]], since she's only going to win by luck, but [[http://egscomics.com/comic/2014-11-17 he refuses]], saying she won fair and square.

* When ''LetsPlay/{{Dream}}'' explains at the start of the video that beating the Ender Dragon means he wins, he's not kidding. Even if Dream dies a split second later, so long as he gets the "Free the End" achievement beforehand he wins. He doesn't even need to enter the portal to the overworld.
* ''WebVideo/CJDachamp'': In the second part of CJ's ''Manga/TokyoRevengers'' recap, Mikey roundhouse kicks his opponent in the face while another combatant was holding onto Mikey's leg. CJ declares "I've seen enough" and adds Mikey to the Round Table of Black Air Force Activity on the spot, since he's proven himself to be a menace.

* Blernsball stadiums in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' have a panel on the side of the stadium with a tiny hole in it marked "Hit ball here to win game." Getting the tethered ball in the hole requires hitting it so hard that it breaks off its tether.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
** Ther are missions where the objective is to hold more strategic locations than the enemy. You only need one troop to hold the location, so often the game ends up being determined by some small squad holding an objective far from the main battle.
** Although this is more of just a win condition, not an Instant Win Condition. Completely tabling your opponent means that you win, regardless of whether the game was supposed to be about capturing objectives. If you both manage to do this to ''each other'' it's a draw.
** Also, a popular tactic in objective games is to have your most mobile units charge forward at the last second to contest enemy-held objectives. Since contesting an objective denies your opponent an extra point, it is possible for you to win, even if what's left of your army is about to be wiped off the table.
** Since objectives can only be held by certain types of units, another viable tactic is to simply kill off your opponent's scoring units while keeping at least one of yours alive.
** 6th Edition has introduced the Absent Forces rule -- if one player has no models on the board at the end of the Game turn (rather than their own personal part of the turn), they instantly lose. Against an army that makes heavy use of Deep Striking, Outflanking or Reserves, where a random number of units will appear in the first turn, it's possible that only a small number turn up and are quickly exterminated, or -- [[http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/277109.page as in one very famous example]] -- are prevented from entering play at all. 6th edition also now awards players bonus victory points for killing the enemy warlord, having a unit in the opponent's deployment zone, or being the first to completely destroy an enemy unit, all of which can easily tip the balance of a game.
** This is generally downplayed in the Kill Team format, as the winner is determined by the number of Victory Points a team secures, regardless of casualties. The rules explicitly point out that getting tabled is [[AvertedTrope not an automatic victory]], and the remaining side should play out the remaining turn limit to see how many points they can acquire, particularly in tournament and narrative play (where the exact number of victory points gained matters beyond that one match).
* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' can have this too, in regard to the Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings. Being undead, the army is held together by the will of its general (or Hierophant with Tomb Kings). As a result, if the general is killed, the army begins to fall apart at that exact instant and at the beginning of each turn after. As a result, if you can kill the (usually heavily guarded and well protected) general, you can gain such an absurdly huge advantage that, even if your opponent is in an amazing position, you can still win. And if the Vampire Counts or Tomb Kings player is in a poor position when the general falls, they usually [[RageQuit just surrender.]]
* It doesn't matter what the scenario is, or how far behind you are, if you can kill your opponent's warcaster/warlock in [[TabletopGame/IronKingdoms Warmachine]] you win immediately.

* In many CCG, you can cause a player to lose by fixing it so that they run out of cards in their deck before you do; if it's their turn to draw, and they can't draw any cards due to there being none left, they lose, no matter how far ahead they were at the time. This is referred to as "milling" in card game parlance (after a ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' card that reduced the enemy's library, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370737 Millstone]]). An exception to these is ''TabletopGame/MagiNation'', where, due to the nature of the game, games can last a very long time indeed, the rules indicate that when you run out of cards in your deck, you shuffle your discard pile, and set it as your deck. The only way to win is to have the opposing Magi hit 0 energy without any creatures on the field, so it's entirely possible for both players to lose if they aren't careful.
* Milling was used to great effect with [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Durant]] in the ''TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}} Trading Card Game'', who has one very inexpensive move that forces the opponent to discard cards equal to the number of Durant on the player's side. It became enough of a problem that the card designers created a card designed specifically to get rid of Durant.
** [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Lost_World_%28Call_of_Legends_81%29 Lost World]] provides a victory if the opponent has 6 or more Pokémon in the Lost Zone (a super-discard area used in the VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl era). This is not as difficult as it sounds: [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Gengar_%28Triumphant_94%29 Gengar's]] "Catastrophe" effect sent knocked out Pokémon to the Lost Zone instead of the normal discard pile, and an evolved Pokémon sent there will also send all of its previous evolutionary forms there too. This meant that the player only needed as few as 2 knockouts to win the game using Gengar and Lost World.
** An early form of milling in the Pokémon Trading Card Game involved abusing the original Mewtwo, which could become completely invincible for a turn by discarding a Psychic Energy. Thus, people made decks out of a Mewtwo, a trainer card that reshuffles their discard pile into the library, and 58 energies, and then simply waited for the other player to run out of cards. Under the original rules, if you mulliganed because you didn't draw any Basic Pokémon, your opponent was ''forced'' to draw another card, inevitably giving the deck a head start (and, on rare occasions, the win!) before the game even started. [[ObviousRulePatch Which is why the draw is now optional.]]
** The [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Generation VII]] set Lost Thunder has three cards depicting Unown, all of them allowing the player to win the game if some difficult condition was met: The group spelling out [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Unown_(Lost_Thunder_92) "MISSING"]] will win you the game if your opponent's Lost Zone contains 12 or more Supporter cards, the group spelling out [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Unown_(Lost_Thunder_90) "DAMAGE"]] will win you the game if your Pokémon collectively have 660 or more HP of damage sustained at a time (including the group itself), and the group spelling out [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Unown_(Lost_Thunder_91) "HAND"]] will win you the game if you have 35 or more cards in your hand. Despite the incredibly high numbers needed for all of these conditions to be met, both the [[https://www.pokemon.com/us/sun-moon-team-up-banned-list-and-rule-changes-quarterly-announcement/ DAMAGE variant]] and the [[https://www.pokemon.com/us/sun-moon-cosmic-eclipse-banned-list-and-rule-changes-announcement/ HAND variant]] were banned from tournament play due to the discovery of combos that allowed them to be met much quicker than the designers anticipated--within the first two turns in the case of DAMAGE.
** The [=BREAKpoint=] set's [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Slowbro_(BREAKpoint_20) Slowbro]] has an attack for three Energy that if used when you have only one Prize card left, you win the game (the attack does nothing otherwise).
* Milling is inverted in the ''TabletopGame/EpicCardGame'' - if the player runs out of cards to draw, they win the game. To prevent this from becoming too easy, the game can return cards to the bottom of the deck.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Chrononauts}}'' has three separate ways to win: alter the timeline in the right ways, fulfill your mission by collecting a certain combination of three artifacts, or have ten cards in your hand at the end of your turn.
* ''Fluxx'' can have up to two victory conditions, depending on the cards in play, and they may or may not be mutually exclusive. Sold separately are packs of blank cards that allow people to make up cards which could do this. The most common way to win is actually to play a victory condition which you currently meet.
* ''We Didn't Playtest This At All''. Here are a few ways you can win by playing a single card: Being the only girl, being the only one without points, having an even number of players in the game, having five or more cards, owning a pony... The game works by stint of it being possible for anyone to win at any time, and all players accepting that the game will, probably, only take a few minutes to play.
* The original ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' collectible card game, ''Middle Earth''. You win by having the most points after a certain amount of time - but if you manage to destroy The One Ring, you win immediately, regardless of score. In the games based on the films, as long as your ringbearer survives all skirmishes at site 9, you win, even if he's an inch from death and the rest of the fellowship died turns ago.
* The ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'' CCG was made of this trope. There were three default victory conditions: Military (wipe out your opponent's, either by destroying their 4 provinces or reducing them to -20 Honor), Honor (reach 40 Honor points), or Enlightenment (play all 5 elemental rings). Some VERY successful decks were designed around making a suicidal dash for max honor or enlightenment while paying just enough attention to the opponent's attacks to not be ''completely'' wiped out before winning. Not all of these were ''instant'' win conditions (Honor, for example, would only resolve if you had 40 Honor at the ''start'' of your turn, giving your opponent a last chance to respond, unless you used the Naga personality Dashmar to win by Honor immediately) but they would bypass the usual "kill all opponents" condition which is the usual default for [=CCGs=]. [=L5R=] would also often add new gimmicky victory conditions in expansions, such as opening enough of the 12 Black Scrolls either before (7) or after (12) the event The Darkest Magics comes up to revive the Dark God Fu Leng, or seizing control of (playing) all 4 Walls of Otosan Uchi before the event The 38th Hantei Falls comes up to effect a coup. The most notorious was [[http://l5rshop.com/zencotw/zen.zcotw~7.161.shtml Master of Five]], a victory condition [[GameBreaker so nauseatingly easy to accomplish]] (after the event in question resolves all you had to do was generate one elemental effect of each of the five elements on the same turn to win at the start of your next one) that it was generally considered a mistake that should never be repeated (the gimmick victory conditions were not meant to be seriously competitively viable).
-->'''Zen Faulkes:''' But look at the easiest way to earn a Master of Five victory. It's a showmanlike production of useless and downright self-destructive effects. It requires no interaction with another player, other than keeping them off your back while you set your trick up. It necessarily takes a turn longer than Enlightenment does, and fears the Dharma most of all. The Master of Five is certainly a fun, challenging, and competitive deck type to play. But in terms of the story, I can't help but think that this approach to the Elements can lead nowhere good...
* ''VideoGame/TheEyeOfJudgment'' has this built into the core rules. First person to get 5 creatures onto the field wins, period. So theoretically, you can win just by summoning weak weenie monsters onto the field, who can't even fight, as long as your opponent can't get rid of them fast enough. Or your opponent can have some super high cost death machine on the field and be ready to destroy your mons, but if you slam a 5th mon on the field, you win, period.
** Of course, there are numerous ways to prevent such a strategy built into the rules. Monsters can't attack the turn they're summoned, and only deal damage first with a specific ability when attacked (if they're attacked first and wiped out, they don't get to counterattack, obviously), so summoning a weak monster in an indefensible position will get them killed. In addition, it costs mana to summon, attack and ''turn'' monsters (they can only attack in specific directions), and if you turn, you can't attack. The layers of strategy that go into a three-by-three board where the ''only'' requirement is getting five monsters on the board is immense.
* Getting a rabbit to the back rank (or finishing the last of your opponent's) in TabletopGame/{{Arimaa}} does this.
* Pops up in official TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons adventures from time to time; any group of adventurers worth their salt that ends up in a BolivianArmyEnding situation should immediately begin looking for the leader of a group (without which they'll break and run); the source of power; or the secret compartment leading to their goal. Of course this is usually up to [[RuleZero GM discretion]]: the rules might *say* that an enemy force will break and run if more than 50% of their troops are killed, but if that number only gets to 51% because the pacifist cleric broke his vow and scored a critical hit while having 5 HP and defending the fallen bodies of his comrades, well, even kobolds aren't that dumb.
* There are several alien powers in ''TabletopGame/CosmicEncounter'' that allow for new win conditions. Notable are the Masochist (win by having all your ships die), Sadist (win by destroying enough of your opponents' ships), Tick-Tock (win by having enough time pass) and Genius (win by having 20 cards in your hand). All of them can win by the standard method also, but they generally have no useful ability in game.
* Dwarfstar's ''TabletopGame/BarbarianPrince'' solo programmed adventure. The main victory condition is to acquire 500 gold pieces in 70 turns. However, the game provides a number of possible ways to achieve instant victory, such as (for example) getting across a certain river or gaining control of a particular castle.
* The ''Franchise/StarTrek Customizable Card Game'' by Decipher has a card called Writ of Accountability, which, if activated, forces an instant ''lose'' condition on any opponent who pursued any number of broken strategies. Since nearly all games (including all official tournament formats) are between two players, this is an instant win for the player who activates it.
* In the ''[[TabletopGame/{{CerberusEngineGames}} DC Comics Deck-Building Game]]'', playing [[Characters/{{GLGreenLanternCorps}} Kyle Rayner]] from the ''Crisis 2 {{Expansion Pack}}'' on the same turn as 3 different Power Rings ([[Main/{{RandomizedDamageAttack}} original]], [[Main/{{RingOfPower}} Green]], [[Main/{{BackFromTheDead}} White, Black]], and the [[Main/{{EvilCounterpart}} Villain]] of the same name) yields an instant victory. In the ''{{Franchise/Naruto}} Shippuden DBG'', having Zabuza and letting the Main Deck run out instead of someone defeating [[Main/{{FinalBoss}} Tobi]] also results in an instant win.
* ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' has the usual HitPoints-related CriticalExistenceFailure version, but two of the villains stand out:
** Wager Master is ''notorious'' for this trope. Plenty of his cards are "conditions", which will end the game instantly if fulfilled (in your favor or his, but the latter's [[NonStandardGameOver another trope]]). For example, one card states the Heroes win if they all have an even number of HP that isn't their maximum at the end of the Villain turn; if this gets played during Wager Master's setup and his other cards strike the heroes just right, the game can be over before a single player acts. And this is just one way battles with Wager Master can be over in a hurry.
** Kaargra Warfang isn't as bad, but her favor pool mechanics, cards like "Fickle Fans", and the "The heroes cannot win" rider on her flip side mean a dire situation can result in Hero victory, or dominant play from the Heroes can be stalled out into a sudden defeat, with only so much that can be done about it.
** A more straightforward example is Gloomweaver. In-story, he's trapped in the Realm of Discord, and his cultists are trying to release him. If all three of his Relics are in play at the same time, the summoning ritual succeeds and [[TurnsRed he flips]]. But if all three Relics are in his ''trash'' at the same time before he flips, the heroes have successfully stopped the ritual and the game is immediately won.
* The ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy Trading Card Game'' has two standard win conditions: either deal your opponent seven damage or deplete your opponent's deck. Right now, there is one alternate win condition. Sin has a Special Ability called Giga-Graviton. Discarding a Sin card in your hand and paying 9 Crystal Points activates the ability: if Sin is still on the board at the end of your next turn, your opponent loses. Since this is a 1v1 game, the player who activates it and is able to keep Sin on the board at the end of their next turn instantly wins. It's also a nice reference since in [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX the source game]], if Sin fires it off, [[NonStandardGameOver you're loading up your most recent save.]]
* The card game ''Space Base'' has a ship whose power is to give the owner an instant win. However, activating this power requires accumulating three to five (depending on the number of players) [[ChargedAttack charges]], each of which is gained on [[RandomNumberGod a roll of 12 on two six-sided dice]].
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Highlander}}: The Trading Card Game'', since [[DecapitationRequired decapitation is required]] to kill Immortals, cards that are "Head Shots" are included. If play a Head Shot and your opponent has (or can exert for) no defense to block or dodge it, they lose their head and the game. While this is easiest if you've whittled down your opponent a bit (or set up one of the rare and generally difficult unblockable/undodgeable head shot combos), it's entirely possible, if your opponent got very unlucky with their shuffle, [[SingleStrokeBattle to take their head with your first attack.]]
* ''TabletopGame/MuffinTime'', befitting the chaos of its inspiration ''WebAnimation/ASDFMovie'' has a few cards that let players win the game instantly but either at risk of another player stealing the victory or if it's your birthday. So if the birthday boy/girl suggests the game, watch out.
* ''TabletopGame/BloodOnTheClockTower'': Very common in the social deduction game Blood on the Clocktower, both for the good and evil team. It's complicated by the fact that winning in such a way will often require careful planning/good bluffing. Starting from Trouble Brewing:
** The Good Mayor: If only 3 players live (including you) & no execution occurs, your team wins.
** The Good Saint: If you die by execution, your team loses.
** The Evil Mastermind: If the Demon dies by execution, play for 1 more day. If a player is then executed, their team loses.
** The Good Klutz: When you learn that you died, publicly choose 1 alive player: if they are evil, your team loses.
** The Evil Twin: You & an opposing player know each other. If the good player is executed, evil wins. Good can't win if you both live.
** If nobody is executed during the day while a Vortox is in play, the good team immediately loses
* ''TabletopGame/{{Dominion}}'' can have a version of this depending on the cards currently in use. If you can manage to draw two King’s Courts and three Bridges in one hand, you can pick up all eight Provinces (in a two-player match), more than likely earning you enough points to win outright.

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'', having a ChessMotif for the Ratings Games, does exactly what you'd expect - no matter the other rules of the format, taking the King results in an instant victory. It does come with a few caveats though; a devil King has to be [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership pretty badass to get that position]], some formats keeps Kings off the field unless they [[RiskingTheKing volunteer]], and it's demonstrated that a side that loses nearly all their pieces before managing to bag the enemy King can still [[PyrrhicVictory lose points overall]].

* Often occurs in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' in missions where the objective is to hold more strategic locations than the enemy. You only need one troop to hold the location, so often the game ends up being determined by some small squad holding an objective far from the main battle.

* In the ''[[TabletopGame/{{CerberusEngineGames}} DC Comics Deck-Building Game]]'', playing [[Characters/{{GLGreenLanternCorps}} Kyle Rayner]] from the ''Crisis 2 {{Expansion Pack}}'' on the same turn as 3 different Power Rings ([[Main/{{RandomizedDamageAttack}} original]], [[Main/{{GreenLanternRing}} Green]], [[Main/{{BackFromTheDead}} White, Black]], and the [[Main/{{EvilCounterpart}} Villain]] of the same name) yields an instant victory. In the ''{{Franchise/Naruto}} Shippuden DBG'', having Zabuza and letting the Main Deck run out instead of someone defeating [[Main/{{FinalBoss}} Tobi]] also results in an instant win.

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'', having a ChessMotif for the Ratings Games, does exactly what you'd expect - no matter the other rules of the format, taking the King results in an instant victory. It does come with a few caveats though; a devil King has to be [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority pretty badass to get that position]], some formats keeps Kings off the field unless they [[RiskingTheKing volunteer]], and it's demonstrated that a side that loses nearly all their pieces before managing to bag the enemy King can still [[PyrrhicVictory lose points overall]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Wing It Like Witches" hangs one giant lampshade on this trope (And thoroughly mocks ''Harry Potter'') when Luz and friends' hard-fought Grudgby victory is undone because Boscha caught the "Rusty Smidge", granting them 999 points. Apparently, all Witch sports have such an element. Luz is ''not'' happy.

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* TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy can have this too, in regard to the Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings. Being undead, the army is held together by the will of its general (or Hierophant with Tomb Kings). As a result, if the general is killed, the army begins to fall apart at that exact instant and at the beginning of each turn after. As a result, if you can kill the (usually heavily guarded and well protected) general, you can gain such an absurdly huge advantage that, even if your opponent is in an amazing position, you can still win. And if the Vampire Counts or Tomb Kings player is in a poor position when the general falls, they usually [[RageQuit just surrender.]]

** Then there's the flip side, cards that instantly cause someone to ''lose'' the game. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=288992 Door to Nothingness]] is an example, in that it will (if you're able to satisfy its ''very'' high mana cost) instantly cause someone to lose the game. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106427 Phage the Untouchable]] is another example, in that if she deals combat damage to a player, they lose. There are also the creatures that give players poison counters, and if a player has 10 poison counters, they lose. Finally, a planeswalker introduced in Return to Ravnica, Vraska the Unseen's ultimate ability creates 3 1/1 assassins that, if they hit a player for damage, that player loses the game.

** This comes up again in the final training level at Command School. Ender rightfully figures that the entire enemy fleet, outnumbering his own by hundreds to one, is worthless compared to [[spoiler:the planet they defend]] and instead [[spoiler:launches a suicidal attack to destroy that planet]]. Snagging the fleet is just a bonus. [[spoiler:Just as his teachers planned, as it wasn't a training.]]
* In the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' short story "[=LEPrecon=]", Holly plays a game of Paintball with the commander about her promotion, where the commander promised her, she would win if she managed to land a single hit on him. The game gets interrupted by the main conflict of the story, and both the reader and Root forget about it... but Holly doesn't. Once she's established that the threat is over and Root is safe, she pulls out her marker and shoots him in the chest, reminding him that the game technically never ended and he ''did'' promise.

** The first big expansion [[TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror Dunwich Horror]] added two missions (consisting of board location lists, where the player will have to make special sacrifices) which allowed an instant win, 'For the Greater Good' and 'Joining the Winning Team'. While usually the players win or lose together, the later card also allows it the player making the sacrifice to win alone, with everybody else losing.

** Wager Master is ''notorious'' for this trope. Plenty of his cards are "conditions", which will end the game instantly if fulfilled (in your favor or his, but the latter's [[NonStandardGameOver another trope]]). For example, one card states the Heroes win if they all have an even number of HP that isn't their maximum at the end of the Villain turn; if this gets played during Wager Master's setup and his other cards strike the heroes just right, the game can be over [[UpToEleven before a single player acts]]. And this is just one way battles with Wager Master can be over in a hurry.

* ''Series/TheJokersWild'': Drawing three jokers in a single spin during the main game automatically won the game at $500, provided two conditions were met: 1. The contestant correctly answered a question in a category of his choosing, and 2. His/her opponent (if they were the champion) was unable to spin a combination that would allow him/her to tie the score at $500. In early episodes, the game immediately ended without anything further needing to be done, but the aforementioned rules were added once a contestant – a champion – spun a triple joker on his first spin, meaning the opponent didn't get even a chance to play. The bonus round also awarded a contestant the prize package in question upon spinning a triple (three of any denomination).

* The rule of standard matches in ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'': Your side can be hopelessly outnumbered and in a hopeless tactical position, if you can knock out the enemy flag-tank then you automatically win. This was apparently put in in the name of fairness, so that teams who can't afford many or very good tanks (such as the protagonist's) can theoretically be able to win against wealthy teams with large numbers of powerful tanks if they can find and neutralize the flag-tank.

* The opposing sides in ''TabletopGame/{{Chess}}'' are both [[KeystoneArmy Keystone Armies]], and a player wins if they manage to trap the opposing player's King in a checkmate, regardless of how many pieces either side still has.

*** "Relay Soul" allows you to Special Summon any monster from your hand or deck and protecting you from damage while its on the field, but making your opponent win the game if they manage to remove that monster.

* The ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' TCG loves this. The Cyber Dragon era of the card game consisted of gambling that your one attack would go through, and win the duel. Of course, more advanced players would only do that after getting rid of potential traps with the card Heavy Storm.

* Russian knock-off ''Tanya Grotter'' with "dragonball" (not [[Franchise/DragonBall that one]]) involves throwing various types of balls into the mouths of dragons. One of the balls is filled with a sedative, resulting in the dragon becoming useless and the team winning. There's a flimsy explanation, pointing out that the sedative ball is extremely difficult to throw. So, naturally, this ''extremely rare'' occurrence happens quite a lot in the series.